SCENE 01 – The remaining investigators stand upon the fog-shrouded deck trying to assess the current turn of events and figure out what happened to the Excalibur. Mwai hears the sound of something striking against the hull of the ship in the dead calm, clearly heard now that the Excalibur is dead quiet.

Walking to the railing and looking over the side, he sees thousands of dead fish and other sea creatures surrounding the ship, slapping against the hull. They ring of dead sealife extends into the dense fog, their doll-like dead eyes, and white, corpulent bodies giving off a foul stench of rotting meat.

SCENE 02 – The team sees a shape moving through the fog and they ready themselves for battle; however, it turns out to be Anastasia (aka Mdme Helga), who also did not succumb to the strange fugue sleep that everyone else is under.

At that moment, the ship groans and lurches. The team goes to the bow of the ship; Chesterfield leans out and sees that the Excalibur is being held in place by a gargantuan sea creature. The only parts they can make out are a single eye protruding from the water and colossal tentacles of purpleish-black holding the ship in place. The creature appears to be tightening its grip on the Excalibur, the hull weakening and buckling under the pressure.

SCENE 03 – Thinking that this new turn of events may be tied to Miss Shosenberg‘s doppelganger, the team heads to the brig, where they see that the cultists are missing. Signs indicate a struggle and forced entry to the brig. They follow the blood trail, which leads back down to the hold of the ship …

SCENE 04 – Descending into the bowels of the ship, the team hears the unmistakable sound of ritual from where they knew the tanks and strange blue altar were.

There they see, once again, the beautiful M’Weru, flanked by her personal bodyguard. To her left are the doppelganger and its accomplices, kneeling, heads bowed, before the blue-stoned altar, which is pulsating with a sickly inner light. The body guards stand ready with panga in hand, ready to sacrifice the cultists.

To M’weru’s right is Hypatia Masters in her bloated, distended form, neither alive nor dead, her corpulent flesh writhing as the Spawn of Nyarlathotep threatens to burst free from its 9 years of imprisonment within her womb.

SCENE 05 – The team is unsure how to proceed but step into the light and tell M’Weru to stand down, she is under arrest. M’Weru laughs at this. She welcomes them into the light and says that this was all staged for their benefit: since they disrupted the Birthing, M’Weru will now sacrifice everyone aboard the Excalibur to appease Nyarlathotep and the party will be there to watch.

SCENE 05 – M’Weru orders the bodyguards to slay the cultists, which they do with brutal efficiency, slicing their throats and letting their lifeblood flow into the blue altar.

Chesterfield raises his shotgun. Raising her voice in an eldritch incantation, M’weru pushes Chesterfield into the air and back fifty feet. Slamming into a luggage rack, he loses his shotgun.

Mwai is overcome at the sight of Masters’ suffering and runs forward, knife raised, his mind focused on one thing: if he can remove the Spawn, perhaps he can save this poor woman’s life. He falls upon her listless form and raises his dagger, trying to slit through her womb. However, her skin has now taken on a thick, mucus-y

texture, and his knife’s blade merely skims across its surface. Driving the point of the blade in, Masters cries out, Mwai covering her mouth this his free hand, blood spurting everywhere. He reaches inside Masters and pulls forth the Spawn of Nyarlathotep. It is too much for Masters and she passes into a coma, bleeding out.

M’Weru’s bodyguards, their bloody work complete, fall upon Ishaq Rahad and Mwai. Mwai is struck from behind, the panga digging deep into his spine. As the guard withdraws the blade, the blade tears a terrible wound, killing Mwai. The Spawn of Nyarlathotep, now about the size of a 2-year old child, is hideous to behold, it’s torso ending in a gaping maw ringed with teeth, and a massive pseudopodlike tongue protruding from the opening. Its arms end in crab claw-like appendages. The psudopod swings towards Chesterfield and amid the folds of flesh a sunken eye squirts forth a burning pink liquid, which Chesterfield is just able to dodge.

Anastasia cannot bear to watch Chesterfield get hurt and enters into the fray, but is immediately cut down by one of Mweru’s bodyguards, the panga’s vicious blade making short work of her.

Ishaq Rahad, however, entered the fray with the full awareness of what might happen and after dispatching of M’Weru, engages in a fight to the death with one of her bodyguards. Stabbed up to the hilt by the panga, Ishaq Rahad doesn’t pull the blade out, knowing it will likely kill him. Instead he takes advantage of his proximity to the guard and fires his revolver into his stomach several times.

SCENE 06 – The team knows it cannot face off against the rapidly growing Spawn, and they allow it to lope out of the ships’ hold. They follow its slime trail to the deck where apparently the vile creature threw itself overboard, being caught by the colossal creature holding the Excalibur in place, and disappearing below the ocean waves.

SCENE 07 – On the main deck, the saddened, horrified, and dazed party see that the thousands of dead sea creatures are no longer surrounding the ship and that the fog is beginning to clear. However, the ship is still deadly quiet and in the clearing sky they can now see the City In The Clouds swiftly approaching.

In his cabin, Asad awakens, and hears the call of the City …