Corvus knows when he's attracted too much attention. The beast smells less of a medicine cabinet and more like mineral water. Corvus takes a knee and lets the water blast overhead.
"Alright, let's see what you're made of." He loosens another Ray of Frost and lets it fire point-blank.
He then throws his dagger at the waterfall.
"I'm glad to share, but don't let me hog all the fun, fellas!" He flexes his wings.
|
"Then back to the depths of the outer sphere you go. For I cast ye back unto the waves. Begone from this place ancient and know that one of Xuetal's line hath sent ye!"
Axuatain again has a heated debate with the waves and launches his spear twice with ferocity rarely seen from the typically cold natured reptilian.
"I am glad you know what is going on but I am just having a wild time chopping water." Gryndle says continuing his barrage and moving around the creature carefully.
◆: Dueling Parry (+2 AC) (Current AC is 25)
◆: Step
◆: Strike
◆: Strike
Axutain gives a deep growl in Aquan that actually sends the liquid elemental quivering in fear as he and Gryndle strike out at the same time and take out the creature's midsection, causing the water to fall to the floor in an inanimate flush. After a second, the place proves fairly quiet, minus the sounds a of a few ants in the tunnels far away scrambling about from the flood of water.
Cawlo gives a caw from above and wheels down to the level of everyone else and lands on Axutain's shoulder with a proub bent to his chest 'feathers.' He looks expectantly at one section of the wall that slowly gives a rumble and then moves away to reveal a space beyond.
The space opens into two branching paths. Sneaking ahead carefully, both rooms prove to be empty, at least at a quick visual search, of enemies and threats. To the north is a room where the walls are lined with wooden racks covered in a heavy layer of dust. Many of the weapons are in good condition while others have rusted to scrap.
The other room extends further from the hallway and opens into a naturally domal chamber. Four stone pedestals stand before you, arrayed in a semicircle around a small altar. Atop the altar are four stone sculptures. At the far end of the room is what is clearly a door, but with some glowing runes marking it as being macgically locked. Seems the Captain left another puzzle here for you.
"Is everyone alright?" Corvus flutters to the pond and sits down at its edge, near the statue of Gozreh. "I can heal you if you need the help." He
Once that's done (or someone else offers to heal), Corvus rests his feet into the pond, stares intently at the statue. The breeze flows in from above, and his wings flap to and fro. He lifts himself, briefly, before gently flowing back down. Not yet Corvus. But soon you'll get your wings back for real.
He catches up to the rest of the party as they reach the split. "Those weapons are a little too big for me- I'm not as strong as I look- so I'd rather focus on the door to the south."
"Ah, our first taste of treasure." SB examines the weapons before moving on to the next puzzle.
Between Corvus's knowledge of the things growing in the caves and their medicinal properties and S.B.'s medical training and expertise they are both able to get everyone feeling a 100 percent in no time at all.
S.B. moves into the next room with all of the weapons preserved in neat rows on the racks in the room. Some have rusted into barely recognizable shapes through the years but most stay pristine and clean like they'd just been used yesterday.
As S.B. pokes his head into the room, Cawlo flies past him and settles on a statue holding a plaque at the back of the room, finding a small well placed beam of sunlight that lights up him and the sign below him. He stares expectantly at the group, clearly waiting for them to come and read the sign.... or fawn over his beautiful brass body.
“Honor the weapons of the fallen dead, those who died
in service upon the sea, but let not these tools go unused,
for even in death they might help the living.”
Walking through the room, S.B. recognizes a few weapons. There was Garvil's pike that the captain made sure to keep after the pirate was killed on a merchant ship. Harrien's sword that Renlock put into his cabin after she died from a stray cannonball. It seems like every weapon here once belonged to some crew member before they died serving Captain Renlock, and from the age of some of them, maybe a captain or two before then too.
Gryndle also has a sneaking suspicion he has something or some clue that could help here.
Corvus scans the weapons on the wall. "I never knew the Captain kept all of this. Something tells me we'll need to use these to unlock the door to the south." He reads the sign. "Anyone has a good idea?"
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Once the elemental has dispersed and their wounds mended the Iruxi nods to the others, "Good we are all ssstill living. It would be ineffective of me if you were to drown to a writhing tide when not actually ssswiming."
Axutain follows the rest of the group to the weapon room and looks genuinely confused. "Isss thisss how warm bloodsss ressspect their ancessstors? Why not carry their honored bonesss with you? That isss the bessst way to do sssuch."
He goes about the weapon racks searching with all the subtlety and grace of a cold-blooded creature looking for nothing more than an effective tool.
There proves to be a variety of spears and swords that can be found along the racks. Axutain takes a quick look over, only finding a few weapons that seem out of place. First he finds a club, not a common weapon for pirates on the sea given how unwieldy they can be on a deck and especially below the waters. Secondly is a gaff, again something that has to be swung around to cause brute force trauma and thus not the best sailing weapon.
He also finds a few weapons that smack of magical enchantments, such as a spear that glows a faint blue in the dimly lit cave. A longsword with decorative vines on the pommel and hilt that slowly writhe about. Or a particularly sharp looking longsword that someone set down point first and buried itself halfway into the stone of the cave floor.
"I never fought something quite that unique. Good thing you could talk to it...my snarling wasn't doing the trick this time." Gryndle says as he takes a taste of the puddle at his feet, spitting it out, and following the others.
As they enter the next room he begins looking over the weapons for something suitable for him.
"I hope our weapons never end up on these racks...now to see if there was any other goblins on the crew, who wouldn't want more goblins!" he says looking for a Sea-horse chopper or other goblin weapons, taking them up and testing their balance.
Gryndle gets the distinct taste of... very stale well water from the liquid left by the elemental, seems like this thing wasn't an alcohol elemental after all.
Gryndle enters the room and quickly recognizes a sword that once belonged to a crewmate Gryndle knew as Lick-Whit. The small goblin loved carrying it in his tail and when he had command of the watch jokingly called it is 'Sea-Dog Slicer.' It's survived fairly well here, with only a bare brushing of rust.
Cawlo takes a moment and then gives a small gear grinding sound as something seems to strike it as odd. The clockwork bird flies over the group, tail flipped up, as it 'defecates' a small peice of paper onto the group.
The bird then floats down and pulls open a small box at the base of one of the weapon racks, revealing a plethora of fairy sized weapons.
"I can't say if any of these weapons are magical, but according to the map we shouldn't take any that belonged to fallen crewmates."
"It says we shouldn't take spears or blades." Corvus looks at the cache of tiny weapons. "No sea faring traveler would carry a blunt weapon like a club, or a gaff. I think we can easily take the blunt weapons with us."
With that, Corvus looks through the collection to find a small blunt weapon. More like a toothpick to the others, but it would be invaluable to him.
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With this information in hand and throwing what little caution he could to the wind, on account of no immediate danger. Axutain takes up the mighty club and gives it some cursory swings. "Thissss isss more my ssstyle, and easssy to ussse for one ssskilled in ssswimming like myssself. Take care that we jussst honor your dessscendants."
He moved to the statue to give it a once over.
"Reasonable guess." S.B. picks up the gaff.
The statue proves to have been carved from some weak sandstone and has barely been able to hold enough of an outline of a person to be called a statue, given another 10 years it'd probably just be a nice pile of sand.
Corvus starts to dig through the cache of weapons, like the weapons sized for larger people, these prove to be mostly spears and swords, with a few unusual things mixed in such as fishing hooks strapped to sticks or rope tied into a moneky's paw with shards of glass on the outside. To the very left though, proves to be a small solid pewter drawer knob that has been screwed onto a stick that has been carved to be ergonimical for small hands. It proves to be a perfect size for the fairy.
As Corvus takes up the drawer pull turned mace, Axutain picks up the club and S.B. takes the gaff, as Cawlo gives a happy little shimmy and the blares out a recorded phrase, "PRESENT FOR YOU!" at his loudest setting before happily hopping out of the room and into the next one.
The cavern corridor opens into a naturally domal chamber. Four stone pedestals stand before you, arrayed in a semicircle around a small altar. Atop the altar are four stone sculptures. One depicts the sun. Another has been carved to look like a crescent moon. The third is a tablet that has a small constellation of stars carved into it. The fourth resembles a comet racing through the sky.
The pedestals are identical save for the fact that each has a shining coin set into its face, starting on the left with copper, followed by silver, gold, and finally platinum. Cawlo flits up to the central altar and stands among the celestial bodies, clearly thinking he is one himself, and poses as everyone enters the room.
On the altar there's a few lines of text.
To find your way, you must be able to navigate by the sun, the moon, and the stars, praying upon a lucky comet to find your way home.
The sun is mighty in value, worth more and placed before the stars.
The moon, in her pale radiance, can’t be gold or copper.
To spy a comet is worth 100 times what you might get for glancing upon the moon.
The stars come out right before the moon rises.
"It's a bit stronger than my fist." Corvus holds onto the mace. "But it will do for now." The withered monkey's paw twists as weapons are shoved around and curls up a bit. He shudders and moves on.
"Huh. Seems like we need to figure out which coin goes where."
Order
Sun
Stars
Moon
Comet
Anyone else have thoughts? I suppose the comet could be at the beginning, but it does say it helps find your way home.
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Axutain stuffs the rugged club into the loose belt he wears and makes sure it is fastened as they traverse into the new room. "Could do with sssome Night Glassss, but it ssshall ssserve well enough."
He stands in aw at the pillars and the various constellations, "A reading of the grand map. What a ssstrange aussspiccciousss texxt. We would do well to ruminate wisely over it's meaning."
SB pulls out a scrap of parchment, "Ah, I just remembered me. That squawking clockwork gave me this piece of paper."
The scrap says, "Lost at sea, remember that the one that is worth the most always goes last."
The party ruminates over the meaning of the statues and the order for placing them, as S.B. also pulls out a final piece of the puzzle and the map.
It takes the group no time whatsoever to figure out the correct pairs of celestial body and earthly coin, but the order does give everyone a small pause before S.B.'s piece of parchment provides the final proof, the comet is last.
Placing the sun on the pillar with a gold coin on its face, then the stars on the copper, moon on the silver and finally the comet on the platinum, causes the room to silent.
Each statue slowly floats into the air as the walls of the cave are replaced with a late afternoon sky as seen from a boat at sea. The sun rapidly descends to the sea, with the sky blazing the multihues of the sunset, before slowly dimming as stars start to twinkle in the sky. By the time the sun has fully set the moon rises from the opposite direction softl glowing in the illusion. Finally a comet streaks across the sky, lighting it up and landing right were the rune-locked door had been moments before. The illusion then fades as the room returns, sans the previous door.
Cawlo flits up to the door way and finds a root growing out of the wall perching on it and waits to see what the party does.
"Certainly a pretty light show. Perhaps the captain grew a little sentimental in his old age!"
"Beautiful... reminds me of..." Corvus marvels upon the display and the images. "Well, it feels like home." He asserts.
"All this time I thought the captain had big plans. But this is way better than a treasure hoard." He flutters about the ground and looks around the statues.
"I'll be honest, I never knew the Captain had it in him. He had... big plans. I hope they are the right plans." He moves up to the entryway. "Let's see what's beyond here."
He creeps up to the door, tiny club in hand.
Cawlo watches Corvus pass him before peering into the room with the fey man. The two gaze around the rolling ocean motif painted on the walls of this chamber in faded blues and pale white. Opposite the entrance is a raised platform, with an enormous stone throne set against the far wall.
An equally large skeleton sits on the throne, clad in the raiment of a pirate—complete with a patch over one of its empty eye sockets. On his head is a comically small crown. It stays motionless, though Cawlo seems to shiver some as he takes in the sight.
There's little else you can do but all move into the room, as the last of you enters, the voice of your former captain calls out from the darkness. “My old friends. You have come so far, and the end is just over the horizon. I hope you will face this final test together and learn, as I have, that you can only step into the future by overcoming your past.”
As the voice fades, the giant skeleton suddenly stirs, standing up and drawing a massive hook. With a nightmarish clatter, the skeleton stumbles forward to attack as Cawlo screeches in fear!
The sudden animation of the skeleton may not surprise anyone but does get the drop on everyone. It stands from it's slumped posture on the throne and strides forwards some as it takes in the puny group at its feet.
++++++++++++++++
Big Ol’ Rattlin’ Bones
Gryndle
Axutain
Corvus
S.B.
++++++++++++++++
Current map
"Captain?" Corvus calls out just as the skeleton rises. "Maybe this is a chance at repentance. But I am going to light you up."
"May the winds part the clouds long enough for this ray of light to destroy my foes!" Corvus winds up and unleashes Searing Light upon the enemy!
"No time to think- time for some action." Corvus ducks behind a pillar. "S.B., do you think this thing is weak to fire? Or at least isn't immune? My instincts kind of backfired the last time."
Corvus fires a beam of light at the skeleton and barely avoids the thing's heavy leather armor, hitting the actual bone instead. The bone doesn't burn as well as softer flesh would, but it does visibly leave some damage behind as the holy power behind the attack also burns into the flesh.
S.B. takes a moment to glimpse a moment of weakness in the skeleton's future or past. He doesn'T see anything that seems to be particualrly devastating, but seeing all the diffent types of things that can hit the skeleton, he finds blunt force to be the most effective. He also can tell whoever imbued this with unlife didn't give it a very strong will of its own.
++++++++++++++++
Big Ol’ Rattlin’ Bones
Gryndle
Axutain
Corvus
S.B. 2 Actions left
++++++++++++++++
Current map
"Hmpf. Naturally everything's resistant to fire out here."
With that knowledge in hand, S.B. will lob one of the stones from the cave floor at the creature.
for
"Smash that thing apart!
Corvus complains about things that live near, work on, and are made of water seem oddly resistant to his flames.
S.B. instead proves how deadly a stone can be and shatters a few ribs with a well placed rock.
++++++++++++++++
Big Ol’ Rattlin’ Bones -58
Gryndle
Axutain
Corvus
S.B.
++++++++++++++++
Current map
"Oh, we gotta crush it, huh?! No good...bones can be sliced too!" Gryndle says rushing in after Axutain, taking a long way around to prepare to flank the skeleton.
◆: Stride
◆: Stride
Once in position, he hefts his blade up defensively.
◆: Dueling Parry +2 AC (25 Total)
Axutain and Gryndle both get into defensive positions around the skeleton. In response the skeletong takes a swing at the goblin warrior first, trying to take the little thing with his giant hook.
I then slides over a step and takes a swing at Axutain around the pillar, his claws reaching for the lizard folk.
Sadly the pillar proves to be a great barrier as the skeleton scraps his claws down it instead of into flesh.
++++++++++++++++
Big Ol’ Rattlin’ Bones -58
Gryndle: -15
Axutain
Corvus
S.B.
++++++++++++++++
Current map
"Okay, bludgeoning, right?" Corvus focuses.
"Gozreh! Please grant life to the rocks and the dirt, so we may destroy this obstacle!" He casts Summon Elemental to summon an Earth Mephit
The mephit laughs. "Bashin' and smashin'. That's what I do best!" It takes a deep breath and unleashes a torrent of rocks.
The rocks deal bludgeoning damage to the skeleton.
The mephit cannot breathe again for rounds.
The torrent of rocks sadly bounces off the skeleton's armor or mostly passes through the open spaces of the bones, but it does do some damage as the rocks pass by.
++++++++++++++++
Big Ol’ Rattlin’ Bones -62
Gryndle: -15
Axutain
Corvus
Muddy Mephit Buddy
S.B.
++++++++++++++++
Current map
SB tosses another chunk of rock at the creature.
for
He then circles around to get closer to Grindle.
Gryndle steps up to finish his flanking maneuver with Axutain. He let's out a growl, lashes out and raises his sword defensively.
◆: Step
◆: Strike
◆: Dueling Parry +2 AC (25 Total)
Two extremely well placed hits from S.B. and Axutain respectively both down the skeleton into a pile of broken bits and dust. Gryndle barey even has a chance to swing as he gets into position before the whole thing is in shambles on the ground.
As the dust settles there's a sound of rocks grinding along the southern wall as a new door opens. Cawlo wheels into the room past the skeleton's remains and into the doorway, before looking back and making sure everyone is following him with a pirrup of noise.
The stairs descend deep into the island for a ways before leveling off and slowly ramping back up to sea level. It takes a near hour of following the clockwork parrot before you emerge into a naturally-formed cavern barely lit by the holes in a curtain on one wall. In the center of the room is a giant chest. Approaching, it becomes quickly clear that the thing is propped open, and a few steps closer it proves to be empty of all but a few heavily corroded coppers and silvers.
Before anyone can start to complain, though, Cawlo hops precariously onto the lid of the nearly empty treasure chest as the voice of Captain Renlock echoes from its metal beak once more.
“My friends. You truly were the finest crew I ever had the pleasure of sailing with and I am sorry to say that the promised treasure was a ruse. I hope you will forgive me, but I turned it over to the Andoran captain in exchange for his promise to be lenient on all of you. That treasure bought your freedom and I can’t think of a finer purchase.”
The bird grows silent for a moment, before leaping off the chest to perch atop the moldering drapery on the far side of the chamber. The voice continues. “But fear not my friends, because an old pirate like me always has one more secret, and this one is for you.”
With that, the parrot tugs at the curtain, which falls away to reveal a small bay. He flies across the sands to a different part of the rock wall before pulling open what proves to be a second, glamoured curtain that hides a secret cove on the far side of the island.
There, sitting above the waves in a dry dock, is a glorious sailing sloop in near-perfect condition! The parrot turns to look at the group, sunlight glinting off his eyes. “I had a few enchantments cast to make sure it was ready for you when the time was right. The ship is yours. Take it and see the world that I never did.”
Cawlo gives everyone a long look and then for once seems to not know what to do.
"Thank you, Captain." Corvus waits. "For everything."
"Come on, Cawlo. We have so many places to sail to. One of these days I'm going to find the Storm that blew me away. Home."
"Everyone, thank you. We have a lot to do."
"Ah, it will be good to have the sea air in my face again. Let's while away a few years, shall we gents?"
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Axutain eyes the ship and the pond leading to the greater seas. "One ssship, fourrr captains... hmmm perhapsss if we stick to warmer waterrsss. I know a good ssspot off the coast of Osirion where once sssunk a fabled ssship that few others could dive deep enough for."[b]
He grins with a slyness that betrays his reptilian nature. [B]Besssidesss I mussst insssure Tiny Corrrvusss doesss not drown in mighty pond."
"Oh ha, ha." Corvus looks to the seas. "Just don't eat me. Looking at you, Gryndle."
He looks to the ship. "S.S. Renlock? I like the sound of it."
"Aha! We just need to stock up on some supplies and I should never get that hungry! We can swing by the old Port Peril anytime...imagine he sea beasties we could haul in with this thing." Gryndle says tapping his stomach.