Finally. We made it back to Saltmarsh. Not without effort, and not without tragedy, but we’re finally back. Let’s jump straight into how we did it.
We woke up in a series of cages, each of us separate, hanging suspended high over clouds. In the middle of the ring of cages, two larger ones sat suspended, one containing all of our gear, the other containing a chain-wrapped individual who seemed to control this strange, hanging prison. All around, smoke mephits flittered about.
Smoke mephits that were stealing our stuff, which we soon discovered upon seeing one of them fly into the cage with our gear, randomly select an item, and scarper with it. This continued happening gradually during our time here, but as you’ll see, it didn’t matter in the long run. At the time, though, it panicked us into high gear and led us to try to get free with much expediency.
After taking a short rest, we began attempting our escape. My bright idea was to slip out of my cage (the bars were wide enough for me to get through) and jump over to Leonardo’s cage so he could throw me to the central ones. That worked up until the dice betrayed me and I fell from the gear cage before I could properly get a grip on it. As I fell, I was caught by the cage I started in (the chain-guy could move them around) and back to where I started.
Meanwhile, Theseus and Leonardo were strong enough to bend the bars of their cages and climb out. They tried climbing the chains suspending the cages before they ended up swinging over to the central ones and bending their way inside, but in the end, both were attacked by chains controlled by the chain-guy and shredded. I mean that literally. They both died, while at the same time, Biggs was finally put down as well, by the mephits while he was stuck in his cage.
While the others were doing their swinging and bending, I got out of my cage again and jumped for one of the mephits which was stealing our stuff. I caught it and was left suspended, but now had nowhere to go. Eventually, once the others were dead, the mephit got out of my grip and I fell. As I fell, the coin that Orion gave me way back began to glow. I tossed it ahead of me and was teleported to a dark room, where I met the Three Fates. They offered to reverse the fortunes of myself and my crew, making it so we never came to Hades, in exchange for future services rendered. I accepted.
And suddenly, I was underwater. I was crashed down upon by a wave, and when I came to, I was on a beach with Leonardo and Cassius, the latter of whom had lost all memory of his time in Hades. We didn’t have any of our gear, and we didn’t know where the ship or crew was, but I recognised the terrain and determined we were only a couple of miles from Saltmarsh.
Upon arriving back in town, we discovered what had happened. The Eternal Ham went down in a savage storm several weeks before, all hands going with her. Our bodies were the only ones not recovered. Upon discovering that the crew died anyway, despite his deal with the Fates, Jack has sworn bloody retribution upon them – though I doubt it’ll ever come up in this campaign.
We spent the next week in downtime, Cassius and Leonardo heading to Cassius’ home so he could tell his family that he wasn’t really dead while I spent some time working in order to replenish my equipment. At the end of the week, we accepted a job to clear off an island so the Mariner’s Guild can establish a lighthouse there. Eager to get back to work, we went straight over, being joined by a priest in order to begin our task.
Arriving at the beach, we were set upon by a couple of waves of skeletons, but managed to destroy them in the most solid fight we’ve had for a long while. And then, having cleared the beach and preparing to move further inland, we ended the session.
So, we made it back, but not exactly in the best circumstances. It was a real bitch that we ended up in Hades and it totally screwed us, but at least now that it’s over, we can get back on track with the Ghosting of the Salmarshes. And we didn’t die down there (technically) which is as big a surprise for me as it probably is for anyone.
Probably means we’ll die next week, though, right when we’re not expecting it. But we’ll see. Tune in next week to see how we get on clearing the island and whatever is to follow.