BOOKINGS - Episode 1, Part 3
Source: New York Public Library
Opening: The Importance of Checklists
Damn these hell crabs! They beset the rowboat just hours before I reached shores. But i made it. Beaching the boat behind a crop of boulders, covered it with some canopy and leaves, and now off to meet Brell.
Grispin didn’t suffer a long farewell but did warn me, that his crew says this place has gone more feral since scouts last brought back rough maps. When was that? Maybe two decades ago at this point. According to Grispin, the Lost Isles now hold a strain of demons that weren’t historically plodding around in the territory of Goblins, Elves, Dwarves and Man. Unnatural horrors that comb the shores for food and foolhardy guests. No real encounters, but crew mates who claim to have laid eyes on weird beasts moving with a horrific malignment of nature.
Hazards of the job I suppose.
**
**
Running to the forests now.
Gross. Clearly something has been eating up in the trees - bones with bite marks litter the floor around these first trees. Like someone enjoys sunsets while disemboweling their prey.
Not a welcome sight. I camp in the trees, and now just need one night to connect with Brell.
**
BRELL: “Aldenris. I am surprised to see you. You shouldn’t have come. You stand in one vast living grave now”
ALDENRIS: “Really is it that bad? Besides the giant crab monster at sea it’s been quiet here so far…”
B: “I could smell you the moment you landed. You stand out here like a beacon for the hungry things.”
A: “But I am here in one piece, am I not? I have at least some sense. Perhaps this is not my first expedition.”
B: “Ah experienced explorer. Did you intend to step in their saliva trail? You have about 20 minutes to burn it off your boots before they come and strip you from your organs.”
A: “Noted. Thank you Brell. Rumors speak of things deteriorating and a new species of monstrosity here…”
B: “It’s hell here. I don’t know which hell but the sooner you leave, the smarter you are and the sooner I can get back into hiding. I am closing down the outpost. not long before I’m off this rock even if i have to swim home.”
A: “Ok. let’s get to it then”
B: “The item was seen floating downriver a week ago. The river is central to the island and ends in a large waterfall on the east coast. You can pick up the inlet here and follow the river, or head through the forests to the north or mountains to the south.”
A: “Weren’t you dwarven traders pretty well-established in the south? Could you not seek their aid to stay open?”
B: “I wish we still were. Dwarven cities have been overrun. Between the orc infiltration and the hordes of horrors, i don’t think many of us remain.“
A: “About that…what was it you said about something wanting my organs?”
B: “I spoke with some of the last survivors of the human empire. They named them Thrulls. Animated flesh created by an old cult that sought to use them as sacrificial fodder to summon their gods. Turns out the cult should have thought through making their servant race sentient, adaptive and strong. Before long, the Thrulls chose a different fate and there was little the cult could do. Now they have eaten their masters and are hybridizing rapidly, feasting on all biomass on the island. The orcs are falling to them. The goblins have little offensive capability. Even the Dwarven strongholds are now haunts, patrolled by tunneling flesh monsters that don’t so much devour you as vaporize you.”
A: “That…is not the field report I had hoped to receive”
B: “ Well, get ready to be chased by bone scythes and flesh pockets. On the bright side, i have a map inked out for you with some warnings where i know they are in number. I make no promise that it’s exhaustive. Here is a satchel with some of the edible flora and fauna. Memorize how they look in case you need to eat out here.”
A: “Thank you.”
B: “ What is special about this staff you’re seeking? Is it worth this?”
A: “I’m paid not to ask. But it supposedly has powers over the currents of sea, and no known origin. I imagine it’s being sought by a trading group, eager to make their passages more profitable.”
B: “Did you have any trouble with the homarids?”
A: “The what??”
B: “Giant shelled creatures. Violent. Senseless.”
A: “They tried to take me as I rowed in.”
B: “And you’re alive right now. That’s to your credit.
We have to go. We’ve been still too long. Good luck. I will not think of you, but i hope you make safe returns.”
A: “To you also. Thank you for all your help“
**
[2 days post landing] Something is following me. I have been staying in the forest where Brell and i first met, and the winds from the coast started bringing a new smell. Something ferrous and moldy. I think it’s one of the things Brell mentioned, and i am now resting only in trees. She was right to warn me. Looks like travel here may take 4-5 days total to cross in the forests. Longer if i take the mountains. No sign of the giant lobsters.
Going to lay in wait up in a tree for a bit to see if this thing is foolish enough to pass under me.
**
**
I saw it. I am going to try and describe it here in case this record finds its way off the island. Do not come here. This place is a gateway to some evil, damned place and what walks the island has no place in the rest of the plane. I am still unsure how I am alive. How the thing missed seeing me. Either way i am grateful for an errant youth climbing trees and hiding from grown-ups. Shifted into some dense branches and shrouded myself while i still had the nerve to think.
Waiting.
**
It was one of those Thrull things.
There was no reanimated flesh.
No ghastly orchestration of limbs.
Can you imagine a child drawing a man? Picture the absence of proportion and any musculoskeletal anatomy. Picture a simplistic lack of features. Picture the giant black eyes. Now imagine it shambling in front of you
It sniffed and tasted everything, and was about to spot me in my tree, of this i am sure. It’s eyes were glaring right at me, pulsating and wet. Squinting to see if i was there for its meal
But it didn’t come to any conclusions. Brell said they are sentient and I can’t argue that, but the monster didn’t live long enough to prove it
It was beset upon by something else. Something more of this world - literally. As if a piece of the island forest unmoored itself to obliterate the thing
The earth creature was a mound of shrubs, branches, vines and moss, with tendrils and a strange slopping noise that jutted out towards the thrull.
The flesh monster cried out in a horrible screech, made mercifully abrupt by the animated fungus that enveloped it.
Bones snap and muscles detach and, in a moment there’s only a ruddy crimson puddle.
The fungus creature kept moving. It bore down on a small fungus growth, which tried to evacuate by pulling up its very roots! No avail. The lumbering plant creature tore into it, shredding the cap and stalk with a long root-like ovipositor. Then it shambled onward, lumbering into the deep forest.
I may be taking a turn southward and taking the mountains. Don’t think i have the resources to escape a confrontation like that so early in this trip.
**
TO BE CONTINUED …