AAR[6M]: The Slavers Come Home to Roost on the Soaring Espagra (2020-10-20 @ 2300 GMT)

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sigfriedmcwild
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Re: AAR[6M]: The Slavers Come Home to Roost on the Soaring Espagra (2020-10-20 @ 2300 GMT)

Post by sigfriedmcwild » Sat Oct 24, 2020 6:02 am

From the memoirs of Elisen of clan Adorjan, Haressa-tis and Lore Keeper

In Throal I ended up spending quite a lot of time with Juniper (Solanus Pyrocantha, elven Shadow and Questor of Lochost), the constant partying was a welcome distraction and most events appreciated having a trained Troubadour around to provide music and entertainment.

One morning we were having breakfast in an inn, together with Lazulin (troll Raider and Sun Herald), and Icarus Wolfswitft, a human Air Sailor who we had found sleeping at the table when we walked in, when Juniper noticed a t'skrang outside.

The t'skrang in question was Gerry van Drake pirate, slaver, and former acquaintance of Juniper. As it turns out Gerry was looking for help for a job of some kind and Juniper proposed that we should join their crew to make sure their plans would fail. And kill them. I don't think Juniper was very fussy about the order there.

Gerry was so desperate so sign on anyone that they didn't even really ask what we could do and instead launched in a hard sell for the job. Apparently they had a backer with deep pockets funding an expedition to recover an artifact that could control "the fate of the Coil". As it turns out Bloodbeat was the only other person that we saw sign up, Gerry didn't seem to pick up on the fact that we knew each other.

We agreed to meet Gerry in Kampung Gajah two days later, packed up and left. Isidoros was quite sad to leave the city, they'd taken quite a liking to a cabbage stall in the bazaar. The trip was uneventful even if the weather was remarkably hot and we found Gerry at the docks on their ship, the Floating Espagra (which I'm told used to be named the Soaring Espagra, the nameplate had been hastily and crudely been painted over).

I took Jacint and Teh with me on the ship, but there was no way Isidoros would fit, so I instructed them to follow us along the bank, but not to worry if they fell behind. As it turns out I shouldn't have worried with only two competent sailors on board (Gerry and Icarus) progress was slow enough that Isidoros had no issue keeping up, in fact they helped free the ship when it ran aground, once or twice... well no more than five times, I think...

Gerry did seem to have an idea of where to go, Juniper, Bloodbeat and I all tried to get information from her, but did not get any new information until Juniper snuk into their "cabin", more like a slightly less cramped section of belowdeck really, and found the contract which told us the employer was Theran.

After a few days Gerry ordered us to drop the anchor in an otherwise nondescript section of the Coil near the eastern bank. Apparently our goal was underwater nearby. Now, I know there's many stories of windlings being terrified of water, which are nothing but exaggerations, however it is true that most of my people never learn how to swim, and I was definitely part of that group at the time, so it was with some dismay that I watched my friends gleefully jump in the water, possibly just for the excuse to escape the oppressive heat.

I had mounted Jacint and started flying low on the water to provide what little assitance I could, when five birdlike things swam out of an underwater cave and attacked the party. The fight was rather easy, even with the difficulty of moving in the water.

The next challenge was significantly harder, namely convincing Jacint, who I will remind you is proud and headstrong even for a zoak, not to mention empowered by their bond with me, to trust the weirdos in the water to drag them underwater for an unknown amount of time. Jacint opinion was that this was madness and we should fly around and maybe catch some hares for lunch instead. Lazulin almost reached to just grab Jacint at one point, but I managed to stop them before we had to learn how bad that idea could have gone.

Bloodbeat, at home in water like only a t'skrang could be, carried us through. The swim was thankfully short and at the other end Juniper has set up a fire to help us dry, which was very thoughtful. Gerri also joined us and looked rather impatient. We found ourselves in a cave with four tunnels branching off, one of which was blocked by a door. The door itself had three keyholes in it. We explored the three open tunnels to find three other caves, each holding a chest containing a key or key like object.

Before opening the door we decided to rest for the night, during which Gerry didn't sleep and kept mumbling to herself. In the morning we opened the door, revealing another long tunnel leading to another chamber holding large stone altar carved in a snake like shape and on top of it was a beautiful lute.

Gerry immediately ran to grab it, which resulted into the altar coming to life as a gigantic basilisk that promptly ate them. With the slaver taken care of we turned our attention the the overgrown lizard, who proved to be extremely resilent. However Juniper noticed that it seemed extremely protective of the lute, so they grabbed it and tossed it into the wall, which damaged the lute and seemed to cause sympathetic pain into the basilisk. So we focused on destroying the instrument, which eventually killed the lizard too.

With that business dealt with we made our way outside (Jacint was almost eager to be carried underwater this time, I think they were tired of being stuck underground), we recovered the ship and took it back to Kampung Gaja where we sold it off. A proper search of Gerri's belongings revealed her ledger, which included information about her latest employer.

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