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The creature begins to feel the futility of being surrounded while on it's back and tries to stand up. Sandman, Johara, Fargrim and Baltzar all jump at the opportunity to bash and slash the creature into bloody bits. Fargrim's chain goes wide as he tries to throw around Baltzar, but the other three land solid strikes and the creature does not get up. If fact, it falls on to the jungle floor and doesn't move again.
Sandman let out a long breath and willed his heart rate to slow again.
"Everyone alright? Fargrim, Johara?"
"That...was some impressive butchery done by you guys. Lets be on the lookout for any more surprises here...", Nivian exlaims as she carefully checks the area inside the rampart for any more threats or possible ambush sites-
"I... I'm well enough, I think," says Johara.
Fargrim rubs at his bruised and raw throat, his voice raspy and weak. "I am okay, thanks to you all. And that healing potion..." He immediately looks around the area for any more lingering surprises...
Johara regards the wooden fences and walls dubiously. "These palisades apparently didn't keep the jungle out -- unless those were someone's 'pets'," she says. "Shall we stick together and take a look around the corner here, see what kind of shack we've stumbled upon?"
"Let's hold a moment before we do. There might be something else in there, and I would like to have a discussion first."
"You might have noticed that I put things to sleep. It would be best if we could avoid waking them up in the future. If you see something fall over inexplicably, either kill it, or let it lie."
Looking to Nivian, he said "I will target what you do whenever possible. Our specialties should compliment well."
Johara nods. "I understand. I actually know a small routine that makes creatures more susceptible to that kind of magic, maybe I should be doing that?"
Interesting. I would certainly like to see that.
A (figurative) light goes on for Johara and she says, "Oh! Is that why you're called Sandman?"
Sandman grinned. "One of the reasons, yes."
"Oh? What's another reason?"
"I am a..." he searched for the word in the common tongue "Dreamweaver. A kind of spirit guide. My people believe that the mind can be healed, or harmed, through dreams, in the same way that the body can be healed or harmed here in the waking lands."
Then he reached into his sporran-pouch and pulled out a small handful of bluish sand, letting it sift through his fingers.
"Also, I have sand." he said dryly. Chuckling at his own joke, he shrugged. "I use it to soak up blood during tattooing, scarification or chirurgery."
The wooden door to the lodge is of good construction and is currently ajar. Inside is a simple chamber, crowded with a large amount of furniture including a comfortable-looking bed, a small writing desk, cooking gear, and several barrels of rotting food. The stench of rot is overpowering and flies swarm within the room, particularly around the hooded corpse hanging from a chain off of a beam in the middle of the room. A stool lies on the floor nearby where it was kicked. A flame burns in a lantern on the writing desk, illuminating the small lodge.
Johara says to Sandman, "Ahhh... dreams were my best escape, sometimes, when I had hard times back... back then." A series of emotions flicker across her face, a mixture of good and bad memories.
"Ugh, that smell. Do you think... someone was stranded here and hanged himself after despairing of ever being rescued?" she says, changing over to the state of the lodge.
"Careful. That lantern should have long gone out, judging by the smell of rot in here...unless someone lit it recently."
Nivian attempts to look for footprints at the entrance, but quickly finds it's not an area of expertise for her.
There are no obvious foot prints anywhere, up the path or into the lodge. No one has set foot here for quite some time.
Fargrim keeps his weapon out, ready to strike the first creature that he sees. "How anyone could stand to be around such a stench makes me wonder what we are facing." He moves up to the lantern and picks it up. "Let's cut him down and clean out the rotting foodstuffs. Once this is aired out, it could make for a good headquarters." He moves towards the lantern and intends to pick it up.
As Fargrim enters the lodge to retrieve the lantern, his senses are assaulted by the vile stench and even the hardy dwarf is unable to stomach the smell. He begins coughing violently before gagging and ultimately vomiting in the lodge. The sound and commotion brings the dangling corpse to life as it reaches out at the nearest sound with both arms. It blindly grasps at Fargrim, but is unable to grab the dwarf as the chain around it's neck remains secure. It begins to scream and curse as loud as it can.
"Creepy...remind me to tell you this one story about Captain LaBeouf sometime...", Nivian casualy suggests, before focusing her willpower on the weird...something...assaulting Fargrim.
Fargrim holds back his retching best he can as he takes a step away from the hanging corpse. He twirls his dorn dergar around and flings it towards the creature with a roar. "Shut this thing up!"
The creature is not concerned with a simple curse, it has been cursed for years. Fargrim's chain almost rips the creature in half, yet it does not seem to care. It continues to scream and even begins to laugh maniacally.
"Creepy...remind me to tell you this one story about Captain LaBeouf sometime...", Nivian casualy suggests, before focusing her willpower on the weird...something...assaulting Fargrim.
"Was he an actual cannibal?" asks Johara as she hangs back, wondering how she might be able to help but unable to think of something.
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"So you heard of him? Retired to a cabin in the woods, protected by bear traps...plenty of stories about the man- and a song or two. Remind me to sing it sometime..."
"Yes, I actually learned part of the dance routine to go with that performance," Johara says.
"Not sure I've heard or seen any song about a cannibal." she says.
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Johara says, "We can show you after we figure out to do with this screaming cadaver. Nivian can sing the song and I'll do the dance routine."
"Aye, we should first deal with that screaming cadaver. I think we should help Fargrim. Any ideas, ladies? Lets do a Brainstorming...hang in there, Fargrim!"
"Maybe after Fargrim smashes it up pretty badly, we can build a funeral pyre and burn it?" Johara says.
"Right after we finish this cup of tea, Fargrim, with you in a minute! You wouldn't want our tea to get cold would you? So, Johara, Baltzar, say..."
Sandman swings again.
As the ladies debate on how to deal with the creature, Sandman and Fargrim decimate the corpse. The lantern on the table glows with evocation magic. The stench has permeated almost every inch of the room, but there are six spears, eight finely tailored courtier's outfits, and a suit of leather armor, as well as a spice cabinet with 5 pounds of pepper in waxed bags, a silver tankard worth 30 gp, a silver locket depicting a beautiful, buxom young blonde woman worth 45 gp.
While handling one of the courtier's outfits, you feel a hard bulge in the pocket. Inside the pocket is a finely-crafted silver ring.
The clothes are of Chelish style.
"Well, if we can get the smell out of the place, ever, then this could be a decent place to scout the island from. Sandman, you seem to be great at cleaning...in a non-manual-labor way, care to take a look at this place and see what you can do?"
Nivian then brings all their findings outside and takes a close look at them after casting 'Detect Magic', handing the lantern to Johara:"It seems you and Sandman here are most in need of light, so do hold on to it! I think thats one of these eternally burning ones."
Taking a look at the Chellish Courtiers clothes: "There's no need for those now, but I think the clothes could be useful if we're ever invited to some formal event...I mean now that we're successful entrepreneurs...and owners of our own ship, and island, just a matter of time-"
Sandman hung his mask on the wall. "Much suffering took place here. My mask will feed well today."
Very slowly, the mask smiled, and just as slowly the whole countenance of the place became cleaner and brighter.
The silver ring glows faintly with transmutation magic. The mask drinks in the pain infused into the lodge and is eventually sated after several hours. It takes a few hours but the stench fades and the lodge can be secured.
Something is radiating magic roughly 50 feet up or so in the tree.
The ring is a ring of swimming. This silver ring has fish-like designs and motifs etched into the band. It continually grants the wearer a +5 competence bonus on Swim checks.
"This ring here, it's designed to help people swim and infused with magic. Certainly, it would be fun, but I believe I have least need of such a crutch. Who among you feels they would benefit most?"
Looking around further, she then addresses Fargrim and Johara, the ones experienced with Rigging work:"Up there, in the tree, where we've been attacked, there is a magical aura. Care to check it out?"
Johara nods, and with a whipping gesture she conjures a set of small lights. One of them she sends bobbing up into the tree to illuminate her way and perhaps expose any hiding creatures.
"All that climbing in the rigging has given me practice again with my pole work," she says. Then she draws her curved knife, wipes it clean, places it between her teeth with the blade facing out, and grabs the tree. She slowly but determinedly shimmies up.
Fargrim watches Johara as she climbs up, making sure she is not ambushed alone in that tree.
High up in the tree, stashed in an abandoned bird's nest, is a potion, three silver shoe buckles, a ghoul finger with a gold wedding ring on it, and a silver hatpin.
It is a potion of water breathing, Caster Level 5
The three shoe buckles are worth 5 gp each.
The gold wedding ring is worth 50 gp.
The silver hatpin is worth 5 gp.
The pirates hold up in the abandoned lodge for the night. Despite the defensible sanctuary, the rest is anything but restful. The buzzing insects, the jungle animals, even the birds provide constant noise and its enough to drive anyone mad. The reek of decay is much more tolerable after the mask is done, but the house still stinks. The furniture is comfortable though, easily the best experienced in months. Its impossible to let your guard down completely, but at least you can put your feet up and relax, even if only a little bit.
As the sun comes up, the noises decrease some what but the temperature rises quickly. Its easy to see that today is going to be a hot one. The spyglass points down to the cove. In the cove, two of the small, octopus-like goblins play in the water, tossing a tricorn hat back and forth.
The markings on the tricorn hat resemble Sandara's hat.
Johara climbs back down the tree with the objects and hands them over to Nivian for examination.
Once that task is done she putters about the small sanctuary, putting it back in order. She collects a small amount of wood and rocks from outside and builds a stone fire pit and a fire. She goes outside and fills waterskins and canteens with water, and after she comes back in she rummages around in her pack, takes out a small oilskin bag, and unrolls it. From this she produces a pair of drinking cups and another smaller pouch, which she uses to brew a small quantity of kahve. Though it is bitter and strong without milk or honey, the scent of the kahve at least helps to combat the stench of decay in the structure, and the smoke from the fire and the kahve perhaps helps to keep some of the insects at bay.
This also underscores that Johara has a lot of experience cleaning house.
Nivian takes a look at the potion Johara found:"Hm, no idea...I am unfamiliar with this liquid...maybe some sort of curative potion?", she speculates, before taking a look at the trinkets, shrugging:"They do seem valuable, but I've never been one for wearing jewellery...it's not terribly common among my kind."
When dawn breaks and a view through the telescope is possible, Nivian flatly states:"That, down there, are the little buggers who attacked our ship. And the thing they play with belongs to Sandara! They must have taken her towards the cove. Either way, those 2 probably know what happened to her. If we hurry, we may be able to take them prisoner and interrogate them...", gripping Sandara's holy symbol hidden in her clothing, Nivian moves from the telescope to break camp and pack what she needs.
Sandman smelled the potion, dipped his finger in it and put a drop on his tongue. "Not a curative. It will let you breathe water for a few minutes." he smiled in Nivian's direction. "Fairly useless for you."
"Anyone want it?"
"I would like to have a discussion about the command of our ship." Sandman said that night while they prepared to rest.
"I suppose I can hang onto it, in case I need it," Johara says. "I'm a reasonably good swimmer, so if Fargrim isn't experienced in swimming, he might need it more. But I expect a strong saltbeard like Fargrim is not going to have trouble in the water."
Johara nods when Sandman brings up the topic of organization and passes a cup of kahve to him.
He smiled. "Thank you."
Fargrim laughs heartily at Johara. "Dear, not all dwarves are terrified of the open water. Even though I was born in the Five Kings Mountains doesn't mean I can't dive deep with the best of them!" He sniffs at the kahve as Johara passes a cup to Sandman. "What exactly is that drink? It smells good and strong, but how does it taste?"