22. Winter Nights

* The party fought and eventually killed eight redcaps in the streets of Bisquay.
	+ The three fleeing brownies died before the party could get rid of the redcaps.
	+ Malak was killed in the fight.
* The group were 25gp worth of diamonds short for Clark's revivify spell.
	+ Flekk takes Clark's consciousness to the Land Beyond Life.
	+ Clark finds himself in a room with a large, round table. There's an old king in there, two figures in cloaks who look similar to the dying god they encountered on Hideno Island, and Naali, the Rumidian Saint of Rebirth.
	+ Clark agrees to never see his mother again, something he longs to do, as part of an agreement to make up for the missing diamonds. This is apparently supposed to be the first step in him becoming a shepherd not just for the living wrongly killed, but also for the dead who don't rest well. It's all part of him accepting the 'piece of the Mantle' that he's managed to get hold of, according to Naali.
* Malak returns to life and is angry that he's been brought back. In the privacy of their boat out at sea, Malak reveals the truth behind some of the secrets he's been keeping.
	+ He was from a triton city called Amphitrite.
	+ There was a great war in the city just before he was born. A rift opened and unleashed horrible abominations within the city walls.
	+ The Riftwar ended with the sealing of the rift, but the city and its people still bear many scars.
	+ A number of Malak's generation of triton, including himself, have manifested storm-like magical abilities, assumed to be caused by prenatal exposure to the rift.
	+ Due to this recent memory, and also longer-held beliefs that the other planes can corrupt whenever they are given the chance - as they apparently did with the sahuagin - the triton, and by extension Malak, have always been wary of things crossing freely between the barriers of the planes. Hence, his initial outrage at having been brought back to life.
	+ Malak also explained that he came to the surface as part of a triton mission to assess what was happening in the world and potentially gather allies. The waters above their hidden city have been annexed by the Rumidians, but the full extent of the threat their empire represents is unclear to the triton. Malak was to learn what he could of this, and also see if any of the pirate lords would make good allies of Amphitrite.
	+ Malak also mentioned that there was the possibility of them falling back to the hidden city in the event Shandy launched an offensive. Gaining admission to outsiders was a difficult task, but they could begin putting an argument together.
* The next day, the day after Midwinter, was a new year by the Oceanic calendar: year 6277.
* Wilfred went to Simon and learned some information about redcaps. He took this to the group and they decided to search the House of Waves, where the Thimblefulls had been murdered - innocent blood and redcaps went hand in hand.
	+ The party got permission from Tabetha the alderman to break into the home.
	+ They did so and found a number of red toadstool mushrooms growing in the basement, as well as small footprints through the coagulated blood on the floor.
* Then they heard a fire bell outside. They rushed to the docks only to see the Drunken Dragon on fire there.
	+ They put the fire out but the ship was now rendered completely unfit to sail and in need of serious repairs.
	+ Cormorant saw a man fleeing the scene and chased after him. He shot at the man before he escaped and killed him in one hit.
	+ The man was Derrick, Clwyd's former landlord and the old owner of the Fine Vine before it had been repossessed by the township.