A quick search of the gnoll's body yields up a chain shirt, a spear, a composite longbow, a climber's kit, 18 arrows, and a potion. Aside from the gnoll and its hyena companion there doesn't appear to be any other hostile creatures nearby - well, out here anyway. The cave that recedes into the hillside might be another matter entirely.
This is a potion of Cure Light Wounds.
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Once everyone has had a moment to catch their breath and make any preparations they might wish to make, the tangle of leshies turn their attention to the nearby cave...with Norv and Ruby adamant that they'll just wait for you outside, thank-you-very-much.
On your way into the cave you notice something strange. Tiny shoe prints, perhaps belonging to a very young human or a halfling child, trail out of the nearby cave. There don’t seem to be any corresponding prints leading back into the cave, however.
Pictographs on the walls of this shallow cave show an indistinct winged creature navigating through a sea of swirling patterns and black dots. A clumsily constructed altar sits at the center of the cave. Dozens of small niches are carved into the wall, most filled with an odd assortment of items; teeth, scraps of clothing, a jar of white liquid, a wooden staff, several pieces of parchment, a cloth pouch, a leather satchel, and several identical wooden dolls.
You’re certain from the nature of the altar and the offerings sitting in the niches that this altar is dedicated to madness.
Based on the nature of the altar, the offerings sitting in the niches, and the pictographs on the walls, you realize that this altar is dedicated to the Outer God, Azathoth.
Closer inspection of the altar reveals dried blood that’s been sloppily wiped away. The blood seems to have a faint green tint to it.
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"Green blood? Leshy sacrifices? Interesting... but not pleasant."
Looking around, Oakley seems interested in the ground leading to the cave.
"Tiny shoe prints... perhaps belonging to... a very young human... or a halfling child. Look... a trail out... but no trail back in. Perhaps we should... wait for their return?"
While you ponder the meaning of the green-tinted blood on the altar - perhaps an omen - and the tiny footprints that only exit and not enter, the tangle continues to carefully poke around. Further inspection of the cave and the offerings reveals that the assortment of teeth are a mixture of human and gnoll teeth and the white liquid in the jar is rancid cashew milk. The three wooden dolls are of amazingly high quality and appear to be very nearly identical. Looking at the wooden staff it is revealed to be of masterwork quality, covered in strange symbols.
These are symbols common among the Nethysian faith.
Peeking into the cloth pouch reveals what appear to be spell components and a few of the remaining objects even turn out to be magical in nature - two pieces of parchment, a vial of oil, and a handful of actual bullets for a firearm!
This is a scroll of Speak with Plants.
This is a scroll of Mount (CL 5th).
The vial of oil is an Oil of Silence.
Three of the bullets are +1 Seeking Bullets.
A fourth bullet is a Tracer Bullet.
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"This place feels, wrong. Even my spirit friend is quiet for once. I wonder where the denizen of this cave is..." Motueka says in a more sobered tone as he eyes the rancid cashew milk curiously...you feel there aren't many things he will not try drinking at least once.
Dausil is quiet for once as he looks at the blood on the altar while holding his own wounds.
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"Bullets? BOOM! Bullets! Is there a gun here? Is there? No? Can I take the bullets anyway? I'll take the bullets. For safekeeping. Black Powder is dangerous!"
Boom Sticks excitedly pockets the bullets and hops about, looking for a firearm, oblivious to the spilled blood.
"The Maker was like that mutant creature outside, but Maker Gnashbakk knew the sylvan tongue. Not all mutations are good. Sometimes, they make you go wrong."
Boom Sticks rolls the bullets around in their tendril-hands, somewhat transfixed.
While Boom happily pockets the bullets, Tacca and Motueka try to identify the strange liquid within the vial but without much success. As you mull over the discoveries within the small the cave, the sound of crunching footsteps is heard as Norv and Ruby tentatively inch their way up to the cave entrance.
"Like, are you guys okay in there?" Norv calls out. "Please don't tell me you've all been eaten by a grue or something!"
You hear an audible sigh of relief from Norv and what even sounds like some sort of similar *huff* from Ruby.
"Great! We were worried because, like, we've always heard that grues hide in the dark and eat folks that don't carry any lights," he calls back. "And speaking of, how can you guys see in there anyway?"
And it's a good question, considering that the interior of the cave is fairly dark even with the late afternoon sun providing some minor illumination.
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"Oh...huh. That power sure does sound swell - would've made raiding the larder in the middle of the night when I was a kid a lot easier," Norv remarks, surprised but also satisfied by Captain Chlorophyll's answer. "Well, um...I guess Ruby and I'll stick around out here and keep watch until you're done poking around in there. Like, the sun'll be going down in a couple hours though so it'd be great if we could maybe make Mercy before it gets dark!"
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"Like, maybe there'll be someone in Mercy that can tell you all about that stuff," Norv offers as the tangle troop back out of the cave with what might appear as mere junk to the untrained eye - large sticks, pieces of paper, a vial of strange liquid. "But let's just worry about actually getting there for right now, you know?"
*RYEAH!* Ruby woofs in agreement, settling the matter - at least as far as she's concerned!
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And so once everyone is satisfied that there's nothing else to be learned from the cave and its surroundings, at least for now, you return to the road as Norv continues to lead the group parallel to the southern road. Finally, with what you’d guess to be an hour left before sunset, you pass over some small hills and through a field of cashew trees and then spot your destination just ahead. The town of Mercy rests a mile south of the banks of the Ustradi River; a wooden palisade encircles a collection of what you'd guess to be maybe one hundred wooden buildings. Surprisingly, hardy trees laden with red and yellow fruit dot the surrounding landscape. The road leads to a wide gate, which bears a prominent sign with orange-painted letters. The sign reads:
'Mercy does not allow dishonesty, firearms, or large weapons within town limits. Respect the curfew.'
As you approach the gate, it slowly creaks open to reveal a tall, dark-skinned man sporting what appears to be simple orange work clothes and a large, straw hat. He strides toward you but once he draws close enough to get a better look at the group he stops dead in his tracks for a moment as he takes in the sight of multiple leshies. After a pause, he calls out, "Welcome to Mercy. I’m Sheriff Molume, and I keep the peace around here. As you can see from the sign, we don’t allow people to walk around with large weapons around here. Before I let you inside, I need to ask you to hand them over."
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Tacca unfurls the canvas bundle of leshy-sized weapons he carries, sets it down upon the grass and displays a darkwood composite longbow with a quiver of arrows, a silver morningstar, and a cold iron dagger.
"Take them all, Sheriff Molume, if it sets your heart at ease. I'm no cavalier, needing to carry a lot of swords and such. Hells, I am a weapon." Tacca cracks his scarred knuckles, then offers the man his hand. "Name's Tacca Chantrieri."
"You all seem a little tense. Trouble?"
The sheriff actually cracks a smile as Poison Oakley holds out his little leafy fists. "No, uh...son...we're not ogres here. But no barroom brawls, got it?" He shoots Tacca a look as he speaks. "Then again, you folks don't really ah, look the type. No offense."
"And nope, no firearms at all," he adds for the benefit of Boom Sticks. "Not even me. To be honest, never been a big fan - noisy and by all accounts terribly expensive to buy the ammo and keep one in working order. Just give me a good old-fashioned bow any day!"
As everyone obligingly offers their weapons, Sheriff Molume stares at the assortment and then raises an eyebrow. "Not that I'm meaning to be rude or anything, especially since you're being cooperative, but it looks like you folks are loaded for bear. What brings you out this way anyway?"
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"Travelling the Mana Wastes is dangerous Sheriff. We met mutants, and not the good kind! We found some stuff in a cave we might want some help identifying: magic scrolls, and wooden dolls and such. But mainly we're looking for a friend of ours. Amenira. Do you know where we can find her?"
Boom Sticks cannot completely hide their disappointment that this is a Sheriff without a gun, but they decide to trust the human.
"Walking, right. See, I thought you'd just sprang out of the ground outside town but walking works too," the sheriff sarcastically replies to Bad Seed. "And yeah, you don't have to tell me about the Mana Wastes - I've seen plenty of what it has to offer and I'm content to spend most of my time right here where it's safe," Molume continues, nodding at Boom Sticks. However, his expression grows troubled when the conversation turns to Amenira.
"Amenira? She lives in the orange house on the west side of town," he explains. "She’s been hanging around Mercy for about a year now. Every month, she goes into Alkenstar to send letters to her family. She’s not a proper one of us, but she’s nice enough, and follows the rules, so we don’t mind her sticking around. She makes good toys for the children. Or at least, she used to. She’s been in Alkenstar a mighty long time...or at least, that's what I thought. You're saying that she's not there?"
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Being told their light mace doesn’t qualify, they put it away.
Frowning when they hear the news about Amenira, Captain Chlorophyll says “We came because there were no letters. This doesn’t sound good at all! We came all this way, would you mind if we investigate?”
“As for the springing out of the ground, it doesn’t work quite like that. I was told that it requires a special ritual to make one of us sprout.”
Sheriff Molume scowls at Bad Seed's bad attitude. "Look, I'm just doing my job to make sure the people under my watch stay safe. Besides, if you'll just hear me out like the rest of your friends seem happy to do then I think you'll see that what we ask isn't unreasonable."
"Okay, first - if Amenira's not here and not in Alkenstar then I'm not sure where she'd have gone to," he continues. "That said, if some of her kin or friends sent you to find her then I'll do what I can to cooperate with you - provided you cooperate with us. Like I said, she wasn't one of us but she was always plenty nice and never caused any trouble; I'd hate to think that something happened to her under my watch."
Here, the sheriff pauses for a moment and sighs. "But this is where you'll have to bear with me. See, we've got a curfew here in town for visitors. We pray and attend temple twice daily, once at sunrise and once just after sundown. We ask that you stay inside the guesthouse from 1 hour before sunset until 1 hour after sunrise. That gives you 10 hours each day to wander around. When you hear the triple bell you can leave the guesthouse, and when the triple bells ring again, return to the guesthouse and draw the curtains." Glancing up at the late afternoon sky he adds, "Curfew starts shortly so I'm afraid that I won't be able to let you visit Amenira's home today. But come tomorrow morning once the curfew is lifted, you have my permission to make a full inspection of the place."
He pauses for a moment, clearly expecting a barrage of protests from one or all of you, before continuing on. "As for your artifacts? Hum....I guess you'd probably want to speak with Zuri, our high priestess. I'm sure she'd be absolutely thrilled to meet you folks." The sheriff's mouth twitches oddly as he says this, as though he's enjoying some sort of private joke. "Last of all, other rules - I'm glad you asked, sometimes we get folks that don't seem to care at all."
"Probably our two biggest besides the curfew are no meat, as everyone here in Mercy lives on a strict vegetarian diet, and no spreading false gospel - we worship Robori, the God of Trees here and no other," Molume finishes. "There's other things but they're rules that I'd expect most civilized places would have: no throwing food at folks, no sleeping in the streets, that sort of thing."
For purportedly being a worshiper of Robori, the sheriff's tone doesn't seem particularly reverent.
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Beneath his stoic exterior, Tacca seethes at the genocidal dietary practices of this racist community of plant-eaters.
Suppressing his outrage, Tacca warns the sheriff, "If one of your leaf-hungry, sap-thirsty townsfolk attempts to eat one of us, we will defend ourselves. Self-defense is a basic right, after all."
His eyes narrow. "You don't seem like the religious-type, yourself. Robari isn't a deity I've ever heard of. His idea everybody ought to eat innocent plants? Odd dogma for a tree god, if you ask me."
Sheriff Molume regards Tacca with a bemused expression rather than an angry one. "Three things I don’t usually discuss with strangers: politics, religion, or marriage. No offense, but you outsiders usually give weird advice," he remarks. "Zuri can explain it better'n I can but Robori's the protector of this town and it's thanks to him that we survive out here in the Mana Wastes like we do. We eat what's been given to us to eat and that's the way it's always been."
"But...no, no one's going to be trying to eat you folks," the sheriff continues, his tone softening slightly. "I guess you probably get that a lot out there, right?" he asks, gesturing with his hand towards the world beyond the town gates. "I know it might sound strange, but please trust me on that. And even if someone did, for some strange reason, they'd have to answer to me. These folks are like family to me but the law's the law and I try to be fair to everyone, family and outsiders alike."
He shakes his head. "But anyway, yeah, it's almost time for curfew to start. Follow me and I'll show you the way to the guest house."
Sheriff Molume leads you through the town, along winding, dusty streets towards the western side of town. As you walk, you can see, off to the north, an enormous twisted tree with vanilla orchids sprouting from what you can see of its trunk. "If you're looking for the temple just head towards that tree," the sheriff advises. "It's right there at the base of it; can't miss it. If you want to make any purchases then you'll want to head to our artisan's square, just a few streets south from the guest house. And Amenira's home, it's on the western edge of town like I said - orange house, you can't miss it."
After several minutes of walking you finally arrive at a large, lodge on the southwestern edge of town. "Alrighty, here we are. You’re the only visitors to Mercy right now so you’ve got run of the place," Molume explains. He gestures to a large box with an orange flag in it that sits near the front door of the guesthouse. "I know we might seem a bit strange but the folks of Mercy always provide for any visitors we have. They’ll deliver plenty of good food here three times a day - sunrise, noon, and sunset. Beyond that, if there’s anything you need outside of the curfew just set that flag on the box and me or one of the others’ll come over to see what we can do."
The sheriff tips his hat to the group. "Well, I think that’s everything. Just remember what I said about the curfew, alright? Stay here until an hour after sunrise; after that feel free to come out and have a better look around the town if you like. Until then, hope you folks have a good night."
And with that, he turns and heads off back towards the front gate.
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"They never see what that don't want to see. I was always invisible until they wanted their cut. I can go unseen still maybe even more so now." Dauswil moans coming into view this time more ethereal.