From Slaves to Heroes in the Making (Heroes of Destiny)

[Taboo]

Kierwin, Minx & Suspicions

They left the crypt with its unwilling inhabitant behind, hopefully forever. Turk still regretted not being able to figure out the secret of getting the axe out of the wall, but maybe it was for the best. Who knows, maybe it was as evil as the creature imprisoned in the sarcophagus?

They lost track of how long they walked and the only light they had was Turk’s ever burning torch. They had nearly nothing to tell time. They knew they hadn’t been here more than a hours since they hadn’t had much need for food or rest. It felt like longer to all of them, but they had been locked in the ship’s hold prior to making their way here, wherever here was. The more time they spent here, the more Kierwin felt that they were no longer on their own world or their own “plane”, but she didn’t know much about things like that. She’d only heard about that from her elders at the temple.

The runes on the sarcophagus and the tiny pyramid that she’d found really bothered her. There was only one that she could really read and the others were vaguely familiar, but different. Hauntingly different. Elhonna was with her, but it was a god that she’d never heard of that was worshipped here. She was pretty sure it was a god that nobody she knew had ever heard of (or at least that they hadn't mentioned) that people here worshipped. She decided not to say anything since she wasn’t sure of any of this. She didn’t know anything for sure, she was no expert, these were just feelings and she didn't want to worry anyone for no reason. When it mattered, if it ever did, then she would tell them her suspicions.

********

Minx was concerned for her friend. Snap just wasn’t acting like the Snap she knew. He’d never acted like this before, the elves had always treated him well, but after he’d left, who knows what had happened to him. What she really didn’t understand was why he refused to talk to her. She’d always been closer to him than Kierwin had, but both she and Kierwin had been friends with him. It was just that Snap had been into magic along with her and Kierwin spent a lot of time in the Temple.

She’d never understood why Snap had left. Everything had been fine, and then he’d seemed to distance himself and one day he’d said his goodbyes to them and left the Misty Isles. They hadn’t seen him again until they’d fallen into that room that led them into the lower level of the pyramid. He seemed ashamed of his appearance or afraid of the others, unless it was something she couldn't think of.

What would happen when Thorin and Turk found out what Snap was? There weren't very many people who reacted without violence when they first met a half-orc. From what little Minx knew about Thorin, he hated all forms of Orcs. As for Turk, she knew very little, but she was betting he felt the same as Thorin. What about Geirmund and Osa? She knew she didn't have to worry about Rowena, she just followed and ate.

Maybe between her and Kierwin they could convince Turk and Thorin that Snap was a good person. On the other hand, maybe Snap’s actions would speak for themselves. A small voice inside her that she tried to ignore whispered to her that she didn’t even know if this Snap was still the Snap she’d know for so long. She might just be hoping he was still a good person. She refused to listen to that quiet voice! Of course he was still the good and honorable Snap! Nothing would change him that drastically! He’d prove it, he just needed the opportunity.

Until everything was out in the open and she had a chance to find out what had happened, she was going to watch over him. She knew Kierwin would. The three of them were close and always would be. They’d take care of each other, and take care of the group. She wasn’t too sure about Turk, but she liked Thorin and the rest. So far Turk hadn’t done a single thing she really had against him, she just thought he was a little too arrogant, and she really didn’t approve of arrogance, especially in a human. She just planned to keep an eye on him for now, she would set him straight if it came down to it.

Her thoughts were interrupted when they came to a locked door.

 

[Knightfall]

Taboo, where are you?

I need my weekly fix!

 

[Taboo]

Hey, thanks, it's nice to know I'm needed! Don't worry, I'm putting some finishing touches on a new post right now. I sent it to my cohort to double check first, (paulewaug) he's the one with the facts on the battle!

We'll make it worth the wait.

 

[paulewaug]

coming very soon

ok I am working over the next post that'll bring us up to the characters embarking on the Adventure Path of modules..1st off "the Sunless Citadel" (with DM customized changes!)
that is where they are right now.

Taboo really started taking some heavy notes to capture the in character interaction that has been going on so hopefully there will be some good dialogue showing up.

I keep track of all the in game details since I am DM and taboo has a tendancy to skew things from her PCs POV and kinda forgets there are other characters doing things too. This is not a dis' on her, she really does forget what Really happened..(drives me nuts BTW) hehe!!

Also to anybody who has been reading this until Very recently you may want to go back up and re-read the previous posts as I have made a few changes to the earlier posts to give a more accurate picture of what Really happened. So early readers will get to enjoy what Kierwin though happend earlier and now seeing the closer to actual events.
So far my players have been pretty happy with the direction the story is going.

Now I just need to work on my character's storyhour..
my DM for that one(Turk) is more than ready for an update on
his game!
I need to get it caught up for our 2 new characters!! They are much fun to play!hhehe oh yes...

 

[Taboo]

Just a quick reply to that... sorry, just can't help it.

Note that it IS from Kierwin's POV and it hasn't been TOO far off. The next couple of postings, in fact bring the others into it quite a bit! And I have been spending quite a bit of time keeping more exact notes on the games in order to get the facts down on paper to ensure more accurate accounts of the roleplaying done by everyone.

Paulewaug has worked extremely hard to keep us on our toes in this adventure and has surprises around every corner. It's been hard to keep up with the twists and turns he's thrown our way. He's created quite a world for us, and has thought it through well into the future.

All of this will work into our further travels, and when (and if) we find our way out of this pyramid and home, I can almost guarantee that what is happening here will follow us into future travels. The Sunless Citadel won't be the same story you've doubtless read before.....

Snap will indeed remain a mystery for the next few chapters. As will things about the rest of the characters.

Stick with us, you won't be disappointed.

The next chapter will be posted tonight, it's temporarily lost in e-mail land.

 

[Knightfall]

Stick with us, you won't be disappointed.

The next chapter will be posted tonight, it's temporarily lost in e-mail land.

<KF'72 impatiently taps foot looking at watch>

Ahhhhhhh! Stop torturing me... heh!

 

[Taboo]

The secret coridoor and beyond....

Sorry about the delay! I hope the wait was worth it!!! Taboo

*******

They came to a locked door. Thorin and Turk were in front as usual. Thorin listened at the door and didn’t seem to hear anything. He tried his handy key and as usual, it worked. Everyone followed Thorin and Turk through the door into an amazing, but dead end corridor.

It was similar to what they’d seen before, frescos and mosaics. The natives of this place, wherever ‘this place’ was, depicted in various acts of life. One in particular caught Turk’s eye. It had a circular shape at the top with a pyramid shaped indent, although the indent was so slight it was almost beyond recognition. He called Kierwin over.

“What do you think about using that little pyramid here? I know you think it does something important in this place.” He told her.

So she got the pyramid out of a pouch she carried at her side and placed it in the indent Turk had found. It retracted into the wall and a door opened up, revealing a long corridor lined with stone animal heads.

They decided to head into the newly discovered corridor, with Thorin and Turk in the lead as usual. They passed a bear’s head which Thorin searched thoroughly, proclaiming the work to be well done but not finding anything special about it. Then Turk noticed his torchlight sparkle off something in the beak of an eagle’s head further down in the corridor ahead of them. He immediately went to investigate.

Upon approaching it he finds that held in the beak is a large gold band. Reaching in he grasps it and the beak snaps closed on his wrist with a clang. Fortunately it closes on his gauntlet and he isn’t injured, but his hand is quite stuck. Calling out for help, the party comes running. Thorin crowds in.

Turk is trying to pry the beak apart with one hand, but without success, while Thorin tries to study the mechanism. He figures out that it was some type of spring, but nobody had any idea how to disarm it. They both look at Giermund who shrugs his shoulders and says “I don’t know nothing about how to reset it.”

They finally decided to try to break the stone to free Turk. In the meanwhile Turk wants loose and is praying to Pelor, especially so that Thorin doesn’t miss and hit him by accident when he sees Thorin grab up his large dwarven warhammer!
With one quick, well placed blow, the stone eagle’s head crumbled and Turk was freed. He had a gold band to show for his trouble, not to mention learning not to go sticking his hand into something that very well may be trapped, without checking it out first! Although Thorin clapped him on the shoulder and congratulated him for doing it “The dwarven way.”

They checked the rest of the animal heads, but didn’t find anything else, so they headed for the door they saw down the hall. Thorin and Turk were in front as usual, Minx and Kierwin were behind them, Snap and Giermund brought up the rear behind Osa and Rowena. This was the usual order since Kierwin was the main healer in case of serious injury and had some fighting ability. Minx could heal a little, and was a magic user.
Snap could back them up and he could see in the dark, as well as help protect Rowena who followed directly behind Minx. That left Geirmund, who could fight like a scrapper, in the back behind Osa who followed Kierwin. They could also help protect them in case of an ambush from the back if necessary, although they prayed that didn’t happen since that would be their weakest point.

Thorin opened the door, they had pretty much worked out that this was the way it was going to be from now on. It seemed to work well, and it really needed to be a strong fighter who did it. Turk was really strong and Thorin was really, really strong.
The sight inside surprised them, although by this point in the pyramid they figured nothing should!

The sight that greeted them was a heap of trash in the center of a fifty or sixty foot square room. The trash didn’t surprise them as much as the ugly, three foot long beetles scattered throughout the room, beetles that glowed a reddish color deep within their chitinous shells. They would have just shut the door and kept going, but scattered amongst the trash, they saw some interesting reflections from Turk’s torch. The group consensus was to kill the beetles and check out the pile.

Snap stepped up to the doorway and cast sleep on the beetles gathered near the pile, knocking a bunch of them out, Minx did the same.

Turk and Thorin immediately took off for the group on the left. Kierwin followed. There were four beetles over on that side. Kierwin thought they looked big enough from the door, but up close, they looked almost immense!


The beetles flexed their pincers anticipating fresh meat and blood. The first found out how tough Turk’s armor was, and again, he was glad that he’d spent the extra gold on the banded mail! He attempted to hack at it with his greatsword but had trouble hitting the low creature without scraping his sword against the ground.

Meanwhile, the beetle that Kierwin was facing off against was trying to pinch her leg off. It found her leather boot much to it’s liking. It didn’t draw much blood, but it got enough to know that it liked that too! Oh, it was going for that again!

Thorin had a pair of beetles to contend with. Neither of them had much luck as the surprisingly nimble dwarf hopped about on his stubby legs, and they didn’t much like the steel that their pincers encountered as he brought his dwarven war-axe around in a double handed grip and split one of them open. Of course there were some more of them and on the next try they just might make it through whatever carapace it was that this strange prey was wearing.

By this time, Turk had gotten to land a blow on the beetle that had tried to rip his leg off at the knee. He’d put a rather deep gouge in its exoskeleton, but it was still alive although oozing a lot of ichor. Maybe it would bleed to death….

Thorin slammed his waraxe through one of the bugs attacking him slicing the thing completely in half, ready to turn his attention on the one behind him next.

Meanwhile, Snap had moved into the room, pulling his crossbow out. Kierwin attacked the beetle that had tried to snap her leg off, but although she hit it, her blade simply slid off the hard carapace with a scraping sound, not even wounding it. She was NOT a happy cleric!

The beetle in front of Turk decided to make another go at it, going for the same spot it attacked earlier. It had no better success than it did the first time. There was a faint metallic screech as its pincers scraped off his metal armored boots.

This time the beetle attacking Kierwin didn’t bite quite as hard, and Kierwin breathed a sigh of relief. She wasn’t looking forward to another bite from that THING. It was an abomination against nature as far as she was concerned. Beetles weren’t supposed to be that Big! They were supposed to scuttle around and eat refuse and carrion like good little cleaner-bugs, not chomp down on those who were perfectly healthy and in no danger of just up and dying without help!

The beetle remaining in battle with Thorin tried to attack him, but had no better luck than the rest, which pleased Thorin immensely.

Snap was too far from any beetles that were left awake to be attacked, so he took a shot with his crossbow and picked one off from his chosen spot.

Turk finished his off with his next blow, it was obviously mortally wounded from the first blow but had refused to die. Kierwin tried again, hitting, but still unable to pierce that hard carapace. Thorin killed another beetle with his axe.

They had blocked the line of sight and the door from the others, preventing them from helping, but managed finally to kill the rest of the beetles without taking anymore wounds.
Fortunately, the sleep spells had helped tremendously as about a dozen beetles were in a magically induced slumber.
Turk and Thorin were disappointed a little that they still hadn’t gotten a glimpse of the mysterious sorcerer’s face, but he had proven that he was trying to help them.
That didn’t mean they trusted him, though! Trust meant more than killing a few beetles.

They proceeded to investigate the pile of trash, curious to know what was glittering in the torch light. Most of it was pretty disgusting, but their search paid off in the end. They found three very nice pieces of turquoise (although they didn’t glitter, of course), and a very nice dagger. The dagger needed to be reworked a little, but it was a design none of them had ever seen before. It didn’t seem magical, but was very well balanced.
They gave it to Minx, thinking that of all of them, she could use it most. Especially since she didn’t seem to really know how to use any other kind of weapon. And she liked the dagger a lot, it was pretty for a ‘knife’.

After searching the rest of the room, they were satisfied there was nothing else to find. They reentered the hallway. There was one last door to open.

They opened the remaining door. What they found in there, again they were certainly not prepared for. It was a small ship!?

This post has been edited by DM-paulewaug for accuracy and is certified to be Close to the truth

 

[AndrewADnDPlayer]

Great Post Taboo. I lived the battle and it seemed even more exciting reading it then it did when we fought it. Keep up the Great Work!!!

AndrewADnDPlayer...aka Turk Wildhands

 

[Taboo]

Thanks, (Turk) Glad to see you on the boards!

You know, I can almost feel those pincers from those nasty beetles myself! Ouch!

The next post is about ready, so you won't have long to wait for it. Paulewaug's already worked on it with me to make sure we got it all, it's a long one.

 

[Taboo]

The Voyage Home

Oops...for anyone who already read this... reread it, I posted the newest section out of order, so I just corrected it. This is the important one, without it, nothing coming up makes sense!

*********

They opened the remaining door. What they found in there, really took their breath away!

When they opened the door, they expected another dark hallway, but what they found was something completely the opposite! It was a large room, covered in mosaic. In the center of the room, in a large canal filled with blue and green tiles was a boat, or more accurately perhaps, a small ship.

They walked over to the ship and looked at it, amazed to find something like this inside of a large stone structure. There was a small metal plaque on the boat, which Thorin tried to read. There were symbols on it and they did kind of look like letters. As he stared at it words seemed to form and he read them aloud, and an amazing thing happened.

When he spoke the word “VOS”, the boat became a wooden box the size of a boot. It was small and light enough to carry or fit in a backpack!

He promptly put it back down before speaking the next word. “KOS” turned it into a boat of moderate size.

The final word “NOS” brought it back to the size of a small ship and fit for a voyage that they could fit on comfortably. It had one main deck, with a small cabin.

Finally, they had a way off of this island and hopefully to get back home if they could figure out where home was! Of course, that was the question. Where were they!?

Kierwin still hadn’t shared her doubts about being on the same plane anymore and without the creature that had brought them here, was there a way to get home? Maybe she was wrong? She didn’t know what to do, there was no sense in worrying everyone when she really didn’t have a clue if she was right. She’d hoped to explore more of the pyramid to find more answers.

They discussed (briefly) whether to explore more of the pyramid or try to head home. The unanimous and almost instantaneous decision was to head home. They hoped that when they hit the sea that they’d be able to find their way home. It turned out that Geirmund knew quite a lot about sailing from his days as a slave aboard ship.

While they talked amongst themselves the poor twisted creature that had helped them escape the slavers showed up.

“You helped me escape, I helped you escape. Yes? You want to go home now?” It asked.
They did.
“Good, I am done here and the time for leaving is good.”
It hobbled over to the wall towards the back end of the boat and reached up to touch something on the wall above the water mosaic. A gush of water began to cascade out of the wall and fill the ravine, while the far wall opened and revealed the hazy gray that waited outside. The water appeared to flow away from the pyramid and form a river to the beach.
The creature hopped aboard ship and looked at them, ”Well lets us be going now.”
The others all hopped aboard ship as well. They were quickly down to the shoreline and past the beach.
The creature said it needed blood again, looking hopefully at Turk.

Turk grimaced, remembering the first time and dutifully cut his hand. The creature happily licked up the blood. “Oh yes, such strong blood you have, works well.” The others tried not to look remembering the first time.

Everything went black as before, and the next thing they knew, they were back on the ocean with blue skies and the sun above them. The creature had disappeared again, the same as before.

Geirmund worked to get his bearings, but with no land in sight and no idea what time it was, it was difficult to tell. He made his best guess by the position of the sun in the sky. “It’ll be easier to get an idea where we are tonight. We’ll get our position, and set our course. Do we all agree that we’re headed for Aguila?”

That had been Turk’s wish, and the others had no argument. Kierwin and Minx wanted to go home, but they also wanted to see that justice was served in Aguila from the kidnapping of Turk and Snap. There was also the quest that Osa had been on, and they were concerned about Rowena.

Kierwin still hadn’t really gotten to talk to Thorin, so she didn’t know much about what had been driving the dwarf towards his destination, but she hoped to talk to him about it soon.

So, they all agreed to set course for Aguila and see where fate led them from there. They had no idea how long they would be on the ship and decided to take account of all their food and water and divide it up. They might need to make their little last a long time.

Geirmund spent time with each of them teaching them how to steer the ship. They would each need to be able to take turns since they would need to trade off while they slept and took watch. That night, Geirmund also charted their course for Aguila and determined that their voyage would take about 5 days.

For the most part, each watch was uneventful. The voyage went well, although they were short on food and fresh water. They rationed it carefully and had enough.

Geirmund had a terrible past. Kierwin finally had a chance to talk to him. He’d been born in Corvis, and was an orphan. At age 12 he’d stowed away on a ship and wound up in Freeport. Then, he stowed away on another ship, a Pantangean slave barge overran this one and he’d wound up a slave. That’s how he’d gotten the scars on his back, from their whips. Kierwin didn’t get to talk to him much more than that, they’d gotten interrupted and he seemed uneasy about talking about it. She’d need to talk to him again when they reached land.

Kierwin and Minx always took the last watch together. One of them always at the wheel while the other took watch. They needed less sleep time than the others and could see further in the night’s weak light.
Kierwin took to wandering the deck to keep an eye out. One night early in the voyage, she noticed strange water spouts just off the port side.

She quickly awoke Turk. He had her help him on with his part of his armor and they got Geirmund. He went to take a look and informed them they were just whales.
“Oh” Kierwin said a little embarrassed. “I’ve never seen whales ‘up close’. I was afraid it was something dangerous.”
Geirmund laughed “Well if they are coming straight at the shipand mean it we are probably done for but heading off the port bow like that and pulling away at speed I don’t think we have anything to worry about.”
Well, it was better safe than sorry. She helped Turk take his armor back off, and he went back to sleep.

Kierwin went back to Minx and back on watch. “I’m going to pray now, then I’ll relieve you and you can study your spells.”

The next night, on Kierwin and Minx’s watch, Kierwin noticed that Turk was missing. She told Minx that she couldn’t find him. Minx was worried also. Kierwin could only think of one thing, and wasn’t really even thinking or she wouldn’t have done it.
Osa had taken the cabin, out of a need for some privacy, she was a Lady after all. With that being the only logical place to look, Kierwin knocked on the door. “Turk are you in their?!” Just as she did, she noticed there were sounds coming from inside, vigorous sounds, and realized that’s where Turk was and why. oops, “Never mind…..”

Minx asked if everything was ok when Kierwin went back over to her looking flushed. Kierwin said yes, never mind. Minx quickly figured it out. Kierwin had hoped Minx wouldn’t figure it out, because she knew how Minx would react. She did.

“I can’t believe it! Didn’t I hear somebody say that Osa was MARRIED? Besides that Turk and Osa barely know each other! Ohhh!!! I KNEW I didn’t like him for a reason!
That Pig!”
Minx was really mad. If there was one thing in this world that would set Minx off, this was it. Her parents had brought her up this way, and this was all she knew. That’s why she’d reacted so strongly when she’d thought that the slavers were going to sell her into a harem or something like that.

Kierwin tried to quiet her. “It’s not up to us to judge Osa, and it’s up to Turk what he does. He’s not hurting anybody. Well at least I don’t think he is, from the sounds of things in there I’m not too sure. But I know how you feel about it and also I shouldn’t have snooped, I wasn’t thinking. I was just worried when I couldn’t find him. Let’s just forget it.”

“No!” Minx was stubborn. When she made up her mind, it was hard to change it. She was a good person, a great friend, and Kierwin was determined that she’d keep this from developing into a feud between Minx and Turk.
Somehow Minx and Turk already knew they could work together, that was a plus. Now she just had to find a way through this. She’d have to talk to Turk. Soon.

It wasn’t long until Kierwin HAD to talk to Turk. As soon as morning came, and Turk emerged from Osa’s cabin, Minx promptly started her tirade. Fortunately, she did it just out of earshot of Osa. Kierwin could see that Turk was getting angry, but holding himself back. She could also see that he was making sure that Osa and Rowena were out of earshot.

Kierwin didn’t want to physically break up the two, but she was afraid that was what it was going to come to. She didn’t want it to come to a major problem in the group, there was enough of a problem trying to deal with whatever was going on with Snap.

Speaking of Snap he was watching the heated exchange and muttered something about wishing he could cast fireball.

Turk finally walked away from Minx, trying to keep himself under control. Kierwin decided to talk to him now, before things go any worse. She explained Minx’s past and tried to make him understand. She told him she knew it wasn’t anyone’s business what he did, especially theirs. He said he didn’t care what Minx said or thought about him, but if she insulted the women or said anything in front of them, that was different.

Kierwin promised to talk to Minx about it and swore that it wouldn’t come to that. Minx would take care of her end of things in the group, and she wouldn’t be dishonorable to the women. Then she talked to Minx. Peace was on. For now, at least.

The rest of the voyage was uneventful. Thorin proved himself indispensable, being a bit unusual for a dwarf by nimbly climbing the mast to keep lookout for land or possible trouble. Finally, after about a week, as predicted by Geirmund, Thorin spotted land in the distance.

Geirmund headed for the docks at Aguila as the others gathered their few possessions and prepared for the city. They had no idea what they would face when they docked. Turk intended to turn in the guards who had drugged him and sold him to the pirates, and he certainly wanted his horse, Justice, back! They were ready for whatever awaited them when they reached port, or at least they thought they were.

As Geirmund pulled deftly into port, two guards met them at the docks. The guards hailed them, and asked their business in Aguila. They said they had business at ‘the Inn of the One Eyed Goat’ and with the City Guard about pirate activity. The guards were very surprised by the statement about pirate activity saying that they hadn’t had problems with pirates for over six months. They also said that there wasn’t an Inn of the One Eyed Goat anymore, it was now known as the Prancing Stallion.


This was all very puzzling for our adventurers. Not wanting to get into anything here on the docks, they decided to head for the Prancing Stallion to find out what was going on. First of all, they had to deal with an apparent docking fee. Well, the dock guards thought so at least….

“Docking fees are 2 gold pieces a day, if you’d like to dock your boat here.”
Thorin smiled and said “That won’t be a problem, we don’t need to dock it.”
The guards were very puzzled about that one. Thorin promptly said “VOS” and picked up the small box, stuck it in his pack, and the party was ready to go. The guards stood looking at them speechlessly as they left.

They were wondering amongst themselves all the way to the inn just what could be going on, they’d only been gone for a week and a half or so. How could the inn have changed names? And what was this about there not being any pirate activity for months, maybe they had no idea about the racket that was apparently getting started here. The guards must be mistaken, either that or covering something up.

When they arrived at the place that Turk remembered as the One Eyed Goat, it did indeed say the Prancing Stallion. They went inside, and Turk recognized the young man that he had entrusted with the care of his mare, Justice. The strange thing was, the young man didn’t look quite so young anymore.

The young man looked up and saw Turk, recognizing him right away. “Turk, is it you? It’s been such a long time!” “Oh sir, I feared you were gone for good!”

Turk wanted to know just how long it had been since the young man, Joseph, had seen him.
Joseph replied, “Over 2 years sir, don’t you know?!”

“2 years! We’ve only been away less than 2 weeks!” Turk said with shock and disbelief although his eyes told him that it had to be the truth. “What of my horse, Justice?”

“With the generous tip you gave me, I was able to take good care of her when you disappeared. She is well, and with her I have been able to start a strong bloodline of horses that has enabled me to prosper and buy this place. I’ve cleaned it up, and made it reputable. Justice is out at my home in the country side with plenty of pasture and well taken care of. I’ll take you out there myself. Of course you shall have her back, along with all of the equipment you left with her. If you’d rather you are welcome to choose one of her offspring, they are all magnificent animals.”

Turk was relieved to hear that she was so well taken care of, and would not hear of having any horse but her. He wanted to ride out to get her right away. He asked Kierwin to watch over Rowena for him while he went out to get Justice. Of course, she said she would take care of her.

While Turk was gone, everyone else bought dinner at the inn and then split up and got rooms and retired for the evening. Minx and Kierwin had offered to share with Snap, hoping to spend some time with him, but he refused, preferring to be alone. They still couldn’t get anything more out of him. The mystery still remained. Thorin and Giermund shared a room also, but first Thorin bought a round of ale.

When they talked to Turk the next morning he explained that he’d found out that while they’d been gone all of the piracy had been rooted out and abolished from Aguila and the town was quite different than when they’d been here last. Apparently all that was left for them to do was sell their goods and stock up for their trip to Oakhurst since they had decided to help Osa on with her quest for the red apple.

Kierwin remained with Rowena, since Turk trusted her most to take care of her. They gave him everything they’d found to sell, and Minx asked him if he’d take the strange dagger they’d found and have it’s blade honed for her since it seemed a bit dull.

Turk set off through town looking for shops that looked promising. There weren’t many places in Aguila that bought and sold the supplies they needed, but they were told they should be able to find most of it.

Turk found a likely place to sell the jewelry they’d found. In the process, he even gained a little information. The jade earrings looked like the kind of jewelry that a people who had once long ago conquered the continent had worn. They had finally been overthrown and run off about 200 years ago. Unfortunately, he couldn’t find out more than that from the shop owner, but he thought that information might be useful.

He stopped by a weapon smith’s and asked about having the dagger reworked. He was told it just needed polish and a good honing. But, when he went into a “magic shop”, the owner saw the dagger and was fascinated by it. He liked it because it was so unusual. He couldn’t just trade Minx’s dagger without asking her, but he really wanted the potion of Bull’s Strength the owner was offering, so he told the owner he’d be back.

Turk went back to the Inn and Minx agreed, but only if he got her a Mage Armor Scroll and to see what else he could manage. While he was there, Kierwin asked him to see if there were any clerical scrolls available if they had the money for them. After he’d left, she wished she had specified “healing”, but she hadn’t.

Turk came back with his potion of Bull’s Strength, Minx’s Mage Armor Scroll, and a scroll of Command for Kierwin. They hadn’t had any healing scrolls anyway, so it wouldn’t have mattered if she’d asked. She was disappointed.

He also remembered to buy trail rations and water.

Well, it looks like they were ready to set sail for Oakhurst.