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Message: <blockquote data-quote="spyscribe" data-source="post: 2816816" data-attributes="member: 5808">Part the One-Hundred Eighty-SecondIn which: Reyu notices one thing amiss, but misses another.The sun is still high overhead when the party reaches the peak that they’ve been aiming for.  Light glitters on the water surrounding the island, and the sea before them is dotted with the rest of the archipelago.  While the others pause to update their map, Reyu scans the island.“What do you see?”  Anvil asks her.Reyu squints.  Frankly, she sees a lot of plants.  Forest plants, water-loving plants, tall plants, short plants…  by the far shore, she sees something else.“I believe there is some kind of… structure… on the side of the island opposite where we landed.  Anvil follows her finger.  He can just make out the point she is indicating.  “Indeed.”“Ooo!  Ooo!”  Kiara is already sprouting wings.  “I’ll go look!”  She leaps into the air and takes off, finishing her shift to swallow form in midair.  “Be—” Annika calls after her…  “Careful,” she finishes belatedly.Kiara is back soon enough, and without obvious misadventure.  She perches on Annika’s shoulder and mentally relates what she’s seen. “She says it’s some kind of dock.”“A dock?” Eva asks.The swallow nods.“Were there any other structures?”The swallow shakes her head.“Who would build a dock on an empty island?” Lira asks of no one in particular.“An archmage?”  Thatch suggests.  “We’ve already met one who builds a windowless tower in the middle of the desert.  That’s weirder than a dock.”A pause.“He’s got a point,” Eva admits.   Hoping that closer investigation will yield more information, the party decides to return to their boat and see this dock for themselves.###Retracing their steps back to the boat is easier than the journey from it, both because it is largely downhill, and because the party is able to follow their own, previously cleared, trail.Along the way, Kiara spots a clearing not far from their path.  In it, a large ovoid pod covered in thick thorns stands up from a doily of dark shiny green leaves. “Oh look,” Lira remarks when this is pointed out to her, “a giant spiny pod.  Let’s leave it alone.”This is readily accepted as an agreeable plan.  After Anvil checks to see if it is a magical giant spiny pod (it isn’t), and then checks to make sure the party hasn’t picked up any magical items they weren’t aware of (they haven’t), they press on, and by late afternoon have shoved off in their longboat once again.###With Thatch at the oars, it doesn’t take long to circumnavigate the island and arrive at the previously sighted dock.  The party moors their craft and steps out onto the simple wooden structure.“Well,” Eva remarks, “it sure is a dock.”While the dock is clearly intended as a permanent structure, Reyu finds no real trail from it into the island’s interior, or even any tracks.  After much searching in the failing light, she finds something of a trail off to one side, but it doesn’t look to have been maintained for quite some time.Apparently, Barnabus doesn’t visit this particular island with much frequency.“Fancy that,” Lira grouses. “Between the insects and the vines that want to kill you, it has so much to recommend it.”The party decides to make camp on the beach and wait until daylight to see where the path leads.  Reyu fishes for their dinner, and the party happily supplements their sea-rations with her catch.After dinner, Anvil rises from his seat and the fire and proclaims:  “Archmage Barnabus!  We are here with a message from King Orrin of Dar Pykos.  Show yourself!”The only response comes from the lapping of the waves and the crackling of the fire.###It’s second watch, in the very middle of the night.  Anvil has just completed his midnight prayers, and the beach is quiet.  Reyu gazes up at the stars, spread across the sky in dizzying thickness and intensity.  Although she knows Captain Elsuki and The Fool’s Errand are not far off, it feels like the party’s little fire is the only light for hundreds of miles.  Around the smoldering embers, her companions slumber.Lira fell asleep only a few hours ago, having sat the first watch of the evening, and so it is with some annoyance at first that she notices Euro’s presence intruding on her consciousness.Boss!  Boss!  Wake up!Once she registers his panic, Lira wakes immediately.  She barely has time to utter a mental What is it? before she notices the crushing weight on her lower legs.  She looks down, and in the dim light of the fire she can see some kind of plant-like mound, perhaps two feet tall and as wide in diameter, covering her feet and lower legs.  Then, by a fraction of an inch, the mound shifts upwards.Lira shrieks.As she wiggles and tries to get up, the thing scoots off and immediately begins shuffling towards the tree-line.  Anvil, already awake, moves quickly and pulls a burning log out of the fire, beating the thing as it retreats.  The mound smokes and scoots even faster.(BadMonkeyJeff: 1d6 plus fire damage?  Why isn't a burning club my regular weapon?)By the time most of the rest of the party has untangled themselves from their bedrolls, he has pretty well driven it off, and Eva shoots off an arrow or two for good measure to discourage it from coming back.Lira is unhurt, albeit somewhat shaken, a condition which is not aided when she discovers a few tiny holes have been punctured in her blanket.“What was it going to do to me?”“You are uninjured,” Reyu points out calmly.“Yes, because Euro noticed the big shuffling plant invading our camp.  You were on watch.  What were you watching?”  Euro glares indignantly from Lira's shoulder.Don't you worry Boss.  Any more plants so much as look at your funny, they're going to have to deal with me, you know?Reyu, archly, does not reply.(WisdomLikeSilence, on the other hand, says: “Oh, are you upset because I didn’t protect you from the big scary compost heap?”)Finally, with a last muttered, “This is why I hate the woods,” from Eva, the party goes back to sleep.</blockquote>

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