A Break, and a Tournament, and a Raid

Two days after the Runebreakers take out a entkeg queen, the Gladiator Fall Championship Qualifiers are due to take place. Kalanar and Kaladar are eager to take the success of defeating a queen to the ring. Artemis sighs, and decides to join them to at least try and keep them out of too much trouble. Ang, Pax and Théoden also decides to join in the team division with them. Ang is adamant that the party follows her lead in the fights. The party doesn't do too bad and are able to qualify, showing off their ability to create sound tactics, much to the delight to Kalanar and Kaladar.
 
The rest of the week, Artemis spends going to classes and does her best in her Vernarian language classes. It has proven to be a difficult language to learn for her, due to it being a very different language to previous languages she has studied. In her frustration, she is more easily annoyed this week and is a bit snippy.
 
After the week of classes for Artemis, the guild meets back up at the guild hall. There are many people around the hall discussing the tournament results so far and who they are rooting for. The Runebreakers take two promising quests off the board, one issues with some farms nearby, and another regarding investigating possible smugglers. At the procument desk, Kalanar and Kaladar end up annoying the clerk to the point of taking stress leave. Kaladar then tries to buy a foam bolder from the nome named Bots who showed up to replace him. Artemis is confused by Kaladar wanting a second bolder. The party restocks some supplies, while Kalanar asks about some of the other groups in the tournament. Artemis gets a rumor about a boat not paying its fare from him. The conversation devolves somehow into Bots needed to invent 'explodium' and make 'exploding rats' in order to deal with a rat problem at home.
 
The party then heads to the Farming and Food Commission to talk to Sylia, a drow women, about some farming issues. She describes how the farms seems to be having issues with things that are rumored to have multiple limbs, large bodies and have been setting farms on fire. Of course, Kalanar and Kaladar flirt with the women to no end. Theoden and Ang exhibit annoyance and frustration with the two while Artemis is just a touch ammused at the slight discourse among the party. Deciding to join in the fun a bit, Artemis declares that the two are terrible at flirting and decides to show them how its done by creating a small bouquet of flowers to present to her before leaving.
 
The Runebreakers then head out of the city to the affected farms in the area of Kukka. they decide to not take a cart and horse this time, due to both Kalanar and Kaladar having bags of holding. Almost at their destination, The party takes notice of smoke nearby. Since Sylia said that buildings were being set fire by the perpetrators, investigation is needed. Upon reaching the small village, a villager exclaims to them about a fish destroying the village before passing out. Artemis pulls him to the side of a building so he's not just passed out in the middle of the road. Investigating a little deeper into the village, The party sees one of the perpetrators and Kalanar identifies it as a Sahaugian, a fish race that are known to raid like this during their breeding season. Unfortunately, no one in the party can speak their language, making Kalanar's attempt of speaking to them fail miserably. The Sahaugian that we can see makes aggressive actions towards us however, making his intent clear.
 
the Runebreakers engage in combat with the raiders. The raiders had set up a decent ambush that slightly took the party by surprise as they pressed further into the village. Artemis had overextended a bit, causing her to become the main target of a majority of the ambush. Kalanar and Ang come running in to help, allowing Artemis to retreat to the roof of a nearby building. The battle continues with Artemis becoming increasingly frustrated at the enemies continuously dodging her attacks. In anger, she ends up putting too much power behind a guiding bolt spell, completely obliterating one of the raiders to ash.
 
After eliminating all the raiders, Artemis performs the Devil's soul rites on the raiders. They may have been commiting a crime, but their souls still deserve rest. After finishing, She heads with Kaladar to start knocking on doors to check on the villagers. Kaladar ends up accidentally sending the village crazy person off into the wilderness. The Cleric of the village is unconcerned. After confirming that all villagers are accounted for and not in need of immediate attention, the party and the village take a well deserved rest for the night
 
In the morning, all the village gathers in from of the chapel, and the party is able to put together from their stories of the direction the raids are originating from, the west. The Runebreakers also hear about a mysterios cloacked traveler who had passed through a week before the raids started. The traveler was a bit unusual, and had insisted on staying within a barn during his stay in the village before continuing on to the west. Suspicious, Artemis suggests that we investigate the barn he had stayed in to see if anything unusual was left behind. They end up finding within the barn, scraps of what was probably intended on being a costume that looks like a shark. Specifically, the shark god who the Sahaugin worship. The stranger is probably behind the raids, having successfully tricked the beastmen into believing that he is their god.
 
Now with a clearer picture of the situation, the Runebreakers head west out of the village, following the tracks of the raiders. The party comes across a cave, and are immediately set upon entering it.