2025/03/07: Searching Pirate Isle Part 1
General Summary
Malakai, Buzz, Knight, Rusti, Kal'vus, Kelsey
The party (except for Knight, who went solo scouting) delved down into some of the caves on the island. They found treasure and one scary scorpion monster. The treasure included a cursed tricorn hat.
Knight, after a lengthy search, found a hidden passage deliberately blocked by a pile/wall of stones. He went and rejoined the party, and since they'd finished up in their caves, they went to the one he found next.
Winding stairway down through layers of rock. Opened out into a 40x40 room, winding watery stream down the middle, one path straight and one path right. The crystal is still pointing down and away.
Kal'vus chose to lead the party to the right, but before they could enter the passage, six strange, moldy-looking mudcrabs climbed out of the stream and attacked. Most of them proved surprisingly immune to Knight's entangling tendrils. They proved less immune to the Suzuki's Black Lightning Buzz cast at one.
It was a small pulse of wickedly black lightning. A relatively small spark, but the lighting of the whole room changed because of it. The critter glowed for a second, then popped up and curled upside down. A little steam began to waft off of its crumbling corpse.
Kal'vus counter-charged the oncoming crabs. He did a spectacular job of deflecting their barrage of surprisingly concerning attacks. He kept them contained until his teammates took them apart.
As the party was regrouping after the fight, Malakai noticed a familiar feeling in the local magic. It felt like the Isle of Necromancy.
"Let's play it by ear." - Kal'vus's hopefully not last words.
As the party prepared to head into the right tunnel, Knight handed Malakai his lantern of magic detection. Malakai idly looked around the area and noticed a sort of magic smoke rising from the floor. Whatever the cause, the magic was stronger close to the floor than to the ceiling.
The corridor was terribly winding, limiting visibility to only feet ahead. Kal'vus took point, followed by Buzz, then Malakai, then Rusti, then Kelsey. Knight floated above the party in shade form.
Partway through, Kelsey detected something cold and invisible walking behind the party. She alerted the others. Before they could do more than pause, Knight popped up behind the group and tossed a Shade Soul down the hallway. It impacted something and exploded, and the presence vanished. With no signs of any further opposition, the group continued.
The passage led out into a larger, twisted room. There wasn't anything particularly worth searching, but Buzz detected the traces of weird multidimensional time ghost *something* coming from the innocuous stream ahead. It was the signature of a powerful undead.
Buzz was not happy about this. He pulled out a new gadget, resembling Samus Aran's Omega Cannon. He stuck his arm in and twisted, and it expanded.
After Knight called out. Bow-legged balding older man with a good mustache. Appears to be a trader, nice shirt, greyish floppy piratey hat. Halfway between a musketeer hat and tricorn hat. Has a scimitar. Got a bit of a gut on him. He's a ghost. A look in his eyes showed that he wasn't just coherent, he was smart.
He dusted off his knees with his hat, then started to try to talk. It took him a minute to modulate his voice so the party could hear him. He introduced himself as Carlsby.
Used to be a hidey hole for pirates, smugglers, at least one warlord. Now it's a deathtrap. "Ever since the time of Zen Hwan, a nasty piece of work, had a liking for traps, the place hasn't been the same. Used to be used to to store Jamaican coffee, now it mostly collects souls." Zen Hwan was sometimes called "The Decapitator". He was "a pirate, a trapmaster, and an ass, but he was not a spellcaster".
Carlsby can't move on until his treasure is found and returned to him. He isn't allowed to tell what it is. He is allowed to say that the adventurers need to follow the path behind him through a ton of traps, fight Zen Hwan and his lackeys, and get a key from a chest, then come back and head down a hidden passage to get the treasure.
He couldn't talk details, but he was able to say that "wizards abound" and indicate that there were powerful mages (probably necromancers) present and doing things below. They'd done something to take advantage of or enhance the necromantic energy of the place.
He was able to talk more about his death. He and his crew were engaged in some shady business, and they were betrayed and killed by Zen Hwan, who then took Carlsby's treasure. Carlsby became a ghost here as a result. Zen Hwan died sometime later, but still years before the wizards arrived. The place then raised him again, leaving him at the end of the hallway where he and his crew are today.
Carlsby recommends watching for ambushes by that pirate crew at the end. Zen Hwan specializes in unfair fights, dirty deeds, and lies. He'll try to bargain if it's to his advantage, but his word can't be trusted.
Carlsby says that he is not undead. He's dead. As part of the fact that he isn't even supposed to be on this plane, the very wrongness of it warps things around him. He suggests the party move quickly if they have to pass near him. The aura has been known to have deleterious effects on the living.
Carlsby, in his own words: "A greedy merchant, whose lust for gold caused him to lose everything he actually should have cared about."
Rewards Granted
2 xp
Character(s) interacted with
Created Content
Notes
NOTE: Malakai lived on the Isle of Necromancy for 1000 years. For who he was at the time, it was great!
NOTE: Malakai once "engaged" with a harem of succubi. He crit-succeeded the Con save, they crit-failed. They had to bring the headmistress out, and she also failed and he succeeded. Apparently he knows a spell that lets him avoid the level drain from doing that too.
NOTE: Thezidun is the overpower who deals with the Old Ones.
Kal'vus
Rusti
Buzz Gizmo
Knight of Darkhome
Kelsey of Kaelund
Malakai
Report Date
07 Mar 2025
Primary Location
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