"I'm quite surprised, I was never all that good with a blade," Helga shrugs. "Sometimes, though, you just have to go for it. Now, who could use a kukri, and who needs the amulet most?"
>.>;
Thanks to your quick action the fire at the warehouse was dealt with easily and you lost no supplies.
Rotilius Havelar the leader of your expedition suggests that you find a seasoned guide to help you navigate the harsh and strange terrain, as well as to deal with local tribes. The most able candidate is an aged mystic priest of Gozreh named Nkechi, whom locals call the Tempest.
He is very knowledgeable, but can be quite temperamental, and like his patron is prone to fits of rage and madness. The holy man lives alone in a cave atop a jagged seaside cliff face several miles north of the city known as the Pallid Bluffs.
These great cliffs form the very edge of a long promontory and drop some 300 feet into the angry sea. In order to find the mystic’s hermitage, the you are advised to approach the Pallid Bluffs from the shore, as his cave cannot be spotted from above. The best route is to take a small boat up the coast and try to row in at high tide when the ocean waters cover most of the rocky shore.
You can also travel up the coast on foot, but you are warned that the beaches consist mostly of jagged, slippery rocks. Walking there will take at least a day.
"Let's take a boat there, I think it will be easier," Helga suggests.
Corvus has never been on a boat but once Helga suggested it, he felt bound to follow her lead. "An admirable suggestion. Much easier...yes, easier by far. Good call."
Atzi nods in agreement, thankful they hadn't lost any supplies and looking forward to meeting this mad guide. "A boat would be interesting!"
Generally being in agreement about the boat you find yourself soon afterwards heading along the coast in a ships cutter rowed by half a dozen brawny seamen.
Helga summons up a drum and beats it to keep the rowers in time. She keeps a wary eye out for rocks as she does so, and guides the boat around them.
Perception:
Profession (sailor):
It's high tide by the time you arrive at the bluff on which the Tempest makes his home.
Jagged seaside cliffs of pale limestone tower over the rocky shore. Gulls weave overhead in the updraft, while from below rise the deafening echoes of the roiling surf as it beats against the rocks.
The boat crew holds off shore a bit showing serious boat-handling skills as the stop the boat from smashing onto the rocks but you will have to approach the 300 FOOT TALL CLIFF!!!! through the surging waves..
Caithan looks on in amazement at the cliff.
"Bloody hells..." he mutters.
"It's a challenge, but not an impossible one," Helga remarks cheerfully.
Corvus looks at the cliff with a look of dismay on his face. "We have to walk up there? Walk? All the way? Are there stairs?"
It is not a sheer cliff and there is a path of sorts..but it will still need climbing rolls to get up to the cave about 2/3rds of the way up
Atzi spots something in the surf.There would seem to be some giant crabs here also
Atari grimaces at the sight of the giant crabs. She looks for an easy solution to the daunting climb ahead...
"We'll we best get to it then." She jumps off the boat once they are close enou to shore and attempts to pacify the crabs peacefully. Tlatoc jumps down with her a skulks warily nearby, not trusting the large crabs.
The crabs scuttle away clacking their claws but making no really aggressive moves towards you and you make your way to the foot of the path. The waves are actually washing over the small rocky beach now and the undertow is significant..however you manage to scramble up onto the drier ground.There you find a conch shell horn hung on a rock
Atzi calls Tlatoc to follow her, ignoring the retreating crabs for now as she turns to admire the conch shell momentarily before picking it up. If there didn't appear to be some sort of trap attached she proceeds with picking it up and, after briefly searching it for anything inside, uses it like a horn(?).
Corvus watches Atzi shoo the crabs away and then wonders what she's up to when she picks up the shell. "Well I suppose it makes sense. It's hung there, not lying there so there must be a reason for it. A sign might have made it a little more transparent however."
"Aye, though I'd prefer something that can hold a tune," Helga agrees.
Caithan harnesses and ties his dogs to him to ensure they get across, taking his time to slowly but surely get through even as the puppy at the end of the rope insists at barking at the crabs and bouncing up and down in excitement.
Roaring over the pounding surf he states as the horn blows. "Are we sure that's a good idea?"
Atzi shrugs after blowing the horn. "What choice do we have?" She sets the conch back where she found it and waits patiently.
Up on the bluff a ragged figure appears..he's old..very old.. but something seems to magnify his voice..
"So..visitors Ehh..and you managed to get to the horn without killing my friends down there..Well done.What do you want?"
Corvus mutters under his breath, "As I said, a sign wouldn't go amiss. I mean, how were we supposed to know to blow the horn if you didn't tell us?"
He shakes his head but leaves it to one of the others to respond to the old man directly.
The voice booms down again "it's a TEST Boy...don't ye have the wits to see that?"
"Oh aye, that we do sir," Helga calls up cheerfully. "We are embarking on an adventure to explore the ruins of an ancient city, and we heard tell that you were the best person to guide us that way. Would you hear what we have to say?"
Diplomacy:
"A test? A test? A test of what? A test that one of us is prepared to put our mouth to the empty shell of a marine gastropod mollusc in the hope of...in the hope of what actually? In the hope of passing a test? So blowing into a noticeable siphonal canal proves something? As I said before a sign would have been more helpful. And the shell in question looks more like a Pleuroploca gigantea - which is called the horse conch but is in fact not of the same family."
There is no hostility in Corvus' voice. You get the impression he is merely saying out loud his logical approach to the matter in hand.
Atzi places her hand on Corvus's shoulder. "I think he was Testing our ability to reach the conch without killing. The large Crabs may be his pets."
There's a momentary pause and then the voice sounds down again.
"I'm coming down..I can't wait to hear what those fools in Sargava have to propose this time"
The old man shows surprising agility as he comes down the cliffside and you can see that the path would have been difficult
Though he is still agile and muscular of form, Nkechi’s face and knuckles bear fine creases that show his age. Wind and sea salt have turned his dark skin rough and ashen, and his palms and soles are caked with white chalk from climbing the cliff face. He has long, graying dreadlocks and a scraggly beard, and dresses in nothing but a loincloth.
Once you explain the mission and he has taken a while to stop laughing..(you get the feeling he's slightly crazy but then he is a Priest of Gozreh so that might be expected).. he speaks
“In truth, I am skeptical of your abilities. At best you seem to me blissful incompetents. I doubt you even capable of finding your way back to town, much less through the jungle. But Gozreh may have different ideas, and it may serve his purpose for me to accompany you. I am willing to accept your proposal if you first prove yourselves by completing two simple tests, one of wind and one of water. Of course, you may decline, but I must add that if you fear performing Gozreh’s simple tasks, there is no way you will survive the jungle.”
Atzi watches in wonder as the old guide descended with the skill born of ages of self imposed training and hardship. A true survivor in its purest form. After he got done speaking she smiled. "What do Gozreh's tests entail? We are not afraid." She spoke confidently, sure they could succeed...
“The challenge of water is hardly difficult. Mostly,it is a test of patience and fortitude. Gozreh requires that you retrieve for him a single black pearl. Head north a bit, out by the crags of the cape. Those shores are filled with oyster beds, and such pearls are not uncommon to those who know where to look.”
Corvus nods as the old man speaks. "Yes, yes," he mutters. "Of course, black pearls are very rarely black: they are usually shades of green, purple, aubergine, blue, grey, silver or peacock. We'll need to be looking for a black lip oyster or Pinctada margaritifera-cumingi to be more precise."
Pleased with himself, Corvus fails to add that he's never actually seen an oyster, let alone a black-lip one, as his entire knowledge is based upon his reading of the book - 'An ecophysiological model of growth and reproduction of the black pearl oyster, Pinctada margaritifera.' It was a book he picked up by mistake but as he had an afternoon to kill, he read it anyway.
Caithan prods the wizard with an elbow. "Can we please stop arguing with the half mad hermit and get out of the bloody tides!?!" Caithan roars over the waves half pleading.
Behind him the tied up dogs whine sympathetically.
Atzi chuckles and nods to the others "Lets get this pearl eh?" Following the hermits advice she moves to the place of the first test of Water...
The Tempest seems more comfortable dealing with Atzi and tells her she should speak to the pearl fishers who live north along the coast.
You get back in the boat and row a couple of miles north to find a small village of rickety huts built close to the beach
Atzi jumps off the boat to approach the huts. Tlatoc follows slowly in tow, sniffing the air as the made their way to the village. She spoke first in her native tongue hoping that the villagers would receive their odd party warmly. "Hello! Can you help us find some pearl's? We have been challenged to find a black pearl and I was hoping you knew where some oysters lay~" She gave the villager(s) a toothy grin as she hoped for some advice or help in their endeavor.
You find the villagers are actually quite helpful..they tell you all about pearl fishing in deep detail..indeed you learn more than you really want to.
The pearls are found on a reef that lies about 200 feet off shore at a depth of 50 feet or so..you need to dive and be able to hold your breath.The villagers offer to barter for the hire of their sand bag anchors and barrel floats which would help to make things a bit easier to accomplish the dive.
The reef is subject to strong currents and unpredictable waves.
Corvus stands front and centre and nods knowingly as the villagers recount their knowledge of pearl fishing. As they get to the part where they mention the specifics i.e. 200 feet off shore and 50 feet down, he goes quiet and slowly starts to move to the back of the group.
"Diving shouldn't be too hard, this water doesn't even have any ice in it," Helga remarks. She tries her hand at bartering for the things we'll need:
Diplomacy:
"Diving? No. Fighting monsters and finding an exceedingly rare pearl? More difficult."
"Well the locals dive here, and they didn't mention any monsters..." Helga remarks and pauses. "OK, that does not mean there are no monsters. We go armed."
"Well, I can become one with the ocean. It should make it easier to find what we seek~" Atzi was in high spirits -- enjoying being out and away from the stink of the city. Away from the violence that nearly claimed the life of one of their Nakama.
"Shall we go and see what we find then?"
The weights give a +2 modifier to swim checks to dive and the barrels a +2 to swim checks to surface..
Your crew row you out to the reef and you prepare for the foray into the depths..
Corvus is starting to look agitated. "Are we, erm, I mean are well all sort of...going down there? That is to say, all of us?"
Caithan carefully strips down to his jimmies. Revealing a rather muscular and hairy man benath the armor and clothes. Many scars from sword, spear and claw cover the mans tanned flesh but none so large or so grotesque as to make him hideous.
"Haven't done anything like this since I was a lad."
"It certainly promises to be interesting," Helga agrees, dispensing of her pack and most of her gear save a dagger and her leather armour.
Atzi slips into the water and slowly transforms into the shape of an electric eel. Gliding through the water with relative ease.
Corvus is still dithering I presume?
Corvus sees that none of the others have actually entered the water but reluctantly follows suit in removing his outer clothes and equipment - but keeping a dagger on him.