The dragon circles high above but it doesn't see anything nearby. This is not unsurprising as the Wormwood likely would not return for hours. However when it flies even higher allowing it to see around the curvature of the horizon Kalia thinks she sees another ship. At around 10-15 miles away however it is difficult to tell if it is the pirate vessel or one of the other wrecks tossed together in the storm.

"There is another ship, I believe, about 10 to 15 miles out that way. At this distance, even through Drakar's eye's, it's hard to tell if it's one of the other wrecks or the Pirate ship." She considered for a moment. "Xao, would you be able to shift into something and go that far and back? Or at least, get closer?"

She shakes her head. "No, I can change for only a few minutes. Nothing like the time it would take to cover the twenty or thirty miles for a return trip." She turns to Pearl "I can swim. The boxes I saw earlier looked like they would float."

"Okay, so I think we have decided, Vander and whoever wants to help him work on the raft.  While Zug Zug and I find the stuff in the hold.  If someone else wants to come with us just follow us."  Pearl then begins to move towards where she thinks the hold is.

Pearl heads back down below deck towards the cargo hold but pauses as she reaches the flooded stairs down. For just a brief moment she glimpsed what look to be a human (or humanoid) arm in the water but when she blinked it was gone.

Zug Zug followed Pearl. When she stopped, he stopped. "What is it? The water is getting deeper, too. Maybe we should go back up and look through those two rooms we missed the first time and consider this a lost cause?" Zug Zug's voice was a grizzly baritone, his facade of being a complete idiot momentarily gone."
This message was last edited by the GM at 15:07, Sat 15 May 2021.

"I feel a raft is a bad idea, we do not know which wood is good or bad and have no way to tell." She said flatly. "Either way, as you all do that I will through Drakar keep an eye out for the ship."

In reply to Zug Zug Bob (msg # 177):

"I could have sworn I just saw a humanoid arm but it's gone now.  I am afraid I agree with you.  If there are things in the water like zombies or something like that, we can't fight them while holding our breath.  Let's go check out the rooms."  Pearl said as she turned back.

Zug Zug grimmaced. He didn't like the idea of zombies not being returned to the grave. On the other hand... "Or slowed down by trying to wade through. We don't know where the leak is either..." Zug Zug shook his massive shoulders with a sigh. "This ship is cursed. Best to let her sink and feed whats left to the sharks and crabs. Come on."

Zug Zug extended a hand to help Pearl back up the steps and then quickly got out of there to go check on the first of the previously unsearched two rooms. "You fought better than most every other human woman I ever seen. Stabbing that bastard halfbreed and making him drop the club was... how you say... sweet."

There are two relatively dry areas still unexplored. The first is on the lower deck past the main spider nest. Xao recovered a bracelet from there but there was one last area she could not get access to in spider form.

The second is on the upper deck with the room full of spider webs that the party took one look at and said "nah" and went to explore the captain's quarters instead.

OOC: I'll leave it to Pearl to say for sure, but I think the closest is the room Xao got the bracelet in, and makes more sense to go there first if we are escaping "up". If it requires me to bash something in to get there because Xao couldn't, or some other type of Buffness test, assume I'll do it.

We will go to this area first as Zug Zug said.

"There were a few boxes in the room I went into but nothing that looked promising" She says from the behind the two explorers.

As the other's explore, Kalia will continue to watch the boat she saw in the distance for movement. Occasionally she will take a look in other directions to look for signs of other boats as well.

In reply to Xao Fang (msg # 184):

"I think we are more looking at going into the room you couldn't get access to."  Pearl said as she made her way to the door.

Xao gives a brief nod of agreement before stepping out of the way to let the others lead. She takes a readied stance and lifts a hand in preparation to hurl a spell if there is anything aggressive on the other side of the door.

OOC: Is the raft making going well? Or should I help the others?

Below Deck
Pushing past the central spiders nest, Xao, Pearl and Zug Zug Bob work together to cut apart the webbing and open up the door to the north revealing a smallish chamber that is again full of spider webs. Looking around further the group finds nothing else of value but there is yet another door that has been webbed shut. They also find a heavily webbed staircase leading up and their position puts them under the webbed room up above they looked into and then ignored.

Opening up the next door reveals more thick webbing. Among the webs are bones and the shriveled limbs of men and animals along with other gruesome remains that dangle from sticky tangles. Two human-sized bundles hang from the northern wall while dozens of small spiders scurry about everywhere.

---

Top Deck
Nenelethas, Vander and Kalia work on putting a raft together. Vander is put in charge while Kalia spends her time spying on the other ship trying to see if it is coming or going and Nenelethas seems content to let Vander take charge.

I'm looking for two checks for building the raft

1) A DC 15 Craft check to put the thing together

2) A DC 15 Knowledge check around engineering or sailing or woodworking etc. to ensure the raft is made from the right materials.

All three of you can attempt both as you have time to work together and I will use the highest of your three results.

Success on both is a full success, passing one but not the other is a succeed at cost and failing both means you had better prepare to make a bunch of swim checks :D

Xao quickly moves to the bundles and begins slicing at the webbing to free the contents. "Quickly! Cut the other one out. We can search the other bundles later, but these two are alive!" She slices around where she figures the head would be first. There is a vague possibility that whoever is contained inside could be hostile and she would like to know that before freeing their limbs.

In reply to Dungeon Master (msg # 189):

Ooc-i dont have any one those knowledge skills.

Pearl assists Xao in cutting out the bodies, she copies what she does by removing a piece where she thinks the head is.  "I didn't even see it move!"  Once the face is revealed she will first look if it is alive and if so awake, if so then speak to it. "Who are you?"

In reply to Vander Wargrider (msg # 191):

Kalia has Knowledge Sailing, but she does not have craft skill and you cannot use craft to build something unskilled. So I'll at least roll my Knowledge.

22:53, Today: Kalia Tyrnddare rolled 11 using 1d20+6 with rolls of 5.  Lore Sailing.

Just so you know, when we all end up swimming, she will say that she told you so.

In reply to Kalia Tyrnddare (msg # 193):

Ooc-07:17, Today: Vander Wargrider rolled 7 using 1d20+3 with rolls of 4.  Crafting roll.

Yup, seems like it.

Zug Zug hung back as to not get in the way of his two companions. He remained on guard. They were disrupting a food source. "Be careful." The orc warned. "They could be cannibals like the sad excuse for a shaman or infected with some kind of venom. It is possible they are hosts for vermin waiting to erupt, too. They have been there a while." Zug Zug was not optimistic.

Below Deck
Xao and Pearl frantically get cutting to remove the webbing and both women nearly have their hands bitten off as they clear the face to reveal not struggling survivors but dessicated zombies reanimated to mindless unlife. The zombies are thoroughly bound but they strain and stretch trying to snap their jaws at the throats of the living.

---

Above Deck

As a reminder all three of you get to make both the craft and skill check. If you don't have a specific lore that might apply to building an emergency raft then just make a raw INT check and hope the RNG gods are on your side.

So far we need a craft check from Kalia and a lore check from Vander.