Chapter 3 - Session 6

Westward Through the Maelstrom and Onto Spider Island

Events and Actions

Before departing Newport, the party overheard two locals, Bill and Ted, gossiping in the same tavern where Steel Hand was cared for. The pair traded rumors about giant beasts said to inhabit the western seas, including giant serpents, though they had no real details to offer beyond the sense that few who sailed west ever returned to confirm such tales. The party also revisited writings recovered earlier from Oldport referencing a "Maelstrom" to the west, and debated whether to sail north around it before deciding to press directly west instead. They likewise considered acquiring warmer clothing in case their route pushed them further north, but ultimately chose not to alter their loadout, and set sail from Newport aboard the "Amada," captained by Otto "Cut Close" De Guzman.

After several uneventful weeks at sea, Noddy sighted an unidentified vessel—a three-masted, two-decked ship with numerous cannons, flying an unfamiliar flag bearing a sun and moon motif that none of the party recognized as either Northern or Southern Navy colors—emerging briefly from a fog bank to their south before disappearing back into it. The party decided to pursue, maneuvering along the edge of the fog. When the ship came into view again still holding a westward course, the "Amada" slipped into the fog to follow, with De Guzman deducing the other vessel's bearing by feel and experience. De Guzman repeatedly boasted that no ship could outrun the "Amada," prompting Riu to add the caveat "unless they control the weather"—a pointed nod to rumors of wind witches, which De Guzman dismissed even as he conceded he had once had to outrun a ship crewed by one. When the fog eventually cleared, the pursued ship was sighted some distance ahead; the "Amada" retreated back into the fog cover, and the party resolved to overtake it under cover of night rather than risk being seen. Sailing north of the target's presumed course and crowding on every scrap of sail, they pressed on at full speed—Knick Nab, watching the crew work, recognized tricks he had seen before: extending spars off the yard arms to hang out still more canvas, pushing the jib further forward, and running up an extra spinnaker, all part of what let the "Amada" carry far more sail than her size would suggest. Partway through the night, a bell heard off their port side convinced them they had successfully passed the other ship.

Continuing their westward journey, they soon encountered a vast and violent storm system, identified as the Maelstrom. They sailed directly into it, facing tremendous swells, torrential rain, thunder, and lightning so severe that a wrong move at the wrong moment could have finished them. After a brief period of calm, the storm intensified further. The crew successfully navigated these perilous waters, making five difficult sailing rolls in a row without a single failure. Upon emerging from the far side, Captain De Guzman admitted he had no real idea of their longitude, though he could still fix their latitude and confirmed they had been driven somewhat south. The party debated whether to turn north back to their prior latitude and resume the original bearing, or simply hold their current course; they settled on a compromise, having De Guzman angle the "Amada" northwest in an attempt to recover their presumed lead over the mystery ship, all while acknowledging how much guesswork was involved. The waters on the far side were noticeably and surprisingly warmer.

The "Amada" sailed on for several more weeks in featureless open ocean, with no landmarks beyond the fog, the storm, and a single albatross to mark their progress. Along the way the crew spotted whales for the first time, initially mistaken by some for enormous fish. With the total time since leaving Newport approaching five weeks, supplies grew thin: the ship's chickens had drowned in the storm and been eaten down to a bone stew, leaving the crew on biscuit and salt pork increasingly infested with weevils—made more bearable only by spices the party had thought to bring along—and the cook Batu Batu grew visibly anxious as even the captain's meals converged with the ordinary crew fare. The disciplined crew grew increasingly on edge from weeks with no knowledge of what lay ahead. Finally, keeping watch from the crow's nest, Noddy sighted land on the horizon; the cry of "land!" sent the whole crew rushing on deck in a moment of near-chaos—Mani grabbing his rifle before realizing there was nothing yet to shoot at—until De Guzman restored order and had Noddy call out a bearing to steer by.

As the "Amada" closed on the coast, it became clear the sighting was a large island rather than a mainland coast. Mindful that the mystery ship might still be no more than half a day behind them, and that these unfamiliar waters could be a busier corridor than they assumed, the party had De Guzman look for a spot that would keep the "Amada" out of sight before committing to a landing site. De Guzman proceeded cautiously, taking constant soundings to judge the depth and feel for reefs; the exceptionally clear water let the crew watch the seabed and confirm a clean sandy approach, allowing the ship to come in closer than De Guzman would otherwise have dared. Noddy then spotted a stream running down to the water from the forest, marking a likely source of fresh water, and De Guzman brought the ship in to within roughly 600 yards of shore. The party resupplied for a day ashore—backpacks, ropes, grappling hooks, a shovel, empty water skins, and a pair of torches—and, with the "Amada" carrying only two boats, took the Longboat in with two additional sailors, who would ferry it back to the ship once the beach was confirmed safe, freeing the captain to begin sending parties ashore to gather water and forage.

The landing party—all six PCs plus the two sailors—came ashore on a tropical beach unlike anything they had seen before: lush, unfamiliar vegetation, oversized leaves, and coconut-bearing trees, with no sign that anyone had ever set foot there before. Riu confirmed the nearby stream water was fresh and drinkable. Using Pocket for aerial reconnaissance and a spyglass from the boat, Noddy and Knick Nab spotted what first looked like a fishing net hung in the trees to dry; a closer look by Pocket revealed it was far too dense and organic to be net-work—it was webbing, and whatever had spun it was not sized like an ordinary spider.

On the beach, Werner De Rendal volunteered to lure out whatever was in the web by throwing a crab into it. His first throw went badly: the crab thrashed free of his grip mid-swing, flew back into his own face, and left him dazed for a moment with nothing but a single crab leg to show for it. Undeterred, he grabbed a second crab and threw it cleanly into the webbing, where it stuck and thrashed until a spider roughly the size of a human torso skittered out to investigate. Cosimo cast "Sudden Light," stunning the creature but also catching Werner in the blast and blinding him temporarily. Mani then shot the stunned spider, and the party closed in to finish it off, though the surrounding webbing proved so strong that it had to be cut and pulled apart by hand rather than sliced through cleanly. Nobody in the party carried the specific lore needed to say whether the spider was venomous, so they treated it with caution regardless. Knick Nab, the "Amada's" rigger, recognized at once that the webbing—roughly a tenth the weight of ordinary hemp rope for its strength—could be immensely valuable if harvested and worked into cordage, tempering the party's joking about becoming "spider ranchers" into a genuine plan to gather more once the beach was secure.

Pocket, sent up for aerial reconnaissance, reported that the island was substantial, with dense jungle, inland hills rising toward mountains, and, far to the southwest, a colossal, wall-like structure too distant and hazy to identify further—its unnaturally straight line echoing the strange line the party had puzzled over on their old map fragment, though whether it was a natural formation or something built remained unclear.

The landing party sent the Longboat back to the "Amada" with the dead spider as a warning and orders for the crew to begin gathering fresh water and foraging cautiously, keeping at least two riflemen with the foraging parties. The PCs then organized themselves—Knick Nab and Werner screening ahead to watch for tracks, Mani armed and ready with Riu reloading for him, Cosimo and Noddy toward the rear—and pushed into the jungle to scout, counting paces and notching trees every fifty steps to blaze and track their trail. Along the way they found and sketched coconut trees and spotted a few monkeys, neither of which any of the party had encountered before. They soon encountered more webbing, growing steadily more frequent as they advanced southwest toward the distant hill Noddy and Pocket had marked as a landmark. Werner tested one isolated section by setting it alight; the green webbing resisted burning at first but caught where it had dried, and the small fire was enough to flush two more large spiders, similar in size to the first, which fled rather than attack.

Pressing deeper into an area thick with pervasive webbing, the party was ambushed by several "huge" spiders and one even larger "giant" spider bursting out from all sides at once. A fierce battle ensued: Riu switched from his rifle to his more reliable pistol and delivered a killing shot to one of the huge spiders, Werner repeatedly hit and pinned another with thrown javelins without finishing it off, and Knick Nab knocked one down and staggered it with a solid kick before staggering a second with a follow-up flurry of blows. Cosimo, despite being hit and wounded, kept casting a ranged force-fist spell that struck two more of the spiders, stunning one with a solid hit to the leg, while Noddy fended one off with his club before landing a solid blow on it with his burning torch. Both Cosimo and Mani sustained injuries during the fight, Cosimo taking a serious arm wound. The appearance of a massive "great big [ __ ] spider," presumably the mother of the smaller ones, caused the remaining attackers to retreat and flee back into the jungle rather than press the fight; as they fled, Mani gave chase after one, hoping to rope and hog-tie it, but it escaped into the trees. As the fight ended, Mani felt a strong, dangerous presence somewhere on the island—a sensation he recognized from once before, near the observation post atop Blackstone Peak on Totem Isle.

NPCs & Creatures

• Captain Otto "Cut Close" De Guzman
• Batu Batu (cook of the "Amada," increasingly anxious as food stores dwindled)
• Crew of the "Amada" (two sailors accompanied the landing party)
• Bill and Ted (gossips in Newport who mentioned giant beasts and giant serpents)
• Steel Hand (recovering sailor cared for in the Newport tavern where Bill and Ted were overheard)
• Pocket (Noddy's seagull familiar)
• Whales (sighted during the crossing, initially mistaken for giant fish)
• Large Spiders (torso-sized)
• Huge Spiders (larger than the first type encountered)
• Giant Spider / Great Big [ __ ] Spider (exceptionally large, appeared at the end of the jungle encounter)
• Crabs (on the beach)
• Monkeys (observed in the jungle)

Locations

• The "Amada" (cutter ship)
• The open sea, west of the Channel Islands
• The Maelstrom (a violent, extensive storm system)
• Unnamed large tropical island:
  • Beach with a freshwater stream and coconut trees.
  • Dense jungle interior, heavily infested with giant spider webs.
  • Distant, massive wall-like barrier observed far inland (southwest).

Conflicts

• Successfully navigated the perilous Maelstrom.
• First Spider Encounter (Beach):
  • Werner De Rendal's first attempt to throw a crab into the web went awry, dazing him briefly; his second throw succeeded in luring out a large spider.
  • Cosimo's "Sudden Light" spell stunned the spider but also temporarily blinded Werner De Rendal.
  • The spider was killed by the party.
• Jungle Ambush (Multiple Spiders):
  • The party was attacked by several "huge" spiders and one "giant" spider.
  • Mani was bitten by a huge spider, taking 7 damage that his armor mostly absorbed.
  • Cosimo was hit by a huge spider, sustaining 24 damage, a "B Crush" critical (arm injury), and was stunned for one round and staggered.
  • Knick Nab, fighting with two weapons, knocked down and staggered one huge spider with a kick, then staggered a second with a follow-up flurry of blows.
  • Cosimo, despite his wound, kept casting a ranged force-fist spell, striking two different huge spiders and stunning one with a solid hit to the leg.
  • Noddy defended against a smaller spider with his club before landing a solid blow on it with his burning torch.
  • Werner De Rendal repeatedly hit and pinned a spider with thrown javelins but did not finish it off; he recovered all three javelins once the fight ended.
  • Riu switched from his rifle to his pistol, his better-trained weapon, and delivered a killing shot to one of the huge spiders.
  • The remaining attacking spiders retreated upon the appearance of a much larger "great big [ __ ] spider"; as they fled, Mani gave chase after one, hoping to rope and hog-tie it, but it escaped into the jungle.

Learnings and Discussions

• The party confirmed the existence of the Maelstrom and successfully navigated it.
• The lands to the west are significantly warmer and possess unfamiliar flora (e.g., coconuts) and fauna (e.g., monkeys, whales, giant spiders of various sizes).
• The discovered island has fresh water sources.
• Giant spider webbing is exceptionally strong and lightweight—roughly a tenth the weight of hemp rope for its strength—and recognized by Knick Nab as a valuable potential resource for rope.
• The island's giant spiders appear wary of fire and smoke: burning an isolated section of web flushed two large spiders, which fled rather than attack.
• A colossal, unusually straight-lined wall or barrier—possibly natural, possibly built—exists far inland to the southwest, echoing a straight line previously noted on an old map fragment.
• As the jungle spider ambush ended, Mani sensed a "powerful and dangerous presence" somewhere on the island—a feeling he recognized from once before, near the observation post atop Blackstone Peak on Totem Isle. He told the party he could "feel something over there," to be discussed further next session.
• Riu raised the possibility that the mystery ship they pursued was aided by a "wind witch" capable of controlling weather, which would explain both its speed and its apparent indifference to the Maelstrom.
• The party recalled rumors circulating about westward voyages: many ships never return at all, but among those that do, tales include riches, Islander slaves, and even plague brought back by survivors. Lately it has been southern ships rather than northern ones that return successfully, feeding suspicion that the South holds some advantage—possibly wind witches—that the North lacks.
• Captain De Guzman remains confident in the "Amada's" speed and capabilities, even as the crew's food stores dwindle.
• The party discussed the need for resupply (water and food) and the dangers of the island.
• The party learned that Navy custom counts a man ashore for 28 days as absent—a marker they kept in mind as they pushed further inland from the boats.
• Initial scouting tactics involved using Pocket for aerial views and cautiously exploring the jungle, with Knick Nab and Werner screening ahead for tracks and Mani providing firepower.

Items Gained

• Knowledge of coconuts as a food/water source; some coconuts collected.
• Samples of super-strong spider webbing.
• One dead large spider (corpse sent to the "Amada").
• One dead huge spider (killed during the jungle ambush).

Items Lost

• Ammunition for firearms (musket, pistol).
• Cosimo's spell-casting resources (power points).