Bjorkus rumbles with pleasure before leaving with the others.
***
Before leaving for Ollo, the minotaur tries to sell off some of the plunder filling the Storm's and Sanbalot's holds.
So a 30, which is high enough. You feel fine, and the curse isn't permanent, you feel no change.
Nope, though you didn't make it worse.
With the information gleaned at the House of Stolen Kisses, you travel to Ollo on Shark Island in search of Haneilius Fitch, who claims to know something of the missing ship Brine Banshee. Bjorkus asks around and easily finds Fitch's surgical office. As you enter, he seems to be doing some paperwork. Haneilius is a gray haired Taldan man who does not look up as he addresses you. "Yes, can I help you?"
"Mr. Fitch. We hear you know a thing or two about a ship called the Brine Banshee. We're looking to recover it and would be mighty grateful for any information you can send our way."
He smiles as he holds up a glass tube containing a human leg bone suspended in preservative solution.
“This tibia previously belonged to Vargus Brack, one of my old shipmates. Vargus was grateful to be rid of it—he’d have died of gangrene if I hadn’t amputated his leg. It’s a good thing I kept it as a specimen, since he was an officer aboard the Brine Banshee when she last sailed. Vargus and I were good friends—he came to visit me the last time the Brine
Banshee was in Ollo, as he always did when he was in port. He mentioned in passing the course the Brine Banshee would be taking, and said he wouldn’t be back for some time. The Brine Banshee had an abundance of riches aboard her, and together I believe we can salvage them. Are you interested?”
"I know the Brine Banshee’s course, he needs magic to find the exact
location where the ship went down. There’s a magical ring that can be used to find a corpse, provided the wearer already has a piece of the body. And I know of a pirate captain who wears just such a ring, called the ring of the iron skull. So the deal is I want an equal share of the Brine Banhsee's treasure and in exchange I will I'll tell you who has the ring and guide you along the Brine Banshee’s course until you find the ship."
Kal frowns thoughtfully. "One sixth of whatever we recover? That seems fair enough, I suppose."
He looks to the others for their reactions.
Bjorkus nods.
"You have a deal. Let's see that trinket of yours."
"Alright, well the guy who has it is a pirate named 'Milksop' Morton. He regularly sails his sloop Dryad’s Grave between the Smoker and Shark
Island. Fortunately for you, the Dryad’s Grave is due in Ollo within the next week. Some opportunistic sailors can intercept the bloke before he makes it to port."
The bull looks to his companions and nods.
"I think we can handle that."
Chubs nods. Mmmhhhmmm.
The Dryad’s Grave’s appears on the horizon off the yourport bow around mid of the second day. It spots your ship at the same time and closes in, signaling that it wishes to parley.
Bjorkus nods.
"If they wanna come beg for their lives, let 'em. It'll save us the trouble of running them down."
Kal unslings his bow anyway. "Unless they've some treachery in mind."
As the ships close to about 100 feet, someone yells out to your ship. "I am Captain Morton! Where are you bound for?"
"We're lookin' for you. Lower your sails and surrender and your men don't have to die. This is the only chance you're gunna get."
"Well I give you.. no chance at all!!"
Bjorkus climbs aboard a barrel and roars to the crew.
"This sod thinks he stands a chance against the Raging Storm? Draw your swords and ready for battle. Let's show 'em what happens to fools on the Fever Sea!"
"That's pretty stupid of you!" Kal yells. He then shoots him. Thrice.
"Let's get the fool who decided to talk instead of shooting at us."
Opal just readies to cast magic missiles at anyone who looks like they are about to spellcast.
Chubs fires at the captain.
Kal peppers the man with his arrows, all of them hitting his target and Chubwart follows suit though only his first shot hits.
The man grimaces and casts a spell. Opal fires off some force missiles hoping to disrupt but they are blocked by an invisible shield. A tiny bead flies towards the Storm and erupts into a giant ball of flame!
And all the ships involved speed forward, closing to boarding range. The three ships grapple each other and you are all surprised when the enemy ship's figurehead, carved in the likeness of a bare-chested, goat-horned satyr with muscular arms thrust forward comes to life and boards the Storm! You also notice that it oddly has a small ballista built into it's chest as it fires it at Opal!
Opal notices that the ballista bolt drips a salty brine into her wound withering that area of her body.
Bjorkus barely avoids the worst of the blast but growls in anger as Opal is fired on by the invader.
Roaring a challenge, the bull bolts across the deck to engage the saytr.
Bjorkus almost leaps across the deck at the construct that went after Opal. His blade finds purchase and takes off a chunk of the creature.
Opal backs away from the animated satyr and throws a lightening ball of her own towards the caster of the fireball she took damage from.
Kal moves closer to the enemy captain and summons a ball of flame to harass him.
Luthor double moves to the front of the ship.
Captain Milksop barely dodges the sphere of fire and deftly dodges the ball of lightning.
Chubs charges across the deck and tries to plant a dagger into the wooden monster.
And he cuts it in half!
Meanwhile on the Dryad's Grave. A tiny little air mephit makes its way out from below its deck and breathes a cloud of knives at Bjorkus and Chubs
With his familiar handling Bjorkus and Chubs, he uses his academae experience to quickly summon bull aurochs that start trampling Luthor! In fact, they start a stampede on the deck of the Sanbalot!
Kal growls and summons a wave to send the enemy captain into the drink, even as his sphere continues to pursue.
Seeing Luthor being trampled by his kin, Bjorkus spins on his hooves and turns back toward the Sanbalot.
The big bull paws at the deck a few times and then launches like a missile towards one of his rivals to lock horns.
Luthor is not nearly quick enough to dodge the stampede and takes the full damage. He responds by sending out a quick pair of knuckled strikes at one of them.
Between Luthor's quick strikes and Bjorkus' mighty horns, one of the summoned bulls goes down!
As the first bull falls, Bjorkus throws his horns and bellows a challenge at the other two.
Opal readies an action to fling a ball of lightening the second that the caster captain attempts to do anything.
Chubs crosses over and stabs at the mephit. "Come here so I can eatses you!"
But in his hunger, he misses.
As Morton starts to cast again, Opal lets go with another ball of lightning which electrocutes the poor sod and he falls over dead before he can act again. And the bulls disappear going back to whence they came. The mephit withdraws away and Chubs tries desperately to jump and stab at it. "Fire all weaponses!" He shouts, though most of the surviving crew is too injured to follow the order.
Morton's Gear: 2 potions of cure moderate wounds, potion of
invisibility, 2 scrolls of dispel magic, scroll of fly, masterwork club, cloak of resistance +1, ring of the iron skull, ring of protection +1, spell component pouch, spellbook.
Ring of the Iron Skull
Aura faint divination; CL 5th
Slot ring; Price 10,800 gp; Weight —
DESCRIPTION
Crudely cut amethysts and a single engraved skull decorate
the band of this thick iron ring. The ring grants its wearer a
+5 competence bonus on Appraise checks to determine the
most valuable item in a treasure hoard and a +5 competence
bonus on Heal checks to ascertain details of a dead creature’s
demise. Once per day as a standard action, the wearer can
touch the ring to a corpse or piece of a corpse to learn the
dead creature’s name, gender, race, and profession or role,
as well as the manner of the creature’s death. The wearer
also becomes aware of the location of other pieces of the
corpse if they’re within 1,200 feet. If the body part comes
from a creature that’s still alive or undead, the wearer gains
no information. The ring of the iron skull must be worn for 24
hours before it starts to function for the wearer.
Bjorkus roars in victory and then claps Luthor on the back with a healing spell.
"Good fight!"
Kal hurries over to Luthor. "You okay? Let me have a look."
"No, being trampled hurts. Your cousins stepped on my everything."Luthor starts rubbing his various hoof related bruises.
There's 27 crew on the sloop known as the Dryad's Grave,
agree to join up, replacing the crew lost and then some. The ship also has 2 plunder and is outfitted with 2 masterwork light catapults and an arrow springal.
Bjorkus gives a sympathetic nod to the brutalized brawler.
”At least they didn’t give you the horns.”
"As soon as the crew's patched up we should get a prize crew on the new ship and head back to Ollo", the minotaur adds as he looks over ring.
"Yea, but it still hurt."
"You're a big guy, I'm sure you've had worse and women love a good scar."
Luthor shrugs and you sail back to Ollo.
========================
"I had a feeling you'd be successful. Now the Brine Banhee's last stop before it disappeared was here in Ollo to sell off some cargo. It then sailed northwest around Shark Island's coastline. With the ring attuned to one of you, you should be able to find Vargus' body which is where the wreck will be." He gets the jar with the appendage in it and hands it to you.