Deciding that the best place to begin their search for the ingredients Argo’s needs is the southern island of the continent, the gang begins to head back through the border ethereal. They know that they will need to go to a port town to find someone that will sail them across the sea, so they set off in the direction of the nearest ocean city (that doesn’t have a huge destruction of property bounty on them): Port Darwin. Of course, crossing the border ethereal never proves to be so easy.
They quickly hear the sound of a bird whistling from one of the close bushes in the mist. This is unusual in that they have yet to see another living soul in the border ethereal that isn’t a god or doesn’t try to attack them. They head over to see if they can find the source of the bird call, and upon not finding anything, Juno jabs her rapier into the bush. She comes close to hitting the creature hiding within, so a 2-foot tall kenku named Matanza leaps out to furiously squawk at them. This intimidation fails, and the group is quickly enamored by the tiny seabird kenku and offers to guide them out of the mist.
Before they are able to get far, Jadeth’s weapon of warning, Thunderstick, lets her know about a nearby threat. She spots a humanoid figure off in the distance and she calls out to them. They retreat further down the path, so the gang continues on their way. Thunderstick once again notifies them of the threat, and this time Jadeth engages in combat before the cultists are able to escape.
The five heroes are able to dispatch most of the cultists with ease, having finally found ways to play to all of their strengths. Their leader cries out for help after he is surrounded by Jadeth, Matanza, and Lil’ Mole, and before anyone has time to react– a huge monster rips through a dimensional rift behind them. It’s a cloaker– a large, angry, flying-manta ray-like monster with huge teeth, and it’s ready to use them.
Juno sticks her head out from behind the boulder she was hiding behind, and upon seeing the monster is baffled on what the fuck is going on. The cloaker lets out a screech that unnerves Matanza, so they retreat back towards Juno and Slenderbard. The cloaker turns and latches onto Lil’ Moles head with its huge mouth, making it difficult to attack the monster without hurting them in the process.
Jadeth looks between the monster and the cultist and decides she’s not interested in being digested. She cries out to Juno to “commence Operation Soaring Falcon!” Juno buries her head in her hands, but still readies her cloak’s wings so she can help Jadeth. Jadeth opens a dimensional door high above the ground and tackles the cult leader through it. Juno catches her out of the air and lands next to the cultist’s body, making sure to let Jadeth know how stupid of a plan it was.
Slender runs forward to help Lil’ Mole with a thunderwave spell, but it hurts them more than it hurts the cloaker, so he quickly backs off. With dwindling options, Mole fires out a lightning breath attack, shooting through the creature’s insides. It fires right through and ends up hitting Matanza, effectively snapping them out of their fear. It also knocks Mole out, but Jadeth and Slender are quick to cast a healing spell and bring them back into the fight.
Several more cloakers appear, but Jadeth can tell they are illusions with her devil sight so she lets the group know to focus on the first one. Matanza readies their gauntlets and lunges at the cloaker to smash it apart in a brutal display of their small but powerful fists. The illusions all disappear, and the group is alone to loot the bodies and exit the mist.
At Port Darwin, they have trouble finding a ship willing to ferry them across the sea to the city of Port Battleborn. Many ships have been under the attack of pirates, and many aren’t willing to risk the travel for trade. One woman mentions that her boat could make the trip, but she eyes Lil’ Mole cautiously. She asks if the paladin is a soldier for the Republic, since they are clearly wearing the crest for the Republic of Kreme. Slender tells her absolutely not, and Jadeth takes the lead to ignite the eyes on her mask of shadows to demand that the woman take them to the ship captain as their business is a matter of the safety of the continent. She’s effectively scared and pulls Jadeth aside to ask for discretion since she and her crew deal with moving some “product” across the sea that they don’t want the Republic to know about.
Jadeth has no idea what she means by product, so Juno flicks her on the mask and whispers that they’re smugglers. The woman opens a crate to reveal some cabbages. Mole and Matanza are both still suspicious, but since this seems to be their only option they keep quiet. The woman brings them to the shipyard to meet with Captain James Finch.
The captain lets them know he can ferry them to Port Battleborn for 50 gold pieces for a room, or 25 for a cot in the crew’s quarters. Jadeth immediately agrees to pay the 50 gold, seeing no reason to negotiate. Mole pays out 25 for a cot. Slenderbard naturally tries to haggle, and he gets the price of his room negotiated down to 25 gold. Jadeth asks if Matanza could get a discount, and picks up the kenku. They angrily chirp at her for touching them, and Mole watches them with their tail wagging. Captain Finch gives the bird a smile, letting the group know Matanza can board for free since he is fond of parrots. Matanza stops chirping as Jadeth sets them back down, admittedly pleased that their room ended up being free.
Juno agrees to pay for a cot, even though she plans to sleep in the corner of Jadeth’s room, away from the crew she’s distrustful of. As she goes in to pay the captain, she swipes his coin person and a key from his belt. She wonders why the key was in such a strange place on him, and plans to figure out what sort of loot is hidden behind whatever it unlocks.
Aboard the boat, they are introduced to first mate Serana. She overheads the gang discussing potentially stealing a boat, and questions them. They are quick to assure her they aren’t planning to steal this boat, so she goes back to her business. Matanza mimics: “No stealing!” at them, and Mole agrees that they also don’t want to be breaking the law. Jadeth admits she would usually agree, but says they have to consider that they need to collect the items for Argos to keep the world safe.
Matanza doesn’t budge on their desire not to steal, so Juno nudges Jadeth and tells her that they should make it into a bet. Jadeth, remembering her weighted dice, agrees to that, but Matanza sees through the bullshit and mimics something in a foreign language. Slender translates it as: “I don’t gamble with…” before trailing off and relaying he doesn’t want to translate the last word. Matanza finishes the sentence in Common by squawking, “sluts!” Frustrated, but understanding where they’re coming from, Juno, Slender, and Jadeth drop the subject for now.
As night falls, the group all heads to their rooms and beds. Juno and Jadeth talk about stealing a ship again, but close the door when the first mate overhears them again and they catch Matanza glaring at them from their room across the hall. In privacy, Juno pulls out the key she stole from the captain and lets Jadeth know her intention to figure out what it’s for since it was in a weird slot on his belt. Jadeth is uncomfortable, but Juno assures her that she will return the key to him right after. She asks if Jadeth wants to tag along, but tells her to leave behind her chainmail. Jadeth agrees she doesn’t want the jingling to wake anyone up so she strips back down to her leather gear.
The two of them find a hatch down to the brig, so they climb down to find a single crewmate asleep next to the cages. There’s a locked door on the opposite side of the room that Juno picks the lock for. There are three small gilded chests inside the room. Jadeth stands guard outside the door. The key Juno stole from the captain opens the first to reveal a Horn of Asmodeus– one of the items that Argos needs for his spell. The second reveals a small glowing red stone that’s warm to the touch. Juno pockets both items and moves onto the final chest.
This one gives her trouble, and when she twists her lockpick the wrong way, a trap shoots from the lock to slice her hand and poison her. She makes a hiss, so Jadeth comes in to try to open the lock with Juno’s tools. She fails as well, getting hurt from the same trap. Jadeth urges that they need to get the lock open in case it’s something else that Argos needs for his spell, so Juno gives it another shot with her hands shaking from the poison. She gets it open, but the inside has the pay for the crew members instead of any other artifacts. Jadeth backs off, not wanting to steal their pay and she begs Juno to do the same. The man over by the cages begins to stir, and Jadeth tries again to get Juno to leave the money. Finally, Juno backs away without taking it, noting that she wouldn’t want to steal from those less fortunate than her anyway.
Nauseous from the poison and already bad at stealth, Jadeth retires to the room to let Juno return the key to the Captain’s belt. She nearly gets caught by the first mate on the main deck, but when Serana asks why she looks so pale, Juno lies that it’s seasickness. While Juno is sneaking through his room she finds a communication stone with the Caldran Empire sigil on it, but backs away to quickly return the key and leave before she can wake him.
The next morning, Slender uses his magic to cure Juno and Jadeth of their poisoning. He laughs and lets them know to bring him along the next time that they’re up to something mischievous. Juno heads up to the main deck to find Matanza enjoying their breakfast and Mole fishing for them while the crew gathers around a large sea genie called a marid. The captain comes out to greet the marid, and it shrinks down in size so it can fit through the doorway to Finch’s room. As it passes the trio, Matanza quickly bows to it, so Mole and Juno follow suit. It smiles as it heads into the captain’s chambers, and the chef follows it and the captain with a fancy plate of seafood before closing the door behind them. Several days pass with the captain locked in his room with the genie– with him listening patiently to every one of its many tales so as not to disrespect it.
Five days pass at sea before an unusual island teleports in out in the middle of the ocean. The island is covered with various unnatural biomes, and its arrival sends a giant wave out and rocks the entire boat. A booming voice tears through the air, demanding that the Horn of Asmodeus is forfeited to them. Matanza, Mole, and Juno look out and see a huge monster rapidly approaching the ship through the water. Serana yells for the crew to get to their battlestations, so the trio split up to each man a cannon. Jadeth and Slender arrive from downstairs and rush over to Juno and Mole’s cannons before getting ready to engage in a battle. The monster shoots out of the water, revealing a huge squid-like beast called a morkoth. Matanza mimics “bad man!” in a panic.
The gang takes turns firing off their cannons as the morkoth comes closer and closer, still demanding the Horn of Asmodeus. It strikes at Jadeth and Juno’s cannon– crushing the crewmate that was helping them. It then grabs hold of Juno with a huge tentacle and drags her out to sea after swiping the Horn from her pocket. Mole and Slender fire off a shot from their cannon, narrowly missing hitting Juno. Matanza hits the beast directly, but it manages to hold onto Juno.
Jadeth panics since her cannon still hasn’t been loaded, so she grabs hold of her amulet and casts a 4th level blight spell to deal a devastating blast of necrotic damage. Unfortunately, the morkoth redirects back at her and the crewmates near her before continuing to swim rapidly away with Juno in its grasp. Mole and Matanza hit it again with their cannons, critically weakening it. Jadeth’s cannon gets loaded, but instead of firing it, she pulls out her pact greatsword and takes a running jump with her ring of leaping to throw herself overboard. She slices clean through the tentacle wrapped around Juno and follows up with another slash at its head. It screeches and retreats through a portal– letting Juno know it’ll be back for the wing of the Dragon King.
With the threat gone, Juno grabs Jadeth and the big tentacle and flies them back onto the ship. Mole grabs the tentacle and describes all the things they know how to cook with calamari. They promise that the group will all be eating delicious meals for the next week. Serana thanks them for their help. Since they proved themselves capable, she lets them know that she would be willing to help them liberate a different ship from an unworthy crew in Port Battleborn.
Without any more trouble, the ship continues on its course and arrives in Port Battleborn. As they dock, they see the biggest ship they have ever seen being manufactured in the shipyard. Juno and Matanza recognize it as Elven design. The group gets back onto dry land, but they quickly notice things may not be all that they seem in the giant tropical port. A group of civilians all seem to be charmed on the docks and are just standing around with blank stares. With that to unnerve them, the group readies themselves for whatever might be happening in the grand port town.