Storm Island Expedition

Journey Inland

In the time it took for me to fully recover from that fight, all of the others who had agreed to explore the Isle arrived, one way or another.
Out of the twenty who had set out, eighteen of us arrived safely. One drowned when her ship crashed upon the reefs.  We could only identify her body because of the journal.
The other poor fool was barely on the island a day when he decided to sample some mushrooms. Many of the locals warned him not to eat them, but after one bite, he died almost instantly.   All of the others were keen to make a note in their journals what that specific species of mushroom looked like, and to list it as toxic or 'inedible'.
I shared my initial findings with the rest.
Thomas, one of the other explorers, passed around a crude map of the Isle with the known features.

The southernmost tip we were now more than familiar with: The port, some grasslands, the hills.  The beaches I trekked across the southern reaches of the western edge.
Much of the rest of the southern third of the Isle was covered in a mix of swamps or marshes, and a few patches that barely passed off as plains or forest.   The area was bisected by a long winding river, almost following the same path as the river Elid.
The central eastern area was dominated by a hilly area.
The northwest was a mix of mountains, with a band of dense forest along the western edge, buffering the mountains from the western swamps.
Most of the rest of the north was nothing but light to dense forest before reaching a belt of plains then another swamp at the northern most edge.

Ship navigators made a very detailed map of the barrier reefs.  They formed a near continuous band around the island, only leaving a gap to the south.  A few sandy shoals, sandbars, and islets dotted around the reef, but as I was told before, none were very big.   At most a person could only take a few paces to cover the whole length.

There was discussion of how best for us to split up.
Sienna had already decided to head alone, following the River to the mountains.
One trio opted to explore the western swamps, mostly sticking to the central region.
Thomas wanted to get a ... better look ... at the nearby hills and mine before exploring the western coast.   From what I could tell, he seemed a little too timid for this kind of exploration.
One pair intended to work the hill region.
Another duo, a pair of mages, opted to explore the easternmost coast and swamp.
I agreed to search the western edge of that same swamp.
The other eight decided they would just work their way to the north, then fan out.

Since it was nightfall by the time we had worked this out, we all decided to wait until morning before leaving.
The following morning, we got a small but friendly goodbye breakfast from the locals in the port.  A few, like me, who had made some friends were given some extra rations to keep us fed.

At the hills, Thomas was the first to break off for his exploring.  The rest of us traveled together for a few more miles until we reached the southernmost bank of the river.
We were all surprised how quickly it flowed.   Sienna took a sip of water and noted that it was fresh, or at least it was this far south.   At least we knew of one good fresh water source.
The rest broke off and started on their journeys north or west.   Myself and the two mages were a little stuck at the edge of the river.  As far as we could see, there were no bridges.   One mage poked his staff into the water; he had reached the tip of the elemental orb without touching the bottom.  The currents were moving too quickly to try to swim across either.  Worse, there were no trees in sight to fashion a canoe.  The river was far too wide anyways to try the old trick of knocking over a tree to make a bridge or try to lasso our way across.

One mage finally chimed in, "The last trees I saw were nearly a mile back."
"Ugh, we're going to lose hours carting those here to make a boat."   Whined the other mage.
"Then shut up and let's get moving.  The sooner we chop down the trees, the sooner we get across" was all I could think.
Twenty minutes to backtrack, find a suitable tree, and another ten to chop it down.   It took the three of us almost two hours to drag it to the river, and another hour to shape it so three of us could fit on it.
When we got it into the water, and another ten minutes of hard paddling, we made it to the other side. The currents were stronger than we realized and we were half a mile down river from where we started.  Where we landed was fairly close to the edge of the eastern swamps.
Despite being winded from the paddling, the two mages quickly gathered up their things and bid me farewell.  Then eagerly bounded off into the swamps.
On my own, I dragged the canoe safely up the shore and rested it up higher up on the bank.  Then I gathered my own things, took a deep breath, then headed north-northwest into the swamps on my own.