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The day is not yet over Beautiful Yazi. Hajar says, pointing to the sun, or what passed for the sun here.
Hajar heals his brother and then asks
Most Honored Sage Rayhan, where are we?
Hmm. Well, I surmise we must be inside Kakishon, the Scroll. The great Sage Nex created this place as his own personal paradise. The problem we now face is...how to leave. Rayhan answers
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"Well then, now that I'm sufficiently wet with both seawater and hydra blood... inside Kakishon, you say, my friend? Well then, this may be a rare opportunity for us to learn about arcane wisdom unheard of for many years, no? Fear not! We will find our way out of here... once we've learned its secrets!"
Bartan looks practically giddy, despite his disheveled appearance.
We don't know what this did to the city. Our actions and our inabilities may have caused unheard of loss of life.
The large sea turtle looks over the compatriots as they engage in small talk, then regurgitates a small silvery tube onto the beach sand. Turning slowly with its' massive flippers, it heads back out to the open sea.
Turning his gaze to the small stone hut, Khayal muses, I suppose we aught to take a look over there. If nothing else, it may provide some shelter.
Khayal will keep an eye out for possible sources of food on the way over.
Khayal finds the wooden pier outside the stone hut to be damaged. The ocean end of the structure is crumbling, blackened, and ruined, as if the last several feet of the pier had been burned away by an impossibly hot fire.
Stone steps in the sand lead from the wooden pier to a small domed building crafted of polished yellow marble and alabaster. Inside the two-story building is a greatroom on the ground floor, with an open kitchen in the back, all formed in stone. A short staircase leads to a second floor with stone bunk beds able to sleep eight individuals, and enough room for their gear. All the open windows have no shutters, and easily let in the breach breezes. Heavy but sturdy stone chairs in the greatroom have a layer of dust and sand on them.
The beach has brilliant white sand, backed by rows of palm and cypress and occasional tangled thickets of undergrowth and bamboo. You've already seen one hydra and several sea turtles; such creatures live on smaller prey like fish, crabs, snakes and sea snakes, and birds.
This could make a safe place to sleep at night, it does not look like it has been used in a while.
Khayal will give the house a look through for anything that seems to be of use. My friends, you are better able to find things that may be of use. Please join me in seeing if anything is here.
Rayhan studies the architecture of the stone building, hoping to get insight into its maker.
He busies himself looking for a quiet place to study his spellbook.
Hajar assists his brother in searching the premises.
Yazi unscrews one end of the tiny silver tube, and the object starts to magically grow in her hands into a proper-sized scroll case! Inside is a letter-sized scroll and a tiny blue-and-speckled-brown gem shaped like a bird's egg.
The letter reads:
Long ago, visitors to these islands received a greeting from the Imprisoner. You shall receive the same.
“Greetings and welcome, brave hunters, to the Serpent Isles! Here you will find a hunt to satisfy your thirst for challenge, danger, and adventure, a tale to be told as you relax at the Pleasure Palace. Your task is simple: you must hunt down the Golden Ram and take its horn. There are many challenges to be faced on these islands, but only by sounding the ram’s horn can you call back the ship that brought thee hence. Do not think to cheat the hunt, as the Golden Ram is under my protection; this is a test of skill and skill alone, of courage and cunning, not raw power. One ram’s horn you must sound and present to the boatman to gain passage. The other horn is yours to keep, as a trophy and reward for your daring. May Fate smile upon you and guide your aim.”
The Imprisoner is gone now. But his world remains. A world we created. You have only just arrived but we must know if you are ally or enemy, capable or inept. Complete the Imprisoner’s task and we shall have a greater one for you, one to help fulfill your heart’s desire.
Give this egg to the boatman, and he will bring you directly to us. We have much to discuss.
The letter is unsigned.
As you step through the house, your happen to run your hands through one of the stone basins in the kitchen area. The surface immediately fills with clear water, which stays even after you leave it alone again. Upstairs, something similar happens when you touch the top of a stone bed: a down-filled blanket as thick as a mattress magically fills the bunk. After a few seconds, plush pillows are also created, some large enough to sit on with the hard stone chairs below.
Although sturdy, the stone hut has seen better days. It is far enough away from the high-tide line to not have to worry about the ocean, but it lacks any kind of door, and the windows are open structures. The alabaster is flaking off all the outside walls, and the yellow marble has started to be scoured by the blown sands.
You only find tiny crab holes in the sands. Walking out to the pier and back, you notice the swirls underneath and suspect that the water-loving hydra had a resting place just under the wooden structure. Sure enough, a wade into the ocean surf comes up with a bed dotted with animal bones large enough to be human, and several pieces of pretty coral.
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Yazi gets a mischievous grin on her face as she watches the silver tube change size as its unscrewed. "Hmm, you could come in handy later... once you've been throughly, thoroughly cleaned."
"Ooo, another pretty shiny." Yazi coos as she pockets the gem.
Reading over the letter she scratches her head halfway through before shrugging and walking over to find Rayhan to give him the paper. "It's asking us to go to a pleasure palace, I'm liking this place more and more."
"Damn this place is pretty." she lets out as she looks over the coral
Khayal looks longingly at the bed, thinking of Shirin and whether or not she is even alive. This would be a great place to visit with Shirin, someday.
"Agreed, this does not seem to be focused on us. I do not believe that this "boatman" will be waiting for us, even if we knew where to find him."
Rayhan reads the scroll after studying the house.
Ah. It seems we have a choice to make. Do we hunt this Golden Ram, or return to the writers of this letter.
I would not mind hearing what they have to say. We should look for this boat man. Khayal says, still looking sullen.
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Looking over at Khayal, Nasir sighs going over to the deadly warrior and devoted husband. "She will be alright, Khayal. Just before we fell through that portal I received a message from my Venture Captain. She was asking for a report. Things above were chaotic, but the city was still there, still intact. We will find a way back and you'll get back to her." the dancer says reeaching up yo rest a hand on his shoulder.
At Nasir's news regarding the intactness of the city, Khayal's mood shifts slightly. At least some have survived this catastrophe, Shirin's chances are better than most. His mood shifting a little more, We will find a way back out.
Before we move out, lets take account of what we have found these last few hours. This shield, for example, landed next to me in the water. It would be good to know what we have.
Bartan studies the newest items found for several minutes.
The tower shield is just a tower shield, but it is masterwork.
The cloak is a cloak of displacement, major, and quite valuable. With the right command (closing a clasp at the neck), the wearer will appear to flicker in and out for a minute and a half each day.
The boots Yazi got from the evil cleric turn out to be boots of the firewalker, allowing the user to walk across magma and lava without being burned up. The wooden staff with crystals is just a wooden staff with crystals.
Father's Jackal's gear lies a few hundred yards off the beach in the shallow, clear blue waters, and includes a +1 breastplate, a +1 steel battleaxe, six common throwing axes, a pair of giant fist gauntlets, a tan bag of tricks, and a set of keys.
The tiny silver scroll case Yazi found has been crafted with the shrink item spell.
By the time you are done swimming, collecting, and analyzing, the sun in the sky is well on its' way back down to the horizon in the West.
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As Bartan describes the items Yazi can't resist reaching into the bag, delighted at feeling the fur inside she quickly pulls it out and lets it hop down.
Letting out a squeal of delight when the large bear fully manifests Yazi happily charge-hugs the animal.
"SHO FLUFFY..." she lets out, her voice slightly muffled by the fur.
Rayhan coughs slightly as Bartan struggles to identify the magical items. It's not like he's spent the better part of his retirement studying magic items after all.
We should rest here, and take the boatman to meet our letter writer in the morning.
"Yazi, my dear, please do not waste our magical resources for the sake of hugging bears. That creature will dematerialize in a matter of moments... we COULD have used him in a battle." Bartan shakes his head at her.
Khayal doesn't exactly find a hill so much as a raised plateau further inland, with several old-growth jungle trees providing some elevation. You don't find any animal tracks. You do see several large snakes in the trees, as well as all kinds of noisy and colorful birds, tree frogs, and lizards.
not a chance
The sun begins to set in the West as you try to get a feel for the island. You can't tell how large it really is, only that it seems to extend to the North by Northeast.
Khayal climbs one of the trees to get a better vantage point. Wait here, I'm going to have a look arround. Hoping to see just how big this place is.
Khayal sees that the island they are on is the upper half of an archipelago-like crescent shape. The jungle gets darker in patches, indicating swampland. To the East, Khayal can just barely see ocean in the center of the circle of islands. To the South, across a short oceanway another island similar to the one you are standing on, with jungle tops and tufts of tall grassland.
Climbing back down Khayal relays what he saw to his companions. It seems we are amongst a group of islands. There is another island to the east. Perhaps we aught to explore the rest of this island and then move to the next. Does anyone know how to build a boat, it might be better than trying to swim.
Seeing no objections, Bartan pulls the cloak around his shoulders and trudges on with his friends, marveling at the intricate details sewn into the magical fabric.
The sun starts to fall on your first day in Kakishon.
The ocean breezes are pleasant at night, but your star-gazing after dinner is interrupted by a sudden storm. The clouds roll in, and strange purple lightning arcs across the sky for more than an hour, and the beach is assaulted by storm surge. Not enough to come to your stone hut, but most nearby animals take shelter from the rainless storm. A tremor, like an afterthought of an earthquake, rumbles throughout the island.
Then, as suddenly as it arrived, the storm and troubles are gone and all is peaceful again.
There are a few less stars in the sky. It was mostly a night sky from further south than Katapesh, obviously as seen over the country of Nex. But one or two of the constellations are missing their key stars now.
That was not natural or normal. Kakishon is supposed to be a "closed" demiplane, technically not reachable even via the Astral Plane. But even if Kakishon has existed for more than a hundred years, it shouldn't be making those kinds of rumblings, unless something was wrong with the demiplane.