Boko removes another slat to look down at the speaker and watches their reply to Gerard, trying to gauge if they seem like they are lying, or really looking for help. 

Insight: 18

"Yes, yes, we live here," replies the voice. "Who's up there?"

The voice sounds human and sincere, as far as Gerrard and Boko can tell. 

Looking down the hole, Boko sees the rickety ladder leading down into a musty subterranean chamber enclosed by rough masonry walls. Three trembling figures are huddled against one wall, sharing the chamber with the dusty, deteriorated remains of an armored corpse. The body’s sightless eye sockets stare up blankly, and a small silver disk is clutched in one of its skeletal hands. The trio is comprised of a human man and woman, and a male dwarf. The man looks very ill, his face is covered in grotesque blue boils. The dwarf doesn't look good either, and has one nasty blue boil on his cheek.

Thwack 

"YAP!" The sound of voices from the hole send a shiver down Thwack's pointy spine. "There people here!" He jumps up into a fighting stance. "Where are you?" He demands of the voice as he turns on the spot, apparently ready to punch the answerer of his question. He sees the others peering into the fireplace. "What we looking at?" the voice forgotten momentarily,  until it speaks again. "Yip!" He adopts his sloppy stance again. "You hear that?" When Gerrard replies to the voice he calms a little as he realises that the group was talking to something inside the fireplace. 

Gerrard:

"We are travelers come to this island for shelter during the storm.  Looking for a place to stay dry we happened upon the scene of this battle.  There were dead bodies tied underwater in the cove," replies Gerrard, trying to not give too much away all at once.

To Boko, he whispers, "They seem sincere to me--but perhaps in bad condition.  What do you think, Mistress Alcor?"

While everyone is chatting back and forth, Qivys will use his Divine sense on the area to see if he can locate any undead or fiends and the like. 

Boko tries to think if she has heard of any illness or poisoning that manifests blue boils. Back to Gerrard she says quietly, “yes they do not seem false. Just desperate. Oh here, let Qivys thought to use his divine sight to give them a once over, it has proved useful, and would be very useful here. Anyhow I am trying to think about an illness that causes blue boils. I would not like to catch such a thing.  I have but a small amount of reserves left. I could heal if needs be. We should learn more from them, about this place, what happened here.”

Medicine: 15

Once they reply she will suggest questions for others to ask - people are not her specialty. She mainly wants to know what the fresh blood is from, if they know of a threat from the sea, and if the diarist’s ravings are accurate. 

Qivys looks around the larder, and then down the ladder at the three huddled figures below. There is nothing celestial, fiend, nor undead visible. The skeletal corpse is inert, and not undead.

Boko does not recognize whatever hideous disease at least two of them seem to suffer from.

"We saw you come. Those bodies were our friends," responds the woman below. "Those things that killed them. They're coming back tonight. You need to hide, or prepare to defend this place. But I don't know if Barret is going to make it. We need medicine, or healing. I could help heal this with some rest and prayer, but I don't think Barret has enough time for that. Can you heal this plague?"

"Plague?" Qivys blurts out as he covers his nose and mouth.
"Ya couldn't let us rest ta be prepared fer such things could ya?" Qivys mumbles from under his hand. "Ya had ta press on an' on till we now face a plague an' more fightin'!"

Qivys' tone shows his irritation. 

Peri:

Peri tosses the small crock of ointment to Boko. "There should be enough for two people in there. If you think it'll do 'em any good you can drop it down to 'em -- maybe lower it down in a bucket so we don't get too close before we know if it's workin'. Then we need to decide if we're stayin' here to fight it out, or if we're takin' our chances on the sea. Guess it depends on what the 'things' were that killed the others." He gestures to Thwack. "C'mon. We're gonna need that magic stick of yours either way." He goes to the south door, near the beach, and removes the blocks.

Thwack 

Still a little confused that Boko is talking to a fireplace, Thwack quickly jumps to attention when Peri calls his name. Speaking to the group as though it was his idea he says "We go get sticky stick. Enjoy fireplace talk". With that he follows Peri out of the room. 

Qivys backs away from the fire place. He turns and follows Peri, still mumbling under his breath as he goes. 
"Wat's yer plan there Peri?" he asks as he follows Peri and Thwack to the south door. 

Gerrard:

Pulling out his rope and healer's kit, Gerrard starts tying the kit to the rope and offers to slip the ointment into the kit for lowering down to the survivors.  He does put in a few rations as well, saying softly to Boko, "Let us help them if we can, but we can't risk getting diseased before we can rest--and it sounds like we are going to have a busy night.  Perhaps they can give us some details about what we will be facing."

To Peri and Qivys, he says, "When we find out what is going here and what credible threat may arise as we rest, we should warn the captain and crew...Maybe if the gods smile on us we can get enough rest to be fresh for the next fight before it arrives on our doorstep--or maybe we'll have a peaceful night's rest, but it would be nice to have an idea what might be coming after us before they arrive for once."

Peri, Thwack, and Qivys remove the barricades blocking the exterior kitchen door, and prepare to head out into the black rain to fetch the rod.

Gerrard and Boko prepare to lower Peri's glass jar full of ointment down to the diseased figures below.

"Is Aaron up there with you?" calls up the woman from below. "Or did you see him? A human man? Short brown hair? He slipped out a few hours ago to see if the fortress was safe, but didn't return."

Gerrard:

”Haven’t seen him yet, but we haven’t explored everywhere yet.  Does Aaron have the disease too?  And who or what attacked you?  The storm rages outside—are you sure they will brave the weather to strike again?” asks Gerrard, hoping their display of kindness makes the survivors talkative and helpful.

Peri:

"We're gonna need that stick," he answers Qivys. "Now that we've found sick little lambs in need of rescue, you know there's no way we're convincin' the nobleman to just run. So we'll have to fortify the kitchen as best we can against whatever attacked this place before. If we put that heavy butcher block in front of the door and hold it in place with that rod, it'll take someone really dedicated the better part of an hour to chop their way through it."

"Thwack, I'm going after your stick. Can you talk to the captain on the boat? Let her know we found some survivors, but they say they're expectin' another attack tonight. She should either join us up here, or set sail as soon as possible to get clear. Got it?"

He opens the door, braced against the wind. Then he spiderwalks along the wall, around the corner, to retrieve the rod. While outside, he squints into the gale to look for enemies. ((Perception: 23))

((Edit: He wipes the rain from his eyes and tries again: 23))

"I don't think Aaron had this disease. But I had a vision of the demons' return from the sea," replies the woman.

"I was reading in the library when my first premonition came to me from Procan. I heard whispers in my mind that led me to this hiding place, and my intuition told me that the skeleton found here was the remains of a fellow priest of Procan."

"I moved fast. I found Aaron in the kitchen and grabbed him just as we heard the dormitory door splintering. Morley and Barrett staggered into the larder soon after, wounded and in need of help. I dragged them inside and was about to seal the entrance when the larder door banged open."

“I saw a corpse, dripping wet, shriveled and discolored as if by long immersion in the sea. It stalked into the room and began to search, so I sealed the door. Miraculously, it missed our hiding place, though it kept scrabbling at the floor as if it could sense us below. But then as the first glow of dawn showed at the cleft in the wall, it suddenly fled.” She points to something just out of view, evidently a crevice or arrow slit in the wall facing the grotto.

"We've hidden here all day. Aaron went out to scout but never came back. But Procan shared a second vision with me... of the dead returning tonight. We have to hide or blockade this place better."

Meanwhile, Peri has the back door of the kitchen wide open, drawing odd draughts of air through the old fortress as the storm howls on outside. Peri sees little but blackness and rain, even with his astral sight. The captain's ship is anchored in the grotto with the corpses. The crew is not visible, perhaps sheltering belowdecks.

As Thwack and Qivys watch, Peri retrieves Thwack's rod and draws in and coils up Boko's rope without incident. 

Peri:

"It hasn't slowed down any out there. Dunno what that fool captain was tryin' to do, gettin' close to Hektor's island, but I think we're stuck here til the storm dies down. Better batten down the hatches and hope these enemies are held off by the storm too. Any idea what we're up against?" he asks.

He pitches the idea of retrieving the desks from the library for additional barricade material, but leaves that up to the taller folks to decide.

Thwack 

Ecstatic at being given an important task, Thwack stares at the boat looking for movement. When no-one can be seen he turns to Peri with a sullen look. "Can't talk to nobody." Then with a glint in his eyes "You want me run down and get the captain? Then I can tell him anything." He edges towards the shore but waits for Peri's OK. 

"It is likely this Aaron did not survive, I may have seen his remains in the belltower. Do you know Archais? I found his diary. The Pit of Hatred, the Tammeraut." Boko says. She helps to lower down the ointment in a bucket on a rope, and explains what little she knows of how it works. "We should barricade the outside, this room, and perhaps another room to throw them off. Using the rod along with any other solid blocks of wood or stone or doors to solidly barricade us in, if they return. Is there anything else in this kitchen we could use? I really need rest to be more useful."

She sits down in the kitchen and begins to rest, trusting the others to barricade the door, and ass she rests she looks through the items she found in the tower, asking any of her friends if they know what they are, and if there are any uses for them. ("A brass ring, various bottles of different arcane liquids, a flat iron rod with a button on one end, a wooden box, a black bag filled with something bulky, a filled leather backpack, and a small metal baton the size of a torch with an arcane flame flickering upon it.")