Dr. Si's Curse of the Crimson Throne - Beta Group

[sblock=Dr Simon]The tiny urchin's breath catches in his throat. For a moment, Dj'hân watches the Spider King's back uncertain of what to do. Then, realizing that with his back turned Devargo can't currently see him, the wily halfling boy takes advantage of the man's overconfident inattention to silently duck through the open doorway into the bed chamber. Without skipping a beat, the stealthy guttersnipe ducks into shadowy area behind the large sea chest to hide.

OOC: What might be involved in reaching/opening/exiting a porthole? What kind of lighting is there down below decks BTW? Perhaps Dj'hân has an advantage over Devargo sight-wise down here.[/sblock]

[SBLOCK=Dj'hân]
Dj'hân slips into the next room unseen. The portholes could be reached if he climbed up on the table. To open them from this side would be a simple matter of popping open a latch, and Dj'hân could easily climb through. The anteroom annd corridor are lit by small oil lamps, providing plenty of illumination for a human. This room is currently only lit by the dim daylight that filters through the grimy portholes.

From the other room, Dj'hân hears furniture shift and Devargo exclaim "Gotcha!" exultantly, quickly followed by a grunt of surprise, and more furniture moving.
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[sblock=Dr Simon]Pulling his liripoop off his head Dj'hân quickly fishes around inside for a moment before finding what he's looking for; a piece of chalk. While the Spider King is busy moving furniture around in the next room, the urchin quietly snaps off a tiny shard and replaces the larger piece into the cap and the cap back upon his little head. Once the sound of furniture moving quiets down in the next room, the wily urchin holds his breath and deftly tosses the sliver of chalk towards the furthest porthole in the corner. Dj'hân then waits to see whether the Spider King takes the bait.[/sblock]

[SBLOCK=Dj'hân]
There is silence from the room next door following Dj'hân's little trick. Devargo makes an little amused grunt in his throat, and the door to the bedroom suddenly slams shut. There is the clumping sound of something heavy being placed on the other side.

"See you later," he says, the Dj'hân hears his footsteps move down the corridor and up stairs.
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Edmond and Lynn see Devargo re-appear after what seems like an age. He hands them a bundle of letters, his expression looks like he can't decide if he's angry or amused.

"I acquired these from the Ambassador's residence went I went to offer the services of Eel's End," he says. "He wasn't keen, so I picked up a bit of leverage instead. Seems our Ambassador's been a naughty boy with some nobleman's wife back home. I can tell you now, he's willing to pay for this little secret not to come public." He sniffs the remaining envelopes. "Still, reckon you've given me enough to compensate for lost earnings, and I'm bored of that game now. Take them." He hands them to Lynn, but keeps hold of one end of the bundle as she takes them. "And if this was just a distraction whilst your friend down there tried to rob me, I'll be coming to get you," he adds in a low voice. His smile never falters, but his eyes grow cold. He releases the letters.

"Now, I suggest you leave. If I see you around here again I'll feed you to the reefclaws."

[sblock=Dr Simon]Trembling a little, Dj'hân pads out of his hiding place into the dimly lit room. What now? The scared urchin pulls off his liripoop and touches the top of Zalara's Harrow deck to silently ask for her guidance.

Replacing the liripoop upon his head and remaining as quiet as he can, the urchin searches the room; in part to find the piece of chalk he'd tossed but also to try and find something that might be of some use in this predicament – all while remaining careful to not disturb anything. In bards' stories, the imprisoned hero always finds a secret tunnel or hidden stash supplying a means of escape. Even a discarded piece of string could be useful if used properly.


OOC: Dj'hân will detech magic using the Harrow deck's power while slowly turning in place (and looking up and down). Since he's standing near the center and the spell can penetrate up to three feet of wood, I imagine that Dj'hân will be able to observe most if not all of the magical auras on the entire ship with a single casting.

A few questions. Is the acid produced by Dj'hân's "staff of power" potent enough to melt/disable the mechanism of a lock if used in sufficient quantities? Considering the fearsome creatures known to dwell beneath the waves around here, would leaping in the water be considered suicidal? Oh, and Dj'hân is indeed trying to find a good piece of string incidentally; an old shoe lace, a bit of strong thread. etc.

Edit: And this might be a stupid question but, which direction does the door to the bedroom open? I mean, normally a door opens into a room, right?... [/sblock]

[SBLOCK=Dj'hân]

Dj'hân detects the presence of four seperate magical auras inside the chest - all of them faint, three of them transmutation magic and the fourth conjuration magic. In addition, there are three magical auras above, presumably where the "throne room" is. These auras are moving, but connected, evidently carried by one person. Dj'hân cannot identify the magic of any of these auras, but again they are all faint.

His search of the room shows that there are no exits besides the door and the portholes. He doesn't find any string, but Devargo owns a silk gown in a Tien design (except with, of course, a spider) that has a fairly sturdy silk cord around the waist.

OOC:
Assumed taking 20 on his Search check.

The acid will probably eat through the lock, yes. I couldn't find it in the SRD, but I'm pretty sure acid can ignore the hardness of metal items. As for jumping in the water - probably 9 times out of 10 he wouldn't encounter a jigswa shark, devilfish, reefclaw or other hideous creature. They're not *quite* as common as their reputation suggests....
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[sblock=Dr Simon]The frightened halfling boy climbs up onto the table, opens the center porthole and sticks his head out to take a look around outside.

OOC: So does the door to the room open outwards or inwards? Dj'hân is looking around outside to see where he might be able to go. Being moored in place, I imagine the hull of the ship hasn't been scraped clean in ages. Taking into account Dj'hân's size, I'm imagining that he might be able to benefit from a barnacle encrusted hull to provide him with enough footholds and handholds to climb around the outside. How high is the gunwale above and the waterline below? How close is the neighboring ship? Are there mooring lines running between the two ships? Are there any other portholes on this side of the ship that Dj'hân might be able to enter?[/sblock]

[sblock=Dj'hân]
The door to the room opens inwards.

Map attached for exterior of Eels End. I hadn't realised that the Dragon's Breath was so close. Dj'hân is about halfway up the starboard side of Eels End itself, so in fact it would be fairly easy for him to use the adjacent hulls and excrescences to climb up, perhaps to connecting gangplank. He is about equidistant between the gunwhales above and the water below, 6 ft. or so in both cases.

Apart from the three portholes to Devargo's room, there is another porthole towards the bow of the Eels End, but this is too tight to the Dragon's Breath for even Dj'hân to squeeze to. The Dragon's Breath has no portholes.

The ships of Eels End are not, in fact moored and floating, but fixed and supported in place by wooden pilings (Dj'hân can see the workings downbelow).

He can hear Lynn and Edmond talking somewhere above him on the deck of the Eels End. His name gets mentioned.
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[sblock=Dr Simon]OOC: So if the door opens into the bedroom and Devargo dragged something heavy in front of it (presumably the table) on the other side in hopes of blocking it, then couldn't Dj'hân simply pull open the door on his side and climb under or over the obstacle?

If so then Dj'hân will leave the porthole open to make Devargo think he exited that way and instead leave through the door, closing it behind himself. Dj'hân can then return to his hiding space below the stairs to wait for the forecastle room to be empty.[/sblock]

[sblock=Ambrus]
Devargo seems to have jammed the handle somehow. Dj'hân could try to force it, but its not a simple matter of opening the door easily.
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