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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Dantardis" data-source="post: 3805750" data-attributes="member: 46174">Two hours later and the group were at the docks, arranging the hiring of two rowing boats, to get out to the Blue Nixie.  After some haggling they agreed to a price.  The group waited until two hours before dawn before setting off.  The fighter, Bato and the aventi wizard Nimo muffled the oars of the rowboat to help lessen the noise of the boats as they moved towards the caravel.  In the distance they could see the dim torches around the Blue Nixie and see the crew moving around on deck.  Luck seemed to be on their side as the rowboats pulled alongside the caravel.  None of the cre appeared to have seen them.  The hooded figure, Grey quickly climbed aboard  and crept up behind the crew member on the quarterdeck.  With one quick hit the thug fell unconscious.  At the same moment Nimo uttered some aracane words and suddenly the thug in the crow's nest fell over as the crow's nest became extremely slippery.  Meanwhile in the rowboat, Aust, the other wizard in the party cast a spell on himself and his body was surrounded by a glowing nimbus of energy.  Nimo, who had climbed aboard the caravel to cast his Grease spell, jumped back over the side and into the water, swimming underneath the draft of the ship and reappearing on the other side of the deck near a surprised thug.  Meanwhile a third thug struck Aust severely with a rapier, fortunately the blow was not mortal.  Grey loaded his bow and hit one of the thugs near the focs'le of the ship.  Bato followed up on the same thug by hitting the thug with his longsword and the thug fell with a screen.  Grey shot and killed another thug who had just appeared at the top of the stairs leading below.  A fifth thug appeared behind the knight, Erin and hit her severely, the wound being mortal in nature.  Fortunately at this point, Morning the dragon shaman, switched her aura to one of healing stabilising her comrade and healing all her allies who had so far taken damage.  Another thug struck Grey and drew blood.  Seki, the druid, who had moved towards the focs'le of the deck was struck by one of the thugs but this thug was in turn struck by Seki's snake animal companion and fell over.  Poison coursed through his veins and he lay still.  By this time, another figure, who the group recognised as Soller Vark from Lavinia's description had appeared and attacked Bato with his rapier.  Bato clutched at his chest and fell over, blood pouring from his wound.  Fortunately Morning's healing aura was still present and Bato stabilised.  There was a scream from below and a strange spider-like creature appeared and started to attack.  Vark by this time had moved towards Morning to attack and so the creature moved towards Seki and his snake.  Fortunately the snake was quicker and managed to attack the creature.  Seki followed up with a vicious strike with his staff and the creature was dead.  Meanwhile Grey and Morning finished off Vark who fell unconcious under their blows.Once everything had gone quiet Aust and Erin went below, together with Seki.  They found the dead body of one of the thugs, together with a host of caged and very dead exotic and mundane creatures.  In a chest to one side Erin found a pouch containing some platinum pieces, a silver ring and a piece of paper which seemed to contain some kind of riddle:CHIMERA LOOKS TO SUNRISECYCLOPS LOOKS TO SUNSETMEDUSA LOOKS TO SUNRISEUMBER HULK LOOKS TO SUNSETBASILISK LOOKS TO SUNRISE.Not knowing what to make of this Nimo and the others sailed the Blue Nixie bak into the harbour, where they were greeted by Lavinia and the captain of the Watch.  The Watch quickly took charge of the prisoners and led them away.  Lavinia thanked the group and asked them to accompany her to Castle Terkanian to visit the vault of her parents.  Shortly afterwards the Vanderboren carriage appeared on Ancestor Island.Lavinia led the way, with the group following behind.  They found themselves in an atrium with the double doors leading to the vault itself in front of them.  Before they could move into the room proper there was a hissing noise and a snake slithered down a pillar.  It did not appear to make any move towards Lavinia, who was in the lead, but instead attacked Seki's snake, who was immediately behind her.  Bato moved forward and hit the snake that was attacking.  CLANGG!!!  Although Bato struck a goodly blow his weapon did not appear to have done any damage.  Nimo and Erin similarly managed to strike the cobra but again to little effect."It's some kind of construct", said Grey, "grapple it".  He successfully managed to grapple the cobra.  Morning quickly joined the grapple and pinned the cobra to the floor.  Erin and Aust, noticing simultaneously  that the cobra was making no move towards Lavinia suggested that she order the cobra to return to its guarding place.  Lavinia did so and Morning and Grey released the cobra to retun to the top of its pillar.Moving through the double doors the group found themselves in the vault proper.  They found themselves facing a final door with some kind of combination lock.  Frecoes on the walls showed various stylised monsters of various kinds.  After several random attempts, Erin spoke up:"Of course, the riddle from the ship's the combination."  She pointed out that each of the creatures mentioned had a different number of eyes and the sunrise/sunset part of the riddle referred to either clockwise or anticlockwise.  With a couple of clicks she moved the lock in the required combination.  The vault opened and the scene that greeted the group was one of disarray, almost all of the chests had been emptied.  Finally in one hidden corner, Lavinia discovered a chest which contained somewhere in the region of 20,000 gps, together with a ledger listing all the debts owed to the Vanderborens, together with a journal written in a strange language.  Lavinia paid the group and they went off to spend their winnings.</blockquote>

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