(G70 30/10/09 BG - Graham GM)
DAY 123 cont...
The fight did not last long though, by the time I was striking down at it with
my lightning magic I counted over twenty people fighting from the decks!
With one last fireball from Eriss the creature was dispatched back to the depths,
although Shlump, Skald, Lirith and Mathmoss were all badly injured.
After this, we continued taking on water and then set sail again.
That night Shlump and Lirith found an odd looking stain in the hold that looked
like a symbol of Umberlee. There was much speculation as to its connection to the
ghost.
DAY 124
Hot, a moderate wind from the north west.
I heard that today Avner went around trying to gain allies on the crew and can
now count Falah and Skald with him in his opposition to Shifty.
Also, Nobby has been tugging on Urol's beard!
DAY 125
Hot, a moderate wind from the north west.
During the night Nobby was spooked by the ghost that told her,
'Once I've dealt with him, I'm coming after you!'
DAY 126
Hot, a moderate wind from the north west.
Around noon Urol announced to the captain that he reckoned there was a storm
brewing and that both ships should seek shelter.
He pointed out on the charts an excellent place to anchor known as 'Stormwrack
Cove' but that it was still a good distance away and we may not make it before
the storm it.
It was decided to risk it though and because of the combined skill of the captains
and the crews we made the cove just before the gale storm hit in the evening.
DAY 127
Gale storm.
The weather is lashing around outside the cove, but inside it is quite pleasant
when it is not raining.
Meree did a bit of fishing and Shlump took a small party ashore to gather in some
supplies of wood and food.
DAY 128
Gale Storm.
Crispy decided to take a swim around the underside of the Wyvern to look for
clues as to the ghosts appearances although he did not find anything more.
While he was climbing back onboard though he heard a distant boom and then looking
into the twilight gloom he saw a red glow get smaller and disappear.
He alerted the crew and together with Shlump, Moth, Eris and Lirith they went to
investigate.
When they got there they most peculiar sight. On a clear patch of beach were
fifteen large mounds, about knee height, with rocks on top. The rocks were about
a foot in diameter.
They were laid out in a four by four grid and what would have been the
sixteenth mound was now nothing more than a smoking crater almost four feet deep
and five feet wide.
There was a shovel on the sand nearby and scattered around the area were bits of what
might once have been a man.
Looking around they see a leg in a bush, an arm halfway up a tree and small bits of
red giblets strewn everywhere.
As they looked cautiously down on this grizzly tableaux, a single piece of
paper wafted slowly down from the sky to land at their feet.
It read:
Avast ye lubber!
The tresure will do me no good wher Im going, but i ai'n't gunna make it easy
fer ye!
Ye want the booty of the 'Sea Slag' ye'd better get yer thinking cap on!
On the island I have made 16 mounds with a rock on top. Under all but one of
the rocks is nice little bomb full of nails or something similair.
BUT Under one be the treasure!
I advise ye Dig carefully unless ye want to end up in bits.
So can ye discover the sixteen numbers that match me clues?
I'll tell ye this for free :
All the numbers are whole numbers.
No two numbers are the same and no number has a value less than 1.
Here bee the clues,
1. A1=either B2 plus A2 or B2 minus C2.
2. A2=either C2 divided by B3 or D4 divided by B3.
3. A3=D3 plus A4.
4. A4=either C3 minus C2 or C3 plus C2.
5. B1=either A1 minus A2 or A1 minus D1.
6. B2=D1 plus C2.
7. B3=a third of C2.
8. B4=either A3 minus C4 or A3 plus C4.
9. C1=A4 divided by A2.
10. C2=either 11 or 12.
11. C3=B1 plus C4.
12. C4=a third of A1.
13. D1=A2 times D4.
14. D2=a third of C4.
15. D3=either C1 plus D2 or C1 minus D2.
16. D4=either B3 minus C2 or B3 plus C2.
When ye have all the numbers, add em up.
Just be careful how you DIVIDE the tresure!
Your old enemy,
Captain Hokjer 'Mad Bomber' Harrish
''
It took a small while, but between then Crispy and Eriss solved the Mad Bomber's
puzzle and with great trepidation Shlump dug up what they had decided was the
correct mound.
Lo and behold they dug up a treasure chest! On the way back to the ship though,
they decided to keep its contents souly to themselves.
DAY 129
Gale storm
Shlump and Urol spent some time polishing and repairing the old armour.
Nobby continued to manufacture a sextant.
DAY 130
Gale storm
DAY 131
The Gale storm finally blew itself out and we set sail again. It was a hot day
again so Nobby cast Endure Elements on the crew.
I was a little upset to see how much destruction the Wyvern's had done to such
a wonderful natural cove as they tore about it looking for food and wood.
The Nixie, with two druids onboard, was much better behaved.
Still, we left it behind and I'm sure it won't be long before it was grown over
again.
I erected a small shire in a hidden spot shortly before we left.
I noticed Crispy making an offering to the gods just as we embarked, by throwing
some gold into the sea.
DAY 132
Hot. Moderate wind from the North East.
DAY 133
Hot. Moderate wind from the North East.
Around mid day we arrived in Renkrue!
Initially the Wyvern's were somewhat puzzled by an explosion over the ship that
showered them in water, but when a port authority canoe arrived to greet them they
happily sailed into the harbour.
Renkrue is a lovely place, the unusual architecture and brightly clothed and friendly
natives make it feel like an earthly paradise.
The first thing the Wyverns did on hitting the shore was go to the tavern ( nothing more
than an area sheltered with sails) and start drinking and chatting with the natives.
Mathmoss, however, seemed to have other business to attend to and skulked off.
Crispy and Nobby learned many things from the happy locals. Firstly that someone called
Willy Reach was commonly thought of as mad and that he was responsible for the shells
that were fired over the jungle and sea.
Secondly, there was much talk of a recent expedition made to a place known as the
'Lost Temple of the Ancients' of which there was a single survivor.
They also heard from a man that I forget the name of, but whom I also talked to and
whom I refer to in my own mind at least as 'the breathless traveller'
This is what he said:
'Chakra Bankuu arrived from the east. The gate where the slaughterhouse
is. He was stopped by the Azure city watch. Then the Sunrise watch arrived.
Then Aniphastus Nowlern's private guard turned up!
There was a stand off but after thousands of his supporters turned up they
had no option but to let him into the city or it would have been a blood bath!
He then arrives at the Temple of Fharlanghn and says 'I am no longer a traveller
but let me enter brothers!'
Again it looked like it would turn nasty, but they let him in!
Then all the high priests decide that now would be a really good time to go
on a very long pilgrimage.
Now the rest is just rumour and speculation my friends but they say that two
cleric of the church of Fharlanghn have been dispatched from the north to
reclaim the temple, a duo called The Yagger Brothers.
Also, all the other temples are getting very nervous indeed, but all the
other districts are treating this as a purely Merchant District problem
and have set up check points on all the bridges!
Anywn Arabani is apparently incandescent with rage but seems unable to do
anything about it. I guess she just has to hold her breath and wait like
everyone else until this Yagger gang turn up.
They also heard that a ship called 'Fortune's Child' was expected and was overdue and a
little about the 'Pearl Current' to the south where some fishermen had spotted what they
took to be the sails of pirate ships.
Later, Crispy was the first to go up onto one of the promontories to talk to Willy Reach,
a gnomish artificer, who had constructed a massive device for firing shells of water into
the sky.
Crispy was none the better for talking to the gnome as it was all rather scientific but
learned at least that the device was known as an 'Orgone Accumulator' or a 'Cloud Buster'.
Apparently the gnome had been having trouble with animal attacks and some of the guards
had been injured. When a reward of five thousand gold was offered to cease the attacks
Crispy's eyes lit up.
He gathered some of the others, which included Nobby, Eriss and a pair of Kossuthian
clerics they had been drinking and playing cards with.
Willy Reach, mistaking these people for hardened adventurers rather than just a collection
of random people that Crispy had rounded up in the pub, explained his problem and
offered the reward again.
Nobby took a long time trying to understand the principles of the accumulator and could
not fully decide if Willy was mad or a genius or perhaps both.
In the end they all then went back to the tavern and joined everyone else in a
rollicking good party.
Crispy even hit it off with a local girl called Made and I later heard from Tavey that
he treated her in a very gentlemanly fashion that night!
DAY 134
In the morning Crispy came and asked me to go take a look with my tracking skills around
the Accumulator.
I also had a word with Willy Reach who seemed a nice enough little fellow although I
would say he is somewhat obsessed with what he is working on.
I saw some week old animal tracks, but only around the area of the promontory. There were
none on the beach or the grass north of the test site.
The accumulator, or more correctly, the cloud buster, is a most strange device. It is
bigger than a ballista and has more metal parts. It is on a turn table so he can move
it around in a circle and it can also be angled up into the sky. He even has a little
seat that he can sit on as it trundles around. The barrel of the thing is about eight
feet long and have a bore of about three inches. The shells it fire are three inches
wide and nearly a foot long. As far as I can tell he is filling them with some kind of
special water.
How it works I have no idea, but I saw him fire it when I was there and the shell
must have easily gone four hundred feet in the air before it exploded!
I must ask Nobby to explain to me what it is exactly that he is doing as I'm sure
she'll understand this contraption.
