Returning with Loot to the Ekzokia to Rest

Felazo joins Renalt in examining the puddles. He was right to be curious, the alchemist thinks as he crouches down beside the strange, viscous liquid. It doesn’t hold any of the telltale smells that the dead emit, leading Felazo to furrow his brow and pull out his pack. “What be this?” Renalt asks.

Felazo ignores him, pulling out his alchemical equipment in order to take a few samples. As he scoops up some of the liquid, he says to the musician, “Can you wake the others?”

Renalt sighs. “Very well, but thou shall inform us of whatever discovery about the liquid is to come.” And the bard begins to move away towards the cluster of napping warriors. The first one Ren wakes up is Den, his old compatriot. Dreary-eyed, Denlo looks about. “What happened?” he asks.

Felazo, from his crouched position, looks up at the killer. “The strange, monstrous creatures put you and the others to sleep,” the captain says plainly.

As the Elf and Elfi’ika speak, the human moves on to their next sleeping compatriot. Sister Hilan awakens with a start. She swings her shield out, striking towards where the creature had stood just an instant before, at least in her perspective. There’s nothing there. “What was that?”

“Some kind of nightmarish creature,” Felazo states. He touches the liquid. It feels odd, disconcerting perhaps, but not dangerous. Taking his finger back, he lets a single drop of it fall from his finger tip onto his tongue. The taste is odd. Tingly on the tongue. Like it isn’t natural to the plane. And bitter, like it were filled with pent up rage and fear. “Perhaps even literally?” he muses aloud.

Denlo awakens the exhausted Alessari, who takes much longer to get functional than the others. And even then, she looks tired. “The flying creature feeds, well fed, on dreams, emotions. Nobles in the Kingdom’s histories were said to have summoned them to terrorize rivals. I’m guessing the strange tall, warped person is much the same?”

“Was,” Denlo informs the woman, gesturing to the puddle he just watched his mage taste.

“Anyways,” Felazo says, “I figured we could rest in here, maybe pop up to into the bedroom, that looked comfortable, and then-”

Alessari cut him off. “Ship.”

“But-”

“There were two monsters that seemed to come out of nowhere. When there’s a lone beast, it may be alone. Two…” she trails off, leaving the implication that there would be others.

“Fine,” the captain concedes, “But we best gather everything of use from down here as well, bring those back to the basin.” It is the logical thing to do. Just entering the building expended some effort on their part. To come back again after a rest was excessively risky. And so, rather than do what he truly wished to do and break out his alchemy set to study the properties of this liquid remains of a dead creature, Felazo got to work putting the aged supplies from this man’s workroom into his pack. Meanwhile the others went through the shelves of the storeroom. The shelves, beyond the expected foodstuffs, also contain many jars of strange objects, objects that one would not expect in a relatively clean, neat, and orderly home. Jars containing monstrous heads, and piles of half-rotted garbage, and organs molding over (or perhaps even constructed from the mold itself). A strange and unsettling assortment to be sure. An assortment that every member of the crew knew instantly their captain would want to keep and study. As their wizardly boss finishes shouldering his heavy laden bag, the others are already in the process of ferrying the jars to the upper floor. Felazo happily joins in, after seeing one of the heads in a jar passing by.

They place the sealed jars into the marble washbasin. After all, the jars are sealed airtight, which means if they accidentally fill the tub with water, they won’t ruin whatever is inside the jars. The foodstuffs they place in a pile to the side. And after ten minutes of work, they are ready to move out. Felazo looks at the collection of things they have piled up in the tub. “Den, Hilan, do you think you can manage to carry that to the shore without too much of a struggle?”

Denlo gestures for the Sister to take up the other side. Together, they lift it up. It clearly is a strain on the already injured pair, but they manage. For a moment. They then put it down. Denlo cocks his masked head towards Sister Hilan. She takes a deep breath and says, “It may take some breaks, but yes.”

Felazo smiles. “Sari, help them. Ren, you and I get to be on food duty.” Sari nods and heads over. It will still take a while to transport the tub, but less time. He and Renalt gather up the food, undergarments, and other sundry they didn’t put in the fancy bag. “Ready?”

“One such as I be always ready,” Renalt replies.

Denlo shakes his head, looks towards the pair who are there to carry the tub. The group he knows the Sea Elf was actually asking. “Yes,” he says.

Evenly spaced around the tub, Alessari adds her own, “Ready.” she grips the edge of the tub.

The armored sister takes yet another deep breath. Squatting slightly, she grips one hand on the lip and places another near the bottom of the tub. “On three?” she asks. Felazo takes this as her ready, and begins to leave with Renalt. Heading towards shore, to collect their raft.

Denlo nods to Hilan, then lets the pair pass towards the entrance. They’d get in the way. “One,” he says after a moment. He squats fully, placing both hands behind him at the base of the basin.

“Two,” adds Sari, getting into her own position mirroring that of her walking companion, one hand on the lip and one on the base.

“Three.” Sister Hilan starts to lift the basin as she speaks, as does the noble huntress. The murderer waits a moment, allowing the other side to be higher than his own, then he, too, lifts it. He’d noticed the sister had been struggling with the weight, and he himself felt invigorated by the fights early. The adrenaline was still pumping through his system. So, this way, gravity would let most of the weight fall onto his hunched over but massive body.

Felazo and Renalt watch their compatriots lift up the basin, just to make sure they do, in fact, have the ability to bring the marble tub out to the shore, then they head out to the waterline themselves. It takes them almost no time, because while their arms are quite full of things, they’re not particularly heavy. Felazo heads over past his musical compatriot to the raft. Placing the food onto it, he lifts it and places it carefully onto the swampy waters of the shore. Then, pushing it through the muck, he makes it to where Renalt stands. “I figure, we bring this aboard the Ekzokia, then return with the raft before the other make it here with the washbasin,” the captain informs the musician of his thoughts.

Renalt agrees, and places his own pile of foodstuffs onto Felazo’s pile. “That indeed sounds like a sound idea.” He climbs aboard as well.

Felazo reaches down into the waters beneath the swamp. Water he knows many have died in. And pulls from it one of the drowned. A ghoulish creature of the waves splashes upward and, grabbing the raft’s side, it drags them through the waves to the Ekzokia. Renalt and Felazo, for their parts, make sure none of the food falls from the raft into the waves. The swampy waters quickly become clear and they make it to the base of their ship. To where they left the ladders already down for embarking. From keeping watch above, Kalzia darts down to join them. The four crew members now present transport the pile back to the top of the ship in almost no time, leaving a pile of food in the center of the ship’s deck. However, by the time they’ve finished, the water-born ghoul collapses into a drowned corpse once more, falling beneath the waves. Together, with Kalzia’s help, they return to shore in time to watch as Denlo, Hilan, and Alessari make it to the rocks by the reeds.

Denlo places the basin on the rocks. The others follow suit. Then, Alessari looks over at the others. “Felazo, if you don’t mind, I figure Den and I bring the jars over to the ship, I can remain on the ship to look over the food, make sure it’s all still good to eat, and the raft should be able to carry the tub across if it’s empty.”

Felazo takes a moment to consider it. “Should work, but it might be a bit much to move on its own,” he says, then disembarks with Renalt and says, “Go, I’ll figure this out.”

Kalzia helps the others move the jars onto the raft. Felazo sits on a tree’s root, thinking about the situation. Denlo will need to swim the boat across with the tub. Hilan can’t swim it in her armor, and the raft won’t be able to support both her and the marble basin. He and Renalt wouldn’t be much help on their own. They’re both too weak. The spare anchor chains would be sturdy enough. Ship is more than 100 feet off shore. Felazo sighs. That means the wizard will have to swim out with the raft. Not too much extra work, of course, but swimming is rough. Kalzia had joined Denlo and Alessari on the trip. It can stay there. I want it to be able to help out if need be without wasting space or weight. He approaches Sister Hilan and Renalt, who are resting leaning against the tub. The sister looks up at the captain. “Did you figure it out?” she asks.

“Yes. Are you two comfortable staying here alone for the transit of the marble?”

Hilan nods. Renalt smiles and adds, “Certainly so. ‘Tis no stress to rest, even if that rest be along a shoreline swamp.”

Felazo nods and looks out, watching as the killer, huntress, and creature formed of his own flesh finish moving jars up onto the deck of their home. “Keep an eye out, too. Just in case there’s any indication of the undead pirates whose treasure we came here to loot in the first place.”

Renalt nods. And they wait as Denlo swims back with the raft, leaving Kalzia and Alessari on the ship. As he makes it to the shore, he says, “One minute, then we move the tub onto the raft.”

Sister Hilan nods and lets Denlo take a breather to relax. Then, after a minute’s rest, he stands up and gestures for Ren to get off of the tub. The musician smiles, nods, stands, and perches on a nearby tree root. The holy woman and the quiet warrior take up their places on opposite sides of the now empty basin. Then they lift it onto the raft. Felazo joins Denlo in the water and together they begin to pull the raft slowly through the calm waters towards the ship. It takes longer than before, but they make it. Once they make it to the ship’s hull, Denlo climbs onto the ladder. Felazo pushes off the raft to get line of sight, swimming further back. Then, casting yet another spell, the chain that is wrapped around the ship’s railing makes its way down the hull, then wraps around the marble tub and begins to lift. Alessari, seeing what’s going on and with the help of Kalzia’s directive chirping, begins to pull on the chain as well. Then, once it’s up above his head, Denlo lifts it to the deck. Felazo drags the raft back across, deciding to let Denlo have an early start to his rest, seeing as he did the most work getting to that point. Back at the shore, Sister Hilan climbs onto the raft, and Renalt joins him in pulling it across. As they cross, the sister does add, “No sign of any ghosts. I wonder if the cube somehow disrupts their ability to venture out from the depths of the swamp?” An interesting idea, Felazo muses while he swims. He will have to look into that further.