The
Illest Omen sails north for a full day, with one brief stop-over. Scar spots the glimmer of gold in a small sea cave towards dark and, through sheer power of personality, convinces the captain to lay anchor briefly to investigate in a rowboat.
[sblock=Mewness only]You find the small shrine, bare of all but a few nubs of wax, some vials, and a small golden statue of what is presumably a goddess, holding up the sun as though warding off the darkness.
You may take as much of it as you desire(see your Mechanical Benefits sblock).[/sblock]
Toeto joins Bounding and his crew and by the end of the day is scampering around the rigging like a true sailor.
| GM: | Benefits: The ship arrives earlier than it otherwise would have. |
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Fredrock spends the whole day running drills on the deck, lunge, parry, thrust, advance, retreat, etc. By the end of the day, the militia almost look like a capable fighting force.
| GM: | Benefits: The militia gain a level. |
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Yishim and Salgyn, meanwhile, chat it up with everyone, talking tactics, telling stories, and the like.
| GM: | When Yishim or Salgyn are adjacent to an ally, they and the ally gain +2 to saving throws. While they are flanking with an ally, they and the ally do +2 damage. |
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Eithal strings up a hammock on the aft-castle and watches the coastline drift by, naps, and listens as Kaz reads the journal to the group.
| GM: | Eithal gains 20 temporary hit points.
Kaz reads the journal entries below, with more to come. |
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The next morning, not long after dawn, the ship arrives at the docks at the base of the cliffs. Far above, the tower rises above the cliff, its windows and arrow-slits dark. Ravens circle it slowly and silently.
Boundling looks up at the dozen switch-backs cutting back-and-forth across the cliffs.
"Doesn't look too friendly. If you want, maybe we could sail up the coast a ways and find someplace else to disembark - someplace where you aren't exposed the whole way up. It could take a couple more hours, but it could we worth it if they don't see you coming..."
[sblock=Journal Entry 4]The following entry is dated for the next day.
One of the scouts, Tardik, came back. He said something took Sarah while they were in the woods. One minute they were riding along a game trail, the next, he looked back and her horse was gone. Found it lying ten feet off the trail, disemboweled, Sarah gone. Never heard or saw a thing.
He said they made it as far as the ruins in the hills and saw some cave entrances in a cliff face beyond the ruins. They decided they were going to camp but quickly decided against it when hundreds
of those damned ravens began landing atop the broken walls, watching them with their gleaming red eyes.
They headed into the woods, into a deep fog that left chills in them despite the warmth of the evening. There was no discussion of rest after that.
Some time in the morning, after a long night of plodding through the dark wood, something took Sarah. Tardik made it back here around dinner and told his story. No one had an appetite after we heard it, especially when our lookouts said they saw dozens of ravens circling the wood. Fogwood we call it now.
Gods, I just want to go back to Daunton.[/sblock]
[sblock=Journal Entry 5]The next entry is undated. It looks like it's scribbled quickly.
my gods. one of those ravens somehow squeezed in through an arrow slit and took reya's eye. woke up to her screaming in the dark. arren almost killed dya trying to stab the damn thing with his spear. Cale walked in and killed it with a single swing of his sword.
on his orders, we boarded up the arrow slits and windows to keep something like that from happening again.
i didn't tell anyone, but right before reya's screams woke me, i had a nightmare of being hunted through a foggy wood. in the distance i could see light in the tower and i struggled towards it, knowing there was safety there. it seemed like hours of terror, the fog draining the very life from my bones and the absolute knowledge that something
was tracking me, just waiting for me to stop or slow...
i was chilled to the bone, shivering, and when i finally stumbled through the tower door, everyone was dead.
a figure stood in the center of the room, dead eyes peering through a blank mask, its arms seeming to end in feathered wings.
the words were in my head, alien, like someone... some thing
else was inside my mind
- you die -
not sleeping tonight.[/sblock]
