Shipwrecked! Exploration: Western Shoreline

[Lonna]

Mara Herbswife

Mara looked the others who had expressed interest in walking down the beach and smiled. The sun was shining; the air was clear; it was a beautiful day to explore the island they had spent the last month on.

"Is everyone ready?" she asked cheerfully. "Master Himmerhardt, Ovias, you went with the groups that explored the cliffs; is there anything we are forgetting?"

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And thus begins the adventure of Team Abunchofpeoplewhowanttoexplorethewesternshorelineo ftheisland (Team Western Shoreline for short )!

Destination: Anything down the western shoreline
Purpose: General exploration, hoping to find a river or large stream
Team members: Mara Herbswife, Ovias Greybeard, Janson Himmerhardt, Eric the Brawler
Marching order: To be determined

[Grey_Wolf_c]

Ovias "Grey" Greybeard - Dwarven mason, smith and engineer journeyman

<Well, I've borroed the horn again in case we need to call for help... although it is unlikely it will come handy, you never know. And I'm taking all my tools, because you never know when they will come handy. And of course, my club. We had trouble with a rat, we might find ourselves in trouble again this time>

<Also, I know all three of you talk dwarven so unless you have objections, I'll stick to my language for this trip - it is far easier on everyone, I think>

<I'd suggest we march in two pairs, rather than in a line. It is not as if we're walking down narrow corridors or anything in a walk on the beach>

[sickler]

Ben

Ben carries his beltpouch, rope and a torch, leaving his sack behind at camp. "I'm all ready." he smiled as he thought of getting away from all the bickering of the rest of the commoners.

[Lonna]

Mara Herbswife

Mara nodded in response to Ovias' comments. "I'm bringing my knife and healer's gear for the same reason. Just because you don't expect trouble doesn't mean trouble isn't expecting you."

Despite her serious words, she was grinning, happier than she had been since - well, since long before the shipwreck. This island might be the only colony I'll see for months, if not years. But just for today, just for a few hours, I can forget about it. I don't have to worry about acting the healer when I'm only half-trained. I don't have to worry about who will nurse a grudge against whom, or who is one insult away from creating yet another faction in the group. I can just let the unpleasant memories melt away. With the sun on my face, even that memory doesn't seem so bad. The next thought gave her pause, a thoughtful look briefly replacing her smile. If that seems like a just a bad dream today, could I someday release it entirely? Not forget but - let the pain fade away perhaps?

The next moment the grin was back, and Mara turned toward the others. "Come on!" she said, holding back laughter at the incredible sense of freedom that filled her. "Let's see what waits to the west!"

[storyteller]

It's a warm, beautiful spring day. The four of you - Mara, Ovias, Ben and Janson have decided to explore the western shoreline on foot, hoping to find a river or large stream, or anything that might be useful for the colonists.

After a long walk on the beach you notice that the farther to the north you walk along the western shoreline, the closer to the waterline the trees grow, and finally the forest meets the sea and you have to walk through the forest to be able the follow the shore.

You make it to the other side of the forest where the sandy beach continues. But something is different here.. the air is chilly and stagnant... a heavy mist is hanging in the air.

In the distance, you hear the faint ringing of a bell... *clang-clang-clang...* You see a misty bay ahead, but there's nothing there to be seen that could be making that eerie sound...

[Grey_Wolf_c]

It's a warm, beautiful spring day. The four of you - Mara, Ovias, Ben and Janson have decided to explore the western shoreline on foot, hoping to find a river or large stream, or anything that might be useful for the colonists.

After a long walk on the beach you notice that the farther to the north you walk along the western shoreline, the closer to the waterline the trees grow, and finally the forest meets the sea and you have to walk through the forest to be able the follow the shore.

You make it to the other side of the forest where the sandy beach continues. But something is different here.. the air is chilly and stagnant... a heavy mist is hanging in the air.

In the distance, you hear the faint ringing of a bell... *clang-clang-clang...* You see a misty bay ahead, but there's nothing there to be seen that could be making that eerie sound...

Ovias "Grey" Greybeard - Dwarven mason, smith and engineer journeyman

Having heard of tales of a similar sound from the sea-watch people, Ovias is immediately worried about this, and by the unnatural chill and fog. He pulls out his club, takes the point and starts paying a lot of attention to everything around him, although he does keep walking towards the bay.

<I do not understand what is happening here, but this atmosphere makes me think of undead - not to mention that strange bell. Right now, all we have is feeling, which is not enough for me to want to turn back, but if we do go on, we better be extremelly careful. I think we need to know more about what is going on, but I think Ben and I should go in front, in case something confronts us>

Actions: weapon in hand, start actively spotting and listening for any concrete strange thing (beyond the general ambience), while continuing towards the bay.
Spot - (1d20)[2]
Listen - (1d20)[2]

Edit: it seems the fog most be very thick at dwarf eye-level...

[Lonna]

Mara Herbswife

Her good mood dampened by the change in atmosphere, Mara frowned, trying to remember if she had ever seen anything like this growing up in the fishing villiage.

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[roll=Knowledge (nature)]1d20+3[/roll]
May I have an extra bonus for having grown up in similar terrain?

<I do not understand what is happening here, but this atmosphere makes me think of undead - not to mention that strange bell. Right now, all we have is feeling, which is not enough for me to want to turn back, but if we do go on, we better be extremelly careful. I think we need to know more about what is going on, but I think Ben and I should go in front, in case something confronts us>

"In a thick fog ships sometimes ring bells to prevent accidental collisions. This bell may be only that, nothing more sinister," answered Mara, but she didn't sound convinced. Following Ovias' advice, Mara drew her knife and let Ben follow Ovias before she continued moving down the beach, eyes peeled for anything unusual.

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Spot - (1d20+3)[20]
Listen - (1d30+2)[31]

---

* post roll count doesn't match database

[Lonna]

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The two rolls that I messed up on my last post:
Knowledge - (1d20+3)[15]
Listen - (1d20+2)[18]

[Zed's Dead]

Janson Himmerhardt

spot (1d20+7)[17]

listen (1d20+7)[21]

Janson was following closely, but he stops.

Shhh...Listen!

[sickler]

Ben

Ben grits his teeth as the tension sets in. Keeping up at the front with Ovias, he
scans the bay ahead as they approach.

Spot: (1d20+2)[17]
Listen: (1d20+0)[12]

[storyteller]

The atmosphere is really creepy. While it is possible to have such weather on cold spring mornings without anything unnatural or supernatural to it, it was the sharp contrast between this and the warm spring day you were enjoying before that made you think that there's something out of place here.

You approach the bay and you can hear the bell better... there are other sounds too... you can hear the sound of wood creaking under strain and water splashing, but the mist above the water is so thick that it obscures view beyond 20 feet, so it's impossible to tell if there is a boat or ship nearby or if it's something supernatural...

[Lonna]

Mara Herbswife

Mara shivered as they moved slowly forward through the obscuring fog. "This fog shouldn't be possible on a bright day like today," she warned the others as they walked. She was fairly sure they knew this already, but as everything faded away in the mist, speaking made her feel more solid, more real. "Ovias, be careful when you find the water's edge, the drop off can be very steep and this fog would hide it quite easily."

[Grey_Wolf_c]

Mara Herbswife

Mara shivered as they moved slowly forward through the obscuring fog. "This fog shouldn't be possible on a bright day like today," she warned the others as they walked. She was fairly sure they knew this already, but as everything faded away in the mist, speaking made her feel more solid, more real. "Ovias, be careful when you find the water's edge, the drop off can be very steep and this fog would hide it quite easily."

<I will keep a close eye on where I tread, fear not. I am tempted to build a quick torch of some kind - if this is truly supernatural, it might come handy a bit of fire. On the other hand, everything in this fog will know that we are here if we lit a fire - assuming it doesn't already know>

Ovias continues to advance towards the bay, keeping a close eye on what little he can see around him.

[storyteller]

Ovias finds the water's edge at the bay. He can still hear the bell but it's sound is fading, as if it's moving to the north along the coast. He can still hear the creaking sound, maybe oars in their locks, and the faint splashing sound of water.

[Grey_Wolf_c]

Ovias picks up the pace to try and see it before it completely leaves the bay, if the sound is coming from the water. He remains careful but also tries to not let it get away, if it is not going much faster than he is, while following the bay's contour. If the sound is coming from inland, he moves towards it.

[storyteller]

Ovias has to run to keep up with the sound. He stumbles a few times but quickly gets back to his feet and stubbornly follows the sound just to get a glimpse of what could be making the sound.

And for a fleeting moment, the veils of mist hanging heavy in the air part enough to allow him to see it...

Ovias:

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You see a rowboat with four people in it, about 50 feet from the shore. You can only see their silhouettes through the mist, so it's impossible to tell whether they're young or old, humans or something else...

[Grey_Wolf_c]

Ovias remains curious and suspicious about the whole situation, but knows defeat when he sees it. He waits for the rest of the group to catch up to him - his deep footsteps in the sand lead them easily - while looking around for any other way to get a better view at whatever it is out there. For a second, he thinks of trying to attract their attention, but he realises that, if they are unfriendly, four against his group would be a risky situation indeed.

Once the group has caught up to him, he relays what little he had seen, <A boat, with four figures inside. Human sized, as far as I can tell, but seated they could be dwarves or even gnomes, for all I could tell in this blasted fog. The unnatural fog and the coldness makes me think of undead and cursed ships, but I am no longer certain of that. This could be an elaborate set-up, lets say by a powerful illusionist hiding his activities.>

<Unfortunately, any activities that need to be disguised by fog are likely going to be illegal, so chances are that this is a danger rather than oportunity. We need more information, though, so I suggest we wait to see if this fog leaves now the boat has parted. I suspect that there is a bigger ship out there, too, to which that boat was going, but more importantly, there is something that needs a boat to get to land, so they should have left tracks behind>

Actions: if the fog is lifting, look for where the boat made landfall, and check for any tracks leaving the boat
If the group does not catch up to me in a reasonable amount of time, backtrack

[Lonna]

Once the group has caught up to him, he relays what little he had seen, <A boat, with four figures inside. Human sized, as far as I can tell, but seated they could be dwarves or even gnomes, for all I could tell in this blasted fog. The unnatural fog and the coldness makes me think of undead and cursed ships, but I am no longer certain of that. This could be an elaborate set-up, lets say by a powerful illusionist hiding his activities.>

<Unfortunately, any activities that need to be disguised by fog are likely going to be illegal, so chances are that this is a danger rather than oportunity. We need more information, though, so I suggest we wait to see if this fog leaves now the boat has parted. I suspect that there is a bigger ship out there, too, to which that boat was going, but more importantly, there is something that needs a boat to get to land, so they should have left tracks behind>

Mara frowned thoughtfully. "The captain's daughter and most of the ship's crew were never accounted for," she commented. "Is it possible that these are some of those missing persons? Though that doesn't explain this eerie fog... If the fog is intended to hide illicit activities, why ring a bell that will only attract attention to them? It doesn't make any sense. I agree with Ovias, we need more information, which we cannot get until the fog lifts and we can see where the boat might have made landfall."

[Grey_Wolf_c]

Mara frowned thoughtfully. "The captain's daughter and most of the ship's crew were never accounted for," she commented. "Is it possible that these are some of those missing persons? Though that doesn't explain this eerie fog... If the fog is intended to hide illicit activities, why ring a bell that will only attract attention to them? It doesn't make any sense. I agree with Ovias, we need more information, which we cannot get until the fog lifts and we can see where the boat might have made landfall."

<I think that the bell allows the boat to find the ship in the fog. It obviously reduces the secrecy of the ship, but to their advantage, it does add to the whole atmosphere of strangeness and makes it look like a ghost ship. This of course assuming that it is not, in fact, a ghost ship of some kind - but if they are undead, why do they need to make landfall in a boat? If they are alive, and if they are using the fog for cover, their own boat has to find it when they go back, so they need the bell, but its mourning sound probably discourages anyone else from going looking for it>

<I agree this could be connected to the missing people. But we are sorely lacking on actual evidence to go for more than wild guesses, at this time. I hope we do find what the boat people were doing on the island, once this blasted fog allows us to actually follow their trail>

[storyteller]

The boat makes its way to the north, out of the bay. The fog does indeed start to dissipate in the bay as soon as the boat leaves, but a mist seems to follow the boat itself, making it impossible to see well what the people in it look like. They do not seem to pay any attention to you.

You look for the place where the boat has made a landfall, but you find none. No tracks other than your own can be found either.

In the north, looming in the distance, you can see cliffs not unlike the ones you explored some time ago. In the east and and everywhere around the sandy beach edging the bay, all you can see is forest, forest, forest.

[Lonna]

Mara Herbswife

"Well, if we needed any more proof that this is not a natural fog, there it is," commented Mara dryly, watching the mist stream after the boat. Helping the others search for tracks or the groove of a boat pushed out of the water, she became increasingly puzzled as no trace of such activity was found.

"Why come to the bay if not to make landfall?" she wondered aloud. Glancing at the others she added, "I don't know about the rest of you but I'm starting to favor a supernatural explanation rather than a magical one."

[sickler]

"I like supernatural as much as I like magic." Ben grumbles. He doesn't like anything about the event that just occured and even less that they can't find any hint of what the figures activities were.

Sighing as he gazes at the trees, Up the coast more or do you guys think we can find a clue to what was going on around here?"

[Lonna]

"Up the coast more or do you guys think we can find a clue to what was going on around here?"

Mara Herbswife

"With no tracks on the beach, there's no way we can find out more here. I vote we continue to circle the island, heading toward those cliffs. We can search the forest around here on the way back if we don't find anything further down the coast."

[storyteller]

OOC: This seems like a good place to end the quest - at least for now. You may continue exploring the shoreline later, but first, let's see what week 6 brings... I'll post info on that later in the main IC thread.

50 xp, everyone!