Befuddling & Scuttling

## **Synopsis**

In Chapter 93: Befuddling & Scuttling, Erland allowed the natural flow of the Navika River take him downstream – away from the angry Lipatro locals hurling stones from the bank.  Damp and disappointed but with only superficial injuries, he took a walk back to the Upa Alehouse where relocation negotiations between the Elatrian and Rudhiran elves were in the early stages of development.

After trying to get a message to our old friend Dal-Dun, Erland made for the Steederway – and he didn't know it but he'd just be missing Safira, who after leaving Battle-Ready and bumping into a familiar (though not to her) face, felt that a celebratory drink was in order.

Meanwhile, Orba and Graven – who were unwinding in their own way with dice games at the Deck – made the difficult decision to pay a visit to Reciprocity, hoping that the Lightwhistle chess piece once promised to Beezaura was now up for grabs.

Complicating matters was the fact that we didn't know what Mr. Two had been up to after last night's break-in – so we couldn't be certain that Senka Uberti wasn't currently being coerced.  Predictably stubborn, Senka sent us away and we failed to discern anything out of the ordinary – another dead end that only added to our frustrating pursuit of the missing wizard.

Stopping by the Broken Crown on our way back into town, we picked up a few new contracts before reuniting with Erland and Safira – finally a moment to get each other up to speed and make a plan for the evening.  Unsuccessful in his attempt to make contact with Shekar, Erland was feeling the pressure to act quickly regarding Marvyn Bishop – and without a reliable way to demonstrate the Mutant whistle's effectiveness, we were running out of options.

The way we saw it, the best hope for freeing Marvyn was to take his captors unawares – retracing Erland's steps to the spot where he was held and slipping in and out unnoticed.  It would for sure be a team effort, but with so much left to do we had to optimize our time – so in the hours before needing to ride out, we split up once again.

Orba and Graven took the Steederway to Na-Garwas and narrowly avoided a run-in with the man Orba had charmed back at Butez's tattoo parlor – a lucky break as he was unlikely to be happy to see us.  At the Mailhouse, we put in our request for supplies as provided by the Advocates – and at the same time remorsefully turned down the payment meant for Beezaura, as she would no longer be joining us on our excursion into the mountains.

Safira, at long last able to utilize Jillian's intel she'd received back in Mukmu, headed to the Tall Ports – where she was granted an audience with Mohan Fowler despite the heightened security measures around his office.  As Jillian predicted, Mohan was sympathetic to our plight – having experienced firsthand the drastic changes brought on by the Myconid trade.

He was certainly aware of how deeply involved the Gentle Void is in the distribution of the extract, but was blindsided and horrified by Safira's reports of the experimentation happening at the Chaki Harvesting Yard.  With his disdain of the direction that the GV seemed to be heading, Mohan formulated the beginning stages of a plot to make the Void think twice about their overseas exports – but it would require significant planning and allies we could trust.

A boat bound for K'iraw was set to carry the largest single shipment of Myconid Extract ever sent across the ocean – and if that boat happened to capsize on its journey, it would be a serious setback with a potent ripple effect as the Gentle Void scrambled to figure out who to blame.

For Safira, who had come to Anti-Suyu in search of answers, it was a promising and tangible way to have a positive impact.  Still, it would be at least a month before the ship set sail – so with another item knocked off the Navika-Pura checklist we turned our attention to what would hopefully amount to a rescue.

## Trivia

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