"The dark elves will feel most at home underground," he whispers. "Find caves and we're like to find our quarry."
The group pads quietly through the village, past burnt out shacks and knee-high weeds. The first sign of trouble is at the intersection with the road that leads back down to the harbor. A single pair of glowing white eyes, fading silently into pale reds. They hover in the darkness among the leaning beams of a collapsed building about 50' ahead and to the right.
Kwava hisses a warning and raises his bow to draw it.
Let's say 7pm at the time of Brenin's question. That means that if Rees started resting immediately she could be magically recharged around 4am. If you're posting a watch, Kwava and Samaritha are available to take a share. Kwava volunteers to take a double watch.
"There's a thin bit of smoke coming off the ridgeline, maybe three miles up the way. Someone's campfire I'm guessing."
He stays at the top of the tower next to Gabbro and Rees as the sun starts to set.
"The flickers out in the woods - the ones out by the crater and such. Take a look," he points down into the woods. "Those are our feline friends, I'm guessing."
You look out on the darkening woods that cover the island. Here and there in every direction you can see twinkling colored lights. They flash in bursts, like little groups of multi-colored firecrackers going off, but without any sound at all.
Her healing hex is once per day per creature, so she can give each of you a dose of that. Lia's down to 11 hp. Kwava offers up the potion he carries to anyone who needs it still after those measures.
Kwava trains his bow on the tower and its sinister-looking arrow slits. He walks slowly down the road toward the tower.
"Did you notice Brenin," he calls out without taking his eyes off the tower, "that the cats didn't draw breath? What manner of creature neither breathes nor makes any noise? And allies itself with undead?"
Kwava grins at Rees standing beside him as he lowers and unbends his bow.
"Weren't you the one concerned about the noise of the cannon? We should have brought it with us. You blew those things to the hells."
His grin fades as he walks over to one of the smoldering arms and toes it with his boot. The clawed hand is hideous. The bones of the fingers stretched into weapons. He looks over at the tongue in the road.
Kwava lays a hand on Lia's shoulder. "No worries my friend. Creesey's boys will put us right on the shore. And once on the island, we'll pick up some trails if there are folks on this island. To hear Creesey tell it, there's only one way on or off the rock, so as long as he's standing off shore, no one's getting away. As long as Brenin and I are with you, we'll find what we seek."
"You may feel out of your element, but we're just entering ours." He looks over to Brenin for agreement.
Apologies for the silent treatment, folks. Pam's got the heebeejeebees, meaning I've been making too many profession(housekeeper) rolls of late.
Kwava overhears Rees and comments from his spot on the bowsprit.
"It isn't Croat," he says, as he hands a borrowed glass back to one of Creesey's mates and starts to climb down. "It's a couple of very busy looking young men sailing more ship than they can manage. They may have a story, but I don't think they have your skymetal."
"And I agree with the rest of the group - it's not the skymetal we're after anyway. The important thing is that those are not drow. Those men haven't seen us yet from anything I can tell. They don't have a man in their top at all."
Creesey nods and keeps to a course that will bring you to the island. Kwava climbs up to the maintop with another borrowed glass and watches the far-off sail until it's gone completely. Not long after that there's another cry from the tops, this time from Kwava himself.
"Land and another sail!" He points ahead, to the south. "There's more sails flashing out on that one - I think she's laying on sail."
Creesey mutters to Brenin, "Must have seen us just as we seen them. They're lyin' dead between us and the port."
Kwava casts a side-long glance at Gabbro before he continues, clearly weighing trust factors.
"It was the drow who called the stone to earth. Something they've created or learned. We killed one," a nod to Lia, "and there's more on this island, Devil's Elbow."
"He'll sail right by us to get to Riddleport. I'll send Ganmede back to him asking that he pluck us off the coast here."
True to his word, Kwava sends off a renewed Ganmede later in the afternoon. Then he sets about locating shelter and food. This requires a hike back into the hills and out of the devastation zone. Between him and Brenin, a rock shelter with a view on the river's mouth is found and another impromptu camp is pitched.
The next two days are a damp and impatient mess. The third day dawns clearer and breezy.
"Sail ho!" Kwava cries at first light, waking those of you still sleeping. A sleek four-masted vessel stands no more than a mile off-shore making a course for the Velashu.
"That's the Flying Cloud," Kwava says as he moves around, striking camp. "Let's get out to that island and see what in the hells the dark elves have wrought."
Of course no one is in charge of anything. The streets are a little quieter away from what used to be the waterfront, but the din is spreading and may soon overtake the Goblin.
Kwava talks as you retreat together.
"All this ignores the lack of ships. I don't think Croat's going anywhere right now for lack of a ship to get him there - same as us. Look at this place!"
He holds out two hands, offering the unfolding riotous disaster as his evidence. The docks are gone - worse than gone - buried in piles of mouldering, stinking rubble. What will burn is now burning. The crowd is descending into general melee - a group-mugging.
"Maybe he could storm the next thing that comes to port like Zincher has done, but he'd not have us on his crew regardless. He's only employing those with orc blood in their veins."
"I think we either take to the road, or steal some small craft from someone and make our way downstream. Our best chance of getting to that island is still the Flying Cloud."
Brenin surveys the scene with distaste. "How far is the island? Can we get there with a small boat like we had the other night?"
Should have had you roll knowledge(geog) for answers to this, but it slipped by me. Between Brenin and Kwava you guys have this...
"Twenty miles, most of it road to get to the mouth of the Velashu. I think the island is not very far out, but I'm no seaman. Small craft on the river is more my speed."
"That island's notorious for its reefs. An ill tide may kill us."
As the half orc comes up, Kwava takes a protective step closer to the ladies.
"Let's get out of this town. Ganmede must have flown far up the coast by now. If the Flying Cloud lies along the coast, we will have our ship. Her captain is Josper Creesey. He's a trustworthy soul for a privateer. I still have hopes of him - he's an associate of my order - and I've traveled with him in the past."
"When he dropped me here it was by ship's boat, at the mouth of the Velashu. Given the state of the port, he'd probably prefer to pick us off the coast somewhere anyhow. His plans were to practice a sailing run he intends to race at the end of the summer. Up and down the coast between here and Roderic's Cove."
"It's better than rotting in this place, anyhow." He shoots a look of revulsion at the milling crowd.
Kwava is on fire to be away. He binds a note to Ganmede's leg, speaks briefly and quietly with him, then sends him off. With the bird gone, he sits on the roof, presiding over the destruction and reading back through the dark elf's journal. Someone else already has a head start toward the island. There are answers there, perhaps even a terrible weapon to seize, and he is trapped in this cesspool of a town.
Journal of the Dark Elf:
The journal was written by a dark elf named Depora Azrinae who claims to be from a dark elf city named Zirnakaynen. It tells in frank and graphic detail about her alternating rivalry and love affair with another woman from her city named Shindiira. Shindiira is a worshipper of Nocticula, which apparently makes her quite sought-after as a lover. It describes their journey along with several others of their kind to the surface world, as well as clues to what they are doing here.
They were on some kind of sacred mission that was given to them by the matron of Depora's house, to come to the surface world and act as the eyes of her matron. She clearly felt that executing her part of this plan would bring fame and power to her family, and by extension to herself.
She describes a deep-seated hatred of her fair-skinned 'cousins' whom she considers corrupted. In fact she seems to hate everyone mentioned in the journal with the occasional exception of Shindiira, whom she seems to passionately love and hate. She writes about her feud with Shindiira over a male wizard, and her strong suspicions that Shindiira won this match by bedding the wizard. The wizard is named Novelniss, and his magic was apparently key to researching and constructing some kind of weapon. She felt certain that part of her test in being sent to the surface was to see if she could seduce the wizard, and she feared that her inability to dominate Shindiira would be seen as a weakness when she returned home. She intended to murder Shindiira as soon as her 'business' on the surface was finished.
Her task in Riddleport was to extract samples of stone from the legendary Cyphergate that dominates the city harbor. The stone was a critical component of some other witchcraft of Novelniss's design. She describes finding the caves and widening them to the point where the Cyphergate could be reached. She cut the famously ensorcled stone with some chisel sent with her for the task, then returned to the wizard with the pieces.
Apparently Novelniss was impressed with her efficiency, because he becomes her lover at this point in the story... though Depora suspects his motives. The wizard is upset with Shindiira because of the blot in the sky. For reasons not clear in Depora's musings, Novelniss blames Shindiira for its existence. In the end, Depora is sent back to Riddleport to observe the blot and watch for signs of it growing stronger or fading. She's not happy about these orders, but is reassured by the fact that Shindiira is trapped on an island named Devil's Elbow until her work there is complete, and cannot return to Novelniss while she is away. In any event they expect that the blot will disappear when Shindiira's secret work is complete, which should be any day now.
