After finding the captain's body (in a location identified in the 'Chumming from Chum' section in the previous chapter), the party can search his body and find, inside his mouth, the page that was torn out from his journal.

The page reads the following:

I find Mr. Wright - the passenger in the Forecastle - to be somewhat disconcerting, though I can't quite put my finger on why. I can't help but feel as though he is keeping some secret or harboring some plans to do evil upon me or others. His demeanor is cold and inscrutable and he never displays any outwards shows of emotion. The other day two of the crew members got into a fight about seemingly nothing, it was quite confronting and seemed to scare most of the passengers, however Mr. Wright seemed absolutely unbothered, perhaps even amused by it.

The other day I glanced over at him and - it's hard to describe - but he appeared to "shimmer". I've seen illusions before, and it was like he was using some kind of illusion to change his appearance. I tried to "disbelieve" it, but nothing happened.

I've survived this long and gotten this far at sea by trusting my instincts, and my instincts tell me that this Mr. Wright is not what he seems, and I mean to speak with him directly to figure out exactly what might be going on in that strange head of his.

The mention of a Forecastle should be confusing to the players, because this ship absolutely does not have one - or, more accurately, DID NOT have one. After reading the torn-out page, the party become aware of the Forecastle, which is simply 'there' as though it had always been, though they are all quite certain they have never seen it before. The party should want to venture into the Forecastle for the final encounter with Lord Pembleton.

Inside the Forecastle

The Forecastle was Lord Pembleton's quarters (under the guise of Thomas Wright). Once he started to manipulate the passengers and crew, he caused them to forget about his existence, and the existence of the Forecastle itself, moving amongst the crew and passengers invisibly and if ever being seen, making them immediately forget him with use of the Modify Memory spell.

Inside the forecastle, the party will see around a dozen passengers and crew hung by the neck from the rafters. Lord Pembleton is lurking in a dark shadow somewhere in the room, effectively invisible. When the party move far enough into the room, he will target them and attempt to defeat them.

Lord Pembleton's Tactics

• First round: Target the whole party with with a 'Confusion' spell.
• Subsequent rounds: Keep away from the party members, and target a member of the party who passed their save with 'Command' (flee)
• 3rd round or later: if half or more of the party have passed their save and are no longer under the effects of the 'Confusion' spell, Lord Pembleton casts 'Dominate Person' on the party member he believes to be the most formidable, and makes them fight against the party. The round after he will cast 'Invisibility' and take no further actions, watching the party fight one another.
• If Lord Pembleton gets to below 20% of his hit points, he will cast 'Invisibility' and try to escape. The party can prevent his escape by physically blocking anyone from leaving through the Forecastle door, however, and in this eventuality he will wait a little longer, cast 'Dominate Person' on another party member (making him visible again) and then retreat to a corner of the room, hoping the party will kill itself (or create an opening at the door so he can escape).

Lord Arthur Pembleton

Medium Humanoid (Wizard), Chaotic Evil

AC: 15 (Mage Armor, cast before encounter) Initiative: +2 (12)

HP: 66 (12d8+12)

Speed: 30 ft.

Score Mod Save

STR 10 +0 +0

DEX 15 +2 +2

CON 12 +1 +1

INT 19 +4 +8

WIS 16 +3 +7

CHA 12 +1 +1

Skills: Deception (+5), Arcana (+8), Insight (+7)

CR: 5 (XP 1,800, PB +4)

Traits

Darklord Restoration: If Lord Pembleton dies, he revives with all his Hit Points in 2d10 days in an unoccupied space in the Forecastle of the ship. If the Erebus is destroyed (by burning, etc) then he is not able to revive.

Enchanter's resistance: Lord Pembleton has advantage on saving throws against spells from the enchantment and illusion schools of magic.

Actions

Spellcasting: Lord Pembleton is a spellcaster. His spell save DC is 16 and his spell attack bonus is +8. He has the following spells:

At will: Chill touch, Ray of Frost, Friends

4/day: Invisibility, Charm Person, Command,

2/day: Dominate Person

1/day: Confusion

Vampiric Claws: Lord Pembleton attacks with his gnarled, long, bony fingers, inflicting 1d4 slashing damage and 3d6 necrotic damage. He is healed for half of the necrotic damage inflicted.

Reactions

Displacement: If Lord Pembleton is hit with an attack roll, roll 1d6. If the roll is a 5 or a 6, the roll hits him as per normal, otherwise the attack misses and Lord Pembleton is shown to be in another location within 5 feet of his previous location (this is not a teleport, rather the characters were perceiving a displaced copy of him).

Legendary Actions:

Legendary Action Uses: 2. Immediately after another creature's turn, Lord Pembleton can expend a use to take one of the following actions (he regains all expended uses at the start of each of his turns).

Siphon: Lord Pembleton makes one Vampiric Claws attack.

Puppet master: Lord Pembleton compels one of the hanging bodies in his lair to grapple a party member. The body must be within reach of the target, and it makes an unarmed attack (attack roll +3). On a hit, the target has the grappled condition (escape DC 11). In truth, this is an illusion, and not necromancy, therefore the target can instead elect to "disbelieve" the attack (as a free action), in doing they must succeed on a DC16 Wisdom Saving Throw to remove the grappled condition. If successful - they can no longer be targeted by this effect.