"Maybe so, but there's no way that we can fix it up unless we know specifically what we can do. It's already clocked me hard, but maybe it would be beneficial to go back and just...ask it."
"If I cast a healing spell, I can hold the charge until I touch the enemy. But if it is invisible and incorporeal, that may be tricky."
"Still, I am willing to try. It seems like the last errand we have to accomplish here."
"We can, of course, try to talk to it, though anguished spirits are not always rational. They retain their pain but not necessarily their wits."
"I hate to disperse it like that...I can hold a cure spell in the same manner, but I'm not sure what alternative we have right now."
-Posted with Wayfinder
"We get the priest?" Calvin offers.
-Posted with Wayfinder
"Problem with getting the priest is that we'd have to bring him all the way back here to get it taken care of that way." Gideon answers, thinking for a moment.
"Is it possible the swarmsuit might offer some protection? I mean, it's several layers thick and each layer is thick cloth. Sure it slows you down, but it seems like it would offer at least some protection against random objects tossed at you by a poltergeist."
"Barring the use of the swarm suit, there is one thing that we might try that we haven't really yet, which Calvin suggested: maybe we should just...try talking to it. Even if it's hostile, it's clearly not unintelligent. Maybe we could figure out what's got it so ticked off."
Looking back into the room, Gideon draws in a deep breath, then tosses back the last four healing berries they have, restoring most of the damage done to him by the flying projectile.
Approaching the door, he speaks in a clear voice, poking his head in and putting one foot across the threshold. "Forgive our intrusion; we do not intend you any harm. We only wish to discover what happened here and if there is anything we can do to help you."
If something comes flying out at him, he'll immediately duck back out of the room.
The items on the altar lift up into the air and begin to orbit around each other. Gideon feels a chill, and the sepulchral voice you heard earlier growls again. "What happened here? Betrayal...murder... You...want to help me? Find...Rayland Arkley. Find out...why he...KILLED ME!"
For a moment, a ghostly, skeletal figure appears, floating above the altar! The poltergeist lets out a terrifying shriek before vanishing once more!
Calvin raises his shield defensively and waves his magic sword around as he covers everyone else's retreat.
"Agh! No!" Weyve tries to hide his face from the spirit for a moment, before rushing outside. Once out the door he jumps to one side and presses his back to the outer wall.
"Guys, get out of there! We can't face a spirit that angry!"
Utterly terrified by the spectre, Gideon turns tail and flees the room as quickly as he can!
Tobar manages to keep his wits, but he pragmatically withdraws with his companions.
Calvin and Tobar cover Gideon and Weyve as the latter two flee in terror from the poltergeist. Fortunately, the spirit doesn't give chase out of the chapel, and soon the bard and oracle recover their wits.
"Whew...geez, even with everything leading up to it, that was...that was bone-chilling!" Gideon remarks, sweat beaded up on his brow. "At least we have some clue, though. Murdered...that's awful. And wasn't Arkley the leader of the first expedition? We were in his room earlier, right? Maybe we should go check it out again. I dunno about going back in that temple though...Calvin, might be worth you or Tobar having a look. Maybe there'll be a clue inside. He might leave us alone if he thinks we're trying to help him."
"I think looking in Arkley's room for hidden clues is the best next step," says Tobar. "If the spirit implicated him, maybe he hid something before everyone vanished."
You thoroughly search through Rayland Arkley's house. After nearly an hour, it becomes apparent there are no further clues to be found here.
"If there's nothing in Arkley's house, our best shot seems to me to be the room that shrine's in. I mean...clearly, that's where the murder took place. Why else would the spirit be attached to that room?"
"I'm sorry you two, but I think it's too powerful for us to handle right now. It will have to wait until we can get the priests to come help us purify the place." Calvin insists. "We're wasting our time here at this point; the poltergeist isn't going anywhere."
"It is curious... you would usually think an angry spirit would want revenge. But this one wants to know why. I don't see how we can find out though unless we find this Arkley. Alive, preferably."
"But if Arkley killed the priest, then the other colonists may have fallen victim to some treachery. It may not be monsters that killed them after all. Or did whatever was done to them."
Weyve looks around at the encampment.
"Have we checked everything? If so, we may as well move on and find the ship."
Having fully explored the colony, you turn to one last area of interest. North of the colony, but well within sight, is a small field. Inundating the meadow is a series of large holes dug in at an angle. Piles of dirt surround each hole. A large copse of trees grows due east of this location.
"More of those giant bugs, do you think? They look like burrows or something."
"Hmm. These look... dug. Like... with a shovel, maybe?" says Tobar.
"At least you can swing a blade at those larvae. I'd rather deal with them than an angry spirit." Gideon confesses. "Still...by all means, I'll let someone else take lead this time."
You cautiously approach the holes, but don't get too far before a fully grown ankheg emerges from the largest one. Big as a horse, it clacks its drooling mandibles and moves towards you!
"And here's mama ankheg!" Gideon says to the others; realizing the threat it represents, the archaeologist immediately weaves a spell of slumber against it, hoping to put it down before it can do any damage.
"I can see how those mandibles might make marks like a shovel," Weyve quips.
"See if you can get out of this!" Weyve shouts at the creature.
Weyve pulls out a strange flat black object, that looks like a silhouette of a comically proportioned man. He waves it as he chants a spell. Weyve's skin darkens to a deep blue and shadows seem to gather around the ankheg.
Weyve's spell pins the ankheg's shadow to the ground, keeping it locked in place as Gideon casts his own spell. The big beast tries to rush forward towards you, but finds itself unable to move. Frustrated, it spreads its mandibles wide and hurls a gout of acid at Weyve!
Once Gideon completes his spell, the beast wavers and falls to the ground, fast asleep.
Calvin leaves the medic work to them and advances to coup-de-grace the ankheg.
-Posted with Wayfinder
Calvin drives his blade right into the creature's thorax, killing it instantly.
Weyve screams and passes out as he is struck by the acid.
The beast being dead, Gideon moves immediately to Weyve and casts a healing spell on him.
Gideon's healing spell stabilizes Weyve and restores him to consciousness, the worst of his acid burns disappearing.
When you get the chance to examine the holes in the field, you discover fragments of leather eggshells in a few of them. One hole contains a human skeleton bereft of clothing or equipment. The bones are pitted by acid, but one finger still wears a magical copper-colored ring engraved with arcane symbols.
Having survived numerous ordeals in your exploration of Talmandor's Bounty, you feel ready to face even greater challenges.
Tobar shrugs and brings his crossbow back up to his shoulder. "Got lucky there. Good use of your magic," he says. "Not a great find, but... at least we don't have to worry about it digging up under us later."
"Ohhh..." Weyve moans as he returns to consciousness. Suddenly, his eyes dart open and he jerks upright. "Ahhh! NO!" He looks around for a moment, until he sees the dead Ankheg.
"Ah. Good. Sorry, looks like I owe you one." He gets to his feet shakily. "Yeah, I forgot about the acid. Still burns a bit. I suppose I'll need some new clothes," Weyve says, as he examines his ruined shirt.
"Hopefully this deals with our infestation. We can head back to the - Oh! What did you find?" Weyve asks as the others pull out the strange ring.
"Let's have a look."
Weyve is able to identify the ring.
"Nice find, Weyve! Finders, keepers, eh?" Gideon says with a grin, patting his companion on the back.
Looking back over the buildings within the palisade, Gideon's eyes fall on the small temple with the disquieted spirit within. "I'm sorry guys, but...somethin' is niggling on my brain back there. The spirit is still there, in that building, and I'm not convinced we really tried to find anything in it. We ran in and then left when the geist started tossing things at us. If I'm on my own doing it, so be it, but...I want to go back. We need to look around in that temple. It's the most logical place where we might find some kind of clue as to what happened to that man, whoever he was."
Unless someone tries to stop him, Gideon goes forward with his statement, heading back to the temple they found earlier. As he cautiously steps in, he announces himself,"It's just us again...we want to look around here and see if we can find something to help us find out why you were killed."
If he is allowed to proceed without having things thrown at him, he makes a slow, methodical search of the room, looking for any evidence of what might've happened.
A low groan sounds in the chapel, and a few of the objects inside shake a bit, but the spirit seems to tolerate your presence...for now.
Gideon's search reveals a trial of dried blood leading from the altar to the front entrance. Examining the piles of ashes shows that they both used to be books. The leather cover of one of the books is still intact and bears the title Parables of Erastil, a common text among the worshipers of Old Deadeye. The other book's cover is burned beyond recognition, but after thumbing through fragments of the unburned pages within, Gideon identifies the text as a copy of On Government, a political treatise written in a poetic style. This book played a part in Andoran's People's Revolt and sparked the Red Revolution in Galt, allegedly inspired by conversations with Talmandor himself.
Removing the dusty white cloth covering the altar, it becomes evident that it is not a table on four legs but is constructed more like a large box with religious carvings on the front face. A careful examination of the back allows Gideon to locate a secret sliding panel. Opening the panel leads to the discovery of a rotting corpse, and the strong stench of decay fills the air.
Examining the body shows that the man died of a few stab wounds, though the body is not significantly mutilated.
The bow on the wall looks to be magical.
Gideon barely manages to avoid vomiting at the sudden pervasive odor of rot that spreads throughout the room, taking a few minutes to compose himself before he trusts his stomach enough to open his mouth.
He looks around the room again, as if expecting to see the spirit suddenly pop into existence again...hoping that the he is at least listening and able to respond. "Please permit me one more question; my friends and I are going to get your remains out of here, see that they're properly buried nearby...may I ask for your name, so we know how to mark the grave?" he asks aloud, motioning for the others to come forward.
"Let's look around the site for a few minutes, guys. Find some old shovels or something, so we can give him a proper burial. It shouldn't take that long and I think he deserves it."
Weyve nods.
"I think I saw some in the tool shed."
"My name... Silas..." the spirit rasps before falling silent once again. You find some shovels in the tool shed and dig a grave behind the chapel, burying his remains within. You have explored every area of the colony. It's time to rejoin the rest of the colonists aboard the Peregrine.
When you are ready, you head north from Talmandor's Bounty and into the wilds of the island of Ancorato. There are no trails or paths, so the going is slow, though not particularly arduous. You skirt the coast, and the vegetation isn't as dense as it becomes further inland. Most of the plant life on the island consists of evergreens. Pines and live oaks make up the majority of trees in the inland forests, with palm trees appearing near the coast. Small evergreen shrubs cover the ground along with short palmettos.
The weather is warm and humid. Insects buzz and chirp in the trees around you.
While Tobar obviously knows his way in the woods, he has very poor luck at finding anything useful.
-Posted with Wayfinder
After burying Silas behind the church, and before the group heads out, Gideon checks the passenger manifest from the log they found in the meeting hall earlier, cross-checking to see if he can locate a man named Silas among the initial voyagers.
Once this is done, he heads out into the jungle with the others, taking up position as second behind Calvin; he is hesitant to position himself in the lead, just in case the group encounters something that would be better met by the gillman's bulk.
There is a man named Silas Wetherbee on the manifest, listed as a farmer.
As you travel, Calvin and Gideon notice several signs of wild boars in the area, and can point them out to steer clear of their territory and avoid angering the ill-tempered beasts.
Soon, the presence of saltmarshes along the coast forces you to deviate inland a bit. Tangled clumps of moss dangle from the sprawling branches of ancient oaks, and the smell of pine sap hangs in the air. You cross through a lightly wooded region and approach a stream running southwest to the sea.
As you draw near, though, something emerges from the water--the rotting corpse of a woman wearing leathers and gripping a handaxe. A strange nautilus clutches the corpse's head with oversized tentacles, its crimson-streaked flesh textured like the surface of some exposed, alien brain.
The corpse charges forward, swinging its axe at Calvin!