Dragons.
Saw a fire from the road. Turned out to be the remains of a town. No survivors, no corpses, no signs of a fight, just a funeral pyre and a red dragon scale.
Watching the skies now.
Day 111
Arrived at Oohmaya. Quieter than I thought it would be. There's a makeshift dock set up on the outskirts, as the city's own ports are clogged with supernatural glaciers.
We're staying at an Inn called the Narwhal, with a carving out front of a man in a red suit wrestling a unicorn-whale thing. Spent the day settling in and shopping for a holy symbol to wave at Alcander so as to scare him off his little quest. Damned if I could recognize half of the religions represented, though.
Alcander and Oda secured passage on a boat for Stone Keep in three days' time. I will have to help row on this vessel and I am not keen on this.
Day 112
Strange dream last night; but as nobody else in the group had it and nobody in the dream tried to send me on a quest or showed me legions of foes, I am marking it down under "Not a Vision."
Rumors about town is that Stone Keep has fallen to invaders from the west, and that the town fell in under a day. Hopefully they're wrong, otherwise we're walking into an ambush.
Day 114
I hate rowing.
Hrefna's been missing for two days now. Apparently she got news of an unknown sort, packed up, headed for the docks, then left on foot for… somewhere else. She missed the boat for Stone Keep, at any rate. And Chtuyishhskah gets to keep rhythm on the drums.
I really hate rowing.
Day 118
Stone Keep! And a complete lack of fleets full of evil things! Way off on the predictions, Heracles, but I'm not complaining about it.
We were greeted by the sight of a large rock formation in the shape of a dragon's head. This proved to be the least frightening sight in the area. The keep looms over the coast, with five black-hulled ships anchored in its harbor.
Rumor mill has been surprisingly quiet; this may have something to do with various houses in the town exploding, supposedly at random, since the takeover. A small army of foreigners disappeared into the keep in the morning before the attack. The invasion was practically over by the time the news got around town that they were under attack. Then the leader of the town apparently just 'changed their mind' and surrendered. The invaders then leave everything as it was and prance off merrily back home. Yeah.
My hackles are up in a place like this. There's just something intrinsically wrong about the setup.
[The following is encrypted, but not anywhere as annoying as the letter. (David: rolled an 15 on the Knowledge: Cipher check.)]
Day 119
I worked it out.
They conquer a modestly sized trading hub, but keep it running and even lower the tariffs. Meanwhile, their biggest competitor in the area get their shipping lanes 'mysteriously' clogged with icebergs. This sets up the new landlords of Stone Keep to send… something… out around the world as fast as their ships can carry it. Omnious and terrifying, just the way we hate it.
I may be able to parlay my status as Official Sable Lion Whipping Boy into a plan of attack. I was talking to an official inside the keep, and told him I was an investigator from Point of Origin. (Note: him and a sizeable number of official-like people wore quartz necklaces. Maybe it's traditional around here to wear them, but with our previous luck with crystals…) Conceiveably, I could threaten to return to my city and warn against trading with Stone Keep unless I talk to their higher-ups.
Since we are dealing with a foe that can control minds, I would therefore remain ignorant to the rest of this plan. As far as I would know, the paladins skipped town to warn the world or play skiphotch or something. Hopefully they would do more than that, mind. The others have not taken enthusiatically to this plan.
Stoyhickah is taking up an observer position inside the keep. Tried to talk over a plan of attack with her, but… I am reasonably sure she declined to work with me. That gnome is creepy.
Sent a letter out to Milya on the same boat that brought us here, warning Point of Origin about Stone Keep. I hope
We're keeping a watch while we're in town, and I'm sleeping with my journal in my arms.
[/encrypted]
~
Something keeps bugging me about this. Talking around town yesterday learned us that 30-40 ships were used in the assault on the town. But there are only five in the harbor. Where are the other 25-35 ships?
And what are they doing to the other port towns?
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