After some discussion on what to do with the vampire that they encountered in the sewers (see: ST03. Towers and Wererats), the party decided to pull her out and see what she wanted. Kuven, El Graeve and Sacha Cresswell headed back to where they had fought the wererats, and Sacha Cresswell pulled her out. The vampire asked for some blood, so they offered her one of the wererat corpses; she drank the blood hungrily, though expressed some disgust at the fact that it wasn't fresh.
She introduced herself as Coreen, a vampire that had been part of a group from The Dreadsails that were infiltrating Second Chance. Unfortunately, when attacked by the wererats, the rest of her companions had abandoned her to her fate. She had been left bound and gagged in the sewer for several months. She asked if she could join the crew of The Demon's Mercy, as a local guide and crewmember. All she asked for in return was support for her feeding, and should the party come across The Dreadsails, then they'd let her get her vengeance. Her scorn was particularly directed at Captain Harkness, the leader of The Dreadsails. El Graeve speculated that perhaps they could capture the vampirate ship and sell it, though Coreen doubted this was viable. Nonetheless, she was invited to join the crew.
After conferring with Lucius on the details of the contract and procuring the supplies they thought useful for capturing zombies, they set sail from Second Chance for Coral Reef. The journey took about four days. On the third day, a scuffle occured on deck between the chef and the carpenter, over an allegedly-stolen coat. After investigation, it was suspected that a stowaway was on board, which El Graeve confirmed by staking out the cargo hold and capturing Jasper. He had stowed away in Second Chance after the death of his father. He was told to return the stolen coat, but was invited to join the crew.
The next day, they arrived at Coral Reef. The first thing that they noticed was within the bay surrounding the fishing village, there were several fishing boats drifting aimlessly in the water. One was pulled on-board, and a heavily-rotten sahuagin was found on-board. This confused the party, so they proceeded to the docks, where they were able to see several zombies acting curiously. There were several attempting and failing to pick up crates, one gesturing as if speaking, though no noise emerged from his jawless head, and one trying and failing to climb up a ladder. It was as if they were continuing to act as they had done before they became zombies. Cautiously, Sacha Cresswell approached one, and hit it with his mace; the zombie turned to him and wildly gesticulated, but didn't attack him, just tried to express anger at the attack. They then decided to investigate the nearby buildings. In one that appeared to be an office, Sacha Cresswell found Logbook Entry, Coral Reef Dock Office, which had its most recent entry as six months prior. They also investigated a local warehouse, which appeared to be a processing plant for sahuagin that were caught, salted and shipped out.
Carrying on further into the town, the party reached the market square. There were a few more zombies here, acting similarly to the ones at the docks. El Graeve was briefly intrigued by a magical wishing well that he found; it gave him some gold and the tastiest sandwich he'd ever eaten, before he stopped throwing gold into the well, fearing that the sign was indicating that the next item out of the well would be more painful. They headed into the Fisherman's Rest inn, where they were attacked by a pair of Ettercaps that scurried across the ceiling. Sacha Cresswell was plagued by the webbing he quickly found himself encased in, but Kuven and El Graeve were able to endure, and eventually the trio of them killed the spider-like creatures. Searching the bar, they found Barman's Diary, which also indicated that the town had been turned undead approximately six months earlier.
Sacha Cresswell searched upstairs, and saw out of the corner of his eye movement in the market square outside. Charging out, the trio caught sight of a phase spider, which they followed to its lair in the local library. They defeated the creature there, and found encased in webbing a warforged, who introduced himself as Courier. He explained that he had been hired by Roland Whitelock to deliver a package to Mizago. He had travelled to Coral Reef on the Moonbeam, under the command of Captain Half-Tooth; but after delivering the package, by the time he had got back to the town everyone had been turned into a zombie, and the ship he travelled here on had disappeared. He had survived by himself for the past five months, but approximately two weeks ago had been caught in the webbing by the phase spider. El Graeve offered the warforged a place on the crew, and Courier immediately accepted.
The party decided that Mizago was the centre of the mystery here, so Courier volunteered to show them the way to his manor, a few miles into the jungle outside of Coral Reef. Unfortunately, in the past six months, the jungle had overgrown the path, so it was heavy-going through the thick foliage. Finally, they reached a clearing, where they could see two of the trees moving under their own power. El Graeve fired an arrow at once, and it immediately reacted. Realising that the trees were somehow alive and aggressive, the quartet charged into battle. Unfortunately, they stepped too close to some mushrooms in the clearing, and the released spores caused Sacha Cresswell to become so obsessed with showing off his attacks that he lost his usual skill, Kuven to continually taunt the trees into attacking him, and El Graeve to believe that he was considerably weaker than he actually was. Courier also lent assistance, but his longbow was not an effective weapon in this fight. Kuven finally turned the tide by lighting a torch and burning one of the trees to ash; they were then able to concentrate on the other, which attempted to retreat but failed. Sacha Cresswell was knocked unconscious, but El Graeve was able to prevent him from dying.
With the trees defeated, the quartet decided to press on to find Mizago's manor, and discover what had caused the strange occurrences in Coral Reef...