While Sapher is appreciative about Esrisi trying to include her by singing about hammers, she does wonder if they should be drawing so much attention. "That man did try to kidnap us yesterday." she points out to Mok, though it is not needed, as they walk along a bit behind the others, still issues with leg lengths. "Anyone, even a blind goblin, could track us like this." the dwarf sighs, but leaves the human woman alone. "At least she's happy."
Sapher will be on a look out for people following us.
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Mokhasi nods at Sapher and says in a low voice so that Drask can hear as well, ”be on guard. I do not believe that some of our companions fully appreciate the danger we are in. And, for what it is worth, I appreciate you both agreeing to my proposal - though you should not feel bound by it. The others did ... not agree. Expect more of what we experienced earlier.” A look of disgust is plainly visible on his face.
”Also, I would... there appears to be an effort to ... sway the others to their position, now that it seems tempers have subdued slightly, on all of their parts. I have found myself ... I will not participate further in this... nonsense.” He struggles with the right words, his face a mask of bitterness. He takes a few deep breaths, stops, closes his eyes, and then opens them, smiling his usual smile.
”We are going to a tavern, I believe. I look forward to trying whatever new ales they have, I have not had anything dockside here, we have been so busy.”
Mokhasi sits at the bar by himself and gets a drink of fine ale, watching the developments from afar out of the corner of his eye.
Veltariel elected to remain outside near the door. The cold shoulder from Adorellan was extremely painful for her. Despite being a part of a group, she wasn’t feeling more alone.
"I'd imagine time might help." Sapher offers as a crappy attempt at advise.
The smells and brews in the tavern are quite tempting, but Sapher tells Mok to enjoy, and then stays at the front, next to Vels, to continue to watch if anyone is following them.
"Have you seen anybody watching us... well more than of our multi-racial grouping, heavily armored natures, and singing siren would warrant?" she'll ask the elf as she settles down on a convenient stoop.
The man eyes Es for a moment before nodding his acceptance of the free food "Tranportation eh? 'Round the Irespan? I gotta couple row boats, are ya lookin' ta buy or rent?"
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Esiri nods happily. "Fantastic!"
She places her palms together as if she were praying, offering a wide smile. "I don't think we need to buy them, just rent them I suppose? Is it by the day? How many can we fit on a single boat? If I have a group of, oh I don't know, let's just say six or seven individuals. How many boats is that?"
If the price is reasonable, Esiri nods to Caroliss. "What do you think? Good? Can you please pay the man for this wonderful service?"
Caroliss arbitrarily decides she'll pay up to 5 gold per boat to rent without haggling.
But she also asks how much it would cost to buy.
The man shurgs "Can fit three normal sized people ta a boat. Mind ya, have ta row 'em out yourself, so be sure ya got someone with a bit of muscle. If ya got 6 people tha two boats should do ya fine, if ya have seven though might need a third."
He pauses a moment and takes a bite of the delicious grilled fish with lemon and capers on it. "As for the price, since ya seem like nice folk. How about 1 gold a day per boat? Of course, ya break it ya guy it and those boats aren't all that cheap..."
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Esrisi nods along. ”That’d be wonderful, thank you. I think we can make do with two boats for two days, right Car? You don’t think we will be picking up any guests, will we? If so, we can always make the elf swim.”
Satisfied when Caroliss pays the man, she looks over at Drask and gives him a smile and a thumbs up. Turning back to Caroliss she leans in and says ”You finish up here, I’m going to uhm, go thank that nice lady up front.”
And go finish that fish plate!
Only when she is sure Caroliss has the situation well in hand will she make her way back to the front to eat the rest of her food before departing.
"I think a day is all we need. If we need it longer, we'll pay the difference of course." Caroliss looks over to Drask and holds up fingers. Two? Three?
Unless Drask (or someone else) suggests otherwise, she goes ahead with just two boats.
She then watches as Esrisi dashes off to finish the rest of her food. "She's always hungry--I really can't explain it. So, once you're done, can you show us the way to the boats? And . . . out of curiosity, how much does one of these rowboats cost?"
Because there's a decent chance we're going to break one.
Assuming the man will guide them, Caroliss waits patiently for him to finish his food.
The man finishes up his meal and then stands, grabbing a nearby wooden crutch and starts to head for the door "This way then. As for replacement costs if ya break it, it is fifty five gold..."
He hobbles along leading the way to a nearby pier with a few various boats tied up. There is a iron gate with a lock that blocks access to the pier. He pulls out a key and opens the lock then pushes the gate open and motions with his crutch for you to go ahead. "This way. Pick yer two boats ya like and I'll help you off."
Out of the various boats that are docked there are a handful of rowboats. They all appear to be in good condition. Two are white washed, while the others are all natural wood. He let's you choose what you like and then helps untie the ropes and push you off when you are ready.
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While Caroliss escorts the man to the boats, Esrisi falls back and explains the situation to the rest of the group. "We rented two boats, but we need to row them. I was thinking that Drask can row one and ..." she looks out over their group while pausing midsentence. "... and I'll be in that one along with Caroliss. Sapher can row the other boat."
Veltariel can swim for all that I care.
She nods and moves back up alongside Caroliss and the weathered man. "These will do just wonderfully! Thanks again, we'll bring them back to you good as new!" she says when she probably shouldn't.
She points to two of the natural wood ones and indicates "We'll take those two."
When they make it down to the water, she climbs in to the boat while it is still on the land so that she doesn't have to get wet. She looks to Drask and nods "Ready to set sail!"
As Esrisi boards, Veltariel says to Drask and Sapher ”Shouldn’t we wait until dark? Didn’t we anger whatever thugs that Natalya worked with? It would be best to keep them off our trail as much as possible.”
As they go to the boats Drask stares absentmindedly at the water for a bit until he's called over. He climbs wirelessly into the boat, grabbing the oars. See me safe over this, brother.
Veltariel shrugs and climbs into the other boat. She takes a position near the front of the boat, bracing her left leg against the front rail of the ship and keeping her bow in hand as she places her pack beneath her.
"I've never rowed a boat in all my life" she sighs, but accepts the manual labor portion of the trip with just that minor complaint. She is quiet timid about settling in a wobbly flimsy wooden thing between her and certain death. "Daylight might be best, Veltariel, in case one of us falls in." meaning she'd rather face all of Natalya's thugs instead of this.
She starts rowing...
Caroliss sits in the rear of her boat, letting Drask row and Esrisi take the lead. "Race you to the Crow!" she says to the folks in the other boat. She points out the way using her familiarity with this place. "It'll be dark by the time you guys get there!" she taunts.
As Drask rows, she prays for Calistria's favor to help them along.
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Esrisi channels her inner Kate Winslet and stands up in the boat, spreading her arms wide apart as Drask rows. She closes her eyes and remembers what the vision of flying was like when she held the shard. She smiles and continues to look like an a child, all the meanwhile a huge grin on her face.
She slowly breaks into song once more "Cause I'm as free as a bird now. And this bird you can not change Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, And this bird you can not change. And this bird you can not change. God knows, I can't chaaaaaaaaaaaaange."
"I am racing NO ONE!" Sapher barks, her normal practiced politeness forgotten in the face of certain death. "And please do get there first, clear all the unspeakable demons and cannibalistic zombies out before we arrive!"
She continues to row, white-knuckled, muttering very foul things in undercommon.
And then Drask stood and pushed her off the boat, laughing as she hit the water. Drask gives a wry smile. "Sit down before you fall out."
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Esrisi is enjoying the cool breeze blowing on her face as Drask rows, soaking in the smells of the harbor and continuing to sing. "And this bird you can not change. And this bird you cann-"
She opens her eyes as Drask speaks and turns around to see his smile. He likes my song she thinks to herself and nods, obliging. "Yes, of course."
"Yeesh. the priestess of love is feeling grumpy today." remarks Caroliss quietly. "Good thing we're in the party boat!" she adds, much more loudly. She'll join in on any songs she knows, enjoying herself even if others might not be so impressed with her singing.
Caroliss dangles her fingers into the water to feel the temperature. Because it sure seemed like today's quest might involve some diving.
Sapher and Drask both get off to a rough start rowing the boat out into the open waters. They almost spin the boat around in a circle at first, but once they get a hand of the concept Sapher actually takes a bit of a lead between the two boats, with Drask eventually catching up as Sapher needs to take a break near the end of the journey. Both boats approach the part of the Irespan known as the Crow around the same time, all in all the trip takes nearly an hour to get their while fighting the currents.
The massive pillar rises high into the sky casting a shadow out over the harbor and your boats in the afternoon sun as you look for an entrance. You see hundreds of crowlike gargoyles, carvings and decorations that adorn the outside, obviously giving the pillar its namesake. Circling around the eastern side you find a spot. A tall lancet arch at water level leads into a chamber at sea level within the side of the Crow. Inside is what was once a small, stepped terrace, now filled with sea water to the level of its top step. Three rowboats are tied off to heavy stones placed on this step. Above, the ceiling rises almost all the way up to the top of the monument. An opening leads off this shaft to the west near the ceiling. At the west end of this room lies a small alcove whose floor shows the stains of countless campfires. The back wall of this alcove has broken through, revealing a passageway beyond.
"Three boats, already here?" Sapher thinks that isn't good and her voice makes that obvious. "Can anyone swim reasonably well? I'm thinking we should try and hide out boats, out of sight of this terrace at least." she is NOT volunteering though.
As the boats pull into the makeshift dock, Veltariel lightly hops off and begins ties their boat off to one of the rocks before knocking an arrow and keeping an eye on the passage for any sign of attack.
Drask grunts to Sapher, letting the others get out. He uses a rope to tie the boats together, then rows out and tries to find some landmass or shore overhang to hide the boats behind.
After tying to the boats to the shore, he makes his way back to the others.
Drask gets up, shakes the majority of the water off him. As he continues to drip he draws his double-axe, eyes closing for a moment. Brother, I am in your eyes. Share mine, for we may see blood this day. As Drask opens his eyes the shadowy figure joins him again. Oddly enough as he moves forward it seems to look back at the others independently of Drask. Although it does seem almost a perfect copy of him, there are subtle differences. The scars are unique and in different locations, and his eyes are a brighter blue. The shadowy form seems to consider the group for a moment before going back to mirroring Drask's movements.
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Esrisi speaks quietly to Mokhasi while Drask ties the boats off. "Master Mokhasi, I wish to broach the subject of the wand with the protection spell in it. While it need not be used yet, I am ready for it at the first signs of trouble."
After that is taken care of, she searches the area for any items or clues left behind on who these boats may belong to. When the group heads inside, she takes a position in the middle of the pack.
After Drask finds a small rocky outcropping on the other side of Crow where he can tie the boats off, he returns to the rest of the group. As you start to look around you notice all the campfires here are reasonably old. Likely plenty of people before you coming to explore the place and camping here. You can tell for the most part it seems previous visitors attempted to scale the walls to get to the upper level and gain access that way, which begs the question why they didn't use the opening in front of you now, unless it wasn't there before. There aren't any immediate signs of people around but there is plenty of guano on the walls and floor, evidence that bats have made use of this chamber.
The chamber ahead is unlit.
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Esrisi studies the camp and the passage that leads inside to the area that no one likes to use. She remarks "Hmmm. I can't tell if anyone recently traversed into here or not, but I think is definitely the way we should go in."
Heading inside of the chamber she looks around frowning, completely unaffected by the lack of light. "Disgusting."
Looking at her companions she remarks "Weapons at the ready folks." and contemplates pulling her crossbow or not. She hesitantly withdraws it and loads it. She leans in to Caroliss and whispers "I hope I don't miss again."
Veltariel gives Esrisi a cold look as she loads her crossbow, then cautiously begins moving forward, looking for potential threats.
Drask puts a hand on Vel's shoulder, and silently mouths a question. "You scouting?"
Rubble from the collapsed wall has been pushed out into the chamber. Traces of recent habitation, bits of trash and rubbish and the odd piece of clothing or equipment, are scattered here and there, though the room now appears to be unused. There are steps in the northern wall, leading up.
Caroliss prays to Calistria for light. She will share with anyone who wants it.
Drask is distracted by the others trying to figure out light.
Vel checks the small room to the south before approaching the stairs to the north. IN the southern room, the foul odor and suspicious stains on the floor reveal that this chamber was used as a privy within the last few weeks. Huddled in one corner are the rotten remains of a small animal that looks kind of like a dog.
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Just before they move into the interior of the column, Mokhasi silently removes the wand from his bag, waves it briefly, and lightly touches Esrisi’s arm. A shimmering field of force extends from the tip and covers Esrisi, then disappears. He quickly returns the wand to his satchel.
”This chamber once housed a significant number of creatures.”
Mokhasi whispers”that appears to have once been a donkey rat.”
"If you have to, just hit them with your fists like Drask taught you!" suggests Caroliss as Esrisi tries her crossbow again. She conjures light onto her spear and advances, using her own low light vision to stay within range of Veltariel, but not so close as to light her up fully.
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The oracle thanks the arcanist for protecting her with the spell.
Esrisi swallows hard at the suggestion, crouching beside Caroliss and listening to Mokhasi declare about the donkey rat. "I suppose so. I just don't to get into the way of them. I'll try. Maybe these cursed things will be able to actually do some good?"
Sniffing at the urine smell in the room she tries to stop her natural gag reflex. "Ugh. This smell terrible! Can we move on please?"
"Yes please." Sapher agreed with Ez about leaving, after strapping on her shield, a thick metal round piece of steel, scarred here and there from battle, like all good proper dwarves should have. And pulling out her new hammer. Steel instead of cold iron, but perfectly balanced. It makes her smile the way it swings so easily.
All ready, she nods to Drask for whenever he is.
Drask leads the group up the slightly curving stairs. Between those stairs and another set of curving stairwell climbing further into the structure lies a small landing. Three stone boxes, their lids raised, stand lined up against the east wall. A fine yellow powder surrounds them on the floor, it looks almost like a yellow mold.
"That's certainly strange. Did these boxes have this strange powder in them?"
Having absolutely no knowledge of what it might be, Caroliss just looks for anything that looks interesting or out of place.
"No idea" Sapher admits to having no knowledge of strange dusts either. She'll keep her guard up with Caroliss searches.