Castaway on a mysterious island, an eclectic group of unlikely heroes discover something unimaginable and yet, perhaps not as unimaginable as it seems.Current Encounter Map
As people settle down to try and recover from the recent ordeal, voices are quiet. Eyes look off across the water, or stare into the darkness of the forest. Lady Fira and Sasithorn stay awake, on their feet, walking a few paces back and forth along the edge of the water. The rocks shifting and rattling beneath their feet create a soothing sound to those who find themselves drifting into sleep.
In only a few minutes, Lady Fira finds herself stopping, her mind, trying to focus on keeping a few rocks floating in the air through a simple spell, wanders, and her eyes drift closed and she seems as though she might fall asleep standing on her feet. Sasitorn creates phantom noises, strange and distance bird calls, or seal barks, to occupy himself, and the noises startle the elven lady before she has a chance to stumble and fall.
When they have stayed awake as long as they can, Sasithorn and Lady Fira wake Sorrin and Telthis.
The Beauvingian and the Holdandun wake feeling sore and tired ( they are still fatigued ) but get to their feet and begin the same steady shuffling walk. After a while the two sit down near the fire to get aqauinted, trade stories, and unfortunately, while Sorrin is telling a story about his youth, Telthis drifts off to sleep, and then without realizing how tired he really is, Sorrin falls asleep as well.
There is no third or subsequent watch. The fire slowly dies. The temperature drops to nearly forty degrees.
Everyone should make Fortitude saves, the DC here will be 12, and if you fail you suffer 1d4 non lethal damage, and wake up Fatigued. If you make the save, you wake up feeling normal, not fatigued, and you have recovered your level in hit points.
The sun rises and the morning air begins to warm.
Roll a Fortitude Save, there is no DC for this roll. The Character who rolls the best save will be the first to wake, and can wake the others, or not. Characters that are not roused will wake after a number of minutes equal to the difference between their Save and the Save of the first character who woke naturally.
When Fira does go to sleep she sleeps on the boat so as to stay relatively clean, which turned out to not be such a good idea because of the cold, of course that didn't matter much since someone let the fire die.
Vs the cold; jump start on the day:1d20 + 2 ⇒ (8) + 2 = 101d20 + 2 ⇒ (11) + 2 = 13
Male Halfling Aris 1 / Alch (Chirurgeon) 2, HP: 11/14, Init: +3, AC 14, Perception +9
Jakes wakes up the next morning, bleary eyed and shivering. Wrapped up in his cold and wet clothes, he managed to find a small depression in the sand against the side of the boat which shielded his small frame from the worst of the elements over night.
He gets to his feet, feeling a bit better for the rest, even if it was far from the noble's comforts he was used to.
Jakes surveys the beach, able to see much further now with the morning light. The other castaways lie huddled about the dead fire and the lancha. No-one else was awake.
I thought someone was keeping watch? he thinks to himself before deciding to let the others have their sleep- they were likely to need it.
Jakes wanders about the beach for a few minutes (not going too far), examining the immediate surroundings, looking for anything of interest or anything which could be used to a) make infusions/bombs or b) make food
Perception to search the area:1d20 + 9 ⇒ (14) + 9 = 23 Knowledge (nature) to examine fauna/flora etc:1d20 + 8 ⇒ (11) + 8 = 19 Appraise to examine anything found (if appropriate):1d20 + 8 ⇒ (7) + 8 = 15
When you awake, in the morning light, it becomes immediatly obvious that you cannot see anything of the island looking toward the forest. The height and density of the trees and plants obscures your vision to only a few feet into the interior.
To the left, facing the island, the beach ends in less than a dozen yards, and becomes a wall stones and hard packed earth. The ground rises, from being just four or five feet above the sea, gradually and continually in that direction, and in the water next to the island are numerous boulders that are jagged rough shaped, some are split and broken creating a rocky coast. You can see to a distance of half a mile, to the left, and the island is easily fifty feet above the sea at the far end in that direction.
To the right, the ground stays relatively level, rising to a height of about eight feet above the sea, and is densely covered with trees and other vegetation. The beach, made of small stones (not sand) grows wider to the right and is about forty feet wide for as far as you can see.
Looking left and right you can tell that the island is either not large, or that the land curves away from the sea (you could be on the narrow tip of a very long island that extends to the west?)
Jakes:
You don’t find any containers on the beach, making it impossible to create any new extracts, but you find gourds on the edge of the forest, which if selected properly, and hollowed out (you’ll need to borrow a knife from someone) and with certain plat parts and the wine from the bottles in the lancha you can make a bomb. It will take you one hour. The beach crawls will crabs of various sizes and types. You could probably pick one up from the ground without any effort. There are avocado trees, fruit trees, wild grapes and other edible plants in abundance. You do not find anything of monetary value.
Sasithorn:
The ship you were on broke up at sea and did not run aground. You see no sign of any debris from the wreck on the beach. The islands natural vegetation clearly identifies it as being one of many dozens of uncharted islands to the southwest of Ibalnd. You know from maps that you have studied that these islands are identified on maps by simple notations, and are not individually mapped. Most of the islands are smaller than one square mile in size, but the largest of them, it has said in the notes on maps, are between 30 and 50 miles across in their widest dimension. There have been “named” islands in these waters, such as “Kingman’s Dagger”, “Black Rock”, and “Jackal’s Claw”, and these names refer to legendary “hidden” pirate island bases, but no exact records are known to you of where those islands might be, or what they are like. The beach litteraly crawls with crabs of various sizews and types, and they do not seem skittish (one could probably snatch one from the ground with little effort), and the forest has avocado trees, fruit and nut trees, wild grapes, and other edible plants.
Once everyone is awake, Tessrimea hears the Holdandun say something about exploring the island, and then does not understand what he says after that. She is not sure if it is a good idea for people to wander off, but she does not say anything. When the Beauvingian mentions everyone’s need of some form of healing, she exclaims, “I’m so sorry, where was my heart? Please, forgive me and give me an hour to perform my morning prayers, and then I will do what I can to tend to the most injured among us.”
Mario wakes at Tessrimea’s gentle touch, and immediately looks around at everyone else. It seems that when his eyes fall on the red haired Basconde girl, he immediately get’s up and moves in a direction putting distance between them.
When Henrietta wakes she hugs her arms around herself tightly, shivers, and then stands and stretches her back. After she arches over backward she leans forward, and touches her toes, then performs a few interesting moves, twisting and turning from side to side. When she is repeatedly hampered by the confining tightness of her dress she becomes exasperated, and in a fit of anger she reaches down to the hem of the dress, on the side of her left leg, and tears the dress violently all the way up to her thigh. Once again Henrietta begins a routine of exercises, trying to loosen up her aching and stiff body, but there is something decidedly familiar about the way she moves.
male Wayang Eysterlun Shadowcaster 4 | AC 21*, T 15, FF 19* |HP: 23/23 | F +3, R +3, W +3? | Init +2, P +4 |CMB 0 CMD 12| 1/4 Void Points
Sasithorn returns to the group. "Well," he begins, "the ship is almost certainly gone forever, and we are on one of those little islands you see on maps so small that nobody's bothered to properly chart them - except possibly pirates. That said, this could be as much to 50 miles across, so we've still plenty to see. I second the motion of exploring when we're all ready."
I try to figure out what the deal is with Henrietta's dance number.
When she is finished with her morning prayers, Tessrimea speaks a blessing, and asks for protection for the survivors.
Channel to heal:1d6 ⇒ 4 and then moves around the group checking on everyone's condition. She touches a few of the castaways, and speaks a few words of comfort.
Tessrimea uses her Calming Touch on Lady FiraRemoves Fatigue and heals Non Lethal damage:1d6 + 2 ⇒ (6) + 2 = 8, TelthisRemoves Fatigue and heals Non Lethal damage:1d6 + 2 ⇒ (6) + 2 = 8, JakesRemoves Fatigue and heals Non Lethal damage:1d6 + 2 ⇒ (3) + 2 = 5, SasithornRemoves Fatigue and heals Non Lethal damage:1d6 + 2 ⇒ (6) + 2 = 8, WilliamRemoves Fatigue and heals Non Lethal damage:1d6 + 2 ⇒ (4) + 2 = 6 and AdelaideRemoves Fatigue and heals Non Lethal damage:1d6 + 2 ⇒ (3) + 2 = 5
After the Cleric's ministrations, Telthes states loud enough that everyone can here him. It is time to head inland,collect what little you have and prepare to move.
"Why inland? We should make this boat easily seen and clear in case someone searches for us and then we should follow the coast where we can't get lost and may possibly find fresh water more easily as flows into the sea. Besides the best chance to find people will be to find a port which will be on the coast. Any settlement will be near resources and we don't know where any are except the sea."
Fira starts examineing the boat, what can be salvaged and what can't. What rope she finds she coils, uses a minor cleaning charm, and puts it on to carry, carefully avoiding it catching her dress.
"I, uh, wait, sirs, please" the young gymnaga woman pleads as two of the men head off into the interior of the island. "Your Ladyship, what should we do?" .
male Wayang Eysterlun Shadowcaster 4 | AC 21*, T 15, FF 19* |HP: 23/23 | F +3, R +3, W +3? | Init +2, P +4 |CMB 0 CMD 12| 1/4 Void Points
"I believe we are all in consensus that now is the time to move - but dark alone knows what's in the forest proper. May I suggest we sheer the treeline along the coast? Our fruits shall be immediately available on our one hand, and exceedingly fresh entrees on the other!"
assuming reletivily normal thermodynamics when magic isn't involved; the night was chilly but this is a humid environment, therefore it won't get uncomfortably hot unless some god intervenes. So the only thing to worry about on the beach/cliffside will be mild sunburn which doesn't require hot air. At least climatewise. Storms monsters etc are still possible.
Fira thanks Tess and grabs what she recovered including the sail if there was one. Once everyone looks ready she heads to the right beckoning with her hand for all to follow.
Lady Fira – You found a short length of rope in the boat (40’), and a box with three bottles of wine, but the wine may have been taken by Jakes to make bombs, I’m not sure he is still with us. I have described the location of the island as being somewhere between 38 and 42 degrees north latitude. The planet, Hamth, has approximately the same axial tilt as Earth. It is midsummer. The nearest approximation for comparison to these islands would be the Azores (off the west coast of Portugal). It is probably not going to be hotter than 75 to 80 degrees, mild to high humidity, good change for late afternoon and evening showers.
Sasitorn:
You have a hunch that it will rain heavily today and that it will not be warm
The going is slow, but seems safe. Your group can make a speed of about 2 miles per hour. The morning is partly cloudy, and warm, but as you begin making your way along the coast, clouds build and the sky turns grey. The temperature seems to drop, a bit, and the humidity rises.
Telthis will lead, and the others will follow in a rag-tag single file fashion. There is no possibility of becoming lost, as long as you keep the ocean on your right.
After only a portion of an hour, you come to a cove. The beach, still made from small stones (there is no sand) turns sharply to the left and then curves in a gentle half circle. The other side of the cove is about one hundred yards away. It is a short detour, to follow the coastline of the cove, but it keeps you on the edge of the trees.
You continue walking. You come across three more, smaller coves, but you are making progress along the coast.
When you have walked what feels like three miles, you run into a problem.
The beach ends. The island rises nine feet above the water. The ground is packed dirt and huge rocks. The waves gently crash against the face of the cliff. It becomes impossible to stay close to the water’s edge, dangerous in fact, as the ground continues to rise. After another half mile, you come to an abrupt end. As you step out of the forest, you are on a cliff of grass and shrubs overlooking another cove. The ground is forty feet above the water here. You can see that the opposite side of this cove is only a hundred feet away, but you will have to turn to the left, head into the forest, to navigate the cove.
Once you start in that direction, there is a chance you can become lost, because you will not be able to see the ocean from the forest, you will only be able to see the opposite side of the cove, which is more forest.
You can take a break, here, forage for food (there is plenty, so no survival roll is required, and Tessrimea and Adelaide can create water) and then set out again, but whoever is taking the lead must make a survival roll to determine if the group becomes lost.
I will send out messages today to players who may have decided this game is not for them, and get back with an update on who is here and who is not
is this woods or dense jungle? Where does the cliff go? And why are we going so slow?
Lady Fira grabs a few fruit and examines the cove, when everyone is ready to move, Fira will follow the cliff to a point where everyone can get down easily, then follow the cliff back to the cove (or if it's cliff all around the cove will simply follow the cliff).
Survival:1d20 + 5 ⇒ (13) + 5 = 18
at absolute worst if nothing else works, Fira will go left for ten minutes, turn right then go for ten minutes, turn right and go till the cliff/shore or 20 minutes. Turning slightly more then 90 degrees each right turn.
Woods, a mixture of Hardwood trees, Laurels, Fruit trees, Bushes, Ground Ivy, and other plants. The cliff, here, makes a semi circle, about 270 degrees, it is forty to sixty feet above the surface of the water all along the semi circle. The woods grow right to the edge of the cliff. Walking along the edge of the cliff is not impossible, but has a slight chance for danger (collapse, soft ground). You are going slow for a few reasons, you are unfamiliar with the territory, you are not at one hundred percent of your health, there are small creatures in your group (imagine being on a hike with children, who might be enthusiastic, but cannot match your stride), some of your group may be frightened, cautious, moving with trepidation.
Your plan is a good one, but I want to remind you that you have no real way of tracking time, so the best you can do is walk for what “feels like” ten minutes (which might actually be half an hour or only four minutes, if you’ve ever walked in a strange place with no visibility beyond a few feet you might understand what I’m getting at).
You roll well enough on the Survival check that you successfully navigate around this cove without becoming lost and find yourselves now moving downhill. Ahead of you the beach comes back into view.
After walking for a couple of hours, you have the feeling that the beach has been curving, gradually, to the west, and now, in the distance, some three to five miles across the sea, you can see more of the island. You can see that the coast line continues to the west, and then curves toward the north, and you are pretty sure that there is something, a pier or other wooden man made structure, in the distance, three miles, maybe.
Your group is now on a part of the island where the beach is wide and flat (still it is mostly rocks, no sand). The part of this island that you can see to the northwest is flatter. You can still not see anything of the island to the south, southwest, or west, due to the proximity of the trees and their height in that direction.
I hope everyone noticed that Tessrimea healed some of the hit points of damage everyone was suffering this morning.
Telthes keeps a large piece of driftwood with him as he travels. Lets keep moving, when we reach the structure we will split into two groups and look for anything of value focusing on weapons, food, water and a boat. If we encounter hostile people we will deal with them as needed.
Figured telling time would be inaacurate though accuracy wasn't important. And I have done lots of wilderness navigation, hence my wonder at needing a survival check to go few hundred feet. Such a thing was easy even when I six.
"Telthas, we should should first discover if anything of value is there. If not then there is little point in harrassing hostile people and if there nice, we can get help without stealing. So we should scout out the situation first." Lady Fira continues on till about a mile away from the structure. Then calls for a stop. "Who wants to scout it out with me?"
male Wayang Eysterlun Shadowcaster 4 | AC 21*, T 15, FF 19* |HP: 23/23 | F +3, R +3, W +3? | Init +2, P +4 |CMB 0 CMD 12| 1/4 Void Points
Though several paces behind Fira and Telthes, Sasithorn momentarily surprises the others by calling ahead in response:
"We should be lucky if there are locals who aren't crabs. Of course, if there are, why should they be hostile? We are a boatfull of stranded and, for the time being, destitute gentry. If there are pirates, which there might well be, they'll have boats, and we'll only be of value to them as long as we're alive to be ransomed to our kith and kin. For the time being at least, Mr. Telthes, I'd prepare for hostility by keeping your Scepter of the Belligerent Islander at waist level at the highest. Like attracts like - that is my little riddle to you. Mark it's power."
The slim, attractive, Basconde woman looks first at Lady Fira, and then to Telthes. She holds her hands out to her sides and asks to no one in particular, "What are we supposed to do?"
"Yes, and I will go along as well, if you think it will help," the Gymnaga woman adds. "I don't think anyone should be left alone, but if you think you will be safe, here, hiding in the trees," she says to Henrietta, "then stay where you can see us, and someone will signal you if it is safe."
Lady Fira looks to the group, "Well so much for scouting. Telthas and I can from the other side everyone else can move up from but stay hidden until we show ourselves or if we start screaming bloody murder. Agreed?" She smiles at her joke and waits for a response by quicky taking a last bite out of the fruit she was eating and tossing the remains aside into a bush.
male Wayang Eysterlun Shadowcaster 4 | AC 21*, T 15, FF 19* |HP: 23/23 | F +3, R +3, W +3? | Init +2, P +4 |CMB 0 CMD 12| 1/4 Void Points
Sasithorn catches up to Telthas and Fira.
Stealth check to show off and pop up behind them before I speak. ;D
1d20 + 13 ⇒ (15) + 13 = 28
"Sounds like a plan that isn't quite good enough. I think I shall accompany you. If your plan is to employ stealth, I defy either of you to do so as the Wayang can."
“Alright then, you three go on ahead, and if Mario will stay with us, to help in case we need it, we will follow and wait for your signal,” the Gymnaga woman says.
You move cautiously, using the vegetation as best you can, along the beach toward the structure in the distance.
When you are only fifty yards away, it becomes clear that there is a pier extending from the beach out into the water some forty yards or so, and three, possibly four small shacks in a clearing of trees close by where the pier begins. You also see signs of something, probably a small single mast skiff, submerged partially in the water alongside of the pier.
You pause, briefly and watch the shacks, but there is no sign of anyone about. You move closer, and then, when you are twenty yards away from the pier, you make a ghastly discovery.
You find on the beach, behind a large piece of drift wood, the partially decomposed, charred, and eaten corpse of a Halfling. It looks as though the body has been here for a few weeks, and crawls with tiny beach dwelling organisms (craps, insects, slugs, mollusks). You wonder how it can be that the body was not washed away by the tide, and then you see why. There is a very thick leather strap locked around one of the legs of the corpse, and this strap is chained to a heavy weight. You also see signs that the hands were once bound. There are remains of similar heavy leather cuffs on the wrists.
When you are observing the body, from a safe distance, and wondering how it is that the body shows signs of partially being consumed by heat, you notice movement under the pier, and suddenly a large lizard, its body is low to the ground, its legs thick and angled out wide to its sides, charges toward you.
It is at least twelve maybe fifteen feet long. The head is long and heavy, the mouth open showing short conical teeth. Smoke rises from the mouth, and there is a reddish glow to the lizard’s eyes.
You can run away, summon help, or take some other action, but first you should determine initiative. The Giant Lizard is 50 feet away when you establish your initiative, it has an initiative of 12
Signal for the others, I will hold off the beast until then, Telthes visably readies himself for a fight, rolling his shoulders a few times a gripping his club in both hands.
I ready to attack the lizard beast if it comes at the group.
OOC, I just love Komodo Dragons, just preferably when they are in a zoo and not 50ft in the open away from me.
It is likely a salamander. Definately not a komodo.
Fira dashes out into the open towards the water, keeping the distance to the lizard open and then casts ray of frost at the lizard. Hopefully the others will see this and get the idea.
