[Two sessions ago, before Cambion found Zymaan in the heat of what is now known as “The Battle that Incinerated the Demi-Monde” (it sounds better in Infernal), during the time that Cambion was looking for Zymaan, she first flew to the Sea Ghost where she understood from Grim’s intelligence that Zymaan would be (note here that Grim gave Cambion false intelligence about Zymaan’s location). But when Cambion got to the Sea Ghost, the crew told her Zymaan was not there, which of course she did not believe. So Cambion killed one of the crew to show how serious she was. But they continued to lie to her about Zymaan.
Janaar and Proxen were on shore not too far from the Sea Ghost, facing troubles of their own. In particular, a wall of invaders had emerged along the tree line in an attempt to barricade them in. Eventually Hellhounds came too.
Janaar and Proxen wanted to help the crew, but they were not drawn away from the challenges imminently before them, and their focus was first on using the enemy’s portals to get to Nyneve to protect her, and when those portals closed before they could use them, they focussed second on getting to her by other means.
Ultimately, Janaar and Proxen shouted encouragement to the crew on the ship behind them, but they did not come to their rescue, riding off instead on a magical elk named Orange Pekoe that had been conjured by the Paladin.
Cambion killed another crew member before she even started to listen to their lame excuses about Zymaan.
This is their story.]
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CAMBION
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THE PIPER
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Cambion and the Piper gated to the Demi-monde along with the vast armies of her Supreme Royal Greatness, Queen Vlaakith. As plotted, they appeared on the edges of the half-plane where a ring of ships raged in eternal battle, but beyond which a few ships sat idle and safe. They quickly located the Sea Ghost and descended upon it.
“Bring me Zymaan!” Cambion commanded as she swooped down and landed on the deck of the ship. The Piper hovered behind her.
The crew looked astonished and unsure, but eventually second mate Gundar Gunnarson, who had been part of the Sea Ghost crew since before the ship had been seized from pirates near Saltmarsh, spoke up. “He’s not here,” Gundar shouted. “He went on land many days ago.”
Cambion’s angry gaze turned on Gundar and she penetrated his mind easily and seized complete control of it. “Tell me again about Zymaan,” she commanded. “Where is he now?”
Gundar‘ s eyes became vacant as she explored his innermost thinkings. She saw his memories of watching Zymaan and the rest of the crew take the jetty boat to shore. She also sees, however, memories of Gundar seeing Zymaan with Rayne.
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RAYNE
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“Bring me Rayne!” Cambion shouts in a jealous fury. She has come all this way to claim her future husband and first she must kill his other suitors? The thought infuriates her.
Through her magical compulsion, Gundar cannot resist going to retrieve Rayne and bring her to Cambion. But Rayne has locked herself in Zymaan’s cabin and won’t come out. She never comes out. She sits in Zymaan’s room all day pining for his return. Some believe she shuns daylight.
“She will not come,” Gundar tells Cambion when he returns empty-handed. His response is honest, as she knows as she owns his mind completely, but she kills him anyway by running her spear through his abdomen. She draws him close on the shaft of her spear and draws a deep breath as he exhales his last as though she is drinking it in.
Cries from the ship alert Captain Stormwind and the Paladin Proxen to the conflict aboard the ship, but the warriors face an army of monstrosities and they do not come.
The situation on the ship becomes more tense.
“Bring me Zymaan!” Cambion shouts again even though she knows Zymaan is not there.
The crew scuttles to hide behind any objects they can until eventually the Piper pulls out his pipe and begins to play a melodious tune. Without them even realizing it, the crew’s will begins to bend to his control.
The Piper quickly satisfies himself also that Zymaan is not there, but decides to appease Cambion by compelling the crew to force Rayne from her cabin so that Cambion can kill her. There can be no competition for Zymaan’s love, the Piper knows. She simply must die.
Under the terrible mind controlling music of the Piper, the situation aboard the Sea Ghost deteriorates quickly. The crew scrambles to appease the Piper’s command of forcing Rayne from her cabin. They bash at her door but she refuses to come out. She curses them and yells at them and refuses to come out. She yells that Zymaan will come and save her. That they cannot ever truly be separated.
Eventually the door is busted and many hands grab Rayne and drag her on deck. She fights like a wild cat and scratches and claws and wounds many. But the Piper’s song is relentless and the crew are not themselves. They hit her and drag her until she kneels before Cambion and her perpetual sneer.
“If you kill me I will haunt you from the other side,” Rayne vows. “I will drag you down. You will never have Zymaan!” Rayne shouts with overwhelming force.
But all Cambion says is “Die bitch” as she drives her spear through Rayne’s heart. Rayne gurgles and dies, her blood staining the planks of the ship’s deck.
The dark magics and emotions swirling aboard the Sea Ghost give birth to Rayne’s afterlife.
With a huff, Cambion finally takes wing and leaves the Sea Ghost for the mainland with the Piper behind her. She will find Zymaan, and he will be her’s.
[We of course know now that later Cambion and Zymaan got engaged!]
[This story post is important because (i) two crew members have died; (ii) an atrocity has occurred aboard the ship which has traumatized the crew and left a stain upon them, and (iii) Cambion did it].