Krynt’s Logbook – Part 5

Krynt’s Logbook – Part 5 (October 31, 2014)

Day 4 aboard the Man’s Promise – Bonewrack Isle cont. (Gozran 28, 4712)

Shortly afterward, a mosquito swarm descends on Mael. Gush blows it apart several times, but it keeps re-forming, and even our torches can’t finish it off. Finally, Gush works up the nerve and manages to trap the swarm in the tent. He pays for it with a pinch of nausea.

After a few hours’ march through the dense jungle, we reach a dream of a beach. The two giant crabs that surprise Gush while he’s gathering coconuts may not look like a dream, but they sure taste like one in Mael’s crab and coconut chowder. A page from the scattered journal is hanging here among the palms, too.

My mate Gush shows off more new talents and befriends a monkey. His name is Kimmy. Kimmy brings two more journal entries. During our rest, we put the entries in date order. They were written by a certain Aaron Ivy, quartermaster of the Infernus out of Cheliax!

Over crab soup by the campfire, I get to know my new mates a little better. Tantakatan hails from Widowmaker Isle and fought in duels there too, though not at the Bloody Twins. Gush is one of the Zenj, and to spice things up, Mael is from Sargava, the breakaway Chelish colony that pays vast sums in gold sails for the Hurricane King’s protection. An interesting social mix.

Day 5 aboard the Man’s Promise – Bonewrack Isle (Gozran 29, 4712)

The trail forks on a rise: right takes us up to the ridge, left leads through the jungle to some fields. The fields are full of wheat, 8 feet high and now growing wild. The path leads through the thick crop. In the middle of the fields, a skull surrounded by horseflies is impaled on a bamboo pole. Three rickety skeletons surprise us there, and when they knock against the bamboo pole, a swarm of horseflies gathers. On Gush’s advice, we run like mangy dogs—out of the field, through the jungle, and up the rise. The skeletons soon give up the chase, but the swarm is hot on our heels. Tantakatan and I sprint nimbly between vines and trees. Mael nearly doesn’t make it and has to hide from the swarm in a pool. If Tan hadn’t saved him, he’d likely have sailed straight from there aboard the Seawraith. But Besmara seems to have no use yet for a Sargavan cook’s mate trained by Ambrose Fishguts, so we regroup at the fork on the rise and decide to fetch the loot from the swamp tent. We’d left it behind when we fled the mosquitoes.

Tan and I sneak up to the swamp tent and swipe the loot while the others wait in the jungle. Luckily, mosquito swarms don’t seem interested in swamp elephants, so even Tan goes unnoticed. The loot from the ghoul brides includes not just a sharp dagger, but a few gemstones, strange oils, and gold as well.

It rains and rains on Bonewrack Isle. On the way back, we debate whether Captain Plugg could repair the Man’s Promise and sail off with a skeleton crew, leaving us marooned on the island. Sennabar’s prophecy makes that seem unlikely, though, since we still need the crew—more than we think, even if we don’t need all of them. So we rest in the jungle under a shelter we build with Gush’s expert guidance. Another of Gush’s monkey friends, Mickey, brings us two more journal entries. VanZan heals our wounds. Tomorrow we’ll climb the rocky ridge.

Day 6 aboard the Man’s Promise – Bonewrack Isle (Gozran 30, 4712)

We climb a steep switchback trail up to the ridge. From the top, we can spot the wreck of the Infernus to the south. We also find more pages from the journal. On the summit, a 7-foot-high wooden palisade surrounds a tree. A treehouse has been built in the canopy, and a freshwater spring rises at the foot of the tree. Suddenly, long tentacles lash out of the tree at Gush and Tan. They belong to nasty little chokers, which we soon get down from the tree. Through a spyglass at the edge of the palisade, we can make out a crater just short of the cliffs. Beyond it, movement in the water. Is that where the octopus creatures live?

A hanging corpse awaits us in the treehouse. When Tan approaches, it lashes out at him and bites. The place reeks of decay and crawls with flies. The treehouse is cluttered with all sorts of furniture, making the fight a cramped affair. Gush and Tan fall victim to the attacks of the undead Aaron Ivy. Their motionless bodies lie oddly stiff on the treehouse floor. With Besmara guiding me, I deliver the finest left-handed backhand slash of my life, cutting Aaron Ivy’s throat and taking his head clean off his shoulders. We toss the now properly dead Ivy out of the treehouse and shut the door, for a loud buzzing outside heralds the arrival of yet another swarm. After searching the hut and finding a few more journal pages, a locket with a woman’s picture, a crate of pepper, and a silver chalice, we can escape over the roof while the swarm feasts on Ivy’s corpse.

By midday we’re already making camp at the foot of the slope in the jungle. First, VanZan has to patch up Gush and Tan. Then we discuss what to tell Captain Plugg about our expedition.

Day 7 aboard the Man’s Promise – Bonewrack Isle (Desnus 1, 4712)

On the way back, Gush convinces a gorilla that we aren’t enemies. I’d just bolted into the jungle when the giant loses interest in us. To our surprise, Conchobar’s hat is lying on the path near the beach—with one of Sandara’s earrings on top, complete with a piece of earlobe! Strange snake tracks lead to the beach and into the sea. But we find nothing else. Back on the trail, we meet an exhausted Rosie Cusswell, minus her fiddle but with mosquitoes up her cunt instead. She tells us Plugg wants to kill us because he doesn’t trust us. So we decide to search for the missing two first and take the quickest route along the beach, past the fields, through the jungle, up onto the rocks, and finally to the hole, which we investigate. When even loud shouting gets no response, I toss a pebble into the hole. A few small creatures promptly swim at full speed from the sea, through a tunnel, and into the pool in the hole. A watery goblin head surfaces. Surprisingly, VanZan speaks its language and asks it about the missing pair. Its answer: “Come and get ’em!” We do just that, so we rappel down into the hole. VanZan prefers the elegant option and expertly dives into the water from 80 feet up. Gush makes the acquaintance of the rock wall on his way down and lands hard in the waves. An underwater entrance leads into a half-flooded network of tunnels. Luckily, we’ve arrived right at low tide and can walk on solid ground in places. The sea goblins turn out to be Squitgoblins. One challenges me to a duel, but it’s no fair fight, and I end up trapped in tangled seaweed. They also keep sweeping our feet out from under us with their tentacle legs. We chase them through the tunnels. Even a devilfish can’t stop us: after it first forces me out of the water, Tantakatan heroically wrestles it down and strangles it with its own tentacles. We reach a cavern where a whirlpool drags anything that can’t swim well underwater. Sandara and Conchobar are being held captive here, hanging from the ceiling. On the grindylow queen’s orders, Conchobar’s ropes are cut, and the weights on his legs drag him into the depths even faster. A huge fish beast, the queen’s son, tries to swallow Tan and me in its enormous maw. Though the devilfish has already taken its toll on us, we throw ourselves into the whirlpool with the last of our strength, kill the beast, and rescue Conchobar from the cavern floor. In the process, Rosie saved my life when I was already in the monster’s maw, Tan wrestled with the queen so my daggers could strike true between her gills, and only Sennabar’s gift kept VanZan on his feet. Exhausted, we climb the shaft wall and lie down to rest right there on the slope.