It seems, in the darkness at least, that most all of the traffic is between the canoes and the gatehouse. The gatehouse is closed.

Looking to the right there seems to be a watch tower inside the wall - also no signs of life at first glance.

Perception check for Poole: 27

Observing the situation quietly she notices the shape of a shadow change in the watchtower. Then she can hear a faint moan from the other side of the wall and even quiet whispering from somewhere up above in the gatehouse.

Poole is fairly certain about two things - that the camp is manned and that they have been noticed. The people inside are content with staying quiet though.

Poole waves in a friendly manner. Then she retreats quietly back to the group, and says, "There's someone in the watchtower, and I think they've seen us. I can't tell if they are hiding from undead inside the town, or if they're just not that great at staying quiet. I tried to wave and let them know we're friendly, or at least, not undead. What should we do?"

Melanthios shrugs.

"Run?"

Aurok looks to their acquaintance who was looking for the camp.

Undril sighs in relief as Poole describes the signs of life she noticed.

She goes up to the gate and knocks. She says fairly quietly, "Hello, I am Undril. I was sent by the Order of the Gauntlet with a delivery to Commander Niles Breakbone. I am accompanied by a group of adventurers and a jungle guide. I am requesting entrance for all of us - we have been camping in the jungle for the last ten days."

After a bit a reply is heard, "Hold on. And don't make noise or light."

Several minutes pass.

Then several more minutes pass.

A voice can then be heard from up above. "Hello. I am Ord Firebeard, second in command here in Camp Vengeance. We will lower a basket, you will put your delivery in that basket and then we will see what happens next."

Undril is about to protest when he continues, "Or you can camp in the jungle another night and we can see about it in the morning. Your call."

A basket is lowered, Undril fishes out a small bundle of papers wrapped in oilcloth and places it into the basket.

"Thank you. Please continue waiting quietly and without light."

Another 20 minutes pass and then some noises are heard on the ground level. A human sized gate opens and everyone is waved in, then the gate is locked and barred once again.

What you can see is a very lowly lit camp with a bunch of tents around. On either side of your group is six fighters ready with shields and swords and spears.

The familiar gruffy voice of Ord Firebeard is heard, spoken by a stocky dwarf at the end of the line of fighters, "Just a precaution. Lots of weird things move about the jungle at night."

He takes a look at each and every one of you, especially at the vegepygmie. Qawasha says, "He's with me."

Satisfied with the inspection, Ord Firebeard dismisses the fighters.

"Four of the tents on the left side, " and he points towards one of the two campfires, " are empty at the moment. The men are either dead or sick in the medical tents. Undril needs to come with me, the rest of you we can talk to in the morning. We will not be guarding you - nobody is stupid enough to want to live in this hellhole."

He stomps on a huge centipede that was about to crawl up his leg. The ankle-deep mud splashes everywhere. With your eyes adjusting to the low light you can see that the swarms of insects within the walls are much thicker than they ever were out in the jungle.

You are pointed towards some tents that kind of qualify as tents, but the only seeming effect that they have is to keep the insects in.

Melanthios looks around and sighs.

"Well, I've slept in worse.  Barely."

Aurok takes the opportunity to go nosing around. 

Does this look like a fully functional military encampment or what’s going on?

Aurok goes looking around and .. it's not much to look at. It's a military camp, but clearly in deep trouble. The walls and towers seem sound, but the living conditions are horrid. The ground is mud and puddles, the latrines in the northwest corner are overflowing and sinking into the ground. All the tents, including the larger ones are riddled with mildew and fungus and there is definitely more vermin around than men. The southwest corner has an animal pen that has four sickly goats in it.

What he can also see is that the watchtowers are also used as living spaces. A lower level floor has been built between the posts several feet off the ground and enclosed by pieces of canvas just to create a somewhat dry living space. All of these are crammed with people not wanting to sleep in the tents.

Aurok can guess the count of people to be around 40, excluding anyone in the larger tents.

"Well this seems horrible, I'm tempted to sleep in a tree outside, anyone else interested?" She sighs in exasperation, wondering what happened here, and why the camp even existed.

She looks to Irma and Lorahana to see if they had any arcane methods of clearing a tent of vermin. Otherwise, she'd hang a blanket between two poles or hooks and attempt to perch in a hammock.

Irma says, "I can try.." And she casts purify food and drink in middle of a tent. All the water nearby sizzles violently as it becomes crystal clear, the mice and bugs in and around it going up in magical smoke.

Almost immediately it starts filling again, but at a lesser rate than before. She observes it for a bit, then suggests "Lets see if we can make it somewhat airtight."

After some repairs to the tent she casts it again and it actually smells fairly clear and well now. Somewhat similar to what a close by lightning smells like. 

Poole helps to repair the tent and clean the floor up. Then walks to Irma and gives her a hug in relief.

To the group, after making up some modest dinner, she says, "So what do we think happened here? Undead, it seems, but what else?"

Irma says, "Stubbornness. Undead and something as stubborn as the undead - Order of the Gauntlet. They fancy themselves as the knights in shining armor protecting everyone against evil. They are effective against bandits and monsters, but this here they are not prepared for. After getting destroyed at Camp Righteous they just figured to go even further into the jungle. This might be the end of them in Chult. We'll find out in the morning I guess."

Melanthios snorts in disbelief.

"You mean to tell me these idiots were decimated by undead . . .and kept pushing further into the jungle?  At least mercenaries of a sense of self preservation."

Day 11

The morning eventually comes and finds everyone in a fairly safe environment. Daylight doesn't help the image of the camp though - it's about as bad as it seemed to be in darkness.

The dwarf familiar to you from last night comes up to you along with Undril. "Commander Breakbone would like to see you." Qawasha raises his hand and Undril says, "You don't have to if you don't want." Qawasha lowers his hand and goes inspecting the goats along with the vegepygmie.

All of you are led to the main tent of the camp and it's pretty crowded. A man stands behind a table, looking at the map of a local area. At a glance you recognize it's about 20 mile radius with the camp in the center.

"Hi, I am Commander Breakbone. You have met Ord, " as he indicates the dwarf. "This is Perne," and a woman on his left bows slightly, "they are both my second in command. There is a total of 58 people in this camp excluding your party, most of them seasoned fighters."

He continues in a very serious tone, "I understand from Undril that you are mercenaries on some kind of a mission to find some cursed object that nobody else has been able to find. That's all well and good, but we have a much more immediate problem - my people are falling sick. There is two tents full of them, mostly sickness and some injured."

The last unknown person stands up. She had been sitting on a small bench in the corner, head in arms. She is about to say something when Command Breakbone just cuts her off, "I know Sister Cyas, you are doing everything you can. We all know. Doesn't change the fact that things are bad, really bad."

He turns back you, "I need you to postpone your treasure hunt and take some of the sick back to Port Nyanzaru. You know the way and downriver should be faster than upriver. Feel free to continue your business afterwards. Sister Cyas has them picked out, you should leave right now."

Both the dwarf (Ord) and the human (Perne) take a single step forward to make the point very clear.

Melanthios narrows his eyes.

"Well, as you said, we are some sort of mercenary group.  What’s in it for us?"

Poole pointedly does not look at Irma, and settles her gaze on Breakbone. She listens to his response, whatever it may be, with real disinterest. Then her gaze moves to Sister Cyas. "That doesn't sound very fun for anyone. Why don't we save the trip, and help the medical professional do her job? Give her some support? Sister Cyas, what if we had certain skills that could remove disease from someone particularly ill, purify food and water, and heal injured warriors back to haleness? What if those skills only worked if people were VERY nice to us and didn't threaten or manipulate us in any way? Would that be a set of circumstances that the camp's chief medical officer could utilize to get back to a happier state?"

She's smiling in a truly sincere manner at Cyas, with genuine interest and concern.

Sister Cyas nods and is about to say something when Commander Breakbone cuts her off, "That's good. The next thing is scouting out the rock due southwest from here."

Completely ignoring anything else Melanthios and Poole said he picks up the large map on the table and turns it your way, "The jungle gives way to grassland a few miles south of here and if you head southwest you'll see a very large rock. It's about 2000 feet high and might have a flat top. Ideal for a very secure permanent outpost. We have gotten close once, but don't have the manpower for a proper scouting mission. It's at least two days both ways and however long it may take to find a way up there. We lost four people the last time we tried."

He looks back up to you, "We will see about you returning to your treasure hunt after that. Ord Firebeard will accompany you along with 8 others."

Ord nods, but doesn't move from his position.

Undril uses the pause and says, "I can stay here and help with the sick. At least until they get back."

Irma follows it immediately, "I have some skill in that as well."

Commander Breakbone says, "Sister Cyas will show you to the wounded."

He turns the map back his way, sits down and starts going through some papers. He then looks up and raises his eyebrows in a surprised look that clearly communicates his expectation of everyone leaving.

(from studying your own map you know the place to be called Mbala, but don't know anything else. Qawasha might though)

"C'mere, Sister Cyas," Poole says, crooking the woman's elbow in hers and patting her hand, gently leading her away, out of earshot. She gives a look to the rest of the party that says, "keep quiet and follow me."

Once they are away, either back in the group's tent, or a bit closer to where Cyas leads her to the wounded, Poole turns and looks Cyas directly in the eyes. "THIS is obviously a raving shitshow, and you seem to be an audience member rather than a performer, so I'd like to hear your review. What in the Nine Hells is going on here? Is there something unnatural making everyone sick? Seems to me you'd got some leadership issues getting in the way of the medical professionals. And what really happened with the expedition to the tall rock? You can trust me, you can trust us, not to be idiots. Most of the time. We're obviously not like the captain. Is Ord on the same page as him? I'm listening."

Anzir has been totally absorbed by the artifact ever since he snatched it from Poole's hands. "That's not a toy, kid," he said.

The awful conditions of the military outpost do not really sink in right away. He studies the artifact by dim fire light until he passes out on his sleeping roll. In the light of the morning, the dire conditions start to register. He wrinkles his nose as he avoids a particularly large mud puddle. "What happened here?"

His question, of course, was answered a few minutes later as he trailed the rest of the group into the Breakbone's tent. The dragonborn's face twists with frustration as he realizes he is being drafted yet again, away from his primary goal.

The paladin strides up to Breakbone's desk. "Four people died, huh?" he says, leaning onto the Commander's table. "And you're keeping our healers. Why don't you confiscate all our gear, while you're at it?"

He stares at the commander, daring him to move or speak first.

Aurok speaks aloud. “I’m sure scouting out such an advantageous peak would be within our means.”

In a more conspiratorial voice after they leave the tent. “We would have first eyes over a large area, and a safe point to return to in further expeditions to locate the... relic. I think this may be a good idea, in spite of the commander’s demeanor.”