Where has all the rum gone?

 "We could just let it pass us by" remarked Dakhir. "Just let it sail on about it's business"

Ricmo looked at Dakhir like he was insane.

"But...treasure" he finally sputtered out.

Whisperleaf lowered the spyglass

"Looks like some kind of funerary barge, but it's completely uncrewed. The oars seem to be moving by magic" he reported. "I can see a stone sarcophagus amidships, a collection of other stone chests, and artifacts. The prow has a statue of a raven, those animals are powerful psychopomps" 

"Fascinating" said Tello. "I wonder by what strange art the oars are moved?. Magnetism perhaps. Or springs."

"Like I said, we could completely just leave it be" said Dakhir.

"Large stone chest at the feet of the sarcophagus" continued Whisperleaf.

Ricmo's ears perked up at that. A huge smile spread across is face.

"We're going to go board that ship and open that chest aren't we?" announced Dakhir.

"Absolutely" the others replied in unison.

"But with caution" said the Tortle

"Of course" replied Ricmo. "I am  always the soul of caution"

Dakhir snorted.

Ricmo reached into his jacket, pulled out the tiny model of the ships boat and threw it over the gunwale into the sea. The instant the tiny model touched water it expanded, growing into a full sized boat.

"That never gets old" said Tello appreciatively. "Such a clever device,

After some discussion, Ricmo and Marus decided to stay behind on the Lady Jezebel, to provide covering fire and so Ricmo could "stay out of trouble" in Dakhir's words, while the rest of the heroes piled into the boat to approach the strange funeral ship. Ricmo had argued vehemently about it, but after Whisperleaf had pointed out that being Captain did have some responsibilities, and meant that you couldn't always go on the away missions, he finally, sulkily gave in,

"I'll keep us a couple hundred yards out, and if anything gets too out of control our cannon will smash that ship into kindling" promised the Halfling. "What could possibly go wrong?"

"Many things" said Tello. "Many many things." He paused for a moment in contemplation. "One million three hundred thousand five hundred and sixty two things. Give or take." Nonetheless the Tortle looked positively excited at the opportunity to explore the strange vessel. 

Cautiously, the small boat approached the barge. The barge rowed slowly across the relatively still ocean, relatively slowly, straight as an arrow headed due east. It was no great difficulty to catch up with her. After circling the boat once, The Sturg carefully steered her toward the bow. He threw a grapple, and pulled the boat into contact with the strange ship, and tied fast 

Nothing stirred, the oars kept up their rhythmic rowing, though with the added mass of the ships-boat the speed of the barge slowed even further. It managed to maintain it's course though, continuing due east.

The Sturg swung over the gunwale onto the strange ship. He smoothly drew his sward and readied his shield All was quiet, except for the creak of the oars and the rustle of the reefed canvas in the light wind. Somehow is smelled hot and dry even though they were on the high seas and the day was balmy.

Nothing attack him. He carefully made his way a few yards toward the center of the ship. Still, nothing attacked him. He looked back over his shoulder at Dakhir and the rest of the party, where they waited to board, and shrugged his broad shoulders. 

"The Sturg says it's clean. For now" announced Dakhir and hopped over. The rest of the party followed suit. Careful not to let their guard down and keeping formation as much as the cluttered deck allowed, they made their way to the sarcophagus. The boat remained empty, quiet and still. 

Whisperleaf carefully knelt down and examined the carved writing that adorned both the sarcophagus and the stone chest at it's feet. "Funeral prayers, and curses, nothing too unusual. 'Death will come on swift wings for any who disturb this chest'"

"We're going to open that chest aren't we?" asked Dakhir hopelessly.

"How else to know what is inside, friend Warlock?" replied Tello mischievously.

"But not stupidly" said Whisperleaf. "I have no desire to meet any swift winged deaths, or any deaths for that matter. This looks like a job for monkeys".

-----------------------

"Hopefully this is far enough" said Whisperleaf. "Any farther and we won't be able to communicate with the apes." The party had reembarked on their ships boat , but not before Whisperleaf had summoned three great apes. They had put sixty feet of sea between themselves and the funeral barge, leaving the apes behind, clustered around the sarcophagus. The apes milled about aimlessly, looking very out of place on the barge, picking imaginary insects off one another and hooting occasionally. 

"Ok, if we are ready I'll order them to open the box" The Sturg tied fast the tiller and took up a position on the gunwale closest to the barge. He flexed, drew his sword and readied his shield. He radiated readiness. The rest of the party also readied themselves. A tense silence descended. 

"OOOOK HOOOTAHOOTA OOOKAOOKA" Whisperleaf yelled across the narrow expanse of ocean to the apes, leaping up and down and scratching himself. under his armpits "OOOKA" the ape yelled back and the three brawny animals  laid hold of the heavy top of the chest. Simian muscles strained and with a grinding sound, the immensely heavy stone lid was pushed off the top of the chest. 

The response from the funeral ship was immediate. From the center of the ship, the stone lid of the sarcophagus rocketed straight up into the air with immense force and from inside a figure emerged.

The figure was richly dressed in red silken robes, adorned with heavy gold chains, but underneath he was wrapped head to toe in white silk bandages. Where the face was visible the eyes and cheeks were sunken and corpse like. His eyes crackled with blue fire as he turned his gaze on the unfortunate simians that had disturbed his slumber.

He uttered a word. A single word, in an unknown language, loaded with arcane power. And several things happened

From the bow of the ship, bones that had been nestled at the base of the raven statue quickly knitted back together and the form of four skeletal warriors rose. 

The water for half mile around the ship started foaming and bubbling

And the three great apes screamed in terror and jumped over the side of the ship, desperately paddling away.

Back on the Lady Jezebel, Ricmo looked quizzically over the side at the foaming bubbling sea. 

"That odd..." the words had barely left his mouth when a huge shock struck the ship, shaking her to her bones and almost knocked even the lithe halfling off his feat. The ships hull groaned and screamed, the entire ship suddenly lurching to starboard. With a cry one of the lookouts lost his perch in the crows nest and plunged over the side, not into the sea, but somehow, impossibly into the land that had risen beneath the ship.

The desert had come.

"That's amazing" said Tello, impressed, as a featureless desert island half a mile in diameter suddenly surged out of the boiling sea beneath his feet. Clearly they were facing a foe with an incredible mastery of natural forces. The Tortle briefly considered offering a truce so that he and their new acquaintance could discuss the mechanism by which such a thing was accomplished, however based on the rage glaring out of the flaming eyes that were now turning on the party, he reluctantly put the idea aside as impractical. "Perhaps gigantic springs?" he mused briefly. "Or massive hydraulics?"

Reluctantly he put that line of mental inquiry aside for later. Defensive measures were needed first. He felt a glow of excitement as he realized this would be a perfect opportunity to test his new shell.

Tello was quite pleased with the shell carving that Tattoo Sammy had given hm. The mithril inlaid four pointed star was elegant and clearly the work of a master artist. He thought it brought out the blue in his eyes. And of course, the harmonic resonances it created in the ether could be quite useful at times. 

He activated it.

A second later, the mummy unhinged his mouth impossibly wide and from deep inside it a storm of insects vomited forth. The swarm was impossibly large, welling up in uncountable numbers from the creature, filled with biting, stinging death. It hurtled toward the party.

And parted around them harmlessly

Centered on the Tortle, a glimmering bubble was outlined in the writhing insectile bodies. Tello grinned.

The mummy screamed again, in frustration a scream which was interrupted when a feathered shaft suddenly protruded from his wind pipe. From half a mile away, precariously balanced on a ships spar that was leaning 45 degrees off true, Merus had entered the fray. 

And the party began to fight back.

Eldritch bolts sprang from Dakhir's hands, Whisperleaf conjured a spirit of air to join the fight. And with a cry of "For the Light!" Radiant Lightbringer charged the wall of skeleton warriors that were moving toward the party.

"What the hell For the Light and stuff" echoed Ozraeline and joined him.

The mummy had a few tricks up it's sleeve as well. Even as Merus' second arrow shot toward it, the creatures form melted away into a gyre of sand,. The arrow harmless passed through this new form, while the gyre quickly sped across the battlefield toward the prow of the ship, where the creature reformed.

Where The Sturg promptly hit it. Hard. 

For a moment the mummy and The Sturg dueled. Outside of the Tortle's sphere of protection however, even the Sturg's might was having a hard time matching the strength of the  undead. The creature was incredibly strong and it's magical words were opening huge wounds and rents in The Sturg's flesh. At least he was having a hard time until Whisperleaf entered the fray.

The druid leapt forward, and in mid jump his body rippled and shifted, assuming the form of the mighty sabre tooth, one of his preferred battle forms. The huge cat leapt onto the undead and knocked him off the prow and to the sand, with the cat on top, ravaging him with teeth and claw.

And with a great cry, the mummy died, his body melting away into sand. 

And with his death the island of sand sank back into the sea

------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Sturg reached down and grasped Radiant Lightbringer by the back of his gorget, hauling him back into the boat.

"Thanks to you, friend Sturg, alas I was never the best swimmer, even when not wearing full plate."

The Sturg, as usual, said nothing.

"Well that was bracing" said Ozraeline. "So what's in that chest?"

She gestured back toward the funeral barge which was now rocking quietly a few dozen yards away. The magical oars had stopped their motion and the ship bobbed aimlessly in the swells. 

"I've no idea but The Sturg is going to find out!" replied Dakhir cheerfully.

The Sturg turned to him and raised an invisible eyebrow.

"Carefully of course" Dakhir amended.

"He better be quick about it" announced Whisperleaf as he observed the ship through the spyglass. "The ship seems to be....aging at an accelerated rate. I don't think we have much time."

And so a few minutes later The Sturg found himself, alone, on the funeral barge, starting down into an almost empty chest while his companions watched anxiously from the safety of the ships boat 60 yards away. A part of him wondered idly whether he should feel hard done by. Oh well, someone had to look in the chest, he decided. And that kind of thing was clearly in his job description. 

The only thing there was an amulet. He reached down and picked it up, turned around and held it high to show it to the rest of the party.

And the amulet eye opened.

--------------------------

Back on the ship, the party updated Captain Ricmo on the fight, since he had mostly sat that one out.

"And then Freddy turned to stone" finished Dakhir. "But it's ok, He got better. Radiant fixed him".

Freddy smiled sheepishly. 

"How is the ship?" asked Tello. "Certainly being grounded like that couldn't have been good for her?"

"Well turns out that sort of thing happens more then you'd think" replied Ricmo. "I mean not giant sand islands materializing under you, but more getting stuck on sand bars and then the tide going out. So to some degree she's built for it. But still, it happened so fast and hard that it sprang a bunch of her....thingies and cracked some ...whatsits and such and the crew was pretty worried there for a bit as she was taking on quite a lot of water very quickly Which is, as I am sure you know, not a good thing. So everyone was desperately pumping and I was kind of missing Whisperleaf's monkey crew, but then she just gradually...healed. All better now."

Suddenly a crewman came rushing up to the captain, His face was white, his hands were shaking, and in his face, lived total abject terror  

"Captain captain" he moaned.

"Calm down son and tell us what's wrong" soothed Whisperleaf.

"It's it' it's THE RUM captain. The Rum is gone."

"Why is the rum gone?" said Ricmo.