The Mysterious Island

General Summary

Prelude

King Laird of Ghan pondered with himself the matter of war with Draolis. His advisors in his council chamber were talking amongst each other and consulting charts and maps. The maritime trade-centered country-state hadn’t much of an army. Draolis, however, had legions of troops to spare in bloody conflict. Suddenly a scribe entered the war room. With a bow, the silver-haired ancient placed an aging, yellow scroll before King Laird. Laird opened it and found an incredibly old record of an unexplored island to the east. “That island had always been shrouded in mist,” he thought. None of the merchant fleet who had ever gone there had returned. Indeed, rumors of shape-shifting demons abounded in old wives tales about that place. Still, this long-hunted-for scroll described a secret so powerful that it could unite kingdoms. If only Laird knew what it was, he told himself glumly.
The young ruler sighed. He knocked over his glass of water as he reached for it. To his chagrin, water flowed over the parchment, completely submerging it. Laird gaped. The water had revealed a strange paragraph written in the top right corner.
There was a cryptic message written in an ancient war code. It read something like this...
“Unify the islands by seeking the center.”
Laird thought about the group of miscreants sitting in the dungeon. Maybe they could be the ones to discover the secret and bring peace to the near-erupting conflict between Draolis and Ghan? If they failed, Laird would do things the hard way. Still, it never hurt to try. He snapped his fingers and immediately an advisor came to him.
“Those prisoners in the dungeon? Have them fed and clean by the morning. I’m going to send them to the island. They may be our salvation… or I will have wasted a good ship and made an error.”
“Let it be done, m’lord,” the advisor said. He bowed and then left the room.

The Players

Humphrey
The Brute
Alatsar Greth
Cooper Crock
Rose Sailyar
Tarla Tartali
"Mack" Maccabeus Matthias
Dorian Van Baelsar III and his companion Frederick Sinclair Von Covington the 27th
Shannanora Ellabelle Kh'arasthian Uma-larinom Northinghamfordshire, aka Shanna North, and her companion Barlow

The Mysterious Island

It had been weeks since the prisoners were herded onto a small trading vessel and stuck in the stinking underbelly of the ship. The captain, a no-nonsense seafarer named Veran, manned a small crew. Daily, the ill-fated drawer of the short straw ventured below deck to empty the waste pots and deliver ship’s rations and fresh water to the prisoners in the brig.
Those on good behavior had been allowed to get fresh air on the main deck at key times. The last time one of the prisoners went above-deck, they saw the captain’s face drawn tight with worry. The ocean, normally calm to this point, had grown perturbed and lashed out with stronger waves than before. Instead of the brilliant blue of the sky, they saw a grey and rippling veil in its place. Veran immediately began barking orders to the crew at the sight of rain on the horizon. Looking portside, they saw a towering barrier of mist for as far as your eye could see. The captain seemed to be trying anchor the ship and commanded the crew to take out the lifeboats.
Amidst the chaos, every captive was all led, tied and gagged, onto the deck. By this point, the rain had hit the ship and lightning struck the horizon. Thunder echoed moments later.
Every captive was pushed onto the lifeboats and set adrift toward the giant wall of mist. Veran sought to steer the ship away from the barrier but the last thing that was noticed about the ship was that it seemed to be caught in an unseen current...
By the time the group made it to shore, it was day. They saw a coastline stretching as far as the eye could see. A rainforest grew a mile inland. A mountain rose in the distance.
The group had no food, no water, and no weapons. They only possessed the clothes on their backs.
Brute immediately started walking toward the center of the island. His single-minded focus was to find the king's scroll directly.

Finding Resources

Alatsar Greth immediately began looking for the ship's wreckage. He managed to find the wrecked hull a few miles down the shore. Saiylar asked Brute to come back and move the wreckage aside so they could get inside. It was quick work for the 8 foot tall strongman! The entire party was thankful to retrieve their weapons and cyphers. There were even a few bottles of rum that made it safely to shore. Alatsar and Humphrey carried these gladly.
The two began to make a shelter and a campfire while the rest of the party split ways temporarily to gather resources. While the group worked, they spotted four jungle cats watching them curiously from the rainforest treeline. The caracal, two servals, and a young ocelot scurried away if approached, but otherwise did nothing but sun themselves and view the party's progress.
Cooper Crock, Dorian van Baelsar the III and his companion ventured into the jungle to find some meat to roast over the fire. At a nearby water source, two kissing fawns pranced around them and tried to nip them playfully with their tentacle, maggot-like mouths. Cooper merely shot one in the head while the other fled in panic. He, Dorian, and companion brought the meat back to the camp!
Meanwhile, Saiylar desperately wanted to look at the rainforest foliage. Tala decided to come along to look for tea leaves. Brute followed Saiylar immediately upon request. The three found a beautiful waterfall with broad-leafed plants growing profusely about it! Saiylar quickly identified the safe plants to eat. Tala spied some berry bushes across the pool of water but looked dubiously at the rocks she would have to use to cross. Grumbling a bit, she joined the others to walk back to camp. They also brought back fresh water with them!
Shanna North decided to make her own path, literally. She and Barlow, who was grumbling the whole way, made their way from camp to the highest point they could reach - a nearby mountain! Maccabeus accompanied them out of concern for their safety. They managed to cross lava rocks and climb up a rugged landscape to reach the peak! From their vantage point, Shanna could see smoke from another campfire far out along the shore! It was easily ten miles away. Still, she was satisfied with her next destination. As night approached, she, Maccabeus, and Barlow camped out next to a waterfall.
Back at the camp, Humphrey and Alatsar realized that it was a good thing they had built a shelter! No sooner had the group scattered to forage and explore than three winged caprimags flew across the beach, looking for food. Under the cover of of the makeshift lean-to, the Humphrey and Alatsar remained hidden.
That night, the group gathered around a campfire in one area or another. They took watches but saw nothing amiss. As the eight hours passed, morning dawned.

Danger on the Beach

The next day, Shanna North, Barlow and Maccabeus continued their walk down the mountain and toward the smoke signal! Although Shanna was gutsy, she was not entirely knowledgeable about wilderness survival. The path she led by breaking branches, bushes, and disturbing animals could be easily tracked.
Back at the beach, the same jungle cats were still watching the party from a distance. Saiylar and the Brute began to catch fish in the ocean. Humphrey was drinking rum. The rest of the party were fiddling around the camp and building tools for survival.
Suddenly, the winged caprimags came soaring across the sky again! Seeing the people on the beach, the beasties attacked! The party assembled to fight them off. Cooper and Alatsar almost got carried off but were saved by spectacular ingenuity on their part. Within a few minutes, two of the caprimags were killed and the other flew off in fear.
During this time though, there was a fight within a fight. Tala, who didn't like strong drink, made a molotov cocktail with a bottle of rum and prepared to punt it into the air toward a caprimag! Humphrey couldn't believe Tala's foolishness, wasting good liquor! He immediately tried to wrest the bottle from Tala's hands. Unfortunately for him, he lost. Tala swiftly kicked the bottle toward a caprimag! It burst into flames and had to dive into the ocean to extinguish the fire!
Humphrey muttered to himself and decided to put his skills as a thief to good use. He continued to plague Tala for the rest of his life by stealing a shoe or her gunpowder. He was a general nuisance and Tala didn't like it one bit.
Regardless, after a few minutes, both the fight and the fight-within-a-fight ended victoriously! Realizing the danger of staying on the beach, the party realized they would have to venture inland into the rainforest to stay safe from future attacks!
Before that could happen, Humphrey noticed a strange-looking flower on the edge of the treeline. It had appeared suddenly. Throwing all caution aside, he ran toward the flower! But to his dismay, the flower poured forth noxious fumes from its center. Humphrey choked and fell to the ground, nearly dead!
Cooper and Alatsar, seeing the trouble, immediately rushed toward Humphrey. Cooper tried to grab Humphrey but immediately inhaled the gas as well. Alatsar threw a cypher that produced transportation bubbles! Immediately Humphrey and Cooper were surrounded by a bubble that floated them out of the range of the noxious gas. Cooper was all right but Humphrey was...
Humphrey was not half-dead or mostly dead. He was all dead. The noxious fumes had killed him too quickly. Alatsar let out a manly tear and bent over his drinking partner's dead body. He saw a thin sliver of mist emanate from Humphrey's chest. Alatsar quickly collected the mist in an empty rum jar and corked it. He felt a happy presence, as if Humphrey wasn't entirely gone. He would always be there in spirit.
In the chaos, the caracal and two serval cats had fled. But the ocelot crept closer to Humphrey's body. Cooper leveled his blunderbuss at its head while Tala threw a rock at the jungle cat! But to everyone's surprise, there was a flash of light.
Instantly, instead of a young ocelot, there stood a girl barely in her teens. She bent over Humphrey and said, "oh yes, he's very very dead," in a certain voice.
Enter Tejumora, a shapeshifter of the Guardian tribe of Darnali!

Notable Quotes of the Night (out of context)

"If that man put a piece of coal under his armpits, it would take one flex for it to become a diamond."
"Your shot misses and hits the sky." "...with a splat." "How much damage does the sky take?"
"Saving spreadsheet...cyphers missing...acquired ghost...."

Report Date

17 Feb 2021