The Morning After

Meeting with the Minister: The wizards examined the fog that Kua collected and have determined that crazy Merril was a druid. Crazy Merril did not survive the questioning, much like the pirate prisoner.

Bits of info: only ships departing from Balon are attacked. Daneg doesn't have a port city on the lake.

Concerns: Do not know if Merril had any partners or other spies working in Balon. No way to tell that now since someone hit him over the head.

Proposal by Grace to fake a diplomacy mission to Nimbat, with the rumor leaked to Daneg about the mission to make the ship an irresistable target.

What we learned after a morning of questions:

Not much. We got what crazy Merril fed the birds, which surprisingly came in handy. I also got the names of some working girls who tend to hang around the docks more than the tavern.

Second plan is to put Saladar in Merril's clothes, have me put an illusion on him, and have him go down to the docks to feed the birds as Merril. We going to see if a bird with a message comes in. The guards had burned the clothes, but the gnome did a stink spell on Saladar to make him smell.

It worked! We have a seagull with a message pouch! Kua spotted suspicious birds and Grace brought them down and swam out to get them. The message pouch didn't have any magic aura. But the darn thing was empty.

Now the question is, how do we get the other messenger birds alive?

12-2 Back to the Minister's Office

He's coming to love our visits. There's no longer food offered. We're thinking that a spell can be cast on the bird (if we can capture it alive) that would allow the bird to be tracked back to the pirates. Unfortunately, the duration of the most appropriate spell would be far too short to be useful. Neither did he want to see the dead seagull we so kindly brought him. This is why we no longer get snacks.



And again at the minister's office: The king has considered the options that have been discussed and has decided that the best course at this point is to engage two vessels to patrol the coast. They anticipate that scouting along the Daneg coast could be done with some care in three or four days or so. It will take two days to get the ships prepared to depart. Our provisions for the trip will be provided for. (We're back to being fed.)

Grace has suggested fire arrows and grapple hooks to try to keep the pirate vessel from eluding capture. We're investigating getting a hold of alchemist fire. The foundries are about a week travel away. The nearest desert elf settlement is 264 miles over dessert, but 160 miles by boat (which could be made a day or so each way).

We decide to go to Kinsh to seek out some alchemist fire. A lieutenant of the navy goes with us to hire the vessel to Kinsh and purchase the alchemist fire.