(G486 07/05/2022 via Roll20 - AP, JF(GM), KT, AD) HOM10

 
(G486 07/05/2022 via Roll20 - AP, JF(GM), KT, AD) HOM10

[The adventurers Griffolk Ethyn the Dragon-Shaman, Sparkledingle the Gnome Wizard and Fangorino the Barbarian are on a mission to follow Baroness Partick and have been onboard the galleon known as the Dementor for several weeks now.
Recently the First mate, Mull-Master had gone crazy and killed one of the crew. The adventurers managed to subdue him and stashed him in the infirmary. Now read on...]

DAY 23 (12) cont ...

An hour later, Griffolk, Sparkledingle and Fangorino huddled together in one of their cabins and discussed their options.

The first idea mooted was to sink the ship. There were two boats up on the deck, the jolly boat and the captain's pinnace. All the crew and passengers would struggle to fit in them though.

So rather than that they decided to go and talk to Captain Pickles. Pickles was a half-halfling, just about five feet tall, so his cabin was built with his size in mind. He was jolly, almost manically so, and poured them all drinks and offered them food when they came to visit him.

They laid out all their worries, but each of them he poo-poo'd, saying:
'I know the sea can be a scary place if you've not sailed on it before! But don't worry, we are not cursed! The death of Surgeon Minty was a tragic accident, nothing more, and Mull-Master - well you know half-orcs! Strong fellows, but sometimes they can go a bit doo-lally! Everything else we can put down to bumps in the night and over-active imaginations! Hahahahaha!'
He laughed loudly and poured them all more drinks.

Every other attempt to get through to him failed. Fangorino even tried to scare some sense into the fellow by slamming his axe down on the table.
Pickles was not phased though and said, 'Don't be silly old chap. Now try some of this Waterdavian Whiskey, its sixteen years old!'

Pickles more or less successfully diverted any other attention by getting the men drunk on fine wines and spirits. Sparkledingle did not drink, but he was fighting a loosing battle.

He noticed, among the various curios in the cabin, a withered hand in a display case. 'Gulp! What's that captain?' he enquired.

Pickles muttered the start of a story, but lost his thread, hiccupped and poured them all another drink. Sparkledingle tried a ruse of going out, casting Detect
Thoughts, and coming back in again. He tried it twice, but both times he failed to get anything out of the Captain's mind.

Once they were indecently drunk the young men went to the galley and demanded of Cookie Cook, 'Chips and cheese please Cookie! And a kebab!'


DAY 24 (13)

The Dementor made good progress today. Murky misty weather. No sinister events happened today.


DAY 25 (14)

After lunch Griffolk decided to unfold a deck chair and sit on the main deck reading his 'Monster Manual' recently bought in Candlekeep.
Every time someone passed him he drew their attention to the chapter on vampires.

This caused a bit of a problem for him when, later in the afternoon, the body of one of the stewards was found, drained of blood, in Griffolk's cabin.

Gingols the Sane was the first on the scene and he raised a hue and cry. He was certain that Griffolk was to blame, but everyone else were not convinced, even though he had been reading about vampires all morning!

Griffolk gathered everyone together in the dining room and they all carried out some 'garlic tests'. No one, not even Baroness Partick reacted how they thought a vampire might.

They then tried mirrors, but with the same negative results. Even so, some of the passengers where getting very uneasy. Jilly Hidescore was starting to put it all together.
'I agree,' she said. 'Something awful is going on and we need to find out what it is.'

At this point Baroness Partick nodded silently at the captain who then interrupted. 'Well, that's enough for now I think! Please, Mr Ethyn, if you could retire to your cabin for now, while I carry out further investigations.'

Everyone went back to their business. At this point, for some reason Fangorino attempted to intimidated Sparkledingle. It didn't work. Sparkledingle tried to Charm Person Fangorino. That didn't work either. After that they both gave up on trying to annoy each other and went to see Griffolk in his cabin.

There was a guard at the door, a sailor by the name of Bobby Shafto. He seemed a bright young man.

They did little else tonight other than come up with one bad idea after another only to dismiss them on consideration.
Plans included drilling a hole in the ship (but they lacked a drill) and using mirrors to channel light into the hold. They did have plenty of them, but they were all small, hand mirrors for ladies.

They ship's carpenter did sell them 20 stakes of ash and oak, although he refused to give them a drill under any circumstances.
'But, ahhh..' tried Sparkledingle. 'My friend has a wooden leg you see...'
'Stow your nonsense!' snapped the carpenter.


DAY 26 (15)

Captain Pickles called a meeting of crew and passengers and gave them an obviously made-up story about how Mull-Master had escaped the infirmary, killed the steward and then returned to his room.
'We've doubled the guard!' he declared. 'And that's the end of the matter.'

This was good news for Griffolk, but suspicious eyes still followed him at breakfast and lunch. Gingols seemed sure that Griffolk was to blame somehow.

Matters did not improve when there was a lot of banging and shouting when Mr Baleworth could no longer locate his wife. Mr B then spent the rest of the evening kicking up a fuss, demanding answers from everyone. He then accused Griffolk;
'That body in your room! You are always in the thick of it! Where's my wife, you cad!?'

Truthfully Griffolk did not know, and his genuine confusion seemed to convince Baleworth.
'Well then, what do we do, blast it man?' bellowed the aristocrat. 'I'm going to demand the captain turns us back to Candlekeep!'

Baleworth went to the captain's cabin, where it can be assumed that Pickles used his usual trick of appeasement with food, wine and strong spirits.

 
DAY 27 (16)

Mr Baleworth searched high and low once more for his wife on the Dementor. It was a big ship, but it was not too long before he found himself at the locked door where the evils lurked.
Soon he was back at Griffolk's door.
'You've been banging on about vampires in the hold. Well, let's go. Let's open it up!'

Griffolk wasn't so sure though. He remembered his instructions to make sure they arrived at Yacg'harr Island and realised that opening the hold would probably put an end to all of that.

'Bah, cowards!' he yelled and grabbed on of the stakes that was on the cabin dresser. He then went down to the hold.

Griffolk and Fangorino just shrugged and paid no more attention to what happened next. Only Sparkledingle was curious enough to follow him, and he did so while invisible.

'Open that bloody door!' he demanded of the sailor that was guarding the outer hold.
The sailor did so, but would go no further.
Baleworth entered the hold area and approached the door at the back where the evil lurked. The sailor, and Sparkledingle, watched from the far door.

'Petunia? Petunia?' called Baleworth bravely. 'Are you in there?'
He then pressed his ear to the door, listening.
Sparkledingle could hear something whispering, but could not make out the words.
'Is that you Petunia? Are you ok?' he whispered back.

There was a click, and the door slowly opened. Baleworth cautiously leaned forward to look into the darkness of the hold. Suddenly a pale skinned hand reached out and grabbed him by the next. Baleworth was yanked into the room and the door slammed shut. The sailor screamed and shut the outer door, nearly crushing Sparkledingle as he leapt out of the way.

I should hope they all felt bad about standing by and letting all that happen. When Sparkledingle reported it all back to the others, Griffolk decided to go around and talk to everyone else on the ship and dish out some cloves from his sack of garlic.

Sparkledingle talked to Cookie, but she had 20 bulbs of garlic of her own and did not need any more.

They talked to the sailor Bobby Shafto, but he did not need any convincing about there being vampires in the hold. When asked what he thought they should do, he replied;
'Begging your pardon, good sirs, but should it not be me asking your advice? You are a wizard, a dragon-um-person, and a barbarian. I am just a sailor.'
'Fair point,' agreed Griffolk who then gave the lad some garlic and a mirror.

They did the same for the sailor that had witnessed the end of Mr Baleworth.

Griffolk and Sparkledingle then canvassed the rest of the ship, looking for others that could be trusted and relied on if things all went pear-shaped;

- Gingols was in his room and was talking to no-one.
- Jilly Hidescore was very nervous and not at all talkative.
- First mate Mull-Master was still a raving madman
- Midshipman Krondor was talkative, but seemed oblivious to everything that was going on. She told them that she didn't believe that vampires existed and it was all a fuss about nothing
- Cook Cookie seemed like a dark horse, but when asked about her background she only said "wouldn't you like to know"

Finally though Sparkledingle stuck gold. He went to talk to the new Bosun, a middle-aged fellow called Redthorn.
'Keep it to yourself, little one, but I'm a Harper Agent. We got word of this ship and its evil cargo and since I happened to be in Candlekeep when you arrived it was decided I should
come on board and take a look. Seems like our suspicions were correct.'
'Oh praise Mistra, we're saved!' declared the gnome, who had heard of "Those Who Harp" and held them in high regard.
'I wouldn't go that far,' said Redthorn. 'Here, you three didn't arrive on board by accident either did you? Who do you work for?'
Sparkledingle was never very good at holding on to secrets so when he mentioned the name 'Cavu' his backers were revealed.
'Oh aye,' muttered the Bosun. 'Makes sense. Cavu always likes to hire the odd ones. Word of  warning to you though. He works for a powerful oracle called Gertrude the White. They won't care much if you live or die. They were all mixed up with the yuan-ti back in Waterdeep, that's what I heard. When we offered to help, they refused.'
Sparkledingle didn't know what to say to any of that, he was just happy that he'd finally met someone that appeared to be at least half-way competent!