Ruins of Azlant, Part I: A Bountiful Venture [PF] (IC)

[jamieth]

"Some kind of locked coffer..." Rovena replies, coming out from the office, "Might just be colony's treasury, but hopefully it might also contain some kind of insight on what happened. And, of course, there's the other room on that side..." she heads out to check that one, as well.

[Darvin]

"Hmm, let me see if I can get it open," Tirsen strides up and takes coffer, taking a look at it. Without proper tools - something she hasn't needed in some times and didn't anticipate needing here - this will require some patience, "you check out the other room; this might take me a while,"

[jamieth]

"I was just going to", Rovena nods, "Unfortunately, the unlocking spell is quite complex, and I had no real chance - or need - to practice it... but I suppose it's fortunate that you have such a skill -" she stops herself without adding, though I'd llike to know where did you learn that, and for what...

[pi4t]

Liyinva joins Rovena in heading towards the other room, since there seems to be little else of interest in here.

[Stelio Kontos]

The visit to the south room reveals a second office, very similar in setup to the one to the north, but without a locked coffer to draw attention.

After a few minutes of fiddling with the lock, Tirsen hears a satisfying click. The lid opens without further protest, revealing a treasure beyond Rovena's wildest dreams: a half dozen books, none bearing titles.

[Darvin]

Tirsen picks up one of the books and thumbs through it to determine its contents, "hey, Rovena, you'd probably be interested in this,"

[jamieth]

Rovena's eyes, indeed, glow alight as she sees the books. "Finally, a chance to make a sense out of this all! That said..." she starts packing the books into her bag, "For now, let's not make the Captain wait... I guess we can now safely say the village is empty, so if any of the villagers escaped..." she exits the village hall and addresses the druid, "I believe it's now time for you to lead the exploration... onward to that second meeting spot?"

[pi4t]

"Mmh. But it is not quite empty. There was that...apparition, you called it? This rather suggests something more significant is happening. Perhaps it would be wise to at least glance through the books, and establish who has written them and what information they are likely to contain? In the meantime, I will determine the start of our route."

Liyinva heads towards the door. Midnight, by now fully recovered from his earlier fear, leads the way enthusiastically.

[jamieth]

"Well, if you say so..." it really doesn't take much encouragement to make Rovena dive into a book, as she leans onto the building's wall and opens the first tome.

[Stelio Kontos]

Rovena dives into the top book, which appears to be an utterly mundane log book detailing the daily events at the colony since landfall -- daily work assignments, records of the daily weather conditions, and so forth. Two things, however, are quite eye-catching. First, it appears that at the back of the log book, the last record of which appears to have been written about a month ago, someone has taken the trouble to very carefully remove the last three or four pages. These haven't been torn out haphzardly, but removed almost surgically with a razor or some other very thin blade. Second, the handwriting in the book seems almost as though she had written it herself, except for the way the writer put that little cross-hatch through the center of the letter Z -- just like her sister always did, for reasons not entirely understood.

[Darvin]

Tirsen eyes the missing pages of the book. Amateur work; such doctoring may remove the offending information, but only attracts more attention. After scoffing at it, she remark, "I don't think we should leave quite yet. Rovena, is there any indication in those documents of which house the governor resides in? I think we should pay a quick visit there first,"

[jamieth]

"Uh?" Rovena blinks as Tirsen's voice takes her away from the writing, "R-right..." she sighs. "Sorry. That's my sister's handwriting... well, at least that means she was fine until the... whatever happened..."

"About a month ago. Well, maybe a week later; maybe a bit more, however long those three or four missing pages covered... still... I'm afraid that means our assignment is pointless. Surely people won't just abandon the village and start anew in the other part of the island... but still, we do have a mission. And the misteries of this place... they were waiting for us for weeks; I'm sure they'll wait for several more hours...

[pi4t]

"Perhaps it would be a good idea to check the other buildings before we leave, Tirsen. There are not that to check, especially considering that we will have a trek of some hours ahead of us anyway. I would not like to reach the meeting point only to find that we had missed something here and needed to return."

Liyinva heads towards the nearest house, glancing slightly uncertainly over her shoulder at the beach as she tries to match up the route with the maps she looked at before. She's beginning to suspect that they weren't as accurate as she might have hoped...

[Darvin]

"If there's nothing of interest it won't take us very long, anyways," Tirsen remarks while walking out the door, then adds, "and I definitely don't want to march back and forth across the island all day,"

[jamieth]

"Oh well, fine then", Rovena nods, "I'm actually curious myself, just... didn't want to make Captain wait. If we only had a way to communicate... But no point in wishing. Not for a good while, at least. But don't split. We'll go around the village, clockwise, checking every house."

[Stelio Kontos]

Finding the governor's house proves to be a simple task; perhaps it was the vagaries of fate that placed it directly clockwise from the town hall, or perhaps it was the carved sign bearing the word "Arkley" nailed next to the door frame that had planted a seed in your heads as you'd walked past it just before. Regardless, the house appears from the outside to be quite unoccupied, and a quick tug at the door reveals that while it is closed and latched, it is not barred or locked in any way.

Upon entering the home, you find that it is... quite normal, actually. In contrast to the chapel, the interior is relatively organized and tidy, and undisturbed. It contains plain wooden furniture, with simple amenities such as wall racks for weapons and armor, a modest dining table and chairs, and a sitting chair with a makeshift cushion and footstool. A separate bedroom features a wooden bed frame and pallet mattress, a boot rack, and a large unlocked chest of folded clothes and other personal items. A thin layer of dust permeates the room; it's evident that nobody has been in here for a few weeks. Resting in the crack of the sitting chair is a quite beautiful and rare pocket watch, operating perfectly, which also has a compass built into it. The symbols at the four quadrants of the dial of watch seem quite exotic; Rovena recognizes the etchings as being the numbers 3, 6, 9, and 12, written in ancient Azlanti. Another item of substantial interest to the party scholar is a bound leather-covered book, which had been lodged under the mattress in the bedroom. Opening the book reveals that it is, in fact, an actual spellbook, containing quite a number of spells.

Spoiler: Rovena and Tirsen

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You both happen to notice that up in the rafters, there is what appears to be a folded piece of paper sticking a corner over the edge.

Spoiler: OOC

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The exact contents of the spellbook are TBD; we'll discuss in the Discord chat.

[pi4t]

Liyinva looks at the compass/watch, examines it, then carefully packs it away in her backpack. It shouldn't be needed for the upcoming journey since they'll just be following the coastline, but could be useful if they get drawn off course. It's something of a relief to get one, if only temporarily - she wasn't expecting an overland journey today, and didn't prepare Know Direction.

Spoiler: OOC

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No, Liyinva didn't have a compass of her own prior to this point. Out of character that's because I literally couldn't afford one. In character, I'm going to say that they were fairly rare among the druids because, you know, metal. So she didn't have one of her own, though she's aware of how to use them and can of course navigate by the stars, etc.

[Darvin]

Tirsen allows Rovena to peruse the spellbook, and silently stews over Liyinva picking up such a fine-looking trinket as that pocketwatch. She'd owned one, once, back before the raid on her home, and would certainly appreciate owning one again. For the immediate moment, however, she turns her attention to the paper in the rafters. Tirsen casts mage hand to retrieve it, quietly reading it while the others investigate the items of greater apparent value.

[Stelio Kontos]

Tirsen easily retrieves the paper, which turns out to be four pieces of parchment which have been folded together and tightly creased so that they would remain as one bundle.

The paper proves to be the original charter for the Talmandor's bounty colony. This legal document declares the island and the colony to be under the protection of the nation of Andoran, outlines the colony’s relationship to the Bountiful Venture Company, and enumerates the rights and responsibilities of all colonists. It bears the sealed signature of three members of the People’s Council, representatives of the Bountiful Venture Company, and every colonist that came aboard the Liberty’s Herald, each of the latter on its own line, next to a small "x" marked neatly to the left of each of the names. Each of you remembers reading and signing a similar document, updating the charter to include each of you (and the passengers of the Peregrine) as additional colonists.

[Darvin]

"That's an... odd place to keep the colony charter," Tirsen muses. It wasn't exactly like it was well hidden, but it's still suspicious. She folds the pages back up and stows them for the time being.

[jamieth]

If handing Rovena a spellbook meant to distract her from the compass - well, that worked like a charm - even better, perhaps, as for the next several minutes, it seemed like the young wizard is deeply in thought... even before she actually opened the found book. (In fact, most of that time she spent with her eyes closed, and therefore had no idea about Tirsen's and Liyinia's dealings)

Opening her eyes, Rovena quickly chanted a spell that she - that every wizard worth the name knew by heart and finally looked into a book. The spell won't let her actually replicate the magics contained therein, thre was no shortcuts for that, but at least gain a basic idea of which spells were written in the book - and that would already be useful.

"Most interesting", she concludes, finally tearing her eyes off the book, "Some of these I have never heard of... maybe the author's original research? Tirsen, we should make time to properly transcribe them later... luckily I saved enough gold for a few phials of ink, but it's not nearly enough for all of these..."

[Stelio Kontos]

Leaving the home and continuing clockwise along the palisade, you pass a gate which allows passage south to a small path upon which a number of small homes sit, in various stages of construction from complete structures to the mere beginnings of frames. The gate is wide open; the wooden bar which would be used to secure it is leaned neatly against the gate frame.

The next structure appears to be another home, though one larger than most of the structures outside the palisade. It has three windows, all covered with wooden shutters, and a single door facing northwest, which is unbarred and slightly ajar.

[jamieth]

"For the sake of completeness", Rovena nods. "Judging from the size alone, this must have belonged to either a large family, or someone important in the colony... Lux Saltaito!" she fearlessly enters the abandoned house, sending her dancing lights in front to provide illumination shuttered windows certainly won't.

[Darvin]

"You know, maybe you should arm yourself if you want to lead the way like that," Tirsen remarks as she follows behind, eyes alert and weapon still drawn and ready after the incident with the poltergeist.

[Stelio Kontos]

Standing just outside the home, each of you makes the observation that there appear to be a strange set of tracks -- not footprints, exactly, but something else -- leading away from the home to the northeast.

As you enter the home, you see that the home has clearly had some sort of intrusion. Simple wooden furniture is in disarray throughout. Tables and chairs are knocked over and pushed aside, though none appear willfully broken. Articles of clothing and household items are scattered across the floor as if they were examined briefly and discarded. A large pallet bed is visible in a separate room through an open interior door. A third room with no windows is next to the bedroom but is completely empty. The group sets to searching the rooms, making quick and efficient work of the surroundings. Among the valuables in the main living space is a beautiful gold ring, inscribed on the inside with the words "My dearest Livvy", left unattended on a windowsill in plain sight.

The anteroom next to the bedroom proves to be truly completely empty, but there appear to be a few large circular areas on the ground, each roughly 2-3 feet in diameter, where virtually no dust has collected.

In the bedroom, there is a small iron chest placed under the bed frame; it is quite locked, and no key is readily evident.

[jamieth]

Standing just outside the home, each of you makes the observation that there appear to be a strange set of tracks -- not footprints, exactly, but something else -- leading away from the home to the northeast.

As you enter the home, you see that the home has clearly had some sort of intrusion. Simple wooden furniture is in disarray throughout. Tables and chairs are knocked over and pushed aside, though none appear willfully broken. Articles of clothing and household items are scattered across the floor as if they were examined briefly and discarded. A large pallet bed is visible in a separate room through an open interior door. A third room with no windows is next to the bedroom but is completely empty. The group sets to searching the rooms, making quick and efficient work of the surroundings. Among the valuables in the main living space is a beautiful gold ring, inscribed on the inside with the words "My dearest Livvy", left unattended on a windowsill in plain sight.

The anteroom next to the bedroom proves to be truly completely empty, but there appear to be a few large circular areas on the ground, each roughly 2-3 feet in diameter, where virtually no dust has collected.

In the bedroom, there is a small iron chest placed under the bed frame; it is quite locked, and no key is readily evident.

"My dearest Livvy", Rovena reads, picking up the ring. "I'm afraid that's not the kind of thing one just forgets, no matter how hastily one has to leave... But we can at least try to determine who owmed that ring... and, quite likely, the house. There couldn't be many people named Livvy in such a small town... Tirsen, if you would? Meanwhile... seems something was standing here, something round, and rather recently - well, either that, ot these areas are enchanted against dust, which I honestly doubt." She quickly checks nonetheless - for enchantments, that is.
"And this chest... you won't be familiar with locks like these, by any chance?"

[Darvin]

"Most locks work similarly. It's really not as hard as it looks," Tirsen remarks, already reading through the charter - mindful that Livvy could be a nickname, "I'll get on it as soon as I'm done here,"

Once Tirsen has finished with the charter, the chest is the next matter. Once again, the lack of proper tools was getting on Tirsen's nerves.

Spoiler: OOC

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Take 10, then if that's not sufficient take 20 (result = 16 and 26 respectively, counting the improvised tool penalty)

[Stelio Kontos]

Tirsen's quick perusal of the charter reveals there to be a Mrs. Livvy Felton listed on the colony charter, apparently in fact the only Livvy on the island; her name is signed directly below Fr. Adrian Felton's.

The chest itself proves to be a very tricky one; it's only after a few minutes of jiggling and prodding that the lock barely gives way. Inside, there proves to be a veritable and literal treasure trove: five individually bagged and tied bundles of powdered silver, four neatly bundled blocks of incense, and one tiny pouch in its own bag, appearing to contain diamond dust.

[pi4t]

Liyinva appears at the door. "Rovena. The tracks outside appear to have been made by something with star-shaped feet. Or perhaps by someone wearing starfish as footwear. I know of nothing natural that would fit that description, but perhaps you might be able to shed some light on the matter?

"Whatever it may have been, it was heading towards the South, rolling something ahead of it - probably a barrel of water or alcohol."

[jamieth]

"The town has a well, so why would someone store water in barrels? Alcohol seems more likely... and I can easily see a brewer being respected enough among people to have such a large house. Still only a hypothesis, of course..."