Chapter Two - The Wormfall Festival

[Chanur]

"She is fine Daerith. Hey ...my hat!" He calls after Daerith as he races away.

[Trogdor]

With the two groups reunited, things finally start to come together. The bullywugs are all defeated, webs and gravel fade, and no one's injuries are particularly serious. Berek grieves the loss of a weapon that was as close to him as a brother, while Daerith brushes off any assurances of Lavinia's safety until he can see proof with his own eyes, hurrying up the stairs to find her. Sindu looks for items of value, while Chanur looks to a distracted Daerith for his hat. Wavedancer and Fin simply look over the battlefield and consider the losses.

When Daerith is halfway across the second floor landing, another group makes it down the stair from the third floor. He recognizes two of the Jade Ravens and Lavinia Vanderboren, all armed, armored, and ready for trouble. Seeing Daerith her eyes brighten. "Thank the gods you're here," she says with genuine relief. "And safe," she adds with the hint of a blush. "These bullywugs took us totally by surprise.

As Daerith and Lavinia have their reunion, the two Jade Ravens spread out. One goes to the upper hallway, while the other moves to the railway looking down. Both call out the names of the other Jade Ravens. "Kaskus!" the shout. "Liamae!" They look ready to break up and search when there's a call from the first floor. "We're here!" It's a woman's voice. A moment later, a bedraggled woman supporting a dwarf in leather armor appears from the doorway the bullywug chieftain came through. It seems everyone is now accounted for. No one escaped without some injury, but you all survived.

[Vardaen]

Daerith, racing up the stairs, grabs Chanur's hat that hangs off his pack and flings it like a disk off the second floor blacony right at the swashbuckler, "I almost forgot!" It flies through the air toward its target.

As Daerith spots Lavina he can't himself, perhaps its the mutation in his blood that makes him more emotional, perhaps its a true fondness for the woman now, but he breaks into a run, Lavina! Thank the Sea you are alright!" He scoops the woman up in his arms, rather unothodox, and gives her a big loving hug, "I thought I lost you." He holds her perhaps a bit too long for such mixed company.

[Chanur]

Chanur makes a grab for his hat and puts it on with a huge grin, smoothing the brim with his fingers.

"Berek my friend, I am truly sorry about Berta."

He puts his hand on Berek's shoulder trying to offer what comfort he can.

[TetNak]

Wavedancer stands there, rather stoic, not understanding Daerith's affection toward the woman, but only guessing they are lovers or relatives. His eyes take in the scene with Berek and his axe, and simply, this is far beyond his comprehension, as are most things concerning dwarves. "For those of us infected, we should find a temple."

[veritas]

Fin nods to his former shipmate in agreement.

"All of you so infected should seek healing. Berek, I'm sorry about your axe. Procan is a wild god, blessing and cursing seemingly at random. We must simply make the best of the situation. Consider this an opportunity to bond with a new weapon."

He then turns to give what aid he can to those injured in the assault.

OOC

Sorry about the absence, had to make a sudden trip out of town.

[Trogdor]

Daerith tosses Chanur his hat as he rushes to hug Lady Vanderboren. Lavinia returns the embrace, self-consciously but with a genuine feeling of relief at seeing Daerith well. Perhaps more than would be expected from a mere employer. Breaking it off she says, "we've all got a lot to say, I'm sure." She raises an eyebrow at the mention of disease, looking around and seeing the signs of it on many of you. "But I see you're sick." Doubt and a little fear push the relief off her face. "We'll need to take care of that first. Tolin," she turns to the attractive man, leader of the Jade Ravens. "Go to the temple of Wee Jas. Tell them we need someone to heal disease." She pulls off her signet ring and hands it to him. "Tell them it's urgent. The ring should get you the proper response." He nods and takes off with a single word of acknowledgment. "With the crowds from the festival it would be a chore to get you all to the temple. Best we handle it more subtly.

Then Lavinia moves to the head of the balcony. "Let's all convene in the dining room," she says. "It's the only place with enough chairs." And within a few minutes you're all settled down there, including Kora Whistlegap, looking a bit worse for wear. Lavinia introduces you all, and you are able to present Fin and Wavedancer to her. You learn that the Jade ravens currently include Tolin Kientai, an attractive human ranger, Zan Oldavin, a half-elf rogue, Kaskus Kiel, a dwarven druid, and Liamae Teslikaria, a human sorceress. Fin can see that everyone suffered some injuries, but a few prayers to Procan puts an end to those. Liamae and Zan get some tea and a little food for the group, forcing a protesting Kora, healed but still very much out of sorts, to remain seated, despite her many protests.

"The bullywugs and that hulking orc arrived before dawn this morning," Lavinia explains. They surprised us all. The Jade Ravens recovered quickly and put up a good defense. But they overwhelmed us. Tolin, Zan, and I were taken upstairs; I'm not sure what happened to Kaskus and Liamae." She smiles at them, happy to see that they survived despite all. "They thought killing us would upset Vanthus. I guess he offended them somehow - it shouldn't surprise me." She laughs mirthlessly. "I convinced the orc that Vanthus was returning today by boat for the festival. He decided to wait until Vanthus got here so they could kill us all in front of him and then kill him last. Thank the gods you got here when you did. I don't know what we would have done when he learned that Vanthus wasn't coming back. Those bullywugs kept talking about sacrificing us to Dagon." She shudders.

OOC

Sindu can go with Tolin to the temple if he wants. But I thought he'd want to be around for the explanation. Your call, arkahm.

Loot file up, BTW. Start thinking about what you might want to do with your cash. Down time for crafting, etc. is almost upon us.

[Vardaen]

Daerith offers a hand to Tolin before he leaves, "Thank you Tolin, I know we might have gotten off on the wrong foot before, but I am more than thankful you were here. I hope any foolish animosity between the Jade Ravens and the Sea Wyverns", he indicates that him and the group, "is long behind us now." He offers similar sentiment to Kaskus, Zan and Liamae once the group is seated.

Taking a glass of wine more thankfully Daerith listens to Lavina. "Devoraz was the half orcs name, the First Mate to Captain Harliss Javell of the Crimson Fleet." He looks to the Jade Ravens to see if they know the names. "Anyhow, it seems Vanthus double crossed them, and worse, but I'll get to that in a moment. We managed to save the Captain from a rather dangerous situation, and she gave us the information that Devoraz and the Bullywugs were on there way here to take revenge on Vanthus, through you. She didn't realize the situtaion with Vanthus and you Lanvina. Repentant of her action, she wrote us a note and gave us a token to call Devoraz off." He looks at Wavedancer and Chanur, "Which I assume happened since I see no sign of the First Mate Chanur?" With a positive reponse he keeps going.

"It seems, out in Kraken Cover Vanthus managed to double cross several pirate groups, and in the process activated some... artifact. I don't fully understand it, but the power of the Black Pearl, as its called, caused the local wildlife to mutate, and that mutation has spread to all of us through bites and scratches. Just don't get bitten by us, and you'll all be fine as far as I can tell. During our search for Vanthus we rescued Fin and Wavedancer here, and I promised them healing, and a place among us as members of our team. They have as much a score to settle with Vanthus as any of us now. I'll let them explain that. We also found Vanthus' x-lover, a street girl, but she's dead now, the mutation taking her, but she said to us that Vanthus wasn't infected, or was changed in a different way. That worries me."

He sips his wine to wet his mouth, "Oh yes, and it seem House Kellani has sent assassins after us for our run in with Roywn Kellani. Her mother is rather pissed off about the whole destruction of the Lotus Dragons we managed to pull off." He looks again at Chanur, "That's what kept us, acrobatic stilt walkers with bottled fire who are trying to kill you tend to slow one down when you're in a hurry. That and a run away floats and angry gnomes." He will tell those stories later, perhaps letting Berek explain the gnomish sittuation.

"What else, what else..." he's tring to remember, but he's still infected himself, and while Fin has restored much of his mind, the mutation still is there. "Oh the ship and the name. We had to leave your skiff behind, but we can go back and get it, in its place we secured a full sized galley, the Sea Wyvern, and taken on that name among the populace. I think it has a nice ring to it don't you?." Eventually, at some point he will fill Lavina in on anything he's failed to mention.

"If we can get this disease cured, we then need to think about our next move."

[Chanur]

Listening intently to Daerith tell his story Chanur nods when Daerith looks at him. After the tale finishes Chanur speaks up.

"Wavedancer and I swam across the bay with out incident, thanks to his natural affinity for water. We then made it to the estate with out trouble only to find the bullywugs had beat us. Thanks to our masterful skill we fit right in. Not knowing what the situation was we pretended to be part of the beautiful captains crew. We were taken up stairs where we met Devoraz and a Bullywug priest for lack of a better description. We gave him the note . Being rather bright for an orc he played along and filled me in when we were alone. He wouldn't stop us but neither would he stick his neck out for us and so he made up a story and left.

You still had not arrived and the frogs were getting antsy for some sacrifices so we took matters into our own hands. I blocked the door closed with my dagger to keep the priests friends out and we attacked. There was a fierce battle with spells flying hither and yon between Wavedancer and the priest. I danced in deftly with my rapier and we were to much for it. Lady Vanderboren and her good companions had gotten free when the frogs started chopping the door down. The well made door finally gave as Wavedancer greeted our visitors with what I can only describe as a rainbow to the face. We finished them off and asked the Lady to stay upstairs while we head down to battle the rest of the intruders and found you.

I have to say I was very impressed with the way Lady Vanderboren and her fine compatriots Kora and the Jade Ravens handled themselves."

[mackaber]

Quite some time after everyone has settled into the dinin room a somewhat downtrodden Berek enters the dining room, a decorated piece of wood in his hand and tears in his eyes. He doesn't bother to speak with anyone but instead heads for the kitchen. Shortly therafter he returns with a large itcher filled with what appears to be water it is only when he begins to spill it, that you smell it is actually the hard liquor recovered from the lotus dragons.