Archie's Ghosts of Saltmarsh

Gibson checks out the nearest footlocker to see what's inside.

Tul kneels beside the bandit and rolls him on to his back, crossing his hands across his chest. Like she did with the giant weasels above, she lets one hand rest on the bandit’s chest and closes her eyes and feels her breath enter and leave her body.

She then quickly pulls her shuriken out of his hand, wipes it off on his shirt and places it with the rest in the strap across her chest. 

Then, she focuses her senses and tries to hear if the altercation in here has alerted anyone else.

Perception: 11  

Gibson -- you find that every locker you go to seems to be locked.

Tul -- You wait a few beats and listen very carefully -- for all the fracas you caused, it does not seemed to have drawn any undue attention to you right now.

Dimma points towards the door that's set off her magic detector, "Careful prodding around, some kind of necrotic power coming from behind there. Really nasty stuff."

You all see the door that Dimma points out. Over the door is a heavy wooden beam, and written on the door in white chalk is the word DANGER in Dwarvish, Common and a language that none of you understand.

Dimma

Dimma follows the wall and furrows her brow, "Some other magic in here, some kind of illusion. A trap, most likely... Be careful when we get further into this place," she says, specifically looking at Gib.

Tul watches Gib try all of the footlockers and sees they're all locked.

"Does anyone have anything that could be used to try and pick those locks? There could be something inside that will help us understand what is going on here."

She the follows Dimma over to the eastern doors and listens at the one that doesn't have any magic on itself but has magic behind it.

(Perception if needed: 8 )

Still crouched down and without looking up from the lock, Gibson replies to Dimma, "Yup. Yeah. Oh yeah. Sure. Whatever you say... Speaking of which, any of you have a crowbar or something?" He extends a hand behind him with palm facing upward and gives a "hand it over" motion.

Hearing Tul's suggestion he looks up at her and smiles. "Hey that's a pretty good idea too!"

"I'll give it a try," Arvastan offers, wandering over to one of the locked footlockers and carefully pulling out a set of tools before kneeling to attempt to pick the lock. 

Thieves' Tools (Dex check + Proficiency): 14

Tul

Tul holds up her hands to the others and puts a finger to her lips. She moves back quickly to the group.

"There are two in there," she whispers. "One might be this Sanbalet that Ned mentioned. I'm not sure, but I think he may have been talking about himself in the third person. That might explain the magic Dimma was sensing."

And then she moves back to the door with her nunchuka drawn, ready to move in if the others are.

In the brief moment while she waits, a thought pops into here head about what the two have said. Are the 'boy' and the 'dandy' the same? Does that mean the pirate's man in the city is who she thinks it might be. She'll have to remember to bring that up with the others when they have a moment.

Arvastan --

You are able to very deftly pop the locks in all the lockers with a few quick turns of your thieves tools.

Inside of each footlocker, you find a coin purse that contains 7 gold (total of 70 gold), and a wooden ring with a relief depicting a crown riding atop a wave.

(Changed the amulets to rings because it was easier to create in D&D Beyond.)

(assuming Tul hasn't relayed the rest of the conversation yet)

"As I see it, we were sent with 3 directives," Gibson whispers as he ticks them off on his fingers, "100 gold to investigate the house: done. 100 gold to find out what's going on here: done. Plus an unspecified bonus if we find evidence of the pirates: done! Why don't we just show ourselves out and collect our well-earned reward?"

Arvastan pockets everything, standing up to ready himself with Tul. He'll divide the gold up between everyone later, once they aren't in imminent danger. Glancing around, he will move to one side of the door so that he can't be seen when it opens, carefully hiding for stealth. 

Stealth: 18

Gibson creeps over to the hidden door they came through. Expecting everyone to follow him, he pauses and looks back to make sure but looks crestfallen to see everyone angling toward the dangerous option.

DM Screen

Arvastan very carefully swings the door open silent and motions to the rest of you  to move into the room.  Gib slips in first, but there is a moment of confusion between Tul, Hugh and Dimma, as all try to enter the door at the same time and their attempts to squeeze through causes Dimma to stumble, her armor jangling.

As you all enter the room, you find yourself in a very comfortable room that seems much warmer and well-cared for than the rest of the basement. It is sumptously furnished and framed by a comfortable-looking bed in the northwest corner with another foot locker at the end.

A small wooden table lies near the east wall with two padded leather chairs near it. The chairs are occupied by a thin dwarf wearing a very fancy-looking purple robe and a human scout. The dwarf attracts most of your attention. He is completely bald on the top of his head and has a long bushy black beard that is flecked with grey.

He touches the scout's shoulder as he sees you and he breaks out into a large grin. "Oh, Rolf, my boy. Sanbalet has found a solution to the stinking body in the wine cellar. A few fresh corpses ought to do the trick. Welcome fools, to your doom! So says the master pirate and great wizard Sanbalet!"

Initiative

Scout - 3

Sanbalet - 13

Initiative order:

Gibson

Arvastan

Hugh

Scout

Sanbalet

Tul

Dimma

(Sanbalet and the scout are each about 15 - 20 feet from you and about 10 feet from each other. Blue group, you are good to post your actions whenever.)

Hugh uses his bonus action to rage before using all his movement to reach the scout to take a strike with his Greataxe. 

Attack: 9 Damage: 13

With a grunt and a low growl, Hugh seems to almost get a little taller and a lot angrier, as he moves over to the human scout. The scout tries to stand, but before he can even rise out of his seat, Hugh is already own him and the barbarian's greataxe comes down on the scout right in the shoulder, right beside the neck, sinking down several inches, both into the scout and into the nice leather seat. It takes a little bit of exertion for Hugh to remove the greataxe, but when he does, an arterial spray of blood from the scout coats the wall, and the villain sinks down, lifeless.

(One down -- Sanbalet is all that's left in the room. Arvastan and Gib, you two are up!)

Gibson screams and raises his hands to shield his face from the spray of blood. Another pulsating bolt of energy steaks out of his walking stick toward the dwarf.

Eldritch blast - Attack: 15 Damage: 3