Shipwrecked in Saltmarsh

     Fianna will arrange people to stand guard and then finally get some rest herself.  She's a few Cure Wounds she can cast if anyone is in need but she herself mainly needs sleep, better weather and to get off of boats for like a hundred years...

     Fi'Finella, changing back to imp form and turning invisible, will explore the land looking for hostiles, civilization or any other signs of life...

The pumping has stopped, as there is little to be done until the hull, firmly resting on a field of shallow, submerged boulders, is repaired. Much of the lower hold is underwater. The bosun and the ship's carpenters are in need of tools and materials and sleep. The ship is salvageable in its current state, but if it is determined that they are near Saltmarsh or Seaton or another settlement, they will try to walk back for more help. For now, until day breaks, most of the crew will try to get some rest, albeit at a very awkward angle, on the bunks in the upper hold. The party may try to rest as well, if they can. 

Kelnan tries his best to work out their position, but suspects due to the weather and his mostly fake nautical experience, it won't be much use. Instead he calculates the probability of being twice shipwrecked out of three voyages at sea (with the other requiring rescue) and concludes he may be cursed.

Dain sighs loudly and decides that a good warrior grabs rest when he can.  He'll find any spot available, curl up and get as much sleep as possible until he is woken by someone or something.

Kelnan finds he has no way to work out their position. Nature: 19

But as the gloom begins to lighten, between the dull glow in the sky and the prevailing wind he gets a sense of the compass directions, and determines that they are likely on the southeast side of an island or peninsula. But he does not recognize the terrain.

While Dain and others sleep, Kelnan and anyone else keeping watch eventually sees the near contours of the coast ahead. The sleet has lessened to occasional flakes, and the surf has settled down somewhat, although the clouds above are still low and black and visibility is poor.

Fi'Finella spots something on the beach ahead - one half of a human skeleton, chained to a massive dead tree trunk which looks like it drifted ashore. The skeleton is not inanimate, however. Its skull moves from side to side, as if it is studying your wrecked ship. The remains of a backpack click to the back of its exposed ribs. Hundreds of yards of dunes stretch behind it, disappearing into gloom. 

Molo has tried to burrow into the sand to sleep off his exhaustion

The captain prepares the skiff to bring a shore party to the beach - the first of several trips he's planning to ferry most or all of the crew to shore. At first, it appears that the party is not invited on the first trip, but then he pauses to look you all over, perhaps weighing what special abilities you offer against the luck you tend to bring him.

     Fianna is in no special hurry to get ashore.  She has relayed the information about the skeleton to the others, and this surely the crew has heard as well.  If captain wants to check to see if there is more by risking more of his crew, we’ll that’s a captains right, she guesses.

     Fi’Finella will scout the skeleton from a distance at first but eventually closer, while invisible.  The imp will see if the skeleton can track it while it is thus, and also see if the backpack or other scraps it has any particular markings or such.  Or if backpack could still contain stuff…

     Otherwise the imp will shapechange back into a raven and fly around scouting to see if there be more undead or just the one resident…

The captain looks over at you and considers for a silent moment, then shakes his head. He chooses six of his crew to accompany him on the first shore party. Your party is left aboard ship. 

You watch them row expertly away through the turbulent waves, between jagged half-submerged rocks, unpredictable currents, rogue waves, and small whirlpools. They soon land on the sandy shore. In the growing, gloomy light you see two pairs of dwarves explore the featureless coast in each direction, while the captain and another crewman poke at half an animated skeleton chained to a log with a long driftwood stick they picked up. The last crewman begins to row back toward the ship.

Fi'Finella continues to watch invisibly from above. They note that the skeleton's backpack seems to have contents. Fortunately, the coast seems to be deserted of animate life, nor are there any other bones or skeletons visible - just hundred of yards of desolate dunes. But make a perception check.

If the dwarves are there poking around the skeleton before Fi'Finella is able to investigate the bag, the imp would give them a wide berth and let them do it.  The imp has stayed invisible or in some other form the entire voyage so the dwarves didn't see the imp, wouldn't want to give them a fright...  Instead the imp would explore in a direction are middle between the two sets of exploring dwarves as possible.

If the imp active before the dwarves land ashore, them Fi'Finella perception:  6

...

Molo perception 11 

Fi'Finella found the skeleton animated and dangerous, although immobile in its current state of captivity. It holds a rusty blade. While it appears to not notice Fi'Finella, it is clearly aware of the approaching sailors. Before the little imp was able to figure out a way to examine the skeleton's tattered backpack, the captain and one of his crew began to taunt it with a stick.

Meanwhile, the sailor in the returning skiff beckons you over. "Your turn!" she shouts, implying it is time for the party to board the little boat and abandon the stranded ship.

Molo's sharp eyes spot a polearm in the dunes, a few hundred feet from the beach. There's something stuck to the top of it. A skull?

The sleet has cleared. The sky is a shade lighter, but still heavily overcast. A cold gusty wind blows at your back.

     "Shouldn't we wait here for the captain to make sure everything is safe?" Fianna replies with a smile and a wink.  "He was so instrumental in fighting off all the others terrors we've faced..."  Still and all, Fianna will climb aboard and then wait with an obviously impatient patience.

Molo points out the skull and polearm to the others. 

“What’s that about? It makes me think of old tales of vampire lords leaving warnings to rebellious peasants.”

The sailor makes her way through the dangerous surf, dodging half-submerged boulders and breaking surf as she soon grounds the skiff on the gravelly shore. You get your legs wet in the icy surf as you debark. The shore is bleak and desolate. She relaunches the skiff to pick up another load of evacuees from the ship. 

The captain and his companion have tired of taunting the half-skeleton and have climbed a little deeper into the dunes to look around. The two scouting parties are nearly out of sight along the shore in both directions.

     Fianna will walk over and Eldritch Blast the skeleton until any semblance of life is gone from it, then will examine the backpack and remains.

     “Could the entire coastline have trapped, staked undead?  Some kind of curse? Or warning to others?  We should keep a look out…” Fianna answers Molo.  “We should be wary and on guard…”

Molo will go find the polearm and skull, to inspect it. 

Fianna blasts away whatever undead "life" this thing maintained. In the pack she finds eleven gold pieces and a waterskin wrapped tightly around a wax tablet and stylus. A message has been carefully etched into it:

"To whoever finds me, 

Please return my body to my mother, Patience, in the canal district of Seaton. I have chained myself to this wood in case my bones animate. I was left for dead but I still live, for now. But I don't have long in this forsaken place. 

I am watching my comrades die offshore at the hands of the bloody Guild, so I guess it wouldn't have mattered had I stayed conscious back there in the dunes. But the Guild won't dare to land. At least we burned down the Abbey and its evil inhabitants, although that gives me little comfort now. I want to go home. We couldn't find the ruby staff, just cold death. And revenge. The dunes are full of the dead - an army of skeletons under the sand. If anyone reading this note intends on looting the abbey, follow the path we carved out through the dunes to the top. We paid a dear price for it.

Let my mother know what happened. And tell her I'm sorry.

- S. D." 

Molo finds that the polearm, a broken halberd, is a little further inland than it first appeared  - maybe 300 feet from the shore. He wanders in closer to look. It is topped with a humanoid skull, and a few more bones surround it.

Katernin just stares out at the expanse. "Oh, just go collect some stuff for me he said. It'll be simple he said...." her fists clench and she clenches her teeth. "Nothing about this has been simple. All we've gotten on trip are bruises and broken ships. Where on earth do we go from here?"

     Fianna shares what she found with the others.

     “I suggest we get the ship fixed as quickly as possible and get out of here.  I’m intrigued by this abbey and ruby staff, but with the luck we’ve had I’d say that’s for another day,” Fianna says in response to Katernin’s rhetorical comment.