Something is stirring on the Island

Present:

• Abellinut "Able" Ugwistan, 31, Moor Arian Fighter from Septum - Jeff
• MARMALADE: Aulius "Owl" Lucius Decanter, 25, Polytheistic Fighter from Gades - Jamie
• Elia Ildaria, 24, Basque Pagan Barbarian from Gasteiz  - Richard
• Luigi Abundus Bertolini, 23, Roman Nicene Priest from Ravenna - Chris
• Merkel, 24, Vandal Arian Temple-fighter from Gades - Kevin
• Vanker Polyester, 22, Vandal Pagan Rogue from Gades - Shane
• Velito Rosso, 24, Roman Nicene Barbarian from Venice - Darryl
• Victor Koshenko, 24, Alan Arian Thief from Gades - Ian

By Jeff

Having sent the strange pagan priestess and her surviving "guards" packing, we put out their sacrificial fire, cleaned up the shrine, buried the bodies of her dead guards, and spiked their heads. Outside the consecrated ground of the shrine of course!

"Well" stated Victor, "She was a bit of al'right"
"Let's hope we do meet her again" he chuckled suggestively.

We met Velito on the road

Starting back down the causeway towards Gades, we encountered a burly longhaired fellow heading towards us. Draped in tatty leather armour the colour of mud and sporting a set of body tattoos easily spotted through his armour, he gave a wave and rushed towards us.

Merkel dropped a hand to his sword, and Vanker notched an arrow.

"It's a OK" yelled Luigi, "Don't a shoot, he is friend"

And that was how we met Velito, an old friend of Luigi's. 
Velito Rosso was a Roman from Venice, a Barbarian, but a faithful follower of the Nicene creed.
He and Luigi went way back, having attended the same parish for some years.

As he rushed forward, he spotted Elia, turned towards her, and came to a halt right in front of her.
Sweeping up her hand, he raised it towards his lips, paused briefly for any reaction, and kissed the back of her hand.

"What a beauty" he cried, "Luigi, where have you been hiding this wonderful creature?"

After making Velito's acquaintance, we continued back to Gades where we reported in at the church of Our Lady of Perpetual Succour and heard some potentially disturbing news.

Roderick, the new King

King Witiza of Hispania had died, and his two sons had been driven from Toledo where Roderick, the old dux (duke) of Baetica had been appointed the new king. The disturbing part of these latest events was that now Baetica (this local region) needed a new dux, and political intrigue was sure to abound! Roderick was Arian, and the local churches were all going to be vying to get one of theirs appointed as the new dux.

"What is Arian?" Victor foolishly asked.

Luigi immediately whipped out his massive copy of the Testaments and spent the next half hour pontificating about the nature of God, the Trinity, and the mistaken beliefs of the Arian followers. Every point backed up with scriptural references, "Straight from the Disciples themselves" he repeatedly thundered. 

The rest of the party nodded wisely, or rolled their eyes, depending on their own beliefs.

Acolyte Felix invited us to stay for the evening meal, while waiting for Father Valerius to return from a meeting.

We divided up the items and coin "recovered" from the pagan priestess's guards; some leather armour, a few short swords, and five copper pieces each. Then we went to dinner in the church dining room where Father Valerius, Sister Justina, and Acolyte Felix joined us.

"Wow" whispered Victor, "She's a bit of al'right too"

Sister Justina

Sister Justina served us a wonderful hot meal of roasted meats, boiled vegetables, and salad, and Father Valerius offered us lodgings for the night in the visitors' tents. He was very happy that we had stopped the diabolical pagan ritual being performed in the old Arian church but noted that we should have brought the "witch" back for a cleansing.

After the meal, we settled ourselves into the visitors' tents (outside the main buildings but within the church wall) and Luigi wandered off to check out the church's beehives (that was one of his great passions) and later returned to cast a series of Cures.

[Divine spells here take at least an hour to cast and require consecrated ground. Conversely, Arcane spells are considered diabolical and would likely result in immediate incarceration, inquisition, and almost certainly death. "Noone" practiced Arcane magic in Hispania!]

Being ever vigilant, we set watches for the night, but everything was peaceful.
Until the morning!

Shortly after Prime (the 6am daily prayers), Sister Justina rushed up to the tents.

"Brother Luigi" she gasped, "You must come, Father Valerius has taken violently ill"
"Of course my dear", replied Luigi, "Just let me grab my honey treatments".

Luigi gathered up his bag of honey based treatments, his book of the Testaments, and hurried off after Sister Justina.

"Check the area" he called back as he rushed out the door.

Luigi found Father Valerius is a nasty way. His room was dark with the curtains and shutters closed. A foul smell of human waste was overpowering in the room. The father was tangled in his sheets, tossing fitfully and moaning. His face was grey and sweaty, his breathing shallow and rapid.

Throwing open the windows, Luigi sent Sister Justina for boiling water, asked Acolyte Felix to join him in the room, and then unwrapped the priest from his bedclothes.

"Phew" he thought to himself, "the stench of poison"

As soon as the blankets were removed, the priest started to convulse and thrash violently. Luigi stepped back, opened his honey pot and began to cast a Detect Evil spell. The convulsions continued for about fifteen minutes, then settled down. The spell took another forty-five minutes to complete, at which point Luigi revealed ...

"No evil on him, but back that way about fifty meters" Luigi stated, pointing off towards the north side of the church. Vanker, Able, and Victor hurried off to investigate. While they were out, Luigi dribbled some sweet honey mead into the father's mouth and muttered to himself "This'll do the job for sure"

Such was Luigi's faith that the father immediately sat up, complained of the smell, and spoke about his strange and horrible dream.

"The island" he stammered, "Something is stirring on the island"

He was referring to Geryon Sepulche island, about two kilometres off the southern coast of Gades, and it seemed that we were soon to be off to investigate just what was stirring there.

The church well

Vanker, Able, and Victor returned to report that there was nothing obviously evil out to the north, although the church well was located out that way. The water was put off limits while some tests were carried out, which is to say that a local dog was given water from the well and observed for some hours (he was fine). 

Since nothing was found that could have caused Father Valerius's sudden turn, we left him in the capable hands of acolyte Felix, obtained some provisions, went to harbour and used the church's small boat "Llaga Supurante" (seats 12), and set out for the island. 

Sister Justina was to accompany us, and before we left acolyte Felix reverently handed over a carved wooden chest.

"This is our sacred relic" he explained, "Father Valerius says you must carry the Finger of Solomon with you to the island. It will protect you he says"

We placed it carefully into the boat, loaded up the rest of our overnight supplies, and set off towards the island. It was early afternoon, the sun was shining, and a very light onshore breeze was wafting towards us. The clear waters of the gulf sparkled in the sun. Velito took charge and gave everyone their orders.

"You lot, one oar each. Able, set the pace. I'll take the tiller" Velito confidently commanded.

Turns out Velito was a sailor, temporarily without a vessel, and saving up for a new ship.
Off we went. And it was all perfect till about halfway to the island. Then the easterly began to blow up, dark clouds gathered on the eastern horizon, and like a thundering army they raced towards us.

Velito spent the next hour nervously glancing between the rapidly approaching clouds to the east, and the slowly approaching island to the south.

"Ve go leeward" Velito finally called, "And Able, pick up the pace!"

Old ruins dotted the small island

Velito guided the boat swiftly around the western side of the island, and we pulled up into a gravelly bay. The island was roundish, small (probably less than 350m across), low (maybe only 10m at its highest), and scattered with old roman ruins. There was little vegetation, some small tufts of grass and scrub clinging precariously to the stoney ground and the old stone ruins. The remnants of a few stone walled buildings dotted the higher portion of the island, but nothing looked like it had any kind of roof. 

"Take the sails and make a shelter in one of those buildings" instructed Velito.
"And take a quick look around for signs of life" suggested Luigi.

We found no tracks. And managed to string the sails up over one of the old building structures to form a temporary shelter from the expected deluge.

It looked like there were six old building ruins surrounding a central altar. We created our shelter in the westernmost, closest to where we had drawn up the boat. The western wall had crumbled away, but the other three walls were relatively solid. 

A long rumble of thunder echoed from the dark clouds overhead.

"Um, I feel a strange tingling sensation" reported Elia.
"Me too" yelled Able from outside the shelter.
"This weather just isn't natural" noted Sister Justina, "I shall consecrate this ground"
"That will take an hour" mused Luigi, "You lot better stand guard in case something is actually stirring"

Sister Justina started her spell below the sail, within the walls of the shelter.

Merkel, Victor, and Luigi stayed with Sister Justina in the shelter, while Able, Elia, Vanker, and Velito slipped out into the weather and kept watch across the top of the island towards the east.

Victor figured that the wooden chest containing the holy relic of Soloman would no doubt be useful against any attack and unwrapped it from its canvas covering. Taking a quick peek inside, he saw that there was indeed a finger bone resting on a felt cloth at the bottom of the chest. 

Victor plays with the relic

"Looks pretty sturdy" Victor thought and plucked it up for a closer inspection.

"I wonder how this works" he wondered, waving it around a bit.
"If I hold my thumb bent back like this ..." Victor mused.
"Look" cried Victor, "My thumb has decayed"

He wiggled it back and forth and laughed.

Just then a recurring low metallic whopping sound rumbled across the island, accompanied by a vibration in the ground. 

"What's that?" yelled Elia, spotting a very tall shadowy figure darting behind the far building ruin. 
"Eeek. Where? What?" screamed Velito, drawing his sword.

Vanker drew back an arrow, his bowstring quivering under the strain, and he and Elia stepped into the gap between two buildings so they could see the area where the creature had been spotted, but still somewhat shielded. Able and Velito stepped into the gap on the other side of the same central building, swords drawn, and eyes peeled. The ground vibrations died away, and the strange sound subsided.

Directly above, the unnaturally dark clouds were swirling around in a circle, apparently centred above the ruins of the old altar. The low rumble of thunder was almost continuous now, and the strange tingling sensations had strengthened. Our hairs were standing on end. But we were ready for anything.

Nothing happened though, so after about ten minutes the guards pulled back into a tighter defensive formation around our temporary shelter. Some ten minutes after that, Sister Justina completed her Consecration spell and looked around.

"Eeeeeeeeek" she squealed, "What are you thinking? Put that back immediately. "

She had spotted Victor playing with the holy Finger of Soloman and was not impressed.
Victor slipped it back into the chest and closed the lid.
Sister Justina grabbed the chest off him and thrust it at Luigi.

"Guard this with your life" she stammered, "Don't let this cretin touch it again"

"Hey" Victor replied defensively, "It's just some old bone"
"Some old bone!", Sister Justina yelled, "This is the church's holy relic. The finger bone of King Soloman himself. This is probably the only thing that will save us in this ungodly place"

A loud crack of thunder from overhead interrupted her tirade.

"The Lord preserve us" she cried, "That's definitely unnatural"
"Can you like, ask God to help us with that" Able asked.
"Good idea" agreed Sister Justina, "I shall beseech my Lord for calmer weather"

It was two hours before night, but the unnatural clouds had caused a gloomy dimness to fall over the island. But just over the island! Definitely unnatural Sister Justina started into her hour-long spell, and our four guards moved out into the dimness to stand watch against whatever it was that was coming.
And something was definitely coming!

"What's that?" yelled Elia, spotting the tall shadowy figure crouched down behind the far building ruin. 
"Eeek. Where? What?" screamed Velito, drawing his sword again.

The giant spear knocked Vanker backwards

But this time we all saw the creature. It was twice as tall as a human, with dark clothing or skin, and carrying a giant black spear. It leapt to its feet (it had legs and feet!) and threw the spear. We all jumped back, but Vanker was struck in the chest and staggered backwards.

"I'm fine" he yelled, "But that really hurt"

Velito loosed an arrow which lodged momentarily in the creature's shoulder, before dropping to the ground. The creature ducked back behind the building, and we also all ducked behind cover.

As we were watching to see if it would appear again, Victor slipped cautiously out from our temporary shelter and stealthily crept around the island rocky shore to come back up to the top behind where it was sheltering. Sometime later we heard a shout from the distance.

"Hey" yelled Victor, "Get over here and check this out"

The creature had disappeared, but Victor had found some sort of shaft sloping down into the ground below the island. It was located on the eastern side of the island, close behind the old, ruined building where we had twice spotted the creature. Able and Velito went forward for a look, leaving Vanker and Elia back near our temporary shelter.

Surrounded by loose rock with a scree covered slope dipping down into a three-metre square shaft, a dark opening loomed in front of us. Strange rattling noises could be heard from below.

Velito looked across at Able.

"Ropes?" he asked.