"Sorry about that Svacha, you're probably safer down there anyways"
Giz casts Glitterdust
Jaghal moved to a completely strategic position remaining close to Szacha in case he wanted to come back up, and also clearing the path for the ranged behind him. Seeing Corenting taking the front line he realizes he will need some help, rather sooner than later. "By the god's blood that flows through my veins, I command that you be healed when you need it the most!"
The creature is known as a Girallon. They are native to the southern jungles and are well known for their ferocity. They have no special strengths or weaknesses apart from their incredible strength and ability to dish out massive damage with their four heavily muscled arms.
They are popular in gladatorial combat, and given the captain's former position as a gladiator, that might be why this thing is on board.
Watching its movements, you can definitely tell it isn't fighting at its full potential, as if it were hindered in some way.
Corentin wades into the battle and gashes the creature heavily with his axe, the spirits around him whipping through the air and hammering into the ape. From behind, a sling stone comes rocketing through the air and slams into the creature, dealing light damage but still wounding it. Johan's shot goes wide as Szacha struggles below in the pit, unable to get enough of a grip on the walls of the magical space to climb out. Gizsmith, safe in the rear, conjures up another spell and unleashes a thousand motes of twinkling light into the air around the beast, the magic settling on its fur and outlining it in a shimmering glow. The clinging and shimmering dust gets into the creature's eyes and sends it even deeper into a rage as it claws at its face in an attempt to free itself from the sudden blindness.
Beyond in a rage, the creature lashes our at the air in front of it, where it saw the cavalier moments before. Only a single claw manages to land on the fighter, as it rakes across his shoulder and draws a thick line of blood.
Wincing at the gash left by the creature but knowing how much worse it could have been Corentin attacks again before stepping back.
Sasha smiles. "We've got him on the defensive," she shouts, flinging another stone.
As there are three party members injured Jaghal realizes it's a perfect time to spread some love around them, since the rage is already being inspired. He of course leaves the ape out of their secret healing society.
"Energy Wave!"
"Go get him fellas!!
Szacha continues to struggle in the pit as the party battles on. Jaghal sends another wave of healing energy through his allies as Sasha nails the creature in the head with her sling. Corentin, recovering from the previous hit, uses the ape's blindness against it, waiting for the right opening in its defenses and lashing out with all of his might. His weapon strikes the massive beast's midsection and cleaves through skin and bone, disemboweling the thing and getting his axe stuck in its spine in the process as the monstrosity crashes to the ground, very much dead.
Despite the brevity of the battle Corentin breathes heavily as he places his boot on the creatures chest and yanks his axe free.
"Szacha are you ok?" he calls down to his friend "The beast is slain."
After helping Szacha up Corentin also takes the opportunity to look over the strange creature.
"Has anyone seen such a creature before?"
"Never," Sasha says. "Maybe it's been magicked?"
Taking a moment to tend to their wounds, the party quickly discovers an open door at the far end of the rowing banks. Looking inside they discover a storage area dominated by a large cage with the door hanging open. Inside the cage they see mounds of straw and refuse, as well as the remains of what appear to be a sheep carcass, partially eaten.
"I would suspect the same way the railing was cut." Corentin says as he goes to look at the cage door and lock.
Looking closely, Corentin doesn't see anything to lead him to believe the lock was forced open, on the contrary, it doesn't appear that the cage door was locked when it was opened at all.
Moments after the skirmish ends, several members of the rowing crew return with the captain and first mate in tow. Eyeing the dead creature, the captain moves forward towards the hold, and gives the open cage a rather concerned look before shaking his head and quietly moving away. Pulling Halrex aside, the two exchange a few words before the captain purposefully strides from the area and heads back to the main deck. Halrex, quick to get the situation under control, says "You four, take this carcass up top and give it to the river.", motioning to the huskier members of the group. "When you get done, report back down here, we have ground to cover before the day is done." she says to Szacha.
Listening without being noticed, you manage to eavesdrop on the captain and first mate's conversation. Both seem to be speculating on the possible link between the sabotaged rail and the unlocked cage door which obviously led to the girallon's escape.
"Yes Ma'm" Corentin responds. Before doing so however he takes a moment to talk with Gizsmith and Sasha. "There's only one way in or out of that hold. There's no real room to hide so the sabature must have kept the beast from escaping right away. Perhaps the sheep was drugged? If so would you be able to tell? Such a thing would confirm our suspicions and might give us a clue to finding whoever is doing this."
With that he helps his fellows carry the creature up onto the deck. While they haul the beast he asks Szacha, "Did you see anyone move in or out of that hold? "
After a difficult and grizzly effort the creature is brought on deck and cast into the river. Corentin watches the corpse float behind the ship for a few moments as he considers recent events. He finally turns away when the water about the beast starts to thrash and boil, their reptilian shadows provided a fine metaphor of the unseen threat that hunted his own group.
Sasha says nothing, but remains below decks while the others move the carcass.
Jaghal didn't pay attention to anything, since he was busy worrying about the health of his allies. As everyone knew, no one died on his watch. So he spent some of his regular healing prowess taking care of Szacha.
Turning to Johan as he heads for the stairs, Bloodtusk simply states "You have your business human, and I have mine. Your passage doesn't include anything more than a lift upstream." as he exits.
Its obvious that Bloodtusk is putting on a bit of a show for the first mate, not wanting to appear overly friendly with the group. You also get the feeling that the discovery has him deeply troubled, as two instances of sabotage cannot easily be written off as accidents.
As everybody seems to be trying to figure out what the heck is happening, or to be more specific, how the monster got away, Jaghal approaches the room where the monster was being held, and investigates the presence of magic in it.
With the grizzly task of removing the corpse done Corentin rejoined the group.
"How do we find this saboteur? Clearly they have fairly free access to the ship. No one saw them enter the hold to unlock the cage and cutting through the railing must have taken some time yet went unobserved. We've been fortunate so far but we nee to get ahead of them."
Speaking with the rowing crew, the only one seen entering or leaving the room was Gashnakh, the crew member responsible for its feeding. Nothing else suspicious has been noticed by the crew in the area.
"How do we find this saboteur? Clearly they have fairly free access to the ship. No one saw them enter the hold to unlock the cage and cutting through the railing must have taken some time yet went unobserved. We've been fortunate so far but we nee to get ahead of them."
"A nice question! Well, I think this feeder is a good start if we want answers. He sounds like the obvious saboteur, so there might be something else. Playing detective sounds awesome! Although, to be honest, I'd rather tank this attempts than mess with this captain's crew. I mean, how much more can he make?" Sherlock thinks a little. "Of course, if he's trying to kill us he probably knows why we're going north and will probably tell the enemy we're coming, so yeah, it would be good to avoid that."
"That seems reasonable enough. I'd be willing to talk with him. who'll join me?"
A bit of uncertainty crosses the cavaliers face. "Perhaps it might be better to keep your sharp eyes undistracted to watch for threats. I mean no disrespect but you have history with orcs and we will need the crew to feel comfortable in giving us their trust if we are to learn anything from them."
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I can hold my tongue for now cavalier, and want to go with you. The truth is that these attacks are damn deadly and its only luck that one of us has not died from them yet. We need to get to the bottom of this quickly. I believe we have an enemy on board. If the captain is not in league with him then she should be willing to work with us to expose that enemy.
Nodding Corentin replies, "You're right, Desna will only smile on us for so long, we need to get to the bottom of this. Let's go speak with Gashnakh and see what he knows."
"Come on Jaghal. Let's go see if we can't uncover any mysteries this boat might be hiding. We best stick together in case of any other shenanigans."
The group makes their way to the mess, where Gashnakh typically works when not on rowing duty. He is a rough looking half-orc with a wicked scar running from the crown of his head to his jaw. The overall impression you have gotten from him so far during the trip is that he is a hard working member of the crew who does keep to himself quite a bit. He glances up at the group as they arrive, but makes no real acknowledgement of their approach and continues with his work.
"Hello Gashnakh, if it wouldn't be too much trouble we were hoping we might ask you a few questions. When you brought the creature the sheep did you see anything out of the ordinary? How long ago was it that you fed the beast?"
Sasha stays close to Johan, keeping her eyes open.
The orc, a bit surprised at the sudden questioning, looks slightly uncomfortable as he stares at Corentin. Szacha, quick with an attempt at saving the conversation, pours the man a bit of liquor, which he glances at nervously before picking up and sniffing at. "Feeding time is always the same, late morning. Meat is prepared and delivered, always the same. Nothing strange today, nothing strange yesterday." He holds onto the drink, but makes no move to down the fiery liquid just yet.
Various magical auras are noticable around the ship, but all seem to come from various assorted magical items and trinkets owned by the crew.
Gizsmith's command of the arcane yields results during the investigation as he focuses in on the lingering aura of magic surrounding the half-orc being question. Picking apart the residual magical energies he detects the fading presence of a Sow Thought spell upon the man.
"I apologize for my abruptness but it's been a bit of a trying day." the cavalier states indicating his blood stained clothes with a wave of his hand. "Please drink and let us start again. It was not my intention to make you ill at ease."
Leaning in a bit he says in a slightly lower voice, "Gashnakh listen, I know we don't know each other well but you seem a reliable crewman and the captain trusts you so I will to. I'm sure you heard the commotion that happened when the beast escaped and it was only through Desna's favor that none of the crew were harmed. As far as I know you were the last person to have seen the creature while it was still caged so anything you may have noticed could be important. Do you prepare it's meals yourself? When you used to feed the beast did you need to unlock it's cage? Is your key around here somewhere?"
The half-orc seems to shy away from the questions, quickly becoming defensive. "Others feed animals too, not just me. Feed beast this morning but no different than any other morning. Feed through cage, no one allowed in cage. No key. Me needs get back to work now." the half-orc says, on edge at the questions and his tone of voice indicates as much.
He knows he isn't telling the truth. But its almost as if he cannot help himself.