Campaign Summary: The Underworld

Gin and Meade set out, travelling along the coastal road. En route, they stopped in a roadside inn where a poet was telling stories about the gods and their struggles, including ones about Dragonriders. Gin told his and his brother's story too, but Meade noticed a suspicious character sneaking outside.
Following him, he was stabbed in a cowardly fashion! He defeated the assassin, but he wound was poisoned. He sought help from the people inside the inn and a young boy - much to his father's dismay - said his grandmother was "a witch" who could help him with his poison. Meade flew off to find treatment for the poison while Gin investigated a clearing in a local forest, where there was a treehouse ... and in there were some assassins who attacked him, poisoning him too! He burned down the treehouse and flew off to get treatment from the wise woman.
The wise woman treated them with a poultice which drew out the poison and they woke refreshed. The assassins had lunar symbols on them, so they were clearly followers of the goddess of the Moon, eager to defeat the Dragonriders. Warning the locals, they continued their journey.
Arriving at Mávriámmos, they decided to fly down in the caverns below the city rather than enter the city itself - the sea was rough and had carved out many caverns, but one in particular seemed suitable. They went in cautiously, coming across a group of Khemrian sailors who had made a small home from the wreckage of their ship in a cavern. Leading the sailors was a black Basti woman.
They approached the sailors and introduced themselves. The Basti was named Nedjemet, a merchant captain whose ship had been destroyed by pirates. Gin & Meade told her about their mission to recover Sarissa from the Underworld. She seemed unconcerned by such a thing, but the sailors seemed worried. Nevertheless, they all agreed to help Gin & Meade in return for help in getting a ship and away from the cave.
With the help of the dragons, the sailors made a sophisticated raft from wreckage and they began to search the caves at the foot of the cliffs for the gateway to the underworld. Eventually, just as the sun was setting, they found it - a stairway cut down at the back of a cave leading to a vast underground lake. Leaving Nedjemet and the sailors there with the dragons (and giving the dragons instructions to guard the captain, as the sailors seemed very agitated by the underworld and death) they applied the tincture and entered the lake. But, before they did, Nedjemet gave a necklace with the symbol of the goddess of Wisdom as protection to Gin.
They entered the underworld, and found themselves in a formless blue waste where there was no sense of direction - the Blue Hell. They held hands so they would not get separated, but it was impossible to navigate. However, the amulet given by Nedjemet seemed to pull them in a particular direction and so they followed it, eventually coming out onto a beautiful sunlit meadow with a small but lovely house in front of them. A beautiful nymph was feeding pigs there, and she greeted them, asking them if they were there to see the master.
The master was the scientist Arkamodos, now enjoying after death a luxurious rest in the Purple Hell. They visited his workshop and explained their predicament to him - they needed to find Sarissa, but could not in the Blue Hell. The scientist had an idea - he would use Captain Julius as he was a skilled navigator. With the help of his nymph-assistants he constructed a bizarre device turning Julius into a weird spider-legged half-machine thing. The resulting horror swore and insulted everyone, threating horrible vengeance - but was forced to sign a binding soul-contract under the threat of having the tincture washed off him (at which point, he would remain in the underworld and the Crimson Huntsman would be after him . . . ) The contract forced him to serve Gin & Meade, but did not stop him insulting and swearing and threatening everyone.
Before they left the Purple Hell, a nymph arrived with a message from Ulixes - he was inviting Arkamodos to dinner. Realizing their king had received his reward in the Purple Hell, but not wanting to hurt him by telling him his wife was captured and lost to the Moon, Gin and Meade left the Purple Hell without speaking to him, forcing Julius to navigate them to Sarissa.
In the Blue Hell, they found Sarissa - now the figurehead of the drowned ship, fouled in chains and secured with an anchor. Many drowned sailors were chained to her. Gin pleaded with her to come back with them, but she refused - she had found these sailors and gathered them together. That was her purpose now, to anchor them to her so they would not be lost in the Blue Hell. She would not come back with them unless her sailors - those she had rescued - came as well.
Agreeing to this, Gin & Meade used Julius to lead her out of there but when they came back through the gate she was not there. In the cave, Nedjemet was injured and the sailors were dead - they had attacked her, fearing the spirits of the underworld, and the dragons had defended her. They all went out to the mouth of the cave, looking at the water as the sun rose. There was no sign of Sarissa.
Suddenly, great spars and fragments of wood - the wreckage of drowned ships - burst out of the water, floating on the surface and gathering together into a ship made of driftwood and flotsam. There was no logic to how it assembled, except the shape of the pieces - masts became the deck, splintered planks became the railings etc. At the front, the dread figurehead of Sarissa rose proud with the sailors - themselves all corrupted with coral and the detritus of shipwrecks - manning the ship.
Stunned by this, Nedjemet nevertheless claimed the ship - as having no captain - as hers by the law of the sea, and Sarissa agreed. Julius became her navigator, scuttling to the highest mast and swearing and insulting everyone. Now with a ship, Gin & Meade set sail to the west, travelling to Etrusca!