Present:
- Cody Dieback. Human Male Wizard from Highport – Andrew
- Jack "Blocker" Jones. Human Male Temple Fighter of Aqua Marina from Porn City – Jamie
- Tom Eade. Human Male Fighter from Porn City – Jeff
- Grim Hand. Human Male Rogue from Porn City – Jason
- Esmeralda "Ezme". Human Female Temple Fighter of Soixante Neuf from Scabport – Shane
- Ardern. Human Female Priestess of Mr Quail from Porn City – Kevin
- Rock Hammer. Human Male Barbarian from Central Plains – Steven
- Willow Woods. Half Elf Male Caribou Gorn Priest from Porn City - Chris
- Kippy (Kip) Hunt. Human Male Barbarian of the Central Plains – Ian
- Munch Ese. Human Male Thief from Porn City – Darryl
by Jeff
As a lot of tales begin, it was a dark and stormy night!
[The initial briefing from the DM, Richard]
"Get up you lazy bastards" the fat seaman they called Ripper yelled, throwing a bucket of cold urine from above.
The ship was lurching and rolling more than you had known it to in the days and weeks you had been contained in its bilge. From your best guess there were seventeen or so of you trapped below the decks, now all grimy and smelling of urine and faeces; rats your constant companions.
This was a turn of events, you had not been woken in such a manner and no demands had been placed on you since you involuntarily boarded the ship and were thrown below decks. Two of your companions were dead – their bodies beginning to rot but not removed by your captors.
How long you could each hold out was anybody's guess.
"Get your sorry arse's up here" yelled Ripper, a whip cracking in the air, quickly followed by a crack of lightening and an almost immediate roaring of thunder.
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| Let the storm rage on |
"Fuck, I can't swim" a number of you think, the blood draining from your faces.
Ripper loses his balance and rolls down the deck as the first of you emerge onto the wave swept deck.
Almost forgotten in the events unfolding, you each emerge in time to see the mast crack and swing dangerously across the deck. Two of your companions are collected by it and thrown into the ocean.
"Well, this is it then" you think as a huge freezing wave sweeps you across the deck and towards the gunwales.
You awake sodden and sore clinging to a rock. From your limited vantage point there is no one about but at least the violence of the sea has dissipated. You have your scant clothes which offer little protection from the chilling winds. You quickly search for your special item and with relief find it's still safe where you secured it all those weeks ago.
Casting your eye back to the churning sea you can see no sign of the ship.
Struggling to get to your feet you see a few others doing the same.
"How many could have survived that?" you wonder?
One, two, three…. about nine others you count. Including me that makes ten. All look in similar shape to you – threadbare and inadequate clothes, waterlogged with cuts and bruises, some bleeding worse than others.
The things you know:
From discussions overheard on the ship whilst contained in the bilge you ascertained:
• The ship was called the Sauntering Albatross.
• It was captained by Ivan de Brash. He had his wife Iva de Brash on board.
• You were all in prison in Porn City when the slavers came, manacled you and threw you into the bilge.
• The slavers were brutal, and you quickly learned to say nothing and obey. Iva was the worst.
• There were originally seventeen of you in the hold - the ten of you plus:
o Sam Devoull – a fat lazy male human violin player who died in the hold of some illness.o Thorick Everblade – a brash male dwarf who was whipped and beaten by the slavers and died.o Gemma Voldich – a half-elf Bard who was hit by the falling mast.o Hydric Maneuver – a muscle-bound human.o Dusty Boots – a human female bard. She would sing and had an amazing voice.o Tomas Flute – a small sombre human male who said very little and would often mutter to himself.o Pele van Goose – a huge human male who said little but was kind.
He was terrified of the sea. He was also hit by the falling mast whilst trying to protect Gemma.
• None of these seven are with you on the shoreline.
• You do not know which direction you were sailing or how long you were on the ship. You assume weeks.
• It is cold. It is in the winter months and temperatures range between 4 degrees and 10 degrees.
– well at least they did at this time of year in Porn City.
And here we go again ...
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| The crew shivered on the rocky beach |
[zawn: a deep, narrow sea inlet or fissure, typically found in coastal cliffs, characterized by their steep or vertical sides] Tall rocky cliffs stretched upwards all around them, sea birds swirling around the crags in the dawn light, and waves thundered into the inlet behind them. There was no way out of the zawn to either side, but they needed shelter soon or the icy winds swirling around them would freeze them to death.
Already their dripping wet and freezing cold clothes, if you could even call their prison rags clothes, were proving insufficient to maintain any warmth.
The icy conditions had reduced these once strong and proud characters to shivering wrecks.
Not unlike the wreck of their transport ship, of which there was now no sign. No flotsam surged on the waves or lay scattered on the rocks, and no bodies or other survivors could be seen. It was only the ten strangers left.
Perhaps not exactly strangers. They had all been together for the past few weeks, packed into the cramped and stinking bilge of the Sauntering Albatross. Backgrounds and their tales of woe had been exchanged.
"Well, I can climb that" stated Kippy, staring up the cliff faces surrounding the bedraggled group.
"Yup" responded Grim, "Me too"
"Come on then" declared Munch, shaking out his frozen fingers and starting up the closest rock outcrop.
The rest of the group stared nervously at each other.
"Hey" called Willow, "I can't get up there"
"Don't worry" yelled Kippy, "We'll take a look around. Back soon"
And then his voice was lost in the buffeting winds and crashing waves.
The seven remaining comrades huddled together and tried to fend of the cold, while Munch, Grim, and Kippy scrambled easily up the rocky cliff face and disappeared over the lip far above.
At the top of the rocky cliffs, the three climbers were able to stand and look over the surroundings. A rocky shoreline extended in both directions from their location, but distance was difficult to gauge. Swirling spray whipped up off the sea, the trailing edge of last night's storm, and natural mists shrouded the area with an impenetrable fog. But the hillside climbed gently away from the cliff edge and up into the cloud.
"Higher is good, right?" queried Grim, leading the other two onward and upward.
After climbing and travelling about two hundred or so metres, they reached a ridge. The clouds were thinner here, ripped apart by the unceasing icy winds, and they could make out what appeared to be the end of an island down to their left. Choppy seas surrounded this end of the island, about four hundred metres away. In front of them, the land dropped away to familiar cliff tops on far side. Stunted vegetation speckled the landscape, which undulated roughly, craggy dips and hills in both directions.
The island looked to be about two kilometres in length, left to right, and maybe five hundred metres across. Visibility was pretty bad, so nothing could be seen beyond the rocky shores, the surging seas quickly fading away into cloud.
"Can't see nothing" commented Munch, his teeth chattering in the cold.
"Let's go down there" gestured Kippy, "It looks a little less windy"
They dropped over the ridge and clambered their way down towards the leeward cliff tops. Sea birds swarmed around the cliffs, and the cacophony of bird squawks was deafening. Arriving at the cliff top, they turned left towards the tip of the island and continued their exploration.
After a few hundred meters of the same barren landscape, Kippy spotted something different.
"Hey" Kippy called, pointing up towards the ridgeline above them "Look at that."
'That' turned out to be a small cave entrance in the side of the rocky hillside. They scrambled up the gentle slope and peered in. A narrow entrance led inside the hill, no sign of tracks, creatures, or other occupants, so Kippy got his lantern going [This was Kippy's non-magical starting item that he had recovered from the slave ship] and led the others into the darkness.
The narrow passage quickly opened up into a small cavern, a single exit leading on from the far side. There was nothing of interest in this initial cavern, so Kippy continued on through and into the exit opposite. The narrow winding passage quickly hit a T-junction with larger natural caves leading off to the left and the right.
"Could be a grand system of caves" stated Munch, "Shouldn't we get the others?"
"Could be dead ends and dangerous" countered Grim, "Let's explore a bit more first"
"Sod that" declared Munch, "It's dark. You explore if you want, I'll go back and get the others. They must be freezing"
Rescue from the rocks
Munch easily made his way to the cave entrance and back to the cliffs above the zawn where the rest of the party still huddled together against the freezing winds that howled along the coast of the island. They had been there for more than two hours and were suffering from the exposed and icy conditions and were getting worried that they hadn't heard anything from the three who had set of to explore.
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| Munch scaled the cliff face with ease |
They were much relieved when Munch gracefully descended the rocky cliff and reported that a cave had been found.
"The other two are making sure the cave is safe" Munch reported, "And I'm here to get you all up the cliffs to safety"
"I should be able to help you climb up anyway" Munch continued, "There shouldn't be much of a problem!"
"So who's first?"
[The mechanism to assist those who couldn't climb (No Climb skill available to their character) was for Darryl to succeed on Munch's Climb roll while assisting one other character at a time. For those with a Climb skill, the climb was trivial, no roll required, but when trying to assist another the climb become sufficiently challenging that a skill roll would be required. Darryl had set Munch's Climb skill to 12, the maximum possible score for a new character, so he was perfectly suited to assist the others. But still a 30% chance of failure, and the cliffs were sufficiently high that a fall from the upper portion of the rocky face could be very serious indeed!]
"Me first" volunteered Tom reluctantly.
Munch turned out to be an excellent assistant on the climb, and despite the buffeting winds, frozen and shivering limbs, and the cawing sea birds, Tom soon dragged himself over the top of the cliffs and looked around as Munch descended for Jack, and then again for Cody.
The party slowly gathered together at the top of the cliff and watched while Munch repeatedly scrambled down and up the cliff face, a new party member in tow each time. After Cody, Ardern appeared, then Willow.
[Willow's climb was more frightening than the others. Darrly failed Munch's climb roll, and as Richard was explaining that Willow's clutching hand had landed right on a sea bird roost, which sea bird subsequently shrieked like a banshee and launched itself directly into Willow's face, causing him to lurch backwards, loose his hold, and tumble to the rocks below, dragging Munch with him, Darryl decided to use a number of his Luck points to increase his Climb roll to actually succeed. Crisis averted.]
Rock suddenly recalled that he could actually Climb, and made the ascent unaided, so Esmeralda was the last to need Munch's assistance. Once she appeared over the top of the cliffs, and everyone was together again, Munch led them off towards the cave.
Discoveries in the Cave
Kippy and Grim watched Munch leave and turned to each other with raised eyebrows.
"Whatever" grunted Kippy before turning the lantern down the right-hand cave and moving forward.
The cave wound forward, naturally formed through the rocky end of the island. Kippy's lantern soon revealed a small opening in the left-hand side of the cave and opened up into a larger chamber ahead. The chamber wasn't very large but was quite damp and the walls and floor were covered in a slimy film.
"Ewww" muttered Grim, "I'm not going in there"
Kippy carefully scanned the beam of the lantern around the space, and not seeing anything of interest, he agreed.
"Nope" Kippy stated, "Back to that small side opening"
Directing the lantern light into the small opening, Kippy found a very small chamber. There was something mounded up on the floor at the back of the chamber though, so he squeezed his way in.
"Uggh" Kippy called back to grim, "It's a body"
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| The skeleton clutched a rusty dagger |
Otherwise, the chamber was empty.
Grabbing the rusty dagger from its bony grasp, Grim gave Kippy a nod and gestured back towards the caves. They set off towards the original branch and headed down into the left cave branch.
It wasn't long before a small opening appeared in the right-hand wall of the cave, the lantern light revealing stalactites hanging from the roof of the narrow passage and stalagmites mounding up on the floor. It would be possible to make their way past the forest of speleothems, but they set that exercise for later and continued forward along the main cave.
The passage soon opened out into a wider elongated chamber, curving slightly around to the right, the far end obscured. Rock and rubble littered the floor and again stalactites and stalagmites sliced through the space.
"The side passage first?" suggested Grim, and they returned to the more restricted opening. After squeezing past the initial speleothem obstructions, the passage began to slope downward. Gently at first, but soon steepening to require careful descent, the narrow tunnel continued downward for some tens of metres. Pretty soon they could hear crashing and surging noises from ahead. The narrow tunnel opened out onto a ledge overlooking a tidal pool below. No sign of an entrance to the sea, but the water was surging up and down, obviously directly fed from the adjacent coastline and driven by the tide and waves. Kippy splashed his lantern beam all around the area, but there were no apparent threats, and they returned up the tunnel to the previous rubble chamber.
They dodged past the scattered stalactites and stalagmites and gave the chamber a good once over. Apart from a small alcove towards the rear of the chamber that housed a small chimney that must have opened up to the sky somewhere above, and all the fallen rocks and stoney rubble, the cavern was empty.
"We can all fit in here" noted Grim, "Out of the bloody wind, and dry"
"Yup, and Munch should have got the others off the beach by now" confirmed Kippy.
The Holy Symbol Quest
Everyone gathered together in the stalactite chamber and considered their possessions. Not very much!
Cody's dildo shaped broken wand, Ardern's butt plug, Tom's silver coin, Kippy's lantern, a rusty dagger, and a couple of other knick-knacks.
"Oh woe" declared Munch, "We are going to starve, and then die of dehydration"
"Don't worry" replied Willow, "I can Create Food ... well, if only I had a Holy Symbol"
"Oh, oh, me too" exclaimed Jack, "I can Create Water ... once I have a Holy Symbol"
The quest for appropriate Holy Symbols began.
Willow, being a priest of Caribou Gorn, required a sprig of mistletoe, or some similar naturally occurring vegetation.
Jack, a Temple Fighter of Aqua-Marina required a trident, or some other naturally occurring aquatic item.
"What about a seashell?" suggested Cody.
"Yes, that would be perfect" declared Jack, "But I'm too cold to head out to the beach right now"
"There's a tidal pool just down the side passage" noted Kippy, "No cold wind there"
Jack immediately asked Kippy to lead him to the pool, where he stared into the water and waved his hands around.
"Nothing" he declared, "Although did you see that thing moving about down there?"
"What thing?" wondered Kippy aloud.
"Not sure exactly," said Jack, "But it's a big bastard. Let's head back now" he concluded backing away from the pool.
Back in the stalactite chamber, rest and recovery was the order of the hour. And after an hour of resting up in the relative warmth of the chamber, everyone was ready to brave the icy cold exterior conditions and explore a little more of the island on the Holy Symbol quest.
"And maybe we will find some food" suggested Munch hopefully.
From the cave entrance, the party set off in a clockwise direction to explore the coastline. The rocky cliffs seemed to extend for the whole length of the island, with many small coves and inlets, and many roosts of seabirds. Some of the coves below contained groups of seals, lying about the rocks.
"Can you eat seal?" asked Munch hopefully.
At the other end of the island, the opposite end from the location of the cave we had found, the cliffs began to lower towards the sea, and the party soon spotted an exposed rocky bay where there were no cliffs. Seals swarmed across the rocky beach like maggots on meat, and the seabirds swarmed across the sky in huge clusters. The noise was quite deafening.
"I'm going to head up there" declared Willow, "Wood will do for my Holy Symbol"
"And I'm going out there" said Jack, pointing out to the seal covered rocky beach, "Got to be some shells there"
Jack managed to avoid the seals, located a beautiful abalone shell and an armful of shellfish, and was soon heading up the hill towards the tree where Willow was foraging. Willow manged to gather an armful of wood, "For the fire" he said, and a straight section of white branch that he reckoned was perfect for his make-do Holy Symbol.
Continuing on around the other half of the island, they soon spotted another sheltered bay below, with occupants! Two men, one woman, and two children sheltered behind a damaged longboat. They looked to be making repairs, and one of the men was draped in a torn sailor's outfit.
"That's one of the Longboats from the Albatross" declared Willow, "Pretty smashed up though!"
"Not likely to be going anyplace soon then" decided Grim.
"We'll need to come back later and give them a "hand"" chuckled Grim, with a wink.
In the next bay they spotted a whole collection of flotsam, canvas, barrels, ropes, timbers, and bodies!
"We'll need to head down there!" declared Cody.
"What's in those barrels do you think?" asked Munch.
"Hey" yelled Tom pointing across to one of the small valleys, "Looks like another cave"
"Let's climb down and recover everything useful from the wreckage there" proposed Cody.
"We can come back and look at that second cave later" he continued, "Too fragging cold out here"
Kippy, Grim, Rock, and Munch scrambled quickly down the cliff face and scoured the wreckage. They manage to recover quite a bit of material from the water and the rocky shore and brought it back to the clifftops.
Their booty included decent ships lumber, a short sword (Jack had the short sword in a scabbard on his belt), a sling with eight bullets, two warm cloaks (Munch and Grim were wearing those), a pair of sturdy boots (Grim was wearing those), a ten-metre coil of rope, ten square metres of heavy sail canvas, a barrel of salt, a barrel of rum, and a barrel of oil.
"I can make some hefty clubs with that timber" declared Willow.
[More stuff happened, but due to work and home pressures those revelations will follow in part two in a few days.
In the meantime, the night ended with the following ...]
In the meantime, the night ended with the following ...]
Repairs on the longboat by the survivors from the Albatross looked to have stalled.
The kai moana was cooked up on a roaring fire in the cave, and a feast was enjoyed.
Unfortunately, the fresh food was so rich after their recent meagre fare that almost everyone suffered from stomach cramps and vomiting. Ardern would have been out of action for two whole days, but Jack was able to cast a Slow Poison spell that effectively got her through the effects almost immediately. Rock was similarly affected, nearly thirty-three hours of affliction predicted, until Jack cast another Slow Poison.
Tom, Grim, and Kippy had to suffer fully though, groans and the sounds of vomiting echoed through the cave for the next thirty-six hours.
The strange shadow returned .....
