We fanned out until we found the boat and then boarded, with Grendel being the principle rower. Connal put on the Nightmare Shroud and the party held the coffins in place after loading Rhygar and Shim within. It was a bit over a third of a mile across the lake to the dock of Wendover and things were going great…until they didn’t.
The oar lock and stanchion on the right side had gotten looser and looser and then the entire cleat broke free when there was still 200 yards or so to go to the dock. Floundering a bit, we tried to come up with a plan to get us there as we were attracting a bit of attention from the town watch. The thought was to have 1 person work the tiller and two others would row each oar straight down like a paddle. It worked, sort of, the pull of the paddles was not even and the boat was drifting and turning. The tiller was turned completely in one direction to account for the poor rowing, so it looked like we were drifting almost sideways to the dock where we finally and exhaustedly tossed the rope and tied the row boat off.
The watch wanted to know what we were doing here and we snapped into character. “Willy” (Grendel) was “just the boat guy. Talk to the foreman.” He pointed to Eoghan who identified himself as “Shamus. We’re from Dour in Grymeria at the behest of our lord. This is Sergeant Hasdor.” He pointed to Connal in full undead looking mode. Connal disguised his manner of speaking a bit and said, “We have bodies for Wendover Brewers and Apothecists,” and produced the forged documentation. “My men will unload the coffins.” He motioned to Darius and Wilhelm and “Shamus” ordered, “Frank. Fersic. Get your asses up and unload this boat.”
Disguises and aliases in place we made our way with the watch’s help to the open dock bay of the Brewers where Dinka, one of the 3 main people that we knew worked for Stavraphore, came out to talk. He listened to Eoghan and Connal’s spiel finding it made sense. They seemed to think that we were supposed to be another group from Grymeria and there was some confusion. They came out to check the dead bodies, opening the coffins to see Rhygar and Shim within – both dirtied up and looking “dead”. Satisfied and the paperwork was in order, he instructed the group to bring the coffin in.
Dinka was going to go with Connal to go see “the boss” about payment for the orc and gnome, and maybe talk about getting other bodies out as well as fence some gear that they didn’t want to risk selling nearby. So Connal went with Dinka, leaving two other dock guys here. Svad went with Eoghan to bring the coffins upstairs to the upper storage area, and the last dock worker, Haring, was sent out with Grendel to try and fix the boat and reattach the oar lock and stanchion. Wilhelm and Darius manhandled the heavy coffin upstairs where they were instructed to stack it on a pile of 4 other coffins as there was not a lot of room up here – they were then sent back downstairs and told to wait.
Grendel and Haring removed the rotted wood and then getting one from the workshop, proceeded to try and replace it along the starboard side of the boat. It was difficult to place properly and hold still, and Haring and Grendel were getting short with each other. But it was when he slipped and the boat snapped back and cracked Haring that the dock worker got mad and the two of them came to blows. A few punches followed and then before the boat dumped Haring in, Grendel held him up and the fight was over. They worked together and promised to get a beer when this was over.
Up the stairs, Svad took Eoghan through the upper storeroom and then to a locked door where he wanted him to meet Stavraphore’s boy. “Boys a retard, A real Dummy. Everyone gets to meet the magical boy.” The room was opened to show a mid sized living room. A very fat, corpulent, young adult male (14?) was sitting here, pasty white skin, greasy hair, mismatched eyes and weird sores on his body. There were cages here with small animals in it, and Dummy was poking random animals through the slats with a metal rod all while crooning absently at them.
Svad told Dummy that this was Shamus and he wanted to come meet him. Eoghan kept up the disguise, noting that in the pile of animal cages was also Jack and Louie! Wilhelm’s cats. Dummy was simple and spoke in broken sentences, but he seemed to have a gift of sight and had some general realities of Eoghan’s life that he tried to bring up. Eoghan kept up the obfuscation for a bit and eventually came around to wanting the cats. Dummy said, “But you like dogs more.” There was a Beagle in a cage that was going to be tortured next, so Eoghan arranged to get the two cats and the beagle from Dummy while Svad thought the entire thing was hilarious. They eventually left and headed back to the warehouse.
Wilhelm and Darius had looked around for a bit, noting other ways in and out of the Brewers, but no sign of our gear. Hearing the fight on the docks by the boat, Wilhelm went out to investigate, eventually roped into helping Grendel and Haning finish the boat. They were bolting the oar lock in place next.
Eventually hearing the room they were in was empty again, Rhygar and Shim worked the lid off the coffin with slow care and laid it aside. Finally able to move, the gnome cast invisibility on the two of them and tried to make sure they could get out of the coffin and down the large pile without upsetting anything. It was difficult and the pile swayed a bit, but sadly, it did dump over and fell down, making a hell of a lot of racket and getting others from other rooms and downstairs to exclaim and come running.
Connal travelled through to the main floor of the Apothecists and then down to the 1st basement where He was brought to an office and introduced to Kelli, Stavraphor’s 2nd in command. She was clad in office chic wear and took a liking to the disguised Connal, assuming he was from Grymeria. She was a healthy girl and wanted a deal made. Money for the two bodies, and a down payment of gold for the consignment of the goods to take back to Grymeria to fence for them. They took a walk to a room that was in a disjunction field, and saw not only our gear but other gear as well. Agreeing to it, they went back to the meeting room and Kelli and Connal dickered back and forth until ending on an acceptable number for both of them.
She wanted him to come back this evening and to ratify the agreement carnally. Do we have to? I am a creature of hell, and carnality is my trade. All major deals will end like this – or we don’t have one. Besides, you’re a revenant aren’t you? You don’t feel pain and I’m sure you can take it. She grabbed him in the crotch area and squeezed, verifying that he was anatomically accurate as well as able to withstand her touch. He reluctantly agreed and would arrange to have his people put up in the local inn for the night. She would see him later after dinner and after a last innuendo or 7, bid him farewell and went to get herself ready.
Dinka took him back to the warehouse where Svad was wondering where the hell Wilhelm was? He told Darius to go get him, “off the fucking docks and back here now”, reprimanding Eoghan for his people’s inability to just stay and follow orders. We heard a crash upstairs and Dinka, Eoghan, Svad, and Connal all went up there, seeing the coffin on the floor. Where were the orc and gnome? What are you trying to pull? What’s going on? Blame was tossed about and Dinka went in to check on Dummy.
Dummy was saying they were still here. They weren’t gone. “Then where are they?” Dummy knit his brow, frowned, and said, “Rhyar Gnome!”, opening a portal about 6’ up. And from the other room, Shim and Rhygar were pulled in and dropped here – but were still invisible! They got up and tried to move quietly to the side while Dinka and Svad were adamant that “No one was here, you fricking Dummy!”
We left then went back to the warehouse, where we went slow enough to allow for the 2 invisible party members to get out and join us. Eoghan gave the 3 animal cages to Darius and told him to “load them on the boat.” We assumed we were leaving but Connal let them know they were actually staying the night as he had no choice but to meet Kelli to finish the deal and to get the consigned goods to bring back to Dour (our gear!).
We got the name of the Inn and thanked Svad and Dinka, going out to the boat to get Grendel, telling Rhygar and Shim to stay on the boat under the tarp with the animals and NOT MOVE! We went to the tavern where we got some food and drink from our dwindling stores of coin and Connal revealed all we had learned. We have the gear tomorrow, but he would have to stay and have torturous demon sex with Kelli who assumes he is a revenant and can survive the encounter. He did not want to do it, but it was one for the team. We wished him well while we were talking about where to stay and our friends out on the cold boat in the rain.
The waitress was friendly and we got her to understand that we had some people we needed to bring in and hide for now. She told us to get them and meet her by the kitchen door in the alley. We went back to the boat, got the animals, Shim, and Rhygar, cold and damp, and led them to the back door where the cook was there. We passed some coins to him and he smiled, saying he saw nothing. We then went down to the basement storeroom with a few cots and figured that Wendover has some sort of smuggling operation to help get non humans and non elves out and through here if need be. Nice.
Wilhelm and his cats (traumatized) were reconnected, and Eoghan and his new Beagle, Quivers, spoke for a bit, the dog happy to be saved. The party rested. Connal…did not. Kelly was brutal, harsh, dropped her disguise many times and inflicted burns and sores all over the monk. And when he thought it was over, it wasn’t. He stoically went through it regardless of how many times his flesh was cut, burned, abraded, or lashed. Eventually he was able to leave in the morning and the party all linked up again.
We broke our fast, more invisibility was placed on our two friends, we snuck back to the boat and Eoghan and Connal went to the Brewers to arrange to get the consignment. The boxed were loaded up and we left Wendover, not looking back, pulling east to the far end of the lake where we once more dragged the rowboat into the trees and located our (Benson’s) horse and cart. We transferred everything over and then as soon as possible, had Rhygar drive us the hell out of there. Connal had a variety of burns all over his body and some healing was doled out, for now. We eventually emerged from the Highway Woods – to see another small caravan, with a Grymerian operative and his retinue on the way to Wendover. Short exchange of well wishes and we were gone.
It was slow going but we eventually arrived at Nobleton and the Last Standing Lodge by 4 PM on Birthmonth the 2nd. We returned the cart to Benson’s people, shared with them all our daring trip in and then out of the place, and went through all the gear that we found that was ours as well as what new things we had grabbed that weren’t ours originally. The plan was to leave on the morrow with Ygraine and head off to Hillscar.
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