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Music by Kevin MacLeod.
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Previously on Call from the Deep
Starring:
Gotwald Ironhorn, level 4 minotaur Rune Knight Fighter
Mac, level 4 tortle Drakewarden Ranger
Savra Akkedis, level 4 lizardfolk School of Necromancy WizardTorrel, level 4 kenku Fathomless Warlock Pact of the Amulet/Fighter
Having cleared the sahuagin guards, the party continues exploring the sunken shipwreck.
They head back to the deck level and notice a chained door to the quarterdeck. The kind of chained door that’s never meant to be opened again.
Note: We’re on holiday break beginning December 22! No sessions for the next two weeks. Call from the Deep will return on January 5, 2024.
Gotwald plants his hooves on the door and pulls the chains, snapping them off and breaking pieces of the rotting wood.
Inside they can see a private cabin, with silver plates and cutlery still on the table, and paintings on the wall, though everything is covered in muck and algae.
An ornate spellbook lies on the table, with a dead sahuagin nearby.
Savra casts mage hand to safely nab the book, but a scaly eye on the cover flips open, and a nearby curtain is cast aside, revealing an undead wizard. The barnacle-crusted creature is ready to destroy any more of those damned sahuagin — but isn’t familiar with these newcomers.
After tensions diffuse they realize they’re both on the same side, or at least the side battling the sahuagin. Hoch Miraz was a once wizard aboard the Golden Crown. He apparently went down with the ship. He doesn’t remember the details of what happened, or how he ended up in this undead state.
He’s not quite a lich, but does retain some of his arcane prowess (using the deathlock stat block, but without multiattack). All he wants is to be left alone in his calm underwater lair.
But then then sahuagin showed up. He killed some of them, but they were too many. He lost his staff and was forced to retreat to his cabin, where the sahuagin sealed him in.
He asks his newfound allies to clear the ship and restore his home. In return he’ll grant them any treasures aboard the ship, including his old spellbook to Savra. He and the book no longer see eye-to-eye, which he finds a hilarious joke (the sentient spellbook stares at him balefully).
Savra claims the spellbook, which is capable of its own breath attack, and the three-team party gain a new temporary ally who also knows the ship.
Using Miraz’s intel, they guess that any remaining sahuagin would be in the lower deck toward the rear of the ship.
They head down and through a door, finding an empty room with seaweed beds on the floor, and a coral chest full of pearl necklaces.
Another door reveals a private cabin dominated by a large statue carved from the ship itself. The statue resembles a humanoid alien horror with tentacles.
In front is a four-armed sahuagin staring reverently.
A buckler has been placed around that statue like an amulet. An eye embedded in the buckler snaps open, and a psychic message is broadcasted to everyone nearby:
“The time is nigh. The armada moves. One by one a mighty wave will crash upon their cities. All who dwell in the seas will earn their place in the new kingdom.”
A vision accompanies the message. A large number of ships approaching a city on the Sword Coast. The party recognizes the city of Neverwinter. Is this a premonition, or a glimpse of current events?
As the vision ends, the sahuagin baron turns to the party and hefts his trident. Boss fight!
Gotwald stands (swims?) his ground in the doorway as the boss unleashes a flurry of attacks with his trident and razor-sharp shark teeth, nearly downing the fighter if not for his redirect rune.
But then the eye on the shield pulses, letting out a wave of psychic energy (INT saves), and Gotwald goes down!
Savra is forced to feed him a potion of healing to keep the tank alive, while Miraz and Mac fire at the boss from a distance.
Gotwald gets back up, though his eye is badly damaged (Lingering Injury). He bravely grapples the baron and drags him out of the room, hoping to avoid that psychic blast again.
Despite the baron’s four arms, Gotwald proves stronger, nearly pulling him out of the entire shipwreck. This allows Savra to swim up and shut the door — hoping the eye operates on line of sight (it does!).
However, the powerful boss is still in Gotwald’s face, and easily downs the fighter again with his triple attack with Blood Frenzy advantage (and Gotwald’s reduced AC with the mariner’s armor).
Mac uses his drake Cheese to help tank some blows, allowing Miraz to get in a huge critical blast, while Savra casts wither and bloom to get Gotwald back into the fight, again.
Gotwald now sports a nasty scar above his eye (second Lingering Injury!) but is undeterred in keeping this monster away from his friends. He grapples and punches the baron as the baron calls out for reinforcements.
Two more sahuagin appear from below deck, swimming over to Mac and keeping the ranger busy.
Gotwald goes down a third time to a flurry of trident attacks, and Savra casts another wither and bloom to bring him back! This time he makes the CON save against suffering a third Lingering Injury, but Gotwald is definitely Rocky Balboa-ing this battle.
Miraz fires off another huge critical blast, and Mac’s drake cheese tears out the baron’s throat, ending the boss’ reign.
The remaining sahuagin begin to scatter. One goes down, while the other flees below deck.
Gotwald rushes into the boss’ room to grab the shield, but malignant energy and whispering in his mind prompts him to quickly destroy it, feeling a connection to a cave-like area nearby (the mine?).
Meanwhile Mac chases after the sahuagin. He finds a large merrow returning to the ship with a humanoid prisoner, and warns the others.
Savra casts cause fear, stopping the merrow, while everyone rains down death from above, killing the creature before it has a chance to react.
They swim down and make short work of the frightened sahuagin.
In the hold they find more prisoners in a room with a magical air bubble. Savra identifies magic stones with runes inscribed, bestowing an air bubble if they’re in close proximity. Useful!
The only prisoner able to talk bears a striking resemblance to Bern. It’s his mother, Westra. She bemoans that her family and her village were attacked by the sahuagin, who were far more powerful and organized than usual.
They became separated, and she’s worried abut their fates.
The party doesn’t exactly have good bedside manner, as Savra reveals that Bern is dead (she at least leaves out the whole transformed-into-a-tentacle-monster-thing).
Miraz wants the rest of the ship checked and cleared before he’s fully satisfied. Promising to return to the prisoners, they look through the rest of the ship, finding mostly rotting crates and debris.
One room has some glinting gold underneath some rocks, but a large serpentine shape deters Savra, who suggests that Miraz now has a pet.
A final room near the front of the lower deck has a crude drawing of a fish with an arrow pointing to the door.
The party grabs the nearest dead sahuagin and presses its hand onto the door, thinking there’s some kind of magic in play here.
Instead the mimic comes to life, eating the arm and moving to open the doorway into the treasure room.
Inside the party helps themselves to treasure from the galleon, as well as some recent acquisitions from the sahuagin, with Miraz’s blessing. They find potions, coins, valuables, and a few magic items: a cloak of the manta ray, and a damaged cube of force, which will need some repairs.
The undead wizard thanks the party for their assistance in clearing the shipwreck. He mentions that he no longer sense his staff nearby, but if they manage to find it, they can keep it.
The party uses the air stones to get the prisoners back to the surface, and to a much-deserved long rest — and a level up to five!
Note: We’re on holiday break beginning December 22! No sessions for the next two weeks. Call from the Deep will return on January 5, 2024.
MVPC – Gotwald
Live post-session discussion:
Live streamed and uploaded every week on YouTube. Join us live on Fridays at 7:30 pm Pacific/10:30 pm Eastern!
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