Brian was willing to assume that we could cure the Ghoul disease, given enough downtime, so we didn’t have to wrestle with all those rules.  We gave Tangletop a funeral pyre send off.  After a couple of days, we all went into town to take care of business.  TerStegan talked to the rare book seller about learning the Underdark language.  (He intends to up his INT at 5^th so he’ll get a new language.)  Unfortunately, we didn’t know what language it was.  The book seller was going to do some research based on the few bits of information we did have.  Nobody else had any business but some side quest advancing things came up.  The girls noticed Xeelie’s mother putting a basket into the river and letting it drift through town towards the sea.  Xeelie could not resist and grabbed it.  The basket was filled with spicy food.  Enough to feed someone for a couple of days.  She put it back and followed it.  At the ruined tavern, a Kobald emerged with a long pole and fished it out.  Xeelie was told her mom had “a lot” of baskets.  They left it at that.  The boys went to talk to the head guard.  They were making progress on the bandit problem and asked them to help scout and/or fight once they found the camp.  The weaker members of the group could come too.  Evidently, he valued brawn over brains.

However, the big topic, which took up most of the night, was the pirate problem.  The girls noticed a small white bird flying over the town.  It didn’t look native and seemed to be flying awfully straight for a bird.  Xeelie tried to take action but Brian by the time they realized it was odd, it had passed.  That was the end of that clue.  In parallel, the boys were told of the pirate problem during their discussions with the head guard.  Oakwood had overheard a discussion about this at his father’s house several games back.  Ships loaded with lumber were being attacked at sea.  The valuable lumber was taken, the rest dumped and the merchant ships and crew spared.  All 3 lumber companies were being hit.  Anyway recently, townsfolk have been noticing small birds flying across Otari.  They came from “north” and were headed “to sea” and always at dusk.  One of them was shot down.  A lucky shot at that distance.  It turns out, the bird was made of paper (medium level magic) and it carried a note.  No one Longsaddle had access to could read it but the shipment that went out that day, was not attacked.  He was trying to keep it quiet.  The players made some suggestions about shooting more down or tracing them backwards or forward but that was “too hard”.  Oakwood borrowed the note and took it to Xeelie.  You know, the smart one.  It was in a formal older Goblin script.  It was a description of the shipment.  Ship, date and time, cargo, crew, guards.  There’s a spy in town. 

I think the intent of the module is to give us bits of information on these side quests so that we could make slow progress while we attended to the main quest of the Gauntlight ruins.  Brian even tried to get us back on the rails by saying that the next ship out wouldn’t be for a couple of days so you might as well go back to the Gauntlight.  However, given a mystery to solve, we could not stop.  In our defense, this threatens the livelihood of the whole town so it’s a pretty serious threat.  Not “end of the world” but pretty high.  More than a missing son or a rare book.  However, once we started down this path, we could not get back out.  Some of our players are pretty tenacious on this sort of thing.  The first thoughts were to trace the birds back to the source or get on one of the ships and fight off the pirates.  As for the second, Xeelie was all for it but she’s the only one with a long-range bow.  The rest of us would have to wait until the sailors got us very close before we could do anything.  And assuming we succeeded, we would have saved one ship.  Can we assume there are more than one pirate ship? We can certainly assume the captured pirates would give us nothing.  The better plan is to find the brains on land and shutdown the whole operation.  The boat plan was rejected but might still be the way to go.  At least it’s actionable.

But two days later, Brian sent out more information on the pirates, making that a more viable plan.  Firstly, the “reasonable” rules on swimming and drowning and fighting in water.  And then this list, that 3^rd bullet, in particular.

• • The merchant ships have all been quickly chased down by the Pirates.
  • Any merchant that surrenders have been left with their ships and lives intact, only goods have been taken / destroyed.
  • It’s the same pirate each time, Captain Bellafide of the Dread Design.
  • The pirates don’t always descend on the merchant ships at the same point, even if on the same route.
  • Merchants hiring additional fighting crews significantly cuts into the profits.
  • Merchants hiring escort vessels makes the endeavor non-profitable.

As for tracing the birds, that turned into a morass.  We returned the note and talked to the head guard for more details.  Brisco showed up around here.  Turns out the bird was shot down by a farmer on the east side of town.  The straight over town turned into somewhere to the north and somewhere at sea.  That’s a much bigger area to cover.  And we’d have to project backwards which is much harder than following it forward.  We at least needed to know when the next shipment was so that we’d know when to look.  Oakwood was hesitant to ask around since their ships were being attacked.  We might get accused.  He talked to his father.  The next ship to go was the #2 company but he wasn’t sure when.  His ship just left so it’ll be a week for him.  It’s fluid because it’s a matter of when a ship is full.  He did caution Oakwood about being careful and forbade him from going to sea.  We talked to TerStegan’s adopted dad at his suggestion.  He works at the mill that all 3 companies use.  He might know.  He said her ship would be ready in two days.     

DG tried to get back on the “two day, go back to the dungeon” path but the rest could not give it up.  DS, who was fresh and ready to go since he missed the first 1.5 hours of investigation, was eager to use his +0 CHR skills.  We went to the #2 owner.  She was also the one who had those accountants nosing around her rental properties.  (Another side quest.)  One of those properties was Clarisa’s home.  Somehow, they got an audience, despite the late hour.  The pirate stuff got deferred and Brisco and Xeeile dove into the accountant’s quest.  She was told she was guilty of some sort of fraud and depending on the judge, she could be in big trouble.  They were “suggesting” she pay a hefty fine, however that fine alone might ruin her.  The players asked if she had any “assets” that they might be after.  Only the lumber company.  So, they convinced themselves that the two quests were linked.  I.e. financially ruining one company is linked to ruining all companies.  They promised to investigate it more but other than strong arming the accountants, I’m not sure they had any real ideas.  Go to law school? Back on the pirates, Xeelie suggested she cancel her next shipment at the last second in hopes of throwing them off.  She reluctantly agreed but the accountants are pressuring her to send out her best lumber ASAP in hopes of getting the needed cash.  Her ship might be the ship we fight on if we go that way. 

We had a bunch of discussions about the note.  (Brian added some more info via email:  When the origami bird was brought down, it struggled to continue its flight.  After the arrow was removed, it nearly got away.  The farmer doused the paper with water and the struggles reduced significantly.  By the time the farmer brought it to the guards, the origami bird had ceased functioning and was just a damp parchment.)  The paper was unremarkable but the penmanship was excellent.  It was more likely a learned man who was using Goblin rather than a Goblin.  A Wizard? The equipment also had to be good to write so much information on such a small piece of paper.  The book seller in town best fit that description but that’s hardly proof.  It was also noted that the notes were sent from the north but the information had to come from Otari.  So, someone was going out there.  Brisco asserted that he’d know about everyone that goes into town since he hangs out in the forest.  Brian didn’t buy that but Brisco proposed that we could watch the roads to see who leaves or returns when the notes get set.  A tough task given a lack of walls.  We also discussed who the spy could be in town.  Who knew all that info for all 3 companies.  That was a short list but following all of them wouldn’t be easy either.  And finding evidence? There was even talk of going to the thieves’ guild, opening that side quest box, and seeing if that would help us.  And probably more ideas that I can’t recall that were even further afield. 

Anyhow, we were spinning in circles and half the group had given up listening or caring.  Xeelie tried to reach some sort of actionable conclusion but nobody had any brain power left.  Paralysis of choices, none of them good.  So as midnight approached, we decided to defer the pirate quest for a couple of days and go to the Gauntlight for some minimal thinking, hacking and slashing.  Brian pulled up his summary email and said we had 9 choices on where to restart the dungeon.  Doh! TerStegan voted for Oakwood’s idea of following the other adventuring party down the hole to the “mushroom eyed” people.  Good enough.  Once there, we could see their campsite and their excavation in the pit room by Boss Skag’s throne room.  We went down the rope and landed in a big dark room with many doors.  Through the fog of war, we could see it connected to areas we had already been to.  There were no signs of the adventures but before we could start making tracking rolls, a half dozen Lurkers appeared.  They would not answer our questions but would take us to their king.  He does the talking.  We decided to agree.  We started moving down a corridor and were “handed off” to two bigger dudes.  At this point, it came to light that these guys would not permit any light.  There were some tense moments but eventually Brisco turned off Saps’ light spell.  We figured he and Clarisa didn’t need to see to do the upcoming parley and if there was trouble, he could just turn it back on.

The conversation with the king was basically a repeat of the one with Boss Skrag above.  He was the absolute ruler of all his people.  And the ruler of his domain which consisted of one level of a ruin fortress.  We asked him about the adventurers but he would give no straight answers.  We did get him to admit there was some sort of disturbance two days ago but he didn’t concern himself about such things.  Oakwood found it surprising he didn’t know if his people were killed or not.  Basically, if we wanted anything from him, we had to kill the Swamp Dragon to the north.  Since the adventurers did not go this way, they must have killed some puds and went another way.  But since we had to kill that dragon eventually, we decided to just go for it.  (Tiredness and boredom usually make for poor decisions.)  We came to an underwater lake access with several ruined boats.  We could see big footprints in the mud but we had no wish to fight a dragon in the water.  So, we went up.  The first door was locked.  Xeelie critically failed her open locks roll so TerStegan busted it down.  Oakwood was watching the lake behind us.  In there was a big teleportation circle, similar to the small one we found in the closet upstairs.  This one at least had the rare metal in the inlays although it would take quite some time to dig it out.  The next door gave us two more doors.  One to stairs up and one back to the mushroom eyed folks, we figured.

However, at this point, the River Drake emerged.  There is no surprise round in PE2 so we went straight to initiative.  And since it was a big monster, its was 32.  DS used his Hero card, giving Oakwood 5 points of damage resistance for a round since he was the man to hold the line.  It used its breath weapon, a glob of acid that hit Oakwood and the two casters (those in the back) for significant damage.  Oakwood and Clarisa also missed the save and lost 10 feet of movement plus 1d6 persistent acid damage.  It also did a reach tail swipe at Oakwood.  TerStegan did his Sudden Charge and got in front of Oakwood and did his damage.  Oakwood missed twice and then Tumbled Through to get on the other side to give flanking.  (He should have done that in a different order.)  Clarisa and Xeelie cast cantrips and Brisco healed Oakwood.  The dragon slayer was also able to frighten it.  However, after a round or two, it turned to flee back to its water.  TerStegan hit but Oakwood missed his opportunity attack, even with his hero point.  And it got away.  However, Brian decided he didn’t want to deal with the hunting of a wounded drake and gave Oakwood another parting shot.  This time he hit and finished it off.  We signed off with visions of dragon treasure hoards.