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As the work on the camp continues, the castaways notice foot prints along side the obvious drag marks through sand indicating someone obviously drug each of you to the relative safety of the beach. But who and where did they go?
Gelik responds, "I must admit it is rather impressive what we've managed to accomplish thus far."
He politely listens to the Mum's bordering on mad commentary before saying, "Now just wait a moment, there's no need to be hasty." as Estietre takes off in search of her spear.
Mizu opens the door to the room the eurypterid was so eager to get into, As the door swings in Mizu and Dereje can see it contains not only a number of supplies, but also the unfortunate first mate, Alton Devers, the unfortunate source of he trickles of blood running under the door to the supply room, if something Alton’s body lies slumped against the wall, quite dead.
that it was poison that finished him off.
Alton still wears his studded leather armor and clutches his short sword in one hand. A search of the rest of the supply room turns up several tools and lumber that could come in handy in building a secure campsite: 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.
Dereje steps through the doorway, gun still in hand, but quickly holsters it when he sees that the room's only occupant has already passed on. His lips tighten as he kneels down beside the first mate, checking for a cause of death rather than holding any delusions that he could still be saved. His lips tighten for a moment as a number of emotions momentarily rippling over his face; this was one life he had failed to protect.
"He seems to have died fighting," he says finally, indicating Alton's sword. He otherwise had trouble telling exactly how the man had died. "Against that scorpion, perhaps? Things did not go his way, in any case."
Mizu frowns and nods, then sets about searching the room. She separates the useful materials from the junk and says, "This will be a bit heavy to carry, maybe we should leave it here or on deck until we finish searching the ship."
She scrutinizes the room briefly for any hidden compartments.
She purses her lips and says, "I don't see anything else out of the ordinary."
Dereje nods. "Yes. We should check the captain's quarters. With any luck, we will find something that will get our Kellid companion here back on his feet again." He then looks to the deceased first mate somberly. "Taking him back should not be too much trouble. I would rather not leave him to any more scavengers."
"Very well, though we will certainly have our work cut out for us dragging all of these things back. Though if necessary I could carry things and walk across the sea floor until reaching the shore."
"I do not believe that will be necessary," the paladin replies with mild amusement.
With the hold more or less secured, Dereje steps back out of the room and searches for any sign of the cargo he he had been accompanying.
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Looking through the hold Dereje finds the cargo he was responsible for delivering. Unfortunately the barrels had crashed together during the wreck, splitting the barrels and spilling the contents.
Mizu and Dereje head back topside to investigate the captain's quarters. Opening the door you see that the captain’s cabin is a wreck—a jagged hole in the side has allowed most of the room’s contents to spill out into the surf and wash away. Yet even a cursory search reveals some useful supplies, most of which are found in an overturned desk (fortunately, the desk was too large to fit through the hole in the wall). One upper drawer contains several keys. Another drawer contains several sea charts and maps, along with the captain’s log. The maps include one of the west coast of Garund that plots the Jenivere’s route to and from Sargava—the island of Smuggler’s Shiv is not marked on this map, but it is marked on a second map of Desperation Bay, though the map provides no details on the island apart from its general outline and a note warning of danger. A lower desk drawer is locked.
An examination of this log reveals that the Jenivere’s captain seemed to be suffering from some sort of madness that grew over the course of the ship’s final voyage. Earlier entries from previous voyages are
precise in recording progress and events along the way, as are entries from the first two-thirds of this last trip. Yet as one reads further, the more recent the entries get, the less common they become—in some cases, several days are missing entries. What entries do appear are strangely short, focusing more and more on one of the passengers—the Varisian scholar Ieana, with whom the captain seems to have become obsessed. Several entries are nothing more than poorly written love poems to Ieana, while others bemoan Captain Kovack’s inability to please her or catch her attention. Near the end, the entries begin to
take on a more ominous tone with the captain starting to complain that other members of the crew are eyeing “his Ieana.” In particular, he suspects his first mate is in love with her, and writes several times about how he wishes Alton would just “have an accident.” 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 the crew are growing increasingly agitated at the ship’s new course. The captain muses that “something may need to be done about the crew” if their suspicions get any worse.
Mizu tries the ring of keys against the locked drawer of the desk. She puts the maps into her waterproof bag.
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Mizu tries each of the keys in the lock for the captain's desk drawer but is unable to find the matching key.
Looking up from the desk in frustration she notices a large footlocker half buried in the debris of the wrecked room. Clearing the debris away and opening the footlocker you find a dagger, a suit of leather armor, two potions, a holy symbol of Nethys, and a spell component pouch.
------------------------------------------
Dereje frowns when he finds his cargo. Even if some of the black powder could be salvaged, it was for all intents and purposes ruined. He simply shakes his head and pushes it out of his mind. Alton's armor would be a small consolation, but he leaves it for the time being - the first mate's body would be accompanying them anyway.
-----
The paladin flips through captain's log, his expression darkening with each passing second.
"Such madness... How did he keep it hidden from us so long?" he murmurs, the question directed more to himself than to Mizu. He felt like a fool for trusting the man so mindlessly. Before he can look too deeply into the captain's ravings, he snaps the book shut. "The others will want to know of this, I'm sure."
Looking over at the footlocker Mizu found, Dereje uncorks one of the bottles and wafts it, before allowing a single drop to fall onto the tip of his tongue.
"Hm. A curative. Perhaps we can get our Kellid friend back onto his feet. We could certainly use the extra hands."
Mizu nods. "Let's try. I am not sure I can get that dinosaur to stay calm on the way back with its friend in such a bad condition, anyway."
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Mizu and Dereje arrive back down in the hold to find the dinosaur standing over the prone form of his master. As the pair carefully and slowly advances toward Lawdrak, Sharpmaw takes a step back long enough for Dereje to administer the potion to the fallen Kellid youth.
As the liquid's magic takes effect, Lawdrak's eyes open once again.
With a long, low groan, Lawdrak heaves himself to a sitting position. He reaches out and absently pats the snout of his dinosaur as he looks around.
"Well, that is certainly an inauspicious start to our time here." he mutters. "Thank you, both."
He catches up on what they have found, shaking his head in wonder at the captain's descent to madness.
"What is next? Should we begin hauling the supplies back to shore?"
If needed :
Or, y'know, not.
Mizu braces herself and gives the drawer a sharp yank.
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Mizu, Dereje, Lawdrak, and Sharpmaw make their way out of the hold. All but Sharpmaw go into the captain's quarters to see if there is anything of value in the locked desk drawer.
Grabbing a nearby piece of splintered wood to use as a make-shift pry-bar, Lawdrak tries to force the drawer open without success.
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Mizu strides over and takes the pry-bar from the Kellid youth. Wanting to help, Lawdrak and Dereje each try to get a grip on the pry-bar as well.
As all three castaways work together, they eventually hear a loud crack as the face of the drawer breaks away revealing the drawer's contents: a bottle of fine brandy worth, a darkwood model of the Jenivere in a glass bottle, and a small coffer containing 350 gp. Also in this lower drawer is a long leather satchel that holds a dozen potions, of six different varieties, for emergency use.
DC16 (4)
DC17 (1)
DC17 (4)
DC18 (1)
DC18 (1)
DC18 (1)
"I'm sure that these will come in handy. But let's haul it all back to shore - we should get out as much as we can before we lose the tide."
Adara looks out at the Jenivere's wreckage and frowns. Shading her eyes she tries her best to estimate how much more time they have before the tide rolls what's left of the ship away.
"Now that we're a little more settled, will anyone join me to see if our away team needs assistance? I admit I'm concerned since we have not even seen a signal from them. What supplies may be salvaged from the Jenivere must be obtained. We cannot let this chance slip past us."
Hoping others will follow her, Adara sheds her gear, emptying her backpack to allow her space to fill it up with supplies and begins running quickly towards the ship. Her once beautiful clothes no longer of any concern now that practicality has become dealing with the now.
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Mizu, Dereje, and Lawdrak gather what they can and make their way back to the beach, carrying as much as they and Sharpmaw can manage along with the body of First Mate Alton.
Just as Adara, Sasha, and Ishirou are about to head out to the ship, they see the others returning.
The temperature continues to rise, but the group figures they likely have another hour or two before the heat become too dangerous.
A smile crosses Sasha's face as the group returns, saying, "I see your trip was fruitful." before the smile fades seeing the departed first mate.
More solemly she asks, "Were there any provisions left over in the larder?"
"There are about twice this in supplies remaining, you say?" Adara says after seeing what has been managed by the others already.
Adara sees Lawdrak's companion and smiles. "I'm glad your friend Sharpmaw is still well and healthy, Lawdrak. We were all concerned for you, toothy one." The suli addresses the dinosaur directly with the last statement.
"Were you able to locate the key to Jask's manacles?" Adara asks hopefully. "This place will be his death if we cannot get his bindings off of him."
Adara listens to the reply then changes the subject.
"You should know that we have located tracks from the jungle. It seems our lives may have been saved by some humanoid or another. They left us there in the sand though, and departed before or possibly because of the sea scorpion attack." Adara looks at each of them gravely. "We are not alone here. We will need to plan defense as well as shelter from more than mere beasts."
Adara looks back to those who have accompanied her from the beach.
"Quickly! Let us go and get the rest before the Dawnflower's judging gaze burns those without the proper respect for her power in this place."
Adara leads Sasha, Ishirou, and hopefully enough of the others back to obtain the rest of the available supplies.
"We found a ring of keys. I do not know if it includes the key to the manacles," says Mizu. "There was not much usable food. Salt water is ruinous."
Mum speaks up when she hears Adara recruiting for another salvage run to the wreck... "Ooh I would very much like to join you, if I may." She drops the stick she'd been crudely carving, and dumps the contents of her pack.
Kainey extricates himself from the ground, and floats up onto Mum's shoulder... the roots sprouting from his feet wrap around her shoulder strap.
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With both Estietre and Adara more than willing to go back to the shipwreck, Ishirou and Sasha decide to stay behind on the beach, feeling that their time would be better served continuing to work on the camp.
The party arrives back on the wreckage of the Jenivere and makes their way to the ship's larder. Supplies are scattered throughout the room, but spending a bit of time the group is able to recoup enough food to last one person twenty-four days.
During the gathering of the edible supplies in the room, Estietre uncovers a grizzly discovery, the dead body of the ship's cook, Rambar Terillo.
Otherwise, the group is able to gather the remaining supplies and return to the beach before the heat becomes too unbearable and the ship is washed out to sea.
Larder - Food for 24 days (1 person)
Captain's Quarters - a dagger, a suit of leather armor, two potions (one used), a holy symbol of Nethys, and a spell component pouch (Jask's gear?), bottle of fine brandy worth, a darkwood model of the Jenivere in a glass bottle, and a small coffer containing 350 gp. Also in this lower drawer is a long leather satchel that holds a dozen potions, of six different varieties
Throuought the Ship/Supply Room - Studded Leather Armor and Shortsword (Alton's body), 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.
"These are snake bites. From quite a large snake, clearly," Dereje remarks grimly, pointing to the telltale marks. "So both Mr. Devers and Mr. Terillo are dead. That just leaves our madman of a captain and Ieanea. Where could they be, I wonder?"
The paladin makes sure to bring Rambar's body with them back to the beach. He hardly knew the man, but like with Alton, he was not about to leave his body to be eaten by scavengers. Not that burying them in a place like this was much better. Wiping the sweat off his brow, Dereje looks over the accumulated gear. There was a good deal of valuable items in the mix, an unfortunately irrelevant point given their circumstances.
Glancing around the new camp and nodding approval, Lawdrak sits down with the potions and examines each one carefully.
"It looks like we have four potions of cure light wounds, a potion of cure moderate wounds, a potion of remove disease- which, by the way, does not look nearly as disgusting as the ones Bloodspeaker Kasha makes -a potion of water breathing, and a potion of water walking.
I'm sorry, I am not sure what these four are."
Mizu nods and says, "I suppose we will need to try to find fresh water somewhere on this island, once the heat dies down a bit. At least we have a small supply of food for a few days."
She helps bring all of the supplies up a bit from the beach and says, "I'm not sure of the best place to set up an encampment. Obviously we should opt for shade if possible, and perhaps engage in collecting some firewood. Mayhap we can build a palisade when time permits."
She draws the shortspear from the thong securing it to her back and leans it against a tree, then carefully puts her short bow next to it. She puts down her waterproof bag, unrolls it, and takes out the documents that they discovered earlier. "We found these papers, too. Perhaps someone can make use of them."
Finally, she takes from the oilskin bag a broad lute-like musical instrument and a plectrum, and she sits down and sets to fiddling and tuning the instrument while waiting for the team to decide what to do next.
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As the group gathers around and prepares to take shelter for the hottest part of the day, you determine that the source of the footprints around and trails to the spot on the beach you awoke was likely Alton Devers and that he simply met his end at the stinger of a sea scorpion while he was trying to retrieve supplies from the ship.
Adara tries the keys Mizu found on Jask's manacles.
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Trying multiple keys, Adara is eventually able to find the key to Jask's manacles.
"Thank you for freeing me. Thank you even more so for trusting me." Jask says, truly grateful for the show of trust.
After being released, Jask quickly moves over the pile of gear brought back from the shipwreck and retrieves the holy symbol of Nethys.
"There are other items that once belonged to me here, but I leave that to you to decide if I may have those." he says pointing to a dagger, a suit of leather armor, a potion, and a spell component pouch.
"Hmm...I thought there were two of those potions, no bother, I am sure it went to good use."
"There was another, bigger scorpion on the ship. We had a disagreement. I lost. Again." Lawdrak answers to Jask, in explanation, if not quite apology.
"What do we know of this island? DO ships dock here? Are we far from the mainland? I am afraid that I did not pay close attention to the captain."
His young face darkens. "Who, by the way, seems to have been courting madness. " He indicates the log that they found aboard ship.
As they finish camp and sort through the materials brought from the ship, Lawdrak does a walk of the camp's perimeter, checking for signs of creatures or inhabitants, looking to see if the spot may be improved, or if there are vulnerabilities to watch for. He makes a peculiar clicking in his throat, and Sharpmaw pads to his side, head low and moving side to side as he stalks along beside his human.
*growf*
"There are other items that once belonged to me here, but I leave that to you to decide if I may have those." he says pointing to a dagger, a suit of leather armor, a potion, and a spell component pouch.
Estietre shrugs.. "I can only think of convoluted, contrived.. mildly self-serving reasons why you should not.", then gestures as if saying "Have at it".
"We must all be able to defend ourselves in this situation," says Mizu. "I would not begrudge you that same capability."
She notices that Estietre has been trying to craft a spear, and picks up her own shortspear and offers it to Mum. "Just so."
"Given our circumstances, I see no reason for you to go unarmed," Dereje agrees after a moment of thought.
"You said before that you were framed by your superior. Would you care to elaborate?"
Mum nods in gratitude to Mizu "Oh! How nice. Just let me know if you need it back. I'll be sure to return it once I've crafted a suitable one." She sighs looking to her stick "I kept imagining myself spent on arcan'ry.. facing a charging boar with my staff.. trying to time a swing or swat.. was giving me shivers. So I thought.. Far better to carve a spear than curse your bluntness."
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"Thank you all again." Jask says, re-equiping himself.
"Before all of this, I worked for the Sargavan government. During the course of my duties I had uncovered evidence of a few elicit deals with the Free Captains of the Shackles. With this evidence in hand, I confronted my superior with this information only to be betreyed and framed for the crimes that I had uncovered. Facing inprisonment, I fled Sargava and lived in Corentyn for nearly a decade before a Sargavan agent caught up with me."
Jask's head drops in shame, "To be honest, I was little more than cargo to be returned to Sargava on the ship."
Jask is quiet for a few moments before seeming realize something. "Wait a minute. You say we are on the Shiv? One of my former superiors contacts with the Shackles was a man by the name of Avret Kinkarian, captain of the Brine Demon. If memory serves me correctly, the Brine Demon wrecked on the Shiv. I know it is a long shot, but perhaps if we were to find the wreck of the Brine Demon I could find more evidence of my innocence. Do you think this is something we could do?"
To Mum, Mizu says, "I will likely only need it if something happens to my blades." With that she takes a seat and takes out a small amount of oil to clean the katana that was so recently run through both stinging arthropods and sea water.
"We'll probably need to explore the entire island at some point, to ascertain our best chance at escape," says Mizu to Jask. "So I wouldn't be surprised if we stumble across other wrecks."
Dereje frowns with distaste when he realizes where they are, and even more so at the nature of Jask's supposed crime. Clearly, he was not fond of pirates nor illegal trade deals. More or less convinced of the man's innocence, he nods at Mizu's words.
"Indeed. Time is a luxury we can afford, provided that we secure a source of food and fresh water." With a grimace, he adds, "The next threat to our safety might very well be our next meal."
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Jask smiles, "Although I do not relish our current situation, it is still good to be among those I can consider friends."
Lawdrak and Sharpmaw return from their very short foray into the area surrounding the camp, convinced that Adara and the others have chosen as good of a spot as can be found close by.
Even while resting in the shade of the canopy, the heat nearly unbearable as the sun crests at midday. Having recovered his holy symbol, Jask prays to his god for aid and provides the gathered castaways with summoned fresh water to slake their thirsts.
Later in the afternoon the heat subsides, while it is still uncomfortablly hot it is no longer explicitly dangerous.
When the heat is at its worst, Dereje slips out of his duster, only to pull it back on an hour or so later.
"Hm. I do believe there is light enough for us to make use of," the paladin remarks, gauging the position of the sun. "We will not be wanting for water thanks to Mr. Derindi here, but food will soon be a concern. Perhaps we should venture into the jungle. At the very least, we can get our bearings on the area we're in."
"I feel nervous not knowing what is five minute's walk away...I think we should explore while we have the light."
"Mmm... Yes! Perhaps go just inland to the right for a bit, then deeper into the jungle, then turn back this way.. the reverse of our original direction still deeper in the wild.. then we turn toward the sea, and finally turn back to camp. Like a rectangle.... " She makes a "choo" sound for each side of the rectangle she draws in the air with her finger.
"We'd cover the nearby area, and how could we get lost if we walk in a perfect rectangle? Let's go!"
"I was going to suggest a circle, but close enough. Do we have enough firewood to last through the night if it is cold or anything predatory comes close?" says Mizu.