>Well, we seem to have a chance now.
>Turn our senses outwards. Try to find any metal...
>Actually, we'll need our dousing rods for this, won't we.
>Produce them, and scan the area for any metallic object or substance that seems out of place aboard a ship like this. And keep our ears open for the sound of movement outside the door, of any kind.
>You decide to take this moment of privacy to have another scan of the ship, so you pull your dowsing rods out and start to look for any metallic objects that seem out of place. Metal, of course, can be found in abundance on the ship; there's nails and hinges, light fixtures and door knobs, rotors and scaffolding, and several rarer metals in the engine block itself. And, of course, weapons. Several spots of moving metal around the ship are undoubtedly these, sheathed at the side of pirates as they go about the business. They're a little hard to differentiate with precision, but nothing about them strikes you as odd. Narrowing your focus a bit, you can also detect smaller quantities of precious metals, mostly stationary. Some it's probably coinage, and others jewelry. There's no way to tell if any of it would have historical significance, of course - an inert gold ring is an inert gold ring, whether it belonged to the first emperor of Rhashaval or the florist down the row. If the relic is only important in this sense, there's no chance of you finding by this method; it could be lost among a bunch of similar items and you'd have no way to know. You let out a grumble. It would really help if you knew what you were looking for!
>Even without focusing on it, you can pick up a faint numb hum from above that you suspect may be Karu's bounding field. You can't sense spiritual power directly, but you guess that whatever she's doing has affected the space itself enough to differentiate it from the surrounding area. That or it's drawing on magic of some sort directly - onmyoudo isn't your specialty, to say the least. Ordinarily, it wouldn't be a distraction, but you find your focus difficult to muster at the moment. You may be good, but it takes a lot of effort to zero in on minute details, and you're pretty much all out of effort to spend. A broad picture is easy to get, but without a guide or something leaping out at you, you'll need to scrutinize every minor detail in methodical fashion. It's going to be a tall order.
>You hear footsteps approaching.
