To Raid San Zanita: Chapter 11

[Obadiah Jib]

Chapter 11:  Mambo Igbe

You have the choice of fighting the crocodilians or fleeing through the swamp.  If you flee as the savage reptiles surge through the water after you one of the monsters manages to rake you with a tail slap before you escape taking one wound.  However if you choose Athletics: as your Exceptional or Master level skill you avoid the attack by racing ahead of the beasts and take no wounds!

If you stay and fight you quickly realize that hand weapons do not penetrate the heavy scales of these massive black reptiles.  You must rely upon firearms to defeat these creatures.  If you have the Firearms skill at the Master level or now own the Portuguese pistols from the duel, or have Crab's French flintlock musket you mange to drive off the crocodilians without taking a wound.  If you don't have any of these items you take one nasty wound in the fight with prehistoric reptilians.  You do manage to kill a few of these brutes and scatter the remainder.

After the encounter with the swamp beasts you discover that your fellow pirates have scattered.   A few, like your friend Mister Gallant have become a meal for the crocodilians.  The rest of the men have moved off in different directions.  You call out a few names but get no replies.  You are alone.

---

You continue inland in hope of meeting up with the survivors of the landing party.  By dusk you reach the edge of the swamp and enter a grass plain studded with clumps of pine trees.  A mist starts to form and blankets the region as you head north.  Suddenly from out of the ground fog steps a small black woman.  She appears very old, her skin like a raisin and her hair a mass of matted gray dreadlocks.  Her body resembles some sort of bird with thin arms and boney legs.  The woman is clad in the cast off clothing typical of a slave or indentured servant.  You see that she has adorned herself in strings of cowrie shells, old buttons, small rodent skulls, and flowers.  She carries a gourd lamp in one hand and small cloth bundle in the other.

The old woman gestures to you with the bundle and begins to speak in a patois of French, Spanish, and Western African tongues with the odd word of Dutch or English thrown in.  It takes you awhile to discover what she wants... apparently she is looking to trade one of her possessions for two of yours!  She indicates that her name is Mambo Igbe.

The old woman opens her bundle and with draws three items.  One item appears to be some foul smelling salve or unguent in a blue ceramic dish which the old woman claims can heal wounds.  Another item she removes from the bundle is a dried and desiccated chicken foot clutching what appears to be a white snail shell. Mambo proudly tells you that this item gives the bearer luck.   The final item is a beautifully carved box made of some type of dark wood and holding what appears to be a mix of ash and earth.  This odd dirt is reported to be a defense against "The Dead Who Walk".  Great magic Mambo Igbe claims and offers to trade only one of these odd looking items for two of your personal items (Note:  Clothing, powder and shot, and the pair of Portuguese pistols all count as ONE item.  Such things can not be broken up for the purpose of the trade.  Example you can not trade a single shoe or a pistol ball). Do you trade with Mambo Igbe and if so what do you offer in exchange

[Blue66669]

I would like to trade, but have nothing I'd like to give up... wait a minute.....

Lemmee look.

Ok, I'll trade my boot knife and one of my many hidden incendiary devices. I think I'll take the chicken foot...

[Charlotte Rowan]

I don't remember what things I have! But I don't think I want to trade anything.

[Capt Spleen]

I trade Mambo Igbe my musket and rapier for the dark wood carved box  and it's contents.
The area seems to smell of something freshly rotten that has been waking around for not very long......

[Welsh Wench]

Being of Creole descent, I can converse with her. While I don't believe in the walking dead, I am uncomfortable with the idea of upsetting the lovely little raisin woman who seems to have possessed knowledge that she probably passed on to her great granddaughter.
We all know who that is.
Don't we?
OK for the uninitiated, it is Marie Laveau. Google it, my children!

I trade her a beautiful silk scarf that I was able to um...bargain Captain Corwin for on one of our long....talks.
I also give her a gold bracelet that I found in a tavern.

So I am taking her salve in the ceramic pot. When the salve is gone, I can always use it to put my rings in. 

[Lady Amy of York]

I will trade.

I'll trade her   a  gold  ring   and    a  leather belt    for    healing salve.

[Captain Jack Wolfe]

I have no use for the chicken foot since it doesn't go with my outfit, and I have it on authority that "the walking dead" are merely people hung over from drinking Blue's signature loki.  So I trade her a gold chain and my pipe (plus tobacco) for the healing salve.