The Colony - Turn 43 - River Rafting

Start Date: August ?+5, noonish
Start Status: What floats in water?
Start Location: Lost

Adventuring: Rennard, Jinx, Mendel, Aaron, Maarek, Xon
At the Tulip: Adrienne, Brigg, Hagan, Kessel, Smoke, Zenobe

The Turn

Aaron seems to think the party is just a few miles north of the colony now, but no one is really interested in fording the flooded swamp river. The group turns west along its banks, hoping to find a place to ford or a good location to build a raft. They travel over a mile upstream without finding many variations in the terrain – swampy ground, scrubby trees, and rushing river. Worse, the river is curving south, which, if they are where they think they are, leads toward the shadow folk who ambushed them and left a dire warning about what would happen if they return.

The group sets camp on a grassy mound that is at least slightly drier than the surrounding muck and starts working on their raft. Rennard, who has some experience as a carpenter, directs activity. Cutting trees is a slow process. The group only has a single hand ax, and they need fairly sizeable trees to build a platform big enough for six people and their gear. As night falls, they have one tree down and a few lengths of log cut and placed at the water's edge. The chief excitement of the day is the appearance of a huge water lizard in the river. The creature shows some interest in the people on the bank but drifts downstream once they retreat from the water's edge.

August ?+6, morning

The day dawns hot and cloudy, with gusting winds blowing in from the coast. Bad weather on the way. The group gets to work quickly and spends the entire day chopping down trees, trimming branches, cutting logs to length and dragging them through the muck to the shore. The rain starts at midday, but it's little more than a drizzle that adds a slick coating of moisture to everything. The ground around the hill camp is churned mud close to a foot deep, further slowing progress.

As evening arrives the party takes a look at what they've accomplished. They have most of the big structural logs cut and positioned, and Rennard has started securing them with rope. There are four 15-foot long poles and some split planks that might work as paddles. Rennard estimates there is at least another full day's work ahead to finish the raft. One worry is that the river's water level dropped a bit today. If it continues to fall, the party may find themselves with a raft they can't move.

That night, Aaron casts levitate after dark and rises above the trees, looking for lights or fires. He thinks he sees some glints of reddish light to the southwest, but the wind-tossed trees and cloudy skies make it hard to get an accurate fix on anything.

August ?+7, morning

The weather remains hot and humid, but the rain gives up overnight, leaving the party mired in mud. The day is pretty much a repeat of yesterday, with many muttered curses and a few smashed fingers and toes. Nightfall finds the exhausted party in possession of a finished (?) raft. They expend their last energy pushing it into the water to see if it actually floats. It does, but barely – green and soggy wood isn't very buoyant. They anchor it securely to a river-side stump before retiring to their camp. Aaron repeats his levitate but sees nothing much of interest.

August ?+8, morning

Gloomy, dense clouds greet the party the next morning. Clearly, there is more rain on the way, and this time it doesn't look like a minor shower. Moving quickly the party members climb aboard the raft and cast off. They start using poles to push their way across the muddy river, fending off passing debris as they go. Aaron keeps watch for any threats in the water. The current sweeps them towards the coast as they push and paddle their clumsy craft, but Rennard did a good job, and the raft holds together well. They travel about a mile downstream by the time they reach the other side and run aground on a sand bar.

The rain starts in earnest as the party abandons the raft and wades ashore. Once on firm (for some value of firm) ground, they burn off a few leeches and other unsavory water parasites. The lightened raft works free of the sand bar, drifts along the current and out of sight.

Unwilling to spend another night in the swamp, the group heads south along the coast, where the swamp gives way to sand dunes. They travel a couple sandy miles, eventually reaching a grassy plain. Maarek calls out and gestures ahead. In the distance, they can see the giant arm rising from the earth. The group heads for the landmark and spends a half hour or so examining the huge thing again. Unsurprisingly, it is magical and radiates a faint sense of evil.

Now that they know where they are, the group presses on, heading south first to get away from potential clashes with their shadowy foes, then west, toward Oakfell. It is late afternoon when they reach the forester camp, but after saying hello to the foreman, the group decides to press on. Thoughts of baths, food, and soft beds are too attractive. They continue on the road and make fairly good time despite the rain, reaching the city gates just as they're closing. The guards don't much like their looks (or smell), but Mendel shows them the letter from lady Vine and that convinces their sergeant to let them pass without further investigation. They reach the White Tulip just after dark.

End Date: August 16, night
End Status: Home
End Location: White Tulip, New Kavlin

Finally home. We'll probably have a turn of XP, loot management and planning before the next adventure begins. Here's a list of what the party recovered along the way.

• 1 packet of gold foil (gold leaf)
• 50 flat oval polished stone disks, each about an inch across of unrecognizable material (milky white and shiny)
• 1 Magical book with locked heavy duty metal cover (complex lock, the cover inscribed with stylized versions of several of the obelisk runes, center and bottom center)
• 2 gemmed goblets (gem encrusted, one w/ amethyst and one w/ garnet)
• 9 heavy gold chains w/ disk-shaped medallions, each inscribed w/ one of the runes
• 2 ornate magical steel rune daggers (each w/ nine runes along the blade w/ one larger than the rest: the top left and bottom center rune)
• 3 stone statues about 6 inches long carved from dull gray stone
• A crab-like creature with legs and claws that look like they’re made of leafy tree branches, a stubby and crude humanoid head w/ an idiot expression rising from the thing’s back
• A crude humanoid form w/ arms that split into a half-dozen tentacles and three oversized heads
• A worm-thing w/ dozens of spidery legs and canine heads at either end of its armor-plated body

And here's the revised map with the additional area included. Most of the new terrain has not been accurately mapped because the party was just trying to get home. There are many details missing.