Tolð 6-7, 653 DR: The Aylyrēar is dragged beneath the sea. Survivors scramble atop Graiç and makeshift raft. Paldor spies land. The insect covered beach. Dammon surveys the island from above. Kavrus’ shoreline discovery. Sorrum of the waves. The Restless guide. Shrine of the Zultàyan.
Continued from Fires of Shalvàsal.
Iyldor, 6 Tolð 653
Dammon Shroudson returned to the deck of the Aylyrēar with grave news. The Zultàyi vessel had dove beneath the stormy sea. Some sailors reacted to this with a cheer until the magician explained that the ship had not sunk, it was submersible. As the last pieces of hope fled the crewmen, a sailor from atop the main mast pointed down into the churning storm around them. “It didn’t leave,” the young man shouted over the crashing waves and howling wind. “It’s doing something!” From beneath the deck a terrible howl resonated through the ship. Dammon climbed down into the flooding lower deck. It was the first time he’d seen the condition of things below. Jak and the wood golem struggled in vain with giant iron hooks as the water rose around them. The golem was shouting “It’s coming apart, something unnatural”.
The Lōyōlīyeð
Dammon moved above the water, gathering wood, ropes, and crates for Ērēus to tie together. Soon the wood golem rose to the surface as well, and helped in collecting flotsam. Not far away, crewman struggled to right the tossed longboat. Once it was righted, swimmers converged on the boat which was overloaded in a short time. Soon the water poured in over the sides again, and the crewmen screamed as the fish men began picking them off one by one. Jak, laden with armor, swords, and spears waited for the next ocean swell to release the magical hold of the magical rung which had kept him from being swept into the sea. During the next trough, he spied the makeshift raft and started toward his friends. Others started to converge as well, including the quartermaster, first mate, and a Dwürden floating on two crates which he held together with all his strength. The cook and captain paddled closer as well using a barrel and a makeshift oar. It was all they could do to cling to their floating debris and watch the Zultàyi spear-men circle and kill the sailors of the doomed longboat.
As they watched with horror, the Zultàyi ship resurfaced some distance away. The ship appeared to have front shell with a long spine that ran between two harnessed whales that were provided the vessel with its only propulsion. Atop the shell and spine was a small walkway where Zultàyi crewmen surveyed the damage and “clean-up” activities. Frustrated with this ambush, the group decided to fight back least they suffer the same fate as the crew.
Dammon initiated the retaliation by calling down a storm of ice knives upon the observers and their vessel. The Zultàyr reacted with great surprise, not at all suspecting any degree of resistance from a scuttled merchant ship. Ērēus climbed onto the raft and drew his sword, preparing for a Zultàyi response. Jak and Tressta followed his example, drawing their weapons and watching the fish people circle the raft. The assembled raft barely broke the water’s surface among the tossing waves, except for a hogshead barrel at its center which Dorkun clung to for dear life. Positioned within the winds above, Dammon unleashed arcane arrows at one of the vessel’s creatures and watched with pleasure as the ship bucked and tossed in response.
From atop the hogshead, Dorkun began yelling in many languages until Zildara recognized Trade, he was trying to explain that the Zultàyr had moved beneath the raft and were attacking the barrel-and-crate raft with their spears. At one side, Graiç who was holding onto the raft as he floated on the waves, was waving off a number of Zultàyi spears with one great wooden “hand”. Tressta stabbed down between the crates with her rapier. Zildara summoned a spiritual blade which cut as easily through the water as through the air. Jak too began stabbing at moving shapes beneath the shifting crates. Above, Dammon continued to assault the living vessel, and was pleased to see that beast had no tolerance for such abuse. The Zultàya on top of the vessel held tightly to their railing as the ship’s beast bucked and turned within its fetters.
Nearby, Zultàyr emerged from distant waves firing crossbows at the rafters. Dorkun the Dwürden was the first to yell that he’d been hit, but refused to leave the central barrel. Beneath the raft a Zultàyn swam too close to the wood golem and was snatched and squeezed to death within the giant construct’s splintered hand. Unable to get a good attack on the swimming opponents, Jak took a deep breath, hopped into the bloodied water, activated the rung, and readied his spear. The Zultayan crossbowmen released another volley, hitting the Dwürden twice more. Dorkun screamed. Tressta sheathed her rapier and saw to tightening the crates and barrels, some of which had begun to come loose beneath them. Dorkun screamed again and slipped unconscious from the hogshead, his side riddled with Zultàyi quarrels. In the distance, the Zultàyi vessels turned sideways and disappeared beneath the waves. The raft buckled upward as Graiç the Unsinkable pulled himself beneath the raft to hold it together. With the crates and barrels lifted from the water Tressta and Ērēus were able to tend to its ropes and knots. From above, Dammon directed his arcane arrows at the crossbowmen. With the ship gone, the remaining Zultàyr disappeared beneath the waves as well, uninterested in pursuing the fight. Within moments of their leaving, the storm and ocean swells subsided. Jak swam toward the drifting raft, pulling himself from the water.
The morning sun reminded them of all they had lived through the night before. The water was littered with broken boards, crates, and barrels from the sunken Aylyrēar. Dammon wove a spell upon Paldor allowing him to rise high into the air. From a very high vantage the captain thought he saw some land to the distant northwest, so it was decided that they should paddle in that direction.
Irídor, 7 Tolð 653
Sun burnt, hungry, thirsty, and weary the group paddled forward toward the land Paldor had spotted. As they grew closer, Dammon confirmed that they were approaching an island. Soon, everyone could see the island’s rocky ridges rising above the sea. Below the water grew shallow and they watched as giant sharks circled beneath them with great interest. Closer to the island Graiç, who was paddling with his feet behind the raft, spotted hundreds of small houses along the sea floor. As they got closer to the island, it took them a few hours to find their way through the concentric coral reefs, but by evening the injured and weary travelers grounded upon the beach.
The group was unhappy to find that beyond the island beach was a tangle of scrub trees and that the ground was teeming with millions of crawling and biting insects. Intent on making a camp, they disassembled their raft and opened the crates and barrels to find what they’d been able to salvage. After opening the containers they were able to inventory cheeses, straw, textiles, and wine. While this was happening Dammon shifted into a raptor and flew up to get a better look at the island. At the end of one headland he found a shrine that he guessed to be Zultàyi, on the south end he found a long inlet, on the far side of the island he found another forested area crawling with eight foot centipedes that hissed as he passed over, and circling back to the group’s camp he found another ridge with a statue of a Zultàyn standing in a whale’s mouth. Near this shrine were some woven chairs and baskets. When the magician returned to the group they were all standing on the beach introducing themselves and discussing what could be done. Present and accounted for were: Dammon Shroudson, Tressta Drynsval, Zildara of Zalan, Jak of Cænden, Zêla, Ērēus of Amra, the captain Paldòr Batrūlan, the cook Balàdâsha, Dorkun the quartermaster, Daemeda, Graiç of Mazzam, Kavrus Karder, Farwin the Daft, Tattoo (Nilgyir an Tirwyn), Lourn the whaler, and Salas Maradis. The group agreed to move their equipment into the trees and set-up camp under their foliage cover.
As the first night on the island closed about them, the suspicious Kavrus returned from the beach with news of an odd spectacle unfolding there. A number of people agreed to follow the sailor back to the beach. As they emerged from the trees they saw an eerie sight. The beach was crowded with luminescent spirits that seemed to walk from the waves and stand waiting on the root crossed sands. Dammon Shroudson sensed their magics and determined them to be manifestations of Or Dnur. As the group got closer, the ghostly features became less indistinct. These were Zultàyi ghosts Ērēus explained, warning the others to remain at a distance. Thinking on this a moment, Dammon fished a scroll from his robes and showed it to the nearest Restless. The spirits, who until this time had ignored them, turned to view the parchment. Once they’d read it’s message, the ghosts became very animate and motioned for the magician to follow. Jak and Dammon followed the spirit into the woods. The spirit moved effortlessly across root-tangled ground, blankets of clicking insects, and through the branching trees. It was all they could manage to keep up with the spirit.
Before long they emerged into a small clearing high on the ridge where a small stone building sat against the hillside. The ghost waved them forward and then vanished in the shrine’s doorway. The two entered the shrine to find a circular well of indeterminate depth, and a Zultàyi statue holding a stone bowl. A lantern shown down the hole could see no bottom, but did reveal claw marks scratched into the stone walls of the well. After experimenting with the offering bowl, the two returned to camp.
Continued in The Crawling Isle.
Characters
- Dammon Shroudson
- Jak of Cænden
- Tressta Drynsval
- Zildara of Zalan
- Amùlo of Kuguntor: killed
- Arguin of Durul: killed
- Arkur: killed
- “Bad Eye” Sewin: killed
- Balàdâsha (Cook)
- Big Woggar: killed
- Bolun: killed
- Calidae of Osylmith: killed
- Daemeda
- Dorkun
- Edahyla
- Eldùad Juarn: killed
- Elen Syransval: killed
- Ērēus of Amra
- Eungor: killed
- Farwin the Daft
- Familiar
- Feghr: killed
- Garrut: killed
- Gathud: killed
- Geddiç Borm: killed
- Graiç of Mazzam
- Gwenda Ironknee: killed
- Handir: killed
- Imerid the Red: killed
- Kavrus Karder
- Lourn the Whaler
- “Mean Jor” Fasturgoth: killed
- Myrad: killed
- Oston: killed
- Paldòr Batrūlan (Ship Captain)
- Salas Maradis
- Salur the White: killed
- Salur Urdeth: killed
- “Tattoo” Nilgyir an Tirwyn
- Thyar of Naddal: killed
- Ulvis Gayr: killed
- Yyered of Alúrin: killed
- Zêla ma Ler
Played: 02 Aug 2003