After returning to the bustling city, the group can pick up Sir Aberlayne from the Adventurers' Guildhall and go on to Volsh's promised feast.  There are several fine inns, and Sir Aberlayne (being a devotee of Yondalla, a goddess known for watching over hearth, home, and kitchen) recommends the Griffon's Table as one with an excellent cook.

She greets Volsh with a hearty hug when she meets them, seeing the smile on his face and knowing what it means.

"I am very proud of you, Volsh!  The hearth fire I kindled for you burned bright, every log, so I knew that was a good omen for everyone," she says.

The feast is a satisfactorily hearty one, with roasted ham, fried and baked fish, seaweed bread, wheat bread, and fresh herb salads with bright dressings of vinegar and oil.  There's chowder with clams, fresh cream, and vegetables, roasted mixed roots, salted and spiced nuts, several different wines, ales, tonics, teas, and juices, berry tarts and fruit salad dressed in honey, even pieces of chocolate to share about.

Sir Aberlayne listens to everyone's stories as the meal progresses, of the resources of the Conclave, the spells that Haazheel and Dellas were able to find, the ritual for Volsh and how the others aided him, with careful attention.

"A good ending and a better beginning!" she says.  She'll wait until the meal is over and everyone is enjoying a last glass of wine or bit of chocolate before telling everyone what she's been up to for a week.

"So I've been looking into Selbian Dross and whatever mysterious buyer wanted Pearl so badly that they were smuggling items in casks of wine.  The Magistrate said the Watch had some cases of other missing items over the course of the last couple of years that fell into similar categories: unusual magic items or magic components, rare oddities, old and valuable texts, even the occasional exotic creature gone missing.  Most of the missing items were chalked up to basic thieves, as they were often things being sold by adventurers or busy merchants.  But since Pearl belonged to Madam ilk'Vale, who resides in town, she could make more of a fuss about it and could afford to pay adventurers to look into it.  I asked the Guildmaster, and she said that not every adventurer made a full tally of their odd loot, and even if they did, not every one of them was going to quibble about one little odd statue or bone going missing.  Those who made a report about it unfortunately didn't stay around long enough to pursue the issue, so the Watch didn't end up spending resources chasing thieves of items whose owners had moved on and might be back sometime next year or never."

She sighs as she continues.  "I understand that there are only so many hours in the day, but those who were thieving (Dross and a few fellows who aided him in some sleight of hand) were careful to target mostly folks who would have difficulty in pursuing.  But as to who hired them, and where things were going...  That is where we come in.  The wine was shipped out on a few different ships, but they had a common port, Gajin.  Now, some of the captains also made port at a few islands further out to sea, so that could be a place where things were being sent."  She spreads her hands, inviting questions.  "So, a thought I had was that we could hire a ship, perhaps the Sea Lady, to go where those ships went and see if we can figure out who was intent on depriving the folk of Port Lyalee of their odd treasures."

Bruenor, his belly full, was in a better mood than usual, but frowned in thought.
"It's not our usual bit of Adventure, but i suppose it's a good and noble enough cause"

"The old tales always have some nefarious villain as the responsible party," Farian says. "Surely this is a area of darkness in need of the Light!" She's thoughtful for a moment. "To be on the safe side, the ship should be large enough to bring our horses. Our final destination may not be a port, after all. I believe the Sea Lady is such a ship, is it not? And, if memory serves, it was hiring adventurers as well."

"The Sea Lady hasn't left already?" Lantamori asked their esteemed halfling.  What was taking Hubert so long to get going?  It had been nearly a week since she'd left them.  More than a week?

"Hubert left with Morrie for a shake-down cruise and a short run to Port Jarlo and Benshay and back.  And since the Sea Lady came back in one piece and with both of them, all went well.  I've been working with the Watch to find out what I could around here, but I wasn't about to go haring off into the sea without the rest of you!" Sir Aberlayne says.  "But now that we have the names of ports, and wines, we have a better idea of where, what, and who to look for."

Haazheel listens and, when Pearl is mentioned, goes blank as if trying to recall what or who Pearl is.

Volsh is in good spirits at the end of the feast, laughing and enjoying all the fine food he'd bought for everyone.

He listenes to Sir Aberlayne's report on the smuggling and all of that.

"I don't understand smuggling and all that, but my main question is... how long would we be at sea? Would I have to undergo a change on the ship?"

"Otherwise, I'm all in favor of bringing smugglers to their knees."

Noting Haazheel's expression, Farian fills him in. "Pearl is a magical construct which Averdante and I were able to rescue from the smuggler thieves. Oh, and Prreet too," she adds, noting Averdante's pet. "So sorry, Prreet! You were instrumental in our success after all!"

"Finding the thieves isn't going to be through the Guild?" Lantamori asked Sir Aberlayne.  "Or is it a secret now and a Guild mission if we succeed?"

She wasn't sure if they were even supposed to accept contracts outside of the Guild.

Travel by sea? That sounded like something interesting to try. Dante couldn't imagine giving up forests to live like a sailor, but as a brief sojourn, he'd like to experience it.

"If we take a ship, who is responsible for hiring it? Does the Watch pay, since they're hiring us?"

Another thought struck him at Farian's words, and he reached up to stroke Prreet. "I would need to buy something for Prreet, if we're going to go by ship. Something to keep him afloat so he can be rescued." For all that Prreet was "alive," he was still a solid weight on Dante's shoulders, and in water would likely sink quite swiftly.

"Oooooh an Adventure on the Sea" Dellas exclaims excitedly over mouthfuls of food "When do we leave? Oh what Should I bring?" Dellas grabs a couple of chocolates and berry tarts and begins to pack up his things as he's going over the list of items "How do wizard's protect their books from so much water?" He mumbles to himself.

Narthian will give Dellas and Haazheel tips on waterproof packaging. For books, he suggests finding a well made brass box and sealing the joints with liberal amounts of wax or lead, then a heavy wax seal on the lid. "That's the only thing that will resist long term full submersion. Tightly wrapping them in layers of oiled leather or tight woven wool and a layer of cerecloth will do for a short dip or heavy rain."
This message was last edited by the player at 20:02, Wed 08 Apr 2020.

Haazheel thanks Narthian and opines Wax, since we'll probably need to get the books out to study up. (With Dallas), he goes shopping.

"If we take the Guild job to explore islands with Hubert and the Sea Lady," Lantamori proposed, "we won't need to hire a ship and I'm sure Captain Hubert will allow us some leeway if we find a lead on our other project.

"We don't have a deadline in order to find these smugglers, do we?"

She was less worried about accepting a contract outside the Guild if they were also on a contract with the Guild that ran along parallel paths.  Just as long as they got paid for their trouble.

Sir Aberlayne shakes her head.  "Not as long as a moon.  Most of the islands are only a day's sail out, maybe two. Most of the time we would be on land, looking for any evidence.  And Gajin is only a week's sail away directly, so I doubt you'd have to change at sea."



"The city is hiring us through the Guild, to make all things proper. Pay is good and fair, fifty gold per week, loot rights as normal. The city is looking for evidence of smuggled items," here she pulls out a list of things determined to be stolen, "And they want those that are in charge, either alive and back here for trial, or solid evidence of their guilt with papers, underlings, witnesses, or whatnot if it wasn't possible to take them alive."





"City would pay, but like Lantamori said, we can combine two jobs in one and save ourselves dealing with middlemen.  The Sea Lady can take all of us, easily.  And I went hunting for something to make our mounts, um... portable.  It's a spell that some wizards use, apparently, if they go somewhere dangerous where they don't want to risk their familiars.  It will turn a creature into a little statue until you say a command word.  It's not a spell I could cast, but Dellas and Haazheel could.  The Temple of Boccob will sell us scrolls for it, if people want.  I don't like being separated from Valiant if I don't have to, and I didn't want to risk losing any criminals just because they could beat us in a footrace!  Maybe that spell could help Prreet?  Or maybe the Boccob priests have something that could do it.  Or you could get a really big piece of cork?" Sir Aberlayne says.

Lantamori wasn't sure how she felt about turning Cloud into a small statue.  It seemed wrong to shrink and petrify a living creature before stuffing them into your pocket for later.

Volsh takes a look at the list, but as there are no pictures he just passes it on to the next person who can read.

"I guess anything on that list won't be part of any loot rights?' he replied.

"We could pay for Haazheel and Dellas to get that spell. I'm about as fast on foot as Eagle, but I'd like the oomph if we need it."