Mission: The Northern Wood IV: The boat episode

The party decided to fiddle with the memory magics of the bell, and embarked on the last journey taken by the ship they stole it from. Taking on the persona of the pirates that once crewed the ship, they pillaged a small settlement, got yelled at by their admiral, and ultimately outplayed a small fleet of sahuguin thanks to their nimble navigating.

## The Northern Wood IV: The boat episode (by Rheinhart)

Dauntless Darut (a former “space marine”), Dandy Dando (with a newfound love of pirates and rings), Captain Chappy (sir, yes sir!), Helmsman Darwin (“autopilot”?), and I (the cannoneer) met around that magical memory bell we scavenged from that “holy shipwreck”(?) the cannibals said was their first to crashland here in the Lost World. We were going to attempt a deep dive into the memories of that bell to hopefully gain a better understanding of those strange people so that we might be able to bring peace between us.

The feeling of diving into that Memory Bell is hard to explain. We weren’t passive observers watching a play, but more like jumping into various actor’s roles of said play, complete with script, yet were free to do and say as we pleased most times. At some points where we were acting totally out of character for the role we had jumped into, there was some kind of resistance in order to better guide you towards the outcome of the memories… but you could override that and do as you pleased. It's a strange form of recall, but I intend to delve more into those mysteries as maybe I can apply them to my own barren wasteland and resurrect some measure of what I was before all this. Research for another time.

Chappy found himself playing the role of captain of the Sunfish ship to which the bell had belonged. Darut, Dando and I became one of the many pirate crewmates, and Darut ended up as helmsman. We relived the last voyage of the Sunfish before it wound up on a beach here in the Lost World.  That ghoul we’ve met in every prior mission to the Northern Woods turned out to be their admiral in the mostly water covered world. He even had a parrot that he could speak through, it was amazing!  I wonder if I could make Niko do that, too?

After a dressing down, we headed to a small settlement that made gunpowder in order to acquire more tithing / tax from them. They resisted and we ended up smashing through their defenses and raiding the town for supplies.  It was at this point, when my brutish pirate self was going door to door prying barrels of gunpowder from weeping citizens that I attempted to resist my part in the play thanks so some of the more comely maidens whose weeps reminded me deep down of something from my own forgotten past and at least from those residences, I skipped over the powderkeg tax. It is this resistance I speak of when I say that while our roles have a script, we do not necessarily need to follow them to the letter.

From the gunpowder settlement, we headed northward towards where the seer said a new tree will sprout above the waterline. Along the way, we encountered a shallow basin where we could not only see the bottom, but also see three recent shipwrecks lying down there. Being curious, we investigated them all, finding various links to their past as well as portents for what we may face heading further north. Darwin even found a magic cannonball! I took the spyglass I had found down there and proceeded to the crows nest to keep watch for whatever fate had in store for us. I think that, too, may have been outside of the script, for our outcome fared much better than those whose memories we were reenacting.

A storm started to blow as we neared the tree. It was being captured by a bunch of vessels bearing no flags, a megalodon, and a strange whirlpool. All of which I climbed down and related to Darwin using a bit of magic to give him an accurate view of what lay ahead. It turns out he’s one hell of a helmsman and that extra edge of knowing precisely where all the hazards lie helped his strategy immensely (or so I tell myself). Our vessel was assaulted regularly by those nasty fishmen (sahuguin) which we had trouble repulsing occasionally as one of their number cast spells which either heavily wounded us or froze us in place. Near the end of the battle, as we swung around between the tree and the whirlpool, a ginormous kraken appeared from the whirlpool and screamed into our minds, “I SHALL END YOU!”.

Darwin remembered the magic cannonball and proceeded to end the kraken with it, after which we all awoke with the distinct impression that was definitely not how that battle actually ended. Another example of how this memory magic is quite interesting and quite different from a mere play where your role as audience is merely to sit back and enjoy the presentation. I found that one of the more severe wounds I received while in that Memory Bell displayed a faint discoloration on my bicep as if it were a real scar from a claw wound healed long ago. It gives me pause wondering what would happen if one were to be dealt a fatal blow while reliving such memories.