And so the adventure resumed when our party realized that an encroaching darkness was approaching the island; not the storm of the Crix ships, but a straight up veil of darkness that we could not see beyond. Our elven archer tried taking some shots at a mage that was near the lady holding the mask we wanted to retrieve but the mage had too much magical protection and launched a counter attack that badly wounded the elf and pushed his mind over the edge and into a full fledged panic. Thankfully our mechanic had his Jack bearhug the guy and carry him to our rescue ship which had thankfully arrived but was unable to shoot at Mr Gibbles ship and stop it from leaving before we could board it and take back our treasure. Our lich was busy throwing down salt lines to stop the darkness from aproaching for he knew it was very dark Crix style sorcery and whatever was on the other side of thhe veil wasn't good. The Trollkin spent pretty much the whole time trying to smash the demon that NECROM ate fully into the hammer (stupid thing was trying to not get eaten! Fool....) but still found time to take the trident from fishy as well as another trophy (it's head; another souvenier from this expedition for the battle standard we will eventually have made).
After some assisted "coaching" from the Trollkin (HEY BUDDY! SNAP OUTTA IT BEFORE I HURT YOU FOR REAL!!!) the elf was able to overcome his fear, look into the darkness and see that it was filled with swarms of doom skellies with executioner great axes...not the standard undead minion fare. So, we were all able to make it aboard the ship and we took off, but not before all 3 salt lines faltered against the inherit power of the sorcery veil and we were boarded by 6 of the skelies. Unbeknownst to us, a crew member of the ship had lined the entire deck and interior of the ships hull with multiple warding circles which made the undead easier to hit and damage and anyone within the circle friendly to the maker harder to hit by undeads and demons. So the elf with his mighty undead slayer blade laid waste to 4 of the skellies, the mechanic and his jack took out another while the Trollkin swung at the final one but didn't knock it down (Trollkin used all his luck up on hammer-eating the demon it seems) but we were able to knock it down before it moved again so, we're free and clear, sailing away from the island and the darkness......and the nightmare that was. Full of loot, an extra cannon, a knowledgeable (but not magicaly inclined) lich friend, 1 of the 2 artifacts we were after as a side mission and our main money makers the ARTICLE 1187's, which in the kingdom of Kador, will fetch us a hefty lump sum of cash.
Unbeknownst to us, our rescue vessel is our employers EMPLOYER and THEY wanted the mask that we were unable to get so.....yeah, this might get complicated next go round. Plus, the ship has a skeleton crew, a captain that can make mystic circles that weaken undead and infernals, a big robot thing, a small gobber whacky style type who, also unbeknownst to us, is Mr Gibbles BROTHER and a great sowrd wielding lunatic that drives others around them mad (we ran into one a short bit ago and the Trollkin made it a point to NOT take the things sword and simply smash it to atoms with NECROM). So, shnookies N fiddle-sticks batman, we got some issues to work out here!