Augustus nudges Vinn with his elbow and chuckles, "don't look so blustered, I've heard that's how air genasi say 'hello'! Not to mention, a bit of extra wind's always good luck at sea!"

Augustus will then salt the doorway and move into the room carefully watching where he's placing his feet, so as not to create a new shortcut to the lower deck. As he moves he'll inspect the skeleton and look for signs as where the head may have gone.

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Augustus will then salt the doorway and move into the room carefully watching where he's placing his feet, so as not to create a new shortcut to the lower deck. As he moves he'll inspect the skeleton and look for signs as where the head may have gone.

The head appears to have been crushed into a thousand tiny bone fragments. You can make an investigation check to find out more.

Sir Beauregard pushes open the final door into what must have been the mess hall. He finds a long table that takes up most of the cabin. Decaying chairs are scattered about, and broken glass and crockery litter the floor. There's little else of interest in here.

A sudden squawk from above suddenly sets everyone's nerves on edge, but as you look up you see nothing but a large pelican passing peacefully overhead and out to shore.

The quiet returns... the sloshing of the water and the creaking of the deck under your feet.

Vinn narrows his eyes at Augustus following his remarks. "If you were behind Z instead of me, you'd have taken a direct hit!"

Once the pelican flies over, Vinn sighs-- feeling largely unimpressed. "The ship is way less cooler and haunted than it seems. Whatever I heard below deck is probably just more of those weak zombies..."

The genasi then stares at the open sky, and his eyes follows the pelican,  before searching any signs of harpies up above. "What do we do if we can't find those harpies or if the guy you're looking is also a zombie?" Vinn asks, out of curiosity.

Sir Beauregard smiles.  “There is an evil presence under our feet which needs cleansing.  We can ask that question again when we have dealt with it.  Shall we head into the hold?”

Vinn nods at Sir Beauregard, and heads back to the hatch he shut closed during the last fight. He crouches low to lift the entrance to the lower deck back open. Peering into the darkness, his fears start to bubble up again.

"Just a couple of dumb zombies..." Vinn mutters to himself. He takes a few tentative steps down below.

The knight stands at the top of the stairs looking down while he waits for the party to assemble.  He adjusts the straps on his armor, tries the edge of his blade against the frame of the hatch, and checks the potions in his belt pouch.  “The priests say beauty can be found anywhere, but we will see less before us I think.” 

When all is ready, he climbs down into the hold.

Responding to Vinn, Augustus will say, "Aye, and at my height you quickly learn to avoid walking behind others!"

Augustus will inspect the crushed remains of the head, trying to piece together (sorry, bad pun) the scene; whether the damage was post-mortem or caused their death and how it may have happened. (Investigation: 18)

"Death is a natural course along the wheel of life, but these are not natural. A cleansing is right and proper. Let's begin, " Ziegler says, nodding to the knight.

Morlock ponders all the commentary on death, but adds "Yes, we should continue downwards and towards the evil."

It seems eager to help you join the ranks of the dead that haunt this ship....

INITIATIVE

1. Party
2. Zombies

To be continued in the #combat channel....

When Morlock, coming down the stairs, can see the nearest Zombie, he fires off a chill touch, but hits the celling instead. 

After a ferocious battle, the air grows still and silent once again...

As the final undead monstrosity falls still and silent in the murk, you're able to get a better sense of your surroundings.

The lack of interior light forces you all to be dependent on the slight bit of sunlight leaking through the main deck.

That slight bit of illumination dances on the surface of the water, revealing a number of different moldering crates and barrels. Some are open. Some not. The only easy point of egress is the way you came. The stairs heading down into the hold are accessible, but they are completely flooded. Any exploration down there would require an underwater dive.

As you walk around to explore, Morlock nearly steps into a flooded hole in the floor towards the northwest corner of the deck, but stops himself just in time. Looking up, the lizard wizard sees a matching hole in the ceiling above. Something heavy must have fallen through the main deck, then down through the lower deck as well...

At nearly the same moment, he begins to sense something... An internal, arcane buzz he recognizes as the result of his Detect Magic... The spell seems to pick up something from the flooded hold below... Powerful necromantic magic emanates from a small, targeted source right below the hole in the floor. You can't make out any detail about the nature of this magic... But, whatever it is, it's about 30 feet under the surface of the water.

What would you like to do?

Vinn kicks the ghoul twice, still startled at how the fiend popped out so suddenly. He then peers around the boxes and gives a toothy grin. "We can consider this a deposit on our reward for helping out, right?" He says. He goes up to a few of the boxes, kicking them to measure their heaviness. 

Vinn rummages through the boxes that are opened and closest to the group, shouting out what he finds as he rummages through.

Ziegler thanks Vinn for the Cure Wounds. He looks around, ready for another undead assault. Finally believing there is none, will again climb to the crow's nest and look around their surroundings.

Augustus will join Morlock by the hole in the ceiling and floor, and gesture back towards the doorway. "I'm well acquainted with the depths myself if you'd like me to investigate further. Any who wish to swim are welcome to join me, but I feel more than qualified to warn you of the dangers of swimming where the sea don't want ya'." Augustus will put on his Dread Helm, causing his face to be concealed in shadow and his eyes to glow a ghostly blue with the hopes of adding some light to his journey under the water. "There may be more undead beneath the surface, if I don't return in a timely manner, I wish you all safe passage back to your home shores." He'll then place a Moonsilver in his mouth, preparing to step into the open hole in the floor (with anyone that wishes to join him). Around the coin, he'll whisper, "Once more, into the deep, my love."

As the party wraps up the battle, Morlock casts Dancing lights and places them around the room to help lighting the space.

As he moves about, and nearly falls through the floor, he shares what was listed above. 

"I can swim down and take a look." 

Sir Beauregard finds a rope, either one from a member of the party or something from the boat.  He ties it off somewhere sturdy and coils it by the hole.  Then he takes off his greaves and vambraces (changing to ‘chain shirt’) and straps his shield to his back.  When everyone is ready he’ll drop the rope and then swim down along with whomever is going, starting out with a hand on the rope so he can head up to the hole for a breath as needed (can hold breath for three minutes per the rules, but he won’t push it unless combat breaks out and will come up to breath more frequently).

”Nobody will be facing the source of this evil alone.”

(I'll wait a little for others to respond, then we can take the plunge)

Vinn: You explore the boxes and crates. The ones that are open are either empty or rotted to uselessness. There are six that are closed, but they'll require some effort to open. If you have a crowbar, or want to break it open with a weapon you could probably do so in a minute's time. If you're trying to use strength to force the barrels and crates open, it'll take about 10 minutes each.