In which our heroes go sailing again…
Orhan 1 Day 31
D. has a mishap the next morning as she tries to sell her silk, acquired in Nuyan Khom. After rolling a -132 she accidentally angers a member of the weavers' guild and gets herself blacklisted. She goes and tries to placate them, but they will only offer her some ridiculously low price for her silk as "damages". She refuses and is permanently blacklisted by the guild.
We discuss various ways to sail to the ocean. We want to dispose of the skull in the depths but are having a hard time paying for a boat trip. Divad overhears and invites Gireg to come over and join us. He mentions a lost cargo ship. He hopes that it ran aground and some of the crew and cargo might be saved. His sailors aren't much for shore duty, so if we'd be willing to be their "Away team", he pay us 10 orlini per person or 10% of the cargo recovered whichever is greater.
Oathar suggest we borrow his recue boat for an extra three days, in exchange for less money. We discuss that for a while and talk of many plans including sailing to another continent to hid our intentions, but eventually just settle on having Divad negotiate us a few extra days on the boat. Jack fills divad in on the general aspects of our problem without mentioning Radak or Kadaena.
Divad goes to negotiate with Gireg who agree's to our proposal at the rate of 7.5 Orlini each or 8% of the recovered cargo.
Orhan 1 Day 32
We leave on the White Gull, a fast cargo ship in the employ of Gireg. After a full days sailing we arrive at our proposed location over the deepest depths of the ocean.
Orhan 1 Day 33
Early in the morning, we prepare to ditch Radak's prison. D. is supposed to use her unspeakable talents to distract the crew, decides to simply fall overboard. Jack, apparently not realizing this is a ruse, dives in after her. Haeraan throws the box overboard in the ensuing confusion. The world is saved!
D. is rescued by various crew members, Jack is teleported aboard by Oathar.
Orhan 1 Day 34
Sailing!
Orhan 1 Day 35
Sailing!
Orhan 1 Day 36
We all comment on how much we love sailing!
Orhan 1 Day 37
Hooray for Sailing!
Orhan 1 Day 38
Sailing!
Orhan 1 Day 39
We continue sailing, but today commence our search pattern for the missing ship. We sail up the coast hoping to catch sight of it.
Orhan 1 Day 40
No luck.
Orhan 1 Day 41
Success!!!
On the evening of the 41st, we find a shipwreck on a small uncharted isle. There's no obvious signs of life (bonfires, etc.). We row a longboat ashore with Kyrik and Imre rowing. (Imre stress fractures his arm but doesn't seem to notice.) We begin examining the wreck.
Haeraan says there are multiple tracks all around the beach area inland and back out again. Oathar shouts "Hey shipwrecked guys!!" The following silent is filled with the moaning of zombies caught in the wreck. We go to the ship and fight the zombies. Haeraan and Kyrik make short work of them, by luring them into a stairwell where we can meet them one at a time. Oathar, in his exuberance, explodes his head and passes out.
Haeraan, the paladin of undead slaying, collects the body parts. He and Kyrik put them into a canvas sack. They take the bag of "zombie helper" and prepare a funeral pyre. D. finds some cloth and spices among the wreckage (our commission begins!). One crate of spices is spoiled, but we get a few small crates of spices and cloths. We are confused that most of the cargo seems to be missing.
They also find 24 silver in the captain's quarters and take the remains of the log book.
We sleep on our own ship tonight as no one wants to wake up with zombies around.
Orhan 1 Day 42
Oathar wakes up finally. "Did we get them?"
We go back ashore. Haeraan has tracking to find the tracks but not enough Read Tracks to know what they are doing or who made them. We go inland for about twenty minutes where we find a cliff and waterfall with many tracks. We discover some caves in which we conjecture the shipwrecked crew took shelter. We shout, but there is no response. Haeraan tries to detect undead, but we find none.
The caves turn out to have clearly been inhabited, but no more. There are many crate imprints (our commission!), but no crates or even bodies remain. Checking again outside the cave, Haeraan and Oathar find other tracks that are strangely deformed leading off.
Haeraan says, "Skeleton foortprints."
Oathar, "Why would skeletons take crates?"
Haeraan, "Only because they were ordered to."
Oathar, "Necromancers?"
Haeraan, "Yup."
We follow the tracks. Imre notices his stress fracture and fixes it. Climbing rolls are made all around and people eventually scramble up the cliffs. The path levels out on a mesa which appears to have an ancient ruins on it. We discover one remaining door leading down and D. goes to scout. H. detects undead and determines that there are about 40 of them, mostly skeletons, but other things are probable too.
D. looks for other entrances but finds none. She decides to scout deeper and heads down stairs. She finds a wooden door and picks the lock. Listening at the door she hears nothing. She goes through and the passage continues. Turning right, she finds two skeltons, and retreats quietly. The other passage presumably leads to the whole pile of them. We pause and decide what to do…