03. Bisquay and Beyond

* Driscoll's ship, *the Matricide*, took longer to return to Crab Claw Cove than anticipated; apparently it had been spotted by one of Shandy's crews while returning from her territory. The chase was eventually broken by a fortuitous storm, allowing *the Matricide* to make it back.
* Meanwhile, the party killed more time on the island of Crab Claw Cove.
	+ During this two-week or so period of time, some of Driscoll's subordinate crews left the island. Badger's ship, *the Hogshead*, and Nemmonis's ship, *the Banshee*, headed for Tortuga, while Woden's ship, *the Wicked Sister*, went after the goblins the party had scared off but decided not to loot.
	+ Eventually, Driscoll and Laylin approached the party with news that *the Matricide* was going to arrive at Bisquay in a few days and the nine of them should all set out in Quinn's *folding boat* to meet them there.
	+ A few days of awkwardly sailing aboard the small ship with the pirate lord and his first mate so close at hand, and the group eventually arrived on the wine isle, jewel of the Merchant Strait, Bisquay!
* The party got to enjoy one night on the isle of Bisquay while *the Matricide* was restocked.
	+ The party searched out one of the only places in Bisquay selling beer rather than wine, eventually finding the Mud Skip pub.
	+ Inside the dimly-lit place, they befriended (or perhaps fell victim to the whims of) an alehouse drake -- a tiny dragon -- going by the name of Simon.
	+ After a brief bit of conversation, they concluded the pub was keeping Simon in servitude as a novelty to draw in customers to a place with a failing business model.
	+ A bar fight broke out over the alehouse drake, with Simon himself chuckling from the bar top the whole while, subtly nudging people's emotions with his mischievous magics.
	+ Unbeknown to the others who'd already left the building, Elio and Clark ended up killing some of the pub's patrons in the fighting -- the former starting a large fire in the place and the latter letting out his frustrations from two weeks of cabin fever by bludgeoning his prone victim with a mace.
	+ At the end of the scrap, Simon ended up alongside the party and agreed to travel with them for a bit.
* The next day, *the Matricide* pushed off and set sail for Shandy's territory once again.
	+ In the ship's hold, amidst barrels of wine, Clark had a brief, near-deadly encounter with a rum gremlin.
	+ The violent little fey and make more of its ilk had apparently stowed away during the process of loading the ship with booze -- Bisquay was an island known for its fey connections. The pack of gremlins were now guzzling down the contents of the freshly purchased wine barrels about the hold.
	+ When informed, Driscoll's crew sounded the alarm and rushed down with swift efficiency to deal with the fey infestation.
	+ During their journey, the party met a weird halfling woman going by the name of Wick. She kept her hands busy playing cat's cradle, and she didn't seem to do any work around the ship. Occasionally, she asked people if they wanted to fight but otherwise spent her time lounging in the crow's nest, on the bow, or elsewhere.
* A few days into their journey, Driscoll suddenly called for the boat to speed up. Another of his subordinate captains, King the Leviathan, had managed to entrap a ship flying Shandy's flag inside Driscoll's territory -- one of the ships that had pursued *the Matricide* on its recent return. Driscoll intended to catch the enemy ship in a pincer.
	+ When King's ship and the enemy's both came into view, Wick began slinging fireballs across the ocean. Much to Wick's displeasure (she 'hates water magic'), they were met in turn by magical walls of water rising to protect the ship flying Shandy's flag and a mage fight ensued.
	+ Suddenly, the waters surrounding *the Matricide* were teeming with sahuagin, violent, shark-like aquatic humanoids.
	+ In the midst of the chaos, Laylin noted that a large number of the frenzied sahuagin had broken off from their underwater horde and were heading for Yeddow. She concluded that the island's residents, being whalers, had likely made a kill recently and the scent of so much blood was attracting the sea devils.
	+ Driscoll turned to the party and said it was about time they did some proper work for him. They were told to go off in Quinn's *folding boat* and defend the island of Yeddow!