Djal puts himself on hands in knees, hoping to see if he can identify the creature below. Unfortunately, at this angle he can only just make out the thing's leg. It's seems to be another Eurypterid, although it is clearly larger than those that were fought on the beach. Unfortunately, Djal is unable to see much more without climbing down below. He estimates the creature is about 20 feet away (once down below).
"Lobster or Rat?" Ace asks, kukri in hand.
Is the fifty foot rope long enough to reach from where they tied it all the way down to the lower deck? I'm supposing it would depend on how far from the rope the hatch is.
If the rope is long enough (or they have a second, Rowena recommends lowering somebody on the rope, them hauling them back up to draw the creature out where they could attack it from above.
"Ummm...sure."
She loops the rope about her waist, holds a shuriken in one hand and holds the rope with other.
"Ready."
Rowena:
Ace:
Eurypterid:
Djal - 19
Eurypterid - 11A
Ace - 11B
Rowena - 9
Djal lowers Rowena on the rope, losing his grip slightly, but recovering. The large scorpion-like lobster comes into view. It is about the size of a dwarf and is frantically scratching at the door to the storeroom. Rowena can make out some blood coming from the bottom of the door, but she can't tell how fresh it is from here. Luckily for her, the Eurypterid has not yet noticed her.
Is the thing capable of reaching up to her if it does attack?
Either way, Rowena holds on with one hand, chucks a shuriken with the other hand, then yells for Djal to pull her up.
Attack: minus whatever penalties for throwing a weapon while hanging from a rope.
Damage:
Ace, knowing they have Tremorsense, looks for a couple fairly heavy things to throw on the lobster-bug. To squish it, if nothing else.
The eurypterid feels a sudden sting in its back as a shuriken embeds itself into the creature. It immediately turns, finally noticing the party, and begins to advance.
Ace, looking around, doesn't seem to notice much in the way of heavy items on the upper deck, most having fallen overboard into the water. However, he does some broken pieces of rail and other items that could be thrown at the enemy.
I'm thinking a climb check is in order after all.
Climb:
Rowena scrambles up the rope.
The Eurypterid comes scrabbling over the lower deck toward Rowena as Djal pulls her up to safety. Thankfully, it has trouble moving on the deck below as the waves cause it to rock violently. It looks to start trying to climb up to the deck above.
Rowena will grab a piece of railing about the right size to be a club and biffs it down at it.
Attack:
Damage:
Ace decides to mimic Rowena and grabs another length of railing.
That railing goes wide, really, really wide. Ace pulls out his Kukri, in case the crab decides to come up and say hello.
Djal, showing mastery with his dorn dergar, dispatches the creature in one fell swoop. The eurypterid crumbles at the mighty blow, moving no longer.
Embrianna and Sorin, about half way through with setting up a camp, despite not having any tools, see Jask stand up and walk over to them. "I wish to help. Though I'm not sure how much help I'll be with these manacles on. Perhaps I can keep you company while you work. Where are you from?"
Ace nods once at the dead beast. "Alright, I am going to head to the Captain's cabin, see if I can find anything useful. Give a shout if you guys need any help with anything." Ace then walks over and tries the door.
Ace finds the door to the Captain's cabin unlocked. The cabin area the cabin is located is rather steep, and upon opening the door, Ace see that this slope has caused the majority of the room to slide through a hole in the wall caused by the wreck. Now, a desk is lodged precariously in this hole, just large enough that it won't fit through. The desk has three drawers in it, the bottom of which is locked. There is also a footlocker leaning against the desk.
The upper drawer contains several keys around a single ring. The next drawer down contains several maps. The first map is of the route the Jenivere takes to and from Sargava, but it appears to have been recently changed. A dotted line is drawn showing a detour to the north of the normal route, leading to an X. The second is a more detailed map of Desperation Bay, and upon close examination Ace notes that the X on the previous map would be hovering directly over Smuggler's Shiv, according to this more detailed map. Next to Smuggler's Shiv is a note that says "Avoid at all costs."
The lower desk drawer is locked and none of the keys on the keyring unlock it.
The footlocker may be opened with one of the keys and contains quite a bit of gear including a rather well-made dagger (masterwork), a suit of leather armor, two potions, a holy symbol (a two-faced mask, one side white and the other black), and a spell component pouch.
Rowena makes her way to the larder, and will look for any foodstuffs which would keep well (which should be all of them, given that they're on a ship). She'll grab a sack or two from the larder as well to carry the food, if such things can be found.
Embrianna shrugs at Jask's question. "A small village in the middle of nowhere. If you want to help, just stand right here beside me and hold these two branches while I lash them together to form a crosspiece for the shelter. Those manacles shouldn't get in the way of that. Of course this could go faster if people who weren't manacled could be bothered to help. It's a shame that someone we had locked up shows more concern for the welfare of the group." She shakes her head and keeps working.
Scratching his head, Ace places the charts and other things away in his pack. Why would the captain change course? What benefit could he garner from coming here?
Ace pulls gently at the bottom drawer, trying each key. Determining its locked up tight, Ace shrugs and moves to the footlocker. Unlocking the footlocker, Ace observes the contents contained inside. He examines the Holy symbol, playing with it.
A symbol of Nethys. What was the captain doing with this? Ace takes a moment to secure the potions in his pack, packing them so the bottles won't break. He places the Holy Symbol back in the footlocker, moving the locker next to the rope to be retrieved when they are leaving.
While pondering the charts, Ace wanders over to the hole to the lower decks. "Djal, there's a drawer that I can't get open."
Ace pulls out his crowbar for Djal to use, as he waits for Djal to finish up on the lower decks.
Rowena enters the larder and her attention is immediately brought to the Jenivere's cook, who is lying dead on the floor. He has bite marks in his neck and shoulders. Rowena is able to salvage enough food for 24 days worth of rations.
The final entry is perhaps the most disturbing, for in it the captain writes of how he’s changed course for Smuggler’s Shiv at Ieana’s request. He hopes that the two of them can make a home on the remote island, but also notes that he has to keep the rest of the crew from finding out. The captain muses that “something may need to be done about the crew” if they become suspicious.
Jask gladly helps with the task at hand, but the others do not seem to be interested in doing anything other than mope. They occasionally look up to see the progress being made, but spend most of their time looking at their stuff or out at the water.
"I am sorry Jask. I would love to talk now, but unfortunatly there is far too much to be done, and as I have not done anything like this before, it is taking a bit more thought than usual. Once we are a bit more settled in we may have time." Sorin goes back to weaving the palm fronds into the sun/rain shade that sits, half-complete in his lap. After a few more moments he looks up at Jask again. "Thank you for helping though, it really is appreciated."
The origin of the blood that seeped under the storage room door is evident immediately upon entering the room. Slumped against the wall on the opposite side of the room lies Alton Devers, the first mate. Examining his body, Djal finds two separate set of wounds. The first set of wounds is older and comes from a piercing weapon of some sort () and the second appears to be a series of inflamed stings, presumably from the eurypterid. Alton is wearing a set of masterwork leather armor and carries a masterwork short sword in one hand. Alton is also quite wet, as if he'd been swimming recently, and his boots and trousers have sand on them. It appears as if Alton may have been the one to drag the castaways to the beach.
A search of the room turns up tools and lumber, which could be used to aid in setting up campsites, a block and tackle, three large canvas sheets, two fishing nets, a grappling hook, two bullseye lanterns, 12 flasks of lantern oil, 150 feet of hemp rope, and five shovels.
"I might be able to answer that, but Mister Crowbar and I need a little help with one of the drawers on the Captain's desk!" Ace pauses as he looks down at the pair. "Also, I found the keys to the rest of the ship, and I think Jask's manacles."
Ace smiles, holding the his friend, Mr. Crowbar. "Try using Mr. Crowbar. But before you do, let me grab a couple things."
Around five minutes of searching reveals exactly what Ace was looking for: A pulley and a bit of trashed rope. Ace takes a moment, threading his hemp rope through the pulley and tying it to the handle of the drawer. He uses the trashed rope to tie the pulley to the remains of the mast closest to the door, and then gives a shout. "Count from one to three. When you say three, you pry with the crowbar and I pull with the rope!"
Djal and Ace manage to break open the locked drawer after some effort. Inside the drawer is a bottle of fine brandy, a darkwood model of the Jenivere inside a small glass bottle, a small coffer containing 350 gold pieces, and a leather satchel carrying twelve potions of varying types.
"It's there," Rowena calls from the other room, "but it's smashed beyond repair. No use."
"Shouldn't be too much of a problem to rig something up. You found the tools, right?" Ace hopes the answer is yes, as if they were washed off the ship that makes things considerably more difficult. "We should focus on getting things just to a point above the high tide line for now."
That's too bad. Thanks for the heads up though. Good luck with RL.
It happens.