Session 24: Salvage Operation Part III Report

General Summary

The party quickly searches the navigator's room to find nothing of much value besides some old soggy maps and charts that belonged to the Emperor of the Waves. With that they decide to push downstairs to continue their search of the ship. Ganbold leads the charge and ends up running into a freshly spun spiderweb in the doorway on the second floor. Immediately the party is ambushed by two Giant Wolf Spiders, Four Swarms of Spiders, and an Ettercap that lurked within the webbing. Ganbold is quickly knocked unconscious given his vulnerable state. Diala quickly dashes forward, and manages to cut him down and with great strength she is able to drag Ganbold back towards the stairs. Meanwhile Jorin steps forward to try and protect the party. The group manages to push back the ambush with multiple new wounds suffered. However they are successful.   Now with the hallway clear, they begin to check the rooms below deck. Pushing to the fore they open to find what used to be the food storage. Inside are four human-sized bundles of webbing. Jorin and Ganbold head in to pull one down to investigate, however as they cut the cocoon open they are attacked by a demon known as a Maw Demon! They begin to dispatch the creature but unfortunately the other cocoons begin to burst open revealing three more Maw Demons. The group fights back and manages to eliminate them with no major injuries. They continue to search the room and find some earrings and a vine necklace set with amethyst.   The group heads to the aft checking rooms as they pass through. All the rooms are covered in webs, filled with broken furniture, and filled with tiny spiders that scurry as light hits them. At the final door, just beyond where Diala is sensing multiple sources of magic. The group stumbles into an Unholy Shrine dedicated to Lolth. Here stands 2 giant spiders, but the most striking is the half naked Orc standing with a scythe in one hand and flames in the other. Seeing the group finally arrive he declares them all sacrifices to his Demon Queen. The party has a tough fight on their hands as the Orc proves to be an adept spellcaster even in melee range. Despite coming under fire from multiple attacks he manages to maintain concentration on a powerful necrotic spell that he employs against Jorin, leaving Jorin almost at death's door. The spiders themselves are not a potent threat but soon after a large blue furred spider pops behind Ganbold and Elitessa who were in the hallway and begins to try and attack Ganbold. The party now has to deal with multiple threats but in the end they manage to snag a victory. However not without cost. The Blue Furred spider, that is quickly identified as a Phase Spider manages to sink its fangs deep into Ganbold and have him fall unconscious, but stable from the large amount of poison that is injected into his body.   The party takes a short rest after searching the room waiting for Ganbold to recover. They find the magic that Diala sensed a treasure hoard of magic items, and potions. Along with a healthy sum of gold. With renewed vigor they push to the final room in the Aft of the ship to find the galley. Or at least the remains of it. Finding only decaying Human meat near the stove they head down the ladder into the floor below. They quickly find the cargo hold is full of water and the cargo trashed and sitting on one side of the ship. As they push forward to where Diala sensed the magical energy of a box they are met with 4 ghastly creatures, aptly named Ghasts. The group quickly discovers how potent their poison is as the literal stench burns their nostrils. They quickly dispatch these undead creatures and find Aubreck's Box inside a crate.   As they collect the box however the ship suddenly lurches. Realizing something is attacking the ship they begin their escape. Luckily they have very little problems even with Elitessa slipping on some stairs. As they reach the deck they see massive tentacles attacking the ship. They quickly rush to their rowboat that is luckily still tied to the Emperor of the Waves and even still in one piece. They climb down the ropes, lower the box into the rowboat and make a hasty escape. Diala throws a Fireball at the Emperor. A final farewell perhaps...   Back on The Rancor they get the box on the deck, tie the rowboat to the back of The Rancor to tow it and set sail as fast as possible. About an hour later after putting distance between them and whatever is strong enough to snap a 4th Rate Ship of the Line in two they hoist the rowboat back up onto the Aft Deck where it is stored and they now have a 5 day or so journey back to Freeport.