Meeting up again
Thervan Avalast, the Head Wizard of Ravenforge, gathers Ethalyn Stakes, Rurik Brawnanvil, Azzakh "Ash" Pyraxtallirn and Ansgar Cain up for a new quest.
Ansgar and Rurik meet up with Thervan and a halfling. She introduces herself as Keleni Summerwhistle. After a while, Ethalyn and a Kobold enter. The kobold introduces itself as Ash, telling the others they had an accident.
Keleni and Ethalyn, apparently hail from the same town, although Ethalyn struggles to remember.
Thervan tells them he needs help to retrieve the “Sjelestein” from somewhere far north. Hadvar Shade-Plank is a name mentioned, and they should buy the sjelestein, and they are to travel as far north as possible to the town of Borgstrand, and they are given a chest of platinum to use as bargain, or to keep for themselves.
They are to return with the sjelestein within 90 days, or they will send a Royal Incinerator after them to retrieve them. Ansgar is perplexed by this, but Thervan assures that this is standard procedure considering the amount of faith and money they are giving the group. He has no doubt that the party will be honest and deliver on their promises.
They advise them to bring along warm clothing as the days are short and cold.
As they talk, Ash notices a symbol they know they have seen before. Along with some documents about the Black Prince. When asked about it, he brushes it off as “research”, saying it is none of their concern for the moment.
Shopping
He tells them to visit Scry me a River at the docs, as they are a co-worker of Thervan.
They meet a white haired lady, Vontara Vishara. She has a barn-owl called Buttons.
She sells Thermal Cubes (50gp), ring of warmth (480gp), Ring of protection (3000gp) among other things. They do some shopping. Quite a lot of shopping, actually…
Setting sail
Eventually they move on to the docks, where they find their boat. It looks like a brig, manned by about 10 crew. A lion-looking tabaxi meet them and introduces himself as Windy in the Wind. He introduces the rest of the crew, and the ship as The Unsinkable II. The name strikes worry in a few of the members, making them wonder what happened to the first seemingly unsinkable boat. Windy introduces a few more members, an orc carrying 2 goats and a new deckhand.
Ash asks Windy to teach them to be a pirate, but WIndy is not impressed. Not much of a pirate?
He requires a payment of 60gp per person, per trip
The trip to the north is said to take about 3 weeks. Ash summons an air elemental once per day to help shorten the trip.
Once they cross the threshold from Empire of Moroxia to the Thax'ning Tribes, they notice a small island of the coast with about 8 creatures on it. Harpies. Windy is not impressed with this, as they have encountered them before. Ethalyn and some of the deckhands are enthralled by their singing, but the experienced crew makes short progress, and Keleni starts to blast music about pirates and harpies, while spectral backup singers appear behind her. After this point, the weather grows colder.
By week two, the days grows shorter and the crew keeps a close look at the waves. Tentacles starts to rise above the water, apparently there is a kraken! Windy grows a bit agitated, asking for one of the goats. “We have an agreement, it’s fine!” he says as he slaughters the goat and pours the blood over the rail, along with some flour. They pass safely, the kraken evidently pleased with the somewhat unconventional baking ingredients.
Rohesia van Es has been with Windy for a while, and Keleni asks her about the story of a kraken. She tells her that Windy apparently asked it what it wanted, and maybe had a telepathic conversation with it, and gave it a goat and some flour. Keleni spends a lot of time talking to the crew. Every time someone asks about the previous boat, people deflect the question, and Windy straight to ignores the question.
Ethalyn talks to one of the crew that mostly keep to himself, and he refuses to speak to her.
Ash aks Ethalyn if she wants to do something fun, and proceed to tie ropes around their waists and cast Waterwalk on them (and 8 more unsuspecting people), and they waterski behind the ship.
The week progresses with more of Ash’s antics, and as the third week of travel approaches, the travel is smooth and they arrive before time.
Continued in part 2.