Session IX
Real date: July 26/07
Game date: 7^th night of the center rule, night of pride, state of Delirium, 127^th year of factol Haskor’s reign.

We couldn’t get the door beyond the portal in the Armoire open. Feeling around made us think that it was barred from the other side, but a knife slipped between the doors encountered a wooden lip. The bottom edge was stone and the stink of the sewer was impressive. We blockaded the door by putting a broom through the handles and moving the desk in front of the doors. We also took all the towels out of the armoire.

Ekikos took one of the towels to wrap the conch shell in. We took turns descending through the portal in the chest; where we learned that, once the portal closes, the net stretches and is drawn back into the chest.

The beach was in near total darkness when we arrive. Armored spiders walked sideways along the beach. They were the size of rats and had pincer-claws before their armored bodies. Ekikos tastes the water and found it salty. Strange sounds are coming from the trees behind us, and the horizon goes on for ever.

Crysaeis wraps the conch shell in the towel and puts it in her backpack.

We wander around the island – it is crescent shaped, and we think it’s the island on Captain Nabod’s map. The shadows further down on the beach are small ships – made from hollowed out trees. We follow the beach and admire the stars overhead. Pin-points of light that are too faint to light one’s way, spilled out on the black above like tiny bits of glass reflecting a light we cannot see. There are no visible moons but the horizon is incredible.

On the opposite side of the island we spot a bonfire. There people are dancing and crashing into the waves. They are armed with spears that Ekikos calls tridents. More people are sitting in the lee of a ship (at least twice as big as the previous ones we saw). Around the fire stand four women and two drummers. All but one of the drummers is dark-skinned and the size of a human child. One drummer is fair-skinned and seems to be an older human male.

We sneak up to see better and, eventually, a native sees us. He runs back to the rest of the natives screaming something, an alarm we figure. The natives stop dancing and the drumming stops. Then a set of dark tentacles rise out of the water and quickly take two of the natives disappear forever under the waves.

We run down the beach while two more warriors step into the waves to capture or kill the beast (what Nabod labeled the “lurker in the shadows”). The drumming stars up again before we arrive and we are all invigorated. The natives net the creature and it takes damage as it tries to break free.

Crysaeis, Ekikos and Ludvik all damage it (I manage to hit it with a bullet, but not really damage it).

We manage to drive it off, saving one native and recovering the body of another. The warriors keep their distance from us and the folk cluster together and seem to threaten us with taunts and thrusting their tridents in our general direction.

After they depart the human male begins to drum again. Through the music we learn that his name is Kay and he knew Nabod well. He calls this place the Moon Isle. From him we learn that the bathtub opens up a portal into a cave beneath the Singing cliffs where Nabod keeps his treasure. Kay is a native of Ifenmar – a place several hundred leagues away across the waters. (A league is a distance roughly equal to a human’s average height.) He asks that if we come back, we bring tobacco and rum; he wants for nothing else but company. The natives live on a nearby island and they visit him from time to time.

We share some of his Rum then head back to the portal. Ekikos gathers armloads of leaves. Beasts shriek at us from the woods, but like the natives – they leave us in peace.

Once back home Crysaeis agrees to stay the night. I curl up in my basket and try to sleep. Crysaeis’ desire to craft (or sharpen her spear) is not condusive to sleep, however.

Ekikos takes the leaves to the temple and tells Linni (briefly) about our adventures. Then he goes home and decorates the house with the leaves. His father believes the house has Demeter’s blessing. Either that or Tlao visited.

Ludvik went to the Black sail where he drank rum and spoke to Salja. He learns that this is where Nabod bought rum for Kay. On his way out, after many drinks, he runs into a gargoyle/demon creature by the name of Shage; and to avoid a fight he goes back into the bar with Shage to drink some more. Hopefully Salja is suitably impressed.