(G562 01/06/2024 via Roll20 - JF(GM), KT, AL) YI26

 (G562 01/06/2024 via Roll20 - JF(GM), KT, AL) YI26

[Corhim Sparkledingle the gnome wizard, Fenrir the human warlock, Dak the half-orc barbarian and Levmeia the cleric are on Bone Island doing battle with the vampires of the Dementor.]

DAY 634 (27th Uktar) (November) cont ...

The villa where the vampires had been roosting in was now properly on fire. Flames were licking out through the roof tiles and smoke billowing out of the open doors.

Dak went back in and retrieved four more unconscious dominated people. They were laid out with the others in the courtyard. Even Corhim and Lev helped with the rescues.

Fenrir had made his way to the bedrooms in the east wing, which was not currently on fire, but was full of smoke. He found some coffins and passed one out of the window.
It was empty, so whatever half-baked plan he had ended there and with a shrug he set fire to the room he had just come from.

Dak had gone back in through the main door and was confronted by a vampire, a handsome
fellow that put his hands up in surrender. 'Can we talk?' it asked.
The answer was apparently "no" though and Dak destroyed the creature with a single blow
of his enchanted blade.

He then went into a smoke-filled bedroom and looked out the window. He saw that there was a ladder on the inside of the villa's outer wall. He jumped over the wall and searched the forest, but could not find who had fled that way.

Meanwhile, Fenrir found Dame Veroni hiding under a table in a burning room. She was scared and offered no threat, but he blasted her out of the window into the sunlight where she too was destroyed.

Fenrir flew outside, but if there were any vampires going about as mist, then they were lost in the smoke. I'm not sure, but I don't think vampires in mist form can survive in daylight anyway.

Dak shouted up at him, 'what about all these dominated people?'

They had collected quite a few now, some awake and some not. They tied them all up and talked to the non-dominated ones. No one was sure if they would go back to being dominated after Corhim's spells wore off.

There was a female human cleric in the group and she was the most willing to be helpful but she didn't know much. Dak and Corhim started acting tough, asking how they could have been so easily defeated by vampires when Dak and company had made such short work of them.
'Fuck you!' said one of their captives. 'We lost a lot of our friends trying to take these undead out.'

Dak lost interest in the talk and went to throw all the guard corpses into the burning building.

They all then stood over the coffin they had recovered from the house and argued about what to do with it. First a body was put in it, then taken out again, then it was put in a Bag of Holding and then taken out again. Then it was put on a cart - and then taken off again. I will just leave it at that and let the reader imagine what sort of nonsense was talked throughout the whole farce.

It was late in the afternoon now though, so they eventually put the cart to good use and bunged all the sleeping people on the back of it and trundled down the hill to the villa they had first come to.

When they got there Dak went to the body that was lying in the day room and chopped it into chunks and threw it outside. He then went to the water pump and cleaned himself up.

After checking all the windows and doors were secure on the ground and first floors they went down into the cellar.

One of their captives was a fighter, and he was no longer dominated. He was happy to have been rescued and talked freely.

He told them:
''
From what we saw when we first got here, the curse works like this; the islanders are like normal people during the day, but turn into ghosts at night. We had a hell of a time the first night, but after a while we learned that if you hide somewhere quiet then the chances are you'll be ok. They will seek out the living if they are nearby. I don't think its noise that attracts them. Life force maybe.
''

They had nine others with them, all were asleep, under the influence of Painful Slumber. It seemed reasonably safe down in the cellar, but they didn't want to take any chances. Corhim cast Rope Trick twice and everyone was divided up into two groups. The sleepers were bundled up the rope too.

Fenrir and Corhim talked for ages about setting up Flying Eyes and Alarm spells and all sorts of other stuff, but in the end they were missing too many of the components.

Corhim did eventually cast Mage’s Private Sanctum in the cellar.

Once they were all safely tucked up in the Rope dimension Fenrir and Lev played Gnome Cards for several hours before bed.


DAY 635 (28th Uktar) (November)

At three in the morning they all came down their ropes and Corhim recast the spell.

During the night a ghost wandered into the cellar, looked confused and left. Then later it came back with the ghost of the corpse Dak had dismembered.

Nothing else happened and dawn broke. They piled down the ropes and went to have breakfast in the villa's kitchen.

After that they left the fighter to look after the nine sleepers and went to check out the third villa. It was deserted and in disrepair. It looked like no one had lived there in years. The villa where they had burned out the vampires still smoked, a black cloud blotting the sky above the hill.

They went to check it out and Fenrir could Detect Magic in the rubble, but it was all still too hot and messy for them to be bothered digging for treasure.

In the end they went back to base and asked the advice of the fighter. His name was Lesent and he was a goodly sort of chap. He didn't even show his surprise at their lack of preparation and was happy to share his knowledge on vampires.

''
Well, you must remember that some of them are hundreds of years old. The stupid ones all get killed off young, so the older ones, you know they must be the cunning as foxes. They always have a plan, and a backup plan, and a backup for the backup. A lot of them, most of them probably, will have escaped the fire. It is my understanding that a vampire in Gaseous Form, when exposed to sunlight, turns into a Vampiric Mist. These are different entities from vampires. If vampires are injured and in Gaseous Form they need to get to their coffin in about two hours. Clever vampires have backup coffins, and means of travel - such as being placed inside Bags of Holding - between them during the daylight hours.
''

Hearing all this, Corhim and Fenrir thought that vampires were very unsporting fellows. How can you kill a vampire when they have so many options for evading you? That was precisely Lesent's point. He and his friends had scouted the villa for days and had formulated a clever plan - but had not had the might to carry it out. Corhim and company had the might, but not the plan.
To defeat ancient clever vampires then, dear reader, one must have both a plan and the might to carry it out!

Corhim never lacked for plans, but usually they were not for the situation at hand, and Fenrir, I sometimes thing was so used to the chaos of being a Warlock that coming up with a plan made him feel rather dirty. Dak, who I've known for a while now after hunting all those pirates with him, is not as dumb as he looks, but he had really taken to Corhim now and went along with whatever the wee gnome came up with.

Anyway, with all that said, at around ten in the morning Corhim attempted to skrye Baroness Partick. He saw her in a darkened room, lit by candles, as she talked to some of the vampires. They were talking about Corhim and his friends, and how to get off the island.

Next he skryed First Mate Mullmaster and saw his dead body in the forest. Possibly picked off by ghosts in the night. Then he skryed Midshipman Alise. He was moving coffins around in a cellar.

Dak went on a 'patrol' with Lesent to get him out the house while Corhim cast Magic Circle of Protection from Evil so they could questions the others.

The first person they woke up was Lord Baleforth who screamed in agony as the "Painful" bit of the Painful Slumber of Ages hit him.

He cried, and as tears poured down his face he looked at Corhim and said, 'you and your friends deserted us!'

They didn't get much else out of him so they woke up Mrs Baleforth. She was still dominated so they could only talk to her while the Magic circle was in effect.

She could remember being at another house. It had lions (or was it eagles? she asked herself) on the gate posts. When they woke up the rogue, he remembered more and even drew them a map showing this place a few miles east of where they were.

Next they woke the cleric, and she too remembered another vampire safe house. This one was to the west and she could give them directions.

Would they continued to blunder about on Bone Island or come up with a plan cunning enough to catch the vampires now that they had (possibly) gone off in two different directions? I think you may know the answer to that already dear reader!

(G561 25/05/2024 via Roll20 - JF, KT, AP(GM), AD) YI-B6

 (G561 25/05/2024 via Roll20 - JF, KT, AP(GM), AD) YI-B6

[Still not fully sober, myself (your humble narrator, Rollo the Druid), Reinward the Chosen One and Fangornio the Barbarian find ourselves on a quest to save the village of Hartsvale from a very naughty dragon. We have just made our way though some kobold caverns.]

DAY 622 (15th Uktar) (November) cont ...

As we stepped out into the cold mountain air, we saw before us a rope bridge  over a 50 foot drop. This was the only way forward. Around us were several trees, a large clump of bushes, and the stairs back down to the kobold tunnels. In the distance across the ravine, we heard deep, frenzied bellows echoing off the mountain walls.

On the other side of the gorge, across the 30 foot gap, two goblins had just finished cutting the ropes to the rope bridge as they laughed like maniacs.
They then turned and fled, giggling the whole time.

Reinward and Fang started having a quick-fire argument about whether they could jump over the chasm ("Jump the Chasm!") or not. It took me a while to get a word in and let them know I could turn into a Giant Owl and carry them across one at a time.

So anyway, on the other side of the gorge was a deep gully, which we walked along. In a wider area of the canyon we came across some hungry giants, chained to the ground.
The canyon ended at a cave entrance.

A goblin further back called out and the giants broke loose. Reinward started Blinking and I began summoning critters. The two hill giants came in at the canter and Fang received a good biff with a club, which he repaid with some axe blows. Reinward then finished it off with some of his deadly daggers.

The second giant came at the wily rogue, but its swings missed. Meanwhile I summoned some delicious looking (I hoped!) dire boars. I instructed them to try and look appetising rather than attacking.

It all got a bit tangled up after that with Reinward tumbling about, Fang trying to subdue the second giant rather than kill it and my boars running around all over the place.
It couldn't hold out long against us, although Fang was injured and required healing.

Just as we were wondering what to do next, there was a thump and three even bigger giants appeared at the other end of the canyon.

Reinward attack the nearest one and killed it with his deadly throwing daggers. Meanwhile I had remembered that we'd been told the dragon liked to use illusions and be invisible so I pulled on my Goggles of See Invisibility and took a look around. I was expecting to see a dragon but instead I saw a wee goblin wizard behind the giants.

The goblin hit us with a fireball and one of the giants attacked one of my boars. The boar was injured so the giants were not illusions after all - possibly!

I shot back at the goblin using a Hypothermia spell. Fire was met with Ice. The goblin then cast Cone of Cold and ran away. These bigger giants had bigger clubs and one managed to get me on the shoulder, which was very painful.

Reinward was still throwing daggers everywhere and my boars were still in the fray so I took a moment to heal myself. One of the giants picked up a boar and bit it! And seemed to be nourished by it somehow even though the boar was a summoned ally.

The boars were doing their job as a distraction very well and so Fang was able to kill one of the giants and Reinward was able to stab the last one to death.

All three of them had crashed to the ground like felled oaks. Their bodies did not vanish, so they were not summoned. They were as real as the first to giants apparently.

I looked over the bodies. The first two were what I would have considered regular hill giants.
The other three were larger and more brutal. I chopped off the thumbs of the dead ones for later study.

Reinward was amazed at my actions and declared, 'Well, I'm chopping off their balls!'

I gestured for him to proceed. Who was I to stand in the way of science? Only one of them was lying the right way up so Reinward got between its legs and with a dagger in  his teeth lifted up its loincloth.

Whatever he saw (or smelled) in there made him suddenly reconsider his actions. He gagged and then lowered the cloth and retreated.

After that, he saw that Fang was injured and offered him a potion. He came forward but then cheekily wiped his hill-giant-ball-sweat-fingers on Fang's armour.
Fang leapt back and shouted, 'Stick your stinky potions up your arse!'
Reinward wiped his hands on the grass. 'Look, clean!'

As they continued to argue I looked over the giant we had kept alive. Having had enough fun annoying Fang, Reinward came over to annoy me.

'Why are you dicking around with these giants?' he inquired. 'Let's cut the thumbs off this one  as well! Then really knock it out and get it later.' He advanced on it with a knife.
'Step away from my giant, you interfering imbecile!' I cried.

Anyway, so firstly I healed Fang, then I created a feast of food and drink from the Provision Box and healed the giant. I offered it the food and spoke to it soothingly in the Giant language.

It was willing to answer questions, but it didn't know much. The goblin wizard was the one known as "Boyag-boyag-boyag" and it lived in the cave at the end of the gully.

Reinward was impatient, tapping his foot, making a show of it. I knew he wasn't in a hurry, he just wanted to annoy me. So I in turn took my time talking to the giant. I actually enjoyed speaking Giant again, after learning it so many years ago at school it was nice to dust it down and remember all that unusual syntax.

He told me he had been captured by the goblins and had been chained up 'for ages'. He certainly was thin for a giant. He also told me he had lived in these mountains before the dragon had turned up.

We moved on, leaving the giant to its feast. We entered the goblin tunnels and soon came to a large cavern. There were vents in its floor from which green gas was coming. There were scorch marks around the vents. Reinward threw an alchemist fire at some of the gas and it ignited in a flash and was burnt off. I was interested in the decor, wondering if this was perhaps an old dwarven hall, but my eyes were suddenly drawn to the shadowy corners - there were all sorts of nasties lurking back there!

I pointed them out, then when they knew their cover was blown they attacked. Goblins, hobgoblins and bugbears, a mixed assortment of about a dozen villainous creatures. They attacked bravely but were no match for us. Reinward stabbed them, Fang chopped them and I froze them. Soon they were all dead and we were looting their corpses.

We found a scroll of Dimension door and a carved ivory symbol inlaid with silver - a holy icon of the Hobgoblin God Nomog-Geaya, featuring a longsword crossed with a handaxe.

(G560 18/05/2024 via Roll20 - JF(GM), KT, AL) YI25

 

(G560 18/05/2024 via Roll20 - JF(GM), KT, AL) YI25

[Corhim Sparkledingle the gnome wizard, Fenrir the human warlock, Dak the half-orc barbarian and Levmeia the cleric are on Bone Island trying to track down the vampires of the Dementor.]

DAY 634 (27th Uktar) (November) cont ...

Our heroes were somewhat at a loss. Questioning old men at the dockside did not appear to immediately lead to them saying something like "the vampires went a-that-away!".

Corhim was using Detect Thoughts and the only useful clue he got from one of the old fellows were some scattered images of a small boat at one of the quays.

The first boat they looked at was just a fishing vessel, but the other one had evidently been hired by a group of adventurers. Amongst the gear inside the cabin was a letter that gave some useful information - the vampires were three miles inland to the south near a place called Cap Siso.

Some locals were watching them go in and out of other peoples boats. Fenrir gave them a wave. When he went over, they went back to their own business.

The locals were of no further use to them so they headed off, walking out of the east gate. A few dozen steps further though and they changed their minds and went back to look around the shops.

The only shop that was of the vaguest use to them was a general store. Fenrir asked for a map, but they did not sell any. Instead he paid a gold for directions to Cap Siso.

'Just follow the road to El Gio, then south and Cap Siso is on your left,' he was told.

They set off again, strolling through the pleasant countryside to El Gio. It was not far. The weather was warm, but the sun filtered through a high covering of mist, giving the landscape a strange muted golden tone.

As they walked through El Gio, the local shut their doors and windows and hid. They kept walking and the path went into a forest of low trees and forked. Fenrir took to the air to have a look and saw three villas from where they were. One to the left and two to the right. One of the ones to the right was on a forest covered hill.

They decided to try the one down the left road first. The gate was locked so Fenrir opened it with his ring of Knock. Once at the house door he knocked (with his hand this time) but there was no answer. Looking through the window he saw a dead body inside. It looked like one of the locals. Corhim opened the door and the stench of death assaulted his nostrils.

Dak leaned over the body to try and figure out the cause of death, but couldn't. The others looked and since there were two puncture marks on the man's neck it seemed most likely he was the victim of a vampire bite.

They looked about and found a small basement, but it was just a wine cellar. There was nothing else of any interest.

It was three in the afternoon now so they decided to try looking at the house on the forested hill. Fenrir flew up, invisible, while the others waited at the gate.

It was a nice big villa, but all the doors and windows were closed and shuttered up.

He returned and together our heroes entered the villa's courtyard and started by looking in the stable block. There were no horses here, but there were a dozen guards. They were just standing in a sort of daze, but when they saw the intruders they attacked.

A pitched battle commenced as more guards came through the doors of other outbuildings. They were no match for Fenrir's blasts and Dak's blade and before long there were twenty-four dead bodies in the courtyard. 

Stepping over the piles of corpses they entered the villa through the kitchen entrance. They first met Mr and Mrs Baleforth who appeared to be dominated, so Fenrir put them to sleep with a Painful Slumber of Ages. There were other dominated people in the servants quarters and they were dealt with in the same way.

Moving into the main portions of the villa they met the bulk of the vampire contingent. They also spied out Baroness Partick, Midshipman Alise and First Mate Mullmaster.

There were lots of vampires. As far as I can make out after researching this interesting battle they were:

Lord Sharrow - a four hundred year old nobleman and head of the family

Lady Brinker - his wife

Reverend Yarhammer - their priest

Sir Panek - a former paladin from Baldur's Gate

Dame Veroni - a young lady, quite pleasant natured for a vampire apparently

There were also another ten or so minor family members and about a dozen vampire spawn attendants. Basically the house was stuffed full of vampires!

Seeing he had a horde to deal with Fenrir started laying down Walls of Fire to hold them back a bit. It was a chaotic battle in the main corridor as more (sometimes on fire!) vampires leapt out at them. Levmeia cast Disrupting Weapon on Dak's weapon which meant that he could slay the vampires with ease. Much better than any other method as this resulted in them turning into mist and wafting away. It was impossible to see them after that in all the smoke.

The heroes had to flee the burning building back through the kitchens and the vampires too fled back further into the villa. To the heroes credit they took all the dominated people they could get their hands on with them. Corhim had been casting spells to temporarily block the effect.

They stood back and watched the villa burn for a few moments. Considering they had gone in with no plan prepared at all, the outcome of their first battle with the vampires of the Dementor had gone about as well as you might expect.

Sepa Island

 

 

Sepa Island.

by Graham Foss

 

Back in the summer of 2019, our holiday was a real adventure. Planned out meticulously by Ida, my wife, we spent two days in Dubai before heading to Indonesia, where the highlights of our stay there were a visit to the Thousand Islands and later a train trip to Jogjakarta. We really blew the budget in 2019. Little did we know we wouldn’t be back until 2022.

This story will focus on our trip to Sepa Island.

 

The Thousand Islands (known locally as “Kepulauan Seribu”) are a group of islands just north of Jakarta, the capital city of Indonesia, situated on the populous island of Java. If you care to look it up, you will discover that there are actually only 342 islands and only 11 of them are given over to tourism.

That was where we had decided we were going to spend the next few days. I should point out at this stage that my wife is Indonesian, our three children are mixed Indonesian / Scottish and in this year, they were aged 11, 10 and 6. This was our golden age for travelling with kids, where everything was at children’s prices, and their combined cuteness was at its zenith.

We were destined for the Sepa Island Resort. Google it if you dare, it is still doing business at the time of writing and still looks incredible, a vision of paradise that brings back happy memories as I write this on a storm wracked December night in the Galloway hills five years later.

Our journey began in Ciputat, a district in southern Jakarta. Our driver, whom I lovingly referred to as “Deathwish Ricky” picked us up in the morning and drove us at breakneck speed along the toll way to where we would ultimately get on the boat. I sat in the front, Ida was in the back seat with the younger ones so she could keep an eye on them, and my eldest was in the rearmost seat with his grandmother (or eyang).

We arrived in plenty of time, and everyone except me had breakfast at the pleasant dockside cafe. I had a notion that the boat ride would be at least an hour and did not trust my innards on a vessel that likely didn’t have a toilet onboard. While we waited, the kids played with some friendly stray cats that they named Wacky Blacky and Turtle-top. There are stray cats in every street in Indonesia, semi-feral fellows that are tolerated by the locals. At Eyang’s house back in Ciputat the street is full of them. Each house has a concrete bin outside it and each bin has a cat associated with it. Most of the cats are shy of humans though and I could never get close enough to pet any of them, but these dockside moggies were friendlier, perhaps being used to tourists.

Eventually the boat arrived. It looked like a seagoing version of a tourist riverboat. The trip was about an hour and a half and quite up-and-down in places. I am a salty old sea dog, but even my stomach felt a bit wobbly after a while. It was hot and cramped inside the boat with the other tourists and there were only small sliding windows that could be opened a few inches. Not a good place for anyone with claustrophobia.

Wendy, my little daughter, was the one to watch, being prone to travel sickness. Bless her, she held it in until nearly the end, but then was violently, explosively sick all over herself and the seat. We were well used to dealing with the contents of Wendy’s stomach though and the clean-up crew leapt swiftly into action, and everything was cleaned up and bagged quickly and efficiently.

And then we were there! The boat drew alongside the wooden pier, and we disembarked.

We walked along the sun-bleached planks and down onto the scorching sand, an area of tame-looking jungle directly in front of us. Through the trees I could see the buildings of the resort. This was it, I thought, I have set foot on my first ever tropical island. And yet, now that I was finally here, in my sun hat and flipflops, there was a slight tinge of disappointment.

Did you ever look at a tropical island somewhere remote and wish you were there? A travel show presenter strolling down a pristine white sandy beach next to an azure sea. An air-brushed perfect view of paradise. We see a colour-saturated high-definition version of reality.

I think - if you’ve flown across the world, spent the money, taken the mad car journey and the vomity boat ride - when you finally arrive, well the reality is never going to live up to the image of a paradise island you have held in your head all your life.

You forget that although it looks like in the travel documentaries you’ve watched, it still has the bins, the other people, and the unpleasant smells that are all associated with any touristy place in Indonesia. It’s still not quite perfect. Was there something wrong with me that I was not totally happy when presented with an island paradise? Perhaps part of it was that at that moment I was tired and hungry and in need of a lie down in a cool, dark room. It wasn’t to be, at least not yet and we toddled off to our beach house and unpacked, then headed to the restaurant.

It was a self-service buffet and I loaded up my plate. Basic food, not great. The restaurant had shaded wooden tables outside, down by the beach, a great place to hang out and take in the sight, sounds and smells of the sea. We ate, drank cold Cokes and Fantas, and relaxed. The children were too excited to sit for long though, so we set off to explore the island.

We started along the beach, but in less than fifty steps it was all blocked off by rocks. There was an enticing looking path going off into the jungle, and although I was aware it led to the staff areas that it would be impolite to go into, I wanted to at least feel a sort of jungle adventure sensation for a moment and delved into the leafy shadows. The children were scared and called out, that I might get accosted by snakes and spiders or something, so I turned back after no more than a few metres.

After going along the beach in the other direction I realised that the island was tiny, barely three hundred metres from side to side. I’d not be having any long walks here. The kids were having the time of their life though. Ida rented a kayak, and I took them out into the ocean. We looked down through the crystal-clear water at the spikey anemones below us.

In the evening, we had dinner, and located Eyang who has been talking to two young Indonesian girls in bikinis. The seemed to adore Eyang and when they saw Wendy, they are captivated by her and went to the island shop to buy her treats. Wendy received these gifts like a queen receiving her tribute.

The next day Ida had us all awake at seven in the morning to be picked up by a small boat by eight. We were taken a good distance north of Sepa Island to a remoter part of the archipelago. Today, the boys and I would be snorkelling while Ida, Wendy and Eyang remained on the boat. Wendy was to catch a fish for the boatman’s tea.

We were miles away from Sepa, in a shallow area of sea between some other small uninhabited islands. We swam through the rocks and reefs, the guide leading the way, while the boys, both excellent swimmers, followed along, taking in everything. I brought up the rear, watching the boys having fun as much as I watched the fish. Enjoying their enjoyment as much as my own.

It was a wonderful experience, but again, it’s not the high-definition, or slow motion and carefully curated experience that my mind expected from watching so many wildlife documentaries. It is murky when you dive down, the fish, those amazing fish, are all there, but their colours are muted, dulled by the tinted glass of my facemask. In other ways though the experience is, of course, beyond anything a television could give you. The warm water on our bodies, the taste of the sea, the tightness of our lungs as we dive down into the rocks to take a closer look at the coral and the colourful fish that lived there. We follow a turtle as it swam leisurely along the sandy sea bottom, gliding between the rocks, and then, on the way back to the boat after a good two hours in the sea we come across a sunfish (or a Mola Mola), and watched it in awe as its huge square body cruised slowly past.

When we get back to the boat, I saw that Wendy had caught a small fish on her line and was dipping it in and out of the water as the boatman laughed and encouraged her. Fly, fishy, fly, she was saying gleefully. I begged them to let the poor thing off the hook and put it back in the water. Ida told me that it was fish number ten that had suffered the same fate!

With the snorkelling finished, the small boat putt-putted its way further north, weaving between small distant islands until the water was so shallow, we could hop out and walk. We were in an area between two islands where the sea was barely knee deep. It felt as warm as bathwater and although the sun was hot, there was a light breeze as we walked through the shallows, the children running and splashing while we adults follow, taking photos and marvelling at where we have managed to find ourselves.

Apart from us and the boat there were no other signs of civilisation other than something off in the hazy distance that looked like a fishing jetty. I watched as our boat cruised slowly past the jetty and I felt a connection to this place, a sense of belonging, if only through my family, of times gone by when these seas were travelled by djongs and junks, of traders from the west arriving on these shores and explorers heading out further east in outriggers in search of the unknown.

I was finally getting it, that tropical paradise feeling that I had been hoping for. We walked between the islands, through half a mile of shallow sea, out to a sandbar surrounded by waters on all sides. The hazy air muted the distant green colours of the islands and accentuated the blueness of the sea and sky. The sand was white and pure, and so hot on the toes it was better to stay in the water. The children loved the beach, any beach and this was endless beach in all directions. The perfect beach, and they were at the perfect age to appreciate it the most as they raced, swam, and splashed through this world of half sea, half sand. Eyang walked behind them, her ankle length black robe billowing behind her as she glid through the water. Ida was somewhere behind us taking photos, recording this wonderful day in pictures that will never do it justice and I suddenly felt sad in the knowledge that this day will never come again. We could come back here some other time years from now, but not with our young family in this golden moment of perfect childhood. The feeling passed and I got back to enjoying the rest of the day, wading, and walking from sea to sandbar and back to sea. 

But wait, what’s that in the sand? A bloody food wrapper! I picked it up and read the bright orange packet. Malkist – Krim – Keju Manis. (Sweet Cream Cheese Crackers) This sudden intruder from the modern world was unwanted and I discreetly folded it up and put it in the pocket of my shorts.

The boat had been following us all this time at a distance, in deeper waters and once everyone had had enough it came in to pick us up and take us back to Sepa. Back on the island my stomach was not happy, probably due to the restaurant food, so the next day I mainly lay in the shade on a large wooden sun lounger, sometimes reading but mainly dozing, watching the children play in the sea through the smallest of cracks between my eyelashes. I listened to Ida and Eyang talking in Bahasa, exchanging gossip while they ate and drank. When they go silent, I know they are on their phones.

This is one of my most cherished memories and if I ever have trouble sleeping, which is rarely, I imagine I am here again, dozing on that lounger, feeling the warm air on my skin, listening to the gentle lapping of the waves and the sounds of distant laughing children.

Graham Foss

 

(G559 05/05/24 - JF(GM), FF, FgF, HF, WF) EV1

 (G559 05/05/24 - JF(GM), FF, FgF, HF, WF) EV1

[Family game - Character Generation.]

Day 1

This story came to me recently. The details are not fully known to me at the moment but I do know this tale starts in a place called Earthscar Village at the wedding of the village chief's daughter.

I am led to believe that Earthscar Village is a place where all are welcome, even orcs and goblins. It is remote and hard to find, which is probably why I have never heard of it.

There was a table set aside for visitors and the first person to be seated was a dwarven wizard known as Shorty Tring. He wore orange dungarees and had red hair.

He was followed by a tiefling fighter known only as Zara, then an inexplicably tall goblin rogue called Petryk.

The final person to be seated was a human paladin called Jerimia Elrickson.

At the table together they got to know each other a little and when wedding games were introduced they all joined in.

These games included a 'Hot Wing Challenge', 'Pin the Rat' and 'Put Your Hand in a Barrel of Eels.'

I will write more about the significance of these four as I learn it!

(G558 27/04/2024 via Roll20 - JF(GM), KT, AL) YI24

(G558 27/04/2024 via Roll20 - JF(GM), KT, AL) YI24

[Back on Yag Island, these journal entries focus on Corhim, Fenrir and Dak.]

DAY 629 (22nd Uktar) (November) cont ...

While Corhim was in Sasserine, Fenrir and Giselle were taking it easy. When the gnome wizard got back he joined them at a table outside Felia's shop where she served tea.

While they were doing that Jonathan the Seagull came to tell them;

'Hey, I think there is a goblin in the bushes over there watching the gate!'

Corhim went invisible and flew up in the air. Fenrir scanned the bushes with Detect Magic but found nothing.

He then crossed the stream and called out that he was willing to be peaceful.

Eventually the goblin came out to talk.

It was none other than Kelech, from way back in the Sea Wyvern days. He had asked for me initially, but then Lavinia was summoned. She remembered him.

He had been a regular human sailor on the Sea Wyvern but then had been killed in an attack on the ship. I had reincarnated him (as a dwarf I think) but he had got killed again and this time unfortunately came back as a goblin! After that he had gone off with Eres and some of the others on an adventure in Chult. 

Here he was, back again. He had come in on a ship and had heard about the Barrow and had come to take a look. He had maybe heard from Nobby about me being here I am not sure.

Not related to that, in the evening Lavinia had a bit of an upset with her pregnancy. She only had 1 month to go at this stage, so she and Sylvia teleported back to Sasserine so she could be at her own home close to doctors and midwives.

Sylvia let me know what was going on via a Sending Spell.

DAY 630 (23rd Uktar) (November)

Arrangements had been made and Veddic was put in charge of the Barrow Area while me and Lavinia were away. He was considered the most sensible and the one with the most authority out of those available.

The Ember (formerly the Black Mirror) arrived today. It was expected and anchored not far from the others. The other three were the Black Cat, Sister and Reveng. All four were xebec vessels with magical speed and invisibility.

Also today the Dwarves of the Fortress built a single room dwarf sized house not far from the Fortress entrance. It had a rock table, bed slab and fireplace. Much better made than my crude "druid houses".

Corhim was not happy with its location though, thinking it was a bit too close to where he planned to have his tower built and that it might spoil his view! Nobody else seemed to care.

Fenrir talked to Veddic about getting his house "fully warded" with Hallow, Aid, Invisibility Purge and Dimension Anchor. They also discussed potential replacements  for Veddic as he was busy as the Barrow chief. Allyoop's name came up, but in the end she was not approached. Sasserine was closer and there would be plenty there.

Anyway, the general consensus around the table at lunchtime that day was that the vampires on the Dementor should be the next issue to deal with.

Towards that end Sparkledingle, Dak and Fenrir teleported to Sasserine to find a cleric that would be willing to go with them. Firstly they popped in to see Lavinia and see how she was and asked if she knew any.

'Oh, I think Levmeia would be good for you. She's a tiefling and always up for adventure. I'll give you the address of the tavern she drinks in.'

They found her easily enough. She was a cleric of Sehanine Moonbow, which is Death domain, but that's not always bad. She was dressed in worn armour, with a vestment emblazoned with a moon with a crescent over it. She was about 40 years old, with frizzy blonde hair and green eyes. She had tan coloured skin, curved horns and pointed teeth.

Despite her fearsome appearance she was very friendly and said she would happily come with them as long as they would play Gnome Cards with her during down time.

They went back to the Manor and Corhim skryed Baroness Partick later that night. You may remember that she was the lady that took care of the vampires' arrangements onboard the Dementor.

She was in bed, snoring how a lady snores. Her bed was indoor, and the stone floor suggested she was on dry land.

DAY 631 (24th Uktar) (November)

The fellows were quite at ease in my wife's house I must say, and they ate all the Waterdeep bacon I had recently bought for their breakfast.

At noon Sparkledingle skryed Baroness Partick again. She appeared to be eating alone in a dining room in a pleasant villa. He watched as she ate. He noted that she ate some fruit that were local to the Shining Sea region.

He reckoned it was worth a try to teleport to her based on the room he had seen. They ate a hearty lunch (and finished off all my jam) and prepared for their incursion.

The teleport didn't work though. Somehow it was blocked.

At three o'clock Corhim skryed again. He saw her in another room, having a nap on a sofa.

Then he skryed her several more times in the evening and saw her out on a balcony in the shade of some vines. There were no city noises. Later he saw Mr and Mrs Baleworth as they served some vampires glasses of blood.

He noted that all the shutters in the building were now firmly shut.

They were all rather stumped by not being able to teleport to where the vampires were - their whole plan having rather relied on it. They talked into the night, while polishing off a good part of my Kryptgarden Pale Ale collection and concocted wild and expensive schemes for finding their quarry.

Lavinia was listening in and said, 'Or you could just go and ask at the docks if anyone saw where the Dementor went.'

That seemed sensible so they spent a couple of hours going around the dockside  taverns asking questions and found a drunk, but informative, sailor who told them;

''

Arr! I have just come from Calimport and know that you want to set your course for Hueso Island. There be rumours aplenty that a boat load of vampires have gone there. But take heed! It is not a safe place to go to. I head that not one, but two bands of adventurers have gone there and not come back these last few weeks. Hueso is a dangerous place - tis under a curse and full of undead they say!

''

As they brought the old chap drinks he told them more. The island was 150 miles south west of Calimport and was in the shape of a bone, i.e. it was in two main parts with a thinner strip in the middle. It was about ten miles end to end.

They also learned from other sailors that Sharkchum has been seen in the Lake of Steam. He was hard to miss as he was in a flying ship! That was an adventure for another day though.

DAY 632 (25th Uktar) (November)

After finding and eating five packets of my special Pie Shop sausage rolls and the last of my beer the fellows teleported back to Yag Island.

They then arranged to borrow The Reveng (formerly The Reaper) and the Captain's Pinnace (the boat from the Dementor) and set off.

From Yag Island Hueso was about 250 miles away.

The set off at noon and sailed through the night.

DAY 633 (26th Uktar) (November)

The Reveng arrived in the area of the island in the early evening. The Captain consulted the map and told them 'this is where you said to go.'

They looked about, but there were no island anywhere. A trading vessel went past and they called over for directions. One of the crew pointed to the west and a large bank of clouds.

Hueso (or Bone) Island is shrouded by a wall of mist. From the air it looks like a dark area of sea fog, even in summer.

They sailed towards it, the wall of mist rising high above them. It was getting towards nightfall though, so it was decided to wait until the morning before doing anything else.

DAY 634 (27th Uktar) (November)

In the morning, Dak, Fenrir, Levmeia and Sparkledingle climbed down into the Captain's Pinnace, along with two brave sailors.

They sailed into the wall of fog, keeping going north as directly into it as they could. After about a mile, the fog lifted and in a more pleasant light they saw a rocky shore line. The sailors told them if they tried to land the boat there they would foul its bottom, so they sailed along the coast for a bit and spied a house a bit higher up on the hillside.

They had the boat drop them off and they waded ashore. The Pinnace waited for them as they walked up to the house. It appeared to be a pleasant villa, the type of place a rich farmer or vintner might live in.

As they approached the stone wall surrounding the villa, a dog spotted them  and started barking. A man came out of the house and looked them over. Fenrir waved and the man waved back. 'Hello,' he said.

'We were warned this place was dangerous,' said Fenrir.

'No. It's all fine here,' came the reply.

He told them his name was Raffi. He was just having his breakfast so he invited them in for some Patatas Bravas. The others hesitated, but Lev hopped over the wall and went inside and soon the others followed.

Raffi introduced them to his wife and children as they ate. The kids were very interested in Dak and Lev, who must have looked like monsters to them.

They talked and he asked about what they were doing on the island. He told them they were on the east part of the island. The main port - Port Mentera - was on the western shore. The easiest way to get there would be to sail around the coast as there were no easy roads and much of the east side of the island was private property of the local lord.

It was easy enough to sail around to Port Mentera, and they pulled up at the small dock and left the sailors with the Pinnace. They noticed the Dementor, drawn up on a beach south of the dock. It looked abandoned, but at least they knew they were on the right track.

They asked an old nautical looking chap who was sat at the dockside but he only said, 'I don't know how that go there!'

Fenrir thought the old fellow was lying and started probing.

'Haha you and all your questions!' declared the old man. 'Why don't I buy you a drink?'

As he ambled towards a tavern he waved at another old chap at the dock and with an odd hand gesture said 'Be seeing you!'

The other man made the same gesture (thumb and forefinger put together followed by a throwing motion) and repeated the phrase. 'Be seeing you, Pavel'.

The tavern was pleasant and everyone inside was friendly. It was morning so it appeared that most of the customers were old timers, having a coffee or a sneaky sherry before starting their day.

'Will you be staying long?' asked Pavel.

Sparkledingle was really worried about the place, despite its appearance and went to the restroom to cast Magic Circle against Evil. Something blocked it though and he was overcome with a tremendous feeling of fear and dread!

He asked Lev about it. As a test she cast Guidance and it was fine.

'I am a cleric of a death god though,' she informed him.

She got her Gnome Cards out and started dealing out hands. More beer was called for.

'We are looking for a friend, maybe she came through here?' asked Fenrir. 'Her name is Baroness Partick.'

Pavel said he didn't know anything about her, but Fenrir was sure he was lying.

While Pavel was at the bar they talked among themselves. Were these people all Dominated by vampires? Fenrir didn't think so, they were behaving too naturally.

The heroes talked about finding the mayor of the town, but then forgot about it.

Sparkledingle cast Detect Thoughts and focused on Pavel, but he was just thinking about what to have for lunch. He tried two old geezers playing cards, but they were just thinking about the game.

Fenrir went towards them and loudly asked, 'Hey fellas! Heard about any vampires?'

They looked confused and mumbled that they had not.

Sparkledingle picked up one of them thinking:

"Oh no, here we go. Another band of adventurers asking about bloody vampires!"

Are we adventurers? wondered Corhim.

'Have you heard of Baroness Partick?' tried Fenrir.

One of the old men mused, 'didn't someone ask me about her last week? Ah well, people come people go you know.'

The other one said, 'I've not heard of her, is she a friend of yours?'

The old chaps liked to talk to our heroes stayed and chatted for a while. When asked about the east side of the island they were told;

'It's all private property over there. The ruler of the island lives there, Lord Badr. He really doesn't like people trespassing either!'