13th Letter Home: A Story of the Return of Old Friends, a Rescue, and a New Master

General Summary

After the battle we searched the crates in the camp and found only additional supplies, tools, and weapons. Well, they did. The team.
I sat.
Watched.
So many thoughts mother. I have been lost in so many thoughts.
Being the Sylvan focus makes me focus on the Sylvans. The more I learn of them, the more I...
One nice thing is that I took the Sun Knight's sword. The balance is strange, making it slightly unwieldy for me. The blade is too wide. Not perfectly straight. But I'll practice every day till I learn to use it well.
And then I will use it well. Against them.
I argued to set another ambush and kill the rest of the Sylvan soldiers, who absolutely must have been rushing back to the camp, but I was alone in that desire: the rest of the group strongly disagreed.
Mother, I almost stayed behind by myself. But we know I would be no match for them. Frustrating as it was for me, we withdrew back to the Lightkeepers. The desire to finish those Sylvans burned in my breast.
A day later, as we waited in our rooms, discussing where to go next (finish the Sylvans?), GG the gnome came knocking on our doors. There was a very agitated and heavily armed dwarf at the dock, and GG wanted some back-up.
When we got there, the dwarf recognized Vessyr and they had a heated conversation. The dwarf, Scrimshaw, was carrying Alyona’s staff. He had seen her ambushed, knocked out, and thrown in a boat. He ran to the site of the ambush and retrieved the staff, then came to find us.
It seemed that Vessyr and Scrimshaw worked together before. Probably plying their drugs.
I got a description of the attackers, the location, and their boat and immediately took off to see what I could find. I quickly found the site of the battle; there were bloody bodies on the dock, so it was hard to miss. I flew on past, unnoticed by the people gawking at the corpses. I scanned the water for the boat, but there was nothing remotely like what Scrimshaw described anywhere to be seen.
I then flew back to the bodies. Two dead men, one of which was dressed not to be seen. And one of the others still living, but unconscious. Blood everywhere, leading to the water. The unconscious man had a throwing star embedded in him. Alyonna carries no throwing stars. She had killed two of her ambushers, wounded others for sure, and used one of their throwing stars on them, bringing this man down.
The throwing star was poisoned (Vessyr checked).
On the better-dressed man we found a token. The bar we visited when first searching for the missing brother was right next door, so we dropped in to see if anybody knew what this token was for, and they did: it was a gambling chip from a riverboat. A very high-end gambling riverboat, though, and not something that would be seen in this area. The barkeep had never seen it, in fact, and had only heard of it.
While Baermak, the ‘Baxi, and I were chatting up the barkeep, Vessyr and Scrimshaw stabilized the unconscious man. When we returned, Vessyr told us that he had received a message from Alyorman, our old friend from the drug lab (Glow) we destroyed. He’s out for revenge and he has Alyona.
Vessyr was visibly upset. Not typically emotional, the strength of his reaction was striking. Narrowing his eyes and standing straight, he turned to the unconscious man. As he wordlessly dragged the man to the water I convinced him to find someplace discreet. I took us to a decrepit warehouse. There was a couple in there, but Baermak convinced them to disappear.
Baermak and I ushered the couple out. When I returned to the main room, I saw that Vessyr had strung our captive up, upside-down. Completely stripped. Scrimshaw watched the door, and the ‘Baxi patrolled.
As I watched, slightly aghast, Vessyr started talking to the captive. I couldn't understand, but the captive was absolutely terrified, and Vessyr was still extremely agitated. Vessyr shouted directly in the man's face, spraying him with spittle. One of the man’s hands was tied out beside him, and Vessyr poured a little bit of the alchemist’s fire on it. The man screamed and began babbling plaintively. He then vomited.
Vessyr ignored the vomit and seemed unsatisfied with the answers, so Baermak joined in. Vessyr’s spider then pushed one of its legs into the man’s wound, causing more screams, babbling, and tears.
Baermak seemed satisfied, finally. He looked to Vessyr, nodded, and drove his sword into the man’s throat and chest.
Blood poured to the floor as the man's wide eyes looked around for...anything. Surely he could still-
I looked away.
The man was simply hired muscle. His job was to grab the target and throw her in the boat. He knew of the paddle boat casino, but had never been on it. It moves around.
I quickly flew back to the Lightkeepers to find GG while the rest of the crew headed to the lift to Hightown. I explained what we had learned and GG found a colleague who had clearly been on the boat. He was well dressed and well spoken, and told me how to find the boat. We had to book a room on the vessel…for 1,000 gold pieces. Per night.
Apparently the vessel is officially called Lady Sassafrass’s Pleasure Palace. And that is where we needed to go.
I asked GG if he wanted to join us, and he demurred. So I went to meet the party at the top of the lift.
We headed up to Hightown and found the establishment. Ingoria and Baermak went in to reserve rooms. Our plan was to get most of us on the boat, while I simply fly in. So I waited outside while they negotiated our passage.
We needed to get to the port to board the ship, and to do so we actually found the same boat we had chartered to get to the surface before, after our adventures smashing the Glow dealers! The captain recognized us, of course, and we shared a mug or two with our tales. We didn’t give him details about or escapades, of course, just focusing on the exciting battles. Baermak did most of the tale-telling, as that is what he loves to do. There are always more enemies, they are always better equipped, and we are always closer to perishing when he tells it. Baermak casually (he is really good at this, mother) asked about the paddle boat, as if we really didn't care, and we learned the destination city.
On the way there Vessyr got another message: Aleorman has Alyonna and will trade her for the formula. And coincidentally, he wants to make the trade at our destination city. Also, he doesn’t seem to know that we’re on to him, and waiting to get on the boat. Once again, we have the element of surprise.
It cannot be a simple coincidence that the drop point and our destination coincide. Analyzing the route and the time since her abduction, we realized that it’s possible she’s already on the boat. Either that, or she’s boarding here, with us. So Ingoria and Baermak boarded the vessel, while Vessyr, Scrimshaw, and myself loitered on the docks, watching the people boarding, hoping to catch sight of them.
She had not boarded. So she must already be on the ship! A few minutes before the boarding deadline, Vessyr made me invisible, and he and Scrimshaw boarded. I flew above the boat, invisibly surveilling, but all of the windows were stained glass, so I couldn’t see in. I saw nothing unusual, no Aleorman, none of his minions, no prisoner. Nothing caught my eye. So I alighted on the main deck and made my way to our stateroom.
Even disguising myself, I would still be conspicuous, so I decided to stay in the room till action was necessary. Vessyr made Ingoria invisible, and she went below decks to scout.
She found nothing. The engine room. Crew quarters. Nothing of interest to you.
There was one door she didn’t enter.
Since she was still invisible, she headed up to the casino. We learned when we arrived that the casino was closed for a special event. I found this a tad suspicious, and so we agreed that Ingoria should go check out the casino.
And that is where we found Alyonna. She was there with Eleorman and some others.
We decided to simply charge up. I thought a plan might help, but Vessyr had no patience and would have charged in all alone, so we agreed to join him. We also decided to use some of the potions we had accumulated, so maybe that counted as a plan. Three potions of advantage were parsed out, and I took the sole potion of haste. We geared up, sharpened our weapons, cleaned everything, and headed up the stairs.
When we got to the dining room Lady Sassafras stopped us. We were quite the sight: geared up and fully armored, marching in a file up to the stairs. She refused to allow us access to the casino. This was her boat, and her rules. It seemed we would have a battle in preparation for our battle.
Vessyr explained that his granddaughter was being held upstairs against her will.
This changed the Lady’s perspective, and we were able to convince her to let us by. However, we now owed her a favor. Given the choice between open combat prior to our looming combat (and losing any possible element of surprise), we opted to owe her a favor.
I think none of us are happy about that.
But we each, in turn, agreed.
And we headed upstairs.
Aleorman knew we were coming. He shouted a welcome as we tromped up the finely padded stairs. He had to figure that we'd be trying our best to find him, and that we likely would. And we had.
Ingoria sprinted up and ran into the room, shooting as she went. Scrimshaw charged them, and Vessyr ran up behind him…and disappeared with a thunderclap. I saw him charging, head down and hands moving, and then nothing. Just gone. I drank my potion of haste and charged up the stairs. As I ran to the top of the stairs I could see that everybody in the room was against us. card sharp, barkeep, all of them. Eleorman sat with some Drow, and the card dealer serving them looked to be a mage of some kind. Behind us were 4 more, at least 2 of them casters.
I loosed 4 arrows in quick succession, all targeting Alyorman. As fast as I could. I hit him, but when the first arrow hit a rain of sparkling crystals appeared and flew in my direction, shredding through my armor. And feathers. And skin.
There was so much pain I felt I might fall. But, wobbling, I stood.
My last arrow hit him square in the pec, causing him to wince and lose his concentration: Vessyr suddenly reappeared with a clap of thunder.
Baermak ran up behind me and turned to face behind us, casting a sickly green ray at the enemy bard who nearly collapsed in a chair.
As I was drawing another arrow a shuriken hit me in the back. It burned a little, but didn’t put me down. I thought another one might, I was so weak.
Vessyr used his favorite spell: faerie fire! It didn’t work on Alyorman or the other Drow, but it did work on the dealer and Alyona. Why Alyona?
When I woke up Scrim was on the ground, surrounded by enemies beating on him; Ingoria seemed frozen in her tracks, inactive; everybody else was engaged, and Vessyr was running past me.
I think I remember being hit...something...maybe...somebody behind me?
My blood cascaded to the floor as I quickly rose, shooting Aleorman. And Aleorman fell. He tried deflecting my first shot, but I was too fast and the arrow was already in him as his hand moved past. My focus was intense, and I knew I could not miss. His spells were incapacitating our crew, and if I could at least distract him the spells would drop and we would be at full strength again. I needed to heal, but…the party needed my bow. If I paused to heal, it might not matter whether I had healed or not. I could certainly not let him strike me; that would end me.
So I rose. And Aleorman fell.
I cared not at that point whether I fell again.
I had dropped Aleorman.
Blood sprayed out behind the dealer/mage as Vessyr closed in and blasted him with his gun. Ingoria, now alert again, turned and dropped the mage with a quick arrow.
At that point, the enemy bard, who had disappeared, reappeared. She waved her arms and a huge blast of thunder shattered all of the windows in the room, spraying the water with shards, sending the rogue standing next to her backwards, and pushing Ingoria out through the disintegrating window to the deck below. I took a little damage too, but held my ground. Somehow. I felt that I might collapse, but the heat of the battle kept me standing.
She had attracted my attention, this bard, so I focused in on her and planted two arrows in the center of her chest, dropping her to the ground before she took another breath.
I then turned to the rogue, getting his bearings after the bard's thunder, and killed him too.
I must admit mother, that I was feeling extraordinarily weak. As I moved blood dripped from my new armor when it creased, coursing down my feathers, pouring to the floor. But I knew I had to continue.
Baermak sang encouragement to me, and I felt a little better. His words always help. He quaffed a healing potion for himself as Ingoria came screaming through the window, fangs bared.
Scrim, now conscious again after Aleorman fell, roared at the Drow standing next to him, the man who had been stabbing him while he lay helpless on the ground, and ran his glaive right through his midsection.
Only two remained standing. I turned my focus to the monk, and...and I think I was slightly dissociated. The potion, the blood loss, the battle. It was as if I watched three arrows arch toward the monk, landing solidly in his center. One Two Three. Two before the first one hit. Three before the second. He survived, somehow, and threw several shuriken at me. The potion I had taken at the beginning came in very handy. It was like I was a half-step ahead. He reached into his cloak. He drew out a shuriken. He threw it at me. I know this all happened in one fell move. But I saw it coming, from the beginning. One step at a time. So I simply moved from where I knew he would throw it. Then again. And again.
And then Baermak cast a spell on the monk, dropping him.
Leaving another monk.
Who I absolutely slaughtered.
I sat down.
The others tried to rouse Alyona, who seemed to have been drugged. She had needle marks on her arms, and the open back of her gown revealed an intricate pattern of scabs.
Baermak and Vessyr went down to talk to the Lady, hoping to convince her to allow us to spend the night. We had, after all, paid for rooms!
I slowly headed over to see Eleorman…and…he had changed. He was no longer the human man I had met with, dined with, and then ambushed. The only survivor of that ambush. He was, in fact, a Sylvan.
Still scarred.
But a Sylvan.
I stood tall above him, then leaned down and put my talon on his still-warm throat. And I looked into his dead eyes.
Smiling.
Alyona woke, groggy, babbling about her ring. Baermak discovered the location of the kidnappers' rooms (I told you he was really good at this stuff). The Lady had agreed to let us stay the night, so we headed down to investigate their rooms.
We found her ring in one of the rooms, as well as a cask of Glow! There were also syringes, probably the ones they used to drug Alyona. And those syringes contained Glow. But Vessyr said that this Glow was different. It had been adulterated in some way.
We also found a pouch of coins and a vial of powder. Orichalcum powder. Vessyr thinks that the orichalcum powder was mixed in with the Glow.
But we needed rest.
Lots of rest.
And I need practice with my Sylvan sword.

Report Date

01 Jul 2022