"You know we could do worse than to have egg for dinner tonight. If there's more than one or two we could even give one to Sasha like she wants." Urza's attempts to seem non chalant about the subject betrays his excitement at the thought. "It shouldn't be a problem to lure the last flappybite away from the nest and take it down. Then we'd just have to lower one or two of us down to the nest."
Can we take the shell of the sea scorpion back with us or is it too big for that as well?
"Thank you Ishirou, your help is appreciated."
Mahjik lips still smile, but he looks a bit more stern than usual. He comes up to Aerys, concerned: "Wise man believes that to struggle against the odds is in man's nature. Do you really consign yourself to death in this wasteland without even lifting a finger to live even one day longer, Mrs Mavato?"
While at camp Urza keeps away from Aerys. His dislike for her is obvious.
Once back at the camp, Lorenz makes his way through the group waiting there, patting Gelik on the shoulder, nodding a silent hello to Ishirou and smiling kindly to Sasha. "The rest has done wonders for you, I see. I'm glad you're doing better."
He approached Aerys and said, "See, friend Aeyrs? We've survived another day. I think we're going to make it through the night too." He smiled gently.
Then he approached the center of the camp. "Well, fellow shipwreck mates, we've had another day of exploring this island, though we didn't get far. We encountered two other shipwrecks this day; alas, one of them was too far away from the island itself to reach, foundered on the reefs I suppose. Another had been washed up on shore and was so full of holes it's a wonder it even made it that far. We did find a few more small supplies, enough to make our camp perhaps a little more comfortable with some extra canvas covers and some chain that I'm sure will be useful eventually. And of course, a crowbar which is bound to be of use when we discover the chest of buried treasure." He gestured grandly with the crowbar.
"Alas, there was only small adventure today. We were set upon by a small number of the Lizardwings, also known as flappybites. The battle was hard fought and bloody," Lorenz gestured to the scratch across his head, "But in the end we prevailed. There was another nest as well, though one of the remaining Lizardwings has taken fierce guard over its eggs. I am sure it won't be long before we're able to approach a nest and bring an egg -- or several -- back for those who are interested."
With a flourish, he bowed and approached Gelik. "Not much of a story, I'm afraid, but I'm sure there will be more to tell on the morrow."
"Oh, that reminds me, Lorenz," Douena remarks, holding up her holy symbol and channeling energy through the group. "What are we going to go tomorrow?" she goes on. "We've gone about as far as we can in both directions and still make it back by dark, and we haven't found anywhere that Ieana could have gotten onto the island except the beach we woke up on. The only way left to go is into the jungle," Douena gestures into the thick darkness, "and I don't know what we'd find in there that would help us off the island. So, do we go into the jungle tomorrow, or do we think about moving camp so we can explore more of the coastline?"
Mahjik lips still smile, but he looks a bit more stern than usual. He comes up to Aerys, concerned: "Wise man believes that to struggle against the odds is in man's nature. Do you really consign yourself to death in this wasteland without even lifting a finger to live even one day longer, Mrs Mavato?"
1d20 - 1
Aerys goes tense and looks up at Mahjik. "Why do you care? Hmm? Why do any of you care?" She jumps to her feet. "You keep going on about not giving in, blah, blah blah blah." Aerys points to Douena. "She acts like this is the greatest thing that has ever happened to her. But what do any of you actually accomplish? What are you actually doing out there while you wander the island? Sure you bring back a bit of food, you kill some of the wildlife. What does that accomplish? Have you found a way off the island? No! All you've found are more shipwrecks showing that nobody gets off this island! So what's the point of fighting on when there's nothing left to fight for." She's yelling by the time she finishes her rant, and the rest of the camp has fallen silent and turned to look at her.
"It really is the most exciting thing that's ever happened to me," Douena whispers to Sasha and Jask beside her.
"It really is the most exciting thing that's ever happened to me," Douena whispers to Sasha and Jask beside her.
Jask chuckles a little in response, but does his best to hide it, clearly not wanting Aerys to think he's laughing at her. Luckily, she doesn't seem to notice him. When she's finished, he says, "It's a little thing called hope, Aerys. Some of us still have it. But it pains us all to see that you have lost that hope, and we wish there were something we could do to help you regain it."
Lorenz listens to Aery's rant and takes a few steps toward her.
"From what we've seen, most of those who are shipwrecked here die in the shipwreck. We've already beaten those odds. We're in no danger of starvation and thanks to Douena we have plenty of water. There are dangers on this island but by working together we've been able to overcome them without any difficulty."
He gestures at the campsite, the canvas forming sleeping areas out of the rain, the firepit, their stores of food. "Have you ever been to Cheliax? I have. There are people there who would kill to have the comforts we've managed here. You're upset because we've been here for two days without finding a way off? Two days is nothing compared to the time I spent puking over the Jenivere's bow."
He walked over to the chest with the Captain's gold and the ship's logbook. "The Captain and Ieana came here for a reason and he abandoned everything for it. But they didn't come to stay. If they can leave Smuggler's Shiv, we can. We're fighting because the rest of us know that we're not going to stay here forever. We're alive today and we mean to be alive tomorrow. Maybe you've got nothing left to live for. But the rest of us do, and we've only just begun."
He looked at the others. "Right?"
"Hear, hear! Well said, Lorenz! Well said!"
Lorenz looked to Jask and smiled. "That's right, hope. We'll do what we can for you, Aerys, because we're all in this together. If we can help you find that hope, or give you strength to fight alongside us, we'll do it. If we can't then we'll still do what we can to see you make it through this."
He looked to the others. "I can't imagine a better bunch of people to get shipwrecked with." He smiled and touched the healed place where he'd been struck by the flappybite. "Thanks for the healing, Douena."
Aerys opens her mouth to say something more, but then stops. With an exasperated sigh, she turns away and sits back down by herself again. A few moments later, she begins to sob softly.
Makoa hesitates for just a second before he goes over and sits next to Aerys, giving everyone else a look that says "Do something else for a while" as he waits for the sobbing to stop.
"Once, before I even knew what it was, I lost hope." He whispers, a surprisingly gentle tone in his voice. "I had been taken from the only home I'd ever known and trapped in a strange place that seemed terrible. But to you or anyone else, it would have been a safe haven, that small cabin..." He stops for a moment to look into the jungle, remembering those first few months.
"I didn't think I was ever going to see the forest again, never run or hunt, never see them again.. I tried so hard to get free, but I didn't understand this new world I'd been dragged into. There was a hole in the wall I couldn't get through; a window. I wouldn't eat the strange food set before, burnt and tough and dry. After a few months, I accepted it, and that was when I started to learn the things any normal child would know by that age. I could read, write, and describe things in detail! Then I got to go home, return to the forest for awhile and run again. The recognized me, and it was wonderful to be back among them again. But that wasn't enough anymore. I had changed, and wanted to know more. So I returned to the cabin and continued learning."
"It may not seem like it now, but things will get better, and you will come through a different person. It's up to you to make that person is better."
Then he just sits there, watching the others and letting Aerys decide if she wants to talk to him or not.
Crestfallen, Lorenz looked sadly to Gelik and Jask. "That wasn't the reaction I was aiming for." He sighed and sat down, leaving Aerys be. "Thank you for your support, Gelik."
Mahjik nods to Lorenz - quiet enough for Aerys not to hear: "I felt your words, and maybe little by little, we are getting through the wall she has erected around herself."
Mahjik, seeing Aerys in good - or at least gentle - hands with Makao, sits next to Sasha. "Wise man knows not to trifle with disease. I am thankful to see you fighting it so strongly; you're looking much better than this morning. Maybe soon you'll be able to hunt for your own flappybite egg!"
Aerys wipes her eyes and looks at Makoa. "I hate this place. I love the sea, and I love sailing, yet I hate the way it treats me, the way most of the people treat me. I don't mean to be an ass. I just react, and I'm not good at reacting. I just... Oh, never mind." She turns away from him. "Leave me alone."
Lorenz smiles a little at Mahjik's words. "I'm glad to hear that my words were not unwelcome. My father always did tell me the barn would be a lot easier to clean if I didn't open my mouth so often."
Mahjik, seeing Aerys in good - or at least gentle - hands with Makao, sits next to Sasha. "Wise man knows not to trifle with disease. I am thankful to see you fighting it so strongly; you're looking much better than this morning. Maybe soon you'll be able to hunt for your own flappybite egg!" 1d20 + 3
Sasha grins and laughs a little at Mahjik's performance. "I would love to find an egg. The more I think about it, the more I really like the idea. I have to get better first, though. You know, I think I understand a bit of what Aerys is going through. I feel nothing but foreboding about this island at the moment. I try to put on a good face, but this stupid illness and just...well, everything makes it hard. I hope nobody minds if I sit out of watches tonight."
"Of course not, Sasha," Douena immediately replies. "You need your rest to get better. If Aerys isn't fit to take a watch, one of the big, strong guys can sit up alone for a few hours." She eyes Makoa and Aakif. "We're all right here to be woken up if they need us."
"Rather I'll take 2 shifts. There are so many of us that the shifts are quite short anyway; adding one more onto that isn't a big deal.", Mahjik grins.
Urza takes Lorenz off to speak with him in private. "Why don't you give her some today? We could water it down some. It might help her to take the edge off some."
Lorenz agreed with the others when Sasha asked to be exempt from the watches. "I admire you for doing your best despite your doubts and even more for admitting it. Enjoy your rest and awaken refreshed."
After supper, Lorenz spent some time with Gelik describing the party's encounter with the Dimorphodons as well as Douena's list of names.
"I'm partial to Lizardwings myself, but flappybites seems to be catching with the others. I must admit, Douena may be a little bit of a trial sometimes but she does have a tendency to make me laugh. And the battles with those bloody beasts often seem to be a comedy in action. I almost wish you could see them for the stories they'd make." He laughed.
Shortly before his watch started, Lorenz tentatively approached Ishirou.
"Good evening, Ishirou," he said to the quiet man. "Pardon me for interrupting your reflections but I realized that I have not had an opportunity to get to know you well. I meant what I said earlier about our success in part being due to our cooperation as a group. I thought perhaps it would be wise to get to know one another better in order to aid in our continued cooperation."
Seeing Ishirou's customary implacable resolve, he hurried to add, "Of course, not all are as fond of conversation as I. Perhaps we might practice the sword forms, or spar? Surely there is some value in honing our skills together?"
Lorenz looked hopefully at Ishirou as he awaited the man's answer.
Lorenz considered Urza's request thoughtfully. "Believe me, I've thought about it. But I'm afraid of making things worse. What if it only serves to increase her desire? To be honest, I'd hate to make the decision without consulting the others."
"We're quite a haphazard group, don't you think? But in spite of our differences and occasional misgivings we've managed to pull together collectively remarkably well. I am hopeful for what tomorrow may bring. It is an honor and a privilege to have you by our side."
"Where I come from, it is common for a student to seek out a master; this is how I've lived my life. Now suddenly the fates have conspired to make this island my master; and all of us are its students. I hope we can learn its lessons before its too late for us."
When everyone is ready for sleep (except for Lorenz and Mahjik on the first watch), Douena creeps over to where Sasha is lying. "Desna's own luck be with you tonight," she whispers, laying her small hand on Sasha's head, "to help you get better and protect you from further harm. May she send you sweet dreams."
As Lorenz and Mahjik settle in for their watch duty, Douena once again sits at the edge of the canvas canopy, looking up at the stars and communing with Desna.
"The way it treats you, huh? Understood."
"This place, it's taking a toll. Everyone seems to be swinging back and forth, and it's only been two days..."
"I think I got through a bit to Aerys though."
"This place, it's taking a toll. Everyone seems to be swinging back and forth, and it's only been two days..."
"I think I got through a bit to Aerys though."
"Swinging would be fun," Douena replies brightly. "We have enough rope and plenty of trees; I wonder if we could make a swing? It might cheer people up." She glances over to where Aerys is sleeping and sighs. "I try to be nice to her because I know she's miserable about not drinking anything but water for so long, but she's just so determined to assume the worst about everything! Can't she see how lucky we've all already been?"
Lorenz turned from where he'd been keeping watch on the dark jungle so that he could see Mahjik. "This teacher; he is the Wise man you are always referring to? It sounds like a useful relationship. I've rarely known wise men, much less a master. I had teachers who worked for my father and I learned some from the other guardsmen I've traveled with. Swordsplay has always come rather naturally for me but everything else has been ... difficult."
He turned his gaze back into the darkness, his voice grown wistful. "Actually, except for the shipwreck itself, things have been going better for me here on the island than they usually do. I don't know if I've been learning my lessons better or not, but I find it rather difficult to complain. The island as master...I see better, now, why you wanted to explore the nest of the Lizardwings."
Ishirou contemplates for a moment and then nods. "Yes, there is value. I would be happy to spar with you. There is no time tonight, but tomorrow."
"I, too, am honoured to to be trapped here with you. By exploring the island, you and the others who go with you are doing us a great service."
Overnight Urza offers to aid Gellik in the telling of a story with effects he can generate with the Prestidigitation spell.
That morning, Urza will use prestidigitation to make Aerys' water taste of alcohol. Ideally he will do this surreptitiosly.
"Wise man would survey his world. Shall we follow Douena's suggestion? Going into the jungle? It seems likely that we've figured out our approximate position on the island; this northern sickle on the map. We should be able to get to the southern shore of this sickle and back within a day."
You’re sitting down in the galley aboard the Jenivere, getting ready for your meal. The ship’s cook has given you a steaming bowl of soup, but you drop your spoon. You see that the deck below is covered with seawater up to your ankles, and your dropped spoon has sunk into the water and washed out to sea through a hole. You’re forced to lift your delicious bowl of soup to your lips and drink. But something big goes into your mouth as you do so, and you feel a sharp bite on your tongue. You drop the bowl, only to reveal a serpent had hidden in your soup that now dangles from your tongue as it chews furiously. You start awake, biting your own tongue in an attempt to bite through the snake’s body.
Gelik's eyes widen with delight at the suggestion. "What a fabulous idea! I often use that spell to add little touches to my stories, but they so obviously come from me. We could have you surreptitiously out of the way. Then the effects could happen without the source being immediately obvious. It will require a certain amount of planning though..." He begins to move about animatedly, coming up with suggestions for how you might pull this off.
"She's not used to this kind of thing, Douena, and not as optimistic as you. I will try again, I just don't know when."
"If you really think a swing would help, we've got plenty of rope!"
"I'm willing to go deeper into the jungle, though I don't like the thought of all the bugs and creepy crawlies that are likely to be waiting to get in my hair." Lorenz shivered. "The other real concern is that it's going to make for slower traveling. I fear we won't be able to travel as far as we have previously."
"If the map is accurate, it's at most a few miles to the southern shore. We should be able to make it without too much trouble"
Once again, toward the end of Aakif and Jask's watch, Douena begins twitching in her sleep. Just as the two are deciding whether they should awaken her, she sits straight up with a shriek which no doubt awakens the entire camp. "Ow," she moans, tears standing in her eyes; she puts her hand to her mouth and sticks out her tongue, revealing that she has bitten it sharply enough to draw blood. She sits a moment, cross-eyed, trying to see her own tongue, then mutters a little crossly, "Okay, Desna, I get it: you're trying to tell us something. Only be a little more gentle next time."
Lorenz rolls out of his bed, reaching for his rapier until he realized what the scream means. "Another dream?" He collapsed back onto his blanket with a sigh.
Jask hurries over to Douena. "What is it, Douena? Another dream?" He kneels beside her and looks her over to make sure that she is okay.
Nearby, Gelik sits up with a bolt. He looks furtively around him, then relaxes audibly when he realizes what has happened. "I do wish you would have quieter dreams, Douena. It interrupts other people's dreaming. I, myself, was just having a wonderful dream where I had just acquired this fantastic new hat." His hand goes instinctively to his head as he's talking, and he suddenly realizes his hair is disheveled from sleeping and he's allowed others to see him that way. He stops speaking and casts a quick spell to straighten his hair out.
Aakif has been quiet for over a day, but has been actively participating in the exploration along with Soulwind. Come this morning, however, he is back to normal -- not that he was ever chatty. When asked about it , he simply responds, "Yesterday was the Feast of Father Sky. If I had the choice, I would have knelt the whole day on a high place with a view of the entire sky and been silent the whole time. Instead, I had to make do. The silence is so that we can hear messages from Father Sky whispered on the wind. Unfortunately, either I do not stand high in His favor, or His messages cannot find me in this damned jungle." He appears stoic in the face of the possibilities of having lost favor with a deity or being cut off from it.
"At least your Goddess favors you, however. Tell us, Little One, what was your dream tonight?" He asks Douena.
Giving up on trying to see the wound on her tongue (which has ceased to bleed by this time, anyway), Douena adopts an officious stance and begins to narrate her dream.
"I was on the Jenivere again, sitting down in the galley, ready to eat. The cook (poor thing) brought me a bowl of soup, steaming hot, but when I went to pick up my spoon, I accidentally knocked it off the table. When I looked down on the floor to find it, the deck was all covered with seawater, spilling in through a hole in the side of the boat, and my spoon had floated away. In my dream, I was still hungry, though, so I picked up the bowl and started to drink the soup. But there was something hidden in the bowl, something bigger than the bits of meat and vegetable. It went in my mouth," she shudders to recall, "and then something bit my tongue. I dropped the bowl, and a horrible snake was dangling out of my mouth, its fangs deep in my tongue. Then I woke up." She considers for a moment, then goes on brightly. "I think it was good that the cook was in my dream, still doing his job. Desna must have been answered my prayer when we buried him and helped him on to his next journey." She thinks again. "It was quite good soup, too, until the whole snake thing," she concludes with another shudder of revulsion.
"Pfft!" Gelik stands up and places his real hat on his head. A wave of his hands cleans his clothes and removes the creases from them. "I see no reason to assume these dreams are from Desna. They sound like perfectly normal dreams that would be expected after going through a traumatic experience like a shipwreck. Besides, if they were from Desna, you'd think a god could at least get the details right. The soup was quite good? Please! Rambar Terillo never once made a good soup the entire journey. I doubt he made one his entire life." He chuckles a little.
"Wise man would seek a deeper meaning; but as much as I try, I think Desna's saying that the soup was poisoned. This is not exactly a shock; but just what we've been expecting all along. Do any of you see more?"
"Pfft!" Gelik stands up and places his real hat on his head. A wave of his hands cleans his clothes and removes the creases from them. "I see no reason to assume these dreams are from Desna. They sound like perfectly normal dreams that would be expected after going through a traumatic experience like a shipwreck. Besides, if they were from Desna, you'd think a god could at least get the details right. The soup was quite good? Please! Rambar Terillo never once made a good soup the entire journey. I doubt he made one his entire life." He chuckles a little.
Douena shoots Gelik an unfriendly glare. "Everything tastes better in Desna's realm," she informs him haughtily.
Lorenz was unable to help himself; he laughed uproarishly at Gelik's comment. He'd had similar doubts about the dreams but hadn't wanted to offend Douena by saying so.
"Well it's pretty clear that we were poisoned, and the soup makes as much sense as anything. It's the one thing that all of us, even Jask in his imprisonment, ate. It'd also explain why the cook was killed. Whoever did the poisoning -- Ieana? -- would have reason to get him out of the way."
He paused, scratching at the growth of beard that was infesting his chin. "The only thing I don't understand, if there's any real meaning to be taken from it, is the role of the snake. Why would Douena dream about being bitten by a snake? Was it snake venom that we were poisoned with? It just seems a little odd." He shrugged.
"But the cook was killed by a vampire? Right?" Douena asks.