Present:
- Cody Dieback. Human Male Wizard from Highport – Andrew
- MARMALADING 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" Abernathy. Human Female Temple Fighter of Soixante Neuf from Scabport – Shane
- MARMALADING Ardern. Human Female Priestess of Mr Quail from Porn City – Kevin
- MARMALADING Rock Hammer. Human Male Barbarian from Central Plains – Steven
- Willow Woods. Half Elf Male Caribou Gorn Priest from Porn City - Chris
- Kippy Hunt. Human Male Barbarian of the Central Plains – Ian
- Munch Ease. Human Male Thief from Porn City – Darryl
by Andrew
Sealers Return
With Jack, Ardern and Rock suddenly coming down with Marmalade sickness, and Kippy, Tom and Grim stomach-sick from the seal blubber, this left Esme, Munch, Willow and Cody as the only functioning people.
Munch headed back to the cove to watch the "Albatross Survivors" (the two men, one woman and the two kids) slowly repair the longboat. Someone made the assumption that these people, and the longboat, were, indeed, from the Sauntering Albatross (the slaver ship that had brought the group from Porn City).
.
Cody went to the other side of the island to keep a weather-eye from the cliffs out to the larger island (which he named "Sealers' Island"). This is where the sealers' ship had emerged. Cody, being a wizard, knew innately which direction klibwards was - Sealers Island was directly antiwards.
Early in the morning, the Albatross survivors gathered enough flotsam to make a big pile of wood, and they set it ablaze. The wind caught the vast plum of smoke, and blew it out over Cody's head and towards Sealers' Island. This was obviously a signal fire, so Cody peeled his eyes more, watching. He was worried that the sealers might send out a ship and rescue the Albatross survivors, burn the damaged longboat, and leave.
But, hey, what could they do?
Sure enough, a few hours later, the same two-masted brig appeared, that the group had seen the other day. It sailed around to the Albatross survivors' cove, lowered two longboats, and sent a bunch of sailors ashore.
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| Victim of the sealers |
The two kids bodies were thrown onto the signal fire. They placed the semi-repaired longboat on the fire too, just out of spite. The three adults' corpses were stripped and hung naked from the yardarm of the sealers' brig, as three grisly trophies. They sailed away, back to Sealers' island. Nice guys.
Munch and Cody, hidden, who were watching all this from the cliff-tops, sprang to action as soon as the sealers sailed out of sight. Munch began the unsteady climb down to the cove. Cody simply sprang off the cliff, and cast Feather Fall on himself, to land, like a feather. [ In original D&D, casting spells has no risk and always works. But in the new system, you have to make a spell skill roll to cast spells. Cody realized, after he had jumped, that maybe this was not such a good idea. 60% was his chance: success! ]
Munch and Cody dragged the longboat off the fire. And confirmed that, yes, it had come from the Sauntering Albatross. It could hold ten men (so would fit the whole party at a pinch).
They both then constructed a rope ladder to get up and down to the cove easily [without requiring a Climb skill roll each time]. So fat Willow and Esmeralda joined Cody and Munch in the cove.
Munch found some money (200gp), plus a crossbow and six quarrels (overlooked by the sealers).
Willow, who had good carpentry skills, had a good look at the longboat; he estimated it would take five days to get it sea-worthy. So he began work immediately.
Willow repairs the long boat
In those five days, Munch and Kippy explored the entire rocky coast of the (2500 by 500 paces) island.
There was a gulch on one section of the cliffs which had a skeleton (with longsword) wedged in it. Kippy, Tom and Grim explored this. Inside was a small cave with skeletons of an elf lady and a child. The cave had an uneasy feeling about it, so they left it.
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| ten-man longboat after Willow's work |
The days passed and Willow finished his repair work.
Cody, who was an excellent boatsman, checked the seaworthiness of the craft. It was a rowed longboat with two oars with a capacity of ten. Fat-arse Willow counted as two men, and Esmeralda's Soixante-Neuf bust counted as another half, but the group did have three marmaladers and he knew that the "magic of marmalade" protected the droolers from harm. So it was decided that they could be blithely tossed into the sea on a rope (like a sea anchor) and simply dragged along behind the longboat. That meant only seven need be catered for, and hence gave enough free-board to satisfy Cody's boating requirements.
Farewell Shipwreck Island
The next morning, the party collected their worldly possessions and set off into the sea, leaving Shipwreck Island. The weather was delightful with only a light chop. Four worked the two oars while Captain Cody steered the tiller.
They ventured out from the cove in a funken-battle direction. This would ensure they would stay out of sight of Sealers Island. Wise move.
"So," said Cody. "To this near island or to the mainland? That is the question."
This brought up an argument, The group eventually ended up voting for it: 4 for the island, 3 for the mainland.
Keep Island
This new island was much bigger than Shipwreck Island, a good 8 leagues long by 2 wide. Cody steered into a bay and landed on a stony beach. There was a track cut into the bank here and signs of other boats having been dragged up here in the past.
Munch stayed back to guard the longboat and the marmaladers, while the rest went exploring: Cody, Kippy, Grim, Tom, Willow, and Esme.
Eight leagues down the far end of the island, closest to Sealers Island, there was a three-storey keep perched on a cliff. It was very old, and semi-ruined. As the band approached, they were suddenly shot at from the keep. Two arrows arrived; one hit Esme in the leg. They quickly retreated back behind a ridge.
Kippy and Grim went sneaking, hidden. They got inside, killed two sleeping men in cold blood. Then made their way onto the flat roof of the structure. Grim pushed one guard off the roof, and Kippy wounded the other guy. This second one then fought Grim. Kippy elected to do the dangerous shooting into combat, but with the Beady Eye talent, he hit the baddy anyway, and dropped him. No-one else was here.
From up here, Sealers Island was quite close. There was a narrow stretch of water between the islands. The two could see a village across the straits nestled in a valley on Sealers island.
Kippy returned to collect the rest of the party - including Munch, and all stayed the night in the keep. All in all, they looted four suits of leather armour (fits only Grim and Munch - not Tom nor Esme), four sets of warm clothes, and four boots (Cody, Kippy, Esme and Willow). Then four longswords and four bows with plenty arrows plus barrels of supplies (food, water, rum - a three day's food for four guys), and bedding and rope. Nothing magic or evil.
During the night, at second watch, there was some signalling from the distant village; a double flash. Tom and Munch, not sure of the code, did a double-flash back.
Snub
In the morning, everyone returned to the longboat. They did not want to risk what the sealers or the village would do with those signals.
The weather was even more delightful than the day before, the sea even more calm (this is very unusual for the Snub - normally the weather here is horrendous - think Cape Horn). So Cody ordered the boat loaded up as high, and got away with an even smaller free-board. They still dragged the dead-weight of the sea-anchor marmaladers.
The party arrived at the "mainland"; enormous cliffs, so they headed battlewards around the bases of the cliffs.
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| Snub peninsular (party's Shipwreck island arrowed) |
They rowed into a zawn, with a cave at the end. There was a flat area to drag the boat up, and also a narrow chimney, 40 paces high. Kippy scrambled up.
Up top, it was flat, wind-swept land, and Kippy could see the sea in the distance on both sides.
Kippy returned to the group and described what he saw. Willow and Cody remembered their lore and realized exactly where the party had ended up; they were, in fact, at the Snub, ...
... the most funken tip of the Known World continent.
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| Known World vicinity (NZ on same scale) |
Or
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| Known World, larger scale |
Several of the group wanted to abandon the boat there and then, and walk on the land. But Willow and Cody knew about O'Rileys passage, which totally blocked the Snub off from the main continent, so they'd need the boat any way.
This trip to O'Rileys passage was about 180 leagues away. The longboat can make 10 leagues a day, so the trip would take about 18 days - say, three weeks, if there were storms that have to be waited out. So, off they went!
On the fourth day, Tom broke an oar. Cody steered into another zawn and Willow set to fixing the damage.
Munch covered himself in stinking seal fat, naively believing that it would be helpful. After the second day, it went horribly rancid, as it started to oxidize and hydrolyze - i.e. rot.
But the weather was fine the rest of the trip, and they got to where O'Rileys passage exits.
Central Plains
Here, on the klibwards side of the passage, they could safely abandon the boat. Then everyone climbed the cliffs and ventured out, on foot, onto the Central Plains.
Though it is a long way to travel, the party had to decide in which genuine direction they wanted to travel. The choice was not clear, so there was considerable arguing:
- Follow the battlewards coast up to Sancho. Cons: Sancho is not a very nice place - see notes below.
- Head back across to the other side of the Central Plains and follow the antiwards coast up to Porn City. Cons: the party was enslaved in Porn City, so heading back there might not be so wise.
- Head out into the middle of the Central Plains and try to find a good barbarian tribe. Cons: Both Rock Hammer and Kippy Hunt are barbarians from the Central Plains tribes, but they were continually at war with other tribes on the plains. If any enemy tribe captured the party, they'd be enslaved, but a special death would be reserved for Kippy and Rock. The hatred for other tribes was more intense than outsiders. Fat Willow, the only non-human, would get this special treatment too.
- Try to navigate through the centre of the Central Plains and get to Frugle city. Cons: see 3.
Notes about Sancho
Entry from the 2004 diary of Polly Ester:
The warm sun blazed down upon the deck of the barquentine Endor. A three-masted tramp ship out of Furness and bound for Emerald, her journey would take her from Furness to Freeton to Sancho around the Snub "horn" to Porn City, Scabport, Two Frime, Spite Battle, Spite, Spite Anti, and thence finally to Emerald.
Two days ago the Endor had left Freeton. Next stop was Sancho.
Polly Ester, bard and hedge-wizard, leaned against the rail and peered off into the distance. Captain Trotter had warned the passengers that, this afternoon the Endor would be arriving at Sancho. And, never having been to that city before, her interest was piqued.
From what Captain Trotter had said, it did not sound like a very nice place.
There was a strong wind across the bow, the Endor was on a steep port tack. Already, strange odours and smells were in the breeze. Polly's nose could make out rotting meat, sewerage, the cloying acrid smell of burnt hair, formalin, sweet yellow lotus, and the bitter-almond smell of black lotus.
Off in the distance, appeared a dark grey cloud, looking quite out of place on the azure horizon.
As the Endor neared it, Polly could make out tall buildings, domes, spires and towers. The coast they had been following since Freeton, off far to port, was still bathed in sunlight, but strangely, only the city itself was covered by the cloud.
"This must be Sancho," she mused to herself.
Had Sancho been in the sunlight, it might have appeared quite beautiful - in a strange extra-worldly way. But shrouded in the dark cloud, it took on an ominous appearance.
Closer and closer sailed the Endor. Polly could now make out flying things moving around some of the taller spires. One building in particular was shaped like a huge skull on a stick. The black eye-sockets seemed to be watching her.
The Endor passed into the shadow of the pall. Everything went suddenly cold.
The sea, which was bright blue and clean before, now took on a sluggish oozy quality. The bow wave of the ship no longer broke with bright white effervescent bubbles. It was now a febrile broth. It slurried on past the keel, almost as if it was clawing at the hull of the ship.
Every so often the bow would nudge something heavy with a dull thud. Polly glanced down into the water. A human torso floated by, its belly looking like it had exploded outwards, as if something clawed and horrid had struggled to escape its fleshy prison.
Then a head. A woman's head, waterlogged and bloated. Her eyes were sewn shut with black thread, her dead mouth unnaturally wide in the throes of a rictus scream. But instead of human teeth, they were shark's teeth.
Polly could make out all sorts of other similar shapes in the water and she wisely decided to look no more.
Everyone on the ship was strangely quiet. The only noises the sighing of the rigging, the creaking of the mast, and the thud thud thud of things sliding off the bow.
Then the Endor rounded the breakwater and entered Sancho harbour.
A strange sweet melody wafted in the breeze. Discordant harmony that was alluring nonetheless. As the Endor came alongside the quay, the eerie music continued.
Polly listened hard. She could almost make out individual voices. Then the blood drained from her face when she realized what each separate noise was. Each note was a human scream - a scream of sobbing agony, tinged with a hysterical timbre. This was one of the infamous Sancho Choirs. Slaves of every breed and sex, horribly tortured to end their days screaming and screaming. Each voice carefully selected for tone. Each voice one note in a horrible symphony of despair.
Misshapen creatures, that might once have been men, capered along the wharf. They gibbered and croaked in lipless song in tune with the choir, and gleefully wrapped the Endor's mooring ropes around the bollards. Tying the ship fast.
The gangplank was lowered.
A customs official in a smart black velour robe slid on up the gangplank, looking as if he was floating, and stopped on the deck of the Endor. The emaciated skin of his face was dry and tight on his cheekbones, and when he spoke it sounded like the rustling of a corpse shroud.
"Welcome to Sancho."
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