Tomb of Annihilation - Session 28
General Summary
Mere moments after the sahuagin flee, reinforcements from below charge up on deck: Yollotl, Mokomoko, Nera Blacktyde, and a squad of templars. Nera recognizes the sahuagin corpses and spits on the deck in disgust. Devil-men, she calls them; while growing up on the Northlund coast, she lost family members to their attacks.
Dunch orders extra lanterns lit, and the corpses of the crew wrapped for burial at sea. The dead sahuagin are dumped unceremoniously over the side. Nera puts one of the sergeants, Olena, in charge of cleaning and wrapping in canvas the bodies of the dead templars for burial at the ship's next landfall.
For the most part, the templars are unphased by the sahuagin attack, many of them having served in the Shadow War But even the less combat-hardened crew takes the attack in stride.
The Masked Fortune continues sailing south. A few hours after sunrise, Dunch calls the ship's officers, as well as Nera and the four sergeants, to the quarterdeck to discuss preparations for the pirate attack he anticipates. Given all the passengers and cargo on board, he tells them, the ship is too heavy to outrun a pirate vessel; they will need to be ready to fight. He arranges to have ammunition for the ship's weapons stored on deck, and asks the templars to help guard the helm and provide tactical advice to whomever is at the helm. Olena offers that she has some sailing experience and could help with this task. Asten's squad is assigned to operate the ballista in a fight, while Kira's will staff the mangonel. Dunch also advises Yoral, the first mate, that he will need to be prepared to take the helm from Dunch if battle occurs.
At around mid-day, the ship heaves to. Two boats are launched to carry the bodies of the templars to land for burial, accompanied by Nera Blacktyde, Asten Mitchar, and the surviving members of his squad. Both of the fallen templars were part of his troop. Chibuzo and Dolan ride along to pay their respects. On the narrow strip of land below the steep cliffs, two graves are dug, and the somber burial rites are performed to commend the men's souls to the Maker. Afterwards, Nera quietly thanks Chibuzo and Dolan for the opportunity to bury their dead. She had not been looking forward to arguing with Dunch if he had insisted the men be buried at sea.
The landing party returns to the Masked Fortune and the ship resumes its course. Overnight, the wind picks up, and a light rain falls that tapers off as dawn approaches. As Ixtli prepares to end his watch, the lookout calls down from his post on the mainmast: a ship off the starboard bow. Climbing to the crow's nest, Ixtli borrows the spyglass to look. He sees a merchant vessel listing to one side, with visible signs of damage and its sails in tatters. Examining the deck, Ixtli spots several humanoid figures lurching about: zombies! Climbing back down to the main deck, the monk asks Yoral at the helm to heave to, and sends a deckhand to wake up Captain Dunch and the others.
Dunch orders the Masked Fortune to move closer, and examines the derelict himself with the visionary powers of Nyemba's Might. The name on her bow is the Promised Sundown. She looks to be an Asturian merchant vessel about twice as wide as their own, with damage to the hull from both mangonels and ballistae. There are ten zombies on deck, some of which have the look of former pirates to the mariner's eye. Chibuzo calls out to the vessel, but there is no response except the moaning and groaning of the zombies.
At Dunch's order, the templars fire the mangonel. The stone hits three of the undead but they remain standing, though one reaches towards the Masked Fortune and falls over the side. A second shot brings down two of them.
No more come up on deck, and a second shout from Chibuzo brings no response. But both he and Ixtli see a strange smoke or shadow that flits out from one porthole and back into another.
The adventurers decide that a more direct approach will be needed. After summoning the spectral wings of Nyemba's Might, Dunch grabs Chibuzo and flies to the far side of the deck of the Promised Sundown. The zombies turn and start shuffling towards them. Chibuzo hammers and spears a zombie, but it retains its unnatural semblance of life until Dunch smashes it with the Maul of Disruption and it dissolves into dust. A second zombie meets the same fate.
Chibuzo finishes their next foe with a stab of Atsu's Lance, but then a shadowy form with burning red eyes rises out of the open cargo hold. It reaches for Chibuzo but he avoids its grasp, and it disappears back into the darkness of the hold.
Meanwhile the Masked Fortune has drawn up alongside, the crew briefly laying down a gangplank so Ixtli and Dolan can board the derelict vessel. As the Masked Fortune withdraws again, the monk spears a zombie twice, then sweeps the leg. The zombie's head smashes into the deck and explodes into a grisly pulp, while the rest of the corpse tumbles into the hold. Dunch crushes the rib cage of another zombie, causing it to collapse to the deck in a heap of dead flesh, while Dolan hits another of the undead with magic missiles. Dunch disintegrates the same foe with another blow from the Maul of Disruption. Chibuzo hammers and spears the last zombie, but after it claws him, Dunch pulverizes it with a retaliatory blow.
In the aftermath, the moans of more zombies rise up out of the enclosed shaft to the cargo hold. With the Gem of Brightness glowing on its chain, Chibuzo keep watch with a notched arrow as Ixtli descends a ladder into the gloomy depths below. Then the wraith comes into view, swiping at the ranger. Again dodging the blow, he hits it with an arrow but it hardly seems to notice as it passes out of sight again. Dunch flies down into the cargo hold with the wings of Nyemba's Might, while Dolan takes the ladder. Another eight zombies lurk in the hold, which is calf-deep in filthy water strewn with debris. It looks as if the ship's cargo was thoroughly pillaged, with the looters having smashed or destroyed whatever they didn't seize.
On the main deck, the wraith slides up through the floor behind the Chibuzo, reaching into his body to clutch at his heart. Withstanding the agony of its icy grasp, Chibuzo fires three bolts from the Circlet of Blasting at the wraith as it sinks back into the deck. The fiery blasts seem to trouble it little more than the arrow. He jumps to one of the ladders and climbs down to rejoin the others.
In the rear of the hold, Ixtli spears a zombie twice, then elbow-smashes it into a bloody paste against the wall. Forward, Dunch's Maul crushes another zombie into dust before three more of the undead swarm over him and Dolan, clawing and biting. Chibuzo hurls Atsu's Lance into a zombie twice, finishing it.
Then the wraith emerges from the ceiling, and this time Ixtli feels its life-draining touch, severely weakening him. The wraith disappears once more, and Chibuzo patiently waits for it to emerge again. When it does, he hurls at it Atsu's Lance, summoning the power of its thunder. The derelict's hull creaks in the aftermath of the sonic boom. This time Ixtli dodges the wraith's blow, striking it with the Blood Spear as it vanishes through the hull.
To bolster their defences against the wraith the next time it appears, Dolan blesses Ixtli, Chibuzo, and himself. Meanwhile the battle continues against the remaining zombies. Dunch turns two them into dust, while Ixtli stabs a zombie twice, then finishes it with a kick to the chest. Dunch atomizes two more; when the last claws Dolan, the barbarian vaporizes it with a retaliatory blow.
Only the wraith remains. When it emerges behind Chibuzo, he spears it, blasting it simultaneously with lightning, while Dolan hits it with a Guiding Bolt. The burst of energy obliterates the undead creature; only motes of light remain, drifting down to the water in the hold.
Dolan casts a Restoration spell on Ixtli, and the Anasazi feels his life force much restored. But Dolan feels some malign force resisting the restorative power of the spell—though for now, the spell was able to overcome it. He surmises that the growing influence of the Death Curse is making such healing more difficult.
To aft, the hold is divided into another, smaller section, probably intended for more valuable cargoes. Within it they find an open chamber that looks like it was once a secret compartment, but the iron strongbox inside is empty, its lock destroyed.
They climb the ladders back to the main deck and explore. There are cabins in both the forecastle and sterncastle, some perhaps meant for merchants, others for the ship's officers, but all have been thoroughly ransacked. At the rear of the ship is a large cabin they surmise was the captain's, containing a four-poster bed. Ixtli notices faint grooves in the wood of the rear back wall, perhaps made by moving the bed. Sliding the bed to a new position reveals a loose board in the deck, under which is a small lockbox.
After Dolan splashes acid on the lock to dissolve it, they find within it a few Asturian coins, a wooden box holding a deck of ornate cards, a lock of black hair, and a silver locket containing a woman's portrait. Opposite the portrait is a name: Esmerelda. Chibuzo and Dolan recognize the cards as a tarokka deck, used by the Vistani people of Northlund to tell fortunes.
The sound of yet more zombies greets the party as they start to explore the ship's middle deck. They meet the swarm where the corridor branches around the closed shaft that leads down to the cargo hold. In the starboard corridor, Dunch makes short work of two zombies, disintegrating each in turn with a blow from the Maul of Disruption. Chibuzo finishes another with warhammer and yklwa In the port corridor, Ixtli spears a zombie, then punches it in the head until it explodes, while Dolan immolates the next with a Fire Bolt. After Chibuzo dispatches the last zombie in the starboard corridor with Atsu's Lance, Dunch moves to portside, annihilating the last two zombies with two more swift blows.
The rest of the middle deck holds nothing else of interest, and they find no other undead. Dunch flies back to the Masked Fortune and has the ship maneuver closer to pick up the others. Once all the adventurers are aboard, the Masked Fortune sails on, leaving the Promised Sundown to drift away on the current. The party gives Nera the lockbox, asking her to take the news of the merchant vessel's fate back to Asturia.
The rest of that day and the morning of the next pass uneventfully. The ship rounds the western edge of Marakuru and starts sailing directly south, with a strong east wind in its sails. The weather turns almost unbearably hot under cloudless skies.
At around mid-day a cry goes up from the lookout: "Man overboard!" He points to starboard, where a few hundred yards away, two prone Marakuran men float on a crude raft made up of driftwood and debris.
Dunch orders the Masked Fortune closer. One man is tall and gangly, with salt-and-pepper hair and beard, while the other is shorter and bald. Both look desiccated, their skin peeling. Only the shorter man reacts when Dunch calls out to the raft, turning to look at the ship in confusion.
A boat is launched to bring the men back to the Masked Fortune, where they are brought below decks. As Ixtli tries to provide them with medical care, he notices that each man has a tattoo on his arm: a dragon skull in black, with the tips of the incisors in red. When he draws it to the attention of the others, Dunch identifies it as the mark of a notorious pirate vessel, the Dragonfang. Of the known pirate vessels preying on merchant traffic near Marakuru, the Dragonfang is the most heavily armed, with reputedly the most vicious crew.
Templars are posted to guard the men, with instructions to fetch Dunch, Nera, and the others once they have recovered enough to be questioned. Chibuzo remains on watch nearby, suspicious of the castaways.
As the afternoon wears on, the shorter of the men mutters incoherently from time to time. After a few hours, he finally stops, sits up with a groan, and stares at Chibuzo with wild eyes. "What ship?!?" he asks. When Chibuzo replies that he is aboard the Masked Fortune, he tilts his head back and laughs. "I'm a dead man anyway," he says, then looks at Chibuzo again. "They're coming for you."
Chibuzo summons his companions. They learn that the man's name is Kwasi; his companion, Dango. They were set adrift five days ago after disagreeing with their captain, Elok Jaharwon. As Kwasi tells the tale, Elok's boss—Rashaad al-Tahir—has ordered the Masked Fortune sunk, but the captain of the Dragonfang has ambitions to build his own fleet, and planned to capture their ship instead. When half a dozen of his crew disagreed with his plans, he killed most of them in his wrath and abandoned Kwasi and Dango to their fate.
Both the Dragonfang and another pirate ship, the Stirge, operate out of the pirates' hidden cove. Usually only one ship goes out at a time, but in this case Rashaad has ordered both ships to hunt down the Masked Fortune. Zaroum al-Saryak, one-time captain of the Emerald Eye, is also aboard the Dragonfang, and Elok has promised the Masked Fortune to him. Also aboard the Dragonfang, Kwasi tells them, is the Sea Witch, a woman who controls the seas and storms, enchants the winds, and carves out holes in the sea to trap the pirates' prey. She works for Elok.
After Kwasi asks where they are, Dunch tells him the are sailing south—approaching the pirates' secret anchorage in Jahaka Bay. The Marakuran smiles in response. "Watch the mists, then." The bay is notorious for misty, foggy weather that makes it a hazard to navigate, and perfect for ambushes.
Leaving the castaways under guard, Dunch orders the ship's watch increased, and Yoral to set a wide course around the mouth of the bay. But despite their trepidation, the night passes without incident, as well as the next day.
Early the following morning, the lookout raises the alarm: a ship on the horizon, heading straight for them. Dunch climbs to the crow's nest to look for himself. The approaching vessel has two ballistae in front and moves with incredible speed even though it sails against the wind. Its sails are black, but the mainsail bears the image of a dragon skull with bloody fangs.