Far Isles Session #29 - The Zombie Raft

DRAMATIS PERSONAE:
Abdul el Abdul (Fighter 4)
Kwinsea (Aquamancer 4), with familiar Hermes
Torak (Cleric 4)
Beuford Bumbletoes (Halfling 3)

The party had Lynessa turn the "Purple Haze" about to chase down the raft. Once they were close enough, Abdul el Abdul and a few sailors latched onto the squishy edge with rope and grappling hooks, joining the raft and ship together. The could now see that the  mass of dead crocodiles, humanoids, and assorted swamp life that made up the raft was not still but quivering with movement. In fact, as they watched, a quartet of moss covered, half rotten bodies untangled themselves from the bulk of the raft and began to shuffle towards the ship. As the crew retreated to the rigging and the stern of the ship, the party unleashed a rain of missile fire and paralyzation rays to take them out. That done, the party passed over the ropes to the raft, and proceeded to the grass hut. Seeing no door, Beuford stuck his hand through the grass hut, only to have it grabbed by something on the other side. He pulled his hand back, and the party proceeded to tear the hut down to get inside. Inside were three more of the moss covered zombies, which were quickly dispatched. That done, they looked around the remains of the hut. There was little to see except for some creepy bone and grass charms hanging from the ceiling, and a 5' wide hole in both the floor and ceiling.  Tying a couple of coils of rope together, Kwinsea then used attach rope to secure it to the ship, there being nothing else on the raft solid enough to hold it. And then down the hole went the rope, followed by Abdul el Abdul and Beuford. About 40' down they entered a chamber deep in the raft, with walls and floor and ceiling an undulating mass of bodies. Also in the chamber were a trio of deathly looking wolves, who fell on Abdul el Abdul and Beuford with a vengeance, paralyzing both. Torak and Kwinsea then dropped into the chamber, and between the borrowed paralyzation wand and a lot of stabbing, the three wolves were defeated.

Once Abdul el Abdul and Beuford were brought back to normal using a couple of potions of healing, the party headed for the only unique feature of the room, a stout oak door. After several attempts to open it failed, Abdul el Abdul noted the door was just built into the mass of bodies which formed the walls. So he proceeded to cut away around the frame, and soon the door was removed and the path free. On the other side they found a passageway writhing with arms and hands, trying to grab at them. There were also two stairs built out of the quivering flesh, on leading up and one down. The party headed down, with Beuford in the lead. Their exploration ended after about 30' in front of a wall of flesh. And a pit trap, into which Beuford fell. Luckily he avoided the spikes sticking out of the fetid water at the bottom.

Iron Rose

The rest of the party hauled Beuford out, and headed back to take the upper stairs. This corridor was longer, and was similarly alive with clutching hands. Beuford again triggered a trap, this time the rib cage of some huge beast which sprang out of the floor. Luck was with the halfling again, as he managed to dodge the sharpened bone. His luck shortly ran out though, when the passage opened into a small room. At the far end they could see, hiding behind what appeared to be a 10' iron rose, the mysterious figure they had battled above. Between the party and him, however, stood two desiccated and undead guardians. They leveled their cold blades at Beuford, who stood alone in the front rank, and the halfling shivered as they drained away much of his vitality and power. Kwinsea once more whipped out the borrowed paralyzation wand and froze all three opponents, who were then dispatched by bladed means. The party gathered up the silver coins scattered about the writhing floor, and looted a dagger (which cast a circle of light when unsheathed) and a bone staff from the mysterious figure. Abdul meanwhile, pulled down the iron rose.  It was unadorned, but subsequent investigation showed it to be magical. That was good enough reason to take it along, so the party dragged it back through the tunnels of clutching hands to the chamber below the hut. Where they were dismayed to find their rope was missing. Abdul tried climbing up, but the writhing walls did not allow good grip, and he fell before making it halfway. In the end, the party hatched a plan to send Hermes up the shaft with the ebony fly attached to some more rope. Once above "ground" they summoned the fly, and everyone climbed up the rope as it hovered overhead. And hauled up the iron rose.

Everyone looked about for the "Purple Haze", which now stood off several hundred yards to the west. There was a commotion on deck, a fight of some sort. Leaping aboard the fly, Beuford launched himself at the ship, finding the crew battling a quartet of the moss covered zombies from the raft. He leapt  into the fray, and the fly returned to the raft to ferry the others over. They soon destroyed the last of the zombies, but not before four of the crew were also dead. This put the rest in a bitter mood, and they made no move to listen when given the order to raise sail and pursue the raft. Abdul el Abdul brought them around, however, by offering the thousand silver coins they'd just recovered from the zombie raft. That got the crew to work, and the "Purple Haze" was soon in hot pursuit of the raft, which had continued on it's previous heading roughly east south-east.  Well, slow pursuit, as they were sailing directly into the wind, and Lynessa had to continuously tack the ship back and forth to keep the raft in sight. This continued on for days, and they left the Magic Isles behind, still following the raft in the hopes it was leading them somewhere interesting ...

TOTAL XP
1588

GAINS
1000sp
magic dagger & staff from the Zombie Master
Iron Rose

KILLS
11 zombies
3 ghouls wolves
2 wights
Zombie Master

LOSSES
4 sailors
Most of Beuford's levels