Aria's shoulders visibly relaxed, and she sighed and smiled. As often, she had a throwing axe in one hand, in this case to help with poking around in stuff and slitting sacks open as much as for a ready weapon - and tapped the flat thoughtfully against her cheek. "Oh good, I hoped Haledan'd be smart enough to've picked a recall-spot none would know. I can't help noticing she didn't even tell us in the Sending - out of thought to interception or mind-reading or other nasty business against us, I'm sure, rather than mistrust per se - or maybe she just couldn't cram it in. I don't know the tavern, but we could ask the two mariners or ask around generally...perhaps the proprietors of that 'Flaming Mermaid's Hair' place or where I'm staying would - begrudgingly - be able to point us to 'competing' establishments. Maybe she has the resources to point us back to Garland by divination magic, or we'll find something more about his contingency plans aboardship..."<br/><br/>With that, she resumed poking up the line of crews' quarters. After the hall turned at the aftward end of the hall, its next segment proved shorter, before making another right turn back bowwards.<br/><br/>The first room along this aftward segment of the floor was, perhaps, the mindflayer's quarters - some of the clothing matched what it's worn, and would likely not have fit a human. More salient still, though, was a bowl or chalice crafted from the lower half of a humanoid skull. There was no bed, just a meditative-style pat, and the room was piled with unsettling scientific instruments, and many scholarly texts, some in strange tongues.<br/><br/>Almost all of the back wall was a single piece of pinned up parchment, sketched out with a diagram of many of the Planes. The left half of the poster was the great Tree, connecting labeled smaller pictures symbolizing the various celestial planes, such as their present Brightwater, the Gates of the Moon where dwelt Selune, and others. The right half was the River of Blood, a sanguine cascade through the Abyss, the Nine Hells, and other infamous infernal places. There were others below, since as the Inner or Elemental Planes, and still others in the middle.<br/><br/>Most of the text and art had been done in one, very professional hand, with lots of inked color. But there were hastier, charcoal-pencil marks and notations slicing over the rest. Some were double-headed arrows, such as one pointing between Brightwater and the elven heaven of Arvandor with the Common handwritten label EVERGOLD POOL. A large question mark hung to the left of the River of Blood right of the House of Nature, near the diagram's center, and then from the question mark, four arrows slashed leftward through the House of Nature, from which they forked to the Great Tree with little question marks at the end, and many little runes and even what seemed to be arcane or mathematical calculations along the way.<br/><br/>Aria shoveled this and much other stuff (often using the axe flat) into the bag of holding, mostly in case anything interesting- or expensive-looking proved magical, some of the documents were spell-scrolls, or had information about these planar pirates' plans with Sara (Aria certainly hoped they didn't involve the mindflayer in any specific capacity, though).<br/><br/>On the next aftward chamber - this and the mindflayer's room must be under the aftcastle, Aria thought - had the sort of door which, when opened, allowed a section of wall near it to swing out like a wide double door. The room itself was almost diametrically different, but still quite unusual.  "Treasure chests!" Aria's eyes glittered. It was a quintessential treasure room, once again screaming 'pirates be here' with its old-style wooden-and-iron chests locked treasure chests - except that everything in the room seemed encased in almost-translucent ice. It filled the room almost perfectly, making it all the less conspicuous.<br/><br/>This seemed to confound and annoy Aria, who assumed at the very least it must be kept frozen magically somehow. Rose's more observant nature would avail her that the ice, moreso, seemed<em>alive</em>, or at least animated, albeit presently almost perfectly still. It quivered very slightly, like finely but silently vibrating glass or gelatinous crystal, but with an accelerating frequency, as if readying to pour or burst out with some vague purpose.