Summary 49: Madness in the deep (2011-05-23)
You recovered on board The Shadow quickly, except for the ill Baronet who decided it was best to remain in his private bunk room, coughing up oily residue. Back into the depths the three others plunged (after refreshing some of their sorceries), and headed straight to the collapsed bridge room of the Mostali ship. They noticed the iron lumps from the remains of the iron-things they'd defeated earlier had vanished, so they expected trouble in the room and found it- once again more iron-things arose and chased them out. But Ciddar handled them fairly deftly (except for some nasty bruises on his noggin from some lucky punches) and soon all three were no more.
You decided to try an alternative tack- explore other parts of the ship. Boamund cleverly spotted a gap in the rubble around one of the courtyard stairwells, just enough for you to slip inside one by one, navigating a debris-surrounded crawlspace into the bowels of the ship. For some tense minutes you walked the twisted, wrecked passages of the floating castle in darkness, swimming around obstacles such as nasty jutting pieces of metal pipe and algae-encrusted detritus. But a grim foreboding began to grow within you, enabled by Ciddar's danger-sensing marine sorcery- something stalked you, and you were granted visions of maddened Mostali faces in the dark. Soon those visions became all too real for Boamund and the Captain- spirits manifested out of the deep gloom, with clutching Mostali hands and silently screaming Mostali faces, projecting wild emotions of rage and greed, desire for all the metallic riches they could see. Ciddar did not see what happened on the Spirit Plane but did see his comrades quickly spin around with malevolent, irrational fervor in their eyes. So he evaded them and swam quickly out through the passages, leaving the Captain temporarily stuck in the exit crawlspace while he ascended to The Shadow.
Back on board, he quickly and with great concern and confusion convinced the crew that their Captain had been struck mad in the ship. The Ouori surfaced and their “leader” climbed on board, backing up your story with his own similar anecdotes from his folk- this place did spread madness. So you were ready when Boamund and the Captain came to the ship, and although Boamund had seemed to regain his senses you tied him up for safety. The Captain put up more of a struggle, although luckily he did not raise the Stinging Spear in his defense. The Ouori grabbed him and held him tight while others bound him to the mast. Meanwhile he spat curses and incanted strange Mostali phrases with a most un-Mostali passion and fury. But now what would you do with two possessed heroes? Gumthunooreebou suggested you could seek help among the spirit-magicians of his folk, and knew you'd be welcome there, so you prepared to take your captive friends among the odd, jolly, plump pinniped merfolk.
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