The Island
Steve Hatherley

	The seas of the Dreamlands are not as well charted as some 
would like. The eastern reaches of the Cerenian Sea are infrequently 
travelled and only vaguely mapped. Sailors  avoid these areas, they 
are filled with horrors that sane men would rather avoid. However, 
fate sometimes lends a hand and storms whip up from clear skies to 
blow a ship a long way from home.
	Any ship is vulnerable to these storms, all the crew can do 
is try to hold on and survive until it blows itself out. (Many vanish, 
sent to the bottom of the sea never to be seen again.) They can then 
try to find a suitable port for repairs.
	The players are on one such ship. They are lucky and do not 
sink, catching only the edge of the storm. Once the skies have cleared 
it is obvious that the ship requires extensive work before any major 
voyage can be undertaken. Worse, most of the supplies have been 
ruined. If something is not done soon, they will all starve.
	Sails in tatters and at the mercy of the currents they drift 
slowly towards a mist shrouded island. Dark mountains peep cautiously 
above the mists but the rest is hidden. However, all does not bode 
well, the shallows around the island are littered with the deserted 
hulks of other ships.
	The hulks provide raw materials for the repairs, but a boat 
will have to put ashore to search for food and water.

Possibilities
1       This is the Island of the Cloudbeasts. In deep vents high up 
the sides of one of the mountains Cloudbeasts are born. The young 
beasts float gently out of the vents and into the swirling mass of 
other Cloudbeasts that make up the mists that shroud the island.
	There are few legends concerning the Island of the 
Cloudbeasts, but all mention the great treasures that can be found in 
a temple hidden somewhere on the island. However, the Cloudbeasts 
guard their treasures well and do not take kindly to thieves.

2       The mist is not mist at all, it is web. The island is home to 
millions of spiders. Most are tiny, but some are true giants. They 
spin their web everywhere and dominate the island. The spiders have 
consumed every other living thing on the island except the plants. 
They survive by feeding upon one another, but would rather take 
fleshier prey.

3       They island is a verdant paradise. There is plenty of water 
and food to be found in the rich forest that coat the mountainous 
island.
	However, the island is not an island at all, but the back of a 
huge sleeping Kraken. It is not likely to awaken, but occasionally 
twitches in its sleep, casually causing earthquakes of cataclysmic 
proportions.
	A deep rhythmic pounding can be heard, or felt, in the larger 
caverns. The two long ridges and folds reveal stranger watery lakes. 
The animals seem to be enlarged parasites. Perhaps someone will work 
it out.

Copyright (c) 1990 Steve Hatherley
steve@flar.demon.co.uk