”We can take care of the dead when we be done searching this cursed ship,” Aris announced as she pulls the hood of her cloak up to ward off the rain. She leads the way below decks following the route the rat took.
"Agreed. Besides, for now, we deal only in conjecture. For all we know, he could have been lashed there to prevent his corpse from rising to slay the living..." Rhaed muses, blinks as if suddenly realizing he was speaking aloud, and then adds, "But again, as I say, it is all theory at this point. I'm sure he was a fine fellow."
With a slight nod, he follows behind Aris as she moves on.
"Oh...you secretly are a dark one, aren't you?" she shamelessly flirts a bit with Rhaedlaf as she heads down.
The wizard stammers for a moment, opens his mouth as if to speak, then closes it again, and clears his throat. "Possibly. Time will tell."
And then he nods and blatantly changes the subject. "I would assume the focus of our quest would be this way..."
"Poor fella," Arn says solemnly then echoes Aris words of search first bury later, "I'd recommend leavin' em be til we've completed our search o' da ship." He falls in with the wizard following Aris.
Taking a quick look around the top deck, Zalona finds nothing of use. From the looks of it, anything small enough to fit through the railing would have gone overboard.
Nempura looks over the body again, specifically the placement of the hands, their mouth and the rope. Not realizing how you missed it, but from the looks of it this man tied himself to the wheel. The knots are within reach of his hands. Detecting magic, Nempura finds nothing magical.
With nothing left on this top deck, the party makes their way down the stairs. Moving down either side of the stairs you see this main deck is a wreck. Barrels, crates, tools and ropes lay about. You can tell that it is from the hit the ship took as it crashed into these rocks.
Infront of you are two sets of stairs that leads down, the way the rat ran deeper within the ship. There is a door in between the two sets of stairs the party took from the top deck. There is also large set of wooden doors that are shut on the top of this main deck.
From this vantage point Nempura does not Detect Magic on this main deck.
Looking around you see damage that with a quick glance would be seen as damage from the crates crashing about. But, you see what looks like signs of battle. Blade cuts in the railing and even a dagger stabbed into a crate.
Helgar finished her prayers for the dead man and then looked around. Her face froze. "There was a battle here." She said. "Look. Blade cuts in the railing. And...a dagger has been stabbed into the crate. The bodies might have been washed away, the ones atop, at least. We should look below deck to see if we can find any clues."
Aris nodded her head in agreement, "Aye, battle indeed." With a shrug she offered, "Well, down it be." The dwarf takes the stairs that are on the port (or bow if they face that way) side of the vessel.
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Zalona sees all of the barrels and crates around, and starts looking through them.
As she is searching, she keeps an ear open in case there is trouble for those descending the stairs, in which case she would of course follow and assist.
Nempura considers the distance of the ropes to the hands, and before heading down, the others will see she quickly measures something and takes a mental note but does not discuss her ponderings. Instead, she seems focused on her magic now and the bard knows that even although she can't see anything show up now, thick inner layers of the ship are near impossible to see through, so she keeps focused ahead.
"Yeah...you're right, Helgar. I can't believe I missed that! I'm usually so observant!"
She looks around and can see also the large set of wooden doors closed on this main deck. Before Aris goes down, she calls out:
"Before we go down any more into the belly of the ship, I'd wager that's the captain's quarters," she indicates by pointing to them, "...and I'd assume the goods we are hired to go after are in there."
If no one objects, she'll head to the two doors and look for anything that stands out. She wonders if their group consists of anyone specialized in trapfinding or picking locks. Since she doesn't know them all that well, she observes who takes charge.
Aris stops as Nempura points out where the captain's quarters might be. She shakes her head, "That not be making any sense we dwarves be putting the most important people in the deepest parts of our dwellings."
She shrugs, "But you be knowing more about these things than I be." The dwarf moves over next to Nempura and starts searching for traps.
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You take a look at this door, you discover no traps. But, you can tell by the way the door moves that it is not locked.
You discover that most of the crates and barrels are overturned or broken, leaving them empty. You do find two next to the stairs that have water filled to the top. It looks like clear water to your eyes.
”Looks safe,” Aris whispered to her companions. Hammer in hand the dwarf cautiously opens the door.
Zalona tests the water with her finger, and unless it stings or smells, with her tongue as well, just to be sure, and then follows Aris with her bow drawn.
Aris, hammer at the ready, slowly opens the door. The door opens into a small 5-foot square hallway. There are three doors before you.
With a quick once over of the doors, Aris believes that none of the doors are trapped. She also gets that the left and down door are locked. The door to the right isn't locked, but seems to be wedged closed. Across the bottom of the door are are wedged in silver pennies.
Aris sheaths her hammer and removes her lock picks while she moves towards the door on the left, ”I be thinking two of these doors be locked.” She points with her chin to the door on the right, ”That one there is just wedge shut would be me guess.”
She squats down and tries to manipulate the lock on the door on the left. If successful she will enter the room.
"Wedged shut?" She moves over to observe it but stays a little ways back from the door while Aris fiddles with the lock on the other door. Without knowing what is wedging this one, she wouldn't know how to open it. Aris gave no clues. While she isn't moving to open anything, now that they are preparing to open doors, she does have her bow out just in case there is any manner of nautical threats that could have taken up residency here.
Zalona tries unlocking the other locked door
If successful, she doesn't enter the room though, but rather re-draws her bow and goes to back up Aris.
"Should be focusin' on one door at a time, not all locks are meant to keep things out," he says as he prepares to enter with Aris.
Now that is dwarf sense, Aris nodded in agreement with Arn while she looked around to make sure all her companions were ready. Hammer in hand once again.
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Zalona rolls her eyes. Figures she would be criticized for being efficient. She says nothing though, just stands there ready to back up Aris as before.
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Nempura whispers to the elf as she observes the wedged door, "You can always aid Aris. Pooling knowledge would be beneficial if you two are willing to work together." Once the door is ready to be opened, she swivels to be ready to attack whatever may be a threat.
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Zalona ignores yet another critique, bow drawn and ready.
Rhaedlaf, his eyes bright and intense, stands watching and listening, patiently leaning on his staff. Quite right. One door at a time, indeed."
After a moment, he arches an eyebrow. "Hmmmm.
Aris, Nempura, and Zalona squeeze into this 5’ x 5’ walkway. Aris begins working on the door to the left as Zalona begins working on the down door. Around the same time, both of them hear a slight click as they unlock the doors.
You begin looking at the door, and there is resistance when you try to push it open. The handle itself is not locked. You look around the trim of the door and discover something blocking the bottom of the door. Looking through the bottom space, you see that there are silver pennies wedged along the bottom. You believe that if you were to push the coins free that you could open the door.
Aris, with her hammer at the ready, pushes the now unlocked door open. Those with darkvision or lowlight vision are no issues seeing in this room, but the humans of the group have difficulty seeing into the darkness of the room.
A weapon rack runs along one wall while several open chests stands against the other.
4 sets of studded leather armor
3 shortswords w/belt sheaths
8 spears
6 light crossbows
6 quivers of bolts, 10 bolts in each quiver
"Well isn't that interesting." Brunhild said. "The weapons are still here and weren't stolen." She paused for a moment and then, said nervously "That means whatever attacked this ship wasn't, well, like us. From land that is. The bodies of most of the crew are gone and the place wasn't looted. Do ye all think that, perhaps, they were attacked by somethin' from below the waves? Somethin' that dragged the bodies down below to eat?" She couldn't think of anything as horrifying as that. Not for the first time she yearned to be back on solid land.
Without touching the door at all, she observes that there are silver coins there. She thinks to the significance of these.
"There are silver coins here."
"I think the man or woman at the helm tied themselves to that wheel. Their mouth, in proximity to their knots was far too close to be forced that way by another person. I don't think they were attacked. I think he knew he was going to die there. Perhaps plague would explain it? Or perhaps we'll get some clues from the ledger when we see them."
She can't really see into the room, so she asks, "What is there? Does someone have a light?" "Fool. You should have bought one of those ioun stones with light or a wayfinder. A torch at the least..."
Zalona casts Light on a copper piece and hands it to Nempura.
”Might want to come back for this stuff later,” Aris suggested while looking over the weapons.
Ignoring everything else she focuses on Nempura’s words, ”Silver where?” She will wait until everyone decides what they want to do with the weapons and armor they found before trying to push the coins free to open the door that has been wedged shut.
You think over the coins and if there is any significance of them beyond the fact that they are wedge under the door holding it shut. Nothing comes to mind, but they are doing a good job holding the door shut.
With your perception check from before, you do notice that this door opens inward and that the coins were wedged in place from the inside of the room.
"What in the world?" she comments. "I'm fairly certain these coins are wedged under the door from the inside! That means...there is someone in there...or was."
”And that he was keeping something out.” Brunhild added. ”Lets open the door and see what is inside.”
Rhaed gives the weapons a cursory glance, sees little that interests him, but debates casting his detect magic spell just in case. A small sigh follows before he decides against it at this point.
Quite the armory...and nothing apparently missing." he muses as he approaches the wedged door and coins. Listening to his companions he says, "Quite right. A solid set of deductions, ladies. I shall step out of your way, unless you think I can be of some use? I am afraid I have no spells that would likely help us in this endeavor..."
.
"That be troublin' ta say da least," he says as he readies to enter the room with the blocked door.
Zalona looks around at everyone and realizes that everyone is waiting for someone else to go first, so she crouches down and grabs a stack of coins, pulling it forward until it comes loose, continuing this until the door is unwedged. Then she pushes it open, looking inside.
The dwarf watches Zalona unwedge the door wondering who or what is behind it.
Those standing on the deck still start to get wet as rain starts to come down as a storm has blown in. Clouds have covered the sun and it becomes hard for the humans in the group to see, but they are thankful for the copper bit that Zalona has cast light on.
Over a few minutes, using a pry bar, screw driver or even the blade of a dagger, Zalona is able to push through the silver pennies that were wedged under the door. Once they are free, the door slowly blows open as a gust of wind passes through. You see roughly 20 silver pennies close by at the door opening.
You hear the creaking of the porthole door within the room, or so you thought. Fully opening the door reveals the creaking of a ceiling joist as a body sways lifeless from a rope wrapped around his neck.
At the unexpected sight of this man who took his life, Arn and Rhaedlaf and become Shaken.
A rustling and movement from the bed draws your eyes and ears attention. You see movement from the top of a body-shaped object, covered in tightly tied sailcloth.
"What in the nine layers happened here, poor bastards," Arn shakes his head.
"Eww...," she simply comments. "Well, might as well go in. We can cover you from here. Does anyone else see that movement?"
She readies her bow with an arrow, just in case.
Immediately upon seeing the hanged man, the mage gasps and says, "Nethys's Eye! That's a bad, horrible omen... "
So disturbed is he, that Rhaedlaf barely registers Nempura's question, and only shakes his head in reply...
Aris tries to ignore the hanged man and focus on the movement on the bed, ”Do ye be needing help? By the gods answer me.”
Zalona pockets the pennies and then moves forward, trying to avoid the hanging body, to free the possible person in the sailcloth, taking a closer look before she does so.
Zalona moves forward picking up the silver pennies, 20 in total, before moving forward to get a closer look at the sailcloth. The floor creaks under her feet as she moves to the bedside, and the movement stops.
Suddenly a filthy rat the size of a small dog moves out from an unseen opening. It has coarse fur, and scabby tail, and two glittering eyes. It lets out a shrill squeak as it attacks out at Zalona. But as it does, more smaller sized rats begin to swarm from the sailcloth. The room quickly fills with rats and begins to pour over into the 5x5 walkway where Arn is standing.
Biting out, this larger than normal rat lands a bite on Zalona’s arm. The carpet of rats on the floor begin biting and gnawing on the ankles of Zalona, Arn and Aris. The bite and sight of all of these rats causes Zalona’s stomach to rumble, her saliva begins to thicken and become warm. On the verge of losing her breakfast, Zalona becomes Nauseated.
"Oh..." Helgar said seeing the swarm of rats. She reached out and put a hand on Zalona, causing the worst of her wounds to instantly heal. As she did that, she looked back at Rhaedlaf, saying "Can yer magic deal with the rats? If nay, then we need to fall back."
Zalona, hurt and feeling sick, moves out of the room and as far away from the rats as she can get.
Visibly trying not to be sick, and not realizing that the question wasn't directed to her, Zalona says
Thank you, but I don't have any magic that can deal with swarms like this, sorry.
while hurrying out of the room.
"I've never seen an uglier rat than that. I've got something for him and his friends. Clear out!"
A strange sound, like the onrushing torrent of incoming flames, sounds from the bard as she grabs a bit of saltpeter from her pouch. The melodic chanting can be heard and echoes off the damp hallway as Nempura's hands pull the string of her bow back and forth. As if some large breath was fanning flames in a fire, the firey torrent's audible sound grows and grows until actual, visible flames begin to dance over the hands on her bow. With each pull of her bow it grows until a massive wave of fire--held back until released--sits before her. Then, in an instant, she releases the spell like an arrow. The bout of flame overtakes the hallway in front of her, consuming both the swarm and the large rat.
Cursing the cramped quarters Aris tires to smash the large rat with her hammer. She yelps as sh jumps out of the way of Nempura’s spell.
"Oh dis cursed ship," Arn laments swinging at the rats.
Seeing the wave of rats flooding towards them, the still shaken Rhaedlaf none-the-less steps forward near the charismatic bard."Nempura, I must admit to having little to no talent musically, but in this one instance, I believe I can definitely harmonize with your melodic magic-making!"
The mage raises his staff as he draws in breath, humms slightly as if letting his own voice grow within his throat, and then for an instant the bumbling, nervous wizard is gone and Rhaedlaf's commanding voice calls out in an ancient arcane tounge, "Ardens Manus"
Suddenly a cone of searing flame leaves the fingertips of his other, outstretched hand, raining magically summoned flame down on the hapless rodents before him.
Just as quickly as the rats came swarming out from the bed, the party springs into action. Helgar gives a call for retreat as she heals the severely wounded Zalona. Zalona moves out to the deck. Unsure if it is the healing or the fresh sea air, her Nausea begins to go away.
In a tandem retreat with a swinging of a hammer and an axe, the two dwarfs act as if they have been in battle for a lifetime of a human. Arn’s attack lands on the rats swarming his feet, but the tricky creatures don’t seem fully effected by it.
Outside on the deck, those who aren’t used to walking on a ship when it’s raining begin to slip around, no one falls due to its slickness.
Once everyone else has made their way to the deck the two magic users stand side by side, flinging flames in perfect harmony. The room quickly is engulfed in flames.
As the smoke clears the scene is disheartening. The rats swarm forward filling the hallway and pouring out to where Rhaedlaf and the others are standing. Once the smaller rats leave the room, the larger one leaps out and bites Nempura with a viscous bite. Nempura begins to feel Nauseated.
Looking into the room, you see the sailcloth and the mattress of the bed starting to go up in flames.