Van sweep the rain out of his eyes and starts for the people on the islands.

Frustrated with the rain and not wanting to wade through the water, Rawlings decides to use her Misty Escape to get to the island.  Once there, she is invisible, but looks around at the people on the island....

Gasping for breath in the rain, Brother Siegfried tries to calm the hammering beats of his heart.  The fight took more out of him than he would care to admit... his body aches from his wounds and he can feel the divine spark within him nearly exhausted.  Just as he is about to drop to his knees in the surf and offer thanks to Chauntea, he sees the other start out for the island, and notices the bodies lying on the ground.  "No time to pause, yet" he whispers to himself.  He starts to wade in that direction as well.

Rawlings is the first there, but it doesn't take long for the others to get there. The deepest of the water is only a little more than 5 feet--making it a little difficult for Brother Siegfried at times, but easy enough outside of combat.

Rawlings sees a number of villagers, some she recognizes from her brief time here, including two human children, a boy and a girl, no more than 10 summers old. All the villagers appear to be breathing, and none appear to have suffered much more than some bruising; however all are unconscious and tied up. Rawlings and Vandeyr, having lived in the village, even as little as they have been, know that most of these marshy islands, including the one the villagers are presently on, often flood during times of storm and high rain. 

Even now, the "island" is soggy and wet, seeming smaller than it did a few moments ago.

Brother Siegfried recognizes that leaving "offerings for the Storm" like this is a common practice for worshippers of Talos when they are attempting to gain the Storm Lord's attention or favor.

Vandeyr starts trying to wake the villagers, starting with the children. 

The villagers respond to Vandeyr's touch with groans and flinches, but they do not awaken. It is as though they are either too injured or perhaps drugged.

Tor watches as the others make their way to the island, and is surprised to see them wading through what he had expected to be much deeper water. Alright then, he thinks. If the dwarf can do it, so can I, and he sets off across the water.

At times the water is a little deeper, and he has to tip his head back to keep his face above the surface, but he can at least keep his feet on more or less solid ground the whole way.

Arriving at the island (hopefully), he sees the fruitless efforts of Vandeyr as he tries to wake the villagers.

"We need to untie them!" he shouts through the rain as it pelts them mercilessly. "This blasted storm!" He starts to cut through the bindings of the young girl with the black handaxe which had yet to be put away. As he does so he shouts to Siegfried, "Brother! Your goddess, can she stop this rain?!"

Sigi looks to the skies.  "It's always best to exhaust all our mortal options before we call upon the gods for miracles," he shouts to Tor over the wind and the rain.  "I may have a trick or two up my own sleeve, yet."

He finds a central location amidst the unconscious villagers.  He drops to his knees on the marshy grass and clutches his holy amulet.  He attempts to: 

He will spread these out among the villagers.  If there is enough healing to spare, he will give extra to the largest and healthiest looking folk, hoping they can help the others.  

Then he opens his eyes and looks to see if the infusion of vitality was enough to rouse the villagers to consciousness.

Rawlings pulls out her dagger and gets to work cutting the ropes that are binding the villagers.  She works methodically trying not to think what would have happened if they hadn't seen them.  She hears Tor and Brother Siegfried talk about gods and goddesses, but she keeps her head down, going as fast as she can.

Van will start dragging people away, looking for higher ground

Brother Siegfried's prayer channels the power of his goddess. Faint golden light and an earthy, piney smell spread out from him. As the light touches each villager the scrapes and bruises begin to heal and their eyes open, as they look around in terror.

It takes them a moment to register their surroundings and that you're trying to help them. But within a few moments they're able to help themselves and others. Most of them are fishers and appear almost as comfortable in the water as on land, and you're able to get everyone across the shallow bay to solid land.

Once they are all safely out of harms way, Rawlings turns to one of the fishermen that she recognizes, "Please, can you tell me what happened here?  How did you all end up on that island tied up and unconscious?"

The water has risen again by the time Siegfried's spell has taken effect and the villagers have been freed. As people start making their way back to the wharf, Tor pauses at the edge as the surf laps around his ankles. It's the only way back, he thinks. What are you going to do, stay here? Captain of the Swords stuck on an island? So he throws himself in. It would be easier to swim at its current depth, but Tor seems to prefer to bounce along the bottom. Where it is too deep he breaks into an inelegant doggy paddle until he can stand again. He is likely the last to arrive back on the shore by the wharf.

"I think I can guess," pants Tor, a little out of breath from the return journey. "Green tiefling and her lackeys?" 

The fisherman nods tiredly; while Brother Siegfried's spell has healed them, nothing would do better than a long day's rest. "There was a whole group of thugs, but they was led by some she-devil for sure. We was comin' in with the day's catch, and suddenly there was some big brutes with axes, that was riding horses made o' water. I felt a big whack on me head and thought I was done for, till you woke us up... We owes you, for sure."

"I doubt they just came rolling down the road. Perhaps there is a temple in the area. Any sign of correspondence or - in a stroke of luck - a not-too-waterlogged map with one of these fellows?"

Vandeyr helps search the bodies for anything helpful about where they came from. 

Investigation 18 

Quote from nschrock >>

"I doubt they just came rolling down the road. Perhaps there is a temple in the area. Any sign of correspondence or - in a stroke of luck - a not-too-waterlogged map with one of these fellows?"

Vandeyr helps search the bodies for anything helpful about where they came from. 

Investigation 6 

 I've left all my spell slots used even with the class change until we get a rest, seemed fair. But if I can use my Flash of Genius, I'd add 5 to this roll

Searching the bodies is difficult as they've been mostly hacked to pieces and have floated a little ways off.

Nevertheless, upon looking, the zealots have only their clothing and a great axe, each with a recurve in the blade reminiscent of the ocean waves, that causes a wicked cut. 

In the tiefling priestess' robes, you find a waterproof scroll tube, with a scroll of mass cure wounds. But no evidence of where they came from or who they might serve apart from Talos.

Van scoops up the scroll and holds it out. "I believe this is for you, Brother Siegfried. I'm sure I could figure out something with it, but not as much as you."

Rawlings looks to the group, "Well, where do you think we should go from here?"

(If there's anything immediate you wanted to do, go ahead and post it now, as we're gonna jump ahead several days)