Zalona backs away from the rats again, and then starts singing, trying to boost her own courage along with everyone else's.
With the rats on the attack, she gasps as it rends her flesh.
"OW! You gassbag-ugly-singed-no-good-rat!" As the words leave her, the pain and this odd feeling of filth combined with the mustiness of the hallway cause her to throw up. All she can do is withdraw back behind the mainliners without walking into the rat swarm while she hopes that she can pull her mind to focus.
The dwarf moves up, trying to flank the large rat, and swings her hammer at the beast in rhythm with Zalona’s song.
Arn continues to attack the swarm with broad sweeping swings.
With her kinsmen attacking the rats, Helgar took her hammer and waded in too. She was certainly no warrior, but she wasn’t willing to allow others to fight while she sat back and watched. As she did so, she silently thanked Zalona for the song, as it gave her the courage to go in.
Zalona begins singing a war song that turns the tide.
Aris positions herself clear of the biting maw of the rat and in one slam she crushes the creatures back and it flops lifeless on the ground. Arn and Helgar begin cutting their way through the swarming rats trying to make their way to Rhaedlaf. They make their way to him and what rats aren’t dead, disperse and flee the deck and the party.
The rain continues to come down harder. Looking out to sea the clouds are black as night. The Sea Sprite is hung upon the rocks, but you can feel it raise and lower with the tide.
Light from the quarters draws your attention as you are quickly reminded of the fire that has been started within the room where you found the bodies and rats.
You do remember that there was a barrel close by that was full of water. Though it is too heavy to physically move, you could possibly use the water to help with the fire.
"That wasn't good. That wasn't good at all!" Helgar said. "Nempura, you're hurt. Can anyone else heal wounds? I can only do it once more today, and if I do that then I can't enchant any weapons." Chewing on her lip, she looked at Aris and said "Pass me your blade and give me a minute. I'll bless it in the Forgefather's name."
"Darling, you aren't kidding!" she whimpers to Helgar. The bard holds her hurt limb, trying not to cry but waves of nausea and pain rush over her, threatening to consume her. "No...toughen up butternut...you are no squash. Get in there and show your worth...even if you aren't far from passing out."
She holds up her bow. Perhaps it is a sign she is ready to continue.
"Pretty ugly beasts are they not? " she will go to kick the dead rat as she waits for the frontline to go into the room and put out the fire.
Aris doesn’t know much about boats but understands how dangerous fire can be to any wooden structure, ”Best we be putting out the fire we stared down below before we be doing anything else.” Without waiting she rushes down below to assess the situation and try to put the fires out.
Wincing in pain from the various bites and scratched garnered from the swarming rats, Rhaedlaf moves to help put out the smouldering flames. "Yes. Don't want to burn the ship down around ourselves before we discover what's going on here, eh?"
Zalona stops singing and yells.
That barrel there is full of water!
She takes out her waterproof bags and starts filling them from the barrel, passing them on to the next person and telling them to pass it on closer to the fire, trying to get everyone passing things along to put the fire out. She passes her waterskin along as well if more help is still needed, refilling anything that is passed back to her.
____
After they get the fire out, she heals Nempura
Wounded and drenched from both the downpour outside and the group's efforts to put a halt to the fire within the cabin, Rhaedlaf gives a sigh, leans on his staff and surveys the damage to the room.
"What a mess..."
Zalona also casts a healing spell on Rhaedlaf, who looks more hurt than Aris, wishing she could do more.
Feeling the surge of healing energies flowing through him, Rhaed blinks and actually stands taller, giving Zalona a kind smile. "Thank you, madam. Much appreciated."
Nempura won't sit on her rump doing nothing. She will help scoop water and do what is necessary to put out the fires she helped cause. If there are any books or documents ablaze, she will not use water on them, but will smack them with a hand so they aren't ruined.
Afterward comes healing, and she is visibly enabled from what hindrances the bites had caused to her body. Despite this, she is still affected significantly and rubbing her skin. That doesn't stop the bard from saying thank you.
"May the gods bless you with the golden chalice of Abenath!" A very valuable relic supposedly lost to the vaults of time somewhere in the world. "You've kept me alive today, and I won't forget it..."
She now works to search out the room for what could have been left behind. Hopefully, if the ledger was in here, it is not too damaged. The others will noticed that she searches like a young child might. Her actions involve flopping things about, loosely looking through things, and almost as if she was lost in thought.
With Arn either not hearing her or deigning not to speak, Helgar sighed and converted her rune into healing energy. The rune flashed brightly and then dimmed as Arn's wounds vanished.
The light and smoke coming from the room would make one think that the whole room was ablaze, but once you round the corner you see that the straw stuffed mattress is on fire but is more smoldering than anything else. The quick recall from Zalona about the barrel of water makes the fire an easy battle.
Zalona and Helgar take time to heal their party members. Though they are in rough shape, everyone is alive.
Looking through the now water-soaked room, the two obvious things you see are the remains of the man hanging from the rafters and the now exposed face of the body that was wrapped in the tied sailcloth. It reveals a pretty half-elf female.
Looking around the room, you see a toppled over chair below the feet of the hanging man. He has cutlass hanging from a sheath around his waist. You also see a small dagger sheathed into the outside of a nice pair of boots that the man is wearing. His clothing is the typical sailors clothing that you would see on a ship.
There is not much else in the room besides the bed. Nempura notices a rope handle hanging out from the head of the bed. She looks closer and sees a low-profile sea chest below. Pulling it free you see that the chest is locked.
You remember taking the keys from around the neck of the man tied to the ships wheel…
"Well well well...well! Lookie here. What secrets do we keep? This chest is not meant for the deep."
She will bring it to set up higher. "Locked hmm? I think there was a little key in what they found." "You guys, bring that little key over here and see if it works. The keys found on the deadman up top. And make sure this here isn't trapped."
After checking, she will take pleasure in opening it. Secretly, she hopes it's lined with gold more than she hopes for it to be filled with a ledger.
Zalona casts detect magic, then searches both the bodies and takes* anything that seems valuable, magic or not, including the cutlass and the boots of the hanged man.
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Helgar moved closer, hand on her hammer. Not because she was afraid that the chest would come alive and eat them, but rather because it was comforting in what was a stressful situation.
”Here it be,” Aris comes forward with the key. She looks it over for traps and then tries to open it.
Aris looks over the chest specifically looking for traps, and none are found. This is really just a simple chest with an iron lock mechanism built into the chest itself. It takes you several tries of different keys found on the cord from above, but you find just the right one.
Opening the chest up you discover this is a personal belongings chest that belongs to a female. You find a dress neatly folded with care. Green dress with grey and silver accents. Below that you find a pair of sturdy boots that, if you were into fashion, would go well with the dress. You also find a beautiful ivory comb intricately carved depicting a crashing wave. You also find a book, more like a tome, that is leather bound called “Book of Tides.”
The colors of the dress, the carved comb and now with the title of the book, you easy believe that whomever these belongings belong to is a follower of Serat.
See Deities & Demigods 1-Sheet
If anyone were to look at the book, you find that there is a bookmark peaking just from the top of the book. Opening to it, you see that it is a picture of a man and a woman. The man is not recognizable, the woman on the other hand is laying in the bed. Flipping it over, you find an inscription. “Elsa, my bride, draw near to me as the tide draws towards the moon.”
You also find within this chest is a wide waisted leather belt that has six pockets on it. Three of them contain a glass vial.
You detect magic on these items, and the three vials detect as magical.
All three vials that detect as magical put off a conjuration(healing) aura.
All three of this vials are Potions of Cure Light Wounds
_____
Zalona maintains her detect magic spell since she had been searching the bodies, and when she turns to the hubbub over the chest, she notes that the vials in the belt are magical...
... but she can't tell what kind of magic...
...until she recognizes the particular tint of a potion of cure light wounds. She shakes her head, embarrassed that it took her so long, but then says
These vials contain minor healing potions.
____
"Nice, but not what we be looking for," Aris responds sullenly. "Let's secure this stuff and be moving on."
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As you continue to Detect Magic in this room, nothing else radiates any aura of magic.
Zalona notes out loud that the belongings likely were the property of a follower of Serat, goddess of the sea.
Zalona pulls the stuff out of the chest, putting most of it in her backpack with the other stuff, but decides to wear the belt because it looks easier to carry that way. She asks if anyone wants to hold any of the healing potions.
chain with keys (Aris holding)
dagger
belt pouch with 13 silver and 7 gold
a spyglass (broken)
cutlass w/sheath
small dagger
nice pair of boots
Green dress with grey and silver accents.
Sturdy boots (fashionable, match dress)
beautiful ivory comb intricately carved depicting a crashing wave
“Book of Tides”
Bookmark: picture of a man and a woman inscribed with “Elsa, my bride, draw near to me as the tide draws towards the moon.”
Wide waisted leather belt that has six pockets (Zalona wearing)
Three vials of CLW (1d8+1)
Once she has everything packed up, and people are carrying whatever they want from the loot, Zalona motions to Aris that they can move along.
"Ahh yes...I think you are right," she will state, but for the attentive, she could very well be faking her knowledge.
"Shall we go into the door that Zalona already unlocked for us?"
"Aye," says Arn heading for the door, once everyone is ready he opens the door peering inside.
"Wait. Just wait a moment. Aris, your weapon?" Helgar said. "It will just be a few minutes."
Aris watches humbly as Helgar blesses her weapon, ”Thank ye god for me.”
Arn reaches for the unlocked door and opens it. The room stands untouched, not seeing the same kind of action that happened on the deck of the Sea Sprite.
This richly appointed cabin features a large table and chairs along with a curtained section holding a bed, stout sea chest along with other sundry items and pieces of furniture.
Looking at the table you see several nautical charts and regional maps of this world.
Zalona casts Open on the chest.
Zalona produces a small brass key from her belongings and begins to say the incantation to Open the chest. The lid of the chest opens only a sliver before it meets the resistance of the lock and fails to open.
It's interesting to her that this room would be untouched. Curious eyes scan the room.
"Now this is where we are 'supposed' to go. I'm sure."
After those more skilled at discovering traps enter the room, she will follow.
"If there are markings on these maps, I'll gather them up. It might indicate to the captain what happened."
Nempura begins looking over the maps. She does see some markings, drawings and even some placements of little metal weights on the maps. But, she is unsure of the meaning of any of this.
Zalona draws aside the curtain completely and tries to unlock the chest.
but fails.
She motions to Aris...
Want to try this one?
Zalona then putters around, casting Detect Magic and looking more closely at everything else around to find what is worth taking.
Those weights were important markers, there for a reason, she assumes. To the best of her ability, she tries to recall where on the map they are as she takes them off. If there is a marking pen somewhere nearby, she will make a mark and then finally will gather up the small nautical weights.
"Okay, done. What have you all found? I'd be surprised if what we're after isn't in that chest." She looks out the door they came in. "Then, we can go down to the lower levels." "I do hope that the tide doesn't carry us out and begin to sink the ship. When you are out of here, look around for a place you can find shelter, as we probably shouldn't be rowing out to the captain's ship in weather like this. Who knows where we'd end up!"
Zalona cast Detect Magic and pours over everything in the room that isn’t locked, or bolted down. Nothing that she can see withing this room giving off a magical aura. She does however find a display cabinet with four place settings of fine dishes and sets of silver cutlery. Also, in this same display cabinet, she also finds four wine glasses and a matching decanter. All are secured within the cabinet in case the ship were to jostle sharply.
Nempura collects the maps and charts taking mental notes of what could be important locations found along the way. As she looks out the door, she sees the rain continuing to pour down. Even seeing flashes of lightning from the door and the windows of the captain’s cabin.
You remember taking the keys from around the neck of the man tied to the ship’s wheel…
Aris kneels down and takes over the opening of the chest, Let me give it a try.”
"Try those keys that you've found. There were multiple." "Honestly people!"
"When we are done here, I want to lower the anchor. I don't want the tide to carry us out."
Helgar nodded at Nempura's intelligence. She made good points. "That would be very bad. Let's hurry up here then. I think that splitting up is a bad idea. Those rats might come back if they think that they could get an easy meal."
Zalona takes the silver, then when Aris can't unlock it either, she borrows the keys from Aris temporarily and unlocks the chest, handing them back to her afterward.
Nempura will help gather the display cabinet's contents and wraps them into a cloth (bedsheet or sack). Then she will add it to their eventual collection to take off the ship.
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Flipping through the keys on the chord, you begin trying then one by one. The next one you try you hear a click and the lock pops open. Within you find four leather bound journals. Checking the dates in them the last log was from two weeks ago.
The journals speak of places they went and what was collected. Towards the end the captain begins talking about members of the crew becoming sick, starting to become manic, dying, and even some going missing. The night crew even spoke of seeing those that were lost at sea following the ship under the moonlight. The final entry is a realization that it all started when they collected a holy relic that Lady Vilutar Pakkanen has been searching for.
Continuing to look through the chest you find a small leather case containing a ink pen and three vials of ink. You also find some important tools that a captain would need like a sextant, compass, sand hourglass, and a lead line.
There is a secondary chest within this chest that is also locked, you do find the key among the other keys. Opening it you find the ships wealth of gold, the gold that remains after returning from its journey of buying goods.
There isn’t much else within this room. Mundane items that you would find in a typical bedroom, nothing that the group would think is worth taking.
Once finished in the captain quarters, you all see the rain continuing to come down. Thunder and lightning building as there is a storm blowing in. Nempura remembers seeing pully system for the anchor at the bow of the ship.
You can barely hear it over the sound of the storm building around you, but as you pass by the stairs that go down below, you hear a sound 'Thunk, thunk, thunk' You are unsure what it could be.
As you make it to the pully system you see that it has been jammed. You see a broken blade in the chain, and it has bound up the system.
Aris’ eyes light up at the sight of all the gold, “Looks like we be having everything we be needing. Let’s be getting out of hear this storm be getting worse.” She helps with gathering the loot and charts and make her way to the bow.
”Let me be taking a look at that,” she asserted as she started to fiddle with the pulley.
"Does...anyone else hear that?" Helgar said. "That thunk, thunk, thunk sound?" After reading the journal, she had to wonder whether it was just her imagination getting the best of her...
Looking through the Journal, Zalona remarks
Uh, the tragedy on the ship seems to have been started by some possibly-cursed item, but it doesn't say what it is, just that it is a "holy relic" and that a Lady Vilutar Pakkanen had been searching for it.
Nope, I don't hear anything, but we can go take a look.
She starts down.
Chain with keys (Aris holding)
Dagger
Belt pouch with 13 silver and 7 gold
Spyglass (broken)
Cutlass w/sheath
Small dagger
Nice pair of boots
Green dress with grey and silver accents.
Sturdy boots (fashionable, match dress)
Beautiful ivory comb intricately carved depicting a crashing wave
“Book of Tides”
Bookmark: picture of a man and a woman inscribed with “Elsa, my bride, draw near to me as the tide draws towards the moon.”
Wide waisted leather belt that has six pockets (Zalona wearing)
Three vials of CLW (1d8+1)
four place settings of fine dishes
four sets of silver cutlery
four wine glasses and a matching decanter
four leather bound journals (last log from two weeks ago)
small leather case containing a ink pen and three vials of ink
sextant
compass
sand hourglass
lead line
2,868 gold crowns
The group moving towards the bow of the ship carefully move up on the slippery deck. Rain coming down, the lurching of the ship on the rocks, the thunder and flashes of lightening is very disorienting. Now the mentioning of sounds from below…
Once at the bow, Aris begins working with the pulley mechanism. Adjusting the chain, tweaking the gears, pulling of the broken blade and with a little time the chain and suddenly the gears spin and the anchor begins to drop. With a crash on the rocks below followed by a splash, the anchor continues to go below the surface of the water.
As Zalona moves to start down the stairs you hear a loud creaking sound coming from below.it continues rhythmically for several moments, before abruptly ceasing.
As you start down the stairs the only light offered is the dim light coming from the natural light above. The hold of the ship lights up momentarily with the quick flashes of lightning.
Looking around from the stairwell you see boxes and barrels standing about the hold. Some remain against the hull, while others lie scattered about. Whatever order was once here is long gone.
You can hear tiny clicking and squeaking coming from somewhere in the hold.
Up ahead towards the bow you see two sets of stairs (by the 5) leading down below and just beyond that a shut door. Directly at the bottom of the stairs you see two doors, one to each side. Looking towards the stern of the ship you see a fourth door.
But, protruding from below the stairs you came down, you see a tattooed hand clenching a dagger.
Nempura gets the final collection sorted and stowed away for when they are ready to leave the ship, or to grab quickly in a mad dash if needed, and then will make her way to the bow.
With others hearing strange thumping, she shakes her head.
"You're probably hearing the boat hitting a rock as it shifts on the waves. I hear nothing."
She would normally joke about something at this point, but they all were looking injured and a bit ragged from battle, so she doesn't.
She watches as Aris goes rips something out from the pulley that looked almost impossible for her to yank out.
"Gosh you're strong, girl!" she gives her a light pat on the back as one celebrating a won victory and then moves to the side to watch the anchor fall. She'll work to secure it short so that the ship doesn't keep letting out chain and then will move down below the ship with the others, bow drawn.
"Oh! I hear it now. Thump. Thump. Thump. Then nothing. Wait a bit..." she pauses, thinking it'll repeat, "now nothing?"
She then calls down below, perhaps blowing the element of surprise, but there is a small chance someone is alive.
"Is anyone alive down here?! HELLOOO?" she calls from the top of the stairs.