The Wrecked Ship

We borrowed a dingy to row out to the wrecked ship, but found an odd wooden path/board system setup to connect the reef the ship was run aground on to the beach. We evidence that this place had been used by intelligent creatures, not recently, but much more recent than the 50 years it had been wrecked there. There were other signs of usage and repair, making sure it would stay there on the reef. We fought some giant crabs and then found a tunnel that led underwater a short distance to a tunnel system under the reef. We had air in there, but were faced with sahuagins. We killed a few and found some captured merfolk. We released them and they warned us of the "ugly she." We asked them about the lights appearing at night, as sahuagin didn't appear the type to do that kind of thing, and they told us that the humans had been lighting signal fires on the boat at night long before the sahuagin and ugly thing moved in. Then boats would crash and the humans would collect from the wreckage. It appeared we were tricked and clearing out the menace so these people could resume their murderous occupation. We still faced down and killed the ugly thing, which turned out to be a sea hag. Being a halfling I was pretty much immune to her frightening visage, but it shook up Shahiri momentarily. Myself and to fighters, Rylzaer and Knight Lauthep cornered her and I used the spell Dissonant Whispers to make her leave so we could all three attack at once. I missed so the hag wasn't dead yet, but Shahiri took care of that with the aptly named Witch Bolt spell. I didn't want to leave a way for the townspeople to go back to killing, so myself, Shahirir, and Cozmik used our remaining magic to destroy as much of the ship as we could. We got to the shore and were "greeted" by 6 cloaked figures in masks who were mad about us destroying the ship. Sensing they were all bark and no bite I scared them off with one of my thunder spells without hurting them. I yelled at them, "Don't make us come back" and caused them to run even faster.
 Shahiri Spydrhart
 Cozmik D'Bris

I bought a round of drinks on the house to keep things friendly.  We spent the night in the tavern, then headed over early the next day.  Rented a dinghy to get us to the reef.

Encountered the shipwreck off the reef.  It's definitely being used by someone -- there were modifications made to the ship and surrounding reef.  There was a pathway leading to the beach from the ship that we could see that had been worn through use. Found and dispatched some giant crabs inside one of the back rooms of what was left of the ship -- someone had been living there (bed had sheets on it, looked lived in).  Investigated the hull of the ship via a hole in the prow. The hole led to a cavern via an underwater tunnel.

Encountered (and dispatched) Sahuagin warriors as soon as we came in.  Freed some merfolk. They informed us of an evil woman leader. They said that humans from the shore were lighting the lights in the wreck.  The merfolk have been hanging out there for years, but the humans have started coming; they light the fires, wait until the other ships come, and take goods from ships that crash (using the lights to get ships to crash on the reef then salvaging what was left).

Knight Lauthep (duly dubbed "Sir Shinypants" by Shahiri -- you had to be there) was a great roadblock as we engaged more Sahuagin.  Found the leader -- a sea hag. Since we'd pretty much slaughtered her whole retinue of Sahuagin, she didn't want to talk, meaning we engaged.  Lyle's Dissonant Whispers worked wonders; Shahiri finished it off with a well-aimed Witch Bolt.

Found a bunch of items salvaged from the wrecked ship, some weapons, a suit of armor, jewelry and gold (340gp total; 68gp each).  Didn't find any live remains of anyone who might have previously investigated.

We shattered what was left of the wreck so no one could use it to lure ships anymore.

We used the dinghy to get back to the beach.  We were accosted by a bunch of robed figures when we got to the beach.  Leader wasn't happy with us for taking care of what was left of the wreck.  They were the ones using the fires to lure ships; the hag had recently taken over their operation from them.  They were glad that we took care of the hag, but unhappy that we trashed their source of income. They tried to intimidate us and failed badly.  Having the halfling (Lyle) say, "Don't make us come back," was the line of the evening.

Turns out no gold was offered.  Eh, no biggie. Came back triumphant.