The group, once more rested after their fight, set about to put their plan into action. Effie had gathered some of the captain's blood from the ground outside, and Tiaumil used his grimoir in order to find out strengths and weaknesses that might be utilised to help convince him to take over as overseer. Not that the man was unlikely to resist too greatly, for he was known to want to advance, but the grip of Merdelain was strong, and he needed to be under no hesitation that they were in charge to make him so.
It was during this time that Arya found out that the mine that the village excavated for salt, was actually infused with emotions in a way that was unusual. It was salt sent to Merdelain in quantity; the primary resource of the village. However looking at it further, Arya thought that with enough of it, it could be made into a sort of emotion bomb. Her curiosity was further exercised as she and Tiaumil headed to the old Mill, where she had spotted the previous overseer coming out of late at night. There should have been no reason for the man to have gone in there at such a time, and so they went to investigate. Inside, they found a hidden room at the top, with a teleportation and communication circle. Tiaumil took note of its details and then together they blocked the secret door from automatically opening when people approached the illusion. Who knew when that might come in handy.
Kael, meanwhile, successfully managed to convince the captain that he was in charge, and told the man that they were heading onwards using the boat. The group didn't linger, and after fixing the boat of the various damages that it had incurred at a previous point, they set sail with Siax taking control of the sextant to navigate.
It was while the group were debating the various ways they could get past the guarded bridges, considering the magical protections that were built in, that a gem that Effie had picked up started to speak. It was an information gem, able to offer suggestions and lore to those that asked. With no one else able to do so, Tiaumil settled down to attune to the gem, while it suggested ways to bypass the security, before then updating his grimoir with details of what the group had found out about the goings-on in Merdelain for Jergal.
But while their journey started off smoothly, it did not remain so. The boat was stopped at part of the river by a load of corpses floating there. They appeared long dead, but having some sort of mucus upon them. They then realised that the mucus was created and controlled by a creature called an Aboleth, a race older than the Gods. Meanwhile Siax started bleeding out of his nose, something that Arya healed him off, but he looked confused over. Uneasy, the group try to manoeuvre the boat around the corpses, but it is stopped, the dead rising up, and a glow under the water coming closer.
Beside the ship, Siax sees his father calling to him, but in a stroke of genius Kael cast 'protection from good and evil' upon him, and it is enough to snap him out of the mind control. The group bear arms as the dead converge upon the boat.
Word count: 567
