Our heroes arise after a night of rest: Scram in the crow’s nest surrounded by fog; and Zola in her quarters, in a cold sweat after her strange dreams. With only the words “Find the Gravedigger” to go on, Zola heads up to the deck to speak with Scram. Unperturbed by the strange fog that creeps over them, Captain Styx commands them to head onwards.
In private, Zola confides in Scram about her dream, and the strange excitement she feels about the possibilities ahead. This leads them to speak about Scram’s past, and the story of how he came to meet Gorgonzola.
Scram explains that after escaping a conflict in his home, he traveled from town to town peddling his skills as a sneaky little sorceror. During these escapades, he came upon the tower of Lord Tinderdick: a wealthy wizard with a collection of magical items including the wild Shard. Stowing away in a bread bin, Scram lived a life of leisure until he was caught trying to investigate and steal the Shard, and was turned into a servant for the lord. Scram escaped, taking the Shard with him, and mistakenly headed east instead of south (where he eventually ran into Zola).
Zola and Scram commemorate their friendship by snacking on a lot of the boat’s supplies, then head up deck just in time to spot an old, dark ship floating in the fog, its sails unidentifiable. Fiddle, not one to let an opportunity go to waste, gathers up crew to check out the vessel. Zola uses her ability to warg into Stilton and see from his perspective, investigating the ship before they ever step foot on it. The ship appears to be completely empty, and showing signs of a terrible past battle.
Captain Styx leading the way, the three board the ghost ship, seeking treasure but finding instead evidence of a combat between the forces of the First Might (a faction in the war of the Mare Emara) and a nation that no longer exists, the Lioniel kingdom, which fell to the capital of Auraelia before Zola was born. Going deeper into the ship, the party finds the first (and only) body on board, a moldy skeleton wearing blue and silver robes: a mage of Lioniel. After taking his belongings, the party discovers the bottom of the ship is coated in algae and glowing green mushrooms. Prodding this blanket of fungus causes a noxious fume to burst out and poison Zola. The group masks up (and we make a lot of mask jokes because this was 2020, y’all), and crosses the toxic threshold.
The three burst into the final room to find piles of shattered bone scattering the ground, and a single old wooden chest. Inside, they find hundreds of gold coins and a very strange green gem, which speaks and reveals itself to contain a very old being known as Limburg—and the Gravedigger for whom Zola has been searching. They attempt to escape, the Shard, drawn to the power of the gem, explodes, absorbing the green gem and Limburger, and nearly killing the two heroes. Zola clings to her life but Scram, too weak to resist the magical energy, and is spaghettified and sucked into the Shard… leaving Zola alone with Captain Styx in the hull of the rotting ship.
Well, not really alone, because with the surge of energy from the two gems colliding, the skeleton mage outside has risen and looks to strike against the intruders.
