Ruins of Azlant: The Lost Outpost [IC]

[lostsole31]

It takes several rounds, but Mr. Arvodair's voice rings out, "Everybody recover at House Cockroach! It's done. Exterminator did a house call."

[5ColouredWalker]

Thickness slowly approaches.
"Theres a reason this is the job of specialists. The building looks intact, hows the inside?"

Thickness makes no effort to actually look inside just yet.

[lostsole31]

Thickness realizes he, perhaps, spoke out of turn. As he closes, the building is standing, but definitely not intact. While not completely immolated, there are signs of destruction and very slow-burning fire. The fire is low and medium-dark red, and isn't coming from wood, but the holes blasted here and there on the building have a strange, black substance with orange cracks from which the fires burn.

[digiman619]

Kaen shakes his head. He somehow wasn't surprised that a man as crude as the bosun's mate would come up with such an inelegant solution. The supplies that were in that building were no doubt completely destroyed.

He turned to his neice. "It's a pity that my plan didn't work out; it would have been so much cleaner a solution. However, it seems that the protective field wasn't as skintight as I'd thought, so it kept enveloping the torch, making it useless for my plan. If I'd have foreseen the need for an elemental veil, this could have been so much neater, but alas,"

[Espeon55]

"On the bright side at least we don't have to deal with that problem anymore?" Eirina states trying to be optimistic as she rejoins the group. "However we are definitely not finding any clues here now...."

[Diavolo]

Arsenne speaks up: "Let's not be too hasty about total destruction of clues and of outdated food supplies. I am sure that, by the Grace of the Eternal Rose, we can still find something if we search carefully and there will still be plenty of food that we can purify tomorrow, after we have meditated upon and acquired the proper spells. But first, let's put out the slow-cooking fire. Since we were traveling by ship until today, I had been regularly requesting that Shelyn bequeath to me the power to create water."

Spoiler: Orison

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Use Orison 'Create water' to put out remaining fires.

[lostsole31]

Arsenne never really gets the chance. By the time he turns around to attend to the task, the fires are out and no glow remains, only a strangely textured gray-black with an extremely uneven surface (even down to the micro-level).

[Diavolo]

Arsenne looks at the mess and says: "Actually, I take that back. Maybe there isn't anything to salvage after all." He looks at Kaen and adds. "Yes, it is a pity that your plan did not work. It certainly sounded good and had a nice elegance to it." He looks at Mr. Arvodair, but does not express whatever internal dialogue is going in on his mind. Finally he just says, "Thank you for eliminating that threat."

Looking at the rest of the group he says: "Well, shall we explore that trail leading South?"

[digiman619]

Kaen is puzzled by the sudden change and turns to the crewman. "How did you extinguish that flame so quickly?", he said, his tone more confused than accusatory. "And if you had that level of control, while let it consume the building in the first place?"

[lostsole31]

Mr. Arvodair shrugs. "Sometimes, you let the genie out the bottle .... chaos ensues. Cockroaches are dead and you're alive. Accept the price and move on."

[5ColouredWalker]

Thickness nods.

"Agreed. I believe we were collowing the barrel tracks next? With luck itll uave been surplies and we'll find survivors."

Thickness rolls his shoulders, and will begin walking towards those tracks if not countermanded.

[Espeon55]

Eirina while familiar with magic and the arcane arts is a bit unnerved by the fire extinguishing on it's own and decides to focus on something else. "Allow me to assist you Thickness, I am quite good at tracking. I have full confidence in both this and my archery skills."

Eirina will then follow beside Thickness and whistle to Ambyr to follow her.

[Diavolo]

Arsenne picks up his Glaive, moves to follow Eirina and says: "Maybe when those hot burning rocks have all cooled down and we have explored more promising avenues, I'll come back and search through this mess, just in case. But as Mr. Arvodair says, at least the swarm is eliminated."

[rypt]

Roran moves closer to the scorched building to eye the curious damage caused by Aissah. He holds a hand near to a spot where flames had died down to see if it still radiates heat. Only if it doesn't seem too hot will he touch it.

As consensus seems to form around following the tracks found earlier, he adds his assent. "Very well. Let's not forget to keep an eye out for any plum trees along the way."

[lostsole31]

The rocks definitely still seem to be hot, but they are cooling down quickly. The surface is unlike anything he's ever touched before. It is a weird sticky-prickly surface at the micro-level, despite looking smooth when viewed from back up as a larger mass.

[Diavolo]

Arsenne responds, under his breath, to Roran's reminder to "look out for any plum trees along the way", adding : ".... and Goblin-eagles."

And he thows a quick glance upwards before starting along the path South.

[digiman619]

Kaen is absolutely stumped as to how the elemental woman did this, but he refused to admit that to the bosun's mate, keeping a neutral expression as he turned to the southerly path. "Unless you had the heretofor unknown ability to manifest monsters into reality, I assure you there is no such thing, Mr. Arsenne.", Kaen said dismissively.

[lostsole31]

Eirina and Kaen have trouble picking up the tracks heading south.

[Diavolo]

Arsenne says: "That's so strange. You had described them so clearly." Looking at Eirina and Kaen. "They were
'Web-footed tracks that seem to following, as if pushing, a rolling barrel...' right? So what happened, the tracks just stop? Or the texture of the ground changed and there are no more markings after a certain point?"

He looks around. "If we cannot follow the trail any further, shall we explore some of the small shacks here in this region South of the triangular compound?"

Every once in a while, when he is sure Kaen's attention is elsewhere, he continues to gland nervously at the sky.

[Espeon55]

"Perhaps we just need to go back to where we first found the tracks and start from there." Eirina states. Before Moving back towards the house with the Poltergeist.

Spoiler: OOC

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MA: Eirina moves towards A6 to follow the tracks.

[lostsole31]

Eirina (and Kaen) can get the initial tracks as they were very obvious and they go the last place you verified the tracks before losing the trail.

Do you spend an hour to try and regain the trail?

[Espeon55]

Eirina will spend an hour to try and regain the trail.

[lostsole31]

Eirina and Kaen pick up the trail again after an hour of searching. The tracks lead south down the road between the houses. At the four-way intersection, Eirina easily follows the trail due south, east at the end of the street, and up a low rise. Atop a sloping hill stands a solitary cottage built apart from the rest of the colony. A stone well has been built not far from the house’s front door. A large stone near the entrance is painted with the words “Levin Farm.” Just south of the cottage is a tilled vegetable patch that grows wild from neglect. The trail seems to terminate here.

[5ColouredWalker]

Thickness frowns and gets low, sniffing the ground.
"If they were grabbing a barrell to haul food or water the tracks would get deeper... should we knock politely in case or?"

Spoiler: action

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Running Hunter's Stance for Scent, trying to pick up any recent smells that aren't us.

[rypt]

Roran consults the list of colonists recorded in his mind, checking for the name "Levin."

[Espeon55]

"Yeah we should probably see if there is someone here before we check the garden and see if there is anything edible still here." Eirina states before looking to Ambyr. "Smell anything boy?"

[5ColouredWalker]

Thickness recoils a bit from the ground.

"If he's anything like me, a bad time. Maybe a survivor drowning sorrows in rotgut? I'm happy to go first and risk knocking."

Thickness' snout twitches as he stares at the building with a frown.

[lostsole31]

Ambyr gives an annoyed yowl, pawing at his nose. Even those of you not so olfactorily gifted can smell a particular pungent alcoholic smell.

[digiman619]

Kaen didn't actually hold his nose at the hard alcohol smell, but his displeasure towards it was clear. "Unless the all of missing colonists are all here getting inebriated on particularly bad wine, I suspect we're about to discover something quite unsanitary. Be on your guard"

[Espeon55]

Eirina sheaths her Elven Thorn blade and arms herself with her Longbow. "Ambyr can't be too close to that smell so I'll stay in the rear and support you all with my archery skills if there is an enemy here."

Spoiler: OOC

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MA: Switching weapons. Sheathing Elven Thornblade and taking out Longbow