Chapter 9: Exploring the Wreck part 2

Written by Skarth Diem to Dronaet Klingstone

Having explored all of the rooms and still not found the magically-locked box of the ship, we knew that we had to brave the hold. We returned to the back of the ship and once more opened the trapdoor. This time we descended the ladder into the hold and found ourselves standing in water up to our hips.

I was still in the form of the archer so the light of my star form revealed the mess that was left of the hold. Some pieces of wood from barrels and crates were floating in the water. Other water-logged debris were piled haphazardly on the floor, with parts of the piles underwater. The water also rolled back and forth as the ship sluggishly rode the swells of the ocean. All of this together made moving difficult as we tried to manoeuvre our way around the hold.

We spread out in a line at the back of the hold and made our way slowly but steadily forward, searching through the wreckage as we went. It was Wrack who spotted a glint of metal from our torch about two-thirds of the way to the front of the ship.

On investigation, he found a crate inscribed with a stylised letter P. Inside the crate was a blue-metal box with no visible lock or latch. It appeared to be in perfect condition despite the poor treatment it had been subjected to. The box was bulky and it would probably take two of us to carry it. Given that the box was hidden inside a crate, it seemed likely that this had been cargo and was not the locked box of the ship we were exploring.

As we organised ourselves to start carrying the box, four human-shaped figures shambled out of the darkness at the front of the ship. They had obviously once been humans, but at some point, they had died and now they were undead zombies, which some people call ghasts, intent on the destruction of all living things. Fortunately, they seemed to be as inconvenienced by the water as we were, so movement happened in slow motion as both we and they pushed through the water.

Riellian and my archer were both able to strike at the leading ghast which stumbled but continued to shamble forward. Kelshann struck out with her sword and completely skewered the leading ghast, ending its un-life. It let out a croaking whine and sank under the water.

Jenny called out for us to fall back, but some of us were not in a position to do so. One of the other ghasts had struck at Wrack and he fell, paralysed, to lie motionless under the water.

A second ghast attacked Kelshann with its vile looking claws and Kelshann staggered back with blood oozing from scrapes in her hide.

Jenny sent a spear of ice flashing through the air which struck the ghast that had attacked Wrack. Then she used some other type of magic to raise herself up above the water. She floated backwards away from the ghasts and took up a position near the base of the mast.

I gave Kelshann whatever encouragement I could and withdrew a few paces myself. Kelshann fought on and managed to land a few blows against the ghasts. But then one of them managed to get through her defences and slashed her arm, which bled quite dramatically.

One of the ghasts seemed to focus on Riellian, possibly because she had hit it several times with arrows, and it shuffled towards her, pushing through the water. As it lumbered past Wrack, we were all pleased to his arm swing out of the water and attempt to strike the ghast with his axe. It seemed Wrack had managed to throw off the paralysis. He was not the slightest bit inconvenienced by being underwater since he can breathe as easily underwater as he can in the air. Riellian was able to back away from the ghast as quickly as it moved forward and continued to pepper it with her arrows.

The ghasts continued to press their attack. Kelshann found herself standing alone and bleeding, and facing two of the zombie creatures.

I used my thorn whip to lash at one of the ghasts attacking Kelshann. The thorn whip latched around its neck and seemed to do some significant damage. I jerked on the whip and pulled it away from Kelshann. Kelshann lashed out with her sword while the ghast was being dragged but the sword whistled harmlessly past its head.

Kelshann then managed to duck and move back from the second ghast that was attacking it.

That second ghast then turned and tried to swipe at Wrack with its claws but somehow managed to get its claws tangled in his armour and it struggled frantically as it tried to free itself.

The ghast I had dragged away from Kelshann now returned to attack her. I could see its teeth digging into her skin. Kelshann looked to be in a bad way – her skin looked grey. Jenny stepped up behind Kelshann, who staggered back into her embrace. Jenny took out a potion of healing and poured it straight down Kelshann’s throat. This seemed to have a positive effect on Kelshann and the wound in her side stopped oozing blood. Kelshann staggered back to her feet and seemed able to move even if she was not in a condition to return to the fight.

A swirl of air carried the stench of these ghasts to me and I nearly gagged. The smell was horrendous and I wasn’t even close to them. I could see that Kelshann, Wrack and Jenny were all blinking away tears in their eyes from being so close to the wretched creatures.

Wrack struck at the one with its claws tangled in its armour and it staggered under the blow but did not go down.

Suddenly, something big slammed into the ship. The entire ship lurched to the side and as a result of the impact, waves went racing across the water we were standing in. Then sections of the wooden hull splintered and gigantic tentacles came reaching through the newly created holes in the hull and thrashed about.

One tentacle brushed against Riellian just as she was about to fire her bow. She staggered back and her shot went wide, thudding into the wood on the other side of the hull. Another tentacle knocked into me and thudded into my ribs. I am sure to have a gigantic bruise unless I can recover enough to heal it.

My archer fired an arrow of starlight at the ghast attacking Riellian. The arrow plunged straight into the middle of its back. It stiffened and gasped, then it slid slowly and lifelessly down into the water. I used my thorn whip to lash at the tentacles, which by now had punched even more holes through the hull, but my whip seemed to have little effect.

The entire ship shook as the creature outside wrapped its tentacles around the ship and squeezed. Kelshann was thrown against the base of the mast with a sickening thud, and collapsed, sliding slowly under the water.

Wrack was able to finish off the ghast which was attacking him. Then Riellian landed an arrow in the chest of the last of the ghasts, which ended its unlife. Finally we were free to manage the wider situation. I raced to Kelshann’s side and pulled her head up out of the water. Then I used the last healing potion from my pack to revive her.

Jenny and Wrack picked up the ship’s box that we had found and started to carry it, but then Jenny was thrown off her feet by the violent shaking of the ship leaving Wrack carrying the box on his own.

The ship was already tilted slightly to the side but now that tilt started to increase under the pressure of the creature outside, combined with the extra water that was surely flooding in where the ship had been holed underwater. It was difficult to walk on the sloping deck and the water was now so deep that we ended up swimming the last few feet, but first Riellian, then Kelshann and I were able to make it to the ladder leading up out of the hold.

We watched Riellian climb the ladder in front of us and Kelshann quickly followed her up the ladder. I paused, hanging onto the ladder and looked back. I could see that Wrack was making slow but steady progress with the box but Jenny was slipping and sliding at nearly every step as the ship was now listing quite badly and was suddenly lurching in response to the attacks. I called out to Jenny to “catch”, and sent my thorn whip out to her, she was able to grab it and with both of us pulling, she made it safely to the ladder.

The water was getting deeper in the hold and thousands of tiny spiders had emerged from their hiding places and were swarming frantically up through the ship. They ignored us and raced away from the water and up into the highest parts of the ship. Their movement gave the wood of the ship an eery shifting motion that was quite disturbing. But then the giant tentacles waved around, smashing the wooden sides of the ship and anything else within reach and I decided that the tentacles were even more disturbing.

Kelshann and I paused at the top of the ladder to help Wrack manoeuvre the box up the ladder and through the hatch, and then we scrambled up the stairs and out onto the deck. By the time we made it to the open deck, the ship was tilted so far that one edge of the deck was dipping into the water. The giant tentacles of this monstrous sea creature were everywhere, lashing around and wrapped entirely around the ship.

Through the spaces between the tentacles, I could see the two marines bravely rowing our little boat closer to us in a desperate attempt to rescue us from the ship. I was seriously concerned that one swipe of a tentacle would crush that little boat into matchsticks, and I am sure they realised that so their attempt was truly heroic.

Riellian hacked at the closest tentacle with her swords and Jenny cast a spell at the same place. Given the size of the creature, I doubted if they could seriously injure it but, apparently, they did enough that the creature paused as it tried to identify where this pain was coming from. For a moment the deck was still, though it was still slanted very steeply.

Wrack took advantage of the sudden stillness to emerge from the cabins carrying the box. We could see the marines, Keth and Tym rowing the boat closer but we decided it would be better to abandon the ship and swim out to them rather than risk having them come too close with the small boat. A single thrash of a tentacle would leave it in splinters. The creature did not seem to be giving us any attention at all and was completely focused on its goal of crushing the ship. For that reason, we thought that it would probably ignore us if we were in the water. We hoped so, anyway.