Write up follows:
The chest contained assorted crud but most important were the almost 100 silver hammered slugs on the bottom. About the same size as nobles, these had no stamp or minting marks on them and their presence was strange to say the least. A look over the rest of the cabin showed nothing else of interest for now. There was a door in the rear of the cabin that lead elsewhere into the Ghost so Deja, Talion, and Veldryn went further in to investigate.
The next hold was against the bow of the ship as evidenced from the curved walls and was the supply hold for the ghost. Nails and hammers, wood and sail cloth, all manner of needs for the ship were here. On the south wall of the hold was a smaller door/passway – about 3’ off the floor and 3’ square. We gave it a good look over and it was the ship’s galley stores. Salt, honey, biscuits, all manner of food was here. The three of them were looking over the bounty and seeing what could be taken and what should be left.
Meanwhile on the Forecastle, Magnus and Valerie were talking to the three smugglers up here – the Bosun named Frithoff, the Lizardman who was eyeing the half-orc with an appreciative eye, and the lone smuggler who had stayed by the captain’s side. As for Ned, he was on the Poop deck across the ship, working on the steering linkage that apparently the ship’s mage had damaged as soon as the fight had started, so was buried beneath the wheel and under the deck plankings.
The Bosun was talking to the paladin, calling in his honor at attacking honest seamen on their own boat and relished the idea of getting before the magistrate and clearing his name. The Bosun was waxing long about how the group was the ones at fault and their aggression would end up being the party’s downfall once the Council heard how they accorded themselves. Kept claiming he was an honest man and the Captain was the one who handled all the trades and deals.
It was when he started to break into song that had Magnus and Valerie looking at him oddly. And then the other two also were singing and humming and rocking a bit. Not sure what was going on, Valerie took a step closer to order them to knock it off when Magnus felt the sharp prick of a blade slide between the joints in his armor and press into his back, drawing a drop of blood. A hand then settled on his shoulder and a voice whispered in his ear, “Not so fast, paladin. Drop your sword now or I’ll paint the deck boards red.”
Crap.
Valerie looked and saw a lone smuggler; soaking wet had climbed up the side of the Ghost and had the paladin in a position to be skewered instantly. She clutched her club and he told her to drop it. And the shield. Meanwhile he kicked Magnus’ sword behind him until it fell off the ship and into the water.
He kicked a small knife over to Valerie and ordered her to cut the Bosun free. She did so, carefully, and Frithoff the Bosun then cut the lizardman and the lone smuggler free as well. They climbed down the guide rope to the jolly boat below one at a time while the wet smuggler kept his sword in Magnus’ back.
Magnus asked who he was, identified himself as Brance. He was the one who had jumped off from the fear spell and was swimming away but once it wore off, he tiredly swam back and waited for the party to split up before making his move. The other three smugglers had seen him climb over the rail and made noises and were singing to mask any sound he might have made.
He advised the paladin to find different work and to not bother to follow them because next time there’ll be a reckoning between them. He then gave a small stab, told him “The Order of the Kraken wishes him well”, and pushed Magnus at Valerie, and vaulted over the side to the jolly boat that the smugglers on board were already rowing away. Val helped Magnus up as they looked over the side – the lizardman smirking at the half-orc while the boat was lost in the midnight fog.
Damn it.
Meanwhile the other three had finished going through the food stores and the next door led to the galley and then the main deck. Once there they were hailed by Magnus and Valerie who also managed to finally attract Ned’s attention and the two of them let the group know about the 3 smugglers and their escape. Damn it!! Now we had no one to bring back to question and get justice. The three went now below decks to quickly clear out the place while Ned said he needed half an hour more to finish the job.
The big find though was towards the aft part of the hold where we discovered one of the smuggler’s here, goose egg on her head and blood running along the boards. We bound her up and Valerie called on Frey for a minor curative. Then we awoke her and brought her topside.
Her name was Roseta and she was the smuggler that Ned had kicked into the hold during the fight. She answered a few questions and then was left to Magnus and Valerie to further pick from while the other three went back to the hold to explore the two closed quarters under the stern. One was the Bosun’s, and the other was Bloody Bjorn’s, the first mate’s.
We checked of the Bosun’s first and gave the quarter a once over. Some silver flagon and other minor treasures. There was a parrot here, Polly that kept calling “Pieces of Eight, pieces of Eight!” and squawking about Frithoff loves Polly. The sea chest had clothes on top, but below was a locked iron box.
Working the lock showed a dagger, a short spear, and a crossbow as well as around 200 nobles. The weaponry was cold forged weapons and the crossbow was not operable at this time. The design work on the spear and dagger were also different and elvish, but also not. We were checking out the rest of the chamber when we heard a faint knock behind the aft wall.
Investigation showed a panel that could be removed and inside was a bluish skinned elvish figure chained to the deck. Veldryn did most of the talking as the figure did not speak any language other than elvish. Identified himself as Oceanus and he and his wife, Nymara, had been captured by Captain Siggurd a number of weeks ago.
This ship had been having dealing s with the lizardman tribe outside of Dunwater and even some dealing with the Sahaugin marauders beyond Deep Cove (the sea elven enclave not too far from Dunwater). Oceanus, a ranger, had been given permission by his chief to investigate the ship and see what these “hoomans” were doing when the man and wife team were caught.
Nymara was left with a cruel smuggler in a cave called Sanbalat and Oceanus had been here, prisoner of the Sea Ghost for the last 2 weeks. He had heard the Bosun say something about selling him but didn’t know anything else. We talked to him about his wife, assuming the severed sea elf head we had found at the haunted mansion was his wife’s. He grew angry and wanted revenge.
We returned his weapons (the spear, dagger, and crossbow were his), and then gave him a shirt which he cut up into a better clothing for him to wear. We then went up to the main deck, introduced Oceanus to the rest of the crew and the sea elf was happy to join us and would gladly go with us if we were eventually going to go to Dunwater and take care of the lizard man problem.
Which he did tell us, that Siggurd was using the money he was getting from the sale of smuggles goods to help outfit the lizardmen down there in armor and weapons. Why? Had something to do with someone the crew had referred to as “My Lady” or “The Lady”. We asked Roseta on it and even though she was a minor member of the crew, about once a month or so, an important person would visit the ship and she apparently ran or was high up in the Order of the Kraken – the smuggling operation which was Sanbalat, Siggurd, and whoever was buying the goods at Dunwater was.
Was this Grabbi Ogansdottr who we suspected had not died that day on the gallows 2 years ago? This was here operation…but we didn’t know. We do know the name of the ship though that she sailed on…”The Kraken’s Wrath”.
The group finished cleaning out the last three cabins, taking the captain’s log books, the wizard’s spell tomes, and the navigations books from the First Mate’s Meanwhile, Valerie was spending her time bonding with the parrot, Polly, Speaking with the animal as well as working on mutual trust between the two.
At this point it had to be 2 or 3 in the morning and we were anxious now to turn the Sea Ghost towards shore and sail it back to Saltmarsh.
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