Singe, not exactly sure what just happened, sees Lera looking over a silver lyre. He walks over, "May I see that? It looks potentially magical." Lera hands him the lyre and Singe turns it over, "Interesting, it appears covered in arcane glyphs, the cords are built in," Singe yawns, "Your father or Grasalfan might know more, either way, I'm going back to sleep." Singe hands the lyre back and goes back over to his sleeping pad.

The light and noise wake Dapple as well. He scrambles from the palm-frond shelter, blinking at the light. "What is it?" He peers off into the darkness for signs of attack. As far as his darkvision lets him see there is no sign of additional attackers - he sees only the other party-members clustered around the modron tied to the tree. Coming over to investigate, he pokes at the odd little creature curiously. "What is it?," he asks the others as he gives one of the spindly little arms a tug. "Where did it come from?" 

Lera did a quick lap around the campsite before coming back to Perrin. “Everything looks clear,” she pulled him aside. “But I saw something shimmering on the beach. We have to go investigate.”

”Let’s not stray too far from camp, but sure,” Perrin replied, and the two set off toward the shiny.

As the commotion begins outside, Shanolia hears the sound of a blanket rustling. Opening one of her eyes, she sees Polly cowering behind her blanket with her hand raised as if preparing to cast a spell.

"Plentyn, are you alright?"

"A-are we being attacked?" Polly sounds frightened, jumping at the sudden sound of Shanolia's voice.

"It sounds like whoever it was is caught now. Rest easy young one, I will go see what is happening." Shanolia stands and walks over to Polly, softly patting her head to calm her. Polly doesn't move, her hand still extended before her, causing Shanolia to sigh softly. "Would you like to see for yourself, Plentyn?"Polly hesitates, her arm dropping for a moment. Then she nods yes, and raises her arm again. "Alright. Stay with me and do not cast any spells unless I tell you, okay?" Polly nods again, and stands, her papers scattering across the floor of the flying machine as she takes Shanolia's hand. Shanolia tenses a bit, but relaxes quickly so she won't notice. Together, they exit the flying machine and survey the campsite.

Once outside, they can see the current situation; people milling about, tying up the Modron, and others on edge. Polly still has her hand extended in front of her while Shanolia scans the area around the campsite for any immediate threats - of which, she finds none. Softly, the Elf rests her free hand on the handle of her dagger and the two walk together to the tied-up Modron, where Grasalfan already has his notebook out and is jotting down notes.

"What is it?" Polly asks, her voice filled with wonder. She drops her casting hand and releases her grip from Shanolia's to get closer look.

"It's a modron, child! Lookit em. Straight from Mechanus!" Grasalfan cries, a bit of awe in his words.

"What does it do?"

"Each one of these little guys has one job. I've no idea what his job is..." He ponders for a minute, before gesturing to Zamar. "Zamar says he's going to wake it up soon. Want to watch!?" He seems excited.

Polly looks up at Shanolia with puppy-dog eyes. "Can I?"

"It is a simple Monodrone, not really a big threat." She kneels before Polly so they are eye-level. "So it is your choice, Plentyn."

"I'd like to watch, then," Polly decides excitedly, getting closer to the machine. With a smile Shanolia stands, just in time to watch as Dapple comes over and grabs at the mechanical being's little arm.

"It is a Monodrone, they are simple workers used for single tasks or brief-message delivery. Singe and I read about them back in Baldur's Gate." She stands beside Dapple as she explains. "You may not want to tug at him, Grasalfan might get upset if he breaks."

Singe sits up in his bedroll; no one's going back to sleep soon. He walks over to the main campfire and builds it slightly larger. He then walks over to Grasalfan and looks over the gnome's shoulder at what he's writing.

"Oh, is it?" Dapple responds to Shanolia's explanation. "Did it bring us a message?" He gives the woman a slightly hurt look. "I wasn't going to break it! I was just looking!" He drops the thing's arm, but begins to pluck at it's wings instead... 

Shanolia chuckles softly. "I apologize if I offended, I was just teasing." She leans in to take a closer look for herself. "Fascinating little bugger, isn't he?"

Dapple doesn't even seem to notice her apology, having already moved on. "It IS! Are there more of them? Where's Mechanus? Are we going there to? Look Polly, isn't it funny looking? It's got such skinny little arms and legs!" Recognizing that Grasalfan is trying to study the thing too, Dapple quits picking at it and steps back, dropping onto his haunches to watch what happens. "Will it wake up soon?" 

"We assume there are more of them, we're not sure. Mechanus is another plane of existence and I'd rather not visit it. Once Zamar finishes stringing that harp he found, he'll come over and wake the monodrone up." Singe says, Grasalfan flinches, surprised to see the wizard standing next to him.

Zamar walks over and lays hands on the modron, reviving it. “Apologies all,” he says, holding up his shiny new lyre. “Grasalfan gave me a little info on this thing and I have been distracted by it. I’m going to need to meditate on it before I can do anything with it, but this little guy is going to come in very handy.”

The monodrone's eye pops open and rolls back. It blinks, looking directly at Polly. Then it blinks again and looks over at Dapple. The eye moves and scans everyone around it, resting on the tree that it's tethered to. Immediately it begins to freak out, hovering in the air and attempting to fly away from the tree. There's a loud snap as the rope reaches its limit and it falls back to the ground. It continues like this, trying as hard as it can to get away from the jungle. 

"That's... odd behavior." Grasalfan notes.

A burst of light appears in the distance, almost half a mile away from the camp on the eastern side of the beach. A loud droning is heard, like a moan of annoyance. It's short, but loud enough to travel down the beach. 

Up to this point, Kool has been quietly observing the strange mechanical creature. He wonders does it have a soul? When it wakes and up tries to escape, seemingly upset or frightened, he thinks that perhaps it does. 

He looks to Zamar his eyebrow raised, wondering what he thinks. He follows Zamar's gaze when he looks into the jungle, and then back to the modron. Koll realizes that it is afraid of the jungle in particular. It doesn't seem to care much about any of them. He shares this insight with the others. "Maybe we should be afraid too," he says.

He looks into the dark jungle and can't see much, but he tries to listen for any sounds of immediate danger. Distracted by the panicking modron,  the commotion on the beach,the sound of the ocean and Polly now getting upset, he doesn't hear anything at all.

Zamar looks around as well, wondering where Lera and Perrin are. "We should hold the camp and keep our eyes and ears trained on the forest until our watchers return. Whatever has this little guy spooked could show up." So saying, he goes to stand near Polly and begins scanning the forest for threats. 

Dapple watches intently as Zamar approaches and awakens the modron. He bounds to his feet when it tries to get away and lets out a laugh as it's jerked back at the end of the rope. When the odd noise rings out though, he is immediately all business. While the forest may concern their captive, he'd been in there and sensed no immediate threat. Whatever was down the beach was more pressing. Drawing his rapier, he moves out of the circle of light around the party and watches to the east, shrouded in darkness.

Woe is woken by Perrin banging his shield. She sits up by the fire and watches how they attack and punch that little flying modron. It just felt wrong. 

When Zamar woke him up, he looked curious, but once he spotted that he was tethered to a tree his expression showed pure fear. 

Woe gets up and goes close to the modron: "Hei, little one. All is well. We got spooked by your presence, that's why we attacked you! Why are you so frightened of the forest? Do you want me to untether you?" Woe asks in Gnomish. 

Woe looks at Grasalfan. "Are modrons capable of language?"

The monodrone rolls its eye to Woe, responding with, "Szuuu." It then continues the vain struggle to get away from the tree. 

"This thing is not a threat to us, and it wasn't stealing from what I understand; it was leaving a gift. I suggest we untie it from the tree and hold onto the rope like a leash and see where it wants to go."

Koll grabs the rope to get a sense of how strong the modron is. He doesn't want to be pulled into the air by it.

Singe waves his staff, muttering a few arcane words and thoughts spring up around him, faint whispers. Singe focuses in on the monodrone's alien mind and hears SSzuuu Szuuu Szuuu Szuuu Szuuu Szuuu Szuuu Szuuu repeat over and over. Singe pulls away from the modron and looks towards Pollyand Grasalfan

The first thing Singe senses from Polly is fear. Then a flood of thoughts, as if a long sentence without a breath. Why is it doing that, what is it so scared of, is there something coming to kill us, maybe I should prepare a fire bolt, just in case ,no, maybe not, I don't want to hurt anyone, why did I leave Mr. Drippy on the flying machine, why did I get on that ship, why didn't I stay home? It's overwhelming.

Grasalfan's thoughts are consumed by the creature's current state.

Singe casts detect thoughts.

"I don't think your idiot. I don't think your opinion is worthless because of your age. I know that how you think Woe thinks but, I don't think so." Perrin then smirks "I'm not that much older than you. If you want Woe to start thinking of you as more of the adult you are you're probably going to have to start showing her it. Trying to make up to her and apologizing for the fight might be a big step in showing her. I'm not saying tell her that you were wrong for not trusting the captain or that she was wrong for trying to get Polly back to Baldur's Gate. But simply saying sorry for how you reacted to her ideas and plans and for what happened to that poor man."

“Maybe you’re right,” Lera kicked at the sand. “I just really don’t want to. I know, it’s not a good excuse. But after everything she said and did, I don’t know if I can personally forgive her. She told me I brought doom on everyone, and it didn’t feel like she was talking about doom from other sources. It felt like a personal threat.”

“Give her some time. We all say and do things we don’t mean to when we’re upset. And like I said it doesn’t have to be today or even tomorrow. Give it some time. I except we’re going to be on this island for a little bit. If you want I can talk to Woe for you. Make sure she’s still not upset.” Perrin said.

“That seems so juvenile, you don’t have to,” Lera frowned. “I know I made some mistakes. I’ll own them.”

“No problem. I thought I would offer. I’m not as smart as the rest of you but I do have a way with words.” Perrin said with a cheeky smile.

“You’re way smarter than the rest of us,” Lera shook her head, casting light to illuminate the darkness. “Here shiny things...” The light caused the shimmering colors to reflect in full force, almost blinding the two. Their eyes adjust and they saw a rainbow of color glittering off of what appears to be a giant seashell. The shell moves, slowly, towards the rocks and the cliffs.

“Uuhhh. Last I checked rocks don’t move.” Perrin said, unsure of what that is but gets his shield and sword out anyways. As they got closer, the shell began to turn and they saw what appeared to be the face of a giant snail. It raised up five large, red appendages from its head at the sight of you. Their feet cracked something on the sand beneath as they wandered into its snail trail. It looked like glass. "Uuuureeegh!" It bellows upon seeing the two. They could hear sounds from the jungle nearby.

“I think they’re might be more near by or something with that sound. We might need to notify the others.” Perrin said, worried about the sounds coming from the jungle. The snail made no movements, but whatever it was in the jungle was getting louder and louder.

Lera reached down and grabbed the snail-trail glass quickly, afterwards casting mold earth to make another sound castle. She had to crouch down next to Perrin to fit, attempting to make it look like a small sand dune. “Do you think you can make a peep hole and see what’s happening?” Perrin whispered.

"Shhhhh," Lera hushed him as she did just that, extinguishing her light spell as she did so. Approaching the Snail is a huge gorilla. Strips of flesh and fur are falling from its face and body, revealing a network of metal cogs and springs that make up its guts. Rather than a spine, the gorilla has an empty space. Glass comes pouring out of its back-pocket when it stands upright for a closer look at what's disturbing the snail. Two odd looking modron creatures follow the gorilla out of the jungle to join it in its investigation. Unlike the other modron at the camp, these two seem to be missing their wings and their eyes are completely bloodshot and red.

“Psst. Do we hide here or alert the others and fight?” Perrin whispered to Lera. (OOC: Perrin: 9 stealth, Lera 17)\

The two modrons begin putting the glass back into the gorilla's back when Perrin whispers over to Lera. They stop, looking in the direction of the sand dune. One of them starts to waddle over to the dune for a closer look as the other resumes putting the glass in the gorilla. It starts to scramble up the side of the dune, and with each flail to get up, more and more of their cover is swiped away.

Both adventurers locked eyes, knowing what they had to do next. Just as the last of their cover was swiped away, Perrin slashed out with his sword, driving Sword-Frank right through the modron's eyeball and slaying it in the spot. The modron practically dissolved on impact. (OOC: Nat 20, 9 damage) Lera cast her signature spell at the gorilla at the same instant, a bolt of frost energy slamming into its back. (OOC: Nat 20, 27 cold damage.)

The modron stops and stands still, as though it's watching with interest. Its expression is completely expressionless. The gorilla-machine, on the other hand, leapt forward with both arms flailing, charging right at Lera. Perrin tried to step in front of the squishy sorcerer with his shield, but to little affect. It leaps atop Lera and begins pounding her into the soft sand. Some of its blows glance off of Perrin's shield, but the damage is already done. It then opens its mouth revealing razor-sharp teeth and attempts to bite down in her flesh. Just in time, Lera rolled out of the way of its terrible maw.

Perrin shouts “Lera run away and get the others. I’ll keep them here.” The paladin then swung his sword again, this time divine magic glowing across the blade. (OOC: 12 to hit, 11 damage)

"Yeah, fat chance," Lera said after coughing up a little blood. She blasted the gorilla again with a chaos bolt, this time hitting it with force damage. The gorilla crumbles before you, leaving only traces of the glass in its back. The other modorn continues to watch, but doesn't move. The snail takes this moment to pound all of its appendages into the last modron, causing it to also crumble and disintegrate. (OOC: 12 to hit, 8 damage)

“Perrin, what do we do?” Lera asked.

"We, got rid of more Modrons. I think we should tell the others. As for the snail. I don't know. It's the first animal we've seen here besides the small fish in the sea. Maybe we can lead it to the others. They might now what it is." Perrin says. "You took a big hit their Lera, do you want some healing?"

"I'm fine," Lera waved him off, feeling anything but fine. She turned to the snail. “Hey snail friend,” Lera tries to talk to it. “What’s up buddy? My name is Lera, this is my buddy Perrin. What’s your name?”

"Wait. Lera. I'm good with animals. We dealt with some snails down by the farm before let me." Perrin interjects. The snail didn't seem to care about them and starts to continue on its way, slowly. "Lera. Make the sand move in order to corral him towards our camp." Perrin instructed.

Lera raises the ground in front of and on either side of the snail until it is five feet tall. The snail continues, until it bumps into a wall. It turns to the left and finds another wall. Turning again, it finds its own trail. Finally, it decides to start going over and slightly through one of the walls, in the direction of the ocean.

"Ahh. Stop it the salt will kill it." Perrin says out loud.

"I think the snail knows better than us what can and can't kill it," Lera drops the mold earth.

"I don't know. That's how we got rid of them on the farm. Of course, they didn't leave a trail of shiny stuff behind them." Perrin comments.

"This is a magical sea snail, I'm not sure if the same rules apply," Lera objected. The snail slowly crawls up to the shoreline and stops. It then turns and starts heading back up the beach, in the direction it came from, careful to avoid its own trail. The sorceress shrugged, picking up as much of the glass trail as possible. It looked pretty, but she did not know enough about magic to know if they were special. 

As the snail was heading in the direction of camp, Perrin and Lera decided to just follow it back. It was slow going, but they figured no one would really miss them for another half hour. “You know when I thought about going on a moonlight stroll on the beach. I didn’t think it would be a slug or, no offense, you Lera.” Perrin jokes aloud.

"Frank is here in.... pointy form," Lera bantered back, pointing at his sword.

Perrin just laughs out loud at Lera’s joke. When he finally calms down he asks “What do you think of him?”

"Dude, I am so the wrong person to ask," Lera laughed. "All I know about love and adventure come from stories. But, Frank is sweet. He came and checked on me when I was in prison, when nobody else did. I think you have a good one."

“I understand that. Let’s just that in small towns not everyone is as understanding as you guys.”

"Oh, yeah. A human and a halfling is a little weird," the aasimar mused. "But, I mean, I come from a long line of people who did it with angels though, so I am in no place to judge."

“Frank being a human wasn’t exactly what I was referring to but I’m sure people will disapprove of that as well.” Perrin says with a sigh

"I've read just as many stories where two princes fall in love, or two princesses, or a princess and a dragon... That was a weird one. Love is love, and if you two are happy, then that's good enough for me."

“I wish I would have heard stories like that growing up. But, that’s the past and I’m glad you like Frank. Man, we’ve been gone for a while I wonder if the others are worried.”

"Maybe a little. But then, my dad is always worried."

About 25 minutes after the loud droning and bright light, Shanolia sees what looks like a large shimmering rock at the edge of the campfire's light, about 500 feet away. She cocks her head to the side and raises an eyebrow.

"Can anyone else see that rock moving over there?"