Aghon slams out with his trident as the undead monster runs past opening herself up to his attack.
Having extended himself to stab at the passing ghoul he turns just in time to watch the third monster slash her diseased claws into his flesh. "Aaaaahhhhhhhh!" He bellows as the venomous pain sears his skin and muscle.
Aghon thinks a silent prayer to Hanspur as he waits to see if the ghoul's venom drops him to the ground, and finds that he is still capable of standing. He then watches as Culder does exactly what Aghon had hoped, crushing the ghoulish b!tch in one fell stroke. As the wrotten flesh, bits of skull, and diseased brain matter splatter all over him he looks at Culder and says. "Thanks."
Jarvis moves to stand near to Culder and Aghon. Reaching out, he brushes Aghon's back, sending soothing magic across the priest. In the meantime, his song continues pulsing through the group.
Jordan moves closer, stopping at the corpse he felled. Drawing another arrow, he takes a shot at the remaining ghoul.
With his head ringing, Vincent decides the most prudent thing to do would be to get away from the ghoul that just attacked him.
Aghon's reflexes are better than the ghoul's--he jabs his trident tines deep into her midsection. The ghoul's badly injured but still upright as Jarvis casts a curing spell on Aghon and Vincent carefully withdraws from combat, hooking around behind Culder. An arrow from Jordan misses as he fires into the scrum.
Aghon knows to let his betters take care of combat. He steps out of the way to let Culder do the finishing work.
When Aghon moves away it keeps him safe from the last ghoul. It also gives the undead lady the chance to make a mad dash to escape, and she bolts to the northeast, heading for the path you all used to enter the clearing.
Culder considers giving chase, but the idea of going one-on-one with a creature capable of paralyzing a man with a mere scratch seems a bit too reckless.
Jordan moves towards his companions and draws another arrow and fires after the creature.
Jordan's desperation shot finds the mark, dropping the last ghoul in a tangled heap.
The interior of the tent is horrific, featuring bloodstained gowns, pieces of chewed flesh, and gnawed bones--some from birds and animals, but others that look humanoid. Some of the piled clothing might be valuable if cleaned.
A thorough search of the tent reveals a few coins and other treasures: 56 gp, 97 sp, a pouch of assorted gemstones (250 gp), a chest containing six flasks of alchemist's fire, a leather hip flask shaped like a crocodile (25 gp) that holds a small amount of liquid, three daggers (one of which seems well-crafted and is likely at least masterwork quality), two tiny barrels of cheap perfume (25 gp each), a wedding dress inlaid with pearls and set with three tiny rubies (400 gp), a whalebone corset set with mother-of-pearl inlays (20 gp), and a dozen silver hatpins set with tiny bits of obsidian (5 gp each; 60 gp total).
Beyond the tent's clearing, the path is more obvious and less overgrown. It also appears you've passed through most of the patch of swampy jungle: the tree growth looks lighter further down the path, which winds southwest toward the island's center.
Aghon takes a quick sweep of the tent using Detect Magic to see if anything among the treasure is magical. He also says, "Dibs on the croc flask!"
There's some faint magic coming from whatever's inside the croc flask. I'll give a +2 bonus on both Knowledge (arcana) and Spellcraft checks if you want to try to ID the liquid.
"Hmmmmmm..." Aghon says as his magically enhanced senses create an aura around the very flask he called dibs on. Opening the flask, he takes a whiff of the liquid to see if it has a familiar smell.
Jordan will toss the coins with the pouch of gemstones, hoping to cover up the stones with the coins. Seeing the flasks of alchemist fire, he suggests "We may want to split this stuff up between us. It can be right useful, but one person carrying all of it and a bottle breaks? Well, it was nice knowing you."
Faint conjuration magic; it's a potion of cure moderate wounds inside the croc flask.
"Do we want to try and take all of this? A wedding dress might be difficult to carry too far, unless we're alright with wrapping it up. That being said, we can probably wait till we're on our way back to the ship to grab some of this stuff."
Taking a look at the daggers, Jordan offers the best one to either Vincent or Jarvis. "Either of you lads interested in this knife?"
After figuring out that the liquid in the crocodile sculpted flask is actually a potion of cure moderate wounds, he hands it to Jordan and says, "This is a decently powerful curing potion, Jordan. I think you'd better keep it, since Jarvis and I are capable of healing ourselves, and Vincent isn't usually in the front lines. It might come in handy if we can't get to you at some point."
Culder reluctantly agrees to carry the potentially valuable clothing for fear that the escaped ghoul might return and snag it if they leave it behind.
Jordan pockets the dagger for later and accepts the potion from Aghon with thanks. "Hopefully it'll be a while till I have to use this," he says. He also passes out the alchemist's fire, and takes on the responsibility of holding the extra flask as well.
Picking up one of the small perfume barrels, Jordan hefts it under his arm and asks "Shall we be off?"
The path soon shifts due south, and you leave behind the light jungle as the trail moves closer to the isle's eastern coast. There, sandy beaches border the ocean, with several tall palm trees brimming with coconuts growing just beyond the beach's edge. The heart of the isle is a grassy field, though there's a dark smudge of taller vegetation barely visible to the south. To your west there's some more light jungle tucked against the rocky hill that comprises much of the island's west coast. The path turns a bit more inland eventually, making a beeline for the area of taller plant life in the distance.
You think you can spy the roof of a hut atop the hill, near its southwestern end.
I suppose I could take that dagger from ya, Jordan. Jarvis offers, slipping the nice dagger into his belt.
What are we hoping to find here? Jarvis says with a grin.
"Mostly some food and water," Jordan says, "Maybe some lumber to fix the boat, but personally I'm hoping for a way off this island that doesn't involve going back to Scourge and that lot."
"Yeah, if we can find another way off the island, I'm all for it, but, if we do end up having to go back to the Promise, we'd better make sure we have at least some usable lumber. Maybe if we head towards that bit of jungle we'll be able to find some nice dry deadfall?" Aghon says and points to the light jungle tucked against the rocky hill.
Culder grunts his general approval to both Jordan and Aghon. Your group moves off-trail, though the tall grass doesn't really slow you down much.
You think you can spy the roof of a hut atop the hill, near its southwestern end.
The dark smudge of taller vegetation to the south comes closer into view, and it appears to be...some sort of cornfield??!!
The dagger is masterwork quality. For simplicity's sake, let's say it's also sized for a Small wielder.
"Looks like there's a hut atop that hill over there," Jordan says, pointing to the distant building. "Maybe we'll get lucky this time and find something useful."
Before moving further through the tall grass, wary of possible predators lurking in the blades, Aghon takes a moment to take a good, careful, slow look around.
He notices the hut, but he also notices that the vegetation to the south seems to turn from wild to cultivated, and the crop looks like it might be corn! "Ummm gentleman, it appears that some of this land is actually being farmed?" He points to the south, and says, "those tall plants sticking out above the grass down there, that's corn, or I'm not a cleric of Hanspur."
You know, that does look an awful lot like corn, doesn't it? Jarvis says, trying desperately to see more than his short stature allows.
The climb up the hill is a bit taxing as the humid day grows warmer, but it's nothing a bunch of pirates can't handle! A well-built timber stockade--7-foot-high spikes, for the most part--surrounds a small lodge in a jungle clearing. Vines wrap and strangle a great tree that rises next to the lodge, blocking light from above. Beside it is a bubbling spring.
Ever the wary pirate, some might even say a bit too wary to the point of timidity, Aghon takes a very careful and detailed look and listen to their surroundings.
jordan begins moving forward towards the gate of the compound as quietly as possible. From there, if it seems safe, he'll wave everyone forward and continue on towards the hut.
Jarvis is breathing pretty heavily at the summit of their climb. He looks about, trying to spot anything interesting.
As you creep a bit nearer, your group notices a few more details: there's an old spyglass affixed to the stockade fence with a stout crate underneath as a step, and it currently points due south. Culder also mutters about smelling something dead, and the stench eventually wafts to Aghon's nostrils as well. The door to the small cabin, like the one to the stockade itself, hangs ajar.
Vincent will keep his spear ready will try to quietly walk over to the spy glass and look in it to see what its looking at
he stumbles on quite a few roots that he didn't see protrude from the ground
As you enter the fenced-in area, the stench of death grows; it's likely emanating from inside the small hut.
It seems that whoever last used the spyglass pointed it south for a reason: through it you can see a small cove where a pair of grindylows are swimming and goofing around, occasionally passing a small dark item back and forth between themselves.
One grindylow slaps the item atop its fat head. It looks very much like the tricorne hat Sandara Quinn wore before she was lost during the storm. Actually, come to think of it...once the eye of the storm passed over you ship, the winds eventually turned around and blew the ship a ways back in the direction where Sandara and Fishguts Kroop were lost.
While Vincent examines the spyglass, Jordan draws his shortsword and opens the door to the hut
The hut is well-made and fairly well-stocked: inside are pieces of furniture not out of place in a town or city, including an unmade but clean bed, a writing table and chair, and several crates and barrels. Those items, however, are not the centerpiece of the room. Hanging from a chain attached to a roof beam is a hooded figure, dead judging by the smell and cloud of flies crawling and hovering over the body. An overturned stool lies nearby.
The stink of the corpse and some spoiled food in one of the crates is so overpowering you need to succeed on a DC 15 Fortitude save or become sickened.
The hanging corpses hands are discolored--kind of purplish-gray--and its nails are black and almost clawlike.
Stepping into the hut, Jordan's face blanches at the smell, and he turns and vomits into a corner. Straightening up, his face gray and sickly looking, he turns his attention to the corpse hanging from the rafters.
"I'm not sure whoever this was was entirely human," he says aloud. "And by the look of things, they've probably been here a while."
With his sword, Jordan reaches up to push the hood up and over the head so that they can see who this body may be.
Watching Jordan hurl his biscuits into a corner, and knowing him to be a man of normally incredible intestinal fortitude, Aghon decides against going into the hut. Instead he starts examining the lumber of the stockade fence, seeing if it might serve their purposes for fixing The Man's Promise.
not being able to quite make out the characteristics of the object he see's Vincent calls out too the others "Some one set this spyglass here with a purpose. I can see a cove with 2 Grindylows in the distance. they seem to be playing with something but I cant tell what it is. Any of you with sharper eyes want to come and take a look?" As he's saying this Vincent is also looking to see how the spyglass is fastened onto the wall, to see if he can remove the spyglass
Culder accompanies Jordan into the noxious-smelling hut, managing to keep his breakfast down. When the cook's mate recovers and removes the corpse's hood, the dead thing's eyes open and it spasms wildly, reaching out for Culder with both its hands and its feet! Culder curses and manages to avoid being grabbed. The big man's subsequent bash nearly caves in the thing's head, but even so, the living corpse again reaches for Culder, grabs him, and uses the man's height to vault toward the hut's ceiling, freeing itself from the chain from which it was previously hanging!
You recognize this dead thing to be a stronger version of the whore/ghouls fought earlier. Its hideous stench identifies it to be a ghast, capable of paralyzing with touch or bite or spreading disease via its bite.
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"Damnit, this island is full of powerful undead! That "corpse" is actually a ghast, friends. It'll paralyze you if it lands an attack, and it's maw is filled with disease. Let's drag it out of the stockade so we can spread out!" Aghon says, and then double moves to get out into open ground.
Jordan draws his sword and moves to swing at the beast, but is caught up in a wave of nausea, and ends up emptying his guts again over the floor of the hut.
While Aghon makes a tactical skedaddle*, Jordan tries to cut down the wounded ghast but fails. The undead chokes out a glob of phlegm or...something...and rasps the words, "The flies."
Vincent will jump down from atop the crate and quickly dash outside, Following Aghon. once outside of the gate he'll apply mage armor to himself.
Jarvis brings his crossbow up, slipping a bolt into the groove and cocking it. Calmly, he pulls the trigger, aiming for the undead creature.
Eat a bolt!
Vincent retreats to prep himself for battle while Jarvis tries to put a bolt into the ghast, but his shot flies a bit wide. Culder, however, mashes the ghast's head in with his oar. The big man then drags the corpse and its stench out of the hut, tossing it against the barricade fence.
A quick check reveals some potential valuables among the furnishings in the lodge: a suit of leather armor, six spears, and eight finely tailored courtier’s outfits, worth 30 gp each, a spice cabinet holding 5 pounds of pepper in waxed bags (worth 10 gp total), a silver tankard worth 30 gp, and a silver locket depicting a beautiful, buxom young blonde woman (similar in appearance to the ship’s whore who escaped the earlier battle) worth 45 gp. There's also a small journal that relates the hanged man's tale.
His name was Arron Ivy, one of a handful of survivors of the shipwrecked Chelish vessel, The Infernus. Although he and the others recovered some gear and supplies from the wreck (including some corn seed), things on the island eventually turned bad. The survivors became sick and then, shockingly, died and arose as ghouls! Arron theorizes that the island's botflies must've fed on a ghoul's blood, became infected by it, and now transfer ghoul fever to those they bite. Feeling ill and fearing an undead existence, Ivy decided to end his suffering by hanging himself.
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