Baychiro Pt. 2

*This page is stained with the spray of the sea and flecks of rusted metal, smelling sharply of rotted wood*
 

The next chamber housed a pair of giant, powerful (but sadly badly rusted) engines and a heavy, dented anvil. The walls were covered in all manner of smith-ed goods from harpoons to weaponry. There was two other doors leading from the chamber, one to a smaller room built into one corner more recently and another leading I presumed deeper into the ship. Everything was old and rusted, with the wood in the room congealing from age. 

There was also single, seven foot tall rotten corpse lay against the anvil, his head long ago since smashed in. A white bristled beard framed its face, the flesh sickly grey and smelling putrid. A rusted war-hammer lay not far from his outstretched arm.

As I stared at the corpse I was overcome by a feeling of dread and sure enough as I stepped out of the room I had been trapped in the corpse animated, lunging to its feet and rushing toward me with bony clawed hands outstretched. The sight was unnerving and while I slapped away it's gnashing teeth, the bony claws found purchase into my shoulders, tearing into the flesh. I eventually destroyed the animated corpse, but I was left with some nasty wounds. I count myself lucky they don't seem to be infected at least.

Both of the doors were locked again (of course) and sealed by some sort of power. While poking around in frustration I did happen to find an adamantine key that was tossed into one of the engines. An engine still filled with hot coals and the occasional gout of flame. I pulled a hook and some thread from my pack and pulled it up to the side just in time for the engine to loose a gout of flame. At which point I cursed and just grabbed the key. I got a little singed, but compared to the wounds from the undead before they were very minor. 

There was a definitive click in the lock when I turned the key in the smaller room, though within the only thing waiting for me was another skeletal undead, this one covered in sticky, rope-like strands of green ectoplasm with outstretched claws. After the first battle I was more ready and I was able to shatter its bones into pieces before it could cause me further harm. The room had a number of rotted bookshelves, a desk, and six sets of ceremonial armor, now rusted beyond recognition. Just as I was starting to give up finding anything of use I heard the door back at the end of the hall click and open of its own accord. How puzzling and utterly frustrating!

The chamber beyond that door lead to a somewhat curved chamber with a rusted spiral staircase leading up to a rusted trapdoor and a single jail door with iron bars on the window. There were five more corpses here and strangely they too had also with their heads caved in. Once again a single step into the chamber caused them to animate, four of them turning into blue-green spectres and forming a sort of shield around one dressed in what looked like guard officer's armor. The guard officer skeleton was framed by flickering fire lining his bones and in a breathy gasp it said something like, "The prisoner must not be freed". While it was quite powerful, with potent unholy strength augmented by his fallen companions, I was fighting to survive and nowhere to turn back to which gave me an edge. Despite the throbbing wounds, I managed to battle carefully and destroy the creature once again without taking any further damage due to some carefully timed parries and ripostes. 

None of the crates nor the fallen guards seemed to have any key, so I made my way over to the jail cell to find there was actually someone alive within it! More importantly perhaps, this chamber confirmed I was indeed upon a ship as it was shaped like the triangular nose of the ship. More shocking though was the location of the ship as a simple glance out one of the portholes revealed we were not upon the water, but flying through the sky! I'm on an airship!

As for the prisoner, I'm currently letting him recover a bit. He's an old man with dark-black, bedraggled hair and claw-like hands. He's thin and bony, not to mention it seems like his mind and memory has been damaged to a degree. The bit I have got out of him troubles me deeply, however. 

He says his name is Genbo...