Ciddar continued to pilot the skiff with impressive mastery, although at one point it seemed that the spotted shark was about to cut you off. You rounded the far side of the Churner just as you spotted movement from the deck. Captain Bar'ran leapt off it, ran (or skated?) across the turbulent ocean, and pounced on the enraged spotted shark's head, stabbing furiously with magic harpoons into its hammer-head around its eyes. It thrashed and raised so much sea-spray that no one could see what happened, and your line of sight was cut as you reached safety and then pulled the skiff up to the Churner and climed aboard. Back on deck, you could see a slick of blood on the ocean where Bar'ran swam out of then himself climbed back on deck and stared for a moment before wordlessly walking into his cabin, with nary a glance at you.
Soon, as Ahappi coaxed the nymph aboard and promised her he'd return (for which he received a kiss on his hand that turned into a watery ring-like band on his finger), oen day after he'd vanquished his family's monster. Boamund and even Amur helped convince him to stay aboard- Oowashilombiss had made an attractive offer for him to stay “for a while” with her in the Harbour.
Amur soon spoke to you from the foredeck and wheel, praising your performance and promising you a reward. But he said the sea-nymph was no longer needed, and you'd be returned home soon. You simmered in anger at the deception; you'd been used to lure the Spotted Shark to Bar'ran for him to dispatch, and there must have been no “Sea Princess”. Amur briefly tried to calm you, but soon had to get the ship under way and so he gave each of you a bag of pearls (about 1000 silvers worth) and then returned to his duties. As time went on and you left the Harbour behind in its haze of fog, the crew loosened up and showed that at least they were impressed by your brave success at the Harbour. A few spoke to you as they entertained themselves that night, and one got drunkenly loose-tongued enough that he confided in the Captain, whom he seemed awed to be able to speak to (his own captain was the distant type), that the crew had heard that their next target was a monster called the Norican Giant. Ahappi knew of this monster- a great merman (Gnydron) that plagued ships along the Orninior coast, and was known for stoving their hulls in with a giant trident. It would be a fearsome foe! Meanwhile, the Baronet got to know Amur a bit better and Ciddar tried to chat up the crew, but both had become more reserved as the next day dawned.
Soon enough, you saw Giraine again, and were left unceremoniously at the pier as the Churner departed to the northeast. You quickly rendezvoused with the Shadow and took the night-channel route home to the manor, with Ahappi in a dark mood, wondering how he'd now find the religious connections he sought, and frustrated by his disappointing experience with a fellow monster-hunting hero.
Two more weeks into Storm Season passed, and you rested at the manor, where little had changed. The monsoon had come, and most of the time you were stuck indoors to avoid the insufferable rain, whose occasional absence was made worse by humidity, stinking mud and clouds of insects.
But one night as you sat in a tent together and pondered new objects recovered from the small ruin on your property; larger shards of coloured glass that did not seem right for windows; you all heard a disturbance in the Tower of Goode Menne– a stone clattering down the steps. You arrived at its base to find the guard asleep from too much drink and boredom, and scolding him you crept up the stairs. At the top, Ahappi and others could hear hurried movements, and rushed up to confront the interlopers. Ahappi ran into some magical shadowy lead chains that ensnared and froze his legs like constrictor serpents, and soon these trapped Ciddar too. Boamund spotted some ropes hanging out the window, adhered to the windowsill by some dark magic, and cut one with his sword, hearing two yelps of alarm and pain from below. Boamund's fireblade spell then proved itself very effective at dispelling the magic chains, so you ran down the stairs.
You chased after a group of five cloaked figures who fled northwest into the swamps. Boamund was fleetest afoot and caught up to them enough to hurl a spear that caught one in the shoulderblade, bringing him pitching head over heels into the muck. You captured the man and brought him back to your tent, where you realized he was one of the Baron's men, a guard from the keep named Kaladice, whom Boamund had known for years! He was in shock so Cyroosta was called to heal him, and soon he could speak and was cajoled into telling of how he'd been helping the Baron to smuggle goods (religious artefacts, riches, and people fleeing the Rokari from the mainland) onto Giraine, and they had come here to see the tower, use it to gain a vantage point on the night-channel, which Kaladice said was hoped to be used to bring more contradband ashore. When asked the obvious question of why the Baron had not asked you to do this, he bluntly said “You're too damn honourable,” and for once you knew he spoke the truth. He spoke enough of these apparent truths that you agreed to take him aboard the Shadow as a temporary crewman until he could flee to a far-off port, as he said the Baron would know know he'd spilled the beans and would wreak nasty vengeance upon him. But he could or would not answer many other questions- even if the Baron did not want to draw you personally into his smuggling, why did he undertake such a reckless operation on your lands, and what action was he planning now with such apparent urgency? These actions seemed to contrast with what you knew of Baron Ron, so you wondered if another power had a hand in all this. But the night was growing late, so you retired to revisit these questions later.
Until next week! -John
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