Gelik flings his arms into the air in frustration. "Ack! My powers are useless against these monstrosities!" The little gnome tries to make himself an even smaller target, crouching behind the warriors while he pulls his belt knife.
Hrakar destroys the vegepygmy, but the last one fights on. He turns his wrath onto Torch and hits him twice for a whopping 13 points of damage.
You are up, all of you.
Ralf steps back and aims a healing charm at Torch.
Gelik nervously looks back and forth across the deck, brandishing his little knife.
Torch tries to get the cestus on his left hand up to ward off the vegepygmy's blows, but the fungal warrior hammers him into unconsciousness as though he were standing still. An instant later, his eyes flutter back open, and he looks up to see the vegepygmy looming over him. In desperation, he snatches his fallen scimitar and strikes out awkwardly, hoping to catch the foe at an unexpected angle.
Torch catches the pygmy by the knee and cuts it down. It collapses into an inert heap of fungal material.
The boss's spear is of surprisingly good quality (masterwork) but other than that they carry nothing of value. You quickly ascertain that there are no more foes onboard.
The Nightvoice’s cargo hold is a hideous scene — the skeletal remains of the ship’s crew lie enshrined here. In all there are 19 bodies here, each consisting of a mound of bones caked over with mold; each sits amid a small circle of personal objects, teeth, coins, bits of jewelry, and other objects that the crewmember valued in life. While many of the objects scattered around the skeletons have long since rotted or rusted away, a search of the hold reveals a total of 432 cp, 284 sp, 123 gp, and jewelry worth 250 gp amid the bones, along with a pair of bracers and a wand, that both detect as magical.
Also you might find something above, in what remains of the captain’s cabin:
Perception 20:
Aerys, is saddened by what they find, a crew not taken by the waves but their remains overtaken by mold and decay, not a fitting end for those who feel the freedom of the sea breezes. "Perhaps we should torch this ship, to let them be free of this dismal and decaying wreck?"
From out of the moldy remains of the captain's cabin, Torch uncovers what looks like the encrusted remnants of the ship's log, as mold-shrouded as the rest of the rest of the vessel. "A little light reading for later," he says, tucking it into his pack. He also nods agreement with Aerys' words. "Let's send these souls to their proper rest." At the same time, though, he collects the various offerings the vegepygmies left behind, in case they prove useful later.
Ralf notices the magical auras with his Sense Magic charm and he excitedly starts leafing through his book and mumbling to himself. "I'm sure I've seen something like that before somewhere..."
Spellcraft checks:
The bracelet is a pair of Bracers of Armor +1 and the wand is a Wand of Mirror Image with 5 charges.
Ralf exclaims. "Well, I'll be! This bracelet would give someone a bit o' armor, and this wand can make illusions of you so your enemies can't tell which is which."
He looks thoughtful for a second. "A fella almost feels bad about killing these poor plant folk. After all, they weren't really doing us no harm until we come acrost 'em."
"At least this wasn't a complete waste of time" says the dwarf surveing the piles of bones amid among the filth of the cargo hold, "At least we can give these unfortunate souls, rest. It's a pity we can't give them back to Torag's embrace, but I dare not risk prolonged contact with this unclean mold. Let's burn the ship down, burning up in flames is a much kinder fate than existing in the corruption"
As soon as Gelik steps foot in the hold, he makes a little gagging noise in the back of his throat. "Urk. I think I threw up in my mouth a little. Blech." He turns to immediately walk out, but the mysteries of the odd shrine draw him back. He readjusts his scented hanky and inspects the pile.
Did the doomed crewmembers arrange themselves in a circle and then kill themselves, or were they arranged after death by these horrid mold-men?" He stares for a few minutes, obviously unable to gain any insight into what went on here. "This is the worst thing I've ever seen. Are those teeth? I'm outta here."
Gelik removes himself from the hold, getting as much "fresh" air as he can on the deck. He hefts the boss-mold-man's spear, admiring its craftsmanship. "I'm not satisfied with my own personal armory in this infested place. Would anyone more capable care to weild this, or may I give it a whirl?"
Aerys offers to hold onto the coins and gems, to take them back to camp. Before she continues, "Well, if there's more of this place to check, then let's get on with it now you all have the things you want. Once that's done, perhaps we can use some oil to fire the ship, does anyone have any oil with them? or shall we have to return to camp and get some?"
Ralf nods sagely. "Well, if you don't mind, I think I'm going to head out of here. The smell's pretty bad. Say, sport, mind if I take a look at that log book later? I've never claimed to be the world's greatest sailor, but I might know a thing or two."
"Yes. I think we've spent more than enough time in this awful place. I don't see any reason to wander around killing plant people." Gelik wrinkles his nose in disgust. "In fact, I suggest we get off this little island as soon as possible and go back to the camp. We can read the ship's log there."
Considering for a moment, he adds, "So why did the two vegepygmies get married?" He pauses for the purposes of comedic timing. "They took a lichen to each other." He chuckles at is own joke. "Lichen...likin', hmm?" Gelik raises his eyebrows suggestively, in expectation.
Torch blinks unevenly at Gelik's pun, then visibly turns his attention to Ralf, holding out the logbook. "Best of luck with it," he says deliberately and with exaggerated mouth movements, in hopes that Ralf can read his lips. "It's kind of a mess, but there might be something worth knowing in there."
Suddenly Hrakar's face lits with hope:"By Torag! These are the most sensible words I heard in the last week! By all means, let's go back to camp and prepare to hunt down those betrayers!"
If you persist in avoiding the beaten paths, it will take you a few days to get back to camp. Anyway you will need to find a place to spend the night soon.
Do you intend to torch the ship?
"And let's not forget to torch this wreck. Its corruption should end here and now"
"What is this fascination with burning things? Aside from all the effort it will take, just think of the unholy stink it will generate! It's been rotting here for who knows how long, let it rot away to nothing for all I care. And another thing - we'll really feel like fools if we burn this ship to the waterline then find out from the ship's log that there was some hidden treasure stashed aboard that we haven't found. Nope, if you want to burn the thing, you can do it without me."
EDIT: typical
Ralf leafs through the logbook, mumbling to himself absent-mindedly.
Linguistics:
Aerys starts the process to burn the ship, she looks at Gelik with disdain as he wanders off the ship. "Typical land lubber, no respect for the ways of us sea-faring folks."
Given a fair amount of persistence, you will be able both to torch the ship and read the log, but it will take some time and the question looms: where are you going to spend the night.
It's also not safe to go back to the mainland while the tide is in, so I guess I'd like some sleeping arrangements from you before you head back to camp.
Channel Energy:
Gelik blows a raspberry at Aerys' land lubber comment as he egresses the ship. "Pfth. That's what I think of your sea-faring ways."
When he realizes that they're stranded by the tide, he drops his arms to his sides with a slap, looking dejected."That's just great. Slumber party on mushroom island. It's not bad enough to be stuck on a miserable little island. No, now we're stuck on an even more miserable, littler island."
With the prospect of an unpleasant evening ahead, Gelik starts to tell a story of his rocky past. "So I bet you didn't know I've been married three times, did you? I'll never get married again, though. Not after what happened. My first two wives died from eating poisonous mushrooms, and my third wife died of a broken neck."
Gelik pauses, raising his eyebrows as he waits for someone to ask him what happened. If no one does, he continues anyway. "What happened you ask? Well...she wouldn't eat the mushrooms." He tries to deliver the punchline deadpan, but he can't help smiling.
With a certain amount of firewood and persistence, you manage to set the ship on fire. As you turn your back on it and leave you are accosted by two very angry vegepygmies.
Roll for initiative.
initiative
The little menaces appear 40 feet from you. Aerys is first, then the pygmies. I don't really think we'll need a map for this.
Aerys charges forward, both hands on her sword swinging....
...but her devil may care attitude to these plant men means she doesn't take as much care with her accuracy as she should do.
Ralf moves forward more cautiously.
Initiative Roll:
Hrakar will try to cast another acid dart on his turn
One of the pygmies stabs Aerys for 3 points of damage. You are up, all of you.
Gelik moves out to the side and cautiously approaches the vegepygmy attacking Aerys from an advantageous angle.
Torch takes a defensive stance as he cautiously moves toward the vegepygmies, wary of their stabbing spears and the effects of his own wounds.
Hrakar sends an acid dart towards one of the vegepygmies (possibly one not in melee and not under cover...)
Attack Roll (ranged touch attack):
Damage (if hits):
Ralf moves up to one of the vegepygmies (provoking an AoO) and feebly swings at it with his walking stick.
Hrakar's bolt weakens one of the pygmies enough for Ralf to bring it down with his stick, as Aerys provides a momentary distraction. Torch carefully closes and Gelik jabs with his newfound spear while trying to stay out of trouble.
The pygmy pokes at you but Aerys deftly dodges.
One down and you are up. All of you.
Hrakar takes out his war hammer and attacks the remaining pygmy
Attack Roll (if hits):
Critical confirmation roll:
Damage Roll (multiplied just in case): ++
Hrakar pounds the last pygmy into some fungal pulp. After that nothing bothers you as you watch the ship burn and eventually sink and start your journey back to the mainland.
The thing is that it's getting late. Where do you plan on sleeping?
Hrakar charges the remaining pygmy with a fury born out of frustration:"I have had enough! Die and stay dead stupid overgrown sack of spores!" and so saying the dwarf slams his war-hammer on the surviving vegepygmy. The strenght of the blow is such the fungal creature's head explodes on impact leaving the rest of the body to deflate on the ground.
"Told you! I hope you rot in whatever hell spawned your lot! And now let's find a decent place to rest... we need to be fresh for our hunt" finishes the cleric of Torag spitting on the ground
P.S.
We need 92 xp to level up! (6 months for 1 level!!!) :D
"Blech." Gelik grimaces. "I think I got some of that last one in my eye."
EDIT: Viola!
You find a nice and sheltered spot on the lesser island. While you are busy putting up the tent you are overtaken by a squall, which slows you down some but apart from the lack of comfort you manage to get a pretty nice little camp up and get a fire going to start to dry out.
Now I just want to know your watchkeeping arrangements.