Following on from their rest (see ST12. Isle of the Undead), the party emerged from Maurag's chambers to find a small crowd waiting for them outside. A Drow initiate priestess called Arvo spoke for them; she asked if Maurag was really dead. Upon receiving confirmation, she pointed out that the crew of The Demon's Mercy had forced the hand of those enslaved by The Dreadsails. There was no choice now but to fight back, and hope that the vampires could be defeated, for Harkness would not just ignore the slaying of his sire. A brief discussion of a strategy commenced, which was interrupted by the arrival of Ying and Tregin. They had come from the ship to let the others know that a fog had been seen on the horizon, and was heading towards Hion'ator, and would be here within the hour.
There was a debate about whether they should try to intercept the ship while at sea, but this was quickly dismissed as impractical, as they would have to kill Ulrika at a significant distance to make sure that she could no longer cast Fog Cloud. Arvo pointed out that Ulrika was usually exhausted from her concentration at sea, which was often maintained for 2-3 weeks; she would immediately retreat to her quarters, which was a converted storeroom on the level below where Maurag lived. She would take several captives with her, and drain them dry. The party therefore decided to set an ambush there. El Graeve headed off with Arvo to help martial the rest of the town against the vampires, while the rest of the crew headed to Ulrika's home.
They placed themselves around the storeroom, and waiting for her to arrive. They agreed that the signal to attack would be Tregin launching a Fireball at the vampire. It was accepted that any captives she had with her were already slated for death, so they wouldn't take any chances to try and save them. The plan initially went off without a hitch; Tregin;"> launched his Fireball, killing the three captives with Ulrika, and the rest of the party closed in. A Stunning Strike from Ying proved particularly useful, as Ulrika was only able to bite Kuven once before being stunned. The party used every resource that they had on her, but before they could kill her she recovered and used Misty Step to escape. They lost track of her in the room, and spread out to find her; Ying spotted her using Spider-Climb on the ceiling, which prevented anyone from getting close. She threw several Fireballs at the party in reply, and was eventually defeated thanks to the thrown javelins and daggers that the party were able to martial.
Heading outside, they saw that the docks had turned into a battle; the Drow and captured sailors were holding their own against the vampire, but El Graeve told his comrades that Harkness had turned into a bat and flown up into the tall tower. He said he would hold the line if the others could make sure that the vampire captain were defeated. Not stopping to take a rest, the party sprinted the tower, and worked their way up it. They were first slowed by a room that had the exit 15 feet up in the air, with no way of reaching it; Tregin used Levitate to get up to the door, and then destroyed the lock with a Ray of Frost. Inside, he found a lever that caused the stairs to rise up out of the ground. They followed the corridor as it went around the building, until they came to another set of stairs, with a ramp next to it; the ramp was slick with lubricant, the stairs were covered inn caltrops, and a glyph was on the wall half-way up. Everyone except Kuven stepped back around the corner, while he threw one of the caltrops at the glyph. It triggered, showering the area in blasted caltrops, but Kuven was able to take cover behind his shield.
They carried on going, and reached a circular staircase with a plaque on the wall, which said “Staring up at forever is the wise man’s curse, but the fool’s delight. Walk careful, the finish line is always in Vulkoor’s sight.” There were letters imprinted on each step. Ying charged up, but as soon as his disappeared out of sight around the central plinth, he appeared from the floor below. Realising that there was some magic to the letters, the party tried various combinations, before realising that they could spell out "Forever". Stepping only on the letters that formed this word, they were able to reach the top.
They emerged into a library, where they saw Harkness recovering. The vampire flew into a rage and immediately attacked them, while also summoning bats and rats to his aid. The party were already weary from their fight with Ulrika, and it wasn't long before Harkness had been able to knock Kuven and Amos Black unconscious; their only healer was Sacha Cresswell, but he was held within Harkness' grasp and unable to help. Fortunately, neither died before the others could aid them, as Ying was able to stabilise Kuven and Sacha Cresswell broke free to help Amos Black. Tregin struggled with the swarm of animals, but eventually used a Dust Devil to distract them, while casting Burning Hands to damage as much as he could.
Harkness was able to hold his own, but without Ulrika's spellcasting ability was not able to break free, and eventually fell to Amos Black's blade. With the battle over, the party counted themselves lucky for not having lost anyone, and went back down to find El Graeve and Arvo. The Drow thanked them for freeing everyone of their vampire oppressors; they didn't have any gold to offer, but did say that the party could take The Dreadsail's ship as a reward. Taking some of the captured sailors on as crew, the two ships headed back to Second Chance. There, they had two choices to make. Would they sell their second ship, or use it to start their own fleet? And what did they want to do next?