After a few days of rest and healing (2/21 and 2/22), the party decided to leave the island of Carrasthinian, the lich, to sail for one of the other islands. Tienarth looked carefully at the tapestry using his crystal ball. The other three islands were roughly east, south and west from their current location, but distance could not be determined. Saul befriended an albatross who knew the way to one of the islands shown in the tapestry. The raised anchor and followed the majestic seabird.
Late in the day, the sail of a small ship was spotted. As they came closer, they found a caravel with only five men aboard. The captain, Newman ‘Cunning’ Amaranth, was relieved to be found. What was left of his crew were starving, and they rejoiced at Aderian’s generosity in sharing a keg of ale. They were buccaneers in service of the empire who’d fallen to a plague. Jerker invited them to follow along since the Raiders were also searching for more food as well as treasure.
The next day (2/24), giant squid surfaced near the ships. Tienarth transformed into a dragon, causing the squid to retreat once more into the depths. Meanwhile, the sailor in the crow’s nest called out about a small vessel seen through his spyglass. It was 8 miles away and closing. The sails on this carrack were ragged. As it came closer, a crew of skeletons scampered beneath the whips of three wights. A ghostly captain called out for a grapple. The skeletons threw ropes and pulled the two ships together, then leapt over the gap to attack.
At the sight of the ghost most of the crew fled below deck, as did Saul and Zhargrave. Jerker attempted to turn the ghost captain back with his ring to no effect. Nate, rushed to Zhargrave, providing a holy protection against the fear, and Zhargrave made his own ineffective attempt to turn the ghost. The ghost captain attempted to possess Jerker and failed.
A pitched battled ensued in which the ghost, the wights and the skeletons were all defeated with little harm to the brave fighters. When the last skeleton fell into a pile of loose bones, the ghost ship began to come apart. Aderian and Jerker rushed about the small ship in search of treasure, finding a single chest containing 1,500 copper pieces and 900 electrum pieces. Soon, the ship sunk below the waves. The bones turned to dust and blew away with the wind. Nothing was left but the meager treasure.
On the next day (2/25), the albatross brought them to the rocky island seen on the tapestry. It looked barren from the water, but the bird assured them a verdant vale lay behind rocky outcrops at the center of the island. They rowed a longboat to the western side, avoiding the biggest rocks. The island offered no beach, just rocky shore. The climbed from there to a small rise where they could see the vale which was filled with statues.
Presently, they noticed a statue of clay nearby that began to move as Jerker approached it. It slammed its fist against his shield. Aderian, Ollie and Tienarth (as dragon) sought to beat down the clay golem. Saul called lightning down from the clouds that were dropping a light rain. The two strikes easily finished off the automaton, and none of them were injured.
They moved down to examine the ruins of what might have been a temple, examining many statues, some of men and others of animals. Ferris hid in the shadows. The statue of a fearsome mastiff suddenly came to life and narrowly missed biting Aderian. As before, they teamed up to destroy the monster. Jerker and Aderian gathered the chunks of the broken statue to use as projectiles.
As the sun faded in the west, they picked through the ruins. No roof remained and only some of the walls still stood. Eventually, Ollie noticed a trap door at the far end of the ruined temple, but as the day was long, they retreated to the ships to contemplate a next move. Meanwhile, having no food for three days, Captain Amaranth sailed away before the party returned from the island.
End Notes
- Days
- 2/21 – 2/22 Downtime on the ship
- 2/23 Met starving crew
- 2/24 Ghost ship
- 2/25 Island of Hestrin
- Treasure:
- 1500 cp
- 900 ep
- Combat: 6380 xp
- 2 Giant Squid 500 xp each
- Ghost Captain 1390 xp
- 3 Wight Pirates 175 xp each
- 16 Skeleton Pirates 25 xp each
- Clay Golem 1765 xp
- Animated Dog Statue 1300 xp
- Characters 851 xp each (7.5 shares)
- Aderian (human, fight) 945 xp
- Ferris (human, skills) 945 xp
- Jerker (human, fight, lead) 953 xp
- Nate (human, protect, smite undead, fight) 962 xp
- Ollie (fight) 860 xp
- Saul (human, wilderness) 945 xp
- Tienarth (outdoors) 860 xp
- Zhargrave (npc) 426 xp
- Ships
- The Howl of the Demon
- Crew/Passengers: 86 + 11
- Cargo: 6 of 210 tons
- Food: about 489 man/weeks
- Water: 563 gallons, about 160 man/weeks
- The Turkey of the Sea
- Crew/Passengers: 8 + 0
- Cargo: 0 of 10 tons
- Food: none
- Water: none
- The Howl of the Demon