Mission - Survey Clifftop Ruins
Day One
We're reusing the camp location from a previous pass through the area, it's secluded in an outcropping of trees and not far from the cliffs where the ruins were spotted. No unusual activity during the day, other than making sure you give the Dyokeras an extra wide berth so far this appears to be a relatively safe area. Made notes on a few unfamiliar birds but couldn't make more than a cursory inspection of them; have also collected a few plant samples for Doctor Karasu. I'm taking first watch currently, Boris is taking second and Ella third.
Day Two
Currently breaking for lunch. The ruins are very impressive, clearly a temple of the old Namorian Empire. The other's don't share my interests but we have a job to do and I have Captain Kal's blessing to take additional notes for Explorer Kraft. Under the remains of the statue there is a staircase leading down, we'll check that after lunch - hopefully we can get it all checked out today and then double time it back to Haven tomorrow.
After a couple of hours while you are resting, tending to your own injuries and reassembling bits of ancient masonry - the scouts you rescued regain consciousness. Petra identifies herself as the leader of the unit, she's obviously distraught that Boris was killed by the spider things that they encountered but grateful that thanks to your efforts no one else was lost.
Her recounting of events isn't quite the same as what the tattooed natives told Twig but there's two sides to every story...
"Aside from spotting a few new bits of wildlife the journey from Haven was uneventful and we set up camp within sight of the cliff and the temple. On our second day we checked the perimeter and determined the best way to approach - there wasn't any unusual activity here so we set out mapping the ruins of the temple and these surrounding buildings. The Captain is mainly concerned with threats and strategic information but as a secondary priority we also make notes on flora and fauna for Doctor Karasu as well as anything of historical interest for Explorer Kraft so we spent a fair bit of time just documenting that. The attack came while we broke for lunch..."
"Boris had gone to relieve himself and then we heard yells and commotion coming from the temple; we grabbed weapons and ran over to see him fighting scaley people. More and more of them arrived and I called for a tactical retreat down the stairs hoping we could use it as a choke point - we didn't all make it..."
She pauses to look over to the two scouts you found as prisoners. "I'm sorry, when you went down we thought you were dead."
They shrug and reassure her that she did the right thing in the circumstances, scouting 101 is for at least one member of the team to survive a hostile encounter and report back.
"The scaly people didn't follow us downstairs, they just kind of yelled at us from above; but with them up here we couldn't leave that way so eventually I made the call to head further into the temple, I know a lot of these places had escape tunnels and stuff like that so I hoped maybe we could get out and get back to Haven and - well you saw how well that worked out for us."
"I don't know exactly what happened between Boris and the scaly people first arriving, by the time we joined things they were already fighting. I can't imagine he'd start a fight unprovoked, especially outnumbered, but maybe he misinterpreted something as hostile?"