The Captain's sharp eyes notice a deeper shadow behind some of the vines dangling down the cliff face: pushing them aside he reveals the entrance to a cave. The tunnel's tall enough that none of you have to duck to enter.
There are a couple of places the tunnel branches off a bit, but even these smaller side passages curve deeper into the hillside. All three passages lead to a larger cavern that slowly slopes downward. Although the floor here is initially stone, there's a layer of earth near the back wall and signs that this dirt has been disturbed fairly recently.
Seeing that the dirt has been disturbed, Jordan begins looking around for tracks, or any other clues as to who could have been here recently.
Jordan finds some meandering tracks, large, misshapen, and vaguely humanoid, likely belonging to the deceased Gravedigger. There are no other tracks in the earth.
Aghon casts detect magic and takes a slow survey of the entire chamber, including the floor, to see if anything trips his magical senses.
Jarvis will keep Light cast on an object as long as needed to provide the explorers light to see by. Other than that, he will summon an instrument and will be plinking along on it until it disappears, at which point a new instrument will be summoned.
No magic is detected, but you realize that your spell wouldn't work if anything magical were buried more than 3 feet deep.
Culder looks around for anything he can use to dig out the areas of broken up earth.
Culder looks around for anything he can use to dig out the areas of broken up earth.
How long = 20 to 30 minutes.
Digging Utensil = Nothing available (but you recall the Gravedigger hurling a shovel at you at the start of combat with it).
"Frack..." Culder mutters angrily, "I'll be back soon." Without any further explanation he hurries off to retrieve the gravedigger's shovel.
While Culder leaves, Jordan takes up a position near the entrance to the cave, just in case any of their crewmates should arrive.
While Culder leaves, Jordan takes up a position near the entrance to the cave, just in case any of their crewmates should arrive.
Funny you should say that: I was going to open up again by asking the cave folk if they were staying inside or going back out.
From far off to the west-northwest you hear a very faint woman's voice calling...or singing??!!
Jogging back towards the scene of their tussle with the gravedigger, Culder is too distracted to notice anything outside his immediate surroundings...
Jordan starts dozing in the warm afternoon air...
Something large crashes through the jungle underbrush near the cave entrance, but Jordan refrains from putting an arrow into whatever it might be until he gets a view of the new arrival. Good thing--cuz Culder's back, shovel in hand.
I could create water over the dirt and soften it that way? Aghon offers up... Should I?
Culder scowls a bit when he realizes that nobody else is actually going to offer to do any shoveling. "Seems sof' enuff," he answers scooping out the first load of dirt.
"Ye could fin' a bucket 'r somethin' 'n' fill it with wa'er an ice fer me t'drink..."
I don't see a bucket anywhere...
Apparently, since Culder ran back to get it, the shovel now belongs to him and any future shoveling is also his responsibility. Dig, dig dig! Before long, the burly Captain's dug a decent hole at least a couple feet deep. No sign of buried treasure just yet, though. No sign of a bucket, either.
You gonna try detect magic any more? Assuming you are...you can detect 4 auras (3 faint, 1 strong) coming from beneath the surface, just a little bit to the right of where Culder's shoveling.
Hearing Culder speak of a need for a bucket, he summons a large bell and holds it out to Aghon.
Here, you can fill this up for the Cap'n there. It'll only last for a few minutes, but I can always summon another without a problem. Just let me know when you need a drink Cap'n. I'd help to dig, but I lack the, how do you say, leverage to do it effectively. He says with a grin and a wink. And Aghon, if you are needing a break or help checking for magic, that I can do too.
Otherwise, Jarvis will continue to cast light as needed.
By all means, please look for magic. I'm guessing you're better at it than I am anyway. Look over here! He says pointing just a bit to the right of where Culder's been shoveling, not sure exactly why he feels that would be a good place to dig.
Jarvis' fingers waggle a bit and his eyes glow a dull blue as he looks around the room, searching for the presence of any magical items or auras. Following Aghon's finger, he focuses on the spot to the right of Culder.
Yes, definitely some auras there. One seems pretty strong, in comparison.
Yippeee! Magical treasure! If you need a break Culder, I'll dig over here... Aghon says pointing to where the magical auras were located.
It takes a while, but Culder's shovel eventually strikes something hard. The big man uncovers a medium-sized treasure chest, still in decent shape. Once he unearths it, he notices a second chest buried at its side...then a third...then a fourth! All the chests' locks have some rusting and there's no sign of any keys.
Leaving his post at the cave entrance, Jordan comes over to the chests. Not feeling any sense to rush, he sits down in front of each chest and begins cleaning and fiddling with the locks.
I'd like to offer up that, whatever we find in these chests, the lion's share should go to the Cap'n because he did the lion's share of the work, not only defeating the Gravedigger, but also actually digging them up. Aghon says and pats Culder on the back. Much thanks Cap'n.
"Don't count your chickens before they're hatched," Jordan mutters from his work space. "Odds are that Scourge and Plugg'll have it in their minds to take a piece of whatever we find as well."
"Whate'er we admit t'findin'," Culder corrects.
Jarvis, having actually crewed aboard a pirate vessel before, realizes that Jordan and Culder pretty much have the right of it: Since Scourge and/or Plugg sanctioned the expedition to the island, anything found there will be considered 'ship's plunder,' much like your equipment was when you all were press-ganged. You'd each get a small 'crewman's share'...assuming the bastards actually consider you new recruits as part of the Wormwood's crew by this point.
Each of the four chests is treated with some sort of resin that has helped waterproof the wood, and each is in decent condition. When Jordan pops the locks and opens the lids, he reveals thousands of silver coins--mostly of Chelish and Andoran mint--inside each. Buried beneath the coins in each chest is a magical trinket: a bowman's quiver, a magic wand, a dull gray spherical stone with runes etched upon it (the strong aura detected earlier by Jarvis and Aghon), and a pair of very similar bottles of green glass. One of these bottles has a twistable key stuck into its neck while the second has no key but is corked with what appears to be an almost incorporeal plug of wispy gray smoke.
Each full chest weighs approximately 150 pounds.
As mentioned, the gray stone has the Strong aura; the glass bottles may have registered as one item because the aura on the corked one is lingering in nature--the bottle's magic appears to have been already used. Feel free to make the rolls (Knowledge (arcana), Spellcraft) if you try to ID these items.
Aghon detects magic on each of the five magic items concentrating on them for as long as necessary to try and decipher their intended uses and activations.
The wand is a wand of identify (44 charges).
Jarvis will equally focus a limited bit attention on the five items.
Aghon picks up the wand and looks at Jarvis and Vincent. Well, this might make things a LOT easier here. He says, and then hands Vincent the wand. It's a wand that has the spell Identify on it, and it has forty-four charges left. Probably you can just use this to identify all the magic items.
The quiver radiates moderate conjuration magic.
The bottles radiate faint illusion magic. The aura on the one with the cork (and without a key) is diminished (lingering).
Certainly focus that wand on this quiver first, it seems to be a moderately strong item. Jarvis says with a grin.
Vincent takes the "thank you very much Aghon, this should probably make everything a lot easier, just give me a second my dear comrades"
"We keep th'magic stuff t'ourselfs, th'silver we bring back t'win some fav'r with Harrigan 'n' Scourge."
"I'd second that," Jordan adds. "It's likely those that don't get some gear get a bit of a reward for all their hard work and get some coin anyways."
I can get behind that decision. Jarvis says firmly.
My only problem with that is, where the hell are we going to hide these items on us. My interactions with Scourge have shown me the man trusts no one, maybe not even himself. I'm guessing we're going to get a full body cavity search upon returning with these chests full of coins to make sure we didn't "pocket" anything else of value... Too bad there isn't a bag of holding in here. Aghon says, sadly having to be the voice of practical reason in the face of a mound of treasure.