Ghosts of Saltmarsh

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Anxious from the sudden boom and voice, Teshyn froze up, her grip tight on the bow, flashbacks to the last time she'd heard something so loud and ominous ... only to listen to Tobi's story and slowly start to grin, shark-like teeth on display until she laughed, "Ae don'tte knowe whatte 'scuh-whirls' are, butte itte sounds like a mouse -- makes me thinke of howe some tritons coulde stare a sharke inne thee face, butte were terrified of tinie crabs."

Adjusting her bow and quiver the woman stood ready, "Anie one here knows we're here now, we neede to be careful, we've lostte thee elementte of surprise."
 
"Aye, you be truly right, whatever advantage we had has been pretty much been lost. All we can hope is that they believe it was children and that they ran off." Looking at Dagger, Sil began humming a calming song once he regained his own composure. Part of him truly wanted to believe that it was a hoax, or people taking advantage of the legends and the myth of the house. However, there was that tiny voice in the back of his brain that seriously messed with his nerves and entertained the notion that there might be some hint of truth to the stories of this house and it is haunted.
While he kept humming, he summoned the reddish blue hand and sent it to feeling and exploring the trapdoor. "I am not skilled in such things, but I don't believe that there are any traps on this door."
 
Amy was startled by the voice, and began shaking in her chainmail. She gripped her shield tight and her warhammer tighter as she listened to Tobi's tale. She calmed and stood back up to her full height. "We were never likely ta be all that sneaky in this place. Let's figure out where ta go and get this job done." She stepped over to the trap door and raised her hammer up, readying herself for whatever may be through it.
 
The spectral hand flings the hatch open, to reveal... No one, only a rickety old set of stairs leading to a wine cellar.

Shoulder-height wooden bottle racks line the north and west walls here. There appear to be no intact bottles left in the racks and shattered bottles are strewn like confetti across the floor.

Cautiously making your way down, the party notices two things. First, against the east wall, at the foot of the stairs, rest two large metal storage bins that look to be empty.

Secondly in the center of the room lies a human corpse clad in plate mail; a longsword lies by the corpse's right side, and a large shield covers its legs.
 
"He's dead Jim." Dagger whispers as he moves to the body, checking for moar traps along the way.
 
"Well with the alarm upstairs and a dead body down here, I would say that we are on to something. However, if its people why didnt they take the armor?"
 
Sil being of the more cautious variety doesn't trust Amy's medical assessment. Discretion being the better part of valor fire flies from his hand striking the corpse...
It lays there motionless, and as the fire crackles along you hear a strange popping sound... Small white forms, like overgrown maggots wiggle free from the crevasses in the corpse, fleeing the fire.

An army of hungry mouths moves across the stone floor...
 
Tobi looks at the maggots with horror and moves in front of everyone else, he had seen these before in corpses in caves and he knew how dangerous they could be. "Get away from them. If they bite you they will burrow into your heart. If they bite you burn them off immediately, better a scar than a corpse!"
 
Tobi's words scare dagger, never has he heard of such things. Fearing these...things dagger grabs one of his flasks of oil and throws it at them, his fear kicks into high as the worms caught fire. Afraid to move he aimed his dagger and planted it deep into one.
As the last one fell he dropped to his knees breathing deep to calm himself "He's dead...Tobi?" he asked hoping that was true as he cautiously moved to pick up his thrown dagger
 
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Tobi swings his saber at the worms but only manages to drag it across the ground. Thankfully he sees the others start pouring oil over them and reaches into his pack to do the same. Not wanting to be right next to the little buggers when they went up in flames he tries to step back but one of them jumps up and bites him on the upper arm. Tobi loses all sense of cool, screaming and flailing as he tries to get the worm off. "Get it off! Oh gods! Don't let me die. Get it off!" When TBD burns it away he sighs in relief despite the pain from the burn. Following Dagger's example he throws his last resort dagger into one of them and soon they are all dead, taken by the fire and the others. He sits down almost immediately and rubs at his upper arm trying to take a deep breath. "They are I think. I hope. Gods I hope they are dead. Those things they... the grow in rotting flesh and they bite people and burrow their way in. They have to be burned off but they are damn quick getting into you. If you miss that initial chance then you are dead, straight away. I came across them in a corpse following a pirate attack where we were trying to help out recovering the salvage that was left. Lost two men that day."
 
As the group reached the basement, they were greeted by a dead skeleton in plate mail. The cleric ascertained he was truly dead, however hadn't gotten closer. As the group kept searching the basement, Sil was sure that it twitched. Remembering the tales of how the house was haunted, he was not taking a chance. He threw a firebolt at the body. As the body started to burn it erupted in a mass of rotgrubs.
Hearing Tobias's warning, he wasnt taking any chances. Trying to throw another firebolt he stumbled as he scampered back and missed the worms but hit the body again. Seeing one go into Tobias really triggered fear and he wasnt sure whether to burn Tobias or the mass.
As Teshyn took care of Tobias and her casual flick of a match ignited the first batch, he calmed down. His next shot clearly focused hit the mass dead center. The sound of popping and snapping rotgrubs was a reassuring sound. He breathed a sigh of relief as Amy smashed the last batch of burning grubs.
 
Unsure what the grubs were at first, at Tobi's report Teshyn didn't want to be anywhere near them -- firing into the pile and spiking quite a few on the bolt, even with the small area to maneuver. Hearing the man's yelps at the bug trying to burrow into him, TBD quickly reached into her pack, bringing out a bit of flint and a match, striking it quickly to remove the grub -- watching it fall to the ground she considered smashing it with her foot before remembering she didn't wear boots as the others did, then turned and threw the match into the oiled pile. Not keen on the heat she backed away, gripping her bow in case more were around.

"Ae justte don'tte care for them." The triton admitted, placing her flint back in her pack, "Ae also hoppe the fire does notte spread too much while we're stille here investigating."
 
With the worm things out of the way and Silraine looking for loot, Dagger inspected the brick that was protruding for anymore traps.(Finding nothing he eventually got bored and headed back to the first floor to check the library, inspecting for traps as he went.)
 
Retreating up the staircase that time forgot, the party returns to the first floor. The door to the library still ajar.

This room that was once a library, with bookshelves around the walls. Now lies mutilated, a ghost it's former splendour. Most of the shelves are broken, and in many places they have come away from the wall. The few shelves still intact are empty, but a pile of books rests in the southwest corner. Covered in cobwebs, many of the bindings have been lost to time.
 
The corridor opens onto a musty, dirty entrance hall. The walls are bare and bits of smashed furniture lie upon the floor. To your left, another corridor leads toward the rear of the house.

A staircase on the eastern wall climbs to the next story, reaching it at a balcony that overlooks the entrance hall along its north and west sides; the stairs appear safe to climb, though the balcony rail is broken in several places. Under the stairs at the north end of the hall, a third corridor leads east.

What's that? A sound? Somewhere upstairs you can here muffled screams for help, and a thumping. Someone or something is in trouble...
 
Following the rest of the group, TBD kept her tinderbox at the top of her pack in case it was needed once more. The house layout had thrown her off -- she was still used to more simpler designs, where one room, maybe two at the most, was the entire place. It was easier to know where everything was ... a place like this she expect she'd constantly get lost.

Hearing a sound she froze, looking up and whispered to the group, "Did anie of you heare thatte? Ae thinke someone's getting attacked!"
 
Deep in thought about the door in the basement, Sil missed the sounds of thumping coming from upstairs until Teshyn mentioned it. He kept wondering about the bigger picture and how these small clues tied together. Unlike the others, he felt the true answers were downstairs, and this was a red herring keeping people from truly discovering the secrets and evils in the house. 'If the Princes are using this house for their deeds then they have established a foothold in our midst. That would be most ill and foul. I have to show the Captains that I can carry my weight and that night three months ago was a fluke.'
"Huh? Sounds? Yeah...now that you mention it I do hear something up there. Let's be careful!"
 
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Tobi has been idling around the back of the group since the rot grubs, still trying to regain some of his nerve and steady his breathing a little. By all the gods he did not need to come that close to death on land in some haunted house. He doesn't bother looking round the library and he trudges out with everyone else until he hears TBD give out the warning. He adjusts his shield and saber and looks to Sil with a small nod. "I'll follow your lead on this. Let me know what you want me to do." The joviality and the playfulness is completely gone from his voice as he focuses, trying to pick out the sound.
 
The muffled cries for help amplify as you rush the stairs. A balcony leads to the left, it splits into two corridors. The right! Another hallway, three doors to the hallway.
The sounds? Coming from the last room, is someone gagged?
The door outside is locked, a key hangs on a nearby hook... A prisoner?
 
In a slight state of panic Tobi completely ignores the key and moves straight to the door. He notices that there is no dust on the doorknob, a sure sign that the door has been recently used and it seems likely to him that this voice is genuine. So he throws himself at the door and bounces off in an almost horizontal manner as he uses completely the wrong technique. Flushing with embarrassment and feeling a little foolish he looks up and notices the key, trying to hide his blushes he points to the door. "I think it's genuine. The voice that is. I didn't use the key because I thought it might have been poisoned. We were fighting pirates once and we boarded them but they had boobytrapped the keys with a contact poison. That's why I tried... you know. To break it down."
 
The lock opens smoothly without hesitation, it's been oiled recently. So has the door it swings wide without effort.

In the southeast corner of this decayed bedroom lies a man; he is alive, though bound and gagged. He is clad only in undergarments and appears to have no weapons or equipment.

Fear in his eyes, he strains against his bindings. It seems like he was trying to escape.
 
Sil's eyes sweep the room for threats beyond the bound man in the room. His finger close to the trigger, he hesitates and raises the crossbow up. "Okay....that's a new one. Bound mostly naked guy in an empty haunted house...this just keeps getting better and better. Yeah, there's nothing going on up here....nothing at all". Sil nods towards Tobi, "be careful".
 
Teshyn studied the new sight -- definitely not what she had expected. Glancing around the room she spoke up, "Ae see nothing like a trap, butte this place has me on edge." The triton focused on the man, "Ae do notte recognize him either -- shouldde we release him? Atte thee verie leastte mabie his gag?"
 
Tobi frowns a little when he sees the man and, following TBD's example, takes a quick look inside the room. He turns to TBD and nods pointing to their new tied up friend. "I think ungagging him would be a good idea, give us more of an idea of what's happening. Keep a lookout for anything dodgy." He walks into the room cautiously, still with his saber drawn and makes his way over towards the man. Leaning down he pulls out the gag and gives what he hopes is a disarming smile. "Hi there. No shouting or the gag goes back in okay? Look who put you here and why should we let you go?" He pauses for a second and then seems to remember something. "And what's your name?"
 
Dagger shook his head, this man being here ment that there was something going on. Worry that the may not be alone made him stay in the hall to watch for whatever trouble me be coming.
 
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