A Rune for Your Thoughts

A Knock on the Rock

Marnok and Viktorin knocked on the usual rock at Tide Peak Tower while Litton and Kaelan hid nearby, and Wensforth the goblin butler opened a door that had not existed a moment before. "Master Yussa's expecting you," he said. Marnok told Yussa that tonight the party would upset his neck of the woods. A dragon sat on a boat in the Open Key, and they needed to dispatch its crew.

Yussa grew visibly alarmed when he heard one of the five was helping them. "Dragons are never to be trusted," he said, and Viktorin read him as immensely concerned. Marnok laid out the rest: the other dragons reached for the sea, for the land through a brew bound for a northern town, and for the air. That meant the party had to ride on to Phelan once tonight was done.

Ten Minutes of Dome

Yussa could not join the fray, but he offered what he could. If the party shot a flare into the air, he would cast an illusory dome over the western docks. It would hold ten minutes, hiding sight and sound from the city. Afterwards they were to use his orb to return to his tower, where bunks would wait. Marnok and Viktorin left, found Litton and Kaelan had noticed nothing, and the four headed for the ship.

The Eye in the Sky

At the Withered Bird, Kithri and Qah'arl found Phaedra eating alone in a corner booth. Kithri told her the party meant to take down Scarbosa tonight. "Of course I'm in," Phaedra said. She planned to shoot from a vantage point as their eye in the sky and keep potions for the fallen. Kithri had the barkeep send her a drink.

Potions and a Wolf

On the Tide Skimmer's deck, Kithri drank another Potion of Countless Possibilities, and the party scattered behind cover. Her senses came out sharper. She then handed Litton a Potion of Fire Breath and passed round healing draughts and elixirs of resilience, swiftness, boldness and flight. She introduced her mechanical monkey Pam, who could hand out potions mid-fight. Then she brought Duke out of her orb, a giant white direwolf with piercing blue eyes, and he relaxed among the newcomers. Qah'arl appeared unseen beside her, and she punched his knee for the fright.

Viktorin sat with the Moonblade until the fey voices spoke. "We trust that this blade will serve you well." A third rune carved itself down the steel. Phaedra arrived in the late afternoon and took two healing potions. Marnok told her that once the dome dropped she must find her own way out, and she would swim. Qah'arl spoke through the earring, and Kristoff agreed to cough twice once Scarbosa was drawn away.

Over the Rail

They waited unseen as Zalezo guards cleared civilians, and then slipped onto the dock. Kithri vortex-warped Litton onto the ship's deck beside two crew. Qah'arl ran the length of the dock and warped Gris into cover, and Kithri climbed onto her like a backpack.

Litton grew huge and flung a blue-robed young man with a trident into the water. A cabin boy named Red Ring slashed him with a rapier, and the crew's rifles cracked from all sides. Viktorin's spiritual weapon struck one pirate, and Marnok threw a Fire Bolt skyward as the signal. Litton raised his giant rune and fired the Comet Ballista, and comets hailed across the deck.

Gris raged and threw Kithri onto the deck, then leapt after her and caught the railing, dangling from the side of the ship. Qah'arl flipped onto the deck and struck a pirate. Mervyn wanted to shrink the ship but was out of range, so he dashed closer. Novriel called the dead in upon one pirate, and Phaedra's shots from the office roof missed twice. A pirate's rifle jammed, and Kaelan's eldritch blast shoved another back. Kithri's Ice Knife burst among the crew. Ten pirates and the boy still crowded the deck, and Litton towered in the middle of them with his axe in hand.