Ruins of Azlant IC

[DaOldeWolf]

Hewitt tries his best to hide his excitement over the treasure they managed to snag. Hopefully, he could finally begin establishing a store with the new material that they just gathered. Lightburn remains quiet thinking about the village and the dangers ahead waiting for all of his companions whom he was starting to really worry about.

[farothel]

After getting up in the morning and making some breakfast, Laurelata went to see Hewitt. They had checked the gems quickly in the cave, but she thought they could do a bit better job in better light and with a bit more time. And they also needed to inform Ramona about what had happened in the cave. And maybe take some time to see if she could find a nice spot to build an tavern she could later extend into an inn.

[SanguinePenguin]

Taz awakes full of verve, she is likely more tired than she feels, but yesterday was a win (whatever Henri may think). She sits down with a full plate and obliviously assaults the somber crowd with a spurt of logorrhea, "hopefully with their leader defeated, the remaining squiblins will be cowed. If the water is safer, we can probably gather more resources from the coasts. There is a chance the squiblins will retaliate, but hopefully not. I still believe our next task should be to look for the source of the choker, which means exploring. We could find all kinds of other things doing that too. I mean after we talk to Ramona of course, and I think one of the guards mentioned when we got in last night that Kurvis was looking for us. We should check in with both of them. Maybe then we can head east into the island a bit. I've been trying to think of a good way to ensure we don't miss a cave, but I haven't made much progress beyond eyes open. Often cave entraces are in small pits, so maybe if we get up high we could find something." She takes a mouthful of food, momentarily halting her verbal bombardment.

[farothel]

"Maybe we can stay here today," Laurelata suggested, "we still have to fix that spear we got yesterday, check out those gems in more detail and indeed, check in with Ramona and Kurvis, do some work here. And then go back out tomorrow."

[u-b]

Appraising the gemstones takes about an hour. You arrive at what you think is pretty accurate estimate. A good haul, even in their unworked condition. Then you head to Ramona. She listens to your report and asks some questions. She is pretty happy to hear the news and to re-authorize the fishing. She says if you need anything from her, you just have to ask. She mentions that the clerics have problems with the chapel again - ghost, poltergeist, or whatever it is. You should probably go talk to Kurvis.

Spoiler

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720 gp worth of gems. Everyone gets +5 Influence (I have updated the sheet).

[SanguinePenguin]

"Maybe we can stay here today," Laurelata suggested, "we still have to fix that spear we got yesterday, check out those gems in more detail and indeed, check in with Ramona and Kurvis, do some work here. And then go back out tomorrow."

A litte deflated, Taz replies, "sure. Tomorrow. Let's go tomorrow."

-------------

After the meeting with Ramona, Taz says, "to Kurvis, then? I'm disappointed that this poltgeist is so... persistent."

[Farmerbink]

Jessica rises late, more surprised herself than anyone else is. "Oh! Have I missed?- " As she enters the barracks serving as common room, the young priestess is relieved to find food still available, and gladly takes her fill of it. "I know you think it's foolish, but I haven't given up on redeeming those Goblins yet either, Taz." she interjects, before returning to her plate. She makes it a point to check in on them (and probably misunderstands Henri's own efforts), before joining the group in Ramona's office.

"We're quite confident we got the leader, at least. Surely they'll eventually choose another leader, but it won't be as big and strong as this one, and it'll take them time to recover, if they ever do." Jessica nods encouragingly at the word that fishing will resume.

After the meeting, Jessica is a bit disappointed that she can't return to the Goblins, but willingly responds instead to the other cleric's summons.

[DarkOne-Rob]

Spoiler: OoC

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Taz awakes full of verve, she is likely more tired than she feels, but yesterday was a win (whatever Henri may think).

I think my efforts to RP Henri might have been a bit unclear - he's tired of being a soldier and doing that sort of thing, but he does it (arguably well) because he's pragmatic about it too. It's definitely a win for the colony, whom he is committed to helping, but if he were able to find peace he would prefer that. Also, as a half-orc an often on the receiving end of discrimination for his "monstrous" heritage he's a bit more sympathetic to the other "monsters" out there.

All that said, he had no argument with wiping out the grindylows. If anything, the fact that there are some left is something that concerns him - they are likely to hold grudges and come back later if they can. Pragmatic, again, if not exactly happy about it...

[Ramona] mentions that the clerics have problems with the chapel again - ghost, poltergeist, or whatever it is. You should probably go talk to Kurvis.

Henri scowls at the threat of the poltergeist again. His expression suggests a feeling of helplessness that he doesn't like, though he doesn't shy away from sticking with the rest of the party to help.

"I know you think it's foolish, but I haven't given up on redeeming those Goblins yet either, Taz."

Henri notes the beautiful aasimar looking in on the captives too but says nothing, instead just looking at the quality of the security with a critical eye. He then follows her to the little colony chapel to try and help any way he can...

[u-b]

The captured goblins are fine, in some sense of "fine". They do not seem particularly happy, they look at you with some ill-hidden malice, they have not been washed since you've captured them (neither themselves, nor they clothes), but at least they are reported to be adequately fed (which, looking at them, you see no reason to doubt) and adequately guarded (which, having you there, leads to you being asked questions about your plans for the lot).

At the chapel you see it closed with a sign on the doors saying as much. You hear someone wailing inside. You doubt it is Kurvis.

[farothel]

"I don't think he's here," Laurelata said, "maybe we can check at his house. I'd rather have information about what's inside before we go in."
She looked at the others and if there was no opposition, she would head to his house to check if he was there.

[u-b]

Kurvis is at his place. He greets you and explain the situation, as much as it could be explained at the moment. So, you have got rid of poltergeist. Or so you thought. Kurvis and Eamon cleaned up the chapel and restored a semblance of order in there. While at it, they have found a body hidden inside the altar. It had some stab wounds and seems to have bled to death inside the altar. Anyway, the body has been removed from the altar and properly buried. The chapel was put to regular use and then a wailing ghost has appeared. It does not throw things around, but it is now visible and it scares all the congregation away from the chapel. Understably so. We probably could deal with it the same as the last time, but this might have the same temporary effect, so Kurvis wanted to see if you have other ideas before proceeding with that.

[DarkOne-Rob]

"Does it just wail, or does it use words too? What does it want?" asks Henri quietly. It's clear he's little in the way of tools to help, but willing.

[Farmerbink]

Jessica frowns in thought. "It is visible? At all times? And wails, but is not violent?" She thinks on the idea for several seconds, trying to make sense of it.

Spoiler: Know (religion)

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(1d20+5)[24] to determine if she knows anything about it? Is it undead?

"At the very least, I will try to see if it can tell us anything. Perhaps the soul of one of the first wave colonists lingers here?"

[DaOldeWolf]

"That is weird. Anything else you can tell us about the body. Actually, scratch that, could we get permition to check the body?" Hewitt asks thinking that there could be traces of magic in the body.

[u-b]

"Calls everyone "Arkley" and asks why did they kill him. I believe that would be Rayland Arkley who was the head of the first group of colonists. I have no idea why Rayland would kill anyone, let alone a fellow colonist, but the cause of death is clear in that the man was killed. It's visible when anyone is in, and seems like it's trying to communicate, but it does not answer questions or otherwise engages in a dialogue, I'm afraid. Does not throw things, though. At least, not at the moment." Kurvis nods at Jessica's hypothesis. "We've come to the same conclusion, but we don't know what else to make out of it. What kind of internal struggle would cause the colonists to turn on one another?" Kurvis is hesitant to give a permission to exhume the body. "The cause of death was clear and I can answer any questions about the state of the body, but I would prefer not to dig it up if it could be avoided. We don't want the ghost to get angry and start throwing things at people again. It does not let us use the chapel, but at least it does not seem to hurt anyone at the moment."

Spoiler: Jessica

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From the description, it seems still to be an undead and/or a haunt.

[farothel]

"We can always have a little chat with it," Laurelata said, "as far as I know, most of those haunts that are murdered want their killer brought to justice and then they are put to rest. Might be a bit tricky here as we still don't know what happened to the other colonists, but we can always give it a shot."

[DarkOne-Rob]

"Has anyone found evidence of what happened to Rayland Arkley? A body or journal or anything? If he's still out there, we might have to find him to put this ghost to rest..."

[u-b]

"Ummm... no. To the best of my knowledge, Rayland Arkley is still thought to be missing, along with most of other colonists. Maybe we should keep looking."

Spoiler

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Those of you who've had a look at the colony journal do not remember anything about Rayland Arkley that would be relevant to this case. You might want to re-read taking possession of his house, though.

[SanguinePenguin]

Taz was clueless about how to deal with ghosts, but if the head of the first expedition murdered this perosn, then they should revisit what they know about him. After sitting is silence while the more ghost savvy of those present discussed, Taz suddenly blurts out loudly, "the charter!"

After she finishes processing her own thoughts, "we need to look at the charter. We found it in Arkley's home, it had checkmarks on some names. I didn't think too much of it then, but maybe he was crossing people off or something. The note we found from Una Hendrake suggested he may have been acting kind of crazy. Or maybe they were. But if he did murder this person, then maybe we can find some clues about who it might be or why he did it."

"We left it with Ramona, I don't think we ever got it back from her though."

[farothel]

"We found some evidence that some of the original colonists died when trying to clear out that grindylow's nest we tackled yesterday," Laurelata said, "but the scraps that were there didn't give us a clue as to who they were."

When Taz started talking about the charter, she had to think back a bit on what she meant.
"It's worth a try," she said, "and we should see if one of us can get that ghost to talk, or at least point at something. Maybe a name on that charter. Maybe we can try something."

She looked at Kurvis.
"Do you have some scraps of paper I could use," she asked. If the items were produced, she wrote 'Yes' on one and 'No' on the other.
"Maybe we can just ask a few Yes/No questions and use the papers," she explained, "the ghost might not be able to talk, but it can point at which one it is, no?"

[Farmerbink]

Jessica nods eagerly at Laurelata's suggestion. "Yes! Anything we can do to communicate with one of the original colonists is a great idea. I'll volunteer to go in, if anyone doesn't want to."

[u-b]

You went back to the government house first, to look at the charter. The charter is there and Ramona lets you have it, provided that you'll give it back. Examining the charter you see that the name of Rayland Arkley is ticked. But so are the names of Una, Dulin, Barnabus and Eliza. There are five names that are not ticked and they are mostly in the lower part of the list:

Kulena Sprads, female human spiritualist
Frel Tanboor, male human cook
Machi Valenth, male human carpenter
Silas Weatherbee, male human leatherworker
Kalcora Weems, female human hunter

[SanguinePenguin]

Taz scowls with angry frustration and her cheeks shift to a bright red, "what the...? This doesn't help us at all! I was so sure too!" She stomps her foot and the humidity in the room increases perceptably. She cools her temper a bit (and with it, dries the air) and then says to the others, "what possible reason would Arkley have for keeping a hidden charter list that checks himself off AND those resisting against him. Maybe it was people present? In which case, these five were the ones missing. But then why have it hidden away?"

Spoiler

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Perception: (1d20+6)[14] to see if Taz can identify anything about the marking of the charter, particularly whether the checks were made at different times or by different people.

[DarkOne-Rob]

Henri follows along quietly, paying attention but not really having anything to add. He looks unhappy when Jessica volunteers to go and confront the ghost (alone?). "Be careful - it might be just a rumor, but I've heard of ghosts controlling living people. That wouldn't be good, for you to not really be here," he points to his head, "...and the ghost to have control of your body. Who knows what it would do?"

When looking at the charter he scratches his head. "Do we know that Arkley kept this list? It wasn't just found with his stuff? What if someone else did it?" asks the half-orc quietly.

[DaOldeWolf]

"We are still missing some more information. If only the local creatures were a bit more friendly, we might have a chance of learning more about the past. There is also that strange contraption that we found on the day of our arrival. I just wish we could find the creator of that machine." Hewitt complains aloud annoyed that there was still a lot to learn about the mystery and they had to very ready since whatever calamity took place, it could happen once again.

"So, we should go and then see the ghost, right? They might know more about what is going on, right?" Lightburn asks.

[SanguinePenguin]

When looking at the charter he scratches his head. "Do we know that Arkley kept this list? It wasn't just found with his stuff? What if someone else did it?" asks the half-orc quietly.

"Well... maybe we don't know for sure. It was found folded and hidden in his house, when it shouldn't have been there at all, but rather been on display in the main building. Someone else could have stashed it in his house, but that seems even stranger. I guess someone else could have made the marks, and he confiscated it... that also seems stranger... UGH! Pecda loffin," Taz profanes in dwarven as she vigorously rubs the side of her head with a groan of anguish. "This is all just so strange! I just wish this made sense!"

[farothel]

"Yeah, there's a lot we don't know," Laurelata said, "and it's sort of circular. If we find one of the original colonists alive, we can find out what happened. And if we figure out what happened, we can most likely figure out where they went. Get one, get both. I think it's best not to dwell too much on what we don't know and more on what we can figure out. Jessica, I'll join you for the ghost if that's okay. We elves are masters of non-verbal communication and I might pick up on some subtleties."

[u-b]

Thus confused about the meaning of what little clues you have, but determined to carry on nonetheless, you go to the chapel. It's still closed and there is still wailing inside. It's not constant, but it does not stop for long either.

[DarkOne-Rob]

"That's lovely..." mutters Henri as he listens to the wailing inside the chapel. "And you have to go in there to confront it?"

[DaOldeWolf]

"I can offer some defensive measures to Lightburn and he could go inside with the added defensive measure. He should be on a decent position to handle the attacks than most of us if things go south like last time. We would just need someone more persuasive than him by his side. Any volunteers?" Hewitt asks the others as he finishes with his suggestion.