Dragonstone 59

**Chapter 59**

Our Heroes sail southwest across the Avagon Sea. We get a detailed breakdown of their schedule, including the note that, when nobody is sleeping, the cabin is *"ceded for lovers' trysts."* So now we're on a sex boat, awesome. Can none of these people practice any self-discipline? It's like reading an epic fantasy porn parody with the actual sex removed.

Winter solstice comes, and Arin once again performs the Elven Line Dance of Seasonal Specialness, with everyone else joining in, because potato. Alos, to his eternal credit, does not participate. I'm liking Alos more and more.

More travel, more details of fictional countries that will never again be relevant. Our Heroes plot exactly how to get to the still-nameless town on Serpent Cove, and what to do when they get there. After two pages of unnecessary debate, they decide to sneak in at night to evade any watchers, and that since none of them look like locals, a ruse is unlikely to succeed.

They discuss Doomy's fortress, and what to do if it's not in Nameless Town. Samurai Chick, sticking to her strengths, wants to take prisoners until they get someone who can answer their questions. I can only assume she intends to torture them for information, since kidnapping is rarely followed by a polite question-and-answer session with tea and crumpets. \~/ Arin, not objecting to the implied torture, asks what they'll do with all the captives, and Samurai Chick says *"We cannot leave anyone alive who might warn the Mage."*

Isn't she great, folks? Our heroine. Our murderous, violent, kidnap-prone, abusive heroine, who is perfectly okay with abducting an indeterminate number of random townsfolk, torturing them for information, and then callously murdering them once they're of no more use to her.

\~/\~/

Arin calls her on this, to which Alos snorts *"There are no innocent Kistanians."* Arin corrects him that there are innocents of every race, and Alos fires back *"Even the Foul Folk?"* to which Arin has no reply. I guess if she admitted that, she might have to admit there was something immoral about going to war over some trees, and torturing and murdering anyone unfortunate enough to be of the same race as the tree-choppers.

Hope you didn't want any sort of resolution there, because we're on to the next topic. Egil sketches out Doomy's fortress and they begin planning the actual breaking and entering. Alos reiterates that he's not leaving the *Brise,* and everyone except Arin (who is a Sparkly Perfect Elf and thus needs none) has experience in climbing rocks or buildings. Several plans are tossed around, only one of which do we actually get to hear about, and two days pass. Provisions are bought, Samurai Chick and Burel keep training, and on the second day Alos *"slipped away to a wine merchant."* Samurai Chick drags him back to the boat, and Egil notes that *"Seems as if the only time he'll get on a ship is when he's dead drunk or running away in fear."*

YEAH, HOW ABOUT THAT. MAKES YA THINK.

More time passes. There's another deep, philosophical discussion of fate, free will, reincarnation, and the meaning of life. It also goes nowhere, so I'm not sure what the point was. There's some discussion of what to do if a Rover vessel is sighted, and then, finally, the Island of Kistan comes into view.

Drinks: 3

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