Invasion of the Body Snatchers

General Summary

Battle for the Corpse

Humphrey was, as the young girl had said, very very dead. She bent over the body and picked up Humphrey's cyphers. Then she began to drag the body inside the treeline. Cooper stopped her, or at least tried to. The girl's ability to shapeshift and use sharp fangs was a slight deterrent.
"We need to get the body inside the treeline before the birds come back!" The girl explained. But Cooper, and then Tala, continued to argue about it. As the girl had predicted, one, and then two and three caprimags swooped across the sky. Cooper sighed. Nearly everyone in the group readied for combat. The party fought well and Chloe dealt the final shot. But while they were fighting, the two serval cats had drug the body into the treeline. Teju and Tala had gone with them.
After the conflict, Brute looked about for Humprey's corpse. It had disapppeared. He and Cooper followed the trail of broken leaves to the two servals. Brute took a step toward the servals and ripped the corpse from their mouths.
"We need to bury it next," the small girl tried to explain again. Seeing the sense in this suggestion, the party did just that. Alatsar gave a tearful eulogy over the shallow grave of his friend. Then they all went back to camp on the beach to pack up. They traveled inland around midday to catch up with Shanna, Barlow, and Maccabeus.

A Wise Old Bird

That morning, Maccabeus had decided to travel back to the main party. Unfortunately, he disappeared into the rainforest entirely. Shanna and Barlow (who was still griping) continued their descent down the mountain and across the rugged terrain to the source of the campfire they had spied from the peak.
After five hours, Shanna noticed the flapping of wings behind her. Barlow noticed it as well. If the man could've hid his head inside himself like a turtle, he would have done just that. As it was, he was already loudly decrying his mistress' lack of sense in trudging naively along through a dangerous and unfamiliar terrain. But Barlow was not a turtle. So he too turned around and saw a magnificent bird around ten feet tall alight on a large stone near their path.
"Good day, travelers," it said amiably.
"How can you talk?" Shanna asked. The bird thought.
"I've always talked... for the thousand or so years I've been alive. Why do you talk?" It replied. "Anyway, I'd be glad to trade technology or information, small one."
Shanna explained her backstory and the quest for the scroll at the center of the island to the bird, much to Barlow's dismay. The bird cocked its head.
"Are you sure the scroll didn't say to go to the center of the Rayskel Cays? It's a circular archipelago, you know. You're on the island of Darnali currently and the center would lead to a village of some sort. But the center of the Rayskel Cays is a giant whirlpool. Very dangerous indeed."
Shanna thought about this new information and tried to ask a few more questions. But the only other gift the bird gave was a warning...
"Watch out for civilization. Outsiders are not always welcome."
And with that, he flew off.

A Rainforest Reunion

By nightfall, the bigger party caught up with Shanna and Barlow. Alatsar and Chloe had bonded earlier that day over rum and were fast friends. Soon everyone was catching up with each other while sitting around a roaring fire. All except Brute. He stood near the edge of the rainforest clearing. Dorian requested him to relax and eat some food. He did so grudgingly but reminded Dorian that he only needed to eat every three days. He had already eaten earlier, he curtly explained.
Meanwhile Tala had asked the young girl what her name was. Tejumola, or "Teju" for short, was her answer. Teju sat near Tala around the fire and scrunched up her face a bit in confusion over the travelers. They weren't asking the right questions at all. They assumed too much. And they had the nerve to think her small and weak. How rude! To comfort her, her siblings in serval and caracel form came into the clearing and curled up around her feet. It was well she had the bolstering, for then the questions began.
"Who are your people?" "Why can you shapeshift?" "Why do you have so many cats?"
Teju replied the best she could. Finally, after arguing between Cooper and Dorian (as well as drunk remarks by Alatsar), she explained that her people were called the Guardians and protected the island of Darnali. They could also shapeshift into different animal forms. And finally, she explained that the source of the campfire was a village named Vonnai. The group looked suspicious but in the end agreed to go the next day.

The Outsiders

Vonnai was a beautiful sight. The sandstone buildings were works of art, sculpted in rounded cones, nestled into the rainforest. The party crossed a ravine via bridge and came into the walled village. The humans were met with stares and gasps. Soon a blue-skinned man with white hair rushed up to Teju. He spoke in a language that none of the party could understand. Teju had to translate.
"Teju! What have you done by bringing Outsiders into our village! They should be shipped off to Omaris at the north point of Darnali!"
"But Cerul, they know about the scroll!" Teju replied. Immediately his gaze lost some of its blazing intensity. He spoke in a calmer voice that was filled with curiosity.
"They spoke of the scroll? This is rare. Perhaps this is a matter for the Adé (queen), your mother."
Teju agreed with Cerul. Dorian, who had a near supernatural talent for deciphering languages quickly, had listened intently to their conversation and the conversations around him. Little by little, he was able to translate what Cerul and Teju were speaking about.
"They must be blindfolded if we are to use the portals to travel to Kinider. It would take us weeks to walk there."
Dorian began a conversation with Cerul, much to his surprise. Meanwhile, Teju informed the group of their plan. Cooper would have none of it.
"I'm tired of being treated like an idiot and told ultimatums. I'll not wear a blindfold."
Dorian translated for Cerul. The Guardian raised an eyebrow.
"If he will not submit to the blindfold then he will be shipped off to Omaris. No outsiders can wander unaccompanied upon Darnali. You know that it must be kept pure," he told Teju, who relayed it onto Cooper.
Cooper put up a little more resistance, earning more bad favor with Cerul.
"The humans who landed on this island stole our young, looted our villages, and killed our people. Yet you ask to be let to go free? No, it will not e so. I do not trust your kind."
Shanna stepped in and persuaded Cooper to wear a blindfold. Alatsar drunkenly slurred that he didn't need a blindfold at all.
"There's no way I'll remember any of this!" He said loudly. Everyone ignored him.
Soon the party was taken, blindfolded, to the portal. They felt the cool breeze of a subterranean cave, the lapping of water over their feet, and finally the darkness at the rim of their blindfolds turned into light.
They saw a city made of golden buildings and expertly designed spires and roof gardens. Waterfalls splashed down and formed small and arranged canals in the street. Animals that the group had no way to identify flew, roared, scurried, trotted, and prowled throughout the street. A few humanoids, tinted in blue or green, also walked among them. Cerul led them into the palace, where the interior was filled with graceful ivory staircases rimmed with gold leading to green-tiled floors containing trees and platforms and perches. The party ascended a few of these and then arrived inside the throne room. There a regal leopard lay in the middle of the circular chamber with smaller cats about her.
"Teju! Where have you been? I told you to stay inside the city," the Adé said. But then her gaze fell to the party of humans accompanied by Cerul.
"And why are these outsiders not sent to Omaris?" she asked. Teju wilted a little.
"They mentioned the scroll!" she said. The Adé' looked curious. Teju began translating the conversation to follow while Dorian spoke with the Adé of his own accord.
The party found that the scroll's message actually pointed to the swirling whirlpool in the middle of the Rayskel Cays, not the center of the island. She also spoke of a second line that her historians, the tribe of Hárúna at Teln, had discovered. Together, the cryptic message read thus:
Unify the islands by seeking the center. Find the three stations and carefully enter.
The first station was at Augh-Chass, an island off the coast of Darnali that the Guardians believed to be haunted. The other two were unknown.
Brute asked the Adé if she would help or hinder them. She replied that she would help them by providing a large outrigger canoe for transportation if the party wished to travel around the archipelago.
Dorian asked the Adé to consider becoming an ally of Ghan. She reminded him that many of the humans that had landed on their shores had been seafarers from the coastal nation. She would not trust him, no matter how much he wheedled and pleaded. Finally, Alatsar interrupted by asking about any bounties that might be on the heads of some infamous criminals. The Adé asked him to catch "Radnyck the Rabble-Rouser" on Edelmid and promised a reward.
Finally, the party had their questions answered. They also received a map of the archipelago. After a few days of learning how to sail an outrigger canoe, the group loaded on their supplies and provisions and prepared to set sail for Augh Chass! Teju and her siblings slipped onboard when the Adé wasn't looking.
It was on to the haunted island of Augh Chass!

Out of Context Quotes of the Night

OH MY GOODNESS GUYS THERE'S STILL A DEAD BODY IN FRONT OF YOU
"That's five points of cool damage."
"The creature flies back up shaken, but not stirred."
"You offended the sky and it is very insulted."
"Congratulations, you now possess a dead body."
"Threee days? That's gonna be a big poop."
"Death, madam."

Report Date

23 Feb 2021