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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Zappo" data-source="post: 209513" data-attributes="member: 633">Setting: A small tropical island named Taisalai, ruled by the evil Tjopians.Geography: Taisalai is small, no more than 40 kilometers across, and is mostly covered in a dangerous jungle. The jungle is very thick and includes many plant monsters. Animal life is limited to birds and insects. The closest land mass is more than a week's travel by boat away, and the sea surrounding it is very rough, making the place isolated, difficult to reach or to leave.A single town and harbor has been built on the coast; its name is Taesjeli and its people are slaves to the Tjopians. These people live through piracy, fishing. The few water sources are guarded: each well is surrounded by a small wooden fort, manned by two or three Tjopians (6th to 8th level monks) and ten to twenty soldier slaves (1st to 3rd level soldiers).Ancient History: Taisalia used to be uninhabited until a few centuries ago. Back then, on the continent, two monk factions were warring: the good Sekaldes and the evil Tjopians. The two orders have never been friends, but an ages-old truce binded them. Eventually, the Tjopians (or the Sekaldes, depending on who you ask) betrayed and attacked the other order. The war was long and bloody, but eventually the Sekaldes prevailed and exiled their enemies to the distant Taisalai (hoping that they would be too worried about survival to engineer more evil plans).When they reached the island after two months of navigation, the prisoners broke free while disembarking, killed the guards, seized control of the ships, and enslaved the sailors. Knowing that they would be killed if they returned, they used the mariners and surviving guards as slaves to secure water sources, find food, and build a village. They also used the ships for piracy and acquired more slaves from the closest nations.The village has grown into a relatively big town of about a half thousand people, thanks to the costant slavery raids. A fortress has been built in the middle of the village, using up almost all the stone of the island. While the majority of the population is dark-skinned (having inherited the trait from the people of the nations close to Taisalai), the Tjopians have refused to 'contaminate' their blood and are the only white-skinned people on the island. This, combined with the fact that they kill all their children who aren't fit to be trained in their martial arts (that is, those who are neutral or chaotic, or good), has caused severe inbreeding among them. To partially prevent this, the Tjopians seize as their 'personal' slaves any white person they find during the raids, mate with them and throw them in the jungle after the birth of two or three children. There are about fifty Tjopians on the island, and all of them are monks (most between 3rd and 7th level). The best and highest level ones are assigned to guard the water sources or to command pirate ships. The elder take all the decisions.Recent History: One of the white slaves, named Maklor (5th level fighter), held prisoner in the chambers of the Tjopian woman Kalsera, has managed to win the love of his forced consort. Kalsera kept Maklor with her for eight years, during which they raised a son and a daughter. Unfortunately, the kid displayed a chaotic nature and lacked the focus to become a martial artist, while the girl showed excessive kindness and goodness towards the slaves. Eventually, the elders decreed that the kids had to be killed and Maklor exiled to prevent further corrupting influence from him.At the execution, Maklor shouted and cried, but he was tied and couldn't do anything. Kalsera, instead, was just watching in silence. When the elder arrived, holding a magical spear which was reserved for executions (the condemned don't deserve to be killed with martial arts), she suddenly jumped at him screaming and attacked him fiercely. More monks rushed to his aid, and Kalsera eventually was subdued. The elder struck here with the spear, but before dying she murmured: "Cursed we are, cursed, for slaying our own children. Betrayed by those they trust the most... the fate we give is the same we receive".Maklor fell silent, gazing in the void as the elder shook the spear free and murdered the two crying children as well. They took him away and dumped him deep within the jungle to die.The PCs: this mini-adventure is good for PCs of mid levels. Good PCs should desire to help the slaves to escape; others can be motivated by the need to get away from the island.Getting started: there are several ways to get the PCs on Taisalai. One is presented here: the island hosts little animals but a wide variety of exotic birds. A wizard desires one of those as a familiar, a sort of parrot, and for this reason he hires the PCs to travel to Taisalai and retrieve its eggs. Knowing well the danger this poses, he pays them well and tells them to reach the island as stealthily as they can, find a nest, pick up a few eggs, and get out of there as soon as possible. He arranges for a ship whose captain is mad enough to travel there and tells them goodbye.The adventure: The captain is good and, by travelling during the night aided by magical darkvision, he manages to reach the island unseen. He tells the PCs that he will return to pick them up in exactly three days. Unfortunately, right after the PCs have landed on a hidden beach and the ship has left the shore, a Tjopian pirate ship spots it and attacks. The battle is brief; it is too far for the PCs to do anything, the captain and most of the crew are killed, the rest are taken prisoner.The PCs have no choice but to enter the jungle and look for the eggs and a way out of the island. Encounters in the jungle can include all sorts of natural tropical birds and plants as well as monstrous plants. Soon, the PCs spot a hangman tree, with a half-eaten human body still in its branches. If the PCs get close, the tree will attack them. The corpse is all that remains of one of the slaves sent to die in the jungle. There are more such sights in the jungle, but the PCs can also find wooden forts guarding wells, or hunting patrols. Eventually the PCs meet Maklor. He is being attacked by another hangman tree. If the PCs save him they find he has a blank stare. Maklor's mind simply couldn't stand seeing his wife and children brutally murdered in front of him, and he has completely forgot everything, becoming practically catatonic - he was thrown into the jungle a few hours ago and survived until now through sheer luck. If the PCs talk to him, he slowly starts speaking again, but he doesn't remember anything of who he is or why he is there until the PCs reach the village.There, the PCs see that all the inhabitants are dark-skinned; if the PCs are white, they seem to always avoid their gaze and lower their head when they pass. There are very few monks in the village, and for now the PCs don't meet any. If a PC tries to talk with a slave, he can learn how the place is run. Maklor, listening, slowly remembers being captured and enslaved, but still knows nothing about Kalsera or his children, and he doesn't remember his name. If a slave understands that the PCs are neither slaves nor Tjopians, he points them to a hut where another slave, named Benh, lives. Benh is planning a great escape from the island, but he lacks the weapons and strength for it. If the PCs gain his trust, he will ask them for help (pointing out that following him is the only way out of the island).This is the plan: that night, there will be the funeral of a Tjopian woman named Kalsera, who got killed in tragic circumstances. He proceeds to tell the PCs the whole story, and while he does so Maklor simply doesn't listen and doesn't seem interested. Truth is, his mind is protecting itself from the pain by avoiding to listen. Cunning PCs might get suspects if they notice that their newfound friend can't remember a single word of that story. He does remember the rest of the plan: attacking the relatively few monks who are guarding the ships while the really powerful Tjopians are at the funeral, and then mounting the slaves on all the ships and leaving. Without ships, the monks won't be able to follow.The funeral takes place during the night, at a couple hundred meters from the harbor. There is some light foliage in between, and as it is custom, the scene will be surrounded by torches and bonfires, and the attention will be focused on the rituals, so the monks will be hardly able to see what happens far in the dark. The PCs have the task of stealthily eliminating the monk guards of the harbor. There are slave soldiers helping the guards; if the PCs are dark-skinned, they will protect the guards (they are too afraid to do otherwise), but if they are white they will be confused and do nothing.Assuming that the PCs manage to kill the monks without being noticed, the evacuation of the slaves can begin. There are ten large ships in the harbor, barely enough to accomodate all the slaves. This is the most delicate part of the operation: getting five hundred people on the ships before the funeral ends. The PCs oversee the operation and will travel on the last and fastest ship, together with the best soldier slaves. When almost everyone is on and nine ships on ten are leaving the harbor, the ritual reaches its climax: the dead Kalsera is lifted to the light where everyone can see her clearly.Including Maklor, who is on the ship that just left. He suddenly remembers everything and his eyes widen with madness. He screams the name of his beloved and would jump overboard if some of the former slaves didn't hold him, trying to silence him. But it's too late: some of the Tjopians leave the funeral and run at full monk speed toward the harbor. Benh, who is on the fast ship with the PCs, curses and orders everyone to get on the rows and start working hard.The elder who killed Kalsera is the first to arrive. He could easily jump on the PCs' ships but he knows it is too dangerous. Instead, he laughs and mocks Maklor, and throws the spear at him. The spear flies straight and true towards Maklor's heart, but at a few feet's distance suddenly changes direction and heads towards the elder! The elder is surprised but narrowly dodges it, and then the spear turns again and hits him very hard in the back. The elder was still low on HP from the fight with Kalsera, and the force of the blow drops him to his knees.At this point, the final battle begins. The Tjopians are stunned from seeing the spear fly back and hit the elder, and some of them think the escaped slaves are being aided by powerful wizards. Still, a couple high level monks and a few low level ones reach the harbor and jump or swim on the PCs' ship before it gets too far and too fast. The PCs have to fight them with the aid of twenty slaves (5 of them are commoners, level 1st to 3rd, and 15 of them are soldiers, level 3rd to 5th, armed with various weapons and light armors). The slaves have seen the monks fight and will help the PCs well, by occupying the squares near them, using the helping other option, and readying actions to limit the monks' movement.If the PCs still have the parrot eggs, they'd better take care to avoid getting them squashed!</blockquote>

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