(Following: 4. The Scaly Eyes)
Dark Fury in a Curtain of Stormclouds
We know well of the threats posed by the Cult of the Dragon Wyrmspeakers, now seeking to bring Tiamat into the world.
But this is not the only cult active in these times of the call to adventure! Two dark cults have escalated their violence against each other and the area around the town of Leilon -- the Cult of Talos and the Church of Myrkul (read these for important information).
While on the Scaly Eye isle, waiting on Lhammaruntosz’s mental recovery ahead to consulting the shrine, a terrifying dark wall of thunderheads swoops in to the east, like a black curtain being drawn across the coast. The Scaly Eye crew become gravely concerned and an intense discussion leads to consultation with the Unknown, joined by yourselves. Despite the dire fate that may befall Leilon from Claugiyliamatar as shown in the the shrine's vision, the matter of this storm must be addressed - not only for Our Party's safe return to the mainland, but also this itself threatens that city - and others - by its looks.
Storm Pirates and Death Knights
The great dark ship we had seen on the way to the island is known to Lhamma: the ship is itself unliving and aware - a vessel made from the bones of the dead focused through the corrupted soul of a Death Knight; a grim and potent warship of the undead forces of the Mere of Dead Men.
Favored Few - the sorcerer Belcoria is then able to stabilize , though she explains it is a much nastier sort of thing than she's seen before. Before allowing the sorcerer rest to recover, the dragon asks him to share what led to this...
(Read: 6. Return to the Tower of Storms)
"Kraken," states Lhammaruntosz, ominously and with a distant stare, "that foolish Storm Priest brought up from the deepest sea the nightmare creature of a thousand sailors' tales, and there will be nothing but doom upon the Sword Coast unless it is driven away!" There is a brief moment as if a shadow passes over the magnificent force of good in this Bronze Dragon heroine, but with conviction she commands, "the four of you, ready yourselves, for we must return the fight with haste - there is no time to lose!"
Leaving Ledwyn in the care of the Scaly Eye crew, the party departs with little preparation. Willow and her wolf Shadow take the forms of large seabirds. Alorrik conjures a mystical horse that seems made of rainbows and moves like a beam of sunlight. Belcoria and Ujio climb atop Lhammaruntosz's back, and the six creatures, seven if counting the phantom steed, race over the waters - into the fury of the storm's blackness, toward the shores near the once-blinking Tower of Storms.
Dead in the Water
The rocky shoreline is patched with bodies of the dead - once-zombies and skeletons and ghouls as well as the storm cult fanatics and anchorites, many corpses float and bob with the waves between these and the up-turned hull of the Death Ship. Beneath the surface of the angry sea, numerous dark arms of the sea monster twist, impossibly large and long. Our Party arrives where twenty zombies writhe helplessly upon pikes, a horrifying display of conquest made by the Anchorites of Talos.
The Bronze Dragon spares no moment before diving into the foam of the cold and darkened sea to engage the Kraken. The waters surge and the great ship pitches as a struggle begins. Leaving Shadow ashore to search for the barbarian and dwarf of the Favored Few, the ranger Willow calls upon the magics of nature to give herself and her companions the ability to breathe water like fish, and the group descends into those same salty waters, tied together by a light rope, strong swimmers leading the party to the ship.
On the way, the currents thrash the swimmers side to side with the epic struggle between dragon and kraken. Just before arriving on the submerged ship's deck, the voice of Lhammaruntosz suddenly alerts within the party's minds, "cover your ears!" Immediately following the warning, even with such protections, a burst of sound echoes through the coastal shallows and canyons - the dragon changing tactics against the ancient monster. The flows and surges dissolve, as the party glimpses the dragon, tentacle in mouth, pulling the colossal creature out to sea.
Exploring the upturned decks - with floors as ceilings - anything not literally nailed down floating or falling to the sea floor, the party finds indeed the lower decks beneath the first have trapped air and allow normal movement among the objects littering the ceilings-now-floors where they walk. Oddly, the ship seems utterly abandoned by the forces of Talos.
As Our Party explored the ship, these were the discoveries:
1. The Vessel itself is Hostile: we were attacked by the hammocks (why would we think an undead crew needed to sleep?), attempting to suffocate us, and forcing attacks on ourselves in the process of overcoming this threat! During the escape, from the ship's weave of bones, minotaur skeletons formed to block our retreat. Finally, had it not been for the surrounding water and Willow's use of another water spell that sent us quickly to the surface (Water Walking), a great gout of flame from the orb-globe by the mast would surely have burned us terribly.
2. The Death Knight: The overall vessel was constructed from thousands and thousands of skeletal remains of all sorts of creatures - bound together with great bands of iron and unknown magical enchantments. Bones of whale ribs, humanoids, beats, birds, fish, and stranger things. At several locations on the ship, a dark awareness lurked - found to be the soul of an ancient death knight (evil paladin) at the core of the ship's enchantment. This knight was called Emberlost who had lived from a far-off land called Anauria - likely part of the vast desert ("The Great Land Sea") known today as the Anauroch. The evil spirit's presence and awareness shifts between its corpse kept below deck, to the orb of hellfire mounted on the top deck and the giant's skeleton at the ship's front.
3. The Bard: Tarbin Tul - the musician Our Party met back at the Wayside Inn crossroads between the Triboar Trail and the High Road was found trapped in the room with Emberlost's corpse, forced to play songs and sing ballads of his lost Anauria over and over and over. He was beyond exhaustion but terrified of stopping, caught in the creature's intense attention, but desperate to escape.
One of his songs went something like:
Mad Dog lost his right eye, but no one seems to know why.
He says he saw the fiends take flight, high above his house at night.
Into his windows they came, to set his house and family aflame.
He fought fiend after fiend, and many fell but their fury he couldn’t quell.
His children died as they slept, ‘cuz into his nightmares they crept.
Their venom slowly poisoned his mind until sanity he could no longer find.
He and his hatchet stalked the land and fen, to punish all bad children and rob the minds of men.
4. The Favored Few: Imprisoned within a cell bound with a magical lock, the missing members of the Favored Few are released as Belcoria called upon her divinity to dispel the binding magic. The rogue Zosime, the wizard Cernan and the monk ChaChasa are exhausted, gearless and spent of their powers. They explained the situation with the bard and the death knight from what they had overheard from the half-orc war priestess. Later, during the escape, Zosime has the presence of mind (or sense of opportunism) to check the captain's room for anything of value. While the elf may have kept things for himself, he did at least give to Ujio an important page he ripped from the ship's log:
How does one woo a legendary dragon? Great treasure for certain. I wonder how Ebondeath might feel about the prospect of immortality. Once my collegues in cultus draconis have prepared the proper rituals, we can take command of the wyrm and add its strength to our own. Then I, Ularan Mortus will command their respect as well as the fears of that pathetic alliance of lords. If we can accomplish this, certainly no task shall be too great for a true devotee of the lord of bones. We will take possession of the artefact from that ridiculous little berg of Leilon - then our legions will assault Neverwinter with unstoppable might! The dreadnaught grows restless. Emberlost seeks hopelessly to be reunited with his fallen homeland of Anauria. How does one ease the obsessive behaviors of eques mortem? Particularly in its current state.
Soaked to the Bone
A complex illusion crafted by Alorrik provided an initial distraction allowing us to free the musical minstrel (who immediately collapsed) and begin our escape before the death knight saw through the trick and was able to unleash the vessel's wicked powers. Lifted by the Water Walk spell, like bubbles, the fighter, the paladin, the ranger, the warlock of Our Party and the released bard, and the rogue, the wizard and the monk of the Favored Few break the surface, escaping the vessel's angry burst of fire.
So we escaped to the beach, soaked to the bone and wholly crusted with the frigid and salty waters of the Sea of Swords and the torrential downpour. An ear-shattering explosion draws our attention to the Tower of Storms, on the bluff above the rocky beach. The afterimage of three bolts of lightning haunts our vision - the symbol of the Storm Lord Talos himself. As the smoke and dust clear, a figure crackling with energy that can only be Fheralai Stormsworn herself launches into the sky on the back of a gargantuan bird - a Roc of legend, its shriek echoing along the shoreline.
Propelled by its own fiery explosion, the crippled ship lurches out to sea, disappearing into the thick fog rising from the lifting of the heavy rains as the sun drops below the horizon, unveiling a brilliantly beautiful sunset of reds and oranges.
Sleek with wet fur, Shadow cautiously leads two wounded warriors - a tall barbarian and a sturdy dwarf to the ship's survivors - relief that all who came to this battle have made it through - but that moment of relief is only temporary. The calming waters tell another tale, one that reveals itself with more certainty in the days that follow:
Lhammaruntosz has not been seen again since tangling with the Unknown beneath the Sea of Swords.
(See quest: Dragon Rescue)
All this time, Tarbin Tul has stood as still as a statue. He alone was looking directly at the place when the god struck, and scars mirroring the three bolts are now burned into his face, marked with having looked upon the wrath of a god. His eyes are now white with blindness. This has been a terrible fate for him, once a cheerful and talented minstrel known up and down the High Road.
(Next 7. Against Fate)