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Message: <blockquote data-quote="the Jester" data-source="post: 2324912" data-attributes="member: 1210">At Sea11/13/369 O.L.G., 6:45 a.m., on board the Proud PentorThe Proud Pentor is an interesting vessel, with strange lines, odd-shaped sails, and a generally very different look from the other ships our heroes have seen before.  To the deep halflings (Nara and Erasmuz), this is not unusual; almost everything on the surface world is bizarre-looking and made out of unfamiliar materials.  The first mate of the Proud Pentor is named Grey Jorn.  He is weather-beaten, with wild, unkempt hair going grey and the sort of half-beard that shows inattention rather than cultivation.  He is a half-elf, and the party quickly gets the sense that he handles the ship’s business while the captain remains mostly sight unseen.  He is polite and deferential, but when he needs to he barks as fiercely as anyone could expect from a ship’s mate.  There are a total of about a dozen crewmen aboard the ship, scrambling up ropes and masts, tying things, untying things, moving this and that, checking netting, swabbing the decks- in general, doing the sorts of things that sailors do, which are pretty nearly completely unknown to the party since the loss of their sole boatman, Sandy.*“We’ll be takin’ a discrete path to Zacradose,” comments Grey Jorn.  “It should take us about fifteen days to get there, if the winds’re average.”“Fifteen days!” exclaims Ari.Grey Jorn eyes him.  “Aye, ya want to avoid any unnecessary entanglements, don’t ya?”“Yeah...”“Well, we’ll be takin’ a route to avoid unnecessary entanglements.”***9 a.m.Shut up in the cabin the party has been assigned, Nara pulls the heads she took from the poisoner and the warrior from her backpack.  She stares at intently and casts speak with dead on the head of the human who attempted to poison the group.“Why did you poison us?” she demands.The head’s eyes open and its tongue lolls out.  ”Gold,” is groans.  “Gold, gold, gold- gold to make me rich!”Nara shakes her head.  “Name the being that put you up to this,” she says.“Can’t.  Don’t know.”  It shudders, gnashing its teeth.Nara considers; she may ask it only one more question.  We should have taken the third guy’s head too, she thinks ruefully.  Well, maybe she can eliminate some possibilities right away.  “In the group you were with, was the guy with the greatsword the leader?””Yes,” the head moans, then gasps, shudders and falls still.Nara looks to the other head.  She casts another speak with dead, but it manages to resist the spell.  She leans against the cabin wall, thinking.  Tomorrow, she thinks.She casts gentle repose on the head of the warrior.  That evening she throws the head of the poisoner overboard.***11/14/369 O.L.G., 11 a.m.Late the next morning, Nara tries to speak to the dead fighter’s head again.  This time she forces some answers from it.“Whom do you serve?” she demands as her spell takes hold of it.“Father,” it groans.“What is your family name?”“We are... the Cloudriders,” the head responds.“What does the coded message say?”“Instructions.”  The head gurgles and lapses into silence.Not too illuminating, but better than nothing, thinks the prophetess.  That night she makes ready to discard the head, but Erasmuz protests.  With a shrug, she lets him keep it.  “Hey, buddies, what we need,” he announces the next day, “is a read with dead spell.”“A... what?”  Nara stares at him, dumbfounded.“Yeah, then we could make it read the note to us.”“Is there such a spell?” asks Ari.“Not that I’ve heard of,” Erasmuz admits.  “But we should make one!”“Why, are you a cleric?” Nara asks. “No, no, uh- I’m more arcane,” the shaven headed fellow demurs.  Inside, he is most amused at the question.  Clerics, he scoffs mentally.***The party spends the next couple of days on the ship doing very little.  Their mounts are tied in the hold.  Using his snake familiar, Erasmuz tracks down some wriggling baby rats from deep in the hold and feeds them to the magic snake that he took from the serpent-folk.  This, of course, is Beau, animal in body and mind.A storm rolls in one evening, and our heroes put themselves below decks, in their cabin, and stay dry.  The next morning the rain continues, and the party amuses itself by playing cards with the crew, gambling some loose silver and copper away.  (Erasmuz actually comes out slightly ahead; his skill at bluffing serves him well in cards.)Then there is the sound of a hail from on deck.  Investigating, our heroes find that several Imperial Strogassian vessels are bearing down on them!  Initially, the halflings try to hide, but a sailor tells them, “As long as yer not wanted fer anything ya should be okay.  But if they catch ya hidin’ they’ll be takin’ ya away for sure.”  They heed his warning and head up to the deck.  The captain has even emerged from his cabin for once.  “I thought we were taking a discrete route,” Ari says to Grey Jorn.“We are,” the half-elf sighs, and spits into the water.  “These fellas are fairly out of their way here.”The Proud Pentor heaves to as the Strogassian ships slide in alongside it.  The captain and first mate keep their faces still as the Pentor is boarded, and soon marines are searching for contraband.  When the Imperial captain comes aboard, however, it is a human that several of our heroes recognize.  Dressed in a fancy pressed uniform showing a medal on his chest, his sword at his side, the officer is clearly-“Laodegan!” Next Time: Our heroes do a little catching up with an old pal over dinner, saving the captain of the Proud Pentor a considerable sum!  Plus: the return of another old friend!*Sandy, as a stout, was from a more water-loving breed of halfling than most.</blockquote>

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