Journal of the Wild Coast Campaign

Events in the Common Year 575

Earthday, the 1st of Ready'reat - Port City of Prymp in Ahlissa

Having stolen away from the manor where she grew up, which now belongs to her uncle, Phaedra and Calim have made their way north to the port city of Prymp where they find passage on board the Sea Maid, a cog from Onnwal. Even though Phaedra's home country Ahlissa, as part of the Great Kingdom is at war with Onnwal, which is a member of the Iron League, trade continues unabated. Their baggage and Phaedra's horse and donkey are taken aboard. The ship sets sail with a good wind coming from the southeast.

Waterday, the 19th of Ready'reat - Sea of Gearnat off the northwest coast of Onnwal

The Sea Maid, having been under sail for 19 days -- stopping at Shargallen, Trennenport, Icespire, and Sornhill on the Ahlissan and Onnwal coasts -- is passing through the Storm Isles off the northwest coast of Onnwal when it is intercepted by a corsair galley of the Scarlet Brotherhood. The Sea Maid's captain, Oltus, notes that this is the farthest north he has ever heard of one of their ships venturing. The Sea Maid attempts to flee but with the winds weak the galley overtakes her within a few hours. Phaedra, Calim and the crew prepare to be boarded. As the galley comes alongside and grapples are thrown by the pirates to bind the ships together, it becomes apparent that the majority of the boarding party is composed of hobgoblin slave-soldiers.
Phaedra and Calim remain on the sterncastle with the captain and steersman as the boarders leap onto the Sea Maid's main-deck. The captain blocks a group of hobgoblins attempting to climb up to the sterncastle by the port side steps. Phaedra and Calim move to block the corsairs climbing up the starboard side steps. The main deck is a chaos of fighting sailors and corsairs.
The fight on the stern castle opens with Calim crushing the skull of a hobgoblin and Phaedra at first just able to defend herself against her attackers. Both manage to keep from being flanked by more hobgoblins climbing up to the stern castle by retreating. Phaedra, having regained her nerve for battle and dispatching a couple of opponents is startled to see a huge hairy goblin - a bugbear - pushing his way through the hobgoblins to get to the starboard side stairs. Just as the bugbear makes the sterncastle deck Phaedra cuts down the last hobgoblin attacking her. Hoping to knock the bugbear back onto the main deck she bull-rushes him but bounces off the huge creature and is pushed back herself. She is barely able to regain her balance to duck when the Bugbear swings his huge morningstar at her head.
Calim meanwhile rushes the hobgoblin immediately in front of him, risking an attack by another off to his side, which swings at him and misses, slicing through the throat of the hobgoblin Calim is attacking. Calim slams into the dying hobgoblin, which in turn slams into the bugbear, pushing it backward and down onto the main deck. Phaedra turns to help Calim who is now flanked by the last hobgoblin. She handily dispatches the hobgoblin and turns back to find the enraged bugbear climbing back up the steps. She swings and lops off one of his large hairy ears, ducks his off-balance swing and on the return blow splits his skull cleanly. Seeing so much of his boarding party killed the Scarlet Brotherhood captain calls them back and orders the galley to pull away.
On the Sea Maid Captain Oltus tallies the butcher's bill. Nine of his crew of eighteen are dead and four wounded, two severely. Calim, having used all his healing spells in the combat, goes to work on the wounded crew-members, binding their wounds. Those unhurt get to the work of dumping the corsair bodies overboard and Calim helps in carrying the wounded down into the crew's quarters in the hold. He then returns to the deck to give the funeral rites to the dead who are then buried at sea. The short-handed crew gets the ship under sail and back on course.

Waterday, the 26th of Ready'reat - Sea of Gearnat 20 Leagues Due East of the Pomarj Coastline

Under Calim's care two of the four wounded men are fully recovered and return to their regular duties. One of the more severly wounded men is able to get around on his own, but the last man is still confined to his hammock with Calim looking after him. Calim has a fear of open water and the nervousness he experienced on the voyage along the coast has turned to abject fear as the ship passes out into open water. He spends most of his time below decks.
The winds have become better again and their position is confirmed as being on course that morning when the tops of the highest peaks in the Drachensgrab Mountains of the Pomarj, peeking out above the thick cloud layer, are spotted by the crew. Just before breakfast a squall line is spotted to the south. As the wind picks up Captain Oltus orders the sail reefed and loose objects tied down or stowed. By dusk the spirited winds have turned into a real gale and the ship is riding up the wave crests and down into the deep troughs. The storm continues through the night.

Earthday, the 27th of Ready'reat - Woolly Bay Near the Southern Wild Coast

The storm continues through the day and on toward dusk with the Sea Maid attempting to run before it. Just as night is falling a crew member spots lights in the shore. With his ship and crew battered the captain orders the steersman to take the ship closer to shore in hopes of finding a sheltered bay, which is what is revealed.
The lights appear to be from a small coastal village built on a natural harbor whose waters are sheltered by a long spit of land. Steering between the spit and point of land at the other side of the harbor mouth the steersman cannot react in time when one of the crew spots waves breaking on a shoal. With a sickening lurch the Maid is grounded. Fearing that his ship may break up under the pounding waves the captain orders the boats lowered into the water. The crew and passengers, with their luggage aboard the boat abandon the Sea Maid to the storm. Though Phaedra's dogs are taken aboard the boat she protests at leaving her horse, but nothing can be done about it.
After a nerve-wracking row through heaving water the boat finally reaches the relative quiet of the harbor and makes for the stone jetty at the village's waterfront. A group of about thirty villagers can be seen gathered at its end. Upon reaching it the the crew and passengers are helped up onto dry land.
The Selinti dialect of Common, which is spoken by the people here is strange and hard to understand, but Captain Oltus and many of the crew are used to it so there are no real problems communicating. The leader of the villagers is the innkeeper, Crian Olverson, who tells them that the community is named Fishburne, which none of the Maid's crew has ever heard of, but small fishing villages of this size are not uncommon and many have little contact with the outside world. Olverson says that their destinatination of Elredd lies about 60 miles to the northwest.
Olverson suggests that some of the crew stay in the common room of the inn and the village's Peloran priest, Nystuss will shelter the rest, including the wounded, in the temple which is situated at the highest point in the village, just below the steep bluffs that surround it. The innkeeper offers the inn's only vacant room to Phaedra and Calim who are obviously people of means. After everyone is dried out and full of food and drink the respective parties retire for the evening, with the captain and three of his crewmen sleeping in the common room and Calim and Phaedra shown up to their room by the innkeeper.

Freeday, the 28th of Ready'reat - Village of Fishburne, Southern Wild Coast

Phaedra wakes up in the middle of the night. It is still dark and though the room was left with a brazier between the beds, it is freezing cold and a strong musty smell permeates the room. By the dim light of the brazier's glowing coals she can see her breath. Phaedra wakes up Calim and he lights the lantern on the table between the two beds.
To their shock there is a small girl about 9 years old standing in the corner of the room. She walks forward to the center of the room and Phaedra's dogs whimper and slink away from her. Her blonde hair and the white night gown she wears are dripping wet and plastered to her frail body. Her eyes are sunken and hollow and what appears to be dried vomit crusts her lower face. It is then that one of Phaedra's dogs walks behind the girl and they they can see partially through her.
The hair on the back of their necks stand up as they realize she is a ghost. The ghost girl raises a finger to her lips gesturing for them to be quiet and points at the door with her other hand. Listening, Phaedra and Calim can hear some sort of commotion downstairs in the form of a few thuds and scrapes, then silence. Then they hear a door slams shut. Phaedra slips on her padded tunic and belts on her sword and dagger while Calim retrieves his mace.

As they hear listen to steps coming up the stairs and then a key fumbling in the lock the ghost girl disappears back into the shadows of the corner. They rush over and throw their weight against the door just as it begins to open. Someone out in the hall curses and multiple voices start shouting. The intruders push from the outside but are only able to get the door open a crack. While Calim attempts to hold the door closed Phaedra rushes back over between the beds and picks up the brazier.
A rush by those outside pushes Calim back and the door is thrown open. Reciting the trigger for a Command spell he has prepared, Calim orders the first man through the door to "flee." The enspelled villager turns and runs, knocking the next man through the door off balance and buying a few precious moments for Phaedra to turn around with the brazier held high. The next man through the door catches the coals from the brazier full in the face and he stumbles to the side, screaming. His comrade charges at Phaedra swinging a club and misses as she sidesteps. She hits him in the side of the head with the brazier as he goes flying past her and crashed into the table, knocking the lantern over, extinguising it. The only remaining light is the lantern held by Olverson the innkeeper who draws a club from his belt and steps forward with another villager at his side. Phaedra and Calim make short work of them but in the fight the innkeeper's lantern is put out, casting the room into total darkness.

When they relight the lantern the ghost girl is back, gesturing for them to follow her. She goes out the hall and toward the stairs down to the common room. At the bottom of the stairs they can see the crumpled body of the man Calim ordered to flee, his neck broken from falling down the stairs in his haste. In the common room are obvious signs of a struggle, doubtless the source of the noises before. The ghost leads them behind the bar and into the larder where she points at a trap-door in the center of the floor. Calim grasps the trap-door's rope pull, opens it and holds the lantern as Phaedra goes down the steps to investigate. He follows and they find themselves in a root cellar with a set of spiral stairs cut into the floor in the corner, descending to a well at the bottom. Descending to the bottom of the stairs they can see on the other side of the well is an opening in the wall. The opening is to a long tunnel of worked stone which ends in a t-intersection at the edge of their lantern's light. The ghost girl rushes ahead down the hallway and turns to the left at the intersection but when they reach that point she is gone.
The tunnel they have entered appears to be a natural cave tunnel that has been worked some to make it more even. It is much cruder stonework than the first tunnel leading from the well. They proceed to the left in the direction where the ghost girl went. Further down they can see there is something hanging on the wall. It turns out to be a poppet doll made of sticks and dried mushrooms bundled together with string. But instead of legs the figure has numerous mushroom stalks, almost like tentacles. The doll reminds Calim of something he once heard of in his studies but he cannot remember what. Phaedra suspects that the ghost may be leading them into a trap while Calim feels that she means them no harm, but wishes them to accomplish some task to put her spirit to rest.

They proceed down the tunnel which twists and turns before starting to descend, eventually going into waist-deep water. Phaedra, still suspicious, wants no part of this, so after debating the issue they agree to turn back and try the other way. They pass the intersection and proceed down the tunnel the way they have not gone yet. It also twists and turns before it intersects another tunnel branching off to the left. They take this branch which turns sharply back in the direction they came from until it splits in a Y-intersection. They choose the right. After about a hundred yards they begin to hear high-pitched squeaking and chirping noises from ahead, animals of some kind, possibly dire rats. Down in tunnels such as these where they have probably not learned to fear people, those creatures can grow very large and aggressive, so they turn back and take the branch to the left. Again this tunnel descends into water, so they decide to try the way in the original tunnel which they have not taken yet.

Backtracking to that tunnel they find that it turns back toward the inn and descends sharply. After about 200 years they can smell salt water. Not much further they come into a cavern filled with sea water which they cannot see the further extent of. Either by tidal action or rain washing through the tunnels a sand bar has collected near the tunnel mouth and it being low tide is now dry. At the further end of the sandbar they can dimly see another opening into the cavern. As they walk toward it Phaedra catches a glimpse of movement out of the corner of her eye. She turns just in time to fend off with her shield the snapping claws of a large monstrous crab which has launched itself out of the sand at the pair. Calim turns to help. Phaedra lands two blows, chopping off a leg and cracking the giant crustacean's carapace. A claw snaps out and clamps onto Calim's leg. Phaedra lands a blow on the claw causing it to release Calim. Having had enough the crab backs away but Pheadra's blood is up and she presses the attack, landing another blow which smashes through the carapace between the beast's eyes. With a shudder it collapses and spasms in its death throes. Calim takes a moment to tend to his wounds and then they proceed.

The tunnel they enter from the sea cave goes back away from the cavern and ascends gradually. It is the longest of the tunnels they have entered and after about a half hour of cautious progress they both begin to smell smoke. the scent gets stronger as they go forward. Rounding a turn in the tunnel they can see that it empties into a room with a source of illumination, probably a fire.
Creeping forward they get to the end of the tunnel which empties into a natural cavern with a high ceiling obscured by smoke though they can feel a draft so there must be some means for the smoke to leave. There is indeed a fire to the left of the tunnel mouth in the center of the room. There are two more entrances to the cavern, one on the left on the other side of the fire and one to the right about 30 feet away.
The walls appear to be covered with crude paintings, but their attention is drawn mainly to what appears to be a body lying on the floor beside the fire. Approaching cautiously they can see the body is a man lying on his back and his abdomen has been opened and entrails have been pulled out. Looking at the face they recognize the bosun of the Sea Maid.
At that moment, two ghouls launch themselves from the entrance to the right with screams of fury, and another rushes from the entrance on the other side of the fire. Calim faces the pair on the right with his sun symbol of Pelor thrust forward and commands them to turn, but only one does so, recoiling in fear.
The other ghoul strikes out with its filthy claws and one set sinks into Calim's arm. He braces himself against the foul creature to keep it from biting him, but it begins pulling him towards its snapping jaws. Phaedra cuts down the ghoul leaping at her from across the fire and turns to help Calim, but not in time to keep the foul carrion-eater from biting him in the shoulder. Numbness spreads down Calim's shoulder to his arm though he manages to keep a grip on his mace which he is using to brace himself against the creature. Phaedra swings her long sword and cleaves the top of the ghouls head off. Brains and blood spatter Calim and he falls backward.

After a number of minutes to shake off the numbing effects of the bite Calim calls upon his healing spells to mend his arm, while Phaedra stands guard. Once he is done he says the funeral rites over the body of the bosun so that his spirit may find its way to his god in the afterlife. Then the pair turn to examining the paintings on the wall.
Upon closer study they turn out the be paintings over carvings of quite great age. The crude scenes are of murder, human sacrifice and other foul deeds apparently done in honor of a central figure -- that of an obviously female figure, painted in purple, with four horns coming from her head and long, trailing tentacle-like appendages for legs. The figure reminds Calim of what he could almost remember before when they found the poppet dolls.

"Zuggtmoy," he whispers. It is the name of a minor Demon Lord, the Demon Queen of Fungi and Blight. She is a cousin of Juiblex, the Faceless Lord, a demon prince, but unlike her kinsman is intent on expanding her power in the world of mortals. He vaguely remembers rumors of her having some association with Iuz the Old, a half-fiend tyrant who rules a land of nightmares in the northlands.

The name means something to Phaedra also. In the last campaigning season, fighting against the Iron League state of Idee, there was a company of mercenary pikemen from Perrenland. One of their sergeants told a story about a battle he had been in about eight years ago in the Viscounty of Verbobonc, a small nation south of the Kingdom of Furyondy in the central Flanaess. Verbobonc is northwest of and through the Gnarley Woods from the furthest state of the Wild Coast , about 450 miles to the north.
The battle had come about when a cult of Zuggtmoy had grown up in the woods near Verbobonc's southern border and gathered a large army of humanoids and bandits. Verbobonc had met the army with its own forces plus a group of Knights of the Hart from Furyondy proper, Paladins of Cuthbert from the Archclericy of Veluna, Gnomes and even some Dwarves from the Kron Hills. Lastly had been a small group of Elven knights and rangers from Celene. The rarity of all those races working together had made the story a very unusual one, which made Phaedra remember it, though she does not remember any more details.

Not wishing to face more ghouls and debating what they should do, since the ghost who set them on this path disappeared, the pair decides to backtrack and try once more the tunnel where the ghost girl was last seen. Once there they follow the tunnel to where it descends into waist-deep, cold, slimy water, where they had turned back before. This time they go forward.
After following the twisting tunnel for about 150 yards they come out into a small cavern with a mound of garbage - leaves, branches and other unidentifiable things - in the center of the room. They climb the mound to survey their surroundings. Five other tunnels empty into the cavern though three of them look not large enough for a human to enter except by crawling. Seeing a glint of metal in the trash Phaedra begins digging through it while Calim holds the lantern. She uncovers a skeletal arm with a ring still on its bony finger and can see something else beneath that.
At that moment they hear the same animal noises they heard before and realize that they are surrounded by dire rats issuing from the tunnels at the edge of their lantern's light. The dire rats charge forward and both of the heroes are engulfed by the huge vermin. Phaedra smashes about with her shield and long sword, crushing and slicing the rats attacking her while Calim tries to defend himself from the handful attacking him. As Phaedra has kills the last rat on her she turns to find three remaining rats crouching over a weakly struggling Calim. He has dropped the lantern beside him but it has not gone out. Phaedra runs one rat through and the other two flee.
She hurriedly binds Calim's wounds but he slips into unconsciousness and she fears he may die. Turning back to the mound she retrieves the ring and finds that the object beneath it is a glazed clay vial that sloshes with some liquid still inside. Pocketing these items and lifting Calim onto her shoulders she picks up the lantern and heads back toward the entrance to the tunnels under the inn.

In the worked tunnel leading from the well to the natural tunnels she finds the ghost girl waiting. The ghost points at the belt pouch Phaedra deposited the vial in and then points toward Calim. Still not entirely trusting the ghost, but desperate to save her friend Phaedra takes a sip of the potion and feels a surge of energy washing over her sore muscles and minor wounds.
Placing the vial at the unconscious Calim's lips she pours half the contents down his throat. He chokes and sputters but opens his eyes and looks about him. She tells him what she did and in a few moments he has her help him remove the bandages. His wounds have closed up and he feels almost able to stand up.
With the ghost girl following Phaedra helps him up the steps to the root cellar, then up to the larder, through the common room and up to their room. Though the bodies of their assailants are still there they can both see signs that someone has been in the room. Calim uses his remaining spells to heal the rest of the damage to their bodies as they debate what to do next.

Shortly they hear footsteps on the stairs and prepare for another attack. Instead of attackers however, the source of the footsteps turns out to be Bern, Fishburne's Miller. He quickly tells them that he is not with the villagers who attacked them and kidnapped the Sea Maid's crew, and aks them to follow him to safety. He leads them downstairs to his donkey cart which he loads them in the back of among hay and sacking, and drives down to the mill beside the river. Making sure no one is watching he takes them inside.

Starday, the 1st of Sunsebb - Village of Fishburne, Southern Wild Coast

The bottom floor of Bern's mill contains the millstone and works along with storage for grain, but the upper floor is Bern's home. Safely there Bern's wife makes them welcome and serves them hot food and drink. She then takes the baby into their bedroom so Bern can tell Phaedra and Calim how the village has come to be in the state it is in.

He says that the false priest Nystuss came to the village last Coldeven (March). It seemed good at first that he had come to assist the old priest, Father Hau. Father Hau died of what the villagers thought was a fever a few months later. It was then that things started to change. Nystuss got the big men in town on his side and started pushing everyone else around, pressing people into service digging up at the village's Temple. At first most people took it because he was a priest and figure of authority, but it soon became clear he worshipped evil powers, not Pelor. Some of the men opposed the priest but he already had too many people on his side and if they thought about leaving the village to alert the outside world Nystuss threatened to kill their families. Only one person ever tried to overthrow the priest and that was Aldni Sellrenson, a local fisherman. Sellrenson, his wife and those few who followed him were overpowered, tortured and killed.

Bern starts to tell what happened to Sellrenson's daughter, Enna, but is too shaken to continue. Once he has calmed down he begs Calim's pardon, saying that he would never have doings with the undead, but he was directed by what he thinks was the ghost of Enna to go inside the inn and upstairs where he found them. He hopes that he did right and Calim assures him that he did.
Bern says that he must go back into the village to pretend to join the hunt for them but will return at dusk to sneak them across the river. For now he will hide them in a secret compartment behind the stairs where his father used to hide surplus grain from the Margrave of Highport's tax-collectors, back in the days when they ranged further from that town.

Safe in the secret compartment Phaedra and Calim doze and eat through the day, occassionally looking up toward the village through a crack in the wall. Around dusk Calim sees a large group approaching from the village carrying torches. As the group gets closer they see a bound and beaten Bern being pushed before the crowd, which is led by the false priest Nystuss. Drawing their weapons they head downstairs and open the door of the mill.
The crowd drawn toward the mill and soon several figures seperate from it and begin slowly walking toward the door. Calim and Phaedra recognize some of them as crewmembers from the Sea Maid but from their vacant eyes and lurching gait Calim knows that they have been killed and raised as zombies. Calim attempts to turn the zombies but is countered by Nystuss who is at the front of the crowd. As the undead creatures reach the steps up to the mill's porch the heroes engage them. With their defensive advantage Calim and Phaedra have the upper hand. As the fight proceeds they can see some commotion in the crowd and as they finish the last of the undead horrors they see that the villagers, heartened by the sight of them fighting against Nystuss, have revolted and are fighting his henchmen and followers. With the villagers turning on him, Nystuss flees back toward the village and up to the temple.

Phaedra and Calim head for the temple, leading a handful of villagers who are not occupied with chasing down the evil priest's fleeing henchmen. They search the temple, and do find the remaining captive crewmembers of the Sea Maid, including the captain, locked in a cell, but they cannot find Nystuss. In the chancel Calim notes the unusual stances of the statues of Hextor and Heironeous, flanking the altar with their weapons pointed down toward it, almost as if they are guarding something.
A quick search reveals a concealed entrance where the altar can be easily pushed aside, and stairs leading down. At the bottom of the stairs is an underground passage which is a further part of the cave complex they had been in before.
In a cavern at the end of the passage is an ancient shrine dedicated to Zuggtmoy. There they find Nystuss, whom summons a Dretch -- a minor demon -- to fight them while he escapes. The pair defeat the demon but find that Nystuss has fled. A search of the caves is conducted but to no avail and when they come out of the entrance beneath the inn the villagers report that Nystuss has stolen one of the fishermen's boats and was least seen sailing out of the harbor entrance and to the north.
Everyone immediately gets to the business of setting things right in the village.

Starday the 8th of Sunsebb - Village of Fishburne, Southern Wild Coast

Having spent a week being feted by the inhabitants of Fishburne in gratitude for their liberation, Calim and Phaedra again board the Sea Maid, which has been floated free of the shoal and repaired by the remaining crew. Captain Oltus even managed to recruit a few of the young men of the village to fill out his depleted crew.
Calim has spent much of the week performing rituals to cleanse the temple and put to rest the unquiet ghost of Enna, Sellrenson's daughter. Her body was found where she was buried alive in the low marshy ground behind the temple as one of a number of victims given up in a grisly sacrifices to Zuggtmoy known among her cultists as "Cradling."
As her remains were cremated in accordance with Peloran custom her ghost appeared for the last time before slowly fading away, satisfied that her spirit can now rest in peace.
With Calim and Phaedra aboard, the Sea Maid leaves Fishburne's harbor and sets a course to the north and Port Elredd.

Godsday the 11th of Sunsebb - Mouth of the Harrow River, County of Elredd

In the morning the Sea Maid sights the sandy hook which marks the entrance to Port Elredd's harbor.