Waken from his near somnolence, Fjori catches the offered potion.
"This will fix me up some will it?" he asks before popping the cork and swallowing it down. Smacking his lips and with a slight burp, Fjori slowly stands, feeling the healing wash through him like wave of golden sunlight.
"Ah...now that's more like it!", he nearly groans as the many visible wounds upon his body begin to heal.
Mel almost bursts out laughing at Hassans floundering attempts.."Lady?..hardly a Lady, Hassan..Just Mel will do..and I'd appreciate it if you could all help keep my gender a secret..for now anyway"
Quillin finishes prying Scourge's gold teeth out, "Waste not, want not. So you sinking the bodies or what? Oh and maybe you should take those manacles, Ajani. Seeing as you seem to want to be responsible for prisoners."
Ajani pockets the shackles wordlessly while the gnome feels the satisfying pop of teeth loosening from Scourge's skull.
Fjori takes the potion... and finds that though many of his ills are fixed, the potion might have been stronger. (Maybe it was old ;-p)
Already a group of seagulls have formed overhead, the heat from the sand and sun already doing their work on the freshly slain pirates. It takes a few minute to scoop the treasure back into the chest and since the lock is broken it require a somewhat steady hand and strong build to keep its contents contained.
"We should not sully the seas with their bodies..I say let them rot on this beach and be a warning to all who should think of similar betrayals"
I agree with Mel. Let them rot where they fell. I would expect nothing less from them if it happened to be us upon the strand!"
Hassan mutters something under his breath in Kelesh, and nods to Mel. He looks up at the circling birds. "Sea or Sky, Gozreh will take them."
He stands from where he had knelt in the sand to identify, and brushes off his pants carefully, before slipping on the ornate bracers and elaborate amulet. He also helps himself to the spare light crossbow, and a half-dozen bolts. "I pray that none will mind that this most humble of spell slingers makes use of this, at least until I have had time to rest and restore my magics."
Quillin shrugs at Hassan, "Pfft. I just try not to get hit... Shall we check on the building up the hill that Smudge saw then?"
"Aye..standing around here gossiping like a bunch of dockside whores isn't going to do us any good...lets check it out"
"Any shelter in a storm, as they say. Lets go to this building the parrot found."
Fjori gathers up the chest, settles it on his shoulder and begins to walk towards the jungle
Bart follows everyone else, clearly more interested in twirling around his newest jewelry than in everything else going on. "Got all tha treasure I need righ' here."
"Taking the shackles suits me well enough. However, if no one else wishes to claim the suit, I believe this leather armor would suit me better than my current gear. The extra mobility would prove more beneficial than the extra protection, especially when I am in the water."
"Regarding the bodies...though I am hesitant to leave them on the beach, I believe Hassan's sentiments to be correct. Gozreh will take them, regardless. Be it sea or salt, they will return from whence they came...I would sooner leave this place behind us as quickly as possible."
Mel reloads and follows the Brawny fighters
Resolving to move on to the building spotted by the ever talking parrot, you all load your new gear upon ou and make way to the jungle line. Coming on off the beach the jungle that grows is quite thick and whatever paths or trails formerly led to the building in question seem completely gone. Look like old fashioned bushwhacking is the next course.
Well if Bart will take the chest, I will take point.
Ajani will take up a position behind so that he's in a good spot for spellcasting, but not directly in the line of squishiness.
New Marching Order: Fjori, Mel, Ajani, Quillin, Hassan, Bart?
The group hacks its way through the brush for about an hour and comes to a clearing in the jungle. Within, a well built stockade wall surrounds a building of some sort, the likes of which is only visible as the doors that lead inside the stockade's perimeter are slightly ajar. The walls rise high and atop the southern edge you catch the brass, wood and leather of a spyglass that has been fixed to a pole to look out over the jungle. Other than the building within a tall tree towers next to the lodge providing ample shade over the entire area. The sounds of a bubbling spring can also be heard within.
Bart shrugs the heavy load on his shoulder and looks over the heads of the rest of the group at the "fort". "Looks ta me like someone's home," he says with a smirk. "Let's go knock an' say 'hi'."
Mel studies the map hoping it will reveal some clues to the structure.
"Yes, lets introduce ourselves!"
Fjori moves forward and using the pommel of his new cutlass, hammers on the gate.
"Hallooo!!! Anyone in there!!"
Smudge joins Fjori's noise making. "Halloo! Halloo! Anybody home?!"
"Well, that's one way to move things forward," Quillin shrugs.
Fjori walks in the OPEN gate and looks around.
perception:
Fjori steps forward just over the threshold into the courtyard. A series of crude ladders serve to provide access to the planks that serve as a walkway around the stockade wall though this platform only extends around roughly half of the wall, mostly on the south and western facing sides. In the center a wooden lodge of sorts sits complete with a rough roof made from mixed materials and a wooden slat door made from smaller pieces of wood then then stockade. That door is closed.
The large tree casts ample shade and the stockade is quite cool. Fjori also can see a pool of water and the continuing bubbling of the spring that seems to sit right between the massive tree and the building.
There is no response to the calls of greeting save the random birds and other wildlife noises that normally have filled the jungle.
Fjori will move towards the building. He will examine the door before opening it.
"Err..gentlemen..I';m getting a dead body inside and three spots under that tree are..moving..I think..but it's hard to tell.."
Fjori immediately looks into the trees to see what is moving
perception:
Fjori sees leaves swaying ib the breeze. It is, in fact, a tree.
Hassan scans the trees.
perception
"...Under the tree? I don't see nothing!"
"Er, gimme that crossbow and bolts out of the loot just in case."
"I see nothing. But let's get inside, just in case."
Quillin looks up at Hassan after fruitlessly digging through the chest again. "Oh, you've got the crossbow. It's not sized properly anyway. What do you think these orange and red vials are? Maybe alchemists fire?"
"Looks so. Your arms probably better than mine. Just don't go burning the jungle down."i
Perception
Mel joins the others in examining the tree from a distance..
Bart drops the chest with a loud *thud* at the mearest mention of danger. He slips his brass knuckles back on and gets into his practiced brawlers stance. "Come out, come out, where'er ya are!" he yells in the vicinity of the tree.
"I see three off them..they are so like the tree that they could be part off it.." Mel says standing ready to react should the creatures prove hostile.
She points out the positions of the creatures to the others but cautions them to take no action unless attacked.
Ajani looks in the direction indicated by Mel, hoping that he can perhaps discern some higher level of detail than the others have been able to see. Regardless, he does his best to appear as non-aggressive as possible, not wanting to provoke a a fight when one need not be necessary.
Ajani cannot see what MEl refers to but Mel remains steadfast in what she sees. Nothing moves or otherwise reacts to Bart's "Warriors, come out and PPllaaaaAAAyyy" style call.
"If they move, we will see it in the map. Let us get inside."
Quillin looks again up at the tree and then back at Mel wondering if her map actually works. Finally, he just shrugs, "Well, in we go I suppose." He keeps the vials of hypothetical alchemist fire at hand just in case.