Posted on November 22, 2013
Castaway Diary, day 24 cont.
Woo. Lots of combat last night – only six rounds of combat with the cannibals, but it was pretty intense with the charging and the impaling and the biting and the shooting and the skeletons and the spiders. That was a bonkers 36 seconds. I’m glad we got to it- the problem with mysterious islands is that everything is mysterious, so I can never tell what will catch the attention of the group. This cenote was evidently interesting even though it was actually exactly as it seemed. I was worried we’d get halfway through the barbarian charge and then have to quit, but a rare stealth mis-step by Malicia and Nobody hastened the hostilities and we brought it all home by a little after 11pm. Â And we’re not even done. No xp last night because they are still in the middle of the encounter, even though the party killed all comers. The upside of that is that the bank of Critical cards is pretty hefty. Â Only one retcon that I can think of, which seems good because a few rules conundrums came up last night, and that is the witches hex on Victor: Witch hexes don’t end when the witch dies – it isn’t a maintained effect. Fleetingly bad news for Victor, pretty good news for Orny… when he dies.
I’ll never forget you, Henri.
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Investigating further, Orny and Nobody discovered the following: The winch was old and much repaired, but was of a sophisticated and easy to use design. It lowered a flap-bottomed bucket into the cenote and the could be used to winch it back up by hand. The winching gear and ratchet were all in rough, but serviceable condition. Two barrels were empty and six were full of water. Nobody cautiously sniffed at it and then drank some and found it to be incredibly high quality drinking water. The party have been getting by on rain water in small amounts gathered in the cups of leaves or drinking from fast flowing streams that still somehow have a planty taste to them. But this water was a delight to drink. The cenote, although it appeared to be natural, had been quarried around – the flatness of the area being artificially created by removing slabs of limestone rock. A steep set of stairs descended to a smaller pit in which the cenote hole was actually located. Both this set of stairs and the steep stairs leading from the horseshoe path had the same inscription in Taldane, the Common tongue of the northern continent, read from top to bottom: THIS ISLAND IS OUR PRISON, WE WERE UNWORTHY, WE ARE BEING PUNISHED.
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The party wanted to look into the mysterious cenote a little more. They winched in the bucket using the still functional winch. Orny cast Light on the bucket and Nobody hopped on board and they lowered him down into the cenote. Beneath the surface was a 60′ wide, 80′ deep cave at the bottom of which Nobody reckoned there was about 20′ of water. The water was exceptionally clear and he could see the angular shapes of stone blocks, presumably castoffs or fallen quarried rocks. There was nothing else really and eventually they winched him back up and deposited him on dry land. There was some discussion about spiking the barrels, but they decided not to and returned to the trail from whence they came. Aerys pointed out that the cannibals they had just killed were probably due back to camp in two barrels and a slow walk’s time.
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They called a halt when the hottest part of the day came and when the rains broke the heat in the mid afternoon, they set off again. The rain did not relent as they reached the southwestern bay, on which the camp apparently stood. From the head of the bay, they could see no camp, sop they progressed along the path a little and slipped into the jungle. Nobody and Malicia were the designated scouts, so they slipped a little harder into the jungle.
And they say video games don’t teach us anything. Far Cry 3 taught me to stay the fuck away from these things/islands that might contain them.
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The rest of the party was unaware of the severity of the situation, but Percy, having heard a kerfuffle above the normal jungle noise of parrots yelling at monkeys to stop screeching, advised that they approach cautiously. Malicia was stabbing furiously at the creature’s neck, having lost a few feathers escaping from its jaws. The lizard made a loud hissing sound, its saggy neck expanding like bellows. As everyone else arrived to help Malicia out, Orny put the lizard to sleep with a Slumber hex and Percy delivered the Coup de Grace. Respite was not forthcoming, however as the sound of deliberate clattering came through the jungle metal and wood being banged together urgently, from many different locations. All this time, the rain continued to pour.
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Nobody received some healing to get him back on his feet and then he and Malicia crept forward stealthily toward the noise. Victor and Uun advanced as quickly as they could through the undergrowth while Percy kept a watchful eye out for more lizards and Orny cast guidance on Uun’s next attack. The clattering became louder and as Uun approached the edge of the jungle, he saw eight cannibals banging their swords and shields together.Â
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Uun quickly set his spear to receive the charge he knew was imminent and entered his rage state just as they cannibals did too. They poured into the jungle around Uun, one luckless cannibal running straight onto Uun’s spear and impaling himself. Axes rained down on the Shoanti barbarian, but he stayed upright and laughed heartily at their efforts. He struck out with his spear again and lunged in to bite the cannibal, tearing out a throat and spitting it into the eyes of the next tribesman in line before biting him too.Â
Uun: Hewing as fast as he can.
How creepy were these skeletons? Super fucking creepy skeletons. Oiled up touchy-feely paedo skeletons.
Well, shit.
Oh, I see. I thought you were implying Orny had hexed Victor sometime but I couldn’t remember when I would have done that.
Also, sorry I had to leave a little early. Cormac was getting a cold last night and Clara can’t spend all night putting him down when I don’t have any place to be in the morning.
Oh, and I meant to discuss this last night but we didn’t:
For future reference, the last time I used Orny’s Cauldron hex I forgot that he needs to use materials that are equivalent to the cost of that potion to create one. So, David, in the future we’re just going to need to remember to have him gather berries and mosses or whatever (with either Knowledge: Nature or Survival rolls, I suppose? Or just Alchemy tests?) so that he can have a couple days worth of CLW pot supplies.
Right? Or am I forgetting something?
Sorry I cheated, but I read the rules fast and figured I was fine because he has Eschew Materials, but that’s ridiculous when I think about it sober.
“Materials equivalent to ____gp” means I don’t care what you throw in there. I don’t want to think how many berries you have to pick to have 500gp worth of berries. That’s daft.
Let’s instead assume that it’s the sacrifice of wealth that appease the gods/patrons, since these gods are pretty old school. “You like that thing? I want you to burn it, for me!” So basically destroy anything while you make the proper incantations , then boil whatever is left of it and it will work.
That’s a little different if it says “Oils worth 5000gp” or whatever Resurrection requires. but even then, I’ll lean lenient.
If we don’t do it that way then you are fannying around trying to gather items and that costs time rather than money.
I’d rather assume that Orny – and any other spellcaster with crafting feats is constantly collecting weird useless ingredients to add to the pile of gold dust or whatever they’re going to throw in a potion/cauldron.