"I was on feed duty, I saw you in the mess yesterday." Taug motions to Yorikata "Gashnakh gave me the food and I feet it to the stupid beast."
"So Gashnak put the tranquilizer on our food instead of the girallon's food?" Yorikata concludes aghast.
That might be what happened. Or someone set Gash up for a fall.
"Well, I didn't and there was noone else in the galley."
"We will get to that once we bring in Gashnakh, So Taug did you feed the meat to the beast?" Raag asks.
Taug again looks upset that all of you are here, "I did yes, like I said that red headed woman was there, I took the meat and fed it to the beast."
Raag chews on this for a bit, Standing up, everyone can see some strain on his face. Raag makes his way over to Taug. "Was the cage locked?"
Taug nods, "It is always locked with the lock and chain around it." This is true as everyone saw the lock and the chain around the cage.
How sure are you that you re locked the cage after you fed the beast?
"We don't unlock it, just throw the meat through the bars and walk away." Taug says, Raag clears his throat. "There is only one key and I have it here." Raag unlocks a chest, pulling out the key.
You catch a quick glimpse of a belt and some maps inside the chest
"That means nothing." Yorikata comments as Raag presents the key.
Hmmm, but the cage was unlocked. Could anyone else have made a copy of the key or opened that cage with magic? Because it didn't look like the cage was broken.
"There is a reason, that there are very expensive locks at the doors of rich peoples' houses. Because with time and a hairpin every half talented thief can open what you put on that cage."
"But the question remains: Who in their right mind would not feed it the tranquilizer and then release that four armed monster?"
"My crew knew the risks and all would have fed it to him." Raag says, Taug goes out if there are not other Questions Shaug comes in, after a few minutes it is clear he knows less than his brother as he was on Rowing duty all week. Gashnakh is still in the galley cooking when the initial questioning is complete.
"I guess we go down the galley then, ask him there?" Raag still looks tired, seeing how you want to progress.
That would make sense. There are too many "accidents" on the boat lately.
Everyone heads down below deck to the Galley, Gashnakh is in the galley prepping to make the noon day meal. There are barrels of Salted meats pulled out for him to use.
Dain stays by the door.
"Hey Gashnak, how did the poison end up in our food and not in the food of that for armed ape?" Yoriakta inquires.
"I know you want to share your secret with us."
Gashnakh jumps as Yorikata asks her question, turning his head to see Raag there as well. "I don't know what your talking about." Gashnakh says, "I was taken Ill from the food as well. I wouldn't mix up poison for the ape for anything, we even put it in a special jar so everyone would know what it is."
Gashnakh was sickened by the food the night before
"Then tell me: You didn't mix it up, I didn't even know the poison was there, and Taug fed the meat you gave him to the ape. But still we end up with poison in the food and the ape jumps right through the wall instead of dozing off his poisoning."
"How did that happen, when no one else was in the galley?"
Gash was poisoned as well.
"Raag told us not to tell anyone, I poisoned the meat like this." Gashnakh pulls down the jar of poison and shows everyone what he would do to have poisoned the meat. After a few minutes everyone can see there shouldn't have been a mess up, if Taug delivered the meat as he said he did there shouldn't have been an issue.
So clearly something changed this with dinner. Did we use the same meat for both the beast and dinner? If so how could the meat have been switched?
"No we don't feed the crew the same crap as we fed the beast." Raag says. "I don't know what is going on, I am to tired for this right now." Raag says sitting on a stool. "This is very strange indeed."
Yorikata throws her hand up. "Well, then everything is fine and we only imagined being poisoned, and had hallucinations about the ape."
"No we were all poisoned" Gashnakh says, after a second he looks in the jar "This isn't the poison, someone has stolen it, maybe that is how we got poisoned!" Gashnakh explains.
Balder walks over to Dain who's standing by the door and leans in and whispers to Dain "I have half a mind to sink this damn ship and all the lying poisoners on it."
Dain grunts. Still need the boat
"But the part where we were told that by boat is the safer travel option seems to be a blatant misinformation at best." Yorikata tells.
"So, Raag. How about coming clean about any secrets you haven't told us yet? What is going to jump at us next? Another beast hidden in some compartment? Some poison in the smuggling compartment, that will leak out? The ancient artifact you brought along, that some giants will ambush you for? What other surprises does this boat have in store for us?"
"I believe you are just as clueless about these incidents as we are, but that's the problem. We need to turn every box and look what's hiding under it, to make it stop."
"Lanneth, can you check if some foul magic is involved in this?"
And here people say dwarves have to work on their people skills
Balder groans and walks over to where a metal mug is and as Yorika finishes, he grabs the mug and to get the point across he picks it up and squeezes the bug until it's crushed in his fist then puts down the mangles mugg and says to Raag.
"Answer the lady. Truthfully this time."
Raag sighs at both Balder and Yorikata. "Aye I am as clueless as ye lass on what is going on. I have had miss haps like all other captains on boats, none like ever before though. The Drakes be normal part o' river travel, ye went into ones den nothing mystical about that. Check the Ship if ye want ye have my permission."
As Raag watches balder crush one of their mugs, his eyes get large. "Lad I used ta fight Giants and other manner o' creatures much bigger and much smaller than ye. Don't be comin' on ta me boat and be threatenin' me. Else ye be walking back through the Hold o' Belkzen back ta some place that won't be swarming with Orcs." Raag stands up to his full height of 6'8 and looks down on balder.
Balder, don't threaten the one who owns the boat please.
Lanneth casts Detect Magic, and starts looking around the ship, scanning for anything magical.
She's going to be methodical starting at in the captains quarters and then across the deck and working her way down the decks of the ship.
Yes she will scan over all the crew as she meets them.
She will check particularly closely in the kitchen and where the beast was chanined.
Raag will be in the captain's Quarters when Lanneth is there, he will allow you to look at his private room but not touch. The Map room that is between his room and the main deck you can look at things.
"You two go on with your dick meassuring contest, I'll check the boat with Lanneth"
Taking her time for searching following the path Lanneth takes they finally also come over the hidden trap door in the room with the cage. "Hey look here. That's a place Raag forgot to tell us about." Opening the trap door she tells "There is another level below that. Do you have some light?"
Yorikata opens the trap door, the smell of rot and stale stagnant water hits her in the face. Welcome to the Bilges
Lanneth reaches into her backpack and pulls out a candle. She lights it and pushes it down through the trapdoor.
This should work for now, and won't risk setting the ship on fire.
"I'll get a lamp." Yorikata tells and leaves to ask Halrex for something to work in that environment, without risking a fire. Once she has it, she returns to the trapdoor and climbs down to check on the newfound area.
Halrex hands you an ever burning Lamp, "We use that donw there, not that it will blow up but ye cannot take the chance. You going to be doing some Bilging fer us? We get the crew ta do that at night, when we pull ashore." Halrex says
Dain gets his bow and darkvision ready to head down
This 5-foot-wide corridor stretches for 80 feet between two doors. The corridor is filled with sludge and muck to a depth of 2 feet, and counts as a shallow bog (costing 2 squares of movement to enter a square)
Please post a single action
Dain moves down into the bilges with his darkvision sweeping the area and his bow ready to fire.
"Bah! Frack this and yer cursed barge." Balder says exasperated then turns and follows Dain, drawing his short sword for close quarters and lets Dain lead as they enter the darkness.
"Could use some light down here. Y'see anythin Bramage?"
Lanneth peers down from the entry way content to let the others lead.
I got my hands full, put a candle on my helmet
"Put that candle out. If Halrex sees this, we're all getting chained to the oars til the end of this trip." Yorikata warns. "I got this magical light from here specifically for using under deck. I'll hold it for you."