I've seen worse exiles...
Dec. 3rd, 2005 03:57 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
terryclothHad a session of Lazar's Shadake game. Twidget didn't come back, citing conflict with work... this would make him the sixth or seventh person in a row to quit for similar reasons. Or at least to use similar reasons as an excuse for not coming back, it's hard to tell. Stupid politeness.
Anyway, we were cast into exile, and, threatened with the prospect of having to fish, instead chose to risk our lives in a foolish endeavour against the pirates who'd already defeated us once.
The massive explosion ripped a large hole in the bottom of the island, and dumped the non-flying members of the party to their... well, to their exile -- they'd been told to jump out the bottom to exile themselves. The flying members were able to maintain their altitude for a time, but flying up even the few feet needed to grab hold of the island was difficult.
Wayne managed to grab hold of a dangling bit, which turned out to be connected to an old, ruined ship buried in the island's structure. And not secured very strongly. It shifted, it slid out of the island, and it was all the three of them could do to keep it from landing on the village below. Instead, it landed on Ka'Sa.
Luckily, the lower island was made of squishy, toxic algae and seaweed, so Ka'Sa was just squished down into it instead of being crushed beneath a falling ship and a bunch of rocks. With everyone (including the non-flying people, who actually arrived later not having a giant ruined ship for an anchor to drag them down faster) working together, they pushed the ship (which was stuck into the gooey mess like a lawn dart) over onto its side, and Perrel dove into the water to rescue Ka'Sa.
But it was too late -- there was no sign of him. Just a bunch of giant, man-eating fish... and his pants. Perhaps if they'd known him for longer, they might have mourned his presumed demise. Or maybe he wasn't dead at all?
Anyway, they didn't feel up to approaching the huts -- there was no reason to think that the people down here were going to be friendly. Perrel set to making some healing potions out of the toxic muck, while Wayne and Jardin started picking out the seaweed and setting it on the boat to dry, for use in Wayne's weaving, eventually. Jardin didn't see any prospect of plying his craft without a forge.
Perrel knew that without any real components, it would take months to make significant healing, and he wanted it done quickly. Very, very quickly. So he decided he'd try to make the most deadly poison possible, knowing he'd fail utterly. Wayne was too weak to resist as Perrel then proceeded to wrestle him to the ground, pry his mouth open, and force him to swallow some of it as a test. Amazingly, it worked, and soon the entire party was healthy.
Just in time for the natives to arrive! Or at least, the natives' kid. She knew Perrel, see, as he'd been there before, and so wasn't afraid of them. She led them to the village, and they waited around until the villagers got back -- all of them were out fishing except for Maat, who slept during the day.
Talking to the adults, they found out that Maat was the mage-like person who made life down on the isle of slime livable -- he made the water breathing amulets, and cast the spells that kept them all young, as old people would surely have been eaten by the vicious fish. Some of them had been down there since the mage wars, or shortly after, and refused to believe that it had been 50 years -- apparently, time flies when you're exiled to the land of slime.
The hunt had been successful, and lacking any way to preserve their food, they were happy to let the party share in the feast -- although of course they'd have to come with them and help fish the next day. After the meal, all the villagers, and Jardin, fell into a deep sleep, as if drugged. Perrel wasn't too surprised, as he'd noticed a magical aura about the fish meat. And not told anyone.
So, while everyone was asleep, they decided to explore the village further. First on the agenda -- the large hut with the strong magical glow visible through its walls (to Perrel). Inside was a giant floating crystal, which was quite obviously the magical artifact behind the winds that had trapped them on the island.
Wayne was supposed to be on lookout duty, but with the discovery of the crystal had been distracted, so they were surprised as they discussed the pros and cons of shutting the thing off. (Pros: They might be able to leave, if they got a ship. Cons: The pirates would be able to leave. The slime island might disintegrate, since it wasn't natural for algae to clump like that.) Not that they knew how...
At any rate, they were surprised, by Maat, who wasn't too annoyed at them snooping around. He'd met Perrel before, too. Apparently, there used to be tunnels connecting the slime island to other places in the world... before Maat had tried to move them to more convenient places that still existed instead of the middle of deserted wastelands, and accidentally moved the wrong ends.
There was only one tunnel left, which led back up to the island overhead. Perrel didn't want to have to fish OR risk getting trapped in the groundhog day enchantment that kept the exiles young (their memories of and any aging that had taken place during the day after a successful hunt were erased), and Maat didn't want them down here rocking the boat, so they were going to be sent back up, to hide among the scavengers and work out a way to get back their ship and whatever cargo they could. Then they'd signal Maat somehow, and he'd temporarily shut off the crystal to allow them to leave. Hopefully, the pirates wouldn't get out during the lull.
Wayne was a bit leery of going back up to the pirate island, this time unarmed, and tried to come up with excuses for staying downstairs. Meanwhile, Maat used a construction made out of silver forks to create a dose of antidote to wake Jardin up. Wayne recognized it as magitech of a sort, but it should never have worked... chatting about it, Maat mentioned that he was using the crystal to power his magitech. The method of doing so was simple -- and gave the effect of having expensive components to use in the project even if you didn't -- and so the party decided to make a few things using it before heading back up.
Wayne made a couple bags of holding out of fish-skin leather to hold the disintegrated iron from the boat they'd brought down (as Maat didn't want the iron around tempting his minions to greed and violence). He left one with Maat for use in the spell which would temporarily drain the crystal, and the other was going to be taken up for Jardin to make things out of, since it was metal. A LOT of metal. Each bag weighed a ton, even at a 5-to-1 ratio of weight reduction from the magitech.
The other thing they were going to make was some defensive medicine ('war paint'), but that was something for Balthazaar and Perrel to work on, so while they did that Wayne, Roshan, and Jardin headed down through the tunnel to the island above, to link up with the scavengers. Maat had another job for them, as he was annoyed with the scavengers after hearing about how they'd tried to convince the party to leave their ship to be looted. "Tell Garth to see me," he told them. "That's likely to get him exiled, as he thinks I'm a pirate, and they won't be amused."
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Anyway, we were cast into exile, and, threatened with the prospect of having to fish, instead chose to risk our lives in a foolish endeavour against the pirates who'd already defeated us once.
The massive explosion ripped a large hole in the bottom of the island, and dumped the non-flying members of the party to their... well, to their exile -- they'd been told to jump out the bottom to exile themselves. The flying members were able to maintain their altitude for a time, but flying up even the few feet needed to grab hold of the island was difficult.
Wayne managed to grab hold of a dangling bit, which turned out to be connected to an old, ruined ship buried in the island's structure. And not secured very strongly. It shifted, it slid out of the island, and it was all the three of them could do to keep it from landing on the village below. Instead, it landed on Ka'Sa.
Luckily, the lower island was made of squishy, toxic algae and seaweed, so Ka'Sa was just squished down into it instead of being crushed beneath a falling ship and a bunch of rocks. With everyone (including the non-flying people, who actually arrived later not having a giant ruined ship for an anchor to drag them down faster) working together, they pushed the ship (which was stuck into the gooey mess like a lawn dart) over onto its side, and Perrel dove into the water to rescue Ka'Sa.
But it was too late -- there was no sign of him. Just a bunch of giant, man-eating fish... and his pants. Perhaps if they'd known him for longer, they might have mourned his presumed demise. Or maybe he wasn't dead at all?
Anyway, they didn't feel up to approaching the huts -- there was no reason to think that the people down here were going to be friendly. Perrel set to making some healing potions out of the toxic muck, while Wayne and Jardin started picking out the seaweed and setting it on the boat to dry, for use in Wayne's weaving, eventually. Jardin didn't see any prospect of plying his craft without a forge.
Perrel knew that without any real components, it would take months to make significant healing, and he wanted it done quickly. Very, very quickly. So he decided he'd try to make the most deadly poison possible, knowing he'd fail utterly. Wayne was too weak to resist as Perrel then proceeded to wrestle him to the ground, pry his mouth open, and force him to swallow some of it as a test. Amazingly, it worked, and soon the entire party was healthy.
Just in time for the natives to arrive! Or at least, the natives' kid. She knew Perrel, see, as he'd been there before, and so wasn't afraid of them. She led them to the village, and they waited around until the villagers got back -- all of them were out fishing except for Maat, who slept during the day.
Talking to the adults, they found out that Maat was the mage-like person who made life down on the isle of slime livable -- he made the water breathing amulets, and cast the spells that kept them all young, as old people would surely have been eaten by the vicious fish. Some of them had been down there since the mage wars, or shortly after, and refused to believe that it had been 50 years -- apparently, time flies when you're exiled to the land of slime.
The hunt had been successful, and lacking any way to preserve their food, they were happy to let the party share in the feast -- although of course they'd have to come with them and help fish the next day. After the meal, all the villagers, and Jardin, fell into a deep sleep, as if drugged. Perrel wasn't too surprised, as he'd noticed a magical aura about the fish meat. And not told anyone.
So, while everyone was asleep, they decided to explore the village further. First on the agenda -- the large hut with the strong magical glow visible through its walls (to Perrel). Inside was a giant floating crystal, which was quite obviously the magical artifact behind the winds that had trapped them on the island.
Wayne was supposed to be on lookout duty, but with the discovery of the crystal had been distracted, so they were surprised as they discussed the pros and cons of shutting the thing off. (Pros: They might be able to leave, if they got a ship. Cons: The pirates would be able to leave. The slime island might disintegrate, since it wasn't natural for algae to clump like that.) Not that they knew how...
At any rate, they were surprised, by Maat, who wasn't too annoyed at them snooping around. He'd met Perrel before, too. Apparently, there used to be tunnels connecting the slime island to other places in the world... before Maat had tried to move them to more convenient places that still existed instead of the middle of deserted wastelands, and accidentally moved the wrong ends.
There was only one tunnel left, which led back up to the island overhead. Perrel didn't want to have to fish OR risk getting trapped in the groundhog day enchantment that kept the exiles young (their memories of and any aging that had taken place during the day after a successful hunt were erased), and Maat didn't want them down here rocking the boat, so they were going to be sent back up, to hide among the scavengers and work out a way to get back their ship and whatever cargo they could. Then they'd signal Maat somehow, and he'd temporarily shut off the crystal to allow them to leave. Hopefully, the pirates wouldn't get out during the lull.
Wayne was a bit leery of going back up to the pirate island, this time unarmed, and tried to come up with excuses for staying downstairs. Meanwhile, Maat used a construction made out of silver forks to create a dose of antidote to wake Jardin up. Wayne recognized it as magitech of a sort, but it should never have worked... chatting about it, Maat mentioned that he was using the crystal to power his magitech. The method of doing so was simple -- and gave the effect of having expensive components to use in the project even if you didn't -- and so the party decided to make a few things using it before heading back up.
Wayne made a couple bags of holding out of fish-skin leather to hold the disintegrated iron from the boat they'd brought down (as Maat didn't want the iron around tempting his minions to greed and violence). He left one with Maat for use in the spell which would temporarily drain the crystal, and the other was going to be taken up for Jardin to make things out of, since it was metal. A LOT of metal. Each bag weighed a ton, even at a 5-to-1 ratio of weight reduction from the magitech.
The other thing they were going to make was some defensive medicine ('war paint'), but that was something for Balthazaar and Perrel to work on, so while they did that Wayne, Roshan, and Jardin headed down through the tunnel to the island above, to link up with the scavengers. Maat had another job for them, as he was annoyed with the scavengers after hearing about how they'd tried to convince the party to leave their ship to be looted. "Tell Garth to see me," he told them. "That's likely to get him exiled, as he thinks I'm a pirate, and they won't be amused."
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