The ship is wooden, but the wood looks very straight and very smooth.  Each piece cut and fitting precisely.  There is an open deck on top, mostly covered by the balloon, which is sagging slightly, so in places it's lower than it probably ought to be, and the ropes holding it are slack.  The material of the balloon is a very finely woven, tightly stitched cloth with a strange, smooth, waxy substance applied to it.  It is dull gray in color.

Qui-Lin is the first one on the upper deck of the ship. There are two deckhouses here, one in the front and one in the back, both about 12 foot square. Hoses snake from the deck houses up into the balloon above.

On the deck house behind the ballista there is a large brass plate, highly polished, with what might be the name of the vessel:  “Doctrinaire 2”

The ballista looks very much like a large heavy crossbow, made of dark polished wood with brass fittings, and tightly corded rope.  It's mounted to a round, disk-like platform on the deck.

And there is that sound again.  Crazed laughter, like a hyena being tickled.

Daladain shrugged as the shrub retreated. He wasn’t expecting much, so wasn’t disappointed. At least they weren’t going to have to fight the foliage.

His ears pricked up as he heard a strange sound. Laughter?

He listened. There it was again. But not happy, joyous laughter, more like the cackling of a witch. He looked down at the ship, straining his eyes to see what was there. He looked for signs of movement, or anything out of the ordinary... well more out of the ordinary!

With the talking bush withdrawing, Atraxus continues to make his way down toward the ship. The Half-Orc, while not as swift as the nimble monk, is sure of foot and makes his way down to the deck. The cackling laughter evokes a quizzical expression on the Half-Orc's face, and he decides to call out to whoever is responsible for the riotous ruckus.

"Ahoy!" he cries out over the sound of the storm, "help has arrived! Come out so we can bring you back to a safe haven from this chaos storm!"

"Careful," Qui-Lin cautioned.  "That laughter is not that of a well being."  Insane, more like.

Advancing to the first deckhouse, she checked for a door, or a window.

They find windows into the deck house, as we well as a door.  The door is on the back, the windows are on all the other sides.

Inside, steep wooden stairs with old handrails worn smooth go down into the ship below, through an opening in the floor of the deck house.  There is a hatch in the roof above, and a wooden ladder extends up to it.

Copper pipe runs from the floor below, up through the roof into the balloon above.

There are wooden racks against the walls.  On one rack are rolls of cloth, identical in color and fabric to the cloth of the balloon.

Another rack has two rolls of similar cloth, but bright yellow.

Outside, there is a crane just behind the deck house, and a large double-door hatch in the deck right behind the crane.  To either side of the hatch is a large wooden framework, about 24 feet long.  It looks like it might have been meant to hold something but they are empty.

There is the laughter from below again.  More of it, multiple voices.  At the same time, there is a sound of heavy running footsteps, a small gang of them.  You can feel the vibration through the deck.  The laughter rose and fell as the runners ran past, beneath your feet.

"I'd rather have whoever that voice belongs to come to us than have to hunt for them in the dark," Atraxus says with a shrug.

Dal continued to observe the show. He shouted down, “Why risk your life!? If they want your help they will come to the deck for rescue! Be wary that the crew might not be... well, friendly! I wouldn’t recommend dying today, it’s not the weather for a funeral!”

While he couldn’t do much to help, he could at least assist if trouble should come their way. He began to mentally prepare some of the tricks in his repertoire.

OOC from his position how far away is Dal from his companions on/close to the ship?

Qui-Lin nodded, stopping from going deeper into the airship.

"I wonder if they were affected by the chaos storm?" she mused.

The whole group is able to reunite on the top deck, catching up while Qui-Lin Xiang checked out the deck house, then paused.  They are all on the deck, in the vicinity of the deck house.

At the other end of the ship, they can see a second ballista, and a much smaller deck house- it looks like maybe it doesn't do much other than serve as a tie point for the big balloon.

The ship is made of wood.  It is very fine, very well cut and fitted wood, but wood nonetheless.  That means that sound (and even the vibration of their running) carries through it much more than it would through stone or earthen walls. It's clear the "laughing shriekers" are moving around, and quickly, and without purpose- it sounds like a lunatic asylum down there, with them running back and forth.  But also, you can tell when they are far and when they are near, relative to where you are.  As noisy as they are, they are not going to be doing any sneaking up on you, at least.

"Fools", snarls Lehai. "This is not the time to wait and twiddle thumbs. We must act now. But be wary. Laughter can mean fey. And they are best to be dealt with quickly before they can catch on."

The ranger will sneak up on the laughing shriekers while they're occupied with their own insanity. Lehai will not attack unless attacked first.

20:43, Today: Lehai Quandar rolled 17 using 1d20+3. Stealth.

In reply to Lehai Quandar (msg # 39):
OOC
To do that, Lehai must sneak down into the ship. They are actually one level beneath you, you are hearing them through the deck of the ship! Is that what you intended?

Lehai uses the ladder in the deck house to go down inside the ship, carefully trying to evade the laughing shriekers.

Lehai ignores the things inside the deck house, and explores downwards.  They are probably just ordinary "boat stuff" anyway.  Or maybe airship stuff?

Once inside Lehai waits on the others to catch up.  No sense wandering down halls full of screaming weirdos alone.

Of course, there aren't that many halls to wander.  The ship isn't that big.  The laughing gang may be erratic, but they are moving quickly, and there are probably minutes at best before they are back this way.

In the meantime, Lehai takes note of the surroundings.  The stairwell goes down another flight, to the lower deck.

Since the screamers went to the back, Lehai checks the front.  Forward of the stairs, Lehai finds a very nicely furnished lounge.

Worn but high quality upholstered furniture, polished leather with brass trim everywhere.   Couches around the walls, and a few chairs around a large wooden table in the middle.  Next to the table is an elegant looking wooden chest with brass fittings and lock. It is about two foot square, and three feet high, mounted on carved wooden legs, and opens by of the front panel, not the top.

There are four pictures on the walls.  All are in the same style.  All four are portraits- men in dignified looking uniforms, polished armor with dark black and gray cape, bristling with golden cords, badges, medals and other decorations, all looking very serious,  but some look faded.  Older.

But something odd about them.  The faces... the whiskers... those are mice.  Or if not mice, certainly quite rodential in appearance.

Qui-Lin frowned at being called a fool, and let Lehai lead the way, since he was so brash.  But she followed, ready to defend her comrade nonetheless.

Upon spying the portraits, she said, "An airship where mice evolved from men?"

Qui-Lin, and then presumably the others, follow Lehai's exploration into the forward part of the air ship.

They are in that "forward lounge" space just in front of the stairwell- they can hear hoots and shrieks from far in the back.

Turning around, they can see that there are actually two ways towards the back of the ship from here- there is a small door set in the wall all the way on the left side of the ship.

There is also a hatch in the floor, closed.

Qui-Lin looks at the pictures.  Yes, they look like mouse-men... by itself, not too bizarre, stranger things have been seen in the world.  But here are four of them, each wearing a uniform with gold embroidery, trim, and insignia that clearly indicates some status and rank.  Each has a name, and a number- if it is a reckoning in years, it is no calendar you have ever seen, but the numbers each differ by four to six and the pictures seem newer as the numbers get lower.

The upholstered furniture, polished leather with brass trim, surrounds the room, with couches and tables.  Then there is the  wooden chest with brass fittings and lock.

And the distant shrieking laughter.

Daladain is still above the ship.

From his vantage point, he can't see what the others can inside the ship.  In fact, he can't even see inside the ship, since the big balloon blocks the view.

What he can see:  Angry Shrub is in the distance, venting and fuming, looking mad.

The storm has receded but is still there, hovering miles from the shore.  It's looking pretty localized for a storm, but then Daladain has already learned that the storms here are a little bit weird.

Feeling a bit useless from this distance, Dal began to make his way to the stair. He ventured down as far as he could, but didn’t want to risk a jump from the broken section.

"We live in a big world filled with strange things," Atraxus replies to Qui-Lin with a grin. "With what we've seen here today, I should think that mice people would be one of the easier things to wrap our minds around.

"Regardless," he adds while donning his shield, "this is a rescue mission. Might as well see if there are any people for us to help." Atraxus moves cautiously toward the hatch leading down. He grabs the handle, and gives the door a soft tug to see if it is open.

Still a bit sour about being called a fool by Lehai, Qui-Lin's tone was a bit sardonic when she asked, "Door or hatch?"

"Whichever is open," Atraxus says as he gives the hatch door a tug.

At the bottom of the stairwell, Dal found the rope left by Qui-Lin. He wasn’t feeling heroic, but was curious to see what was aboard this strange ship, so he decided to catch up with the others.

Daladain hurries to catch up with the others, descending to the ship, and then following down the deckhouse stairs, passing Kealoha, who has paused to deal with an "equipment problem"- broken strap.

But perhaps it is fortunate that a couple of characters strayed behind.

In the Lounge room, Atraxus undoes the simple but heavy iron pin securing the hatch.  The hatch comes up easily, at the same time releasing a rope ladder that drops to the floor below.  The hatch, the hinges, everything looks very well fitted, well made, well cared for.

The room below is smaller than the lounge room but has a similar plan. It's not a lounge, though.  The party has journeyed across the sea.  Though they traveled on a Honoan catamaran, they have an idea of what the bridge of a larger ship looks like, and this looks like it- its got that big shiny metal wheel in the middle.  It's also got big windows all around, and also on the floor, especially towards the front where the belly of the ship slopes up to meet the nose.

There is some more furniture, and some charts, and oddly, the place looks like its been vandalized.  Some of the chairs are smashed, some of the charts ripped to shreds!

But meanwhile...

The door on the other side of the stairway on the upper deck, near Daladain and Kealoha, is open, and they can see down a ways through the ship, though they have a narrow view.  They can see another wall, and another open door, and through that door, a cluster of humanoid but certainly not human forms.  Hunched backs, big ears, long arms... and they are howling and laughing hysterically.  They have reached the end, and are turning back.

 

Atraxus scowls when he sees the scene below deck.

"It looks like someone attacked the ship and its crew," he says while drawing his sword. "I suspect those laughing can tell us what happened. Hopefully, the crew of the ship is still alive, but if not... at least we can prevent their attackers from escaping into Deluzion Bay."

Kealoha takes a moment to get a better look through the door, looking back into the ship.

She sees the ship's kitchen and dining area, together in one large room, with doors, mostly left open, to other rooms off of it.  There's a large iron box in the cooking area, and a rack with utensils- not so many, all clustered together.   Other racks hold mugs, pots, basins, cups, all sorts of items, but these two are mostly empty.

She doesn't have time to observe much.  Neither does Daladain.  Here they come.   Hunchbacked humanoids, with pointed ears, black manes and grinning faces, the seem to embody a certain murderous insanity.

Kealoha has time only for the briefest of strategy discussions, because they are definitely headed this way.   Hold them here?  Run?  Or what?

 
This message had punctuation tweaked by the GM at 15:31, Sat 26 Sept 2020.

Daladain thought about running away. It had served him well enough in the past. But this place was strange. Maybe the normal thing to do wasn’t the best thing to do anymore? Maybe things had been flipped around? So, he tried a new approach.

He waved his hand at the creatures. “Hello! Are you well? My friends and I thought you might need a hand.”