Surviving On the Beach (Daske & Alister)

[Daske Baggywrinkle]

“I'm impressed,” said Daske. And he was. Alister has sailed through the storm, the same storm Daske had sailed through. He had gone overboard and surrounded himself with a magic air bubble that kept him alive underwater. He had survived on the beach afterward and had proven himself a good man in a fight. Further, after all they had been through, he managed to keep a carefree upbeat attitude about the whole thing. It reminded him of Sable and that quirky grin of hers. “Ya know, workin' together we might just might come out of this alive.” He popped the last of his biscuit into his mouth, chewed it thoroughly and swallowed it. Then he got very silent. “Do you hear water?” he asked. He looked around at the mostly still forest. Then he heaved himself up on to his feet and walked a ways up a hill. “Look at this, Alister!” He yelled back. "It's an underground spring and it comes up to the surface here.” On the other side of the hillock was a steep, rocky ravine. A tiny stream of water bubbled out of some rocks part way up the ravine and made its way down the ravine until it disappeared in a small boggy area. “It goes underground again and reappears at the beach,” he said. “If it don't dry up on us, we got water.” He made his way wearily down into the ravine and drank some of the water. Then he filled his waterskin and used it to pour cold water over his injured arm. He winced at the pain but repeated the operation several more times until he had gotten most of the sand out of the deep gashes. He lay back on the mossy side of the ravine and suddenly realized how tired he was. So tired that he just wanted to go to sleep. He was vaguely aware that he was going into shock but it somehow didn't seem important.

[Alister Whitecrest]

Alister was suprised at the compliment. He had totally taken this guy to be surly all the way, but at it looked like he actually could be nice. Obviously he shouldn't judge a book by it's cover. He'd remember that next time he came across one. His attempt at internal humor notwithstanding, he was surprised by the compliment. He was surprised again when Daske spoke again, though this time because he just had kind of forgotten that Daske was actually there. But after the fact, Alister realized he really had been hearing water. Huh. He got up and followed Daske some more, to the source of the noise. Even the gradual incline of the his was enough to make his breathing heavy, and walking down it wasn't easy either. With each step he felt like his was about to tumble forward. What made it worse was how pathetic it made him feel. This was just a little hill and a ravine, it's not like he was scaling a mountain and then repelling down a canyon wall or anything.

He and Daske drank from the water and refilled their waterskins. Daske began cleaning his wounds, and after noticing this, Alister decided to do the same. He had markedly fewer open wounds, so it took less time for him. When he was done he lay back on the grass and closed his eyes. He didn't feel like it would be a good idea to fall asleep out here, but he could still rest. He waited for Daske to finish. After what seemed like an hour, Alister opened his eyes, surprised that Daske still wasn't finished. When he looked over though, he saw that Daske was also laying on the ground. Alister bolted up. It didn't look like he had been asleep long, maybe a few minutes, but if they were done, they should probably go to the shelter of Daske's ship. He tried to shake Daske awake. "Come on, let's go. You said your ship wasn't too far away?"

[Daske Baggywrinkle]

Daske awoke to the sound of dripping water: Plop … Plop ... Plop. He was lying on his back on hard, cold, damp ground. He opened his eyes and found himself staring at the ceiling of a dimly lit cave. He made himself sit up and looked around. It was more of a tunnel than a cave. The ceiling was about twenty feet above him and the tunnel was about ten feet across. It extended both directions into darkness. It was dank and musty smelling and cold. Ghostly white stalactites hung from the roof of the cave, some of them releasing big drops of water. The dripping sound he heard was the sound of drops falling into a shallow pool a few feet away. Ghostly green stalagmites sprouted from the cave floor here and there, reaching out for their respective stalactites. Daske had see this kind of formation before. He was in a limestone cave. With an effort he pushed himself to his feet. His arm still hurt like hell. “Hello!” he yelled. “Hello!” the cave echoed back. Other than that, nothing. He walked over to the pool and sampled the water. It was ice cold and fresh. He started walking along the tunnel but then tripped and fell on his back. Then the ground started rolling beneath him. Earthquake, he thought. Then someone was shaking him and saying, “Come on, let's go. You said your ship wasn't too far away.” He opened his eyes and looked into the eyes of a worried looking Alister. A while later they emerged from the trees like a pair of drunks propping each other up, and staggered down an incline to Daske's boat. With some effort they managed to climb aboard and found some food to eat. Neither of them had said a word since they had left the spring. Daske crawled into the V-berth and went to sleep.

[Trident]

Daske Skills: Sailing +1 Cartography +1 Observation +1 Weapon (Longsword) +1 Wilderness Survival +1 Lores: Hitting Land Water, Shelter, Food: The Three Essentials of Survival Yukmen: Identification, Weaknesses Alister Whitecrest: Personality, History, Magic Other: Your arm is scratched and needs to be bandaged, and preferably treated, before it can recover. I leave the severity of the wound and how long it will take to recover up to you, however. Alister Whitecrest Skills: Observation +2 Weapon (Cutlass) +1 Reimancy +1 Wilderness Survival +1 Lores: Finding the Shipwreck of the Peaceful Infinity Yukmen: Identification, Weaknesses Daske: History, The Black Lady Comments: A nice thread, guys. I liked how you conveyed the post-storm atmosphere. I gave you each observation points for finding your ships and investigating your surroundings. The rest should be self-explanatory. If you have any questions about my ruling, feel free to PM me!