19 December 2018
With the ship wedged firmly on the reef, we found ourselves on a small, strange atoll.
Xiao and Fabrizu went downstairs to the captain’s cabin to rouse Aryam. They attempted to provide first aid and healing to Aren, but it became clear that his infernal curse mark was severely harming him. We made him comfortable on the bed, then discussed how we might be able to shore up the ship and prevent it from cracking further.
We went up on deck and found one of the three guards now awake, screaming hysterically. All three were still tied to the mast, which had cracked and started to sway; magic energy was leaking from the fissures. We tried to reason with the guard, but he had gone quite mad with panic. When Aryam released him from the mast, he hurled himself into the ocean to his death.
Seeing this from the beach, P’epai and his chameleon companion blended into the background and watched, cautiously.
Using bits of loose wood, rope and sail, we lashed together a makeshift raft to carry Aren, the guards and our gear to shore. P’epai and Karma swam out to the ship to assist us; based on their relative size in the water, we thought it was the lizard talking. Together, we got everyone off the ship just as it came apart (using the last of its magic to keep its falling masts from killing us) and managed to swim to shore.
On the beach, we found wreckage from a number of different ships. We also detected a strong vegetal stench in the air, and found it difficult to breathe. P’epai in particular thought he could hear music somewhere in the distance.
Aryam found some of the drier wood along the beach and constructed a basic lean-to. P’epai put a blanket over Aren and Karma wrapped himself around it to keep it snug. Fabrizu asked about the jungle; P’epai pointed out the goblin vine growing thick throughout the vegetation line, in which several feet of ship detritus was already densely packed.
We found that, in their journey to shore, one of the two remaining guards had died. We ensured the other was stable, then prepared a basic set of funerary rites and pushed him into the water, weighted by stones. As he slid under the water, the storm quietened for a moment, and we all heard its music; Aryam recognised it as the Lullaby of Mogaru, King of the Kaiju, whom villages (according to legend) would often play to sleep before he could destroy them. Armed with this information, Aryam realised that the mountain at the centre of the atoll looked distinctly Mogaru-esque.
This led Xiao to observe the strange, grass-like quality of the ocean from the corner of her eye once more, and realise that we had in fact marooned on an island in the Dimension of Dreams – a location conjured by a powerful dreaming mind.
P’epai clambered up a tree and looked over the jungle; he saw that it was quite dense throughout, but that there was a somewhat-intact shipwreck in the next bay over. We decided to shore up the best campsite we could on the beach where we were, and rest.
The storm roiled and shifted, did not abate. At some point, the final guard woke up; Fabrizu offered him food and spoke to him. He seemed to recognise that we were not in the Inner Sea at all. Regarding Aren, he explained the the curse mark was a Wescrani Curse, and that since he had left the city, he was soon to die. He seemed determined to uphold Chelaxian Law despite our predicament; due to his rudeness, Fabrizu told him that we were in the Dimension of Dreams, which he did not at all believe. Eventually, he took his sword and left.
P’epai examined Aren’s curse mark and injuries, and determined that he would not wake. We decided to brew a potion that would send him off gently, and then bury him respectfully at the edge of the jungle according to the rites of Melani.
We decided next to work our way around the headland to the next bay, where P’epai saw the shipwreck. We inspected it; Xiao recognised it as an Ibliden galley. Then we were set upon by a variety of crabs: we managed to injure them to the point where they turned on each other, while Fabrizu drugged several of the smaller crabs with a drug called sundrop, causing them to pop.
We searched the ruined cabin of the ship and found that most of its cargo had been smashed, rummaged through or taken. We managed to find 200 gold worth of small-currency gems. In a hidden compartment in the cabin wall, we also found:
2 x Potions of Mage Armour
1 x Wand of Flare (47 charges)
1 x Wand of Endure Elements (waterproofing) (40 charges)
Fabrizu and Aryam took the two remaining short swords and began hacking a path through the jungle towards the mountain. Poring through the bits of plant matter they cut through, Xiao was able to identify both sour aconite and echo clover – both cure-alls able to be worked into poultices, balms, etc. She put a portion of each into our drug pack.
After a couple of hours, P’epai could detect the smell of burning from somewhere nearby. He scouted ahead and discovered a small, semi-permanent encampment with someone sleeping; he reported this back to the party and we decided to approach without hostility, in an attempt to converse with them.
The sleeper was a human woman. The way the tarps had been rigged like sails suggested a degree of nautical skill; P’epai detected a smell of sweat and wet fur. Aryam called out to her and she woke, drawing a Vudrani blade (an aruval) to defend herself. She asked who we were, and we explained that our ship had crashed upon the reef; she said she’d only been there a short time as well.
She allowed us to sit by the fire and share some food and tea. When P’epai used Spark to light the fire, she was clearly fascinated by the fact he was spell caster, and began peppering him with questions. She seemed to believe that, as a magic user, he should be able to leave the island. We learned that her name was Xikmuko.
We dined together; we cooked our own meat and vegetables, while she shared some kind of cold vegetable porridge with us.
We asked her more about how she’d come to be trapped on the island. Her answers seemed somewhat cryptic or evasive. We were able to ascertain that she had met other people there, but they had moved on while she chose to stay at the camp. Fabrizu took a walk around the fringes of the camp to look for clues.
Xiao and Aryam began preparing a tea ceremony by the fire. Xikmuko wished to contribute; she dragged an enormous cooking pot over the fire, had P’epai cast Create Water and filled it with leaves and parts that he identified as the components of a Sleep spell. He went to find Fabrizu and bring him back before the tea was poured; on the way, he heard the sound of bullfrogs coming from the nearby jungle.
As Xiao completed the steps of the ceremony, Xikmuko said she had a ceremony of her own. She brought out a large spoon and had Xiao grasp it, holding her hand so the two of them stirred the pot. Xiao identified that this was the somatic component of a spell, and resisted the effects of what she determined was some kind of bad luck hex. The woman paused, seeing that she was a magic user as well. Xiao attempted to fire back with Sleep spell, but it had no effect on her.
Aryam took up his glaive. Returning, Fabrizu took up his bow. P’epai threw a net over her, trapping her in place. She cried out, “Sisters!” and a booming sound returned from the forest.
Throughout the fight, Xikmuko attempted to charm P’epai with magic. With her still caught in the net, we knocked her prone, buffeted her with storm bursts, and Aryem attempted to intimidate her into surrender. It worked far better than he expected: her entire body went rigid, and she seemed to enter a state of severe panic or shock. She maintained that she was not trying to attack us – merely make it easier to put us to sleep.
There came another deep, resonant boom, and a second woman leapt shrieking from the trees above. Fabrizu managed to shoot her with an arrow, but she whipped him with something below her skirt as she landed. A third woman appeared and did the same.
Throughout the fight – as all three women nimbly leapt about and attacked, while casting spells – we perceived that our attacks seemed to ‘thud’ against them, as if into wood. Finally, two of the three leapt into the trees and disappeared, and we managed to get the third to surrender.
We tied her up and healed Fabrizu’s injuries, then realised that P’epai had disappeared. Aryem sent Karma off in search of his owner. Fabrizu examined the woman more closely while restraining her, and discovered that she had both a tail and some kind of scarring down the centre of her back. Xiao enquired as to where it came from; she was enormously insulted by the remark, calling her an ‘ill-mannered wretch’.
Fabrizu asked for her name and she gave it: Yfer. She seemed to obey ‘Mother’, whom she said would soon come and eat us (with some glee). We tried to interrogate her about Mother, this place, etc. It seemed that Mother had siblings, and that she (Yfer) was not aware that the mountain on this island was a dreaming kaiju. Xiao cast Detect Magic and discovered that she was fey.
Using this information, Fabrizu determined that she was huldra: a kind of beautiful female fey that acted as lures for trolls and witches. Mentioning this role to them, however, was certain to anger them – as was calling attention to their tails, which they did their best to conceal. Huldra also had holes in their back shaped like a hole in a tree; peering inside, one would see a hollow wooden interior.
Now understanding their obsession with manners, Fabrizu apologised to Yfer for his behaviour. However, he also put it to her that we sat with her sister in good faith to take tea and a meal, but were treated quite rudely in return. It was, therefore, her duty to put it right. She did not take responsibility for her sister’s behaviour, but did agree to treat us as guests, and sit and take tea and a meal with us. Aryem also gifted her his nail grooming kit.
Aryem and Xiao performed the tea ceremony and placed the cups; Yfer sat by the fire as they did so. As she took the cup from Aryem, she took his hand as well and whispered something, and was filled with a sense of good fortune.
We introduced ourselves to each other politely and made a little small talk, before Xiao enquired about magic users, and why they seemed to be considered important by her sisters. She said that Mother and her siblings came and went from the island using magic, and magic users seemed to survive a little longer.
On the subject of Mother, Yfer described her as a scrag. Fabrizu recognised this as a kind of aquatic troll – large, thin, hunched and covered in rows of sharp spines. He expressed his sympathy that she should have to call such a creature ‘Mother’. We also found out that Mother had a sister and a brother, as well as her own mother; the whole family arrived on the island at the same time, after the huldra were already there.
We showed her the compass we’d been given. She said she’d never seen anything like it before; it would take us off the island, but Mother would do anything to get her hands of it. She urged Xiao to use it, and for the party to escape.
We began thinking out loud as to how we might find a boat or lash one together from whatever we could find (including the Thunder Frog); at the mention of magic, Yfer mentioned that Mother had a stockpile of magic that might help us. She seemed to enjoy the idea of our raiding it, and making Mother very unhappy.
We came up with a plan (of sorts): hide out and rest long enough for Aryem to build a star fountain firework using flour and other materials from our backpack, hide out outside the entrance to the hoard, have Xiao imitate the sound of Grandmother’s bell using Ghost Sound - then, when she leaves, sneak into the hoard and take her books and wands. We’d set off the fireworks as we left, and leave a single wand behind, to alert Grandmother to the fact that Mother was hoarding magic behind her back.
Yfer agreed to let us hide out in her nest, and led us on a long path around the island. Xiao noted that she was deliberately avoiding places where water might settle. We eventually reached her nest inside the hollow of a large tree, eaten out by strangler vines. There, Xiao rested while Aryem crafted the fireworks.