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It had been late afternoon when they had arrived at Zellara’s house, so it was in the final stages of dusk when the men arrived at the Old Fishery headquarters. The building was dark, with little sign of activity, so Cyril snuck up to the windows to see if he could see into the building. Being and incredibly perceptive young half-elf (with some great rolls), Cyril managed to get a basic layout of the front rooms of the building through the grimy, boarded-up windows.

Cyril could detect something moving around inside the front room, but couldn’t quite figure out what it was so the group decided that a “kick-in-the-door” and blitz approach would be the best option. Cyril readied to kick in the front door with Wolfom reading to charge in right behind him. When everyone was in position, Cyril kicked the door … and hurt his foot. Cyril’s failed attempt to kick in the door sent the fishery’s night watchman, and old, mean looking dog into a fit of barking. Realizing that what little element of surprise they had was gone, Wolfom charged into the door and his mighty Shoanti frame knocking the locked boards off their hinges. The rest of the group surged into the room and with a critical hit from the cleric’s mace, old Bloo was forever silenced.

The group spread out to check the doors, but realized that all of them were locked for the night. After a minute of fumbling around, the PC’s were surprised when a sleepy and half-dressed Yargin threw open the door from his sleeping quarters, pointed his acid wand at the Shoanti standing right next to him … and cursed as nothing happened. Fortunately for Yargin, Wolfom wasn’t used to swinging his greatsword indoors and banged his weapon off the doorframe between the two men. A stray bolt from Cyril and Yargin was feeling pretty good about himself, until Ankou’s magic ice-bolt confirmed another critical hit, dropping the acid-slinger.

A quick rummage through Yargin’s possession turned up the keys to the building (Yay!) which made the group’s advance much easier. Sweeping through the fish muck and stench, the group forced their way back into the two tiered processing floor where they found a giggling half-orc and a sleepy gnome yelling at a malnourished group of children.

The gnome successfully intimidated the children into attacking the intruders with their stirring oars and forks. Ankou, himself having been a child in Lamm’s employ years ago, didn’t wish to see any harm come to the children and attempted to talk them down, but the children were much more afraid of the gnome and with a thwack, one of them hit the cleric upside the head with an oar. The other orphans didn’t fare nearly as well, and batted their makeshift weapons ineffectually at the PC’s. Simon the wizard, agasht at the thought of hurting innocent children, cast a sleep spell, dropping three of the orphans, and the giggling half-orc into magical slumber. Finally getting to show off, Wolfom made a running leap from the balcony and landed in front of the gnome and sleeping half-orc, landing like a gymnast. One swing of his sword dropped the gnome, and a cleave finished the sleeping half-orc. Seeing their oppressors fall, the children dropped their weapons and fled from the fishery, free-at-last.

When a quick search of the rest of the fishery failed to turn up Gaedrin, the group readied themselves to head out to the old ship moored behind the fishery. The going was slow, as the planks were rotted and slick, and a couple of times, Wolfom had to struggle to keep his footing. Wolfom led the group onto the Kraken’s Folly, but was caught off guard when a monstrous spider leapt from the ship’s darkened interior and bit him. Fortunately for the hardy Shoanti, the spider’s poison was too dull to have any effect. Cyril had to jump from the ship’s deck to the dock as the boards that he stood on gave way and the group agreed that using the stairs was probably a better way of doing things.

A small handrail framed the wooden stairs that led into the depths and Wolfom, showing off his natural grace and athletic ability jumped over the railing from the side and into the stairs … promptly catching his foot on the railing and falling headfirst into the hold. Cyril behind him laughed at the barbarian’s clumsiness and decided to jump the rail as well to show the tribesman how it was done … and promptly caught his foot on the rail and fell on top of the Shoanti. Serious Cleric is Serious just shook his head at the two fallen warriors and headed around the rail when the wizard pushed past him and with grace and poise, leapt the railing and dropped daintily into the hold next to the barbarian and ranger, forever proving that he was more manly than the two of them.

The barbarian got to his feet and intrigued by the chests in back moved around the cobwebby interior, only to be jumped by more monstrous spiders. He managed to slash one of them down before the rest jumped on him. The venom from the two spiders that bit him proved tougher than his Shoanti blood and the barbarian’s muscles spasmed loosely, leaving him weaker. Finishing his round, Wolfom smashed two of the spiders that scuttled on him. The rest of the group rushed to aid the barbarian, but resulted only in slapping the barbarian a few times while the spider scuttled around and bit him some more. Finally growing weary of the vermin, Wolfom flexed his “poisoned-but-still-considerable” strength, locking the spider’s fangs in his muscles and squished it with the pommel of his sword.

The cleric muttered a healing prayer over Wolfom before the group set to looking around the ship’s leaky interior. Luck was once again on the barbarian’s side as he discovered a slidable door that led from the cargo hold to a small rickety walkway scant feet over the inky waters below. On the other side of the walkway was the fishery’s undercarriage, a room with dim light spilling out. Cautiously making their way over the slimy walkway, Wolfom kicked open the door to find Gaedrin Lamm tossing through the day’s pickings.

With a shriek of surprised fright at seeing the nearly 7’ tall Shoanti kick in his door, Gaedrin whipped out a hand crossbow and fired it into the hole in the center of the floor, arousing the anger of Gobbleguts the crocodile, who leapt from the water, his jaws snapping closed only inches from the Shoanti’s face. It was here that Wolfom’s luck ran out.

Hearing the voice of the man who had murdered his closest friend, Cyril charged forward, trying to push past the barbarian to get to Lamm. The combined weight of the two men sent the planked floor crashing down, and though Cyril managed to jump back in time, Wolfom plunged into the dark water below where the only thing visible was the gleaming jaws of a waiting jigsaw shark. The shark snapped at the barbarian, wounding him lightly before the barbarian could start to swim towards the fishery. The rest of the group, now seeing the thrashing shark that attacked their companion started firing at it, but couldn’t seem to get a bead on the shark through the dark water.

Wolfom knew he needed to get away from the finned menace and decided to try and force his way into the shallow waters beneath the fishery. With some exertion, the barbarian managed to pull himself into position … right next to Gobbleguts! The alligator was still pissed off at the bolt stuck in its back and chomped down on the barbarian, bringing him to 0hp. Cyril, realizing that help was needed inside the building ran and jumped the gap in the walkway and would have plummeted into the waters had not the touch of destiny chosen this moment for him to shine. Cyril landed inside the building and swatted away the bolt that Lamm fired at him. Outside, Ankou remained scared of the walkway collapsing under him and stayed where he was, firing ineffectually at the circling shark below. The wizard wanted to move forward to help, but was the cleric yelled at him for getting too close so he just fired his crossbow and missed the shark.

Wolfom refused to die this way and entered a frenzied rage, striking at Gobbleguts … and missing horribly. Gobbleguts, who thought that there was more dangerous prey, decided that the barbarian was too annoying to let live chomped and thrashed and left the barbarian lifeless in the water. Cyril ran past the preoccupied alligator, drawing his shortsword, and whiffed big time against Gaedrin. Outside, the cleric decided to finally make a jump for it but fell just short, splashing into the water. The wizard summoned a dire rat next to the shark to distract it from the cleric’s thrashing, the shark took the bait and R.I.P. Squeakers.

Gobbleguts, having finished with the barbarian, turned his sights on the next nearest thing, Cyril, but the dodgey ranger stayed well out of his reach. Gaedrin stepped back to fire at the ranger but missed. Cyril’s counterattack did not, and Gaedrin Lamm met him just end at the hand of a vengeful ranger. Meanwhile, Ankou managed to climb out of the water and into the fishery as the wizard shot at the alligator again, still with no luck.

Gobbleguts continued to assault the ranger, this time biting deeply and bringing the ranger to the brink of unconsciousness. Not having learned the barbarian’s lesson, Cyril decided to duke it out toe-to-toe with the alligator and bounced his sword off the creature’s scaly hide. Ankou fired an ice bolt which stung the alligator, trying to pull it off the ranger. Outside the wizard got a running start … and kept running right off the edge of the walkway and into the water. The wizard’s owl familiar decided “Screw this” and flapped easily into the rafters of the building. With no more Squeakers to distract it, the shark homed in on the floundering wizard but was stopped short by the wizard’s magical armor.

Gobbleguts, with a last hurrah, snapped at the ranger but could get through his defense. Finishing it, Cyril put an end to the barbarian slayer. Ankou ran to the door and helped the wizard out of the water. An annoyed shark, decided that these guys were too much effort for too little gain and swam off hungry.

The group fished the dead barbarian out of the water and set about searching the late Gaedrin’s stuff for valuables like the carrion-pickers that they are only to find Zellara the fortune teller’s severed head (at which point the only guy who didn’t know about this looks at me and goes “What?!” so I’m glad I at least get some reaction from it) and a bunch of loot. Collecting the bodies so that Ankou can give them their final rights, the remaining group finds the city in chaos with the news of King Eodren’s death. Deciding that they need to recoup and get off the streets, they make their way back to Zellara’s house for some answers and find another Shoanti man (who looks and acts exactly like Wolfom, except his name is Max) who had shown up late for the party. And we called it for the night.