11 Ship Discovery

During the night the team noted the ship change course. It was fortunate there were ones sensitive enough to spot that, and wise enough not to miss the significance. They manned the deck.. though they could see nothing in the dark.. and I suppose they could have sniffed for smells of the land - but humankind has relatively useless noses, so they are visually oriented. So instead, they used their tricks to send light into the dark, as far as they could.. and saw it reflect from the marshlands dead ahead. An alarm they sounded, and did an anchor turn, avoiding barely running the ship aground in the marshes.

Then, the ship halted, they could see the flickering light of what should've been a lighthouse, inviting them into the marsh.. which they could hear and smell and see, only a bowshot away.. and spent the night there. In the morning it was decision time, and the captain decided to press on to the next town for news and delivery, whereas the team stayed with a longboat to explore the marsh.

It did not take them long to realize that they were observing creatures who were observing them observing the marsh. Drai used the might of the Big Lizard in the Sky, and COMMANDED one of the creatures to surrender! And it raised scaly front paws, understanding the common tongue of humans.. but that's as far as the surrendering went, as its companions yanked it back. No surrender there, not even a clear sighting, but Drai felt smug. It was always good to show someone the might of the Platinum Dragonfather of Good Dragonkind.

With nothing to do at that point save await retaliation with of slingstones and javelins and spears and arrows and bolts, the team wisely moved on, searching the coastline, and found the ship they were hired to find. It had hit the marsh at a considerable pace, making a shipwide ditch of broken, rotten wood and plowed-through vegetation - and been camouflaged since with sticks and plants. It would've been hard to spot from a passing ship, but from a nearby boat it was obvious. Getting past the camouflage took some work and time, but nothing unsurmountable, so soon the team was on the missing ship.. finding it abandoned.

Most of the cargo was there, the cargo hold door open. The present cargo was high-quality wood from the forest that I had explored with the others.. it made sense there were lumberjacks someplace, and sawmills. An area of cargo was missing though, and the team deduced from scrape marks that something coffin-sized and shaped had been there, and something that could have been a treasure chest. Drai spotted something glinting under the deck, and searched the ballast area finding a fancy silver and ruby key there. It was covered in coded writing (that Scars decoded but didn't tell anyone), and it made Drai think of vampires. Drai also picked some bags of sand and gravel that were probably make-shift ballast where someone had run out of rocks, but could be something else.

A few coins, and some clues.. black lizard-blood and red human blood, absence of people, weapon damage to walls and doors, some paperwork.. and the team was content to leave. As they came on board they noted that someone or something with a pale white head was trying to steal their boat, so Scars blasted the creature with his magic, calling upon the forces of the universe to blast the impudent creature to pieces.. and it sank under the waves, leaving the boat be. Soon the team recovered it, and started a long rowing session out of the marshlands.

Apparently that's why Jerry had insisted that the cargo belongs to the shipping company. I can't say that I am impressed that he withheld information from Drai and the others. Neglecting to mention that could've gotten them killed or stuck in a marsh, instead of just calluses from rowing for hours.