9 Marpenoth (October)
Location: Lac Dinneshere

The party rises early in the morning and gathers their things before filing into the common room of Dinev's Rest, where they eat breakfast and steel their minds toward their task. The lake is quite large and, they learn from the locals, contains numerous small coves along her shores and a semi-permanent chain of icebergs colloquially known as Icewyrm Maw. Within any of these locales the party might find the Howling Fiend, if that dread ship doesn't find them on the lake itself.

The party has chartered a mere fishing vessel, surely no match for a large pirate ship outfitted with the mysterious black ice ram. A number of similar vessels have already be sacked by her and the party can only hope they do not join their numbers. For his part, Speaker Siever has requested the party reclaim the ship, if possible. Far too much treasure has already been spent to make her a capable war vessel and her loss will not be well received.

In any event, after a warm breakfast, the party files out into the dark, cold morning. Leaden skies loom overhead and light snow lends a tone of dread to the moment. On the upshot, it is not quite as cold this morning, though a low bank of fog drifts over the lake. Arriving at the docks, the party is greeted by their captain standing aboard a small but serviceable single-masted boat. She is rigged with fishing nets and the like and looks in no way built for battle. The captain assures the party she is a worthy and fast ship and helps them aboard.

"Well, if we are going to do this, we might as well be about it," he says. "Easthaven, right?" he asks hopefully.

Morgrim takes the captain's arm as he boards the vessel. He smiles comfortingly. "First the Icewyrm Maw. Once its been cleansed we can see if you're still prepared to take us on to Easthaven," he replied.

Thane was never the nervous-Nelly sort, but today, this morning, he definitely felt anxious.  Oh, he'd been on ships before (he was a Luskan Soldier, after all) but going in search of a Pirate vessel in a modest fishing vessel gave him plenty of cause for concern.

He smiled at the captain as he boarded.  "I used to pray to Tempus before every battle.  I stopped when he quit listening.  However, if you have a god to pray to, it might be a good time for it," he shared in a self-reflective manner.  "But, if we do our jobs right, we'll win the day and You, Sir, will be more the famous for it!  The fishin' man what took on the mighty and fearful Howling Fiend!"

Thane found a central location on the ship to settle down and make sure all his gear, including at least one of the flasks of alchemist's fire.  He had heard the Speaker's words, but honestly, he'd rather send that Fiend to the bottom as a burning wreck.  The Black Ice ram on it seemed something better lost than found, in his judgement, anyway.

Arnan boarded the fishing vessel from the dock, and looked around. At first glamce, there was nothing about the vessel itself to give him any confidence that they would succed in their task.

He had some questions that he wanted to ask the Captain, but he decided that he would wait until they had left the dock behind. He didn't know how much backbone the man had, and he didn't want him to start thinking so much about the details of engaging the Howling Fiend that he suddenly developed cold feet and decided that it wasn't such a good day to be out on the lake after all.

Consequently, Arnan busied himself with finding a spot on deck that was out of the way of the crew as they went about their business of readying to cast off.

After a quick warm breakfast and extra sausage rolls tucked into her pack and pockets, Kira trudged out with the others well before the sun was up and feeling it was positively unholy to be up at that hour.  Funny thing given how she'd been such a night child not that long ago but throwing herself in with this lot had meant some adjusting and she rather liked being part of a group rather than totally on her own.

She had kept silent when the high muckety-muck said he wanted to keep the Howling Fiend intact and she wasn't going to say anything to spook the captain of this ship so she followed Arnan to an out of the way spot.  Leaning in, she kept her voice down for only his ears.  "I'm of two minds about this," she whispered.  "The first is sink that think so no one's ever mauled by it again.  The second ... what if the black ice is causing the insanity and dead to walk?  If it's sunk, what of the creatures in the water?  Would it end up contaminating them and then those who eat them?"

Morgrim quietly concurred. "The prow must be destroyed. How one does that is another question. But it is better to rest at the bottom of the lake while we determine that, than to fall back into the idle hands of men."

In reply to Morgrim Ironhammer (msg # 6):

"Take down the prow by taking down another section?  It might be easier to do that than attacking it directly."

Arnan smiled a thin smile at all the chatter about how to best deal with the Black Ice ram of the Howling Fiend. "My hunch is that we shall have little choice in the matter. I suppose that the pirates could surrender to us, but I suspect that their ship will be well aflame before they are willing to . . . well, I would say 'Strike their colors', but I doubt that they will be flying any."

"In any event, I suspect that it will be a matter of sinking them before they sink us."

In reply to Arnan Aldwynne (msg # 8):

"Honestly, the best way to deal with the Fiend would be to come upon it sneaky-like, board it, and roust the crew.  I just don't know if we'll be able to do that during daylight," Thane offered his opinion while seeing to his gear.

Once everyone is aboard, Ryev, Captain of the Lilting Tern, sets to sail, guiding the fleet vessel eastward out of Knucklehead Harbor and into Lac Dinneshere. Gliding across the waters, the ship cuts through banks of tendril-like fog, a light patter of snow descending gracefully from the grey veil that extends from one horizon to the next.

Ryev is a sure pilot and effortlessly guides the vessel, soon veering northward in what he comments is a route that runs parallel to the lake's western shore, though none can see it through the icy gloom. No ships are seen on the water for some time, but after an hour or so the group spots a few fishing vessels bearing the flag of Caer-Konig in the distance. Ryev steers well clear of these ships and hurriedly hoists another flag up the mast, this banner declaring the ship is not fishing these contested waters, rather just passing through. For their part, the rival fishing vessels take no outwardly hostile action against the Litlting Tern and carry on about their business. After a few tense, uncertain moments, the adventurers lose sight of the other ships and continue their journey northward toward Icewyrm Maw.

A few hours later, the party spots a chain of icebergs and rocky isles ahead and picks up the distinct scent of smoke. No smoke trails are seen in the distance, due to the ever-present fog, but it is quite evident wood is burning somewhere within the chain known as Icewyrm Maw. Ryev drops anchor about 100 yards from the chain and comments, "Too dangerous to get much closer yet, with the fog and all."

He further suggests he can get close enough to an outlying island and offer the party a rowboat to reach shore, in the event the group wishes to explore the islands.

Morgrim nods. "Lets have the rowboat then," he remarked. "There's smoke in the air. Someone is close by."

In reply to Morgrim Ironhammer (msg # 11):

"Sounds good to me," Arnan replied to Morgrim.

"The pirates won't expect anyone to come looking for them, and the fog should aid us in approaching them unseen. With any luck we can surprise them, which can only work to our benefit."

Kira peeked over the rail at the frigid water and made a face.  "Even with the smoke and fog, we need to be very quiet and pray we don't run into anything that would give us away," she stated but was ready to go when the others were.  At least this way they might be able to just throw the alchemist fire onto the deck instead of lobbing from this ship to the Fiend.  "This ship's gonna wait here for us though, right?" she asked, not relishing the thought of having to try to row all the way to shore.