Shunsen's eyes narrow as she takes in the old Halfling's injuries, but allows the others to do all of the talking.
As they do so, she cranes her next to try to see into the building over the little hermit.
"Fine. Fine," Walthus snaps before opening the door enough to allow entry. "Tea and fruitloaf, but no staying over!" He meets Vigny's eye with a glare. "Come in. Come in. And no tracking mud across the floor."
Beyond the door, you find yourselves inside a small spot of comfort in the dripping marsh. Walthus' home was obviously built by someone other than a halfling as the two rooms you see are sized for folks of human size. The room you first enter is simply appointed with a small stove and shelves set with potted plants. The adjacent room contains a circular dining table and a single chair. There looks to be a storage room leading off from the dining area and stairs lead up from the front room to a second floor. Another door allows access to a fenced garden in back.
Walthus occupies himself with setting a kettle on the stove and grabbing some cups from a nearby shelf. "If you're looking for goblins, you'll find more than you'd ever want a way over that way." He gestures vaguely towards the southwest.
There's a fenced area attached to the side of the cabin - a garden most likely. You catch a scent of fresh blood from within it.
You notice signs of a struggle in the main room. Some of the plants are damaged and there are pieces of broken crockery pushed toward the wall.
Walthus is most definitely hiding something.
Recognising the smell of blood, Orchid approaches on careful feet.
The bodies of two other snakes lay unmoving in an area of crushed plants.
Cailyn recovers her pack and hauls it inside. She was just about to pull out a tin of actually biscuits, since travelling without such things would be barbaric, when she comments on the state of the room "Goodness and gracious, it almost looks like someone had a fight in this room." she looks at the halfling "Did you go blind for a moment and twirl around like a top?" the question is honest and inappropriate at the same time.
Walthus starts at Cailyn's words, his gaze searching around the room. "No! Uh ... yes ... snakes. Snakes attacked me ... in the garden. And ... uh ... I had to hide inside."
You see a ripple of ... magic? ... slither across Walthus's face. Is he wearing a magical disguise?
Shunsen was so busy looking out for anything dangerous, that she completely missed the state of the room. That is until Cailyn mentioned it.
Looking around, a look of dismay on her face, she looked at Walthus, "Snakes? Are they still there?" she asks.
"What was that?" Cailyn leans in closer, curiosity beaming in her eyes "That ripple on your face? OH, I've seen something like it before. A performer at my mother's estate, wearing..." Cailyn suddenly straightens and hurries back a step "They were using magic to alter their appearance."
Goodness she wished she had loaded her crossbow.
Shunsen looks from Cailyn to Walthus and back to Cailyn again. At her friend's nod, she turns back to 'Walthus' and growls, "Who are you?". Her hand moves to rest on the pommel of her falchion.
"What?! No! I'm not ... It's ... Arhhhggg... grrrrr!"
With his protestations devolving into a snarl, Walthus's face shifts and distorts. His fingers extended into vicious claws and the features of his face vanish into a whorl of spiraling wrinkles.
"Why couldn't you just leave!"
This is a faceless stalker. This one looks particularly weak, though. Their hide is tough and particularly resistant to bludgeoning weapons.
Combat Round 1
Things in the house go downhill so quickly that Vigny can barely follow them. She goes inside expecting to take a look at the halfling's injury and hoping to sleep with a roof over her head, then out of nowhere Walthus is something else with big claws.
Vigny goes for the quicker draw since she right beside the thing, drawing out the big knife that sits in a sheath on her belt horizontally across the small of her back. As soon as the seax is free and clear she thrusts to bury it in thing's ribs.
As she withdraws from the thrust, Vigny steps to her right, circling to his rear.
Even though her eyes are stunned by what they were seeing, Cailyn's hands move with memorized efficiency. She pulls a bolt out of the pouch on her side, lays it in the grove, cranking back the bow and...
Flori, not usually surprised by the bad behaviour of customers (you never really can guess what a customer might get up to!), is totally dumbfounded by this transformation. She knew Walthus was strange, but this clearly is not Walthus.
Pulling herself together, because there was little other choice, she flings her hands towards not-Walthus, sending a luminous blob of some sticky substance at him.
Orchid's sharp ears hear something inside so she abandons the bodies and races back around the hut.
Vigny stabs the creature, Cailyn sinks a crossbow bolt into its chest, and Flori finishes it off with a magical spell. Just as quickly as it started, the battle is over.
Combat Ends
The ... thing ... that was wearing Walthus's face lies dead; its bodily fluids now spilling out on the relatively clean floor. Rather than the slightly tattered clothing that you originally saw, you can see that it's wearing a set of crude leather armor.
Orchid appears in the open doorway with her spear at the ready.
From upstairs, you hear a pained voice call out, "Hello? Is anyone there?"
Vigny comes off her guard when the things goes down, but she keeps her eye on it in case it does some else unexpected.
"What was that?"
The voice upstairs pulls her attention and she shifts her eyes to the ceiling.
"And what was that? Did anyone see stairs or a ladder?"
Shunsen takes her hand off of the pommel of her falchion, her eyebrow raised at the speed and alacrity with which her friends dispatched the creature.
"Well done you two" she deadpans to Caily and Flori, "Next time let me get a blow in , if you don't mind.".
Smiling, she points out the stairs to the south to Vigny, calling up , "The creature is dead. If you be Walthus, come down..."
Orchid eyes the dead creature from her place in the doorway and doesn't move or put away her spear.
"Yes ... my name is ... Walthus Proudstump," the voice responds, slowly coming closer. After a moment, a diminutive figure turns the corner of the staircase, leaning heavily on the railing. A mirror of the face that initially greeted you at the door, if possibly even more battered and pale. Relief floods his face when he sees the strange corpse making a mess upon his floor.
"Oh, thank the gods," he declares. "And thank you as well. I was in the garden last night and that ... thing came through the gate and attacked me. My babies helped fight it ..." His eyes widen. "Oh, gods, my babies!"
Concern overpowering injury and fatigue, the halfling stumbles down the stairs and out the door leading to the garden.
He's back in short order and loosely slung around his neck is a thick swamp viper. Holding its head affectionately, Walthus wipes his eyes with his other hand. "Mourning is in order, but the demands of propriety require that it be delayed. Proper introductions must be performed." He takes a deep breath before tipping his head slightly. "As stated, my name is Walthus Proudstump. You are most welcome in my humble abode." He lifts the viper and strokes its chin. "This is Amantha. I would bring in Avaligne as well, however, she's ... she's in a mood. So we'll leave her to express her emotions in a healthy manner outside."
He looks about his home before turning back to you all.
"I have nothing equal to the burden of thanking you for defeating the interloper, but I am not exaggerating when I say that you saved my very life. So the very least is that I can offer you hospitality."
He steps over to a series of coat hooks on the wall near the door and removes a stained cloak.
"I can also give you this," he says, folding the garment and placing it in Cailyn's hands. The serpent hisses at the half-elf's proximity only to be shushed by Walthus. "Amantha! These are guests. Be civil."
Orchid growls back when the snake hisses but subsides at a look from Flori. The shifter takes the body by one foot and drags it out of the door - she doesn't bother coming back after that.
As Shunsen speaks, she answers a little shakenly "Oh, yes, I do not mind, next time..." even though there are no enemies around, she does reload her crossbow just in case. "And no, I have no idea what that is." other then dead, she whispers in her head.
"Amantha is very pretty" she tells the real Proudstump as his snake hisses, making her pull her hand back quickly where she was about to pet her. It was a distracted gesture anyway as her eyes are gleaming at the cloak.
"This cloak of yours... does it have a history?" this is monumentally more important to her at the moment, instead of asking about goblins and their ears.
"A history?" Walthus ponders. "As a matter of fact it does."
Stepping to the stove, he proceeds to ready the tea, showing no surprise that the task has already been begun by the thing Orchid dragged out into the swamp.
"That cloak is from my pre-retirement days," he begins.
His story continues as he makes a quick trip to the store room, returning with bread and bacon. Setting about his task with purpose, he relates how he and several other halfling slaves abandoned a sinking Chelish merchant ship bound for Nisroch. Walthus chose to flee north along the coast on his own, and by the time he reached Sandpoint he’d had quite enough of adventure. He’d also had enough of city life, and spent nearly all of the money he’d made on his adventurous trek north to purchase an old building, sight unseen, in Brinestump Marsh. The scam artist who sold Walthus the old building walked away from the deal thinking he’d gotten the better of the halfling, but in fact, Walthus knew exactly what he was paying for — isolation and a place to hide from any Chelaxians who come north looking for escaped slaves.
By the time the story is finished, the halfling is handing out small plates with bacon sandwiches on them along with mismatched cups filled with a strong tea.
Shunshen accepts the offered food gracefully, having found it difficult to interrupt the old halfling once he started up with his story.
Before partaking, she stands before Walthus and bows, "I am Shunsen Daigoshi. Thank you for the tale and food." she says, taking a bite of the delicous sandwich. "We've come a the behest of the Sheriff and Mayor of Sandpoint. Goblin trouble...from the Brinestump. Any new or information about the swamp and the goblins that live here would be greatly appreciated."
Flori tucks into the bacon sandwich with gusto and nods along to Shunshen's question.
"Yes, some others were sent out after the goblins a little while ago and haven't returned, did they come your way at all?"
Cailyn sits in rapt attention for the entire story "Freedom's Sail" she names the item, running her palm across the old fabric. "Thank you Mr. Proudstump. We will treasure your gift." she looks practically like she wants to hug the little man, despite the smell. But restrains herself due to propriety.
Manners does take a seat when she bites into the lovely bacon sandwich, letting out small sounds of foodie pleasure. And mushing out This is Good with twinkling eyes and a full mouth. She does remember at that moment, to pull out a tin of biscuits from her bulging pack and offer it to the halfling.
The others talking about goblins and the lost adventurers makes her sober. "The town is worried and said if anyone can help us protect the town, it was you."
"Goblins?" Walthus says, growing thoughtful. "The Licktoads have been getting braver recently. They've acquired a stock of fireworks from ... somewhere." He shrugs, clearly not knowing where. He continues to muse. "Someone is going to have to do something about them before they get out of hand."
Shunsen and Flori's question finally seem to sink in and he perks up. "And that's what you're here for, isn't it?"
Moving around the gathering, he refills tea cups and offers more sandwiches.
"I haven't seen any other folks come through recently other than ..." He gestures vaguely towards the stains on the wooden floor. "So I couldn't say as to their fate. If you're planning on visiting the goblins, you could either follow the old fishing trail, which would lead right to their village ... or - if you're the adventurous type and don't mind a bit more risk - you could take my raft, follow the shoreline, and head up one of the branches of the Soggy River. The trail would be much safer, though."
Showing him the very crude map of the marsh, he points out on it the approximate location of the Licktoad's village.
"You're welcome to stay the night if you like."
Cailyn leans over the map, studying intently "Is there a benefit to the rafting that would warrant the extra risk?" she asks the man with eager curiosity.
Vigny sits on the floor leaning against a wall while she listens to Walthus. She's drawn into his story immediately. The events, and themes she finds in his ordeals, resonate powerfully with her.
"You are truly admirable Walthus. Coming out the other side of all you endured to find your place of contentment here is nothing less than heroic in my book."
"You're also generous, and that's a true virtue" she adds while taking a sandwich. She raises her teacup and adds "here's hoping that ship's entire crew drowned."
When the talk and eating is over, Vigny mentions to Walthus that's he's looking a little roughed up, and if he has any wounds she can take care of them.
Vigny begins the next morning attending to spiritual things outside on the porch. After a period of quiet meditation and prayer, she concludes by magically filling her tankard and standing to begin a song. She sings loudly of Cayden Cailean's prowess as a drinker, lover, and fighter. To wrap the song up, she adds a request for the Lucky Drunk to keep a protective eye on the halfling, assuring him that he would quite like Walthus if he met him.
Before they set out to find the goblins, Vigny adds a couple questions of her own.
"If you had to put a number on it, how many hours do you think it would take to walk to the village? And how much slower or faster would the raft be? I think we don't want to be arriving at the end of the day."
"Have to ever noticed the goblins to scout or patrol outside their village on the lookout for intruders?"
After finishing her delicious sandwich, Flori licks her lips whilst everyone is questioning Walthus with all of the sensible questions she also wants to know answers to, but her attention is stolen as her eyes fall on the cloak. She reaches out and picks it up, its stained maroon fabric holding so much promise.
She mutters to herself a few times, casting as she rubs the fabric together and the stains fortunately lessen, if not completely disappear.
She throws the cloak over her shoulders, and swirls.
"Oooh, it fits perfectly! What do you think Cailyn, does Freedom's Sail suit me?"
Realising she just interrupted the useful planning session, she smiles guiltily and sits back down. "Sorry....I errr....what were you saying?"
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Cailyn stifles a gasp at Flori's cleaning HISTORY off an artifact. 'It was probably just a grease stain for last meal' she tells herself and NOT the blood of Mr. Proudstump's captors carried through decades. As a pampered noble she doesn't know much about cleaning.
After she sets aside that moment of panic, her eyes glow as the fabric swirls and forms around her friend. "It does! Leading our ship into the unknown, boldly and beautiful!" she exclaims. She taps her chin, thinking maybe she needed to take notes in case this is the start of Flori's heroic journey and the histories needed to be correct (or correctly embellished)
"The rafting would be quicker, but that's about the only advantage," Walthus replies to Cailyn's query.
The rest of the evening is spent with the halfling passing along the few tidbits of knowledge he has about the Licktoad goblins, which, in spite of living in the same marsh as the tribe, is quite lean. "To be honest, I really try to avoid the nasty little beasts," he explains with an apologetic shrug. They do explore periodically, so he keeps his head down and they haven't come far enough north to find his small house.
The Licktoads are the smallest of the goblin tribes in the hinterlands, so they've normally not been a threat to the human settlements. With their discovered fireworks, though, who knows what might happen.
Following the newer fishing trail back around to the main road and then trekking down the older trail to the goblin village is a trip that could be done by noon if one left just after dawn. Taking the halfling's raft would probably cut the trip down to a couple of hours, depending on what sort of hazards one ran into.
The thankful halfling arranges space in his spare room for you all to bed down for the night and the next morning offers you all grilled and seasoned sea bass.
-----
Starday, 18th of Desnus, 4711 AR
Considering the raft versus walking Vigny asks Walthus two final questions.
"We're right close to the bay here. Does that mean we'd need to go out into the bay and along the coast, or can we go by the rivers only?"
"Ever seen anything big in the water?"
Walthus' explanation of the raft doesn't do much to reassure Flori so she suggests the safest route she can. "Walking won't do us no harm and I know that most of us haven't much experience with the rivers around here. Probably best not to make things harder for ourselves"
Flori fastens her cloak around her shoulders and tosses her pack on her back, ready to set off on the actual mission.
"My raft's on the shore of the bay," the halfing explains. "You would travel along the coast and then back up the river. And, yes, there are some pretty big fish out there."
----
Walthus bids you safe journeys and reiterates that you're welcome to return to his home to rest should your task take overly long, and you commence the trek back up along the fishing trail to the Lost Coast road.
As you're leaving the small clearing Walthus's home occupies, you're pretty sure you heard him call out, "And don't let the Soggy River Monster get you!" just as you leave sight of the cabin.
You retrace your journey and mid-morning finds you back on the main road. Happy to be back in cooler, less humid air and with a fresh breeze to cool the sweat on your skin, you head south along the well-traveled path. Twenty minutes later and you reach the old fishing trail that leads back down into the marsh. Into the moist fetid air you return, leaving the breeze behind.
You travel along for another couple of hours, crossing another bridge along the journey.
As you're traveling along, you notice a set of footprints crossing the trail, from the thick growth on one side to the slow-moving water on the other. The prints are three-toed and slowly filling with water, indicating that whatever made the prints only recently passed by.
Off to the northwest, across the water, you see a pale, human-shaped figure watching your group. An instant later and it vanishes into the undergrowth.
Orchid doesn't respond to Walthus's odd cry, she's too happy to be moving again. Some time later she notes the tracks and pauses for a few moments to sniff the air, but can't pick anything out of the damp air. There's a flicker of movement in the corner of her eye but it's gone when she turns to look.
As Vigny trudges along, she mostly tries to make small talk with anyone willing to engage or hums ditties to herself. Occasionally she pauses to tug at or shift her clothes and armor, trying to stave off chafing in the humidity and wishing she had talcum powder to help relieve it.
After Walthus feeds the group and tells his story, Shunsen gets to work cleaning up the mess of his front room, righting furniture, chasing dust bunnies out the door with a old broom she found.
She enjoys the company of friends old and new as they enjoy the evening and morning meals together.
She's up with the dawn, going out in front of the hermit's house to perform the exercised deemed mandatory by her Mother.
Shunsen runs back to Walthus, breathing heavy, "Soggy River Monster?" she asks.
Shunsen runs back to Walthus, breathing heavy, "Soggy River Monster?" she asks.
Walthus looks quite surprised. "Oh, yeah, you know, the Soggy River Monster. It's like 'don't let the bed bugs bite', or 'break a leg'? It's just a saying. It's not like there's a real Soggy River Monster. I'm sure if there were any truth to the legend I would have seen it by now, right?" The halfling chuckles nervously.
Shunsen gives Walthus a raised eyebrow, but still gives him a respectful bow before running to catch up with the others.
Later, she kneels with Orchid by the three-toed tracks, calling out to the others, "Something big passed this way recently, stay alert."
she keeps here eyes on the surrounding foliage and water.
Vigny discovers that Cailyn is an avid talker, small or large even, at least when reading is not an option. Like when they are hiking. So will listen, prompt, even expound on any story or topic that began
"Three toes!" she looks at the tracks the others a leaning over "That seems important... I think..." she muses over all the humanoids that she has ever read about.
Vigny also wants to see the footprint and crowds in.
"Is that like a giant bird foot?" she asks, trying to remember for sure how many toes chickens have. "Or a lizard maybe?"
Shunsen doesn't perceive anything else in the surrounding area.
No one is able to identify the tracks across the path, so after a bit of puzzling over it, you move on down the trail. The air feels even heavier here if at all possible and those of you with more layers than the others are starting to regret your choices as the sweat begins chafing your skin.
You pass another branch of the trail, this one even less used than the one you're currently fighting your way along. Continuing on just a bit further brings you to what you assume to be the goblin village.
A filthy village-fort surrounded by a crude wooden palisade sits atop a low hummock of solid ground here. A wooden gate in the north wall of the palisade facing you lies in shambles on the ground. Nearby, a large, algae-filled pool on the northeastern side breaks the palisade and allows a clearer view into the village’s interior, which consists of a collection of ramshackle huts connected by wooden walkways, all built on thick wooden stilts.
Surprisingly, the village appears to be in a state of disrepair and looks ... abandoned?
Vigny finds the silence and apparent emptiness of the village surprising, and a little eerie as well. She looks at her companions and raises her eyebrows to show surprise without saying anything. Then, she creeps up to the side of the gateway to peek around the palisade trying to see more of what might be going on inside, as well as why the gate is on the ground.
Orchid, meanwhile, heads straight for the palisade and leaps, catching the top in both hands and pulling herself up with impressive arm strength. Clearly all the time spent shifting hay bales has paid off. She peeks sharply over the top of the wall, ready to drop down again at a moment's notice.
There is a slight stench that overrides the ever-present smell of the marsh, rot, stale smoke, and the slight tang of brimstone. Vigny is unable to determine what decimated the gate and neither her nor Orchid see any movement within the compound.
Oh, wait, was that ...
Orchid catches a glimpse of a goblin peeking out of one of the windows of the large hut directly west of the open gate. The face vanishes as soon as she sees it.
Orchid slides down the palisade once more and rejoins the group.
"Goblin. Big hut, that way." She points. "Go there first. If leader, will be there. Goblins run without leader."
It seems she has a plan. Of sorts.
Shunsen looks at the 'gate', wondering aloud "Did they blow up their own gate with the fireworks?"
She nods at Orchid, "Ok...that's where we go first..."
"Go there first if leader will be there? How will we know if the leader will be there to determine if we should go there first?" Cailyn seems to be confused on where the punctuation is in Orchid's explanation. But as she loads her crossbow, it clicks "OH! I understand, very good plan."
Flori nods along with the others and squeezes her sister's shoulder supportively. Flori doesn't know too much about Goblins herself apart from what she heard others talk about and this seems as good a plan as any. "That's a great plan Orchid."