The next morning, the palace staff thanked the group and did their best to hustle them out a small, out of the way backdoor before they had to come within sight of any of the royals this early in the morning. They were bustled off with a cold breakfast wrapped up in cloth that they could take with them, and with a sigh of relief, the palace doors were slammed in their face.
Someone new was with them; Eladcot, a student of arcane lore who was a minor member of the Queen's staff, and a native of her homeland. He smiled and said hello, but the smile did not reach his eyes.
The band of "heroes" stood around rather bleary eyed; some of them went for a spot of breakfast while Jek, the hobgoblin and Eladkot all went to visit the local magic-user to get some of their loot from the pirate captain identified. They were particularly impressed with some of them, including a ring the Teren'Kol had that granted fast healing 5.
For those of you keeping track at home, yes, that is too good an item for the PC's level. I knew that at the time; although I let him enjoy it for a sesson or two before the drawbacks started showing themselves. 
)
They all met again near the docks; determined that they would do their best to follow both the Prince's and the Queen's requests; swinging by Cryx for a scouting expedition before moving northward up to Iclezza and helping them with their druid problem. It proved more difficult than they thought to find passage to Cryx; although if they'd considered it, that isn't terribly surprising. No reputable ship would go anywhere near the pirate haven ruled by a harsh and unforgiving necromancer Dragon-king, so they had to look through the more
disreputable captains and ships. The area of the docks that they scoured was increasingly seedy.
Eladkot spotted a face that looked very curious and malicious; Teren'Kol also spotted it and recognized the face of the man they had bested in combat with the carriages. He did not look like he was in the mood to laugh about last night's activities. The rest of the group noticed nothing.
Teren'Kol looked around again and saw a group of orc stevedores unloading mysteriously unmarked (rather; the original marks had been scratched off, burned or painted over) crates onto the dock and walked towards them as the shady man and some of his croneys crept quietly through the alleys towards them. As he passed through the orcs, he muttered under his breath. "Hail, brother! I seem to be in a spot of trouble—follow my lead and I will share the proceeds that we find on the bodies of those skulks behind me."
"Who are you—a hobgoblin!—who wears the clothing of my desert kin and calls me brother?" one of the orcs asked skeptically.
"I am a hobgoblin, but my people were killed or enslaved when I was young and I was raised by orcs. Follow my lead and see if I don't prove myself your brother!"
The orcs still looked skeptical, but grudgingly accepted this explanation. As the men came very close behind, and began drawing weapons, Teren'Kol "accidentally" knocked a crate over in their path and the orcs drew weapons as well. Teren'Kol wheeled around quickly and waved his exotic, dangerous weapon, smashing and slashing through the ambushers.
At this point, everybody finally noticed them.
Eladkot showed his nature; casting
fear in the area, and then hightailing it back behind the rest of the group. Several of the assailants fled in terror, but unfortunately, so did some of the orcs. Those that remained, including the one who spoke to Teren'Kol, and the hobgoblin himself continued to mow through the thugs who remained. Fairlight the Fair plugged crossbow bolts into those that remained, while Jek manuevered himself for a fatal attack by surprise, catching an unprepared bandit in the back.
Eladkot cast another spell, which slowed those who tried to run at him and Fairlight, which made it even easier for her to continue to pepper him with bolts. He died before reaching them.
Within moments, the fight was over and all of the attackers were dead. The defenders were relatively unscathed. It had proven to be little more than an early morning workout for them. They divided the coins and weapons found on the bodies (the latter didn't interest our group; a handful of low level warriors compared to 3rd level PCs? Not surprising.) Teren'Kol gave his share of the former to the orcs, with his thanks.
Shortly afterward, they found a ship that made a milk run between Jekara and Blackwater in Cryx. The guards stationed at the gangplank had seen the fight and were impressed. The ship itself was a bit less impressive (I do believe the phrase "What a piece of junk!" was uttered by someone. The guards also claimed to have made a few "special" modifications… anyway
.) The captain was in the cantina across the street, though—if they wanted passage, they'd have to arrange it with him.
And yes, when they walked in, I did sing the Star Wars cantina number. The bartender did not tell anyone that he didn't serve their kind here, though. They found the captain, and gave him an "offer he couldn't refuse." (Actually, lame movie quotes aside, they did offer him a lot of money—he had just arrived the night before and wasn't anxious to leave so soon, so they had to.) He said that he did have to do some reprovisioning, and despite their best efforts, they couldn't talk him into leaving any sooner than the next morning. The captain sighed, gave the girls on his lap one more peck on the cheek and pinch on the bum, and went off to do all the things he needed to do to go out of town.
The group ate lunch, chatted for a while, drank a lot, and eventually made ready to turn in for the night. Teren'Kol decided to hire a room right here in the very cantina they had found the captain; Caden Bar Harland decided to sneak aboard the ship, check it out, and then crash in a quiet corner, and the rest of them went back into a somewhat safer part of town to find a nicer, cleaner place to stay.
Of course,
that's the group that ran into trouble during the night...
