Ghosts of Saltmarsh - Firewatch Island (Day 9)

Day 8 - Continued)...

Just prior to bedding down for the rest of the night, we decided to collect up the remainder of the "dead" zombie bodies (about half were left after the second wave of zombies arrived to carry them away), carry them into the large stone tower along with as much of the broken furniture as we could find, and set light to them. This would both stop the sea zombies from being able to collect them and reanimate them if that is what they do, and kill off the green slime stuff that had accumulated there in the tower.

We set watches for the rest of the night but it passed without any further events.

Day 9...

We had a long rest, and began to stir around mid-morning. We decided that we should explore the rest of the hermitage, so told Jenna and Morley that we would lock them in the kitchen again, to keep them safe, and return for them once we had explored the rest of the upstairs of the building.

We headed up the main staircase and entered the room to the right at the top of the stairs. This room happened to be a hallway with a couple of doors along its length. We opened the door to the right as we entered the hall to find a room that resembled a scriptorium; lots of paper and books were scattered all over the room and tables, as well as a very large pile in the north-west corner.

Gladreth and I began to investigate the huge mound of books, paper and cloth in the corner but were surprised when it began to move. Navda, who was covering us, shot an arrow into the pile which then began to hiss frantically. Suddenly, three very large coral snakes erupted from the pile and began to attack the party. The rest of our comrades rushed into the room and we made short work of the snakes, but not before a few of us took some nasty bites.

Once the snakes had been dispatched, we were able to carry on exploring the rest of the room. Most of the papers and books were damaged beyond repair and readability, but we did garner a few snippets of information from the piles on the tables that were covered in spilt ink : a few words about a ship named The Tammeraut and something about a rift.

We decided that any further searching of this room would not reveal any more clues and treasure, so we headed back into the hallway and tried the door at the end of the corridor. This opened out onto a crenellated walkway that led to the large stone tower.

The door to the tower opened easily but a massive billow of smoke emerged as we opened it - the fire we had lit earlier had produced a lot of fumes. When the smoke had cleared, we realised that the floor had been badly damaged by the fire (but at least the slime and zombie bodies had been destroyed) and extra care would need to be taken if we stepped upon it. Luckily, Navda, the party's rogue, was very light on his feet and was able to make his way across the room to the stairway opposite.

Alone, he climbed the stairs and reported back what he observed on each floor. The third floor contained a continuation of the spiral staircase, as well as a big pile of rubble and nest materials, and a couple of tables. The nesting materials were from a natural source, seagulls and the like, so he poked around in it and found a back-pack which he sent down on a rope for us to take a look through; it contained some old clothes and three potions. The first table he investigated contained a leather-bound book, a metal rod and a small pouch containing a goodly amount of gold coins. The smaller table had more papers from which he could pick out more mentions of the sunken Tammeraut, a rift below and The Drowned.

3rd Floor of the Hermitage Tower

Navda climbed the next staircase towards a fourth floor. Above his head at the top of the staircase he encountered a trapdoor. He was able to push it open easily and climbed out onto a belfry platform with a circumference wall containing arrow slits. In the middle of the platform there was a large bronze bell with a rope attached, and a body ripped apart with its head missing; presumably Jenna's lost Aaron? However, by the body there was a message scrawled by hand in chalk and blood that said "Beware the sea killers".

3rd and 4th Floors of the Hermitage Tower

After searching around for more treasure and clues, but finding nothing more of interest, Navda returned to us on the walkway. We returned the way we came and attempted to open the last door on the floor that we had not investigated yet. There was a horrendous metallic screeching sound made as we pushed the wooden door open caused by a large mace head that had been used to stop the door. The room appeared to be some kind of bed chamber with an accompanying table and chair, and a chest. The table held what turned out to be an upturned bronze helmet, a straight razor and a very dirty, broken mirror. In the unlocked chest we found a couple of blocks of amber and a round religious icon linked to the same sea god we had seen in other rooms of the hermitage. The icon had what looked like fourteen diamonds embedded in it, so we kept it for future reference.

Upper floor of the Hermitage

After completing the search of the upstairs floor, and with our interest piqued with all of the sea god and sunken ship references, we decided to head to the library to investigate these clues further. We found many more interesting snippets but then decided to ask Jenna what she knew about the ship and the rift. After asking her to confirm that the body in the belfry was Aaron's (it was), we asked her about the clues we had found. It turned out that she held quite a bit of knowledge about the local history.

Apparently, many years ago, the Tammeraut, a famous pirate ship, began to store its riches on Firewatch Island. One day, a storm sank the ship and it was never seen again. However, many years later reports of pirates rising from the sea and attacking the hermitage became more common. A local priest began to investigate the tales and he managed to find out about a magical rift under the sea that connected a demonic portal and our world together.

We looked in the leather-bound journal we had found on the third floor of the tower with renewed vigour and discovered a few more clues. It mentioned word of a disaster; the pirate ship approached the island but was sunk in a violent storm about two miles to the south.

Putting all these clues together, we decided another trip to the library was needed now that we knew what we were looking for. We didn't find much more that we didn't already know, but we did spot, hand scrawled in the margins of a few of the books, a number of prayers and fragments of details written for the purpose of worshipping a sea god, the name Scarlet Harbinger and lines about being scared of death that awaits and a passage for safe harbour were found but they didn't mean much to us at this point. Regarding the pictures and tapestries on the walls with fresh eyes led us to find items that we had missed the first time around; I removed a picture of a galley at sea from the wall and a piece of parchment behind it fell out, which turned out to contain a map of the island and hermitage with a large X marked to the south of the island with a bunch of coordinates. Details of the sea god appeared everywhere. It is not a god I know of but it is a well-known sea god in these parts that, apparently, many ships' captains say prayers to for safe journeys.

Looking at our gathered treasures with this knowledge at hand, we thought that the helmet may be magical and the potions may be for some kind of underwater usage. We will get them assessed when we get back to town later though to confirm our suspicions.

Hermitage gardens and pool

All this talk of sea gods and treasures in a tangential way reminded me of the oval pool in the hermitage's garden. I talked my companions into having one last look around before heading back to pick up Jenna and Morley. Something had piqued my interest but I couldn't quite put my finger on it.

We made our way past the distillery and into the gardens and began investigating the pool and its environs. The pool was about three feet deep, with fairly clear water, and there were a few objects not quite discernable in its depths. Out of the corner of my eye, whilst looking into the pool, I caught glimpse of a shadow behind me. I quickly turned but could see nothing. I mentioned this to my companions but no-one had seen anything. It was then that I spotted a trail of footprints that led to the copse of trees behind us.

Gladreth and I went to investigate what we might find hidden in the undergrowth, but I was struck hard from behind and fell to the ground. I could make out no adversary when I looked around, so I asked whoever it was to show themselves. For an answer, Gladreth was also struck by this invisible being.

Meanwhile, Dharion, Druss and Drakkon clambered into the pool to get a better look at the items in its depths, and also for the water to be an early warning in case anything invisible with mass also got into the pool to attack them - they would be able to see the ripples of the being making its way toward them and they would be better able to gauge where to strike.

I was still listening and watching to see if I could see what had just attacked me. I grabbed a large handful of dust and leaves from the ground and threw it in a random direction. It just so happened to briefly outline a being that would otherwise be invisible. The shape took off at a run towards the distillery where it emitted a loud cackle.