Going Up

"Let us press on. We can investigate this shaft after we finish our inspection of the ship." Voah handed the torc back to Tarmen. She would keep her eye on him to see if he used it and what sort of magik might be imbued within it. Later she would have to destroy the torc if it came to it.

“The Arbiter makes a good point. One funny business after the other. Let’s get the ship done first.” Alexis decided with one last look into the ominous rocky path.

Voah followed closely behind Alexis as they explored the rest of the deck, looking for a way to continue upward.

Hunter remained on guard as the others searched the the ship. Since he had no idea what to look for he thought it best to stay on guard. Since they were trespassing on the ship it was a matter of time before someone came home. He kept his eyes moving about for movement since the others were loud. By this time he had adjusted his eyes to the darkness. His bow was ready to shoot the moment he saw an enemy.

Turning the torc over again in his hand, Tarmen felt an urge to toss it into the waves. Not out of dread or bad feeling, simply an idle wish to be rid of it. Instead, he pocketed it and looked to the planks around them. Given how rotten they were, he doubted hooking a rope to anything would help, though this brought a question that he voiced to Alexis.
“You would think there would be stairs to the deck, no? Don’t make much sense that they would rot away before the rest of the ship.”

“Agreed. Let’s see if we can find ‘em. Worst case, we’ll have to try climb from the outside.”

As you move forward toward the bow of the deck they spotted some stairs that led to the next deck up. However, at the bottom of the stairs, they found a large pile of detritus. Upon further inspection, the party noted dozens of charred bones including human skulls.

"Zin's Garden." whispered the Arbiter. "I'll go first." Thinking that whatever caused this could have come from the deck above just as well as the current one.

Barely able to hear her, Tarmen felt validated in his previous thoughts.
“I’d say that’s all the proof needed for magic. Any way to know if they are from Allosi?”
He felt silly asking, but if there was a tell, he wanted to know.

Voah turned to Tarmen, "Besides the burnt bones and the crest, I couldn't give you another tell, but I think we can be pretty certain at this point that we are dealing with Allosi."

She knelt to the pile of bones and whispered a quiet prayer to give the souls proper rites of passage to Zin.

“I wonder if they carried their own demise on this ship…” Alexis murmured to herself as she stepped aside to let Voah take lead.

"You may be right." Voah nodded, imagining she knew what Alexis was thinking. The evidence was pointing to a possible escaped captive causing the destruction, possibly the entire wreckage.

Readying herself, Voah took a deep breath and stepped over the piles of bones, plunging into the dark of the upper deck.

As she stepped onto the stairs, they groaned and cracked under her weight. One of the rotten and burnt steps gave way and one of her legs slid into the floor, all the way to the knee.

Stifling groans of slight pain and embarrassment, Voah felt the wood and splinters scratching and scrapping the flesh under her garments. She managed to avoid falling through any further and pulled herself into the next deck. The others looked at the stairs ahead of them deciding how to traverse the precarious steps.

Voah lifted herself to her feet and cautiously looked around with her hand on the hilt of her blade. 'Graceful...' she silently mocked herself.

Alexis rubbed her chin.

“Well, here goes nothing…”

Warned by Voah’s misfortune she carefully gave ascending the stairs a try, stepping more at the side of the steps than in middle and testing before putting her full weight on them.

The wood bent under Alexis' weight but she reached the next deck unscathed. Alexis stepped over to Voah.

“You alright? Did you get hurt?”

"It's fine... I think." she responded. Rubbing her breeches where the wood scraped her and checking for bleeding. There were a few scrapes from ankle to knee, and a little blood. "Stings a bit... but I'm fine to move on."

The mercenary nodded. “Clean and dress it still, please. Freaking ship is not worth getting wounds infected.”

Voah nodded. She would tend to the wounds when she knew there was no imminent danger.

Tarmen followed Alexis’s example, choosing the opposite side to try and even out the stress. He also made it to the next deck but as he moved up there was the sound of snapping and cracking.

Everyone looked down at Hunter.

Hunter looked up at Tarmen and finally broke his silence as he asked, “Still have that rope?”

Tarmen held the rope around himself and knelt down so he couldn't be pulled so easily as Alexis took watch at the edge to reach for him. Voah remained vigilant, ready to provide any assistance.

Hunter put up his bow and arrow before he grabbed the rope lowered down to him. He held it tightly as he followed the same pattern that Tarmen used up to the top using rope in case the stairs gave out during his silent and graceful leaps.

As Hunter reached the middle of the steps, they cracked and broke under his weight. He shifted his weight several times pulling his feet up from the holes he caused but he made it to the others with only a few minor cuts and splinters to his ankles. Once Hunter was with the others he muttered, “Thanks.” Then he looked around to see if the coast was clear, before lowering himself into a squat position and removing the splinters. He was a bit concerned with getting an infection from the old sea wood.

The next deck was pretty much empty. It was clear to the group now that this vessel was abandoned and apart from some animals here and there nothing else appeared to inhabit the wreck. They make their way to the top deck eventually with little else of note, glad to be looking down at the sun and the beach below.

Up ahead they saw a cabin below the helm.