Dandilion feels a brush against her neck, but alas it's just the morning breeze in her hair...
She spins, smiling for the first time all morning, only to sigh when she realizes it was just a cruel hoax of nature. I'll be home soon, Wraith. Never fear. And then, we'll look into something to make times like these more bearable. She's under no illusions that her precious companion can hear her at this point, but it makes her feel better, to pretend.
Briar lingers in DOLL in the morning, taking time to listen to the Whispers from the Dark, trying to understand the deeper majicks behind the simple spells.
For magic to be mine, I must understand and harness it all.
-1 Stone Shape
+1 Water Breathing
-1 SM 3
+1 Daylight
-1 Stone Shield
+1 Liberating Command
-1 Stabilize
+1 Light
Briar packs light, not carrying anything he fears might be damaged by the water.
* * *
10 hours = 600 minutes/6 people = 100 minutes each.
Briar will purchase a Touch of the Sea potion.
At the piers, Fondo yawns. Women. So much more complicated than lads. Never have to tell a lad when to gather his trousers up. And elves... You'd think it'd be nice — a bedmate who never sleeps. But no, that one had to jabber on all night. No wonder Friend Elf prefers the caves...
Mithral rapier +1
Ring of protection
Scabbard of vigor
Mithril shirt
Masterwork buckler
Cold iron kukri
Masterwork sap
Spring-loaded wrist sheath
Varisian bravo undergarments with standard accessories
Swim fins
Belt and belt pouch with air crystal and 3 potions of touch of the sea
It takes maybe 20 minutes of hard swimming to find the wreckage you seek. (It will take just 5 minutes to return now that you have your bearings.) The flippers help quite a bit, but it takes a little getting used to them, and when you're actually walking along the bottom (which you can do) they get in the way.
The Jagger river is quite murky here with a lot of silt and mud stirred up by the regular fishing and the simple churning of the river as it winds around the city. You can see 2d8x10'. There are a lot of fish in the water, and an occasional - though far off - jigsaw shark.
Eries' directions were good, but the murky water and the 80' depth proved more difficult than expected. Still, you're acclimated to the underwater world you are now in - at least as much as you are able given the circumstances.
Obvious scars from fire and trebuchet strikes mar the ship's broken hull, which lies on its side in two pieces amid the splinters of its masts. The ship has broken over a rock outcropping, its bow fallen to one side and the larger section of the stern to the other. Two relatively intact interior decks lie within both halfs of the ship, along with the captains quarters situated at the stern.
While the bow sunk in a way that allows explorers easy access to any of its levels, the stern cleaved to the rocks as it fell, limiting access to the lower decks. Upon the stern section's upper deck however is a ten foot square main hatch and a covered ladder leading to the berth below. Both appear to be swelled shut. The door to the captains quarters likewise appears to be swelled shut. Additionally there is a sizable hole from the trebuchet boulder that finally sunk the ship in the lower hull of the aft portion of the sip.
So where do you want to begin? The open fore deck, the open fore hold, the open aft hold, the ten foot main hatch of the aft deck or the captains quarters?
Fondo follows after Barael, not accustomed to swimming and frankly a bit terrified. He points toward the captain's quarters. "Blurble evidence blurble most burblikely in thereble."
Swim DC
Calm water 10
Rough water 15
Stormy water 20*
Nikolay eyes the ship warily and wonders if it will be his coffin. Not knowing anything about ships though, he nods at Fondo's suggestion of the captain's quarters and heads that way. Once there, he will uses his sword to pry open the hatch if necessary.
-I am not a crowbar.
Sorry, but I need to use what's at hand.
Barael parallels with Nikolay, keeping his rheumy eyes in the last direction of that jigsaw shark.
He brings a second metal for leverage.
"Glug... pretty... soaked...glug..."
As I mentioned before, you are able to speak underwater so long as you can breath underwater.
I need strength checks from Nikolay for trying to pry open the rear hatch door. I have an assist so far from Briar. Anybody else going to help and maybe break their swords? :)
Barael hears nothing at the door.
Briar purchases a cold iron longspear from Saul's and stows it in his Efficient Quiver, usually. For the water gambit, his bow will be in quiver the spear in his hands.
Briar swims closer to Nikolay and gives him a smirk.
Now see true magic.
Let there be light.
Briar holds his longspear to provide light to the doorcrashers while he looks for oncoming danger.
Perception
Fondo also aids.
"Barael, it certainly sounds like there are benefits to being a wererat. I don't know how you control it. I'll need to talk to Eries. And, yes, I do trust her."
Charlie will cast shield of faith and leave his armor with Majenko. He'll bring his haversack and put the rod in pouch by itself. The holy symbol will be filled and close at hand with shoulder strap secured well.
** spoiler omitted **
Briar swims closer to Nikolay and gives him a smirk.
Now see true magic.
Nikolay sees that the water has done nothing to shrink the elf's head.
Nikolay struggles for a second to find his footing, but then gets a good feel for how to apply his strength to the door.
Nikolay sees that the water has done nothing to shrink the elf's head.
Magic is the air in their lungs and the light by which they see. Magic *is* life.
A long lock of Dandi's hair floats loose, writhing through the others to latch onto the door and help pry it open.
On the second heave the door pops from it's stuck condition and opens wide revealing the captains quarters within.
Along with a few other bits of ruined furnishings, the scorched sheets of a canopied bed twist like ghosts above a snapped wooden bed frame. Knotted amid the linens, a bloated drowned corpse wearing the birdlike mask of a Queen’s Physician twirls in the slight current from the open door. It's clear the body has been down here several days - likely around the same time as the ship sinking.
Barael swims to the body, and searches it as best he can from the light of the party. "Queen's Physician? Here?"
The rest of the quarters bears inspection as well, depending, of course, on how large the cabin is.
"Do we bring the body to the surface, or merely the mask?"
Fondo gives a look that implies, Proof? He glides in and begins searching with care, detecting magic as he does so.
Briar reaches in with his longspear, providing light.
Perception
Nikolay casts detect magic and looks around.
See anything?
--Not really.
"No reason to move the body yet. Let's take the mask, but we'll probably need to come back for the whole body eventually."
"Let's not spend too much time here. We have a lot to explore still."
Fondo looks around for sealed scroll cases, coins — anything to reveal the provenance of the ship and any communications its passengers might have been carrying.
"Ble blody mibut habub aba sibgnubt ringub orblur someblubthhingl."*
There isn't much of worth in the cabin. Most of the maps and other notes are water damaged and not much good now. However on the body you do find a holy symbol of Urgathoa, goddess of physical excess, disease, and the undead. The holy symbol is a fly trapped in amber. More information to be had with a religion check.
The mask could be any alchemists gear, but the first place the party has seen such a mask so far is on the face of the Queens Physicians. They've become a little more common since then with healers and some priest wearing them. Note however that wearing an authentic chirurgeon mask is regulated by the Grey Maidens. It is a crime to wear one in Korvosa without authorization as it implies you are able to heal the plague.
This poor fellow died before that law was enacted but he is dead all the same.
Also, for no particular reason, here's a map of where you are. No need to go to rounds, we're not in initiative. D1 is the dead bloated body. The lower map is 10' squares to give something of a side view of the wreckage.
Briar would be in A35, examining the 'holy' symbol.
Know (Religion)
Disappointed by the lack of magic in this room, Briar is ready to move on.
"It is said that the head of the dead can still speak secrets even after death...and they tend to lose their glibness. If, perchance, you want to situate yourself to grab the head when it goes rolling off the headsman's block, we should be able to find those who could speak to Trinia, even after death. From there, we might get confirmation of her innocence or guilt, now that her mortal soul no longer binds her to lies."
"You said before that there was powerful magic that could allow us to talk with those already passed. You still profess that, Briar? Maybe we just take this bloke's head, and chat with it when we're all toasty and dry."
"Blebs blope blis tongues blot bloo sblollen."*
He shakes his head at the suggestion of desecrating the corpse, but quickly turns back to looking for clues.
Briar nods approvingly to Barael in the water.
He remembers. The Rat begins to appreciate magic. I don't detest that one.
Fondo and Briar know much about the worship and church of Urgathoa.
There are stories that suggest that Urgathoa was once a hedonistic mortal female. Upon her death, she fled Pharasma's Boneyard and returned to Golarion, making her the Great Beyond's first undead creature. Her return to the mortal world is said to be the origin of disease.
Urgathoa is generally depicted as an attractive, pale-skinned, and ebony-haired woman. Unlike most other beauties, at her waist, her flesh begins to rot and wither away, leaving her as little more than a blood-soaked skeleton from the hips down. She is often similarly manifested, but wearing a loose fitting gown stained with black, brown, and red splotches.
The churches of Urgathoa are dispersed across Golarion in cell-based cults. Individual groups rarely work together. Activities are usually done under the cover of night, except in lands such as Geb.
Sometimes those wishing to become undead and those who live gluttonous lifestyles make supplication to her. On occasion, folk infected with plagues make offerings to Urgathoa as well.
You find no other clues or items of value in the captains chambers.
Briar will pantoglub his information about Urgathoa, using both polynesian dance moves, air bubbles, and pantomime to communicate underwater.
Fondo puts on his gloves and takes off the mask, examining the corpse's mouth (assuming it doesn't animate and attack him, in which case he tries very hard to avoid its mouth).
"Charblie, Brible, youb blink it blould spleak?"*
Nikolay moves on to the 10' hatch and begins to pry at it unless someones stops him.
{-->C33}
Charlie is tense. He has a roving eye trying to make sure some slithery slitherer doesn't sidle up to us. At Fondo's prompting he moves to C33 and glares at the corpse to determine whether or not it's capable of speech.
Barael repositions to assist with the next stubborn door.
"We're going back for the head though, right?" Barael has no interest in bringing back more than is necessary.
Dandi moves towards Nicolay, her hair floating out to help with the hatch,
Charlie is able to determine that yes, the man could speak, er, if he wasn't dead. He sees no signs of disease on the dead man either - it looks like he died of drowning.
As you pry open the hatch and peer into the hold you see that it is largely empty, save for a school of fish fleeing from your sudden, and very bright, light. Oh there is one other thing, a half dozen or so floating boxes about 6 or 8 inches on a side.
Nikolay casts detect magic, looks about, and then moves in to examine and retrieve the floating boxes.
Fondo replaces the man's mask and draws closed entry door. Mustn't let in any sharks to eat his face off. He then follows after Nikolay.
Nothing pings on the perception, but the boxes are all magical...
Barael looks at Fondo's redressing of the physician, and observes his deference to the dead. Might be, the physician will rebuke us if we're too rough with his body, once he starts to talking again.
He follows the others through the hatch, looking back over his shoulder at the depths of the Jeggare, before entering.
Taking hold of one of the boxes, gloves already donned, Barael tries to understand the weight, and checks for locks. He doesn't open it, however.
The box rattles slightly as if it were filled with coins. It has no locks.
"Blet's bleave themble blut untible weble bletbler blunderbland the blablic.*" Could it be the coins?
Fondo scans the boxes arcanely. He holds his tongue while Briar makes his determinations.
"One box, one body, and to the surface we go? This seems to be a good place to start, eh? Glug." Barael swims to the hatch, carrying the box as gently as he can, angling to return to the physician's body. No severing heads today. The shark, might smell blood in the water, and come a calling while we ascend, making our lives that much more difficult.
"Blait, blov! Blere's morble bloo inblestiblate. Bland blose bloins... Blive a blusblicion. Blague bloins."*
Nikolay concentrates until he figures out the magics that are on the boxes.
Fondo gets the jump on Nikolay in identifying the box but keeps his consul. Nikolay however presumably tells the group what he finds. It's a Deaths' Head Coffer.
Closing the lid seals in the contents and holds them in stasis, rendering them immune to aging or any damage. In addition, any infectious material - such as the body of a creature that died of disease - is preserved for as long as the coffer is closed.
A death’s head coffer can spread infections between items. Any item placed into a coffer with a disease ridden item (something capable of spreading a disease by contact) becomes infected with the same disease.
For 1 week after being removed from the coffer, the newly infected item can spread the same affliction as the disease ridden item to any creature that touches it. After a death’s head coffer is closed and then reopened, its magic dissipates, rendering the box completely mundane.
The boxes you see floating here in this portion of the hold are of different shapes and sizes. Some carry the trade stamp of Cheliax, some of Korvosa. Some just look like flotsam. So far you have collected 6 such boxes.
"Ble blould bleek out blany blurber bleviblence. Blogs, sbrolls..."*
Briar listens to the description of the magics with interest, anxious to do his own examination, but happy to wait until on dry land.
Briar is ready to explore further.
"Isn't that enough? A Queen's Physician, and a Death's Head Coffer? Glug Glug We're not here to loot a ship for its bounty. Glugg" Barael motions towards the light of the sun, trailing down through the river's waters.
Barael sees Fondo's determination, and sulks back into the interior of the hull, to search more closely.