Tales of Fantasy & Wonder Vol. 1

VI - Ghost in the Night

Ghost in the night

Game VI                                                                          September 27th, 2017

By dawn Xammy has identified the golden bust as the portrait of a legendary figure from the history of his own order. The belief that it is none other than 'Indran' (a knight who joined with other men under Tir centuries ago) comes from a hidden inscription in the folds of the cast beard, that is more readily seen in the sunlight.

Breaking camp some time later, the pair of adventurers leave the observation of the sailor's camp, returning south along the edge of the forest and mountains to the ruins. Their plan is to examine the timber foundation preserved in the sandy beaches along the causeway as possible ship building material.

* * *

Jerac, making his way south also with the company of the sailor Pinky, recognizes Theo's hawk as it glides over the distant forest. The half orc surmises that the ranger and mage will not be far from the bird, so he changes direction and moves toward the tree ferns and emerald wilds of the islands interior. Pinky, exhausted from low rations and age, agrees to wait for Jerac when he returns from 'game hunting' (his ruse to explore) near the western beach.

Xammy, Theo and Jerac eventually cross paths in the shade of cycads and bracken, initially mistaking the half orc's approach for another raptor (prints in the nearby area). Catching up on information about each others' progress since leaving the ruins nights before, Theo reveals that the new baggage slung over his back is a fortune in gold.

Jerac explains that he will have to return to the sailor's camp soon, and will make an attempt later under the cover of night to meet them again in or near the south ruins.

* * *

By late afternoon Theo has lead Xammy back to the ridge line before the ruins, pausing to track the movement of prints around the swampy grounds in the gullies. Their direction is odd in behaviour to the ranger, but he can identify the wide webbed toes of the toadlings based in the citadel, and the larger bird like fork of raptors edging out from the forest. Passing showers eventually erode the fresher tracks as they move onward.

Xammy comes again to the remains of the temple and mysterious writing, while Theo continues sweeping the area for signs of recent life. By nightfall they have established camp in the citadel, perched on the bluff over the ancient village and southern seas. The opening leading to the dungeons below had been sealed again with the rubble, with more tracks from the toads below seen in the fading light of day.

Taking the watch, Theo patiently whiled away the hours as the magician's apprentice slept. Xammy dreamed of flotsam realms until the pale dead face of Hocklen calls out to him through the chasms of a nightmare. Hocklen pleads for Xammy to join them, to return to the ruins of Karnath without explanation for the urgency of it all. The ghost grasps his arms, to which they extend out in rubbery fashion as his body refuses to leave the ground it sleeps on.

Snapping awake with cold sweat, Xammy greets the silhouette of the ranger who had come to watch him with growing alarm until his return. Unsure himself of what he had encountered, Xammy agrees to take the next watch. Still disturbed by Xammy's strange emotions, Theo rests on his side but remains vigilant.

Some time later a faded figure stalks out from the gateway of the citadel ruins, moving silently toward Xammy, black lips moving in some strange voiceless incantation. Caught between the primal extremes of flight or attack, Xammy freezes as the spectre grabs him by the ankle and upends him from the floor. Unconscious from the terror, he can only recall something cold reaching into his brain and removing a memory.

Theo rolled out from his camping blankets, scimitar ready as he observes the upside wizard in the grip of the fiend. A testing slash proves it had arrived from some preternatural world, the steel whipping through nought but air. Xammy collapses back to the earthen floor as the phantom passes back into the shadows.

Waking his travelling companion, the ranger wonders at the aged lines of his face, some foul magic that had taken the last boyish years from the young wizard. Xammy gathers his wits and arranges a circle of protection, made from stone and rubble around them, to which he would remain for the remainder of the dark hours before dawn.

* * *

The following day the pair moved out along the causeway to the southern waters around the island. The exposed foundations of some wooden edifice are nearby the beach, and Xammy agrees the timber would be seaworthy. Returning back along the broken pavement to the village bellow the ruins, the quarries standout from the shadows of the noon sun, and with closer footfall Xammy notices a curious sign high up in the steep rock.

The closest quarry's back wall once had an opening higher up, which had been sealed and dressed to hide in the rough chiselled workings. Theo is reminded of a similar sight he encountered back under the citadel, surmising they are related somehow.

The adventures had originally agreed with Jerac to remain near the ruins, but with troubled visions from the night before, Xammy urges them to move away from the site, exploring the east coast of the isle and possibly re encountering his find of the half merged sea caves in the northern cliffs.

Tracing their way east and then north, the land appears to them as eroded low cliffs and boulders which had fallen into the waters, making for slow progress over the tumbled terrain. Before nightfall, Theo sends his hunting hawk ahead to find any game above them along the grass fringe of the cliffs, but the wild hares were too cunning that day.

The landscape rises slowly, and in the twilight they came to stand in amongst the higher ground and survey the main features of the island to orient themselves, the main southern mountain against the stars and the stratified bluffs and weathered basalt in staggered layers of the northern cliffs. Certain that the sea caves will be in the vicinity, Xammy suggested that they make camp.

Collecting palm sized rocks around the fractured hills, the wizard makes another circle for protection, as Theo prepares a smokeless fire, settling in for another lost night on Fern Island.