Our party are:
- Corwin: a curious fellow and agent of old Bes
- Hector: a former slave with a painted face who wields magic through his poppet
- Tallow: a creature of the sea with skills in the martial arts
- William: a man of means with a taste for the sweet life
With the entrance to the cove no longer harried by stirges the party head in, navigating tunnels and into a cavern carved to resemble the belly of some great sea creature.
As the tunnel widens into the cavern Corwyn and Tallow are entangled in a region of hooks connected by twine and suspended from flotation devices. They set about freeing themselves but before they have fought free eight Grindylow emerge from their hiding places amongst the cavern walls and beneath the water’s surface.
The creatures are natives to the water and quickly encircle the party, their spear points like the teeth of some beast enclosing the pirates.
Alice’s poisoned claws offer some relief and Billy calls for a retreat into the cave mouth, a more defensible position that will filter the Grindylow attacks.
From this vantage point the tide of combat turns in the party’s favour and the Grindylow are quickly vanquished, though not before they developed tactics of their own which exacted a cost upon the away team – the Grindylow had coordinated to focus their attacks on one of the crew members and, presumably as she’d incapacitated one of their allies quickly, targeted Alice. Hector’s ghoul ally was unable to survive the focused attacks despite the witches efforts to channel necromantic energies into her and sustain her unlife.
As the enemies were defeated and the water settled Billy sought the glimpse of Montague’s clothing he’d seen at the start of the fray. As well as the torn and bloodied shirt of their missing ally the crewmates found treasure for their coffers and a wand of mirror image.