"We might want to explore more first. The repair of the key can happen when we come back, but delaying to make a lot of back and forth trips might place Ameiko in danger."
Alara twirls the key around her finger and pockets it. "That's what I was hoping for. Think we should check the cemetery out next? It looked awfully tidy on the walk in..."
"If the key becomes of some importance I wouldn't want to see it crumble into pieces in an attempt to use it." Rawnie comments as the other are discussing the key.
Resolved to do some more exploring, the adventurers move down the main road to the town. Passing through the first road branching, you gain a pretty good view of the ship at the pier. It is partly sunken (far too sunken for you to recover without more specialized shipbuilding equipment). It is definitely an Ulfen-style longboat and it is not covered in the moss or rot of age.
The same cannot be said of the wrecked buildings of the town. Now that you're up close, you can see that the dark staining isn't just damp and rot, it's also scorch mark. Much of this area of the town appears to have burned.
As far as the cemetery goes, the grass between the road and a rickety wooden fence outlining the boneyard's perimeter is wild and unkempt - full of weeds and thistles. But the grass inside the fence, while still a bit long for for most cemeteries, is absent of significant weeds. Some wildflowers appear to grow, but in confined patches. The graves of the cemetery dot a small hill, little more than a mound, with a single mausoleum built at its top.
The cemetery gates (P on the map) are wrought of iron, a bit rusted, and stand closed. On either side is a statue of a beautiful woman with butterfly wings - depictions of the goddess Desna - goddess of dreams, luck, the stars, and travelers. Desna is widely worshipped throughout Varisia, particularly by the native Varisians whose lifestyle aligns well with her portfolio.
Mother Koya is, of course, a priestess of Desna. She had been surprised when one of her sons, Alder Vhiski, had decided to follow Shelyn (goddess of art, beauty, love, and music) instead of following directly in her footsteps. But since Shelyn is also well-respected among the Varisians, she was not disappointed.
Masamune moves forward and attempts to open the cemetery gates.
The long-unmoved, metal hinges of the gates screech in protest, but they do open with some effort.
This close to the cemetery, the tidiness of the grounds stands an even starker contrast to the wreck of the rest of the town. Even the gravestones are fairly clean and well maintained.
Alara steps through the gates cautiously, her nunchaku readied.
"Wow... you suppose somebody lives here?" She asks the others. "Or maybe it's a ghost or something tidying this place up..."
As the team heads to the cemetery, Piper notices the statues of Desna. Walking up to one of them, he clenches the holy symbol of Desna around his neck and kneels before the statue, a small prayer going through his head. When Masamune opens it, Piper carefully steps through.
Piper clenches his flute in hand, ready for anything. He notes that everything is rather well kept. When Alara asks her question, Piper quickly writes: 'I'd personally place my bet on something living being here.' Piper looks at the individual gravestones.
Noticing the statues and how clean the area appeared to be, Rawnie brings her hand to her face, touching her butterfly tattoo, which then transforms into a real butterfly. Glancing around the cemetery, Rawnie then decides to let her butterfly fly to one of the Desnan statues.
It occurs to both Rawnie and Piper that an area could be made to appear in just about any state by a haunting of some sort. Often an area will reflect the spirit's state of mind or the state of the area before the spirit died. But there are quite a few other options as well, even a prestidigitation spell could be used to clean the gravestones and do other minor cleanings.
But one thing you do notice, there is evidence that the grass is trimmed and weeded manually. While mostly cleaned up, there are still some grass clippings about. And just outside the wooden fence, you can see weeds that have been pulled up and apparently tossed outside the fence.
As far as the gravestones and history goes, most of the names are Varisian in ethnicity. You don't see any dates that would come after the destruction of the town. And the mausoleum only seems to have one engraving on its outside - "Admiral Mercatio Kiameleu" - a name Rawnie recognizes as the man who led the effort to found the town.
From up around the mausoleum, you all can fairly easily notice that one grave at the far end of the cemetery seems unusually cluttered with stuff around it.
Alara scratches her head. "Huh."
She wanders over to investigate the cluttered grave.
"These names seem to be mostly Varisian, I suppose that would make sense considering the shrine to Desna, but how many Varisians really lived in Brinewall? However, this name is not Varisian," Rawnie explains moving onto the mausoleum, "Admiral Mercatio Kiameleu, he led the effort to found this town."
Piper kneels down and picks up some of the grass clippings. After examining them, he lets them fall through his fingers. He stands and notes the weeds that have been thrown over the fence. He rejoins the team and writes: 'The graveyard is well maintained. Looks like someone did this all by hand.'
Seeing the mausoleum and the items cluttered around it, Piper goes to investigate.
The grave with the extra clutter, on closer inspection, appears to be a small shrine dedicated to Desna. The grave itself is unmarked with any name or dates. In front of it stands a small marble statue of Desna holding up a small copper bowl. That bowl is currently full of clear water. The marble of the statue and the copper of the bowl show some signs of age but are otherwise well cleaned.
Alara's eyes light up. "Ooh!"
She looks around some more, then kneels before the shrine, sitting on her heels, big toes crossed (or at least as much as her boots will allow). It looks... rather uncomfortable, but she appears to have had a lot of practice.
She bows her head in silent prayer to Desna.
Piper looks at the shrine in interest. He moves over to the shrine with Alara. He once again kneels and bows his head in a silent prayer to Desna while clutching his wooden holy symbol to the goddess.
Though she is not his patron, he gives a silent prayer to Desna, respecting her deeply.
Rawnie too will kneel at the shrine, offering a silent prayer to the butterfly goddess.
Masamune just keeps a lookout while the others pray.
The cemetery has an atmosphere of serenity. Even the vigilant Masamune can see and feel no sign of impending danger within its confines.
When Piper's finished with his prayer, he stands up and dusts himself off. He takes another looks around from where he is.
"Someone has blessed this water...I don't think we should disturb it...." he says quietly.
"That's odd." Rawnie mentions, both to Ash's statement, and the empathic feedback from her familiar, though rather then turning her attention to the water, she chooses to look towards her familiar, more interested in what had surprised the creature.
Alara rises to her feet when Ash speaks. "Oh?"
She starts looking around, searching for some sign as to who blessed the water here.
There is no apparent sign of anyone who may have blessed the water - other than the presence of the shrine itself and the good condition of the cemetery.
Rawnie, looking back to the gate, apparently has a terrible vantage point and can see neither her familiar nor the reason for its emotional outburst. She does feel a continued sense of giddy excitement from her familiar, though.
"Is somebody there?" Rawnie calls out as she walks back towards where she had last seen her familiar.
Alara looks over at Rawnie as she wanders over to where her familiar was. "Um... Rawnie-san? Is something wrong? I don't see anyone else here..."
She briefly digs into her coin purse and drops a couple of gold pieces on the shrine before following the sorceress.
As Rawnie and Alara approach the statue, they find Rawnie's butterfly virtually nose to nose with a small creature - a female humanoid no taller than about a foot - also with butterfly wings. The butterfly's antennae flit all around the creature's face as she laughs and says, in a voice with a musical lilt, "And it pulled it's skin back?!? That's disgusting! Ha, ha. Then what did she do? Lightning? That's fantastic!"
The small creature looks up at that point, spying Rawnie and Alara, and says, "Oh, hello. Welcome to my home."
Piper notes Rawnie and Alara moving away. He places a few coins at the shrine before following. He follows to the statue. It's then he sees the butterfly with the creature, who welcomes the group to her home. He smiles and waves at her. Curious, he carefully and gently steps to her. With a smile, he pulls out his chalkboard and writes: 'Hello. My name is Piper. What's yours?'
Alara waves hello to the tiny winged person. "Hello! You've done a lovely job keeping things tidy here!"
She glances over at Piper as he makes his greeting. "Nice shrine you made, too."
Masamune follows but seeing that it's just a small creature and probably not related to Ameiko's sickness Masamune just greets it, and tries to find out what it knows.
"Hello, sorry to intrude on your home like this, but one of our friends who isn't here is having visions of this area. They appear to be causing her distress. Do you know of anything near here that could be causing it?"
Quietly, he walks over to see the creature. "It seems you have been here for quite some time. Is there any chance that you might know a few things about things in this area...I was hoping I might ask you about some things..."
The small creature looks at Piper's writing and says, "My name is Spivey. I am the caretaker of this consecrated ground and servant of Desna. It is good to see people who revere her once more."
While her butterfly-like wings suggest she is fey, there is another otherworldly aura about her that makes it hard for Piper to figure out exactly what she is.
In response to Alara's compliment, she says, "Thank you, I've tried to clean up more of the town and church, but that has been too dangerous. So I devote my efforts here. An island of peace."
With Masamune and Ash getting down to business, Spivey flits around the group, in near constant motion. "You have a seer? Is that why you have come here? Nobody else ever does. But I am not surprised about terrible visions. There are terrible things about. Wicked, dirty bird men. Ugh, everything they do is foul. But they don't come here. They think the graveyard is haunted. Hee hee hee." She giggles happily about that.
Smiling, "Well, perhaps we can work in tandem, then, good Spivey. I suspect you would like to meet my mother, she is devoted to Desna, as well." Taking a pause he shakes his head, "We are here for other reasons, however, and now that our friend is having problems, it is clear that we may need to help deal with your infestation of bird men..." That was probably the single most aggressive thing that anyone, including Masamune had heard Ash say. He was clearly upset by whatever was causing Ameiko harm.
Piper nods at Jacen's words. He writes: 'Our friend who is having these visions; she has something that belongs to her family in Brinewall. But, it seems that these creatures are causing problems here. We'll help you in anyway we can. Tell us more about these 'bird men'. What can you tell us about Brinewall?' He smiles as she flutters around, giggling. He adds: 'Spivey, may I ask what are you? You looks like a fey. But there's something otherworldly about you that suggests otherwise.'
"Oh, yes! If you could rid of the creepy bird men then nicer people might come back. Those bird men are nothing but brutes. Black as crows, they are, covered in feathers but they don't have wings. They're as cruel as they are stupid. A couple of them seem to be on watch on the roof, but that just means they get to sleep in the sun. They're not very good at their jobs."
She flits in and about the group a bit more, Rawnie's butterfly gamboling behind her.
"As far as the rest of Brinewall, I've seen a few other creatures about. There are reefclaws in the lagoon now, so watch our for them. And the bird men may not fly but there are others at the castle who do. There are two other kinds of bird people - one also has black feathers but is smaller and skinnier than the disgusting bird men - and he wings. The other is a woman. I would guess she is a harpy, but I've never heard her sing and I thought harpies sang. At night, giant bats come out to fly too. So I usually do my best to stay safely hidden."
"One day, not long ago, there was some excitement because of new visitors. Humans came in a boat - it's sinking now but it wasn't when they got here - but they were attacked by the dragon that used to live in the lagoon. I thought all of them died while killing the dragon, but then I saw bird men dragging one into the castle that I think was still alive. She's probably dead now, though. I bet they ate her. Yuck!"
She then focuses her attention on Piper for a moment.
"As for me? I'm not a faerie, I'm a lyrakien. I came from a different world. Your wizards call us azata. I once served a mistress who traveled to many different places, but she was eaten by a plant leaving me stranded and alone ever since. So I make myself useful here."
Piper nods, smiling at the lyrakien. To his team, he writes: 'Okay. So we got the bird creatures in the castle, along with a possible harpy. There are also giant bats. There are reefclaws in the lagoon. There is also a human prisoner that may be alive. How should we proceed?'
"We should ambush the bird-men on watch on the roof so that they can't carry word to the others. Then we should sneak into the castle and slay the creatures that have taken residence there."
Clears his throat, "I'm sorry, Piper, brother...but you seem more concerned about simple things," turning to look at the azata. "You said...dragon...did you not?"
Piper shakes his head at Ash. He writes: 'No. From how Spivey put it, it seemed that they killed the dragon. At least, that's what I think.'
Alara listens quietly, her face paling at the mention of all the monsters lurking in the castle.
"Okay--is there a way into the castle that won't involve going through the front doors?"
Spivey laughs, "Oh, the dragon is dead, alright. The reefclaws have been feeding on it. The body is right on the shore of the lagoon," she wrinkles her nose up in an expression of disgust.
"Getting into the castle without using the front door would be easy... if you could fly like me. But you cannot and I am not big enough to carry any of you."
Alara's face falls. "Oh."
She then hops from foot to foot. "So, do you know if the bird men can see in the dark? We might be able to get into the castle under the cover of darkness..."
Piper nods. He writes: 'So, there's no dragon to worry about. Spivey, is there some back entrance or some secret entrance into the castle?'
"Sadly, I know of no other entrance for those of you who are confined to walk rather than fly. Nor do I know for certain the bird men can see in the dark. They are active after dark. Every few days or so, a group of them leave the castle for a while, I think to hunt," Spivey says in apologetic tones.
"No problem. We can handle this."
"How long has it been since their last hunting party? If we could catch them while they are out, we can reduce the numbers within without them knowing we are here..." Ash says thoughtfully.
Piper looks to Jacen and writes: 'Sounds like a solid plan. Though, we don't know when that hunting party will return.'