Eastern Shadows

"Of Life at Sea & Stowaways, a Knife in the Dark"

The journeymen of the guild gather the Nutty Bunch and escort them to the mistresses and masters that are organizing the voyage, and will be traveling with them. The journey will be made by a diverse group, including elf rangers, hobbits with their tasty treats, guards courtesy of the Duke, and rugged cowboys. Among the passengers are also Ruby’s mother, several members of the smithy, three of Ruby’s siblings, Kathryn the water mage, and Cathryn, the baron’s Mistress.
“If you succeed in your task, we’ll assign subordinates to you for the next six months” The mistress informs them, the Nutty Bunch doesn’t seem to know what to make of this at this moment.

“Two guards will be with you on this trip. If you fail to return them safely, or they report any form of disrespect, you will be held accountable.”
The guards assigned to them are William, whom is mute, and another whose name remains unspoken, or the elf was a bit deaf when it was mentioned, regardless, he is quite rude, so hardly deserves to be mentioned. Both come from Seagate, and they inform the party that their mission is to infiltrate the Forgotten City. Meanwhile, the mistresses and masters will deal with necromancers seeking the power of a leviathan.
“We suspect the undead at Beavers Pond are waiting for the forces beneath Gugnir’s Hope to break free” they warn.

The group travels to Seagate on flying carpets, to then set sail to SeaCroft by ship, with a small boat following alongside.

A discussion takes place about bombs, the ones they are expected to place on this mission, which turn out to be designed to harm only undead creatures. The bombs should be safe for the party (a.k.a. the living), though possibly not for Dae, or so it’s hinted at. There are nine of these bombs, and detonating just one creates a 500-yard blast radius. If multiple bombs detonate together, the effect, and area of influence, expands. “The bomb briefly reanimates undead, causing them to suffer the consequences of prolonged exposure to daylight”(?).

Sonny is sent to the kitchen, while one of the mistresses works on improving the group's stealth. He is informed that the cook is under suspicion (not properly kosher?). Sonny offers the cook a strange pie containing wriggling black creatures he found in the kitchen (the pie, not the creatures). Twenty minutes later, the cook expands, eventually growing to the size of eight people. A loud explosion and a foul odor follow. From the cook’s enlarged form, four dark creatures emerge with a message for Sonny: “The cook intends to poison people”.

Four individuals are assigned to clean the kitchen, and once they are there, they are attacked by the dark creatures. The goof troop from Gugnir’s Hope fight to save them. During the battle, one of the creatures takes control of Dae, forcing him to attempt a kick at Ruby, sadly he misses. More creatures appear, but once one of them fires a lightning bolt, it’s plan and intent backfires (not the magic itself, it was casted successfully, planned poorly, like a barbeque during the rainy season) which ricochets and kills two of the other creatures. After the fight, it’s discovered that one of the scrubbers perished before help could reach him.
Afterwards there is an investigation, and everyone not present at the scene, is too eager to assign the burden of what transpired to Dae, whom is fairest of them all, and more innocent than a baby unicorn sleeping in the dewy grass of a grove.

Ruby, Edwin, and Johann have their boots altered to reduce the noise they make.

They are instructed to take Johann's flying carpet through the canals. They’ll encounter the undead sisters,creatures with snakelike hair (gorgons), whose presence is much more difficult to handle than that of their living counterparts, if they decide to reach the city through the skies. Glory had already been sent ahead to liaise with the scouts.
“I might talk to the mistress about getting us another Wiccan, so we have two carpets,” it’s suggested by one of the guards (?).
“Expect to encounter townspeople, larger numbers of undead, pirates, and slavers along the way”.

A total of six companions or support is sent alongside the nutty bunch to the shore. A dwarf casts Rune Shield on them (with special greaves), and the group is granted Shadowform at rank 18 (38 points of defense). They also receive Strength of Stone at rank 16 (17 endurance), Waters of Strength at rank 4, and either a rank 6 enchanted weapon or a weapon of flames.
Two journeyman Wiccans are amongst those accompanying them.
William carries a rod that turns anyone recently dead into a small(and definitely not snow) figurine when struck in the head.

Upon reaching the shore, Glory arrives with an elderly woman who greets them warmly. “Greetings, Mr. Holiday. I’m pleased you’ve come. Your cooking is well known”. She warns them of the ghostly sisters and the dangers of taking the quick route through the skies. Instead, she suggests a path revealed by the local crocodiles, whom she befriended by feeding them goats. Someone appears to be blessing these crocodiles, perhaps an inhabitant of the caves.
“These crocodiles spoke of an underground canal”, she explains, “it’s wide, though somewhat unpleasant”. She adds “Long-tentacled creatures dwell beneath the canal”.

After some time, Mistress Lulu sends two dwarves with beautifully braided beards to deliver instructions. “The day after tomorrow, we’ll arrive at the city after dark, around 9 o’clock. We’ll have about an hour and a half to get into position, and the other operations will begin at 9 to provide a distraction”.

The group heads to the hideout, led by the advanced (both in age and skill) scout. The dwarves bring a timer with them. After roughly an hour, they discover a spiral staircase leading to a hiding hole where two hobbits and a dwarf are waiting.

“Are you from Gugnir’s Hope or Superstitious Mountain?” one of them asks. “You can call me Bridget. I’ll give you a tour.”
The hideout is carved from Dwarvish stonework, with a large carpet winding through the place. The carpet has a peculiar magical effect, which Sonny identifies as “Stored Terrors”. The rest of the goop troop makes a silent prayer in their head for Sonny’s whimsical friends not to make the carpet act up…
“The dwarves built this place for me” The ancient scout (or was ti Bridget?) explains. “Most of their tunnels are six feet wide and tall, but this one’s different. They usually use arches, but here they went with a square design”. The next morning after having taken rest inland, the group takes a look from the lookout post and observes several undead patrols, coming and going.

Note: During the downtime whilst travelling in the sea, Johann performs a divination to determine if anyone in the group possesses the Mantle of Water. The result indicates that no one does. However, then another divination reveals that the mantle is currently held by a sky being.
During the sea voyage, Edwin, Ruby, and Dae gain basic seamanship* skills, while Johann and Sonny learn a bit about cooking (managing to open seamanship* to 0 for Edwin Ruby and Dae, and cooking for Johann and Sonny). The whole group does Stealth training whilst on the ship.

• 95% sure it’s referring to be Artisan(Sailor), but this scribe is faulty at best of times…so wouldn’t trust him.