Looting an Old Shipwreck
The players for both Talia and Parker were out this week, so we ran a small one-off side-quest for River and Nirick. It begins with Talia'a character, currently indisposed working for Bartleby the town councilman copying old documents that appeared to be rotted or moldy onto new, clean parchment. In this work, she stumbled across an old captain's log. Apparently, just west of the town of Saltmarsh is a shallow shoal, which serves as a wave-break for the coastal city, but also as a hazard to ship's captains for years. Luckily for any contemporary captains, the safe passage through the shoal is marked by the wrecked ships which have been tossed up on the rocks over the years. It was one of these ships' captain's logs where she found the mention of some regret, that although the good captain got his crew offloaded safely, he was forced to leave something behind. What, exactly, this precious cargo was was unknown, but it appeared to be of some value, at least to the captain.
Headed to the Shoal
Having met two fishermen, a father and son named Thomas and William in an earlier session, Nirick and River elected to hire Thomas, the salty old father with the larger boat, to ferry them out to the shoal. There, they did locate the ship in question, covered in algae and seaweed from a few years of laying out here among the rocks and seawater. Indeed, the hull had a very large hole in the side, and the pair elected to board the top deck first, and look around.
More Damn Rats!
Nirick identified the cabinets near the helm as the most likely places on the top deck to find anything of value, so River immediately jumped into action, and threw open the cabinet doors. In the first one, he found what appeared to be a corroded, tarnished brass tube. Indeed it was a spyglass, worth a considerable amount of money in good condition, but the pair elected to keep it, fix it up and polish the corrosion, in case they might need it in the future. In the second cabinet, River was met with a much more sour reception.A giant rat had made its home in this compartment, living off of small fish and the occasional bird. It leapt out at River, scoring a small hit, but to him, it was a severe wound. After some trials and tribulations, the pair eventually smashed the rat into bits, and opened the cabinet to see what kind of loot it had in its lair.
River spotted something small and metal inside, and reached in, gouging his hand on a rusty nail, and immediately failing a constitution check to avoid the infection from the rat's leavings (in game-terms, he suffered damage from poison). Nirick, the herbalist, offered to make him a healing concoction, but critically failed at the attempt. We played this out in the narrative as if he was squeezing a starfish for its oil, and mashing it in with some kelp, but wasn't looking on one attempt, and squeezed the dead rat instead. River smelled the stuff, and with a successful wisdom check, elected not to drink the poisonous concoction. They did find, in the rat's nest, a silver chain and medallion of some quality craftsmanship, which they would later sell for a pretty profit.
Exploring Belowdecks
The pair decided to take a more cautious approach to the captain's quarters. Nirick used their grappling hook and rope to dangle from the upper deck and peer through the windows. When he reported that he saw no movement or danger, River took the sledge hammer he carries (he "acquired" it in a previous session, when he was attempting to bust open a sewer grate and stole the supplies to do so), and slammed into the wet, rotted boards above the captain's desk, making a hole easily large enough for either of them to enter. Looking about in the room, they found nothing of particular value.
Monsters of the Deep
They neglected the other two cabins, and went straight for the hull of the ship, since Nirick, passing a detect noise check, knew that something was inside the boat somewhere. Once they threw open the hatch to the bay and bilge from the main deck, they saw that something had attempted to better secure the ship to the surrounding rocks, stopping it from moving around in the tides anymore. Along the bottom of the bilge, easily 3 feet of standing water was present, even at low tide. River quickly spotted some of the old cargo still suspended against the hull walls with rotting cargo nets, and fired a shot from his shortbow to release some of the crates. Seeing only moldy straw, he decided it was time to climb down for a more thorough investigation.
The player who plays River has played a series of characters who die in unfortunate ways. It has gotten to the point where he just doesn't stay attached anymore. In this case, he was charged by a fishy humanoid, some bastardization of a merman with a grudge (In game terms, it is a reclusive merrow, weakened by a recent spat with a few sharks roaming the seas, and seeking refuge in this ship). His death was imminent. Until, that is, we saw what it is that an illusionist specialist can do. Sticking his tiny gnomish head below the hatch, Nirick got the Merrow's attention, and cast "spook." Neither character knew what it was the Merrow saw, but it believed the small gnome was actually a great, shark-headed beast, prowling the ship, hoping to catch this prey that got away. It screamed its inhuman scream, and plunged as quickly into the water as it could manage.
Nirick and River gathered up some of the goods they could find, and with Thomas' help, got it loaded onto the old fisherman's boat. And they tuck-tailed and left the dangerous scene. They pawned off what goods they had found for a fair amount of coin, and started working to repair their spyglass. Once they met back with Talia, she confirmed from research in Bartleby's library that there are many kinds of "fish men" that live in these warm southern waters, and this was a merrow, a favored prey of larger sharks, and enemy of mermen, locatahs and other quasi-marine creatures.
Until next week, be excelent to one another, and party on, dudes.
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