Ghosts of Saltmarsh (#17) - The Emperor of the Waves III

Unfortunately, there has been a lot of real life getting in the way of our regular weekly D&D Saltmarsh campaign. We discussed amongst ourselves that at some point we may play a big catch up game over a weekend; maybe at the end of this month? Anyway, despite the recent difficulties we were able to get a game in last night to get the campaign rolling again.

Day 23 continued - aboard the Emperor of the Waves

The third room (continued) - The webs in this room contained hundreds of tiny spiders. We burned the webs and the spiders either scuttled off or perished in the controlled conflagrations. A search of the dresser revealed a strange quill, an empty ink bottle and a stained piece of blank parchment, which we stowed in our packs. A search of the wardrobe revealed a dusty hat that Navda took a shine to and plonked upon his head.

The fourth room - opposite the entry curtain to this part of the deck, was easy to get into. The door opened readily with a bit of a creak and revealed a room similar to the others; lots of webs and smashed furniture but nothing of value.

Whilst most of us were searching the room, Navda returned to the main corridor and burned off the excess webs in a controlled way, uncovering a large, two-door hatch in the floor. After a bit of prodding, he realised it was quite rotten and therefore probably unable to support the weight of any of us walking upon it. He made us all aware of his findings.

The fifth room - behind the lower "east" door, was again full of smashed furniture and spider webs. On a bookcase, I managed to find a hollowed-out book with a jewelled letter opener within it.

The sixth room - the last door in the corridor, was very heavy, but it opened quite easily. The floor was covered in runes, written in what appeared to be blood. Hanging from the ceiling at the far end of the room were two cocoons that were writhing and covered in small spiders.

Drakkon advanced into the room but was attacked by a quarter-staff wielding half-orc covered in blood and spiders. I was able to get a slingshot to hit the half-orc but soon after his skin turned very tree bark-like and he became more difficult to injure. He was also able to cast a Thunderwave spell which knocked a few of us off our feet.

Half-orc wizard - image from Fantasy Grounds module

Just as we regained our footing and began to attack the half-orc again, two very large spiders dropped from the ceiling; one covered Druss in sticky webbing that bound him completely and the other attacked Dharion. Just as we thought it could not get any worse, a transparent spider suddenly appeared in the cabin, bit Dharion, who then became paralysed, and disappeared again.

Seeing two of our comrades put quickly out of action, Gladreth decided that she had had enough of this and cast a Magic Missile spell at the half-orc. As he crumpled over, his final words were "She will come and take me." 

The combat against the spiders ground on and we gradually weakened against these formidable enemies. My final Prayer of Healing gave us some temporary respite from the damage we were taking but Gladreth's Magic Missiles helped save the day by weakening the arachnids enough so that our fighters, Drakkon and Druss (who finally escaped his sticky bonds with Navda's help), could finally take them down. The transparent spider gave me a severe bite when it next reappeared, but, for some reason after its latest appearance, it failed to disappear again. Navda was able to kill it quite quickly.

Once the combat was over, we went over to investigate the cocoons. Navda slit open part of one of them and a brown gooey substance leaked out, before a half-digested arm emerged. We decided to cut them down, take them on deck and throw them overboard as we would not be able to burn them in any controlled way.

Whilst the cocoons were dealt with, the rest of us examined the corpse of the half-orc. He was covered in spider-related tattoos and had somehow managed to fall upon a small altar with his dying movements. We shifted him off the altar and found a small wooden box beneath. Inside the box was a rich velvet cloth protecting a few pouches of gold and two small vials that looked like potions; one seemed to be evil in nature but the other seemed "good". We picked them up for later use.

Just as we thought that all was beginning to go right for us the boat rocked violently to port as if hit by a very heavy force or object. I went flying and barely escaped with my life after hitting the bulkheads. The ship righted itself and all went quiet again.

The only door to explore on the lower deck now was the one most astern. It was made of rusted iron and was covered in spikes that would make it too dangerous to try to force open. We decided to go back up to the main deck and see if there was an alternative way down. We discovered a stairway in the aft cabin on the main deck but the cabin was full of webs and debris like all the other rooms. It also contained a rough stone altar surrounded by dried mud that was accompanied by several skulls on spikes and what appeared to be chunks of rotting flesh.

As we made our way across the cabin towards the stairs, a horrid stench assaulted our senses - it appeared to be coming up from the deck below. Our movements obviously disturbed something as we crossed the cabin, as the piles of rubbish began to move and a swarm of spiders erupted from the debris along with another of those spider-like humanoids we had previously encountered.

Gladreth and I kept out of the close combat (but we both aided using our sling and bow) as I was so close to passing out through my injuries and poison, and we were both now out of spells. Luckily, the rest of the party managed to overcome the arachnids without too much bother, although it seemed to take a lot longer than it should have done. We were all beginning to feel the effects of the last few hours.

Once the spiders and spider-being were dealt with we gave the cabin a quick once over and managed to find a pouch of sparkling rubies (worth quite a bit from an initial perusal), a dusty, cobwebbed black cloak, and the captain's log in amongst the broken furniture and other debris. It was difficult to make out most of the writing due to the damage, although luckily it was written in the common tongue. We were able to determine, from what we could read, that a storm threw the ship off course and separated it from the rest of the accompanying fleet. The ship was then attacked by a vessel full of goblins, orcs and other assorted vermin. Although the crew were able to beat off the attack, the captain feared that they were also being pursued by a very large creature. We tucked these treasures away into our backpacks and descended the stairs to the lower deck again.

The horrible stench got worse as we entered what we now knew was the galley; rotten meat was all over the place. We noticed that the spiked door that had stopped us from entering from the other side was decorated in much the same way.

The Emperor of the Waves - getting to the final level?

As there was nothing of any real interest in the cupboards and cubby holes we explored, we headed over to the hatch in the far corner. The ladder descended into darkness and the sound of dripping water - the hold had been breached and was slowly filling up with sea water.