We set out the following morning and sailed up the coast, keeping a weather eye out for patrol ships. We had to cut the sails and hide once, but after about five hours of sailing we were able to round the point and begin searching the reefy, rough waters of the north coast. There are lots of wrecks out there, and in the distance we saw a recent one: a ship with a red hull and shredded red and gold sails. This had to be the Griffon. And of course, there were sharks and rough waters. So we started trying to navigate our little outrigger canoe through the reefs, shoals, and sharks to reach the ship.
This kicked off a three-round skill challenge. Each of us—including Circe—had to make three checks from this list: Athletics, Acrobatics, Perception, Survival, Nature, and Intimidation. The DC was 14. An individual could repeat a skill, but if we used the same skill back-to-back the DC increased by 2 each time. We needed to avoid getting three failures in a round. We’re level three, and none of us are built for physical prowess. Even Vivenna, with 16 Dex, isn’t actually proficient in Acrobatics. We were all sufficiently intimidated by this that two of us burned our DM-gifted inspiration tokens for advantage, and we still barely made it. The canoe was beat to hell by the time we reached the ship—it had about 2 HP left out of its original 6.
The ship itself is smashed firmly onto the reef, its prow pitched high and the deck steep. We clamber up onto it and start looking around. There’s water pooled on the low side (the poop deck side), and a corpse floating in it. Snuki immediately searches the body, rolls pretty badly, but the guy is wearing a belt so Snuki takes that. Vivenna examines the clothes and determines the dead man is a commoner—sailor, prisoner, can’t say. The roll was too poor to be sure. Wilfram notices signs that grappling hooks were used on the island side of the ship, and Snuki—who has the highest passive perception by a lot—realizes the deck is littered with feathers. Big feathers. Feathers from something large enough to carry off little kobolds.
Snuki looks up and notices a huge nest built in the crow’s nest. Which is bizarre, because it hasn’t been enough time for a bird to move in. Snuki immediately darts into the forecastle to hide. And then we hear singing.
Five frikken harpies.
Wisdom saves all around. Vivenna failed—even with retroactive advantage from being a half-elf—but everyone else passed. It’s important to note that succeeding on the save makes you immune to that harpy’s song and that harpy alone. There’s a round where four harpies attack while the singer keeps singing. The crew makes attacks without much luck, and charmed Vivenna starts climbing the rigging. However, she does save against the charm at the end of her turn—thank you, half-elf.
Unfortunately, the harpies go at the top of the initiative order, and two of them attack her. These harpies have three attacks each. Vivenna goes from full health (25 HP) to unconscious and falling from the rigging into the sea below—taking additional damage and therefore suffering a failed death save—in a single turn.
But thank Duathiel, Lady of Night, Circe goes next. “Oh no!” Circe leans over the side of the ship, pulls a leech out of her pocket, and throws it at Vivenna, restoring 5 hit points. Then she says, “I can’t believe that worked! It’s never worked before! Leroy was just hungry!” Vivenna climbs back onto the ship, pulls out her shortbow, and shoots at the singing harpy. Then she uses Cunning Action to Dash away from the edge and toward the poop deck so she can get into cover next turn, though she doesn’t quite have enough movement because of difficult terrain.
At this point Wilfram is charmed and proceeds to stay that way. Snuki keeps up a steady assault of magically charged rocks on the harpies, then ducks back into the hallway where it’s harder for them to fly. The harpies divide their attacks between Vivenna and Circe. With only 5 HP and two harpies attacking her, Vivenna goes down and immediately fails two death saves. Circe is down to 2 HP.
But our beloved bog witch whips out two electric eels and zaps Vivenna back to life—12 HP! Wooo!—then runs to hide in the chambers under the poop deck and drinks potions. That is basically the only way we got through this, because she drank a lot of them. Vivenna, rogue of death, tells Circe she is “a queen among…women,” then sights the singing harpy—the one holding Wilfram in thrall—and puts an arrow through her throat. Then Vivenna hides.
Wilfram finally gets a turn… but not for long, because another harpy starts singing and he is enthralled again. This time he is close to the mast, so he climbs up it and into their nest. The rogue, however, now has a hiding place—which means Sneak Attack. Vivenna puts another arrow through the next singing harpy’s throat (she was already bloodied thanks to Snuki), and Wilfram gets his brain back.
Vivenna invokes the dead and puts a little bit of hurt on another harpy—not much, but something. Then Snuki casts something—might have been Snaring Strike, but he’s flavored it so I’m not entirely sure—and immobilizes a flying harpy. When you restrain something flying, it falls 30 feet, takes falling damage, and is still restrained. Then Wilfram casts something—Thunderwave, maybe—and blasts two harpies and the entire nest out of the crow’s nest. The harpies take falling damage, and the nest lands on the already-down harpy and nearly kills it.
Vivenna then pops out of hiding and shoots the tiny visible part of the last harpy she can see beneath the nest, finishing it off. Well—almost. One harpy is left, but she flees. She’s mostly untouched and never sang, so hopefully she won’t come back for revenge—especially since Snuki finds a large leathery, red-veined egg in the nest.
Somehow still alive after this extremely harrowing encounter, we proceed to search the upper deck of the ship. And I am realizing now that we did not check for traps at any point. We rolled pretty well on the searches, though. Snuki loots the nest, Wilfram looks for supplies to repair the canoe, and Vivenna searches for people, papers, safes, alcohol… you know… interesting and useful stuff.
The ship has definitely been ransacked already. Wilfram gets the feeling the ship encountered violence and looting after it ran aground, which isn’t surprising—we sort of expected that. The cabins at the back of the ship likely belonged to the prince and the captain. Even ransacked, it’s clear one was very fine and the other reasonably fine.
We find a destroyed box with a velvet insert—empty—along with some coins. There’s also a partially burned letter addressed to “Father,” talking about investigating Iron Reach for its magical properties and mentioning a contact on the island with information. Wedged into a seam in the floor, wrapped in a piece of paper, we find a signet ring bearing a rampant griffon. The note around it reads: “They are coming for us.”
Vivenna tells Wilfram that when we find the prince we are going to ask him to leave more specific notes in the future, because he cannot just assume people will know what he means.
We also find a map of Iron Reach. Most of the detail is in the shoals and reefs, clearly intended for navigation—for all the good it did them. There’s also a cargo manifest listing medical supplies, writing materials, winches, ropes, scaffolding, ladders, and “diplomatic gifts.” This was an archaeological expedition.
The prince… is a moron. Like so many scientists before him.
Speaking of morons, we decide to poke our noses below decks without taking a short rest. When we reach the bottom of the stairs it’s completely dark, so Vivenna casts Dancing Lights. The lights reveal a group of figures standing around a footlocker. They look like the crew of the Flying Dutchman.
Just kidding—probably the crew of the Griffon. But they definitely look like barnacled fish-man zombies.
And that’s where we ended the session, with a whole bunch of zombies slowly turning to look at us.