Chapter 5: All Aboard the Ark-Ari

[quozl]

YC will eat some fish and try to teach Jaali how to meditate.

It will help with whatever is ailing you.

[Rhialto]

Rostam is relieved that the bottles do not contain any more bound spirits.

OOC: staying overnight - with at least one PC on watch at any time - and leaving in the morning to finally explore the coast sounds good.

[mTeasdale]

"I don't need meditation, Yuan Cheng. What I need is a glass of rhum."

Is therr any alcohol on the ship ? If so, Jaali will drink some to ease his pain.

[Longman]

That's 3/4, so let's move on.

Is there alcohol on the ship? Enough to ease your pain, certainly.

The night passes uneventfully and you are now at dawn on the morning of DAY 20!

Very soon, I will update the EXP log. This is mostly important for maju becuase I think it will get him back up to 5th level belongs.

Oh yeah, one more thing. Jaali's skin has gone a bluish silvery color and seems thick to the touch. His throat and ears are feeling very strange. The first person that sees him in the morning notes that his eyes have changed shape and color (deep blue, like a lizard's eyes) and his hair and eyebrows are thinning rapidly.

Just so you know.

[Rhialto]

When he sees Jaali in the morning, Rostam is deeply concerned:

Friend Jaali, there is something strange happening to you.
Yesterday, you just seemed exhausted from the hard work.
But this is ... different.
You were the first of us to touch the crown.
I fear that you may have caught a curse.

OOC: Yuan-Cheng and Rostam also touched the crown. Do they feel different in any way?
And does the paladin know anything about curses that mutate people?

[Longman]

These are reasonable questions.

First of all, Jaali is the only one to feel unusual. The paladin did notice a flash of evil when he first picked up the crown, which did not happen when others later handled it.

Second - Rostam has no idea what might have caused this. There are a few notable dragons in Persian folklore but he hasn't hard about a crown or a curse, or the like. The wand Maju has seems Persian in origin, but the crown could have been from just about anywhere.

Maju, on the other hand, is familiar with old accounts of a curse placed upon a sea dragon so that it became wild, forgot its magic, and could never return to its human state. He always considered these more folktales than genuine bits of magic lore but now he isn't so sure.

Elias has heard similar stories to Maju, but they were all set in the desert, not the sea.

The priestess Maroo thinks the halfling has a tropical disease and promises to heal it on the morrow. "I could cast Remove Curse", she says. "But I think it will do little good. The little fellow has spent too much time in that wretched jungle and has comne down with something nasty."

[quozl]

Please do cast Remove Curse on him. Can never be too careful.

Jaali, will you please empty your pockets? Something you may have borrowed may be causing this.

[Rhialto]

That does not look like an ordinary disease.
More like he is turning into a fish or a lizard.
If it was not the crown - what did you do in the jungle?

[MevlyTM]

Maju is concerned. Though he hopes that the priestess can help, since he is wholly unable to provide assistance. The one thing he can do is attempt to determine the contents of the bottles. Perhaps they may provide some aid.

[mTeasdale]

Jaali looks at his face in a mirror, and loojs worried.

"It should pass in a few days, I guess. It's not the first time I get a little sick. But if your magic can quicken the healing process, I won't complain"