Shopping, Shipping and Burning

As the party made their preparations to leave for Faykeep, they booked passage on a sailing ship, the … Dragonfly. While waiting for the ship to leave, they decided to pay a visit to the Glowing Dragon, the only (legitimate) magic shop in Ael’tes which is run by a gloomy, tattooed half-orc named Kesisi. Though he hadn’t much to offer due to the harsh competition from Alzis' Curiosii, they still managed to trade some magic items with him. Tara went some scroll shopping for herself and eventually found her way to a scroll scriber Alamdil, though she got ripped off several times and was happy to finally leave the city.

The first few days of the journey on the river Erlador went by uneventful, with Kromal going on a gamble winning streak, even winning one of the captain’s prized possessions during a game of dice. Now and then they got glimpses of the refugee stream that grew bigger with each mile the ship came closer to Faykeep, spreading tales of orcs and a city burning in wildfire. The kindhearted Alruna even flew over and helped one of the halfling children who got lost in the masses to reunite with his family. At one point they also passed a monolith along the banks of the river, covered with mysterious markings that resembled the tattoos that they saw in the Glowing Dragon, but still have no clue as to what significance they have.

On the fourth day of their journey, the ship entered a dead magic zone. For the spellcasters, who rely on their magic to protect themselves, being detached from their ability to cast spells was quite the off-putting experience. Sadly, the orcs who had stretched a chain along the entire width of the river as a nighttime ambush had counted on this vulnerability and the party had to fight them off with nothing but mundane bows and their enchanted weapons.

The captain, whose name we forgot to ask, decided the trip to the Sapphire Lake might not have been worth the trouble after all and turned the ship back around, dropping the party off at 2 days walking from Faykeep. They set up camp for the night, but were awoken in the early hours by a forest fire which spread at an unnatural speed. Bolting for the river, they managed to escape with their life from this wildfire that had somehow seemed to have leapt over from the Elemental Plane of Fire. Safe at the other side of the Erlador, they completed their rest and continued to Faykeep to further investigate this incident.