Looting a Pirate Ship

“I do hope there be no one who was awaiting us below deck. For if there were, they would be well ready for our entrance after your bickerings amongst yourselves.” In his own overly fancy way, Ren knows how to end a discussion. It’s one of the things Denlo likes most about the strange musician. The understanding of when people should stop talking, and the ability to make it happen in an instant.

Standing at the trap door leading further down, the large Elfi’ika takes a deep breath. This and the captain’s quarters. If this is actually some kind of pirate ship, like those that visited Tiarta-Urgrin, the real valuable stuff isn’t what they have themselves. The captain would probably keep any straight gold in his room. But since this ship seems like a subordinate ship in what seems to Denlo like a rather shoddy operation and since the person in charge of the operation clearly thinks mostly of themself, he suspects this ship’s captain did not get to keep much in the way of coin. But what they’ve stolen most recently, that’s a different story. And that would be in the hold.

He pulls the door up and open, half-expecting a poorly fired crossbow bolt to shoot up from the depths below. But there’s nothing. Just an eerie silence. Which means either there is no one left down here, or whoever is knows what they’re doing. But it’s always better to keep an eye out. Just in case. Head on a swivel, Den descends the rickety stairs into the sleeping hold. Cots and hammocks strung up all around. A few boxes, likely holding the crew’s measly possessions, strewn with the beds. No one in the room. Denlo moves towards the door to the cargo hold proper. Behind him, he can hear the others come down. He hears the muttering of someone invoking some kind of magic. From the atonal nature, he’s guessing it’s their captain. He closes his eyes and listens. He hears a slight creaking above them, but nothing in the hold. He pushes open the door quietly and slips inside the hold. Light on his feet, Den slides around the cargo hold, doing his best to search the place. No threats, no attacks. Coming back to the door, he pokes his head back into the sleeping room. “All clear,” he informs his crewmates.

Sari nods. Currently, she’s the only one actually paying attention to her surroundings. Felazo is carefully examining the boxes that likely have only spare clothes and trinkets. Ren, being his usual inscrutable self, is sitting on one of the hammocks lost in thought. Then, after a bit longer than it should to process, Ren adds, “Really? Are you sure?”

Den looks at his partner. A look halfway between a glare and a stare. Ren looks back and nods. But if the musician put forth the question, he must have a reason. “Why?” the killer asks.

Renalt gestures around himself. “I do believe we be missing one. This room, everything within that be not relatively permanent, be one of a set of four similar things. So either the captain of this here vessel did keep their own belongings amongst the crew. Or…” he trails off.

Den nods back. “On a swivel,” he says.

“There we have it,” Felazo suddenly says, pulling from a box what can only be described as likely a part of the box. A pale wooden rectangle. “Perfect, I knew I felt something in here. On to the next room?”

Denlo sighs. Clearly their captain is insane. Denlo opens the door wide for them. “Might want some light in here,” he offers up to the magic folk. He didn’t want to accidentally catch this ship on fire while they’re in it. Lots of wood around. The huntress sighs and takes out an arrow from her quiver. Muttering something to it, fungus begins to spread along its shaft, almost consuming it. She hurls the arrow into the room, and it shatters, creating four clouds of glowing spores. A green light suffuses the hold of the ship, making everything more visible, albeit tinted green.

“Many thanks, honorable huntress of hostile hedges,” Renalt says in response to the woman’s strange act. Denlo takes note. Clearly magical, but different than the others. Interesting.

Searching the hold takes some time. But between Felazo’s odd blank stare and the killer and the huntress’s careful searching, they found a few things down here. Even Renalt pitches in, at one point pointing at a strange, empty, embroidered silk bag and stating, “That one has something valuable to someone within. Bring it with.” Alongside the bag, they grab a set of studded leathers that the captain insists is magical, a box of potions, a box of alcohol that Sari believes to be both useful and valuable, and a pair of rings that are clearly magical. One of cloudy glass or crystal that seems to swirl, the other of rune-engraved platinum. And even without Felazo confirming their magical nature, the crew could pretty much tell. And beyond the magical things as a box of fine silk and a box of strange herbs for Felazo to have in his workshop. Together and laden with strange things, the group moves back up through the sleeping room to the main deck.

Once in the open air once more, Den notices the good sister’s side slightly bloody and one extra body on the Ekzokia. “Found your missing one,” he told Ren.

Ren smiles. “Fair you well, sister? I can be of aid if you wish,” he offers.

“I am fine,” she says. Normally Den would assume her to be lying, but she seems genuine about it. “Focus on providing aid to the others, I can maintain my own well being sufficiently, good musical maestro.”

While Denlo and Alessari start moving the items from the hold onto the Ekzokia, as well as the foodstores, Renalt and Felazo go back into the captain’s quarters to find the raw funds that were missing from the hold. “What is all this?” Sister Hilan asks as the pair of fighters move the last of the boxes.

Sari speaks up. “Magical stuff and other useful things.” Denlo takes the opportunity to tie up the surviving pirate. Because while he’s uncertain how alive the woman is, The fact that there aren’t any open wounds makes him concerned about things in general.

Just like Felazo, the pious woman goes straight for the simple flat section of wood. “Interesting. Very much so,” she mutters as she sits down and begins turning it over in her hands.”

Before Denlo could inquire about her interest, Felazo shouts out from the other ship. “We’ve got a bit more stuff in here. Could one of you help out?”

Denlo turns to Alessari. “Your friend seems to be focused. You should stay, keep an eye on things out here, I’ll help them.”

Sari nods. “Good on securing the enemy. Hilan fights mostly with her shield, so whether they’re dead is more of a tossup than those felled by us.”

Den nods in return, then leaps back over to the pirate ship. As he enters the captain’s quarters, the sight confirms his initial suspicions. No finery, no treasure. By the looks of it after the pair turned the place over, nothing really in the way of coins either. Some silver bars, some kind of valuable looking stones, and what appears to be a small tin box. “Just this?” Denlo asks.

“The silver is worth plenty. Probably.” Felazo replies, “The stones I can use to craft magical items. And as far as that box, it was hidden behind an illusion so it’s got to be worth keeping, right?”

Renalt leans in towards his warrior companion. “It be drugs. Good drugs, though not something one generally uses outside of…specific circumstances. Also valuable if you wish not to use it. Less than appreciated or legitimately allowed by certain communities, so we likely should find a way to keep it from outside eyes.”

Den nods. “Sister Hilan immediately started examining that chunk of wood you grabbed,” he informs Felazo, “Just in case you wish to know.” As he’s turning to leave, he notices something. What seemed initially to just be a strangely spiked toy ball of some kind twitches. “What’s that?” he asks.

“What’s what?” the captain asks back.

“That ball in the corner moved. Not much, just like a twitch.”

Felazo looks at the ball. “Odd, give me a minute,” he says and begins to utter some syllables that do not form words in the normal sense.

While he mutters his words, Denlo starts moving the silver and stones outside. After a moment, Felazo returns to the present. “Definitely magical. Innately so, though, not enchanted. Interesting.” He picks it up. It seems to squirm in his hand, despite just being a metal ball. “Best be leaving if we want to search the cursed pirate’s forgotten tomb before someone else remembers where it is.”

Denlo shakes his head as the three of them exit, Renalt keeping the box of drugs in his own hands. Sari has already moved the crate of silver across. The Elfi’ika picks up the crate of rocks that Felazo believes will help in making magical things and carefully makes his way over to the ship. “You had to take the lighter, more valuable one,” he mutters to the huntress.

Alessari smiles. “Yes,” she tells him. Because that is just a box of rocks and I didn’t realize you were a collector.”

Denlo puts the box of rocks down and gives her a light shove. “And before we brought up a box of dried plants. But if the captain says he wants to use something, we get to take it.”

“Wonder how he used to do it,” Alessari whispers, shaking her head.

Denlo remembers the first time he met the mage. He remembers the monster awakening on the pirate ship during the fight. Looking down at the dead bodies, he grimly murmurs, “How do you think?”

Sari nods. “Fair enough.”

The other two make it onto the ship. Removing the ropes connecting them to the pirate ship, the Ekzokia sets out, leaving the other boat of the va Cotropla pirate fleet adrift in the hungering, at the will of the waters of the Inner Ocean. Which, if the rumors that people told back home in Tiarta-Urgin held any truth at all, is entirely unpredictable.

Felazo turns to the others. “Welp, I’ve got a lot of time staring at magic things ahead of me.” He quickly casts some sort of magic and the air begins to shimmer and shift near him, then the shifting figure opens the door to the ship and moves within. “If anyone wishes to join me, feel free. I will likely be double checking your work, but that’s mostly because I’m paranoid and full of myself.”

Denlo turns to Renalt. “Help. I’ll stash it.”

Renalt smiles his false smile and nods. “Very well. Do be careful with it, ‘tis my favorite box.”

Den chuckles and takes the tin box from his hands. Alessari follows him downstairs. “You’re not helping?” the killer asks the huntress.

“I am. I’m keeping an eye on you and your Ren.”

“He’s not mine,” Den replies, “And we don’t need your eyes.”

“And yet, here I am,” Sari insists, not moving to head upstairs and help with identifying things.

“And here you are. It’ll be boring.” Denlo walks over to his sleeping area, places his sword beside him, and, without removing his armor or putting the box anywhere, lies down in the hammock. “I’ll be here. Have fun watching.”

The Elf woman sits down on a stool across the sleeping area from him. “I’m a hunter, I can wait longer than you.”

Denlo looks over at her. “You sure? Because you may be a hunter, but I am quite comfortable here and we both know you get restless inside.” Lying on the hammock, Denlo lets it gently rock. He takes off his masked helmet, placing it with his blade. He isn’t lying, either. This hammock, even still in his leathers, is more comfortable than at least half the places he’s had to sleep in his life. But he fails to account for how deep Sari’s distrust runs. They remain in place, keeping an eye on one another.

After hours pass, Renalt and Hilan come downstairs. “Truly, you two?” Renalt says, baffled. And, with a strum of his guitar, he sings a tonal song. The last thing either heard as they fall asleep is Renalt telling Hilan, “Apologies, good sister, but I’m going to hide this. ‘Tis the only way either of these stubborn fools shalt ever again actually do what they must and should.”