Castaway Diary, Day 7.

Other than the fight, which was more dangerous and lengthy than it needed to be, but not in a bad way, we didn’t really get too much done last night. But there were several portents of things yet to come,.. unless they were red herrings.
 
We underestimated how much pizza to get too. Let’s never let that happen again.  
 
I’m close to being done painting all the NPC castaways, just Sasha’s legs and Ileana’s dress to finish, so I’ll put a picture of them here when I’m done.  
 
In the meantime, I’ll put this here…
 
 
…because that stuff is great. It’s like a better made Berryweiss that’s ideal for slinging down your neck in the summer. Not massively fruity, just enough to be detectable. And hey, thematically appropriate.
 
So, on deck for tonight’s trip along the shore:
 
Percy, current kill-score leader, although he graciously provided nothing but Assists this session. Still, in terms of hit point manipulation, Percy is on the ball.
Orny, probably really looking forward to facing any enemy that sleeps in the conventional sense; meanwhile, Guidance Counsellor.
Uun, now – NOW- with hatchet. Also maybe Zombie plague.
Floki, worried that maybe everyone lost focus on what is important while he was down with Dysentery.
Rolifson, slinging acid and perceiving everything like he was Aldous fucking Huxley.
 
The morning began with the usual dawn discussion about what they were going to do. Floki, back on his feet and able to keep some of the food suspended in himself, wanted to remind everyone about the Lighthouse. Everyone agreed, that is their best hope for signalling ships. Floki just wanted to underscore that. Everyone still agreed. Floki seemed satisfied.
 
There were several other goals, however, that people had: Uun thought helping the other Castaways out would be helpful in securing their assistance, and everyone seemed interested in Ishiro’s treasure map. The two things coincide there for Ishiro, but Gelik and Jask also have things they’d like checked out, namely the wrecks of the Night Voice and the Brine Demon respectively. No-one seemed to object to any of these diversions, but at the moment, their plan was to head south along the coast and check out the makeshift camp they found again. This fulfills the dual goals of finding a way south to where the lighthouse is and south towards where Ishiro’s map points to a treasure pit.
 
All well and good, those left at the camp who don’t have some kind of tropical ailment were planning on making some basic improvements to the camp – everyone has, after all, been on the island for a week now and the flotilla of rescue vessels has failed to arrive.  So the plan was to get the sleeping shelters up off the ground further, creating a fire screen, there was even ambitious talk about a proper latrine.  To that end, they kind of need the block and tackle. So Ishiro asked Percy where he had put the block and tackle. Percy did not have the block and tackle. Percy, to his knowledge had never had the block and tackle.
 
There is only so much fun you can have with a block and tackle. Also, is that my table? Now I don't remember having a block and tackle. I think it is haunted.
There is only so much fun you can have with a block and tackle. Also, is that my table? Now I don’t remember having a block and tackle. I think it is haunted.
 
Ishiro was puzzled by this, as he had seen Percy go get the block and tackle during the night, something Percy does not remember doing. The mystery remained unsolved although Uun blamed shapechangingwitchghosts.
 
Leaving camp, the party set off down the coast. The heat got to almost everybody. Hot one today. Be a hot one tomorrow too. I’ll review the rules for heat here, just so that you know what is going on and people can stop asking me if it applies to them if they aren’t wearing armour.
 
  • Every hour you are out and about doing something when it is Very Hot, you make a DC 15 (+1 for each consecutive test) Fort save or take 1d4 points of non-lethal damage. If you wear arm0ur you get a -4 penalty to that roll. During the Severe Heat part of the day, that changes to making checks every 10 minutes and if you fail you also become Fatigued.
  • If you fall unconscious from that non-lethal damage, you start taking lethal damage.
  • Once per day, whoever is leading the expedition makes a Survival check and if they do well, can impart a +2 bonus to all the Fort saves during that day.
  • The nonlethal damage won’t go away until your overheating ends – either by resting in shade (slow) or being doused in cool water (fast), or healed magically or protected somehow from heat.
 
Fantasy Caribbean/Africa isn’t going to have an ice age any time soon, so this is worth keeping in mind.
 
Their sweltering trek took them within sight of three small islands off the north east shore. Presumably held together in part by the same rings of reef they were all a decent swim from shore. One appeared to shelter the remnants of a ship’s hull, albeit one that was now more or less part of the island.
 
At this point, the party split into Doomed Away Party and People Who Can’t Swim Very Well. Uun and Floki are competent swimmers, so they confidently breaststroked over to the island while the kids that got picked last in PE stood on the shore taking things easy.
 
Arriving on the island, they found a palm tree and a few rocks and the sideways stern of some ship, which had become part of the island. Three decks were visible, with two of them retaining bulkheads and the other open to the elements. Peering into the darkness of the lower deck, the two men heard low groaning sounds. Uun went forward to investigate and was set upon by three zombies that lurched out of the darkness. Pathfinder and D&D zombies aren’t the fast, terrifying, infectious, devouring, clawing and biting kind of  zombies. They are the shambling, arm waving, life-hating kind. Their sole tactic is to throw themselves at living things until there is nothing left to throw themselves against. They threw themselves as Uun, pretty hard, Charge being one of the few complicated maneuvers that a Zombie can do. Uun fell below the pounding dead arms. At this point Floki dashed into clear zombie view and made himself as alluring as he possibly could to the zombies, before Benny Hill-ing it off around the island in a loop designed to a) alert his shore-side fellows and b) get the Zombies attention away from Uun.
 
 
Facts and science!
 
In this he was successful, as the Zombies gave chase and the Shore half of the party sprang into action. Everyone would be able to wade across apart from Rolifson, but Orny wasn’t having any of it and summoned a Celestial Dolphin.
 
The Dolphin provided a quick and awesome pull across to the island, so while Floki distracted the Zombies and bought time for Uun, (who had fortunately stabilised), back-up wetly arrived.
 
 
 
So much better than Fiendish Dolphins.
So much better than Fiendish Dolphins.
 
 
Percy brought the healing/undead blasting power of Sarenrae laying down some heal/hurt on Uun/the Zombies. Floki, now bolstered by company and also Orny’s Guidance spells, turned and hacked at the undead. After a test squirt, Rolifson sent in several well-aimed Acid Splash missiles, melting away the physical bits that kept the malevolent zombie energy going on two zombies. Their non-melted bits fell to the ground, tried to help out, then gave up.
 
The trio of zombies were taken down and Uun brought back up, Percy’s channeling and Orny’s ministrations helping out. As they all caught their breath and everyone probably took the time to mention the Celestial Dolphin, Rolifson heard muffled, arrhythmic thumps coming from the tilted doors that blocked off the other two decks. The thumps grew in weight and eventually became obvious attempts to shatter the rotting, swollen wood of the doors.  
 
images (1)
 
There was some discussion whether or not they should burn the whole thing down, but it turned out they couldn’t if they tried, certainly not before the zombies smashed open the doors. Uun fashioned himself an improvised great club out of stuff he found lying around. Eventually the doors burst out and the Zombies emerged but they were no match for a prepared group of 1st level adventurers.
 
Someone had the thought to look for identifying marks on the wreck but it was in such an advanced state of decay, there wasn’t much to give away the name of the thing. Orny correctly deduced that it was neither of the two ships that their castaways had hoped to find, simply due to its age. But the epaulet on one of the zombie’s tattered rag of a jacket retained stitching that read “Tears of Grog”.
 
Inside the wreck, the rotten boxes and moldy barrels were singularly unimpressive, although they did find a small amount of useful tools: two chisels, and a handful of buttons and nails, as well as what Rolifson identified through taste test as a Potion of Hide From Animals and a wrapped and oiled suit of Masterwork Studded Leather armor. Score!
 
Seems like some animals would be easier to hide from than others, but I guess they don't have to worry about that now.
Seems like some animals would be easier to hide from than others, but I guess they don’t have to worry about that now.
 
Okay, so they saw out the hottest part of the day on the tiny island and then they had to get back to the shore without the aid of their amazing Angelic Herring Catcher. Swimming, with the strong assisting the weak, they made their way back to shore. Perhaps it was because he was letting someone do all the work, but Rolifson – whose perceptive skills were kind of dynamite this session – saw a lone figure standing on the shore where they had been resting. He was a human, as far as the halfling could tell, dressed in a crude loincloth and furs, holding some kind of hafted weapon. He watched them swim towards him, then turned and strode off into the jungle.
 
The trip further south down the shore continued although they started running out of beach and started clambering over the black rocky areas that took their place. A few noticed an brightly coloured, oddly-shaped and ungainly flying creature soaring around, but the creature didn’t attack or bother them and they didn’t bother it.  
 
Before long the rocky beach gave way to a low cliff and they arrived at its edge, looking down over a sandy beach upon which lay a completely upturned wreck.
 
Yay, more rotting wood adventures!
Yay, more rotting wood adventures!
 
That’s where we called it a day.
 
 
 Shiv Day 7
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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3 Comments

  1. Party Loot

    11.5 dys of hard tack (1 person)
    12 day of cooked goat meat (1 person)
    1 wooden drawer
    1 rope bottle
    1 empty bottle
    1 ship in a bottle model of the Jenivere
    1 canvas sheet used as a raingator
    4 quarter sized canvas sheets used as packs
    1 block and tackle (missing?)
    1 crowbar
    1 chisel
    2 short two handed saws
    Jar of nails
    1 fishing net
    5 belaying pins
    2 shovels
    1 hatchet
    1 boat hook
    1 mop
    1 bullseye lantern
    10 jars of lantern oil

    3 driftwood clubs
    7 rusted scimitars (broken)

    2 chain shirts
    2 sets of clothes
    1 varisian scarf

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