Shipwreck! Part 2

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

We last watched as our hapless survivors from the shipwrecked slave ship, the Sauntering Albatross, lugged their booty from the sea, including some large pieces of lumber, barrels, rope, and canvas back to their sheltered cave.

"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

Sometime during the night while Grim was watching over the sleeping group, he noticed the shadows of two figures slipping across the wall of the cave, near the entrance. Leaping up, with the newfound rusty dagger at the ready, he peered towards the entrance. The flickering light of the fire was causing odd moving shadows on the rock walls, "Could I have been mistaken?" he wondered.

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!

Adern and her nail

Ardern spent a little time in the corner of the cave, back turned towards the group, and eventually spun round with a small shriek, holding up her hand so everyone could see the metal nail piercing through her finger. 

"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

It was still blowing an icy gale as we exited our cave, dark clouds packing the sky and roiling overhead. Shivering in the cold wind, the group made their way back along the cliff tops to where Tom had spotted 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 

While this transfer was happening, Munch set off to check on the other survivors from the Albatross that had been spotted down in rocky cove the day before. Settling himself behind some stunted vegetation on a rocky crag overlooking their location, Munch did a quick count, 1,2,3,4 ...

"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. 

Sure enough, from the top of the island they could see clearly in all directions.

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

The two bull seals faced off against Grim

Kippy slung the harness over his shoulder, and they climbed down to the beach.

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. 

Sea birds swirled around the climbers

Grim, safely anchored on the cliff face, laughed at Kippy's plight, and gathered up a dozen eggs with no trouble at all, despite all the birds swirling around angrily at the intruders.

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 .....

Shipwreck! Part 1

 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

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.

 

Let the storm rage on

You began to scramble up the steep ships ladder that Ripper has dropped down through the open hatch as the ship lurches more violently and the sound of wood on rock is clearly heard above the storms noise.

"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 ...

The crew shivered on the rocky beach

The motley collection of criminals and misfits hauled themselves from the icy waters and staggered onto the rocky beach at the head of the tiny zawn. 

[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.

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"

The skeleton clutched a rusty dagger

A skeleton was slumped against the back wall of the chamber; a rusty dagger clutched in its bony fingers, only fragments of rotted and decaying cloth adorning its form. The skull bore an expression of terror, in as much as a skeletal skull could display an expression.

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.

Behind the beach, the island climbed steeply up to a prominent headland where a lone tree stood stark against the skyline. A dead tree to be sure, no leaves or branches adorned its trunk, and the wood looked white.

"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 ...]

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 .....