Session 2: Soul of Winter

The sailor goes silent for a brief moment, staring somewhere beyond the edge of the dim light. "Pull me up! Pull me up! Quick!" he shouts in panic as he grabs the rope Izuhn lowered in a hurry. Agna is quick to react and pulls the rope as fast as she can. Being focused on her effort, the orc doesn't notice anything, but Izuhn sees the water from the flooded deck wave as the sailor jumps out of it and... the pattern doesn't look quite right...

As the sailor grabs the edge of the broken grate, Captain Harkin turns towards one of the corridors, stabbing the wooden wall in one swift movement. "Looks like we've got company." She swings her rapier, throwing another dead, rotting hand flat on the floor just as you both notice two humanoid shapes moving towards you from the narrow corridor.

As Izuhn moves his light to illuminate the shapes, the faint light is reflected on their wet scaly skin. You hear a scream of fear as one of the sailors falls flat on the floor as he is surprised by another fish creature who jumped from the ceiling. Captain Harkin quickly reacts, forcing the fish thing to back off the sailor. "Time to go!" She shouts as the two sailors start to fall back towards one of the doors.

However, as soon as Agna calls on Vokarr a eerie cold quickly washes over the crowded corridor as the faint image of an orc warchief appears in front of the two scaly humanoids. Even before anyone can consider if the new arrival is just an illusion, he raises his great axe and cuts down both creatures in one strike.

As the Chieftain's spirit deals with all the creatures int he corridor, you all fall back into the next room. As you enter the room, you immediately notice the floor is covered with runes written in blood. A circle has been carved into the floor's wooden planks and seaweeds cover the walls and ceiling. Two humanoid-sized bundles attached to the ceiling writhe as hundreds of tiny crabs swarm over them.

In the middle of the carved circle, you see a unattractive priestess-looking woman flipping pages of a damaged book. She turns to you as you enter. "Blessed be Umberlee for guiding you here" she says, resting her eyes on Agna for a little too long, giving the orc a strange feeling of uneasiness.

The woman looks at Agna, again just a second too long that she would need to. But this time, she takes a few steps back and turns her gaze down before speaking. After that, er eyes start to focus only on the others, as if she was measuring if they are as threatening as the orc. "You can call me Krell Grohlg" she says with a smile that reveals her crooked teeth. "Well, well, what nonsense is this you're talking about? This old ship has been ravaged by Umberlee's wrath. An old devout woman such as me couldn't have possible done this to a fully crewed ship." After a few words her gaze rest on Izuhn, as she decides to plea directly to the dwarf. "With you? I only want to be out of this place before it is too late. Maybe you can help me?"

Krell looks at Agna as she calls out her pretense. "She sent you to get it back didn't she? She thinks she can just freeze Umberlee's domain and get away with it?" The old woman shouts at Agna, infuriated by the orc's threatening attitude. She grabs the damaged book, its pages suddenly catching fire in a sudden instant of destruction. As the tiny crabs start to run away from the room, two scaly humanoid creatures crawl out of the bundles attached to the ceiling.

Krell drops all illusions, revealing her horrific appearance. The abysmally grotesque creature's pallid yellow skin with patches of green, slimy scales and bony protrusions is revealed, the stench of rotting fish quickly filling the room. Its piscine eyes are devoid of life with deep, black pupils surrounded by red. She smiles, shark-like teeth filling rows inside her mouth.

"What is... THAT THING!" one of the sailors shouts in panic, dropping his cutlass.

Agna turns to check Izuhn's reaction to her suggestion about finally getting out of this cursed ship. The dwarf however, is frozen, terrified by distorted horror in front of him. The sickening stench of the thing fills his lungs as his legs give away in a sudden weakness, as cold sweat drops from his forehead to be absorbed by his long dwaven beard.

Krell glares at the screaming sailor, holding his gaze until he drops on the floor unconscious. Seeing the effect of such abomination, Izuhn panics and runs away into the first door he finds.