While the rest of the crew searched the room, Captain Alot climbed the stairs to the next level - the highest level of the bell tower. He opened the trap door to find the belfry.
Lying on the floor of the belfry was a dead man. He had been eviscerated by huge talons. His heart has been removed as if by a great bird. On the floor near his dead body, written in the man's own still-drying blood, were the words:
BEWARE
RASP
CHAPTER 62
"WHY ARE THERE GIANT CORAL SNAKES IN THE SCIPTORIUM???"
The Crew of the Sea Ghost:
- Alot Aname - Neutral Good Warforged Fighter, ancient sentinel of a wizard's fortress, spent several decades deactivated underwater, Captain of the Sea Ghost.
- Avastana "Aella" Kádár - Neutral, Half-Elf Outlander and Storm Sorceress from Ket, daughter of the king of the sea elves, deck sorceress and first mate of the Sea Ghost.
- Craig "Blunderbuss" Oxworth - Lawful Good Dwarven Priest of St. Ogden (Cleric), sailor and shipwright, bosun of the Sea Ghost.
- Cai'luin Manaan - Chaotic Good Sea-Elf Bard, member of the royal family of the tribe of Manaan. Cook of the Sea Ghost.
- Corvid Ravenson - Neutral Good Fallen Aasimar Paladin of Vengeance and Divine Soul Sorcerer, sent to Oerth to avenge those who wronged his angelic "brother", Auric Ravenson. Second mate of the Sea Ghost.
Beware Rasp
Alot stared at the body dispassionately. He called down to his companions through the trap door, "I think I found Aaron. Father Craig and Cai'luin, come up here and take a look around."
The dwarf and sea-elf joined Alot in the belfry. Craig looked around and peered out of what was once crenellations in the battlement at the top of the tower. He surveyed the island and got a better sense of where he was and where things lay.
Cai'luin examined the body and the blood, "Yep, he's dead. Looks like he died this morning. There's a bell clapper near his hand. He was probably trying to ring the bell. Near as I can figure, he saw us in the ferry and tried to ring a warning to us, but Rasp killed him."
"Who is Rasp?" asked Alot.
"The big thing that met us on the beach. Janore said its name was Rasp."
"Right. Who's Janore?" asked Alot.
"The survivor in the bolt hole. The priestess. Remember?"
"Right! That's right. Got it." said Alot.
"I'm not sure what this big pit is under the bell." said Cai'luin.
The "pit" was shaped like an inverted truncated cone. Alot said, "This whole structure used to be a military fortress and this was a watch tower. This was where they kept the big kettle of oil which they would light on fire in the case of an attack. Remember that big wash basin in the scullery? That was the kettle."
"Oh!" said Cai'luin with new understanding.
Alot moved towards the trap door in the floor, "If there's nothing else up here, we should work our way back to the hermitage and search each room as we go."
DM Note-
I was keeping track of time on a notepad file on my desktop. I knew sunset was around 8pm so time was a resource. I told the players that searching a room takes about ten minutes. I tack on an extra five minutes of walking from room to room and general chit-chat. So basically they were going in 15 minute turns telling me what they did. This is roughly equivalent to the old AD&D ten minute capital-T exploration Turns.
So any time someone said "I search the room", that's ten to fifteen minutes. "I check the body" - ten to fifteen minutes. "I try to figure out what happened here." - ten to fifteen minutes.
I also limit how many people can search or investigate to two people per room per ten minute Turn. Either two different people roll Perception or Investigation separately or one person Helps the other and they get Advantage on the roll. I do this so the players have to choose carefully who is doing the searching. It also eliminates the "Everybody rolls until we succeed" problem.
And being a world without clocks or timekeeping, and being inside a huge structure, they lacked good ways of tracking time, so I would not tell them what time it was.
Searching
The crew conducted a thorough search of the tower's third level - apparently a disused domicile. A section of the south wall had collapsed due to weathering and age. Sifting through the rubble revealed what was once a secret compartment in the wall.
The secret compartment a yielded the following:
- a ring
- a three-ounce bottle of oil
- three vials of what everyone knew by now was potions of water breathing
- a metal rod with a button on one end
- a small wooden box
- a heavy burlap sack of holding
- a leather-bound journal
Within the burlap sack of holding they found:
- several fishing nets
- 500 feet of weighted hempen rope
- a small metal baton about the length of a man's forearm with a metal sphere at one end the size of a fist and a handle that could twist.
- a small metal box containing six waxy candies.
The journal belonged to a wizard named Archais. Its entries were dated ten years ago, during the time when the hermitage served as a lookout for the royal army of Nyrond. The journal related Archais' many military postings and assignments. It also included notes about sunken ships and his hobby of locating and exploring the underwater wrecks. The final entry listed a ship named the Tammeraut.
Father Craig, reading the journal, said, "Wait, we've heard that name. Cai'luin, what's the Tammeraut?"
Cai'luin replied, "the poem in the library."
The sea-elf bard recited the poem:
Beware the sea and its scarlet harbinger.Beware the sword and death that await.For guidance, we beseech almighty Storm Lord;Consign to our foes Tammeraut's fate.
Father Craig said, "Interesting. Wait, there's more here."
Father Craig read the journal out loud.
Our worst fears are confirmed. Virgil has brought word of disaster. A war galley fully loaded with pirates approaches from the southwest. It flies the flag of the raiders and bears the name of the cursed ship Tammeraut. We must prepare what feeble defense we can muster. Woe to the folk of the coast at the approach of this bloody tide.Miracle of miracles! The storm lord has answered the prayers of our illustrious chaplain. A furious storm blew in from the open sea and swept the war galley to its doom.But I believe that the vessel went down near the Pit of Hatred, an ill-starred undersea chasm two miles south of Fire Watch Isle. This does not bode well, for the rift is said to be a passage to a source of interminable evil that was long ago sealed away. If the wreckage should rupture the wards, terrible darkness might be unleashed. I must mount an expedition to the sunken hulk and make sure all is well.A fell wind blows this evening. I fear the wards on the rift have been broken. I must set out first thing in the morning to inspect the wreckage.
There were no further entries in the journal.
Afterwards, the crew descended the stairs to the room on the second floor of the tower. The room was stacked high with junk and clutter. A cursory search turned up a 10-pound cask of iron nails, a bent crowbar, three clay planters for the garden, a hammer, a rusty hand saw, a hooded lantern, a few 10-foot lengths of hempen rope, and a slack of firewood, the crew decided to not waste time and moved on.
DM Note-
I told them what they found with a cursory search and said there's a lot more if they want to spend 10-15 minutes searching. They said no and moved on. As it happened, they missed out on a quiver filled with magical crossbow bolts.
Coral Snakes in the Scriptorium
The crew left the tower and crossed the battlement to the main structure. Alot opened the door and looked around. It was silent. The room was filled with large tables covered with papers and book in mid-transcription. There were large stacks of books in every corner. A partition separated the room into two halves.
Alot cautiously entered the room. Father Craig followed closely behind.
Suddenly a massive red, black, and yellow coral snake emerged from its hiding place beneath a nearby table. The snake's body was as thick as a man's bicep. Its head was larger than a man's head. It had to be thirty feet long! It clamped down on Father Craig's shoulder, injecting its venom into the stoic dwarf. The snake released him and hissed at Alot.
Alot shouted, "Father Craig!"
Craig replied, "Don't worry! I'm a dwarf! We're famously resistant to.. poi... ssssooooonnnn." Craig swayed and staggered. He dropped his arms and stood limp, staring off into the distance. He was a million miles away.
DM Note-
As a dwarf, Father Craig had a good Constitution and got Advantage on his Constitution saving throw vs. poison. Should be easy to- he rolled a 9 and a 6. Okay then. Roll on the short-term madness table - 3. "The character retreats into his or her mind and becomes paralyzed." The effect lasts ten minutes.
The snake then attacked someone else. Corvid's player, who is always advocating for me to play monsters as realistically and as cutthroat as possible, reminded me that the coral snake now got Advantage to attack Father Craig and any hit would do double damage. He should be attacking Father Craig to kill him.
I acknowledged that but in my mind, the snake wasn't trying to kill Father Craig, it was trying to eliminate his attackers. Father Craig had been dealt with. Alot and the others were not.
However, we were in the middle of the fight and I didn't feel like explaining my monsters' motivations or getting into a debate, so I said, jokingly, "Look! I don't have to explain monster's actions to YOU!"
Another snake emerged from behind the partition and attacked Alot. A third snake squirmed and hissed in the far back corner.
Cai'luin played a note on his lute that would shatter glass. The snake was unaffected.
Alot smashed at the giant snakes with his magical hammer while Corvid slashed and stabbed with his magical sword.
Cai'luin cast a bardic Depth Charge spell which destroyed the rear of the room with explosive force. The papers and books were destroyed as was a portion of the wall that divided the room.
Aella created a magical tidal wave the summoned forth a great wall of water to smash down onto the two snakes in the back half of the room. The water ruined all the books and papers before the wave subsided and drained away to nothingness.
All three giant snakes were eventually destroyed. The scriptorium was a shambles. Bits of torn paper and splinters drifted down as water dripped from the ceiling.
Alot turned towards the others and desperately asked, "Why? Why were there giant coral snakes in this room?"
Corvid stared back dispassionately.
Cai'luin quipped, "I guess they had to be somewhere."
The Prior's Quarters
The crew moved back into the balcony overlooking the scullery. They opened the door to the prior's quarters. There was a sparse bed, a strange metal washbasin in a stand, a writing desk, and the detached head of a mace on the floor to use as a doorstop.
A careful search of the room turned up a a set of religious icons decorate with inset diamonds, two blocks of amber, and a small iron anchor that could be carried in the palm of one's hand.
In addition, the wash basin turned out to be an old helmet turned upside down. The helmet was decorated with images of cavorting dolphins.
DM Note-
Corvid and Father Craig simultaneously said, "Helmet of Water Breathing!" Craig then said, "Dibs!"
Defensive Overlook
The crew continued towards the front of the structure. They ignored the unsafe-looking walkway connecting the scullery to the exterior wall through the dining hall and instead entered the room overlooking the entrance.
The long room within had drafty arrow slits along the exterior wall and large shafts in the floor. During the hermitage's time as a defensive fortress, this room would have been used to drop oil onto attackers as they gained entry below.
The far end of the room smelled of human feces. There was an old water-damaged book with half its pages torn out lying on the floor next to the trap door and a wooden chair with a hole in its seat nearby. The crew quickly realized what the trap door was used for and where it led - to the bricked up chamber on the first floor.
DM Note-
I asked if anyone wanted to open the trap door. The answer was a resounding no.
The other trap door revealed an empty cell with iron ladder rungs in the wall - the same room Alot observed as they entered. The entire crew descended the ladder into the small cell and looked around but found nothing.
The Abandoned Storeroom
The crew decided to split up. Father Craig and Corvid would check out the locked room at the base of the tower while Alot, Aella, and Cai'luin went down to the grotto by the water to try to recover anyh bodies.
Father Craig and Corvid used the bent crowbar to bust open the locked door. Janore had told them that the prior had always kept the base of the tower locked and forbad anyone from entering - and had done so since before she arrived two years ago.
Craig and Corvid looked inside. It was dark and damp. A few steps descended to the floor which was submerged in a few inches of dark water. The far wall was carved from the stone of the hill. A small stream of water emerged from a seam in the stone - the source of the flooding. The room was filled with old crates and supplies that had long ago rotted away from the damp conditions.
Father Craig and Corvid stepped carefully into the room. Craig grabbed Corvid's arm and pointed to the ceiling above the tricking water. Thick viscous globs of slime dripped from the ceiling. Craig shook his head and said, "Don't touch that. It burns."
Corvid stepped back and incinerated the green slime with a continuous volley of magical bolts of fire.
Afterwards, Corvid and Craig decided to rejoin their companions in the grotto.
In the Grotto
Meanwhile, Alot, Aella, and Cai'luin exited the hermitage through the sleeping area. They walked down a steep path to the gravel beach. There they paused to closely examine the beach for any footprints or other clues regarding how many attackers might return to the hermitage from the sea. After wasting ten minutes finding nothing they entered the sea and swam around the tall narrow rocky edifice to the right to the grotto.
The grotto was a shallow cave under a steep rocky cliff. The hermitage battlements loomed overhead. There was a half-submerged rowboat at the base of a steep path that led up the left bank of the cliff to the kitchen entrance.
A large net filled with pale bloated corpses bobbed in the water beneath the rocky overhang.
Suddenly three dark shapes emerged from the blue-black water of the grotto. Three massive prawn-like crustaceans known as chuuls, each the size of a horse, swam forth to attack the trio of swimmers.
Cai'luin responded quickly with a magical depth charge spell. There was a loud boom and the water heaved in white foam and spray. The half-submerged boat was shattered and the bodies stored in the net were torn apart. White flabby waterlogged body-parts flew into the sky and fell to the ground as small wet chunks of shredded meat.
Father Craig and Corvid, exiting the hermitage and walking down the path following the others, heard the explosion. Corvid immediately dove into the sea. His magical cloak of the manta ray spread its leathery wings and he dashed around the rocky promontory like an arrow through the water. Craig, who still had no underwater combat ability and was a poor swimmer even without his heavy armor, ran back to the hermitage. He would go around to the kitchen door.
One of the chuuls grabbed Aella in one massive claw-like pincer while the another grabbed Cai'luin. Cai'luin was shoved into the tentacled mouth parts and injected with poison!
Alot engaged the chuuls with his magical hammer while Corvid slashed at them with his magical sword.
Aella stabbed at the chuul with her magical trident, striking it with magical spells channeled through the mystical artifact.
Cai'luin could not overcome the poison and suffered as the chuul continued to crush him in its vice-like grip.
Corvid and Alot eliminated the two chuuls threatening Aella and Cai'luin. One chuul tried to escape but was soon chased down and destroyed by the warriors.
Father Craig eventually emerged from the kitchen door and said a prayer of healing over his companions - a prayer which may have saved Cai'luin's life!
Alot was ultimately able to recover four of the bodies intact. He and Corvid hauled them up to the scullery where they hoped to use them as bait to lure the invaders from the sea.
Final Preparations
It was late afternoon and the crew decided to spend the rest of the day preparing for the return of the invaders at sundown.
Father Craig said a prayer and was granted insight into which of the items they had recently recovered were magical and which were not. Cai'luin then spent the next two hours examining each of the magical items to determine what each did.
Cai'luin identified the following items:
- The helmet of dolphins cavorting was a Helm of Underwater Action
- The rod with a button was an Immovable Rod
- The ring was a Ring of Free Action
- The metal rod with a magic light on one end was a magical torch that created light with no flame, twisting the handle adjusted the light from torch light to that of a candle
- The wooden box was a Folding Boat
- The metal flask with mysterious syrup contained Oil of Slipperiness
- The metal anchor was a Quaal's "Anchor" Token
- The six capsules in the small tin were Pressure Capsules.
- A nother flask containing Oil of Slipperiness
- A Burlap Sack of Holding
- And the breast plate on the body in the cellar was +1 Breast Plate
Meanwhile Aella and Corvid took a short rest. After completing his work, Cai'luin also took a short rest.
Alot and Father Craig spent an hour repairing and fortifying the door leading to the battlements on the second story and the door at the front entrance.
It Begins
The sun eventually set.
The team was prepared for the return of the invaders from the sea. They positioned themselves on the balcony overlooking the scullery. The four bodies were laid on the floor as bait to lure the invaders into this room. Alot and Corvid stood at the top of the stairs, prepared to intercept anyone trying to climb them. Craig, Cai'luin, and Aella positioned themselves away from the stairs with good visibility over the scullery.
Aella moved towards one of the windows on the south wall. She looked down at the beach below.
As the last rays of the evening sun slanted across the dark waters of the bay, she caught movement from the corner of her eye along the beach - a dark humanoid form standing silently in the surf. Aella was positive it wasn't there a moment ago. With the next crashing breaker, she lost sight of the intruder in the deepening darkness. When the spray cleared, the figure was gone. Night had fallen.
To Be Continued...
DM Note-
As I mentioned earlier, I kept a running log of how much time was spent in each room, secretly counting down to sunset at 8pm. Here's a log of the time spent.
- 9:00 arrive by ferry
- 9:30 fight Rasp
- 9:45 search beach
- 10:00 approach hermitage
- 10:15 search entrance
- 10:30 search scullery
- 10:45 search kitchen
- 11:00 search larder
- 11:15 cellar
- 11:30-12:30 short rest (I think)
- 12:30 move from cellar to first floor
- 12:45 search kitchen
- 1:00 search library
- 1:15 fight rats
- 1:30 search cells
- 1:45 move from cells to second floor of hermitage
- 2:00 move from hermitage to belfry
- 2:15: search belfry
- 2:30 search abandoned quarters
- 2:45 search junk room
- 3:00 fight coral snakes
- 3:15 search scriptorium
- 3:30 search prior's quarters
- 3:45 search defensive overlook
- 4:00 down to ask about room
- 4:15 search beach and slime room
- 4:30 grotto fight with chuuls
- 4:45 move bodies into a room, Craig detect magic one item, Cai'luin waiting
- 5:00 identify 1 helm of underwater action, Aella + Craig + Alot short rest 1 hour
- 5:10 immovable rod
- 5:20 ring of free action
- 5:30 metal rod with light on the end
- 5:40 wooden box
- 5:50 oil of slipperiness
- 6:00 anchor, Craig attunes to helmet, Corvid attunes to ring
- 6:10 capsules pressure
- 6:20 oil of slipperiness
- 6:30 breastplate
- 6:45 - 7:45: Cai'luin short rest
- 7:00 Craig kitchen door, Alot battlement door.
- 8:00 Sundown
Still enjoying these.
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