Thurden brushes past Reijo intending to get a bit of revenge for the crustaceans that caught him with his pants down earlier.
Reijo rushes in after Thurden, aiming his boarding axe at the same crustacean.
And with a single blow each, the sea-scorpions are dispatched.
Climbing up the steep passageway, you come to a hatch that has been warped by the forces that beached the ship.
Close up, you can see a trickle of blood coming from beneath the hatchway and down the passageway.
"Oh noes! Some one bin hurtin!" Sunny exclaims as she peers around form behind Reijo and Thurden.
"Oh noes! Some one bin hurtin'!" Sunny exclaims even as she peers from behind reijo and Thurdin.
'Hopefully it's that witch of a cook.' Thurden chuckles to himself and nods for Reijo to open the door as he readies his scythe.
Wiping the ich off his axe, Reijo spots the blood as well.
"If we find the cap'n," he mutters under his breath with a smirk at Thurden, "might get yer refund after all."
Sneaking up the sloped floor, Reijo cups his ear to the wall to listen carefully for what might be in the next room. He then opens the hatchway, keeping himself as much to one side of it as he can, just in case something comes rushing out at him.
Shaedeen has Jask sit cross-legged on the sand while holding out his manacled wrists before him. Pulling out her thieves' tools, the teen kneels before the man and takes her time fiddling with the locking mechanism.
As Shaedeen gets frustrated working on Jask's locks, Reijo carefully listens, doesn't hear anything, then has to noisily chop, wrench and batter his way through the warped hatchway.
Reijo, Thurden and Sunny find themselves in an equipment locker.
Aside from the clutter of stock and ships equipment, you see the trail of blood leading to the body slumped down against a bulkhead.
As you raise your light source, you see that it is Alton Devers, the new first mate of the Throaty Mermaid. Jenivere. Whatever.
Steely-eyed Reijo glances around at the locker before stepping inside. Spotting a body at the end of the blood trail, he approaches and kneels down to examine the man's wounds.
"Rest in peace an' all that, mate."
And while his eyes and hands are on him, they happen to pocket a coin pouch or other valuables that might have belonged to the dead man in life.
"Ye won't be needin' this anymore, I reckon..."
Sunny does her bestest to help ther poor feller.
"Uhm..."
'Let's see if we can pull anything out of this heap.' Thurden begins sifting through the tossed equipment hold, looking for anything useful to the survivors back on shore.
Devers is still wearing his masterwork studded leather armor, a brass knife at his belt, and clutches his masterwork cutlass in one hand.
It appears at first glance that he died of several piercing injuries.
A search of the rest of the supply room turns up several tools and lumber that could come in handy in building a secure campsite: a block and tackle, three large canvas sheets, two fishing nets, a grappling hook, two bullseye lanterns, 12 flasks of lantern oil, 150 feet of hemp rope, and five shovels.
Shaedeen takes her time trying and failing to pick the lock on Jask's fetters, while he has a possibly inappropriate grin on his face as she tries.
Sunny sets to work getting everything they've found out on what's left of the deck before using her skills to simply use what they've found to tie everything together into a large makeshift raft. (Basically the rope, nets etc tied/wrapped around the flasks and any barrels. Empty or otherwise).
The fellow that's passed? Sunny says some quiet words in Elvish before dragging him out and offering his remains respectfully to the sea.
The variegated sailor immediately swipes the coin pouch. His eyes linger at the sight of the silvered dagger in hand. Testing the material by hitting the flat of the tip on nearby wood, he grunts his approval to the warm ringing sound it makes, and pockets it.
He offers the cutlass and the brass knife up to either Sunny or Thurden, holding onto them if they refuse. "Nice blade like this? Must be worth a pretty purse."
Before Sunny drags the body off, Reijo pinches the man's finely wrought studded coat. "Hmpf. That's quality leather. Methinks it might fit the kid."
While auditing the gear and the makeshift raft, Reijo lights up his pipe. He nods his approval to Sunny. "That oughta do nicely."
'I'm going to see to the larder. We'll get sick of sea bugs before long.' Thurden says after dragging supplies to the deck.
Exploring the remains of the Larder
Although the majority of the Jenivere’s food stores were kept in the now-missing cargo below, enough preserved rations are stored here to supply a single person with food for 24 days.
This is also where you find the cook’s body.
"It's yer lucky day, mate."
It's unclear whether Reijo means the food find, the dead cook, or both. Regardless, it's apparent that Thurden isn't the only one pleased to see something edible besides giant sea bugs.
"What's this, eh?"
Reijo's stern eyes pause upon the curdling culinarian's neck and shoulders. He bends closer to take a squinty-eyed scan.
"Hmpf. This wasn't no bloody sea bug," he points the fang bites out with a puff of his pipe. "Some kinda bloody serpent did this t'her, I reckon. A big one, at that..."
He lets that threatening thought linger in the air. Silently, he puffs his pipe while gazing intently all around the larder now.
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Thurden examines the woman's corpse briefly before giving it a sharp shove with his boot. 'I'm still not ruling out her own cooking having done the dead.'
As he unloads and mentally inventories the larder he ponders just what kind of animal could have killed the cook.
Reijo and Thurden: It looks to you as if a giant venomous serpent killed the cook with several bites. You see no sign of such a creature here now in the larder.
There is only the difficult climb check up the angled deck to what's left of the Captain's Cabin left unexplored.
"Keep smiling," an increasingly frustrated Shaedeen growls at Jask as the lock to his manacles foils her every attempt at popping it. "If the others don't find the keys out on the wreck, you'll be wearing those 'til we get off this rock!"
The teen takes a moment off from her work to check on the other castaways to make sure none of them are doing anything worthy of a beatdown from her.
'Haul a line up there and tie it off to something?' Dugan asks the scampering elf.
Sunny's progress is slower than she'd like.
"Is all sorts a pointy bits a wood every where all over tha' place." She wiggles and twists as she tries to avoid sticking parts of herself.
"It were a lot easier on'a way in."
It takes a fair amount of work for Sunny to climb/crawl up the dizzyingly slanted deck, slip back, climb again, slip back etc; to where she could anchor a line for the others to climb reliably up to the Captain's cabin.
The door to the Captain’s Cabin is opened rather easily, the hasp splintered by great force.
Inside, the captain’s cabin is a wreck—-a jagged hole in the side has allowed most of the room’s contents to spill out into the surf and wash away.
Yet even a cursory search reveals some useful supplies, most of which are found in an overturned desk (fortunately, the desk was too large to fit through the hole in the wall).
One upper drawer contains several keys.
Another drawer contains several sea charts and maps, along with the captain’s log (see sidebar).
of the west coast of Garund that plots the Throaty Mermaid's/Jenivere’s route to and from Sargava—the island of Smuggler’s Shiv is not marked on this map, but it is marked on a second map of Desperation Bay, though the map provides no details
on the island apart from its general outline and a note warning of danger.
A lower desk drawer is locked (Break DC 23, Disable Device DC 25).
Sunny ambles about the shambled space.
(^_^)
That's okeys. Is we in'a hurry? (^_^)
Sunny dashed out and came back minutes later with a saw, hammer and chisel.
A cursory search reveals some useful supplies, most of which are found in an overturned desk (fortunately, the desk was too large to fit through the hole in the wall).
One upper drawer contains several keys.
Another drawer contains several sea charts and maps, along with the captain’s log.A lower desk drawer is locked (Break DC 23, Disable Device DC 25).
"Oooo! Keys! They be good fer un-keyin' things." Sunny says happily as she set said items aside, with Thurden and Reijo possibly wondering how the tanned Elf thinks locks and such actually work.
Upon seeing the maps Sunny menitons how they shold be treated carefully so as not to get all 'Wet an' squishy'.
Sunny dashed out and came back minutes later with a saw, hammer and chisel.
Thurden gathers up the charts, logs, and keys while Sunny attends to the desk. 'I'm going to start making my way shore-ward. Don't spend too much time on this heap unless you think you can sail her out of here when she pulls off these rocks.'
Thurden gathers up the charts, logs, and keys while Sunny attends to the desk. 'I'm going to start making my way shore-ward. Don't spend too much time on this heap unless you think you can sail her out of here when she pulls off these rocks.'
Beavering away at the desk Sunny pauses at Thurden's words and looks around at the cabin.
"Uhm... I dun't thin we has enough wood fer fixin' tha' place..." She absently scratches at her blond mop as she seems to consider Thurden's proposal...
An industrious Sunny is able to free the locked drawer.
it contains a bottle of fine brandy worth 50 gp,
a darkwood model of the Throaty Mermaid/Jenivere in a glass bottle worth 100 gp,
and a small coffer containing 350 gp in gold.
Also in this lower drawer is a long leather satchel that holds a dozen potions for emergency use:
four potions of cure light wounds,
a potion of cure moderate wounds,
four potions of lesser restoration,
a potion of remove disease,
a potion of water breathing,
and a potion of water walking.
Also, previously unseen, you find a large footlocker leaning against the desk contains Jask Derindi’s confiscated gear, including a masterwork dagger, a suit of leather armor, two potions of cure light wounds, a holy symbol of Nethys, and a spell component pouch.
An examination of this log reveals that the Throaty Mermaid/Jenivere’s captain seemed to be suffering from some sort of madness that grew over the course of the ship’s final voyage.
Earlier entries from previous voyages are precise in recording progress and events along the way, as are entries from the first two-thirds of this last trip.
Yet as one reads further, the more recent the entries get, the less common they become—in some cases, several days are missing entries.
What entries do appear are strangely short, focusing more and more on one of the passengers—the Varisian scholar/Yeoman Azuretta, with whom the captain seems to have become obsessed.
Several entries are nothing more than poorly written love poems to Azuretta, while others bemoan Captain Kovack’s inability to please her or catch her attention.
Near the end, the entries begin to take on a more ominous tone with the captain starting to complain that other members of the crew are eyeing “his Azuretta.”
In particular, he suspects his new first mate is in love with her, and writes several times about how he wishes Alton would just “have an accident.”
The final entry is perhaps the most disturbing, for in it the captain writes of how he’s changed course for Smuggler’s Shiv at Azuretta's request.
He hopes that the two of them can make a home on the remote island, but also notes that the crew are growing increasingly agitated at the ship’s new course.
The captain muses that “something may need to be done about the crew” if their suspicions get any worse.
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An industrious Sunny is able to free the locked drawer.
Also, previously unseen, you find a large footlocker leaning against the desk contains Jask Derindi’s confiscated gear, including a masterwork dagger, a suit of leather armor, two potions of cure light wounds, a holy symbol of Nethys, and a spell component pouch.
Sunny happily puts aside the things she discovers with her dismantling of the furniture.
Affer giving the items that catch her eye a brief glance over Sunny bounces up and sets about preparing the latest discoveries for their journey back to the beach.
Eyeballing the keys, "Hmpf. Methinks one of 'em might be what Kitty's new 'friend' be lookin' fer back on shore. Best keep them a secret between the three of us, for now, eh? Best we first make sure he ain't in them manacles fer good reason..."
While ominous in his foreboding of an unshackled Jask Derindi, one may also wonder... what's Reijo's idea of a bad reason to be in shackles?
"Hmpf. Figures," he remarks on reading the Captain's entries. "Always a bloody woman's fault. Cap'n was probably enchanted by that witch. Goes an' loses his bloody mind over her, getting some killed, gettin' us press ganged, and... an' now we's all on a bloody beach." He shakes his head grumpily. One wonders if his misogynistic deduction is coming out of personal experience...
The motley attired man nods to Sunny's find. "Nice, love. That one goes with the chef," grabs the better healing potion and hands it to Thurden before he takes off. "Said I owe ya one, eh?" He grabs one of the lighter healing potions for himself, adding, "One fer each of us three, eh? And Kitty too." Considering the bottle for a moment, he stows it away for another time.
As Sunny carries her loot of the remains of the Jenivere, a tropical downpour opens up. It's like standing in a warm shower.
Only after you get under the dripping shelter of your... shelter are you able to examine the loot, the maps and the captains log.
As Sunny carries her loot of the remains of the Jenivere, a tropical downpour opens up. It's like standing in a warm shower.
Only after you get under the dripping shelter of your... shelter are you able to examine the loot, the maps and the captains log.
Though she does her best to keep the party's haul as dry as possible. The rain doesn't phase the tanned Elf one bit. She happily skips ashore and helps Reijo and Thurden drag their gear to where the rest of the group has set up camp.
She's even quite happy to remain in the rain the better to offer space to her freinds who seem to have a different attitude towards such things.
Though quite keen to see/hear/experiance their reaction to what Reijo, Thurden and herself present to every one. (^_^)