Whether it was the apparent sea-sickness or simply that he was satisfied to be getting the remainder of the treasure at all, Duor put up very little argument when it was proposed that Erevan and Haelan would go collect the rest of the loot from the harpies’ hidden ledge. Coerraine was most adamant on this point, believing the dwarven rogue ought to be “punished” for his obvious “betrayal” of his fellows in pocketing the magical dagger.
“Wonder what he’d expect as penance if he knew about the pouch of gems?” thought Duor. His momentary inner laugh quickly washed over by the nausea of the gently bobbing shallow sailing ship on which he and his companions traveled.
With Erevan and Braddok doing most of the sailing work, they brought the small vessel around the high rocky promontory to the side where they knew a natural opening appeared. It was hoped they might actually bring the ship into the large cavern but their less-than-perfect knowledge of the tides made this impossible. Only the very top of the opening was visible above the water’s surface, not nearly tall or wide enough to allow the ship to enter.
The two "divers" decided it was time to use the water-breathing potions that Tidemaster Kama had given them. Securing themselves to each other with some rope, the elf and halfling quaffed their potions and leaped from the ship. Haelan had removed his armor, both better to swim in and for making himself lighter for Erevan’s magical platform.
Alaria seemed to not be overly concerned by any of the goings on, concentrating heavily on reviewing one of the scrolls from her former master, the wizard Vertior. She lowered the parchment pages in frustration, trying to recall some of her lessons to discern the spell she was attempting to learn. Staring off at the wooded coast of Dragonbone Isle, the R’Hathi wizardess grudgingly admitted to herself that the magic was still beyond her expertise.
A flicker of black among the branches of one of the trees startled Alaria from her thoughts. A panic gripped her as her mind turned immediately to the massive hellhounds that she supposed still roamed the island. The momentary fear was quickly replaced by reason and logic. The small shape flitted from one tree to another before taking wing and rising above the trees to circle briefly and fly off to the north. Merely a raven. “Silly girl.” Alaria berated herself.
Coerraine, had he known Alaria’s mind, would have found it anything but silly as he intently scanned the treeline and the rocky cliff above them, ever vigilant in his knowledge that the “evil” they had been sent to destroy was not, entirely, gone. There were the hell-beasts from which they’d fled. Evil. The dark-robed wizard (or priest?) they had not vanquished. Evil. The two harpy sisters that Alaria had allowed to simply go on their way to wreak what havoc they might on other parts of the realms. Evil. Not to mention, the druid’s tale of a force of goblin pirates they had not actually encountered, but “if the half-elf could be trusted” thought Coerraine, “they might still be out here…somewhere.” Evil.
The young paladin, while being true to his orders and the mission of his rank of “Goldshield” to protect the young magess, continued to be uneasy with Alaria’s willingness to avoid, if not actively allow, the agents of darkness they crossed paths with to exist. Despite his knowledge to the contrary, and his respect for the intelligent young woman, Coerraine found his mind wander to the possibility that Alaria, herself, might somehow be an agent of evil. He dismissed the thought almost immediately, but still found himself at a lack of reason for how she could seem so at ease with her decisions.
Braddok had found himself exhilarated in the exercise of his limited lessons in shipcraft from the sea priestess, Trihna. In the clear day, the lulling swells and the cool breezes of a life at sea appealed to the swordsman of far off Denil.
He also took more than a bit of personal amusement at the dwarf’s obvious discomfort. It was refreshing to see the rogue, normally quick to sarcastic quip, brought to humbled silence in his gastrointestinal distress. Braddok also noticed Alaria’s apparent frustration as she stuffed the parchments she had been studying back into their banded case.
“If Trihna and the Tidemaster are correct, milady, we should make the settlement at Silver Falls sometime in the night.” Braddok stated. He hoped to lift the seemingly pensive wizard’s spirits. He shared her desire to complete their errand.
With the treasure they’d already secured, plus his pay from Alaria, he should be returning to Hawkview with enough for some new armor, perhaps an additional weapon or two. Since his less than effective encounters with the crabs and crab-men, the warrior had been giving considerable thought to acquiring a mace. “Welford should be no more than three days away.”
Alaria nodded her acknowledgement, not bothering to turn to look at the warrior at the tiller.
The sun continued to rise, as did the tide. What little of the opening in the rockface that had been visible was soon swallowed as the waters reached their zenith. It had been, by Alaria’s estimation, a half hour since the elf and halfling had gone overboard to collect their riches.
“Ho! Look there!” called Coerraine from the prow, pointing to the north.
All of the remaining party looked with unease as a large galleon came into view around the northern edge of the island. From the ship’s large mast a flag flew. From the distance, all any of the humans or dwarf could make out was that it flew some symbol in red.
“That can’t be good.” said Duor in his usual deadpan.
As they watched, figures loaded into one of the longboat’s tied to the ship’s side and quickly was lowered into the water.
“Fen?” Alaria questioned.
“Yes. I am afraid that is the ship I saw before your arrival. Goblins and bugbears are her crew.” The half-elf replied. Despite his statement, his voice, betrayed no concern or fear. “We should not tarry here.”
“Really? Ya think? Maybe they’d like to share some of our treasure.” Said Duor with characteristic sarcasm. “Where’s the blasted point-ear with my gold?” Duor looked to the water on the promontory side. Noting the disapproving look from Coerraine, “Fine. ‘Our’ gold.” Duor rolled his dark brown eyes beneath his bushy eyebrows.
The Redstar Knight ignored the dwarf’s obvious attempt at humor. “Milady, if these are indeed pirates, let alone goblins, we must rid these waters of their evil. What if they find Shoal or attack the temple?”
Alaria did not respond. Her view skyward, again noting the black smudge of a raven against the clear day’s sky. Her brow furrowed in thought for a moment, then subtly lifted her hand towards the sky and whispered, “Arcanivis” <mage spell: Detect Magic>.
The violet sphere of light flickered around Alaria’s hand. To her eyes, the raven similarly flickered with a pale violet aura.
“Braddok, do you think you can hit that raven?” Alaria said with some urgency.
The warrior looked at the magess questioningly and tried to guess the distance of the dark bird. “No. It’s much too far. Perhaps Erevan could…Why?”
“The bird is magical. I am willing to wager that it is the dark-robed wizard’s familiar.” Alaria replied. “If I’m right, it is watching us. Relaying our presence to its master even now. Fen…”
“Sorry. I am in the same boat as the good warrior.” The druid replied with a shrug, then chuckled. “Ha. ‘Same boat’ indeed, eh?” Seeing his pun falling on unappreciative ears, he explained, “It is beyond the reach of my magics. I am sorry.”
“That longboat is heading straight for us. Milady, we must ready for battle.” Coerraine reported.
Just then, a sputtering Haelan broke the water’s surface. “A little help, here, if you please.”
Braddok, Fen and Duor rushed to haul the halfling, elf and their sacks of booty out of the water.
Erevan was barely out of the water before Alaria shouted orders, “Erevan, shoot down that raven! Braddok, get us out of here. Make for the river with all speed. A ship that size surely won’t be able to follow us upstream. Coaerraine, Duor take the oars.”
The confused elf nocked an arrow, but by the time he had gotten a bead on the dark bird, it was beyond his reach as well, having flown back to the north and into the interior of the island.
Haelan hastily donned his shirt of chainmail. He looked with concern towards the approaching longboat, at least two of the creatures were obviously large, hairy and nasty looking. “Bugbears, for sure. Erevan, what is that red mark? What symbol do they fly.” The halfling cleric hoped with all his heart it was not the red demon skull symbol of the Chaosbringer.
Erevan took a cursory glance at the large ship as he assisted Braddok to get their vessel under way. “Yes, Haelan, it is that red talon symbol I saw that goblin warband carrying.”
"Oh. Whew." No demon-priests, the halfling priest thought. Then it dawned on him. “Oh! Oh bollux.” He then made a hasty mental apology to his goddess for the vulgarity.
The party was fortunate to have some wind at their back, and with Coerraine and Duor working with oars, their shallow light ship sped away from the island.
The longboat with its goblinoid raiding party came up on the party’s small ship quickly. They passed close enough to see the passengers easily.Two bugbears were obvious, one at the prow, one aft. Tucked in between the two large creatures there seemed to be at least a half dozen goblins. Their long ragged pointed ears apparent popping out from behind a row of four small shields with two oars (per side) jutting out from in between the cover.
Two goblin archers rose from the center of the ship and let their shafts fly. One missed horribly but the other “thunked” into the side of the party’s boat.
Erevan returned in kind from his place at the till, but in the splashing jerking of the speeding vessel neither of his bolts connected. One flew clear over the goblin laiden longboat.
The aft bugbear shouted some command in his gutteral tongue and the longboat began to turn to pursue the sailing intruders. The galleon continued to bob ever closer before them, it seemed to be attempting to cut off their escape. Fortunately, the party’s ship was much smaller and faster, but the large ship continued towards the shore and, it seemed, would come very near them as they continued north.
Suddenly, from the galleon, a mass of flaming something launched from the ship’s deck. A catapult of some kind. The large lump of fire soared into the air and crashed into the sea just to the right of the party. It sent up a hiss of steam and smoke. The fumes from the thing choked those that caught a lungful.
Duor was forced to release his oar for a moment to projectile vomit over the side of the ship. “Gah.” The dwarf spewed, wiping his beard. “Least it wasn’t the fire.” The dwarf retched a second time. "Actually, maybe the fire would have been better."
With that statement a second flaming mass shot into the air from the galleon. This one, thankfully, splashed into the water behind the fast-moving smaller ship. The huge boat continued to trek into the path of the party.
“They’ll ram us if we keep going. We need to make for shore and try to outrun them.” Braddok offered.
There was another ‘whiz’ and ‘thunk’ as another arrow from the longboat thudded into the ship’s mast above Alaria’s head. Another arrow clanked and shattered against Haelan’s shield as he moved to put himself between the archers and the magess.
“They will not.” Alaria stated plainly. “I have had enough of this.” Alaria reached into her scroll case and withdrew a slender tapered wand of white wood. “I believe,” she thought aloud, “this constitutes an ‘emergency.’” She pointed the wand toward the goblin ship.
“Allhankowsh.” <the wand’s command word> Alaria shouted.
Immediately, the air all around the ship seemed charged, like the moments before a thunderstorm. From the elegant slender tip of the wand a bolt of white hot lightning streaked across the water and slammed into the side of the galleon, very near the water level. Alaria was nearly thrown from her feet by the force of the magical release.
With a shattering boom, a combination of the thunder effect of the wand and the explosive contact, the lightning bolt slammed into the ship’s hull. Some of the edges of the wide opening in the ship’s side smoked and flickers of flame could be seen on some of the boards and within the dark hole. Cries went up from the ship, garbled shouts indistinctly heard over the water.
Alaria quickly ducked back down in the their shallow ship. She was too busy surveying the damage of her most potent magic to notice half the party stared in disbelief at the ship. The other half stared in disbelief at her.
“Wow, Alaria. Nice stick.” Haelan finally said.
A raised eyebrow turned into a smile at the halfling’s naivtee. “Thank you, Haelan. Braddok, Erevan, let’s go, get us out of here.”
One final arrow from the longboat tudded into the rear of the party’s ship, not far from Braddok’s foot. But then the raiding party turned back to return to their now crippled mother ship.
The party’s ship skirted passed the galleon and continued to the north. The angry shouts and goblin curses were lost across the water as they moved further up the coast. In short order, the goblin ship was lost from view as Braddok and Erevan rounded a piece of coast.
Alaria scanned the skies as they continued, but there was no sight of the raven.
The afternoon went by without further incident. In the orange evening light, the small ship turned to face the lengthening shadows and setting sun at the mouth of the river D’Evand.
