===== Chapter 3 =====
I Am the Captain Now
When I awoke next, I felt rather beat and sore. I was cold, dirty, and hungry. As I slowly came to, I noticed that I was unable to move my arms apart; they were shackled at the wrists by metal restraints. I also noticed that most of my clothes and gear were missing. I was only wearing my undergarments much to my horror. At least I wasn't completely nude, so I guess that was a silver-lining as least. I then noticed a large scar on my torso. It looked like an arrow wound, so I guess that was the final hit that did me in.
After taking a look at myself, I raised my head and took in my surroundings. I was in a small, dimly lit room with four other people. Thankfully, everyone was there and seemingly alive- Octavious, Riardon, Destan, and another I did not recognize. They were all just like me, clothed in nothing but their undergarments and restrained at the wrists. I was immediately glad to see that Octavious was alive, but then I was dismayed to see that he was yet again a prisoner against his will. As I began moving, the others noticed me and filled me in on what was going on. I was the last one to wake up, and they were beginning to worry that I was dead.
The first thing they did was introduce me to the mysterious fifth person sharing the room with us. His name was Oceanus and he was a sea elf. He didn't speak Common, but he did speak Aquan and Elvish. Fortunately, I spoke Elvish, so communication wasn't going to be a problem. They then told me that we all had been handed over to pirates and were aboard their ship, heading for destinations unknown. Oceanus told them it had been roughly two days since we were brought aboard the ship, and he had been there for six nights already. After getting a handle on our situation, we began to ask him some questions.
I asked the others if they had been thinking of a plan to escape, but they hadn't. I then began asking Oceanus some questions to get a better understanding of what we were up against. I learned that besides the captain, there were maybe four to five other crew members, but that information was spotty at best. There was a wizard among the crew, but he didn't know where they were. The door to our cell was only opened when food was brought by, and it had already been distributed for the day. I asked where my food was and Oceanus sheepishly said that he ate it, figuring I wasn't going to wake up any time soon. I just grumbled at him and let it go, not wanting to waste what little energy I had. Thinking on the information we had gathered, we didn't have much to work with, so we continued to discuss things in preparation for the next day. After we had done all we could, we got some rest and went to sleep.
#
The next day, we discussed things further and waited for our food to arrive. We needed a bit more information before we were able to make a move. While we were waiting, we heard a voice nearby, but it turned out to be only a parrot. It was talking about something called the "Pieces of Eight", but we figured it was just nonsense.
Eventually, the door to our cell opened and a large, imposing man entered. He had a hook for a hand, and he was the ship's bosun. While he was handing out food, I looked him over for any potential weaknesses I could exploit, but despite his hook-hand, I didn't seem to find any. After handing out all the food, he left and closed the door once more. The food was rather unappetizing, but if I wanted to get my strength back, I had to eat something. I only had a bite or two, not wanting to finish it all and make my stomach upset.
While we were left by ourselves, Octavious decided to have a little fun with our captors, and he used his magic to mess with them. He noticed that the bosun got annoyed with the parrot sometimes, so he decided to use that to his advantage. He mimicked the parrot loudly and made it appear as if it was coming from somewhere else on the ship. He did it again and again until the bosun got tired of it all.
Suddenly, the bosun came barging in, figuring that it was one of us and not actually the parrot that was annoying him. For some odd reason, he singled me out and thought I was the cause of it all. Perhaps he didn't think it was me, but since I was the only female in the group, he thought he could threaten me to get the real culprit to reveal himself. He approached me and picked me up with his good hand, raising his hook to my neck and drawing a tiny bit of blood. I tried to remain firm and not be intimidated by him, but then I looked into his eyes and recognized them from my marine days. They were the eyes of a killer, and he wasn't playing around. I suddenly became a bit more unnerved as I was in no position to retaliate or defend myself. I was completely at his mercy, and I didn't like it.
Seeing the bosun completely focused on me, Destan used some magic to discern his name and managed to get it- Foul Frithouth. With that in mind, he used his spell and successfully managed to charm the bosun, commanding him to set him free. The bosun complied and set me down before unlocking Destan's manacles. Unfortunately, the bosun somehow broke free from the charm spell and tried to escape. Using all the energy I had left, I kicked the bosun in the groin and managed to stop him before he got away. Everyone else then joined in and beat the bosun unconscious. Once he was taken care of, Destan retrieved the keys from his body and freed us all. Before we left, we chained the bosun up and gagged him before locking him up in the cell we were just in.
Once we were out of the cell, we remained as quiet as we could and crept into the adjacent room, keeping an eye out for any more crew members. Luckily, the room was empty, so we began searching around for anything useful. There was a large chest there, so we huddled around and opened it up. To our relief, we found all our clothes and gear stored within. We took some time to get dressed and take inventory of our belongings. It seemed only our clothes and weapons were in there; everything else had to be somewhere else on the ship. There was nothing we could do about that for the time being, so we prepared ourselves to take the ship by force.
Armed with our weapons, we proceeded on to the two other doors in the room. Destan checked one while I went over to the other. Destan heard voices on the other side of his while I did not, so we opened the door I was next to. We entered a dark bedroom with little to no light within. Thankfully, we all had Darkvision, so the lack of light didn't impede our exploration.
We went in and had a look around. Destan looked under the bed only to find a lewd book. Riardon checked the walls and found a secret room which was filled with weapons. I remained alert and made sure none of the crew snuck up behind us. After clearing the room, we decided to try and thin the crew little by little. If we wanted to get back to Saltmarsh, we had to get complete control of the ship by any means necessary. We went back into the room we were just in and decided to try the door with the voices behind it.
At first, we tried to sneak up and catch the enemy by surprise, but someone made a noise which prematurely alerted them to our presence. It was a small group of four, so we attacked them head on since we had lost the element of surprise. The fight went well, and we managed to take them all out, but then reinforcements came and it was right back to it. During the ensuing fight, I lost my footing due to some rough waves and hit my head on the way down, nearly going unconscious. I managed to keep awake and hurried to get back on my feet. It was rather embarrassing, but I blamed it on fatigue and an empty stomach. We continued to fight and succeeded in killing the First Mate, a man called Bloody Bjorn.
Everything was going well until the captain of the crew and the wizard Oceanus mentioned before joined the fight. The battle continued, but in the end, we reigned victorious. We got the captain to stop fighting and parlay, wanting to discuss the terms of his surrender with us. He said that if we let him and what was left of his crew live and escape on one of the rowboats, he'd leave us alone, and we could have his ship. We discussed things amongst ourselves and eventually agreed to his terms. Some of us didn't feel right letting him live because of the crimes he committed, but we couldn't take them all on.
Once the agreement was settled, the captain and his remaining crew returned to the top deck and began getting one of the rowboats ready. They lowered it into the water, and once they were all onboard, they began rowing away. Unfortunately, the crew member in the crow's nest had been napping, and he awoke just in time to see his fellow mates rowing away. He started calling out to them and hastily began to climb down, but then he slipped and fell the rest of the way, splatting against the deck. He died on impact, and he made a disgusting, fleshy sound as his body landed. I just rolled my eyes and made sure the rowboat got far enough away before doing anything else.
With the original crew gone, the ship was ours to do with as we pleased. To commemorate things, Octavious went over and lowered the smuggler's flag, removing it fully once it was all the way down. To make sure we were truly safe, Octavious and I went about clearing the rest of the ship. We wanted to make sure there were no stowaways or any lingering crew members like the guy on the crow's nest.
Returning below deck, Octavious and I decided to try one room and carefully opened it up, unsure of what was on the other side. To our surprise, we found three scaly figures all sleeping on hammocks. Suddenly, they stirred awake and looked to us, speaking in what appeared to be Draconic. They didn't look to be part of the crew, nor did they look like prisoners, so we were unsure of what they were doing there. Octavious tried to speak to them in what little Draconic he knew to figure out who they were, but his lack of communication skills only angered the lizardfolk. Sensing a confrontation about to happen, I told Octavious that we should retreat and regroup with the others. We were outnumbered, and they were much stronger than we were.
Octavious then shut the door right in their faces, and we hurried away from the door, preparing for a fight. We stood there and waited for them to come charging out, but the door didn't budge. We called out for the others to come help us, but we didn't get a response from them. Wanting to try a peaceful approach, Octavious said he could talk to them and try and figure things out. After the way we just treated them, I wasn't sure that talking was going to do anything, but he was adamant in trying again. Seeing that he was firm in his stance, I relented but kept my bow at the ready. We slowly approached the door and slowly opened it up again.
The three lizardfolk were just standing there with a rather pissed off look on their faces. Octavious apologized for the rudeness earlier and began his conversation with them again. This time, he managed to get them to calm down and talk civilly with him. It turned out that the lizardfolk had made an agreement with the pirates, but the pirates had yet to fulfill their end of the bargain. The pirates were supposed to give them a bunch of weapons and bring them back to their village. We thought for a few moments then remembered the large stash of weapons Riardon had found earlier. Not wanting to deal with the lizardfolk, we told them they could have all the weapons and one of the rowboats. All that was left was to bring them back to their village. Seeing that Octavious had everything under control, I continued with my sweep of the ship.
I went into one of the nearby rooms and found a food storeroom. I was rather hungry, so I took some time to peruse what it had offer. I picked up some smoked sausages and snacked on a few of those before continuing on. I found myself in the cargo hold and began looking around, eventually finding the rest of my stuff. I went about making sure I had everything, and luckily, all my belongings were still in my pack. With my bag secured on my back, I made my way up to the top deck to see what everyone was doing.
When I got back up top, I happened to notice that we were passing a mansion located on top of a cliff. I wondered if it was the same one where we got captured at. It had to be. While I was looking at it, I saw a flashing light in one of the windows. It looked like it was coming from a lantern, and it was blinking in some sort of pattern, but it wasn't Morse Code or something I recognized. Since I didn't know the code, I didn't bother responding or even attempting to. I then looked away and noticed Destan by the helm trying to figure out how to navigate the ship. Since I had some seafaring experience from my marine days, I went over to help out.
Once the lizardfolk told us where their village was approximately located, we got the ship prepared to head out. With Destan at the helm, Riardon and I fixed the sails while Octavious raised the anchor using the capstan. Once the ship was finally underway and heading southbound, Octavious helped the lizardfolk recover their promised weapons and load their rowboat. Meanwhile, I kept an eye out for obstacles and whatnot, ready to tell Destan to turn if he needed to.
After traveling for some time, the lizardfolk said that we were close enough and had us stop. We lowered the anchor and raised the sails, causing the ship to come to a stop in the water. Once the ship was steady, we helped lower the rowboat laden with weapons into the water. The three lizardfolk jumped overboard into the water then got into their rowboat, taking their haul back to their village. With the lizardfolk finally out of the way, we turned the ship around and headed back to Saltmarsh, passing by the mansion on the cliff on the way back.
#
It took us a bit of sailing, but we managed to get back to Saltmarsh around early morning the next day. Thankfully, nothing treacherous happened to us during the journey back. It was already hard enough keeping the ship on course with the few people we had. As we got closer to the harbor, I helped guide Destan in. We had to be extra careful not to hit any of the other boats or crash into the dock. With Destan's steady hand on the wheel and my guidance and maneuvering, we managed to successfully park the ship in a vacant spot at the dock. Once we were in a good position, we lowered the anchor and raised the sails.
While we were taking care of the ship and getting ready to disembark, a clutch of watchmen came rushing over to us. Since our ship wasn't flying any colors or flags, we were highly suspicious and attracted the attention of the authorities. At the lead of the group of watchmen heading for us was the Captain of the Guard himself, Eliander. Seeing him there was a relief, and it made things a lot easier for us when we had to inevitably explain ourselves. Octavious and I took the lead and stepped forward in preparation to greet the watchmen.
As Eliander and the rest of his entourage got closer, he instantly recognized Octavious and grimaced, wondering what his son had gotten himself into. He had his men lower their weapons and boarded the ship, approaching Octavious and I with a perplexed expression. We then explained to him briefly what happened to us and how we happened to come by the ship. The captain was astonished at our story and told us to meet him at his house to tell him everything in great detail.
In the meantime, Eliander had his men offload all the stolen goods that were from the King's Alliance. Octavious wanted to keep it all to sell or whatever, but I told him they weren't ours to begin with. I had no problem with them taking it, so I gladly told Eliander about them despite Octavious' wishes. After the ship and cargo were taken care of, we followed Eliander back to his house and gathered in his office. There, we went into full detail about our excursion to the mansion, getting captured, the taking of the pirate ship, and subsequent journey back to Saltmarsh.
For our troubles, Eliander gave us a sack of 400gp, meaning we each got 100gp; Oceanus was excluded since he wasn't with us for the mansion part. He then told us that he'd talk with the Council, and he'd see if he could offer some aid in finishing off the smugglers at the mansion. We thanked him for that and told him we'd accept any help he was willing to give us.
Before we left, Eliander also mentioned something else that could potentially benefit us. If we were willing to partner with the King's Alliance, he'd allow us to keep our ship and would even lend a crew to man it for a year. Since I wasn't going to be sticking around for that long, I left the decision up to Octavious and the others. Of course, they agreed if it meant they could have a ship of their own. Eliander gave us all an approving nod and said he'd get on that as well. He was going to have the ship looked after and refitted for our purposes. After all our business had been concluded, we all dispersed until the next day.
From Octavious' house, I went to let my father know I was all right. I had been gone for a few days without saying goodbye, so I was sure he was a bit worried. I found him at the taco stand as per usual, and he was relieved to see me. I gave him an abridged version of what happened as to not worry him too much. While I was there, I sat down and had a few tacos to brighten my mood. I hadn't had a proper meal in days and the taste of the tacos was a welcomed experience. I just sat at a nearby table and relaxed, munching happily on my meal. After that, I stopped by the tanner's place and picked up my two giant weasel furs. They were expertly cleaned and processed, meaning I could wear them as is; though, it was way too hot to be wearing furs, so I just brought them back home and stashed them away.
#
After waking up the next day and having a bit of breakfast, I headed on over to the Snapping Line tavern to meet up with the others. I found them, including Oceanus, already there, sitting around a table and looking well rested and fully recovered. Octavious said that his father had some news for us, so after everyone had a bite to eat, we followed him back to his house.
We met Eliander back in his office, and he said that he was able to meet with the Council and get us some help. The Council allowed him to lend us a couple of his watchmen to help us finish what we started at the mansion. One of them was named Zadrath and the other was Claudius, whom we were already familiar with. The Council also offered us a bounty for the apprehension of any smugglers we happened to take alive. Taking prisoners wasn't our strongest suit, but we were going to give it a try. After Eliander was done talking, he directed us towards the barracks where the two watchmen were waiting.
When we arrived at the barracks, we found Zadrath there but not Claudius. Zadrath then told us that Claudius was at his post by the front gate, so we all headed out to rendezvous with him. As we got closer, Claudius was a little less than enthused about seeing us approaching. He really wasn't looking forward to his new assignment, especially when it dealt with a supposedly haunted house. We assured him there wasn't anything supernatural happening and that it was just a group of unruly smugglers.
Once we were all together, we proceeded on towards the haunted mansion once more. It was me, Octavious, Riardon, Destan, Oceanus, Claudius, and Zadrath. Surely, we had enough people this time to take care of the smugglers once and for all. I was itching for some revenge, and I was sure the others were as well. On the way there, I filled the guards in on what to expect and what we faced the last time we were there. I went over things like enemy composition, numbers, and fighting styles. I wanted them to be aware of everything we were, so there wouldn't be any surprises once the fighting inevitably started.
As we got closer to the mansion, we began creeping up slowly and stealthily. We kept to the brush and approached with caution. The front door was closed, so we supposed the smugglers were still around there somewhere. Seeing the area right in front of the porch brought back unpleasant memories, so I tried to focus and pushed them out of my mind.
Instead of breaching from the front, we decided to sneak around back and enter the building from there. As we entered through the back entrance, the same loud voice was heard, and it repeated the same thing from the last time we opened the door. It seemed that it was rigged to do that, and there was no way of stopping it. I just grimaced and proceeded on in anyways, despite the element of surprise being lost.
We continued into the room and began securing the area. While I was inspecting the floor, I found a trap door that we missed the last time we were there. I figured it was the same one the smugglers used to flank us while we were escaping towards the front door through the foyer. Destan came over to it and decided to open it up to see where it led. As soon as he opened the trap door, he was attacked by those down below. He got struck by one of them, and we immediately shut the trap door to prevent the attackers from coming up. Destan used his magic to freeze shut the hatch as we prepared ourselves for a fight.
Since most of the smugglers seemed to be located down below, we went around and began heading to the stairs leading down into the cellar. When we reached the foyer, we saw that Marcus' body was still there, but a lot more decayed and rotten looking. Ignoring the body for now, we carefully went down the stairs and entered the cellar. There were still no signs of the enemy, so we continued onwards. We entered the living-quarters behind the secret door Destan stumbled upon when we were last there.
While we were looking around, we happened upon a woman lying on one of the cots. She seemed to be awake, but she was only moving her eyes. Curious, we snuck closer for a better look. If she was one of the smugglers, then she had to be dealt with. As we got up right next to her, Octavious recognized her as one of the smugglers from before, the very same one he had used as a shield and kicked. Someone looked the woman over and discerned that she was paralyzed, a probable result of Octavious' kick to her spine. Upon hearing that, Octavious was rather shocked and appalled that he had paralyzed her. Since the woman was no longer a threat, we let her be and continued on to deal with her comrades.
We continued to wander around down there until we found ourselves in a cave system of sorts underneath the mansion. Halfway through it, we encountered the main bulk of the smuggler group that was based there. Included among them was their leader, a man named Sanbalet, and a familiar face, the "merchant" Ned. It turned out that Ned was actually a member of the smuggler group, and he deceived us so he wouldn't be killed on the spot. I was rather annoyed at seeing Ned there, but not nearly as much as Octavious was when he saw him. Octavious knew something was up with Ned, but he just couldn't put his finger on it. Before he could curse out Ned for duping us like that, the fighting began.
The fight was a bit more difficult than I expected, as there were a couple of bugbears among the smugglers. It also didn't help that the quarters were tight in the cave we were in, so I had limited visibility to make accurate and safe shots. I didn't want to hit an ally if I was able to avoid it, so I carefully picked my shots when I loosed an arrow.
Still pissed off that Ned was actually an enemy, Octavious rushed ahead of us to get to him and make him pay. I tried to call out to him and make him stop, but he wouldn't listen. Since he was dead set on getting to Ned, I did my best to cover him. In the end, he managed to fight his way to Ned and kill him with his own two hands, but it wasn't without cost. He was severely hurt himself by all the enemies around him, and he fell to the ground due to his injuries.
The others up front who were closer to Octavious fought hard to come to his aid. They managed to subdue most of the enemies, including Sanbalet whom they knocked unconscious. Zadrath was finally able to get over to Octavious and administered a Potion of Healing. Octavious managed to get back on his feet and return to the fight, but only for a short time. Again, an enemy got the better of him and knocked him flat on his back. I pushed my way more towards the front and loosed a couple more arrows, taking out the remaining enemies there.
Once the fighting had ceased, we had some time to gather ourselves. Regrettably, Octavious wasn't the worst off during the fight. Claudius had sustained mortal wounds and had died as a result of them during combat. There wasn't anything we could do as none of us had strong enough healing magic to save him.
Not wanting to linger around any longer than we had to, Zadrath took out some manacles and cuffed Sanbalet's wrists behind him. Sanbalet was still knocked-out, so we had to carry his body out of there when we left. Before leaving, we decided to look around a bit more and ventured further into the cave.
We found a side passage that led into a dead-end filled with several crates of stolen goods. Among the goods we found there were cases of brandy and fine silk. It was quite the haul, but there was no way we were going to be able to bring it all back to Saltmarsh on our own. Further down the cave, we found an exit that led out to the water. There was a small dock there with a large rowboat tethered to it. With a boat then at our disposal, we began planning our trip back to Saltmarsh. In the boat, we were going to have myself, Riardon, Octavious, Sanbalet, Claudius' body, and some of the stolen goods. Oceanus and Destan were going to swim alongside us while Zadrath remained at the mansion to secure it and await back-up. Once we were all in agreement, we moved to carry out the plan.
We hauled Sanbalet's unconscious body, Claudius' body, and some of the goods onto the rowboat. Meanwhile, Zadrath returned back to the mansion above to wait for his fellow watchmen to come relieve him. Once everyone who was going to ride on the boat was situated in, we began heading back to Saltmarsh on the open water. It took quite a bit of effort, but we eventually managed to get back to the docks in Saltmarsh in one piece. The others used the oars to propel us while I navigated and watched for obstacles.
As we got the boat secured at an opening by the docks, we were once again greeted by Eliander and an accompanying handful of his watchmen. While we were disembarking, I saw a look of regret on his face, as well as some of the other watchmen, as we carefully pulled out Claudius' lifeless body. We told him everything that happened at the mansion and how we rooted out the last of the smuggler group.
Sanbalet was awake by then, but we had gagged him to prevent him from annoying us during the trip back. Upon seeing him, Eliander had some of his men take him in to custody to answer for his crimes. He then had the rest of his men begin offloading all the recovered stolen goods. After they were done with all that, he was going to have his men head straight for the mansion to recover the rest of the goods, the paralyzed smuggler, and Marcus' body.
Once his men were set to purpose, Eliander turned to us and congratulated us on a job well done, despite the casualty the City Watch had suffered. He assured us it wasn't our fault and that Claudius had died in the line of duty, as all watchmen were prepared to do. He then told us that we could keep the rowboat while also giving us a sack containing 200gp, meaning we each got 50gp. That was for bringing in Sanbalet alive. He also gave each us an extra 10gp for finding Marcus.
Before we left, Eliander recommended that we lay low and perhaps leave town for a while. He wasn't sure just how big the smuggler group was, and if they had connections still out there, they'd most likely be after us. He mentioned that there was a job available regarding a disturbance in the Dreadwood. If we wanted something to do in the meantime, he suggested taking a look into that. We told him we might just do that then left to rest for the remainder of the day.