"Other people survived the shipwreck? Who? The captain or someone from the crew?
We were able to recover my sea chest, it is fairly heavy, someone can give me a hand transporting it?"
"Yes, what became of Jenivere? The last thing I recall before we awakened in the boat was eating dinner."
The castaways and their newfound companions head back towards the base camp, with the idea of a more lengthy exploration for tomorrow. The trip back is mainly uneventful, but a lot of discussion and catching up takes place.
The new castaways learn of the fate of the Jenivere and of the others marooned on the island. They also hear that none of the crew, or the captain, or Ieana has been found.
The shelter of canvas has been improved as Jask has spent the day working on it. He has improvised a few vines from the jungle to create some tie-downs, which helps keep the wind out of the shelter. He is very excited to see the other castaways, rising to shake their hands as they enter.
The rest of the group seems more sullen and withdrawn than usual (and that's saying something...)
"A pleasure to meet you. For those that don't know me I am Mikail Ruben."
"You are a cleric of Nethys? When you have the time I woul love to hear something about your god teachings."
"Master Gelik, a pleasure"
"Mr. Ishirou, you were part of the crew, right? Maybe you can help us repair the boat we found. I don't think that it can be used for long voyages, but it can be useful for fishing along the coast."
"Lady, a pleasure to meet you. From your dress you seem a capable fighter. That can be invaluable on this island."
Moving close to Mikail Felix smirks and whispers in his ear."Remember you sang and played on ship. Maybe sings here too. Maybe boost morale!"
Moving to the others Felix sighs and speaks up.
"More survivors.... you think that´s bad. You think more mouths to feed! I thought first so.. too. But then I remembered something else. We on island. Fish is plenty. More people that fish.. easy eating. More people mean more safety. Means less night watch for each. Everyone must dig latrine. Now two less days to do till your turn. More hands to fend of animals... and more to skin and roast them... too. Maybe those two are not little doxys.. but they can and they will help. No anchore but more life-line. So we are better now!"
The Zenj man nods. "We have our skills, true. Mikail is knowledgeable about many things, as to a lesser extent am I, and we both have a bit of magic as well. Sadly, neither of us are sailors, and I fear it will take a fine sailor indeed to escape this island." He pauses, struck by a thought. "Now, Captain Kovacs knew a great deal of the sea, and had sailed Jenivere to Sargava before. Coming here was a purposeful act, and I am hoping that we may learn why he did this."
"Master Gelik, a pleasure"
Gelik looks over the newcomers with a wry smile. "Under other circumstances perhaps, unless you brought the Chelish Royal Navy with you."
He looks less than interested.
Ishirou starts as Mikail address him. He nods along when asked if he were on the crew. Instead of his usual stoicism, the idea of looking at the little rowboat actually makes him do something for once.
Without speaking, but showing a never-before-seen grin, he departs to the shore, and begins to give the small craft the once over.
"Lady, a pleasure to meet you. From your dress you seem a capable fighter. That can be invaluable on this island."
Sasha rolls her eyes at the newcomer. "Whatever. I can take care of myself. Suggest you dont' cross me." she says, with a yawn and a cat-like stretch.
""You are a cleric of Nethys? When you have the time I woul love to hear something about your god teachings."
Jask seems genuinely pleased to see more castaways. He stands and shakes hands with the new men. As Mikail mentions the teachings of Nethys he says, "I do have some mantras and focusing chants I could teach those that dabble in magic. It would help your casting ability, especially when under duress. Come see me this evening, and I will teach them to you."
With the return of a few more shipmates, the day starts to draw to a close and night falls on the beach once again. The greenish, ghoulish glow of the sea disturbs the newcomers at first, but all soon grow used to the harmless effect.
Nothing unusual disturbs your sleep during the night.
"'Good' Morning all. I think this island is starting to get to me. My dreams were very disturbed last night. Once I shave and clean up I will be ready to go."
Many more night like that and I think I will go crazy.
" Ooch, " Harbek exclaims as he goes about getting a meagre breakfast. " I've such a headache, like I drank an entire barrel of whiskey... "
Harbek looks even grumpier than usual.
" So, mggrr, What's the plan today? Heading out further? I can't even think straight... "
"Dreams can be a message from those who've gone beyond." Chikura grins then. "Or, they could be just dreams--we cannot tell the difference until it's too late, sadly. I am thinking we should continue your explorations."
""You are a cleric of Nethys? When you have the time I woul love to hear something about your god teachings."Jask seems genuinely pleased to see more castaways. He stands and shakes hands with the new men. As Mikail mentions the teachings of Nethys he says, "I do have some mantras and focusing chants I could teach those that dabble in magic. It would help your casting ability, especially when under duress. Come see me this evening, and I will teach them to you."
"Thanks, it is a wonderful gift, I hope I will be able to be worthy of it."
Rummaging in his chest Mikail take out a few packets of dried fruits and other preserved food.
"I have a few dried rations, not much, but I want to add it to our reserves. And then I should prepare for the exploration."
From the same chest he draw some spare clothes, a wide brimmed hat and his mail, getting ready to explore.
Seeing the others wake up the burly half-orc marine waits till almost all are moving before abondening his night watch.
"Morning, fellas. Maybe half-a-day nosing and then convinc´ing some lokal birdy to join us for diner. Good plan?"
"Now that you mention it, sir, I've been having some strange, disturbing nightmares as well... something to do with Ieana and the captain, I think... I wonder what it means, perhaps some kind of warning?"
Celine attends to her morning prayers and gets ready for the extended exploration.
"'Good' Morning all. I think this island is starting to get to me. My dreams were very disturbed last night. Once I shave and clean up I will be ready to go."
Many more night like that and I think I will go crazy.
"For hunting and foraging the best option is to split into 3 parties, with one of the best forager in each, and the other assisting him."
Harbek shrugs,
" I've never had to forage for food before, but I'm happy to help as best I can. "
"I don't think we'll accomplish much doing that Mikail. We need to head out further, spend a night or two out and then come back and build up supplies. We need to either head further down past that other shipwreck or up the coast the other way."
"I have a small reserve of food."
Mikail hand out 5 man/day of preserved food to Harbek.
"I don't think we'll accomplish much doing that Mikail. We need to head out further, spend a night or two out and then come back and build up supplies. We need to either head further down past that other shipwreck or up the coast the other way."
"Then we should spend a few days gathering up food until we get a reserve capable to last for several days. Done that we will be able to do an expedition that can last a few days. If we want to stay away 3 days we should have at least enough food for 5 full days. Accidents can and will happen, so we need a buffer."
"Well St.John is right, matey. Not wise to split up, this could be dangerous area, matey!"
Chikura nods in agreement with the half-orc. "We should stay close enough to each other to respond quickly in case of danger."
Chikura nods in agreement with the half-orc. "We should stay close enough to each other to respond quickly in case of danger."
"Sure, but if we stay too close to each other we will reduce the gathering efficiency. We should find the right distance. Probably distancing every pair of gatherers by 60' would be enough."
" Heh heh, don't want any awkward picking up of the same tuber moments... " Harbek tries for some humour to lighten the conversation while he adds Mikail's food to the rest of the groups rations.
" I agree with Mikail, sorry Smythe but it makes sense to stock up as much as we can before we go trekking all over. "
Mikail, morning:
Mikail, afternoon:
"Sure let's just settle down here, maybe plant some crops. We don't need to find a way off this island." St. John heads off with his partner to gather food for the day.
On the first day, Chikura comes up with five rations' worth of foraging.
While scouting for food, Celine expresses her doubts about the current situation to her companions.
"Those people... I don't understand, do they expect for us to take care of their every need, including food? Surely they must see that we're all together in this. They need to start helping, to look out for themselves at least a bit, like Jask is doing. We'll have to have a chat with them on this subject, eventually. What do you think?"
While scouting for food, Celine expresses her doubts about the current situation to her companions.
"Those people... I don't understand, do they expect for us to take care of their every need, including food? Surely they must see that we're all together in this. They need to start helping, to look out for themselves at least a bit, like Jask is doing. We'll have to have a chat with them on this subject, eventually. What do you think?"
"Sure, but different people react differently to shock. Ishiru seem to start to get out of his depression, the gnome .... he is so far from my way of thinking that I have trouble finding any connection. Sasha seem to have some mental trouble. We should try to find what can make them more cooperative but none of them seem the kind of people that react positively to peer pressure."
Trying his best Felix is a bit more luckies in the afternoon getting a few fat birds down for dinner.
After the successful hunting and gathering expedition, Mikail try to start some conversation with Ishiru, Gelik and Sasha.
First Ishiru.
"Miser Ishiru, you were able to make the boat seaworthy? I know we can't use it to escape the island, but we can use it to fish. You can suggest any other way to use it?"
Mikail will listen with attention to any suggestion.
Then Sasha during dinner (I don't want to give the impression I am stalking her, I am sure that would end badly).
"Miss Sasha, tomorrow we will start an expedition in the jungle, probably we will be away for a couple of days. You seem experienced, you can give some suggestion to us?"
[and 2]
and, hoping to have read him right, after dinner Mikail exchange some joke and tall tale with Geldik, hoping for the best.
While out hunting, in the jungle beyond the beach, the Felix stumbles across what looks like a large birds' nest. Two eggs the size of footballs sit in the abandoned structure.
Looking at his find and imagening a monstrous omlette Felix suddenly falls into a crouch fearing momma to return. Looking carefully around he sets his pike to intercept a charge.
As the boys look around for the source of the eggs, and Felix sets his spear to intercept a charge, he and Harbek are both quite surprised to hear a loud squawk from the air. Looking up they see a black and red flying lizard about the size of a large dog. It has particularly long fangs on the front of its mouth full of teeth and it looks quite put out with the boys for disturbing its nest. With another screech it dives to attack, behind it, a bit larger version circles waiting his turn on the interlopers.
Dino Eggs - Round 1
22 Dimorph 1
19 Chikura
19 St John
14 Felix
13 Dimorph 2
13 Mikail
9 Harbek
3 Celine
The large carnivore dives at Harbek, snapping its jaws at the dwarf as it does so. Luckily, the tooth-filled jaws miss the dwarf but leave a significant impression anyway.
Moving a step forward and trusting his luck Felix jabs the pike at the dino.
Chikura double-moves in the direction of the sounds of combat. That does not seem to be a good sound to hear....
St. John shout out to his helper, "This way! The game's afoot!" He then moves toward the sound.
Big game, that will make a tasty meal.
Moves left: 3
Double move toward the battle.
Some kind of dinosaur? I have only read about the flying ones, at the zoo there were only terrestrial specimens.
Dino Eggs - Round 1 - continued
Chikura hears the angry screech of the dimorphodon from his distance away. Rightfully fearing for his companions, he moves to investigate the sound. St John also comes rushing over, careful not to trip on the overgrowth or to stir up more trouble with the wildlife.
At ground zero, Felix jabs his pike at the flying lizard, but the creature is quick as well, and is able to shift out of the way of the sharp bladed pike.
Seeing Felix poke a sharp stick at its mate, the second dinosaur dives down on the half-orc with a fury. The attack misses.
Mikail also rushes forward after hearing the sounds of combat.
" Grar! Woh!? "
Harbek Ducks under the flying lizards and then straightens taking out his axe and trying a swipe at one as it swoops down at Felix.
Dino Eggs - round 1 - continued
Ducking below the diving lizard-bird, Harbek counters with an overhead chop that smashes into the predator, ripping it open and dropping it to the ground dead and twitching.
rounds
"Hold on my friend, help is on the way!"
Celine rushes to her companion's aid.