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Message: <blockquote data-quote="the Jester" data-source="post: 3159294" data-attributes="member: 1210">9/3/372 O.L.G., 9 a.m., a small islet off the shore of StrogassOur heroes spend the morning in discussion.  They are pretty sure that something nasty lives in the deep well between the islands.  It is both logical and obvious.  The only question is, what are they going to do about it?Ari casts commune with nature and determines that there are several highly unnatural things under the water- one of them, especially, seems to lead the others.  It feels old- so old that it has become native to Cydra, even if it was born... elsewhere.  Frowning unhappily, he states, “I think this area needs a cleansing.”The suggestion of hooking a party member onto a rope and using them for bait kicks off an interesting line of reasoning.  Given that the party doesn’t have a gnome, the plan’s next permutation instead involves dumping some kind of soup or stew down into the water in order to lure out whatever is down there.  This further evolves until someone suggests cooking up something foul and poisonous to either draw out whatever is down there or to weaken (or even kill) it.  “Well, while I don’t endorse the use of poison all the time, especially when we’re just dumping it into the environment,” Ari says slowly, “I think in this case it may be warranted.  I doubt whether there are many natural creatures living down there now anyway.”“Well, gathering stuff to do that probably take us a few days,” points out Jawbreaker.  “Let’s finish checking out the islands first.”“Don’t forget, Bacon Grease might have something that we could use, or at least some spices.”*  Naomi grins, thinking of her grunting love match over the kitchen with Bacon Grease.  She sighs gluttonously.  They sure spread their juices in the crew’s lunch that day!The party agrees, and soon they are searching the next isle.  While looking around, Chief Jawbreaker finds an old area of dried mud and muck that, from the looks of it, is almost always above the water.  It looks to have baked solid in the sun and never re-softened, and the perfect impression of a footprint is in the hardened mud- a footprint about as long as a halfling’s leg.  “Giants,” Jawbreaker grunts.  He glances around.  The islet is nearly featureless; there certainly aren’t any structures tall enough for a giant to hide in.  He shrugs and the party keeps searching.They find one more noteworthy feature on the islet: the skeleton of a 25’ tall giant lies stretched out in a depression, surrounded by broken rocks and spattered with the guano of sea gulls.  The skeleton is missing one leg below the knee.  It appears that the giant scratched some kind of glyph in the stones next to it before it died.Federico squats down and examines the rune for a few moments before announcing, “I think this means ‘danger in the water.’”“Shocking,” mutters Rock.“Wow!”  Tron has picked up one of the guano-covered rocks.  “It’s a white rock!  I wonder if I can smoke it...”“That’s not crahk, that’s bird poop,” Nara sighs.“You could try it,” Federico replies.  “Maybe it will get you high.”Tron stares suspiciously at the rock, then thoughtfully puts it into his pocket for later use.  “There’s gotta be some crahk out here somewhere,” he complains, rooting around amongst the rocks and mussels.  Naomi, meanwhile, has begun preparing second breakfast- though, as she squints at the sky, it might be more like brunch time.“You know,” Erasmuz offers, “I might be able to animate that skeleton.”“What!” exclaims Yip.  “That is horrible- blasphemous, sacrilegous!”“No it’s not, buddy,” Erasmuz retorts.  “I mean, think about it- he might even get the chance to take revenge on his killer, if it was whatever is in the water.”  He gestures at the glyph.  “And that seems likely, right?”Federico, Yip and Erasmuz debate the ethics of animating the dead for a while, but finally Erasmuz’ “revenge” argument wins the day.  The ur-priest pulls a large black gem from his pouch and places it within the eye socket of the skeleton.  Then he begins chanting and gesturing, almost seeming to mock the very invocations that he is using.  Slowly, the 25’ tall skeleton pulls itself up- and almost falls over!“Crap, he needs a peg leg,” Erasmuz complains.  “I almost forgot.” Fortunately, the ruined isle has just enough rubble on it that the party can fashion a prosthetic for the skeleton.  Then Erasmuz climbs onto it, perching within its ribcage, and the party gets ready to continue their explorations.  “Hey, buddies,” the ur-priest suggests, “hop on and I’ll cast air walk on him!”So it is that the peg legged giant skeleton- named “Tiny” by our heroes- becomes a means of transport, and it’s off to the next isle, where the party finds a reasonable number of ruins- but no intact buildings.  Among the ruins of this islet, a thorough search turns up a trap door that is wedged shut by slime and muck.  Half an hour’s work allows it to be opened.  Below is a sodden chamber with 1’ of water at the bottom.  A rusted metal desk is the only remaining furnishing, but a simple cursory search reveals a sealed, lacquered box.  It opens with ease when Jawbreaker puts a little force behind the attempt.  Within it is a prayer book written in some sort of debased Halfling tongue.  “Let me see it,” hums Naomi.  Her grubby paws scrabble at it.  After a few moments spent moving her lips while she reads, she cackles happily.  “As I suspected- it’s a work of the jerren!”“How do you know so much about these jerren?” wonders Ari.“Oh, uh, as to that, well,” Naomi grunts, “you might say that I have some jerren blood in me.”The party stares at her.  “I heard the jerren were eeevil,” Federico says solemnly.  “Well, they were known for a little stuff and things, but nothing to worry about,” Naomi mutters.  “Anyway, this appears to be a prayer book of some kind.”“Prayers?  To who?” asks Nara.“Zaamel, ‘Lord of the Darkest Depths,’” Naomi replies, flipping pages.  “Hmm, this makes sense.  We- I mean, the jerren have been known to summon or bind various creatures.  Maybe that’s what Ari sensed below.”“What else is in the book?” asks Beau.“Not much- it does mention Uldwin of the Sky, who appears to be Zaamel’s father, and Manos the Fisherman, Zaamel’s arch-foe.  Beyond that... maybe with more study, but who knows?  Like I said, it looks pretty much like a prayer book.”“Get rid of it,” Erasmuz murmurs to himself, but nobody else hears him.  “Well,” Rock says, “there’s one more isle over there.”  He jabs a finger to the south east. “Yep!”  Erasmuz grins.  “Hop on, buddies!”  He climbs Tiny’s ribs like a ladder and settles into the skeleton’s chest cavity.  The others hop onto various places, and Tiny begins air walking the party towards the next- and last- isle.Next Time: Our heroes try to decide whether they like to eat seaweed or whether it likes to eat them!*Bacon Grease is, of course, the halfing cook on board the party’s ship.</blockquote>

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