The Sixth Session

Following the defeat of the Golden Reavers, the Motley Crew joined Vissella and Eremir in looting their lead ship. After finding a map of the Dragon Isle, a note in Abyssal, a leather sex suit that Nul took great fascination in despite being half the suit's size, a generous amount of treasure, some soul stones, and some weapons, Yief attempted to take 2 barrels of ale, but was disappointed when he could only fit one through the door. Aoth found a cat who initially was thrilled with his kindness, but quickly grew to hate him in result of a bad pun. Nul fucked with Shag in their leave while Halrek actually took the time to pour himself a pint. Arriving back on the ship, Vissella saw the damage to the handrail that occurred during the battle at the hands of Yief, asked "who DID this?", and was directed to Toby, who's ass she likely kicked. Mira saw Aoth again, asking why he keeps jumping in front of things.

After a long rest, the group continued their training with Rainn, who shared that he was once an actor in a stage show about a papyrus shop before he was a pirate, and he was clean shaven with his hair parted in the center. This surprised Shag, who approved his current appearence, and then began to learn acting from him. Applaudicus and Darkwind joined the training again, where Darkwind continued his improvement with a sword, and Applaudicus became proficient with throwing knives at targets. Getting drunk, Yief also believed his own lie about Toby breaking the railing and broke his nose, which Vissella didn't hesitate to assume was Toby's fault for instigating. By now, the nightly shanties accompanied by drinking and smoking Widestem Leaf included the boys, though Vissella was responsible enough to not let them get plastered.

The following morning, they arrived at the island of Wavecrest to restock and recoup from the 2 battles they survived. After being fully introduced to all the captains and first mates of the fleet, Nul immediately went to the local Mage's guild to learn a translation spell for the Abyssal note, and used the soul stones to enchant his shield. Halrek took an interest in Haldes Von Dawn, the first mate of the Dragon's Claw, due to her race being very uncommon outside of Droqari. He of course attempted to follow her too closely, as he does. However, her keen animal senses picked up on his presence, and when she asked what he was doing, Shag cast suggestion on him to make him tell the truth, because it would be funny. This prompted a quiet, tense, and somewhat strange interaction between the two, which ended in her walking away, following her captain to the Screamin' Shanties Tavern. Surmising Halrek attempted to flirt and was shot down, Shag comforted him with "There are plenty of foxes in the...sea? Nah, that one got away from me. Forest, there are plenty of foxes in the forest. Yeah, that's better." and bought Halrek a drink while he found a shadowy corner behind the tavern to hide in, quite embarrassed.

Aoth took Darkwind and Applaudicus to the local Warrior's Guild training area, where there surprisingly were no guild members present, and they sparred. While Applaudicus was no match with straightforward sword combat, he was quite competent in throwing knives when Aoth's back was turned, though none were able to pierce his armor. Darkwind was much more successful in his frontal attacks, prompting Aoth to block all of them, and even jumping off his shield to land a flying blow. Every time he knocked them down, they got back up without hesitating or flinching. When Darkwind charged to reclaim the sword Aoth took from him, Aoth clotheslined him, knocking the wind out of him and causing Darkwind to reflexively unleash a burst of a powerful force, knocking Aoth backwards over 15 feet and causing some bad bruising. "We've gotta find some way for you to learn to control that." he said, helping the boys up and taking them to Mira to get patched up. "How did you manage to get this beat up, we didn't even have to fight anyone!" she exclaimed, dumbfounded with Aoth's ability to get hurt.

Meanwhile in the bar, Yief saw and was enamored by Bashak Deadmaul, first mate of the Moon's Eye. Attempting to flirt, she led him outside to spar, and though she was underwhelmed with his theatrics, she did find his desire to show off entertaining, and commented on "Yief the Beef" being a good name. This happened to be where Halrek was hiding, and Yief's attempted axe spin caused the axe to land in the wall of the building just next to Halrek's head. Interested, he watched the sparring match. Yief hit first with a solid shot to her torso, which she returned with a much harder punch to his jaw, almost immediately causing that side of his face to swell up, and all while gulping her ale. He landed another blow to her ribs, which she returned by using her foot to throw him off balance and one hand to flip him on his back, immediately taking another gulp of her ale as he hit the ground. Helping him up, she said she was impressed he landed blows, and he asked to buy her a drink, which she accepted, saying his resolve and confidence were admirable. He responded "Yeah, that's me, I'm the admirable!", still confusing the word with "admiral" and thinking that was his position. Halrek followed them in, entertained and successfully distracted from his interaction with Haldes.

Shag saw and attempted to seduce Lyn Sakura, captain of the Dragon's Keep, though he drunkenly stumbled over his words and forgot the details of the story he wanted to tell, which she politely listened to before returning her attention to her first mate and continuing conversation with him. Defeated, he went to bring Halrek another drink, though Halrek saw him get shot down and brought him a drink as well. They exchanged evenly poured pints of the same ale out of the recognition of the gesture. Halrek threw back both the drink he had and the one he was handed, making a mess and causing his hood to fall back, revealing his very scarred and burned face to the whole bar. Yief lifted his hood in empathy, and Halrek retreated back to a shadowy corner.

Aoth and the boys found them in the bar after getting healed by Mira, and suggested they go find Nul when he realized Nul wasn't there. Entering the Mage's Guild, they quickly found Nul, who had learned a translating spell, and asked for the Abyssal note. Translating it, the note read “The Bloodsail fleet is transporting 2 refugees who are of great importance to the Ebony Dread King. Whoever takes them will be rewarded richly. Dead or alive.” The group realized that the fleet was being targeted now by more than just the Ebony Hunters, and they may need to separate for the boys' safety. Upon overhearing them discussing the situation, the guild members offered to let the group use their Magic Mirror to speak with Melarra in Ashaenford. After updating Melarra on their status, she informed them that while no battles had broken out, Ebony forces were seen gathering near the Free Lands border. Her and Cormir had been working with the guild Grandmasters, as well as teaming up with smaller hunting and adventuring guilds and paladin troupes, to coordinate a defense at the border. She asked that as soon as the boys were safe, the group return to the Free Lands to help the resistance effort. She also informed them that a group of 15 Ebony soldiers who didn't appear to have a designated commanding officer had attacked Ashaenford, but she wasn't out on assignment and was able to subdue them.

The group then decided it would be best to separate from the fleet, but have the fleet go in the opposite direction they were to draw the attention of anyone looking. After informing Vissella, she agreed that while her fleet had plenty of manpower, it would be best to travel without a target on their backs, so she would send her fleet down the Vilhon Reach away from their destination, and her and a small group of her best warriors would join them on the journey on foot. She said they would need some extra time into the evening to prepare the ships for a longer voyage without stopping, and to stock up before they left. After visiting the local Khajiit's wares and some of the local shops, and seeing Applaudicus successfully steal a gambling dice set from both the Khajiit and from Yief, they sent the boys back to the ship with Vissella and went to the tavern to publicly talk about the Vilhon Reach as a destination to throw off any potential spies. In the tavern, a warrior who looks, sounds, and acts like Jim Jeffries discussed drugs with Shag before commenting that it was probably best he lay off it, and that Cormir wasn't a fan of his guild members getting into the "harder stuff." After asking about him being in the Warrior's Guild, he responded that he led the local guild hall, but it was small and there were only 3 of them. He said that Kevin and Steve, the other 2 warriors, had recently gone to check on a local, Old Man Grenkins, who lived a couple hours outside town, and said that none of his garden and orchard workers were there, and the door was locked. Grenkins was a regular in the town but hadn't been seen in a week. He said they heard some strange sounds inside, but after trying to get in, fell violently ill and were "puking their brains out all day." He said he didn't want to go check it out alone because if something bad happened, there would be even less people to protect the town, and asked if the group could help. When they accepted, he promised to buy each of them 4 drinks, and offered his carriage.

Arriving at the Grenkins Manor, they saw that the garden looked like it hadn't been tended to in about a week, and no one was around. Walking around the house, they heard movement inside, and Nul blasted the front door open after detecting an enchantment on it. Warning them not to touch the door, he went in. Searching the manor, they found a number of decorative sculptures, trinkets, and a chandelier in the common room that Yief showed distaste for. They suddenly heard loud, rhythmic thudding that sounded like it was beneath them. After finding an art room with a number of very decorative suits of armor that appeared to have never seen battle, they heard noises in the next room over. Yief then used his battering ram to knock open the door, and they entered a living room, where they were attacked by 3 zombies, all of whom looked relatively recently deceased. They once again heard the rhythmic thudding beneath them. Searching further, they found a staircase leading downstairs, and Aoth took the lead, illuminating his shield. Upon reaching the landing at the foot of the stairs, a large cadaver collector ran toward them and struck, but Aoth blocked it Captain America style, and with the shield illuminated it looked absolutely awesome. Various recently deceased corpses were stuck to its barbed spikes. Returning fire, Aoth blasted the beast back, allowing him and the rest of the party to enter the room, where they coordinated an attack pattern that quickly overwhelmed it. With Halrek delivering the killing blow, Aoth then knocked off 3 of its spikes and had Nul mend them to his shield. Entering the next room in the same battering ram fashion, they fought 3 more zombies in a more comedic fashion, with one getting stuck to Aoth's shield. After searching further, they found a small armory where Aoth and Halrek took silver longswords, and Shag took a short sword that Aoth identified as mythril. They then found a workshop with a smithing station and piles of what appeared to be mythril ore. They found a room full of barrels of ale, mead, and whiskey that were brewing. All of these entrances were done with Yief's battering ram. Finally, they found the master bedroom, where they found the body of an old deceased dwarf, who had no signs of being attacked or murdered. A chest in the room had been forcibly opened, yet there was still 300 gold and a mythril dagger and cuirass, sized for a dwarf. Battering Ramming through another door in the room, this one actually locked and requiring the ram, they found a storage room with various hand tools, barrels for brewing, and Nul detected something magical inside the wall. Yief busted the wall open, and they saw a very shiny sword with dwarven inscriptions on the blade. Aoth took the sword, and upon lifting it off its hanging rack, the sword briefly glowed.