Event Log: You Wouldn't Download A Boat: The Mutineers' Treasure Hunt

Entry tags:

!breach,
!event

Event Log: You Wouldn't Download A Boat: The Mutineers' Treasure Hunt

Who: The mutineers, including new recruits and hostages.
What: A treasure hunt
When: You Wouldn't Download A Boat pirate breach, day five
Where: No man’s land, Eastern Caribbean sea
Warnings: Possible character death, possible character injury. Further warnings in separate prompts.

Upon arrival at the treasure's cove, the mutineers-turned-treasure hunters split into teams to retrieve the keys and open the treasure.

[With NPCing by

barge_npc! If we get more characters joining, we can do bigger threads or add another key, we'll see how it goes. Please note whether it's okay for your character to be injured/killed, or if you'd just like to avoid any specific peril.]

THE MUTINEERS' TREASURE HUNT ||| PRIVATEERS VS. PIRATES

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The waters around the island are quiet but treacherous, a veritable minefield of shallow channels and rocky outcroppings. The Rose Emelye’s hull creaks as it weaves through the tight passages. It is a tremendous task, especially by moonlight, given even a single degree off-course can spell danger for a large ship such as this. What a terrible thing that would be, to come all this way just to be moored on an inhospitable island of cliffs and caves, far from where any rescue might happen upon. You’ll be toasting your navigator and captain tonight, crew.

On deck, it’s eerily quiet beyond the sounds of the ship. The ship groans as it takes even the most superficial scrapes off the rock. Water laps silently against the cove walls, and the sails struggle to catch the flagging winds. They pass the wreck of another ship, and then a second — the wooden figure carved into the bowhead is burned and worn away.

The crew and their hostages take moments amongst themselves as they pull into the back of the cove. The ship points towards the yawning mouth of a cave, just a short rowboat ride away.

At last, they’re here.

The cave is dark, but it isn’t completely unlit; the ceiling is spattered with holes breaking through to the sky above, letting patches of moonlight through. The sky can be your guide, or torches can. It’s one of the other if you want to preserve your night vision.

The winding cave path leads not to a treasure chest but to a massive door. A vault, it seems, big enough for a small ship to pass through. On its surface is a carved map, the grooves filled in with white paint. It shows four paths, each leading to a key: one to the water, one to the cliffs, one to a small chamber, and one to a large chamber.

All four routes should offer a key. It will be up to the treasure hunters to retrieve them.

Cassandra had somewhat hoped to take a little longer after the mutiny, to let hurt feelings subside and new roles settle in, but the map was so fresh in everyone's minds that putting off the hunt wasn't a better idea. Besides, the map seemed a surer thing than Bill's assorted inane ideas, and what better to placate the crew than some new loot?

She raises the torch she's holding, the light of the flame casting across this new map.

"We split up," she calls to the others. "Small groups. Everyone takes chalk and marks their route and direction as they go."

She's not going to be the captain that had half the crew starve to death in some ancient labyrinth.

"Enough stay behind to send a second party to help if the first doesn't return before nightfall."

Edited 2021-09-21 18:13 (UTC)

One route on the cave map leads into the water. If one stands between two particular rocks on the shore, just where the map’s line veers into the water, one can see a light deep under the water’s surface, dim and distant.

The water also has a number of old buoys along it. These mark diving bells — great wax-sealed wooden barrels, weighted down by anchors, trapping a pocket of stale air under the surface. If one has the stamina, they can swim from one to the other, descending into the dark depths.

[Seeking: 2-4 characters
Warnings: possible drowning, possible creature attack]

Well, this only looks a little bit threatening.

"Not a problem, lads. If we can't swim that far we're not worth the bloody salt in our veins."

As much as he can swim perfectly well with his boots and coat, he'd much rather not - so he leaves them both on the shore, as well as his fancy new stolen-from-Will hat, and he'll (not happily, but with confidence) lead whoever's followed him this far into the water, taking a few deep breaths in and out, before he throws his head under and starts swimming for the nearest buoy.

One route on the cave map leads into the cliffs, right up to a massive rock face. After that, there’s no where else to go but up. Up looks promising; there’s some sort of stone structure up there. While the cliff face is steep and many of its handholds look questionable at best, it isn’t entirely impassable without gear.

[Seeking: 2-3 characters
Warnings: risk of death by falling, possible creature attack.]

Nick's not much for dark, enclosed spaces which means he's not fond of caves. Heights, on the other hand, don't bother him. He eyes the cliffs with curiosity. It's probably not the safer choice but he's spent years climbing through the rigging of a ship. Surely he can manage a bit of jagged rock.

He's only got a bit of rope with him--likely not enough to make much difference--but he's going to keep it with him, just in case. He slings the small coil across his body and starts climbing the cliff face, work-roughened hands grabbing small handholds.

One route on the cave map leads into a smaller chamber off the main chamber. It is a winding walk through a very narrow path, sometimes so tight that the walkers needs to press themselves between the rock faces.

[Seeking: 2 characters + 1 planned guest
Warnings: Corpse discovery, potential sacrifice, claustrophobia]

One route on the cave maps leads to a large antechamber off the main chamber. At first glance, it seems like it might be entirely open air, with the stars twinkling above, but on closer inspection the ceiling is high but sealed. The lights are the reflections off the backs of golden bugs, each two inches long, alive and scuttling. They dip in and out of thousands of fist-sized holes, glowing and glaring, dazzling upon the eyes.

Their light illuminates the floor, which is open save for a stone throne in the middle.

Upon the throne is a carved code:

To the simple intellect of the common pirate, it could be insoluble, but where there’s a will, there’s a way.

[Seeking: 2-4 characters
Warnings: insects, trypophobia, possible illness via poisoning]

Keys gathered, the treasure hunters return to the vault door to open it.

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Event Log: You Wouldn't Download A Boat: The Mutineers' Treasure Hunt

ARRIVAL

THE CAVE

Re: THE CAVE

THE DIVING BELLS

no subject

THE CLIFFS

no subject

THE TRAP

THE BUGS

THE REUNION