31. Nix's Offer

* The party awake in the Devil's Arse and start cleaning up after the fight. Pyt and Nix eventually return from the Hells.
	+ Nix leaves the group to go and rest, but says he wants to talk to them later, around midday.
	+ Aerendyl's hair and skin are markedly different in colour this morning.
	+ Pyt has an ivory-skinned imp called Jolene with him now, having joined Nix's household during his overnight in the Hells. The creation of his imp involved Pyt pulling a soul from the lakes of the River Styx in the Telphousila Estate and shaping it into the form of Jolene with his hellfire and will.
	+ Pyt informs that group that while he was under the vampire Cana's charm he told her about all their abilities, about *the Fortunate Fool* and the fact that Quinn's the only decent fighter aboard it, and the identities of those who specifically were involved in killing Shandy's baby dragons.
	+ In turn, Pyt had learned that Cana, and presumably any other vampires with her, had indeed been sent by Shandy, and also that Cana is Wick's sister, and that Wick is actually called Raphaela.
	+ Pyt uses the sending stone to try and contact Quinn, but the message goes to the matching stone in the pair, being held by Laylin. Pyt is told that Quinn has already contacted them that morning, as per Pyt's request, asking if Wick can come to Bisquay.
	+ The party go and talk to Quinn aboard her ship. They tell her about the vampires and Quinn points out that if this is Shandy's offensive, their orders from Driscoll were to fall back to Crab Claw. Cormorant briefly considers telling the Aldermen of Bisquay about the threat, but decides it would cause more panic in any case.
* The party return to the Devil's Arse and talk with Nix at midday.
	+ Now that half of those in the group who are Driscoll's pirates are Nix's wards, the cambion has adjusted his priorities regarding the group. Further, Cormorant owes Nix his life, and Wilfred owes him for the anti-scrying bracelet he now possesses.
	+ Nix asks everyone to explain what their goals are:
		- Clwyd, as she's been quite vocal about, explains that she wants to kill Madog, the Inferno, the goblin warlord who killed her family.
		- Wilfred says he's searching for his parents, who went missing along with other Rumidian mages when he was very young.
		- Cormorant explains he seeks the end of the vampire known as Skyburn, 'one of the most dangerous creatures he's ever met.'
		- Pyt says he'd kinda like to sail off the end of the world with a boat full of servants who answered his beck and call.
		- Aerendyl says he seeks freedom from an illness that has afflicted him for 500 years.
		- Nix, for his part, says that he vows to be useful to his mother.
	+ Nix moves his argument to Driscoll, asking how they hope to achieve their goals (or to repay the cambion their debts to him) if they continue to fight in his war. Nix believes Driscoll is going to lose - that he has already lost, effectively - and his stubbornness means he will get everyone under his flag killed with him.
	+ Nix proposes that the party work for him instead of Driscoll. Two of them are already his wards, two more have taken advantage of his presence in one way or another. The group know how he operates by now, and he thinks himself to be a more forthright, flexible, and straightforward employer than Driscoll ever was. Pyt and Clwyd each know a list of tasks that Nix would like accomplished. If the group were to agree to this proposal, they need only turn their attention to that list should they ever wish to receive rewards from Nix.
	+ Nix's proposal also includes a catch: he wants the party to spend a year (and a day, 'to be poetic') at his household estate, away from the affairs of Terca Mahres. This, he believes, will provide enough time to rid them of a number of the problems they've picked up: revenant Derrick would cease to exist, the Rumidian mage hunters would lose Wilfred's trail, and Driscoll's war would have enough time to play out in their absence.
		- Clwyd points out that this would also condemn Vic to death, since they'd be missing their agreed deadline with Kind. Nix simply responds, 'there is always a cost.'
	+ To Aerendyl, who has proven himself a capable individual, and for whom the above concerns don't apply, Nix offers a more flexible choice: come to the Hells if he wants, or meet up with them again at the location the group decide for their return to Terca Mahres in a year's time. Nix believes that a man who seeks extra-planar quarry and he could do much fine business together, since the interests of the Hells so often involve the destruction of the spawn of the Abyss.
	+ Nix concludes by saying that he's been devoting a lot of attention and resources to this part of the world, but he has other wards to consider the needs of as well. Regardless of the party's decision, Nix will be leaving Bisquay for the Hells in the morning. He hopes they decide to come with him.
	+ Nix then leaves the Devil's Arse, dressed more for combat than the group has ever seen him before.
* Left on their own again, the party have a long discussion in the Devil's Arse.
	+ They talk about whether Driscoll's war is winnable or not, concluding that it certainly isn't if they decide to leave.
	+ Cormorant is not keen to take up Nix's offer, wanting to stay with Driscoll, the man he'd decided to fight under.
	+ Wilfred, Clwyd, and Pyt, ultimately, decide that Nix's proposal is a good one.
	+ The group collectively decide they should try and do something for Driscoll before they leave, and that means killing the vampires in Bisquay. Aerendyl is keen for this plan.
* At 1pm, they're done talking and they take to Bisquay to tie up loose ends and get ready for their preemptive attack.
	+ Clwyd *sends* a message Nix, telling him they're going to attack the carnival and then take him up on his offer in the morning. She asks him if he wants to get involved. Nix is slow to respond, and when he does so it's in hushed tones. He says he's in a tense meeting with Lady Lilith right now.
	+ Clwyd and Pyt go to the Eggs and Flint guesthouse to talk to the Rumidians, trying to get them to join the fight against the vampires since their order so famously hate necromancy.
		- They are met by Margear and Eli, who scoff at them and explain that Bisquay isn't part of the empire, that the people of the Merchant Strait have made it clear they want to govern themselves rather than accept the grace of Lorn au Augusta, and so shall not reap the benefits of Rumidian resources or protection now when it suits them.
		- Eli offers a counter proposal: Wilfred Seabottom comes into their custody and puts on Dimensional Shackles, then the mage hunters help the party with their fight against vampires. Clwyd and Pyt make it clear that Wilfred won't be keen for that.
	+ Pyt and Wilfred then go and see Quinn, intending to return the folding boat and tell her they're leaving.
		- Quinn refuses to take back the boat, telling them that she asked them to attract a klabauter, a sea spirit, to live in it, and that they should hold onto it at least until they do so. She said, 'if my friends died getting hold of a boat that went on to be so loved by the sea, well, I think I'd be ok with that.'
		- She also doesn't blame them for leaving. She herself is sick of all the fighting and death, but she can't abandon her friends. Still, she wants the party to go with her blessing.
		- When they tell her they're planning on hitting the carnival to take out the vampires before they go, Quinn asks if they want her help. They tell her to get her crew of non-combatants out of there before sunset instead.
		- She smiles and says her last words to the duo as they leave: 'See you around.'
* The group go to the Bisquay docks and ready themselves to sink the boat the vampires are on.
	+ Aerendyl uses locate creature, determining that there is a vampire in the room at the bottom of one of the ships, the room where Pyt met Cana. He tells the group that means 'at least one vampire.'
	+ Pyt uses his new connection to Nix, *sending* a message to him just as Clwyd has been doing since she joined the household. He tells Nix that they're about to burn the other galleon to the one Nix is on and that Nix should call them off if this isn't what he wants. Again, Nix is slow to respond. He tells Pyt that he's in Lilith's quarters currently, and that he doesn't think she's the party's enemy here but that she will defend this carnival. Having warned him, Nix tells Pyt, and so the group, to do what they want.
	+ With Clwyd having explained to the group how goblin ship bridges work back in the Devil's Arse, the group stealthily positioned themselves to sabotage the three bridges that connected the galleon to the rest of the floating carnival.
	+ Pyt had Jolene, while invisible, take Clwyd's alchemy jug and douse the main mast of the galleon with goblin moonshine (highly flammable stuff).
	+ Pyt cast Jackson, his tiny servant, into the adamantine axe he bought. He chucked the little guy into the water and had him sever the ship's anchor chain.
	+ They sabotaged the bridges, leaving Clwyd and Cormorant on the deck of the now-tethered galleon.
	+ Aerendyl, from the deck of the adjacent galleon, the one with Lilith's quarters on it, conjured a whirlpool in Bisquay Bay, forcefully dragging the loose galleon into it, but also stressing the rest of the connected floating carnival.
	+ Clwyd used her *jump* spell to flee the deck of the ship, reaching the place outside Sugar Kingdom next to Wilfred.
	+ Jolene, able to fly, easily returned to Pyt's side where he was outside the Big Top.
	+ Wilfred ignited the moonshine and so the main mast of the ship.
	+ Cormorant began screaming for Aerendyl to shut off the whirlpool as screams and panic broke out on the ship. Aerendyl kept the whirlpool going, even as the other connecting bridges and anchor-chains started groaning and giving around the carnival. Screams and panic broke out as the huge canvases started collapsing around the place.
	+ Cormorant dove into the water and tried battling the current of the whirlpool to little avail.
	+ Clwyd shot down the mast to help spread the fire on the ship.
	+ The ship's hull had been battered by the force of the maelstrom. Now satisfied they'd done enough to ensure the vessel would burn and then sink on its own, Aerendyl released his hold on the spell and the whirlpool dissipated.
	+ The carnival was heavily damaged and the lone ship was totally destroyed. Those aboard it started abandoning ship, jumping into the bay.
* Lilith emerged from her chamber, dressed in full infernal platemail with a sword and shimmering, blue rope at her hip.
	+ She saw Aerendyl at the edge of the ship, so clearly out of place, and said only the word 'explain.'
	+ Aerendyl immediately fled, teleporting a short distance before assuming the from of an owl and flying. But Lilith manifested her wings and was on him in an instant, cutting through his animal form and dropping him to the sea below with a few quick slashes of her sword.
	+ Clwyd took to answering Lilith's question and so became the next target of her attack. The cambion flew to the goblin and again struck with heavy-hitting, decisive blows.
	+ Nix called out to Lilith, saying he'd trade her diary for the groups lives. Lilith halted her attack instantly, shocked that Nix would offer to trade the book for something so small.
	+ Lilith returned to her quarters and told them all she'd await the diary's return within.
	+ Nix manifested his wings for the first time publicly in Bisquay. He flew over to Clwyd and said, 'your incompetence has just cost me a great deal.' He then returned to the Devil's Arse.
* In the aftermath of the chaos they'd caused, the party moved to a dockside alley.
	+ Most of Bisquay had come to the docks to look on at the chaos of the carnival. Crowds of people were trying to get back to the shore from the floating ships. Many people were also in the waters of the bay.
	+ The party saw four fully-cloaked figures emerge from the water and stand stock-still at the edge of the water. In the chaos, nobody else took the time to note them.
	+ Getting closer, the party saw that each of the four was a zombie, and each one was familiar. All of them wore clothes with the words 'death begets death begets death' written on by a finger dipped in blood.
		- Fang, the half-orc quartermaster of *the Banshee*.
		- Rurik, the reefbeard helmsman of *the Banshee*.
		- Pavo, the human owner of Bar Bistro Pavo, the first place the party had gone to when they arrived in Tortuga.
		- Deena, the half-elf owner of HQ, the breakfast place in the Pieces where Cormorant had taken the group after their night hunting the oni. She was Cormorant's friend.
	+ Cormorant cut the heads off all the zombies but Deena. Being under some strange compulsion of the necromancer who'd made them, the creatures didn't react in any way as Cormorant killed them. When Pyt saw how Cormorant struggled and hesitated with the half-elf woman, he took over the task and killed her.
	+ Pyt had Jolene return to the Devil's Arse and bring Lilith's diary back. The group then went and gave it to her. Clwyd briefly tried conversing with the cambion, saying that the vampires would have killed everyone on the carnival if they were left to their own devices. Lilith said they would not have, since that's what she's there to prevent. Their misunderstanding now apparent, the party beat a hasty retreat.
* They returned to the Devil's Arse because Clwyd wants to talk to Nix.
	+ The goblin demands to know why Nix didn't say anything to them, didn't tell them the specifics of the situation.
	+ Nix responds that he was only puzzling together all the specifics of the situation in that very meeting they interrupted. He clarifies the relationship he and Clwyd have, with her emphasising that Nix isn't her patron and he in turn stressing that he isn't her errand boy. He says he has no interest in a ward that can't even keep themselves alive, and that if Clwyd were to find her death soon, then she'd have only proved herself to be someone that deserves to spend millennia as an imp.
	+ Nix explains everything he's figured out: Shandy has some form of leverage over the carnival. The carnival, in turn, have a connection to Fierna, the Queen of Infernal Pleasure, for their own protection. Fierna, he says, is often fond of carnival types. Shandy had the carnival moving her forces into Bisquay and so Driscoll's territory, and Lilith was there to uphold Fierna's protection of the carnival from Shandy and her vampires.
	+ Nix concludes by saying that what happened is a good example of the group and him not working in concert. Should they take him up on his offer and decide to work for him, that would no longer be the state of affairs in place.
	+ Pyt clarifies that the only reason they attacked the carnival at all was in the interests of making a clean break from Driscoll so that they could indeed take Nix up on his offer.
	+ Nix moves the conversation on with the words, 'well, no harm done.'
	+ He asks the group to decide on the location they'd like to return to in Terca Mahres at the end of their year spent in the Hells. The group decide on Tortuga, and so Nix asks Aerendyl to meet them all there on the seventh day after the equinox next year.
* The party go to the Stone's Throw for dinner and to see Simon one final time, then retire to the Devil's Arse for the night.
	+ Clwyd opts to not sleep. While looking out the window to the street in front of the tavern, at around midnight, she sees a little halfling vampire happily skipping past.
	+ Clwyd holds up a sign to the window that says 'you can fuck right off.'
	+ Cana then tries to beguile the goblin. Luckily, Clwyd is able to maintain hold of mind.
	+ Cana smiles and skips away. Clwyd doesn't look out the window for the rest of the night.
* The next morning, Aerendyl takes his leave and Nix readies himself to *plane shift* to the Hells.
	+ Previously, Cormorant had argued that he wanted to stay because he's ran from so many fights and abandoned so many crews in his life up to now. He's sick of running.
	+ Pyt argued in turn that *the Drunken Dragon* was his crew, not Driscoll, and so Cormorant should really think to stick with them with his philosophy.
	+ So when it came time for them to link hands for Nix's spell, when Pyt held his hand out towards Cormorant, the old pirate took it, and the four of them went to the Telphousila Estate.
* In the Hells, the group travel to the Telphousila guest house.
	+ Nix says it's a good time for them to meet another of his wards, though they know him already.
	+ Badger descends the stairs and greets the group.
	+ Nix tells Badger that he's freed himself up so he can now focus on Badger's goal: killing Driscoll.
	+ Badger uses pact magic to assume the guise of Duster, saying with a smile that he thinks they should kill the changeling first.