Tekunu's Sea Travel Notes

[Moderator\'\'s Note: Tekunu recounts information about his seafaring ] [ adventures. ] Sea Travel: I have adventured on the sea as Achan Tlashte; Tekunu hi\'\'Qolyelmu; Matlor and even role played a pearl-diver (I can\'\'t remember his name). I have sailed with Phil at the helm for a number of years and have a detailed description (and maps) of most of the coastal hexes (location of fresh water, villages, ruins and the like) in Tsolyanu, Mu\'\'uglavya and some of Salarvya and some of Livyanu, part of the southern continent, a section of the far side of the planet, and islands in between. (It\'\'s my rudder and I haven\'\'t decided how much I can find) Having been on the seas for about a quarter of my 20 years of playing Tekumel, I would agree with the Great One: If you stick with the commercial vessels and take the major routes you can travel comfortably and safely, but as soon as you get out of the well traveled areas you are in danger from some of the more fearsome monsters of the deep. It\'\'s really not all that often, but it\'\'s kind of like an airplane crash, its usually fatal. Then on the other hand most people who adventure on Tekumel go into area looking for trouble. Like Earth Prime if you look for adventure and trouble you will find it. For instance I sailed with Captain Pi\'\'ur in search of The Great White Akho: Moab hi\'\'Dikh. We generally only ran into trouble when we left the major sea lanes to take a "short cut". Well there usually is a reason why ships don\'\'t travel through "short cuts" on the map. It\'\'s because it may be mating grounds for some underwater nasty or a ghost ship may be haunting the area or there may be a sea weed bed that has spider like creatures crawling all over it or a host of other reasons. I can\'\'t remember getting into much trouble except with pirates in the sea lanes. I have seen because of where we were (our choice) and not a random roll of the die (The Great One\'\'s). Here are parts of my journal from a trip from Jakalla along the coast of Salarvya to Dlanta Isle: We have continued along the way for several weeks now and we have not had any adventures. We set into the port of Petris Layoda. We have decided to take the wife of one of the adventurers along. Palanes is coming along. One slave is taken along to take care of the wife. 10th of Fesru we take sail. On day three we see three ships fighting. One is a Tsolyani ship full of adventurers, there is a Muuglavyani Swamp Folk Ship, and a merchant vessel. Use massed combat to fight the battle. In the leap over we lost several of the marines and the captain of the marine. The swamp folk are backing away from us, as they are backing away from the ship\'\'s crew. The swamp folk are fighting at the other merchant vessel. Tekunu was the first over the side of the vessel, and Gubanu and Daragma followed. I was critically wounded in the fight and fell. The marines fight across the vessel. Tekunu is healed and then engages the enemy captain in single combat and slays him. We left the enemy ship with no loot, the pirate ship went one way and we went the other. We lost two marines and gained three sailors from the sunk merchantman. (Hex 1814) 7th of Fesru. Hex 1815 this day. We run into four Akho who attack the ships. There is one large, two very large and one huge Akho. Three attack the other ship, one attacks our ship. The tentacles come up out of the ocean and attempting to seize sailors. We drive off our Akho. Two of the other three are attacking the ship. The largest off is under the ship. We approach and fire the port ballista and hit one that is crawling aboard the other ship. Tekunu fires the bow and damages the other. Two tenticles come aboard and attack the crew, knocks down Tekunu. It gets several strikes at the ship. We drive the Akho off the other ship. We pick up several sailors that are swimming in the water. We lost another marine. They lost two sailors, a marine and a cook. We run into a boat in the middle of the night. We run into a round Hlutrgu coracle. It is full of dead bodies. They smell pretty bad. It is Fesru and they are migrating between the continents. By dawn the sea is littered with little coracles. There are a few of the coracles that have critters. We go to Hex 1716. We turn away from them rather than take the chance of being attacked. [Moderator\'\'s Note: Coracles are the little leather ships Hlutrgu use. ] We see more ships on the horizon but they do not come close to us at all. That night we hit something that causes the ship to go boom, crunch and we find a number of Hlutrgu coracles under the bow. They are already dead. Brea plays the Zarur on the bow of the ship. The ship\'\'s crew is happy to hear her playing. My servant, Gubanu is in love with Kayel. We reach hex 1616 on the 10th of Fesrul. We run into a ship from Salarvya. It is the coastal patrol and we pay taxes so that we can get documents to allow us further on the coast. We also run into a Livyani ship suffering from scurvy and the like. We give them some fresher food and continue. We appraoch the tropical paradise of Songyal. Brea plays the Zarur on the bow of the ship and the crew appears to be content as we have not encoun- tered an adventure in several days. We may even make it as far as the Dlantla Isle. We see ships on the coast of the Isle. We make the Isle by sunset. There are numerous reefs and rocks near the shore. The cap- tain knows these waters. We have been out for five days and we stop to get fresh water before we continue to run. We pay 100 kaitars to stay, they will give us anchorage and water, we must pay for food. Up the street are the food places and room for the night. The whores are up the road. I send Kagor out for food. Kagor comes back to say that six or seven people wish to go to another port. They wish to go to Dlanta Isle or to Haida Pakala. We can take them to Dlanta Isle, passage can be had for 300 Kaitars a passage. We sail on the morning tide after the food is taken aboard the ship. There is a cool grey sea, birds are screaming overhead. A man comes with the bread, it is a little crusty, but alright to eat. A cart makes its way down the street. Two slovenly Salarvyani are bringing the bread. Six members of the crew come down with rickets or scurvy. Kagar comes back with supplies. The tide is ready to go out at noon, the weather is getting to be a little rough. The ship castes out and the sea is rough. We head to the south. There are some villages, some precipitous rocks. The main port. Many fishing vessels, small crafts of all kinds. A great many soldiers, fortifications, ratty could not hold off a determined assault. We travel slowly along. We are in the company of five or six other ships. They are Salarvyani vessels with black hulls, military cut but not prepared for battle. The children of the foreigner are playing a flute like instrument. It is played with both hands in Haida Pakala. I invite the foreigner to dinner. 3 males, 4 wives and 3 children. We are on the edge of hex 1417. There is a brisk breeze and we have dinner as best as we can. We eat on the afterdeck. We eat with them, to the east of Haida Pakals. Nyemesel Island. They wear helmets made of shell, bone and wood. Language is the popping of many farts all at once. He has relatives that are ship\'\'s captains. He knows many persons who can guide us. The captain is invited to the dinner. He is in Gorulu. Nyemsel Isles, ruins along the coast. Rumors far away where the Ahoggya dwell. The Ahoggya have laws that change every day depending upon who is in charge, the astrology will casue the laws to change. There are islands to the east of Salarvya that have black persons on them. Brea then begins to blow on the flute. She played the Zaror. A little girl appears to be a thief. The morning passes the day passes without any trouble. Any one who gets sea sick will do so now. We continue to sail along for awhile. Some of the water barrels have leaked and spoiled some of the grain. It is in the grain bin. Kayel says that she must leave our service. She must go away at this time. She will only have sex with males as part of her employment. Other than that she wants to have nothing to do with us. She will not do so willingly but will do it as part of her job. A party member pisses her off and she does not wish to be around with someone who is interested in her. The various ship persons are doing there work. There is an explosion off the bow. A huge rising bubble comes up to the surface and causes trouble. Small bubbles come up and explode when they near the surface. Stench of the gas within the bubbles is terrible. Swamp gas but only more troublesome. The sea is bright green and luminescense. Tiny little swimming things in the sea below. The Haida Pekalani say there is a wildlife that when it rots under the sea, the things are rising and even ships can be destroyed in the ocean. Bits of vegetation remain and all kinds of things come to the surface to feed on the creatures. They come up from the bottom to eat and they are creatures are not normally seen on the surface. Some have lights on them. I take notes for my journal on the southern continent. This is a uncommon event. On the 15th we are in 1218. The rigging is humming and we are traveling at a fast rate across the ocean. We are traveling at a good rate. We batten the hatches. The Salarvyani woman is alone in her cabin. A sailor has fallen overboard and dissappeared. We get The Eye of the Goddess (Dlamelish) or St. Elmo\'\'s Fire gets into the rigging. Bria is ill and is sick to her stomach. Kagor is unable to cook. Lord Tekunu is also getting sick. On the 16th we get to hex 1119. The day still dawns pearly gray and is pink and misty. We have a tough day trying to keep everything together. The little girl was sacrificed to Mretten, kind of like Avanthe with more to do with the sea. It appears that the little girl was required to appease the goddess. The man blamed Lord Tekunu that such things were his fault. They do not speak to anyone else on the ship during the course of the storm. On the 17th we get to the eye of the storm and the heat builds up. It appears like the sacrifice worked. There is a difficulty on the ship, Kama-A senses an aura of a curse about the captain. The captain may be cursed. She screwed the Captain but she cannot feel comfortable as he has the feeling of doom about him. She can read psychic emanations from the others. Sometime the last night there was a sacrifice. Kama-A has noticed the emanations for several days. The Captain like he is already in the tomb. We have had these troubles since before the Tsongyal Isle. We may have had this trouble after the contact with the Livyani ship. The Captain may have caught the plague. We have no idea if whether the Captain really is cursed or not. We cannot tell whether he is really cursed, he feals fine, there are no difficulties. We attempt a Disenchantment spell in order to have the Captain feal better. An examination of the Captain determines that there is an aura about him and he is ill. The Disenchantment is attempted and we do no know if he is cured. Visitation to determine if there are any extra planer connection. We cannot determine if there are any trouble with this curse, the Captain does not feal a thing at this time. A diagram is made that entraps the entity. It is short, squat and amorphous and vaguely frog-like looking. It is sitting in the Captain\'\'s shadow. He can see it out of the corner of his eye. Kama-Eh cannot see the shadow demon. They are creatures of the sea. They live in caverns in the ocean and the vegetation on the bottom of the sea. They manifest themselves with St. Elmo\'\'s fire. They cause doom. They cannot kill you, they eat your soul and you become like them. They will cause you to lose money and the like. For years this thing may follow you before the kill occurs. It can go further back into shadows. Procession up the trail, and an old woman comes up the stair. Heavy set woman in her 50\'\'s with a staff. Karadja (Shiringai). Food, fruit and Dna Grain. Dlanta worshipper. These are hairless people with ancient records that date back many thousands of years. We know that to the east there are thousands of island. A kingdom of Ahoggya. There are areas of Hargish, tranlucent beings that keep men as pets. There are areas of vast jungle that cascade down to the ocean. Nang va sa -- Land of Goru. The city of Beesa is a wonderful city on Dlantla Isle. -- Chris Davis Moderator, The Blue Room blueroom@prin.edu The Blue Room\'\'s FTP site: nexus.prin.edu Open 24 hours a day, except when my PC is down or unavailable.