Monstrous Compendium Vol. 1: Spelljammer Creatures
Frozen Sick
D&D Beyond Basic Rules
Basic Rules (2014)
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Monstrous Compendium Vol. 1: Spelljammer CreaturesFrozen SickD&D Beyond Basic RulesBasic Rules (2014)Sign in to view your library & saved favorites.
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“ taken by tentacles, hmmmm? Seems that Kraken wasn’t done with her after all….”
Fists men help undrape the corpse as He walks up with Smithe to get a good look at his ugly mug. Smithe pulls out a single round spectacle and holds it to his right eye. The area around Bernard lights up and everything is clear to view. He looks over the small chest, opens it and scans it quickly. He holds his hand over the contents for second while whispering some incantation.
he sets the box aside and grabs the larger one that is locked. He fiddles with it a second and then does the hand thing again over its lid. “ a good thing this chest returns in good condition, it one of Admiral Kursk’s favorite heirlooms. No one has opened it I presume? “ he asks.
“Of course not” says Sparhawk, almost offended he was asked. “Here is a list of all that was recovered.” He produces the list he gave to the party. Included is Bernard’s gear and cloak.
Sparhawk also shows Bernard’s jewelry and weapon he was wearing, now on a necklace around his neck.
(Will wait to see how things unfold before bringing up other items found. )
“I speak for the crew at this time.” Sparhawk smiles at Fist. “We appreciate your hiring us. I presume you are pleased with the resourcefulness we showed in completing your dangerous task and bringing back these stolen goods. Bernard had a huge Minotaur with them. Maybe named Hotep or something. After taking a good amount of damage, He raged and ran for the hills.”
Bjorn keeps his mouth shut, focusing instead on watching Smithe. He makes a mental note to acquire a similar spectacle, in order to appear more knowledgeable about the value of loot in the future. (He does not make a mental note to actually become more knowledgeable.)
(Funny)
(When the timing is right, after we are given an estimate and sensing his crew’s unrest and lack of trust in this transaction)
“Friend Fist, while your man appraises all of the plunder, I do have a question about our mutually signed blood contract." Sparhawk looks at Fist inquisitively.
If we were to acquire anything in our travels unrelated to Bernard or what was stolen from your ship, I have assured my crew that those things would not be part of our agreement. Please tell me my friend, that I am correct in my understanding?”
“ the contract is a binding of trust, and so all things should be declared and a determination made. It is like pulling into port, you must declare all the goods to the dock master and the tax is this determined. To not be forthcoming on goods is called smuggling”
Wilhelm Smithe looks over the armor, weapons and the gear you mentioned as belonging to Bernard and then asks, “ there should have been another chest, one with a more sinister appearance…what has become of it? “
"This is all that we were able to recover from Bernard and his thugs." Sparhawk gestures to the list and looks at Bjorn. "I believe that minotaur had a chest strapped to his back perhaps?"
"May we see what is in the fancy chest and know its value, we are of course curious?" Sparhawk looks at the monocled little man, inquisitively.
Fist rubs his chin and says, “ the Minotaur you say? He has the item that is the most important..We have no way to open Kursk’s chest, it is his to divulge or keep secret. Mr Smithe is an expert appraiser and will give an accurate accounting. It is still puzzling that Bernard could pull off this outrage by himself. He wasn’t known to be a good planner..”
"Well, I"m not sure if he did it entirely by himself." Sparhawk strokes his broken nose and chin stubble. "He did have a very quick rogue human, poison daggers, poison arrows, and such. Strangely, we also ran into him at Abarnath's house with his goons there. Perhaps it is all connected in some way?"
"Suppose Bernard was working for someone else. Finding out who, and tracking them down, sounds like another job, possibly with another contract, wouldn't you agree?" Bjorn stretches and yawns. "I'm ready to put this one behind me and sleep on a real bed for a while."
(He doesn't mention the note that implied the location of Bernard's employer. Because he's a tricky bastard. Someone else could, if they're cripplingly honest or don't want to risk consequences. Up to y'all.)
“ if this is truly everything, Mr Smithe will calculate the value. Is there anything outside of Bernard’s and Admiral Kursk’s affects to declare?” Fist says.
Mr Smithe pulls out a strange looking bag made out of tooled leather. There are all kinds of magic runes and symbols, expertly marked into the leather.
"Good thinking, Bjorn." Sparhawk nods approvingly. "We have worked hard to earn our friends (Fists) trust, so perhaps some future jobs would be lucrative for both sides."
"As far as I know, the itemized list is almost everything." Sparhawk looks at Vars, almost guiltily. "We acquired this bag along the way." He looks at Fist. "How about we agree not to pry into what is in that box, and you agree to not ask what is in this bag as an act of good will both ways." Persuasion (19
Sparhawk laughs, as if he just made a joke. “I figure it doesn’t hurt to ask, although I know from how you operate you don’t negotiate. “
Fist doesn’t look amused by your joke and says, “ there are always ways of negotiating once trust is established, the sole reason for the blood contract. There is no way to cheat the magic and it works for and against both sides of the bargain”
“Yes, as we assumed my friend. Honesty is the best policy as it goes both ways” Sparhawk smiles warmly