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.