Seeing Harold bleeding out, Patches grabs him and drags him back onto the ship.
"It's not that easy being green; Having to spend each day the color of the leaves; When I think it could be nicer being red, or yellow, or gold; Or something much more colorful like that." sings Glubby to himself in his head.
Shoallana grabs the wand as it falls from Harold's hand and then heals him.
Patches calls to the crew. "If one of you can jump down for Ursion, I'll keep the shark off you!"
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Why are there so many songs about rainbows; And what's on the other side; Rainbows are visions; But only illusions; And rainbows have nothing to hide;
So we've been told; And some choose to believe it; I know they're wrong, wait and see; Some day we'll find it; The rainbow connection; The lovers, the dreamers, and meeeeeee...
"Get Lanteri and the rest out of the water--we'll heal up and go back after the sharks, if they haven't left." Ursion drops back into the water only long enough to motion to the Captain to retreat.
Lanteri, in true Captain form, shouts from the water, "Get out of here! I've got 'em!"
Miraculously, Lanteri is able to take one of the sharks out! Unfortunately, that has set her up as a prime target for the remaining shark:
The captain takes a heavy wound....
I'm going to regret this.... Ursion drops back into the water and swims towards the remaining shark, studying it as he approaches and trying to set up a flank.
Deciding that bravery is better than safety, Harold moves to take advantage of the flanking position provided and stabs at the shark, hoping to end the battle before he perishes!
for
With his companions safe for the moment, Patches grabs his scimitar and leaps from the ship with an arcane spell leading through his blade.
"RRRWOOAAWWW!"
Shoallana begins to inspire the party and makes the shark the focus of her bane.
Hmm... I don't know anymore frog songs. Glubby thinks sadly to himself.
Harold stabs into the shark but Patches misses, unfortunately. With a flanking partner again, Lanteri stabs at the shark from the other side.
Luckily, Lanteri is able to bring the shark down before it can do any more harm!
"Get back to the ship! Heal up, catch a breath, and then get back down there! This time don't leap into a feeding frenzy!" She angrily stows her rapier and grabs a rope to pull herself back into the ship.
"You heard the Captain." Ursion snags the floating grippli on his way back up.
Harold manages to get himself back into the boat. I really need to rest and heal up. That was quite the battle!
"I can't see anything worse then those sharks lurking about down there. Let's do this quickly before something else moves in. I'll lead the way."
Once healed, Patches casts a vanish spell and dives into the water, swimming down while his potion is still active.
"We'll watch out for you, Harold. You watch for traps and things."
Harold sighs but quickly realizes that time is of the essence. I can do that. I can still be useful as my training is extensive!
The Saber's Kiss sits on the bottom of the shallow seafloor of the atoll. As you enter the main hold of the ship, a ghostly scene starts to play out before your eyes. A young Garundi man in sailor's clothes with half his face horrifically melted away bewails his unspoken love for Belina and cries out that he is bound forever by his love and the amulet he gave his beloved.
"Blurbrbrlrbbbblles!" Patches blows a bunch of bubbles at the sight of the ghostly sailor. Hearing enough of his tale to understand his plight, Patches tries to talk him down, though he is unused to talking in an underwater environment.
"Bbbeeelllina's nearbbby! We'll tbbell herbb abbbbout your llbbbove!"
Ursion nods. "Ybbbesss! We'll gbbet hbr!"
The ghost looks ready to attack but then hesitates at the thought that his lover might be nearby. The hesitation is just enough for you to quickly swim back up above the sunken ship and towards the Magpie Princes.
That wasn't creepy at all. Harold tries to find Belina once he gets up onto the ship. He'll then bring her to Ursion so that he can explain the scene to her in a diplomatic and unsettling manner, if possible.
Its all true, I saw it too!
"Belina, there's a Garundi ghost down there, gave you an amulet when he was alive. Do you have it to hand?"
Glubby swims around the in water as the group decides to return to inform the captain.
Glub glub...
"Should we go kill him again? I coulda taken him! Couple stabs with my rapier and he woulda fallen. That's the Grippli Guarantee (tm)."
Ursion shakes his head with a slight smile. "Let's not fight if we don't have to. Too much healing used up from those sharks and their handlers."
Belina looks a bit confused at first. "Oh, that's sad. He was nice and all, but I never loved him. I knew he liked me but I just didn't feel the same way. I've still got the amulet though, let me go find it." Moments later she comes back out with the amulet.
Do you think just bringing the amulet will be enough, guys? You think she has to come?
"Said he was bound by his love and the amulet.. didn't really mention the girl. We could return it, say she's dead. If he gets all mad-ghostlike, then I say we destroy it."
Patches looks over the side of the boat into the water. "I'll keep up a spell to detect magic. If you can keep the ghost busy long enough, maybe I can find the piece of the horn and we can run.. I mean swim.. for it."
"I don't think the horn is magic, or the dragon probably would have taken it by now."
"Either way, let's get going!" Glubby yells as he jumps feet first back into the water, ready to confront this ghostie.
Descending back to the sunken ship, you are again accosted by the ghost but at the sight of the amulet he ceases any attacks and calms down. "She kept it. . . whatever she may say about our love, the fact that she kept the amulet after all this time gives me reassurance. Thank you...." The spirit fades away, leaving you free to explore the wreck.
An hour of dedicated searching is enough to find the piece you seek. After recovering Dahoath’s piece of the Three Reasons to Live, Varossa is visibly excited. "Now we just need to make our way to Warvil's Folly. He must have hid that third piece somewhere on the island. My guess would be the abandoned monastery so I'll give you a map and some directions to get there. Then we'll be on to Captain Redclaw’s treasure!"
Though he acted with bravado in suggesting the plan to deal with the ghost, Patches gives a bubbly sigh of relief as the lingering spirit accepts the amulet and fades away.
***
Back aboard the Magpie Princess Patches listens to the captain's thoughts on the third piece of the horn, and nods quietly when the location is revealed to be on dry land. "How far to Warvil's Folly?" He asks, hoping to get some rest before tackling the next challenge.
Hopefully we'll have time to rest up and prepare for our next adventure. I'm wore out!
Ursion carefully washes and dries his armor and weapons once out of the water, unwilling to risk corrosion. "Any idea what's to be found on the Folly?"
"It will be about a week of travel to reach the isle. Warvil wrote of a fertile jungle paradise with a freshwater spring feeding a small river that runs into a large lagoon. However, he also wrote of two small groups of natives-a tribe of lizardfolk and a tribe of keeches. A couple of centuries ago, some Abadaran missionaries also built a monastery there to bring 'civilization' to the warring tribes, but I guess that didn't work out for them. The monastery is abandoned and I believe that is where Warvil would have left his treasure."
The Magpie Princess pulls close to the island and you are set off on the beach with the easiest access, as all other points on the island have sharp cliffs rising from the sea. The concave beach of white sand is the nesting ground for a population of giant sea turtles. The eggs are quite valuable but the female archelons are also very territorial and protective of their eggs. Luckily, if you avoid them or make no moves to steal their eggs, they seem content to let you pass by unmolested.
"It's as good a place as any to start. We'll see if it's still there, though." Ursion makes his way up the beach, keeping a wary eye on the giant turtles.
Good money in those eggs but perhaps that would have been for another time. Oh, does anything know what these "keeches" are? I'm not familiar with them.