Phillip collapses, hit fairly hard by the dead first mate. "We need to get his body moved as soon as possible. We don't want his seepage smelling up the place," Phillip says between breaths.
He also remembers that his Astral Skin is on, and begins tearing that off, dissipating it quickly.
Ashana lets out a deep breath and then streaches, her back cracking loudly. "You would think after spending all that time in the ships hold I'd be used to sleeping on hard things...but this ground is very uncomfortable." She then goes into her shelter and donned her armor and took the time to hide some daggers on her person(she'll hide 2 and keep 2 at her hips). She then re-emerges and looks around camp "So whats the game plan? I know its not light out yet but I don't think I'm going back to sleep."
Slight of hand check to hide weapons:
Phillip gets back up, ready to start dragging the zombie out of camp. If nobody helps, he'll just drag the zombie out, otherwise it can be carried.
Adriano rushes to Phillip laying his hands over Phillip's heart "Dawnflower heal this warrior of lights wounds"
Thanks, that's much better. He really knocked the wind out of me.
Jask came over and looked at Phillip's jaw and torso. "My my my." the middle-aged man clucked. He stood back for Adriano's positive energy, then checked Phillip again. "Hm. That helped, Adriano, but the young man needs more." Jask raised his own holy symbol and let out a healing wave. . "Hm. Let's try that again." he mumbled, yawning in the morning light. , "There." Jask finished, pleased with himself.
Thanks, Jask, I'll be fine now.
Everyone looked around the camp in the growing morning light. The fact that they were shipwrecked, and had just woken up in their first day on an island they might or might not get off of wore heavily on all of them. The city of Eleder, their destination, was as far away as another world. This island was their immediate future. It was a terrifying, sobering realization. Gone was the thrill of just a day ago, when everyone thought they were going to get off the Jenivere to a new continent with new opportunities.
All right, here's the deal: the NPC castaways have a daily roll for their attitude while shipwrecked. The PCs can help or hinder this attitude by roleplaying and Diplomacy/Intimidate checks. The roll is made once, in the morning; don't try to get the GM to re-roll, because it's not going to happen. The castaways being individuals, each will have his or her motivations to helping, sitting around, or rebelling against the group. You could safely ignore others while onboard the ship. You no longer have that luxury, if you are going to survive.
Each castaway starts out with an attitude of Indifferent, which means the person is willing to help out with small tasks around the campsite. Jask, with his freed manacles, is considered Friendly, and willing to do more to help others, but not to the point of risking his life for them. That would be Helpful. Once a character reaches Helpful, they will stay here unless dramatically threatened. The NPCs can also fall from Indifferent to Unfriendly and Hostile. You don't want to see Hostile. Aeyrs is Unfriendly due to personal issues and a certain problem you all can probably guess at - alcoholism.
If the NPC has an attitude of Indifferent or better, they can do two full-day jobs at the campsite:
Defender: A defender works to set traps, shore up a shelter’s walls, and see to the safety of the campsite.
Entertainer: An entertainer helps to raise hopes for rescue—each entertainer grants NPCs a +2 bonus on Will saves to increase morale.
Guard: Each guard reduces the chance of a wandering monster attacking the camp during the day or night.
Hunter: Each hunter provides enough food and water for eight Medium creatures per day.
Medic: Each medic reduces the chance of being exposed to disease and increases the number of hit points healed naturally during a night’s rest in the camp by 2. (Note, with a proper shelter and a fire your chance for disease is already decreased.)
In addition to Attitude, there is Morale. This is somewhat more long-term because of the prospects of being stranded on a creepy island. Each castaway starts out with Shaken. They can get better to Normal and Friendly, or get worse to Frightened and Panicked. Panicked means they run off into the jungle to fend for themselves.
There are game bonuses and penalties for getting everyone off alive from the shipwreck of the Jenivere. This being a XP-less game, there are also additional feats and/or traits for success and failure, depending upon who lives and who dies.
To track how the castaways are doing, I'm uploading "Link to NPC Attitudes and Morale" to the Campaign Page (see the tab at the top). Check this link every couple of days.
You don't have to worry about PCs that have become NPCs: they don't have to roll for Attitude or Morale, but neither will they do much beyond staying at camp and being the occasional party filler. Shevan, Noel and Tessara are this type.
D: 10% M: DC 15
Aeyrs D: Fort: , M:
Gelik D: Fort: , M:
Ishirou D: Fort: , M:
Jask D: Fort: , M:
Sasha D: Fort: , M:
Aeyrs and Ishirou fall from Shaken to Frightened.
Shevan and Ishriou bury Alton Devers, Ishirou insisting upon dismembering the man first and digging a separate grave for each body part, "just in case". No one argues with him.
The mood continues to be somber throughout breakfast, when the sun comes up over the horizon. Aerys takes the last swig of brandy from the glass bottle, then disgustedly chucks the bottle at the campfire, where it shatters on one of the stones. Ishirou gives a start at the sound, his hand going for his katana, but he stops halfway and forces himself to act normally.
The blond gnome gets up after breakfast, splendidly clad in his mud-free clothing, and calls for attention. "I believe we need to discuss what we are going to do to live here and get off of this island." he began. "Now, as the only certified Pathfinder here, I will list the tasks that must be undertaken. One. We need an exploring party to search this island and make sure we don't have any more undead, cannibals, or hostile tribes! I don't want last night repeated." Gelik stated, shuddering. He continued. "Two. We need people to take care of the camp, see to our wounded parties, such as the woman and her girl-child, have someone hunt and fish for food, guard the camp from animals and critters that may come looking for our food, and keep track of what is found."
Gelik began pacing back and forth. "As much as I would like to lead an adventuring party." he said, "I must decline. Until we are certain no ships are going by on a regular basis. I think we would be better served with a constant, maintained signal fire."
"No signal fire. The rugged Tian said gruffly. "There are pirates."
"I can take care of the woman Noel and her Tessara girl." Jask said. "I've taken care of sick sailors before. But we do need to find out why Alton was raised as a zombie! Why is this island cursed?"
Ashana sits down by the fire and listens to the gnome talk. Once he's done she speaks. "I would like to volunteer to be part of the exploring crew. I figure it beats being cooped up in this camp all day hoping to be rescued."
"I don't know and I don't care." Aeyrs declares. "But I'm itching for a fight, if anybody tries to ambush us again. And I want that Captain Kovack strung up for poisoning us and stranding us here." She walked unsteadily back to her tent.
"Well, there's one volunteer." Gelik said, nodding at Ashana.
I'll go as well. If anything happens that needs someone going underwater, I'm almost certainly the best swimmer we've got. And I'm not too bad with my blade, either.
"I will stay here." Ishirou said. "I can defend the camp. I am not much of an explorer."
Sasha, who has been following all of this while seated, looks up from where she has been reading the Captain's Log. "Hey." she calls out, getting everyone's attention. "This logbook changes with our voyage. It used to have really detailed entries, but with our time, Captain Kovack starts getting loopy. There's days missing here, or these weird rhyming words all about that Varisian Ieana. It's like the Captain was a love-struck cow with her."
The redhead skips several pages, and picks up the text again. "But last week it gets really bad. The Captain thinks Alton's making eyes at 'his Ieana', and he wished the First Mate would just 'have an accident'. Two days ago it says the Captain changed course to Smuggler's Shiv at Ieana's request. He goes into some really bad poetry again about living here with the woman. The last line is about 'something may need to be done about the crew'." Sasha snapped the tome shut. "The Captain was as crazy as a loon, and we didn't even notice." the woman concluded. "But I didn't see Ieana protesting none. And she wasn't at the last meal with the poison in it, either."
Y'know, I wasn't paying much attention, but now that I think on it, she wasn't there, was she? This is all very strange. Why would.... Whatever. Not much we can do about that now, although we may be able to find one or both of them on the island at some point. If that happens, we can give them a piece of our minds then.
"If he is out there we should be careful especially if he is crazy. he looks up at the sun saying a small pray "We should also get exploring so we can get back to camp before nightfall.
"I agree that sitting around here doesn't help us get food and drink. From what we were able to get off of the ship I'm not immediatly worried about food but I would like to find a source of fresh water." She then stands and streaches, her back cracking loudly again. "So other than Philip will anyone be joining us? She then looks towards Phillip and asks What direction do you want to explore first?"
"Well, Sasha, you would probably be pretty helpful out there, don't you think? Do you want to come with? Ashana, I'm not really too sure where to go first. We could either go farther into the island, or search the shores."
"If we go along the shore we might have a better chance of spotting survivors and we might be able to salvage stuff that drifted ashore." thinking for a second "But we might have to deal with more of those scorpions." looking at Phillip "If we go inland we might meet some natives, I think I would vote for the shore at least our first day out."
"That's what I was thinking as well, Adriano, approximately, at least. The sea scorpions shouldn't be a problem now that we're well rested, and have all of our gear at the ready. So, Adriano, does this mean you'll be joining us on our salvage?"
"I will be, the more looking means there is more of a chance of locating what we might need."
"Didn't someone mention finding a map yesterday of this island?" Gelik asks, pleased that the other castaways are taking his suggestions.
"Yes we did while searching the ship, I totally forgot." Adriano pulls the map of the Shiv out of the scroll case he put it into rolling out in front of the group. 'Here it is.
"Okay so looks like we're searching the beach." When Adriano pulls out the map she will look it over.
"Ha. I'll help explore." Sasha replied to Phillip, standing. "I've heard about dangerous birds, or flying creatures. I would love to see one here. Better than those lobster-things!"
"So. Four explorers out of twelve. Six of us left here, two disabled. Not bad, not bad." Gelik mused. He clapped his hands. "All right, the sun is rising! Now that it's daylight, we can make the camp better. I think our strong and silent types," he said, glancing at Shevan and Varash, "should be hunting nearby. Or, wait, I thought I saw some fishing nets in this pile. Yes! Here they are." Gelik pulled out a fishing net out of the pile of equipment to one side.
"So, what are you waiting for?" the gnome stated. "Shoo! Find us some more lumber and sailcloth, at the very least. Although the Captain's body would be a good thing too, to punish him for his treachery." Gelik finished, stroking his short beard.
You can take my fishing net as well. Take it with you as a spare when you fish.
"Alright then, off to the beach? Should we go east or west first? I'm thinking west, as according to the map, it should be pretty obvious when we hit the end of the peninsula.
"The beach sounds fine to me." Sasha stated. She checked her mail shirt and rapier. Going to the equipment pile, she took a vial of Cure Light Wounds for herself. "Just in case somebody gets hurt." Sasha told the others. "We could also use some more burlap sacks, I'm not dragging anything heavy back by myself." the woman declared.
"Ok, I'm ready to go."
"Well I have rope and my backpack if we need them. Though I don't know how much help I'd be carrying things, I'm not that strong."
"Well, if we all work together, we should be able to bring anything necessary back, and if not, at least closer."
As the four of you make your way from the jungle camp site to the beach, you are greeted by the upturned longboat. But someone has punched several holes in the hull, ruining the boat's seaworthyness!
Looking around, you can easily see heavy footprints from the surf leading first to the boat, then into the jungle, taking a straight-line approach rather than the crooked trail made to get to the campsite.
The destruction was part of the overall plot, Phillip, because technically you're not supposed to get the longboat, but I knew you had an itch that needed to be scratched. :) And I don't mind disagreeing with the author(s) on some minor plot points. Repair the longboat, if you wish.
On our way back, we can bring that up to camp and I'll get started on it.
"We should be able to put whatever we find in the longboat and carry or drag it back to camp with everything in it."
I don't particularly fancy having to drag that thing up and down the shoreline.
"We don't need to carry it all up and down the shore just let it stay here and put what we find in it when we are ready to head back."
I guess, when we come back past it, we can load everything into the boat. I thought you meant to keep it with us as we search.
"Sorry for not being clear."
Don't worry about it.
So using the map in your heads of where you are, the four of you begin walking along the beach, farther than where you went yesterday in search of the Jenivere.
After an hour, the sun has risen high in the sky, and if not for the constant breeze from the sea and the cool spray of the crashing surf, the heat in the cloudless sky would be much greater. You notice that a steep, rocky ridgeline to the jungle begins as you turn to the northern curve, a 100-foot rise between the sea and the island. Of the Jenivere there is no sign - the ship has been totally demolished, with the terrific tide taking the flotsam.
Another hour passes and then a third and a fourth, your only sightings the seagulls in the sky and the little terns and tiny crabs along the beach. With the sun high overhead you stop for lunch, a rocky ridge behind you, with nothing but open ocean in front of you, the sight of the main continent nowhere to be seen at the horizon.
Continuing on, according to the map Adriano has, you realize that in another hour you will be coming to the end of the northern curve of Smuggler's Shiv. Just as you resign yourself to the disappointingly clean beach, you spot the white masts of a shipwreck!
Walking closer under the hot sun, you see that the wreck was driven upon the beach itself, breaking the keel and preventing it from returning to the sea. Some great storm must have thrust it upon the sand, almost to destroy the vessel. The ship lists to one side, its' twin-mast design unfamiliar to you. As you approach closer, you are struck by the obvious age of the worm-eaten wood, the lack of sails save for some frayed threads, and the many gaps in the hull. Peering at the side, you barely make out the words engraved near the broken figurehead - the Tattooed Lady.
Well, I think we've found something. Hopefully, there are still supplies to be scavenged.
Ashana follows the group silently but as the heat starts to rise it starts to make her a little edgy. When they stop for lunch she will walk down to the waters edge and take off her top and armor and wet them so that they can help cool her. She then puts the garment back on and shivers a little and the coolness of the water against her body but then lets out a slight sigh of relief.
"I tooks like the gods have finally shone on us on this god forsaken island. At least we can scavenge this thing without having to swim out to it."
Sasha joined the catperson at the water's edge, telling the men "I think Ashana wants to wash up. You guys stay here. No peeking!", fingering her rapier.
Sasha took her turn taking off her armor and shirt, making sure the sand didn't cling to the metal and fabric afterwards.
When Sasha takes off her shirt and rearranges her red hair, you see a strange scarlet-and-black tattoo on her back, inbetween her shoulder blades. It looks like two insectoid arms making a "N" or a "Z", you're not sure which. It's also a strange place on the human body to put a tattoo.
"I dunno." Sasha opined, seeing the Tattooed Lady. "It looks pretty beat up to me."
Ashana will take note of the tatoo on her back and remember to ask her about it later when the timing is a little more approperate.
"Well it will at least provide some shade from this blasted sun...I know we're pretty far south but does it really have to be his hot?" Ashana will then start making her way towards the ship.
Perception check if needed:
You don't have to tell me twice, Sasha. Just tell us when we can look back.