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Thu 23rd Jun 2022 02:37

The Ship in a Bottle Episode

by Avon Ilisalor

Ever feel like you were all set to just get on a cruise to be shipped off to an island of debauchery and fun, then realize you are on the keel of a boat bobbing next to a destroyed island with possible sharks in the water? I do. Due to that eerily specific analogy, we spent some time trying to flip a boat, Vespi almost drowned because she is a hoarder and the boys are now super bro-ey. Antwan did succeed with everyone's help to flip the boat. On the boat, we found a large number of corpses and dead livestock. 3 more dead to the Kracow's wishes. We also found a couple of barrels of water, gunpowder, a brined liquid (later discovered to be tar) and a box of grain.
At this point the party decided to all try to figure out ways to help the ship with Percy doing the most by plugging the hole and then with the help of Vespi/Aeldred emptying the hold of water. At this point I was valiantly keeping watch and Antwan decided to install a modern art piece on the main deck. Hanging a sheep from the mast then covering it in tar (except a single hoof).
My keeping watch immediately paid off as we saw 6 dwarves who were adrift at sea. We pulled them up to the boat where they were immediately thankful that we saved their lives. That changed dramatically after they saw the sheep covered in tar hanging from the beams. It turned quickly to hostility as Antwan turned the art piece into an interactive piece by tearing the sheep to pieces and tossing blood everywhere while intimidating the starved and emaciated dwarves to declare him the owner of the boat. This meant that I, the respectable bard, tried to smooth over the cracks in our fractious relationship. After finally getting it all smoothed over, Antwan immediately challenged the half starved/half dead dwarf to a duel. This soured the relationship again but was cut short.
The dwarf did mention some interesting things though, stating the island had been erupting for 6 months instead of the 1 day we thought it had.
At this point our exhaustion got the better of us and we attempted to sleep. Thus the fever dream began.
The dwarves disappeared, the ship changed to a different ship and even the night sky shifted. We appear to be traveling through time and space. This at least gives us the benefit that all those that Antwan has pissed off are either already in the past/future or dead. Silver linings.
Notes of what we learned: Any action we took on the previous ship happened to this ship, with the exception of the bodies and dwarves, the tarred sheep and the fed dwarves were gone but the food they ate returned. Also the boat is totally different but had the materials we previously had. Also there was a scroll with two initials on it Y.E.
 
We discussed this for a couple of hours then thought "what if the boat disappears when this happens again?" Because of this and the fear of missing any island we just aimed for the mainland.
We learned we are bad at boating. We also shared some things about ourselves: My hope of finding a magical relic that could control the passage of souls/spirits to move to different planes, Aeldred that if he had to pick between his Order and us he would dread to think of what he would do *cough* murder us all *cough*.
 
After learning that, we actually got to land but not without some bruised ribs and a punctured lung.
 
We have arrived at Nicodranus aka the Lost City aka the Escape aka The Gathering of Colours aka the City of too many god damn names.
We went to a quiet quay and decided to go ashore and try to sell the boat. We brought the classic rich kid combo with bodyguard: Vespi, Antwan and I. We left behind the naked man and the homicidal minotaur.
Upon reaching shore we noticed that all the usual trappings of the dock appear to have been washed away leaving trash and jetsam. Talking about trash and jetsam, Ignatius and Amos were on the dock. The two decided to not help us or take us with them when they previously left but just appeared now, no worse for wear. They better have something good.
P.S. The ship's name is the Parakeet
P.S.S. Yusa Errenous is from this city. Proprietor of the Open Key she used to be an artifact/relic dealer that we had contact with. Maybe someone useful to connect to. Also Y.E. from the scroll means this boat might have a connection to them.