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Neither Ku'Hania nor Ankha has ever actually even heard of trees like these, let alone seen them. A shallow investigation reveals that the sap isn't actually blood, just a thick blood-red viscous liquid that has some of the properties of blood. The path to the naga's cave does indeed go through this bleeding forest, unfortunately for you. Such a creepy place! Ankha is near 100% sure that there will be all sorts of brand new interesting ingredients in such a strange forest as this.
The path you chose to blaze across the island continues beyond the dangerous-looking mountain side, swinging back to the river that cuts through the center of Ancorato before turning towards the eastern coast and the naga's cave. A strange sight soon interrupts your 'peaceful' journey through the jungle: you climb up a high earthen ridge covered in scrubby vegetation, which soon gives way to a steep descent thick with tall, ancient oak trees of a strange, bone-white coloration. The vibrant, scarlet foliage of these trees gives the impression that the entire forest is aflame. At the center of the bowl-shaped valley stands a massive white tree with bowed branches like those of a weeping willow, but feathered with long, vibrant, red leaves. The trees on the outskirts of the crater forest all have that strange, almost bone-colored white bark around the same shade as the singular massive tree in the middle of the crater. Closer inspection reveals these strange white trees actually weep a dark crimson sap, giving the impression that the trees are bleeding. You think back to Ramona asking you to mark sites for establishing lumber camps, but just gazing over the tops of the scarlet treetops gives you an eerie feeling that this strange forest may be full of things that the average lumberjack couldn't handle.
And we're back up! Glad to get started again, was pretty poorly timed on my part, I completely forgot the maintenance was happening.
The corpses don't match any of the details you'd expect from colonists, instead seeming to be more experienced sailors. Perhaps even pirates or corsairs, given their clothing and weapons (which aren't notable). Becky is able to identify some markings related to Cheliax, though they are a couple years out of date with current navy insignia.
That over with, the party continues on their path towards the cave of the water naga. The journey on foot takes you longer than it would by boat, but is perhaps safer and better for your purposes of surveying the island. The next length of the journey is uneventful minus the normal complications with jungle travel, all sorts of insects, thick untamed vegetation, and the swampy weather making the trip less than idyllic. A handful of hours trekking through the jungle leads you to a break in the trees, and the sight surprises more than you'd expect it to. A long sloping rise leads up for surely close to a mile up beyond what you can see clearly. Any path you can see that might potentially lead up the slope looks extremely dangerous, with jagged obsidian rock shales splattering the mountain side. Knowledge (Geography DC 20):
This specific formation of rocks and the way the slope forms most likely indicates a volcano of some sort. There isn't any direct sign of recent activity, however, though the path up is obviously still incredibly dangerous. The natural trail you're following from the locathath camp to the naga's cave swings wide left of the sloping rise, hemming closer to the river and avoiding the climb up.
The might of the party acting in concert together is enough to slice down the remaining zombies and smash the shells of the rest of the incutilis ambush party. The corpses and shell pieces fall to the ground, most of it getting swept away in the river. Unfortunately for any treasure-minded amongst you, these lonely victims of horrific shell monsters weren't carrying any loot at the time they fell for the trap that you did not.
Let's go with Defensive Abilities.
I think she gets AoOs against all of them?
The combined damage from the three is in fact enough to free Ankha from her grappler, and her quick reactions are enough to put down two more of the zombie mounts. The shell that drops to the ground after the zombie is felled is too nimble (and small) for her follow up strike to connect with. The two shells and the last remaining zombie continue their advance.
Dice rolls:
Init, Round 3: 22- Them
Ankha's first frantic swing towards the approaching creatures connects, cutting a thick slash into one of the zombies, but the next two miss. She firmly finishes off the first target with her next attack though, slicing the zombie's head clean off as the incutilis falls to the ground in the space the corpse once occupied.
Ku'Hania's spell slows them down, but the piloted corpses and the single free incutilis still move towards the group.
In a surprising display of dexterity, three of the zombies slide their way past Ankha's guard, although the last one slips on the ice and provokes the blade once more. The incutilis is not dextrous enough to slip through the defenses as it enters Ankha's personal space, and will also provoke her wrath.
Attacks:
Init, Round 2: 22- Them
As Ankha gets close enough to see what's going on, she realizes what exactly is wrong with these 'corspes': they have something on their head she was about to poke!
Before any of you can react, the four corpses spring to their feet surprisingly quickly for what you thought were dead bodies just a moment ago. They each have a strange nautilus shell imbedded in their brain, with tentacles coiled around their shoulders and arms. Their flesh is rotting and old, however, indicating that they are not recently dead. The four zombie-like creatures converge on Ankha's position, arms and embedded tentacles reaching out for her. Init: 22- Them
Koloshkora bids you goodbye as you depart her camp, wishing you luck on both the journey and in your task. Should you turn around, the locathath have already vanished beneath the ocean when you look again. Deceptively quick in the water, it seems. The trail you have marked is a good one, it seems, as it quickly makes its way up to the river and leads directly to a shallow crossing over it. You're really getting pretty good at this whole 'navigating the island' thing, huh? Wish you could say the same for the four poor corpses draped across rocks in the shallow water ahead of you. DM:
Perception DC 27:
Something isn't quite right about these bodies...they're not moving per se, but something seems to be wrong with their heads. Can't quite tell from here, a closer look would be better.
Would it be possible to add the location of the original deserted colony to the map?
"I can't exactly take you there, no. It's too close to their territory and I can't risk my tribe or being away from my tribe. My apologies for that." she says, dipping her head regretfully. "I can, however, show you on a map of the island where it is. I have been there myself, and I must say Vriskirsa is quite the beacon of hospitality if you have no bad intentions and announce yourself before approaching. Just mention you're a friend of mine, and you should be more than good to give her a visit." She'll then mark it on your map, and describing the cave the naga lairs in now.
"I do believe that Vriskirsa may be able to help with that, actually. With how poor our trading has been lately, because of the obvious, there isn't much we can offer goods wise quite yet. More of a promise of future relations, you understand. But she is a water naga, yes, and may be able to assist you in that regard." "I do not think they would turn on their captors, no, because of how brutal the animals themselves already are. Vicious sharks are their favorite pets, and the sharks are conditioned to be as bloodthirsty as their masters. I would not even attempt to free them, as they are much more likely to be free already anyway, and injure you for the attempt."
"There's likely no way to get them out of the water, unfortunately. We haven't observed them leaving the ocean for any amount of time. This fight will have to be taken to the devils themselves." she answers, shaking her head.
Koloshkora visibly brightens as you at the very least consider accepting her request for aid against the sahuagin.
"The sea devils live amongst a protected section of the Ershrani Reef, a jagged crescent of coral and rock shelves spanning miles of the eastern coast of Ancorato. You can imagine why Vriskirsa chose the location, easily defended and sheltered from most of what dangers the sea has to offer." “Are the attacks recent? How long have they been harassing your caravans, and in what numbers? And …” "Sahuagin have always pestered us wherever they find us, but this specific tribe only became a problem a couple of weeks ago. We aren't sure on their number, we only ever encounter them in their raiding parties of five to eight, sometimes accompanied by their captured vicious aquatic animals." “… do your caravans travel by land or by sea? Or both?" "We don't enjoy staying out of the water, and all of our trade routes are from the sea to small inland camps like this one." she says, motioning around to the collection of driftwood frames and cooking spits. "We only go farther inland when necessary to meet with people or emergencies."
Koloshkora smiles widely as Braxton introduces himself, clearly impressed with his manners. She bows back to him after playfully pulling her hand away from Ankha's inspection. But we are not the first of our kind that came here, and that is the main reason we are seeking you, or anyone else native to this land, out. "When word first arrived to my ears of the colony, I brought our little hunting party to the shore to trade with the first wave of colonists you mention. However, when we arrived, we found Talmandor’s Bounty mysteriously empty. I don’t know what happened to the original settlers, although obviously the island is a very dangerous place. It's a shame, I was hoping you had some info on what was going on there." she says, shaking her head in disappointment. What can we do for you? Her eyes light up here, excitedly thinking over something. "Well, I had originally planned on setting up some beneficial trade exchanges with the first colony. When that fell through, I wasn't sure if your people would send another wave. I am glad to see that they did, and would like to reopen trade talks with your colony. Unfortunately, the sahuagin, these 'sea devils', are harassing our trade caravans and we cannot establish any sort of deal while they are allowed to flourish. I entreat your help, for we are not a warlike people, and do not have the strength required to take on their tribe especially after all of our losses in the fight so far."
Koloshkora holds out her hand to shake Ankha's, seeming quite amused by the alchemist's flustered state. Her hand is slightly slimy, as one might expect, but it isn't altogether unpleasant. "No worries, I know people from above the waves come from all sorts of backgrounds and traditions. I am our tribes', ah, how do you say it in your language? 'Culture seeker' is the best I can get, to be honest. I spend time exploring the land above and the water below, building relationships and alliances to our tribe with those who have the desire and capacity to do so." she explains, smiling. "And uh, yes, that is a very fine hat indeed." she finishes, grinning widely again at Ankha's embarrassed rantings before turning to Braxton. "You are the leader, she said? We have much to talk about, if that is the case."
The trip to the western shore of Anncorato is relatively short, only a couple of hours, with most of it avoiding the thicker forests of the island. A small hunting camp rises from the coastal shallows of the ocean, primarily comprising of driftwood frames draped with mesh netting upon which fish and masses of seaweed drip-dry. Other racks hold gutted fish
One of their number approaches you, having a more gentle appearance than the rest of the aquatic races you've met so far. She still wields weapons and armor, however, holding them close by but not threateningly. "Greetings, surface dwellers." she says, her voice a bubbly tilting sound. "I am Koloshkora, the shokokoba of our tribe, the Okoloro. I must apologize for the hiding, we thought you were the sahuagin plaguing our trade routes." Knowledge (Local) DC 11: The aquatic humanoids are Locathah, a peaceful race of underwater dwellers. They are usually outsiders as it were, living in smaller tribes amongst the large variety of other intelligent races beneath the waves.
The dagger is actually the galleyblade of the mariner, a +1 dagger with two interesting qualities: three times a day as a move action the wielder can give themselves freedom of movement for a single round against water-based impairments. In addition, the wielder has a constant +5 to profession (cook) rolls when dealing with seafood of any type. You found it on the chef’s station in the galley, fittingly enough. We might want to tack this to the campaign info tab Great idea, I have done so!
"Uh...be careful? Plenty of dangerous things out there." he offers unhelpfully, shrugging. "I've told you just about everything I know of, truthfully."
"While I quite share your enthusiasm, Ankha, I must admit that I have absolutely zero information on where the sunken laboratory is. Given that he mentioned it being 'long swallowed by the earth', I presume it is somewhere on the island proper, but there's no way to be sure until we do some more investigating or find some clues elsewhere." Carver says, regretfully. "We'll have to settle for one of the other sites, after you deal with either the Ulfen settlement or the aquatic humanoids Ramona wants you to check out." He seems to realize that he may have been a bit overstepping there in his excitement, and stutters his next sentence. "A-ah, of course I'll leave the order and whatnot up to you, it's not my j-job to tell you what to d-do..."
Carver is eager to speak with you, if a bit nervous seeming. “I’m sorry to have deceived you, but the state of affairs within the Pathfinder Society isn’t conducive to an open operation in Azlant, of all places. When I first heard that a ship was bound for these islands, I knew that the Society needed a presence on here. But that brings me to why I wanted to talk to you. I am not the first Pathfinder to set foot on Ancorato. That, my friends, would be the legendary explorer Durvin Gest.” "I believe that Durvin explored Ancorato during his exploration of the shattered continent, an expedition detailed in the first-ever Pathfinder Chronicles published in 4317. Durvin Gest is perhaps the most famous Pathfinder, and he documented his journeys in some of the earliest Pathfinder Chronicles before vanishing sometime around 4360 ar. After studying the first chronicle I deduced, due to calculations and similar reference points, that Ancorato was just one of many islands the Pathfinder documented." "In addition, colleagues in the Pathfinder Society discovered that some of the artifacts brought to Avistan from Ancorato contained hidden information—precious knowledge encoded inside seemingly ordinary ioun stones. This fragmentary information, dating back to the empire of Azlant itself, suggests a vast conspiracy bubbling beneath the fabric of Azlanti society, the secret of which may still be hidden somewhere on Ancorato!" "I want you to follow in Durvin’s footsteps, revisiting locations noted in the first volume of the Pathfinder Chronicles. Up until now, those Pathfinders who have ventured to the ruins of Azlant have either never returned from the journey or didn’t find anything relevant. When I discovered that Andoran had successfully seeded a colony on Azlant’s perilous shores, I knew I had to make the voyage. I know of a handful of locations spoken of in the first Pathfinder Chronicles volume, though not precisely where on the island they may be—if they’re even on Ancorato at all. These sites include an abandoned Ulfen settlement on the east coast, a cave behind a waterfall on the northeast side of the island, a sunken laboratory long swallowed by the earth, a crystal monument on a small island northwest of Ancorato, and an ancient observatory located somewhere in the mountains. I have some info regarding each of the spots, but I am not entirely sure exactly where they are located, as he was not specific and there is no surviving map of the island itself." Abandoned Ulfen Settlement:
Named “Joskadalr” in volume 1 of the Pathfinder Chronicles, this lost Ulfen camp allegedly exists on the east coast of Ancorato, hidden from view of the ocean by its placement in a rocky cove. Durvin’s account of the settlement claims it has an “unsettling presence” and that he did preliminary investigations but did not stay long. Carver believes this site may not be far from Talmandor’s Bounty and narrows down the search area to an 8-mile stretch of coast. Waterfall Cave:
Durvin’s account of this cave speaks of unusual etchings and murals that may have been an archaeological excavation by the Azlanti themselves, potentially of an even older civilization dating back to the beginning of the Age of Legend or perhaps further. Carver estimates the location to be on the far northeastern side of Ancorato in the foothills. Sunken Laboratory:
This fabled site is where Durvin Gest claims to have discovered ancient Azlanti technology that led to the creation of wayfinders. Durvin’s journals claim that he was never able to fully explore the ruin due to a puzzling series of locking mechanisms and the presence of dangerous undead. Carver believes this site could hold invaluable information to the Society regarding the nature of ioun stones and how they were used in ancient Azlant. Crystal Monument:
While Durvin did not personally explore this site, in volume 1 of the Pathfinder Chronicles he describes seeing a massive azurite monolith etched with strange runes rising up from a forest-covered island off Ancorato’s northwest coast. An approaching storm prevented Durvin from exploring the island, and Carver wants a detailed account of what lies there. Ancient Observatory: Somewhere in the mountains of Ancorato, Durvin Gest became lost during his expedition and stumbled upon an ancient tower that contained a trove of Azlanti writing, star charts etched into the walls, and a still-functional orrery used to chart the movement of the planets. Durvin was driven from the observatory by packs of creatures Carver believes were aberrations called chokers. Unfortunately, Carver does not know exactly where this observatory is—or even if it still stands after so many centuries—and tasks the PCs with finding out if it still exists and what may lie inside.
How many days of our 6 weeks downtime could Braxton have used to generate Capital for his tavern? Also did we ever crack the Bubble Vault open to see if anything was inside? Most of it, I assume, will check the details on the rules tomorrow. Remind me again what the “Bubble Vault” is?
Ramona isn't in her quarters by the time you wake up from your nightmares and get everyone together. Instead, she is in the now-complete government house (the place where you found the clockwork spy). The construction on the house has been finished, with the furnishings repaired by some of the carpenters on the voyage and the paint on the walls handled by...someone. Regardless of who did it, the government house is now fully functional, and Ramona is holding a small meeting when you eventually track her down there.
Ramona is extremely impressed and also intensely worried about what this means about the rest of the island. "Surely if this was just laying around on the bottom of the ocean, that must mean there is the chance that other more dangerous places with even more dangerous ancient technology can exist. We'll have to be vigilant, for sure. I think that you should hold on to that...device you found inside the captain. If anyone can understand what it's for or what it does, it's you, Ankha." she says with a beaming smile of confidence that quickly breaks into another worried grimace. "The hound you mentioned, as well as the braying in your dreams...worrying signs, I'm sure of it. I'll ask around the experts in the colony, see if I can't get them to do some research on what the hound might have been or where it came from." "That all handled, though, we can't afford to dwell too long on these events. Keep them in mind, for sure, but we have to keep moving forward with the progression of the colony. To that end, may I introduce your next 'assignment': surveying the island to chart its geography and secure resources essential for maintaining and expanding the colony. Your tasks shall include locating a quarry of stone suitable for construction of larger buildings, prospecting for precious metals or ore that could expand the settlement’s trade arrangements, flagging forests to establish lumber camps, and discovering whether there are any peaceful indigenous inhabitants—and if so, opening diplomatic relations with them. Several of our scouts have reported spotting aquatic humanoids of an unknown nature just up the coast to the west of Talmandor’s Bounty, which may be a good place to start investigating." "I know, I know, a lot of information all at once, but feel free to tackle them in whatever order you see fit. You all have certainly earned my trust many times over by now. With that in mind, I also request that you go speak with Carver Hastings; as I know you are aware, he is a member of the Pathfinder Society acting on a mission of a somewhat clandestine nature and has asked for some help from trusted members of the colony. I have recommended you, for obvious reasons."
Before we get to the meeting with Ramona and the official start of Book Two (sidequest not include), the book assumes roughly 6 weeks have passed since the end of Book One. This means you had a chance to send any loot you wanted to get rid of and send gold to buy any orders for things you wanted to buy. The resupply ship arrived while you were down in the strange time bubble, so anything you wanted to buy has arrived! I had mentioned this earlier, but don't think you actually sold/spent anything if I remember correctly.
Perrell, luckily, does not notice Becky sneaking back into the Beys' assigned home and she makes it to bed quite easily. Rest does not come to the party easily, however, as each of you suffer nightmares of a horrible plane full of hard and sharp angles on everything: walls, floors, ceilings, everything. You spend hours running on and on, never seeing anything beyond the sharp flat angles of construction, although you hear the baying of hounds in the distance constantly. The place you're stuck in in these nightmares is comprised entirely of these sharp angles, and you get the oppressive feeling that this plane you dream of is truly infinite beyond your comprehension. Thankfully, the nightmare itself is not infinite and you do awaken in a cold sweat the next morning, having received a fitful but refreshing amount of sleep overnight.
Did Becky and Braxton' Spellcraft of 22 tell us anyhow about the h@t? Ah right, apologies. It is magical, but doesn't seem to have any active magical abilities yet, beyond the faint whispering Braxton hears every now and then.
What's the ghost pirate hat look like? Braxton couldn't wear it ifit's ugly.
The moon is quite bright this night, no clouds to be seen. The moonlight reflects off the water in just the right way to put out a wonderful calming effect across the party as you make your way back to the colony. Obviously there aren't a ton of people milling about in the middle of the night, but at the very least there's a guard stationed at the dock when you moor your rowboat. "Whoa, thought you guys were goners for sure, you've been gone for a day and a half!" he exclaims with a tint of disappointment. "Lost a bet over that one. It's a bit late now, but I think you might want to report to Ramona first thing tomorrow morning. She'll want to hear from you about where the hell you've been." he says before softly dismissing you.
The loudest sound you've ever heard in your life explodes from the air as tons of water drops from the broken time shell, drenching everything inside nearly immediately as a wave of freezing cold water wipes the party off of the ship and sweeps you out into the open ocean. Contrary to Becky's fears, there are no sharks in the immediate water: it seems as if the strange magic of the ship and the devilfish has kept this portion of the ocean relatively free of any other dangers. As you start to swim your way back up through the cold water, an extremely loud but somehow muted sound echoes through the water around you. Strange gurgles mixed with a confusing cracking sound emanates from the sea floor below you. Looking back down at the Azlanti ship, you get a single glimpse of the wondrous ancient vessel surely brimming full of history and other treasures (mundane and otherwise) before it is unceremoniously sucked down into a sinkhole opening up beneath the ship. You have to struggle not to get sucked down into it yourself, but luckily the team manages to drag themselves up from the drowning dark into the light of the surface world. Or, it would be light if it wasn't surprisingly night time. Seems as if you have spent much more time in the bubble on the ship than the half hour you expected to have spent.
It does seem as if the hound is intelligent enough to understand speech: or at least what it is. It shows no indication of understanding your language, unfortunately. Ankha's blade scratches the things' hide again, doing significant damage but not taking it down. It howls with an alien sounding screech before glaring at the party once more with its strange reality tearing eyes.
That done, it disappears again. This time, it doesn't reappear on the deck or anywhere within your sight for that matter.
A loud electric crack combines with an awful smell of ozone as the bubble holding back the water finally crumbles and breaks. Thousands of years of protection from both the water and ravages of time collapses in an instant, leaving you but a couple of seconds before the water rushes down upon you and the entire force of the sea above slams down onto everything on top of the ship's deck.
The dog stares at Ankha angrily, and she senses a malevolent intelligence in the way it looks up at her. Before she can do anything about it, however, it blinks out of existence once more. The hound reappears next to Becky, and attempts to rip pieces out of her.
A bite and a claw make contact, unfortunately undoing all the work Becky has been doing to heal herself up from last combat. More and more water pours from the cracking and quickly disintegrating bubble above you, and it doesnt look like there's much more than a handful of seconds before the water crashes down onto the ship completely. Init, Round 2: Dog Thing: 18
The hound doesn't even seem to flinch at the casting of bane, shrugging off the mind-altering magic without a second thought.
Ankha's blade slices down towards the thing and the dog's shape and skin seems to flicker just a bit, as if time was shifting around the alien thing's body. Not enough, however, as the blade chunks down into hound flesh. Spellcraft DC 17:
The dog is under the effects of a blur spell.
The strange dog is a lesser hound of Tindalos, an extraplanar evil outsider from beyond the bounds of known reality. They enter the physical world on their own in pursuit of those who have trodden too much the netherways beyond time and reality—time travelers (be it physical travel or simply divinatory glimpses forward or backward in time) and creatures that teleport without regard to how this movement impacts subtle magical currents in the multiverse particularly draw their interest. Becky receives no information about their stats.
Ku'Hania is right to look up at the bubble of distorted time above them, for the very second that Ankha pulls the clockwork device out of the draugr the bubble crackles and flickers. Threatening to collapse, water from the sea both above and around you starts to drip through the protective barrier as it fails. At the same time a strange shape materializes out of the thin air, running along the side of the ship before finally fully appearing in the material plane. The creature is a gaunt, long-limbed quadruped with huge, soulless eyes and a toothy maw. The lean creature moves along the edge of the ship's rails with a predatory grace, seemingly unable to move its trajectory before fully manifesting on this plane.
The party, distracted by the lure of the treasures upon the ship, are taken completely by surprise. The thing glares at the three women by themselves, its ripping gaze tearing through the space between them and threatening to tear them apart.
It then seems to flicker out of reality again, continuing its journey across the strange dimension it emerged from. It reappears along the other side, running along the flat edge of the wooden railing again. Init: Init: Dog Thing: 18
The captain's scimitar isn't magical, just exquisitely made of shiny polished silver (worth 300 gp above base price and masterwork). The tricorne, however, is slightly magical. As Braxton dons it, he hears faint whispers just at the edge of his hearing as it were. Nothing concrete, just indistinct sounds that no one else can hear that fade after a few seconds.
What exactly it is, or once was, is unclear to Becky. Some form of time dilation or control device, possibly, or similar reality bending tool. What she does know is that once removed from its current uh, housing, the clockwork shard can be used by its wielder to cast both haste and slow each once per day, at caster level 5.
The draugr captain does in fact succumb to the combined assault of Ankha and Braxton, left luckily in enough pieces that the ornate clockwork thing in its chest isn’t damaged even as it falls to the deck.
Becky's coin shot slams into the side of the captains' strange artifact stored through his chest, unfortunately failing to damage him. The captain, seeing himself surrounded, holds his accursed scimitar up to the sky and chants a strange prayer to an even stranger god from his extinct civilization, channeling its rage into a wave of negative power.
Init: 19- Becky, Ankha, and Braxton
Ankha smashes the zombie next to Ku'Hania into a pile of gross-looking flesh on the ground, and then teams up with Braxton to put some more damage into the captain. It is not quite enough to take him down, unfortunately, and he remains standing, the strange artifact in his chest still pulsing with that strange purple energy. Ku'Hania's spear throw flies straight through the head of the last zombie, and it tumbles to the floor lifelessly.
I didn't expect this much from this little side quest. I'm really enjoying it. I’m glad to hear that! I designed this part up myself, so it’s good to hear it’s not boring!
The group manages to take down the closest zombie quite easily, its various body parts falling to the ground quite comically.
The closest zombie to the group inside Ku'Hania's positive pulse succumbs to the positive energy, but the other zombie and the draugr resist the harmful wave. The two remaining zombies push forward through the slowing ice towards the party, with the captain sliding into melee with Becky before taking a slash at her with his blade.
Init: 19- Becky, Ankha, and Braxton
Party is back up again!
Ku'Hania redirects her dagger strike into a throw, slicing through the neck of the zombie closest to her and downing it.
The captain shrugs off the stun, but does take the sonic damage. He roars angrily, pointing his sword towards the group and commanding his zombies to actually do something. "Useless scurvy dogs!" His crew try to follow his orders to the best of their abilities, but the ice slows them down once more. The draugr moves up behind his crew, making sure to stay inside the obscuring mist. Init: 19- Becky, Ankha, and Braxton
Ankha's defensive stance quickly takes out the zombies threatening Ku'Hania and Becky, and follows it up with a vicious strike cutting another one directly in half. She does miss the one in combat with Braxton, but luckily his defensive parrying is enough to both protect himself and remove his foe from its undead existence.
Ankha takes a chunk out of the closest zombie, but doesn't put it down quite yet. Basically just hanging on by a thread of flesh. The draugr cries out in anger at Braxton's words, inciting his crewmates forward into the fray. The zombies are slowed and damaged by the ice thrown onto the ground by Ku'Hania, but advance regardless. Three of them are close enough to charge into direct combat, and do so.
The captain starts down one set of stairs down to the main deck, releasing a string of horrible-sounding gurgles and choking moans that you realize is it casting a spell. A dirty blue cloud of fog rolls up from the side of the ship, slowly encasing the deck in its horrific blinding mist. Spellcraft DC 17:
It cast fog cloud. Init: 19- Becky, Ankha, and Braxton
It's a bit too early and you're a bit too far away to really see what it is or can do, but it certainly fits the bill for what you'd expect a time-altering artifact to be. The draugr captain seems to finally notice the party, unfortunately, pulling a strange-looking curved sword and waving to his soldiers before commanding them (in Azlnati but assuming translation from here on out). "We've got stowaways boys, get em!"
Init: 19- Becky, Ankha, and Braxton
The dagger is actually the galleyblade of the mariner, a +1 dagger with two interesting qualities: three times a day as a move action the wielder can give themselves freedom of movement for a single round against water-based impairments. In addition, the wielder has a constant +5 to profession (cook) rolls when dealing with seafood of any type. The rest of the galley has nothing of note so that just leaves the stairs up to the next deck, after another unsettling walk through the zombie infested crew quarters, that is. It quickly becomes clear that the deck above is actually the top deck, as you emerge into an even stranger space than below. Lit entirely by lanterns and dark otherwise, the weird air bubble protecting the ship you saw down below continues all the way up to a few inches beyond the top edge of the ships' masts, encircling the entire ship in a protective shell of magic. But even stranger still are the figures standing on the deck: nearly a dozen shambling figures milling about on deck. The closest eight sailor zombies (for that's what they are) are slowly performing tasks you'd expect sailors to do: tying ropes, raising and lowering sails, reloading and unloading ballista, the works. At the far end of the ship from the party, behind the wheel, is quite the impressive figure. You can tell even from here that he is also undead, as he looks like the dragur in the bottom deck, but his immaculate plumed tricorn marks him out as the captain. The draugr captain is motioning his arms around at his crew and shambling back and forth in front of his wheel, commanding them in grunts and groans to do his bidding. As he takes a step out from behind the wheel and into your line of sight where you can see his lower torso, a strange sight greets your eyes. Protruding from the draugr's stomach is the front half of a bizarre artifact: lengths of brass metal intertwine with blue-green glass engraved with golden runes to form the contraption. The zombies don't seem to particularly care about you, although you see the draugr beginning to turn his attention towards you.
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