409 - JUn 19
June 19 1300 hours.
While waiting for the trading ship Myra to turn up, the party return to the forest clearing to re-examine the mysterious red basalt statue. En-route they meet Emale the Sprite again. Aileil engages her in conversation. She confirms that she regards the statue as evil and prefers the party leave it alone.
Undeterred by this sage advice, Aradec loops a rope around the statue's neck and the party consider a range of options including burying the statue, dragging it to the coast and dumping it at sea or putting it on the Myra and tipping it over the side in the ocean depths. Sanity or inertia prevails and the bold adventurers decide sod the statue and return to the village.
The next day the Myra, unexpectedly early, turns up at the island. It is a single masted trading ship about 60-70' long. It has a crew of around 12-14 including the rotund and jovial captain Ludovic. In addition the ship has about 30 male passengers, all Scots and who look suspiciously like raiders though they are not equipped for war. When queried about their destination they respond vaguely about looking up friends in Caledonia and "searching for opportunity".
Ludovic is happy to take the party to Caledonia and initially quotes a fare of 50gp per passenger. Alaricus, using his psionic powers, persuades Ludovic to drop the fare for a flat rate of 65gp for all six characters plus Aileil's wolf. Taryn sells a bag of pearls to Ludovic for 250gp.
That evening the crew and passengers come ashore and enjoy a rowdy but good natured party. While the carousing is in full flight, Aradec sneaks aboard and examines the ship. The upper deck is strewn with bedrolls. Below deck are bundles of animal skins and small crates containing amber. There are also various barrels/crates/sacks containing provisions for the voyage and basic trade goods (salt, metal tools, wine and such like). Aradec also finds a curtained off alcove. Within is a good quality pallet and a sea chest. Assuming this is where Ludovic sleeps, the crafty Rogue picks the lock. Within he finds good quality clothes and a bag with 300gp. Torn by the conflicting desires to steal and to avoid irritating the captain, Aradec returns the gold to the chest and leaves the ship wracked with unaccustomed pangs of virtue.
The following morning the ship sails. A number of the crew and passengers look somewhat greenish after the night's revels. Ludovic confers with two of the crew. All three men are examing the overcast weather and fresh breeze with concern, but eventually agree to set sail.
The ship leaves and immediately hits a heavy swell. Aileil and Aradec soon feel very ordinary and cling to the ship's rail and dream of dry land. Alaricus, experiencing his first voyage, becomes violently ill and can barely stand. Aileil rummages in his pouches and finds a selection of herbs and leaves. He decides to have a crack of making a herbal hot drink hoping it might alleviate the mal de mer.
It proves to be an inspired thought. Aileil and Aradec sip the aromatic tea and quickly begin to feel much better. Alaricus also tries the tea. He also feels a lot better though he is far from well and secretly vows never to set foot on a ship again if he can help it.
The weather worsens. Heaving seas, driving rain and gusts make it difficult to control the ship. The sail has to be constantly watched to ensure it doesn't tear and that the mast doesn't break. Ludovic orders the rudder to be secured by ropes. The party notice crew and passengers beginning to lash themselves to barrels and railings and follow suit.
After an hour or so of battling the sea, an island comes into view. Ludovic mutters "Annhuid" with a voice tinged with concern. He feels he has to try and seek a safe anchorage to weather out the storm, but is worried about the reef at the island.
The Myra gamely batters its way to the island and comes upon a bay about 200' wide. A reef is visible with a gap of maybe 30' in the middle. On the left hand side of the reef (seen from the seaward perspective) a sinister looking two-prowed warship can be seen stuck on the reef and clearly wrecked. Ludovic remarks "What are they doing here?" and, on being questionned by the party, says the ship is a Gothic warship.
Ludovic attempts to steer the Myra through the gap in the reef and seems to be succeeding when suddenly the ship comes to a shuddering halt accompanied by the sounds of splintering wood. Crew and passengers are flung to the deck. Ludovic quickly orders crewmen over the side to secure the ship to the reef with pitons and rope while other crewmen start examining the hull to determine the extent of the damage.
Taryyn decides to head for the shore and try and rig up a rope so the party can safely leave the ship. Crossing the 30 yards or so of reef proves challenging given the waves crashing across it and the strong winds, but the uncanny dexterity of the Warblade enables him to navigate the reef with ease. As he nears the shore he notices some sort of aquatic creature swimming close to the reef, apparently trailing him.
When he reaches the beach a curious bipedal spiny sea creature emerges from the water. It has a vicious looking spiked spear in one hand and a weighted net in the other. The creature, sooned joined by a second, reveals itself as a Locathah. After enquiring about why Taryyn has come to the island, it implores him and his friends the get rid of the evil rat tailed creatures that infest the island. The Locathah adds that the rat tailed creatures are moving stones from one end of the island to the other and adds that the barrows on the north end of the island are dangerous and should be avoided. It also says another boat with big fair haired men came to the island, but many died when the ship "broke" and the survivors were killed by the rat tailed creatures.
The Locathah help Taryn to secure the rope to a rock and wish him well then dive back into the sea.
The party, using the rope, safely reach shore. The crew and passengers on the Myra stay on board at Ludovic's insistence.
As the party collect themselves on shore they notice two Kobolds moving up a 10' wide trail towards a ridge in the middle of the island.
Hester drops one of the Kobolds with a long range bow shot, but the other Kobold escapes. The party chase after the Kobold. Reaching the ridge they see the trail continuing in three directions (north, east and south). The party see, about 110' away, a party of seven Kobolds and a large Monitor Lizard dragging some sort of large stone along the trail heading north. One of the Kobolds is noticeably larger than the others and wields a greataxe.
The party surge into action while the axe-wielding Kobold starts removing a harness from the lizard presumably to free it from its stone dragging activity and free it up for player character munching. The Kobolds unleash a barrage of sling bullets. For reasons probably only clear to his psychologist, Vincenzo is leading the charge and is hit by two bullets as a reward for his curious recklessness.
Vincenzo lets loose a Sleep spell and three Kobolds decide to have a refreshing nap. Freed from its harness the lizard lumbers forward. It halts a short distance from the party and starts shaking its spiked head from side to side in preparation for a suitably dramatic charge. The three upright Kobolds start kicking their sleepy comrades to bring them into the fight.
Ailel hits the lizard with a Charm Animal, but the stupid brute is too thick to appreciate his efforts and ignores the spell. The lizard lunges forward at Taryn but misses. Before it can do any damage (naturally), Alaricus bakes its tiny brain with an awesome blast of psionic energy. Crosseyed and dribbling the lizard staggers sideways then falls dead.
The Kobold leader hurls a flask of Alchemist's Fire at Taryyn, but clearly bought the compound at a discount store as, although it hits, Taryn barely notices.
As the party surges foward to engage the axe-wielding Kobold, Vincenzo in a further display of Wizardly studliness, entraps the Kobolds in a Web Spell.
Not satisfied with that effort, the berserker Wizard hurls himself at the leader Kobold and tries to fillet him with his fearsome dagger.
The Kobold leader soon succumbs to a hail of arrows and sword blows and drops.
The party butcher five of the webbed Kobolds, but leave one for interrogation.
In response to questionning the Kobold reveals himself to be the Lara Bingle of his race and gives confused and rambling responses. As far as the party can make out, the Kobolds are engaged in moving standing stones covered in "magic writing" from a hill to the west to some barrows to the north. One stone was taken to the barrows some time ago and the Kobolds' leader, Grimmur, read the stone but then fell over and "don't talk anymore and looks funny". The Kobolds were dragging another stone when the party attacked them. Apparently three stones are left on the hill.
When asked how the Kobolds got to the island, the Kobold looks very confused. He talks about being in a cave and there was a big flash and then he was in a not that cave but a this cave. Upon further questioning the Kobold refers to some caves to the south which appears to be where the Kobolds live. There are maybe 30-40 Kobolds there plus some Duergar spellcasters (the Kobold is scared of them) and some monsters controlled by the Duergar. Further questionning doesn't help the party much and Aileil brains the Kobold moron.
Examing the stone the party behold an object about 8' tall, 3' across and 10" thick. It is solid granite and weighs about 2000 pounds. It has strange runes carved on it. Vincenzo casts Detect Magic and reveals that the stone is emanating very strong Divine magic as well as some sort of Enchantment. No-one can read the runes.
The party decide to head up the north path.
They come upon a large clearing in which four mounds are visible with stone doorways. One barrow is collapsed. Two have their stone doorways broken open, and the other still has its door sealed. Drag marks are visible in front of one of the barrows with a broken door.
The party decide to explore the caves to the south.
Passing through a rubble strewn entrance and passage they move into the darkened cave. Aradec, doing his sneaky Rogue stuff in advance of the party, bumps into a Kobold which squeaks out a warning before being shot dead. The party surge foward and find themselves in a small cavern containing 4 Kobolds, one of whom is another axe-wielding leader type. Combat ensues and the Kobolds quickly succumb. The leader Kobold flicks a copper coloured viper onto Taryn's arm from a sack and the stroppy reptile bites the Warblade inflciting a painful bite, but failing to poison him (sigh). A somewhat comical combat ensued with Taryyn screeching "get it off, get it off" (like a big girl) while the snake drapes itself in a non-grapply way on his arm and tries to bite him again. Eventually Alaricus, losing patience, fries the snake's brain. This enraged the leader Kobold but this did him no good as he was quickly cut down. As the party looted the fallen they noticed a passage leading out of the chamber. Suddenly the hackles on Aileil's wolf went up and the beast started growling and peering suspiciously down the passage.
Gosh! What next?
June 21 1400.
ENDS
Magic summary.
Vincenzo has cast Detect Magic, Web (from a scroll) and Sleep.
Aileil has cast Charm Animal.
Alaricus has used 4 Power Points
While waiting for the trading ship Myra to turn up, the party return to the forest clearing to re-examine the mysterious red basalt statue. En-route they meet Emale the Sprite again. Aileil engages her in conversation. She confirms that she regards the statue as evil and prefers the party leave it alone.
Undeterred by this sage advice, Aradec loops a rope around the statue's neck and the party consider a range of options including burying the statue, dragging it to the coast and dumping it at sea or putting it on the Myra and tipping it over the side in the ocean depths. Sanity or inertia prevails and the bold adventurers decide sod the statue and return to the village.
The next day the Myra, unexpectedly early, turns up at the island. It is a single masted trading ship about 60-70' long. It has a crew of around 12-14 including the rotund and jovial captain Ludovic. In addition the ship has about 30 male passengers, all Scots and who look suspiciously like raiders though they are not equipped for war. When queried about their destination they respond vaguely about looking up friends in Caledonia and "searching for opportunity".
Ludovic is happy to take the party to Caledonia and initially quotes a fare of 50gp per passenger. Alaricus, using his psionic powers, persuades Ludovic to drop the fare for a flat rate of 65gp for all six characters plus Aileil's wolf. Taryn sells a bag of pearls to Ludovic for 250gp.
That evening the crew and passengers come ashore and enjoy a rowdy but good natured party. While the carousing is in full flight, Aradec sneaks aboard and examines the ship. The upper deck is strewn with bedrolls. Below deck are bundles of animal skins and small crates containing amber. There are also various barrels/crates/sacks containing provisions for the voyage and basic trade goods (salt, metal tools, wine and such like). Aradec also finds a curtained off alcove. Within is a good quality pallet and a sea chest. Assuming this is where Ludovic sleeps, the crafty Rogue picks the lock. Within he finds good quality clothes and a bag with 300gp. Torn by the conflicting desires to steal and to avoid irritating the captain, Aradec returns the gold to the chest and leaves the ship wracked with unaccustomed pangs of virtue.
The following morning the ship sails. A number of the crew and passengers look somewhat greenish after the night's revels. Ludovic confers with two of the crew. All three men are examing the overcast weather and fresh breeze with concern, but eventually agree to set sail.
The ship leaves and immediately hits a heavy swell. Aileil and Aradec soon feel very ordinary and cling to the ship's rail and dream of dry land. Alaricus, experiencing his first voyage, becomes violently ill and can barely stand. Aileil rummages in his pouches and finds a selection of herbs and leaves. He decides to have a crack of making a herbal hot drink hoping it might alleviate the mal de mer.
It proves to be an inspired thought. Aileil and Aradec sip the aromatic tea and quickly begin to feel much better. Alaricus also tries the tea. He also feels a lot better though he is far from well and secretly vows never to set foot on a ship again if he can help it.
The weather worsens. Heaving seas, driving rain and gusts make it difficult to control the ship. The sail has to be constantly watched to ensure it doesn't tear and that the mast doesn't break. Ludovic orders the rudder to be secured by ropes. The party notice crew and passengers beginning to lash themselves to barrels and railings and follow suit.
After an hour or so of battling the sea, an island comes into view. Ludovic mutters "Annhuid" with a voice tinged with concern. He feels he has to try and seek a safe anchorage to weather out the storm, but is worried about the reef at the island.
The Myra gamely batters its way to the island and comes upon a bay about 200' wide. A reef is visible with a gap of maybe 30' in the middle. On the left hand side of the reef (seen from the seaward perspective) a sinister looking two-prowed warship can be seen stuck on the reef and clearly wrecked. Ludovic remarks "What are they doing here?" and, on being questionned by the party, says the ship is a Gothic warship.
Ludovic attempts to steer the Myra through the gap in the reef and seems to be succeeding when suddenly the ship comes to a shuddering halt accompanied by the sounds of splintering wood. Crew and passengers are flung to the deck. Ludovic quickly orders crewmen over the side to secure the ship to the reef with pitons and rope while other crewmen start examining the hull to determine the extent of the damage.
Taryyn decides to head for the shore and try and rig up a rope so the party can safely leave the ship. Crossing the 30 yards or so of reef proves challenging given the waves crashing across it and the strong winds, but the uncanny dexterity of the Warblade enables him to navigate the reef with ease. As he nears the shore he notices some sort of aquatic creature swimming close to the reef, apparently trailing him.
When he reaches the beach a curious bipedal spiny sea creature emerges from the water. It has a vicious looking spiked spear in one hand and a weighted net in the other. The creature, sooned joined by a second, reveals itself as a Locathah. After enquiring about why Taryyn has come to the island, it implores him and his friends the get rid of the evil rat tailed creatures that infest the island. The Locathah adds that the rat tailed creatures are moving stones from one end of the island to the other and adds that the barrows on the north end of the island are dangerous and should be avoided. It also says another boat with big fair haired men came to the island, but many died when the ship "broke" and the survivors were killed by the rat tailed creatures.
The Locathah help Taryn to secure the rope to a rock and wish him well then dive back into the sea.
The party, using the rope, safely reach shore. The crew and passengers on the Myra stay on board at Ludovic's insistence.
As the party collect themselves on shore they notice two Kobolds moving up a 10' wide trail towards a ridge in the middle of the island.
Hester drops one of the Kobolds with a long range bow shot, but the other Kobold escapes. The party chase after the Kobold. Reaching the ridge they see the trail continuing in three directions (north, east and south). The party see, about 110' away, a party of seven Kobolds and a large Monitor Lizard dragging some sort of large stone along the trail heading north. One of the Kobolds is noticeably larger than the others and wields a greataxe.
The party surge into action while the axe-wielding Kobold starts removing a harness from the lizard presumably to free it from its stone dragging activity and free it up for player character munching. The Kobolds unleash a barrage of sling bullets. For reasons probably only clear to his psychologist, Vincenzo is leading the charge and is hit by two bullets as a reward for his curious recklessness.
Vincenzo lets loose a Sleep spell and three Kobolds decide to have a refreshing nap. Freed from its harness the lizard lumbers forward. It halts a short distance from the party and starts shaking its spiked head from side to side in preparation for a suitably dramatic charge. The three upright Kobolds start kicking their sleepy comrades to bring them into the fight.
Ailel hits the lizard with a Charm Animal, but the stupid brute is too thick to appreciate his efforts and ignores the spell. The lizard lunges forward at Taryn but misses. Before it can do any damage (naturally), Alaricus bakes its tiny brain with an awesome blast of psionic energy. Crosseyed and dribbling the lizard staggers sideways then falls dead.
The Kobold leader hurls a flask of Alchemist's Fire at Taryyn, but clearly bought the compound at a discount store as, although it hits, Taryn barely notices.
As the party surges foward to engage the axe-wielding Kobold, Vincenzo in a further display of Wizardly studliness, entraps the Kobolds in a Web Spell.
Not satisfied with that effort, the berserker Wizard hurls himself at the leader Kobold and tries to fillet him with his fearsome dagger.
The Kobold leader soon succumbs to a hail of arrows and sword blows and drops.
The party butcher five of the webbed Kobolds, but leave one for interrogation.
In response to questionning the Kobold reveals himself to be the Lara Bingle of his race and gives confused and rambling responses. As far as the party can make out, the Kobolds are engaged in moving standing stones covered in "magic writing" from a hill to the west to some barrows to the north. One stone was taken to the barrows some time ago and the Kobolds' leader, Grimmur, read the stone but then fell over and "don't talk anymore and looks funny". The Kobolds were dragging another stone when the party attacked them. Apparently three stones are left on the hill.
When asked how the Kobolds got to the island, the Kobold looks very confused. He talks about being in a cave and there was a big flash and then he was in a not that cave but a this cave. Upon further questioning the Kobold refers to some caves to the south which appears to be where the Kobolds live. There are maybe 30-40 Kobolds there plus some Duergar spellcasters (the Kobold is scared of them) and some monsters controlled by the Duergar. Further questionning doesn't help the party much and Aileil brains the Kobold moron.
Examing the stone the party behold an object about 8' tall, 3' across and 10" thick. It is solid granite and weighs about 2000 pounds. It has strange runes carved on it. Vincenzo casts Detect Magic and reveals that the stone is emanating very strong Divine magic as well as some sort of Enchantment. No-one can read the runes.
The party decide to head up the north path.
They come upon a large clearing in which four mounds are visible with stone doorways. One barrow is collapsed. Two have their stone doorways broken open, and the other still has its door sealed. Drag marks are visible in front of one of the barrows with a broken door.
The party decide to explore the caves to the south.
Passing through a rubble strewn entrance and passage they move into the darkened cave. Aradec, doing his sneaky Rogue stuff in advance of the party, bumps into a Kobold which squeaks out a warning before being shot dead. The party surge foward and find themselves in a small cavern containing 4 Kobolds, one of whom is another axe-wielding leader type. Combat ensues and the Kobolds quickly succumb. The leader Kobold flicks a copper coloured viper onto Taryn's arm from a sack and the stroppy reptile bites the Warblade inflciting a painful bite, but failing to poison him (sigh). A somewhat comical combat ensued with Taryyn screeching "get it off, get it off" (like a big girl) while the snake drapes itself in a non-grapply way on his arm and tries to bite him again. Eventually Alaricus, losing patience, fries the snake's brain. This enraged the leader Kobold but this did him no good as he was quickly cut down. As the party looted the fallen they noticed a passage leading out of the chamber. Suddenly the hackles on Aileil's wolf went up and the beast started growling and peering suspiciously down the passage.
Gosh! What next?
June 21 1400.
ENDS
Magic summary.
Vincenzo has cast Detect Magic, Web (from a scroll) and Sleep.
Aileil has cast Charm Animal.
Alaricus has used 4 Power Points