10. A Day Off in Bisquay

Wilfred had a final chat with Simon as the drake headed back to the Mud Skip pub. The gnome vowed to look for the purple dragon that had cursed the alehouse drake, learning that she goes by a number of names, one of which is Pantalay. The party then spent the night in Bisquay.

The next day, Driscoll sent a man to get one of the party to come and meet him alone. Malak drew the short straw and heard from the pirate lord that he'd been in meetings for a day and a half. The town was distraught that people had been killed in a bar fight the last time his ship was in port. Driscoll knew the party were involved somehow but didn't care about the details. He'd had to pay a lot of money, both to repair the pub and to appease the grieving families. He told Malak to relay that the actions the party took reflected on him now. They can't just go around doing stupid things like killing civilians in a bar fight in a merchant town.

Malak was then told to go speak to Duster or Laylin. The crew of *the Matricide* were partying even more today than they had been since they'd successfully broken through Shandy's fleet. Malak found Duster and was given the portable hole with the dragon and sun stag hides inside. The hides would only be good for one month - 28 days from the animals' deaths - and four days had already passed. The party needed to take the hides to Clay, the artificer who lived on an island near the ass end of Tortuga before the time limit. When they were close to his island, the party were to contact Duster through the sending stone so he could alert Clay they were arriving. Apparently the artificer can be quite difficult to deal with and this measure would help a great deal. Once they did this, the portable hole was theirs to keep.

However, the party also needed to be cautious. If they rushed to Tortuga too soon they'd likely run into opportunistic pirates. Many were looking to take down those flying Driscoll's flag right now; Badger and Nemmonis had already been forced to hunker down on Tortuga. This was a knee-jerk reaction to Driscoll besting Shandy's fleet and his reputation as a dangerous pirate lord beginning to reassert itself. These crews were hoping to gain a boost to their own reputations on the back of Driscoll's gains. Duster was confident this was to be a short-lived phase.

Malak heard the instructions for how to get to Tortuga as well as the three simple rules in place on the island:

1. Don't fuck with the tortles.
2. Don't attack any docked ships.
3. No fighting between the crews of the pirate lords.

Some of the party went shopping in Bisquay's huge covered market. Clwyd remained on *the Drunken Dragon* to work on creating a magic ring for Pyt. She enlisted the help of Wilfred for the process of enchanting. Wilfred took the opportunity to ask her if she recognised the necklace that he used as an arcane focus - this being the object he was searching for answers about. Clwyd's specialisation in manipulating magical energies allowed her to combine some of her magic with others, and through a joint *identify* spell the pair gleaned some new information on the necklace: the teardrop shaped piece of metal had once been part of an immensely powerful living creature. Clwyd inquired if Wilfred's parents were archmages, but the gnome confessed that he didn't know much about them. When the party returned to the ship, they all spoke more about how they would find the traitor in Driscoll's ranks. Clwyd informed the group that if Badger has an actual ring of mind shielding then there's a chance it has the soul of a previous wearer trapped inside it.

*The Matricide* left Bisquay for the Verdant Groves late in the day. When evening arrived, the party minus Clwyd went into town for some drinks. Wilfred managed to find Bisquay's illusive hole-in-the-wall pub. After everyone had a cup, Vic went to try and order the next round but was refused on account of her being eleven years old. The group were watched very closely by security while all except Vic had another cup and then took their leave. The party moved on to the Ruddy Grape and drank a lot more - except for Vic who was now sticking to water. They debated a little more about whether or not they should keep Clwyd around. Vic said she trusted her and was then challenged on her hypocrisy, having been all too eager to start killing goblins the last two times the party faced them. The group eventually returned to *the Drunken Dragon,* now thoroughly intoxicated. They found Clwyd below deck and at a similar level of drunk to themselves. She'd succeeded in enchanting the silver jug the party had found in the small dragons' horde. It was now able to produce a wide variety of liquids in vast quantities. While below deck, a drunken Malak carelessly cast *create or destroy water* and *the Drunken Dragon* began sinking. Everyone managed to get out without injury, but the hatch door was severely damaged in the ordeal.

The next morning a town official came to collect the groups levy for docking at port, but then saw they were with Driscoll and said they didn't need to pay in that case. The party bought supplies for a few days' sailing and then set off for the island of Agnor, a place rumoured to be the home of several seers.

The first day of sailing was uneventful, the waters around Bisquay not being as dangerous as the deeper parts of Driscoll's territory. On the second day, the party spotted an island on the horizon. It looked uninhabited, mostly covered in forest, with some ruins on top of a hill. Flekk, usually so stoic, became quite animated and Clark got an uneasy feeling from the place. Despite this, the group decided to check the island out. They sailed closer and suddenly everything around them changed. All the world's colour bled to blacks, greys, and whites. The sea itself was replaced by land all around, as far as they could see. *The Drunken Dragon's* keel scrapped horribly along the ground before it slammed down onto its side, having been moving through the water at some pace before the change. The ruins at the top of the hill were ruins no more; instead a majestic castle with layers of sloped, angular roofs stood there. A town was off in the distance, on the other side of the forest to the castle. But most noticeable of all was the temperature. It was bitterly, dangerously cold. The party had somehow stepped partially into the Land Beyond Life. Running back in the direction they'd come sailing from didn't make a difference. They were stuck.

Wilfred used his wand of magic detection and found the air suffused with necrotic energy. Clark could sense three sources of power in the immediate area that were likely anchoring this partial section of the Land Beyond Life to the island in the real world: one in the direction of the town, one in the forest nearby, and one in the direction of the castle atop the hill. As the group stood around debating what to do, they heard a soul-shattering wail that wracked many of them physically and sent Wilfred and Vic to the ground, suddenly unconscious and dying. Clwyd saved them with her healing draughts. Sadly, Spice the cat could not withstand the psychic wracking of the scream and died in the box of the folding boat. The wail must have come from a banshee, but the sorrow necessary to make it so powerful was unfathomable to those in the group that knew about the creatures. The party were spurred into action and they headed into the forest, towards the nearest source of power.

After walking for but a few minutes, the group came upon an armoured figure sat on a tree stump, head slumped. Its left hand was missing and smoke billowed from the wrist. It had two scabbards at his waist but only one - the shorter of the two - contained a sword. It heard Clwyd approach and demanded it be left alone in its sorrow. It shouted 'leave' and Malak immediately recognised the spell and the creature's nature as Clwyd was compelled to run away. It had cast *command*, a spell the triton made use of himself. The creature had once been a paladin, but had broken its oaths and died before redemption. It was now a death knight.

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