����������� Book Four, Chapter One, �How to capture three pirate ships from a rowing boat.�

����������� 21/11/98

We got back to Trobridge on the 21st of Agrazhar. Mace is similar to war hammer, so there.

Next, we are going to get the Eye of Kor and Zytsi�s new war hammer. So what do we need for this expedition to the sunken city of Ridow?

The Egg of Force, which seems to have been temporarily mislaid,

A big boat so that Zytsi can be in the middle as far away from the water as possible,

Drugs to keep Zytsi happy (or perhaps just happier) while on the boat, and

Some more of the expensive cure all drug (Yulpris) that Sir Martyn keeps giving to peasants.

(I suspect that we didn�t get any of that).

So let�s get on with it. We spend couple of days in Trobridge sorting things out. A servant girl is claiming a labourer type raped her, after they we found in the barn by her father. Sir Martyn sits in judgement and he interrogates them. However, it only worked on the father, who stuck to his story - he was telling the truth, but not the entire truth. Clear the court of everyone except the father, and hammer out a compromise. That will be marriage then. Sir Martyn call the peasant back and break the good news to him. He wasn�t that impressed, but there you go. �She offered her honour, he honoured her offer, and all night long he was on her or off her.�

We tell Crawlie and the porters to pack appropriately for the journey. Off to Evael on the 24th Agrazhar, and it takes 9 days to get to the Elf city of Elshavel again. (Static population 800) So we arrive on the 2nd Azura.

The Eye of Kor is an enormous gem, with possible magical properties. And they�d like a look at it before we give to Daelda. Well, say the party, if you were to provide aquatic transport to the Sunken City of Ridow on the Isle of Gyzem then we�d be coming back here. That�s convenient isn�t it? Well the first week of Azura is a festival, for the Jarin colony in Evael. So we will have a party and then an expedition.

On to the port city of Ulfshafen, not far (30 miles) directly east. Sent down there on the Royal Barge. Population is about 300 humans and 100 Elves. The humans live on the island, and the Elves on the mainland. It�s a human ghetto in Elfland, but they are allowed on the mainland. There is a high percentage of cripples amongst the humans. The castle walls have gems in them, Khuzdul workmanship - they made it as a present for the Elves. There is a very good armourer, and a very good mapmaker here.

Singing, dancing, and performances in the amphitheatre, sports.

Estalyn�s farther runs the Elf Inn here. Giles and Estalyn are stayed in Thay as. Giles needs training and Estalyn couldn�t go to Bejist. But Giles broke his leg (new information).

Oh dear two drunken sailors start making comments about having a �short person� throwing contest, at a make shift bar while people are singing and dancing. A third one joins in.

Zytsi says, �Who the fuck are you calling short arse?�

Sir Martyn �This one�s not worth bothering with.� So he wondered off, and the other hit Zytsi with a poisoned dagger, stunning him, bit of bleeding and muscle damage. This sailor too good with the dagger to be an ordinary sailor. Sir Martyn gets in the way and they leg it into crowd, followed by Sir Martyn of course.

The three of them seem to have gone away, with Sir Martyn in hot pursuit. The one that did the stabbing vanishes with a �pop� noise. Never seen anything like that before.

The local human guards arrive, �Move along, move along, we don�t want any trouble�. Back to the castle. There has been an incident, assassination attempt on Zytsi - with a magically assisted escape. But no one can really describe the attackers. The Prince arrives and is upset. He gets the guard out and stop all ships from sailing. He also wanted The Royal Physician looks at the wound and says he has been poisoned. Zytsi is hustled off, and starts is starting to feel bad. Sir Martyn does the Laying On Of Hands, so it won�t get any worse. (2% chance that every time he goes into a melee he will have a convulsion for 1-10 rounds (as Stun No Parry). Yulpris has 75% chance to fix it. There is another drug that could fix it if he keeps taking it for more than a month (quessel), so Zytsi is on antibiotics.) The poison is used by the Tulwyn tribe. It could be the Agrik worshippers, it could be Panaga.

A colour map of Harn is 100d, so Daniel buys one.

�The White Swan�, with a crew of eight men, is being prepared for us. �Valium� moans Zytsi. We leave on the 9th of Azura. Down the River Kald the island of Keboth, and round the coast to its southern most point. (The Isle of Gyzem is underneath the word Harn on my map.) The ship camps at there for the night, nobody lives on the island so they�ll be kipping there. There is a fairly well used campsite here. All ashore, except Sir Martyn who stays on the boat. Normal watches, even if it is supposed to be safe.

Third watch we hear a loud screeching noise off in the woods, the crewman says it�s a peacock. We ignore it, it�s nearly dawn. We set off. About midday, the sky starts to cloud over, but we see a dolphin. By late afternoon, we must be nearly there, but it starts raining and the wind picks up (in almost completely the wrong way). A storm is on the way, an absolute belter when it hits. Lightning flashes, Thunder and so on - Zytsi is asleep. We feel ill. They get the ship into the bay on Gyzem, and it is slightly calmer.

((Get the Eye of Kor from the Isle of Gyzem at Ridow the Sunken City - 20 fathoms deep. Entrance to city is 120 ft below city by isle. At very low tide, find cave mouth, go into it follow path find city.))

Attacked by 12 or 15 pirates, or even more. 3 crewmen down, and another thrown over the side.

10 on the helmsman, didn�t last long. Melee ensued. Sir Martyn kicked one over the side. Aruth fires three lightning bolts from his new staff and hit 2 pirates and a bit of rigging. Another Triad of Lightning Bolts kills three and scares off the rest. We cut the rigging loose which was on fire, and take 3 pirates as prisoners.

Storm last 12 hours, after 3 the prisoners start to wake up - at about midnight. Peg Leg Magurick, Ohah MacHearty, and Roger the sailor. Sir Martyn says that normally he hangs pirates, but today we have a speciality in repenting sailors. So they join our band, and start sorting out the mess we made of the rigging. Captain Bartholomew Schism is the pirate captain. All our crew is dead.

Do we have a plan ? No. Do we know where we have to go ? No. It�s the 10th of Azura, so we return to Ulfshafen and get there on the 12th of Azura. Sir Martyn gets out his mace and tells the pirates that he lied and that they are under arrest. They ran and Sir Martyn shot them with his mace. They jump off the boat into the sea to escape. Zytsi and Aruth put the gangplank down, but it falls in the water. They get away. One gets away and will never be seen again. The others may be findable.

So the gangplank is in the harbour and we haven�t got a pilot so they fetch the authorities. We run into a jobs worth, but it gets sorted out and we go back to the Castle. Daniel gets his rib fixed (it was broken in the pirate attack) and the others get a map of the Isle of Gyzem. Then Zytsi and Aruth go back to find out if he knows anything about the Sunken City of Ridow. He�s closed for lunch, so they go to the Elf Inn for lunch. Spot one of the pirates in the Inn. He legs it and escaped. Lunch. Back to the Map Maker and he may have something for us. Come back in a couple of hours, so its back to the Inn. Then he�s found three maps, two possibly unreliable at 15d and a better one at 1,500d. They go back to the Castle to get some money from Sir Martyn. The shop will be closed by the time they find him. So its 1,500d out of Party Fund A for the map. Back to the Map Maker, who is right next to the sea, the next day. He used to be a sailor. It shows 4 possible locations for the city on it. So we marked the locations on our map, and then sold it back to him for 300d.

So how do we get a crew. Well it�s the King�s personal ship, which we were lent, so we won�t claim salvage. Sir Martyn signs a document saying he waives all salvage rights on the ship. We get thrown out the Castle for that diplomatic blunder. They booked us into the other Inn, so that�s a 5d bill for Daniel, Aruth and Zytsi. We cancel that Inn.

((Diner))

We spend 5 days here. We spend 1,008d passage to the Island, Yes, we�ve pissed the locals off. We leave on the 17th of Azura, and get to Keboth again. Then back to the Isle of Gyzem on the 18th Azura.

First watch, three ships with catapults. They open by lighting the torches for its flaming shot. Two are close, and one misses by miles. We fire an ineffectual volley of arrows and bolts. Crew get buckets of water ready. One misses, one hits Zytsi and one hits the mast. Fire Control ! The arbalest kills one. The fire takes one down, but Aruth him better. The fire is not getting out of control, but it�s not going out.

Sir Martyn rows out in a small boat, Aruth fires Sudden Lights, Daniel is look out. Last (?) shot hits the boat, as they get stunned. Another Sudden Light on the last boat, boarded it and killed stunned pirates for a few rounds. Daniel ties up the boat up and joins in. Having killed them, we got back to the boat. But the first boat opened fire, oops, the boat got hit. Zytsi is in charge of Fire Control. On to the next boat. The is one man left standing, he takes a lot of flack (two darts, one bolt, and one whack with a quarterstaff) but he still has a free hack as Sir Martyn boards the boat just before he goes down. Daniel ties up the boat up. Another massacre ensures. On to the third ship. Oh dear Sir Martyn has dropped the oar, and we waste three rounds. The third ships fires again and it gets our main boat. (The secret is to sing Stun Song and hit the buggers with the broadsword used two handed).

New plan. Go back to help put our fire out with Waterwalls. The back to pirate ship number three. Zytsi puts the fire out, but the last ship lights its blue touch paper and fire again. But the Sudden Lights come back. Off to boat three, same as before. We attempt to massacre by numbers again, but they start coming out of stun. We do our best, they all die except five who dive into the sea. We get three of them, so two members out of three ships crews escape.

Loot the bodies, and we get assorted jewellery worth� 693d plus 347d in coins, 6 firebombs, and a catapult. Well the entrance is in this bay, and Sir Martyn rows out at low tide. Entrance is frame by an archway carved out of a single white carved stone, and revealed for half an hour. We reckon we have 3 days when this will happen. Zytsi says go for it, Sir Martyn says stash one of these other boats by sinking it. The crew are unhappy due to the use of magic, well� they have a choice of three people as� the potential witches. Sir Martyn explains it�s all the power of Larani.

We spend all day sinking one of the other boats in a controlled fashion. Zytsi talks to the crew, and offers bonuses. A plan. The boat will be ready to go by the end of the day. Next day (the 20th Azura),we set off for the cave, Daniel Calms Zytsi and we get there. Sir Martyn carries Zytsi, and we carry the boat up as far as possible. There is a white marble staircase. It is a tradition, we take the boat with us.

The stairs goes up 70 feet to a vast chamber (not of natural origin), where we leave the boat. There is a tunnel at the far end. We have 24 hours to do this. The tunnel goes for 2 leagues and it is slopping downwards, so we must be underwater. We now come out at the bed of the ocean at the entrance to the city. It is a wondrous place of white stone under a dome. Soaring towers impossibly high. You can see the sea beyond the dome.

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