- 150 gp in various coins and gems
- 50 gp worth of navigation tools (Pujol)
We get back to the Mud Crab in the morning. There are a couple clerics of Apara (good deity) out front talking. We don’t exactly mean to listen in, but we totally listen in. They are talking about some kind of ruckus happening out at the docks – a ship found a derelict vessel out on the water, but when they went aboard, something bad happened. They towed the ship in, but the sailors are scared of it.
We go to offer our services, and Abran does the talking. At first, they don’t seem keen on us helping, but after Abran mentions how we rescued Aubrey, another cleric of Apara, a couple towns back, they warm up to the idea. Apparently that news travelled fast. They ask us to meet them at the he docks; we will take a longboat from the Rat Tail out to the derelict.
Gooseneck asks for more details. Part of the reason to go out there is to find out for sure, but they think the ship has been overtaken by evil creatures. Of the sailors who went out, many did not return. Some of those who did cannot remember what happened to them out on the water. The ship is out in the deep anchorage. Pujol thinks he has heard of sea creatures that can charm with a song.
We get breakfast first, and then on the way to the docks get some wax and cotton for our ears.
We get down to the docks. There’s a representative of the church waiting there. We ask to speak to the survivors, and they bring us one of the sailors. His name in Marty, and he says he didn’t see any creatures on the ship, good, bad, or indifferent. They circled the ship once in their small boat, then went aboard. He was the last one aboard. As he set foot on the deck, the others were fleeing. Some were staring at the deck, like they were trying to look into the hold below. He heard a persistent humming.
The ship itself is in good shape, except for a torn sail. It had been adrift for a week or so. Marty describes the hummin as being a ‘melancholy hymn’. He grabbed a friend and ran for the boat. It seems like he lost some time between when he remembers stepping on to the ship and when he fled back to the longboat.
After that, they towed the ship in to port. Some of the sailors were bleeding, some looked like they hurt themselves fleeing, but one looked like he’d been clawed from hip to armpit.
We get to the ship. Someone has dropped anchor, so it sits more or less immobile in the water. We do not see any bodies or blood, even though we know some sailors were left behind.
CornCob in his magic water-walking boots walks around the ship to look it over. Gooseneck swims around the ship, looking it over under the water line. There’s no damage to it under the water, except for one gash in the wood that doesn’t go all the way through. It looks relatively new, and is a good two, two and a half feet long.
Abran, Gooseneck, and CornCob go on board. Something feels off, but they don’t know what. It’s oddly silent, but maybe that’s just the earplugs. Abran pulls out one of his earplugs, but still hears nothing. He looks for doors and hatches. There’s a grate that looks down into the hold amidships, and a door toward the back that probably also goes down to the hold. Abran tries looking down through the grate. He thinks he seems some movement, but still no sound.
Fathom casts Protection from Evil on Abran and Pujol casts invisibility on him so that he can go into the hold and scout. Fathom asks if Gooseneck, as a lizardfolk, might be immune to a mammal’s song, but Pujol doesn’t think so.
Abran goes down into the hold, and for a few moments feels like he is back with the Mushroom Queen. He realizes it’s fake, though. He hears a discordant song and see a hunched, feathery figure in the shadows. He plugs his ears, and then shoots the feathery shape twice. No longer invisible, he runs up the stairs.
Even with earplugs, the rest of us hear screeching, along with the song the feathered things are singing. Everyone else goes on board the ship, and most manage to resist the song. I, however, and stuck in a moment of my past.
The creatures come up from below. Abran shoots the one he shot before again. CornCob hits one with his stick, and it falls to the deck. When that happens, we get the sense that there is something…bigger…starting to take notice.
The second harpy goes at CornCob and hits him. Gooseneck jumps into the water to swing at whatever is down there – it’s some very large crab thing. Gooseneck whacks it.
Pujol plays his harp, which helps me shake off the memories. Fathom casts a blast at the harpy. It falls, calling for mother to avenge her. That can’t be good. Fathom gets on the boat.
Abran and CornCob shift to attacking the crab thing. Abran shoots it, and CornCob jumps on to the water and casts a word of radiance at it.
The crab grabs Gooseneck and hits him multiple times. Gooseneck hits it with his axe. Pujol shoots it with his crossbow. Everybody takes turns unloading on the crab, while it attacks Gooseneck and CornCob. Eventually, though, it is killed.
I keep an eye on the horizon. There’s a strange storm forming up.
Fathom searches the harpies while Abran and Gooseneck go into the hold. The harpies aren’t carrying anything of value, nor are any of their body parts worth much. Maybe the feathers. The remains of the sailors are in the hold, but nothing of value. However, in the captain’s cabin, there’s a chest with coins, gems, and some fancy navigation equipment.
Our best guess is that the crab was just following the ship to get the dead sailor bits that the harpies were throwing overboard.
Pujol searches the dead sailors. Based on their clothing, they likely came from a colder area. He checks the charts, and based on that, he thinks the ship was coming back from somewhere after making a run. There should have been whale oil on board, though. This ship is called the Snow Slipper, and was owned by an individual, likely the captain.
CornCob pulls the ship into port. The storm does not follow us in.
Pujol asks where to register the ship as salvage. The cleric will send some people to clean up the dead. The harbormaster wants to know what we want to do with the ship – he will sell it for us, if we like. It’s probably worth 700gp.
We eat the crab for dinner, and save the shell for Gooseneck to work with. Somehow, the giant crab dinner party seems to cheer the whole town.
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