Above the table
What would it take for your character to trust someone completely?
The mud is still moving and slowly slinking beneath the surface of the water, as the biomass falls away from the monsters we defeated in the previous session, the poisonous gas clouds lingering above the water. The party is in rough shape, catching their breath and taking care of their wounds. As Seila puts her swords away, taking the oar and pushing the boat ahead as she says: “Let’s go, the path ahead is clear”
Plaman climbs out of the water and onto the boat, trying his best not to capsize it, dripping water and mud everywhere on the deck. Paeris is catching his breath, barely standing, the others also climb on the boat, with less dramatic effects.
As Seila pushes the oar against the bottom of the channel the boat moves into a thick patch of reeds, by the way the boat moves it is obvious that there is a small channel somewhere in there, but to the untrained eye, it is just a sea of reeds. Seila yells orders to everyone, telling Plaman to help push the boat, Felix and Paeris have to keep a look out for more movement and monsters. Rowan starts fishing for some dinner. Plaman is also allowed to throw any slackers overboard. Cassian is the only one left without a task, and Plaman is looking between him and the edge of the boat, a slight grin on his lips.
These reeds are hollow (not unlike bamboo), clacking against the hull of the boat as Seila steers it through the channel, see seems to follow more by feeling, than actual sight. The reeds are everywhere going as far as the eye can see, about 3-4 ft tall.
Paeris notices a small sandbank ahead of the boat and yells out to Seila to steer clear. She steers the boat away and thanks him.
Cassian asks if Seila is supposed to be our guide, or wether we are all exploring and finding out together. Plaman asks Seila if he should through Cassian overboard, making sure Cassian can hear this question.
There seems to be moving something with the party, in a parallel channel, it seems something big is moving, just out of sight, but the movement can be heard and even felt. Seila keeping the same pace, seemingly not noticing the movement. Cassian puts a message in everyone’s head, telepathically, asking what it could be, and if everyone has noticed the movement.
Cassian asks if Seila is the Saltmother, since she has been quite salty to him… She pauses and thinks for a moment, finally replying “I don’t know, as long as we keep moving we should be fine”. Plaman tries putting a message in Cassian’s head; it doesn’t work…
Rowan is looking around, noticing something about 10-20 feet long is moving along with the boat, he doesn’t see this creature, so much as he hears it. it is hard to tell how big it exactly is, but it sounds huge. Rowan tells Cassian they are quote “fucked” out loud. Seila is shooting daggers with her eyes at Rowan, making it clear he should be quiet.
The creature following the boat, finally seems to move away, as Seila visibly relaxes, she suddenly steers the boat towards the shore of a small raised area in the delta.
Felix climbs onto Plaman’s shoulders, trying to get a lookout, however with the movement of the deck on the gentle waves, he is barely able to keep his balance as he falls down from Plaman’s shoulders, landing on the deck.
The boat is now beached onto the small area, there are definite traces of a camp there, the remnants of a campfire, some stacked wood. As the sun starts setting over the delta, Seila starts a campfire. Felix starts setting up the tents (sudden ADHD focus). As Seila is struggling a bit with getting the fire started, Cassian uses Druidcraft to help her out, she acts surprised at the sudden rise if flames before her.
Rowan is looking around the campground, Plaman cleaning himself and his armour and sharpening his blade. Paeris notices a plant in the reeds, it seems familiar, but he can’t quite put his finger on it what it is. Taking a leaf and tasting it, the plant as a distinct bitter taste, but the exact name of the plant escapes him at that moment.
Despite looking for intently around the campground, Rowan doesn’t see anything out of the ordinary. Just the buzzing of insects. He spots some movement in the water, noticing it is some kind of fish, he throws his dagger at it, striking true. He pulls out a weird fish, with a big head, pink scales. He gives the fish a final bonk, as it starts flopping again. He starts descaling, gutting and cleaning the fish, finishing by slicing and fileting the fish.
Cassian still suspicious of Seila, trying to find out more information, asks how long she has been a guide. She waits before answering, finally replying that she has been a guide for 13 years. Some more questions go back and forth. After a while she breaks her composure and makes a snide remark about Cassian being a colonist and just coming here to do the same as all the rest, take whatever the land has to offer and leave. Seila turns over a log, where she has kept some rations and dried food.
Rowan finishes cooking the fish and starts to divide the pieces amongst the party. As everyone finishes their fish, Rowan proposes to hold a watch. Rowan volunteers to take the first watch, Felix will go second, Plaman third and Cassian fourth. Paeris is to hurt to keep a watch and needs to rest to heal.
During Rowan’s watch nothing special happens. As he sits near the campfire he smells smoke, but not the smoke of a fire. This smoke makes his head feel light. Following the smell, he finds that it comes from the boat, where Seila is sleeping in her hammock. He asks what she is smoking, to which she replies “It is called some piece and quiet”. Rowan asks if he can share some, Seila says no, but throws him a small satchel anyway, saying that it will cost him two gold pieces. He says he will only pay one gold piece. But when he will wake up in the morning the second gold piece will have mysteriously disappeared from his purse.
Felix’ watch is equally uneventful, barely able to stay awake, as he starts reminiscing of home.
Plaman is looking around for stones and not really paying attention on the actual watch. Doing his ritual to honour his fallen brothers, he struggles a bit, since there was no blood from the larders. He hugs his fossil stone and admires how the fossil shimmers in the flames of the campfire.
Cassian starts his watch in the early morning, already awake anyway. He suddenly realises something! He had bought an alarm chime, but didn’t even use it (facepalm); next he does the math on the tents, they bought three tents, so the five of them could sleep, but one person always has to keep watch, so they only needed two tents (facepalm two). As he thinks over his recent financial mistakes, he suddenly hears all the creatures go dead quiet, no owl hooting, no rodents gnawing, no insects buzzing, nothing. Even the water stopped lapping against the hull of the beached boat. He hears something moves slowly through the water, the sounds indicate it must be between 40 and 60 feet long. After this creature moves away all the sounds return to the night.
Each member of the party had a dream;
Cassian: He is holding his daughter, she is very calm, sleeping in his arms when suddenly she starts crying, she is unconsolable. Whatever he tries to comfort her, to make her stop crying, it doesn’t work. She finally stops crying on her own. The surroundings fade into white, all features and surroundings disappeared, just him and his daughter. A single gold leaf slowly twirling down and landing on his daughters head. The moment the leaf touches her head, all her imperfections fade away.
Rowan: He finds himself sitting at the dinner table at his the home he grew up in, with his parents, one of the very few precious memories he has of them. They are all eating dinner together and talking. But the more he tries to remember details, the more it all fades away and the more he forgets. Until it is just him, standing in an empty room, in an empty house. The crescent moon necklace starts beating on his chest. He looks up again, in the middle of the table is a knife standing on its tip, slowly rotating.
Paeris: Finds himself back at the grove, everything is just as he remembered it, it is a beautiful sunny day. He is thinking, connecting with nature and watching what is happening around him, sitting underneath the large tree. As he lays down, something strange starts happening, one leaf falls down, then another, then another and more. Before he knows it, the ground is covered in leaves. He sits up to look what might be causing this, when the person he knows so well, who instructed him, puts a hand on his shoulder and says “You are our only hope, we are counting on you…”. Paeris wants to stand up and put a hand on her shoulder as well, but instead of his hand landing on her shoulder, he is holding a bone-white tree, its bark entirely made from wood white as ash, golden leaves, forming the densest canopy he has ever seen.
Felix: He finds himself thinking back on the worst moments in his life, when everything cut out, when he woke up remembering nothing, when he woke up in a place he didn’t know, the people around him all looking at home like they knew him, but he knew nobody around him, the panic setting back in. His chest starts feeling incredibly tight, like something heavy is crushing it. A very specific spot on his chest feeling like a hole, like something is missing, pulling everything in. His sense of self collapsing, the moment the hole has consumed everything, he is back in his favourite place, as if he just awoke from a bad nightmare.
Plaman: Is taken back to the place or memory he dreads the most, the one that caused him to loose everything, standing there completely covered in blood, death and destruction everywhere around him. Each stone and the heavy weight of the memory attached to it. Not only the physical, but also the mental weight of all the stones he carries sets in as his backpack becomes incredibly heavy, too much to burden. He closes his eyes as a warm ray of sunshine hits him in the face. A translucent figure standing in front of him, putting his hand on his shoulder and says “My child, the thing you seek will not be easy and the challenge that awaits you is grand. but I have not chosen you for nothing, you will soon come upon something that you will need to keep with you at all times. However useless, wrong or dangerous it may seem, if you lose it, it will mean the end of everything. Everything our order has worked towards for such a long time, I trust you with this mission. The curse will not befall you, but maybe someone you know. And although it may seem wrong, you need to make sure the curse stays with them. Plaman hears all these words, but he is completely unable to react, not even able to breathe or move. Just the words coming to him, as he stands in the middle of those heavy stones and a grandiose depressing aura washes over him and then suddenly goes away again. He is reminded of the weight of the stones in his backpack.
A new day rises as the party awakens with renewed vigor, having leveled up to lvl3. Each noticing how their new powers manifest them;
Felix gets up and starts doing his stretches as usual, but feels a lot more energy and starts darting around the campground, the world seeming the move slower as he moves faster and faster.
Cassian does his morning yoga, but can’t quite seem to find his centre of being.
Rowan feels strange as he is imbued with magic, seeing a glowing orb in his hand, acting like his hand is on fire and he’s trying to put it out.
Plaman wakes up and does his morning ritual of stacking stones as usual, thinking back on previous fights and interactions and gaining some insight into good and evil and how it can be determined. At the same time some doubt about his party members creeps in, but he can’t quite put his finger on why. As his mind is clouded on this cloudy morning a ray of sunlight breaks through the cloud cover, hitting him in the face. As he clearly sees the ray of light in the morning haze, finding its way to him, he feels glorious.
Paeris wakes up and finds that his scares have healed over, but instead of scar tissue he finds they have grown over by something akin to bark.
Seila is doing some maintenance on the boat, Felix and Cassian are breaking down the tents and packing them away. Rowan is watching the spectacle, still high on Seila’s mystery weed, as Cassian is struggling immensely with the tents, eventually becoming completely trapped, like a fish in a net. Felix helps him out and packs away the final tent.
And so the party continues their journey through the reeds, Cassian mentioned the creature he heard moving through the water at night. Rowan asking if he took some drugs as well, not able to believe such a creature could move through the water unnoticed. Some yo mama jokes where made between Cassian, Plaman and Rowan.
The creature was most likely the saltmother; “There is a reason we avoid the deeper channels…” says Seila. Rowan still stoned out of his mind, just stares at the waves the bow of the boat makes in the water. Cassian remembers and tells the party that the saltmother might be a islander deity.
Felix is doing his best to do some acrobatic on the cramped deck of the boat, but clearly annoyed at how little space there is. Rowan is completely amazed at how the reeds move, when the boat pushes them aside, so rhythmic, so mystical, so out of this world maaaaaan. He shares some of his weed with Cassian (who now both have to roll with double advantage, jk… unless?).
After a few more hours on the boat, we reach the end of the reeds around noon. The small channel opening into a large pool, mangrove trees everywhere, the light reflecting on the water, creating a very green atmosphere.
In front of us, in the middle of the pool is the wreck, laying on its side, beached on another small sandbank, its name clearly visible “The fair return”. Despite only being here for a few weeks at most, the wreck looks like it has been here for years, completely overgrown with vines and other plants. The algae on the hull indicates that this bank probably disappears under the water when the high tide comes in. There is debris all around, not just floating, hinting that the crew most likely survived here for a few days or longer. The buzzing of insects is even louder here, almost deafening.
Rowan’s drugs finally wear off, as he feels a sting on his thigh, quickly swatting whatever bug bit him, but alas it was to late. A small bump appears on his thigh, itching more and more, he starts feeling feverish, the fever coming and going in waves. The fever finally subsiding for now. (editor’s note; he trades his drug induced hallucinations for fever dreams…).
Cassian thinks this “marsh fever” is the ailment I might be able to cure with a tonic, brewed from the fever herb. Seila yelling at us that we don’t have time for that. Paeris puts his hand on Rowan’s shoulder and says that it was nice knowing him, as he starts putting his brewing equipment away again.
The ships lays on its side, the mast raised above the canopy of the mangroves. Seila says that the crew got their boat stuck here, months ago, by trusting a wrong map. Two crews had already been sent out to recover them, but neither had reached the wreck and perished before they even came close to the wreck. She hopes will at least be successful in getting back. Seila also mentions that this was a trade ship and that we are probably the first to find it. Plaman immediately wants to go loot the ship.
Cassian keeping a look out for more bugs, but he doesn’t know what bugs cause the fever.
Once the boat is beached at the sandbank in the middle of the pool, Plaman is the first to jump off the boat, in fact he lands in a shallow section of water. He is so eager to go loot the ship. Felix runs around, looking for an entrance into the ship. There are no holes or weakspots in the hull and the wood has not yet started to rot. Finding the remnants of a campfire nearby, further evidence of the crew having survived here for a while.
The previous recovery crews perished before reaching the wreck (hear-say by Seila). The wrecks of their boats were eventually found in the channels. One got stuck in the sand and drowned in the rising tide. The other perished when they stumbled upon some slumpjaws.
It would seem the only way into or even unto the ship, is the hole in the middle of the deck, used to load and stow cargo. Plaman throws Cassian up to the hole, in the middle of the deck. Since it is quite high, Cassian and Rowan both decide to help out with their mage hands. Barely able to grasp the railing of the deck, just hanging there. Cassian is unable to pull himself up, Rowan giving him a helping hand with his mage hand.
The inside of the cargo hold is completely flooded with a dark green murky water. The water inside the hold is fair higher than the water level outside the ship. Cassian makes his way along the slanted gangway to the captain’s quarters, tripping and falling all the way down in the water, taking 1 falling damage.
Felix throws his grappling hook, throwing some rope to Cassian so he can pull him up. Cassian climbs up the rope, using his mage hand to help him out. Rowan follows Felix up using his grappling hook. Plaman considering, breaking open the hull for a little while, eventually decides that it is better to just climb up, like the others, using the vines to climb up.
The entire party, feel a small earthquake and the ship suddenly rights itself, Plaman barely able to keep his balance.
Plaman heads straight for the captain’s quarters. The inside the of the cabin is filled with stale air, like it had been sealed for centuries, everything inside is incredibly dry. It seems like the cabin was left in a hurry as everything is still laying in its place. Looking around the cabin, Plaman finds a locked metal box, some shiny round spheres (perhaps polished gemstones), papers, books and some scraps. In one of the closets he finds a pirate’s hat as well as a jacket, immediately putting it on!
Felix follows Plaman inside the captain’s cabin, looking around, but is distracted by Plaman and his new outfit, so he doesn’t find anything else. Cassian amazed by the hat as well, but manages to notice the books, one of them is the captain’s log, and a map splayed open on the desk, clearly the same area, but the channels are entirely different from what they are now.
Cassian proceeds to the deck, looking down the cargo hatch, he hears something rummage down below, the ships starts moving. The hatch breaks open, a huge water snake rising up from the hold.
