Going up river

Nov. 5, CY0
 
Staying at the Mangy Mutt and drinking at the North Star. Spending a lot of time at the Iron Suds. Been here for about 2 weeks.
 
Sergeant Maynar Royce at the Dockmistress’ office at the docks is offering work. Short-haired, older, and out of shape.
 
Truffle is only 3’8” tall.
 
Captain Slait of the Main Course, headed for Cragton at 1pm, guard the barge/ship. Loading up in Cragton and immediately returning. Collect a package from the foreman at Cragton and drop it at Camp Kargoth (75gp bonus to split). 25gp each up front, 25gp upon safe return of barge. He’s over-paying for the work he describes. He treats his squire/page like shit.
 
The dockmistress is raising a ruckus at somebody in her office.
 
I rush off to spend 5gp with Fil (Filament), the smith, to buy silver bracelets and arm cuffs. I find Tristana at the Iron Suds when I go there after buying jewelry.
 
6 men on the barge, 5 nearly identical. 1 older guy with a scruffy beard and a hat who yells at the rest. The water at the bow is churning with some sort of magical effect.
 
The ship is a rotten, barely seaworthy heap. Tristana is funny.
 
The churning water moves away from the ship and is attached to the ship with ropes that pull it along. The boat is pulled by 4 elemental brine sharks.
 
Activity at Camp Kargoth is heavy. The camp is still being reinforced, the troops are drilling, and so on. A guard calls out a warning to one of the brothers (Roy), that something came out of the water last night and ate some of the camp’s horses.
 
We get into the lake around 6pm and go on watch. The captain wants us watching the Entwall side in particular.
 
Hamish spots a couple of wakes approach from behind and the ship is rammed.
 
A winged beast leaps out of the water and decapitates one of the sailors (Roy) before landing in the water on the other side of the ship. Serpent-like, winged, with silver scales. Another one kills Richard with an acid spittle attack. Another attacks the captain.
 
Tristana misses one with her hand crossbow. Hamish hits with 2 shurikens but doesn’t hurt it. The captain stabs it. The drake kills the captain.
 
The drake 1-shots Hamish and nearly 1-shots Truffle. We kill it.
 
I sew the dead crewmen into their hammocks for their brothers, heal the party, and we continue the journey. Riley is the brother who manages the propulsion and lookout duties. I help with the lookout. Takes about an hour to cross the lake. There’s a gem in the bow of the ship that summons and maintains the elemental brine sharks.
 
We approach Cragton as dawn arrives. Ray is still alive. He takes the rest of the group into the cabin and retrieves a gemstone from the captain’s chest and gives it to us. It looks like a 1” purple-ish pearl.
 
The sun is up as we reach the Cragton docks. The body of the river drake attracts a crowd. It’s maybe 10 feet long with a 15 foot wingspan.
 
The boss comes down and takes the others to his office for the package to deliver to Camp Kargoth. I skin the river drake after Hamish thinks the hide and scales could be valuable.
 
The boss is secretive and locks his door before getting the package out. It’s a sliver of black metal/ore/stone of some sort. It’s all they could gather with their tools and took days and broke a lot of tools. I use Detect Magic, it’s not magical.
 
We get to rest and recuperate the rest of the 6th
 
Nov. 7, CY0
 
We leave Cragton at dawn. The foreman sends 12 men with us as extra guards.
 
The return to Camp Kargoth is uneventful during the day. The river drakes appear to be nocturnal. The cargo is ore, mostly iron and silver, and some gems.
 
We reach Camp Kargoth around noon. Lieutenant Nidiya al-Mir greets us. The soldiers arm the miners with crossbows. The Lieutenant leads us to the camp commander.
 
The commander’s quarters are a 2 story building that’s nicely appointed and decorated. The lieutenant doesn’t seem pleased about there being any package. She’s happy that the foreman said they could only obtain a very little bit of it and it being hard to gather.