A number of your crew engage in healing themselves and allies.
★ --- ★ --- ★ --- ★
Then Gnimish uncorks his potion and boldly drinks it down.
Suddenly, Gnimish is standing on the deck of a ship in full battle with the Orca, but he is taller than normal, with green muscles and a mermaid tattoo on his forearm. The sensation is so vivid that it takes Gnimish a moment to recall that this is someone else's memory.
An amurrun captain rolls under the Whippoorwill's mast as it comes crashing down, and the Captain yells, "Yea gods, is there no stopping this whale?!" Before you can answer, an orca's fin sweeps you off the deck and into the icy salt water and you are dragged under, drowning.
★ --- ★ --- ★ --- ★
Coracle Jibbs also down his potion, daring the memory to come.
A lightning bolt shoots from the clear skies and hits a lightning rod. A scant second later, the thunder booms overhead. Captain Atyi calls, "If ye value your lives, lock the rod into a chest!"
The distant figure of Abendego's Squall is far off from the ship but approaching quickly and your heart cannot stop pounding.
★ --- ★ --- ★ --- ★
Seeing Chirrit abstain, Jig drinks Chirrit's memory potion as well as his own. Alas, drinking those potions together so close in time loses the efficacy of the second, and he is only able to retain the first memory he drinks.
This recollection is hazy, and the body that Jig is in is a blur. But one item remains in clear focus. He sees a lightning rod being carried to the Whippoorwill. Its journey starts on an altar within a temple, through an underwater passage out of it, and then back onto the ship.
★ --- ★ --- ★ --- ★
Keri's memories are crystal clear as she drinks her potion.
Keri finds herself in the body of a still-human Averill Quint, as he stares at a strange circular lock on the door. He moves the rings around but clearly fails to unlock it. Eventually, he calls to the crew. "Lads, start searching for a second entrance! We'll get in, one way or t'other!"
A moment later, a second memory comes to Keri on the tails of the first.
The memory shows the Whippoorwill landing on the Isle of Claws and Terror. The island is barren of all life. Not even bird roosts occupy the trees.
From the crow’s nest, the cry of “Land!” carries over the deck. Sailors repeat the call as Calisro Benarry pulls a spyglass from her belt. She lowers it with a smile and says, “Get ready to drop anchor. We’re making landfall.”
The memory fizzles on the final potion, but you have found more than enough memories to help Calisro know something of what happened.
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Chirrit listens to his allies describe their visions. A lightning rod? Seems like more of a liability to have than a discovery. But I guess Calisaro knows what she's doing...
That night, the kobold curls up tightly in a hammock belowdecks. The ocean air chills him uncomfortably. His sleep is fitful, perhaps shaken by the dragon's words...
Chirrit is walking around on deck when Eando Kline comes up beside him. There sailor the leader says, pointing to something out in the distance. Do you see that?
Chirrit looks out, but sees only open ocean. He turns back to ask Eadno for another detail, but the Sealer's grin is... off. His face begins to MELT down, and Eando's form collapses into that of an ooze. The Eando-ooze starts sklortching towards Chirrit, and the kobold runs up to the foredeck. He see Gnimmish and runs to the gnome. But as Chirrit lays a hand on him Gnimish's body collapses, and out of the mage's prone form emerges a spectral figure - a man in hellish black armor and a shaved head brandishing a flaming mace.
The kobold turns away as the ghost starts laughing. Head turning to and fro, everyone on the deck starts to shift and transform as his eyes land on them. He begins to panic, but then he hears Keriassa's voice here, over here! Turning, a cat is talking to him in the bard's voice we can hide through he-
And then he wakes up
|
Coracle dreams about one of his first few Pathfinder missions, in the accursed land of Nidal. He had not given the gods much thought before then, but was deeply offended by everything he learned about the oppressive Kuthite regime, and very impressed by a Desnan priest who worked in secret to resist it. This inspired him to learn more about the Song of Spheres, and the catfolk sailor found the goddess of luck and travelers very much to his liking. She is also the goddess of dreams, so upon awaking, Coracle found himself oddly comforted by the reminder of surviving that earlier harrowing mission.
|
The wait.
Keri's slumber leads to one of her most common dreams, if you want to call it a dream.
She finds herself back in her childhood home, siting cross-legged in her bed. Comforting herself with one of her toys that her father made her. She can hear the muffled voices outside her door and they continue for some time, until the silence of the night is pierced by the town's warning bell.
She can hear the quick shuffle of feet, quickly turning to boot scuffs in the hallway just outside her door. She gets up herself and slips on a pair of house shoes and flings the door open. Her oldest brother, Thereus rushes by - bow in hand, followed with fumbling steps by Theclin who is just a few years older than her. He is even still shorter than the bow he wields, but she knows he has been getting better with it (not as good as her, though - she thinks).
Her father is already outside, calling out to the neighbors to fall in line when the screeching howls and chants enter the square just beyond the tree-line. The same square where just this morning Keri sat playing cards with her friends after pottery lessons.
Before she can don the jerkin her father bought her for her sixth birthday or grab her carving knife, the screams commence... she recognizes her mother's among them. Her father's not long after...
She awakens at once - as she usually does at that point in the dream - and looks about the room for familiar faces. Seeing her new adventuring party enjoying their slumber, she focuses on her own breathing and after a few long, calming ones, settles back into her bunk to await the Isle ahead.
Eando stares over the sea as an isle draws nearer. Calisro stands next to him, gripping the railing as though she could make it cut through the water faster with sheer will. Just behind the Snapdragon, a monster of a ship gathers speed. Its sails fill with gusts of wind conjured by magic.
“This is it,” Calisro says with a grin, “It’s time to prove to these demons they can’t outrun us!”
Eando shakes his head and chides, “And then we’ll finish the Whippoorwill’s mission. That’s what we’re after. I’m worried we’re about to unseal a dark force that shouldn’t be disturbed.”
Calisro laughs and claps the other Pathfinder on the shoulder. “If demons want whatever’s on this isle, we can’t let them have it,” she says. “Checking off our centuries-old to-do list is an added benefit.”
“Listen up,” Captain Benarry says while pointing to a map. “We've need to establish our foothold on that isle before this other ship does. I don't know what they want, but it can't be anything good. Once you make landfall, keep one step ahead of them. We need to establish supply lines, hold any strategic points, and get our people on the ground first.”
Making Landfall
The isle rises from the sea. Without map or other preparations, making landfall is an exercise in luck.
Chirrit pushes forward spectacularly, but he needs a little bit of help still! Who can pitch in?
And the group pushes forward toward the next obstacle!
The isle's rocky outcroppings and dense shrubs make travel hard going.