Perils of the Pirate Pact (Lamashan [X] 1st-4th, 4707 AR)

Riffraff on the Craft

Since it left Deadbridge, the Scrag Fisher had been cutting a straight furrow into the lazy waters of the Sellen River, making good speed thanks to its industrious crew actively manning the ship’s sail and ropes. Deadbridge was already far behind when an exclamation rose. “Sail Ho!” One of the robust sailors pointed ahead while turning toward Lady Riverbane standing at the helm. “It’s a cog, Milady. And it flies no colors—should we tender these trespassers?” Looking at the incoming vessel, Lady Riverbane answered in a stern voice: “Nay! Not today, man. We have our mission. We’ll stick to it.” Without another word, the crew got back to working the hawser and lanyards. As the two ships drew closer, the other craft’s pitiful state became obvious. With planks and riggings missing in places, sailors frantically moved about the deck and appeared to have difficulty steering their ship. As the two ships avoided collision and passed alongside each other, a shout rose — ”Now!” — followed by a volley of grappling hooks from the other vessel. The Scrag Fisher was under attack!

The other ship was the Waverender — the name barely readable on the vessel’s verdigris nameplate. A dozen disenfranchised River Kingdoms corsairs sailed this worn-down craft. The ragged band was contacted by One-Eyed Farl sometime before the heroes met with Bazzak. One-Eyed Farl was one of the Black Marquis’s closest friends (and a man the heroes would encounter in Mazzmezz's shrine). He offered the Waverender crew to join the Pirate Pact if they could prove their worth by killing the heroes in a ship-to-ship battle.

The fight started with the Scrag Fisher solidly secured to the Waverender by grapnels and ropes — a five-foot gap separated the two vessels. At the beginning of combat, a river thug extended a narrow boarding plank between the decks. Some of the river thugs used this platform to try and cross between the two ships, others tried to jump, or stayed on their ship and fired arrows at the heroes. There were a total of six grapnels holding the two ships together.

This area of the river had calm waters. A couple of river thugs fell overboard, with one grabbing onto a lanyard before hitting the waterline. The other fell in the river, but reached the hull of the Scrag Fisher and maintained himself above the waves. He then climbed back on board.

The river thugs concentrated their assault on the heroes. In fact, Riverbane immediately ordered her crew to retreat below deck and “leave the fighting to the heroic Pathfinders.” She found herself a vantage point from which to observe the skirmish, before using a thin baton that shot missiles of magical energy to finish off any injured river thug.

A couple of river thugs harassed heroes with arrows while the others attacked in melee. Willing to prove their worth, the river thugs fought until they were severely injured or all of their allies were down.

When one of the river thugs escaped the heroes' finishing blows and got captured, he begged pathetically for his life and readily offered to share the little he knew. The Waverender was in an advanced state of disrepair and was of little to no value.

Ship in the Web

The Scrag Fisher sailed on after the altercation with the river thugs and did not come across any other aggressive boats that day. The next morning, low gray clouds smeared the sky, and by midday tall trees leaning over the riverbank further obstructed the pale sun. A gloomy mood fell on the pirate crew as the ship entered Echo Wood. A mere hour before dusk, the sailors’ misgivings crystallized when the expedition came across a barge trapped in giant webs.

The wind seemed to come to a dead still as the Scrag Fisher approached the wreckage of a hulking river barge. “It’s the Hanspur’s Luck, Milady—or what’s left of it,” grumbled one of the pirates. Like a large bee stuck in a spider’s web, the partially sunken boat bulged out of a mesh of sticky tangles, its deck slightly sloping abaft. Slowly turning the wheel, Lady Riverbane ordered her ship toward the ensnarled derelict, and a minute later the Scrag Fisher’s moorings were secured to the Hanspur’s Luck. The captain turned around and said, “Here we are mates. That looks like a good place to start your investigation, wouldn’t you say?”

The top deck of this bulky vessel held nothing of interest. The heroes had to cut their way through thick webbing to reach the hatchway and staircase leading inside the ship. The hold was dark, full of spider webs, and its aft section was partially under water (up to 3 feet at the deepest end). Giant black widow spiders lay in wait behind the mostly broken crates, bags, and barrels that littered the place. These spiders were of the web-spinners type: they used their webs as weapons and were particularly skilled at hiding. When all of the heroes had entered the hold the spiders launched their attack. At the beginning of the battle, one of them threw a web at Jule who was coming down the ladder.

Thick sheets of webbing choked some areas. A few large crates hampered movement and could be used as cover. The aft section of the hold was flooded. The heroes noticed that some of the supplies lying in this hold were highly flammable.

The heroes found three potions of lesser restoration—their contents labeled in an unknown language— in one of the many containers. The fore cabin contained a desk and some papers, including the ship’s logbook. That document clearly indicated that the Hanspur’s Luck was ordered by Lady Riverbane to come to this location and await further instructions. Nowhere on the ship was there any trace of the crew. They had already been eaten or carried back to the ettercaps’ nest (see Mazzmezz Shrine).

The heroes extracted the venom sack Aranthor required from one of the dead spiders. The majority of the supplies found on board were clearly of Andoren origin. Among the papers found in the cabin were some ledgers with names of smugglers, contacts, and corrupted officials involved in the traffic of Andoren goods. These were the documents needed for the Andoran mission. They were all written in orc. Thankfully the heroes spoke that language and recognized the value of these records.

The Venomous Woods

Following the encounter on board the Hanspur’s Luck, the expedition resumed its course. The next morning, Lady Riverbane anchored her ship and led the heroes ashore. She gave them a very simple map meant to lead the heroes to the place where the Black Marquis’s men were ambushed. The heroes penetrated the eerie depths of the forest alone, with Lady Riverbane needing to stay behind with her crew to ensure that it didn't fall to brigands or abominations — from here on out, the heroes were on their own. The journey from the shores of the Sellen River to the location marked on Riverbane’s map took four hours at normal walking speed.

The forest here was ancient. Dense masses of leafage imposed an eerie twilight of dark green while forlorn trees spoke of a bygone age where humans wrestled for survival in a land of darkness. Many thick sheets of giant webbing stretched like great shrouds around the gaunt trees and groveling bushes.

Two ettercaps dwelt in an ancient vault half a dozen miles inland. Three weeks ago, when Lady Riverbane ventured onto their territory with a dozen pirates, the ettercaps hunted them down.

The Labyrinth

The area around the ettercap lair was a maze of tree trunks, bushes, undergrowth, and webs. Innately talented for building traps, the ettercaps set an insidious camouflaged pit in this disorienting network of tunnels and passageways. A few minutes into the labyrinth, the heroes ran into the trap.

Covered in gooey webbing, the broken corpse of one of the Black Marquis’s men lay at the bottom of this pit. As they ventured deeper into the maze, the heroes spotted a few more dead bodies hanging upside-down in giant spider webs—all members of the ill-fated expedition.

Navigating the labyrinth wasn't a simple task, but the heroes successfully crossed the labyrinth.

The Corpse Marionette

The heroes finally made it out of the cramped passageways and into a clearing. The web-covered trees were still as ominous as they were in the labyrinth and dead leaves covered the ground. A few hundred yards beyond, a low hill bare of any vegetation rose from the sea of green. But what caught the heroes' attention was a man in tattered clothes laboriously crawling in their direction.

When the heroes entered the glade, an ettercap was already waiting for them, hidden in the dark foliage of a tree. The sadistic predator took one of the corpses from its den — that of a crewman from the Hanspur’s Luck — and attached web strings to the cadaver’s limbs. The monster played the corpse like a marionette, making it twitch on the ground like a dying man would.

The heroes noticed the ettercap concealed in the foliage and saw the translucent threads holding the man’s body.

The ettercap remained hidden. When spotted, it fled.

Mazzmezz's Shrine

Past the glade, the gaping mouth of a tunnel opened into a bleak, cairn-like mound. Down the dark passageway, the heroes found a grisly scene.

The tunnel opened into a large cavern. Thick layers of sagging webs choked the room from floor to ceiling. Beyond the mass of tangles, jade flames burned about a rough pyramid-shaped dais, bathing the whole chamber in an eldritch green glow. Gruesome carcasses and human-sized cocoons dangled from ghastly strands. In places, walls were covered with worn-out bas-reliefs and faded markings. The air smelled of dust, decay, and death.

The PCs were standing in an old temple to the nefarious demon lord of vermin: Mazmezz, the Creeping Queen. The heroes knew the nature of this unholy place and further that, though obviously inhabited by some kind of web-spinning pests, this shrine hadn't seen any formal worship to Mazmezz in at least a hundred years. But the shrine hadn't stayed deserted for long.

Two wicked aberrations called this cavern home. The ettercaps were lying in wait in the webs.

By attaching a large slab of stone to a web rope, the ettercaps constructed a deadly swinging block trap set to go off when someone crossed the room to the altar. The monsters remained hidden until they were discovered, at which point they slid down to the ground and attacked the heroes.

Giant webbings obstructed some areas. The ettercaps could freely cross these spaces — a fact the crafty creatures used to their advantage to assault the party’s rear. The creatures fought to the death.

Once the heroes had dealt with the inhabitants of this dreadful place, they were free to explore the cavern. The ettercaps’ nest suspended from the ceiling. The heroes had to climb to reach this location and found within various shiny objects the monsters collected from their victims: a few gems, pendants, and gold pieces, and a masterwork silver short sword. The cocoons hanging behind the altar contained a number of human bodies — Lady Riverbane’s former companions or crewmen from the Hanspur’s Luck. Two individuals were still alive, though unconscious. One was an elderly Osirion man who introduced himself as Zukka Nephmet when awakened. The other was a close friend of the Black Marquis: a pirate named One-Eyed Farl. Once brought back to consciousness, Farl openly talked about Riverbane’s treachery which he experienced firsthand. He claimed the villainous woman led Bazzak’s best men and left them to die at the hand of ettercaps and arachnid monstrosities she knew lived there.

Both survivors were infinitely grateful to the heroes. Neither of them was in any condition to fight.