Smoke on the Water

After putting a damper on Asvig’s Longthew’s party, the party made their way back to Kalsgard. From what they’d learned from Asvig’s men and thralls, Ulf Gormundr, the man they hoped to hire to guide them over the Crown of the World, had been Asvig’s prisoner. He’d been taken away the day before, and the man they questioned suspected he was going to be hidden away on Snorri Stone-Eye’s funeral ship, to be burned as part of the funeral pyre.

When the party reached the inn near midnight, they found Uksahkka anxiously waiting for them. She was crestfallen to discover that they had not rescued Ulf, and horrified to learn his possible fate. They pumped her for information about Ulfen funeral practices, and how difficult it might be to sneak onto the funeral ship before it launched. She explained that the ship was to be launched at sunset tomorrow. Snorri’s body would be on a bier on the deck, and the entire ship would be soaked with oil. After the ship launched and the currents carried it well away from shore, some sort of timer delay would set the ship alight, to send Snorri’s soul off to join the gods.

Unfortunately, the ship would be well-guarded. Not only was Snorri a well-known Viking who would merit a large honor guard, but the ship would be loaded with his funeral treasures. The party began discussing the possibility of swimming out to the ship after it was launched when Uksahkka offered an alternative approach. “My people use small, light boats called kayaks, which ride low in the water and are both maneuverable and quiet. There will be a thick fog tomorrow, and although it will have mostly cleared by sunset, there will still likely be a low layer of mist on the water. I could obtain some kayaks for you, and you could use them to paddle out to the ship, rescue Ulf, and bring him back.” The party talked it over, and decided that Uksahkka’s plan had merit. She told them to meet her mid-afternoon at a spit of land a mile or so west of Spear-shaker’s Point, so she could train them in how to use a kayak, then she hurried off.

Despite the late hour, the party decided to travel to Spear-shaker’s Point to get a look at the funeral ship first-hand. The ship was a standard Ulfen longship, although it appeared that a crude deck had been laid down over the top of the rowing benches. A large bier was being prepared on the deck, although no body was visible. As Uksahkka had warned, the site was well guarded. At least 25 men with longspears stood at attention around the dock, many wearing the livery of the city watch. Another dozen or more worked on preparing the ship, or transferring cargo of some sort from waiting wagons into the newly-made hold of the ship. Deciding that a frontal assault was not wise, the party returned to the inn to rest up for the next day.

The next day was shrouded in fog, as Uksahkka had predicted. The party tried to burn off their nervous energy as they waited for the time to pass until they could meet Uksahkka. Finally, they headed out to the pre-arranged meeting place. Uksahkka was there with three small watercraft. They had very light hulls, and sealskin covers with openings for three people. The tracker spent the next hour training the team on how to maneuver the small boats (and most importantly, how to turn them right-side up if they should flip over). Nicki eyed the choppy waters of the bay with trepidation. “Are there sharks out there?” he asked. Uksahkka shook her head. “No, not too many. The shark-eating crabs tend to keep them away.”

As if on cue, a giant crustacean rose up out of the surf. It had a thick, spiky carapace and exceptionally long legs, ending in enormous claws. It lumbered toward the party, and Sawyer charged to intercept it. It swiped its claws at the fighter, and he nimbly dodged them both and thought he was safe, but the crab was exceptionally quick. It whipped its claw back around and grabbed Sawyer, lifting him into the air in its crushing grip. Sandoval seared it with a blast from his Wand of Scorching Ray, and Shinjiro rushed to attack the beast, but the crab caught the monk with its other claw, and began waving both him and Sawyer angrily at the rest of the party.

Sawyer beat at the claw that held him, trying to escape, but its grip was like iron. “At least we’ve got his claws occupied,” Shinjiro gasped with the little breath that remained in his body. Despite that, the rest of the party peppered the creature with ranged attacks, reluctant to close in with the huge beast. Zhustin singed it with an Acid Dart and followed up with an Empowered Magic Missile, and the crab’s carapace shattered. It dropped Shinjiro and Sawyer, gasping and bloody, as it convulsed in its death throes.

Marie delivered some much-needed healing, and Uksahkka said her goodbyes. She wanted nothing to do with raiding a ship of the dead. “I’m going to go prepare a safe place to hide with Ulf until you’re ready to set off over the Crown.” She handed them a small clay figure of a songbird. “There’s a shrine to Shelyn in the Fire Quarter. When you have Ulf, go there and give this token to the priest there – he’ll take you to where I’m hiding.”

The party set in to wait for sunset. The fog was lifting, but a low mist still hung to the surface of the ocean. As the sun slid below the horizon, Snorri’s funeral ship floated into view, carried on the outgoing tide. The party slipped into their kayaks, and paddled out to catch the funeral ship. They caught it from the stern and climbed aboard, tying off the kayaks. A silent, shrouded form rested atop a bier in front of the mast, surrounded by stacked wood. The stink of oil filled their nostrils, and the deck below their feet was slick with it. At the foot of the bier was a pile of sand with a smoldering leather sack hung above it. Bella moved to examine the device. A large depression was scooped in the sand and filled with oil. The sack had been soaked in water, then filled with coals. At some point soon, the coals would burn through the leather, fall into the oil, and ignite the bier. Moving carefully, Bella removed the sack, then placed it on Sawyer’s metal shield so it couldn’t ignite the oil-soaked deck.

With the threat of becoming unwilling offerings on a funeral pyre removed, most of the party moved to investigate that hatch that led down to the make-shift hold. The hatch had been nailed shut, and it took the combined efforts of Marie, Sawyer, and Shinjiro to pry it open. Sandoval hung back by the stern, keeping an eye on the kayaks and watching for any sign of pursuit from shore. As they worked, they could hear the muffled rattling of chains from belowdecks.

As soon as the hatch was open Marie descended. The space below was cramped, no more than four feet high. And it was filled with a thick, cloying mist, making it impossible to see more than 5 feet in front of your face. The spaces between the rowing benches were crammed with funeral offerings: armor, spears, swords, and arm-rings, along with coins and jewelry. At the foot of the short ladder leading to the hold, Marie spotted a magnificent, gold-plated Ulfen helm, with butterfly wings affixed to its sides. She picked it up, but then moved towards the stern, where the rattling chains could be heard more clearly. Thanks to the blessings of Desna, Marie could move through the cramped space easily, but as Bella and Sawyer climbed down to join her, they found crawling through the hold very difficult.

Marie called out to Ulf, but got no response so she kept moving. Suddenly a horrid figure appeared out of the mist. Its flesh was green with decay, and dripped with pus and putrid seawater. One eye glared balefully, while the other socket was filled with a glowing pink stone. A heavy chain was shackled to its ankle, the other end looped loosely around the mast. Apparently, whatever ailment had afflicted Snorri Stone-Eye, it had done much worse than kill him, and his followers, in an attempt to keep prevent others from learning of the curse that had befallen his house, had decided to send him to his final rest by burning him with his ship.

Snorri swung his greataxe, and as it bit deep through Marie’s armor she felt some of her life force being drained away. Unwilling to go toe-to-toe with the level-draining apparition, she screamed and fled. “I’ve found Snorri, he’s undead, run for your lives!” she shrieked as she dashed past Sawyer and Bella. Up on deck, Nicki heard her cry, and immediately ran to the funeral bier, thinking the body on it might be Ulf, but as he tore away the shroud, he found nothing but a crude wooden manikin.

Sandoval rushed to the open hatch and began singing, lending moral support to those struggling below, while Zhustin dropped down through the hatch. He cast a Light spell, but found that it only made the dense fog brighter, while doing nothing to improve visibility. Sawyer ignored Marie’s warning, and advanced to meet Snorri, slashing away with his longsword while managing to parry Snorri’s blows. Bella seemed more interested in stuffing her pockets with loot than trying to help out in the fight, but Zhustin bravely advanced until he could barely make out the undead captain’s form through the fog. He fired off an Acid Dart, and its damage, along with Sawyer’s continued gashes, finally caused Snorri Stone-Eye to collapse into the bilge.

Sawyer was just in the process of prying Snorri’s stone eye out of its socket, when they heard a loud WHOOMP from above them, and orange light suddenly glared through the gaps in the planking of the deck above their heads. Up on deck, Shinjiro, Sandoval, and Nicki whirled around to find that the funeral pyre had suddenly erupted in flames! Amid the dancing shadows cast by the flames, seven figures suddenly appeared on the deck. They were clad all in black, with masks that covered all but their eyes, and they moved with a fluid grace. Two of them slipped to flank Nicki, while the rest rushed past the spreading flames of the pyre, apparently trying to cut off any retreat to the stern of the ship. Nicki cast a panicked glance towards the back of the ship, and saw that the party’s kayaks had been cast adrift.

Sandoval shouted a warning to those below (as if they hadn't already noticed the burning oil starting to drip through the cracks in the decking) and whipped out his bow. He let fly an arrow that took one of the ninjas right in the eye, dropping him immediately, but one of his comrades responded with an arrow of his own that scored a critical hit back on the bard. Nicki delivered a Corrupting Touch against one of the ninjas flanking him, then tried to wriggle out from between his two attackers. Shinjiro moved to block two of the attackers and tried to deliver a Stunning Fist, but his opponent deftly dodged the blow.

The battle was fast and furious. Sawyer emerged from below decks to add his sword to the fight, while Sandoval and Zhustin directed ranged attacks at the ninjas threatening Nicki. Bella sprang out of the hatch with rapier and dagger in hand, scoring another pair of critical hits. Although the ninja were skillful and dangerous foes, they quickly fell. However, by that time the entire central section of the ship was engulfed in flames, and it was clear that the ship would soon break apart and go down. Sawyer managed to pull his shield out of the flames (although the strap was burned away), and Marie dashed through the fire to join Nicki in the stern. They found that although their kayaks were dozens of yards away by now, the ninjas had arrived in canoes, and they clambered over the side to paddle the little boats forward to let the rest of the party escape the burning ship. They’d managed to scavenge a few items from the ninjas, and those who had been down in the hold had managed to stuff a bit of loot into their pockets, but they watched as the funeral ship of Snorri Stone-Eye, and all of his funeral treasures, went up in flames and sank to the bottom of the bay.

As they paddled back to shore, they still had more questions than answers. Had the ninjas been after them, or after the treasures on the ship? If they’d been after the party, who had sent them and how had they known they would be there? Where was Ulf? Where was Suishen? What was the role of the Rimerunner’s Guild in all of this?

The PCs earned 1,400 XP for their exploits, putting them at 16,541 XP, with 23,000 required for level 6. We’ll be at Leo’s next week, with Roger on-call.