When the Going Gets Bluff

## **Synopsis**

In Chapter 89: When the Going Gets Bluff, Safira and Orba anxiously awaited Erland's arrival in the bar area of All Hands on Deck.  The first phase of the plan to get access to the Room of Safe Deposit was to retrieve the lockbox belonging to the Broken Crown – and we were resigned to do so without Graven until he received a visitor upstairs.

Siegra, the curious tiefling who was also Robert Bastille's contact in Navika-Pura, had been sent by Villepont Willoughby when he got our plea for help just hours ago.  A skilled trickster and illusionist, she had the ability to alter her appearance and buy Graven a bit of breathing room to go about his business while Mr. Two's spies were occupied.

The service wasn't free and the time was limited, but it struck us as a reasonable price to alleviate that suffocating feeling and to provide an extra set of hands in our search.  Shrouded and separated from the rest of the party, Graven slipped out of town without issue – reuniting with the others at the same crossroads that led Erland to his early morning ambush.

Continuing further south, we reached the point where the elevation began to rise and the road veered closer to the coast – darkness and the sounds of the ocean crashing against the rock nearby.  With a thorough examination of the surrounding area, we picked up clues that not only indicated the direction the rogue carriage had traveled – but what creature might have caused the sudden deviation.

Safira identified a large feather as belonging to a Harpy – ill-tempered monstrosities with a sweet, luring call that may have been the downfall of these unlucky travelers.  With caution we approached the bluffs and found a steep descent that culminated in a few flat rocks jutting above the waterline – enough surface area to believe that pieces of the wreckage could be salvageable, though getting down safely was no small task.

Anchoring ourselves with climber's kits, we didn't get far before music drifted through the air – a hypnotic melody that seemed as if the very ocean itself was drawing us closer.  The initial haze subsided and we saw the harpies closing in – though luckily our preparedness kept our minds sharp and our weapons at the ready.

The complication of the cliffs made it so one false step could send us hurdling to our demise – but Safira wasn't in the mood to miss any shots and Orba cleverly utilized the Levitate spell to great effect along the steep rock face.  Riddled with arrows and desperately screeching, the final foe was felled by Graven – and we quickly scurried to the bottom to look for signs of the lockbox.

Among a few other items that survived the crash – which we may or may not report to Lieutenant Colonel Warber – we located the crate of components when Orba went to Detect Magic in the area, a hard-fought but ultimately successful mission that put the first puzzle piece in place for Operation Crystal Swap.

The return climb was mostly smooth with the exception of a spell-slot wasting slip-up by Safira – and as we rode back toward the city lights, we picked up the pace with Graven's soft curfew in mind.

## Trivia

* Natural one count: one natural one was rolled in this Chapter, by Riley.