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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Kid Charlemagne" data-source="post: 14933" data-attributes="member: 93">Caer Cuthlin, Eirval, January 17th, AE 420Sir Brennen and Jovah gather the group together and show them their discovery.  It appears that a Ralt Gaitherese ship carrying rich passengers must have gone down off the coast of Eirval.  They search out the salvager who found the stuff, a gruff local fisherman named Gravinard.  After plying him with a few gold coins, they manage to get him to divulge the area of the coast where the stuff was found.  They then hire a small cargo vessel to go do some salvaging themselves.“Nobody has explained to me how we are going to find an egg under the Retic Sea, even if we have narrowed it down to thirty miles of coast line,” Gavin grumbles.  “That’s still a lot of area.”“Well,” Aris starts, “I’ve been thinking about that.  Since I have a sort of connection with the Egg, I’m kind of hoping that when we get close, I’ll sense it…”“That’s your big idea?” Gavin replies, unconvinced.“Um, yeah.”“Hold on, I’ve got some thoughts on that,” Jovah says.  “I can cast locate object and water breathing multiple times.  We can do that, kind of drag along underwater behind the boat as we sail, and if we get a directional reading off the locate object, we stop and explore.”“Will you be able to do locate object on the Egg?” Reana asks.“I don’t know,” Jovah replies.“Try it on ships,” Brennen says.  “This area is known for shipwrecks, so we may get a few false positives, but we should be able to find the ship that way, eventually.”There is some skepticism as to whether the plan will work, but as it turns out the Retic Sea is not terribly deep at this point (probably one reason that shipwrecks happen so often in the area).  It takes a couple of days of sailing to get to the area, but within a day or so, they find their first shipwreck.  It’s not the one they’re looking for, of course, but it’s a good sign.  The next day they find another wreck, and Jovah, swimming down amongst the wreckage notices a few shadowy humanoid shapes swimming nearby, although he’s unable to get a good look at them.  They swim away quickly, and don’t return.  Jovah lets the others know, and they keep their eyes open for the unknown creatures.The following afternoon they spot a ship on the horizon.  As they get closer, they note that it appears to be anchored.  They decide to sail up and see what’s going on, pretending to simply be interested in an exchange of ship-to-ship communications, a fairly common courtesy most captains honor.  The ship appears to be a fairly large cargo vessel named “The Waterbug,” unarmed (as is the party’s ship).  The captain waves them closer after signals are exchanged, but then gets into a heated discussion with a well-dressed man on board who seems to be upset that the party’s ship is approaching.“What should I do?” asks the party’s hired captain.  “Keep going in,” Brennen says.  “Ignore any signals telling you to back off.”The captain reluctantly agrees.  The party sails up to the Waterbug, and Sir Brennen, Jovah, and Reana stand at the rail.  “We have some messages that need to go to Caer Cuthlin,” Brennen says.  “Permission to come aboard and deliver them?”“Certainly,” says the other captain.“We’re not going to Caer Cuthlin,” says the foppish gentleman.  The captain raises an eyebrow but doesn’t say anything to contradict him.At this point a diver breaks the surface of the water on the far side of the ship and is hauled up on board; a second rope hanging in the water is also also in the process of being hauled up.  Jovah notes that there are two priests on board, they appear to be priests of Velona, the goddess of the sea (priests of Velona frequently hire on to ships as ‘ship’s priests’).The second rope comes up, and a commotion arises from the people on the other ship.  The other rope is frayed and cut at the end; apparently a second diver is missing!“Watch them!” the fop yells to the captain.  “This is their doing!”Brennen shrugs questioningly, and the other captain answers with his own exasperated shrug.Reana grasps Brennen’s arm, and points to the prow of the other ship.  “Look!” she whispers urgently.The Sword of Kelanen looks where the Ranger is pointing, and sees a scaly humanoid figure slinking up the anchor rope, followed by another. Each has a trident tied off over his back.  The failing light of an early winter sunset barely outlines them against the ships silhouette.“Captain!” Brennen yells.  “You are being boarded by Sahuagin!  Look sharp!  Do you require assistance?”“NO!” yells the fop.  “They’re behind this!”  He then runs off somewhere; the party can’t see where, as the other ship is much larger and its deck is a good eight feet above the party’s deck.“Do you swear you have nothing to do with this?”  the captain asks.“We swear!” Jovah replies.“Then yes!  We have no strong fighters amongst us!”Brennen climbs up the rope ladder proffered by the Captain, and Reana follows.  Jovah bangs on the hatch to alert Jalea, Batista, Gavin, and Aris (they had not wanted to make the other ship nervous with a large number of well-armed folk on deck) to the situation.  Then he clambers up the ladder too.As Brennen and Reana reach the top, they see a half-dozen sea devils attacking the crew.  Brennen yells for them to back off so he and Reana can engage them.  The foppish man who had been yelling at them is over at the steep stair leading down, talking urgently to someone, and is surprised to see the party on board, and even more surprised to see them fighting the sahuagin.  He stands, jaw dropped as Brennen lays into one of the creatures and flattens it with two whirling strikes.  Reana engages another one, but  more keep coming up over the sides.  Jovah climbs up on board, and nearly gets his head taken off by a sahuagin.  He tumbles out of its way, and in the failing last light of day sees a tall, brunette woman coming up from below decks, talking with the foppish man.  She pulls out a small crossbow and plugs a sahuagin, while her foppish companion more or less hides.Gavin is just about to climb up the ladder when a sahuangin tosses it overboard.“D*MN!” he yells, and jumps for the Waterbug’s rail.Aris casts jump and tries to make the leap up to the Waterbug, missing it by just a bit, and crashing over the railing.  Something clicks in his head, and he turns to the starboard side, where the first diver is crouching under the stairs to the aft deck, clutching something in a wet leather bag.  The diver reaches in and pulls something out.It’s the Egg.</blockquote>

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