The medallion with a horse-like head (It drives you nuts!)
If our Young Pirates already came to the conclusion that, in order to get rid of Pedro Delgado, sorry! To set him free from his Limbo and bring him back to the sweetness of a real death, they have to get the Medallion with a horse-like head, that is the Zebra-headed Medallion™ (alias Z…-Lwa Madallion™), and to give it back to… Arrhh, no! To the Witch of the Swamp it must be brought back! Then the following operations look like that, according to different possible more or less straight options:
- Directly try to free-dive to the Medallion
- Search for a deep-sea diver
- Try to fish for the Medallion from aboard the Suzon…
Fishing a hors'ahors'ahorse…
We frankly believe that our Young Pirates should search for another solution. That said, it is easy to procure a fishing rod in Chedham, as well as hooks and worms or a magnet… Which could prove useful. One should also prepare a good length of line for the madrepore is immersed under eighty feet of water by calm waters (which the usually are in Convict's Creek). But who knows for sure the exact depth, by the way?
So a magnet for which purpose? The idea is somewhat crazy but if the medallion were made of brass-coated iron, that could simplify the recovery process. That said, even so, a great deal of patience will be necessary for it won't be easy to navigate the magnet all over the madrepore. But let it be! We are in a good mood today, so the medallion contains iron, so there is a theoretical chance to succeed… And if that would succeed, then do not wait anymore and go to play the lottery!
Game Master, you for sure do not need now anymore that we prepare all details for you, so we let you organise the search for a magnet and the day for fishing horse as you see it: do not spare on unexpected and useless (or not!) takes, such as a small rusty propeller, a fork, some sea-horses suctioned on the magnet, a clown-fish with the mouth full (of big) teeth, and make sure not to forget to stuck the magnet somewhere in the coral. It could be quite bad to get angry and break the line: « Who wanted to spare money buying only one magnet! », etc. etc. ad nauseam as it always should be…
Finally, that should work after several hours and a certain amount of Rolls, without having to much to concern about each individual result…
Big Blue atmosphere
Training to free dive, or even go at it without any preparation… The minimum necessary equipment is a diving mask to see what is happening under water (flippers wouldn't be totally useless, a snorkel remains only a comfort option). Without a mask and assuming that one of our Young Pirates makes it to the madrepore of Pedro Delgado's dream, Game Master, you'll take care to apply a Malus of 5 to the Roll versus Perception + Nosing around, which will add up with the Malus due to depth and the subsequent very dim light… Try at least to dive by daylight!
Diving to the desired depth – hence about eighty feet (twenty-three meters) – requires already some training at free-diving, that is to say a Roll versus « Power + Sharkfeeding ». Unless one would have a Speciality in « Free-Diving », that action basically suffers from a Malus of 3, whatever happens in addition. Then must one have a deep breath. If one undertook a one-day training before, each real attempt receives a Bonus of 1, yet if the attempts are too close to each other a Malus of 1 applies on top each time.
Upon that, good legs will not be too much and even better would be to equip them with flippers (notice to the most ingenious ones: what about doing your own flippers yourself?!), one can then expect a Bonus of 2 points (or 1 point if the flippers are « home-made » without a Critical Success).
Finally, one must be able to swim! Aye, that's so! It may look stupid but the one having to go down there and not able to swim may well not forget it: unless he or she succeeds to a Roll versus « Got A Nerve! + Sharkfeeding » (equal to zero in that case, hence it means a Malus of 3 comes on top or the Score in Got a Nerve!…), impossible even to imagine to put the head under the surface!! If the first Roll is a Success, our swimmer apprentice feels probably like jumping in the water but he'll still have the Malus of 3 for each of his following Rolls. Good luck!
A not so bad idea is to think about pulling (not too hard!) on the anchor's rope to go down to the madrepore. That luminous idea implemented brings a complementary Bonus of 2 (otherwise it is not easy to find one's way underwater because the visibility is not good).
Well, you now know everything regarding free-diving and almost everything regarding searching for a medallion on a madrepore! Check also further in the text to improve your management of aggressive clown-fishes and sea anemones in those parts…
Eighty feet underwater… It gets up to the nose!
That's probably the most contorsionate idea, but also the most promising in terms of getting the giggles and, at the same occasion, new indications and items about our story. But, arrhh, yeah, we recognise that one is twisted…
Since it made us laugh almost to the lack of air - how appropriate! - we offer you the luxury, Friend Game Master, to go into a few details in the following sub-section!
A delirium retailed
The voracity of a Clown Fish
Pfff… Will you tell us. Well, arrhh, yes! The clown fishes in these parts are voracious and aggressive while the anemones in which they live are extremely digesting. So what?
Well, it nibbles you and makes itch everywhere and if you are a free diver, at the limit of the capacities and fully focused on recovering a medallion with a horse-like head, you run the risk to be distracted or surprised and to get a good deal of fright or even of salty water, which, it is never mentioned enough, is never good when being by eighty feet underwater…
A Normal Success to a Roll versus « Power + Shark Feeding » will allow to not drown immediately but will require to come back to surface without any delay. The next time will be the one! Et there, a Roll versus « Got A Nerve! + Shark Feeding » will be necessary to have the courage to dive again.
On a Critical Success at the first Roll, mentioned above, the diver remains calm, despite the bites and digestions felt all over the fingers and toes, and he or she can dedicate - a few seconds before having to go back up! – to the search for the Medallion.
To summarise: if the Medallion is brought back with the free-diving approach, well, we have to take our hat off to the winner!
The other case when clown fishes and anemones will be an annoyance is that of the deep-sea diver with Raffie inside, especially if she could not take a little knife to fight back… One will see her come back - and handsomly! - covered of marks of bites and / or digestion on the equipment… While hoping that the deep-sea diver will not be damaged by that, our Young Pirates will certainly want Raffie to dive again. She will try to let them understand she needs a weapon and she will upon that need a Success to a Roll versus « Got A Nerve! + Shark Feeding » to overcome the initial bad experience. And the game can become a dangerous one if our Young Pirates do not quickly understand from her gestures and squeaks (smothered by the helmet, one must concede) that she needs a weapon to fight under water…
If she is equipped, unless you intend to add one or two more events (or only a little fright!), Raffie should be able to manage and will thus come back, not only with the Medallion, but also with two clown fishes sticked on her blade and still floundering… Maybe she'll use them as a diverting tactic to manage to keep the Medallion for herself! Up to you to see to which point you want to play with the nerves of your Players…
A medallion with the head of… A rabbit or a donkey? Or both!?
Our friends Young Pirates should be able to keep the Medallion in their hands at least a few minutes after getting it back from Raffie and, even if they give it back quickly to Pedro Delgado, to have a closer look at it.
And one has to recognise that that object is quite strange: it seems to shine (actually, in the shadows of underwaters, it was obvious) in an oscillating way, as if it were animated by a pulse. It becomes obvious by night. It is made of a material which seems to be iron but which is absolutely not rusty despite the long stay in sea water.
And as for that which the Medallion represents, it is a horse-like head for sure! But these long ears, by the way placed in a strange manner, roughly remind one of a rabbit… It could be a donkey, showing by the way all its teeth from laughing, be not the strips, engraved from the root of the mane and along the jaws… That's anyway the last and most likely hypothesis our friends Young Pirates will do, since they have already seen a few donkeys on Yellow Lizard's Island but neverever a zebra!
It is possible, after having repaired the chain, to place it around the neck or simply to put it in one's pocket but – unless one succeeds in a Roll versus « Power + Strange Voodoo Things » with a Malus of 5, which you will please to make in secrecy – impossible to feel that that object actually contains an immesurable Voodoo power… Moreover, the person who would feel it would immediately suffer its first consequences while instantly collapsing. After recovery, no remembrance nor any picture, but a strange feeling of hollowness and the intimate conviction that the object is cursed or, at least, difficult to master.It is also impossible to understand what can be its use! If, however, it can serve some purpose out of its own ones…
But take good care! It's an addictive objet… If x is the Power of the Character who bears the Medallion around the neck, after a cycle of x hours, the Character's Power is definitively reduced by one point, which the Medallion absorbs. The Character can at that point attempt the same Roll as above, collapse and – maybe! – become aware that something goes wrong… Otherwise, a new cycle of absorption begins with the new value in Power (hence then x-1). If the Character becomes aware of something, it is up to him or her to keep it, to put it in a pocket or to throw it away until a certain limit.
If the one who will soon be called the Bearer keeps it around the neck, the process goes on until there remain only one or two points in Power, a moment when the Character will feel an intense need to give the Medallion – not to throw it away, to give it! – to somebody else… If the Medalliono is in the pocket, the process is not stopped but hours becomes days. Finally, if the Medallion is thrown away, its influence stops more or less on the Bearer (hours become days which become years…) and finally stops pumping the Bearer's Power when a new Bearer take possession of it…
That medallion is actually an object of the Voodoo of the Great Z… Lwa and it is not sure that the Witch of the Swamp did it herself. It is, however anyhow, hers and to give it her back is probably the best solution as of now for none of our friends Young Pirates is able to make any use of it…
To whom does the Medallion truly belong?
Who had the stupid (as well as natural) idea to give the Medallion back to the Ghost of Pedro Delgado?! Captain!? The idea is actually not so stupid at first sight: indeed, Delgado seems very attached to it and giving it back to him should ease his suffering.
But as soon as he recovers it, Pedro Delgado disappears through the first separation wall with the firm intention not to show again his face in the near future. Besides, he hides the Medallion. So the Medallion (re)start carving the Power out of him, even stronger than when it was deep underwater. That is to say, the devoration of Power starts again in Pedro Delgado as we described above, with a daily rhythm, not anymore a yearly one…
Note to the Game Master: Delgado had more Power in the past but the Medallion of the Witch of the Swamp devoured it already, slowly but certainly. Today, with only 3 remaining points in Power Level, you'll compute easily that he'll lose another point in three days and will get a chance to either understand that something weird happens at that occasion (we already explained the principles above), or to feel, as soon as the fourth day, the need, generated by the Medallion, to give it to a new victim. That to confirm that it our Young Pirates do not manage to convinve him before, he'll finally change his mind without apparent reason and give them the Medallion… Even better if they didn't care about recovering the Medallion so far, Delgado will anyway finally come to them and try to give it back, quite insistently… Probably making for a bit more confusion!Whatever the reason, our Young Pirates thus will sooner or later become aware that they have to give the Medallion back to the Witch of the Swamp, its legitimate owner, it seems. And it may be Delgado himself who will beg them to do it! For more details about the Witch of the Swamp herself, refer to the description of the Character at the end of the Scenario; for details about her hut, the surroundings and some circumstances and some adventures potentially happening while visiting her, check the section regarding the « negociation » about the Medallion with the Zebra's Head™, as well as additional details to give more « thickness » to the sequence…