Taking the rush in his stride... or at least trying to before his fractured leg half gives way, Dibbs catches himself with a grunt "Aye lad, we're back... back tae our feckin ship. Ye gots any idea why they left it eh?"
Rafe offers a supporting arm, "Are you alright, Sir?" Dibbets' old gimp leg, long ago broken in a fall from the shrouds and more recently shark bitten and tried through stumping miles through the Mwangi Expanse, looks red and swollen. Perhaps his crisis of faith has left more tangible marks.
"I didn't want to stay when they left you, Master Dibbets. I wanted to go with Masters Nkechi and Stork, but they told me to stay with the ship and you would catch up. I am glad they were right."
A pounding sound from the locked door interrupts the tale for the moment. "That's Jenkie," Rafe says. "She locked him in there before he changed and I guess with everything, we all just forgot about him."
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Dingus softly hums some weird tune to himself, and seems to be almost walking on air, as the team gets back to familiar ground.
Finally. We take our first step to conquer and command.
He stops and smiles to himself at some inside joke, and scans the shoreline for any signs of movement.
Dingus has remained topside to assist Jim Stork with the lookout. The tall thin man scratches his long nose and just stares at the young man.
"You are a strange bird," he comments.
After starting and half-drawing his rapier, Jim calms downs and ruffles the boy's hair with a grin. "Good to see you made it, lad! 'Scuse me a moment--I'm going to go have a little chat with Jenkie."
The Taldan strolls over to the locked door and taps on it a couple of times. "Hello! Just a word to the wise--you might want to pipe down and stay put. Because after you spilled your guts to Lanteri we're all just a mite peeved with you. Kaul's out here with his axe, and if he happens to see your ugly face, well, you'll spill your guts again." Jim's voice loses its levity and turns cold. "And that's if I don't get to you first."
With that, he walks away from the door.
The thumping stops abruptly allowing Rafe to tell his tale. "After the Captain left you on that island, we sailed all through the night. It being a full moon and all, I stayed down in the hold because, you know... I don't feel so well since that gnome did what he did. I was down there when we hit the reef right near sunrise and we grounded the ship to keep her from sinking. Funny thing, I heard the crew talking to Mistress Belinna and they said they had the reef spotted and were clear, but it was like it just rose out of nowhere to hit the ship. It is kinda spooky looking."
The boy shrugs and continues, "Anyway, the Captain wouldn't wait to fix the ship first. She took some of the officers and went to look for Redclaw's gold in that old black tower. She came back just herself last night and told all the crew that they'd found it and she wanted everyone to come bring it back. She didn't want anyone to stay behind."
"I wanted to obey, Master Dibbets. I mean she is the Captain, right? But what if you came back and no one was around. I had to wait for you so I hid again until they left."
Jim grins as the thumping stops. Smart man. After Rafe finishes his tale, he ponders for a moment. "We're glad you waited, Rafe. That doesn't sound good at all. I'm thinking maybe Lanteri had this in mind from the start. This is too much like what happened with Dallian and Red Aesha. The crew's probably been sacrificed to that stone of hers already...."
Jim keeps a surreptitious eye on Stork, looking for responses to the names.
Kaul again doesn't hide his disappointment at Jenkie's show of nonce.
The brute casts a baleful gaze at the door as if to bore through with hate to the inhabitant within, then turns to the task in red-hand.
"Hur. So want me tae hunt these feckers down... Sniff 'em out, then butcher 'em slow?"
The thug looks visibly keen to get bloody...
Jim keeps a surreptitious eye on Stork, looking for responses to the names.
Shaking his head "I'm livin... an nei lad, ye did good. She ain't much o' a Cap'n iffin her boat spends more time onna sand than it does inna waters anyhow eh?"
Musing over the situation he adds "Reckon we scour tha ship n' quarters first afore we head out lads. Mebbe could be tha b1tch fergot summat that'd point us at what she's doin."
Kaul nods with a angler fish grin;
"Hur... Anyways its our tub now... Everythin' that's in 'er is ours, everythin' sales on 'er is ours... Right?"
The brute starts the search in nearby cabins;
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Scoffing "Taint nei other feckers fer sure - have at matey"
Jim nods. "It's all salvage, hey? The crew's likely bled their lives out on Aesha's stone, so they won't be coming back for it."
The crew gives the ship a once over to see if there are any clues. The unlocked quarters on the main hold only the usual crew gear fore and officer's quarters stern. Making for waist deck which would likely hold anything of interest, you join Dingus and Jim Stork. The armory/workshop located forward is unlocked and fully stocked as near as you can tell. Jim Stork notes that only some of the ropes are missing.
Moving aft to the Captain's quarters, you inspect Lanteri's personal effects including a luxurious bed and fine dressing table along with a portrait of her husband with a bullet through it. There are nautical charts, trophies and fancy hats and other accouterments. Still on the navigation table is the treasure finding nail with a lock of hair tied to it.
Jim looks for her personal log.
Kaul shoots Jimmer a hard look and grumbles a warning;
"Hur... They don't come back until they come back... We've had plenty o' brushes with the risen dead eh..."
The thug goes easy, not wanting to damage wares that the crew now own... as they investigate the Captain's quarters he nods toward the fancy hats;
"Ding... fancy a hat fer yer scaly bonce? Hur-hur-hur..."
Was thinking something like this for our Snake Mage
Jim leafs through the log, but it seems pretty pedestrian. No dark plots writ in ink anyway other than hints of frustration at her husband's lack of desire in cashing out Jemma Redclaw's booty despite her goading. She felt he was denying her her share and it's easy to find a motive there for his murder. He also finds notes about her doubts about the muscle picked up at Lilywhite ending in a decision to be rid of them when they hide lycanthropes among her crew.
Anything in there about suspicions of Stork? (Considering that he was actively contemplating mutiny.)
Anything in there about suspicions of Stork? (Considering that he was actively contemplating mutiny.)
Wounded pride smarting and wanting something to stew over to keep his rage going... Dibbets reads for specifics of what Lanteri thought of himself...
He also looks to see if Hinsin was keeping any sort of log, so as to get an insight to which way he'd swing in a fight.
Oh, there is a line or three about the 'filthy runt that idiot Hinsin signed'. She would have been happy to dump him on Shark Island for insubordination if the bard hadn't been so persuasive in his defense. Hinsin himself has nothing revealing only some music notation, lines of doggerel and notes working out spells.
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Dingus stands with Stork on deck, practicing flourishes and poses for his inevitable rise to power, and waits for his minio... I mean crewmates to spring into action.
Rummaging and research complete, Kaul's agitation becomes evident;
"Hur... We goin' to get red-handed or what? What me to get on their trail or we waitin' fer their return?"
The brute looks to his axe with a nod and awaits the others decision...
Chuckling darkly at reading Dibbets is heartened by the fact that it doesn't look like Hinsin's head is too far up the Cap'n arse. "Aye Kauly, looks that way... but first we needs tae make sure we're keepin tha ship regardless." chewing cud and a half-mouthful of mustache hairs. He looks up t'wards the sun squinting... trying to figure how many more change days would be left for Zoss and 'Toly...
As if reading his mentor's mind, Rafe notes, "The moon still pulls hard a night before and after full, but I think that Masters Anatoly and Zossrov will be fine if they stay inside the ship. I can keep an eye on them and let Master Stork know if they look like they'll change. There are manacles in the hold if we need them."
Nodding sagely and giving the wee cabin rat a wink Dibbets notes "Roight then... nei time like tha present tae gets to it eh? Us lads off fer blood an guts, an the rest o' tha boys hang here wi' tha tub"
Jim nods once, sharply. "Agreed. Let's get to it."
With the ship left in the capable hands of the cabin boy, the four long time companions follow the freshly trampled path along the beach. It doesn't go far before it cuts inland rising slightly toward the gray cliff topped by the black tower. From this approach, you can see the black coral creeping from the sea up to the tower as if it were a living thing engulfing the cliff side. Actually, you recall coral is a living thing, but can only survive in the ocean so how it's climbed up the cliff is a mystery.
The trail ends in a clearing at the back of the cliff. A pair of heavy stone doors are recessed ten feet into the cliff face at ground level. The doors are flanked by a pair of ten foot tall, chiseled statues of cyclops. One door remains ajar.
"Kaul, care to do the honors?"
The orc-blooded thug leads the way into the dark chamber. His darksight reveals an immense cyclopean hall stretching beyond the limits of his vision. A raised dais sits in the center of the hall between two stone columns inscribed with runes from floor to the ceiling twenty feet overhead. The walls are inscribed with images depicting religious rituals performed by the one-eyed giants and battles between the giantfolk and serpentlike humanoids.
Four passages exit the chamber two on each side and the great chamber extends forward into darkness.
Jim looks for the crew's trail.
The stone floor bears no imprints, but Jim does find traces of sand and mud left by the boots of the group that recently passed through the great chamber. The trail leads straight ahead. Moving forward around the dais and past another set of opposed passages, the crew finds that the chamber ends in a huge arch that leads into a smaller octagonal chamber only some fifty feet across. Three stairways descend from the walls opposite the archway the crew entered. A raised stone lip in the center of the room defines an octagonal pool of clear water. At the bottom of the pool, a mosaic eye resembles the large single orb of a cyclops. The eye appears to gaze directly at every single creature in the room, following them as they move around.
Kaul jabs his no-neck noggin toward the all-seeing eye in the pool;
"Ain't trustin' that fer starters... Want me to dive down an blind it hur-hur..."
Jim shakes his head. "No, mate. Unless Dingus thinks it's bad magic. Though there's another thing that concerns me a mite. Places such as this aren't always as empty as they look. Do we clear our backtrail, or follow the crew and count on being able to fight our way out after we've done for Lanteri?"
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Having drawn the protective winds of his more connected yet still indifferent patron to gird him, Dibbets eyes the eye warily. Putting a mollifying hand up to pause Kaul he ventures "Easy matey... iffin we needs go through then I ken spit some mist o'er his view. Nei point gettin banged up afore tha big show eh?"
With that Dibbets draws air inward before expelling fetid breath to coat the floor and sever the eye's view of the surrounds...
Standing beside the spooky pool, Dibbets exhales a halitosis haze that covers the crew and mosaic eye.
Jim motions to the other three and heads for the center stairs.
The stairs descend into a large room, which is thirty feet across and fifty feet long. Midway across the room, a second set of stairs ascend to a raised platform and in the center of the platform, an alabaster table rises about five feet high. Two cyclopean statues carved to resemble serene mystics stare at one another across the stairs. The wall carvings depict numerous scenes of one-eyed giants pinning down and disemboweling creatures- serpentfolk, smaller humanoids and even other giants. There appear to be several ritual objects scattered about the table.
Dingus warily looks at the giant eye.
Knowledge: Arcana
He then puts his faithful companion out... "Richard. Can you smell which way they went"?
Perception: Scent
Dingus finds that the pool is magical, but is unclear as to what its abilities might be. Richard also fails. Unfortunately, scent dissipates rather quickly and Richard's slithering back and forth and tongue flicking is unable to catch any remnant of the nearly day old trail.
Kaul mugs a grin and nudges Dingus, pointing to the carvings of serpent-folk;
"Hur. Relatives o' yours Ding?"
The brute moves forward to pathfind the way ahead; Lopper in hand, silent as death:
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Holding up a hand for pause Dibbets stumps painfully forward "Whoooah there Kauly... give us a sec eh?" taking a wary and worrisome look at the gutslitting table "Alla this sh1te ain't paintin too kind a picture eh? Some feckin temple o' guttin... wonder iffin tha Cap'n crappy knew what it was afore bringin em... an' they ain't left yet like..."
"Dingy - what ye make o' these pieces o' cyclopes stuff?" pointing out the alabaster table and objects d'ritual.
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Dingus looks at Kaul after his remark, then looks at the carvings, then looks back to Kaul and simply grins and nods, showing his fangs a bit.
Knowledge: Arcana?
To determine if he can tell anything about the relics.
"Ah yes. Those relics are used in a ceremony which takes a humanoid of one gender, and gently and effectively reverses that gender into the opposite. Some tribes take their strongest warrior, and have him become the priestess of the tribes. Powerful magic indeed. I could perhaps replicate the ritual if anyone's interested".
Jim shakes his head quickly. "Thanks, mate, but no. Are they magic?"
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Kaul halts at his grimy shipmates behest, then breaks into a hacking chuckle to himself at Jimmer's retort;
"Hur... but think o' the fun ye could 'ave with yerself mate... Yer very own bearded clam! Hur-hur-hur-hur..."
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Jim gives an answering chuckle to the scarred half-orc. "I prefer them attached to other people, hey?"
Dingus does detect that a vicious looking scimitar-sized dagger is magical.
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Perception:
Distracted from the talk of todger separation and thoughts of how you can deploy a cut-a-slit-in-me operation through a man's gullet Dibbs furrows brow and seeks quiescence "Oi, shush... some kinda chantin frae tha altar. Dinnae what the feck they're sayin but we should moves on eh?"