The raft is built to a good standard, floating an inch or two proud of the waters. Coaxing Beaky onto the platform, flightless birds, even pre-historic ancients still retain a natural fear of being out of their depths (though emu and ostrich have been know to swim). Pulled across the fast current by the prowess of more able swimmers, eventually you can make the island, landing on a pebble strewn creek. The island is quite narrow, no more than a single bowshot wide but several hundred yards long. Along the riverside, a thick line of trees grow, mostly of Willow types or stunted Cypress that stand on huge roots which give the impression of grasping hands clutching the ground lest they get swept away as driftwood.
You can secure the raft and set about to carefully explore, searching the perimeter before heading 'inland' to the slightly higher ground of a long ridged hillock that runs almost as a spine across its length. It is a toss up to go upstream or down, deciding to cover the island in an anti-clockwise direction (so heading right and upstream).
Black Willow Island: Encounters vs 1 [1d6]=6[1d8]=7[1d10]=1 [2d6]=7
What do you observe? Bushes with strange but edible berries, plenty of reeds and bullrushes, many of which look to have been raked through as if recently ploughed up. Dense copses of trees, most crookedly shaped though not eerily so as if you might suspect some 'graveyard influence' to warp a tree's growth into weird poses. But fee birds, if any. To Beaky, this habitat looks homely and she hunts large earth worms and amphibians as you go. You note to, several oddly shaped scaly 'balls' or 'millstone' (as in round in shape but not spherical with horny points that stick out on the outer edge)
Raust you are familiar with the ability of 'three-banded' Armadillo's ability to curl up for self defense and these definitely have that vibe of a creature shielding itself or even sleeping. Though these are not melon sized harmless omnivores but much larger creatures, curled up in pumpkin to barrel sized and even bigger. Each has a dark blue-black exterior and towards the centre, the leathery scales tip to a dull red.
You have not met such before, a strange hybrid of reptile-crab-beetle. Whether it is through noise, tremor sense or even a foolhardy touch, some of these creatures begin to slowly unfurl in your presence. The largest, at least man sized, rolls out to shake itself from stasis and chitter, stamping long wicked looking crab-like legs and drooling saliva from a sharp beak beneath an extended horn.
Actions please
