Bahanen Islands Part 7
- Zachariah Kenney
- Oct 21, 2023
- 7 min read
Bahanen Islands #7
Format: Sandbox and maze crawl
Theme: Patience
Author: Player 2
Adventure Master: Player 2 (“Edward”), leading his 7th mission.
Session 1
Date in Real Life: Thursday, 18 May, 2023
In Game Day: Khamesh, the 17th of Owol (early summer)
Player Characters:
Starflower the Lion Warrior with Regulus the Lion, on her 29th mission.
William the Bear Knight with Bill the Bear, on his 32nd mission.
Philip the Overlord’s Guard, on his 30th mission.
Hector the Renewer, on his 18th mission.
The team was dispatched back to the Bahanen Islands. A reconnaissance team had recently returned with intel on the geography of the northern islands. Due to Order 66, the Guardians ordered the Raid Team to go to the northern islands and identify the types of fish in the water, in hopes of maybe restocking the supply. The team was issued a boat for this purpose.
The team took the new boat through the passage lakes and emerged from the Hollow Tree in the Bahanen Islands once again. They took the boat to the water and started rowing north. They spotted the pirate ship, but managed to avoid it. As they approached the first island, they saw the pirate ship to the east, and a Sea Serpent to the west, so they landed on the shore and hid from view. While on the island, they encountered Ronin again. Philip sparred a bit with the creature, then backed off. The team preached truth to the Ronin and reminded him of who he was. The strange metal fell off, and the hobbit was back to himself again. Hector returned his hobbit sword to him. Hector kept one of the Ronin swords, and Philip took the other one.
The hobbit joined the team, and they got back into the boat and sailed to the next island. Hector perceived deadly currents on either side of the island, so they made landfall. The island was a swampy maze, and the team wandered around for awhile, finding several dead ends as they pushed further north. They eventually emerged from the swamp and made their way to Lord Bahanen’s castle, where they were supposed to fish.
Near the castle, they met a talking rat that informed them there was a captured Lightraider in the castle! The team quickly debated their options, and decided to try fishing first, as they might not get a chance later. They went to the shore and identified several species of fish.
As they were turning to go, a vampire appeared, along with four banshees!
“Regulus, you’re with me!” Hector called out, charging forward with his war hammer. Starflower was with William, Bill and Bilbo near two other banshees. Philip, on horseback with his lance, charged the vampire. After a pass, he was injured and whirled to help Hector and Regulus. Once the banshees were dealt with, the team surrounded the vampire. They inflicted heavy damage, and the vampire disappeared. The team used the clear mist WordRune to learn that the vampire had used magic to teleport back to his castle, where he was gasping for breath.
Session 2
Date in Real Life: Saturday, 20 May, 2023
In Game Day: Khamesh, the 17th of Owol (early summer)
The team ran towards the castle. At the front gate, there was a welcome mat and a sign asking visitors to wipe their feet. As they stepped inside, the front foyer was immaculate. Starflower felt bad for not trying very hard to wipe her feet, and went back out to wipe them again. William removed his boots and put them on a rack, and then hung up his cloak on the coat rack.
“What are you doing?” Hector hollered. “We have to stop the vampire before he is restored!” Hector charged down the hall, with Philip close behind him. They eventually found a staircase and dashed upstairs.
At Hector’s urging, Philip burst through a door, only to get six daggers thrown at him simultaneously. Philip gave out a battle cry and charged in, Hector just behind him. The vampire jumped out of his coffin and prepared to meet them. Philip and Hector flanked the vampire warily. The vampire attempted Mind Speech.
After you die, you will be reincarnated.
Not according to Revelation 20, Hector thought back, Those who aren’t written in the book of life will be thrown into the lake of fire, not sent back to earth.
Hector swung with his war hammer, the vampire dodged while slashing back, but it was sufficiently distracted that Philip hit it just as Regulus rushed into the room, pouncing on the vampire. Between the three of them, the vampire was defeated.
They caught their breath, and counselled Bilbo, who had fallen under the spell of the Mind Speech. They also counselled Starflower and William from the vampire’s overly clean sin enchantment.
Starflower found some books in the vampire’s nightstand. “Journals of a sorcerer. It’s really old, too. I wonder if the vampire used to be a sorcerer.”
“We can take it with us and examine it back at Ras Telesar,” Hector suggested. “But these spell books won’t be going anywhere,” Hector drew his sword and slashed clumsily at the books, ruining them. “Hmm... blades. Useful,” Hector murmured as he replaced his sword.
The team made their way to the basement. They found a set of keys, and found a jail cell. A lightraider named Maria was there.
“How long have you been here?” Hector asked.
“A couple of days. I was with the reconnaissance team.”
“Funny, no one said the team was missing any team members when they came back,” William remarked.
Maria tilted her head in confusion. “What do you mean? We didn’t make it back. We were all captured. The others are being held elsewhere.”
Hector paused and glanced at Starflower. “Guys, we need to get back to Ras Telesar as soon as possible.”
“Why?” William asked.
“We might have shape shifters posing as Light Raiders in the Liberated Lands.”
Maria found her gear, and the team rushed back outside. They saw a fisherman walking along. He made comments about going to catch fish to sell and make money.
“Hey, mister, if you come with us, we’ll show you how to be a fisher of men!” Hector called out. This caught the man’s attention. Hector shared the Great Rescue with the fisherman, and he accepted.
“Alright!” everyone was jubilant at the new Keledan. Bilbo drew his sword and held it high in the air in victory.
“Oh, no,” Philip said. The group went quiet. The blade of the hobbit’s sword was glowing blue.
“I sense evil,” Hector confirmed.
They could see ten orcs or so advancing towards them out of the swamp. A glance behind them saw two small boats landing on the shore, also full of orcs.
“Weapons,” Philip said, climbing back onto Johny’s saddle and pulling out his lance. The team readied themselves. The fisherman had a cheap sword that he pulled out. Maria readied her bow. Hector drew his sling.
“This isn’t going to be easy,” Regulus muttered.
“Wait!” Hector said, just before Philip charged. “Let’s do the ‘No Sweat’ Teamrune.”
Everyone joined in, “Romans 8:31, What, then, are we to say about these things? If God is for us, who is against us? Romans 8:31.”
A look of terror and uncertainty crossed the faces of the advancing orcs.
“YYAAHH!” Philip yelled, charging in with his horse. Regulus, Starflower, Bill and William also ran forward. The orcs ran at them in response.
“Concentrate fire on that ugly one just to the right of Philip,” Hector said, whirling his sling.
“Got it,” Maria said, drawing her bowstring. “And they’re all ugly,” she added as she let an arrow fly.
Philip went for the biggest orc he could see and speared it through. He quickly found himself surrounded, and was thankful for his armour. An orc to the right of him got hit with an arrow and a sling stone, and turned its attention away from Philip. Philip drew his lips in determination. He whirled his horse around to his left and skewered another orc on his lance.
Bill the bear mauled a large orc, who seemed to be in charge.
“They’re coming!” Bilbo cried out, watching the shore behind them.
One by one, the orcs in front of them fell.
An arrow from the shore came in, landing about ten feet behind them.
“Time to go!” Hector yelled. They charged forward, destroying the last of the orcs, and ran into the swamp. Bill had one more arrow shot at him, but then the team managed to lose the orcs in the swamp.
Session 3
Date in Real Life: Friday, 26 May, 2023
In Game Day: Khamesh, the 17th of Owol (early summer)
The team arrived exhausted at the southern shore of the island. They took some time to eat quickly, then loaded up in the boats (the fisherman had a small boat; Philip joined him).
The team rowed out to sea. As they passed another island, they were attacked by orcs. Several orcs were sailing above them in hang-gliders, and orcs on the shore fired catapults at them. The large boat capsized, but they managed to climb back into the boat. The Master of All WordRune came in handy in dropping the orcs from the hang-gliders. Hector and Starflower worked together to fire flaming arrows at the catapults. Eventually, the team got away from this danger.
The team came to the island with the hollow tree. As they made landfall, Lord Bahanen the Sea Serpent surfaced just off shore and attacked them with Mind Speech. He used fire and his breath weapon, along with more Mind Speech as the team sprinted to the hollow tree. They all eventually made it through.
Back at Ras Telesar, the team made their way back to the fortress in the middle of the night. The fisherman stayed with the boats at the Passage Lakes. They found the fake reconnaissance team in the Great Hall, along with one of the Masters and Edward.
“Hey! You’re not me, I’m me!” Maria yelled at a doppelganger as the team ran into the room.
“Edward, get away from them, they’re shape shifters!” Hector hollered.
Edward glanced at the shape shifters, then drew his swords. But instead of taking up position against the fakes, he advanced with them.
“I sense evil from all of them,” Hector said out loud. “That’s not the real Edward. Nor is that our master.”
“Charge!” Philip yelled, galloping on his horse through the foyer. Regulus and Bill ran forward. Maria and Hector coordinated their attacks with bow and sling.
Within a few minutes, it was all over. They performed a quick search. The real master was dead, murdered in his chambers. They rushed to Edward’s room and found signs of a struggle. The window was open. The real Edward was laying on the ground outside, groaning. Hector rushed to him and patched him up as best he could.
It was the middle of the night, and the team was exhausted. They stumbled off to their rooms, satisfied the mission was complete.
The next morning, cadets were coming home from a field training exercise in the woods, and started calling out in dismay at the dead bodies in the foyer.
“Did we forget to clean that up?” Hector mumbled to William as the voices called out.
“Wait! We can explain!” Philip rushed out.
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