As you descend the stairs, Brannick leading the group, you find yourselves in the first deck, the stairway bends and goes further down to another deck below. But you stand on the landing, a 10'x10' square with a double door right under the aftcastle and two walkways that follow the sides of the ship. Right in front of you there's cargo strapped and secured with nets and over it you see moonlight coming in through the hatch above. As your eyes shift to the light and you move towards the cargo, you see another hatch opening to the deck below and then next to it, one of the thugs you spoke before, inert and pale with his neck half cut by a cutlass. You can't see anything else in the darkness.