As Baern dives down to the canoe, a strange creature pops out from underneath it and mutters angrily in a language that the dwarf doesn't recognize.
As the whatever-it-is continues to mutter, it moves underneath the dock, caclking loudly enough for those on the dock to hear with a DC 13 Perception check.
"Go to sleeeep..."
Rock hears nothing and sees nothing, though presumably he will hear when the other folks cry out an alarm.
Baern slips into the water as this strange creature pops out from underneath the canoe. The dwarf feels some strange pulse come over his mind for a moment before he shakes it off. He focuses for a moment, moving a little quicker through the water after the creature.
The young druid is alarmed and lets out a scream of surprise and jumps slightly but steadies herself as the creature pops up and then she hears it cackling and moving beneath the dock. Her quarterstaff still in hand she follows along above it, "We are not going to sleep!"
"It is moving..." she points below herself.
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"Sleep? Sleep?? Why would you want to...?" A look of sudden realization suddenly crosses the gnome bard's face and Kriznox looks downward, trying to see below the dock and begins to scowl. "Ohh, no you DON'T!"
Raising his voice, Kriz belts out the beginning of a bawdy sailing song, infusing it with an arcane he learned from his former master, Jhaspar Kruelharp.
"OOOOOHHHHH, What do you do with a drunken sailor?
What do you do with a drunken sailor?
What do you do with a drunken sailor, early in the morning?!"
Pretty sure Rock hears THAT and will slide his way back down the path and towards the dock (presumably some sort of double move).
The situation continues to escalate and confound Tálan. He finds himself being blasted by a spell of sleep of sorts and then assaulted by Kriznox's bawdy song. The bard really gives it his all, but Tálan now finds himself unable to track their foe by ear.
As the creature reaches out to strike at Baern again, a bolt of force from the Arodenite swerves across the dock to strike it in the claw, eliciting a shriek of pain and a string of curses loud enough to be heard by the whole party.
"Dirty tricky land-muckers! May you rot alive while being fed your own spleen!"
The young druid stand above the creature on the docks and motions to those still not in the water where the it is.
She does not know if it will really help or hinder but Caroline uses the abilities she was gifted with. A simple chant and she looks through the cracks of the docks and casts a simple spell. There is suddenly light beneath her and into the water around the creature.
Baern swims a little closer to the creature after it takes swings at him, blocking the blows as best as he could. Using the surge of water, the brawler strikes back in the same space, the disturbances allowing his fists to strike back with an unusual hardness.
Rock makes his way down to the dock and readies a mighty swing should the creature reappear.
Realizing his 'oh-so-clever' counterspelling might be doing more to distract his companions than their water-bound foe, Kriznox ceases his singing and dances across the length of the dock, looking through any spaces between the wooden planks that he can find, hoping to spot the creature!
Not quite seeing the beast, however, his gnomish mind begins preparing a rhyme for a spell, should the creature pop into view.
Not wanting to tap into more of his psychic reserves, Tálan readies his sling and waits for the right moment to strike.
As the party waits for the creature to emerge, they hear splashing coming from under the dock, then the creature emerges...unconscious, its doglike face and lobster-claw hands splayed out as it floats on the water's surface. The body steams ever so slightly.
Tálan nervously rubs his bracelet of Aroden with one hand as he studies the bobbing body. "What are these creatures? They are unfazed by my mind-affecting cantrips, indicating their mind is unlike ours, and they seem filled with nothing but malice for us."
Krizox makes a face, squinting at the incapacitated creature in the water. "It's like someone crossed a kobald and a crab...or a lobster."
He pauses to reflect, then adds, "...but no tentacles. Different than the other one."
Baern pops up out of the water, taking a deep breath before looking at the others.
"Is it dead!?" He asks, swimming over and grabbing the floating body. Slowly, he drags it up onto the shore before swimming down in the water once more towards the sunken rowboat to check if it had harmed anyone. Gods forbid this little talking abomination of a crab hurt someone he knew; he'd break its shell wide open.
The young woman gives it the creature a poke with her staff to be sure it is not going to lash out her. She mentions to the others, "The creature spoke the language of water creatures."
She kneels down closer to the creature and looks to see if there is anything of note that she might salvage from it that might be of use.
"Uh, guys...are we SURE it's dead?" Kriz's hand drops to the hilt of his rapier.
Even as the words leave the gnome's lips, the steam (or is it smoke?) rising from the body thickens slightly.
"That...that ain't a good sign eh?" Baern offers to the group after returning back to the surface of the water.
”Caroline, please back away,” Rock says concernedly, prepared to physically grab her if she doesn’t move back immediately.
The woman had already started to back away and moves right behind Rock, "Ah, yeah. Sorry." She says a little embarrassed to be in such a situation.
She looks about at the others and asks, "If we are done with that..." She points to the steaming mess, ",shall we continue our search of the colony?"
Nodding, Kriznox backs away, down the dock towards shore, mumbling, "I just hope it's done with us."
As the five of you make your way up the sand Bluff, the breeze stiffens, carrying the distant Peregrine around the northern end of the bay. As you reach the line of the palisade, you see three buildings built along the western line, the southernmost of which has a small chimney. Across a dirt plaza with a stone well in the center stands a two-story building much larger than the rest. It is flanked on your left by two long, low buildings with no windows, and on your right by what appear to be two homes. At the southern end of the main part of the settlement stands the second largest building, a symbol carved into the wood over the front door. A mostly-c9mpleted gate leads out the southeastern side, which is largely completed
It is the holy symbol of Erastil.
Just like the path up from the dock, you see no signs of recent habitation.
There are some Small tracks leading from the building with the rhe southeast gate.
The young woman moves with the others and peers about. As she does not immediately recognize the symbol on the doors her gaze continues and is soon fixated upon some sort of tracks.
"There are small tracks leading form here," she points out the location and the path they appear to take, "With the gate to the south and east."
Caroline calls out the tracks that Tálan had completely missed as he studies the symbol on the door. "This must be a church to Erastil. Hrm, it might be worth taking a look inside before we follow the tracks?"
After all, what harm could befall them upon entering the church of a good god?
Kriznox ambles along with the others, the recent threat on the water seemingly forgotten as new sights capture his interest.
"Oh, that's definitely the sign of Erastil. Pretty classic depiction of the Elk Father's sigil. Though, since his temples have been around the Inner Sea region since before the Age of Darkness, some of his followers have adapted it to better suit many of the simple farmers who..." Kriznox rambles on, chattering quietly, as much for himself as to share the information with his companions. As he speaks, his voice takes on a storyteller's lilt.
He pauses, however, when the others point out the tracks and he too wanders over to take a peek. "Sure, Talan, we can do that...but maybe we should see just what MADE the tracks, first?"
Not the most religious of folks, Baern listens carefully to Kriznox explain the iconography of Erastil. The god makes sense for certain for a colony just beginning to grow.
"No reason to delay any longer. Let's get going." Baern offers, making his way towards the large building. Once they got closer, he'd look at the footprints with an inexperienced eye. There were many folk from his hometown, coming in every shape and size. Maybe he would recognize it.
Kriznox nods in agreement, moving up the walkway towards the colony temple to Erastil, obviously excited to be exploring. "Sure. No worries...you guys can figure those tracks out while I do this."
The gnome moves quickly ahead of the group, then slows and starts moving cautiously, inspecting thing as best he can from the outside.
Here and there, Kriz pauses, raising a finger to his lips and squinting in a manner that would seem to be done solely to make himself look clever. After a moment, he then goes back to investigating the exterior of the structure.