Aldous walks into the hut to look at the dead body. Judging purely off of the smell, he wonders how long it might have been dead for.
"What killed him, or was it suicide?"
Cuddles trudges into the shack with Aldous. His eyes dart around in search for any more bug swarms through drenched hair. Generally, he looks very much worse for his experiences of late. So far this island has rewarded his love with nothing but pain. There have been many wonderful hugs, but cuddles can feel that he is ready to drop.
Alain will cast detect magic before looking around the inside of the building curiously.
The body is hanging from the topmost rafter. Judging by the Chelish hangman's collar around his neck and the kicked-over stool, he appears to have committed suicide.
Among the furnishings in the lodge are the following:
Leather Armor x1
Spear x6
Chelish Courtier's Outfit x8 (worth 30gp apiece)
Silver ring of swimming
5 lb of Pepper (worth 10gp total)
Silver Tankard (worth 30gp)
Silver Locket depicting a beautiful blonde woman (worth 45gp)
"What was a Chelish Courtier doing here? Besides killing himself I mean. Does anyone see a diary or a note?"
"My goodness, he did have a lot of swag, didn't he. Though...are these male outfits? Or do they remind you of some we have seen recently?"
He begins gathering things, trying to get everything bound up as tightly as he can.
Alain looks over in surprise, "You're taking his clothes?"
"We are to be pirates. The more swag we return with, the better off our time on board will be. For as long as it is."
Cuddles clearly understands what Aldous is saying. A rarity for him. He immidiately shoulders as much valuable stuff as possible and heads out. They have friends to save!
While Cuddles and Aldous are looting the cabin, Alain checks out the telescope. While rather weather-beaten, it should still fetch a pretty penny . More importantly, however, when Alain glances through it, he sees that it's pointed toward a cove a few miles away. As chance would have it, several of those octo-goblins are cavorting in the surf. One's wearing a tricorn hat that looks very familiar....
Alain will wave the other over excitedly, "Hey guys, take a look..."
Aldous takes a look, then stands back up and shakes his head. "That's not good. But at least we know where she is. Hopefully we can find a way down there."
Cuddles chuckles. It be Cuddle Time!
You head through the swamps for several hours before reaching the place seen in the telescope. The octo-goblins are long gone. Unfortunately, the only entrance is at the bottom of a 80ft cliff. There's ocean down there, and you don't see any rocks, but it's still a long way down. Fortunately, it's low tide, so you won't have to swim once you reach the bottom. As you're debating the merits of jumping vs. climbing, a half-dozen Stirges attack!
Combat begin
For some reason or another that he could be we quite pin down, Cuddles didn't like cuddling insects. They were hard, sometimes fuzzy, and generally never got the point of a good squeeze. So this time he roars and charges the nearest one.
"Lovely, just lovely. Bugs."
With a quick movement, he pulls out his whip and cracks it at one of the bugs.
Tao steps forward, aiming at one of the small creatures, "Some of the smallest things sting the strongest."
"And sometimes...they are the hardest to hit."
"If it's not one thing it's another."
Alain will cast sleep (DC15)
Cuddles charges up and splatters one of the stirges, but the rest easily evade Aldous/Tao's blows. Alain begins casting his spell. The five remaining insects attempt to latch onto everyone, and the majority of them succeed .
New Round
Alain completes his spell. Aiming it carefully, he's able to put three of the stirges to sleep. Tao still has a bug on him, and there's one additional insect preparing to feast on Cuddles.
Cuddles growls as the big bugs start to feed. He lunges himself where it's attached, hoping to smash the insect's head between his fist and his body.
Drawing his dagger, he slashes at the stirge that is attached to Tao.
"Get off you dirty little freak..."
Tao does the same, drawing his own dagger as he drops the big sword, viewing it as unwieldy in the situation, then slashes at the creature.
Alain will cast magic missile
Between the four of you, you dispose of the last of the bugs. Now you just need to figure out how to get to the cavern entrance.
Cuddles looks around. WHO GOTS ROPE?
Cuddles ties the ropes together and secures them to the top of the hole. He stands by in case the rope gives way and motions his comrades down the hole.
He waits for his friends to finish climbing before releasing the rope, securing it to himself (because that much falling rope is dangerous) and climbing down the hole
Looking down he shakes his head, "I do not like this...at all. We need to get down there, but this is not going to be easy."
Cuddles chuckles and pulls Aldous toward the rope. CALISTRI-MAN NOT NEED SCARED. CLIMB ROPE EASY!