Following on from delivering their cargo at The Necrodome (see ST05. The Mad Illusionist), the crew of The Demon's Mercy decided to make contact with Felix Ravenson, to see about the job that he had previously offered them. On their way to his office, they were waylaid by a Boromar Clan bounty hunter, who was after Kuven. The bounty hunter made it clear that Kuven's betrayal would not be forgiven, and so Sacha Cresswell stepped up to defend his friend. As the battle commenced, a second bounty hunter that had wild-shaped into a fast dinosaur with barkskin charged in from one side, catching Amos Black by surprise.
This threw the fight into confusion, and was enough of a distraction for the first bounty hunt to cast Inflict Wounds on Sacha Cresswell, immediately causing him to fall unconscious. The dinosaur was forced into halfling form, but he then caused further disruption to the market-place by causing vines to grow from between the cracks in the paving stone, in an attempt to hold Kuven in place. This failed, but El Graeve was caught, so he could only heal Sacha Cresswell from afar. Both bounty hunters fought on, but eventually the first one fell. The second managed to knock Sacha Cresswell unconscious a second time before wild-shaping into a fly; they were unable to hit him with wild swings of their weapons before they lost track of him. Kuven explained that he had fled Sharn having stolen his rapier and a small amount of gold from the Boromar Clan, and now there was a bounty on his head. Accepting that the druid halfling might trouble them again, they proceeded to meet Felix Ravenson.
The cartographer was brusque when they entered his office; he had been disappointed that they had instead accepted the contract from "the charlatan that runs the The Necrodome", as the Queen's advisor put it. Fortunately for them, he had hired someone else to do the job that he needed doing, but when he had cast Message he had received no response, and Scrying on them failed, so he suspected that they were dead. He had hired the crew of Red Fury to go to Tokomara. House Cannith had been engaging in an archaeological dig there for several months, and the Pirate Queen wanted to know what they were up to. Felix Ravenson explained that the House Cannith forces in the area were under the leadership of Felicia d'Cannith, a dragonmarked heir that had gone into semi-exile a few years back (see JFE. Epilogue), first in Xen'drik but now in the archipelago of Shargon's Teeth.
The pirates were concerned that if she found something of value on Tokomara, then her exile would end and House Cannith would swing their resources to the islands, which the pirates of Second Chance could not hope to withstand. Their only hope was that Felicia d'Cannith did not find anything that would make the House of Making turn their eye to the area. Felix Ravenson wanted the party to do two things; find out what had been found on the island, and return any valuable knowledge or artefacts to Second Chance, to make sure that House Cannith did not obtain them. In return, he offered them several months of supplies for the ship, 200 gold to be distributed amongst the crew, and 1,000 gold for the command crew. The party decided to head out the following morning, letting the crew resupply and have a short break. They headed to The Bottomless Mermaid for drinks, before turning in for the night. Sacha Cresswell reunited with Marta, who flirted with him heavily while they played dragon chess. However Sacha Cresswell did not invite her back to his cabin, and the ship left the next morning.
It was an uneventful trip to Tokomara, and they found two deserted ships on the cliffs of the south side of the island. The party searched both Red Fury and Gorgon Reborn, but found no record of where either crew were. They did manage to obtain some supplies from Red Fury, and realised that Gorgon Reborn had been obviously searched by the pirates. The only clue to where to go next were the vines tied to the railing of Gorgon Reborn, which the party decided to climb. The cliffs rose up for several hundred feet, and the climb was long and arduous. Halfway up, the party disturbed the nest of two strange creatures - large birds, but with the head of a stag. A difficult battle took place, with the party struggling to attack while also hanging onto vines. Sacha Cresswell and Amos Black climbed up to wedge themselves into a crevice, to allow them to attack more easily, while Kuven and El Graeve headed up to the nest. El Graeve found himself on surer footing once he wasn't trying to shoot his bow and hold onto a vine, while Kuven attracted their attention by flinging one of the three eggs in the nest at one of the hostile birds. Sacha Cresswell then laid down a distraction by casting Hunger of Hadar from a scroll, creating an area on inky blackness that both confused and damaged the birds. The party switched between each bird as they flew in and out of the circle of magical darkness, and eventually both were defeated. The quartet took a short rest before continuing their climb.
At the top, the party were able to survey the whole island. It appeared to be one giant crater, on top of the high cliffs all around. Inside the crater, which was several miles wide, the ruins of ancient stone structures could be seen, half-buried in the desert sand. At the centre of the crater, a black dome could be seen, and just short of that smoke appeared to be winding its way into the sky. The party decided to head for the smoke; but as they climbed down the rocks into the crater, the wind picked up and they were caught in a sandstorm. In the ensuing chaos, Kuven lost track of the rest of the party, and found himself at the base of two gigantic pillars. He realised that they were all that remained of a massive statue, with only the legs up to the knees still standing. He found a plaque at the base, but what little of the writing remained was not in a language that he understood. Meanwhile, the rest of the party found a pyre, with several bodies badly burned placed on top of it. Amos Black was able to establish that all of the bodies had their blood drained, and he could see the knife wounds that had caused this. He also found the remains of a leather-bound journal, but the paper was too badly damaged for any of it to be read.
Fortunately, they all reunited at the site of the smoke that they had seen. There, they found an orc camp, surrounded series of decapitated heads inserted onto the spikes that adorned the wooden wall. While the rest sought to establish who the heads had belonged to, El Graeve saw an orc within the camp, working at a table. Enraged at the species that had murdered his brother, El Graeve shot an arrow and charged in to fight. The orc grabbed his greataxe, activated a magical ring and jumped into the fray. A brutal fight ensued, but eventually the orc was overcome. Investigating the camp, they realised that the orc had been the one that had drained the bodies of blood, and the table had been specifically designed to funnel the blood into a barrel at one end. Several full barrels of blood were found in the camp, and Amos Black also found a locked chest containing some House Cannith clothing. With evening drawing in, the party decided to camp for the night, to dicuss whatever theories they might have about what had happened between the archaeologists, pirates and orcs. And to decide their next steps...