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" Abernathy. 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
"I can make some hefty clubs with that timber" declared Willow.
Having been out in the cold weather for far too long, they decided that a decent rest in the cave was strategically important.
Kippy got a fire going in the corner of the cave, below the natural chimney, and most of the group made themselves comfortable and dropped into a restful sleep. Jack, Grim, and Esmeralda were assigned the three watches for the next twelve hours, and Willow used his Carpentry skills to perfect his new Holy Symbol. Once he was happy with it, he Created Food and rationed it out amongst the group.
As the fire blazed warmly in the corner, a peaceful silence descended.
 |
| Two shadows were cast against the wall |
Stepping quietly over the sleeping members of his group, Grim prowled silently towards the cave entrance, adrenalin pumping, dagger out, all senses tuned, and highly alert.
Two shadows slid quickly across the rocky wall of the tunnel and fled from the cave.
"Well", thought Grim, "That was strange, but at least I have scared them off"
Watching from the entrance for another five minutes, with nothing further heard or seen, Grim slipped back to his post by the fire, tossed on another lump of wood, and settled down to see his shift through.
In the morning, everyone was feeling much more positive. They were safe and warm; Magic Points and some of the many Hit Point lost to yesterday's icy cold conditions had been recovered.
Willow's small supply of created gruel was shared as a breakfast meal, and plans were discussed and laid for the day's activities. First, a search of the second cave they had spotted the previous day, then a closer look at the other party of survivors, and their longboat!
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| Adern and her nail |
"Look at this" she wailed, "Right through!"
"Oh dear" exclaimed Willow, "I could Cure that for you, if you wanted"
"Haha" laughed Ardern, "Got you all" and she slipped the bent nail off her finger and waved it about.
Ardern had taken one of the nails from the lumber recovered from the Albatross and made a joke wound. This little device would be her Holy Symbol (for Mr Quail, God of Mischief and Trickery).
"I can do some Heals myself now" Ardern declared, "Who needs it?"
Unfortunately, her first attempt at a Heal was a dismal failure, and she turned herself into a glowing beacon for some few minutes. The glare blinded the whole group until it faded away and everyone's eyes slowly adjusted back to the dim light generated from the fire.
[Kevin rolled a 20 on Ardern's skill check, automatic magical mishap fumble! The caster decides how many Luck to spend to mitigate the effects, then rolls that many times on the D20 magical mishap table, selecting the desired result and ignoring the others. Keven chose to spend two Luck, rolling a 3, All (non-magic) metal within 3m glows red hot for 2D6 rounds. (D6 damage if touched), and a 7, Caster glows with a blinding light for 2D6 mins. He chose the 7 result.]
But then she was successful with her Heals, one each for Tom and Grim.
They were both very thankful for the 3 Hit Points each of them received.
Then they all set of to explore.
The Second Cave
Dropping down into the small valley, the cave appeared, a small opening in the rocky bluffs on the valley's side. Stunted vegetation grew sporadically around the opening and along the valley sides.
Crowding around the small entrance Kippy shone his lantern inside. It was a narrow opening, only one could fit in at a time, which looked to open up into a smallish chamber. Kippy slipped inside, followed by the rest. Immediately apparent was another skeleton, sitting with its back to the far wall of the chamber, beside another narrow and dark opening. The skeleton was slumped to the side, a rusty steel manacle clamped around its right wrist and a short length of rusty chain dropping to the ground. An old short sword lay in the dirt beside its draped arm bones, and again, the skull appeared to be distorted in fear, the jaw bones open in a silent scream.
After carefully directing the light around the chamber to ensure nothing lurked in wait, Kippy shone the lantern beam steady on the bones, while he slowly approached. Grim moved up beside him, his rusty dagger clutched firmly in his hand and held in readiness.
Reaching forward, Kippy nudged the shoulder bone.
The whole skeleton moved!
Grim yelled in fright, ineffectually waving his dagger towards the bones.
Jumping back, Kippy watched in horror as the skeleton lurched to one side, its clavicle dropping off, and the whole arm below the scapula falling to the ground with a loud clatter and a puff of dust.
Then all was still.
Kippy nudged the bones with his boot, nothing.
Cody cast a Detect Magic spell, nothing.
Beathing out a relieved sigh, Kippy tuned the lantern towards the small opening next to the bones.
Jack stepped up and grabbed the rusty short sword, giving it a few testing swings.
The rest of the group crowded around as Kippy peered through the opening.
The first thing Kippy noticed was a light breeze wafting out through the opening, obviously there was some vent to the outside world ahead. The second thing he noticed was two more skeletons, one tiny, finger bones entwined with the second one's finger bones, apparently a mother and daughter.
"Awww" sighed Esmeralda, "That's so sad. That other one was protecting these two"
There were other things here in the small cavern too, some wood, a waterskin, a flint, and the female skeleton had a ring with a pretty stone fitting. Esmeralda picked the ring up and give it a critical look.
"A bit tarnished" she noted, "But pretty enough" and slipped it straight onto her finger.
"A better and more defensible spot" stated Grim, "Let's relocate to here"
No discussion was needed, everyone agreed that this cave would be better, so all the materials we had previously recovered were transferred across from the old cave to this new one.
The Other Survivors
"Weren't there five yesterday?" he thought to himself.
One of the adult males was not there! The other man was working on the longboat, the woman and two children sheltering beside the overturned hull.
Munch withdrew from his makeshift hide and hustled back to the rest of the group to alert them of someone wandering around the island somewhere.
"Probably looking for food" suggested Willow.
"Head back and keep a lookout" instructed Cody, "I'll keep a watch on our cave here"
Cody and Tom set up a watch in the new cave while the rest took additional rest time.
Munch returned to his location overlooking the other survivors down in the cove, making sure he was concealed from all directions, and settled in for some surveillance. He was familiar with the stakeout, having perfected his patience whilst casing out likely marks back in Porn City. Tuning his senses into the environment, he filtered down the natural sounds of seabird, wind, and wave, relaxed his muscles and became one with the local surroundings. Hours passed.
Then he detected a disturbance in the environment. Flicking open his eyes, Munch spotted the sailor heading down the hillside towards the rocky beach at the end of the island. It looked like he was carrying a large bag, bulging with contents. The sailor continued right down and onto the beach, then scrambled around the rocky bluffs between the beach and the cove where the rest of the other survivors were located, still working despondingly on the longboat. The sailor made some indiscernible comment to the others and showed them his collection of fresh sea-bird eggs. Food indeed.
Munch's stomach grumbled, but he stayed watching for another few hours as those below ate, continued to attempt repairs, and rested. Then he returned to the cave to report.
The Shadow
That night, it wasn't until the last watch when Kippy was on guard, that anything noteworthy occurred.
The hairs on Kippy's arms and the back of his neck stirred and stood up as a strange eerie feeling suddenly passed over him. Kippy brightened up the lantern and carefully cast its beam around the cavern, sliding over the sleeping forms of the group to the entrance, and then and all around the walls.
Suddenly, he dragged the beam of light back to one spot on the side wall of the cavern, illuminating a strange humanoid shaped shadow. Kippy peered at the shape, then looked all around to try and find the person who was casting the shadow, but no one could be seen.
"That's odd" he muttered, then gently nudged Ezme and woke her up.
"Shhh" Kippy said to her, "There's a strange shadow"
Ezme peered at the shadow on the wall and then tried to find the person casting it. Nothing.
But she was certainly getting that same eerie feeling that Kippy had.
Ezme gave Rock a gentle nudge and woke him up.
"Shhh" Ezme said to him, "There's a strange shadow"
Rock also peered at the shadow and looked around to see who was casting it.
[All three of these so-called guards had failed their MND rolls and had no inkling of what lurked in front of them on the wall. Probably a good thing; but doesn't bode well for the future!]
Ezme gathered up one of the burning brands from the fire, and cautiously advanced towards the shadow.
She vigorously thrust the flaming brand into the rock wall, striking the shadow in its chest shape.
Nothing happened. So, she dragged the end of the flaming brand across the shadow's "face".
Using the charcoal on the end of the brand, she gave the "face" a thick moustache, curling up at each side across the "cheeks", and then deftly added a pair of devilish horns.
"Haha" the three of them cackled.
Then the shadow suddenly danced to the side, leaving the Ezme's rough drawings behind.
They all jumped back and spun around looking for the person casting the shadow. Nothing.
The shadow continued to dance along the wall and slid out the exit and disappeared.
Ezme and Rock settled back to sleep, and Kippy saw out the last watch.
More Islands
In the morning, the sun was out, the clouds gone from the sky, and the wind only mildly blustery.
After a plan breakfast of magically created gruel, Munch slipped out to continue his watch over the other survivors from the Albatross, Willow began his production of some clubs from the recovered lumber, and the rest of the group set off up towards the high point of the island to get a good look at their surroundings.
More islands!
About two kilometres Battlewards was a large island. About six kilometres Klibward was an even larger one, a hazy landmass just visible in the distance beyond it. A blur on the Funkenwards horizon may have been another island, and roughly three kilometres Anti was a huge landmass, stretching away Funkenwards until it faded into the haze.
[I am always confused at Known World directions, so here is Andrew's simple explanation.
REAL and IMAG roll around the sky fighting in the Great Circle, clockwise (from above).
So, the direction of the roll is Battlewards. Opposite this is Anti.
Klibwards points to the Great Circle centre where there is a cathedral to Kliban, god of Fate (hence "klib"). And funkenwards points away from Klib; "funkenwards" is from Funken Wagnall, god of Knowledge.
On the Known World map, this centre is a way up top.
Hence Battlewards is to the left (west)
]
Sealers and Seals
Munch was once again at one with his environment, eyes closed, and his senses attuned. He had heard the group clamber off up towards the top of the island, but his focus was down towards the ocean where the other survivors from the Albatross were still attempting to repair their longboat. From his look as he settled in between the rocks near the clifftop, they weren't making much progress!
Suddenly, sounds intruded on Munch's senses that were not expected.
Harsh shouting, thuds, and pain-filled squeals.
These noises were not from the survivors, but from away round the Klibward tip of the island off to Munch's left. Maybe at the rocky beach where all the seals had been seen yesterday.
Munch pulled back from his makeshift hide and loped off up the hill to find the others and report.
Munch took a look around from the top of the island, then returned to continue his surveillance.
Kippy and Grim were dispatched to investigate the noises.
A two-masted brig was anchored off the rocky shoreline, just beyond the seal beach. A longboat was drawn up onto the rocky beach, and a group of burly looking men were harvesting seals. Four of the meanest looking, sporting long-swords, were holding back the aggravated bull seals, while the others were pillaging the colony. Large clubs were swinging, killing smaller seals and moving on. Harvesters followed, expertly skinning and butchering the dead. It was a well-practiced operation, and after just a half hour, the sealers retreated back to the longboat, laden with furs, blubber, and meat.
Kippy had a brief thought about climbing down there, slaughtering all the sealers, and liberating their longboat, but then he counted up the number of long swords, eyed the sealer's bulging muscles, and kept his head down. Once the sealer's brig had sailed away out of the bay, Kippy and Grim made their way back along the island to the cave and reported to the group. Using the rope and sail canvas recovered from the beach the group made up a harness for carrying supplies and made their way back to the cliffs above the seal beach.
"Those seals will still be pretty agitated and edgy" noted Cody.
"But think of the food" encouraged Munch.
"I'm going" declared Kippy.
"Me too" joined Grim
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| The two bull seals faced off against Grim |
Once on the beach, they tried to move silently towards some of the outlying seal bodies, but the stony beach crunched noisily beneath their feet. Two of the larger bull seals flopped across in front of them, so Grim brandished his short sword and tried to Intimidate them and keep them back. The bull seals were unimpressed with Grim's hesitant stance and his puny weapon [Failed his Intimidate roll] so Kippy and Grim pulled back to the cliff face and retreated onto the cliffs.
Attempting to at least gather some sea-bird eggs, Kippy edged across the cliff face towards some of the nests and stretched out his arm to steal a few eggs. The nesting birds squawked boisterously and battered at him with their wings and pecked at him with their beaks. Poor Kippy was so distressed by all the battering that he missed his grip and tumbled off the face of the cliff! [Failed his Climb roll]
Fortunately, Kippy wasn't too high up the cliff and only suffered a minor injury.
[2 points of falling damage] But, the watching bull seal immediately charged straight at him.
With a shriek, Kippy launched himself up onto the cliffs, out of the seal's range.
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| Sea birds swirled around the climbers |
Meanwhile, Tom and Jack had been foraging around the cliff tops and down onto the accessible beach between the seals and the other survivors. They had managed to gather up quite a supply of eggs, shellfish, and even a pup seal body that they managed to haul back to the cave.
Munch reported that repairs on the longboat by the other survivors 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 never returned .....
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