Going to the Governor's Mansion
We are on Yellow Lizard's Island, an quiet island and - almost - without any issue… The Governor's Mansion has thus neither wall nor fence surrounding its park and, though it is a very enjoyable place - despite it is not spared by Mildew - in general nobody tries to enter there without an authorisation, whatever the intentions could be. The cast iron gate, flanked by two short walls of local black stone, has thus only a decorative purpose. (Well, it also gives the feeling one enters in a special place.) However, the Police of the Island patrols regularly around there to ensure the Governor's family's and property's safety…
But let us proceed step by step!
We'll come specifically to discussing the event of an encounter with one of the inhabitants on the O'Basin property and of the potential consequences in another section. Before that and separately, for the sake of clarity, we intend to describe the place and, more in details, the items which might be of interest to our friends Young Pirates.
And first of all, how can one reach the vicinity of the park and how does it look like? We'll then discuss the possible ways to enter the O'Basin Mansion itself.
Note for the Game Master: in order to better visualise the organisation of the place, refer to the situation map of the O'Basin Mansion on the Estate, as the inhabitants of the Island call it. You can also, if you like, draw the provided maps on a big sheet of paper and use pions to position the Player Characters, as well as the Non-Player Characters when their position is confirmed, as in a War Game, taking the trees and various obstacles into account. That's also a possible way play that sequence!Going to the O'Basin Estate
From Chedham, a rather wide path goes out among the fields and follows the course of The Runnin' upstream. A bit farther, the ground reclines and the river engorges and divides into two. Then, the path branches either to Nice Borrough on the left and runs over a wooden brige or straight on the same bank and climbs steepily to the Chapel of the Rock. Shortly before the Chapel a new path branches out to the right, more or less following the level lines. It goes however slightly up and gives access to the middle-altitude plantations on its left and right, heading « straight as a puff » to the Governor's Mansion, of which one can guess the hidden presence among the trees of its park.
Shortly before reaching the Estate, the road makes a turn to the right and remains at the same height for some tens of meters during which one runs along further plantations below on the right and the coconut palms plantation of the Governor on the left. Just after that, one reaches the above mentioned gate, which (symbolically) guards the entrance.
If one decides here to go forth on the road, it takes slightly after to the left and rises to the crest line going down from the Look-Out Muzzle. One pass thus by the Governor's sugar cane plantation on the left and the tasteless ananas steep plantations on the right. At the crest, the road branches again: to the right, running down fast along the crest, one heads to the Police Tower, barely a hundred meters from there, and the Beach of the Barracks, from where one can reach the pier and go back to Chedham; to the left, the road cautiously go down along the flank of the Look-Out Muzzle, with a beautiful view on the coconut palms plantations and the stretching Beach of the Barracks.
In the back rises The Lantern on a rocky point twelve meters above the sea ahead of the beach. The road ends there, at the end of the beach, against a wall of rock in which stairs are carved to give access to that beautiful light tower made of volcanic stone and coral, fifteen meters in height and no more in use, by the Governor's decree.
Beyond, the Look-Out Muzzle, which thus desserve its name, falls abruptly into the sea and it is difficult to go forth at high tide because of some difficult sections on the way, where the swell batters the cliffs. At low tide, one can attempt to walk on an almost one-mile-long reef before being blocked by the cliff…
(It is actually around there that Ernesto hid Poerava's Medallion, one remembers for sure… But let us come back to the vicinity of the Governor's Mansion!)
An Estate under watch
The road accessing to the Estate is a public road because it also gives access to many plantations around it. Nonetheless, there is at all times – day and night – a police watch patrolling either in the coconut palms or in the sugar cane plantation, so as to watch the surroundings of the Governor's Mansion. Sometimes on duty can even be Gomez Garcia himself. That said, except if he himself is patrolling around, it regularly happens that the watch found a quiet place to sleep, make a little nap or else eat a snack: that'll be the case on a Roll of dice (of which you'll of course keep the result secret, friend Game Master) turning 19 or 20 in the middle of the morning or at the end of the afternoon, or even between 16 to 20 otherwise! Out of such situations, the patroller may well detect careless intruders…
Moreover, let us mention right now that, in most cases (except at lunch time and in the middle of the night after eve's end), the Governor sits in his Office, working (nobody really knows on what…) or reading in his Bedroom, in the first floor. These two rooms have exactly the same orientation with a window on the East-South-East and another on the South-South-West, so that he can at one glance easily embrace a wide field from the South-West to the North-East on that side of the house.
To go further, depending on the hours of the day or night, one can refer to the map of the Governor's Mansion and place there, at least mentally, the Non-Player Characters currently in the house, for instance Elorria, Irma the cleaning lady (and wife of the gardener) and Allemania, the cook, a great specialist and collectionneuse of knives… Moreover, Ruggero, the gardener can be here or there in different places between the vegetable or fruit garden or between his hut, the plantations or… the golf course if the Governor is not there…
It is worthy of noting that Poerava of course knows the habits of the inhabitants on the property and is thus able to propose her new friends an optimal route, if however she is not punished and can be together with them at the time of approach… Dans le In the case when they are alone then, Friend Game Master, do not hesitate to make them the job a bit difficult to walk through the park and even frankly arduous to enter in the building itself.
Let us, however, precise that the Governor's Estate is equiped neither with cameras nor with robotised machine-guns – Where from would they get all that stuff?! – nor even dangers worthy of a dungeon, such as crossbows, stake-furnished traps, etc. There are, in the worst case, mole traps in the vegetable garden and around the golf course and against hornets in the trees of the fruit garden but those can still represent a significant danger, even if it may look ridiculous at first sight…
Going over through the back door?
It is possible that our Young Pirates prefer to attempt to go around the ilet (a small portion of flat land on the flank of a mountain in Criole), where stretches the Governor's Estate, by wandering over through the woods. One gets for sure a supplement of discretion but also of scratches for the woods are thick there. One can thus arrive one the path which starts from the end of the Governor's Golf Course, opposite to the house at the beginning of the hole No. 2 (Refer to the situation plan to get a better idea of the relative orientation of the places.) and leads to Governor's Beach, on the other side of the crest line joining the Rock to the Look-Out Muzzle. (Without a look at the map, it's quickly more complicated.) Fron the pass, at a height of a hundred meters above the sea, one can enjoy a magnificient view on the beach but also, when looking back, on all Yellow Lizard's Island, with the fulminating Octopus in the background.
A small terrace-bungalow has, by the way, been installed here and the Governor comes occasionally to enjoy a juice or a punch at the end of the afternoon… For those who have keen eyes, it is possible to use the present spot of observation to draw an accurate map of the Estate down to such tiny details as the bushes of hibiscus in the sand bunkers of the Governor's Golf.
Dogs… or a monkey watching?!
To finish the discussion about approaching the Governor's Mansion and give you all the necessary elements to manage it properly, we have to give you the confirmation that the Governor has no dog, neither a big nasty doberman, nor a tiny yelling dogling, which is an advantage for our friends Young Pirates. That said, do not forget Raffie, even if they didn't specially come - at least not only for that - to take her with them: with her quite inappropriate gestures and her high-toned screams – without even talking about her kleptomaniac tendencies – she come well become a serious source of problems when one tries to stealthily visit the Governor's Mansion…