Session 7

You decide to show Gellan the letter that you found inn Carmilla's cabin, however he denies any knowledge of it, and says that it must be a forgery, he has never seen that letter before and shocked that you could even think such a thing. Thi day is getting long and night is falling as the Primewater Pleasure begins the voyage back to Saltmarsh and the guests each go to their respective cabins to turn in for the night.

You decide to post guards at the various cabins, including Gellan's cabin, and Aemi decide to monitor Skerrin's porthole from the deck above. during the evening, she sees that Skerrin does indeed open his porthole and he looks around the ship, including up towards the top deck where Aemi is standing, waits several seconds longer, then closes the porthole cover. You are unsure whether he was just allowing himself soe fresh air, or if he had more nefarious intent, it was very difficult to tell in the low light.

When the ship docks, Eliander and Eda meet you at the dock, eager to find out how your trip was, but equally confused that you are back much earlier than anticipated. Gellan puts himself forward to the duo as an equal and summarises the horrible events that occurred during the voyage. He looks to visibly upset at what happened to both Skerrin and to Father Wyndham and breaks the awful news that the priest had died after saving Skerrin's life. In Procan's way, the priest will not be raised or communed with as is their custom, preferring to rest peacefully in the company of their God.

Both Eliander and Eda are shocked at the news and are visibly upset when they see the body of Father Wyndham being carried from the vessel, and you can hear the cry go up for priests to hurry here from the Temple of Procan so that his body can be dealt with according to custom. Given this terrible turn of events, the duo announce that there will be a council meeting in an hour, and your attendance will be required, including Gellan.

You decide that the best course of action is one of honesty, and so you present all the evidence that you found to the council members, including all letters and your observations. The council commit to you that they will continue the investigation seeing as you do not appear to be any closer to being able to prove what happened. Some of you think that Gellan may indeed be the culprit, accidentally killing the priest, or even that Skerrin feigned his own death, knowing that the priest would be on-hand to resurrect him, and also knowing that with only one diamond available, he could only cast the spell once, If that si the case though, after killing the priest, who was the real target of the murder plot, this is a question that still remains unsolved..

When you reveal the letter, purported to be from Gelan, you can obviously see the uncomfortable demeanour of Andors, however, the letter is soon found to be forgery, not written in Gellan's hand, much to his relief it seems.

When question further by you and the council, Carmilla admits that the letter was slipped under her door early in the voyage before the murder took place, just prior to the dinner gathering. She does, however, admit the tryst between her and Gellan and her father is incredibly angry when this is admitted and vows to take care of things and have his daughter acting in a more respectable manner befitting her station.

You also discuss the contents of the coded message, and the mention of the Scarlet Brotherhood, and Eliander tells you that upon questioning, some of the smugglers that you previously captured thought that the Scarlet Brotherhood may have been involved with the smuggling operation. Eliander tells you the same history of the Scarlet Brotherhood as Captain Misty, and you sense a much more threatening underlying threat, much greater than that posed by a smuggling ring. What could the Scarlet Brotherhood hope to achieve here in Saltmarsh, what are their goals, who are they, all questions for which you have no answers, but answers you shall search for.

Aemi decides to pose her theory that Skerrin did indeed feign his own death, but you are unable to develop the theory into a conclusion, with no motive or goal. If he feigned his own death, then killed the priest with poison, who was the real intended victim of his activities. Eliander listens carefully and takes your theory very seriously, saying that he will keep a close eye on Skerrin and attempt to monitor his activities.

The council members thank you for you assistance, and Eliander begins to raise the outstanding question of the smuggling ring, and the soon to arrive smuggling vessel just off the coast of the haunted house. he offers to send two of his city guards with you in a small skiff back to the smugglers location where you can await the arrival of the vessel under the cover of darkness and deal with he problem, either by capturing the smugglers, or by making sure that they will never trouble Saltmarsh again.

We walk to the Temple of Procan and first offer to pay your respect to Father Wyndham and express your sincere apologies that you were not able to do more. The temple priests thank you for your kind consideration and efforts and agree to sell you several healing potions for your upcoming journey back to the smugglers den. You also return to Captain Xendros' shop to see what other magical items you can obtain and she has the following items in stock: Potion Fire Breath (250 gp), Potion of Invisibility (10,000 gp), Potion of Storm Giant Strength (1,000 gp), Scroll of Chill Touch (34 gp), Scroll of Scrying (283 gp), a Ring of Mind Shielding (450 gp) and the Staff of the Adder (470 gp).

Given your current financial status, you decide not to purchase any additional items, although it was very difficult to drag Beza away from the Ring of Mind Shielding!

You head back to the Inn and take a long-deserved rest, still wondering what clues or items you may have missed on the vessel during the course of your investigation. You also question your decision to act outside Gellan's restrictions, but you cannot rewind the hands of time, and you will never know how thing might have turned out otherwise. You wake int he morning, gather the two city guards that have been assigned to you and then take the skiff back to the smugglers house. The city guards have been ordered to stay with the boat as oarsmen, but you can already tell that these are stout hearted fellow, they tell you their names, Olver, the older of the two, who is married with one young daughter, and Arthur, the younger, still yet to marry and has no children. You hope to bring these two brave fellows back to their families and loved one's alive.

You wait until night falls, carefully scanning the horizon and after some hours, you see a ship sail over the horizon towards the small cove where the haunted house sits and lay anchor. Using the knowledge you gained from the document you found earlier that contains the signal codes, you signal the ship, receive an answer, and then prepare yourselves for the voyage out to the ship. You formulate a plan that sees you approaching the ship in full view, with nothing to hide, and climb on deck just like any of the smugglers here would have, they occupants of the ship should know no better. Only when fully on-board will you attempt to subdue the captain and crew and take the criminal into custody, or worse, kill them.

The city guards row you out to the boat and you bring your small vessel alongside the larger one, calling out greeting to the crew as you approach. Everything looks normal, nobody looks to be on alert, the crew, at least those that you can see, are just milling around just like any sailor would. As you approach the ship, you see the name on side "The Sea Ghost” and note that it is not a sign of things to come. You secure the row boat and climb up onto the ship using the rope mesh ladder, which has been lowered down for you.

You begin to board the vessel, Johama first, closely followed by Xigran, and then Aemi board the ship, still wearing the Mariner’s Armour that she took from the dead body of the smuggler's leader, Sanbalet. The First Mate sees Amei wearing the armour and exclaims "nice armour, where did you get it?". Seeing your hesitation at responding to his question and calls out "to arms!" alerting the crew that something afoot and suddenly, the once milling about crew draw their weapons and move into attack. You also hear noise from below decks and also from the cabins along the top deck, there are obviously more sailors here, this will not be an easy fight.

You draw your weapons and Xigran immediately casts a sleep spell, dropping one of the sailors to the floor, one less sword to fight! Aemi looks up and sees that there is one sailor in the crow’s nest and casts entangle on the area fixing him in place. He might still be able to use a ranged attack, but he will not be coming down to the deck to fight any time soon. In what will become the stuff of legend, Johama fumbles his sword on the swaying deck and falls prone out in front of the first mate, giving him an additional opportunity to attack. The First Mate sees Johama fumble and fall right in front of him and attacks him swiftly four times, injuring him badly. As a result of the onslaught from the First Mate, Johama drops his shield, he obviously out of practice and is struggling with the ebb and flow of battle.

The fight continues, and Johama again tries to swing with his sword, again fumbling on the swaying deck, one would think he was cursed, or at a minimum, be a member of the smuggling ring himself! A wizard appears from one the side doors on the upper and casts Witch Bolt at Aemi, which thankfully misses. You hear the wizard cursing at this turn of bad luck. You also see that another sailor, obviously the captain of the ship, appear through another door and Beza leaps into action with her short sword and hits the captain with a quick thrust to his ribs! Xigran again tries a sleep spell, however this time, it fails to have any effect on those visible, they are clearly too powerful to be affected by such magic. The First Mate, still chocked by the inept sword fighting he his witnessing from Johama, strikes at him with a critical hit, but luckily, the damage done was only minimal. The captain steps into the fray, ignoring Beza who swiftly dashed away, and chooses to attack Johama and strikes true, causing Johama to fall unconscious! This fight has not started well to say the least

Aemi weaves her arcane magic and turns herself into chalice form and casts a healing spell on Johama, bringing him instantly back into the fight, and this, hopefully he is able to keep has balance and hold onto his sword.

The wizard you saw previously casts Acid Arrow at Aemie, and this time, the attack strikes true, causing her much pain as the acid begins to burn into her flesh. Beza decides to change targets, coming to Aemi's aid, and strikes the wizard with her sword, before again dashing away. The city guards, Oliver and Arthur, have ignored their orders from Eliander and have decided to board the vessel to aid you in your fight. Unfortunately, they are faring no better than Johama, with Oliver fumbling as he moved in to fight the captain of the ship. The First Mate again concentrates his attacks on Johama and damages him severely, completely negating the healing he had received from Aemi, but in response, he activates his second wind to heal himself, but unfortunately, in the process, he misses his attack. Xigran decides that enough is enough, and casts Magic Missile at the wizard causing him to wince in pain as the energy darts strike true. Aemi continues to concentrate solely on healing Johama, giving him enough hit points that he should now be able to take care of himself. The captain drives his attack home though and is able to pierce Johama's defences, causing him to grunt in pain as the sword cuts deep into his flesh. Arthur comes to Johama's aid and is able to lightly injure the First Mate and he moved into attack.

Johama decides to activate his fire run and moves to attack the first mate injuring him severely with both sword and flame, and to your relief, you see fiery shackles appear around the First Mate's wrists, immobilising him! The sailor in the crow’s nest breaks free of vines previously cast by Aemi and begins to prepare to join the fight. Arthur again Guard hits the First Mate with an attack, and heavily wounds him. Xigran again casts Magic Missile and kills the Wizard and in the same instant, you hear Arthur yell in triumph, and he buries his sword into the First Mate, killing him! Aemi, in what has fast become a familiar sight, fully heals Johama again allowing him to return confidently to the fray.

Two new sailors arrive on the deck from stairs below, and one hits Beza, injuring her slightly, but she retaliates with Hellish Rebuke ability engulfing the sailor in fire, the smell of burned flesh now hangs in the air. The second sailor runs over to Aemi and injures her badly with his scimitar. Oliver strikes at the captain and does a small amount of damage, whilst Beza is still darting around the deck like a viper and kills one of the sailors. The captain now turns his attention to Oliver, and gravely injures him, and upon seeing this, Aemi shoots an arrow at him in retaliation, damaging him in the process. The sailor is still attacking Aemi and again injures her as his blade cuts deep. Johama continues to come to grips with the combat, and again tries to strike the captain, but only narrowly avoids again fumbling and dropping his sword! Xigran notices that the sailor in the crow’s nest has broken free of the vines and casts a sleep on him instead.

You look to the side of the deck and notice that three Lizard Folk have joined the fray (where did they come from) armed with clubs and spiked shields. Aemi decides to heal herself fully before continuing the fight. One of the Lizard Folk clubs Oliver who drops lifelessly to the deck (so much for your promise to bring them back alive). A second Lizard Folk bites a Johama and latches briefly onto his should, injuring him slightly. The captain continues to fight Arther and stabs him in the ribs and you watch as he too falls lifelessly to the deck. Beza kills bandit changes her target and again comes to Aemi's aid, striking and killing the sailor that was attacking her. Johama ignores the Lizard Fold, and instead concentrates on the captain and cuts deep into his shoulder, you hear him grimace in pain, and you draw the blad back. Xigran digs into his bag of sorcery tricks twins the Fire Bolt spell, striking one of the Lizard Folk directly in the chest.

Beza again changes target and concentrates on the Lizard Folk just injured by Xigran and buries her blad in his back, killing him instantly. The captain continues his duel with Johama and strikes true burying his sword in his shoulder and as he draws it out, you see the blood begin to flow down Johama's chest. Not to be outdone, Johama presses his attack on the captain, and whilst not as fierce as the blow he just received, he does strike true. Aemi decides to take matters into her own hand and casts Guiding Bolt at the captain, striking trues, closely followed by a Fire Bolt from Xigran, that also finds its mark. The Captain is now looking gravely wounded.

Three more sailors appear from below, obviously horrified by the carnage they see on deck and Beza springs into action, killing one immediately! She then decides to pivot quickly and covers the remaining two sailors in acid. Aemi casts a fire bolt at the captain, and you are relieved to see him fall dead onto the wooden deck. Xigran quickly binds the sleeping sailor before he wakes, at least you can recover one prisoner. You see that a small "dragon-like" creature has flown out from the cabin that was occupied by the Lizard Folk, and you call out for them to surrender. They quickly glance at each other, and instead dive over the side of the vessel into open water, the small dragon flying after the. You decide that it is fruitless to pursue and decide to let the strange creates go on their way.

Beza kills the last bandit on deck, leaving the ship eerily quiet.

Johama, obviously frustrated by his troubles in combat, decides to throw the sleeping crow’s nest bandit into the sea. You see him wake from his slumber as he hits the water, and see the fear in his eyes, when he realises what has happened as he screams and begs for his life as he sinks beneath the waves. Despite what has occurred, not one of you feel proud of this moment. You all look solemnly at the bodies of Arther and Oliver, who betrayed their orders not to board the vessel, but instead, honour dictated that they come to your aid and you will be forever grateful for their sacrifice. What will you tell their families, will you help their children or loved ones, only time will tell.

You tend your wounds and ponder your next move. You will obviously need to start to search the dead bodies and the ship, so you prepare yourselves to venture onwards.