Strange Cargo - Ordeal Aboard the Prospero

General Summary

**Strange Cargo - The Ordeal Aboard the Prospero**   By Odrekh Brogrom, Correspondent of the Streets 
It is with a heavy quill that I recount the most recent escapade from my street view correspondence series, which saw me aboard the ill-fated Rylan Steam Ship Prospero, and my ordeal as a captive to horror born of ignorance and greed. The venerable vessel, once a proud carrier of lumber from the western woods, was reduced to a mere husk of its former self, set upon by a menace as old as the earth itself, or so I reckon. But fear not, dear reader, for it was not left to languish unguarded. Upon its decks strode the finest among the ruin sweepers, the feared and revered Blackhearts! 
Our tale begins with the team’s arrival to the Prospero, which hung adrift, its gears silent and rudder dead—a grim harbinger of what was to come. Their first task, a simple one at face value, was to set the ship's great rudder right. But alas, what should have been a routine repair quickly turned into something darker.   The two champions I was embedded with, Horrick "Hamfist" (a pseudonym I presume, to maintain his privacy and avoid the deluge of well-wishers that must come in the wake of his heroics) and Cojitron the bold Clanker magician, began their investigation into the cause of the ship's misfortune. It became apparent to their honed technical acumen that the ship's rudder and hull were cracked from the exterior due to River Halfling sabotage. Some flooding was starting to occur in the lower belly of the injured vessel thanks to this. No repairs had taken place though, as the Prospero's engineer, a Kip Wyndam, had fallen dreadfully ill. He lay in the medical bay, under the care of doctor Zeno Naephinae, in a deep coma. Doctor Naephinea's charts described Kip’s decline as slow but certain, with his ailment starting as mere fatigue and fever, then quickly rendering him comatose. They began their efforts to patch the hull as best as possible, and in doing so met the most dreadful villain of this misadventure, Angelico Ramone. You see, the Prospero is a ship leased to our fair city by the Sabol-Raos Mining Corporation, one of Rylan's nefarious "Governing Trusts" and Ramone was the corporate representative attached to the ship and tasked with overseeing profitability. He dripped with false charm, sinister intent, and greed even in our first meeting with him. And it seemed this impression was not unique to just us. One of the ship's laborers felt the same, a halfling named Foggle Beltree. Foggle informed us that more was going on than what we could see, he witnessed a strange looking woman being loaded into a box and placed in storage. Obviously, our curiosity peaked, and we rushed to free this prisoner. What we found could not have been more unexpected!  Within the crate was a drugged woman yes, an elf as a matter of fact but not a kind i'd ever laid eyes on before. Her skin was a pale greyish-purple and her hair silver. Her outfit seemed made of animal skins and insect carapaces too. We woke her, and soon found her language was as exotic as her origin. Cojitron's genius allowed us some stilted communication though. She revealed her name to be Phyrae and that she was some sort of elf who lived below the surface of the earth. Despite our language barrier, she began making the situation rather clear: the crew found more than just sturdy timber; they found a buried site that was both feared and revered by our strange elven friend. She attempted to defend this site, even killing some of the loggers there. Angelico Ramone ordered her captured, drugged, and packed into a box for interrogation about the site once they reached port. It became clear what had happened now.
The ship’s head engineer, Kip, had stumbled upon his doom long before our arrival. It came not in the form of faulty mechanisms or errant wiring, but from a mysterious cache uncovered during their time as simple loggers in the western wilderness. Beneath the towering trees, the crew unearthed an ancient structure, locked and warded by powers unknown. No fall of hammer or blast could breach it, but Kip, driven by greed and arrogance, took with him a set of peculiar bottles from the dig site. In his folly, he consumed the contents of one, assuming it a bottle of spirits. This was all confirmed thanks to Cojitron who was able to bring Kip to wakefulness. Though still in pain, he seemed to be recovering, and rather adamant that he deserved those bottles for the extra work the company had placed upon them. What transpired thereafter is the stuff of nightmares.
We went to retrieve the bottles from Kip's room but found that Ramone had previously confiscated the bottles, claiming them to be Sabol-Raos property. We surged toward the mess hall to confront Ramone and the crew about everything we'd learned thus far our accusations were cut deathly short. In a ghastly display of horror, Kip's belly ruptured, and from it emerged a hideous creature—a tumor-like orb festooned with tendrils and an array of eyes. This abomination set upon the crew, slaughtering those unlucky enough to be near it with beams of energy from alien eyeballs and dragging others to unknown fates. Even in death Kip's body was not spared mre horror. His head began tearing itself free of the body and mutating before our eyes into another nightmare... eyestalks growing from the skull, the flesh becoming gnarled and hard. Worse still, these things seemed able to drift above the floor rather than crawl upon it... Kip's blood raining down upon us as they attacked. 
Almost ten hours past while myself, Horrick and Cojitron battled for survival. All the while more and more of the crew were being taken... one by one. Horrick, the cunning survivalist that he is, analyzed the nature of the corks in the strange bottles and noted they were made of some kind of anti-fungal substance. Believing than that the creature was mycological in nature, Cojitron and Doctor Naephinea became creating more batches of fungacidal cream while raiding the stash normally kept on board for crew ailments. We brewed gallons of the medicine, slathering the walls and doors of the crew deck, creating a barrier between the inner ship and us. This became a vital safe zone for us to begin our planning. With what little crew we had - Captain Tayte Landis, his brother and cook Elroy, Doctor Naephinea, Foggle, Luvagret, and Ramone, we began our plan to repair the vessel and trap the beast. Unbeknownst to us the beast had other plans. The one that sprouted from Kip's head grew the fastest and strongest. Every member of the crew taken was implanted with a fungal parasite created by this mother monster. Dangerous warrior-type beasts seemed to be the ones that burst from the others and were tasked with hunting us down and bringing us to her. One by one many of our number were taken as we went about our repairs. Horrick, who intended to trap the mother beast in a timber grinder and shred her was taken as well. Myself, Cojitron, and Phyrae began sneaking and fighting our way back to the safety of the crew deck only to find that Ramone had sealed the door, fearing we might be impregnated or that a beast might slip through. Fortunately, all was not lost. 
The Blackhearts impeccable leader Dayne Reed, resolute as ever, knew something was amiss and that he had to act swiftly. With the assistance of the Lakewatch Rapid Response and Rescue Team—an elite group of Rylan steamtech-augmented soldiers—the rest of the Blackheart agents were sent to the Prospero. This includes the eloquent, level-headed, and stealthy Bayour Sunslake and the science-minded tengu prodigy Mr. Teakettle.   The Lakewatch men and women, their limbs of iron and brass, proved valiant, but even their mechanical might was no match for the nightmare on board. Half of their number fell beneath the claws and teeth of the growing infestation. For it was not just Kip’s demise they faced—no, dear reader, the vile fungus had begun to spread. It captured crew members, implanted them with its spores, breeding yet more of its kind. Lakewatch member Ana De Vega joined the Blackhearts in their push for the bridge, ignorant of the fate befalling the other Rylanders who ventured into the ship's depths. They discovered that the Prospero's numerous mechanical systems were all in steady decent toward critual failure including the four main boilers that powered the vessel. Time was preciously short for all of us.  They managed to find Ramone, holding the door shut, and save both Phyrae and Cojitron from the fungal warrior spore, its eye rays nearly slaying them while Ramone watched. 
It was then, amidst the chaos and death,that the united (sans Horrick) Blackhearts began working to set right the ship's systems. Left unchecked, the vessel would have become a floating inferno, and those still drawing breath would have been incinerated. The Blackhearts, unfazed by the growing threat, descended into the heart of the ship. There, they battled both time and the fungus-born horrors, repairing the boilers even as the creatures closed in. 
Mr. Teakettle unleashed some strange devise that seared many of the fungal warriors as well as the Mother Spore. This Mother Spore had grown in the hours since we first seen it, becoming larger than an ogre and looming between the quartet of boilers where she was laying more spore eggs. The eggs meant for the crew already trapped upon the floor by sticky resin. The scintillating cube that Mr.Teakettle unleashed the effect from seemed to slowly be turning the Mother Spore to stone and rooting her in place!   
With a masterful display of skill and bravery, the Sweepers not only managed to halt the impending explosion but also free the surviving crew and cure them of their impregnation with some of the fungicidal creams. The spore creatures were slain to the last, dying in the shadow of their petrified progenitor. 
Now, the ship returns to port, a floating tomb no more, but a grim reminder of what lies beneath the earth, waiting for the greedy and the foolish to disturb it. Let this serve as a warning to all who think that ancient secrets are theirs for the taking. The Blackhearts have saved the day, but I ask: how long until another bottle is uncorked, and a new horror unleashed?
Editor's Note: Blackheart Ruin Sweeping Service is offering a 10% off coupon for all first-time customers for the remainder of the month. Act now, time is running out!

Rewards Granted

350 gold aurins New Balmoran Steel Chain Shirt (AC 13 and -2 to all damage) New Balmoran Steel Auto Saw (Counts as a Great Sword that can reroll 1's for damage) Rylander Long Bow (D10 damage and longer range) Two shards of Manacite Greater Healing Potion
Will now receive job offers from Lakewatch Rescue

Missions/Quests Completed

Saved seven of the crew+Lakewatch Rescue (the more saved the more the gold reward accumulated)

Character(s) interacted with

Lakewatch Rescue Team
Ana De Vega of the Lake Watch
Angelico Ramone of the Sabol-Raos Mining Corporation
Phyrae, Drow now separated from home
Fungal Spore Creatures (Phyrae said her people refer to them as Eye Tyrants or Beholders)
Ordrekh Brogrom of the Ghal Pelor Chronicle

Created Content

Colossus I Offshore Production Platform - landmark they saw on the way to the Prospero
Rylander Steamtech Featured heavily in this session

Report Date

15 Sep 2024

Primary Location

Ghal Pelor