After lugging the goods under the makeshift shelter, Reijo begins reviewing and opening up some of their find. When he comes across the chest of coins, he tries to pretend it's locked after catching a glimpse of the shininess inside. If anyone is looking at him though, he grunts and begrudgingly opens it up.
While examining the maps, Reijo confirms his earlier suspicions with a grunt. He announces, "Well, looks like we're on Smuggler's Shiv, mates. One of the Sargavan isles, under the protection of the Free Cap'ns of the Shackles..."
He lets that name linger in the air. Though he does not speak the word "pirates," those who know the first thing about Sargava or the free Captains know exactly what they are.
Thurden hustles to get their haul under cover before scrambling to organize any and all containers out in the open to catch the rain water. 'No telling when or where we'll find drinkable water again!' He shouts over the noise of the downpour. To those who lollygag or question he's a bit more firm 'You don't want to help, gods help me I'll let you die of thirst!'
Thurden hustles to get their haul under cover before scrambling to organize any and all containers out in the open to catch the rain water. 'No telling when or where we'll find drinkable water again!' He shouts over the noise of the downpour. To those who lollygag or question he's a bit more firm 'You don't want to help, gods help me I'll let you die of thirst!'
At Thurden's bark Sunny jumps to help. Though it does seem she enjoys running around in the rain quite a lot as well.
(^_^)
As the rain, Thurden's water drama, and Sunny's nekkid running and bouncing about distract the others, Reijo pretends to continue helpfully sorting and opening up the find, but pockets a few handfuls of the coin when he thinks noone is looking at him.
"Find any keys to this fellow's manacles?" Shae calls out to Reijo. She scowls at the dwarf when Thurden starts barking orders, but her conscience reminds her that she wussed out of exploring the shipwreck, so she helps out where she can.
*Scamper, scamper*
*Bounce, bounce*
"I yam helpin'."
(^_^)
Reijo squints in Shae's direction.
"What?!" he asks, pretending not to have heard her over the combined volume of the downfall hitting the canvas tent and Thurden's hollering.
Reijo struggles to hear Sunny over the voluminous downpour...
"Yams?!" he hollars back at her. "Aye! Very helpful! Had me bloody fill of crab legs, I have! Give'em ta Waterworks! He'll know what ta do with'em!"
A few more crowns go unaccounted for in the commotion as Reijo whistles innocently to himself. Though perhaps only Sunny's elf ears can make it out, over the downpour.
Camris, we didn't find any documents pertaining to Jask or why he's in manacles? Like a warrant for his arrest and transport?
A. None of the papers you've recovered mention Jask at all.
In the chaos of trying to find containers for rainwater, you find most of your attempts drain out immediately or soak through to uselessness.
Only a chest with a rain slicker used as a liner is able to contain several cubic feet of clean rainwater.
The sun dips below the horizon and night comes quickly. The heat of the day drains away slowly, and the humidity combines to make sleep difficult to come by.
You hear the noises of the nearby jungle change to the nighttime predators, and on occasion you can hear ominous scratches on the outside of your makeshift fortress.
Those who stay up on watch are treated to a blaze of unknown constellations in the night sky sailing through the void.
As your eyes adapt to the darkness, you can see the waves crashing on the shores slowly become infused with an eerie greenish radiance, almost as if the surf were glowing.
"Don't remember seeing that green glow in the harbor at Magnimar," Shaedeen comments, ending with a yawn. She turns over, using her rolled-up cloak as a pillow.
Taking watch over from Shaedeen, Thurden squints out towards the water as he refastens the straps on his armor. 'Strange...'
At least you think that until you see one of the sailors on the Jenivere roll over in the surf and wave weakly at you.
Thurden maintains his post but watches the sailor intently, intending to awaken everyone with a shout if the person approaches.
Sunny does her best to help people settle into what, for her, is a quite natural setting.
As the rain stops she shakes her tanned self dry before skipping over to where she'd neatly folded the dress Master Gelik had so thoughtfully made for her. Once draped in it she offers a thankful curtsey once again to show her appreciation for the fellow's efforts.
(^_^)
Then some other thought pops into her head and she's falling all over Sasha appologizing for losing the pretty stuff the lass had found for her. "I iz lost all'a tha' buttons!" (;_;)
As the evening deepens she helps fashion torches out of frayed palm and grass fronds. As well as setting the camp's main fire (Fire pit. Fire place) at least going well.
She's more than happy to stay up with some one (Probably Sasha since she lost all tha' buttons) to simply gaze in wonder at the beauty of the stars.
Eventually snuggling up and getting some sleep trying to be ready for the comming efforts of the new day.
(^_^)
After dusk, Reijo squints up at the night sky. He observes the constellations, double-checking his earlier assertion of being on the north side of the isle of Smuggler's Shiv.
He beds down for the night. Sure to setup near Sasha, he at first thinks to put on the moves for another exciting night. To Thurden's delight, Reijo sees Sunny chatting with her and hesitates, grumbling to himself before giving up. He's had a long day anyway...
Instead, Reijo lights up his pipe while Shae takes first watch. He scrutinizes the lot of half-sleeping strangers as he smokes in the moonlight, wondering what Jask Derindi's deal is in particular. It occurs to him, whom among this lot is trustworthy anyway? And they could use another set of free hands...
Resolving to wait til the morning, he goes to sleep.
Thurden suddenly came fully away as strong arms reached around him and pulled him away from a rotting dead humanoid thing with a mouthfull of needle teeth.
The phosphorescent water swirled around both of you legs as Ishirou dragged you out of the water and onto the wet sand zone.
Ishirou dropped Thurden where he was as his knees wobbled and let him down.
"Yo-Kai" He intoned as he pointed out to sea and shook his head.
Seeing a number of sea-scorpions creeping towards you, he urges you back to the fort.
Sunny snuggles closer to whom ever she's snuggling and sleeping with....
Shaedeen, too, is worn out from the previous day's travails. She doesn't stir one bit from her deep sleep.
Thurden spits into the wet sand and turns back towards the encampment. He reaches up and claps Ishirou on the shoulder as they cover the distance back towards relative safety. 'Thanks for the rescue. What's a 'Yokel'?'
With open eyes, Reijo continues to softly snore. His dreams of Sasha and other treasures remain undisturbed...
*Snuggle, snuggle...*
(^_^)
"Zzzzz..."
"Hrmpf?"
Reijo blinks a couple of times, looks around.
Thought me heard somethin'...
He then falls right back to sleep.
"Zzzzz..."
'Thanks for the rescue. What's a 'Yokel'?'
Ishirou flickered a smile and said; "It means, something like 'strange ghost' or 'fantastic monster'.
"Come. We rest. Move tomorrow."
Booting aside sea scorpions, Ishirou and Thurden came up to the little fortress, swept aside the old hatchway, stumbled in and slammed it shut again as they collapsed.
This also woke the rest of the castaways.
Sunny sits up blinking sleep from her eyes at the noise of people's entering the sleeping space.
"Huh? Was up..?" She asks muzzily. (-_-)
Sunny reaches out to hug whom ever it was she'd snuggled up to for reassurance.
With one swift motion, Reijo suddenly draws cutlass and axe and sits up. He casts rapid, suspicious glances to the left and right, upwards, and all around.
"Whawuzzat?" he asks in a low voice to anyone nearby.
His adjusting morning eyes spot two figures walking in. Before he jumps up to slay them both though, Reijo's sleepy eyes fortunately recognize them to be Thurden and that other castaway.
Easing his arms, Reijo then realizes that Sunny, whose been snuggling up against him, is now giving him a big hug. Not being the subject of affection often in life, he hesitates to move, unsure of how to proceed. However, his reminiscent dreams of Sasha now make more sense...
"Uh... just Waterworks and what's-his-face, makin' a racket," he answers Sunny's and his own question.
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'There was something out there, down at the waterline. I think it ran off but it tried to lure me out. Manscape here saved me just in time. Called it a 'Yokey'.' Thurden returns to staring out at the shore.
"Manscape, aye," he says, nodding in recognition.
Pensively looking to Ishirou, "What's a bloody Yorkie doin' out in the ocean?"
Shaedeen awakens but can't make heads or tails out of the conversation going on. "Is it almost morning?"
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"Who's cooking breakfast?" the scrawny teen asks. Her green eyes widen a bit at the prospects. "Might be able to find something on this island that's better than what we've been eating on the ship for the last several weeks...."
"If he an' Manscape are gonna wake us up at this bloody hour with tales of ocean-dwellin' Yorkies, Waterworks'd better be cookin' up something spectacular!" Reijo grumpily demands as he begins to stretch.
He seems about to stand. But, he hesitates. His attention is momentarily caught between Sunny's embracing arms...
"Though this ain't bad to wake up to. At any hour. Not. One. Bloody. Bit..."
Sunny smiles and give Reijo another reaffirming hug before she too untangles and stands. Blinking as she looks about.
"Uhm... okeys... Which way tha' tide be turnin'?"
"If'n it be on'a way out there's lots'a things we can be gettin' ready fer vittles." She steps over to a clear space and begins stretching and limbering up for the day.
"Well... lets go see whut there is ta' be seein', hey?" Sunny asks brighlt before skipping out onto the beach's sands.
(^_^)
It's still the middle of the night, and the tide is rolling out. But the brilliant spray of stars across the night sky yield enough light for Sunny to dodge the barely visible euripterids (the big ones seem to come up out of the surf to go looking for food at night). But night is also when the bugs swarm out of the jungle, looking for the blood of castaways...
The rest of the night passed uneventfully. The dawn revealed scratchmarks where euripterids and dimetrodons tried to dig through the hastily constructed wooden planks to the soft flesh inside.
It takes another three days of hard work, but you eventually have a secure shelter; room enough to sleep everyone comfortably, robust enough to resist the wild animals you've seen so far, a fire suitable for cooking the food you catch, far enough away from the surf to avoid washing away, far enough away from the tree line to avoid being eaten by bugs.
You wouldn't want to pit it against a hurricane, but given the circumstances, its pretty comfortable.
Despite your comfortable base, you see signs that your fellow castaways are becoming restless...
"Well.. which way does we want ta be goin'." Sunny asks her freinds.
"Around that coast or in't tha' land?"
Sunny eyes the nearby jungle and wonders how the going will be pushing through the under brush....
Shaedeen listens to Sunny before turning to face Reijo and Thurden. "It might be a good idea to climb the tallest nearby hill to get a general lay of the land," the teen suggests. "Then we can better decide our next move."
The interior looks very hilly. It's hard to tell from the beach, but it looks like the land rises sharply to a peak or plateau about a mile inland.
Nobody really wants to go into the jungle though. When you went to cut a couple of trees, you discovered its triple canopy is very thick; with a barrier of tough underbrush of thorny plants, ropy vines, viper nettles, and a disturbing variety of fungus in the semi-darkness of the jungle floor.
More importantly, the temperature rises to 120 deg F and 100% humidity in the still air of the jungle. It makes heat stroke a virtual certainty with the work you'll have to do to hack your way inland.
Aerys threw the plank she was wrestling into place in their shelter.
"No! I'll not spend another minute here in this deathtrap!
She turned and glared at the rest of the castaways.
"I remember from my studies Cheliax made an attempt to settle this island a century ago; and if they found a way through the reef, that is a way off this island!
"I don't know about all of you, but I have a career. I have a SHIP waiting for me in Eledar, but it's not going to wait forever!
"I'm out of here!"
She started gathering her stuff into a backpack.
Ishirou shrugged and started packing to go with her.
Sasha sighed as she looked at the sprawling fortified base they had spent most of a week construction.
"Well, she's not often right, but when she is, its a bullseye.
"C'mon loverboy; We'll just stash what we can't carry in here, come back when we need to hole up for a while." She said, beckoning to Reijo.
Jask looked alarmed.
"Hey. Wait! How am I going to keep up shackled like this?" He asked, holding up his manacled arms.