(D&D 5e) The Tempest Aloft the Haunted Isle In Character

[Zergrinch]

"What we need to do," Zuu glances upwards to gauge the level of sunlight, "is to gather our wits, and have some food and water. After that, we can start looking for a more safe location to camp at. This dome lasts for seven hours more, enough time to sleep, but it's nowhere near evening yet."

The warlock briefly sinks into a trance as he traces his fingers in a circle around the raven's neck. A purple glow suffuses the familiar, and it immediately transmogrifies into the flying batlike creature he had seen previously.

"Go below the treetops this time, and fly in a circle from this point." he telepathically instructs the bat. "Look for people like us, but don't get too close."

Afterwards, the half-elf looks over the food and water everyone has gathered. Waving his hands over everything, including the water Valafar is boiling, Zuu explains, "Boiling helps, but there's nothing like a spell to purify food and drink!"

Spoiler

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As ritual: Find Familiar to change raven into bat. 10 minutes + 1 action.
As ritual: Purify Food and Drink. All nonmagical food and drink within a 5-foot radius centered on a point of your choice within range is purified and rendered free of poison and disease. 10 minutes + 1 action.

[Seanfall]

"Well we'll probably all die in a couple of days anyways. Then it'll be someone else's problem," The Warlock humorlessly muses. "That said tracking down those fish people might be a good idea."

Valafar watches the stately Raven transform into an ugly bat-like creature he makes a disgusted noise. "Eugh, why would you turn that majestic Raven into that aberration?"

[Zergrinch]

"To blend in. I wouldn't want him to be mistaken as prey," the warlock replies as he continues to purify food and drink.

[bc56]

"We should search out a way off this rock, but we can't leave until we're sure nothing will try to hold us here. Even if we manage to find a boat," Roland is not confident in the party's carpentry skills, "We'll still need to prevent that mystery elf from making another storm. I assume she's somewhere on this island."

[Seanfall]

"Mystery elf?" Valafar racks his brain to try to figure out what Roland was talking about. "...uhh...want to explain that one?"

[Requilac]

"What we need to do," Zuu glances upwards to gauge the level of sunlight, "is to gather our wits, and have some food and water. After that, we can start looking for a more safe location to camp at. This dome lasts for seven hours more, enough time to sleep, but it's nowhere near evening yet."

The warlock briefly sinks into a trance as he traces his fingers in a circle around the raven's neck. A purple glow suffuses the familiar, and it immediately transmogrifies into the flying batlike creature he had seen previously.

"Go below the treetops this time, and fly in a circle from this point." he telepathically instructs the bat. "Look for people like us, but don't get too close."

Afterwards, the half-elf looks over the food and water everyone has gathered. Waving his hands over everything, including the water Valafar is boiling, Zuu explains, "Boiling helps, but there's nothing like a spell to purify food and drink!"

Spoiler

Show

As ritual: Find Familiar to change raven into bat. 10 minutes + 1 action.
As ritual: Purify Food and Drink. All nonmagical food and drink within a 5-foot radius centered on a point of your choice within range is purified and rendered free of poison and disease. 10 minutes + 1 action.

Crynirad looks both equally horrified and infuriated by this idea. "Are you serious?! You want to wait here even longer?! Do you not realize what is going!? Those same dark forces which tried to kill you earlier are still looking for you! And have you forgotten that two of your allies have just disappeared! If we stay here, then something is going to find us and kill us, or eat us, or drag us away to some hellhole, just like what happened to the others. Are you not all thinking about what happened to your allies!?" He looks towards the rest of the party, imploring the others with his panicked eyes to support him and not agree with Zuu's plan.

He either failed to understand that you all where moving fairly soon, or knew that and thought that another half an hour would be too much to bear. Either way, he has just proven himself to be pretty horrible at verbalizing his thoughts in a constructive way.

[Seanfall]

"WHAT ARE SUPPOSED TO DO!? Grab up arms and jaunt around the forest screaming 'here we come!?' I am thinking of them! But what do you want me to do!? Go out and get lost looking for a pair of dead men?" Valafar stands up and gets to within an inch of the other man's face. "You have no right to judge, so either sit down and wait until we move or leave."

[sandmote]

"You've made clear there's danger in every direction anyway. If we run away instead, that would just leave us too tired to do anything when we run into a beast or whatever else is here," Elbalar points out. "In an area as dangerous as you say, we'd do better to be prepared." However, he does stand up and walk to the edge of the dome, looking out nervously.

[Requilac]

"WHAT ARE SUPPOSED TO DO!? Grab up arms and jaunt around the forest screaming 'here we come!?' I am thinking of them! But what do you want me to do!? Go out and get lost looking for a pair of dead men?" Valafar stands up and gets to within an inch of the other man's face. "You have no right to judge, so either sit down and wait until we move or leave."

Crynirad steps back from you, indicating that he is at least somewhat intimidated, but his facial expression expresses more irritation than fear. I am not saying we go out and look after them. They are probably dead already. What I am saying is that we cannot stay in one place for long or else something may detect us. Can't we move to a more defensible position and then do whatever you are trying to do?"

It is quite odd that he would ask for a more "defensible position" giving how you all are standing next to a Tiny Hut. He may not know that enemies cannot target creatures inside the Dome though (In fact, it is possible that some of you don't know about that either). Zuu didn't necessarily say that the spell could deflect projectiles, after all.

"You've made clear there's danger in every direction anyway. If we run away instead, that would just leave us too tired to do anything when we run into a beast or whatever else is here," Elbalar points out. "In an area as dangerous as you say, we'd do better to be prepared." However, he does stand up and walk to the edge of the dome, looking out nervously.

Crynirad sighs and doesn't say anything further. He appears to be the sort who when he understands that he is wrong goes quiet.

Elbalar, you actually do find something of interest when you look outside of the dome, although not quite as frightening as your imagination led you to believe. Some bipedal reptilian creature the size and rough body shape of a chicken* is resting in a sunbeam and staring at you. The little thing is obviously trying to hide itself from view, albeit sloppily, and someone less perceptive or paranoid than you could have easily missed it. It has teeth and claws, but judging by their bluntness and smallness, they are probably better suited for tearing leaves than flesh. This critter has been here for some time now, and seems to be confused over how you all are dissappearing in and out of the force dome.

Spoiler: *Image of the Animal

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[Zergrinch]

All the while Zuu is monitoring his familiar's progress, observing, through its senses, if there is any sign of humans anywhere. As such he is completely blind and deaf to his surroundings, although retaining his sense of touch.

[Requilac]

All the while Zuu is monitoring his familiar's progress, observing, through its senses, if there is any sign of humans anywhere. As such he is completely blind and deaf to his surroundings, although retaining his sense of touch.

Seeing as how you all lack an apparent sense of direction, the rest of the party seems willing to wait it out as your familiar takes some time to explore. After viewing through its senses for half an hour, your familiar can actually scan across the whole island due to its relatively small size. Much of it is covered in a jungle though, so its search isn't as thorough as you would have wanted. You do find several things of interest along the beaches though, including but not limited to:

- Some creatures are swimming about the ruins of The Tempest and picking it of all its valuables. At first you believe that some sort of fish is doing this, but upon closer examination you can tell that some sort of humanoid is accomplishing this task. They are an obviously aquatic race with squidlike heads, but you have never heard of such things before. These do not resemble the fish people that attacked you earlier. You have no idea whether they are hostile or not.

- On the same peninusla which you are all on, you believe that you can find where the pirates Crynirad was talking about are. Some tieflings are scouring through the remnants of a landlocked ship badly torn up in a swampy mangrove. They are carrying crates to the beach besides the swamp and opening them, usually to only toss the resources away because they have been soiled by water. The ship is not Lengian in build, so you assume that they the ship they are looking through is not actually the one they where piloting when it crashed. You only see four people working there, so either Crynirad overestimated how many pirates actually survived the wreck or there are more out there in the jungle.

- You find the river cutting you off from the rest of the island, and it appears that Crynirad was right. A group of creatures which resemble bears that crawled inside of turtle shells are clogging up the river in the same concentration that a seal colony might. It is one of the weirdest sights you have seen so far.

- On the main island past the peninsula, you can find another landlocked ship. This appears to be a sizeable brig-sloop, with people still inhabiting parts of the ship despite the fact that it is broken beyond repair. By the looks of it, a dozen people if not more are camping out there. Their mostly human but ever so slightly elf-like features make it clear that they are from Dylath-Lean or somewhere else on the River Skai.

- You find another ship that has been landlocked, but somehow it has managed to actually land deeper in the jungle than on the beach. You can't even fathom what could have caused such an absurd arrangement. You swear you see an insect like creature the size of a mastiff on board, but it quickly crawls away from your sight. For all intents and purposes it looks abandoned.

- In the center of the island there is a mountainous peak which reaches far above the trees. On top of the mountain there is a cave, the same cave which you believe you saw lights coming from when the storm first appeared. You can't tell anything else without getting dangerously close to the cave.

- On your way back, you realize something that you missed before: a single person sitting under the shade of a tree very close to the beach. This appears to be another elf-human from Dylath-Lean. This person seems to have no resources at all with them. You are confounded as to why this person would want to stray so far from the other resources or people, especially seeing as how he probably came from the ship you just saw.

[Zergrinch]

After snapping out of his trance, Zuu explains to everyone the results of his bat's reconnaissance mission. Afterwards, he looks at them to decide what to do, tossing in the thought that "We should find that person close to the beach first. He isn't safe there."

[Seanfall]

"Alright, it's at least something," Valafar stretches his back and stands. "If anyone has any last-minute tasks do them now, we might not be able to find a safe location for a time."

[sandmote]

"It doesn't look very appetizing, but we do have a guest," Elbalar points out. He'll watch the animal an the other side of the dome until it disappears.

[Requilac]

"It doesn't look very appetizing, but we do have a guest," Elbalar points out. He'll watch the animal an the other side of the dome until it disappears.

After the creature realizes that you are staring back at it, its eyes widen in fear. It then retreats into the dense jungle foliage, using its small, slippery body to deftly maneuver around the trees. This little thing must be an awful skittish creature, which you suppose makes sense given its size and lack of natural weapons.

[Requilac]

You are not confident in your ability to travel through the jungle, so you instead decide to just stay on the beach and walk along it until you find the lone survivor. He was on the beach when Zuu asked the raven, so as long as he didn't move too far this is a surefire way to find him. Hiking over the rocks is far from the most pleasant way to do this, but it seems much better than going into the domineering and menacing jungle trees.

Aside from more of the rabid insects, nothing else seems to bother you. Sometimes you will believe that you can see a humanoid figure within the water in the periphery of your vision, but if you turn to look directly you will not see anything.

The most remarkable thing you find as you walk is some sort of creature resembling the shape and size of of a cow but with the skin of a lizard. A series of wide, diamond shaped spikes or rigid sails which range from its back to its head. The behemoth looks up from its grass feast and glares at you, but really doesn't otherwise seem to acknowledge your existence.

Eventually, you find the person you are looking for leaning against the same tree which the raven spotted him at. The person you are looking is even younger than Crynirad, possibly as young as 15 years old, though probably older. His sickly pale skin, decently long but unkempt black hair and faint green eyes makes it even clearer that some elf must be in his blood. When he sees you he stands up from where he is sitting and looks at you all fearfully. By the way he carries himself and the look in his eyes, it is clear that this boy is absolutely miserable and woeful. He says something in a faint and choked voice, but in a language which none of you can understand.

None of you except for Elbalar that is:

Spoiler: for SandMote Only

Show

He is speaking Sylvan and asking if you can understand what he is saying, clearly worried that you may not be able to.

Valafar, the sounds that the survivor is using to construct the sentence reminds you of Elvish, so you believe he may be speaking a similar language.

[bc56]

"This is the person you saw?" Roland questions Zuu. "I can't understand him. Does anyone know his language?"

[Seanfall]

"It sounds like Elvish, can't make out what he's saying though." Valafar kneels down, "Should we offer him some food?"

[Zergrinch]

Zuu shrugs. "Valafar is right. He's speaking a language that shares roots with Elvish, but I don't know what it is."

The warlock points to his mouth, and then to his stomach. Then he points to the elf's stomach with a quizzical look on his face. He could feel the fiend chuckling at his clumsy attempt at charades.

OOC: Using passive perception (13) or investigation (9) to determine probable race (half drow? Half wood elf?), place of origin based on appearance (e.g. clothing and mannerisms), and whether he looks like he may be carrying any weapons, concealed or otherwise.

[Requilac]

"This is the person you saw?" Roland questions Zuu. "I can't understand him. Does anyone know his language?"

Although you were not speaking to him, Crynirad responds to the question anyway. "Yes, this is the person I was talking about earlier. See what I was saying? He speaks gibberish."

Zuu shrugs. "Valafar is right. He's speaking a language that shares roots with Elvish, but I don't know what it is."

The warlock points to his mouth, and then to his stomach. Then he points to the elf's stomach with a quizzical look on his face. He could feel the fiend chuckling at his clumsy attempt at charades.

OOC: Using passive perception (13) or investigation (9) to determine probable race (half drow? Half wood elf?), place of origin based on appearance (e.g. clothing and mannerisms), and whether he looks like he may be carrying any weapons, concealed or otherwise.

The fact that you can't hear him other causes a wave of fear to flood over his complexion, and he starts shivering madly. You don't quite know why he seems so afraid though.

After taking a moment to slow his breathing and close his eyes in concentration, his shivering sligtly lessens. Now that he has more control of his body, he returns the game of charades. The unnamed crewboy starts miming the act of holding a piece of parchment down on an invisible table and writing on it. To make sure that it comes across well, he even adjusts a pair of imaginary glasses. He then points to your pack and makes a grunting "eh?" sound. He speaks again in the unintelligible language, and then puts a thumb down. Then he pantomimes writing again, and gives a thumbs up for it.

After spending some time analyzing him, you believe you can find out more about him. His features indicate that he is most likely a wood elf, as high elves are fairly rare on the River Skai, and a drow would have much darker skin than him. It is hard to tell precisely what city-state he is from, but you are fairly certain he originated from the River Skai (this river is marked on the Dreamlands Map; it is the one that connects the Southern Sea to the Cerenerian Strait). Hlanith is the biggest city on that river from virtue of being on the coasts, so you assume he came from there, but you really do not know enough about the area to make a good guess. He does not seem to be carrying any weapons; in fact, he doesn't actually seem to be carrying anything except for his clothes. No food, no waterskin, no backpack, no tools, absolutely nothing. It is inconceivable that he has survived for this long like this.

[Zergrinch]

"Anyone got a piece of paper?" Zuu asks as he fishes out an ink pen from one of the compartments in his pack and hands it, as well as an ink bottle, to the boy.

Feeling that it was with a shot even though it was likely doomed to failure, Zuu speaks to the boy directlyv as he passes the writing implements, "Ne pouvez-vous pas parler dans la langue Commune? "

Spoiler: Click if you know Elvish

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Can you not speak in Common?

[sandmote]

Elbalar has been studying the elf, and butts in "He's speaking Sylvan rather then elvish."

Turning to the Elf he adds in the mentioned tongue:

Spoiler: Sylvan

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"I can understand, although my companions might worry."

[Seanfall]

"That would explain it," Since his companions seemed to have the child handled, Valafar turned his attention to scanning nearby area looking out for threats.

[bc56]

"What is he saying? Who is he?" Roland's curiosity is not sated.

[Zergrinch]

"Ask him, why is he here, all alone and practically naked, without gear or weapons. How did he get here. And what does he plan to do." Zuu says as he quickly takes back his writing implements.

[Requilac]

For the sake of time and simplicity, I will be taking some control of Elbalar Beiwarin and having him automatically translate anything which Horasiu says.

The elf boy looks greatly relieved that Beiwarin can understand him, but its clear that fear still pervades through his entire being. He looks at Beiwarin and frantically pants out a barrage of words between heavy breaths, none of which you all can understand. This goes on for close to a minute, so it seems like has got a bit of a story to tell. Once the yet unnamed elf is finished with his brief monologue, Beiwarin translates the message to the rest of the party.

"The boy's name is Horasiu Bogdan. He claims that he can understand what we are saying, but cannot respond back in a way that we understand. Horasiu says that this is because he was cursed by a group of fey, who magically chained him to this location and somehow enchanted him to be only able to speak in their language. Despite being barred from walking beyond the tree's roots for some days, he doesn't feel hungry or thirsty, and wild animals seem to ignore him. He was about to go into a long story about how he became cursed, but I cut him off early and told him that I wanted to speak to you all before we went down that rabbit hole."

"That would explain it," Since his companions seemed to have the child handled, Valafar turned his attention to scanning nearby area looking out for threats.

Scanning the area for a moment, the thing that fills most of your vision is just an army of bugs and the flying reptiles. Eventually you notice some dark green pig-shaped reptile eating bushes in the jungle. It is close to the fattest thing you have ever seen. It either hasn't noticed you or is completely ignoring you as it muches away. Other than that, you do not find anything else special.

[Zergrinch]

"I don't think we can leave him here in good conscience. How do we break the curse?"

[Seanfall]

Valafar summons a bow to his hand and knocks an arrow but doesn't pull the string back. "There's a creature out there," He jerks his head in its direction. "Hasn't noticed us but I'm keeping an eye on it." Valafar's ear twitched at the mention of a curse and he tuned back in for a moment. "I cannot help with that, my magic comes from a pact and my faith in the gods of war. This sounds beyond my knowledge but I'll help where I can."

[sandmote]

"I'd be shocked if there weren't a spell for this, through most pacts or deities," Beiwarin notes to Valafar. He then asks the elf for the major details about the curse, and lets him know several members of the group want to help.

Spoiler: Roll

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To know about the remove curse spell; (1d20+3)[11] +3 if Arcana proficiency applies.

[Requilac]

Valafar summons a bow to his hand and knocks an arrow but doesn't pull the string back. "There's a creature out there," He jerks his head in its direction. "Hasn't noticed us but I'm keeping an eye on it." Valafar's ear twitched at the mention of a curse and he tuned back in for a moment. "I cannot help with that, my magic comes from a pact and my faith in the gods of war. This sounds beyond my knowledge but I'll help where I can."

It takes some more moments, but eventually the cow sized beast seems to notice that you all are present and glares up from its meal of plants. After taking a few seconds it scans you all, and apparently it is not impressed as it goes back to chomping the jungle brush. It frankly does not seem to care that you all are present.

"I'd be shocked if there weren't a spell for this, through most pacts or deities," Beiwarin notes to Valafar. He then asks the elf for the major details about the curse, and lets him know several members of the group want to help.

Spoiler: Roll

Show

To know about the remove curse spell; [roll0] +3 if Arcana proficiency applies.

You are almost certain that magic capable of removing curses exists, but you cannot recall any specifics on the matter. And even then, it is doubtful any of you would have powerful enough magic for the act.

Horasiu's initial relief appears to have faded, and now his face seems distorted into a kind of sorrowful calm. He speaks slowly, with only slight but noticeable changes in tone. Any seeming reaction of joy is gone quickly and replaced by and obvious dejection visible in all aspects of him.

After he weaves his tale, Beiwarin translates it back to the party. "He feels the need to give some context before explaining the curse. He claims to have been on a ship called "The Smeagle" coming from Dylath-Lean to explore the island when a storm came and caused it to crash onto the shore. Him and about 15 other crew members survived. As they where searching the jungle for resources, Horasiu claims that they found a sort of nature spirit that exactly resembled a humanoid. The spirit apparently cast a spell that dominated the mind of the fellow crewmen and commanded them to attack him. Horasiu shot and killed the spirit with a silvered bullet, and at first escaped any obvious punishment."

"Horasiu then says that later in his foraging though that he was captured by Night-Gaunts and brought to where he stands now. At the time though, three different animal headed shamans where waiting for him. They told Horasiu that the spirit he had killed was being punished to eternal imprisonment by being "bound" to a tree for treason. Aside from the fact that this act of treason involved the person who was the spirit entering them all into an agreement that was not beneficial to them, they did not elaborate further. As punishment for Horasiu disrupting the spirit's sentencing, they said that he would be condemned to take the same consequence as the spirit did: by being bound to the same tree as the half-corporeal spirit. After that they disappeared, and Horasiu claims that he has been here for nearly a week since and they still have not come back. He adds that his confinement to only speaking in this language which so few understand was probably also part of this curse. "