A. Clearing Out the Sea Caves.

The PCs leave Cassick at the camp with Strahan to guard Erqua Ashilim. Vermillion scouts ahead, but neither sees nor hears any guards at the entrance to the sea caves, though he can see signs of people walking or crates being dragged from the edge of the water into the caves.

PCs move through the first cavern and encounter six zombies – raised from the dead crew of the shipwrecked vessels – carrying a water-logged body deeper into the caves. The zombies attack, but Athron calls upon the power of Hamal to smite them all into ashes.

(DM’s note: A cleric with the sun domain can do some real smiting on the undead.)

A passage leads to a final cavern of approximately 40×40 feet. A gray-haired woman hangs from chains on one wall. Junpart, a tall elven cleric in full plate and carrying a morning star, stands in the center rear surrounded by six more zombies. The PCs move into the room. Duran is attacked by a previously invisible female Shal mage in one corner. Athron succeeds in turning the six zombies, but four more arrive carrying another drowned sailor. A lengthy fight ensues, in which the mage – Surema Shal Ashili – continues to nip at Duran. Eventually, with all the zombies and Surema Shal Ashili dead, Junpart attempts to flee. Broc and Boeden follow him and slay him.

Athron goes to the chained Archmater Retta Pierce to find her already dead – slain by Junpart when he and Surema Shal Ashili saw the false tower go out. A search of a large chest in the corner reveals her armor and longsword, a collection of various potions, and a soaked, leather-wrapped sheaf of papers, all bearing the seal of Hamal.

The PCs realize that the interior of the chest is shorter than the exterior, and lift out a false bottom. Inside rests a twelve-year-old human girl, sleeping and bound, with long brown hair and blue eyes. When the sleep spell cast on her by Surema Shal Ashili wears off, the terrified girl takes some time to calm down. She tells the PCs that she is Maeva, a student accepted to study with Retta Pierce a mere two weeks before the Freeman left Torei.

B. Lykast, the Hag.

Early the next morning, the PCs use the pirates’ rowboats to row out to the lighthouse. Cassick again stays behind with Strahan to watch Erqua, and now Maeva. Vermillion and Broc land first. As they cross the twenty feet from the edge of the water to the base of the lighthouse, an enormous form twelve-feet tall rises from the shadows cast by the morning sun. It is Captain Delmar, the Jotunn mariner who sailed the Freeman from Torei. Pieces of flesh have been gnawed away from his limbs. He lands powerful blows on Broc and Boeden, but is eventually destroyed.

The PCs enter the lighthouse tower cautiously. Boeden has to follow last, crouching up the spiral staircase. At a landing, the PCs find a door to the left, one to the right, and a trap door overhead. The left proves to lead simply to a small pantry with flour, potatoes, dried meat, and other staples. The door to the right leads into the late lightkeeper’s living quarters, which are now trashed and littered with bones and half-eaten limbs. The trap door leads to the final chamber at the top of the lighthouse, where the fire basin sits.

When the hag is nowhere to be found in the top chamber, Duran and Athron enter into the living chambers. The hag, invisible, makes a surprise attack on Duran in an attempt to disable the archer. Her attack fails – however, she slashes Athron with both sets of claws before disappearing again. The other PCs push into the increasingly crowded room, and Duran and Boeden call for Vermillion (still on the landing) to fetch the flour from the pantry. Vermillion spreads the flour in the room, revealing Lykast. Mortally wounded, she attempts to flee but cannot push past Vermillion and is killed before she can escape.

A search of the lightkeeper’s wardrobe yields some gold and silver, a Heward’s handy haversack, and the set of ruby jewelry that Vermillion was hired to retrieve for his employer’s customer.

C. Passage to Seawell.

Boeden takes on the task of bringing wood to the lighthouse so it can be relit that night. While he is rowing back and forth, he sees that two ships have anchored off-shore. One, a worn-looking cargo ship, has already landed a rowboat of sailors at the camp. The other, a fine and expensive pleasure-craft, has its rowboat on the way to shore.

Vincien Taipa is the human first-mate of the Unfaithful Lady, a ship on its way from Helve to Seawell. Toinet Shal Antazos leads the other rowboat – the elven warrior commands the guard for her father, the Sa’iph nobleman Lord Dembrosi Shal Antazos on the Saidah Iamar (or Fortune’s Light). Both Vincien and Toinet offer the PCs passage to Seawell – or, for the Shal ship, onward to Visayain. Vincien warns the PCs that if they accept the Sa’iph offer, they should make sure they do not end up “debt-marked.” The PCs tell both Vincien and Toinet what happened to the lighthouse and pirates, and that there was one surviving prisoner, a woman, as well as a single (unidentified) survivor of the shipwrecks.

Athron and Boeden negotiate payment for passage with Senonna Iniss, Captain of the Lady, to Seawell. Toinet bids them fair passage, and the Fortune’s Light is off on its way west before the PCs even begin moving the salvaged cargo to the Lady.

At Seawell, the PCs arrange for the cargo to be stored, book passage to Tarrish the next morning, and take rooms at an inn. In the middle of the night, they are awakened by shouting in the street about a breach in the north wall by lizardfolk. Cassick stays at the inn with Maeva while the others help in fighting the lizardfolk. They return to the inn to find the doors to their rooms thrown open – Cassick is on the floor of Maeva’s room in a pool of blood. Duran runs downstairs to see two cloaked figures toss Maeva over a saddle and prepare to ride off north towards Visaiyain.

DM’s Note: Yes, Cassick’s player, Giorgo, was absent this week. Sea caves photo is this photograph, used under Creative Commons license. The lighthouse sketch is adapted, under Creative Commons license, from this photograph.