Vampire Island

## On the Run

After a few days on the ship, everyone is used to the new routine. Yvanna has befriended a crew member named Eugene, a green Dragonborn whose strength more than makes up for his intelligence (or lack thereof). Levina has been spending time working in the kitchen with a changeling named Birnot. Cordala, meanwhile, has been working alongside the crew’s medic, a water Genasi named Calanthe. Aurelius has been having some trouble with the hard labor of living on a ship, but has been helping the quartermaster Wrenn by fetching maps and books.

Life on the Soul goes smoothly for a little while, as everyone settles in. But after a few days at sea, everyone awakes one morning to find the threat of dark clouds on the horizon. Levina is visibly on edge for most of the morning, though she spends much of it below deck in the kitchen. When the storm breaks, however, Zale calls for all hands on deck to keep the ship afloat.

Levina’s face is as dark as the thunderclouds overhead when she appears. She immediately begins shouting curses at the sky, directed at her patron god, Ariel. Lightning strikes the deck as Ariel’s semi-transparent form appears, clad in stormy gray robes.

They begin to argue as the wind howls overhead. Rain beats down on the deck of the ship with a vengeance, and Zale has to fight to keep the ship from capsizing under the towering waves.

Finally, the argument is over, but Levina is still upset. Eugene is throwing boxes below deck to keep them from going overboard. She shouts at him to move and begins doing the job herself, using frankly impressive strength.

❖ ❖ ❖

After the storm calms, Levina goes to apologize to Eugene, who she finds in his room. His room is quite a mess: books stolen from Zale’s library hold up his mattress, and rocks line a shelf on the wall. Eugene is quite distressed when she knocks and opens the door. A glowing rock sits in his scaly palm.

After she apologizes, and upon some pressing, Eugene reveals that he keeps accidentally making things glow. He’s also been throwing books he’s torn overboard while Zale isn’t looking.

Levina convinces Eugene that instead of throwing books overboard, he could throw her or Cordala, since both of them can breathe underwater.

Yvanna and Eugene spend some downtime throwing Levina and Cordala overboard for fun.

❖ ❖ ❖

The next day, Zale and Wrenn announce to the crew that the Soul will be making port in Saltmarsh in a few days. As everyone disperses, a trance takes over Zale. He takes the wheel and begins steering, but the course he’s making is not towards Saltmarsh.

During the past week or so the party has spent working among the crew, Zale at one point got into a heated argument with Wrenn. As a result, the atmosphere was tense, and everyone was too afraid to approach the captain unless it was absolutely necessary. So, no one notices that Zale isn’t leaving the wheel to sleep or eat. And most of the crew had never been to Saltmarsh, so no one notices that the island they finally land on isn’t the right one.

## A Spooky Island

The island The Night Soul docks at is strange-looking. The plant life is mostly colorless, except for the leaves of the trees, which are pink. There’s also no port town, only a mansion that can be seen in the distance.

The party sets off onto the island, Levina and Cordala having a list from Birnot and Calanthe respectively. There are no oranges left, and Birnot is concerned that someone might develop scurvy, so that’s Levina’s top priority. At some point during their journey, it’s revealed that Cordala is magic. Yvanna is very upset at this and breaks from the group into the strange wilderness. Levina follows, not wanting her to be alone on an unfamiliar island.

To Cordala and Zale, Aurelius mentions that this isn’t Saltmarsh. Everyone is immediately very alarmed, and they follow Yvanna and Levina, though Zale being absolutely exhausted from his unsleeping shift at the wheel slows them down quite a bit.

❖ ❖ ❖

Meanwhile, Levina and Yvanna are headed resolutely towards the mansion. The two of them talk as they walk, about oranges and Yvanna’s relationship with magic. Finally, they reach the mansion. It’s silent, and the front door looms above them. Both of them have a bad feeling, so they opt to walk around to look through the windows. As they peer through the dusty glass, neither notice the shadows approaching until they’re suddenly attacked!

Vampires grab hold of both Levina and Yvanna, biting both of them. A struggle ensues, during which Levina is very badly injured. She remembers the ring she gave Ezzie, which allows one of them to sacrifice themself for the other. On an impulse, she takes the ring off and throws it into the bushes. Zale, Cordala, and Aurelius arrive just in time to finish the vampires off, and the party head back to the boat. Levina and Yvanna are put in the infirmary with Ezzie.

❖ ❖ ❖

Later that day, after Levina’s wounds have been dressed, she and Ezzie have a tense conversation. Ezzie knows that something happened, because his ring flashed all of a sudden. Levina admits she’d taken the ring off so he couldn’t sacrifice himself. He scolds her for taking the choice away from him, and she promises not to take it off again. The two of them fall asleep in Levina’s bed in the infirmary as the ship heads, finally, towards Saltmarsh.