- Sandboxes aren’t my thing, sorry.
- The Viper Berry quest is this party’s Kitty Genovese murder.
- Floki had a truly remarkable escape.
Floki was left bobbing perilously at the sea’s mercy as he tried to get back to the causeway. As they were being led away by the dolphin, a few of the party spotted fins slicing through the surf on their way towards Floki. Floki was also not blind to this new menace. he started swimming back towards the island, some 40′ away. The shark, a 10′ long, 300lb brute made a pass across Floki’s legs and then another, as though not quite sure how best to start tearing bits off him. And it is just as well that neither of these exploratory attacks worked – first it gave Floki some time to swim towards the island although that was rough going and second, it gave everyone on the beach of the second island time to start thinking of way to attract the shark. Several party members got in the shallow water and began slapping around, attempting to attract its attention, but Nobody had the idea of adding some Tiefling blood to the water, slicing open a vein and letting the waves carry the scent to the shark. The shark monster description specifically states that within 180′ sharks have great perception, but that they can scent blood from fucking space (okay, it doesn’t say that, but something close). So the shark picked up the piquant tang of partially-infernal blood in the water and after having had – somewhat miraculously, a 1 in 4 chance of hitting, repeated four or five times with no successes – no luck against Floki, it made a beeline for the source of the blood.
The fish nearly leapt out of the water at Nobody, but it failed to Samuel Jackson him in half (aww, I’ve already used that gif) and instead was set upon by the party who were waiting like a bunch of Japanese guys at Dolphin-Murder-Bay, i.e. with erections. The erectionless Malicia struck first though, which meant Nobody didn’t have to signal the start of the fight and so instead used his gun to shoot the shark. Victor struck it as it passed and Rolifson started the shark-ceviche going with an on-target Acid Splash. At that point, Orny, glad to be up against something that at least had a rudimentary brain, slung a Slumber Hex (I can’t get the Deadlands idea of slinging hexes out of my head) at the shark, reprioritizing Sleep ahead of Eat Everything on the shark’s to-do list for today… and every day. The shark fell asleep, its spinal cord took over and kept propelling it lazily through the water while its tiny brain took a disco nap.
Uun, doing well on a Handle Animal roll, used his Longspear as an obstacle for the shark, causing it to move to avoid the stave, forcing it towards the shore where it was set upon by Malicia, who sent the end of her short sword through the creature’s spine, then hauling the flapping corpse on land so they could all cut chunks off of it for a packed lunch tomorrow.
Uun and Floki spent the rest of the day searching the surrounding area for Viper Berries, but found none. After they had returned to camp, Rolifson spotted unusual lights among the trees. As he looked closer, glowing white flowers blossomed among the palms and vines in one small area near the eastern edge of their camp. Looking into the jungle they could see the flowers bloom into being, illuminating a pathway further into the jungle. They took this as the sign that their dryad patroness knew about their success and they took off down the flowered pathway. The path cleverly cut into a surprisingly yielding jungle route and they very quickly found themselves at the base of a steep rounded hill. Climbing it, the jungle petered out a respectful distance away from a huge banyan tree that the drug-monkeys recall from their trip.
Sure enough, the dryad appeared, smiling and relaxed. She congratulated them on their success and agreed to provide the aid she had hinted at earlier. She pointed to the sky and as they watched the sun shot back into the sky, reaching its blindingly bright midday position, then began to descend, more deliberately. She indicated to the huge red mountain in the south east and as the sun began to set behind it they watched its shadow creep across the canopy of the jungle along the south coast. The sun slowed to a crawl as the shadow crept across the southwestern point of the island at which point the faint lights of torches became visible. There, Aycenia said, they would find the lighthouse and the cannibal tribe.
The sun returned behind the horizon and the torchlight faded, what with it being kind of the middle of the night. Aycenia motioned into the shadows and several flitting creatures brought forth wooden items for the party. Arrows and bows, as well as a Darkwood Shield and a set of Leaf Armour. Aycenia also presented them with a very old leather satchel. she told them it had been hidden in the bole of a tree by one of the Chelish engineers who built the lighthouse long ago, after his fellows went murderously mad. Inside, they found three clay pots which Floki recognised as very expensive smoke flares, carried by Chelish naval vessels for use in dire emergencies. The other item in the satchel was an almost cylindrical red glass rod, about two feet long and 3 inches in diameter. The facets that ran the length of the rod seemed uniformly small, except for four facets cut into the glass on the same side. These were of different angles and dimensions, but had no apparent function. The glass itself was exceptionally heavy, so much so that they thought it was crystal when they first held it.
Even a broken clock has a 5% chance of rolling a natural 20.