Kayleigh's thankful that Tassira speaks up to address the house drake's concern. Or was it a threat? Kayleigh's opinion of the little drake had gone down precipitously when the thing started gorging itself on nasty spiders. The only thing worse than eating creepy crawlies was puking up parts of creepy crawlies.
When the others gather in the cabin, Kayleigh quickly channels positive energy twice. Seeing that those heal up everyone fully--except Nebbin and herself--the cleric swaps out a couple of her currently-worthless alleviate addiction spells to further cure Nebbin's wounds.
Kayleigh gives Nebbin a smile as she heals up the last of his wounds, but the smile vanishes when Emi mentions the name of her nemesis: Pilts Swastel.
"There were a lot of raised voices outside--maybe more guards coming--so I locked the cabin door," she informs the others. "Oh yeah--I have two healing channels and one cure light wounds spell remaining."
Nebbin gives a sweet smile to Kayleigh as she amazingly heals all his wounds, though he still feels a little weak.
"So if we have a little time, should we check out the bottom floor," he asks. "In case there's more spiders or otter caps down there? And then we should destroy all that Shiver, right?"
"Yes." Tassira says with conviction. "We should unmoor the ship before doing so--don't want to catch the rest of the pier on fire."
Emi is dismayed by Tassira's mention of fire.
"We don't know how to pilot a ship. If this one burns unmoored, the currents could take it. We might burn down another place instead. I think we should get rid of the shiver by smashing the vials or throwing them over the side."
"Before we go back down we need to tell the people outside something. If we just let them know Devargo's no longer running things here, but they are in no danger and can just go about their business, it would at least calm things down. If people are unsure if anyone is in control here I think it won't take long for ambitious types among the street gangs and toughs to try to claim it for themselves. We need to cut that kind of thinking short by making it clear there's been a transition of control here, not a lack of it."
Tassira, you have your family name to consider. You might not want to be publicly associated with this place. Same thing for you Kayleigh and Regeris, a Milani sanction for the local sin palace might not be the kind of impression you want to make eh?"
"That leaves Nebbin and myself with nothing to lose by being the public face here. Besides we look the part, nothing counter to what people would expect. Let's go out and make an appearance, I'll do the talking. Afterward we can take a look at the lower deck. There might be something down there, but I think we've dealt with all the organized resistance. We should be able to wait a few minutes before taking care of it."
"Yeah, I think we can just smash them, can't we?" Nebbin agrees.
He sighs in relief as Emileva says she'll do the talking outside, though he looks nervously at Kayleigh as he realizes he might have to leave her in here with some horrible spider-thing in the basement.
He looks at Regeris and awkwardly nods at him toward the cleric, trying to make sure he'll be watching out for her, before heading back to the front of the boat with Emileva.
Tassira rankles at the thought of just smashing the vials of shiver or dumping them in the harbour, but after having a few moments to calm down, nods in agreement. "...fine."
Emi comes out onto a deserted deck. There's no one up on the quarterdeck either. It seems more and more like the Eel belongs to the party. Walking over to the rail, she can see there's a big crowd on the pier and most of them are looking up at her. There are a few who may be guards - former guards - of Eel's End, but no one who immediately reacts to Emi's presence on the Eel.
On the House of Clouds, Emi can see Helvara standing in the eaves of her deckhouse cabin flanked by her guards and watching out for trouble.
A shouted voice comes from the other direction.
"Well girl?! What word of the Spider King?" The voice belongs to the little halfling who owns the Dragon's Breath. He stand among his own guards, little fists on his hips.
"My name is Majenko," the drake answers. "I've been kept in that cage for a long time by this one."
It hops from its corpse-perch over to the dead Spider King and jabs its barbed tail into the dead man's neck. It's stabs him a second time, then walks over to sit comfortably on Devargo's head.
It listens to the interplay between Emi and Tassira, blinking its radiant golden eyes and picking unmentionables from its teeth. It smiles warmly at Tassira when she mentions setting fire to the place and hops over to stand closer to the mage. It obviously shares her disappointment at the outcome of the debate, but is also distracted at the opening cabin door.
Regeris nervously watches Emi go out, but can't argue with her logic about who should be the face for this. He sighs and focuses his attention on Majenko.
"I know the last thing you will have right now is patience, but hold onto what you have so we don't all get riddled with arrows when it is time to leave."
He looks over the room as they wait for Emi. "So we see what Emi says, but regardless we destroy the shiver and explore the remainder of the lower deck. I sincerely hope we can get out of here without any more blood spilled."
Uneasy, Regeris makes his way to the cabin door, listening carefully and ready to spring into action.
Tassira smiles at Majenko. "It's very nice to meet you. My name's Tassira."
When she sees Emi step out onto the deck of the ship, she finds herself following. I know she's probably more suited for this place... but the last time she led negotiations, we DID get double crossed. She wasn't responsible for it, but...
Then she starts to speak.
"Ladies and gentlemen of Eel's End, may I have your attention, please?" She stands on Emi's right, her back straight and voice clear.
"We arrived here for an exchange of information for gold. A simple transaction, made in what we hoped was in good faith." Her eyes harden. "Unfortunately, Devargo Barvasi thought we were worth more to him dead than alive, and in his greed, attacked us when we were prepared to pay for his time."
"Suffice to say, it was the last mistake he--or his crew--ever made." Tassira looks back at the interior of the ship with a sneer before looking back to the crowd.
"Of course, that leaves the question of how Eel's End will proceed. Will it need a change in leadership, or will its individual business owners profit more from independence?" Tassira looks around at the other ships--lingering on Helvara's face for a moment. "I believe each of you would stand to gain more from running your own businesses without--" She clears her throat. "--interference from other elements."
"But if you feel otherwise..." She looks to Emi. "...I believe my friend here has expressed an interest in the project. Am I correct?"
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"I will only add a couple of things to what has already been said. While we find it hard to imagine, we do recognize that it's possible Barvasi might have provided something of value in return for what you paid him. We would like to meet with the Eel's End business owners soon to hear if there are any concerns about what Barvasi's absence might bring, and how we can address those issues.
"There is no need for the events here to disrupt anyone's day. Eel's End remains open for business just as before with one exception. Shiver cannot and will not be produced here anymore. The laboratory is wrecked and the existing stock is being destroyed as we speak. If your purpose here is trade in that drug, you no longer have a reason to come to Eel's End."
As she speaks to the gathered crowd, Emi scans the crowd searching for the guard she saw at Artist's Overground. She also tries to get an impression of how the crowd feels about what Tassira and she have told them.
While Regeris listens at the cabin door to what's transpiring outside, Kayleigh keeps a close eye on the staircase heading belowdecks. It's easy for the priestess to imagine some undiscovered threat creeping up out of the darkness. "Milani, aid your servant," she mutters under her breath, casting a simple orison to aid her in the task.
As soon as it's clear that Emi's done talking, fifty conversations start at once on the pier and on the decks of the other vessels. Only Helvara starts immediately over the gangway to the Eel to treat with Tassira and Emi.
Someone in the direction of the Tiger's Tail shouts, "Oh, at least let me buy the shiver! Don't just throw it away!" There's general laughter, but also a pause to hear Emileva or Tassira's reply.
Helvara grabs Tassira's hand and leads her away from the rail.
"That announcement's going to travel fast. You just took down one of the city's major shiver producers, and announced to the world that you're destroying his product. Devargo had associates that are going to come looking for payback, or a stake in his fall. I think whatever the next move is, you better make it fast."
"Devargo provided shiver, of course. But also general security to all the businesses here. Will you hire and pay guards to enforce order on the pier? Devargo had practically started a gang war, and his cohorts will certainly pursue it. Where will you sit in street politics?"
"The business's sin taxes were all paid through Devargo as well, so to stay on the right side of the law will you provide the same? Or will the businesses need to do that themselves? That other place I bought in Bridgefront is sounding better and better."
As she says this, voices cause her to look about. The owners of the Tiger's Tail and the Dragon's Breath are coming up the gangways as well.
"Yeah!" Nebbin adds helpfully.
He also looks around to make sure everyone is paying attention, though he's still glad he didn't have to make a speech to. He remembers a nightmare once where he had to address an entire army and try to encourage them ... it hadn't ended well.
He shudders at the memory of the nightmare.
With the door ajar, Regeris hands clench a little.
I was afraid of this. We can't just walk away because this will follow us. We need to do our work without these distractions.
Regeris pokes his head out of the cabin door, nodding curtly to Helvara and taking note of the people approaching. "If we're going to talk business and politics let's get indoors rather than in front of a crowd."
Nebbin looks unhappy about the questions from Helvara, as none of those are things he'd thought about or are particularly interested in.
He follows the others inside, but shifts his weight back and forth impatiently as any conversation starts.
Finally he blurts out, "There still might be something in the basement!"
"I'm going to go check it out and make sure it's really safe here," he says, not willing to wait any longer.
He waits a beat or two and then heads down to the lower deck, sword in hand as he plans to go down the stairs, alone if he has to.
Tassira shoots a frosty glare over in the direction of the Tiger's Tail when someone asks to buy the shiver. It says all she needs to say.
The mage's glare abruptly vanishes as Helvara approaches her and leads her away from the rail. It's replaced with a blush.
"That announcement's going to travel fast. You just took down one of the city's major shiver producers, and announced to the world that you're destroying his product."
Tassira can't help but beam at the statement.
Feels pretty good, too!
"Devargo had associates that are going to come looking for payback, or a stake in his fall. I think whatever the next move is, you better make it fast."
"Well, if they're as competent as he was, we may not have much to worry about." Tassira shrugs.
"Devargo provided shiver, of course. But also general security to all the businesses here. Will you hire and pay guards to enforce order on the pier? Devargo had practically started a gang war, and his cohorts will certainly pursue it. Where will you sit in street politics?"
Helvara's questions cause Tassira to blink in surprise. "Helvara, we didn't go in there with the intention of--" Then she cringes. "--well, most of us didn't go in there with the intention of killing him. None of us really thought of taking his place until now."
"Guards and payments? Street politics? I don't have experience with any of this, really." Tassira looks plaintively towards Emi.
"I hope Devargo kept records of how much he paid his enforcers..."
"The business's sin taxes were all paid through Devargo as well, so to stay on the right side of the law will you provide the same? Or will the businesses need to do that themselves? That other place I bought in Bridgefront is sounding better and better."
Finally--something I can perhaps do something about.
"...well, how much were the taxes? What's the tax rate?" Tassira asks Helvara before the other business owners approach the deck.
"I think we should take this inside."
Kayleigh flashes a smile that's both amused and confused at the same time when Nebbin starts getting antsy. She reaches out to grab his arm before he can rush off alone.
"What's gotten into you?" she asks. "What do you think is down below that can't wait for a few minutes while the others finish up these negotiations?" Her tone isn't patronizing; she seems genuinely interested and concerned that Nebbin's instincts are telling him there's urgent unfinished business below. Still...
...she can't help grinning and pointing out that ships don't have basements. "I think they have bilges...filled with ballast...and water...and usually rats!"
Nebbin's about to say that there may be more spiders or otter caps below, when Kayleigh offers him the correction.
"I don't know. But maybe spider-rats or something? I've heard of spider-pigs, so who knows what other weird things they have here. That otter cap looked like it was part spider and part man!" he explains. "We should talk after we're sure it's safe ... or at least as safe as it can be in Korvosa!"
Helvara leans into Tassira and answers in a whisper.
"I don't really know! I think he paid someone off in the guard somehow. I mean I think he paid our tax, but he was doing something to make it less than it should be. Or maybe he was blackmailing someone, like he was with Amprei."
Anpujit comes hustling up the gangway to a chorus of jangling arm bracelets. He's robed from head to toe again - yellow this evening - but his veil hangs askew and his mustachios are extra droopy.
"It is a calamity!" he moans as he comes aboard. "Will we be eaten by the spiders that come to claim the nest, or the society Devargo betrayed!? Or will the guard come down and clean us out? Calamity!"
When he gets close enough to see you, he recognizes you immediately.
"You! You stole my waitress and now you've come back to ruin my business! What have I done to you to make you despise me so?"
Bezzeraty's mood is less manic and a little darker as he trails the agitated vudran man up the gangway.
"So. No more shiver, but I'm supposed to keep running my business, huh? Shiver's the only thing that had any real margin for me - because of Devargo. Nope, that is not going to work."
He grimaces behind his burning cigar. "From where I sit, the sooner you clear off the better. I can do business with whoever else comes to setup the trade again, but turning away the shiver crowd... most of my clientele will disappear. In fact," he says, gesticulating back towards his vessel, "they are disappearing right now!"
Looking back over at the Dragon's Breath, you can see that he speaks the truth. The crowd on the pier is melting off into the darkness of Old Dock in pairs and groups.
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Emi's expression goes very hard as Anpujit and Bezzeraty complain.
When she responds it's clear she's barely holding back her anger at them.
"Anpujit and Bezzeraty are your names right? Well listen to me closely and I'm going to go through what's happened here with you again. When I'm through, you'll either understand exactly why you should be very grateful you've heard what you have from us, or you're idiots. Then you'll have to make a choice."
We came here today, gold in hand, to purchase something from Barvasi. Barvasi decided he could keep everything if he killed us. He made a very serious mistake and now he's dead, so is everyone else who tried to help him. So are the spiders, at least the ones that matter. This isn't something we wanted. We would have been thrilled to pay him and be on our way."
"So first understand that we didn't f$~$ you over, Barvasi did. Barvasi got greedy, wound up dead for it, and put you in the position you're in. We, recognizing Barvasi had created problems for you, offered to help you out of compassion."
"We already have everything we want. We don't want your crap, and to be blunt we don't give a crap about your businesses. We didn't walk straight off this ship without looking back because we're trying to be generous. If you don't want our help, we can still walk away right now with a 'go f@*& yourself' to you as our parting words and not a headache in sight. And you will be so very alone in this world."
Emi holds up her hand to stop them from answering immediately.
"Two things for your to consider while you weigh your options. First, nobody else is going to show you even a scrap of decency. You will have someone else take over running this place, and it will be whichever gang of street apes shows up quickest and fights the competitors off. A lot of stuff could get broken while they all sort things out. I'm going to bet they won't have much going on in terms of alternate streams of revenue like Barvasi did. So they will squeeze you even harder because they'll expect to get rich and you're their only cow. I'll bet they won't explain things nicely, or offer choices like I'm doing right now either. They'll just kill you."
"The other thing is especially for you Bezzeraty. The lab is wrecked, the dream spiders are dead. The shiver fountain has been turned off permanently. If you can't make ends meet without shiver, you're probably in the wrong business and you're screwed no matter what you decide. So, you can either cry about the s~+@ty hand Barvasi dealt you and pack up now, try to go it alone, or start thinking productively about new options with our help."
"So, are you now feeling like we are offering you the best way forward you're going to get, or should we go ahead and shove off?"
Nebbin gulps nervously as he fears Emi will turn and yell at him next. He glances again back down the stairs, where he's sure there are more spider-rats churning out Shiver.
Bezzeraty crosses his little tattooed arms over his chest and takes Emi's berating, chewing his cigar. When she's finished he says simply, "Thank you ever so kindly for the offer, and I believe sincerely that you should go ahead and shove off. I think your protection and my business model are incompatible."
"Yeah! So that's it!?" Anpujit yells at the gruff little man. His sing-song cadence is incongruous when it's screamed. "They are going to disappear into the night and what will you do? You don't think the spiders will eat you too?"
Bezzeraty throws up his hands and walks back down the gangway to his boat.
"Fine, you sit there in your boat and wait for them to come with their questions." the vudran man says to Bezzeraty's backside.
"Fine," he says, readdressing Emi and Tassira, "Thank you, then for your offer - sorry that Devargo made the choice he made, but my brother and I want no place in this war the spiders have started. We will take the Tiger's Tail out into the flow of the river overnight, anchor somewhere and discuss our options. Before we ever settled here at the pier we ran our business from the public piers out into the river. Though business has been better here, I see that Devargo's choices have destroyed that deal for us."
He turns to go back to his own vessel, but calls back as he goes. "I am fortunate my brother tends to the seaworthiness of the Tiger. With fresh sail and cordage he could take us back to Jalmeray in that tub. This wreck," he says in reference to the Eel, "she will never swim again."
Helvara turns and looks at the party clustered in the wrecked cabin, hands on hips and sporting a pout. "Ignorants. Bezzeraty liked Devargo. That's his problem."
Tassira shrugs. "Oh well."
"I... um..." She looks at Helvara and shifts from foot to foot, feeling a bit uneasy. "...I guess you'll have to move to that place in Bridgefront now, right?"
"I mean, since Devargo's dead and all."
Emi makes a particularly rude gesture aimed at the back of Bezzaraty's head, then crosses her arms as she watches him go. After he and Anpujit are out of sight she drops her arms and her scowl, and looks at Helvara.
"It's not as a good as a promise, but whether you stay here or go there we might be able to do something about your sin tax. We do know some people in the Korvosan Guard who are well-placed, and at his point we're probably owed a favor or two."
Emi will never really forgive Helvara for her part in what happened to Carawyn, but Helvara has also taken some real risks to help them, and such a thing can't be ignored. She even likes Helvara, more or less, but that's not the same thing as forgiveness.
"And if you're going to consider extra security, we know someone who might be looking for a job. Her name's Tiora, she brave, smart, very good with a blade, and maybe most importantly subtle. I think she'd be a good match for you if you're both interested."
"Besides that, if you think it's a good idea, we can get the word out we have an eye on your place, and causing you trouble is causing us trouble. We might see some rough times ahead because of killing Barvasi, but I figure it will also add some heft to our reputation. We'll do what we can to make you whole again, just let us know what you need."
"One other thing Helvara. If you like Bezzeraty even a little bit, you'll want to let him know that since he's refused any protection from us, he's now going to have a very hard eye trained on him. The moment there's a sign he's dealing in shiver again, I will wreck his place, hole his ship, and kill him if he gets in my way while I'm doing it. Tell him if he goes that route again, he better soldier his place up really well because there can be no doubt I'll be his worst enemy."
Nebbin looks both a little scared and impressed at Emileva's confidence and threats, knowing he'd never be able to do something like that.
Still, he decides he can't wait anymore.
"I think we should go down to the bilges now, and make sure there are no spider-rats..."
"Come to think of it, Devargo's spiders probably would've trapped and eaten any rats on the ship," Kayleigh comments to Nebbin. "Wait here a moment...."
Kayleigh moves across the cabin to where Regeris stands near the door. "Nebbin's getting antsy...and so am I for some strange reason. Why don't he and I go down to the first hold and destroy the shiver before some of the fools out there decide to rush the place to recover it? It'd also remove any temptation that Emi or Tassira might feel if they had to deal with it themselves."
Then she walks back to Nebbin, offering him the handle of her silver morningstar. "I figure this might work better than a sword for smashing little glass vials."
"Oh yeah, that might help," he says, offering the cleric his own sword, despite it being nearly half her size.
Once they're situated, he heads down and -- with a warning to Kayleigh to keep an eye on the stairs before holding his breath, just in case -- starts smashing vials.
Kayleigh holds on to the hilt of Nebbin's glowing greatsword, allowing its tip to rest against the floorboards of the hold. She seems to be examining it closely while Nebbin smashes the shiver bottles to smithereens.
Back downstairs the dead lay where they fell. Glass vial shards and sticky, colorless shiver drops fly as Nebbin destroys the cache. Soon enough it's all wreckage.
There are still dozens of spiders skittering around the galley and cabins. In the peak of the main deck the webbing has to be cut or burned away to progress. The steps down into the dark bilges are decrepit and appear to end in dank brown water.
---
Upstairs, Helvara replies to Emi.
"Yes well, it's a big place. I'll probably need to leave parts of it boarded up. I'll definitely need more eyes to watch the place. The biggest worries really are the tax and the possibility of provoking turf conflict by opening a new business there. Well, and the haunted shrine underneath, I suppose."
"There's no guard presence in the neighborhood at all. I wonder if they even collect sin taxes in Bridgefront anymore? I guess I'll need to find that out."
"As far as Bezzeraty goes, he's no friend of mine. If he ends up dead or arrested he's just found his just deserts."
She leans forward and plants a soft kiss on Tassira's cheek before turning to go. "Lots to do tonight to get ready to move."
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When the conversation with Helvara concludes, Emi gives Tassira an elbow nudge and a smirk. "You're not going to volunteer to help her pack?"
Then she goes back inside the cabin and down the stairs to see if she needs to help with anything down below.
Tassira feels rather dumbfounded when Helvara kisses her on the cheek.
And even more so when Emi nudges her. "Uh... yeah!"
"Helvara, do you need help packing?" She asks in complete earnestness. "I mean, if you'd like some help, I'd be happy to..."
Before Emi starts down the steps, she pauses. She's not particularly worried about what might be left down below, expecting if there's anything it's not going to go on the offensive. The gold still sitting on Devargo's desk on the other hand...
"Hold on Tassira, don't go just yet."
Emi quickly counts 150 coins out of one bag and distributes them among the others. She hands over the bag with its remaining 100 to Tassira.
"Give this to Helvara, for the trouble we've caused her. To help her get re-established. When you give it to her, it's from you, not me or us. Understand?"
Emi takes the rest of the bags with her. she also makes a mental note to ask around if the room off the office has been well looked over yet. She has a feeling Devargo must have more of his wealth stashed around somewhere.
She makes a second mental note to plunder Davargo's liquor.
Then she goes down the stairs.
Nebbin, having reclaimed his sword, uses it to poke at the stairs to make sure they're safe before going down them into the bilges.
Tassira pockets the money and nods at Emi. "Understood."
Then she follows Helvara.
Kayleigh takes back her silver morningstar with a smile. "Yeah--that was probably quicker and more efficient. If I'd smashed them myself, I'd have probably needed a direct hit on each individual bottle to break them." She hears Emi as she descends the steps and takes a moment to wave her friend forward before following Nebbin toward the bilges.
One of the steps is already broken, but Nebbin can easily step past it. The ceiling is low down here, and Nebbin's forced to stoop down in order to see what's what. It's very hard to tell how deep the water is, but there's only about four feet of space between the water's surface and the deck above. Light from above shines through in places where the deck is most deteriorated, revealing the lowest deck of the Eel in slivers.
It looks like the entire lowest deck of the ship is given over to a huge webbed nest. Hundreds of spiders, most no larger than your thumb, crawl about in the humid darkness. The big man can hear them shifting in the shadows, and imagine them peering at him with their thousands of alien eyes. Dark shapes bob in the water, just outside Nebbin's view. The slimy water reeks of spoiled things.
With Regeris's help, Emi finds and is able to pack away most of the coin in the footlocker in Devargo's room. The vast majority of it is gold. Maybe 10,000 crowns. Devargo's not the only one with good liquor on this ship, and Emi and Regeris end up with two heavy, clinking bags of loot to carry out of this place.
Once Tassira catches up to Helvara, she holds the pouch of 100 gold coins out for her to take.
"Helvara? You've been so helpful and took quite a few risks to help my friends and I out... and we made quite a mess for you." She starts to ramble but stops herself. "I thought it was only fair to give you something for your trouble--to maybe help you get re-established in Bridgefront, you know?"
Helvara turns at the door to the House of Clouds and purses her lips, considering the money.
"The only reason I'll take it is because I'm so shy of coin at the moment. You and your friends have found and rescued Carawyn from her kidnapper, paid off her debt to her dealer, cured her addiction, and given her an alternative to growing up in a brothel. And now smashed the source of the poison she was hooked on."
"But I do need coin to make this work. Thank you."
She takes the bag of cash with a smile and leads Tassira inside. The incense haze of the greeting room is rich. Soft tones from a stringed instrument played somewhere in the shadows provide total insulation from the chaos of the rest of the pier. Lefty sits where she normally would, collecting fares when couples wish to go downstairs. His black leather 'armor' outfit is like something out of a Calistrian temple.
"No new customers," she whispers to him. "Send Lindsey around the room to deliver the message gently, that the House is closing. Take the fun downstairs and make an end, or out the door. Put Spike on alert, but I don't expect any trouble."
She leads Tassira further, down the curtained gallery to the door of her cabin. She unlocks the door and falls into the nearby couch, making room for Tassira should she wish to join her there. Looking around the dark room with her, there's boxes and dressers of clothes, a pair of footlockers, some furniture.
"Oh! My head hurts to think of it all," she moans. "I'm thinking of starting at the docks in the morning. Sell the House to one of the boat houses there and have them pilot it to a pier on the Narrows that's alot closer to the new place. Pay stevedores to load us onto some rented wagons, and they can take her. We'll wagon-train to the new place and go from there."
"It's going to mean working all night, to pack this place up," She says with a suggestive smile. "I'm going to need to change clothes..."
Tassira looks around Helvara's cabin and sits next to her on the couch.
"It's going to mean working all night, to pack this place up," She says with a suggestive smile. "I'm going to need to change clothes..."
Tassira bites her lip and sets her backpack aside, letting Ravnos hop out.
"...would you like some help picking some out?" She asks, her cheeks turning pink again.
Emi leaves the bags with Regeris () and makes her way down the two sets of steps to find Nebbin and Kayleigh.
"Gah! It stinks down here. Do you think this is where all the bodies are hidden?"
Once she's taken in the scene she adds "What a mess!"
"So Helvara is leaving as well" she tells the pair. "Eel's End is emptying out, except for Bezzeraty I suppose, and he's made it clear he wants to go it alone. I think we're done here. No need to bother with anything that isn't going to wander off the ship and make trouble. We can just leave the ship to rot. Looks like it's well on its way already. I don't think this ship is ever going anywhere again."
Having been silent and watching for the interaction with the Eel's End business owners, Regeris snaps out of as he realizes he's been left to guard the loot. Muttering, he just drags them down into the hold so he can join up with the others.
At the bottom of the steps, he rejoins everyone with his bow in hand.
"If Nebbin's fears are correct and there's a bunch of dream spiders still locked away I'd prefer we're together." He lets out a long, slow breath. "Let's scour the rest of this place and get out of here. We may want to use some of this money to post a guard at the temple. Thank you for handling that Emi, we're in your debt."
He glances around. "Is Majenko still with us?"
Regardless, Regeris quickly scours the hold with a light spell, looking for anything that may be hidden or left unnoticed.
Nebbin looks at the mess with confusion.
An idle thought crosses his mind about whether anyone will ask him to pack. He could probably be very helpful, and it wouldn't actually be that different than the work he used to do on the docks.
"I hope there aren't any bodies down here! That might be worst than spider-rats," he says, trying to figure out what might actually be floating in the water.
After a few moments, he starts as if something poked him.
"Wait, where's Tassira? Is she OK? We probably shouldn't leave her all alone up there!"
"Tassira is with Helvara. She'll be fine," says Regeris as he explores the area.
Regeris heads down to try and determine what it in the water.
Stepping down into the muck, Nebbin discovers there's about two feet of water to wade around in. With a fresh light enchantment on the end of his blade he can reveal much more of the scene. And there are not hundreds, but thousands of spiders down here ranging from tiny to hand-sized. They shy away from the light, crawling to deeper parts of the web to escape it. In the remoter parts of the nest there are cocooned victims suspended up near the ceiling, and some of them are large enough to be man-sized. Looking toward another corner, Nebbin's fears are confirmed when he sees one of the cocoons half-destroyed where it's fallen into the water. A shriveled human face peers out of the torn silk, it's mouth agape in death.
This deck is an abattoir, most likely of Devargo's enemies.
When Regeris has a look at this lowest deck, he recognizes a piling among the beams. The weight of most of the ship seems to rest directly on the piling. Regeris reasons it must thrust up through the hull of the ship, supporting the whole wreck from sinking to the bottom of the Narrows. This is what Anpujit meant when he demeaned the Eel. She's not really a ship, but a fixed and rotting hulk. Now that he's spotted it, he can see by marks along the walls of the hold that the chamber sometimes floods - when the tides rise.
Living upstairs must have been a joy when the tide forced the spiders up.
"We can't move it, we can't burn it, let's just leave it here to finish rotting. It's late, let's go."
Now with a little more time since the fight, Emi is really starting to feel the day's length and the mental strain they've all been under during it. She's exhausted.
Nebbin nods.
"I guess you're right," he says. "I thought there might be more monsters down here, but I think they were all up there. The spiders will probably keep anyone else from using this place..."
Regeris looks grimly upon the cocooned victims of Devargo's empire. "We've done a great thing here today. Let's go home and take stock of where we are."