Remind Jrahk to explain sarcasm to you.
"Black market, eh? do you know where it is located?"
Everyone, be prepared for combat. I have a bad feeling about this.
"Eh, buddy, if you think a black market is located in any one place like some freakin' bazaar, you're probably too much of a goody-goody to avoid getting eaten alive by the sorts of people you need to deal with. No offense."
Ixrul grins and lowers his voice so only the Scrimshander can hear.
"He's not the ah, brains of the operation for a reason. But the rest of us are more competent."
"We've kept him out of trouble before. Usually."
Jrahk heads back to the ship to get False Life, then goes to Haddon's shack.
You are at Haddon's shack. There's not much to tell about it. It's small, though solidly built.
Ixrul casts Detect Magic and scans the shack area.
Ace nudges Ixrul "I'll bet he wont like it if he opens the door to find a giant monster waiting for him."
No magic.
Ixrul knocks.
Nobody answers. Ixrul notices the door is locked.
Can you unlock it? Or should Jrahk let himself in?
Ixrul checks for windows to see in.
There are none in the front, though circling around the back reveals one looking out on the sea.
The window is open, and inside is a corpse, two bullet holes in his spine and head shoved in a nearby fish tank.
"Hmm."
Jrahk climbs through the window and pulls the body out of the tank to look at its face.
Jaymiss described the man, but that will not hep you here. The skin of the man's head has been eaten off by the piranha in the fishtank, leaving only faint scraps of flesh clinging to the skull.
However, as Jrahk moves the body, something falls from its hand. It is a driftwood carving of a bird-like humanoid,which Ixrul (and anyone with Kn. local) can recognize as a Tengu.
Jrahk admires the handiwork of the piranha.
Heh...maybe Jrahk will keep these as pets.
Search the shack. Look for clues to who this man was.
Yes.. Quite good handiwork. I didn't know fish could carve wood.
Odan takes 10 on perception for a 25.
-A Heal check, if anyone has Heal.
-A Craft (Alchemy) OR Heal check
-Perception (Already done)
-Knowledge (History)
-Linguistics (+2 bonus if you speak Infernal)
--Perform (Any) if anyone has a Perform skill, especially Sing.
Before inspecting stuff, Ixrul will sit down for a minute, prepare Cleromancy, and casts it using his extend rod.
+ 2
+ 2
Trained skill
Untrained skills
Untrained skills
[dice=Heal]1d20
Dromite Tactician (Battle Medic)
Nobody notices anything odd about the cause of death of the corpse.
Odan spots a hidden compartment under the fish tank, while Jrahk notices something glinting out on the sand. It appears to be a vial of some kind, but completely empty.
The secret compartment contains some treasure.
-40 pp, 259 gp (659 gp)
-Scrimshaw walrus tusk scroll case (worth 50 gp, though may be useful to anyone carrying scrolls)
Inside the case are some rolled up papers, that appear to be a Chelish opera, written in Infernal. The historically minded of you (Ace, Ixrul, and Odan) can recognize that Infernal was not commonly in use in Cheliax back when this play was written.
The opera is likely in code, but Ixrul, try as he might, is unable to decipher it. Perhaps tomorrow on the ship, and calmer surrounds he'll be able to crack it.
Jrahk takes the body back to the ship and puts it somewhere out of the way.
"Sandra, prepare Speak with Dead tomorrow morning."
The next day, Ixrul will take his time with the opera.
Ixrul manages to undo the cipher. The 10th page of the play reads thus:
Haddon, we need you to keep an eye on the ships docking in Drenchport. Particularly the ones the Master of Gales owns. If you find anything, I'll be on Hell Harbor for the next couple of weeks.
-Roweena
The Master of Gales is one of the members of the Pirate Council, and the judge of this year's Free Captain's Regatta (as well as the winner of the last five races).
Rumor has it he was born a member of the cannibalistic Koboto tribe, though nobody knows for sure where he was born or even what his real name (and, it is rumored, even he does not remember his birth name). The only thing known about his origin is that he was born soemwhere in the Sodden Lands, and in the midst of one of the freak Hell-Storms that wrack the region.
Regardless, the mere mention of the name Koboto sends the man flying into a terrible fury, and on the one occasion someone made the mistake of wearing one of their signature Goz Masks (that make them immune to clouds of poison gas) in his presence, he showed his name is not for show; The man was ripped to pieces by a magically summoned Whirlwind on the spot. The Master of Gales simply watched as the man screamed and begged for mercy, and when he was dead swept the whirlwind (and the scraps of flesh and bone which was all that remained of the man) out to sea.
His ship is the Kraken, and fittingly an enormous squid (unnamed by him, though his crew sometimes calls it "The Master's Hand", or just "the Squid") follows and serves him loyally.
Also he looks like Gandalf having an orgasm.
Hell Harbor is a port on the island of Devil's Arches.
Roweena is a name that could be of any ethnicity, though she is probably human (or half human).
Meanwhile, Jrahk has Sandra start questioning the corpse.
"Who are you?"
"Haddon Pike." the corpse rasps.
"Who killed you?"
"Don't know."
"Why do you think you were killed?"
"Loose end?" the corpse seems unsure.
It ceases moving, the spell's magic run out.
"He didn't seem to know much about why he was killed... I could reincarnate him, given a day or so."