Archer Arrowsmith - Human Scout (272 points)
Argua - Half-Orc Barbarian (271 points)
Masha Deathfoot - Human Martial Artist (265 points)
Puddin' Noddington - Gnome Thief (299 points)
Mahk Strawngmussle - Human Labourer (76 points)
Quintin Nenno - Dragonborn Swordmage (250 points)
Vaelcor Treehippie - Human Druid (280 points)
Jahn the Bear - Bear (209 points)
Avandry 39th 2546, Swordfish Bay, Rand's Retreat
Quintin met the party while drinking in Rand's Place, and was brought on to the team thanks to his experience in the ruins, where he'd lost a team to shadows, and his martial and magical abilities. He told them that the next ship to Hot Springs Island was leaving tomorrow at dawn, and would be landing on the western shore. They made plans to head to the center of the island, where Vaelcor would be able to cast Beast Summoning with the least penalties and find the golden kujibirds (if they existed).
Avandry 40th 2546, Dawn: Swordfish Bay
The party stocked up on enough rations for a week and a canteen with some holes in it (to hold a poison dart frog, if they could find one) and headed out to the shore, where the Siren's Folly was waiting to ferry adventurers over to Hot Springs Island. A group of adventurers bypassed the boat entirely with a Fly spell, which gave the party some ideas. The tent city had emptied out, as dozens of foolhardy treasure-seekers without groups lined up and tried to get somebody else to take them along, but the party decided they didn't need anybody.
Morning: Southwest Coast, Hot Springs Island
After disembarking on a black sand beach, and checking which ways other adventurers went (Argua's "boyfriend" seemed to be going towards the ruins), the party started their way into the jungle and towards the central volcano, with Argua Navigating. Several hours later, the party arrived at a lake at the base of a colossal waterfall, over 1km tall. While they circled it, gouts of steam intermittently burst out from the cliff behind the falls. Argua was interested in investigating it further, but they ignored it instead.
Afternoon: Light Jungle
The sun beat down on the tropical jungle, and, though shielded by the canopy, Masha, and Archer found themselves growing exhausted due to the heat. It only got worse as the air grew more humid, and gradually a warm fog built up, eventually getting 4' deep, prompting Puddin' to jump up on Mahk's shoulders. They arrived at a clearing which seemed to be the source of the fog, where they could hear a soft bubbling nearby.
The party decided to go around the clearing, but on their way, Archer lost her footing and slid into the pool of boiling water at the center of the clearing. Miraculously, she made her default Swimming roll, but was unable to climb out, the slick sides of the pool coated in algae. Puddin' was able to hear where she was, and directed Mahk, who reached down and easily pulled Archer back up and out before she could get too badly burned.
Vaelcor healed Archer, and, without further issue, the party made it out of the fog and found themselves on a basalt cliff overlooking the coast, with Swordfish Bay visible across the channel. Realizing they'd screwed up, they headed back into the jungle, hoping Argua could navigate better this time.
Sunset: Mountainous Jungle
Close to the end of the day, the party arrived at a ridge overlooking a valley below, and seemed to be back on the right path. They camped in the shadow of a long stone wall covered in moss that had grown in strange whirling patterns, which Quintin thought looked kind of like the Draconic script. Everybody had tents and bedrolls except for Argua, who was in her element and easily made the Survival roll.
Midnight: Mountain Ridge
On Quintin's watch, somebody staggered in out of the moonless night, and he woke the rest of the party just as they made it into the firelight. It was a dark-skinned woman, bleeding from a wound at her side that stained her shirt, unarmed and not carrying any sort of supplies. She mumbled out a request for help before collapsing, and Vaelcor cast Major Healing.
Once back on her feet, the woman introduced herself as Jenny, and plead her case: she used to be the cook aboard the Siren's Folly, but had been marooned by the captain after turning down his advances. She had been gored by a boar, escaped, passed out, wandered for several hours, and repeated that several times until making it here. The party started arguing over whether to take her along, and along the way found out that she had Professional Skill: Butcher, and would be able to sort out the different parts of animals; this further incensed the Vegetarian Vaelcor, who disliked even hearing of such things.
After more discussion, the party ultimately agreed to take her with them, though Vaelcor still insisted that Jenny be tied to a tree every night "in case". This was turned down, but this wasn't a free ride, and she'd have to carry her weight. They meant this rather literally, and Quintin handed her his ration-filled pack. They brought up that she probably wouldn't be able to get back to Swordfish Bay, as the Siren's Folly wouldn't let her aboard if they recognized her, to which she didn't really have an answer. For now, though, she was with them.
As everybody got back to sleep, the moonless night was lit up as magma-coloured lights appeared around the peak of the central volcano, though it didn't seem to be actually erupting. The lights continued on until nearly dawn.
Avandry 41st 2546, Dawn: Mountainous Jungle, Hot Springs Island
After picking up camp, the party continued further inland, and torrents of rain fell in an unnaturally-quick change of weather. Several hours later, they emerged into a clearing to see a seven-headed obsidian hydra looming over a hill. A closer look determined that the hydra was druidically magical, and that the "hill" was actually a 30' diameter bronze sphere. Reddish-orange grass topped by what looked like feathers surrounded the base of the sphere.
Vaelcor took a look at the grass and, with Naturalist, determined that they were fireproof, and were ingredients for potions to do with waking people up and resisting fire. Argua (poorly) harvested a clump of grass, while everybody else sat in to rest. According to their map, they were now close to the center of the island, and Vaelcor cast Beast Summoning to locate a golden kujibird, and found that the nearest one was about 5km to the east.
Now at the moment of truth, Vaelcor had a moral quandary. The kujibirds had gone extinct elsewhere in the world long ago because they were (allegedly) made of gold, and were extremely delicious. Realizing that the party (in particular, Greedy Puddin' and Gluttonous Argua) could not be trusted, he proposed an alternate plan. So long as he saw one, Vaelcor could learn the spell Shapeshifting (Kujibird) next time they were back in camp and trick Old Will with it, which everybody agreed to.
Morning: Volcanic Mountain
As they followed Vaelcor towards the kujibirds, the party emerged out of the jungle onto a barren mountainside, with a river of lava flowing off in the distance. As they got closer, they saw movement in or around the river, and Puddin' was sent to scout. At 15m, Puddin' was able to clearly make out four gnome-sized winged red humanoids playing in the lava and flying around.
She started moving closer to overhear if they were speaking common, and confirmed that they did when one turned and shouted "What the hell is that thing?" while pointing at her. One of the imps pulled a knife, so Puddin' Gizmo'd a smoke nageteppo, which proved prudent when the other three started shooting fireballs at her feet and yelling for her to "Dance!". She took a hit, but the imps got into a wrestling match when one hit the other, and then she threw the nageteppo and disappeared back to the party.
Argua failed to find any tracks, despite the fact that they should be close, so Vaelcor was forced to cast Beast Summoning again. He realized that the kujibird was downhill, so they followed the lava river down, in the torrential rain.
Afternoon: Lava River
Way downhill, the lava river split around an "island" of jungle on the barren mountainside, from which the party heard bird calls of "kujikujikuji". To further confirm their suspicions, a gold-feathered flightless bird, about 3' tall, sauntered out onto the branch of a tree. Seeing the party, it moved to investigate, only for the branch to snap, sending it plummeting to the lava below. The sounds continued, though, so there were more birds.
Vaelcor cast Shapeshifting (Bird) (after rerolling a crit fail with Luck) to get an aerial view, and found that the island was surrounded on all sides. He then flew down to the island, in a place the party couldn't watch, cast Shape Earth to make an earthen bridge across, and cast Beast Summoning to get all of the kujibirds on the island to him. They really wanted his (gilded and bejewelled) scepter and shield, and he willingly gave them. The kujis took them back to their nests before returning, and then he led them across the bridge... to where Puddin' had snuck around.
Vaelcor dismissed his bridge while Puddin' snuck up and grabbed a kujibird, which squawked, betraying her presence. He told her to drop it, but she threw another smoke nageteppo instead before fleeing into the jungle, hog-tying the kujibird, and tying it to the top branches of a tree which she marked with an X "for later". She plucked and examined a feather, and, with Merchant, determined that it was, indeed, pure gold.
Vaelcor shapeshifted back into his bird form to fly back to the island, grabbed his gear and looted the nests; the kujibirds turnerd out to love jewels and gold, resulting in quite the haul. After resting a while for FP, he shapeshifted again, and finally flew back to the party. He arrived just before Puddin' who claimed that she had set her stolen bird free; a failed default Detect Lies roll meant that Vaelcor believed her. The party realized that the Siren's Folly would be picking up adventurers at a beach nearby, and started out towards the eastern side of the island.
Sunset: Mountainous Jungle
The party headed back into the jungle at the base of the volcano, but after several hours emerged into a charred, 1km-wide clearing filled with melted slag of armour and weapons and many large, blackened bones. At the edge of the clearing uphill, ogre skulls were skewered on spears, while downhill, blackened tails were dangling from bone meat hooks. Wisely, they left the clearing before making camp for the night.
Avandry 42nd, Dawn: Coastal Jungle
The next morning, the weather had cleared, and the party continued on to the coast. Several hours later, they arrived at a part of the beach with many large smooth rocks. Unfortunately, Argua failed to notice the bones scattered in between the rocks before stepping on an intensely hot stone and getting burned. After Vaelcor healed her, the party detoured around it, and back to another black sand beach.
Not wanting to have to pay the 10% fee on the gold they had bought with them, they found a secluded spot, where Puddin' used Smuggling to bury their treasure. They wandered the coast until arriving at a sheltered lagoon where the Siren's Folly was waiting, and a rowboat was sent to pick them up. Jenny asked if anybody had something she could use to hide her face, and Masha loaned her the Cloak of Blur, which worked wonderfully.
Several other adventuring groups showed up throughout the day, though Argua noticed that her "boyfriend" did not. Without further issue, they made it back to Swordfish Bay.
Notes:
Beast Summoning now uses long range penalties, instead of just having infinite range.
For Swimming, I confused the +3 for entering intentionally into a -3 for entering unintentionally. Fortunately, this made no difference, as Archer still passed.
This scenario was partially designed to encourage the PCs to be more piratey, so I'm veyr proud that they buried some treasure. On another note, Smuggling is actually just Holdout, as I have merged the two.
The total haul just from the kujibird nest turned out to be around $30k, but would have been way more if they'd been allowed to pluck the birds at $250 per feather.
XP was 3:
1 for combat
1 for exploring at least one new area
1 for rescuing the kujibirds
Vaelcor got +1 for Sense of Duty (Nature) for refusing to capture the kujibirds, and MVP for finding them.
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