The party gathered around Ciprian worried about any effects from dying in the Dreamlands.
"I feel fine, just a headache. What was that monster that hit me?" Ciprian said groggily.
"We didn't stay around to find out. The whole city seemed as if it were going to be destroyed by huge waves from the lake. Whatever the creature was, it was very powerful." Paullus related. "It seemed to affect our ability to wake up!"
While Ciprian tried to relieve the pain in his head, Armania and Ursina set about researching the next topic in the list "Night Hag Ambassador's Heartstone." For this research they found they would need this texts, Atop the Valley’s Soul, The Falling Silk, and In Admiration of Keeping Pacts.
After the usual eight hours of study, prying inwards with Arcana and Religion, Armania and Ursina uncovered the following information.
Lowls sought the heartstone of a specific hag—an ambassador and soul-trader named Quaveandra. They also learn that a night hag’s heartstone is a special gemstone worth at least 1,800 gp that is worn as a periapt. The heartstone instantly cures any disease contracted by the holder. In addition, a heartstone provides a resistance bonus on all saving throws. A night hag that loses this charm can no longer use etherealness or soul bind until it finds a replacement gemstone. Quaveandra’s heartstone retains its magic for 1 month out of her possession, rather than 1 day.
Just after dawn, lookouts spy four figures on a battered fishing boat waving for help. The four humans have the patched clothing and bedraggled appearance of lost fisherfolk. As the boat, obviously listing to port, drew nearer Ciprian and Armania cast Mirror Image on themselves and Ursina cast invisibility. Ursina started scanning for magic on board the fishing boat as it drew nearer. Gavril studied the targets and Ciprian added Glitterdust on the approaching boat. Armania cast haste as the boats drew near.
The fisherfolk, who were two males and two females, stopped waving for help and cast spells or at least that was the look of it. Several Rains of Frogs dropped from the skies onto the deck of the Sellen Starling. The Frog swarms started by attacking Armania, Skywin, Ciprian and Paullus. They swarm seemed to impart a poison which afflicted Skywin and Paullus.
The response from the party was immediate, Armania cast fly and flew above the frog swarm, Skywin attacked the swarm on herself as did Paullus. Gavril was trying to determine when he could leap across to the fishing boat to finish off the spell casters. Ciprian was providing a Bardic Performance and cast Good Hope on the crew.
The two boats were drawing alongside each other as Ursina determined that there were eight magical auras, two on each of the fisherfolk. Erevel began whacking away at a swarm. Gavril fired arrows at the lead spell caster witch.
The Starling's crew began bailing water and one of them headed to the hold and hollered up that the ship was leaking underneath also. One of the swarms stopped attacking a crewman and headed to Skywin as Erevel and Paullus destroyed two of the swarms near them. The fisherman who was on fired leapt into the water and disappeared under the dark liquid. Gavril, seeing his chance, leapt across to the fisherboat and came hand to hand with the other female. Ciprian followed suit and attacked the remaining male.
The fisherman clambered over the gunnels of the Sellen Starling and cast call lightning on Paullus. Erevel continued killing off the last swarm. The two spell casters on the fishing boat attacked Ciprian and Gavril. Armania, flying over the water, lined up those two for a lightning bolt. Another of the spell casters fell from the electric damage.
Another round of battle and all of the enemy was dead. The group began stripping the bodies of the fallen enemy finding magical scimitars and cloaks. There were also eight Alchemists Fire along with wooden armor. Each of the probable Druids carried a wooden holy symbol of Hanspur. Healing was spread around, to the crew and Skywin also. The poison was cured within a few hours after the battle.
More worrisome was the leak at the tiller. It appeared that the wood had been warped and would need to be repaired at Riverton. The crew and Skywin along with Ciprian and Erevel determined that some wood from the fisher boat should be saved to use to fix the Sellen Starling.
Skywin related that the Sellen Starling would stop at Riverton, a small ramshackle community on the eastern shore of Lake Kallas, for supplies and have it repaired there. Skywin warned the heroes that the small town was a focus of Hanspur worship in the River Kingdoms. So they needed to scuttle the fishing boat and not mention anything about it. She further added that the only laws in Riverton were the erratic decrees of the demagogue Naerel Twice-Born (known as the “River Prophet”). Riverton was a fairly safe port, as visitors seeking river guides or Naerel’s advice are frequent, but the citizenry’s zeal for pestering visitors to convert to their god discouraged lengthy stays.
Skywin aims to keep the Riverton stop short. "We need to repair the ship as quickly as possible with out tools and the wood we added," she stated categorically. "We really need to avoid being present for the mandatory sunset service dedicated to Hanspur, which everyone, even a visitor, is required to attend. I have attended one of these compulsory ceremonies before, it was three hours of desperate shoreline flailing by mad, muddy fanatics.”
Skywin also wants to be gone before anyone in the zealous community learns of the Sellen Starling’s conflict with the violent Hanspur worshipers on the lake.
The next two days are spent bailing the water and preparing to repair the ship. Sturdy ropes are needed to lift the rear out of the water to affect the repairs. Ciprian wondered if Armania could levitate the ship but she demurred since it weighed to much with the load of wood below decks.
On the morning of the third day the Sellen Starling sailed into the tiny port of Riverton and the crew began to tie up to the dock.
Striding across the rickety pier came a wide-eyed elf, his patched robe and mud-spiked hair swung around his rail-thin frame. A coterie of women followed a few paces behind him. The man thrust his hands into the air and shouted “The Water Rat delivers, but in his own time! I have seen you in murky reflections and I would impart Hanspur’s sodden wisdom to you with private words—let us speak of strange dreams, red sails, and dead fisherfolk!”
DM's Notes: The party earned 800 XP for the evening.
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