Isla Monstruo, An unexpected tropical vacation

Session 1

 

              Far from land, an ancient island has been forgotten by gods and men.  It appears on no map or chart.  As our story begins, Tanner, Warren, and Yuri’s ship has foundered on the coral reef guarding the island’s shores.  They awake upon an idyllic sandy beach.  Towering primeval jungle looms over the strand while eight-foot-tall shark fins patrol beyond the breakwater.  The reef is dotted with shipwrecks bleached to the color of bone by the tropical sun.  There is no sign of their vessel, its crew, or cargo.

              After some discussion, Yuri strides out toward the reef to see if he can find out what happened to their ship.  Before he reaches the breakwater, one of the patrolling shark fins turns through a gap in the coral.  Slowly, a monster rises into view.  At first it seems to be a large shark standing on its dorsal fins.  The 15-foot fish is lighter on its underbelly while retaining the ruff gray hide and predatory body one might expect.  However, on closer inspection, something is terribly wrong with this animal.  Instead of a mouth, the monster’s front is built from a pair of massive headless shoulders supporting powerful arms and claw-tipped hands.  Black pitiless eyes gaze out from its pectorals.  In the center of its underbelly is a huge mouth filled with row upon row of serrated teeth.  Its fêted breath smells of dead fish and blood.

              It speaks to Yuri in a deep harsh voice as if it is unused to forming human words.  “This island is guarded by the goddess Tiburona.  None shall pass the reef by her command.”

Yuri asks if they can pass off the island if they go to the other side?

“I will use small words for stupid human.  The reef goes around the entire island.  My goddess protects the entire boundary.  Please, try and escape.  My family and I are hungry.  I have delivered her words; my work is done hear.”

The creature sinks back into the ocean and moves past the coral leaving the group with even more questions.  Tanner unobtrusively puts a fishing pole back into his adventurering gear deciding not to try and “catch” the monster.  The group decides to split up to find food and shelter.

              Tanner shifts form into a rare beaver tailed hawk and takes flight over the jungle.  He follows several game trails until he finds a capybara making its way deeper into the island.  He decides to learn its form and watches it for a while before swooping down and killing it with a single decisive tail strike.  He pulls the body back towards where he last saw his friends stopping only once to consider a set of huge bird tracks cutting across the trail.

              Warren and Yuri strike out into the jungle until they find a tree with large purple fruit feeding a monkey troop.  The creatures are covered in green fur with antlers crowning their heads.  Warren, unable to decide whether he wants to eat fresh monkey or purple fruit more, charges the tree and shakes it vigorously opting for both.  Monkeys and purple fruit rain down.  Yuri begins blasting monkeys with magic missiles while Warren duals the troop leader.  Both of our heroes are wounded in the ensuing battle.  Several monkeys are killed, Warren decapitates the monkey king after taking an antlered headbutt to the face, and Yuri and Warren are poisoned as the monkey king’s blood splatters over them.

              Tanner returns with his prize and makes camp.  The druid’s magic soothes the group, healing their wounds.  As they rest, he learns the form of his pray hoping to use this new shape to summon a horde of giant rodents.  Yuri uses some of his antitoxin to cure his and Warren’s affliction while Warren examines the monkey king’s horns which have intricate runic designs cut into the surface.

              The next day, the group heads out to explore their new home.  Yuri falls into a twenty-foot deep pit trap cleverly placed on a path before the entrance to a clearing dominated by a giant garbage pile.  After his friends pull him out with a length of rope, Tanner takes his hawk form again to scout the area.  The magic of his shape change only lasts a few minutes, long enough for him to see that the garbage in the clearing is actually a huge nest full of three-foot tall eggs.  He returns to the path just as Warren looks up from the huge bird tracks around the nest to see its owner striding out of the jungle.  Two stories up, a wedge-shaped head full of teeth pushes aggressively through the foliage.  The T-rex pushes toward its nest until it looks down and sees Warren in the open muttering about chickens and omelets.

 

What will he do?

Find out next time on the next session  of isla monstruo.