Ghosts of Saltmarsh - Secrets and Lies part 2

Ghosts of Saltmarsh - Secrets and Lies

Gerrin Copperhands - Dwarf Warrior
Ashtamit (Ash) - Magic-user
Berren (Bear) - Wood Elf, Ranger
Oriane (Ory) - Thief
Coal - Raven
The Wicker Goat - Inn
Manistrad Copperlocks - Dwarf
Helfrid - Dwarf Miner
Tob - Dwarf Miner

Ghosts of Saltmarsh - Secrets and Lies part 2

The day was surprisingly cold and wet. The small band of adventurers had enjoyed fair weather when they had made their way to Saltmarsh. Only Berren had been to the town before as his clan of wood elves hailed from within the Silverstand, a wood above the town of Burle, and was something of a local as compared to his companions.

Gerrin's family was from the Little Hills where they had substantial holdings in the many mines as well as an important role as leaders in the dwarven towns and settlements in the area. Ory and Ash were both from more distant realms. Ash from Ket and Ory originally from the city of Greyhawk. She had crossed daggers with the Thieves' Guild and was told by friends to make herself scarce and that she had done taking the first ship she could find. It left her in Keoland and from there she had found her new companions while leaving her past behind.

Now the four, with Ash's companion, the raven Coal, and their donkey Two-Ear, and a pair of stout dwarven miners that Gerrin's cousin had sent with them as both guides and guards, were on a bare road east of town rising up the rocky coast. Below the road was a growing cliff as they ascended. At its base the waves churned and crashed against slicked and beslimed boulders while the sea was grey and cold rolling toward shore in unending lines.

A chill wind made Ash shiver and she crinkled her nose at the briny stink of the water. "This smells worse than the town."

Ory laughed, "You should smell the docks of the River Quarter back in the City. Or worse the Slum Quarter on a hot day."

"Greyhawk," Ash shook her head, "I haven't had the pleasure."

"Here it is," spoke up Helfrid, one of the dwarven guides leading them.

The road had steepend and twisted but now they could see a dilapitated roof appearing on the height of the rocky prominence at the end of the road. The house then revealed itself as they approached, its windows boarded and broken, a great hole in the roof with a skeleton framework of beams showing where parts of wall and ceiling were gone.

A broken wall of man height circled the house, its top edge fractured and missing stones while several small sections had completely tumbled to the ground. A pair of iron gates, open and swaying slightly in the sudden gusts, lay at the end of the road . They creaked and clanked as they moved and offered the final touch to the growing feel of lurking evil that eminated from the house.

"Well this a pleasant little dwelling," commented Berren.

"Haunted, if we can believe that old poacher from last night," added Ory with a straight face.

"Bear," asked Gerrin, "What was it at the end, Orcus and demons?"

Berren laugher, "I could believe the ghosts and skeletons. The vampire and were-rats were pushing things, but he left me unconvinced about Orcus and the demons."

"He'd be washing Orcus' dishes if that were true," laughed Gerrin.

The pair of dwarven miners, Helfrid and Tob exchanged glances at the merriment of the others. 

"There is something not-right about this place..." Tob said in a quiet, deep voice.

Gerrin reached out and gripped Tob's shoulder in a friendly manner. "Might be," he said. "We will not take its grim appearance for granted nor disregard your warnings."

"Before we enter these welcoming gates I will have Coal fly above and see what he can see," said Ash. She put her arm  to her shoulder and the raven stepped to her forearm. "Fly Coal,"she said.

"Yes, mistress," said the raven and he launched himself into the air.

***

The old house was surounded by a stone wall. Near the gate a rosebush had gone wild. It climbed the wall for some distance and ate the overgrown yard in cascade of thorns and branches green with life. 

The yard had once been a garden but now it was wild. Weeds fought with overgrown patches of herbs and vegitables. A large, covered well was to the sea-facing side of the house and the wild plants were waist-high around it. Things scurried beneath the bushes and the weeds that not even the raven's sharp-eye could see, but saw their movements. 

Coal flew higher so that the entire house and yard shrank into a round spot set on the rock strewn rectangle of cliff top that held few plants but many stones. He dropped down over the roof, tiles missing, small gaps, beams exposed, and then over the great hole in the roof. 

The hole shows a flooring sagging with rot and covered in mold but little else and Coal spirals down to circle the upper floor seeing windows roughly boarded with driftwood and darkness between them. A movement catches his eye, some flicker that sparkles in the dim light sneaking through the places where the boards do not meet and then it is gone.

With a sharp cry Coal turns and flys to his mistress where she stands with the others before the iron gates.