Rubbing her eyes, Celebeth yawns and says, "That was terrible. We need to find a better place to sleep. Good thing we're moving on anyway."
|
Like first arriving on this island, Pharithstilis finds himself cold, tired, and wet. At least he doesn’t have to be afraid of strange people anymore. Like on that first day, he helps drying damp clothes and hair, taking a moment to feather his own hair out meticulously. Then he puts his magic to work mending a repairing what can be salvaged from their wrecked campsite. ”Yeah maybe up in the trees a little bit,” he suggests, and prepares himself to move out.
Malothor spends a miserable night and in the morning consults with his new friends,
”I can create the shelter for 3 hours and possibly 6 hours every night. The only issue is that means consuming my most powerful magic every day on that, instead of on other spells that could help in our defense. I have not been preparing those anymore because I felt we had a solid shelter. I think we should look for a cave or more substantial natural protection today, and I will have the web shelter as back-up if we do not find anything useful.”
"Yeah, after that I could really use a better place to sleep. I'm just not made for this roughing it stuff. The fact that I'm longing to sleep in a cave is appalling as it is. "
Aki frowns at the wreckage of their shelter. We'll certainly have to do better, but if we're going to travel I think we need that shelter of yours, Malothor. I don't think we'll be able to put anything together quickly while we're on the move."
She sighs. "And given what just happened, we may need to move now. I'd been hoping to look for a few more things from the ship, but I don't think that's a good idea after this."
"Well, that sucked." Echo remarks grouchily.
After hearing the others opinions, she asks "Shall we travel as far as we can inland today, looking for a cavern on the way?" She pauses to rub her eyes and yawn, then continues: "Or should we check nearby for a cavern and worry about moving on later?"
"Even if we can't find a cavern, the jungle will help protect us from the storms. Our shelter would fare better if we built it deeper in."
Building a more permanent structure is work, pure and simple. While you don't have the best tools or materials, you could do a pretty decent job with what you have.
As you have already surmised, you are a bit exposed on the beach, and that is harder to maintain. On the other hand, you can see trouble coming on the beach easier than in the trees.
”Let’s finish exploring the beach area. I will summon shelter tonight and we head inland tomorrow. Will also have shelter magics ready for tomorrow but hopefully we’ll find better natural refuge tomorrow.”
|
|
Since his last foray into making bone arrow points unexpectedly resulted in necklaces for everybody, Pharithstilis elects to stay behind and help Celebeth make some arrows for the new bow. Perhaps he can learn something from her. The least he can do is provide company and maybe some protection should the frog people return or something else comes crawling up from the surf.
He turns the empty crate over to use as a workbench and gets to work sharpening bone.
He has a lot to learn.
Echo nods at Malothor, too tired to do much else. "Sounds good. I'll help you scour the beach."
On day 2 of searching the beach hex:
He is looking for the spellbooks and his statuette.
Nathan will tag along with someone to provide security.
Though stopping with the occasional yawn, Celebeth works on arrows.
|
|
With the absence of shelter and shade, as the sun reaches midheaven, Pharithstilis begins to break a sweat. Feeling a bit brain dead and drowsy, he lazily watches Celebeth work, occasionally comparing her arrowheads to his own. Realizing he just doesn’t have the knack for such a task, he kicks back, takes off his coat, and lies back in the warm sand, daydreaming about the world hidden beneath the ocean.
”Hey Celebeth, d’you know how to swim? I bet that water feels great. You think there are more angry crabs in there?”
"I do know how!" says Celebeth as she flakes off another small piece of wood from one of the arrows-to-be. "I bet there are plenty of angry crabs all along the seashore. But you gotta take some risks to get some payoff. Swimming is a nice break from this heat. Plus if there is another angry crab, y'know, we can gang up on it and have steamed crab and crab stew for dinner again."
Celebeth shouts after the gnome, "Dang it, I'm in the middle of working here!" She finishes spinning the arrow and shaving it with her rapier blade, then tosses it aside. "It would be a complete waste to be on a tropical island and not go swimming in the ocean!" She races down to one of the last trees near the edge of the sand and peels off her chemise, struggles out of her boots, removes her leggings, and after leaving them in a sloppy pile she runs down to the water and splashes in. "Gah! It's cold!" she shouts and then submerges before finally coming back up and shaking out her nearly white hair. "If we're out here too long we're gonna need a fire to warm up later."
Struggling a bit with the cold, Celebeth disappears under the water again for a moment, then struggles back toward the waterline, kneeling in the sand in the shallow water.
Aki looks for driftwood and wreckage they haven't investigated before and sifts through it, searching for anything that might help them before they dive into the jungle.
|
|
Pharithstilis opens his eyes wide while swimming in the surf. This being his first time in the ocean (conscious), he surely doesn't venture out very far, staying close to shore and close to Celebeth, but is too curious to find out what the world beneath the waves is like.
Of course, no one can see very well underwater.
The surf is a bit rough do to the storm, and rather cold, but otherwise safe enough. Neither of you is feeling confident enough to get too far out though, and other than a few sea shells and a dead jellyfish, you don't find anything interesting in the surf.
Malothor is desperately looking for some specific items, but he fails to find what he is looking for. He does, however, find footprints in the sand. They look like they were made by a bare-human child.
Noticing Malothor stop to look at the footprints, Echo examines them closely, curious if she can figure out anything more about what made them, or if she can follow them.
Echo doesn't really have more to add based on what she sees.
|
|
Sputtering as he comes up for air, Pharithstilis makes his way back to Celebeth sitting in the surf. He giggles and laughs as he plops down next to her from the sheer exhilaration, although he reports, ”There’s not much to see under water. Just lotsa sand. I don’t know what I was expectin’!”
Sitting in the surf like that, he begins to shiver. ”Boy, sure is cold now!” He returns to what’s left of their camp, picking up his scattered clothes along the way, then throws himself back into the warm sand and lets the sun dry him off.
Aki comes over to where Malothor and Echo are. "What did you find?" she asks.
"There's tracks here, but I can't make much sense of them. A bare-foot human child, maybe? But what would they be doing out here alone?"
Turning to Malothor she asks, "Can you determine anything more?"
Celebeth says to Pharithstilis, "I regret nothing!" She bats around the water like a curious cat. "I would've expected to see some fish or rays. At some point we should probably try to catch some fish. But shelter first!"
Eventually she rises from the shallows and trudges back to her clothing. A simple charm whisks away the water as she steps back into her sole garb. "I really do need to finish up the arrows. C'mon, let's get back to the camp area."
Malothor looks at the tracks with curiosity. This is strange.
He tries to follow the tracks, and says to his friends, "Yes they look like the tracks a human child would make. But what is a chid doing here? And alone? I do not remember any children on the ship, so maybe these are tracks of a local..."
Celebeth returns, rubbing her hand through her hair, and finds the group in some disarray over the tracks.
"Could it have been a halfling?" she says. "They're often barefoot anyway."
Aki nods in agreement. "Perhaps there are more natives here than we know about. The ones the other day were stealthy enough."
"True enough." Echo agrees. "Still, there is a difference between a human child and a halfling's feet. I just can't tell on this beach... Perhaps Malothor will have better luck."
Celebeth returns to the usual task of sharpening and pole-turning arrows.
Malothor starts tracking the footprints without too much trouble, recalling that there were no children on the ship. In about an hour, you see someone about 100 meters from you, walking on the beach. It could certainly be a native - few clothes, and olive complexion.
"Think he's trouble?" is he armed?
"Alone, I doubt it. The greater question is probably whether or not we share a language," Aki replies. "If we can talk we might get somewhere. Otherwise there might be trouble with any friends he might have."
"Speaking of which, watch my back." Without waiting for a response she strides forward and calls out, "Hello! We were hoping to talk to you!" She waves, trying to look friendly for the likely possibility that this person didn't speak Taldane.
Echo opens her mouth to reply, but Aki's already started yelling. Instead she watches the figure closely, keeping an eye on his body language.
As you get closer, you see the child has cut, dark hair, and a bone in his nose (like a decoration). You see a variety of scars and tattoos as well.
He looks at you puzzled, as you approach. Then he shouts "Bugga goona chop chop!" (or something to that effect). Then he smacks the top of his head three times and comes closer to look at you.
"Ok, sorry I don't speak that, whatever it might be. Someone got a spell for that?"
"Well he certainly looks happy to see us." Echo remarks.
To Nathan she replies, "I don't, but I'm pretty good with languages. I might be able to puzzle something out..."
Aki listens to her companions, but she focuses on the child, trying a few different languages, doubting any will work, but wanting to make the effort.
|
|
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
Pharithstilis whistles happily as he builds castles in the sand and watches as the tide washes them away. His active imagination populates them with magnificent royal courts holding extravagant winter balls. He can hear their screams as the ballroom walls tumble into the sea. "Oh no! We have to save them!" he shouts suddenly, to no one but himself. He then builds back the castle, surely bigger and stronger than before, only to repeat the process.