Flaming White Apes

The following morning we headed ashore to speak with the chief once again. He and some of his tribe met us on the beach as we arrived. We asked him some detailed questions about the volcano, the evil, the demon, etc. but getting any relevant information was difficult. All we could discern was that the tribe believed that there was a demon living in the volcano and he was coming out (possibly at night) to terrorize the jungle. Because of that, they are afraid to go in to gather food and water.

We decided to see if the ape leader could shed some more light on the issue. In one of the huts, he and the other ape were being attended to by some of the tribes’ women. When we entered, one ape was unconscious but the leader was awake, although very weak. Telepathically, the ape greeted Elvis and immediately asked if we would help them defeat the evil. We were determined to first get a better understanding of what exactly was going on. The ape described the evil force was like the wind – the “spirit” of the volcano. He feared that a group of young apes violated their sacred taboo and foolishly entered a cave in the volcano and that was what awoke the demon. In the cave the young apes discovered the jewelry that they were trading with the tribesmen. However, some time has passed since the apes were last seen and the leader doesn’t know what happened to them.

I began to “speak” to the ape and he turned to me directly to “listen”. It appears that with this telepathy, you must concentrate on only one person at a time to be able to communicate. The ape was getting very tired, but I wanted to know what happened to the four ape corpses we discovered on our way to The Crown Rock. He said that he knew of this tragedy and it was the evil wind that accosted them and tore their bodies apart. After he answered my question, he fell unconscious. With this information, we headed back to the tribe one last time. We mentioned to the chief that we were planning to go into the volcano cave to investigate and he became very scared and concerned for us. I asked him if he has ever seen the volcano erupt and he said he had. Apparently, it’s not too frequent, but the last time was about 10 moons ago. He believes that when it does erupt, the volcano wants some sort of sacrifice.

We cautiously headed towards the volcano as planned. Elvis whipped out his spyglass to scout ahead and noticed a cave opening at the base of the volcano. Once inside, we found the walls of the tunnels to be irregularly shaped out of volcanic rock. We heard a noise down one pathway that sounded like a footstep that someone – or something – accidentally made. Bravely (or stupidly) we decided to find out its origin. While walking along the corridor, we heard a ruckus behind us followed by someone yelling in pain. Hans tripped a pit trap and fell ten or so feet onto some spikes. We lowered a rope to pull him up and as we did, screaming was heard in our heads and rocks were coming at us from all directions! We turned to find six red-eyed, shaggy albino apes attack us. We were really caught off guard but Elvis continued to help pull Hans out of the pit. With our two best fighters preoccupied for that moment, the apes took advantage and beat up on us quite handily. We were able to defeat one of the bushy beasts; however we were outmatched and decided to make haste for the exit.

The group vs. angry white apes (first encounter)

Back at the village, we went to tell the ape leader of what happened and he believes the white apes we encountered are the foolhardy, young apes that entered the volcano caves weeks earlier. They are now cursed with the taboo and have been transformed. He seemed distraught about the news so we left him so he could rest. We went back to the ship and rested for a few days until we felt strong enough to take on the white apes again. Once we returned to the village, we found it had been ransacked and the hut where the apes were resting was in shambles. Worse still, there was blood everywhere and the apes themselves were missing.

We went back to the caves and prepared a trap for the apes. Laying a bear trap on one side of the pit, we planned to lure them into an area then set them ablaze with flaming oil. I nervously went to taunt the apes and they began to chase me down the corridor. Initially they stopped short of our trap and began to throw more rocks at us. We pulled back a bit more expecting the apes to follow us and they did. The bear trap snagged one of the hirsute buggers then Chris set the oil on fire. The most of the apes lit up like a bonfire and the corridor filled thick with smoke from their burning white fur. Even with that advantage, they were still quite difficult to defeat. With the help of a few paralyzing darts we were barely able to claim victory. Once again battered, we headed back to the village and the tribe was happy for our victory, yet their joy was tainted with some anguish. That night, the tribe lit a huge bon fire as both a ceremony to protect the tribe and to celebrate our conquest over the apes.

Buh-Buh-Buh Booty!

Aboard The Hairy Tentacle, we were heading towards what we hoped was the island with The Crown Rock. The winds were not favourable to us today, but that could change at any time. Agnesia continued to show his amazement at the detail of our map and as he studied it, he mentioned that it would be several days until we got to the island.

We passed many of the known islands that are charted on our map. While passing the Isle of Bone, we could see many piles of white rocks. We were told that many degenerates live there and rumour has it that there were once palaces of kings there – before a plague – and now only demons live in the caves. Smaller, uncharted islands are scattered all around the Sea of Dreams, many of which are simply rest stops for sailors to grab a quick meal from a merchant and possibly rest before heading off to sea again. Many rumours can be overheard or bought there, I’m sure.

After sleeping the night below deck, we awoke to find it was a very windy day and fortunately in a favourable direction. The wind was helping move the ship at a brisk pace. Later in the day we finally reached a group of islands sitting in the middle of what seemed like nowhere. Agnesia navigated the ship towards one of the islands that he thought might be our intended destination. He took the ship around the west coast wisely avoiding the reefs that were to the north of the island. Getting closer, we could see a large, smoking hill on the west coast, just as our map indicated. The whole coast near the southern part was pure, white sand with a thick tropical forest just behind it covering the middle of the island. Palm trees were scattered all about the beach. The men in the crow’s nest yelled down to us that they saw natives on the island. A short distance from shore, Agnesia dropped anchor and the crew began to prepare the boarding vessel to head ashore.

Once on land, we were approached by a small group of natives. We weren’t sure how they would receive us, so we were on our guard. Once they got close enough, we saw that they were a sorry sight. They were very emaciated and not at all threatening. They advanced towards us with hands extended, so we gave them some food and fresh drinking water. We tried to communicate with them, but it was difficult. Agnesia mentioned that one of his crew would be able to help translate. When he finally came ashore, he spoke to the chief and through the translator we learned that the tribe normally gets their food from a group of apes (or monkeys) that live in the jungle. However, the chief told us that some sort of evil creature is killing them. When asked what this “evil” was, there was no clear answer except that the natives have some sort of taboo about the smoking hill. Without this trade with the apes, his tribe has been starving from lack of food. The chief offered us a basket filled with jewelry if we would help eradicate the source of the evil. From what we could understand, the chief said that the apes give him the jewelry in exchange for fish, but how or where the apes get the loot from is a mystery (at least to us). The jewelry he handed over was mostly crowns and tiaras and most are adorned with strange demon like creatures.

We decided to try and locate Crown Rock to see if our map had any legitimacy. While following the beach on the east side of the island, we eventually happened upon five small reptilian/ lizard type creatures. We were able to cut into the jungle at that point and avoided a confrontation. Moving through the overgrowth in the tropical jungle was horrible at best and when you add in the heat and the insects, the whole situation was almost unbearable. We approached a small clearing and the stench of death was strong. This rocky area was littered with eight or so ape corpses that were all completely ripped apart. Whatever happened here was not something we wanted to experience. It was disturbing to say the least. We needed to get our bearings, so Chris was able to levitate above the jungle canopy to get a better look at the surrounding area. He spotted another clearing about 50 yards away, so we headed in that direction.

While continuing through the thicket, we heard some noises around us and in an instant we were attacked by four wild boars. They caught us a bit off guard, but we were able to eventually defeat them and collect some of their meat for rations. We fought our way through the brush for about half an hour before we entered a small clearing. In front of us stood a large boulder that looked like a crown. On the ground were some smaller, white stones that someone had laid out in the pattern of an arrow. The arrow was pointing towards the boulder, so that was a good indication we were in the right spot. A few minutes digging in the sand underneath the boulder and giving it a good heave-ho finally dislodged it from its resting place. Underneath we discovered an old, locked iron box. We smashed the lock and inside found a beautiful mahogany box with gold edging. It was quite beautiful and very heavy for some reason. Upon opening it, we were quite pleased to find five pieces of gem encrusted jewelry and 500 platinum pieces! The platinum pieces were strange. They all had this image of a six-fingered hand stamped on them. Overall, it was not a bad haul for a day’s work.

We secured the treasure in our packs and were about to head back to the ship when we heard a strange buzzing sound from the edge of the clearing. It was getting louder and the next thing we knew five giant killer bees were attacking us. We were a bit more prepared for an encounter then before and were able to dispose of the pests with little trouble. We began the trip back and after a while we broke free from the oppressive foliage. While walking along the beach on the east side of the island, we were surprised when four apes came out of the jungle towards us. Knowing that these creatures are usually quite strong, we were on our guard but they did not attack us. In fact, they looked like they were drugged or drunk. They could barely walk and had a confused look about them. One ape collapsed and another came over to us. We tried to help the fallen one, but he died even before we could do anything. In our heads we began to hear voices. Somehow these animals were communicating with us without even speaking! He asked if we knew where the chief was and Elvis “thought” back to him that he was in the village and that they should follow us since we were on our way there. They did accompany us and when we arrived at the village, the apes began to communicate with the native chief. I’m not sure what was said, but for now we wanted to go back to the ship to rest for the night.

Stop off in Pentastadion

For the next few days, we sailed around just off the coast of Ilyria. Agnesia and his crew of a dozen or so salty dogs gave Elvis, Chris, Hans and me a crash course on how to sail the vessel. We decided on a name for the ship. We’re calling her The Hairy Tentacle.

During some down time we researched through the numerous journal notes from the treasure chest and the effort may have paid off. Whoever wrote it made mention of some treasure that’s located on or near a place called “The Crown Rock”. We then checked all the small map pieces and as luck would have it, one of them showed some sort of island that had the words “Crown Rock” on it and an arrow pointing to an “X”. We can’t get too excited yet, but it looks like we could be on to something.

We asked Agnesia if he knew where this island was located and when we showed him our large map detailing the Sea of Dreams, he was quite interested in it. The map that he uses for his navigational purposes is newer than ours, but oddly it’s not as detailed. How could our much older map be more complete then his? We both found that to be very strange. Regardless, he is familiar with the area where the island is located so we plan to head there after a quick stop in Pentastadion to finish up some business in the city.

The short trip eastward went smoothly and once we docked, the crew was quite eager to find the closest watering hole to whet their whistles – *very* eager. We all hunkered down at The Kit and Caboodle for a good long night of drinking. The place was a cesspool of creeps and other undesirables. Elvis was kind enough to buy the first round for everyone and long into the night we lost track of time, beer, and brawls. As the place was closing down, Chris noticed a group of shady characters staring at him but they left the place before we did. He then recalled that he owed some money to a mobster named Kron for a loan he took once during a night of reckless partying. That was some time ago and apparently Kron hasn’t forgotten about it.

We left the bar well expecting a confrontation with the thugs and they didn’t let us down. A good number of them approached us on the docks and quickly surrounded us. They told us that Kron was “out of the picture” and that someone by the name of “the lord” wants payment of 1000 gold pieces. Chris argued that he only owed Kron 500 gp’s, but was told that the lord paid off his debt to Kron. We took that to mean that they killed Kron and are coming after Chris to collect the money owed (at a significant mark up). We obviously didn’t have that much on us, so these kind gentlemen were nice enough to escort us back to the Hairy Tentacle to get it. Along the way, I was close to casting a charm person spell on the head goon, but thought the wiser because even if it did work, we probably couldn’t handle the rest of the thugs. There were just too many of them.

En route to our ship, we asked the men about their boss. They were surprised that we’d never heard of “the lord of the shaded fifth”. Apparently he’s a big time boss who controls a large section of the city and bullies in on the smaller mobsters (since they usually don’t have enough muscle). I can only assume that he has connections with a Thieves’ Guild and ties to the black market in Pentastadion. We eventually got to our ship and paid the men the money. Probably better that way. We can think of it as an investment incase we ever decide we want to take any work from this lord person or sell him some questionable merchandise we happen to find. We tried to rest for the remainder of the night but were constantly bothered when crew members staggered back from who knows where at all hours of the morning. I thought it best if we don’t ask them any details of where they were or whom they were with. Sometimes things like that are best kept quiet.

The next morning I needed to run some errands in town before we set sail. I went to the blacksmith to pick up the bone armour that I commissioned him to make for me. I’ve been very anxious to get it and let me tell you, it was worth the wait. It’s quite exquisite yet very creepy to think that this outer shell I’ll be wearing as protection was once living bone from various creatures. The breastplate is made from the rib cage of some large animal and the helmet is the skull from some massive humanoid. When I put the helmet on, the upper jaw comes down just above my eyes and gives quite a menacing look. It turned out exactly how I hoped it would.

Next, I went to quickly visit the alchemist Drosis but it turned out to take longer than I expected. I sold him a few of the strange items I’ve collected recently and he was kind enough to teach me some interesting concoctions with some of the other weird and mysterious matters I’ve acquired throughout my adventuring.  Once that was done, we picked up some supplies, food, water, fishing gear, etc. for the journey south. We were finally able to weigh anchor sometime around noon and head towards Crown Rock for more adventures!

Betrayal! (or “We were going to sell it to you anyway!”)

Now that the evil Telekis was defeated, we desired nothing more then to escape these wretched tunnels. We quickly exited his chamber, only to realize that we didn’t thoroughly explore the many books that were in the adjacent library. Most items there were quite mundane and non-descript; however there was one large tome resting on a pedestal that caught our attention. The writing was of some strange script that was more pictorial then words. We took the book with us for future examination. We also discovered an old, barnacle-laden treasure chest in the room. It looked as though it’s seen a fair amount of time at sea, so how it got in these caverns was a mystery. Part of a name was written on the chest and could barely be made out. It read “Arborous”? Not sure who or what that is, but nonetheless, we opened it and discovered a bunch of scrolls inside. One in particular was a map of the islands just south of The Lost Continent. This may come in useful if we ever decide to explore that area. The other papers in the trunk seemed to be journal entries and smaller scrolls referencing some areas on the bigger map.

Map of islands south of The Lost Continent

Once we were done scouring the library, we continued on our way towards the exit but found it to be blocked by three giant black widow spiders. Having already had our fill of spiders, poison, and webs, we decided to make haste for an alternate exit. Once there we made our way out of the subterranean caverns for the final time, leaving Ralph behind. Believe it or not, I was growing fond of Ralph and I shed a tear when we parted. He was a good, good friend, albeit unaware that he was charmed to act so, but nonetheless I’m going to miss that ol’ half goat bastard!

Back at the encampment, Claus was there packing up the last of his gear. Elvis, Christopher, Hanselhopf, and I were discussing what we should do with the Death’s Head gem. Elvis and I wanted to take it to the purple monks for safekeeping. Realizing it was a very powerful and evil artifact, we didn’t want it to fall into the wrong hands and have it be used by anyone for nefarious deeds. However, Chris and Hans were of the mindset that it could send many gold pieces our way, if we sold it. Unable to come to an agreement, we resolved the stalemate with a hearty round of stone-parchment-blade. We paired up into two groups with Elvis taking on Hans and Chris challenging me. Both contests resulted favourably for Chris and Hans, so therefore we must sell it. We decided to take the gem to Alexey Romanov to see if he’d be interested in buying it.

Approaching Alexey’s manor, the place is once again a raucous scene. This guy will use any excuse to party – and I say that with admiration towards him. Entering the place, his assistants directed us to a sitting room while they notified him of our arrival. Some sitting room it was! Drinks, opiates, and ladies were plentiful. It was more like his personal den of debauchery. Time was lost as the smoke from the hookahs filled our heads and the vices we enjoyed took effect. Eventually, Alexey joined the festivities and in typical fashion, he greeted us with a huge smile and an up-beat demeanor. After the salutations and small talk, the conversation turned to business as we produced the Death’s Head gem. As expected, he was very happy for our success and was eager to strike a deal to obtain the powerful artifact. Some numbers were bandied about and when an agreement was reached, Alexey offered us a toast to seal the transaction. The merriment quickly took a wrong turn once we realized that Alexey had secretly slipped a drug into our drinks. We were helpless. While drifting in a half catatonic state, we noticed that his countenance drastically changed from the cheery personality to that of a scowling fiend. We were all so easily taken in by him. How foolish of us to make such a rookie mistake. Rule number one in adventuring: don’t trust anybody!

Regardless, this was the situation we found ourselves to be in and instantly everything in which we were partaking vanished. The women, the drinks, and the party itself all disappeared. Even the room changed from a luxurious lounge into a cold and unkempt room of some decrepit, old manor. It was all just an illusion! In our groggy condition, his words became jumbled to our ears. As he took the Death’s Head from us, his eyes were transfixed on his new possession and through his twisted, maniacal smile he said “Excellent!” and let out a sinister laugh. He then turned to one of his assistants and barked out a command for him to do something, but the details after that became hazy and all went dark. We awoke some time later without the Death’s Head gem in our custody. The tome we procured from the library of Telekis was also missing. Oddly enough, in their place was a “payment” of 500gp. We can only assume that Alexey left us the money, but we may never know for certain. As a side note, when Claus regained consciousness, he told us how terrible he felt for what happened. He said that it’s not typically his nature to trust people so quickly and regrets ever meeting Alexey. My suspicion is that he fell victim to a magical charm spell cast by Alexey; similar to the spells I cast on Ralph and Willis.

After coming to terms with the recent events, we gathered ourselves and headed into town for a good nights rest at an inn. The following day, my comrades and I went to visit the purple monks at the monastery to let them know what transpired with our adventure. Needless to say they were disappointed to find out Alexey was not who he seemed to be and that he now has the Death’s Head gem and the strange tome. But ultimately, all they really wanted was for all the strange occurrences in Ilyria to stop and for the evil artifact to “go away”. So from that stance, they were pleased. I showed the strange rune inscribed ring that we found in Telekis’s treasure hoard to one of the monks named Brother Gerald. We were told that he knows many arcane languages, but the runes on the ring were unclear to him. He did indicate however that it might be a powerful artifact. I’m curious to find out more about it.

Back in Ilyria, we were pleasantly surprised to find out that the townsfolk planned to gather that evening to honour us for ridding the area of the great evil. When nightfall arrived, we headed towards the town centre to find the entire area filled with people partying and celebrating Ilyria’s “new dawn”. Many of the people we rescued from the caves were there along with the leaders of the town. To show us their appreciation, the townsfolk presented us with a sailing ship that they rebuilt. It was fantastic! We were hoping to do some high seas adventuring. We were exhilarated with the gift, but there was a small problem. None of us knew how to sail it. Fortunately, one of the townsfolk volunteered to come along with us to help with that task. It was none other than Agnesia! We were very thrilled to have him join us and to have him help navigate the seas. The celebration continued into the early morning and the next thing I remembered was waking up – very hung over – in a room below deck of our new ship. We were just off the coast of Ilyria sailing eastward. It seems as though our seagoing adventures have begun!