Sea of Death Campaign Thread

"Thanks, Captain.," Sae gasps, spitting out brine.  "Damn thing clung like a leech.  There's lots more down there, and some in the wreck itself.  They're not nearly as rotted as they ought to be; and I'm pretty sure I saw light coming from somewhere inside that ship or shining in from the other side.  We might be getting close."

He was more than happy to watch Sae returning to the group, and to follow right behind her. Not so much upon hearing about her findings. It was no surprise to find that the water was filled with undead. Their vast number, though, that was another matter entirely. Even with as little experience as he had, Emrys knew a particularly strong enemy was not half as dangerous as many weaker ones.

“No need to thank me.” He said casting a worried look at the rotting ship. “Not when your scouting just saved our lives.” The warlock kept the focus on his hand and took a mental note to never again think about advancing without scouting. “I don’t suppose you saw a way we could use to avoid the unfortunately not rotten enough friends?”

He had no hope, but needed to make sure. We’ll likely have to dash, the voice of his mind admitted almost bitterly. Dash and pray no corpse caught them. Considering that one of the things managed to hold an adult elf, the halfling wasn’t exactly confident on his chances. It was almost enough to make he ask if Arleo couldn’t throw him on the vessel. Where I could be surrounded by different exanimate. Truly, Goldenleaf was an optimist.

Sayyida frowned, " I could keep them focused on me while the rest of you get to the ship.  As long as your not too long there I shouldn't be overwhelmed before your done."

Sae frowns in concentration as she thinks over what she saw of the ship.  "I don't know whether we could avoid them all; wasn't able to get as good an angle on the ship as I hoped.  There's two ways in that I was able to see.  One is to climb in through the portholes if we can get a grappling hook fixed; the other is through the crack in the side I saw the light through."  She thinks a bit more.  "Tradeoffs either way.  Going through the portholes, we'd have the high ground for archery and spells but they're also bottlenecks we could only go through one at a time.  The crack is the other way around.  Our best shot might be to leave a sniper and a spellslinger at two ports while the rest go in through the crack.  But as far as getting there in the first place ..."  She starts to turns up her hands in frustration; then she bites her lip and says, "I'll draw a map.  Maybe you'll see something I didn't."

Opening her pack, she rummages for writing materials ...

... and figuratively stops dead in her tracks.  An expression of extreme disgust, mixed with a decent helping of embarrassment, crosses her face.  You can just make out her muttered words, "I.  Am.  Such.  an.  Idiot.", as she pulls out a long, nested tube that at least Emrys and Sayyida will recognize professionally as a spyglass.   She puts it to her eye and examines the ship and its approaches again. 

Dipping into her pack again, she extracts a deck of cards and uses a dagger to scrape down the backs of several to blank white pasteboard.,  Using these for paper and whatever she can improvise for ink (including pricking her finger and/or mixing the pitch from her fire arrows with some sort of liquid to thin it enough) she draws a plan combining what she sees now with her memories from before (INT roll for accuracy of memory 3).  As she does, she explains a little sheepishly, "Never had much use for a spyglass in the forest, so I ... kind of forgot I had it.  An eladrin tinker visited our tribe long ago, when I was a girl, and she gave odd presents to the children ... 'whatever fascinates you the most', she said.  But since then ... "  A knotty detail of the mapmaking distracts Sae from her reminiscences, and the sentence remains unfinished.

Sae's memory of the ship is alright... it isn't the most detailed map ever created, but it contains the most noteworthy details that she was able to see.

Regarding the numbers of the undead, between what Sae and Emrys saw you estimate there are probably at absolute minimum 30 down there just below the surface, and another 5 or 6 corpses were visible on the shipwreck itself. Fortunately, after Sae escaped from one's clutches the dead haven't emerged en masse to slaughter the party by means of sheer numbers. They seem content to remain beneath the surface of the lake. Unfortunately, you do still need to find a way across said lake if you want to get to the ship...

"I guess I can try an' hack a path through them," Yevelda says uncertainly, looking into the murky depths. "But I can't promise that will work as well as it usually does if I have to do it while holding my breath..."

How would the party like to tackle this?

(was the spot Sae reached by jumping from rock to rock any closer to this ship than where we are now?  if so then at least there would be less zombie-moat we'd have to cross, if we all circled around ... )

“They are too many and we don’t know what’s waiting for us on the ship.” The halfling started, turning his head and looking around the dungeon. “Going by what happened until now a giant skeleton or an angry spirit can appear the moment we step on the vessel.” Maybe both and more, said the always so optimistic voice of his mind. “We could attack them from range then retreat into the tunnel. The walls should limit how many we would face at once, make sure we’re not surrounded. If melee combatants were to take a hit and run approach… We may be able to finish them before so much as being hit.” With some luck the creatures were bound to the lake. Maybe enough that the party could snipe them safely. No chance that’s the case. “Though we better look for the wraiths that got away before trying that.”

Search and destroy made for rather militaristic objectives but battle against the spirits would be a necessity. Emrys was no strategist but even he knew that if those undead appeared from behind lines their whole formation could crumble. And then they would become part of the defenses of that dungeon. A thought put away by looking at his companions and waiting for their opinions.

Sayyida nodded, " Then lead the way. I'm happy enough to destroy the dead on land or in water, just point me to my target."

Wade adds "They deserve rest from this undead state."

If you guys want to find the two wraiths that ran off, I'll need a Survival check or Investigation check to try to figure out where they went.

Sae's vantage point when she was scouting did bring her a bit closer to the ship, but you would still need to cross a fair amount of undead-infested water to reach the rotten hulk.

( Sayyida is not a tracker but she can assist with Help)

(Sae's Survival with Help 17)

Sae lifts her head, listening.  At first she hears nothing; but then Sayyida notices what she is doing and comes over to help.  By cross-checking the sounds Sae's elven ears are able to detect and those which are audible to the pirate hunter, they narrow down the one they seek.  The ghostly shuffle of uncertain feet, caught between the torment of their undeath and their fear of the holy light by which Wade drove them back.  Sae calls over to the rest of the group, "We've got them.  This way." 

She starts walking quietly towards the sounds, pausing every so often to listen again and to allow the rest of the group time to catch up.

Sayyida grins, " Lead on."

She readies her blade and follows close.

The large Fish-man follows them with his weapon ready to strike.

Wade also follows

For the sake of saving time, I can just say that you find and quickly dispatch the two wraiths... without their leader, and already damaged, they were not especially threatening. Honestly... they almost seemed eager to pass on to the next life.

Sayyida sheathed her blade after they dispatched the two shades, " I'm confident I can slay those drowned dead if we can bottleneck them somehow...."

(Sorry I am falling so behind here)

Okay, with the two shades dispatched, what does the party do next? There's still a large body of water full of zombies to cross...