Lina shrugs. "I'm not sure how much I'll be able to help if anyone gets hurt, but other than that no objections."
Shall we visit the other ship wreck? It is on the way back to my home and we should have no problem getting to Sandpoint before dark anyway.
"Yes," Liu Na replies, curious as to what other secrets the lost Kaijitsu shipwreck might hold.
"Yeah, why not?" Kalistrins says from her spot perched at the stern of the boat, her bow resting across her knees. "We got time, and we did what we came here to do - and more!"
Takeshi remains overwhelmed at the discovery of pieces of his family's history. "Yes," he finally says. "If there is more we can find..."
Walthus nods in agreement and pilots the rowboat into Sogs Bay and follows the coastline northeast for another 45 minutes, while out in Sog's Bay the air is cooler and the oppression that is Brinestump dissipates. However, just as the team cools off a little he turns right into of the little deltas and lands the boat and ties it off against a tree.
After about a ten minute's walk inland you reach the point indicated on
both Megus' map and the back of the fan which isn’t
quite on the coast, but
it’s close enough to hear
the faint susurrus of waves
crashing on an unseen swampy
shoreline. The site itself is obvious
once it is approached—a large burned out wrecked ship lodged in a
shallow pool of swamp water. Driven aground decades
ago during a particularly violent storm that flung the
ship several hundred feet into the flooded swamp, the
ship itself is a two-masted Chelish sailing vessel that has been recently burned.
"For once can this be a shipwreck that isn't full of skeletons that want to kill us?"
"Bah! Where's the fun in explorin safe places with unusual dangers. If dere be nothin here ta kill, let's make with some quick discoverin an move on." I take point and begin to explore.
Jorland walks in front and what may have been a beautiful ship is totally destroyed by a fire that looks about two weeks old, you can still smell that recent fire smell.
Perception 20
"Look!" Liu Na says, reaching into a large pile of ash and splintered burnt wood and pulling out a mangled, fire-scorched piece of bronze. Brushing of a layer of ash and soot, she reads aloud the Tian characters engraved on the metal, "'Kaijitsu Star'. This is the other ship from the Kaijitsu convoy that was lost 25 years ago. But I wonder what happened? It's only been burned within the last couple of weeks."
Takeshi frowns grimly. "Perhaps someone else has gotten here before us and has deliberately destroyed what they could in hopes of preventing others from learning what they had found. And in the process, erasing much of our heritage."
Kalistrine moves up to the burned hulk and pokes around in the ashes, searching the ground just outside the main wreck.
Kalistrine is unable to find any tracks of anything except of little tiny ant feet which ends at a small ant hill.
Shall we move on ? asks Walthus.
I nod at Walthus. "If'n there is nothin te be had here then yeah. Let's move on." I look at Liu and Takeshi. "Interestin that a hunt for goblins turn inta a history trip for de Kaijitsu's. Amy's going to love hearing about all of this don't ye think?"
"Yes, it is very interesting..." Liu Na responds a bit distractedly, her thoughts still occupied by the revelations within the secret letter. "Ameiko's going to be very interested in hearing about all of this..."
You jump back on the rowboat and set off towards Walthus' home and get there about an hour later. Walthus moors the boat goes inside and feeds his snakes and says "You don't mind that I keep the rowboat, itll sure provide a way for me to diversify my diet."
He drops off his camping rucksack and gets his civvie rucksack and leads you back across the New Fish Trail towards town.
GM Rolls
That what was complete torture only a couple days ago is almost second nature at this point. You leave Brinestump and cast one final look at the place and then make your way north along the Lost Coast Road and the six of you arrive at the outskirts of the town where the caravan is parked...
I stretch and loud out a big hearty shout. "HA-HA! What an adventure. De stories I got oughtta give dat spider elf a good headache. Finally I starin te show her up. bout time!" I march forward full of gusto. "First stop is Amy's place. We gots stuff she needs ta see pronto. Let's go!" I head straight for Sandpoint and the Rusty Dragon hauling the chest on my back.
Lina heaves a big sigh of relief as she hears they're in sight of the town. "Oh, I'm glad to be back in civilization! I don't mind the travel, but I've never known such danger and fighting! It'll sure feel good to be able to pass a night without having to worry about goblins sneaking up on me in my sleep. Oh, and finally eat a good me..." she catches herself and turns bright red, looking away from Jorland. "Never mind," she mutters quietly.
As the group passes Sandru's caravan, Kalistrine's friend Omar comes out of his tent and sees the group and yells,
"Sheeeooooottttt!!!! Kali, you a might sight for sore eyes, wes a wuz gunna send a few a da boyz innna affa yauoizzzz!!!
Kalistrine is oddly silent as they leave the swamp, but she brightens up as she nears Sandpoint. "I'm looking forward to that reward." she says as they make their away along the coast road. "What are you all going to spend it on?" she asks.
The sight of the caravan makes her smile, but Omar's greeting does not. "Don't call me 'Kali'!" she shouts back, her cheeks redenning.
"Well, the first part of the reward is all the free food and drink you could want at the Rusty Dragon!" Liu Na says cheerfully as she leads the way to the tavern, her spirits lifting now that the group is back in town.
At Omar's greet to Kalistrine and her response I chuckle. "What? I think Kali is eh cute name fer a woman like yerself." I tease
At the mention of food I nod. "Absolutely. I gathered quite a few spices out in the marsh I wish to try. I'll get cookin. An I'm gonna bust out the Linnorn mead too!."
Kalistrine whirls on Jorland, arms wide, claws brandished. "I will strip your skin off you and feed it to you. How's that for the ultimate gastronomic experiment?" she growls. "Cute name?! she exclaims, and then storms off ahead of the group.
I chuckle. "Hehe, tempers cute too." I then ponder for a moment. "Wonder what my own skin would tastes like? Nah, that's borderline cannibalism and we don't need to go that far." I shrug and move on.
Lina stands there for a moment stunned and mouth open. "I've been calling her Kali the whole time - I thought she liked it..."
Omar says, Sorry, madame, anywho we'iz goin na dragoniva for some drinks, yoiz wans com wits?
The sun sets as the group come within earshot of the Rusty Dragon and you can hear extremely loud music bursting from the building and the shrill beautiful voice of Ameiko over the top of the riveting bass tones and loud drums.
For the workers of the Dragon, the extreme low end of Ameiko's performance is completely new and somewhat of a relief after so many days in the Marsh slaying goblins and skeletons. It seems that there is an even larger crowd than normal and you feel the earth mildly shake underneath the power of the sound.
Just outside you see Sandru and Shalellu conversing.
Kalistrine quickens her pace when she sees Sandru. "Well, bet you didn't expect to see me back so soon, and with a sack full of Goblin ears, did ya, you old goat!" she says to him in a loud voice, a grin on her face.
Sandru turns to talk to Kalistrine and says, Ha! We figured you would have been back two days ago shoot it feels like it has been seven months, you must've liquidated a battailion, been gone so long....
I ignore the two nobodies talking to each other and make a beeline for the Dragon with the chest on my back. I head into the inn and look immediately for Ameiko. If she is performing I simply stand where she might see me. I set the chest down next to me and stand there with a big grin on my face waiting for her to take notice.
Lina grabs Lui's sleeve and holds it as they approach so she doesn't get lost in the crowd, trying not to bump into anyone in the commotion.
Jorland tries to get inside the Dragon but the entire tavern is fully packed with customers and him schlepping that 85 lb chest makes it that much more difficult to find an openning in the crowd to get by.
You have never seen the place so packed with people and people are dancing so hard that roof starts to shake due to the merriment.
Shallelu says to Sandru "That gnome thinks he can maneuver that crowd with an extremely large chest on his back, bah!!!!
Walthus then pinches Shallelu and she gives him an angered look and then realizes who it is and says to him "If it isn't the Warden of Brinestump, how have you been, sir?"
Walthus smiles and says, "You need to be careful about them height jokes. This be a fine group of youngins' Just need to be salted a bit more but a fine group"
I snort and I make my way around to he back door of the Dragon and attempt to get in that way.
"What's going on here? Why are there so many people?"
Ameiko's band is playing tonite... Seems like she has a rather large following. says Sandru answering Lina and then turns back to Kalistrine and Shalelu.
I think Ameiko will be done in about 20 minutes. So how was the Marsh? Find any interesting things we could sell for the caravan?
"Ameiko has a band? Remind me not to come here when they're playing. I'd rather listen to Omar sing." she says with a nasty grin. "Oh we found something alright. Only there's some talk of it belonging to Ameiko's family. Looked to be worth some gold it did. Takeshi and Liu Na wouldn't hear of selling it." she grumbles, clearly unhappy about this.
Sandru snickers when Kalistrine complains about Ameiko. Sandpoint and the Kaijitsus, everyone seems to love them especially Ami. She saved my life she did, I hate to think of those days... You know why. Sandru forces back a tear.
Meanwhile, Jorland lets himself into the Dragon via the back entrance and sees a large pile of fish, half of which is being salted in Tian style hanging from hooks hanging from the ceiling. The sight of the fish overwhelms you and your desire to get cooking.
Liu Na takes Lina's hand to guide the blind oracle as she follows Jorland toward the Rusty Dragon's back entrance, pointedly ignoring Sandru and Kalistrine's discussion.
Once inside, she leads Lina into the common room and finds the oracle a seat to enjoy the rest of the show. The half-elf ninja then heads to her room to change into her work clothes, moving through the crowd as unobtrusively as she can.
I look at the fish all wide on. I look at the heavy chest and shrug. "If Amy's puttin on eh show den her guests gonna need some food." I haul chest over somewhere where it is both safe and out of the way.
I start taking down fish and look Liu. "Hey Liu, I'm gonna start preparin food. Wanna help me serve it? No Jorland surprise tenight. I'm gonna use a recipe Amy taught me."
Profession Cook Check:
"Sure thing. Just let me go and change clothes," Liu Na answers Jorland as she leads Lina from the kitchen and into the tavern's common room.
Liu Na and Jorland get right back in the groove of working the Dragon's kitchen and after about two hours go by before Ameiko's band finishes its final encore for the evening.
Ameiko then see Jorland and Liu and says Shoot, I thought I needed to hire some new staff members, being you guys been gone so long. Jorlo, Its time to celebrate, could you be a dear and get the cask of Valdemar Single Batch Rye? I have a thirst for the complex character of that spirit. Liu could you get the glasses?
After the show and the barrel of Rye is brought up to the bar, Ameiko swirls the miraculous chocolate brown liquid in her glass while stroking her extremely large samisen. Shallelu and Sandru are sitting on either side of her and she can tell that you have something to tell her, "So, how did the Goblin stompin' go?"
"Sister!" Takeshi exclaims, "We found something! It might be about our family!" He then takes a breath to calm down and continues. "We found and fought off the goblins. They shouldn't be a problem for a while. But we found a map to ruins of a couple of ships. They were the ships that came with our family!" his excitement increasing again at the end.
While Takeshi is animated she takes a healthy pull from her whisky, nods her head while listening to her little brother speak.
"Interesting, so you found some of our family ships that have gone missing. The Glassworks still run two or three out of the port. That reminds me I need to speak with the accountant about increasing the cost.... Well, what else happened?"
Kalistrine impatiently elbows her way into the crowd and more than one stubborn man gets clawed somewhere sensitive so she can reach the bar and get herself an ale.
I smile broadly at Ameiko. "That's not all we found Amy." I fetch the chest and lug it into the room. "Dis belongs to yer family too. We brought it fer ya. I dunt know where da key is but I kin bust it open fer ya." I wait anxiously for her response.
For Shelyn's sake, don't break the damned thing open, it may break whatever is inside says Ameiko exasperatedly. She then examines the chest thoroughly.
Let me get my picks from behind the bar, hey, where did you find this bad boy? she says to group as a whole.
Sandru looks at Ameiko and shakes his head, All you can do is break that lock. Hahahaha!!!!!
He then reaches within his stylish headband and pulls out the perfect tool to open the chest and a hefty dab of grease from his flask, he studies the lock, (basically takes 20) and then opens it with a click.
Ameiko looks at him and says Did Jubrayl teach you that one? HaHAHAHAHAHA!!!!
Sandru frowns at the mention of his brother's name.
Inside the chest is five potions of cure light wounds, two potions of cure moderate wounds, three potions of lesser restoration, a ring of climbing, and a wand of identify, there is also a masterwork chain shirt, masterwork cold iron wakizashi, 11 Desnan Candles and four skyrockets, and 3820sp, 421gp and a few pieces of Tian style jewelry. Ameiko lists these items off to you because they are etched with Kaijitsu family code.
At the removal of all the treasure, Kalistrine leans in and her eyes glint at the sight of it. As more and more gets removed and piled on the bar and Ameiko seems to claim ownership of it all, she grows annoyed. "So all of this belongs to you? That figures. Rich snobs claiming the wealth from the fancy estates when we poor people do all the work." she says, her face flushed with anger and with drink.
I snort at Kalistrine. "Ah Shut up. We brought dis for Amy. It is rightfully her's an she dun hafta give us none of it. Our job was de greenskins an we's done dat. Dis was a fer fun side track we did fer free. Ya didn't hafta join us." I shove the ears at Kalistrine. "Ere! Ye want money so bad takem all an take de credit wy yer at it. I dunt need it. I got what I want." I say as I look pleasantly at the expression on Ameiko's face.
After having sat by herself during most of the festivities, just taking in the sounds around her, Lina draws close as they pull out the chest, listening intently as Ameiko describes each one. "What're you gonna do with all these? Didn't you retire from adventuring?"