Ghost Ship (4) - Doesn't Make Much Sense

Writers: Eimi
Date Posted: 5th October 2017

Characters: Naton, Cailin
Description: Naton and a healer search for answers.
Location: Citrus Bay Hold
Date: month 13, day 6 of Turn 8
Notes: Notes: 4 in a series

"It's all right, Naton. Come on over," the healer said, lowering the cloth he had put over his nose and mouth. "Anything that might have killed these men has died along with them."

"What can you tell so far?" the dolphineer asked, walking across the deck towards the corpse Cailin had been inspecting. Despite the assurance, he left his cloth mask in place to try to combat the smells if nothing else.

"I can tell that he is no longer alive," the healer said, looking up at the dolphineer with a twinkle in his eye. "Sorry, a little humor makes my job a little easier sometimes."

Naton's eyebrows raised as he dipped his head to the side in reluctant acceptance. He had worked with healers specializing in forensics before in his job, but had never quite figured out how to handle their unique sense of humor.

"Right, so," Cailin said, turning back to the corpse. "He is in an advanced state of decomposition, but I can see no signs of violence, no visible signs of any diseases. I don't see any signs of vomit which might have been present though it might have been washed away in weather. There is some evidence of wherries maybe taking chunks out of some of the bodies, which might explain your body on the beach. If the wherry was large enough, it might have tried to carry one off. But, basically," he shrugged, "I have nothing so far."

Naton crossed his arms over his chest with a sigh. Looking around the deck, he shook his head. "What a mess." There were several other bodies that he could see from that vantage point. According to the information he could find for a ship of the same name and description, the Evergreen had boasted a crew of twenty to thirty, but had not been known to carry passengers or family aboard. There was some comfort in that. "So now what?"

The healer shrugged. "Find the rest of them. This isn't all, to be sure. Maybe a body not exposed to the elements might provide more clues."

"Right. Well, that hatch there would most likely lead to the cargo hold, so beyond it is probably access to the crew's accommodation. Towards the stern," Naton pointed towards the back of the ship, "that's the captain's quarters and helm."

Cailin stood up and stretched his back after being bent over the body for so long. "Let's look at where the crew would sleep first. If there was some kind of illness, I would think there would be a large number of men in their berths."

Naton lead the way, using his hand to cover his nose as reached the bottom of the stairs. There were bodies there, too, that had not seen the light of day for a while by the look and smell of them. "I'd say these lads were the night watch from the number I can see. I wouldn't say that there are an unusual number of them."

"And it would indicate that whatever befell them happened in the day time," Cailin agreed, filing away that bit of knowledge for later. "All right, how about the passengers? Where would they be?"

"This ship shouldn't be carrying any, but if they had, they'd be this way." Again, it was the dolphineer who lead the way across the deck. To his surprise, it did seem that those small rooms were occupied as well. "There had never been mention of the Evergreen taking aboard passengers. It was always considered purely a cargo ship from what I was told. Do you think these men brought some kind of disease aboard with them?" he asked, turning to the healer for answers.

"It's possible," the healer said, carefully examining a body. "Nothing," he sighed. "Not a single outward sign of the cause of death."

Naton shook his head. They were getting nowhere. "And everyone just where you'd expect them to be on a typical day. It's like they all dropped dead at the same moment."

"That's exactly what it looks like," the healer nodded. "I don't think it was a disease at all. Or even food poisoning. Whatever killed these men did it so quickly they didn't have time to respond."

"Well, on to the cargo hold," Naton shrugged. Hopefully there they would find more answers.

After opening the hatch, the only smell that greeted them was of more decay. They left the hatch open a few minutes before descending down the ladder to be sure any toxic gas might escape, but while a search of the cargo hold produced more bodies, it yielded few clues. There was no thing that they could find that have possibly killed an entire crew without a warning. It was all as one would expect from a trading expedition. Only one possibility for answers remained, the ships log and navigational charts.

"Where do you suspect they came from?" Naton asked thoughtfully as he picked up the ship's log and began to thumb through it.

Cailin shrugged. "I'm a healer, not a navigator."

Naton cocked an eyebrow as he looked at his companion over the binding of the log. "Well," he said, turning his eyes back down to the page, "this doesn't make sense at all. Their last port of call was on the east coast of the Northern Continent. I've heard of ships being carried to all manner of places when set adrift, but considering the time frame and the currents, that just does not add up."

"There is literally nothing about this job that is coming easy," the healer sighed, leaning his hands on the table and looking down at the chart laid out. "What does this all mean then?"

"Let's see..." Naton put his elbow on the table beside the healer as he studied the chart. "Well, this is looking closer to where we are now, but it just doesn't make much sense according to the log I just read. This is not the course they should have plotted. It looks like they were heading in a south easterly direction and not from the east coast of the Northern Continent." His finger traced the line that had been drawn. "Their course would have taken them past Sunstone, heading home along this line..." The dolphineer's finger stopped. "Huh."

"What?" the healer asked, bending over to look at where his finger had stopped.

Naton's forehead wrinkled in thought. "How long have they been dead again?"

"At least two sevendays. Maybe three."

Naton tapped the chart with his finger as he mentally counted back the days. "Their course would have taken then right by that volcano around the time of it's eruption. But..." He shook his head. That didn't make sense either. "No, if they had been caught in the eruption the boat would have been blown apart. Or at the very least been charred and the sails burned away."

The healer thought for a moment. "Not necessarily. If they had been caught in the heated gases of the eruption, yes. But an explosion is not the only danger a volcano might pose. Someone once told me the most dangerous thing about volcanoes is the gases that you don't see." He stood up to his full height, for the first time feeling like they might be on to something. "I need to find a pen and paper. I think I had better send the dragonrider to find a volcanologist."

Naton nodded turning his eyes to the chart once more. "I think that would be a wise idea."

Last updated on the November 2nd 2017

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Ghost Ship (4) - Doesn't Make Much Sense