The Storm

The group arrives at their destination only to realize it's the body of a dead leviathan. After traversing through its mouth, they find a black void that leads into the water. They all down a potion of water-breathing and take the plunge. The first fight is against two triton guards and a sea hag coven. The group makes their way through the guards easily enough but is bombarded by the hags as they do so. Namely, Shirai takes a galvanized harpoon to the leg. Shin and Mex take out a hag each, and Shirai finally catches up in time to burn the hag on top of a magical flame (Shirai is the only one without a way to travel unhindered underwater). With three paths ahead, all leading up out of the water, they opt to explore before facing Zhalsuth.

They first enter an alchemical lab with various potions, a vat, and a too familiar device. Shin takes the potions, the vat is found to be creating another Kraken and is therefore destroyed, and the device is the same soul harvester found in the tower at Shine-Tooth. Shin looks through a device connected to the harvester before disassembling it. He takes psychic damage but finds a body of a leviathan slowly forming from the collected souls. The group utterly trashes the place before leaving.   Now taking the left path, the group enters a library. They discover what exactly happens when the three books are brought together and the leviathan finishes forming: it's essentially a wish spell on crack, carried out by the leviathan itself. After reading this and some notes written by Zhalsuth, they learn that the leviathan is close to being finished. They immediately run back and take the path forward- to Zhalsuth's throne room. They start by fighting his royal guard, which is trivialized through the use of brawler's bourbon; the second gift from James. Throughout the fight, Zhalsuth gets progressively more interested and buffs himself more and more. (It's important to note here that Shirai himself has progressively been giving in more to the Satsui no Hado The violence of burning the hag alive, the anger he's shown since the Kraken, and skewering a mage with his comrade during the royal guard fight are all results of this.) Finally, the fight against the self-proclaimed king of the new yuan-ti empire begins. Zhalsuth starts by pulling his trident out of his book of the leviathan. He throws his weapon into a support pillar and misty steps on top of it. From his perch, he casts red tide, hitting Shin and Mex. Shirai pummels the pillar down, but Zhalsuth gracefully lands through a roll. Mex, Shirai, and Shin surround him and exchange blows. A lot of hits are stopped by the carapace Zhalsuth has developed from his time with the leviathan. Mex lands a critical strike here, injecting Zealot's Blade in the process; James' third and final gift. Despite a critical success to resist the poison, Zhalsuth's blood boils and his health is halved. He retaliates with a circle of death centered on himself; dropping every one in the party below 10hp. The PCs do their rounds and bring Zhalsuth near-death, striking easier as they chip away his armor. Zhalsuth slams his trident down into a burst of energy, knocking away all but Shin. Mex trips on the stairs leading up to the throne, and Shirai falls back onto the rubble of the pillar he destroyed. Zhalsuth casts power word kill. All the veins in Shirai's body bulge out and are blackened and he starts to cough up blood until the coughing turns to choking. Eventually, the choking turns to silence and Shirai dies atop the rubble. Enraged, Shin undergoes his ascension. After a moment of awe at Shin's transformation, the fight continues. Mex stabs Zhalsuth through the chest, then pins his foot to the tile floor with his trident. Shin performs three consecutive goshoryus before slamming Zhalsuth's head into the floor and sending the Satsui no Hado throughout his body. His leg stayed behind, still pinned to the floor by Mex. Zhalsuth is dead at the impact with the floor, but that doesn't stop the now ascended Shin from tearing him in half.   Mex and Shin, now carrying Shirai's lifeless body, escape through a hidden treasure room behind Zhalsuth's throne. They acquire gauntlets of ogre strength, robes of air control, boots of deft step, a belt of water-breathing, a longsword of life drain, and 1,000 gold pieces. Through a hatch and another void, they're brought back to the mouth they entered through. They board The Oxford with Shirai and start to sail back to Grim.