Chapter One - In Search of Vanthus

[Vardaen]

"If Vanthus is caught up with these Lotus thieves, that atleast gives us a place to look for him once we are out of here." He looks in the chamber once Berek moves into the room looking at the far side. "See something? Secret door maybe? I wouldn't be surprised if the smuggler's left themselves a backdoor, they wouldn't want to get trapped down here any more than we would." He keeps his cape around his mouth and nose and moves into the room and inspects Penkus a bit further, seeing if the man has anything on him or around him easily removed without risking touching him too much. His eyes slip up however roaming about the chamber and watching Berek also.

[Trogdor]

As Berek starts to examine the back wall, Knarra and Daerith approach the corpse. The dwarven priestess begins to speak some prayers for the dead, while the elven warrior-mage takes a look for things that the Penkus will no longer need int he Halls of the Dead. Immediately apparent is that Penkus was doing well for himself. His clothes, boots, and armor were of very fine quality, though they all are filthy and have the stink of death about them. Penkus also has a gold ring on his finger that was worth at least a hundred gold if it was worth a silver. It's possible, of course, that the old thief has more of value on him. But that would require touching the corpse.

As Derith is pondering this, Knarra finishes her prayers and Berek lets out an exclamation of victory. Everyone looks over to the dwarven rogue to see him move his hand to stone in the wall and press it. Imemdiately, there is a CLICK, and a part of the wall swivels inward. Everyone then feels a rush of dry, clean air from the chamber that's revealed. It doesn't take away the stink of Penkus' death. But it makes the room bearable again. It's not pleasant by any means. But no one's in danger of losing their lunch anymore. The small chamber hidden by the secret door is dry - even dusty. Cobwebs hang in thick sheets from the ceiling and against the far wall lie three sea chests. Alas, the room offers no visible means of escape.

OOC

Penkus has on masterwork studded leather, though it's filthy. He also has a 120 gp ring on one finger, though if you want to take it off without touching him, you'll have to cut the finger off (easily done, BTW). Further search of Penkus' body would require touching it.

Also, let me add that this is a D&D game. Yes, I understand that looting corpses might seem ghoulish and disrespectful to the dead. But it's a staple of the genre and the rewards for these chapters is based on the assumption that you'll loot things. Rest assured that you won't be penalized for looting dead bodies. (And in the rare situation that you might be penalized, I'll give you clear warning of the fact.)

Map

The three rectangles are the sea chests. The "S" is the secret door. And Penkus' body is in the empty square in the outer room. I don't fee like finding a dead body to put there.

[Vardaen]

Daerith draws his blade out of his belt and rests the tip of the weapon on the knuckle just inside the gold ring. He pushes down with the weapon severing the finger from the hand in one easy motion. With his boot he steps lightly on the finger and then prys the ring off the bloated stump of it. He stoops down and collects the ring. "Grizzly I know, but its this man's fault that we are even down here being hurt and possibly diseased from zombie rot, we are going to need the coins this ring might bring us to have proper medical attention if any of us are sick." Daerith takes the ring and puts it into his coin pouch.

Then the door opens to the next room and the dry air hits his face. "Praise the gods!" He doesn't drop his cape from around his face, but the smile is obvious. "I bet Penkus had no clue how close he was to escape." Daerith then leaves the corpse and moves to look into the room and his hopes are dashed when he doesn't see an exit. His eyes light up however as he sees the chests. "Well well what have we here?"

OOC

Daerith doesn't need MW Studded Leather, but the sale of it could be worth alot, put its possible someone else could use it. The grizzly fact of removing a diseased bloated corpse from his armor is hard even for the greedy money lusting Daerith to overcome. Espcially if Knarra is going to yell at him later, BUT, I bet the pragmatic half orc pygmy hunter Shumba would have no qualms about it.

[mackaber]

Berek's eyes brighten up at the sight of the treasure chests "Ha wouldn't be a smugglers hideout without a treasure eye? Mighty fine thief the boy Penkus was if he wasn't even able to find this door pahh..." with that Berek sets to the task of examining the sea chests for any traps before opening them to reveal what lies inside...

OOC

Berek is definetly down with Daerith in plundering the corpse but first comes first...

[Trogdor]

OOC

Oops, sorry. Was so eager to post loot file that I forgot to actually post this after I wrote it!

Eyes brighten and smiles widen at the sight of three treasure chests. Berek quickly moves in and, after determining that the chests are not trapped, begins working on opening them. And this doesn't prove to be an easy task. After initial attempts on all three, he quickly discovers that between their age and their complexity, these are near the limit of his ability to open. Near it's true, but as the next minutes tell, not beyond. One-by-one the dwarven rogue unlocks the chest, each effort taking several minutes.

The first chest is filled to the brim with coins, easily thousands of them, all of silver and copper. The second chest is filled with small cloth bags. A careful examination shows that most are filled with gold coins, although two contain assortments of gems. The final chest contains items and not coins. Several potion bottles are wrapped in cloth, three labeled minor healing potions, one as a stronger healing potion, one as a potion of restoration, one as a potion of invisibility, one as a potion of barkskin, and one as an elixir of swimming. There is also a small wand with a note saying it contains a spell of mage armor. Finally, there is a small jade coffer containing a light brown gemstone on a tiny velvet cushion. A note tucked under the cushion indicates that this is an earth elemental gem, capable of summoning a small earth elemental when crushed.

OOC

Berek has to take 20 to open them.

Yay, you finally get real loot. I'll start a loot document on Google Docs for you.

[Vardaen]

"Pirate Treasure!", exclaims Daerith as he watches Berek open each of the chests in turn. The silver and copper in the first chest makes him smile, the gold and the gems in the next one light up his eyes, and the magical potions and other items in the third make him actually giggle in joy. "We should try and split this all evenly among us." Daerith moves into the chest with the potions and without seeming too eager he inspects them, checking the labels and confirming that from what lore he knows about magical items.

When the gem is found and the small note under it is located he claps once, "We are saved! Saved!" He points at the tiny pillow and the gem, "You know what this is? An Earth Elemental Gem, we can summon a small earth elemental with it. Something like this could burrow through whatever rocks and boulders Vanthus put on the top of the trap door leading to freedom. It could come in handy otherwise, but even if we found a tunnel leading out into the water we are all such poor swimmers we'd likely drown in the attempt anyhow. I say we haul all this back to the entrance, and use the gem to summon the elemental and then set it to opening the door out of this hell hole!" He is rather exicted at the prospect of being free, finally.

OOC

I've laid claim to a few items, and added Penkus' armor to the sheet just in anticipation. I also see Penkus' gold ring is on there to split, thanks Trogdor. There are 3 collumns so more than 1 person can claim items and we can sort it out.

The Mage Armor Wand can only be used by Daerith (or the NPC John who doesn't count), and so I think that's obviously his. Sharing the healing around is always wise as well.

[Eanwulf]

Though overjoyed at the possibility of finally being free from the tunnels, Shumba's face soon becomes wrought with worry. The half-orc then replies distractedly, "Joo best warn the little fella about Vanthus possibly being laying in wait up topside first, me thinks. Also. It wouldn't be a bad thing to see whether or not he could help us in moving the treasure over either!" Shumba is of course referring to the elemental contained within the tiny gem and quite clearly not Vanthus, his lack of magical knowledge quite apparent. When the time comes, the loyal savage does his best to help drag what treasure he can back into the water-filled tunnels and over to the other side. "Best we get a move on," Shumba quickly proclaims, "Lest the tide come rolling back in!"

OOC

Money and the dagger is fine by Shumba. A suit of MW leather wouldn't be turned down either, though the prospect of wearing a dead (diseased) man's armor doesn't seem to bode well with the little guy.

[mackaber]

Berek's greedy eyes light up brightly as he finally manages to open the chests one by one each revealing more goodies. As Daerith suggest calling the earth elemental to get them out of here Berek smirks his eyebrow raised. "Well we somehow gots to get these here babies" he says as he claps the chests out through the water fer yer plan to work out Daerith... " clearly this will be not easily accomplished altough Berek is already beginnging to formulate a plan already but first he has more unplasant duties to attend to and that is getting penkus out of his armor and anything else worth while off of him...

OOC

As to Loot I'd say we sell everything we don't need (this might also include wands and scrolls?) and add the money made to our loot total... all Berek really needs atm is cold hard cash cause that +1 shield of bashing will be pricey... Also remeber that Berek has this nifty feat that will let him get more money for sold items

[Trogdor]

Penkus may be dead, diseased, stinky, and bloated, but he still has some valuable things on him. And Berek isn't about to let them rot in this place. So, after wrapping a cloth around his face to hold back the stench, Berek begins the grisly work of stripping Penkus's body of valuables. He's careful as he goes, keeping the gloves from his armor on and trying not to breathe in any of the vapors or fluids that come off of Penkus. Unfortunately for Berek, however, Penkus has one last bit of revenge against the world.

As the dwarf is loosening the straps of Penkus's armor, he discovers to his dismay that the armor was the only thing keeping the dead thief together. The diseased and bloated body almost explodes, covering Berek in diseased gore. The only bright spot is that it does make it easier, if messier, to get the armor off of Penkus.

In the end, Berek finishes his grim task, having recovered the excellent set of studded leather armor Penkus was wearing as well as a fine dagger that was hidden in the man's boot. Both have been rinsed in seawater, as has Berek, removing the worst of the gore. Once they are mostly presentable, Lucky John hums a little tune and passes his hand over dwarf, armor, and dagger. Slowly, more slowly than usual for this cantrip, the three are cleaned and the stench abates. Both armor and dwarf could still use a good soaking. But neither will draw undue attention anymore.

At this point you all turn your attention back to the sea cave. The tide has reached its lowest point by now and is slowly starting to rise again. It's not quite to the level it was when you arrived, but it's only going to get deeper as time goes on. And with all the trouble you had getting here, you know that it will be a hundred times worse trying to make it back with hundreds of points of coins.

OOC

I decided to roll a basic Dex check to see in general how clean Berek managed to stay in the process. Unfortunately, I rolled a "1" for him.

Thankfully, I rolled well on his Fort save and he didn't catch the hecuva blight though.

You get MW studded leather and a MW dagger for your (Berek's) trouble.

[Cattywumpus]

Knarra heaves a sigh of relief. "It will be good to get a bath and have a nice shampoo", Knarra comments, "I must look verra disrespectable."

Knarra hesitates and then coughs, "I believe I can cast most o' those scrolls exceptin' th' invisibility one and um...would it be tae much to ask fer that potion of swimmin'? 'tis twice I ha'e been near drowned. Per'aps it c'n help a dwarfess?"