Seeing the others head below deck, Quiahar follows, he is still anxious to know what is going on.
As Wald is touched by the alchemist, he turns to you with tears coming down his face. ”Onaar is dead! I was removing the tarnish from the sword, and the ship just MOVED. I couldn't see anything, and now ...” he goes back to crying.
*****************
A round of the ship sees eight crew alive, including Wald, though careful checking was needed to find them – three were unconscious. Their injuries are manageable, but 4 have broken limbs. The one crewmember to avoid injury entirely was a man named Balo.
”I was just cleaning out the cupboards under the kitchen when she lurched on us. Guess the place kept me safe.”
The rooms on the ship look a mess. Anything unsecured was flung about, and most glass containers are smashed – which means a good amount of liquids are now on the floor. Anything present before still is – with the exception of Sellas.
As I find those that are injured I will use my Wand of Cure Light Wounds to bring them around. Let me know how many charges I must spend.
Is anyone else hurt? If this first mate fella isn't going to take command, which of you will? I'm no sailor, no sir. All I know is we ought to find a port and do it quickly. Well, assuming we aren't sinking.
At the present, it doesn't feel as if the ship is sinking. Wald doesn't respond to your statement or inquiry.
As Wald refuses the sword, he realizes that the man's book is gone.That's a mystery for another time.Drysten withdraws the rapier and places it into the dead captain's hands. He puts the mans hands together and closes his eyes, the half-orc is showing him a piece of paper with instructions. Drysten absent mindedly pulls out his own in pen and changes the "i" in Dristen to a "y". When he finishes he shakes his head.
"You can hear right? We need to take care of the ship. As the highest ranking able-bodied and able minded crew member I am now the acting captain. We should gather everyone on the deck, I'll need their help to sail the ship anyway." Dristen rips off part of the parchment and writes "I am now the acting-captain. Gather everyone on the deck." He shows this to the people who don't seem to understand whats going on and then points to the elf and beckons him to follow. As he passes the hurt crew member he stops to cast Cure light wounds.
To get the intact sailors and the Elf to pull in the sails until we can determine a location. I'll be at the helm.
Looks towards Dristen You seem to know what you're doing with a ship to some degree, you're a handy little fella! I'm going to suit up and then help get things arranged incase we get attacked, do you have any clue where we are?
He then heads towards his gear putting his armor on and his tetsubo, then proceeds to try and help Dristen put the ship back in order and clean up the oil and other messes as directed
(int)
(wis, perception auto success at dc 5)
Haggin feels lost and has no idea of wat to do. A dead captain, a useless first mate, oh my what to do? Wait, where did that Saladraxis go? She could be hurt in that hiding place of hers, I better go find her!
Haggin will go off in he direction he last saw the girl scamper to and see if he can't find her.
Folios reads the paper and nods at the Halfling. He then heads off per instructions to aid in pulling in the sails.
Sal clutches her crossbow to her chest. Ok step one arm yourself complete, step two is join the clutch, must find the scaleless and see who is still alive. Sal grabs her pack and her quiver of bolts. She turns and begins to make her way back topside at a slow steady pace.
Sal makes a stealthy advance keeping her head on swivel, scanning this way and that for trouble. Her crossbow is kept low and loaded, at the hatch to topside she listens a moment to make sure nothing is amiss and then, realizing she is still deaf and that this would be an exercise in futility, she proceeds with her stealthy advance on the rest of the group. Only breaking cover after she sees Haggin. She lifts her right arm high and motions for him to come to where she is.
Haggin see the gnome raise her arm ad quickly goes to join her. He points to his ears and shakes his head, then points at Saladraxis as if to ask Are you deaf too? He takes notice that she is armed with a crossbow and tries to motion to her that it is not needed, pointing at the weapon and shaking his head no.
Patting her gently on the shoulder, he motions for her to follow him back to where the rest of the group is gathering.
Those wandering about the ship can tell a few things. Firstly, there seems to be no hull damage; you're not sinking. Secondly, the sailors don't react negatively too Dristen's assumption of command, though they don't affirm his authenticity. Last, there is a moderate wind whipping up from time to time above deck, blowing starboardly - though what direction that is cannot be said in the unfamiliar sky. With no clouds though, it seems like no storm.
As the ship rolls on the ocean (Drysten thinks its an ocean at least) waves, Drysten returns to his natural sailing Dristen state. Dristen shakes his head as he is suddenly holding the wheel. I need to stop dazing off. He notices that there is a piece of paper in his right hand. He reads it. I am now acting captain. Gather everyone on the deck. He recognizes the handwriting as his own and frowns. How did that happen? Then he recalls the macabre scene of the ships crew bloodied and torn and he brings his focus back to the deck. He quickly figures out a few of the crew members are pulling in the sails. His tone changes, though his voice is still too loud, and Dristen starts barking orders at the crew instead of the requests that Drysten had been making. He is using one of the crew members that can hear to run messages that he writes to those that cannot hear. Is somebody working on why we can't hear? And has anyone figured out where we are? So much to do. Dristen speeds up the pace of his orders, trying to get the ship settled as quickly possible so he can join those gathering on the deck.
After Filios aids with the sails as much as he can.
I am no sailor, that's for sure!
He returns to the others gathered on the deck.
When things settle, if they do, I would like to check the cargo.
Has anyone noticed if our cargo is still alright?
That's a good Question! I'll go down and inspect it, does anyone have the manifest? He hefts his large Tetsubo over his shoulder, his spiked armor looking menacing. He looks to the crew
While he is lucid enough to avoid stumbling about, Quiahar is still confused by the sequence of events. Although people were shouting at him, he could hear nothing besides the heightened ringing in his ears.
That's a good Question! I'll go down and inspect it, does anyone have the manifest? He hefts his large Tetsubo over his shoulder, his spiked armor looking menacing. He looks to the crew
Balo happens to be standing nearby and responds. "That's Wald's job. Keeps track of it in that big book of his, he does."
*******
Under Dristen's orders, the sailors seem to be working at a decent pace for such a skeletal crew; the wind is taken advantage of, but, as nobody knows where you are, you sail more swiftly into the unknown. An ocean is perhaps an accurate description as no land is visible in any direction.
wald! Where is the manifest?
Sal motions to her ear and shakes her head. with a smile she falls in line behind Haggin.
Haggin leads Drax toward the halfling called Dristen and writes down some questions. Do you know where you are going yet? Where are we? How many people are still alive? Are you deaf? The gnome just shrugs his shoulders as if to say I don't have any idea as to what is going on around here.
Wald does not respond.
Haggin will cast Detect Magic in the area, trying to get as much of where he is at in the cone of effect as he can.
Dristen nods and writes back. Nobody seems to know where we are going or where we are. I think we teleported somewhere. There are about fifteen of us alive still. Now that the ship is under control we need to take care of things.
Dristen writes out a list:
clean up the spilled liquids
clean up the bodies and gore
figure out why we can't here
figure out where we are
preserve the food
feed the crew and ourselves
find an intact spy glass
Dristen rips up the papers, one instruction per peice, holding onto the two mysteries and the gore clan up, and hands the rest to Haggin. He pulls out the Find an intact spy glass and hands it to Saladraxis. He writes on the paper he still has, hand these out, questions to me.
After Haggin departs Dristen writes another one down, find Wald's book.
Haggin suddenly realises he has a compass and a wayfinder. He'll retrieve them and take a look at each, then hand them to Dristen in hopes that it may help.
Haggin then hands out all the instruction papers to members of the crew that are serviceable, pointing to Dristen and indicating they came from the halfling. Haggin will then go around the ship and cast Mending on anything important that needs repair that the cantrip will handle.
Sal looks down at the paper in her hand, turning it slightly in her hands. What is this, instructions from this man. Has he taken command? Sal motions as if writing in the air and then puts her hand out.
Ariston joins the others on their return to the deck. While there he takes a closer look at the sky, the emerging stars and anything else that might give them something to go on.
The sky looks unfamiliar to you, given the position of what you assume to be stars. The air is a bit crisper now than last you were on deck.
Dristen gives Saladraxis paper and an inkpen and offers his sheild for her to write on.
Sal nods a thank you to dristen and begins to write.
"Hello, my name is (complicated draconic rune script denoting name). What is your name please?
What has happened here? Is the captain and first mate dead or incapacitated to the point that they can not perform their duties? By what authority are you handing out orders? Where are we currently? Also, while we are on the subject, did you have anything to do with what happened to the ship we are on?"
She looks at her questions for a second and adds an after thought.
"I understand we are under constraints due to the survival situation we find ourselves in. Please if you could handle these with haste I promise to follow orders to the best of my ability until such time as we have time to sort out questions of group cohesion in a less life or death situation. Please answer honestly as your answers will have no impact on my participation in our effort to survive."
She looks the note over once more and hands it over to Dristen.
Over some time, the ringing sound in his ears gives way to a blessed silence. He is finally able to make some sense of his surroundings, and makes his way back above deck to find Dristen and any others who are with him.
I'm Dristen, the captain is dead, first mate is in hysterics, I'm keeping this ship afloat until first mate can take over, authority is that i know enough to keep us alive, not trying to control people or events, just running ship operations, nobody seems to know where we are, the ship likely teleported, i jad nothing to do with it, hoping when ship is safe and secure everyone will meet on deck to discuss course of action, i will not determine course, just help us, follow it.
As he finishes writing, Haggin arrives with the compass and wayfinder. Dristen claps for joy.
To figure out where we are or where land would be
Filios watches as Gansukh addresses Wald.
Finally, someone willing to find out the condition of our cargo.
He plans to follow him to the hold after Wald responds.
Wald stops crying completely and begins sputtering some prayers to Pharasma for the captain's safe passage as he sobs.
Dristen shakes his head as he works with the compass and wayfinder. With no knowledge of where we are this is worthless thanks though. At the blank stares from Haggin and Saladraxis he writes down the comment.
Perception dc 21
Sal reads over the missive twice over to make sure she got it all. After which she nods grimly at Dristen. As she is turning to go carry out her orders she spies a bird as it flies to the crows nest. She levels a quick aim on the bird to be sure it is not a threat. Non-swimming animal, must mean land is nearby somewhere. She looks around to see if anyone else noticed it, and looks at Dristen and Haggin's reaction to her sudden blur of motion. She motions to the bird with her crossbow.