Ghosts of Saltmarsh (cbaer8) - Campaign Thread

Peri:

Peri leaps half out of his skin at the shriek from the main room. He rushes in ready to fight, but it's just the crazy old man raving again. "Anybody know what that's all about?"

Without waiting for an answer -- not really expecting anyone to understand the madman -- he gestures back toward the room he'd just exited. "Nothin noteworthy in there but a small cache of weapons. Sorta half-heartedly hidden though, which seems odd given everybody down here was armed. Nothin' particularly fancy, but maybe Othokent and her people could use 'em?"

He plops himself down on the pile of sacks in the corner, near the door to the room Kei is checking. "There aren't any more surprises down here waitin' to leap out at us, unless there's another invisible poet we don't know about? No? Well then, maybe we could use a little break -- patch ourselves up a bit before checkin out the tunnels Old Bay was talkin about."

Gerrard can't make heads nor tails of the old man's ranting. It sounds like scripture of some sort. He doesn't recognize any of it.

"Ummu-Khubur, who fashioned all things," continues the old man loudly, interrupting Peri's rest and train of thought, "Set up the unrivaled weapon; she spawned huge serpents, sharp of tooth, pitiless in attack. She filled their bodies with venom instead of blood! Grim, monstrous serpents, arrayed in terror, she decked them with brightness, she fashioned them in exalted forms, so that fright and horror might overcome him that looked upon them, so that their bodies might rear up, and no man resist their attack. She set up the Viper, and the Snake, and Lakhamu, the Whirlwind, the ravening Dog, the Scorpion-man, the mighty Storm-wind, the Fish-man, the horned Beast. They carried the Weapon, which spared not, nor flinched from the battle!"

The old man pauses, and seeing Bayleaf with his cold stew, adds, "Is that stew?"

"I ain't sure we can go traipsin' around any of this place with tha girl and a madman muttering to himself." Dwal says.

Dwal tries to figure out what the madman is muttering about.

Religion: 5

Dwal draws a complete blank.

"Yup." replies Bayleaf flatly to the old man. "Your stew, in fact."

Boko returns and gives the velvet curtain room another look, asking for a magic detection check first. She wants to ensure no surprises while she takes a desperately needed short rest. And she hasn’t forgotten the illusory magic ping in the SW corner, but she doesn’t want to risk anything else till she rests. 

“So we rest, and finish our search for the quarry, and then depart? Anyone who chooses not to cooperate gets to live here for good?”

Kei 

"Quite comfortable actually." Kei says mockingly, knowing now that the boots belonged to Bayleaf. "What magic do they contain?"

He begins to chuckle as the old man rants on about serpents and horned beasts. "I think we hit this one in the head once too many times." Although he laughs off the man's sermon, he does listen enough to try and make sense of it as he follows Boko to the velvet room.

History 15

Investigation 7

Peri:

“So we rest, and finish our search for the quarry, and then depart? Anyone who chooses not to cooperate gets to live here for good?”

Peri chuckles. "I'd say let 'em keep this rock, and good riddance, but they'll only try conjurin up their Dark Lord or whatever. I think we're stuck with 'em. Though I suppose we could leave 'em here for the Saltmarsh Guard to collect. They'd only botch the job, though. Remind me to tell you about my first excursion with the Guard and how they shot an important witness who'd already surrendered."

Kei and Boko examine the curtained room again. Three walls are heavily curtained with draperies of thick black velvet, and the east wall is decorated with a horrible mural depicting a red dragon devouring sheep. Near the west wall is a stone table on which a large iron brazier still burns. The table has been scrubbed and scoured, but it has many odd discolorations and scorch marks. A half-melted silver statue and two badly damaged gold candlesticks sit beside the brazier. Abrasions can be seen on the stone floor in the southwest corner. The table, discolored by fire and heat, appears to be a ceremonial platform of some sort where incense is burned.

Peri sees nothing arcane in this room. The magical signature from the School of Illusion remains, unchanged, somewhere behind the south wall of the main room, just outside the door to the curtained chamber. 

The old man continues to preach, loudly. "Mayest thou be magnified, thou who art my only spouse. May Tharizdun make great thy renown over all of them. She gave him the Tablet of Destinies; she fastened it on his breast. As for thee, thy command shall not fall empty, whatsoever goeth forth from thy mouth shall be established. When the beast was raised on high and had taken the heavens, he fixed the destinies for the gods his sons. Open your mouths, let the fire god be quenched. He who is glorious in battle and is most mighty, shall do great deeds!"

Kei listens closely, but it sounds like the sort of garbage street preachers back in the Styes would spout in order to earn a copper off the guilty conscience of a passer-by, or to swindle a mark. But this guy seems to be pretty earnest about it, or at least pretty good at it.

Gerrard:

Gerrard will show interest in the fine studded leather armor and boots, as well as the finely crafted dagger.  If no one else is immediately interested in the items, he will add them to his Bag of Holding for later distribution.

Wincing at Peri's remark, Gerrard allows, "You may have a point at that, Master Fenwader, though I know not who else to seek appropriate justice for these current and former cultists.  I know the Saltmarsh Council did want the island cleared of pirates and cultists alike, so there is that.  In your searching, have you found a likely place for us to secure the prisoners while we make our way to the hidden passages?"

Speaking softly to Kei, Gerrard adds, "I don't trust the prisoners not to run off with our boat and strand us here if they get loose.  Do you have any way to trap them safely while we explore?"

"Praying an' tellin' tha glories of a dark an' bound god don't really get ya much." Dwal remarks. "What caused ya ta follow such? Ya got some past hurt that won't go away an' them clerics of that dark god tell ya he'll make it all better?" he asks. 

“We could render them unconscious again. That seemed effective.”

Boko allows Gerrard to take anything useful for his magical bag. The druid is less interested in the mercantile exchange than items she herself could find immediately serviceable, at the moment.

Kei 

He draws a dagger and pricks his thumb to accentuate his words "Only thing I could do is intoduce them to the business end of the blade. Other than that I have nothing my Lord."

Quote from leapingmountain >>

"Praying an' tellin' tha glories of a dark an' bound god don't really get ya much." Dwal remarks. "What caused ya ta follow such? Ya got some past hurt that won't go away an' them clerics of that dark god tell ya he'll make it all better?" he asks. 

 The old man stares silently and unblinkingly at Dwal for a moment, then screams sharply at him.

"I wouldn't talk to him if I were you," remarks Bayleaf, finishing his stew.

"The kitchen locks from the outside, if you want to contain him. They had to put him in the gaol once before. Just take the knives out first."

Gerrard:

Having had quite enough of the old man’s raving, Gerrard uses the opportunity of his prolonged scream to shove a gag in the old man’s mouth, hoping to muffle his incessant droning.

Acrobatics if needed:  23

”Yes, we could empty out the kitchen and use it to secure the prisoners while we explore,” says Gerrard, fully intending to prop up some heave objects on the outside of the locked door just in case—he wanted their boat to still be moored where they had left it when the party returns from the depths of the catacombs.

Dwal just shakes his head at the old human's response.
"There is a better path, one that doesn't seek revenge on tha world by sidin' with a mad god." he says. "Dark only brings dark, evil can only do evil."

Feeling a bit more priestly than usual, Dwal still keeps his crossbow at the ready. 

Gerrard:

”Unless there are any objections….?” asks Gerrard…If there are none, he sets about stripping the kitchen and making it suitable for their bound and gagged prisoners.  Moving them into place once the room is ready, he looks at Dwal and asks,  “Would you have Bayleaf join them for now, or do you intend to bring him with us?”

Boko agrees and helps tie up Bayleaf (if he is to be tied up?) quite well.

Dwal shrugs. "He said he'd work fer me so I'll have 'em come along." Dwal says. 
Dwal shakes his head slightly and mutters something to himself. 

Gerrard manages to gag the loud old man, but not without a struggle. He groans and shrieks and wriggles and jerks in defiance.

Preparing the kitchen, Gerrard removes the three large butcher knives at Bayleaf's suggestion. There is still a large cauldron filled with smoldering charcoal that cannot be easily removed. There are no flames or much fuel (the fire has gone out, but the charcoal is quite hot.) A small hood and vent passively pipe the exhaust through a small opening (not large enough for a humanoid to fit through) out into the ruins above.

A small but sturdy-looking deadbolt is found outside the kitchen door.

The cards woman does not resist, but remains silent and glum. Bayleaf is upbeat, chipper and ready to help, especially now that he is no longer a prisoner.

Gerrard:

Calling his companions together, Gerrard asks to speak with them privately.  Turning to Dwal, Gerrard says quietly, “Recall your own words, Brother Fiercehammer, lest you appoint yourself judge over this elf, giving him a pass for whatever nefarious deeds he did on behalf of the evil cultists because of his usefulness to you.  If he does not face judgement for his actions, you have walked the road of the corrupt Seaton guard you mentioned, only taken a promise of service instead of coin as your incentive to pardon him.”

Pausing a moment, Gerrard adds to Dwal, “An oath from you that he will answer for his deeds with the cultists to some recognized authority in the region would go a long way to making me feel more at ease in this situation, unless you intend to set yourself up as such an authority, having already made your decision.”

Looking at the smiling bard, he concludes in the same quiet voice more generally to all his companions,  “Then there is the practical matter.  If he truly has no loyalty to the cultists, he likely gives you only lip service as well—what is to stop him from betraying or abandoning us while we are embroiled in combat in the catacombs below and absconding with our boat, leaving us stranded on the island?”