Gathien looks at the door and shrugs, then walks back to the others, giving up on his stealthy approach, "I didn't hear anything, and the door appears to be swelled shut with water -- I think it's a good thing that it's low tide. I'd say it's probably easier to hack through it than unstick it, but didn't want to start making that kind of noise before we were sure there was nothing else on the boat that wanted to kill us."
"Let's finish looking around and then we'll try and open that door. Thank you for risking yourself to look ahead, Gathien."
Kayle will use Detect Magic to try and identify the sack of a dozen potions .
"Yeah, good work there short stuff." Lionel agreed, easily nudging the halflings shoulder without bending down, his apelike arms easily reaching.
Striding down the hallway he added. "Well, lets get this over with and get outa here, wouldn't wanna be on this bucket when she decides she wants to return to the sea.
Sil nods in agreement with Lionel. "If you'd like that door broken down though, let Sticky do it."
Further searching of the ship doesn't seem to reveal anything new. Anything that wasn't secured to the ship extremely well has washed away by now; frankly it was only a matter of luck that the captain's desk is too large to fall out of the hole in the cabin. Below decks is sodden and smells of low tide. Both of the doors still down here, though, seem to emanate a slightly stronger odor or something rotting, but the swollen doors keep the scent in. The unscratched door is significantly less swollen, though, and would probably open with a little tugging. The other, door, though, is much more stuck--that is, until the treant sapling smashes it in with his thick branches.
A horrifying stench leaks out of the room in a wave, causing all near to gag at the smell of rot and death. The pool of coagulated blood that trailed from under the door, when it was a door instead of a pile of splinters, leads to the iridescent-fly-swarmed body of the first mate, Alton Devers. He still wears his masterwork studded leather armor, and clutches a masterwork short sword in one hand.
Besides serving as the first mate's place of death, this room seems to have served as the supply room, and contains a number of items that would be useful in setting up 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.
"Ill get this." Lionel said immediately, setting to work gathering up the supplies with practiced ease, seemingly completely unconcerned with the corpse and its stench. "Have a peak through the other door wont you. Ill be there in a moment." He added over his shoulder, as he began bundling everything up in one of the canvas sheets, taking care to place the lanterns and oil securely.
Kayle gags and goes to look in the other door. "Thank you Lionel. I'd rather not have to subject myself to that much longer.."
"I am not familiar with these wounds he has." Sil says with disappointment. "Good work on the door though, Sticky." The treant's branches sway in pleasure.
"Shall we check out the other room?"
If needed Sticky will beat the door in again.
Gathien nods, "I'm sure the others at the camp will be happy to see this stuff, though I do think we'll need to talk to about keeping things like the oil for emergencies."
"I can create light easily enough, so we won't have much to worry about. I'm sure Jask can as well, possibly Gellik too."
Aleris examines the satchel full of potions. Four of them are potions of cure light wounds. She can't tell what the other potions are, but all of them are magical.
Sticky, apparently not content to leave any door standing, slams into the last remaining barrier on the lower deck. This swings open on the first hit, flooding the deck with a stronger wave of rot and death than the other. The door slams on its hinges and slams closed again, before the treant smashes it into pieces. The cook's body lies here, swarmed with even more iridescent flies. The stench of rot would seem to indicate that this corpse is at least a day older than the first mate's.
Besides the body, though, this room appears to be the larder. There are enough preserved rations here to sustain a single person for 24 days.
Gathien wrinkles up his nose and says, "It's probably a good thing Sticky doesn't eat like we do... that smell is nauseating. Still, that's a very useful find -- I don't think we can count on enough sea scorpions attacking our camp to keep us all well fed."
Appearing behind the others, bulging canvas satchel on his shoulder, Lionel looked over their shoulders with a shrug. "Theres always fishin' to be had at least. One good thing about strandin' on an island, yer surrounded by the sea."
"Phew! Why don't we grab the food and get out of here? Let's let the sea take them. I don't know what did them in; perhaps the crash was enough. The cook certainly had enough food in here. Let's head back to camp and add the food to our store."
Agreed. This was worth the trip. We know that the first mate is dead, most of the crew are missing or dead. No sign of the Captain or the uhm...the other passenger. Let's take our loot and return to the camp. If we dump what we've found there, we can explore the surrounding area a bit more. Maybe move camp tomorrow."
Gathien nods, "Better to get this than have it lost to sea... and yes, I imagine we can drop this off and then head out and explore.... Still, I think we'll need to remind everyone that the rations are for emergencies or when the hunting fails."
Transporting the equipment is somewhat slow, due to the tricky geography around the wreck, but the explorers manage to get everything back to camp before the tide starts to rise, cutting off any walking path to the Jenivere. Judging by the sun, it's about eight in the morning by the time everything is transported back to camp, and the other former passengers have taken up maintaining the camp. Everyone except for Gelik still seems on edge, more shaken now than they were when they first woke up on the Shiv.
Aerys still looks sickly and pale, as she sits with a book of poetry, looking for sections to recite for the camp. Ishirou helps augment the current camp with the new supplies, but leaves jobs half-finished before going to sulk in his lean-to. Jask approaches the group, trying to maintain a smile, but a little jumpy. "So," he starts hopefully, coming up to Kayle, "Did you find the captain's keys? Or any of my things?"
Camp status:
Defenders: 0
Entertainers: 1 (Aerys)
Guards: 0
Hunters: 1 (Sasha)
Medics: 1 (Gelik)
Kayle dangles the keys in her hand and grins at Jask. "We have the keys." She'll unlock his manacles before motioning to their packs. "We brought plenty of food too."
She'll frown at Ishirou as he half-heartedly helps, shaking her head. "Remind me to talk to him tonight..we'll be heading back out to explore some more, I think."
Jask beams as his manacles come off, rubbing his wrists. He starts laughing with joy, holding his little pot belly with his thin hands. "This is most excellent! Thank you! I don't suppose you found my other things, too? My armor will be a bit hotter than these rags, but I'm tired of scratching all these bug bites, especially when I didn't have my hands free," he says, scratching at his back. "If you found my holy symbol and spell component pouch, too, I could provide healing to the camp, as well. I've got a few other magical tricks up my sleeve as well. I understand if you don't want to give me back my dagger, but it was a gift from a friend. Mostly I just used it as a letter opener back in Corentyn, but I'm afraid I may find use of it for defense, if this island continues to prove hostile. In any case, I think I'll help Gelik with keeping everyone healthy--I could help forage, but I think we'll be good on food for a little while at least, with the haul from last night and Sasha's efforts today, not to mention the rations you found."
"Tell you what Jask." Lionel interrupted, getting up from looking through their haul. "I prefer havin' my healin' handy and not waitin' till I get back to camp. You wanna be useful, you are comin' with us."
He looked around at the others, motioning at the forest. "If everyone is ready, lets get goin'. It may be early but we have to get back before dark so we only have maybe 6 hours worth of actual explorin'."
Sil picked up the spare spell-component pouch earlier, but he'll give it back to Jask. "There you go. I've got my own, just picked it up figuring someone would need it."
"We should head further inland." Sil suggests. "Try to find some high ground and from there scout out the surroundings."
Gathien nods, "Getting our bearings is a good idea -- especially when we've got a few things to look for later."
"Don't forget, we know there is a lighthouse to the south. We may find people there. Or at the very least, can activate it and signal for help. We still have a few hours left in the day. Let's move a mile south and see what the other shore looks like. That gives us enough time to head back before it gets too dark."
She pauses, a smile flitting over her lips. "We can see if there is any high ground on the other shore, maybe a cliff or something. See? Deal. Plus, if Jask is coming with us its only polite to take a look for any other ships that might be the uhm..Brine Demon? What was it again, Jask?"
Gathien nods agreeably, "The lighthouse, if it's intact, might well be its own vantage point."
"That sounds like a good plan to me." Sil assents.
Jask's usual smile quickly fades at Lionel's aggression. "Uh, look, friend: maybe you missed the part about my being a clerk--I'm not built for jungle exploration," he says while patting his protruding belly, noticeable even though it's now covered with leather armor instead of rags. "If you want me to heal all of you, it would be better for me to stay here. I won't be able to help you if I'm dead in the jungle!" he jests, the smile returning. "Look, if you need something from me, think on a more administrative scale. Cuts and bruises I can handle. If you want some help organizing camp, or examining magical properties, I'm glad to offer my assistance! But I'm not getting myself killed out there."
Once they're ready, the explorers head out of the camp going south, hacking their way through the jungle underbrush.
After over an hour of walking, the group emerges at the edge of a cliff overlooking a large bay. To the west are two larger islands off the main Shiv's body. The larger one directly to the west is unusual: rather than the lush green that seems to make up most of the island, the entirety of the west island's foliage seems to be made up of a sickly gray color. Conspicuously, none of the black specks that signify the tropical birds that fly over the rest of the island seem to want to go near the strange gray island in the distance. To the south, a rounded dusty red shape rises above the treeline. It looks to be a large mountain, and is easily the tallest point on the island.
The party heads inland, and the temperature steadily increases. By the time the sun is directly overhead, the heat is nearly unbearable. It's clear that any further trekking would be inadvisable until the heat fades.
Sil advises, "Let's rest as we go. No sense pushing ourselves too hard."
Sil notes the ominous island with interest. Walking along, he stops the party and leans over to pick up a small skeleton and a bit of skin. "There's a snake around here-a big one. Keep on the lookout everyone."
Sil continues to lead the party through the jungle with Sticky at his side.
Lionel looked about at Sils words, scanning the underbrush with a suspicious scowl. "I don't care how big it is, if it tries anythin' Ill makes sure it chokes on my corpse." He cracked his knuckles and craned his neck until it too rewarded him with loud popping sounds, then sat down to rest. "Anyone got a guess for the island over there? Ain't never seen anythin' like that...And Ive seen my share of islands." He stroked his chin thoughtfully. "Wouldn't be half bad if we could make our camp on one of those islands. Be a whole lot safer Id wager."
"Agreed, Sil. I'm not a fan of all this..sweat. I was expecting to be exploring old ruins, not a jungle. Still..at least we haven't stumbled across a giant snake yet.."
Kayle wipes her face with a rag and collapses against a tree, flipping idly through the pages of her spellbook. "I don't think it'd be any safer on one of those islands. Possibly worse, we wouldn't be able to quickly get away from the island if it ends up being covered in halfling cannibals riding on giant snakes or whatever."
As the explorers rest in the shade, the first hour or so is incredibly hot and humid. The drenching rains of the night seem a distant memory, and an enticing promise. Perhaps it is because they are lost in these reveries, or trying to focus on something other than sweat dripping down every face and back, that only the treant sapling notices a large snake, longer than a man is tall with a soot-black back and a white underbelly, curling through the underbrush.
Before the treant can move, the snake lunges out, fangs flashing in the sun toward Gathien.
Snake fangs bury themselves into Gathien's armor, but do not pierce through to his skin, before the creature rears back, black tongue flicking in and out of its wide head.
-----
"Suck on this!" Lionel roared, pouncing forward and attempting to bury his claws in scaly flesh.
With an ear-piercing scream, Kayle leaps into the air in shock. "Snake!" She shouts, as if no one had seen it. She'll scurry away from it before turning, fingers starting to cast a spell.
Sticky moves around the underbrush and flanks with Gathien.
Sil moves up to the snake and punches it in the face! "Hey you! Leave them alone, ok?"
Lionel moves up to underbrush, and tears a trio of claw marks into the snake's scaly hide. Sil attempts a similar maneuver, but the snake winds out of the way of his punch, hissing at him with dripping fangs. Its ambush spoiled and skin bleeding, the snake winds up into a nearby tree. Angry at its wound, though it lashes out at Lionel.
-----
Gathien snarls at the snake that's attacked him, allowing his temper to rise even as he releases the fire within him, feeling the warmth rush through his limbs and give him strength. He draws his greatsword and feels the rest of the world burn away, leaving him only with an intense focus on his foe.
for
Gathien chops the snake's head clean off!
The fight over, everyone now realizes how much effort it is to move so vigorously in this heat. The sun is overwhelming, and everyone feels the need for a cool drink and shade.
"Phew!" the elf says, wiping the sweat from his brow. "Jumping up and missing that snake really got me worked up! Maybe we should sit and rest a little longer." Sil will continue creating water until everyone is feeling better.
"Damn that smarts!" Lionel roared as the snakes fangs sank into his flesh. "You done it now Snakie!"
Sitting down after the fight, Lionel rotated his arms, holding a hand to the wound. "Arms feelin' kinda stiff. Ya reckon the bugger was poisonous?" He asked, looking at Sil. "Either way, its gonna make for some good eatin' at least." He added, smiling.
Knowledge (Nature) on the snake (poisonous or constrictor snake)
Kayle recognizes the snake as venomous: a black mamba, or close cousin, based on its coloring. These sorts of snakes aren't often this large--this one is at least as long as Lionel is tall, and a foot thick in diameter at its widest--but on an isolated island like Smuggler's Shiv, it can certainly happen, and the predators seem to come in a variety of terrifying sizes... As Lionel says, though, it probably would make for a decent meal.
Heading further south for two hours, the group climbs up sloping jungle terrain that eventually yields to a grassier, rock-strewn cliff. They encounter the first true river that they've seen on the island, rather than the tiny streams on the northern peninsula, about twenty feet wide as it flows from its source. The cliff gives a decent overview of the island, but doesn't reveal any other landmark that the group hasn't seen before. The cliff is fairly tall, and would require climbing down if there weren't a small break in it on its southeastern side, which the jungle foliage has turned into a steep, but walkable, path down.
As the party walks on, Sticky eventually nudges Sil and points to the ground. "Ah! Friends, wait up." Sil points to the ground near the bottom of the slope where a pair of shod footprints leads towards the southwest. "Perhaps we should follow those. We are not alone on the island and we should figure out if they are friend or foe."
"Good eye, Treetrunk! Are the prints from someone barefoot or wearing shoes, Sil? That might tell us if its someone shipwrecked here or a monster on two feet."
"Might be wise not to follow the tracks. If they are hostile, which Id prefer to just assume they are, its better if they dont know we are here like we know they are." Lionel said with a thoughtful look on his face. "Element of surprise is a powerful thing."
He looked at the river. "Maybe we follow the river?"
"If we don't follow the tracks, we have no element of surprise. We simply know 'someone' or something is on the island, not where. They could come across us while we are split up, or camping, or fighting another giant snake, or spy on us while we are simply walking along the river."
Kayle pauses, tapping her lips and walking up to the tracks. " Besides, if its someone not hostile, then we risk leaving them out here alone to deal with the wilderness and possibly die. I'd rather take the risk its someone who will attack us than know I didn't try to help them. You wouldn't want to do that, would you, Lionel?"
Lionel simply crossed his long arms, took an easy stance and looked at Kayle, one eyebrow raised, wordlessly saying "What do you think?"
After a short pause, he lowered his arms and looked at the tracks. "If we were a sneaky bunch maybe Id have thought the same, but we are likely gonna pick a fight with them on their home turf if we follow the tracks and get spotted."