A.F.A.L. on Mirtul 10, in the Year of the Tankard

Mirtul 10, 1370: High = 35, Low = 30 Trace precipitation (1/2" sleet) starting @ 4:10pm Wind gusting to 9 mph from the sea. Partly cloudy most of the day. Star Chaser Concept Shot

The party discovers the damage from the boring barnacles and sends Henkles to investigate. He finds the giant barnacles and, after some experimentation, destroys them. Afterwards, the party gets a rather vehement explanation of boring barnacles and their nature from the nautical types. The Star Chaser has taken 109 of the 240hp damage it can withstand without sinking and repairs are begun. 45xp to Henkles for scraping the hull The zombie sailors that Darius had put to work the previous evening complete the task of sewing the sigil onto the fore-mainsail. Unfortunately, they weren't too clear on the concept, so they ended up sewing it on sideways. :) The yellow fabric on the sails seems darker than the unused scraps, which prompts Henkles to try to question the crewmembers who maintain the sails about how they patch them. The sailors in question are easy to find because of their unnaturally black hands. They are not great conversationalists, but after some prodding they show him the supply of plain sailcloth that they use for patches, and the bucket of dye they use to turn it black before using it. They don't seem to worry about letting the dye dry before applying the patch. Some experimentation shows that the dye turns the patch fabric a dark grey. There are patches on the sails, but they are all as black as the original cloth.

The party goes to see Jorros Mountainsong, a shipwright who may be able to free up a crew to work on the damage to the Star Chaser. They find him working on another project and very busy, but he says that he will send someone by later to look at the damage and give an estimate. He has already heard about the barnacles on the Star Chaser. The only ship that is currently available for hire is a small ketch named the Maiden Zephyr.

A well-dressed young couple, looking like well-to-do merchants, is standing near the ship and would like to speak with the captain and his associates. They ask if we’re adventurers … yes, yes we are. Dexter can’t detect any alignment or whether they’re undead but notices that they’re not locals (maybe from the Heartlands or Dalelands). Maanamere is excited at the prospect of adventure.

The couple say that their associate was in Neverwinter and met an unfortunate end; they’re trying to recover something valuable from their business, two well-made iron-bound chests. The item Contingently teleported itself away to safety, but they’re having trouble locating the item now. The event occured at the Fallen Tower (the place with the nightly falling phantom tourist attraction). The Fallen Tower also has cellars with nastiness. The couple have a magic device to point to the chests (Horizontally only), so they believe the chests are in the cellars.

Henkles asks what it’s worth to them; they offer 3000 for the job (no expenses paid). The chests weigh about a hundred pounds each. They should not be fireballed, dropped, opened, submerged … Dexter counters with 12000 for the difficult handling and how obviously valuable these things are if the couple traveled so far to retrieve them. Off in a side huddle, Brogan points out that we might lose some crew if the entire party goes into a dungeon together. Maanamere is okay with that -- he doesn’t want to hold the crew hostage. Dexter is concerned that Neverwinter will be angry with us if we let the more rowdy characters off into their city unattended.

We haggle our way to 650 down, 1500 to purser upon entry, free entry, 2500 upon delivery, letter of credit for 1000 to be paid later. They make the agreement within a Zone of Truth

Maanamere does not want to hold his crew prisoner and grants shore leave to everyone except for Rarireth Rivengod, who will henceforth be working most closely with the first mate. Only half wages are payed out though, to encourage the sailors to return. (28.5gp paid out by Purser.) Jorros manages to get his current worksite under control and comes to look at the Star Chaser himself. After examining the damage he estimates that the work would take the Star Chaser crew over 50 days and a little over 3000gp to fix the damage fully. If he brought on a second crew, it would be around 5000gp and 30 days. If they chose to work with his crew just to the point where they could finish at sea, it would be 2650gp and 15-16 days. If they are in a real hurry, there is a wizard in town, Durnlath, that he works with. For a steep additional fee for the custom spell he would provide, they could get the whole job done in 4½ days for a men & materials cost of about 4100gp or get to where it could be finished at sea in 3 days for 2300gp. Jorros gives the party directions to Durnlath's house in the middle of the city.

We go to visit him. . .

When he opens the door he sees us and says “I don’t have any magic items for sale.” and tries to close the door before we can tell him what we’re there for. Once we tell him we need help getting our ship repaired, he knows that we’re from the Star Chaser. He can’t help us because his supply of Ironwood is unavailable because of a band of trolls. If we clear out the trolls, he’ll cast the spell, etc for a $2kgp discount.