Fergus:

Trusting his friends to deal with the children, Fergus tries to fully illuminate one of the creatures and identify it.

Nature:  18

Quinn is curious what this “flesh nugget” looks like, especially after examining the tracks. He joins Fergus in observing the curious creatures and aides him with additional light from Lightbringer. 

Quinn turns back briefly to monitor the situation with Carp and Pip and the sight of the tentacle catches Quinn off guard. Normally he would be alarmed at such a sight, but with Jorzu’s new eye, he’s not so surprised at such a sight. 

He taps Fergus on the shoulder and points at Pip and his curious little tentacle. 

Jorzu 

"Hmph. I thought this was intriguing" he scratches at the fur collar pulled tight around his neck as he observes Pip and Boona. Letting the others watch the flesh nuggets, Jorzu steps towards Boona and seemingly hand waves Pip's new tentacle as something completely normal. "You say the voice is lying to you again? Do you still hear it from the pyramid? May I try something for you? It won't hurt but maybe it will stop the voice" he hurls question after question at Boona.

Jorzu 

"Hmph. I thought this was intriguing" he scratches at the fur collar pulled tight around his neck as he observes Pip and Boona. Letting the others watch the flesh nuggets, Jorzu steps towards Boona and seemingly hand waves Pip's new tentacle as something completely normal. "You say the voice is lying to you again? Do you still hear it from the pyramid? May I try something for you? It won't hurt but maybe it will stop the voice" he hurls question after question at Boona.

Pip looks at Boona blankly. "Uh... I dunno. ... I ain't a fish? You okay?" Pip's tentacle retracts under his shirt.

Fergus gets a pretty clear look at two of the weird little creatures trapped in the hole. They seem... unworldly. Unnatural. These are aberrations. Possibly larva of something much bigger.

Quote from See_Ess >>

Jorzu 

"Hmph. I thought this was intriguing" he scratches at the fur collar pulled tight around his neck as he observes Pip and Boona. Letting the others watch the flesh nuggets, Jorzu steps towards Boona and seemingly hand waves Pip's new tentacle as something completely normal. "You say the voice is lying to you again? Do you still hear it from the pyramid? May I try something for you? It won't hurt but maybe it will stop the voice" he hurls question after question at Boona.

Boona shrugged.

" First it said I am in jar....but I could see outside of jar....so could not be in jar."

" Now say kids are fish and swim in orange ocean.......kids not fish..", she pointed at the two boys. " And ocean is grey-black-blue.....not orange. Stupid voice."

She happily let Jorzu do whatever he was doing.

Fergus:

”The small creatures look like aberrations, possibly larvae of a larger creature,” says Fergus.

Moving over to Pip, he says, “Hi there—I’m Fergus.  Tell me, how long have you had a tentacle?  Do you know how you got it?”

Persuasion:  16

"Um, a couple of days?" answers Pip. "It keeps growing. I can't really control it. It picks stuff up sometimes. You're gettin' 'em too, I think." He points at part of Fergus' exposed arm, where in the flash of lanternlight one can see a small, miscolored lump of flesh hanging from the point of his right elbow.

Quinn can't get over Fergus' description of these "flesh nuggets" as being larvae for something larger. The idea of these things growing into a larger monstrosity, this close to town, doesn't sit well with him. While the other's chat with Pip and compare new growths with eachother, Quinn talks to Carp.

"Hey, Carp. You've been really brave helping us throughout this adventure. You helped us get into the manor and now you found Pip and these flesh nuggets. Have you seen anything else odd like lurking around town?"

Fergus:

Staring at his elbow in shock, Fergus says dryly, “Well, that is unfortunate.”

Sighing, he adds, “I suppose we should go down and investigate—if the larvae are merely curious, their brood mother could be a danger to the town.”

Looking around, he waits until the others might be ready to accompany him down the steps.

Carp shrugs at Quinn's questions. "I seen a farmer with his head on backwards. Elmina Barthen got two tentacles. Big ones. I seen a cat with two mouths. People with weird voices, some going crazy. Stuff like that. No monsters, though. Just these things." He points into the hole.

Fergus looks down the hole. The steps end with a 15-20 foot drop to the stone floor below – the rest of the stairs look long-collapsed. You'll need a rope or some other way to descend.

"I'm not going back to town yet, cousin," Carp tells Bryony, a streak of stubborn refusal in his voice as he stares into the hole in the ground without looking at her. "I'm with you now. We have to slay these things, I think. Can't we just hit 'em from up here? You got a bow."

You can see two of the strange pyramidal creatures bouncing and careening around some twenty feet below, trying and failing repeatedly to jump out of the hole. They don't seem particularly intelligent.

Jorzu 

Jorzu reaches for his beads to begin a spell to try and cure Boona but pulls up short when he hears Carp's whispered bombshell. The entire town was infected. "Oh dear, that is unfortunate. My magic will be far too ineffective by the sound of things." In disappointment he creeps to the edge of the sink hole to join Quinn and the others. "Whats the plan?" He says quietly as he peers into the impromptu trap.

Fergus:

”I am reluctant to kill creatures who have not threatened us, even if they are aberrations of some kind…But I have no spells that might directly befriend them.  I do have spells to try and calm them and communicate with them, if they indeed have a language,” says Fergus.

”Does anyone have a rope available should we wish to descend?” he asks.

Quinn does the mental math. Kill or not?

He whispers aloud to Fergus and Jorzu. “We can kill these things. Probably quite easily. But look at them. They’re stuck down there. Perhaps we just walk away?”

Quinn looks for a small stone and throws one at the flesh nuggets to see how they react. 

Dex roll to hit: 5 :(

“…not my best effort there. Here let me try again.”

He picks up another stone for a second try.

Dex roll to hit: 8 >:(

“Bloody hell. 

what do you all suggest?”

Quinn nods in agreement with Fergus. He digs in his pack and offers up a rope. 

“Fergus, I can lower you down.

Jorzu and Bryony, ready yourselves in case the flesh nuggets or anything else attacks Fergus.

Boona, Carp and Pip, watch our backs.”

Boona nods seriously ready to grab the boys if they do something rash....

Boona prepares to grab the boys if needed.
Jorzu reluctantly puts away his beads.
Quinn throws a pair of stones, but misses badly. (The bizarre jumping creatures below are very nimble on their strangely-protruding feet.) Then he digs out a rope. There are plenty of big stones to anchor it to. He invites Fergus to climb down.

What does Fergus wish to do next? ...And the rest of you?

"You're so stubborn, Carp," Bryony admonishes her cousin, but the truth is she can't really blame him for having an adventurous spirit. She had felt the same call to adventure, and now here she was a bonafide adventurer in her own right! As long as she kept Carp safe for Aunt Qelline, that was all that mattered. With some more training, Carp could also become a capable adventurer. "Ok, let me take a shot."

Hoping to have more success with her bow than Quinn had with his rocks, the halfling unslings her shortbow and releases an arrow at one of the flesh nuggets.

Action: Shortbow attack - 22 to hit for 7 damage + 10 sneak attack damage

Bonus Action: Steady Aim

Fergus:

Tying the end of the rope around his waist, Fergus prepares to cast his spell and talk to the flesh nuggets.  Just as he is about to start casting, an arrow whistles past and embeds itself into one of the creatures!