As Glubby bleeds, Patches moves to check the room the golem was in.
I wonder how the Captain got past it without a fight.
Shoallana waves Glubby over and begins healing her little green friend.
Shoallana quickly heals Glubby and stops his bleeding. Patches checks the golem's room and finds an evincing crystal
The next chamber over is an elongated octagonal room featuring deep, widely spaced stone shelves along its walls. Forgotten under one of the bunks is a masterwork cold iron longsword. Coins scattered about the floor total 51 pp, 628 gp, and 312 sp.
Further down the grand chamber is an octagonal room fifty feet wide. A twenty-five-foot-wide archway takes up most of the northern entrance, and three staircases descend from it to the south. A raised stone lip in the center of the room defines a pool of clear water. At the bottom of the pool, a mosaic eye resembles the large single orb of a cyclops. The eye appears to gaze directly at everyone in the room, following you as you move around.
This octagonal room is thirty feet across and has a vaulted ceiling forty feet high. Several runes and pictographs decorate the stone wall, with a row of stone shelves running beneath them. Complex diagrams and sigils are carved into the ceiling, some still showing signs of colored stains.
A stairwell descends from the northwest into this large room, which is thirty feet across and fifty feet long. In the center of the room, a second set of stairs ascend to a raised platform. In the center of this platform, an alabaster table rises about five feet high. Two cyclopean statues carved to resemble serene mystics stare at one another from opposite sides of the stair. The wall carvings depict numerous scenes of one-eyed giants pinning down disemboweling creatures—serpentfolk, smaller humanoids, and even other giants.
Stairs from the northeast descend into this octagonal room. Against the walls sit a carved stone weapon stand, a broken stone table, all scaled for creatures twice human height. The southwestern wall is covered in an unusual black substance that looks like coral, and massive formations of the material choke the exit to the southwest. A narrow path seems to have recently been cut through the mass into a room beyond.
Beyond, this large chamber has a sixty-foot-high ceiling supported by several thick stone columns. The worked stone of the southwest wall remains uncovered by coral, and is decorated with engravings of crude giant figures and roughly formed runes. The columns have markings chiseled into them as well, in what could be many different styles of handwriting. Smashed stone tables and oversized benches are piled in the southeastern section of the room. Beyond the rubble, a tunnel slopes down to the east, and another descends from the southwest corner.
Harold will take a closer look at the rubble, seeing if anything else of note might have been discarded.
Ursion indicates the columns. "Can any of you read any of that?"
Shoal looks around in each room. "How did we miss the cap'n? Was there another way at the entrance?" She asks as she mentally visualizes the layout.
"Two ways to go." Patches points to the tunnels. Moving closer he sniffs at the air, trying to determine which path the captain took.
In case Patches can't find the Captain's scent, Ursion looks for more traditional tracks to follow (as well as any indications of anything else that might be moving around down here).
Ursion and Patches think that the southwestern passage is the way to go and lead the party forward.
This dark cavern of slimy black coral is drowned in stagnant salt
water. Dozens of corpses—sharks, fish, humans, and stranger things—float on the surface in various states of decomposition. Some are covered in black chitin while others are pale and broken. A stair of black coral winds downward from east to west along the northern wall. A sagging rope bridge in the western part of the cavern dips almost to the surface of the water. On the southwest side of the underground cove floats a massive old ship. The ship’s tattered rigging and waterlogged boards creak lightly in the silent cavern, and limp floating corpses surround its blackened hull, like mourners at a grotesque wake.
Quite the scene. Shall we check it out?
"Sure. Let's see which way she went from here." Ursion tries to figure out whether she took the stairs, the rope bridge, or the short bridge to the north.
Shoallana kneels down next to Ursion, helping look for tracks. "I'm bettin' on the ol' ship over there, what'ya think?"
Patches sneers at the number of dead. "Be ready for anything." He whispers, readying his dragon pistol in his off-colored hand.
Indeed, the trail leads across the rope bridge towards the ship....
Thick plates of black coral coat the hull of this derelict ship. The sails bear dozens of unsettling stains and irreparable tears, and more coral is built up around its main mast.
As you near, you see that Captain Varossa Lanteri stands on deck, her rapier and pistol drawn for battle. Glittering gold chains circle her neck and a thin silver tiara tilts unevenly on her forehead. Her arms and torso are covered in black chitin. Dangling from her belt is a large, curved horn comprising three interlocking pieces.
Ursion slowly advances towards the gangplank, studying the altered captain on his approach. "Bit off a little more than you could chew, eh?"
Holstering his firearm, Patches renews his spell of cats grace.
"This wasn't necessary. We were loyal."
But was I..? No matter now...
"Let's get that b#+*#!" Shoal cries out as the captain step onto the deck. Beginning a with a low hum, she gradually get louder as she begins singing a battle hymn/sea shanty. Pointing her rapier at the woman, she calls down her bane on the woman as she takes a step closer.
Glubby ducks over to the ropes mooring the ship as he tries to stay out of sight while he climbs aboard the ship that way. "I got some eyes to poke..." he mutters as he gets on to the deck.
He quickly hides behind a barrel as he draws his net and rapier.
The Captain doesn't answer to Ursion's leers. In fact, she doesn't quite seem herself. Glubby leaps across to the rear of the boat while the rest of the party prepares to confront Lanteri...
Harold will cast Bless as aid to the party! He then moves forward with the others.
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The Captain doesn't answer to Ursion's leers.
Lanteri moans the words to a spell and vanishes!
At the same time, the crusted mast begins to crack and shiver as another partly-calcified human emerges from the crust and barnacles, her mechanical arm clicking into action: it is the famed Captain Jemma Redclaw! She advances on Glubby and slashes with her scimitar!
Harold casts at the visible enemy and then moves onto the ship, drawing his second blade!
Ursion closes up and moves into the flank with Glubby, drawing his second kukri and attacking the revenant Redclaw with both blades!
Patches hisses as the captain disappears. Grabbing a scroll he reads off a shield spell.
Glubby tumbles away from the scimitar as this half-woman emerges from the mast.
"You want yer eyes poked out too! I can oblige!" screams the frogman at the new Captain as he tries to entangle her with his net and then stab her frickin' eyes.
Glubby and Ursion work together to put a net around the famous Captain Redclaw and then stab at her from both sides! Harold helps from afar by plunking her with a force missile! Patches protects himself.
redclaw: 40 dmg
Shoal moves closer and fires an arrow at the coral queen!
Shoallana's arrow goes flying off into the lagoon! Redclaw struggles against the net to fight against Glubby!
Captain Lanteri then appears out of thin air next to Shoallana, stabbing at the undine!
redclaw: 25 dmg
Ursion tries another flurry of slashes, but is unable to capitalize on Redclaw's hampered state. "Take her down, Glubby!"
Shoallana cries out as the captain stabs her in the back, once again!
She takes her bow and jabs it at the captain's eyes!
Harold backtracks, moving to flank the Captain!
for
for
"Back up Shoallana and let me through!" Patches calls as he charges his sword with arcane power and tries to move in on Captain Lanteri.
Glubby easily dodges the coral woman's attacks, leaning his shoulder back as she slashes with her scimitar and ducking under a swipe of her clockwork arm.
"Dammit! Let me stab out your eyes, wench!" yells the frogman as he leaps up for another strike.
Ursion and Glubby work together to take out the calcified Captain Jemma Redclaw! Shoallana jabs at Captain Lanteri's eyes and blinds her, allowing Harold to get behind her and hit her once with his gladius! From behind, Patches then moves up and hits Lanteri with a shocking and flaming strike that leave her sorely wounded!
Lanteri, though blinded, tries to cast a spell to disappear again.
But she is distracted and can not pull off the motions!
From below the deck, suddenly four tentacles reach out from the hold and try to grab Glubby and Ursion!
Harold tries to finish off the Captain!
for
for
Capitalizing on Lanteri's blindness, Patches strikes twice using his spell combat training.
"I got her... eyes..." Glubby says as he is weakened by the barbs sticking out of his chest.
The frog, sensing retreat is wise, leaps over the side of the ship towards Shoallana with what little strength he has left before trying to pull out one of the barbs and oddly succeeds despite having no training in medical procedures.
"Ah! Get the other one, Shoally!" the frog says as he turns his back and show the giant stinger sticking into him.
Shoal drop her bow, and draws her wand. "Hold still, Glub!" She cries as she tries to pull out the stinger.
Harold and Patches work together to bring down Captain Lanteri! Glubby expertly leaps off the ship to get away from the huge aberration reaching its tentacles up at him. He and Shoallana then work together to take out the stings, although Shoallana is too startled to help much.
Ursion yells in pain and surprise, then retreats from the hideous nautiloid. "Get these things out of me!"
The hideously deadly creature, made of curved shell and a mass of barbed tentacles ringed by numerous inhuman eyes, pulls itself from the hold of the ship and lunges forward to prop on the side of the ship, ready to cross the water to come at the party...
Harold tries to aid Ursion by casting
Glubby hops around in pain as the venom courses through his body, slowing his movement. "Must... get rid of thorn thing..." he says as he hides behind Shoallana.
"Everyone back up and regroup!" Patches hisses when half of the group comes scrambling away from the monster with gruesome injuries. Pulling out his tanglefoot bag he throws it at the thing.
Harold does his best to heal Ursion as Glubby struggles to pull out the black stinger. Patches hits the monater with a tanglefoot bag!
Ursion tries to pull out one of the barbs, but only succeeds in wounding himself further. He continues to resist some of the poison, though. Grimacing in pain, he takes a short step and studies the odd creature that attacked him.