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

[Darvin]

Spoiler: OOC

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Don't rub salt in that wound. We expected them last time, and Tirsen still got stabbed on the surprise round.

"All the more reason for the hungry lion to lead the way," Tirsen gestures dramatically for the druid to be the one to open the door this time.

[pi4t]

Liyinva cautiously nudges open the door, ready to attack anything that leaps out at her and keeping one hand on Midnight's harness. She's not too happy with the idea of letting him eat rotten meat, although she wonders if perhaps he's smelt something that's kept better.

[Stelio Kontos]

The door pulls open with a bit of effort -- it's at a bit of an angle, and will obviously swing shut if no counterbalancing force is applied. You are greeted with silence, and most importantly, without the accompaniment of a blade flying through the air at your face. At your feet you see a few stone steps leading down about three feet to the main floor level, laid with crude floorboards.

You can dimly make out a number of barrels in the room, and some well-salted meats hang from the rafters. It's quite difficult to make out anything more than that -- the afternoon sun is at entirely the wrong angle to let any light through the east-facing portal. The smell is stronger but generally unchanged -- a mix of meats both preserved and rotting, and a strong smell of spices as well.

[jamieth]

Standing just close enough to the door to look inside, Rovena launches a quartet of magical wisps into the barn, to help the others with exploring.

[pi4t]

Liyinva is a bit surprised by Rovena's sudden conjuration. The sun may not be shining directly in - and the day's been passing quickly if it's afternoon already - but it's hardly dark in there. Is human eyesight really that bad? Or perhaps it comes of spending all one's time reading books.

She makes no comment, however, but moves to get a closer look at a whitish paste on some barrels in the room.

[Darvin]

Tirsen sifts through the room, looking for anything noteworthy or dangerous. After she is satisfied that she's found everything of note, she remarks, "we should return here after we've completed our search of the colony, and take as many provisions as we can carry before we journey to the rendezvous," in truth she's getting hungry now, and the smell of rancid food among the good does nothing to dissuade her. It was actually something she needed to be mindful of; by whatever quirk of her fiendish heritage she was not offended by the smell and taste of rot and decay, but it would sicken her as surely as it would any other human that forced it down.

[Stelio Kontos]

Rovena's lights reveal a bit more to her: strings of garlic hang among the well-preserved salted meats hanging from the rafters of the shed, and a number of crates and barrels are lined along the walls. Those obstructions to the quartet of lights provide an interesting, almost oddly artistic, dance of slowly swaying shadows in the room. The floor is scattered with refuse and food debris; it's obvious that someone (or someones) uninterested in caring for the facility have been in here eating somewhat recently.

Tirsen scans the room; nothing readily apparent jumps out as an immediate danger. The crates are well-stacked enough that it would be difficult for a reasonably sized creature to hide anywhere, providing a bit of reassurance.

Liyinva examines the barrels; the whitish substance appears to be a mash of bay leaves, garlic cloves, and bay leaf: in combination, the substance acts as an excellent natural pest repellent, keeping the product within fresh and safe for consumption. Many of the barrels along the wall appear to still be well-sealed; from those that are not, the stench and rot from those barrels is nearly overwhelming; its obvious that those are decayed well beyond human fitness.

Suddenly, Liyinva felt something brush against her toes and feet; a light touch at first that she might have mistaken for one of Midnight's whiskers, if not for the fact that the feeling became more insistent within a second, and was followed by a number of small stinging and biting sensations. Looking down, the source of the pain became clear: a swarm of cockroaches numbering in the hundreds, likely festering in and beneath the darkness provided by the opened barrels, had begun its ascent across her feet and up her legs, chittering and nibbling as they went.

Spoiler: OOC

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So, the cockroach swarm made a rather high Stealth roll, as they are prone to do, and has gone first. Liyinva takes 2 points of damage from the swarm, but made her Fort save against a potential bit of extra nastiness.

Enjoy.

[Darvin]

"Get back; roast these vermin," Tirsen reaches into her belt for the vial of alchemist fire she'd brought with her, aiming for a section of the swarm that's away from Liyinva.

Spoiler: OOC

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Rolled an 8 on discord. So unless that thing has a ridiculously low touch AC, it's 1 point of splash damage.

[pi4t]

Liyinva gives out a short cry of pain and shock as she realises what's happening around her feet. She tries to scramble backwards while kicking the cockroaches off her legs, and firmly reminds herself that they are perfectly natural creatures...just rather aggressive ones. Midnight backs away from the cockroaches, uncertain of what to do.

Tirsen throws an alchemist's fire, reminding Liyinva of her own flask. She reaches for it, and throws it front of her into the centre of the swarm where it explodes in a ball of fire.

Spoiler: OOC

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Assuming 15 hits the swarm's touch AC, that's 3 fire damage, multiplied by 1.5 to 4 because it's a swarm. The swarm will also take 1d6 * 1.5 damage next round unless it takes a full round action to (somehow) put itself out. Also attempting to back away out of the swarm.

[jamieth]

Startled by the swarm appearance, Rovena quickly goes through the list of spells she has at the ready in her head, and comes up with... nothing. Powers imbued in her gloves would be very useful here, but they are done for the day, and the rest... but of course. Alchemist fire... she reaches into her belt and pulls a phial out just as the others throw their missiles. The throw comes up a bit clumsy, but, hopefully, at least it's in a right direction...

Spoiler

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12 on attack; if hits, then 4 more damage

[Stelio Kontos]

The volley of alchemist fire proves largely ineffective; though a very few cockroaches are roasted, most seem to scurry away from the source of the blaze without much trouble. They continue to swarm about, moving in pursuit of their new food source. Liyinva manages to knock a number of roaches off, but others climb aboard to replace them just as quickly...

A new problem emerges to complicate matters, however, as the floorboards and one of the open barrels seems to have begun smoldering from the inundation of flaming liquid. Nothing is outright ablaze as of yet, but there's a definite appearance that if not extinguished, the entire room could light up at any time. While that might solve the cockroach problem, immolating the preserved food (and a storage building) in the process would be far less than optimal.

Spoiler: OOC

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So, all three alchemist fire throws miss (yes, touch AC 15 missed, go figure), so the swarm takes 3 points of splash damage. In addition to an angry cockroach swarm following Liyinva (who suffers a further 3 points of damage), the room could use a little attention (a good splash of water would do the trick, if done quickly) so as not to be set on fire.

[pi4t]

Her legs covered with blood, Liyinva staggers backwards out of the swarm and out of the hut completely, and tries to remove her unwanted passengers. As she does so, she notices the spreading fire, and murmurs something while cupping her hands together. A cascade of water suddenly splashes onto the fire, and onto the swarm.

Spoiler: OOC

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Moving out of the storeroom, and casting Create Water. Which is a close range spell, so I can summon it onto the stuff that needs putting out. Up to 2 gallons. If that's more than is needed to put the fire out, and if it looks like I can do this without ruining all the food supplies etc, I'll attempt to swamp the cockroaches with the remaining water. Hoping to either drown them, or at least force them to swim.

Also, Liyinva is now on less than half hp.

[jamieth]

The fight obviously not going like planned; who could've though that some cockroaches would pose more trouble than the ostensibly sentient goblins... of course, it was a matter of outside circumstances, as well.


"Fall back!" Rovena calls, "They don't like sunlight, so we'll get away safely... and tomorrow, I'll have enough fire tpo thorougly disinsect this storage, if needed.

We could also borrow that suit... it'sa made for keeping bees, but most likely would do for dealing with cockroaches just fine."

[Darvin]

"We could burn them-" Tirsen begins, but realizes the futility of it, pulling back with the others.

Upon retreating outside she remarks, "okay, that's the colony's food supply, which means that's our food supply. We gotta secure it, and I think the only way we have to fight those things is fire. One of us goes in with the swarm suit we found earlier and cleanses the place with flames, while Liyinva douses any flames and keeps the building from going up in smoke,"

[Stelio Kontos]

Lyinva's water is enough to douse the nascent flames; the sploosh of the sudden falling water also sends the roaches scattering, though only for a second or two -- the mass of insects quickly re-covers the floor as the water drains through the floorboards into the earth below. Though a few roaches remain scurrying around on her clothing, she's able to harmlessly brush those away.

As predicted by Rovena, the swarm follows you across the floor and up the steps, but stops at the edge of the shadow created by the roof and the afternoon sun.

[jamieth]

"Well, that's something, at least..." Rovena nods, "So at least it's not an immediate threat. Perhaps we should think about establishing a base here? It would be most inconvenient to get back to the ship every day, and if anything, empty buildings are in abundance here. Of course, we still need to inform Miss Avandth about our findings..." she pinches her nose, "Is there any chance we can still make way for the designated meeting spot and back before the dark?"

[Darvin]

"Unlikely, but we should still send a message so they know we're alright. Let's set a fire before it's dark. I'll try to use magic to color the smoke and make it a noticeable signal. Just so they know we're still alive," Tirsen remarks. It was a simple but useful trick to make ordinary smoke seem extraordinary, but it'd be useful in this case for ensuring someone saw it and - hopefully - would correctly interpret that the three of them were alive and well.

[jamieth]

"That's a good idea", Rovena nods, then sighs, "If only there was some way of sending messages directly ... I mean, there is such a way, of course, but it's a rather advanced magic... beyond our reach for now. So we'll have to do with this plan... and, of course, then we'll have to find a place for the night. I'd rather not part, in case of... further accidents, so... perhaps we could borrow one of the houses? Me and Lyinva could share a room, with Tirsen taking the next one..."

[Darvin]

"The town hall seems the safest of the lot. Two stories, we can barricade the staircase, and we can probably find some blankets in the other houses for makeshift beds," Tirsen suggests as she gets to work on the fire.

[pi4t]

"The town hall? Are you sure?" Liyinva asks, frowning. "The building with the ghost that attacked us? Would it not be better to choose any of the other buildings? Or, better still, to move away from the village for the night and camp in the wilderness? The village appears to have attracted several dangers."

[Darvin]

"The town hall, the two story one over there," Tirsen points away from the chapel, "the wilderness is... well, that's where the dangers came from, presumably. We can at least barricade an enclosed space,"

[pi4t]

Liyinva looks briefly puzzled, glancing between the town hall and the chapel. After a moment, she attempts to cover her confusion with a "Very well. We shall rest in the town hall," and begins walking off in the direction that Tirsen pointed, wincing a little at the pain from her injured legs. Midnight follows behind.

[Stelio Kontos]

Starting a signal fire on the beach proves to be a trivial task, what with the various bits of flotsam and jetsam laying around on a beach that's been unattended for a few weeks. Tirsen's coloration makes for an interesting display, though the smoke of course disperses quite quickly in the tropical breeze; it's hard to know if anyone miles away would be able to tell the difference. It's a beautiful evening for a beachside dinner, with the sun setting over the thick jungle that blankets the island starting a couple hundred yards from the edge of the palisade; it occurs that this would be an ideal place to be stranded from a shipwreck, or to start a colo... oh, well, obviously.

As you settle into the upper reaches of the town hall after barricading what you can with the native furniture, the evening brings new sounds of the wild to life, starting with the crickets and moving on to more nocturnal beasts. A more than occasional profanity emanates from the chapel, courtesy of a very angry poltergeist, but even that faded into the background as darkness fell.

Mercifully, the night passes peacefully for one and all, and you awaken refreshed and ready to start a new day, greeted by the bright sunrise peeking over the watery horizon and shining through the upstairs window of the town hall. After a few preparations, you decide to make way for the only remaining unexplored building inside the palisade...

Spoiler: OOC

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It's a new day, yes it is!

Everyone who needs it gains 1 HP from a full night's rest, and resets spells and such. Please let me know when you're ready, and feel free to fill in anything you might want to do either the previous night, or in the morning before entering the large rectangular building to the north end of the palisade...

[Darvin]

Tirsen does her best to ignore the howling poltergeist, more annoyed than anything by it. She'd seen her fair share of necromancy in her youth. Aunt Yinny had a particular... thing for that. Just another in a long list of relatives that Tirsen was more than happy to never meet again. Family was something Tirsen was always reminded of every time she opened her spellbook, and for the most part they weren't pleasant memories.

"So, let's finish our sweep of the village, then move out," Tirsen remarks after completing her preparations. Moments after stepping outside, she renews her defensive magic.

Spoiler: OOC

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Preparing Spark in the place of Mage Hand as a cantrip. Cast Mage Armor immediately.

[jamieth]

Day 1, evening

Of course, there was one more thing Rovena was going to do before going to bed. That spellbook they found, it was like a beckoning mound of treasure... too bad Rovena had not nearly enough time to decipher it fully, but some things she could do. A couple hours of effort later, she put down her quill, still dripping a gold-tinted ink, and closed her own book with a feeling of satisfaction. It wasn't a complex spell, but... one she consistently neglected in her studies, never believing it would end up useful. Today proved otherwise. Tomorrow she'll prove wiser.

Day 2, morning

The night ends up being surprisingly refreshing, considering the previous day's tribulations; Rovena wakes up feeling perhaps more energetic than she did on the most days in the academy... cetainly more energetic than she ever did on the ship. Not that she got seasick easily, but still.
An hour right after waking up and dressing up spent refreshing magical formulas in her head and charging up the arcane symbols of her uniform feels like a comfortable routine... even though Rovena can't very well remember last time she directed that much power into her gloves, conduit for evocation magic. But she isn't willing to be defenseless against the next goblin they'll encounter again... or whatever else they might encounter.

Then, spell preparatiions done, she stands up, puts the magical supplies back into ther bag and reaches to the ceiling ceiling with her hands joined over her head, stretching the muscles sore from the long period of sitting still meditating over the contents of the book; then bends forward and touches the floor with her palms. "Very well...let's finish the explorations."

Spoiler: OOC

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Copying Magic Missile to my spellbook.Redistributing arcane focus, setting 5 points to evocation and only 1 to everything else.
Preparing Color Spray and Magic Missile in the wizard slots

[pi4t]

Liyinva sleeps rather badly, between the pain in her legs and the wooden floor - far harder than a decent pile of leaves, and rather uncomfortable even through her bedroll. In the morning, she goes to sit outside for an hour, explaining that she prefers to prepare her spells in the open air and Midnight wants to go out. When the others emerge an hour later, her legs are healed and Midnight is sitting at her feet.

Spoiler: OOC

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Preparing a second CLW in place of the Touch of the Sea from before. And then casting it, restoring myself to exactly full hp when the 1hp from rest is accounted for.

[Stelio Kontos]

Having made their preparations, the group moves toward the pair of buildings at the north end of the palisade. These two long, rectangular buildings are constructed entirely from planks on a wooden frame, with a pitched thatched roof. Each building has two doorframes on the side of the buildings opposite the palisade, but lacks doors. Four window frames open into either side of the long walls, a few of which have no cover and others only a canvas draped across the inside. A partial view of the interior is possible from the doorways. Inside, the floors are hard-packed earth, and along the walls are wooden bunk beds. Many of the pallet beds are covered with blankets that now gather dust. Those beds have sacks or tied bundles of clothes sitting at their feet.

[pi4t]

Liyinva stands outside, surveying the room. "Odd. I wonder what creature has been burrowing here, and what attracted it to this room."

[jamieth]

"I have to admit", Rovena mentions, looking around the barracks (?), "If that is how regular citizens of the colony lived, I can see the comparative virtues of camping outside..."

[Darvin]

"Burrows? What burrows?" Tirsen asks when prompted by Liyinva, double-taking the situation.