The already wounded Merrow is easy prey for Markizio, struggling to hold Kung leaves him open to a murderous blow.
With only one marrow remaining on deck, Marnir leaps from the quarterdeck and strides confidently towards the last giant. Brandishing his axe, marrow blood dripping from it's blade, he roars at the sea giant.
Your friends are dead! Your prey is saved! You will burn to death unless you get off this ship and never hunt intense waters again!"
He channels magic into his voice as the heat of his hatred is unleashed.
HP 75+16/75
AC 22, touch 13, flat-footed 22 (+7 armour, +1 deflection, +2 Dex, +1 dodge, +1 natural armour, +1 dodge from haste, -1 inspired rage)
Speed: 60 ft
Fort: +14, Ref: +9, Will: +16 (+6 vs fear) (+2 to all from heroism, +1 Ref from haste, +2 Fort and +3 Will from inspired rage)
Conditions: 6 mirror images, heroism, haste, Battle Cry, inspired rage
Melee attack (+1 furious battleaxe): +18/+14 (+6 BAB, +4 Str, +1 enhancement, +2 heroism, +1 haste, +2 furious, +2 inspired rage)
Melee Damage (+1 furious battleaxe): d8+14 (+6 Str, +1 enhancement, +2 Arcane Strike, +2 furious, +3 inspired rage)
19/20 rds raging song remaining
The last Merrow flinches as Marnir verbally lashes him, flames ignite on his skin and he howls in dread.
Jane loads up another red feathered arrow. "Well, This was a quick fight. she says as she lets it go.
Right as she is about to pull the trigger. A wave rolled up and bumped the ship, resulting in the arrow going wide and landing in the water behind the big guy.
Even though it comes from a friendly source, Kung attempts to resist Niobe's spell, the fury coursing through his veins taking precedence over any logic. His will proves inferior to Niobe's magic, though, and the spell takes effect even as the merrow falls to the ground.
He turns immediately to the last remaining merrow, watching as it cowers, bursting into flames. "Never challenge Unbound Drake!!!" he laughs.
HP 59/86
AC 18, touch 11, flat-footed 15 (+6 armor, +2 dex, +1 natural, +1 deflection, -1 size, +1 dodge/haste, -2 rage)
Speed: 70 ft (+30 ft haste)
Fort: +13, Ref: +12 (+1 dodge/haste), Will: +8 (+2 rage)
All saves: +4 vs. fear (battle cry), +5 vs. spells & -like (rage/competence)
Conditions: enlarge person, haste, battle cry, rage, grace of frost, freedom of movement, grudge fighter
Melee (+3 furious greatsword): +20/+18/+13 (+7 BAB, +7 str, +3 enhancement, -1 size, -0/-2/-2 power attack, +1 battle cry/morale, +1 haste, +2 rage)
Melee Damage (+3 furious greatsword): 3d6+22+1d4 (+10 str, +3 enhancement, +6 power attack, +2 rage, +1 grudge fighter/morale, +1d4 grace of frost/cold)
11/17 rds Rage remaining
Kung slaughters the last Merrow and silence slowly covers the deck, the survivors of the Aspis ship look around warily. Their officers are dead or unconscious, and they are at your mercy.
15 crewmen still survive, when the Aspis Strongbox ran into the reef, many of them were thrown overboard and grabbed by the local Merrow tribe. Other Merrow climbed aboard and started dragging bodies back into the water.
The Captain and the officers tried to resist and now the Captain lies unconscious having killed a Merrow but falling to another. The ship it's self is finished, its spine shattered by hitting rock head on. But it is in no danger of sinking, wedged on the rocks for good.
The Strongbox is less heavily armed then it's escort vessel. Your crew swarms over, some keeping a wary eyes on the dark waters while others quickly and efficiently strip the ship of anything valuable.
It's now completely dark and your ship is in the middle of treacherous reefs, what are you doing?
Jane is down below, making a few more arrows. She will start looking at inventing a more powerful version of her fire arrow. One that does double damage when it's fire is ignited.
With the last merrow cut into bloody chunks by Kung's enormous sword, Marnir flicks the blood from his axe blade and begins co-ordinating clearing the Aspis ship before any more merrow arrive.
"First mate, form a work party and strip whatever valuables you can find - weapons, cargo, the pay chest - anything that's not nailed down. Niobe, grab some deckhands and get those wounded officers aboard the Drake, then do what you can with their injuries. Kung, you're in charge of getting the rest of the hands aboard - make them the standard offer."
Marnir looks around for Jane, but she seems to have disappeared into her workshop already.
"Aye, cap'n," says Niobe. As directed, she starts posting light spells at various points about the other ship and directs some of the deckhands over to rescue the wounded Aspis officers - those who can be saved, anyway. Those who are dying are stabilized, while those who are injured but living are moved to a secure position on the Drake under watched guard after being relieved of their weapons.
"Cap'n," says Niobe when the enemy officers are assembled, "I can use my magic wand on them, or if you'd prefer to conserve magic, I can use regular medical skills to deal with the wounded. The latter will take a lot of time, though - possibly hours. Your preference?"
"Use magic on those that need it urgently - save them if they're about to visit the Boneyard. Everyone else we can look after without magic once we're underway again."
Markizio took things with calm, after all, the merrows had been a formidable foe.
"Captain, we can't leave in the dark so I suggest we post double guards and wait for the sun."
He added, "We should take some of these sailors and see how they like the pirate life. After all, we did save them. Good call having Kung asking them to join us."
Before the Aspis sailors can even be brought aboard, Kung presents their options. "Standard offer." He points to the lifeboats on the wrecked ship, as the Drake's crew is busy dismantling the other items of value. "You take small boat. We give water. You live life you want out there. Go, be free."
"Or, you join Drake. Good crew, good captain, good life." He leans in towards the gathered potential pirates and leers harshly. "No mutiny. No sneaky. You say good, we good, but you say good and be bad? You deal with KUNG!"
"You're right, first mate. I don't fancy trying to get us out of these shoals in the dark. Good idea on the double watch. I'll leave you to set it up," Marnir says, glad to have a first mate as sensible and reliable as Markizio.
He overhears Kung talking to the rescued Aspis sailors. He makes a compelling offer, ending with an intimidating glare that gives even the most hardened buccaneer pause.
You pick up 11 crewmen, happy to be aboard a seaworthy ship.
The officer and the Captain are surprisingly quick to agree to your terms as well when they awake.
The former Captain is a lean man in his early thirties, marked by many years at sea. He shrugs "Aspis don't take losing a ship lightly. In fact they'll probably want my hide for it, regardless of how it happened. Best to be elsewhere when they get the sad news."
The other officer is an attractive woman who served as the Strong box's navigator, her name is Greta Kellen. She seems to take the career change with good cheer. "I've been a pirate before, easy enough to be one again.
The former Captain Nialls Hawker nods, and gives you a warning as well. "Be on your guard, that reef looked like a deep channel when I tried to take it. Those bastards must have a spell caster among them."
The night passes quietly, marked only by the sounds of the crew on watch patrolling the deck, lanterns held high.
"Those merrow didn't look much like spellcasters, though I'm not sure I'd have recognised one if it tried to eat me," Marnir chuckles. "You're both welcome aboard the Drake, so long as you abide by the rules. Kung, our master-at-arms, can inform you of them, and first mate Markizio can see to you getting a berth and a job."
The peaceful night is welcome and the Drake sets sail for Drenchport with the dawn's first light.
After her arrows are restocked. Jane decides to join the others on deck and share a drink. She will keep an eye on the new crewmates, but she doesn't mess with them too much.
Each sailor who joins the crew gets a bit of healing from Niobe's wand, and long-term care if they need it.
Lashed more days than not by relentless storms thrown off by the Eye of Abendego, the island of Tempest Cay is an unlikely place for any kind of
permanent settlement, let alone a major town boasting a population of nearly 10,000 souls. And yet the dank and dour city of Drenchport has one of the busiest and most chaotic harbors in all the Shackles, serving as the first real respite for mariners skirting the western extremes
of the Eye or travelers’ last stop before heading north for Mediogalti Island.
The town was built in a haphazard fashion over the years from the ample driftwood and flotsam that washes ashore—the remains of unfortunate
ships captained by sailors lacking the requisite skill or luck necessary to survive these treacherous waters.
Tempest Cay has inexplicably proven to be a magnet for pirates of Ulfen ethnicity, and Skald can be heard in conversation as often as the Common tongue. A number of tengu communities also call the various ports home.
Visitors seeking a functioning government will be hardpressed to locate any officials; those who dock at Tempest Cay are more or less on their own, though the prominent and ubiquitous temples of Gozreh are known to offer shelter and aid occasionally. Every business owner on the island is prepared to meet trouble with his own blade or cudgel, though neighbors will sometimes come to one another’s aid, if for no other reason than the likelihood that sooner than later the shoe will be on the other foot.
The enigmatic leader of Tempest Cay is the Master of the Gales, a powerful druid who spends 10 or 11 months a year at sea in his hardy black xebec Kraken. He comes back to the island a few days at a time each month, spending most of that time in sea caves a half-mile north of Drenchport that are only accessible at low tide. Few ask aloud what he is doing in those watery places, though many speculate in hushed conversations.
Is he counting the bounty of his raids, conducting strange rituals known only to oceangoing druids, or engaged in unnatural congress with foul
denizens of the deep? No one has ventured into the caves to find out, and not a single pirate complains about the Master of the Gales’ vague leadership or the tax each pays him as their putative lord. Rumor has it that those who have questioned the druid’s right to authority have only
days later washed ashore, dead, bloated, and with a second smile carved from ear to ear below the chin.
Markizio tried to keep his clothes dry here to no avail.
With strands of hair plastered to his face he asked, "So how long are we staying here? This place is miserable."
-----------
Kung exchanges his mithral shirt with Markizio's steel version of the same, and then makes to head into Drenchport to go shopping. "Kung spend many time in Drenchport. Was living here right before Port Peril, where Kung meet all you! Well, not you, Niobe. But all rest. Happiest worst day of Kung life!"
"Anyway, Kung know Drenchport well! Happy give tour, show around if any good pirate want. Kung show special surprise. Kung secret place, favorite place."
He makes his way to a pawnshop that he knows of, one that helped fence some items for him in his younger days, where he sells the +2 chain shirt in order to purchase a +2 mithral breastplate of comfort. He also replenishes his javelin supply, purchasing 4 more, which he immediately winds into the amentum that he carries for them.
If anyone joins him around town, he happily shows off the seediest bars along with additional run-down pawnshops and fences that specialize in all sorts of different types of wares, whatever anyone is shopping for. In no case does he ever take someone anywhere that could be called nice (not that Drenchport has much of that anyway).
He finishes his tour with the special surprise that he hasn't shut up about all day: a broken-down pier that looks out towards the unceasing storm of the Eye of Abendago. He wastes no time plopping down at the end at the end of the pier, the mostly rotted boards basically acting as a cushion, with his good and peg leg both dangling over the edge as the harsh salt spray lashes his face. "It most beautiful sight Kung ever never see."
Jaymiss is well known in Drenchport both as an expert scrimshaw carver and a shameless rumormonger. Gathering information reveals that the gray-haired old half-elf spends most of his time by the fire in the
Carvers’ Hall, a communal building where Drenchport’s scrimshanders work together on larger projects and sell their finished works.
Marnir soon has the man eating out of his hand, a mug of black kelp beer gratefully accepted.
Jaymiss reveals that he has suspicions about a man named Haddon Pike, a beachcomber, fisherman, and occasional smuggler. The thing is, many
of Haddon’s supposed smuggling trips down south in a hired boat don’t actually involve moving goods. Jaymiss knows the black market in Drenchport pretty well, and he’s noticed that Haddon seldom buys or sells any contraband goods before or after these trips.
He gives you directions to Haddon’s residence, a small driftwood cottage
perched on the rugged coast just outside of Drenchport.
Niobe says to Markizio, "This place is pretty crazy. All this flotsam and driftwood. No sense to how it's made, just a big random giant... pier, more or less." She brushes out her long hair, unconcerned about the constant wetness, as she walks with the crew. "I hear the druid who presides over this place..." She leans in closer to whisper. "He's kind of a d***." She pulls an annoying knot through with her brush and continues. "Anyway... I'd love to see what you want to show us, Kung."
She haggles at one of the shops to have her cloak's enchantments improved, a process that will take a couple of days, and decides that since the group will be here for a little while taking in "the sights" she might as well stow her armor when she goes to see Kung's special secret.
At the pier that looks toward the Eye, Niobe stands on the end of the pier, the sea-breeze lashing her long chemise, staring at the Eye. "It's a chaotic force of nature, ceaseless and powerful... that must be why the Master of Gales chose this place, he tries to emulate it." She puts her waterproof bag and her spear down on the pier next to Kung, leaps into the air, and her form shifts and fuses once more into her innate mermaid tail before she hits the water. She dives down along the shallow bottom covered in wrack and debris, then splashes back up a few minutes later with just her head breaking the surface. "Hard to see underwater. It's just a black torrent, a giant vortex funnel pulling in everything from the sea around it."
"I'm going to stretch my flukes a bit," she says while bobbing in the water, "Maybe make a circuit of the pier, startle some sailors." She wriggles slightly underwater, then breaks the surface again and tosses her wadded-up chemise onto the pile with her bag of her gear, with just the debris-filled brine water concealing her form. "See you boys soon!" She rolls onto her back and waves as she propels herself in a quick tour of the lonely pier, never stopping or saying in one place long enough for any sailor to see more than a glimpse of her racing through the water just below the surface. She dives before she turns back so that she disappears from view and hopefully nobody will be able to follow her back to the pier.
Eventually she returns to the pier and bobs gently at the waterline. "It's funny living and working among walkers," she says casually, then makes a leisurely roll over sideways before resuming her upright but submerged posture. "Takes forever to get anywhere, but there are so many things to see! Thank you for bringing me with you. I'm looking forward to many adventures."
The front door has a simple lock, and there’s an open window at the back. Haddon’s dead body lies inside the cottage. Two crossbow bolts protrude from his back, and his head is submerged in a fish tank. The tank holds Haddon’s pet, “Grinner,” a piranhalike creature with frilled spines, huge eyes, and lots of teeth, which has consumed most of its master’s exposed flesh. Clutched in Haddon’s hand is a piece of driftwood carved to resemble a birdlike humanoid with a narrow beak, recognizable as a tengu.
Using her knowledge of Alchemy Jane tells you that the bolts still bare slight traces of poison.
Niobe checks the body and estimates Haddon has been dead for a week. The angle of the bolts suggests he was shot through the window.
A search behind the cottage turns up an empty glass vial 80' from the window, but the ever present rain has washed awayany traces of scrent or tracks.
Everyone but Markizio detects the hidden compartment in the fishtank. Inside is a waterproofed bag containing 40pp, 259 gp, and a scrimshaw walrus tusk scroll case (worth 50 gp).
Inside the case are several rolled up scrolls of sheet music and lyrics, part of an old Chelish opera written in Infernal.
Besides the obvious incongruity of finding a Chelish opera in the possession of a beachcomber, Jane recognizes that Infernal would not have been used at the time the opera was written, a hint that the opera may hold a clue.
In the cabin later, at the scene of the crime, Niobe is quite distressed. She has at least re-dressed in her soggy chemise, but she doesn't care much about being damp. "How could people just leave him here for a week? Didn't he even have neighbors? Someone who would check if he stopped coming into town for food? How awful!"
Knowing little of the surface world, she is completely unfamiliar with Chelish opera.
"I could sing it," she says, "but I don't know the language."
Kung just laughs when someone hands him the opera text. "Kung barely read Talda... Taldo... trade language. This scribble mean nothing."
At the last minute, before handing it off, he pulls the scroll back. "Wait... this funny. See how this squiggle show up lots? It here... and here... and here too. Maybe this common word. Word like Kung no like use. 'And,' or 'the,' maybe."
Mrkizio excuses himself, "Don't look at me. I don't speak or read that language."
He turned to the captain, "Can't you use magic to decipher this?"
Drenchport is Marnir's kind of pirate haven - a den of scoundrels and rogues where everyone is left to their own business. He is even more delighted to hear frequent snatches of his mother tongue, and he enjoys spending time conversing with others in Skald - an opportunity he hasn't had for many months.
He uses the chance to get some recommendations for reputable artisans who will enhance his armour and cloak, before setting off to find Jaymiss. The scrimshawer is all too eager to talk, and their investigation takes them to the house of a smuggler named Haddon Pike, who is unfortunately deceased.
"Well, s~&%, Marnir says with exasperation, before they have a good look around the man's house. "Looks like he got on the wrong side of someone, if he found himself assassinated through the window."
Marnir takes a look at the opera, which means very little to him. "I see what you mean Kung, there does seem to be some sort of pattern. Chelish opera isn't my thing, but it looks a bit odd even to me."
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Looking at the opera Jane starts to think. "Let's look through the spell books of those wizards and other magic users we've fought. If one of them had the spell, Comprehend Languages, written down, I can copy it and get a translation going.
Looking at the opera Jane starts to think. "Let's look through the spell books of those wizards and other magic users we've fought. If one of them had the spell, Comprehend Languages, written down, I can copy it and get a translation going.
Markizio added, "Yes, my thoughts exactly which is why I asked the captain to do this."
He looked at Marnir, "Can't you borrow just about any magic spell out there?"
----------
The decoded instructions order Haddon to report on the movement of ships visiting Drenchport, especially those belonging to the Master of the Gales. The instructions also identify Haddon’s main contact, a woman named Roweena Kellet in Hell Harbor on Devil’s Arches.
Any other questions you have, or anything else you wish to do in Drenchport? Or is it off to the charmingly named Hell Harbor?
"A secret contact in Hell Harbor on Devil's Arches, hidden in a Chelish opera written in Infernal? I wonder who this woman might work for?" Marnir says sarcastically.
"We'll get going once everyone has done their shopping and the crew has had a little shore leave."
"Uuuugh, why do the Chelish have to be so predictably baroque?" says Niobe as she rolls her eyes.
"Kung thought Cheliax rich nation?" He seems confused by Niobe's comment. They'd just taken in a nice bit of plunder from Chelish ships. Perhaps she was making a joke he couldn't understand; he didn't always understand everybody's sarcasm.
When Marnir calls people to muster so they can depart, Kung grows a little dour. It had been nice to spend time again in his adopted home; even better that he didn't have to scrape and steal to survive this time around.
When he sees their path charted, though, his mood improves, realizing that the path to Devil's Arches will skirt the southern edge of the Eye. Kung stays above decks as much as possible, with an eye never far from the view into the constant storm that he loves so much.
Jane thinks for a moment. "Hell Harbor sounds like fun. My vote is for there."
You set sail again, wondering when this strange scavenger hunt will come to an end, but you shrug, it may be chasing after shadows, but it's been very profitable for you.
Hell Harbor: The port town now called Hell Harbor was a logical site for early pirate settlers establishing a base in the Shackles, as the natural harbor is deep and easy to defend. Limestone from ancient quarries and crumbling Ghol-Gan ruins was employed to construct tall watchtowers on spits of land flanking the narrow harbor entrance, and skilled archers make it difficult for unwelcome ships to penetrate the city.
The town earned its name thanks to the numerous imps that have populated the region since its discovery, and to this day these diabolical creatures can be seen perched on the eaves and sills of the settlement’s Chelish architecture. Arronax Endymion, former admiral of the Chelish navy, is the current pirate lord of the city, and the brutal
mutineers who made up the crew of his original fleet are enthusiastic enforcers of his iron-fisted rule.
Endymion ran afoul of his devil-worshiping homeland’s deadly internal politics, insulting a seemingly minor aristocrat of House Thrune at some soiree in Corentyn. The celebrated Chelish mariner was forced to flee past the Arch of Aroden in his flagship Tyrannous, accompanied by six additional ships crewed by mutineers from the Chelish navy who had sworn their personal fealty to him years ago.
Pursued by an imperial fleet twice the size of his own, Endymion sailed directly into the roaring Eye of Abendego. How he and his flotilla survived is a thing of legend. No more than 2 weeks later, he laid siege to Hell Harbor, sinking a dozen pirate vessels and overcoming the town’s land defenses with ease. Accustomed to a loosely organized society of rival pirate gangs, Hell Harbor now had a new and very different pirate lord, who brought culture and order to the previously anarchic port.
In the years since, this enclave has nearly doubled in size and taken on an atmosphere not unlike that of any thriving Chelish port town, with the same cultural touchstones for which the infernal nation is famed. In fact, Hell Harbor even boasts its own opera house, the Three-Horned Hall, where performances of classic material in the original Azlanti play to packed houses; Endymion himself an aficionado of High Chelish Opera—frequently attends, as do those seeking his favor.
The ex-admiral’s influence on the port can be felt through various facets, making the political structure a much more ordered affair, with a paid constabulary, building codes, municipal government, sanitation, and tax collection. But Hell Harbor has changed Endymion as well. Once a devoted follower of diabolism, this disgraced Chelish noble has become increasingly paranoid about visitors hailing from his homeland. Natives of Cheliax who were not part of his original crews (who all bear a red and black tattoo of a horned skull on the left side of the ribs) are not welcome in the port, for Endymion sees spies everywhere.
The Wretched Furnace, Hell Harbor’s hulking prison, is filled to capacity with individuals suspected of ties to House Thrune and its machinations. Even the imps that clutter the slate roofs of the harbor’s buildings have drawn Endymion’s suspicion, and a proclamation offering
a reward for each imp slain is posted in every tavern and bawdy house
Once in port Captain Saltvig's golden tongue soon uncovers the information you seek.
Roweena Kellet worked in Hell harbor as a harbor quartermaster, in charge of two of Arronax Endymion's smaller warehouses, however she has recently gone missing?
Once again a smile and his golden words gather Marnir the information you need. Roweena's home address. Whne you arrive there you find her front door has already been broken open and the house roughly searched by the watch.
None of the many shipping and mercantile papers scattered about Roweena’s office implicate her as a spy or informer, but a successful DC 30 Perception check finds a ledger listing the names of numerous major pirate lords of the Shackles, each with a large number beside it.
A successful DC 20 Appraise or Linguistics check allows you to recognize the numbers as estimated bribes, either to have the named pirates lord turn traitor, or to have their followers overthrow them. Of these names, one stands out: Arronax Endymion, whose entry has only a dash, rather
than a number, after to his name.
Scribbled at the bottom of one page is a single line: “Send with Corlan.”
Jane does a thorough job searching, but she is unable to find anything of note. ”This place is a mess.
During the trip, Niobe stands on the deck next to Kung, the strong winds coming of the Eye whipping her black hair and her traveling cloak. She leans precariously at the rail, one hand holding on to Kung's arm for support during the dizzying sea-tossed part of the voyage passing the great maelstrom.
"Thank you for showing me your home, Kung," she says to the half-orc over the oceanic din. "Maybe someday I can return the favor."
~~~~~~~~~~
The journey to Hell's Harbor is pleasingly uneventful, and the time spent skirting round the Eye is an exciting diversion, but Marnir's mood soon sours as they enter the tightly ordered Chelish enclave. "It's no place for a proper pirate," he mutters quietly as they dock. "I'm looking forward to being done with this place and getting back to somewhere like Drenchport - no opera, no watchmen, just pubs and shops and freedom."
Finding Roweena's house is easy enough with the right words in the right ears, though they're obviously not the first group to have come looking for her.
Marnir spends a few minutes rifling through the assorted papers and books before finding a large ledger. "There's a lot of famous names in here," he says, passing the book round for the others to see. "Not sure what these numbers mean though. I hope it's not another tedious Chelish code."
Looking at the papers Marnir passed around, Jane tries to figure our what it means.
Laughing a little Jane passes along the meaning. ”This guy is counting his chickens before they hatch. Some guy named Arronax ring a bell?”
Kung smiles at Niobe's offer. "Kung like that. Have helm now, Kung go where Niobe go. Good swimmer, too," he offers, a wide grin on his face.
"When Niobe swim at Drenchport.... how close you go to Eye?" he asks, pointing off into the distance as a ferocious bolt of lightning crackles deep within the storm. His admiration of her swimming is easily apparent. "Kung want swim there one day."
The half-orc tries to assist in the investigation, but uncovers no findings that weren't already found by anyone else.
"I didn't get that close. I'm a good swimmer but the Eye is so large and so powerful, there's no way I could escape if I got close enough to feel the pull. Maybe one day... but for now that is a feat of nature far beyond my abilities."
~~~~~~~~~~
Niobe is making a slow turn in the office building when Jane mentions Arronax. "Arronax? Like, the officer who runs this island?"
Niobe is making a slow turn in the office building when Jane mentions Arronax. "Arronax? Like, the officer who runs this island?"
Markizio nodded, "Yes, that be the one. The pirate that longs for Cheliax. Strange."
He turned to the others, "It sounds like we need to meet this captain. Anyone here enjoy operar? Anyone know what opera is?"
"I've heard of opera, but I've never seen one. I know how to sing?" says Niobe perkily.
Kung cants his head at an angle, a confused look on his face. Opera?
"From what I've heard, opera is like the sagas of my people, but with frillier clothes and boring stories,"says Marnir, a look of disdain on his face. "I'd rather not suffer through it, but if that's the way we contact Captain Endymion then so be it."
"Who's Corlan?" he asks, looking over the ledger again and seeing a small scribbled note at the bottom of one of the pages. "A conspirator maybe?"
Asking around about this 'Corlan' turns up the news that he is a Tengu smuggler, known to be one of Roweena's agents.
The address given for him is a dwelling in Hell harbors Tengu rookery.
What are you doing now?
"A tengu, eh? Like the carving poor dead Haddon was clutching. Did anyone pick that up off his body?" Marnir asks, concerned that it might be important. "Sounds like we should visit this Corlan, get him to tell us what he knows."
Jane thinks to herself, "Do you guys want me to do a quick scouting of the Tengu Rookery?"
"Good idea. A lot of people we need to talk to have found themselves dead or missing recently. I'd hate for us to get caught up in someone else's war," Marnir says. "We'll be nearby though. If you need help, why don't you blow something up and we'll come running."