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"Ah," says Hank, now bothering to glance upward to take in the lighthouse. "Ummmmm, if if if, ahhhhhh, um....I don't...ah...I don't -quite- believe that the...ah...the infrastructure of the thing is, technically, "complete".
And even if it were, it appears to be the cornerstone of the village. If we could occupy it, and get it running (neither of which are certain) wouldn't they take offense at our intrusion and lay siege to the thing? It might take some few days to attract a proper ship, and in that time, even if we can resist their force of arms, we might suffer for want of foodstuffs.
I fear that so long as the cannibals remain in their current posture, we have few options.
Can we not parlay with them? I do not mean in the normal sense, but, I could put on quite the pyrotechnic display. Then, their primitive minds in awe of superior technology, perhaps we can arrange a trade? Wherein we could barter somehow for a chance to use (and fix) the lighthouse for a period of time?
I regret being the black bird of despair here, but Roman has a good plan about using the light house, it simply needs some logistical support."
"Oh. Well, in that case... I don't know. I'm starting to think our best option might be to wait til nightfall and then attack. Don't get me wrong, I'd love to talk our way out of this, but I can't really envision a scenario that doesn't end with us in a cooking pot."
"Oh. Well, in that case... I don't know. I'm starting to think our best option might be to wait til nightfall and then attack. Don't get me wrong, I'd love to talk our way out of this, but I can't really envision a scenario that doesn't end with us in a cooking pot."
"That is of little concern. Silvio has talked his way out of numerous cook pots. However Silvio is hesitant to attack. That is a whole village. It just seems barbaric to perform an assault."
"Personally, I have slightly less compassion for things that want to make a meal out of me. I'm funny that way. Still, I can certainly see your point. I just wish I saw a better option as well."
"Why fight them OR interact with them?" Fleet asks. "Why not sneak down there and take the boats we need? The boats are shallow-bottomed enough to help us navigate the shallows around the island, but not enough to get us to the mainland. The natives will be getting their boats back regardless. I say we wait until dark, knock out a guard or two, and make a break for the shore."
As it gets close to nightfall, you begin to see the natives entering their huts and placing covers over the entrances. There are no guards or sentries posted, and you soon see why. As the last trace of sunlight disappears, the lighthouse door opens, and a score of ghouls come out and begin searching for prey. They completely ignore the natives' huts.
"Of all the things I was expecting, this was not one of them."
"Perhaps there is an opportunity here. After all, we happen to have our very own cleric who specializes in destroying undead. So assuming the cannibals aren't stupid enough to actually be in league with the creatures, perhaps we can offer our services in destroying them. I can be pretty convincing after all."
"This is great!" the necromancer exclaims. Seeing the quizzical looks of his companions, he gestures with his head at Amy. "She's demonstrated before that she can hold numerous undead at bay. While she does that, I can try to find out if these ghouls are being controlled by some mechanism - and if that is so, what's controlling them. The villagers being replaced by ghouls should actually work in our favor."
He glances at the darkening sky. "When do we move, friends?"
"I meant that the villagers seem to be hiding, leaving only the ghouls to deal with. Thus, we replaced the threat of the villagers with the threat of those ghoul Things. I wonder why they're ignoring the huts with people in them...See? Over there," Fleet points at some of the huts that the villagers are retreating into.
"Just to make sure that Silvio is on the same page. Our plan is to rouse the villagers so they can see us drive off the ghouls and then be treated like heroes?"
"Actually, I think we should compromise. We'll wait a bit and sneak into the tower, avoiding the ghouls. Once we're in, we destroy any stragglers and see what we can find. If we're lucky we'll be done and out before the ghouls come back. It can't fail," Roman said excitedly.
Fleet looks a little doubtful, but decides that the time for taking action is now, and Roman's plan is probably just about as good as any. He nods his assent. "Lead on then, sir, and I'll back you up with my zombie," he says, gesturing at the undead villager.
Moving carefully from hiding place to hiding place, you make your way into the unfinished lighthouse. Inside, you find a staircase leading upward and a large hole in the ground. Based on the myriad of claw marks and footprints, the ghouls came from the hole, which appears to lead to a series of caverns.
Roman smiles at the others.
"See? No problem."
The bard then carefully lowers himself down the hole. Once down he lights a torch and draws his rapier. Once the area is lit up he takes a look around.
Fleet looks uncertain, but swallows hard and beckons for his zombie to follow him as he crawls into the ghoul-hole behind Roman.
There's no illumination down here, but the last vestiges of light reveal a body of a somewhat overweight human male lying a little ways down one of the caverns. His belly has been ripped to shreds, but he's still moving slightly. Silvio and Amy recognize him as Captain Kovack.
"I think this fellow is still alive."
Roman croons a soft song of healing.
On a 7-9, your spell still works, but you draw unwanted attention or your magic reverberates to other targets affecting them as well, GM’s choice.
When you say "ripped to shreds..."
Hmm...
Fleet keeps his dagger drawn and his zombie between himself and the body lying on the ground. He doesn't recognize this man, not having crashed here on his ship, but he sends his ghoul in a little bit closer to examine it. If the body doesn't get up and attack, Fleet will have his zombie pick it up.
The man screams in pain when Robin's spell touches him. The magic seems to have had the opposite effect. Hopefully none of the ghouls heard him. "Kill me ... Please ..."
Roman panics and calls out in a loud whisper, "Amy! Fix it! Fix it! Fix it!"
Fleet sees Amy hesitating, and acts. "Yes, Hank," he says, as he stoops next to the flailing man's head, "it absolutely" ker-chunk, "absolutely is." quietly, the necromancer had driven his knife downward through the unfortunate man's eye socket quickly, trying to end his suffering as painlessly as possible.
With his dying breath, the man gasps, "Thank ... you ..."
Roman gulps loudly, tries to compose himself a little, but then squeaks out, "See? No problem. Shall we continue?"
Without waiting for a response, the bard continues on. He keeps a sharp -- well, sharp-ish -- eye out for danger.
Robin steps cautiously forward, alert for any trouble. Too bad he doesn't have too much experience with cave features. About ten feet in, the floor collapses under his feet. It's probably a long way down....
Roman screams out in a perfect high-toned pitch, and tries to somersault backwards.
✴On a 10+, you do what you set out to, the threat doesn’t come to bear.
Roman chuckles nervously for about 30 seconds.
"Uh, maybe someone other than me should take point."
Fleet withdraws his skull-adorned knife from the eye socket of the unfortunate man he just killed. Stuck to the tip of his blade is a lingering bit of brain matter. Without making it obvious to his comrades that he's doing it - wouldn't want to inspire any more vomiting - the necromancer slips the tip of his knife into his mouth and eats the freshly-killed brain matter off it. He then rises to his feet, chewing on the myelinated axon nerve fibers that are threaded throughout the grey matter meat, and walks to the edge of the pit that just opened up in front of the mage. "Good reflexes," he comments, his mouth still a little bit full. He swallows as he looks at the pit, then at the sides. Is there a way past the pit or does it block off the entire path?
steering a ship ... throwing a party ... beautiful exotic Varisian woman ... <static> ... a ship's wheel ... rocks ... rowing a lifeboat, ferrying the Varisian woman ... jungle ... cave ... ghouls ... pain ... Varisian woman purposefully continuing deeper underground
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The pit appears to block off the entire path. If you wish to continue this way, you'll have to find a way to span the gap.
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We waited until nightfall, when we saw the villagers in the islander village withdraw to their huts. Ghouls emerged from a broken-down lighthouse, but did not attack the huts where the islanders were. We don't know why. My theory is that there's some kind of magic ritual like Passover that the islanders know that makes them not look appetizing to the undead.
We carefully managed to sneak past them and into the lighthouse itself, where we found a hole in the ground that led to a cave. Inside the cave, we found a mostly-dead man, Captain Kovac, the captain of the ship you crashed here on, who had suffered grievous wounds at the hands of the ghouls below here.
I gave him a merciful death, at his own begging, and ate a part of his brain off my knife. When I ate part of Kovac's brain, I saw a beautiful Varisian woman that the captain had been entertaining when your ship was still at sea.
The woman survived the shipwreck alongside the Captain, who rowed her to shore. She's still alive...deeper within these caves. We're pursuing her for answers.
But first we need to find a way across this gap.
DM, is there an outcropping of any sort that looks stable on the far side of the gap? My goal is to create a lasso loop that I can hook on the far side, so I can drop into the pit partway and climb out on the other side.
There does, in fact, appear to be a rock outcropping on the far side of the chasm, but it's too dark to tell how secure it is.
Assuming we create a light source, either from Amy's divine magic or from my adventuring gear, John will turn to the zombie villager he brought along for the ride.
"Open," he commands his zombie, holding the rope, and the islander's jaw creaks wide apart, revealing black and unhealthy teeth. John puts one end of his rope inside the zombie's mouth. "Bite and hold it," he commands, as if giving orders to a pet dog. The islander obeys.
Turning to the pit, the necromancer addresses his zombie once more. "Leap the gap and crawl up to the other side," he orders him. "If you begin to fall into the pit, release the rope and fall." He holds on to the other end of the rope himself.
Who would believe that some undead have a debilitating fear of heights? Fleet's zombie walks to the edge of the chasm, looks down, ... and promptly steps back while vigorously shaking its head. Fleet feels his control begin to slip as he realizes his minion wont voluntarily descend.
Roman sighs. "Well so much for the safe way. Here take the rope," he instructs his friends.
"I have a lot of experience leaping from rooftop to rooftop - just got to pretend a jealous husband with a large sword is after me. Shouldn't be too hard. It was just last week, after all."
Roman winks at them and takes off before they can stop him. He leaps and runs along the wall to make it to the other side.
On a 7–9, you stumble, hesitate, or flinch: the GM will offer you a worse outcome, hard bargain, or ugly choice.
And just then a rock along the wall started to come loose--
Amy cast the light rote on her staff.
A rock comes loose right as you make your final leap, throwing you off-balance. Instead of gracefully landing on the other side, you're barely able to grab onto the edge of the chasm. While this definitely should be left out of any tales of this adventure, you've made it across the chasm ... minus a shoe.
"One you are safe, we toss you the rope and you tie it off.
Roman pulls himself off, and laments his missing boot. He then calls for the rope and ties it to something sturdy.
"Alright, just swing down and I'll pull you up."
"Trust exercise time!" Fleet says wryly as he does as Roman asks, dropping into the pit while holding his rope.
"An excellent leap, friend Roman", Silvio exclaims. He then looks to the zombie and then to John. "Silvio was not aware that zombies could have a mind of their own. Is this common? "
"Happens all the time," Fleet casually lies through his teeth. In truth, he has no idea, but he won't admit that.
Continuing down the tunnel, you arrive in a large underground chamber. From the bones and detritus, you're able to deduce this is where the ghouls live during the day. On the back wall are some carvings that look very old.