Far Isles Session #10 - Fun with Musclebound Jerks

DRAMATIS PERSONAE:
Abdul el Abdul (Fighter 1)
Azimer (Calmonari 2)
Chaff (Vivimancer 2) with henchman Herb (Swashbuckler 1)
Einer (Fighter 1)
Villius Paticus (Cleric 1)

The two muscled guides lead the party westward a short distance. A few hundred yards beyond the plume they came to a point where the ground sloped down towards the waters edge. Tucked in below the brow of this hill were the ruins. They showed distinct signs of having been forcefully or explosively destroyed, as opposed to simply having fallen to the ravages of time. Descending the hill, the party could see two tall cyclopean pillars were the only extant structures on the surface. These, however, stood just outside of an opening in the side of the hill. There, as the sky began to darken with the setting sun, the glow of firelight was visible. Their guides led them into this room, paying especial attention to Abdul el Abdul and Einer. The rest of the party was permitted to obediently trail along behind. Inside the room were another half dozen of the muscled, shaved and naked men. They were flexing muscles, wrestling, and otherwise showing off feats of strength. Behind them against the east wall was a low stone dais, topped by a series of lit braziers and a three foot tall idol of jade and gold. The idol depicted a naked human form, muscles grotesquely swollen, eye's bulging and teeth set in a grimace. As the other muscled men gathered round, the two guides led Abdul el Abdul and Einer to stand in front of the statue and presented the fighters to their god, Manakata. They insisted that the pair join them in the rituals of Manakata. Questioning what that involved, they were told they must raise the idol above their heads. If successful, Manakata would present to them a vision of a task they must complete to gain the favor of the god. And Manakata's favor would make them more physically powerful than they could imagine!

While this was going on, the rest of the party stayed back and scoped out possible escape routes, including doors in both the north and south walls. Chaff also noted the sand covered floor in front of the dais was stained with blood and scattered bits of human flesh. They were also a little troubled to see some of the muscle men sizing them up and pointing; nothing about the situation made them feel safe.

Abdul el Abdul began questioning the men, trying to pry information about who they were (or rather had been), and what may have happened to the Duke and his entourage. Piecing together bits and hints, it seemed the muscle men were the remnants of the crew from the Dukes ship, and that the Duke and his retinue had chosen not to join them in worship of Manakata. Instead they had fled to some other, unknown place, on the island. The men began now began to get more aggressive with Einer and Abdul el Abdul, pushing them to join the rituals. The two fighters tried to stall, saying they must go away and prepare for the rituals. It took convincing, but the muscle men agreed to let the two go, but the rest of the party would have to stay in the temple as hostages.  That wasn't what the party wanted, so Chaff decided to take matters into his own hands. Passing whispered signal to the rest of the party to stand ready, the stubby vivimancer  began casting a spell and dropped a spore cloud on their gathered foes. The choking cloud dropped more then half the cultists of Manakata, incapacitated, to the floor. Those unaffected, however, advanced with fists raised and an angry growl. Herb flicked out his rope and tripped and entangled a few, but the party was soon within melee with those who pushed through the obstacles. Herb and Azimer received solid punches to the head, Herb to the point where he fell stunned to the floor. Crawling out from under his henchman, Chaff dropped a second spore cloud to covert the party's retreat. Abdul el Abdul had already taken off, followed closely by Villius Paticus (after his attempt to hold person was a bust). Azimer looped to the north, headed for the comforting embrace of the sea in that direction. That left the unconscious Herb, the stubby Chaff and new guy Einer. The fighter grabbed the tiny vivimancer, and with all his strength tossed Chaff as far as he could, giving him a head start and a chance to escape. Unfortunately, as Einer himself turned to run, he received a couple of solid blows to the back of the head and dropped unconscious next to Herb.

Meanwhile, the rest of the party manged to outdistance their half-hearted pursuers and gathered back near what they now discovered was a steam plume. Chaff sent his familiar, "Dirty Bird", back to the temple to see what had happened to Herb and Einer. By this point, the two had been stripped of all their belongings, trussed up hand and foot, and lay on the ground in front of the idol. Two men stood guard over the prisoners, and other clustered around beating  crude drums. A pair of the cultists were on the dais, ready to begin the rituals. The first was not able to lift the idol. But the second, with screams of praise to Manakata, lifted the gold and jade statue above over his head. A look of rapture crossed his face, and he slammed to idol back onto the dais. Pointing at Einer, the favored of Manakata spoke: "The great Manakata has deemed that you must die by my hand!"

Einer was unbound and shoved into a circle of the cultists, where he faced off against the favored of Manakata. The two circled and jabbed at each other, both landing blows. Einer received a hard hit and almost went down, but landed a powerful blow under his opponents jaw, cracking his neck and shattering teeth and bone. The favored of Manakata went down with a thud, and the rest of the cultists of Manakata fell into shocked silence. Einer took advantage of this, and with a shout insisted he was favored of Manakata, and must be allowed to leave to prepare for his turn in the ritual. The cultists recovered quickly however, and with a resounding howl of rage rushed at Einer to pin him down and bind him again. The naked (and therefore unencumbered) fighter leap up on top of the idol, vaulted over the crowd converging on his, and took off into the night, leaving poor Herb behind. He dodged the once more half-hearted pursuit, and rejoined the rest of the party at the steam vent. There, Abdul el Abdul provided him with a dagger and a sack to wear, as the question turned to "What next?" Obviously the Duke was not with the cultists, so they set their eyes on the two towers.

By the light of the rising moon, they trudged to the easternmost tower, the one with an opening near the base. Dirty Bird was sent up on another reconnaissance mission, and through the birds eyes, Chaff could see several more openings further up the tower, as pair of ledges or exposed platforms near the top. One of which led to the bridge connecting with the second tower.  Seeing no other easy way in, the party formed up and marched through the opening in the base of the tower. There they found a room full of gulls and the overwhelming (and to Azimer, home-like) smell of fish guts and bird droppings. Amid the screeching and circling birds, the party gave the room a cursory glance before heading through the opening in the west wall.  In this narrow room they found a row of four large stone statues, crudely human  but with oddly alien features. On the north wall a pair of enormous circular eyes gazed on the party. Chaff went closer and gazed back, which sent a chill down his spine as it felt like his muscles were starting to turn to stone.  Wanting to put that hazard behind them, they passed on through another opening in the north-east wall and into a room filled with a tangle of desiccated, thorny vines and a circular stairway going up. Swiftly they climbed the stairs into another room where the north wall glittered in their torchlight. Closer examination showed that that wall was cut through a vein of obsidian, and the stairs (which climbed further) was made of the same material. Apart from the stairs, there was a door to the east and to the south. The east door was of solid, rusted iron. It was either locked or barred from the other side, as even the combined strength of Einer and Abdul el Abdul could budge it.  Abdul el Abdul knocked on the door, hoping to find someone on the other side. He was answered by the loud screech that could only have come from a seabird of monstrous proportions. That convinced the party to head for the southern door, which opened easily into a room with no other exit and a fire place. This seemed to finally be a secure place to rest, so Chaff sparked up a fire and the party settled down to rest for the night.

Next morning after spell memorizing and breakfast, the party inspected their surroundings in more detail. The walls they found covered with bas relief carvings of alien scenes; weird swaying tentacled trees, a sky with multiple moons and suns, vaguely humanoid (but-not-quite) inhabitants. Tucked into one scene was a cluster of the weird cabbage vines they found shortly after landing on the island. Otherwise the room was empty except for old straw and trash on the floor. Azimer searched the fireplace for a lever, switch, or other way of opening the bared door in the other room. The calmonari found nothing, so Chaff sent his familiar up the flue. Through the birds eyes, he could see that the fireplace was connected to another one on the other side of the wall, presumably in the room barred behind the iron door. But the hole was much  too small for anyone but the bird to squeeze through, so the party packed up and headed up the stairs again.

This they had to do quite carefully, as the brittle volcanic glass flaked away as they climbed. They emerged in a small room with a very high ceiling and niches carved in the wall. On the back wall of the niches were curved glass mirrors, and from the front of each niche stalactites of candle wax hung down towards the floor. Up above, at the edge of their torch light, was a large lens. For no particular reason, Chaff and Einer started lighting candles as the rest of the party checked out a door to the south. This opened onto an exposed ledge, from which descended a stairway carved into the side of the piller. This was placed such as to be almost unobservable to anyone outside the tower, which explained why they'd missed it in the darkness last night. There were also two benches, covered in a scattering of rusty metal bits, glass and weird mechanical pieces, plus a series of wooden panels on the west wall covered in esoteric and unintelligible formulae.

Heading back to pick up Chaff and Einer, the party climbed the spiral staircase again, emerging now into another room, exposed to the elements on the west side. Here they could now see the rope bridge which stretched through the mist and low cloud to the second tower about a 100' away. Of immediate interest, however, was a circular stone pedestal with a large yellow-green gemstone set in the top. This gem glowed with a faint light, and looking up everyone could see it was projecting an image on the ceiling.  The scene was of a night sky with brilliant stars, two moons of deep red, and a glowing purple nebula; a sky none of them had ever scene before. After staring a few moments, Azimer tried turning the pedestal, which moved easily. Each time it had traversed 90 degrees, the scene changed, showing in order:

• A jungle canopy with alien plants, similar to the scene seen in bas relief;
• A series of odd pictograms. Everyone spent some time trying to decipher them, but in the end none could make any sense of the weird figures; and 
• Dancing lights, in a hypnotic pattern. 

On viewing the last scene, Chaff, Einer and Villius all become overcome with fatigue, and dropped to the floor into unconsciousness. This did not last long, though, and the three soon rose, a little fuzzy headed but otherwise no worst for wear. 

With nothing else to see through the gem, the party turned their attention to the bridge ...

TOTAL XP
20 (for Einer)

GAINS
NIL

KILLS
1 Cultist of Manakata

LOSSES
Herb
All of Einer's gear and clothes 

Far Isles Session #9 - We're off to Save the Duke

DRAMATIS PERSONAE:
Abdul el Abdul (Fighter 1)
Azimer (Calmonari 2)
Chaff (Vivimancer 2) with henchman Herb (Swashbuckler 1)
Einer (Fighter 1)
Villius Paticus (Cleric 1)

Thorgrim had his crew hoist sail, and the "Serpents Revenge" captured a strong south wind which soon had her racing north at top speed. Fast enough, in fact, that they reached the anchorage in just a single day. Rounding the isle and coming around to the small sheltered bay, they could see it was a busy place. Torgus' Traveling Tavern was bustling on shore, and at the northern end of the beach a huddle of lean-to's had appeared. Five ships lay at anchor, and it took all of Thorgrim's skill to squeeze his vessel into the bay. Disembarking to hunt for rumors and information, the party learned about the ships:

• "Valorous Star" was still in port, hawking fine elven goods;
• A second merchant had arrived as well, the "Barbaric Wind" under the command of the swarthy Dravos;
• A large junk by the name "Pearl of Heaven";
• A small cog "Two for Trouble"; and
• The storm battered and tattered carrack, the "San Lorenzo".

Noticeably absent was the the old hulk, the "Blue Wing". A scan of the shore, however, showed the remains of that death trap sitting on the bottom in shallow water very near the new shantytown.

First stop on shore was pretty much the only stop on shore, Torgus' Tavern. They skirted the fight underway between crew members from the "Pearl of Heaven" and "San Lorenzo", and went about their business. Chaff immediately got into his cups, and Herb had to spend the night keeping the little vivimancer from trouble. Abdul el Abdul starting making the rounds of sober(ish) adventurers and crew, hoping to wheedle some maps and information out of them. He had some luck with a man and wife clerical duo by the names Niro and Vysera. They were part of the exploration party for the "Two for Trouble", and seemed pretty flush with gold. Heading back to the mainland with the "Two for Trouble", the pair planned to  leave the ship for some unexplained reason, and were a little more open to discussing where they had been than the rest of the tight-lipped lot. Trading stories, they told Albdul el Abdul about an island, covered in impenetrable jungle, but with a set of mysterious bronze doors set amongst the trees. They'd passed through the doors and found rich treasures after some hard fighting, but were coy about what exact dangers they'd faced. Niro told Abdul el Abdul the island was about 3 days good sailing to the north-east, and that as far as they knew, no one else was yet aware of it's existence.

While Albdul el Abdul worked the crowd, (and picked up a new fighter, Einer, to join the party) Azimer swam along the beach, sizing things up from that angle and reveling in the cool salt water. The calmonari encounter a pair of glum sailors huddled around a fire, about halfway between the tavern and the shantytown. The two were pretty gruff at first, but eventually explained to the fishy intruder they were sailors off the "Savage Sisters", left behind when that ship sailed off to search the unknown. It further emerged they'd been passed out drunk under the trees at the time. They were able to give Azimer some rough idea of sailing directions to the pyramid topped with golden statues (south-east), and muttered something about the first mate being a brutal ogress. All in all, they weren't too upset about being left on the beach, figuring they'd make their way back on another vessel at some time. Swimming further down the beach, Azimer noted Thorgrim scoping out the shanty-town, which struck the calmonari with foreboding. Waiting until the captain left, she/he emerged from the water and sought out the de-facto leader, an older man by the name of Boras. From him Azimer learned that Throgrim had offered to ship the refugees back to Xin for essentially free! Knowing how tight Thorgrim was with money, and his past life as a slaver, the calmonari immediately sensed a scam. He/she warned Boras about the captain, and convinced him to send a couple of men to size up the ship and note the slave shackles in the hold. And then with that good deed done, Azimer slipped backed into the water.

Everyone gathered back at the "Serpents Revenge" for the night, and next morning arose to  restock and resupply for their next voyage, whatever and wherever that may be. Chaff had somehow figured out, in his drunken stupor, how to summon a familiar. So off he went to the new merchant to buy some questionable lab supplies from Dravos. Azimer and Abdul el Abdul tagged along, and learned pretty quickly that questionable goods were Dravo's specialty. As were high prices, except oddly enough on arms and armor. Stocking up on weapons, Azimer then shipped over to the "Valorous Star" to get a load of oil and some other basic gear, and to also check for any potions or scrolls the dandy Lifjin might have. Alas, she had no magic items, but did indicate she could help identify the magical crystal heart the calmonari carried. But the 300gp price was too steep for Azimer, so he/she settled for basic gear only, also turning down the fancy blued chain-mail the elf had on offer.

Rejoining the rest of the party (now expanded to include Chaff mangy looking parrot familiar), the question became what their next steps should be? Thorgrim was making noises about just giving up on this exploration business and heading back to Xin on "honest trade". None (well, almost none) of the party was interested into going into slaving, so Abdul el Abdul laid out the information he'd learned the night before. He also pointed out that the mysterious magical crystal he'd found  was pointing back in the direction of the previously explored caves, possibly to more treasure(?) While discussing those options, they suddenly realized they'd heard nothing about the battered ship, the "San Lorenzo". Back to shore, they asked around, and found that the captain of the ship was looking to recruit a party for some sort of special mission. Intrigued by this, the party headed for the "San Lorenzo" and soon found themselves in front of the dignified older captain of the vessel, Higo de  Moncada. After some pleasantries, Captain de Moncada laid out his mission for them. He served the Duke Don Fernando Alvarez, a powerful noble of Castrillo. The Duke was a curious man, and when he heard of these "Far Isles", equip a pair of ships to go and explore, bringing family and household with him. Unfortunately, they had not explored far when the two ships encountered a vicious storm and the Duke's ship was wrecked on the shore of a small barren island. It was surrounded by reefs so the "San Lorenzo" could not approach very closely. And besides, his own cowardly and superstitious crew refused to make any attempt to land anyway. So Captain de Moncada turned about and headed back to the anchorage to look for some professional to help him save his Duke and family. The party inquired as to pay, and the captain assured them the Duke would undoubtedly offer a reward from his own wealth, and the party was certainly welcome to keep anything else they recovered on their mission. Captain de Moncada also hinted that the Duke was looking for a suitable suitor for his youngest daughter ...

Well, that sounded like a better deal than riding with a slaver, so the party headed back to the "Serpents Revenge" to gather their gear and take their leave of Thorgrim. After another day of repair to the "San Lorenzo", they sailed out of the anchorage and turned to the south-west. Fighting headwinds, however, they made slow progress. Late on the first afternoon, they spied another ship approaching through the spray on the starboard bow. The lookout yelled down that she seemed a deserted wreck. The party convinced Captain de Moncada to let them take the gig across to derelict, appealing to his honorable nature by selling it as a possible rescue mission . None of the superstitious crew of the "San Lorenzo" was about to go near the thing, so the party rowed themselves across. Once alongside, they could see what the lookout meant. The ship was stripped of masts and rigging, and the batter hull was coated in a thick rime of salt. Cautiously, they threw grappling hooks and rope to the rail and hauled themselves aboard. The deck was a shambles, and the skeletal remains of the crew lay scattered about, covered in salt. They moved down the deck towards the stern, aiming for the stern cabin door which flapped back and forth in the wind. Peering inside, it too was all a-shamble. But then suddenly, a pair of shadowy figures drifted into view.  At first, the party stood it's ground, holding tight and waiting for Villius to call an his shadowy god to drive away the fiends. Well, that didn't work, so the over-cautious cleric made his way back to the gig as quickly as possible. The rest of the party backed away a bit, weapons ready for any eventuality. Herb fired his pistol point blank through both figures, and Einer struck with such a mighty blow they all thought one of the spirits was gone. But neither had any affect, so the party hustled back to the gig, cut the lines and made for the "San Lorenzo" at high speed. No losses except a couple of grappling hooks.

There were another few days of fighting head winds before they picked up a favorable breeze. On the fifth day out from the anchorage, and according to Captain de Moncada within striking distance of the isle they sought, they came across more wreckage. This time, a couple of rafts lashed together of spars, lines, barrels and other flotsam. One carried a single sailor, the other a pair. They claimed to be survivors of the "Golden Thane", a trading vessel out of Cha'nrk on the Langushur shore. While the presence of two rafts rather than one was odd, Captain de Moncada none the less took the trio aboard the vessel, then turned back to the south-east and onto the cursed isle they sought.

What greeted the party was a inhospitable sight.  A island less than a mile long, windswept and barren, and surrounded by rocky reefs. Through the sea spray could be seen the only distinguishing features of the island; a pair of towers or rock pillars side by side in the center. de Moncada pointed out a small beach with the wreckage of a ship; the Dukes flagship, "La Juliana". The party loaded the gig with gear and then pulled for shore through the rocks and waves. Once on the beach, the first thing Azimer did was unload a massive pile of oil and rations which the calmonari proceeded to bury above the tide line. No way the party was gong to run out of oil this time! Meanwhile, the rest of the party examined the wreckage of the ship. It lay battered and and already half buried in the sand.  Inside was a jumble of shattered and ruined supplies, from which Abdul el Abdul extracted an intact cask of some liquid but there as little else to find. 

A search of the area uncovered no signs of tracks and paths, unsurprising given the bare rock and howling wind. Chaff sent up his new familiar for a view of their surroundings. Apart from the two pillars/towers, the vivimancer could also see a nearby patch of greenery, a couple of rifts (one of which was spewing steam or smoke) and a cluster of ruins. He could also see what appeared to be a bridge spanning the tops of the two towers. Relaying this information to the rest of the party, they decided to trek across the island towards the smoking rift, checking out as many of the other locations as possible along the way. First stop was the patch of greenery, the only plants visible on the isle. They found a group of strange, blue-green vines dotted with what looked like cabbages. Before getting too close, Einer tossed a rock at one just to make sure it wasn't sentient. It appeared not, but closer investigation didn't provide much more details. Except it appeared someone had recently hacked off a large swath of thevines.

Moving on, they passed the two tower/pillars. These looked to be mostly natural, but with signs of being worked by some being. The first tower had a number of openings, including one at ground level. The second had no entrances except some openings near the top. The party passed on for now, heading for the rift. As they approached  two figures emerged from the smoke plume. They spied the party and headed towards them. The two appeared to be human males, massively muscled, completely bald and completely naked. These showed no overtly hostile signs, but pushed past most of the party, stopping in front of Einer and Abdul el Abdul. "You must come and join us in the ritual of Manakata" the two bluntly ordered the fighters.  Einer and Abdul el Abdul tried to squeeze more information out of the two brutes, but got little but gibberish about the power of Manakata and a lot of barely constrained 'roid rage. The two fighters asked about the rest of the party; could they join the ritual? Told they were free to come but were not worthy of Manakata, the party decided to follow along since they were going towards the ruins which the party was ultimately going to explore anyway



TOTAL XP
375 (exploration)

GAINS
NIL
KILLS
NIL

LOSSES
NIL