My PC had an OS failure on Wednesday evening and I spent all day Thursday trying to rebuild it. I just about managed to get logged in in time for the game last night - they had literally just got under way as I logged in...
Day 23 continued - aboard the Emperor of the Waves
The party lit some torches and descended into the dark cargo hold. I cast Light onto one of my holy symbols and brought up the rear as I was feeling so beaten up. The rest of the party cautiously advanced through the calf deep, film-slicked water and began to prod around in the smashed caskets and chests that littered the hold. The air smelled terribly. I stayed by the down ladder to keep lookout.
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| The Emperor of the Waves - all decks |
After several minutes of searching, Navda found a large metal box with the initials AD etched onto it; these initials matched the name of our patron, so we decided it would be best that we retrieved it. He tried to open the box to see what was inside, but could find no egress. So, he tried move it, but it proved very heavy.
Suddenly a pale, white skinned creature emerged from the film-coated water nearby and proceeded to attack him. The rest of the party joined the melee, with Gladreth and I shooting at it from a distance to try to help out. Unfortunately, luck was not on our side and Druss got poisoned from a nasty bite. Just as we were beginning to think things could get no worse, a second, similar, creature emerged from the water-logged debris surrounding the party.
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| A foul, watery ghast |
Dharion, Navda, Gladreth and I continued to pile on the missile pressure, eventually wearing down the ghastly beings, but no sooner was the first one struck down, than a third one emerged from beneath the murky waters. Whilst the others managed to kill the second being, I managed to finally hit the last one standing with my sling.
Player's aside - in this combat I managed to roll 1,3,1,1,3,2,3 before finally hitting something, which happened to be the killing blow - the others faired only slightly better. We made this combat very much harder than it should have been.
After the final ghast fell, we noticed that it didn't float in the water in the same way as the others. Navda and Dharion managed to purloin a silver necklace from around its neck. Whilst this was going on, the rest of us explored the debris but found only a golden amulet with an icon of a sun-like image on it. Everything else was spoiled by being in the water for too long - costly silks, spices, herbs and so on.
As we had found nothing else of value, I decided to head on up the ladder. Just as I reached the top of the ladder, the ship was struck by another massive impact. I was flung across the lower deck cabin, hit my head and don't remember a thing until I came round on one of the Soul of the Winter's dwarf-crewed cutters.
This is the story I gathered from my fellow adventurers...
As the ship was impacted, the debris got shifted around and several of the party got hurt. Druss managed to pick up the metal box that Navda found and began to carry it out of the hold. The ship slowly righted itself to the sounds of many thousands of small spiders scurrying hither and thither trying to avoid their impending doom. Just as the party reached the lower deck, there was an even bigger impact and wooden fragments flew everywhere. Everyone was thrown off of their feet and suffered more injuries.
They all managed to get to the lower deck, where I was picked up and carried further up inside the listing ship.
Dharion wondered what was happening to cause such a ruckus, and being far ahead of everyone else, went out onto the deck to see four enormous tentacles thumping away at the ship in order to reduce it to drift wood. Looking around for any form of potential rescue, he espied a dwarf-crewed rowing boat cutting through the waters towards us. Thinking that they were mad for doing so, but also praising their bravery, he hollered to gain their attention. The boatswain spotted him and headed for the port side of the ship. In the distance he also noticed that the Soul of the Winter was almost ready to set sail.
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| Signs of a Kraken? |
The party had all just managed to get to the stern cabin on the main deck when the four massive tentacles pulled the ship lower into the water. The hold was already flooded and Gladreth screamed that the lower deck was now almost full - the ship was rapidly taking on water and going down. Dharion yelled back that the ship was being dragged under from below. He called that we should abandon ship on the port side and dived into the water.
In the main cabin, Navda jumped through the port hole, Druss passed me through and followed on himself. Druss and Dharion kept me afloat whilst I was unconscious, and slowly dragged me to the approaching ship's boat, whilst Navda hung around waiting to aid anyone else entering the water,
Once I was delivered, Dharion swam back to aid Navda and Drakkon, who had just jumped in with the metal box, closely followed by Gladreth. Drakkon got struck and knocked out by one of the flailing tentacles, so Dharion grabbed Drakkon's water breathing helm, and with the aid of Gladreth and Navda pulled both Drakkon and the metal box towards the cutter.
The thrashing tentacles managed to catch a few of the party with glancing blows, adding to their injury woes, but everyone made it back to the ship's boat. It was at this point, when the crew turned the boat to head back towards the Soul of the Winter that I came around.
As we watched the final moments of the Emperor of the Waves, the kraken's tentacles finally broke the ship's back and slowly pulled the two halves beneath the waves.
Day 24-25 - the journey home
The journey back to port was uneventful, so we headed to Albrich's place to hand him the monogrammed metal box as soon as we docked in port. He waved his hand over it and it began to glow; it opened to reveal many loose leaves of parchment. He was very happy with us returning his property and mentioned that he would keep us in mind for future jobs as we were so successful in this venture. He asked what we managed to salvage. The room went silent. We made our excuses and left to divvy up the small amount of treasures we had gained.
The end of this adventure allowed us to level up - we are now all 5th level.
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