The Mystery on Firewatch Island - Ghosts of Saltmarsh, Chapter 61

 

Father Craig, after having gotten the Apparatus of Kwalish repaired by a master artificer in Niole Dra, read aloud the ancient scroll containing a prayer that would return him to Saltmarsh. He vanished, only to reappear on a dock by a gravel beach - NOT in Saltmarsh as he planned. He looked around. He saw his companions - the automaton named Captain Alot, Aella the storm sorceress, Cai'luin the sea-elf ambassador, and Corvid Ravenson, the paladin of vengeance. 

A shadow passed over his eyes. He looked up and saw a monstrous bird-like creature with the body of a giant eagle and the head of a stag - a so-called peryton - only larger and angrier than any peryton he had seen before. The creature's face was caked in blood and gore. It dove straight at Cai'luin. 

CHAPTER 61

"THE MYSTERY ON FIREWATCH ISLAND"

The Crew of the Sea Ghost:

• Alot Aname - Neutral Good Warforged Fighter, ancient sentinel of a wizard's fortress, spent several decades deactivated underwater, Captain of the Sea Ghost.
• Avastana "Aella" Kádár - Neutral, Half-Elf  Outlander and Storm Sorceress from Ket, daughter of the king of the sea elves, deck sorceress and first mate of the Sea Ghost.
• Craig "Blunderbuss" Oxworth - Lawful Good Dwarven Priest of St. Ogden (Cleric), sailor and shipwright, bosun of the Sea Ghost.  
• Cai'luin Manaan - Chaotic Good Sea-Elf Bard, member of the royal family of the tribe of Manaan. Cook of the Sea Ghost.
• Corvid Ravenson - Neutral Good Fallen Aasimar Paladin of Vengeance and Divine Soul Sorcerer, sent to Oerth to avenge those who wronged his angelic "brother", Auric Ravenson. Second mate of the Sea Ghost.

DM Note- 

Father Craig's player joined us this week from his hospital bed where he is fighting cancer. At first he was worried about how we could integrate his character back in with the group since he'd been gone for several weeks. I said, "Just don't even worry about it. Poof! You're there!" In game, I said that he used a scroll of "Word of Recall" to return to Saltmarsh but the gods intervened. Instead, he reappeared with his crew on Firewatch island as they were being attacked by Rasp the Peryton.

The Shadow of the Peryton

Captain Alot crouched. Metal wings sprouted from his armored feet. The automaton launched himself into the air at the diving peryton - intercepting it thirty feet off the ground. He smashed the peryton with his hammer before plowing into it with his shield. The impact of the shield spun the peryton around and it tumbled out of control. 

The peryton's dive had been interrupted. It righted itself and continued to fly at Cai'luin, slashing at the sea-elf with its talons, before taking flight once more.

Corvid ran towards the peryton and disappeared in a puff of silvery mist. He magically reappeared just above the peryton. As he fell he reached out and grabbed the peryton with his left hand. He caught the peryton's wing and held tight. 

The peryton thrashed and tried unsuccessfully to escape. It bit at Corvid and slashed at him with his talons. 

Father Craig quickly regained his senses and said a prayer, conjuring a divine hammer to strike the peryton. 

The peryton screeched in frustration. Its eyes glowed with mysterious power. Cai'luin felt a strange tug - as if something were ripping his soul away. He looked down and saw his shadow transformed into that of a peryton! He had been cursed by the foul beast!

He retaliated  by whispering the secret magical words known only to bards. The peryton was unaffected.

Meanwhile, Aella could do little but hurl bolts of chaos magic at the flying creature.

Corvid held tight onto the peryton. The peryton remained aloft but was unable to fly away. Alot flew over and swung his hammer into the peryton. He then shoved the creature with his shield, once more sending it into an uncontrolled spin.

DM Note-

Grappling a flying creature immobilizes it. It remained aloft but its speed was zero. It could have descended if it wanted but I figured it wanted to remain in the air. 

Alot's shield shove maneuver knocks the target prone. What would that do to a flying creature? I described it as sending it into an uncontrolled spin. Recovering from such a spin would cost half its movement - same as standing up would.

Except that, while grappled, the peryton had a movement of zero. WITH ZERO MOVEMENT  IT COULD NOT RECOVER FROM THE SPIN! That meant that not only was it "immobilized" as per the condition, it was considered "prone", thus melee attacks against it were at Advantage.

Corvid's player said, "Wait, really?" 

I replied, "Yep, I guess so."

You could hear him grin over Discord, "Sweet!"

Corvid held on to the peryton as it spun wildly. He plunged his magical sword deeply into the beast. He stabbed it again and again with divine vengeance.

The peryton screamed as it died. It plunged from the sky, landing on the beach with a wet thud. Corvid drifted slowly to the ground where he landed gingerly and sheathed his sword.

The Abandoned Hermitage

Father Craig tended to his comrades' injuries while Cai'luin stared desperately at his cursed shadow. He sighed and joined his companions as they marched up the trail towards the hermitage. His resignation turned to elation when the curse wore off a few moments later.

The crew of the Sea Ghost passed through an archway through the outer wall of the hermitage and surveyed the grounds. They decided to try the house first. 

The front door was barricaded from within. Cai'luin cast a bardic spell which caused the barricades to magically collapse. The door opened and the crew entered the vestibule. The floor and walls were spattered with bloodstains and a broken padlock lay on the ground. The inner door had been busted open and barely hung from its hinges.

They entered the room beyond - a large chamber that was once a gallery. Stairs led up to a balcony that ran along the far wall and along the left wall. Under the balcony was a large wash tub and a table with everyday dishes. The water was cold. 

Alot called out but no one answered. 

The party went through the closest door to the right near the base of the stairs. They entered a kitchen. A search revealed a kettle of cold soup that had been abandoned at least a day ago, plus a half a loaf of stale bread. On the top shelf of one cabinet, towards the back, Cai'luin found two sealed metal flasks filled with something that felt like syrup. He put them in his pockets.

There was a door to the south that appeared to be hastily barricaded from within. A door on the west wall was locked but was soon forced open.

The room beyond was a larder. A few sausages hung from hooks. A large bin full of potatoes was placed against the stone wall of the back of the kitchen hearth. Alot removed the potatoes and found what appeared to be a fireplace - only instead of a floor was a tunnel with iron ladder rungs leading down. 

The Survivors

Alot descended the ladder. He turned and saw a bare room barely illuminated by a small crevice in the left wall that let light in from outside. There was an old skeleton clad in armor and vestments lying on the floor. The body had decomposed long ago. 

Three people huddled in the corner, a man lay on the floor, a dwarf huddled next to him. A human woman clad in the vestments of a priest of Procan picked up a mace and held her holy medallion before her. She yelled, "Stay back! I'm warning you!"

Alot, the automaton made out of integrated armor styled after a green dragon, carrying a shield and magical hammer also styled after a green dragon, turned and faced her - the glass lenses of his artificial eyes glowing dimly. 

DM Note-

All they needed was one good Persuasion check. Each failure would result in a deficit that they would need to overcome.

Alot rolled a Persuasion check with Advantage. He got a 5. Successes = -1

The woman screamed.

Father Craig climbed down the ladder, still wearing his battle-mask shaped like a human skull, and angrily ordered the woman to compose herself.

DM Note-

Father Craig rolled a Persuasion check. He got a 5. Successes = -2

The woman summoned forth a spiritual trident to attack Alot. She also struck at him ineffectually with her mace. 

Cai'luin and Aella dropped down the shaft into the room and attempted to calm the situation down. 

DM Note-

25 and 26, not bad. Successes = 0. They were back at square one.

Corvid climbed down the ladder and loomed menacingly over the woman. His ashen visage and eyes glowing with necrotic power would frighten anyone. He shouted at her and ordered her to cease her attacks or face his wrath!

DM Note-

Corvid's no good at Persuasion, so he tried Intimidation. 25. I ruled that it counted as a negative towards the number of successes but did have its intended effect. Successes = -1 again.

The priestess stumbled backwards and retreated the far corner. Her spiritual weapon continued to attack and she held her mace ready in case anyone came near her.

Father Craig knelt over the other two and took a look at them. They were ill. They both suffered a sickness he identified as Blue-Rot. They were covered in foul dark pustules - the result of contact with certain types of animated zombies.

Cai'luin and Aella were both able to finally calm the priestess down and convince her of their good intentions. 

DM Note-

FINALLY!

Corvid, meanwhile, stood over the sick man and dwarf and held out his hands over them. The holy energy of Tristin the Raven King healed the pair of their sickness. 

Survivors' Tale

Once the trio of survivors were restored to health, they related their story. 

The woman introduced herself as Janore Stormswake, priestess of Procan. The human man was Barret Gloffrin and the dwarf was Morley Tobe. She said that there was another survivor - Brother Aaron - who had ventured out to scout around.

Corvid said, "Morley Tobe? Why do I know that name?"

Alot answered, "He's the debtor that the merchant Davus Raal was looking for."

"Who?"

"The half-elf back in Uskarn. Eight thousand gold pieces, remember?"

The dwarf cried out, "No! Don't send me back! He'll sell me into slavery!"

Father Craig became uncharacteristically severe, "You've got a lot of nerve hiding in a monastery! You're going back to face your debts, coward!"

Alot interrupted, "We'll deal with that later. Tell us what happened." 

Janore recounted how three nights ago, she was reading in the library when a sudden premonition of danger came to her from her god, Procan. She heard whispers in her mind that led her to this place, and her intuition told her that the skeleton found here was the remains of a fellow priest of Procan. 

Acting quickly, she found Aaron in the kitchen and grabbed him just as he heard the dormitory door splintering.

Morley and Barrett staggered into the larder soon after, wounded and in need of help. Janore said she

dragged them inside and was about to seal the entrance when the larder door banged open.

"I saw a corpse, dripping wet, shrive led and discolored as if by long immersion in the sea. It stalked into the room and began to search, so I sealed the door. Miraculously, it missed our hiding place, though it kept scrabbling at the floor as if it could sense us below. But then as the first glow of dawn showed at the cleft in the wall there, it suddenly fled. We collapsed, frightened and exhausted." 

Morley and Barrett were injured and sick. Each day, Aaron would venture out to search for survivors while she stayed with them. Aaron said that after the first day, evil creatures had come to the island and that it was unsafe to venture out. Yesterday, Aaron said that he spotted Rasp, a peryton that had long hunted along this coast, flying over the island. Yet, despite the danger, Aaron would leave the hiding place each morning to search for survivors. He had not yet returned since he left this morning.

Janore said that each night the undead would return to the hermitage. She had peered through the crevice in the wall and saw them gather the slain residents into nets. The monsters walked back into the sea. Each night, the monsters dragged one of the nets behind them. 

Janore was convinced that there were still bodies down in the grotto and that the undead will be back when the sun sets to collect them.

Captain Alot assured Janore that they would explore the hermitage and find Aaron but asked that she and the other two survivors wait here. 

Exploration

The crew of the Sea Ghost left the survivors in the bolt hole and continued exploring the first floor of the hermitage. In each room they would call out for Aaron but received no answer. After the diplomatic debacle in the bolt hole, it was decided that Cai'luin would immediately follow Alot into every room they entered.

The corridor past the kitchen led to a locked door that no one could open. They returned to the scullery and explored the adjacent dining hall. There they saw evidence of furniture that had been torn apart in order to salvage wood to create makeshift barricades. In the next room they found a library containing books about the sea god Procan as well as several books on nature written by druid named Tallos. They also found a book written by a priest of Procan named Oloran, the chaplain during the days when the structure served as a fortress. Within the book was a hand-written poem by Oloran that read:

Beware the sea and its scarlet harbinger.

Beware the sword and death that await.

For guidance, we beseech almighty Storm Lord;

Consign to our foes Tammeraut's fate.

Atop one shelf they discovered several forgotten druid spell scrolls written by Tallos.

Rats!

The next room was once the garrison's bunk room. It had been turned into a series of monastic cells by the current residents. Each cell was separated by a curtain. The floor was covered in blood and gore which had been streaked by the later removal of the dead bodies. 

Alot and Cai'luin entered the room slowly, watching the curtains for activity. Suddenly the floor became alive with hundreds of ravenous rats! Their eyes glowed red with hunger and hatred as the rats swarmed over Cai'luin and Alot, covering them and biting them. 

As an armored automaton sentinel, Alot was impervious to the small rodents. He brushed the rats off himself and continued exploring the room on the other side of the center divider. Cai'luin, however, was bitten several times but managed to extricate himself. He ran back towards the entrance and took cover behind Father Craig and Corvid. Aella and Cai'luin retreated into the scullery and attacked at range with magic spells. 

After a prolonged battle with wave after wave of rat swarms the room was finally cleared. 

DM Note-

Who would have thought that a party of level 9 player characters would have such a hard time with four waves of three  rat swarms. It was tough! It turned into a fairly challenging encounter  and they took a lot of damage from the rats.

By the way, my house rule for swarms is that if they enter your space, you can attack them normally but other people have disadvantage to attack them because they're trying not to hurt you. 

The crew searched the room and found that one of the poles supporting the curtains was intricately carved and hollow. Within they found two small metal flasks containing an unidentified liquid that smelled like strong wine, a bundle of herbs bound by silver thread, and a set of bronzed orc teeth.

Upstairs

After taking a short rest in the cells, the crew cautiously climbed the stairs in the scullery to the next level. 

Alot opened the door immediately to his right revealing a thirty foot corridor with a door on the right wall and one at the end of the corridor.

He opened the door on the right and saw a scriptorium filled with writing desks and books being transcribed. The room was filled with clutter and stacks of books. He called out for Aaron but received no reply. He closed the door without entering.

Alot opened the door at the end of the corridor. He was standing atop a battlement outside the hermitage. A platform led to the nearby watch-tower that had been converted into a bell tower.

The Bell Tower

The battlement led to a door on the second level of the tower. The door was unlocked. Within was a round room filled with junk and a set of stairs that led to a trap door in the ceiling. The crew moved past the piles of clutter to the stairs.

On the next level they found a room with a pot-bellied stove. An unused bed frame was pushed up against the stairs leading to another trap door in the ceiling. An old desk was covered in bird droppings. An arrow slit now serving as a window was open to the elements.  A portion of the south wall was collapsed inward, revealing a gaping hole and the side of the adjacent hill ten feet below. 

While the rest of the crew searched the room, Captain Alot climbed the stairs to the next level. He opened the trap door to find the belfry. 

Lying on the floor of the belfry was a dead man. He had been eviscerated by huge talons. His heart has been removed as if by a great bird. On the floor near his dead body, written in the man's own still-drying blood, were the words:

BEWARE

RASP

To be Continued...