With the experienced sailors aboard, assessing the damage is relatively simple. The damage to the hull is significant, but not irreparable. Repairs will take about two days. There are even enough supplies in the hold to make the repairs. That will exhaust most of the extra resources stored on board for such an event. More would need to be procured in case of another shipwreck or additional damage.
Johara and Rosie return to the deck after about ten minutes.
"It looks like we have some stores of timber, and we didn't lose the carpenter's tools. Rosie thinks we have enough to fix up a goodly amount of damage, depending on how bad the hull was hit," she reports.
Looking out over the prow, she squints a bit, then looks up. She says, "Now that the sun is coming out, I'm going to head back up the mast and see if I can get a better view of the island."
(No progress)
(Falls)
(Success)
Once up the mast again, Johara shields her eyes and tries to see what she can make out of the tiny island.
"We're still not going to be able to make any repairs out here on the reef. She has to be moved. How bad is it? Can we lever her off when the tide rises and make it to the beach?"
Fargrim nods to Sandman and gets to work on raising the sails and checking over them for any obvious damage. In short order, the sails are hauled up and secured. Afterward he begins to prep the dinghy for deployment, helping the others gather what food stores they can find and loading them for travel.
Seeing the first rays of sun break through the storm, and worried about Sandara, Nivian waits for the secondary boat being let down into the water, preparing to make landfall at the island.
Johara heaves a sigh of fatigue, then steels herself -- still shivering -- and prepares to go ashore with one of the boats.
As the crew spends their time gathering what resources they can and planning to make repairs, the storm finally passes and the water calms a great deal. The sun shines through the clouds and the temperature starts to rise. From her perch high upon the mast, Johara can see the island and a glowering fist of rock rising from the trees on the eastern end of the island.
The boat ride over to the island is hard work. The closer you get, the more the current pushes you back out to sea. Visibility continues to clear but the waters to the east of the island are vicious. As you close in on the island, you begin to see what look like still skeletons standing waist deep at various points. The eastern most side of the island is rocky mountainous cliffs which makes it difficult to land. West of the rock face is swampy terrain.
Sandman eyed the cliffs and the swamps dubiously. "This is a forbidding place."
The skeletons had him concerned. The undead were unaffected by his usual array of tricks. "Nivian, what do you think of the water here? Would it be safe for you to scout the skeletons to see if they are animate?"
"I'm pretty certain I can do that, yes. But IF they are animate, there's precious little I can do against them, so you best have some trick up your sleeves if they give chase"
If we decide to investigate the skeletons, Nivian will cast Detect Magic, and close in on them slowly, ready to turn around and go back to the boat if they stir, checking their aura's otherwise.
Fargrim eyes the skeletons with interest. "I agree, something about those skeletons is rather foreboding. We should use great caution here. Clearly something currently lives here or has lived here..."
The closer to the island that you get, the more details you can make out. The rocky cliff is some 500 feet high and covered by trees in many places. The skeletons are actually small, twisted statues made of sinew-twined scrimshaw and bones. They stand about half out of the water and as Nivian gets closer, she can see that they have been gnawed upon. They appear to have been made by smaller creatures and no two are alike.
You spend hours in the row boat circling the island and over time spot two possible locations to land; an abandoned fishing village and a beach. The fishing village is comprised of small collapsed mud huts on the northern beach. You don't see any signs of life, although a path leads away from shore and into the nearby swamp.
The towering palm trees stretch along a white sand beach for a mile or so, each around 50 feet high and crowned with a wide canopy of palms brimming with coconuts. Shattered coconuts litter the beach along with dozens of crabs.
"The village is a good sign. There must have been fresh water somewhere for people to survive here! And the coconuts and crabs will give us something to eat," says Johara hopefully. She does her best to catch some sunlight in hopes of drying out and warming up a bit, but while in the boat even that is something of a lost cause. Rowing the dinghy helps to keep her warm, at least, and prevents hypothermia from settling in its claws.
Nivian shares the details about the maritime scarecrows when they are found...possibly the handywork of the creatures who attacked the ship...if so, there could be hope for the abducted crew members-
"Aye, there must be fresh water. But the fact it seems abandoned does not make landing there a very inviting prospect to me. I would prefer making first landfall at the beach, and start looking around from there...plus a fresh coconut would make for a nice snack after all the stress in the past hours-", Nivian states from the water next to the row boat.
"People don't abandon homes without good cause. The beach is likely safer."
"I agree with Sandman. Until we know more, not sure we should stray far from the ship." she says.
Romello screeches and nods his head in agreement.
Slightly irritated, Nivian adds: "Why do you think I don't find the village inviting? We're all in agreement, it seems. I'll wait for you on the beach.", before diving down and run-swimming to the beach.
Johara nods her agreement. "I certainly wouldn't know what to look for, just point me to the safest spot and I'll help row."
Fargrim nods his agreement. "This is a strange place, though I am curious to examine it... I've not had much coconut before, but crab boiled in coconut sounds like it would be a fine feast!"
Sandman helped Owlbear row them in.
"After you drop us off, head back to the ship and report in. Rosie's going to need all hands to get the ship repaired." he said to Owlbear. "We'll signal the ship when we need picked up again."
Owlbear nods at Sandman and begins to row back to the ship after everyone has landed on the beach. As you traipse out of the shallow water, most of the crabs begin to skitter away. However three larger crabs begin heading towards you. Fargrim and Sandman are the first to notice the giant crabs.
Fargrim grins as he stares at the large crabs heading towards them. "Dinner!" he shouts as he draws out the length of his dorn-dergar as he moves to engage the crabs, twirling his dorn-dergar in a menacing manner.
Sandman moved in shoulder to shoulder with Fargrim, raising up his totemic club and using the same tactics as the Dwarf.
Sandman's caber slams down onto a giant crab as it charges him but the swing back goes wide. The crab's giant claw snaps onto Sandman's leg and clamps down hard. Two crabs charge after Fargrim but both miss as their territorial nature causes them to fight over the meal. Fargrim's chain whips back and forth and catches one of the crabs not once, but twice. It manages to fight on despite the grievous wounds.
Johara kicks up sand as she picks up speed on the beach, her feet splaying out at a slight angle to the cadence of some tune that only she hears. She spins and lashes out with her curved knife at one of the large crabs near Fargrim.
(+1 battle dance, +2 charge)
(+1 battle dance)
Fargrim slips into his battle-trance and takes a step back before sending his dorn-dergar flying towards the same crab he had previously hit!
Johara manages to slip her blade through a crack in the crab's shell opened by Fargrim. The blade pierces the creature's brain and it falls over twitching. Fargrim's chain cracks down hard on another crab and it nearly fells the beast in one strike. The gash left in the shell is wide enough to see the beast's innards but it continues to attack.
Nivian focuses her mind on the crab holding on to Sandman:"Clumsy beast. Release him like the good dinner you are"
Nivian curses the humongous crab with misfortune as the hex takes hold.
"A little help?" Sandman grunted as the crab's claw crunched his leg and ripped skin.
Beltzar charges and attacks the grappling crab, but in her care to avoid Sandman, misses the crab entirely.
Sandman's club was of no use so he tossed it aside, drew the heavy mace he carried at the small of his back and slammed down at the crab.
Sandman swings his heavy mace but the effort causes the crab's jagged claw to bite deeper and throws off his aim as he grunts mid-swing. The other crab swipes at Fargrim trying to lock it's massive claws on the dwarf, but is unable to connect.
Johara twirls away from the dead crab and makes a mesmerizing arc around its corpse as she spins first away from Fargrim, then suddenly back to come upon the second crab from behind.
She continues her spin with kukri in hand, ducking low and then lifting up until she is on the tips of her toes with the knife held up in her outstretched arms before plunging down again.
(+1 battle dance, +2 flanking)
(unlikely...)
"They seem reluctant about being eaten...", Nivian exlaims with a very melodic voice.
Baltzar claws at the crab grappling Sandman (not sure if I need to move or not, if I do ignore the 2nd attack.)
Fargrim gathers up the slack of his weapon and swings at the crab, but misses horribly....
The curse takes hold of the crab as Johara's kukri slips between a crack in the crab's shell. It spasms as it's blood leaks out and it topples over unconscious. Fargrim and Baltzar's attacks deflect harmlessly off of the crabs thick shells.
As the crab relaxed it's claws in death Sandman pulled free and swung at the last one, but his injured leg had him off balance.
The crab locks it's claw down, biting deeper into Sandman's leg. It then begins dragging Sandman towards the water.
Johara twirls once as her blade bites through the crab near her, then as she continues to spin in place, her head focuses in Sandman's direction, spotting him before suddenly snapping around in a circle with each of her turns. She crouches back down, then enters a leaping series of stag-like chasses that easily cross the sandy beach to reach the far side of the crab that's dragging off the witch doctor.
(+1 battle dance)
(+1 battle dance)
Nivian, maintaining her misfortune hex, fires a single bolt from her crossbow, trying very carefully not to hit sandman, but as a result, not finding herself aiming at any vulnerable parts of the crab, if it's armor would not deflect the shot to begin with.
Fargrim takes a step towards the crab and succeeds in slamming his weapon into the nearby sand...
Johara's strike hits and so does Nivian's bolt. The crab shudders in place, takes a few steps forward, and collapses.
You can scour about 16 pounds of crab meat from the three giant crabs.
Seeing the last crab collapse, Nivian feels the events of the last 24 hours weigh her down, fatigue creeping into her muscles and bones.
"We made landfall, and that is well, I'm pretty sure those crabs are edible, and we do have water from the storm...and while some of us don't need to sleep, most of us do. We may want to secure our inmediate surroundings, then rest a bit before moving out again. I know I feel spent from the battle against plugg, and while I burn with a desire to find our missing crew, we will be of no help to them if we can barely keep standing by the time we find their captors...it's been hours since the raid...if they are not dead by now, we can only hope that for whatever reason they were taken, they are alive a while longer."
As the crab twitches and stops moving, Johara's dance comes to a sudden end. She falls to her knees on the damp sand, and breathes heavily for several moments, shivering from cold and exhaustion, then simply crumples over on to her side, half-curled into a ball, blade still loosely in one hand and her heavily-lidded eyes barely conscious.
Sandman stood stoically after the crab shuddered and collapsed trying to drag him away. He glanced to his leg as Johara fell but ignored the blood and quickly spreading bruise. Instead of tending to himself he limped to Johara's side, kneeling to check her over.
He was careful not to touch her other than gently placing two fingers at her temple so he could feel her pulse.
"She needs rest. As do we all. Nivian is right."
Several miles to the north lies the swamp. About half a mile to the west is something that resembles a small forest maybe. It's hard to tell from here. It's roughly 2pm.
Fargrim slips out of his battle-trance and, like Johara, he falls to his knees breathing heavily. He can only nod his agreement with the others before sitting back on his heels, closing his eyes, and concentrating on slowing his ragged breathing.