Shipwrecked in Saltmarsh

Tense minutes pass without sound or motion. Eventually you begin to relax; whomever or whatever was trying to enter the room does not attempt it again. If they heard Kelnan's accident with the chimney - and it would be difficult to imagine that they wouldn't have heard that loud clatter - you don't know what they've done with that information. Kelnan and Katernin return to a restless slumber. Eventually Fianna's watch ends; waking the last watch, she gets some uncomfortable, dreamless sleep herself.

Morning arrives, or at least a lightening of the gloom outside, seeping in between the rotten slats covering the windows. While it was far from a restful night, it was sufficient to be considered a Long Rest. Rise and shine!

Molo stretches a bit obnoxiously, and goes to peek out from their shelter.

perception 8 

     “The sleep sucked but I’m feeling much better, how about you all?” Fianna asks but then her eyes fall on a Lucky and she immediately regrets the question.

     “Anyway, we want to scuttle back to town or we want to finish exploring this hole and then maybe burn it down?”

"I'm going to take his body back," Katernin says. "I doubt they'll let me perform service on him in their cemetary... though I doubt I deserve that much since I couldn't save him."

Kelnan grumbles and gathers up his things.

"Agreed. I've had enough of this place. Nothing interesting, just a shack full of common criminals, vermin, and death."

I'd like to know what's in that locked room, and maybe the old alchemist (who would have been much more interesting to meet) hid something else fun, but I'm not going into that basement again.

     "You did your best, like we all did, Kat," Fianna says, trying to soothe her pride.  "None of us expected quite what we ended up getting ourselves in to. But life is life, you live it the best you can and inevitably suffer failures anyway. Best you can do is celebrate the victories and enjoy them the best you can... Without you there'd have been more than one death last night so celebrate that fact instead of dwelling only on what you could not prevent."

     "Back to town it is," Fianna agrees. "Let's move this table from the door and get out of here..."

Molo sees nothing but tall, wet weeds; angry, overcast skies with clouds rushing overhead; and the remains of the ruined porch off the west wing of the house. 

With significant effort, Fianna gets help moving the huge, broken table away from the door. Gingerly opening it, she sees nothing in the hallway, nor any evidence of last night's visitor.

     "The coast seems clear...  Let's head back," Fianna says.  She takes a quick look around the room, looking to see if perhaps there is some kind of sheet or such which to wrap Lucky in, but then heads out the door.

Molo will grab Lucky’s ankles. “Get the other end, time to go.”

Lucky, in the throes of rigor mortis, is stiff as a board, making the boy's body a little easier to carry. Fianna finds no cloth to wrap or cover him with.

     Before carrying him, Fianna will take Lucky's cloak off him and mover his face and body with it as best she can.  It seems only respectful.  I think someone else may have already done this but if not, Fianna will be less respectful and strip Lucky of his Thieves Tools, Dagger and Eyes of Minute Seeing. She will also take any gold he has on him.

     "He no longer needs the tools, and we might," She explains.  "And the coin can go to pay for his burial...  Speaking of coin, do we want to split what we got off the bodies below now or what until we're in town?"

Fianna strips Lucky of his possessions. She and Molo lift the body, preparing for a long walk back to town.

(How do you want to exit the house? Back through the side door again? Who's leading?)

     ((Back the way we came seems to make the most sense?  We know what to be on guard for?  Fianna will lead as she’s not currently helping to carry the body...))

Katernin helps Fianna cover Lucky's body, using her own bedroll to make a makeshift stretcher to carry him with to make transport easier.

Kelnan

While the others prepare to carry off Lucky's body, Kelnan prepares Detect Magic.

"Something was moving in the house at night. Better to have advanced warning if it is concealed on the way out."

Kelnan picks up a flash of the arcane - something below and to the southeast of him as he stands in the doorway of the old dining room where they had spent the night, near the edge of his magical range, evidently in the cellar. It has no school of magic. It is not in the path of their exit to the northeast.

Picking up no further indications of magic nor evidence of life, the party exits the side door, the poor, stiffened Lucky wrapped in a bedroll. 

The group of tired adventurers retraces their steps up the old road and through the ornate metal gate, and back on to the old, rutted highway. 

The morning is cold and windy and heavily overcast. Low clouds rush by. You feel each of Lucky's 110 pounds of weight. It's going to be a long walk back to Saltmarsh.

     If Kelnan mentions the detecting of magic, Fianna will suggest we could always return more prepared to investigate later.  

     Unless anyone has strong objections, we do indeed start that long walk back.  We shall take turns bearing the burden of our fallen companion and rest when needed, though Fianna will urge the others to put as much distance between them and the house as possible before doing that.

Kelnan

"Something in the basement, I suppose. Let's go though. Another day we can return and burn this place to the ground."

Molo just keeps lifting, breath heaving as his arms ache.