Date: 10/03/10

XP Awarded: 1,150

Start: Smuggling tunnels under Parrot Island outside the city of Tashluta, dry season (Ches), 1369 DR.

As the thudding sound of the boulder atop the trapdoor echoes through the brick room and tunnel, the party regroups in the small room at the bottom of the entry shaft. Memnon pulls a bullseye lantern from his bulky backpack and soon the room is brightly lit. The adventurers quickly come to a decision to explore the tunnels further to find another exit.

Proceeding down the winding, cramped, brick-lined tunnel, the party reaches a wooden door. Bound by rusty iron bands, the swollen wood has wedged the portal tightly closed. Nather presses his ear to the soggy surface, but hears nothing more than the ever-present drip of water. Taark uses his armor-plated shoulder to force open the door and stumbles into another hall with a curving brick ceiling supported by slimy wooden braces. At either end of the hall are large wooden double doors standing slightly ajar. Inspecting the walls, Taark determines that they are quite old and that the poor condition of the wooden bracing means that they are not entirely stable.

The rest of the party emerges from the much smaller tunnel as Taark approaches the nearest set of doors on the left. When he pushes one of the two large doors further open, it scrapes loudly across the uneven flagstones. A much larger chamber's sagging ceiling is supported by great wooden pillars and draped with hanging strands of fungus. Before he can look around further, shambling figures approach from the dark recesses of the room, the sound of their moans and their gnashing teeth echoing eerily.

Laurrens and Tilan rush forward to set up a defensive wall alongside Taark, Memnon attacks with his spear from further back, and Nather and Azaad provide supporting fire from the hall. When the creatures approach into the torchlight, the party sees that they are dressed in the rotting armor and clothes of pirates, and chunks of flesh are missing from their bodies. Their fanged maws open much wider than they should, revealing row after row of jagged teeth. The undead grasp and grope, trying to pull the adventurers into their mouths. The party quickly discovers that spears and warhammers aren't nearly as effective as swords in destroying the former pirates, and Laurrens' attempts to summon the holy power of Torm has little effect. During the battle, Nather realizes that the party could be exposed to an attack from the rear by another group of undead and moves to investigate the ajar double doors at the far end of the large hallway. The sounds of battle make it difficult to tell, but he thinks that he hears additional undead beyond the open doors. Retreating a safe distance, he and Azaad train their crossbows on the door, ready to fire upon anything that comes through. Behind them, their gore-spattered companions drop the last of the undead and stand victorious over the ruined corpses. Azaad and Nather return to the cavernous chamber and push the heavy double doors closed, then help the others look around more carefully. Though the undead threatening them are all destroyed, the sound of eerie moans and gnashing teeth still whisper through the complex, the source uncertain amid the echoes.

Several wooden doors, banded in rusty iron and warped in their frames, stand in the walls around the large room. The ceiling on the left of the room has collapsed, and a rippling pool of water reaches from a mound of stone and rubble halfway into the room. It seems that a wooden pier once extended into the pool, but all that remains are several rotting wooding pilings protruding from the water, a man's body floating face down among them. Memnon uses his spear to drag the body to the shore where he can examine it, but his action disturbs something in the sloshing water.

Surging out of the pool, three large dark brown crabs with pincers the size of daggers lunge at Tilan. One more snaps at Laurrens, and behind it there is an explosion of spray as a fifth, much larger crab emerges. A short but bloody battle ensues, with Tilan sustaining claw wounds but dispatching the crabs threatening him with Taark's help. Several powerful hits from Laurrens greatsword and Memnon's spear destroy the largest crab, and soon the chamber is quiet once again. Investigating the body floating in the water, the party finds that it is very crab-eaten with large chunks missing, but has nothing of value. Memnon ties a rope around himself and cautiously probes the pool with his spear, but finds that there is no underwater passage in the shallow pool. He does find a silvered dagger in the muck under where the body was floating, and tucks it into his belt.

Taking a closer look at the doors in the perimeter of the room, the group finds that each is solidly stuck in a closed position due to the warped and swollen wood. The first two doors are opened to find small, empty brick rooms. The next opens to reveal a sandy slope descending to the churning waters of a sea cave. The twisting natural cavern winds back into darkness beyond the party's vision. Dozens of purple and red sea urchens glisten in shallow divots along the ground and lower walls. The party decides to come back to investigate this later, and further explore other portions of the complex first.

Returning to the large chamber, the group opens the last of the smaller doors around the perimeter and find a tiny antechamber with another swollen door that's rusted firmly in place. After some minutes of strenuous effort, the door is broken open by Tilan and another storage room is revealed with a couple of empty chests. The party proceeds through a door on the far side and find another brick-lined tunnel with a low, arched ceiling. This tunnel leads to another door rusted closed, and by Nather's calculations, it may lead to the same room that the double doors in the first large hallway open into.

The party agrees to split into two groups and make a simultaneous assault through both sets of doors. Nather readies his crossbow and Tilan readies a rush through the rusted door that Taark will break open, while Azaad, Laurrens, and Memnon walk back to the double doors that lead on to the large hall. After opening them and verifying the hall is empty of undead, they proceed to the still open double doors at the far end of the wide passage. As Laurrens and Memnon near the door, they catch a flash of movement on the far side and ready their weapons. At the same time, Azaad notices one of the undead coming from the side tunnel that leads back to the room with the blocked shaft and yells a warning. The group pulls back to form a united defense, and Azaad uses one of his last spells to coat the floor around the doors with a slippery layer of magical grease, causing the undead coming through to fall on the ground.

At the other door, the group can hear the sounds of combat echoing through the tunnels, but the door is tightly rusted shut, and Taark cannot force it open. Tilan runs through the tunnels to aid the other group while Taark continues to work on the door, with Nather's crossbow readied to fire as soon as it opens. Tilan arrives at the other battle just as Azaad's spell expires, and the paladin helps the others block the undead from overwhelming their defensive position. Finally Taark gets the door open, only to face a hungry undead immediately in front of him. Nather fires his crossbow, but the shot goes wild. The heavily armored dwarf begins a slugfest with the undead, but his hammer blows have a difficult time damaging the creature.

In the wider tunnel, the trio of fighters supported by Azaad's crossbow fire have cut through the undead and press forward through the open double doors into another large chamber supported by wooden pillars. Circling around to the creature attacking Taark, the party quickly cut it to shreds. The sounds of moaning and teeth gnashing still echo through the room, possibly from another open pair of double doors leading to a long angling hallway. Nather leaves the rest of the party in the room while he silently pads forward, though the lantern he carries somewhat limits his stealth.

Nather finds an open pair of doors in the side of the hall, which seems to open into a small room crowded with pillars. Further on, the tunnel changes angle and descends into a dark, lapping pool of water. On the way back to meet the party, a group of undead in the side room stir and Nather quickly runs back to the rest of the group. Forming a defensive ring around the room's opening, a wall of blades awaits the hungry undead as they push through the open doors and into the hall.

When Laurrens holds up his holy symbol and attempts to turn the undead, a harsh, guttural voice calls out from behind the wall of zombies "Your god is weak and will abandon you!" A flask of alchemist's fire is hurled into the zombies, lighting the area and revealing a cloaked, withered figure that seemds to be commanding the undead pirates. As the adventurers chop through the first waves of undead, the figure casts another defensive spell, then plunges through the zombies to lunge at Laurrens's throat. With horror, the party realize that their weapons aren't doing any damage to the unholy creature. In a desperate attempt to get the undead off the wounded priest of Torm, Memnon pulls out the silvered dagger he'd found earlier and discovers that it's effective for overcoming the creature's resistance to normal weapons. As the rest of the party finish off the last of the zombie pirates, Memnon destroys the undead spellcaster with the silvered dagger. For the first time since encountering the first group of zombies, the brick-lined tunnels are silent from the moans and shuffling sounds in the background.

Looking around the room the undead came from, the party finds a few empty chests but nothing of value. Proceeding down the wide hall to where the edge of the dark water laps the rough floor, Memnon again peels off his breastplace and explores the subterranean pool. He finds the pool occupies a room supported by wooden pillars, and the water becomes much deeper towards the back of the room. But there is no sign of an exit in the water, or anything else of value or interest. The party returns to the natural cavern at the far end of the complex and again Memnon removes his armor and enters the heaving water. After some distance the narrow cavern winds and becomes deeper, but he is able to tread water with his torch held high and continue out of sight of the party. He finds the tunnel divides into two, and wedges the torch into the wall before returning to the group.

The party has a discussion and decides to barricade themselves into the largest chamber to rest for the night, since the spellcasters have used up all their magic and many of the warriors still bear wounds from the earlier battles against the undead. Tearing down some of the sodden doors, the adventurers hack them up to create a bonfire. They are too waterlogged to catch fire, so Memnon uses the last of his lamp oil to get a blaze going which soon dries the wood enough to burn. Once the bonfire is going, the giant brown crabs are spitted and soon everyone is eating fresh seafood. After dinner the party sets watches and rests until what they calculate must be low tide around sunrise.

By the time that everyone is done resting, the lantern has run out of oil and the only source of light is the bonfire. The group make several makeshift torches from the wooden doors, and the spellcasters use some minor magic to create light sources that Memnon takes with him when he swims into the natural cavern again to explore further. Going down one of the two passages, he finds a sandbar shallow enough to stand on. He drives some pitons into the wall and ties his rope off to it, then continues on into a much larger cavern with strong surges of water that come from below. In the back of the cavern he finds a sandy shore leading up to a carved tunnel sealed by a rusty, iron-banded door. Tying off the rope at this point, he returns to help usher the other party members along. Though there are a few close calls and dropped goods, everyone makes it to the sandy ledge in front of the door. While diving to retrieve Tilan's dropped bag of armor, Memnon notices a submerged tunnel deep below the surface of the largest chamber large enough for a human to enter. He sees the tunnel recedes into darkness, and strong tidal surges pulse in and out of it, suggesting that it connects with the ocean after some distance.

Back on the sandy ledge, the party's few torches are running low and the spellcasters are almost out of light spells, having used them up during Memnon's exploration. The door is much more strongly blocked than expected, and seems to be blocked shut with pitons from the far side. After several minutes of work with the light becoming steadily dimmer, the adventurers force open the door. Inside is a small chamber, thick with the horrific smell of putrefying flesh coming from the bloated, seeping body slumped in the middle of the floor. The corpse's dark, almost black flesh bulges against its armor, ready to burst at the slightest touch. An intricate tattoo of a dragon clutching a flower is barely visible on its shoulder against the diseased flesh, and clutched in one hands is a crumpled scroll.

While Azaad reads the note, Nather and Taark's careful search of the room turns up a hidden catch in the floor. While the rest of the party waits on the sandbar outside the room, Taark flips the catch. With a stone grinding sound, a portion of the room's wall swings open, revealing a larger, cobwebbed room beyond. Peering through the dusty air, the party sees three large sea chests against the back wall. After Nather's careful investigation reveals them to be safe, they are opened and found to be full of gold, copper, and silver, and even a few small pouches of gems and some potions. A small jade coffer contains a light brown gemstone, with a strip of paper identifying it as an 'Earth Elemental Gem'.

Just as the strip of paper is read out, the party's last torch fizzles and dies, plunging the chamber into darkness. After a brief discussion, it's agreed that Memnon is the party's best swimmer and will make an attempt to swim down the submerged tunnel to find out if it connects to the ocean outside. Taark ties a series of ropes together and attaches one end to Memnon, and Azaad uses his last magic to light his way. Memnon plunges into the surging waters and fights his way through the fierce tugs of the currents into the winding tunnel. Once in the tunnel, the turbulent waters make for very difficult going, and after a half minute of swimming he is about to turn around when he sees that the tunnel brightens ahead. A last push sends him out of a coral-lined tunnel and into open water about 20 feet deep.

Breaking the surface, he spots the hull of a ship racing towards him and quickly swims out of the way. Looking around, Memnon finds he's in the channel between Parrot Island and the rugged cliffs outside Tashluta's city walls. Swimming around the jagged rocks ringing Parrot Island, he comes around to the sandy beach where the party's boat is hidden. After resting for a bit, he cautiously approaches the stone trapdoor through the surrounding jungle but sees nobody there. With some effort, Memnon rolls the boulder off the trapdoor and opens it, only to find the rope inside has been hacked off and lies in a pile in the room below.

Returning to the jungles, Memnon gathers up vines and weaves them together to form a makeshift rope and ties it off to descend into the tunnels below. Coaxing the bonfire back to life, he prepares a handful of still-burning brands from the party's bonfire, he returns to the sea cave and swims out to place a series of them to light the way. Guiding the rest of the group from their darkened room, the party slowly and laboriously moves their equipment and treasure back to the main chamber and eventually up the shaft and down to the hidden rowboat. Hours later, the party row back into Tashluta's harbor under the setting sun and disperse to their respective quarters to clean and rest.

The next day, the party pays a visit to Vanderboren Manor where they find Lavinia Vanderboren is very relieved to hear from them. After explaining the previous two days' events, Lavinia reacts with shock and despair upon hearing about how her brother trapped them in the undead-infested tunnels and the accusations in Penkus' note. She asks the party to capture Vanthus alive, but if he makes this impossible, that his death be merciful and quick.