5e WNW: Isle of the Dead

Session 15 of the weird new world campaign was played on Friday 6/5

The party consisted of the following:
Veidt, 1/2 Elf Wizard 4 [John (Absent, but kindly substituted by Erindale)]
Nessendra, Wood Elf Cleric 4 (Erindale)
Kethra, Human Fighter 4 (Nikki)
Bach, Dragonborn Warlock 4 (Erik - Absent, but kindly substituted by Hanna)
Riia, Human Ranger 4 (Hanna)
Guy Noir, ½ Elf Rogue 4 (Nadia - Absent, but kindly substituted by guest player Julia)
Anya Bowen, Tiefling Ranger 4 (Allison)

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This would have been a great week to have pictures, but my cell phone died an inglorious death - I fell on the stairs, and it cushioned my fall... :-/  Such is life...

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Continuing south, the party begins to smell decay and rot beyond what they've normally encountered in the swamp, and above they spy a winged man in a silver breastplate circling.

Guy and Bach stride forward, confident that their companions are right behind them. Meanwhile, everyone is is behind them, hiding in the bushes, praying that they haven't been spotted.

The winged figure looks down upon Guy and Back and descends, hovering just ahead of them. It's about this point that Guy and Bach realize they are alone. They swallow hard, and begin to talk to the winged man, who demands to know what they're doing in his swamp. They stumble over themselves trying to be as humble and unaggressive as possible, and beat a hasty retreat, getting pulled into the bushes as they pass by their friends. Some hushed discussion follows, and the party decides to confront the winged man.

As one, they step out of the bushes, and tromp forward. He watches from above, circling, mostly disinterested, but begins to once again descend. The party reaches a shoreline as he once again hovers before them. Beyond, in the water, a mound of bodies slowly churns. Rotted corpses of people and animals slowly crawl over each other, somehow keeping the island of bodies afloat.

"Why have you returned? What do you want?" his voice booms.

The party stammers a bit, and asks what they can call him. "Master" is the unsurprising response. They tell him they're on a mission to retrieve something from the island, in a room as dark as pitch. "The Frog sent you for my heart... bah. You will kneel to me, and worship me as your god."

Predictably this didn't go over well with the party (except for Guy, who went down on his knees faster than a 2 copper hooker). About this point they also noticed that the island was now much closer to the shore. The Master, seeing the party's unwillingness to worship him, decided they could add to his lair.

Individual zombies began to arise from the island, and moved to attack. At first the zombies were mostly ignored in favor of attacking The Master, but their numbers continued to grow. Nessendra's holy mace made quick work of any zombie it touched, but the resilience of the dead flesh showed that this strategy was a losing one. The Master took every blow with little interest, much like his zombies, and while it was clearly having some effect, the wounds continued to knot back together.

Realizing that the heart the Master mentioned was probably the thing that Anura needed, they beat the Master down
and ran for the opening in the island. Within the island was no less disturbing than the outside. The walls, floor, and ceiling were all made of bodies, though these seemed far less wiggly than the ones on the surface. A fork in the tunnel nearly sent Riia down a bone shard filled pit, but she managed to keep from falling in. Running down the other passage Guy and Bach entered a chamber that dripped black gore, and in the center a beating heart the size of a cantaloupe! Bach tossed his cloak over it and scooped it up...