"Go away!" a voice booms from the crab. "Go away or I will eat you!"
Douena smiles and starts to edge closer, manuevering around to try to get a glimpse inside the shell. "You wouldn't want to eat me," she insists. "Gnomes don't taste very good. We're made of liver and seaweed. As a matter of fact, we're pretty much inedible."
Makoa walks up to stand next to Douena, grinning toothily.
"Come on out, we won't bite if you don't!"
"Fine then! I will not eat you. I will just cut you in half with my claws!" In response, the pincers snap open and shut.
Peering round, Douena sees that curtains of leaves and grasses are draped around the lower portion of the crab. These curtains part just under the crab's mouth; however, they are pulled shut at the moment.
"That would be silly. What would you do with half a gnome? Come on," she coaxes. "Come out. I'll show you Mr. Duck."
"That would be silly. What would you do with half a gnome? Come on," she coaxes. "Come out. I'll show you Mr. Duck." 1d20+3
Watching the jerky movements of the sharp claws, Douena takes her chance at darting her arm in to whisk the curtain open.
Her timing is off, however, and the mechanical pincer comes back down to block her.
"Pay no attention to what is behind the curtains!" the voice booms.
"Come out and speak with us." Urza calls out as he moves forward. "We are shipwrecked here and you are the first intelligent thing we've encountered on this island yet. Maybe we can trade supplies?" He holds up some rations and a potion bottle as examples of what they have to trade.
Diplomacy
Lorenz had watched the scene before him with rapier in hand, unsure what it was that made Douena so confident of the giant crab's falseness. When the voice spoke from within, however, he realized that she must have been right.
He puts his rapier away, though he maintains his distance.
"The girl's right," he called. "She's essentially harmless. And the guy with the teeth only bites if you attack him. We won't do you any harm."
"If you mean me no harm, then go away!" the voice calls back. The crab's claws raise and lower some more, and the pincers snap.
Lorenz shrugs. "Maybe we should," he says, speaking more softly so that only the others can hear. "It's rather rude to bother someone who wants his privacy."
"But aren't you lonely?" Douena asks. "Are you here all by yourself? Don't you get bored just sitting in a crab shell? We have a bard back at camp; he can be ... entertaining," she ends dubiously.
"What makes you think I stay in here all the time? I come out! I talk to the birds. I...Wait, no. Forget that! There's no one inside the crab! I am the crab! Now go away or I will eat you!"
"Crabs can't talk. They also do not have curtains hanging from them." Makoa points out. "Come on Douena, let's go. Whoever is in there is awfully crabby today."
"Come on Douena, let's go. Whoever is in there is awfully crabby today."
Douena eyes Makoa witheringly. "That sounds like one of Gelik's jokes. But look what a good job he did making his crab-machine! He's very clever, and I'm sure Ishirou would apprecite his help setting up security around the camp." Douena digs in her backpack and comes out with a silver piece, recently minted in Varisia and looking very sparkly and incongruous on the tropical island. She sets it down in the sand in front of the crab. "There," she tells whoever is inside. "That's a gift for you, to show you we're nice. Our camp is all the way down the beach that way," she points toward the east, "and we're going that way right now," she points toward the west, "until it gets too hot; then we'll sit down and rest awhile. If you want to come see us, you're more than welcome." Leaving the silver coin lying in the sand, Douena allows Makoa to lead her away.
You make your way around the immense crab, staying back far enough to avoid its claws. As you go, the crab rattles a bit more and the claws raise and lower. "Hope the fungus people get you!" the voice calls as you leave. "Or the cannibals! Or both!"
The last comment stopped Lorenz in his tracks. "Fungus people? Cannibals? I can't decide which sounds worse." he says, worriedly.
He looks back at the crab, debating whether leaving was really a good idea before finally shaking his head. "I guess we'll find out eventually."
"NO! How can we leave now? He knows what we're looking for. Urza blurts out. "We have to talk to him and find out what he knows about the fungus stuff that you've been dreaming about. Plus did anyone else hear him say cannibals? He can tell us what we need and you all just want to leave him be?"
"How are we going to make him tell us anything?" Douena shrugs to Urza. "He doesn't seem to like us, no matter how nice we are to him. Maybe we should bring Gelik out here with us; he might be willing to talk to us if the alternative is listening to Gelik's jokes all day." She glances back over her shoulder. "That contraption doesn't look very portable; he can't move too far from here."
Lorenz nods at Douena's words. "Besides, that's his place, his land. We don't have any right to barge in on him when he's made it plain that he doesn't want any visitors. Do you really want to force the first person we've encountered here to talk to us? I wouldn't want that if our positions were reversed."
"I don't care whose land this is, I want to get off of it. He knows something that we need and maybe something that will get us off this island. He has to talk to us." Urza's voice is pleading.
"We'll be coming back the same way, Urza," Douena reassures him, "so we'll be going past him again. We can spend the hot hours thinking of a way to get him to talk to us then."
"Sure we leave and give him time to gather reinforcements or set more traps. You even told him where our camp is. He could lead them there."
The temperature is starting to rise, but you should have about another hour before the really hot time settles in. After about half an hour of travel, the beach twists to the west again. As you come around a group of large rocks, you spot a strange sight. Up ahead is an immense red and orange crab the size of a small house. It crouches on spiny legs.
Douena looks up at the sun almost at its zenith in the sky, then lowers her voice conspiratorially. "What if we go up the beach just out of his sight, then I could sneak back and keep an eye on him. If he comes out of his shell to get my coin, maybe I can at least see what kind of person it is. And if he goes to get anybody, we'll know about it." She looks back at the crab shell. "I don't think he's really dangerous; I just think he's a shipwrecked survivor who's scared and a little crazy at being on this island all alone."
"If there really are cannibals then he has reason to be frightened. I don't blame him for that."
Lorenz looks up at the sun. "But if we're going to reach the fungus place, we need to keep going. I think we should keep walking, even through the hot time."
"Leaving him here is going to come back to haunt us, but if you are all adamant, I'll wait for my opportunity to say 'I told you so'."
Mahjik takes his time at the crabhouse to build a small structure from shells, rocks, twigs and the like. "Here you go. A little gift from me to you. We've managed to survive the island up to now - we're planning to leave it too; you could come with us."
Mahjik smirks all the way from the giant crab, as if he had been expecting it all along. "Wise man finds respite in all. Have any of you considered that these crabs can grow to that size? This one, fortunately, is quite dead - but it wasn't always like that."
You continue on past the giant crab. It shakes about for a short while until you are some distance away, at which point it goes still again.
The beach continues on a fairly straight westward path. As the temperature rises, you start to get a view of the two islands at the west end of the bay. They're still a few miles away, so you won't reach them unless you travel through the hot hours. You can see that both islands seem to be thickly covered in jungle, like most of the main island of Smuggler's Shiv. However, while the southern island's jungle looks vibrant and colourful, the northern island's jungle looks a uniform, sickly gray.
"I'll bet that's what we're looking for," Douena says glumly, pointing to the northern island. "I don't know how we're going to get to it, though, unless we find a boat up there. I'm not very good at swimming."
Lorenz looks at Urza. "I think you've been spending too much time with Aerys. You're starting to sound a lot like her."
Mahjik thinks pushing on is fine. He'll take his time to find a good licking stone - he insists that it is helps keep you going longer.
It takes two hours to reach the edge of the bay, where the beach (now much rockier) turns quite sharply to the south. From here, the southern of the two islands is only a very short distance from the shore, no more than 400 ft or so. Between the beach where you are and the island a swath of seaweed covered rocks project from the water. The waves crash around the rocks, but to all appearances, the water is shallow for the whole distance. You suspect that as the tide goes out, there will be very little water separating the Shiv and the island.
To the south, you see another another shipwreck smashed up against a bunch of rocks about half a mile out from shore. Getting to it would be difficult in the choppy waters.
You have now gone a bit past the time you would need to turn back in order to make it back to camp by nightfall.
Douena has been pattering around the rest of the group, running up ahead a ways and then circling back to join up with them again, as they're traveling at half-speed. As they reach the edge of the bay, she jumps up and down excitedly, pointing to the ship caught in the rocks. "Shipwreck! Shipwreck! That looks like the ship in my dream!"
Gathering all the hot, sweaty people around (and Makoa took damage against the crabs she really should have healed earlier), she calls on Desna for healing and refreshment.
You have now gone a bit past the time you would need to turn back in order to make it back to camp by nightfall.
Lorenz looks at Urza. "I think you've been spending too much time with Aerys. You're starting to sound a lot like her."
Urza mumbles "What's wrong with sounding like Aerys? She makes sense some times."
"Actually, that sounds more like Aerys used to sound like, when she was all depressed and suffering from the liquid spirits. She's a ray of hope now."
"When do you guys guess Sasha's baby will hatch?"
"When do you guys guess Sasha's baby will hatch?"
"Oh, I hope not before we get back. I'd love to see it come out of its shell, all little and gooey."
Lorenz carefully examines the shipwreck and the islands. "Well it seems that the tides can work in our favor here. Far better to try and cross when they are out. I think it's probably a good idea to plan for a night away, but shouldn't we let the others know when we won't be back for the night? We don't want them to worry or come looking for us."
"Wise man would seek to take aid from nature's cycles. The tide will help us here, I agree." Mahjik reflects a bit, then adds, "Maybe the others are getting used to us returning later with each trip." He looks over to Douena, "Little one, Desna is the goddess of travel and adventure is she not? I imagine that she would bless upon her faithful means with which to talk to friends and family far away; can you do something like that?"
Douena bites her lip. "Not this far," she admits. "If you went way down the beach that way to where you looked really small and could just wave back at me, I could whisper and you'd hear me like I was right next to you, but I can't talk to someone I can't see."
"I don't want to worry the rest of them, but I would much prefer to remain here and take care of this whole thing before returning."
"I favor Urza's opinion in this regard. We do not know if we are racing against time - the urgency of the dreams seem to increase more each time; maybe there will not be many more chances."
Aakif nods with the others. "I agree. Those at camp will worry, but we are fine and will return to them tomorrow, and all will be well. Better to deal with matters in the immediate present."
Lorenz shrugs and smiles. "Fine by me." He ties the sack holding his armor to his backpack and claps his hands together. "I imagine the water will be a relief after all this heat. Are you all ready to go?"
"As long as I don't have to dive in after you again, I think we'll be fine."
As the tide begins to recede, it makes the journey across the gap to the first island relatively easy. You need to take care not to slip on the rocks, but with a slow pace, that is easily done. As you saw from afar, the first island is lush with vegetation. Indeed, it's some of the thickest you've seen. The shore is very rocky, but luckily with the tide receding, you are able to stick to the shore line and move without too much difficulty.
Although the vegetation on the island is thick, the animal life seems much less abundant. You don't hear the usual chatter of monkeys that you've gotten used to on the Shiv. No bird calls either. You do see a couple of flappybites fly overhead at one point, but they just seem to be passing by, not coming to or leaving the island. Insect life, however, remains ever-present.
It's a couple of miles journey to the north tip of the island and you manage that in about an hour and half (it's now approaching 4 in the afternoon). As you get closer and closer to this point, the northern island becomes clearer. The "jungle" on the north island is fungus. Things that look like trees from really far away resolve into foul stalks or gray, fibrous fungus growing up into the air almost like stalagmites in a cave. The "undergrowth" consists of wiry tangles of lichens and gray fungus, all growing on a foul muddy surface.
When you reach the northern tip of the southern island, you see that there is a small amount of this fungus growing here. There is a gap between to the two islands of about 200 feet. It is very similar to the gap you crossed before, but not as rocky. With the tide out, it will be easy to cross.
Along the west coast of the northern island, you catch sight of another ship, this one stuck between two rocks. It appears quite intact. It even retains its sails! It is a dull gray colour, however, and something looks off. It is about a mile down the coast.
Along the east coast, about a mile up, you see a massive pillar of fungus-covered rock that thrusts up from the surf, angling away from the main body of the island. The rock is connected to the island by thick tangles of fibrous fungus.
"That's it," Douena says with certainty, pointing to the shipwreck off the west coast of the island. "That's the ship I was on in my dream. Do you think that's where it's all coming from?" She leans down a bit with distaste to examine the small amount of fungus on the southern island.
"Let's push on quickly; the tide waits for no man." Mahjik ponders a bit uncertain with his memory. "Douena, did the fungus come from the boat, or the island? Did your dream say anything about that?"