54. Storm, Sea, Bureaucracy

* The crew of the Drunken Dragon find themselves sailing up the Merchant Strait, heading to the island of Newwe Rumidia in the Northern Margraviate, where the infernal house Alekto, rivals to Telphousila, have set deep hooks and cast long shadows; this Clwyd learned from the Siblings of Agnor. Having found out that the iron flask they procured in Mackerel's hut contained a massive, wailing creature of shadow and death -- and swiftly banishing it away -- the night before, they now find themselves in the waters just off the island of Tribute on the morning of Harvestide 35.
* The Drunken Dragon continues its sail up the Merchant Strait.
	+ One more day sees them near the goat island known as Sadie's Secret.
	+ A further day and they're near the island of Brackenon, now into the colder half of the strait known as the Honey Side -- so named for the island of Snowmead and its namesake bestselling alcohol.
	+ This evening, Harvestide 37, Clwyd sent a message to Nix to update him on their whereabouts and plans to try and take down Alekto. Nix replies with some soft encouragement and tells her she's be wise to keep a watch out for ravens.
	+ On the same evening, Wilfred and Pyt have a brief discussion about genies again, since the iron flask didn't contain one like they hoped. Wilfred informs Pyt that genies are natives to the elemental plane of Quintessence, and that he has no clue how to get there but his old mentor and guardian, Lyra au Leones, had visited the plane in the past -- the problem now being that she's on the run from Rumidian mage hunters and archmagi alike.
	+ It's a further two days' sail in relatively open waters to get from Brackenon to the island of Silly Point. The weather is decidedly colder here and most of the traffic they see is heading down the strait, in the opposite direction to them.
* However, on that first day in the open water, they spot a sloop ship flying merchant colours that's got a similar heading to their own, though it's having to island hop while they have the luxury of using the log pin for Newwe Rumidia they found in Driscoll's cache.
	+ The next day, the sloop follows them fully, abandoning the Rope Road most use to navigate between islands in the Merchant Strait.
	+ In the evening of that second day, Harvestide 39, Aerendyl looks to the following ship with Cormorant's spyglass and sees a bunch of halflings on it. One with his own spyglass waves when he spots Aerendyl looking.
	+ After a little back and forth, the sloop moves close to the Drunken Dragon, the ships are tied off, and the party go aboard the halfling ship for some drinks and chats.
	+ The ship is owned by the middle-aged brothers Niall and Lyle Fatrabbit. Niall's wife, Bella, keeps to her cabins and seems to fight with her husband a lot. The general crew consists of around 40 halfling sailors.
	+ Niall brings some drinks out in pitchers -- wine from Bisquay and mead from Snowmead -- and ushers the party to sit themselves on boxes, crates, and cargo about the place. They're joined by Lyle, as well as a pair of twenty-something halfling twins, Poppy and Poe Tenpenny, and a human man in his 30s that Niall introduces as an auditor-in-esteem named Simwe Concort.
* The party enjoy a long evening of drinks and chats on the halfling merchant ship.
	+ They learn that with the vernal equinox approaching, a massive Harvest Close festival is to be held in Newwe Rumidia's capital, Dunvegan Keep. The Fatrabbits have concocted a reckless plan to strike it rich: they waited for all the early (sensible) merchants to leave the Merchant Strait, then bought wine from Bisquay, goat milk from Sadie's Secret, and ice peppers, honey, and mead from Snowmead, all at cheaper prices; from here, their plan is to rush to Newwe Rumidia and hit Dunvegan Keep during the second half of the week-long festival, when supplies will be running low but demand will be sky high!
	+ But the plan is a reckless one, as Clwyd well knows, because the equinox also means storm season is approaching, and their tiny ships would not fare well in even the smaller after-storms that follow the massive storm fronts that sweep from Rumidia out towards where they are currently at this time of year. The Fatrabbits ensure everyone that there's nothing to worry about and that they'll undoubtedly have reached land long before the first of the storm waves starts lapping their hulls.
	+ The party learn that Simwe Concort is a Rumidian, hailing from Anchorage, the City of Bells. He's a high-level bureaucrat, as attested by his square pyramidal felt cap, a member of the Virtuous House of Counts and Ledgers under the benediction of their patron saint, Cecil the Punctilious.
	+ Wilfred recalls that this is a bureaucratic branch of the Rumidian Church.
	+ Aerendyl is able to concentrate on all of the dry information the man is spewing enough to learn that he's been hired by the South Rowe Trading Company to conduct an audit in Dunvegan Keep following a large loan the guild of tavern keepers there took out. Concort was down the Merchant Strait to get an accurate record of the prices these goods sold for and now he was hitching a ride with these halfling merchants to return to Dunvegan Keep in a timely fashion, and offering to expedite the halflings' customs process for passage on their ship.
	+ Poe Tenpenny is non-verbal and communicates with his sister through sign language. As such, she does the talking for the pair and proves to be excitable and adventure-seeking; her brother apparently tries to reign in her reckless tendencies where he can.
	+ At Poppy's prodding and after a few drinks, Wilfred recalls the story of Malak goading the sea dragon Brineskimmer into destroying most of Shandy's fleet, and then goes on to tell a bunch of the party's other exploits as Poppy's eyes grow wider and her smile grows bigger.
	+ Poppy explains that they come from a seaside town called Lindow, they're the middle kids in a big bunch and they got tired of feeling unimportant and unnoticed. So one day they left, seeking adventure -- something she attributes to the Wildheart blood running through their veins, courtesy of their Gran Gran.
	+ Pyt flexes a bit by casting a major image of a dragon that turns into a rabbit, then tells the tale of the last days of Faerie's muses, using his viol, much to Concort's discomfort; the auditor doesn't like music.
* The next day, both ships push beyond the boundaries of the Merchant Strait and begin sailing the open waters between it and the Northern Margraviate.
	+ The party chat with Taylor a bit. He's more talkative now than he was, but he says he's just going with the flow, letting everything kind of pass him by. When asked, he says he doesn't really know what he wants to do most in the world. For now, he says, he'll go sail the ship.
	+ That evening when the ships are lashed together again, Niall and Bella are having a massive fight in their cabins, so they don't join the others.
	+ The party talk to Concort about how they might get through Rumidian customs. The auditor explains that he'd just have to ask them a few questions and have a look in their ship's hold, but that with the Fatrabbits keen for the party's assistance during their voyage, he could see to expediting the Drunken Dragon's passage as he would be for the merchant ship.
	+ The party agree to the audit and Simwe Concort casts Zone of Truth before asking them some questions. Thanks to his Gambler's Ring, Pyt is able to lie even with the spell in effect.
		- Concort asks them what their business is in the Northern Margraviate, if they're importing in bulk any of a long list of specific goods, how much money they're carrying -- a lot of platinum, it turns out -- and if they're planning on exporting goods in bulk from the Northern Margraviate.
		- After that, he checks the hold and just finds some crates of rations, since the party keep most of their stuff in their Portable Hole.
	+ Happy with the answers and what he sees, Concort says he'll get to work on their customs forms.
	+ Over drinks, they tell Poppy about their first visit to the Hells and the horrible soul-filled drinks some of them had there, as well as how Pyt almost died during sex with the succubus Lilova.
* The next day is another cold one, sailing through yet more open water. By the end of the day, they pass through into the Northern Margraviate proper, travelling between the islands of Beinn Whitit and Scrymgeour.
	+ Clwyd can tell by the calmness of the waters they've been sailing through, the flight patterns of the birds in the sky (no ravens yet), the pressure in the air, and her own instincts and infernally-heightened senses that a massive storm might well be on its way, the kind that kicks off the storm season, the kind that goblins for a hundred leagues should be anticipating and getting into position to ride through. But she sees no junkers on her horizon -- Madog has already changed much about the goblin way of life.
	+ She also sends a message to Nix, asking if it would be poor form to trap Alekto in the party's iron flask. Nix laughs and says it would be fantastic if she could pull it off.
	+ The party talk to Concort to try and learn some information about the identity of the Northern Margrave, since all they currently know is that House MacLeod hold the seat. They learn that Magnus MacLeod is the chief of the household, and that he's married to Cecilia, who handles the bulk of the family's accounts and logistical affairs.
	+ Having used all his high level spell slots for castings of Control Winds, Aerendyl takes his rest. In the early hours of the morning, he scries on Cecilia MacLeod, seeing her alone and asleep in a dark room. Following this, the party suspects Magnus might be busy doing something at this late hour. However, the scrying attempt on him is unsuccessful.
* The early morning of Harvestide 42 becomes day and the seas are foreboding in their calmness.
	+ Aerendyl's used most of his high-level spell slots scrying and he holds onto the last one rather than try and increase their speed with a casting of Control Winds.
	+ At around 3pm, with no land in sight, the sky begins to darken quickly and the waves get choppier.
	+ Clwyd starts screaming for both ships to get ready for the storm of their lives to hit.
	+ The ships become a flurry of activity, with sails being furled, cargo being taken below deck, and lines being tied off.
	+ They can see the storm front racing towards them from the edge of the horizon now, approaching fast.
	+ The sky is near the full dark of night and the ocean waves are a churning steel-grey.
	+ Aerendyl casts Water Breathing and Water Walk, lacking the time to do so with rituals.
	+ Pyt Polymorphs into a giant octopus and attaches himself to the hull of the ship below the waves, with the intention of catching anyone knocked into the water and popping them back on deck.
	+ Wilfred tells Poop the brownie to stay hidden in the deck cabin for his safety.
* The storm hits!
	+ As the storm front smashes into them, halflings are knocked all over the place by the force of it. Clwyd also finds herself thrown into the water, but she casts Fly on herself and Poppy and they're able to get back to their respective ships.
	+ Already one halfling sailor has been killed by the ferocity of the storm.
	+ Clwyd and Taylor take the first hour's sailing on the Drunken Dragon. Their task is to keep the ship perpendicular to the massive waves as best they can and manage the mast and lines that are whipping around everywhere.
	+ Even communication is hard, with the storm winds in their ears louder than most of them can shout. Wilfred manages a ritual cast of Telepathic Bond from the deck cabin to help them on that front.
	+ The four sailors of the group, Clwyd, Taylor, Aerendyl, and Wilfred, have to work in hour-long shifts to avoid getting too exhausted but also keep the ship from capsizing.
	+ Pyt eventually returns to half-elf form and gets back on the deck.
	+ As the storm progresses, the rolling thunderclouds overhead are soon dotted with little motes of bright light. Some of these motes come closer, zipping about on the winds, revealing themselves to be will-o-wisps. Those that aren't sailing scramble out onto the deck to deal with the threat, sending the wisps flitting away when they've done enough damage. Despite the efforts of Poe, Poppy, and Concort on the merchant ship, yet more halflings die -- their life essence drained by wisps that buzz with pleasure and zip away soon after.
	+ By the end of four straight hours in this massive storm, Aerendyl, Wilfred, and Taylor each have one point of exhaustion.
	+ At that point, there's a massive white flash as the Drunken Dragon is struck by a lightning bolt. The hull takes major damage, as does everyone out on deck.
	+ Standing atop the churning waters in the midst of the storm, shepherding the wind and waves, lightning arcing off his flesh and hand where he's just hurled the bolt, is an enormous storm giant. He bellows something in the guttural giant tongue and charges the two ships, drawing a sword larger than a galleon mast from the sheath on his back.
	+ The fight against this aggressive, intelligent, massive creature is fierce. Aerendyl is twice turned into a giant ape, the ship takes some major damage from the thing swinging its bigger-than-a-ship sword around, and Concort at one point even found himself trying to beseech the aid of Saint Cecil the Punctilious himself.
	+ Eventually the giant retreats below the waves.
	+ But Clwyd knows the second half of these storms is worse than the first; storm-loving goblins might stay above deck on their junkers for the first couple hours, but none would stay up-top in the second half of a migratory storm unless they sought their death in the storm.
	+ It becomes clear that the part of the storm that was following behind the giant is churning with magic -- lightning is arcing everywhere, spouts of acid rain come crashing down around them, and even inexplicable gouts of fire seem to be rolling around in the clouds above head, occasionally sending small, burning meteors down to the rolling ocean surface.
	+ After a few hours of this, Taylor, Wilfred and Aerendyl have two points of exhaustion each and Pyt uses his magic viol to summon all seven of his unseen servants to aid with the sailing workload. The damage the ship takes from the storm's evocation magic is minimal thanks to the excellent sailing of the crew, but it's still adding up. In particular, the steering oar is near to breaking.
	+ Halflings are dying by the droves on the merchant ship.
	+ Another hour of sailing through the magical storm and Taylor is on three points of exhaustion. Every time it's his turn to go back out on deck, he grins like a madman. He seems to be enjoying the act of staring at his possibly imminent death at the hands of the worst the sea can throw at them.
	+ Then the ships are set upon by two water elementals and an air elemental, apparently conjured up by the storm's magic. They're dealt with in relatively quick order: Wilfred banished one water elemental back to Quintessence; the other Concort impeded with a Confusion spell while the halfling twins hacked away at it before Clwyd finished it off with some attacks from her blasting rod; and the air elemental fell to the combined weight of the party's focus fire, but not before flinging them about the ship and sending Clwyd hurling into the waters again.
	+ At this point, the steering oar desperately needs some field repairs. Wilfred talks to Poop, telling the brownie he'll protect him with a Wall of Force while the little guy does his best to fix the ship. Poop salutes, says 'aye captain', and goes to fulfil his promise to be useful to the crew of the Drunken Dragon. Clwyd goes with him, carrying the brownie to the steering oar and helping with her own casts of the Mending cantrip, all the while Wilfred has formed a tunnel around the back-half of the ship with his Wall of Force.
	+ After ten minutes, Clwyd carries Poop back inside before Wilfred's spell ends, but they'd managed to do enough to keep the oar going to the other side of the storm.
	+ Taylor picks up a fourth point of exhaustion, and even as he's dragged bodily inside the deck cabin, he's still sporting a madman's wry smile.
* After eight hours of battling the storm and the creatures within it, its end comes suddenly. The near full darkness is instantly the light of midday; the churning, grey waves are at once still, flat, and the clearest blue, mirroring a perfect, cloudless sky above; the constant howl of storm winds are now a near silence.
	+ This is the sight goblins call Branwen's Sky. It's undoubtedly a bittersweet moment for Clwyd; the first time she's seen it in over three years, but the first time she's ever seen it after such a big storm with not a single other goblin or ship in sight.
	+ Behind them, the migratory storm quickly disappears over the horizon.
* The two ships take stock after the storm.
	+ The Drunken Dragon's hull is nearly holed through, but Poop gets to work fixing it up.
	+ Taylor is at four points of exhaustion.
	+ Aerendyl is at three points of exhaustion.
	+ Wilfred is at two points of exhaustion.
	+ Of the crew of 40 halfling sailors, only 16 remain alive.
	+ Most of the bodies were lost to the sea, but two remain. Wilfred casts Gentle Repose on one corpse and Aerendyl takes the other into the Drunken Dragon's deck cabin and begins the ritual to cast Reincarnate. When the spell is eventually completed, the empty corpse of the halfling is now laid next to the newly formed body of a half-elf, but the man remains unconscious for the time being. Aerendyl maintains custody of the new half-elf for the time being.
	+ The Fatrabbits ship is in a state of near mutiny. It's only thanks to the efforts of Concort, liberally casting Calm Emotions, that more blood isn't spilled. Even Poppy is having curt words with Niall Fatrabbit, telling him he's a shit, his wife is right about him, and that she and her brother will be getting paid double when they hit land and then they'll be doing no more business with the merchant brothers again.
* It's still a few days' sail to get to Newwe Rumidia. The Drunken Dragon enlists some sailors from the Fatrabbit ship -- Poppy and Poe come aboard, alongside a few of the other halflings.
	+ During the journey, Pyt makes efforts to befriend as many of the halfling sailors as he can, agreeing that the actions of the Fatrabbits that led them into that storm, that led to so many of their crew members' deaths, are inexcusable.
	+ Concort casts an Augury spell, learning that nothing bad should come to pass if they make for Newwe Rumidia with haste. Clwyd concurs, saying that that the bigger the migratory storm, the longer the gap until the after-storms start coming.
	+ They arrive off the coast of Newwe Rumidia on Harvestide 44, and opt to take a route up one of the island's rivers and then across land to reach Dunvegan Keep, mostly so they can get some good rest in Pyt's hut along the way.
	+ They see cormorant birds and large draft horses as they go up the river past the town of Low Corny and cross some of the lakes of the massive island.
	+ Wilfred asks Concort if he's heard of an island called Oleantis and the auditor recalls that it's in a continental-sized coral reef called Lake Makuahine, or the Coral Blue; this is the original home of the Reefbeard dwarves.
	+ While resting in Pyt's hut at night, Wilfred uses tongues to understand the sign language Poe Tenpenny uses. The gnome learns that Poe is a pretty sensible guy who takes to following his sister into danger. He mostly wants to do his best to keep her safe where he can, but he doesn't intend to hold her back from her dreams of adventure.
	+ The next day sees them travelling over land, along a road that hardly deserves the name, that runs from the town of Colm Ferry, through a forest, over glen and field, and eventually arrives as the far shore of Lake Dunvegan to the capital. The Fatrabbits hire wagons and horses to transport their goods.
	+ They have to bed down for the night in the forest. The area is well known for brigands, and since this group are travelling later than most other merchants, they look to be easy pickings for a lot of bandits. Clwyd, never sleeping, keeps watch in the camp, and Wilfred casts Alarm spells all around the perimeter.
	+ In the dead of night, 30 bandits approach the camp from all sides.
		- Wilfred, still somewhat exhausted from sailing in the storm, is not of a mind for diplomacy. He instantly kills 6 bandits with a Fireball, and then a further 3 with one of his Minute Meteors, the other two little balls of flame still orbiting him, sending shadows dancing across his face in the night. All 9 of those bandits died horribly, screaming loud enough to wake the rest of the camp.
		- On the other side of the encampment, Clwyd kills 6 more bandits in the near silence of her Synaptic Static spell.
		- With half their number dead in an instant, and some of the 9 smoking, charred corpses still letting out the final groans of pain, the remaining bandits flee as fast as they can, back into the forest.
* The next day, they arrive at Lake Dunvegan and get passage to sail across, arriving in the docks of Dunvegan Keep on the evening of the Vernal Equinox, the first night of the Harvest Close Festival.
	+ True to his word, Simwe Concort has gotten them through all the customs areas they've encountered up to this point, and he does so again here. He then bids the group farewell and says, not unpleasantly, that he hopes to never see them again.
	+ Poppy collects her pay from the Fatrabbits and then approaches the party, says she's heard that they have business in the city and don't really know much about it. She tells them that her and her brother can help -- there aren't a lot of small folk in the city, but she and her brother know them well. And they know the city better than the party do in any case. The party agree to accept the help of the Tenpenny Twins.
	+ They also ask Poe and Poppy to select one of the halfling sailors that was on the Fatrabbit ship for them to take into their employ, and Aerendyl keeps custody of the unconscious half-elf-that-was-a-halfling.
* Then the party get ready to face the city of Dunvegan Keep, seat of the Rumidian Northern Margrave, House MacLeod, devil cult.