True to his word Carl has ensured that the road to
Coranan has been cleared of
Red Asps. This doesnt prevent the party from harrassing a harmless tinker who
has indulged in the very suspicious activity of travelling down the same road in the same direction of the party.
The party travel for three days staying overnight at various village inns but camp out on the fourth night
just off the road on the edge of the forest. Suddenly their camp is hit by a fireball which appears to have
come from the sky. Furthermore they can hear a band of attackers approaching through the forest. Happily
Freya
chooses that moment to return from the Feywild and starts an aerial battle with the fireballing mage who is soon
making contact with the ground faster than he hoped. The attackers appear to be a well-equipped band of adventurers
(or band of adventurers carrying useful loot as our party prefers to think of things). The combat is intense
but short as the attackers clearly were not briefed that anyone in the party could fly (perhaps because the party themselves didn't know).
The party travel a further two whole days without incident but on the the third morning are intercepted
by Hawk who has with her an old man who says he is a representative of a secret society of mages. Hawk wishes
to gain favour with the society by having the party recover an artefact that was stolen from the society.
The artefact is a bowl which is now residing on a pedestal on an island in an underground lake the entrance
to which is in the grounds of a private estate near Lindheim. For various reasons members of the society can not
recover the bowl themselves but will teleport the party away to safety on successful recovery of the bowl. Due to
the security on the estate the party will have two minutes to enter the tunnel down to the lake, cross the water,
grab the bowl from the pedestal and return. Furthermore the island itself disrupts magic sufficiently to make it an unreliable aid in the task. The task looks challenging until Medalric points out he can run inhumanly fast including across water and that
these abilities are part of his monk's training rather than magic. He therefore volunteers to grab the magic bowl and,
not staying to investigate the black tendrils now emenating from the pedestal, he scoots back across the lake just
fast enough to avoid the jaws of a dragon turtle to complete a successful mission.
The party continue on to Coranan where they discover, in order to keep them out of mischief, they have been booked
as passengers on the Ocean Queen which will take them down the river and along the coast to
Tammarik. Coranan is one of the safest cities north of the Blue Sea but that doesn't
prevent M'lady from bumping into a crime boss who recognises her from her past and who invites her
to a 'discussion' in the Docks area (outside the City walls) at midnight. M'lady suspects he intends to kill her
and she certainly intends to kill him as she has always suspected his complicity in her father's death. Although
not part of their mission at all M'lady appeals to the party to provide her with back up as although
the agreement is to meet alone she fully expects to be ambushed. The party duly finds four groups of assassins
in the docks area and as soon as the meeting starts move in to eliminate the threat. The crime boss starts
a fight with M'lady and is somewhat distressed when he finds he is on his own. He is nevertheless a tough
opponent and M'lady only just succeeds in killing him.
The party board the Ocean Queen at noon and begin their 'peaceful' voyage. Needless to say this proves a false hope as M'lady receives news by pigeon post that there is an assassin on board. The party quickly realise they need to investigate who is the likely victim, what is the likely mode of
assassination and last but not least who the assassin is. They scan the ship for poison and when that fails for
lead-lined boxes. This turns up two small chests containing poison (which none of the crew remember putting in
the hold). The hold they were found in is right next to the kitchen which is considered significant when the cook,
Grimwasa, is discovered to be the only new member of the crew. Gale turns into spider form in order to keep a close
watch on the cook. In due course Grimwasa fetches the poison (which has been neutralised by the party) but then ditches the box over the side. Freya befriends
Grimwasa who clearly has something on his mind. At dinner M'lady and Freya are invited to the captain's table along
with Hirgond and Lorfalma (two senior mages from Coranan University) and their star pupil Daelhaelin and two
natives of the Far North, Osriga (who captains her own boat on the Inland Sea) and Waethryth (a Windsinger). Meanwhile Dwain, who has never seen the point of 'murder mysteries' as you can always turn to the last page to see who did it, asks his divine sources to tell him the plot and after some wheedling manages to extract the information
that Lorfalma is the most likely victim.
On the second day M'lady receives further information that the assassin is suspected of being a member of the
Cult of the Long Night a nihilist group who assassinate the powerful
including magic users. Freya complicates everything by announcing she wishes to visit the Dreaming Stones, an ancient stone circle situated downriver which has the reputation of sending those who dare to sleep within the circle mad. M'lady is not impressed with this and Dwain lectures Freya telling her the party cannot leave the
magic users unguarded overnight. Freya nods thoughtfully and by the evening Lorfalma, Hirgond and Daelhaelin also
express an interest in visiting the stones. Meanwhile Grimwasa talks
to Dernwyn, the ship's navigator, who advises him to talk to the captain, Laif. M'lady becomes concerned that
the mages are taking an interest in Freya's 'gifts' and Medalric replaces Freya at the captain's table for the evening meal. After the meal the cook talks to the captain and confesses he took the box of poisons because he
thought it had been left behind by a previous passenger. When he saw what the box contained he panicked and
threw the box overboard. The captain accepts Grimwasa's story but the party are still suspicious of him.
Medalric, M'lady, and Dwain join Freya and the interested passengers on a trip to the Dreaming Stones that evening.
An old man appears at the stones, offers them guidance and assures the party he will protect them in the night.
M'lady is not so sure and tries to stay awake with a loaded crossbow on her lap. Everyone has interesting
dreams and Daelhaelin discuses hers at length with Freya on the way back to the boat in the morning. Dwain, it appears, has been contacted directly by a celestial being who has told him that the party should do nothing further to solve the mystery on the boat as the optimum outcome has been already reached which unfortunately means
at least one death will occur. Later that morning Grimwasa comes above deck and attempts to stab Daelhaelin who is
in conversation with the merchant Lomelinde. Freya, however, in a blink of an eye appears between Grimwasa and his
intended victim and even more remarkably Lomelinde deflects the blade into the cook's own chest. Grimwasa topples
into the sea.
For the rest of the third day at sea the party do little except speculate on who Lomelinde might actually be
since very few merchants are skilled at martial arts. The next morning, however, Freya cannot be found and Dernwyn, the ships navigator, is also missing. The ship searched and in one hold they find a large pool of blood and some
feathers indicating that Moonbeam and Mr Fluffy might have been involved in a life or death struggle. Neither
can be found on the boat either alive or dead. Also missing is a lead-lined box belonging to Hirgond. His (quite valuable) possessions are scattered on the floor. The box would not have been big enough to contain both the bodies of both Freya and Mr Fluffy and there are no signs of bodies being dragged away. Dwain magically ascertains that
the main pool of blood is Mr Fluffy's although there are traces of Dernwyn's and Moonbeam's blood also.
The party also find a scrap of paper with Dernwyn's navigator's tools which may (or may not) contain the intials of various passengers on the ship.
To make matters worse for the party M'lady receives a warning from a contact in Golotha that a 'reception committee' is being recruited to meet the boat when it docks at the port. Meanwhile Dwain tries to ascertain from his celestial contact whether Freya, Moonbeam and Mr Fluffy are still alive. He finds out that Moonbeam is searching for Freya at locations down the coast towards Tammarik. A thorough search of the river by Gale in shark form turns up no futher information.
As the Ocean Queen docks in Golotha
an angry mob surges up the quay. Laif and Wafar lead Osriga, Firmon, Medalric
and Dwain up the quay to block the mob's access to the ship. Waethryth takes to the ship's rigging to conjure up
some winds while Gale slips into the water in shark form. The leaders of the mob are tough but obviously knew little about the skills and abilities of the ship's crew and passengers. Although they have numbers on their side the
windy conditions mean that many fall off the quay and fall victim to the shark patrolling the harbour. Once the
front rank fall the rest of the mob have no stomach to continue the fight very long and quickly turn tail.
When the party return to the ship, however, both Daelhaelin and Lomelinde are missing.