Ghosts of Saltmarsh

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Seeing the brick that Tessyn mentioned, Sil shot his mage hand towards it and pulls it back revealing a hole in the fireplace. As the brick comes grating out, Dagger tries to walk into the room as a wave of spiders comes swarming out of the fireplace. Trying to shoot a firebolt as well as grab Dagger, the furebolt misses the swarm and hits the wall starting a small fire.
'Well if we burn it down, will definitely attract the marines and slow down whatever is going on 'ere.' Watching Ned use the trident, it is obvious that he is skilled, much more so than the rest of them. How did someone get the jump on him? As Tobi puts out the fire, Sil risks another shot of fire and clips the skittering bugs. Tessyn and Tobi hurt others and Dagger eats two. 'Too each their own, but yuck!' Then the excitement dies down as Ned steps on the last of the fast moving critters.
 
As soon as the bugs began to flow out, Teshyn shivered -- the other ones not too much of a distant memory. While the others floundered in their strikes, Sil even catching some of the building on fire, the ranger pulled back her arrow and tried to do an awkward shot along the ground, piercing through a few. Continuing to focus, even as Dagger attempted to eat some and most of the group seemed unable to land a blow, she did the same, this time wiping quite a few away.

Watching Ned stomp on the last few barefoot, Teshyn grimaced, remembering she was mostly barefoot at the moment, and tucked her toes -- at least her feet were somewhat calloused just from nature of her race, but the sensation was not one to be desired. Collecting only one arrow as the other had struck brickwork and chipped too much to be usable, she twirled it, "Thatte was ... a thinge thatte happened. Ae feel bugs have made themselves quite atte home here, butte theie would notte be whatte coulde have knocked poor Ned so harshlie."
 
As the bugs came crawling out of the hole, Daggers only thought was, "oh! A snack!" And he began to try and grab them. He only managed to grab 2 before the whole swarm was over. Sadly he sighed and Rose to help the others
 
When the brick was pulled Tobi jumps back reflexively at the sound of the noise, assuming more rotgrubs and wanting nothing more to do with those bastards. Thankfully it was only a swarm of angry spiders and Tobi visibly sighs in relief. He gives Sil a slightly disbelieving look as the marine sets the wall on fire and, ignoring the spiders for a moment, moves over to stamp it out. Taking stock of things he quickly runs the rest of the spiders through with his saber and wipes it off on his leg. He turns to the rest of the crew and gestures towards the bricks. "So, if they aren't openings to secret passageways, what do we think they are? Cubbyholes or just old age? When I was on a sm-" He coughs a little dramatically. "Small job before there were some islanders who did not have a bank and so would keep their valuables in places like this. Seems strange for an alchemist or whoever is using the house since though." 'Definitely rescued that one, close call Tobes.'
 
"Well that's that then." Removing the guts front his foot with a wipe, "let's find those back stairs."

Walking from the room, Ned heads for the next closed door, pausing only to let dagger check for traps, charges through into the room.

The kitchen is dirty and damp, with patches of gray mold and cobwebs on the floor, walls, and ceiling. In the southwest corner is some iron cooking equipment with a chimney above. Next to it, under the window, is a cracked and discolored stone sink.

To the right of the sink, a small, closed wooden cupboard is fixed to the wall about five feet above floor level.

Against the far wall, a flight of wooden stairs leads upward from west to east; the woodwork of the staircase is decayed, and a few of the treads are missing.

"There we are, stairs." Points with the trident.
 
"Careful going up them Dagger. No express trips back down here again." Sil says in a concerned tone. He watches Ned as they move. Something still feels incredibly off. 'For someone who only saw part of the house last night and was knocked out upstairs...he seems fairly comfortable running around here in his skivvies'.
 
Dagger, curious about the cupboards and the possibility of more spider snacks, begins searching the room. Injuries from falling through the floor, fresh in the young kenku’s mind they approach cautiously. Tracks left by hundreds of tiny insect feet, have disturbed the dust. Given the size of them and the breadth of the holes in the floor, he pauses. Centipedes are poisonous, and that’s what these tracks appear to be. Saddened by his lack of another tasty treat, he follows the group upstairs.


The treads themselves loose and perilous as you travel to the first floor. On the landing, you are greeted by more stairs, or what at one point was a full staircase. It has now been reduced to six intact steps falling short of a hole in the ceiling. A pile of rotten timber, most likely the previous stairs, lay in the corner. The hallway curves around western wall toward another set of bedrooms.


Ned, ignoring the hole in the ceiling, moves to charge ahead down the hallway once more. Calling over his shoulder, “Come on, before this draft makes these adjustments to my manhood permanent.”
 
Looking at the new corridor of the 2nd floor, Sil agreed with part of Ned's comment. Not seeing the nearly naked man running around with Tessyn's trident would be somewhat of a relief. He almost wished that they hadn't found the man. Things had taken a very strange turn since finding him. This was amplified by some aspect of the man's behavior. The more they watched the man, the more contradictions he felt that he was seeing. Ned was just one more piece of this house that stunk. The more of the house that they saw, the more Sil felt certain that this house was infested....but not with ghosts or something supernatural. Between the bugs and human footprints, it was fairly obvious that something reeked like three-day-old fish left sitting in the sun. The bigger question was how much of it was Ned and how much was Sil's imagination. 'Really would like to talk to Mr. Solmor about this employee. Why didn't he mention that someone was coming in when he hired us to investigate...?'
 
The others making their way up the steps, TBD took the chance to investigate the rest of the first floor while there weren't people to trample through the area even more. Following the tracks she made note of where it seemed someone toppled over then was dragged, glancing over at Ned she figured it was him, true to his story. However there was a trail that led downstairs ... the area she had been interested in before, then even more bug tracks were evident.

Movement caught her eyes as she stood to return to the group, and pressed herself against the wall, hissing back towards the others, "There's someone outside! A manne -- and a snake! Theie're bie thee well!"
 
Corian finished with the large snake and tossed it as far away from him as he could, then he quickly set about moving away from the well. That should be enough. Corian thought to himself as he put the vials of poison away in his bag. When he started walking towards the house he heard the commotion of multiple people inside. Odd, it's not usually that loud in there... Corian tried his best to quietly make his way to the front door to investigate the noise.
 
Tobi hears the commotion from TBD and stops in his pursuit of Ned. This seemed far more like an actual threat than the implications and potentials of Ned's possible betrayal. Still with his saber out he darts down the stairs, taking three at a time, until he manages to get down to the triton. He tries to speak in a whisper but there is too much adrenaline in his system to keep him too quiet. "A man and a snake? Outside? Do you think these are the ones that attacked Ned?"
 
Sil was relieved when Tobi went back down to help Tesshyn. He had absolute faith that Tessyn, Tobi and Amy could handle the sitiation downstairs. That left Dagger and himself up here with Ned, while he wanted to be downstairs, he just wasn't comfortable with The newest addition. Too many pieces of a missing puzzle. Mr. Solmor had been right to send a team up here to investigate. Maybe that was part of the puzzle. Mr. Solmor hadn't mentioned anyone up here or working for him. A dead fighter in the basement, knocked out person upstairs stripped almost naked, but knoxked out downstairs. 'Why not kill him and then strip him/check him. Why drag him upstairs?'
He hadn't had feelings about something this strong in quite awhile. By the planes of the Abyss, he hadn't even had an inkling of a feeling the night his ship was attacked and he was almost killed.
 
Hearing Tobi approach, the Triton answered him with a shrug, "Ae don'tte knowe whie anie others would be here, andde so recentlie." Glancing up the stairs she frowned at the others apparent obliviousness, recalling old lessons of how unaware humans were, and motioned for Tobi to hide somewhere in the room as she adjusted her hold on an arrow, treating it like a crude dagger and tucked herself against the wall where the stranger would be entering, having tracked them try to stealthily approach. Stilling her breathing, in the dim, her dark coloring almost blended into the structure, save for the faint glow of marks across her body.
 
Corian reached the door and quietly tried it to see if it was unlocked. It was, which he was thankful for. Corian slowly pushed the door in and stepped inside the building, and at the last second he noticed the Triton right next to him. She held an arrow, which quickly made it's way toward his neck. Corian reached out in an attempt to grab her wrist and stop her. But he was easily overpowered, and the arrow stopped just short of his neck. Corian immediately raised his hands in surrender. "Hello. I usually don't hear this much noise from the house....Are you the only one here?" Corian was a bit nervous about the situation he had gotten himself into, but he tried to keep his voice as even and calm as possible. "I'm just a merchant, as many people can attest to."
 
Teshyn bared her shark-like teeth as the man spoke, "Are you thee one who struck Ned, then?! Whatte reasons would a merchantte be here -- a desolatte house filled with bugs and rotten woode?!" Her aquatic eyes narrowed, trying to keep her gaze on the man's hands -- already aware somewhere he would have poison tucked away. "Speake," she ordered, pressing the arrow closer.
 
Corian kept his hands up and against the wall. He looked calmly back into Teshyn's eyes as he responded. "I have no idea who Ned is. But no, I have not struck anyone with anything. As for my reason here, the well is full of snakes that are good for poison, which is what I sell. I'm around here frequently because of that, and I usually don't hear too much noise from the building. Tonight though, I heard a lot of noise coming from here. I decided to check it out to see if there were any issues." Corian wondered if this Triton was even a good person, but it was best not to question her moral compass at this moment. "If you don't want anyone to know you're here, I won't say anything. But killing me may bring more attention to you than you probably want. I'm a trustworthy person, I promise."
 
"Ae trustte notte thee honestie of one who needs to promise such trustte. Ae woulde notte kill a person so casuallie -- as thee fishermenne saie, 'Ae have bigger fish to frie.'" Glancing over her shoulder to Tobi she gave him a questioning look. "Do you knowe this one?"
 
Tobi steps forward a little and looks into man's face. A look of recognition and surprise comes over his face and he blinks rapidly a few times. "Corian? Really? This is where you get your poisons?" The smuggler turns to TBD and nods. "Yes I know this man, he is called Corian and he speaks truth about being a merchant. Poisons and not in the most reputable markets." There is a slight shiftiness about Tobi as he continues, a nervousness to his voice. "Not that I have any reason to need or buy poisons other than rats in the warehouse and you know what the market sellers are like right Teebs? Always overcharging so sometimes I have to look elsewhere and that's the only reason that I go there. No other reason at all. But yeah, I know this person." They give Corian a look of 'Please do not give me away' and back off into the corridor a little.
 
"I'm a trustworthy person" Dagger repeats with Corian's voice from the top of the stairs. He shakes his head and ruffles his feathers slightly "Either way...'Ae have bigger fish to frie.'" and proceeds down the hall to find something more intresting. Stopping at the first door he finds he half-heartedly checks for traps and enters
 
Sil moves quietly behind Ned while backing up Dagger. He heard a little of the conversation from down stairs. 'Wish this half naked idjit would find his clothes. Dont trust him, but at least I wouldn't be looking at his scrawny arsed bones. There is something going on here, and it seems to point to the basement and upstairs in that room with the window. I don't want to let down Mr. Solmor or the Captains. Will definiteely recommend that this place be burned down forbthe death trap that it is. Definitely not haunted by the dead!'
 
Corian makes a small nod towards Tobi, then he looks back at the triton that was still right in his face. "I sell poison to many people who are looking to rid themselves of pests and vermin. The permits needed to sell such things cost too much for me to pursue at this moment, but believe that I mean no harm to you or your friends. I also feel that you are not as bad as I first made you out to be, especially now that I see Tobi among your group. If you need help in whatever you're doing, I can spare the time. I hope that in helping you I can relieve some of the fears you hold about me."
 
Teshyn stared into Corian's eyes for a few moments before pushing away, still with an arrow in hand as she watched the man. "Fine -- we alreadie have one we have added inne our time here, another does notte seem too outte of place. We're attempting to investigatte this house, do you know anything aboutte itte?"
 
Corian lifted himself off of the wall and dusted his coat off. "Thank you. I do not know much about this house, other then the fact that noises come from it every so often. It's never as loud as it was tonight, since you guys were running around in here. It does mean that there is at least one person here for some reason or another. I'm afraid that's all the information I would have for you though, I merely come to the well and then leave as soon as possible." Corian produced a little flame in his hands, before snuffing it out. "I will use my magic in an attempt to help your group with whatever else you may find in here."
 
Dagger not seeing anything trap-like opens the door to the room upstairs, followed inside by Ned. It appears to have been used for storage. A large, ill-made oak chest stands under the window, its lid closed. Elsewhere in the room lie three broken wooden chairs, two splintered wooden buckets, and a mildewed sack. Just inside the door is a heap of clothing; these garments have collected little dust, appearing to have been placed here only recently.

"By st. Cuthbert's hairy ball's, those are my pants." Without hesitation, Ned strides over and begins taking account of his possessions. "It's all here! The miserable whatever's didn't even take my sword!"

Sure enough, Ned now holds up a well made arming sword and scabbard. He then proceeds to dress in his well fashioned garments of deep blue; buckling the sword about his waist last. He seems to still be searching for something.
 
Keeping an eye on the hallway and sticking his head in occasionally, Sil wonders what the hell Ned is lookinng for now. 'This just gets weirder and weirder. Knock him out downstairs, drag him upstairs, strip him down, and then chuck clothes and a damn nice sword in another room. I would have kept the sword...So wish I could talk to the others without Ned around. Hopefully we'll have more luck with the newest addition downstairs'
"Okay you have clothes and your sword, what are you missing now?"
 
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