Editing Slick billy (section)

=== Day four, ===


I woke up on what seems like a tropical beach. I’m not sure how long I have been out but I sure hope it wasn’t more than a day. With me are some pieces of a ship and five pirates. I recognize three of them as Serious, Tony and Hugh. I don’t know what the other two are called but they claimed they saved us so I guess they should be allowed to live for now. After all we don’t know what kind of dangers are around here.  

We found footprints going through some kind of spiked plant with berries that explode into a poisonous cloud when touched. The footprints look about the size of normal Halfling prints but I never saw a Halfling make these kind of prints. It looks like we have to follow the path.Who knows, maybe they have a boat, gold or some fine women. 

It wasn’t long before we came to a small clearing on the path, it was about 30 feet wide and 40 feet long. After a quick search  I found a few traps, they were simple net traps that could keep you hanging from the trees long enough for one of the inhabitants of the island to eat you.  
Just when I was getting used to this crazy place my dislike suddenly increased. I ducked a blowgun dart by an inch as it came shooting out of the thick bushes at the border of the clearing. In a flash I saw a weird creature looking back at me from the bush. It looked like a big-headed Halfling that had been buried for a while.  
While I battled with one I could hear Tony sing in some kind of strange language, while Serious just went berserk. While I went for the second ugly bugger I could hear a lion roar nearby. 

After killing four of those undead Indians a pixie appeared. His name was Brendal and he was some kind of sun of the Pixie leader. As he too was able to see me while I was invisible, this island is really starting to get on my nerves. Brendal offered us a deal, we’re to get some magical seashell and he will reward us richly. All we had to do is get the shell from some cursed pirate ship. He gave us a ring, which Serious took. Better him than me to wear an unknown magical ring. I’m not sure if it’s the ring or not, but Serious is talking to some unseen friend alot. 

We went on our way to the ship, but halfway there we decided to change course to go to some abandoned ruins. I went to scout the entrance, at least that’s what I told the others. In fact I just dropped down near the floor and dangled a bit in the dark. The others soon jumped in after me en ran right into the room, where apparently there was a large spider waiting for us. The moment I saw it I couldn’t control my own movement. I moved slowly into some big spider’s web, while next to me I saw Serious doing the same. Things didn’t improve much when Hugh missed with one of his fire arrows and set fire to the web. The spider killed one of my companions. It was a good thing that Serious snapped to it just in time and smashed the spider. 

I found some coins in the belt of the fallen pirate. Unluckily my companions saw me taking the belt so I had to share the gold with them. 
We could hear some music coming from a passage to the north.  However after searching the room we found another passage to the east. In the east passage we found two options, one was north into some bar or more to the east and then down a spiral staircase. Naturally we chose to explore the bar first.
The moment we entered all sound from the bar went out.  The bar turned out to be a small room with a few tables and a fountain with some glasses in the corner. Some brown liquid poured from it. 
True to its nature, the goliath brushed all of us out of the way and drank from the fountain. After the first drink he seemed to be totally losing his mind, drinking glass after glass. We tried to stop the fountain flow with mud and rocks but nothing could stop it.  So we decided to just sit back and watch the show. 
A couple of minutes went by, which we spend watching Serious talking to himself about quests, gold and treasure maps.

After the liquid seemed to lessen we went back to the spiders room and tried the north room. Rule number 1 is “''where there is music, there is something to steal''”. After we entered the hallway we found only a long tunnel with a door all the way at the end. 
It was strange, every time we went closer to the door it seemed to get further away from us. Halfway into the tunnel we could see Sam fighting his imaginary friend who seems to be flying around his head. But then again, after a long walk the door did become closer all of the sudden. That wasn’t so strange I guess, considering the doorknob talked to us very kindly. It told us that we had to swear to return the storybook to its rightful owner or ells we weren’t allowed to enter. So naturally we convinced the doorknob we had the best intentions and het let us in. Inside we saw a book on a pedestal, “Fairytales”. Tony went and picked it up and immediately disappeared. Touching a magical book without knowing what it does seems kind of stupid, but leaving a most likely valuable magical artifact, seemed even dumber. I decided to rope it and just drag it with me. I felt the urge to read it every now and then, but my better judgment decided against it.  

Not knowing where Tony was we went to look at the only place where we haven’t been before, the spiral stairs to the east. It must have looked stupid to any observer, an invisible Halfling, trailing a magical book on a 50ft rope and a large goliath following the book. 
At the bottom of the stairs we found a room with a weird-looking floor. The moment I entered the room the floor started to tilt. It seemed the floor was only secured in the middle, so any movement away from the middle moved the floor to what seemed like a long drop. It was at this moment that Tony suddenly appeared next to the book.At the same moment, both Tony and myself got the urge to read the book. After a quick battle for the book in a room with a tilting floor, Tony once again grabbed the book and disappeared and Sam put his foot in the chamber canceling out the imbalance of the floor from my weight.  
In the middle of the room I saw a hole in the floor. Looking down I saw three skeletons just waiting for something. They didn’t react when I threw a small rubber ball at them. 
Not really interested in skeletons and carrying a weird magical book we really wanted to get rid of, we decided to go back outside. 

Once outside Sam told us he was going to summon Brendal, who would bring Mostafar. Mostafar was the previous owner of the book and was willing to buy it from us with a gemstone worth 500gp. Before any pixie could appear however, Sam and I found ourselves fighting for the book. Not wanting to either touch the book, run away, or let Sam have it, it  became quite difficult to keep juggling it. It wasn’t long before Sam snatched it up and disappeared into nothingness.

After a while of me standing around looking silly with my book on a rope, both Tony and Sam appeared at my side and not much later both Mostafar and Brendal appeared too. Expecting nothing less, Sam started an argument with the two pixies, which ended in Brendalmind-controlling Sam with the magical ring. I’m glad I didn’t wear the silly thing. Since Tony promised the doorknob to return the book, he decided to trade it with Mostafar. We had no way to split the gem at that moment, but we knew it was worth 500gp and that Tony had it, so we knew where to knock if it went missing.  
Mad about being mind-controlled, Sam threw away the ring. I put it in my backpack. You can never know when we’re going to need it. 

Very tired from a long day we set up camp in a clearing in the forest. After a few short hours we where rudely awakened. 
Out of the ground came some kind of half-mole, half-human. A strong mole it turned out to be. After quite a few hits Sam was able to fling the mol into the bushes with his chain. When Hugh flew over the creature he could only see a hole in the ground where the creature should have been. Creatures that can just pop out of the ground and disappear into it again? I knew enough to know that I didn’t want to be sleeping on that ground when it came up again. Using some of my fine silk robe I made a small bed for myself in a nearby tree. I fell asleep at the sound of Sam and Hugh fighting over something. They where most likely fighting over the rulership of the world or something. I didn’t really care enough to pay any attention. 
After a few minutes however my predictions came true, what goes down must come up, there was the mole again. I really wanted to stay in my tree at this point, but from what I have seen from this crazy island so far I’d better stick with the group. Coming down I found Sam laying on the floor either unconscious or dying and Hugh hanging high in the sky, fleeing most likely. So it was up to me to save the day.Just imagine, losing Sam and having to carry all that treasure by myself. 
I had the mole down on his last breath when he knocked me down. It was a good thing Sam woke up and was able to knock down the severely wounded mole. Unlucky as we are, we could find no valuables on the mole. I had stuck my hands in all those holes and spots for nothing. 
Having little other choice we had to try and rest again, luckily the rest of the night went by without any real trouble