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Lawdrak carefully approaches the skeleton and after poking and prodding at the remains, the young Kellid is delighted to find that it is truly dead.
Upon further inspection he finds the bracers to be made of leather, plain, but very well made none-the-less.
Estietre peeks at the bracers. "Hmm... could be magic. I will prepare a spell in the morning to determine whether or not they are."
"Stabbed in the back... I wonder if the perpetrator survives and is somewhere on the island?"
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Having scoured the remains of the Windwar you find nothing else of particular use. Any clue as to whom the slain man may be or who put the blade through his back apparently has been lost to times gone by.
Carefully the party makes their way off of the wreckage and begins the slow journey back toward the base camp.
"There are certainly seem to be a lot more survivors than one would expect of such a deadly coast line," Adara muses as they pull the trunk-laden sled back to camp.
Shall we head north along the east coast, see what there is to be seen?
"Mm-hmm." Mum nods "Most direct route and unexplored."
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Much as expected, you see the remains of another ship as you work your way northward up the coast of the Shiv. Little remains of the ship, once known as the Scallywag. A closer inspection of the wreckage shows that nearly the entirety of ships lower decks have been busted to pieces and washed away by the tide.
After traveling for roughly an hour, the coastline cuts in to the west before turning north and then back to the east around a small cove where yet another shipwreck awaits.
A ninety-foot-long shipwreck leans against the cliff side and several jagged reefs here, encrusted with salt and moss. Its masts remain intact, but the sails have long since rotted away. At the bow, a leering demonic figurehead of green-caked brass provides an intimidating greeting.
Shall we have a look?
"It seems rather... precarious," Dereje observes, taking note of the ship's hazardous position. "It is definitely worth a look, however. Let's find a place to stash the chest and then proceed."
"Curious," says Hana flatly. "The choice of masthead is Chelish, I think?" She helps put down the chest. "I can make an initial survey, see if it's stable. If I fall into the water it's no trouble."
Adara raises an eyebrow and shakes an admonishing finger.
"No ghouls this time, Mizu no Hana."
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Hana strikes out on an initial investigation of the shipwreck, initially walking around the general area she notices a bit of faded writing on the ship's stern. With a bit of difficulty she is able to make out a few of the letters:
BP__N__D__CN
Hana's initial investigation reveals there is not much left of the ship, but the Captain's quarters appear to be intact.
"What is that?" Hana says, puzzled, as she finishes her initial circuit. "Those letters don't make any sense. See?"
She furrows her brow, then says, "I think the ocean may have eroded some of them. Br... br... brn...doon? Not sure what to make of it." She shakes her head.
Adara kneels down in the sand and begins to pray to Sarenrae for guidance since she can't understand the significance of the letters whatsoever.
"It's like a word game," Dereje remarks, a tinge of humor in his voice. He lets out a hum as he attempts to determine what the missing letters are, but draws a blank. Hm. I've always been better with numbers than with letters...
"It's..." Hana scrunches up her brow, then suddenly lights up. "Brine Demon! The one Jask told us about!"
Adara's words cease with a quiet, "Thank you, Dawnflower," before she rises.
"Then we shall have the truth of it. He says therein should be proof which exonerates him of the crime for which he was being accused. Let's settle it, so we can be certain and help the rest of the survivors know peace one way or the other on Jask's account."
"Evidence?" says Hana querulously, and scrunches up her face. "If his superiors determined that he is guilty, should that not be sufficient?" Then she shrugs. "Well, regardless, perhaps we will find something of use."
Dereje sighs at Mizu's remark. "If his superiors are as corrupt as he claims, then their judgment is meaningless."
Looking back to the ship, the paladin muses, "Besides, it seems that we will be killing three birds with one stone. The others will be quite pleased."
"That level of corruption would never withstand scrutiny, though," says Hana. "Since all legal authority must extend downward from Heavenly mandate, and the divine personage is infallible, it is inevitable that corruption in officialdom will inevitably be found and snuffed out. Only if the highest ruling authority is suborned by a corrupted mandate, as in Cheliax, could such a situation occur." She straightens her shoulders.
Lawdrak follows the discussion with a slightly puzzled look, the shrugs and turns back to the wreck.
"Lets see what we can find, then."
Dereje hums, intrigued by Mizu's argument. He did not agree with it, obviously, but he was more interested in learning more about her rationale than in debating. "Sargava was a Chelaxian colony before it claimed its independence. Is it not possible that its mandate is just as corrupt as theirs? Or did the leaders of Sargava receive a Heavenly mandate of their own? Perhaps that is why they rebelled in the first place?"
"I am not terribly familiar with Sargava," says Hana, "but that seems likely. It is widely known that Cheliax is a country of devils. Clearly their mandate comes from an infernal source. So, rebelling against that mandate could potentially be an act of virtue. But, the wicked often fall to disagreements with each other, so it is not guaranteed."
She sighs and says, "We do not have this difficulty in Minkai, obviously."
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Slowly the party climbs aboard the remains of the Brine Demon, making their way to the Captain's cabin. If not for the years of decay the door would have been sturdy and very difficult to break open, but fortunately for the castaways, time and the sea have taken their toll.
Entering the cabin, you see a skeleton slumped on the floor, its bony hands clutching at a well-made, watertightdarkwood coffer sitting in an opened secret compartment in a rotting desk. This coffer is locked, but time has not been kind to the mechanism.
proof of collusion between Captain Kinkarian and half a dozen Sargavan and Bloodcove government officials, who were skimming off the tithes and taxes offered to the Free Captains of the Shackles. These documents, among other things, provide proof of Jask Derindi’s innocence.
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The members of the party try their hands at breaking the rusty, but once very solid lock with varying degrees of success until finally the lock does give way yielding the contents of the box:
Inside the coffer are three objects—a gold locket, a very well balanced, incredibly sharp dagger, and several fat ledgers and journals. The locket contains a tiny, incredibly detailed portrait of a beautiful, red-haired half-elf woman, identified along the bottom edge of the portrait as “Aeshamara.” The ledgers and journals contain irrefutable proof of collusion between Captain Kinkarian and half a dozen Sargavan and Bloodcove government officials, who were skimming off the tithes and taxes offered to the Free Captains of the Shackles. These documents, among other things, provide proof of Jask Derindi’s innocence.
"Well I'll be damned," Dereje remarks as he thumbs through the documents, skimming through their text. "It is just as Jask said. Most upsetting, indeed."
Adara nods in satisfaction as she scans each document Dereje passes to her.
"I knew I sensed the truth of his character. If we ever reach Sargava, we will certainly need to find a righteously appointed official who is not named within these documents in order to expose and root this corruption."
Adara begins placing the ledgers in her bag once anyone who wants to examine them is finished.
Hana regards the locket mournfully. "Who was this? She was very important to someone... important enough to be locked away with the most crucial of documents. Aeshamara... I'm afraid you won't be seeing your captain again."
"It is a pity," Dereje says woefully, looking down at what he presumes to be the captain's remains. Ill deeds or none, even he had someone that he loved. After a moment of silence he speaks again.
"We should get going - we have everything we need from here."
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As the party turns to leave, a sickly green mist begins to rise from the skeleton on the ground. In a matter of moments the mist coalesces into a spectral, nearly skeletal form, his bare bones picked clean by the fish and crabs, yet he still wears his dripping coat and tricorn hat. One of his hands is a gleaming metal hook, and his whole insubstantial form constantly drips with cold, brackish seawater.
"Traitors! Mutineers!" the form calls out at the party.
Adara starts at the specter's sudden emergence. Then she sighs.
"Well, Hana, I guess I can't be angry. It doesn't appear to be a ghoul this time...."
Hana looks somewhat startled at the sudden appearance of the undead creature, then says, "No mercy for the unrepentant."
She advances on the skeleton fearlessly and then in a move that the group hasn't yet seen, she whips her sword out in a single seamless draw-and-cut action.
Seeing the apparition for what it is, Dereje opens his mouth to warn the others, his expression rather urgent. But before he can so much as get a word out, Mizu attacks it with astonishing speed and power. He could not help but to admire the undine's technique, but its ineffectiveness spoke for itself.
"We're dealing with a ghost here; mundane weapons won't have any effect! Only magic or holy power can harm it, and even then, just barely. I suggest that we retreat with haste."
"I'm all for leaving!" a wide-eyed Lawdrak responds, calling Sharpmaw behind him as he bolts from the cabin.
Adara suddenly has inspiration.
"Hana! The locket! Show it to him!"
Turning to face the ghost, Adara raises her hands in a placating gesture.
"Are you the Captain of the Brine Demon? Is this woman your love? Tell us where to find her so we can bring word of your fate to her. Give us leave, and we will provide your bones succor with burial. Tell us what happened, and we will do what we can to bring justice to the traitors of whom you speak!"
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Lawdrak and Sharpmaw heed Dereje's advise and do their best to vacate the Captain's quarters as quickly as possible.
The ghost turns its attention to Hana. The spectral form swings its hooked hand in the direction of the samurai-ko, both trying to harm the woman and claim the locket, but misses both.
vs. touch AC
Following the failed attack, Adara begins to plead with the assumed ghost of Captain Kinkarian. The ghost seems to contemplate the oracles words briefly before responding "Aeshamara..."
Hana seems quite certain in her actions - she is, after all, trained to accept the guidance of spiritual intercessionaries in battle - and she holds her blade easily in one hand while she fumbles with her other hand to produce the locket and hold it up.
Mum readies a spell, but holds off on casting.
She eyes Dereje, and asks under her breath... "Better to leave than upset him with a weak spell then, yes?" as she backs away.
Ready to continue interceding with the spectre, she blinks in shock when it fades so easily. Then her lips press together in a firm line.
"That...that was not what I was expecting," Adara's voice makes expecting sound an awful lot like wanted. The frustration may come as a surprise to her companions given how swift and easy the resolution to their potentially dangerous situation turned out to be.
Dereje does not respond to Adara immediately, preoccupied with glancing about warily, as though the ghost might suddenly manifest once more at any given moment. After a minute or so passes he lets out a sigh, assured that the captain had been laid to rest.
"Ghosts are typically bound to this world by some powerful emotional attachment," Dereje explains, nodding at the captain's remains. "Their turmoil prevents them from passing on to the afterlife, and more often than not, fills them with rage and hatred. Even if we had managed to destroy the captain's ghost, he would more than likely have rejuvenated in a manner of days."
The paladin gives Adara and Mizu a genuine grin. "It seems that in his dying moments, Captain Kinkarian tried and failed to reach the locket depicting his beloved... I suspect that she, too, has long passed. By reuniting him with it, his soul has been laid to rest, and his ghost destroyed. Well done."
"I suggest that we bury the captain with his locket, just for safe measure, and then be on our way."
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The party spends a short amount of time laying the Captain's body to a final rest.
Continuing up along side the eastern coast of the Shiv, Adara notices a very large snake skin, likely belonging to a constrictor larger than anyone in the party, Sharpmaw included. Using caution you continue along the coast line in hopes of finding anything of use, particularly anything that will aid you in escaping the island.
By time mid-day, and the requisite heat, arrives you have stumbled upon yet another shipwreck...if you want to call it that, really it is little more than a collection of board with only the scantest outline of any structure. Perhaps its best use was as building material to form a quick lean-to to get yourselves out of the mid-day sun. As you lay and rest you notice the words Bloody Doll on one of boards, your only clue as to the identity of the ship wreck.
The heat lets up enough for you to continue onward, back towards camp. Your pace is a bit faster as you are now traveling through previously explored territory. A couple of hours after nightfall you arrive back near the camp. You wearily trudge forward when a form busts from the brush, blade in hand. Ishirou stops his swing when he notices it is you.
"We were not expecting you back this evening." he says apologetically. Noticing the skid you are pulling he offers to help get it the rest of the way back to camp.