DAY 450 (26th Mirtul)(May) cont ...
Starting to use my brain at last I gazed into a puddle in the forest close to the road and used it to cast Scrye on Molly.
As I watched, I saw her bundled into the hold of a ship by a man wearing armour and a helmet with a full face mask. The mask was of some sort of animal or demon.
The ship appeared to be getting ready for a voyage. Molly was taken down into the hold and secured in a cupboard by herself.
I tore my gaze away from the puddle and rubbed my eyes. At least she was in no urgent danger. I quickly sketched all I had seen in one of my notebooks. The armour had been of no style I was familiar with - just a mix of items probably attained by the wearer in various ports all over Faerune. Even so, it was of the same overall style and looked expensive. There had been a Neverwinter symbol on the breastplate, but something about it had looked off.
In the background, on the boat, I had seem spellcasters and rogues, all wearing masks of demons and other fearful things.
I felt utterly awful. My wife was pregnant with our son or daughter. Our own child on the way. How could I look after it, when I couldn't even look after Molly? What sort of world would the baby be born into? Where gangs of thugs could turn up at your home, burn it to the ground and take away all that you cared for and loved?
There was no use dwelling on all of that though. Things had to be done. I turned into a giant owl and flew to Battlerise, with my wife and Irritator on my back.
Battlerise harbour was bigger than I expected. I think the map I have is wrong, but no matter. There were nine berths at the entrance of the Darkflow river, which was foul and stinking from the effluent of the town.
I landed some way off from the settlement though and walked in through the main gate. I talked to, and eventually bribed, the harbour master to get information from him.
He told me;
'They paid me not to see anything, my lord, but since you have paid me double, my vision has suddenly cleared! Aye, well anyway, I saw those men, with masks they were, some humans, some half-orcs, some elves even. They sailed in on a ship called the "Anubis". Not a big vessel, but fast. She had extra sails for catching the wind. Her hull was not a standard shape.'
He then went on to describe a type of ship that sounded like an Xebec.
'They arrived seven days ago,' he continued. 'But they left yesterday.'
They had the wind, but I thought I still might catch them at the entrance to the Sea of Fallen Stars so off we flew again. I spoke to an albatross, but he had seen nothing useful. I landed and spoke to some fisherman in their boats but they had seen nothing.
I spoke, in short, to anyone that would speak to me, but I began to suspect that this infernal ship was invisible. Eventually we returned to Battlerise and found an inn to stay the night in.
DAY 451 (27th Mirtul)(May)
I left Lavinia and Irritator to sleep while I went to find the best bard I could. In the Winking Rat I talked to one, but he was very drunk and I arranged to meet him again in the morning.
Before I went to bed I scryed Molly again. She seemed safe still, but as tears sprung to my cheeks thinking of her all alone I could not watch for long.
At eleven o'clock I met my bard, a human man called Rarder Rydye. I asked him what he knew of the masked people that had come through town.
He told me that he had heard of a conflict between Waterdeep and Neverwinter. Word amongst the bards was that a third party was the one instigating it. This third party was stirring trouble by pretending to be one side, then the other. They also used some sort of magical disease.
After that I tried to find some of the villains gold at the bank (so I could use it to fix a Scrye) but that plan did not work out.
Next I went to the Temple of Illmater and paid for a Sending spell to Molly. It said:
'Rollo here! we are searching for you. I will attempt to scrye you every day at noon. Any clues to your location would be great. Love'
The reply came shortly:
'I'm on a boat. Don't know where we are, but can hear them talking common. They said they were heading "back to the midpoint Island"'
I scryed her again and concentrated on detecting magical auras. There were so many that the information was not much use to me.
The Scrye spell is tricky magic to master, but I do know that if you are lucky you can see people that you have never met - and indeed know nothing about at all. Not knowing the captain of the ship, but reasoning that there must be one, I tried to scrye the person that I knew as 'Captain Shitbag'. I got nothing though. Not even a contest of wills, which meant that the spell went nowhere.
Well, we are spending another night in Battlerise. I can't sleep though, for worrying about Molly. I think I'll pay for a Discern Location spell tomorrow. Six hundred gold that will cost, but what is gold when you are searching for a lost child?
DAY 452 (28th Mirtul)(May)
Cast the Skrye spell three times today, but just saw water. Talking to Irritator about it, we think that the ship must indeed be invisible.
Anyway, today we set off and flew to Westgate. I talked to Fenrir and then went to a local temple and had Discern Location cast on Molly. It appears the Anubis is many miles east of Westgate in the Sea of the Fallen Stars.
We spent the night in Fenrir's mansion house.
DAY 462 (29th Mirtul)(May)
So tired from all this flying! Before I put my exhausted head down for the night I will quickly write what we did today.
We flew to Starmantle, this took 10 hours. Once we'd got a room at an inn I went to the nearest temple and had Discern Location cast again.
It looks like they are heading south, aiming for the canal that Lavinia brought the Sea Wyvern through. It is the quickest route to the Sword Coast, so it really does look like they are part of this Waterdeep/Neverwinter nonsense.
DAY 453 (29th Mirtul)(May)
Spent the day in Starmantle. More scrying, but just saw water again.
Paid for a Sending spell to Molly, but her situation had no changed.
Out of nowhere had a sending message from Corum:
'Corum here. Need help. Friend of mine been kidnapped. Come soonest. Was on a boat investigating rumoured new island where she was being kept.'
I replied:
'I'm currently tracking my own kidnapped friend ("third swordcoast faction"). She's being taken to Midpoint island. Same place?'
Talked it over with Lavinia and Irritator. It looked like the Anubis was heading to the Sword Coast, so the best thing to do would be to pay for a teleport to Waterdeep.
Late now though, we'll do it tomorrow.
DAY 454 (30th Mirtul)(May)
Arranged for a teleport, the friendly (but expensive!) wizard could not take us until later in the evening though.
Spent the day talking to bards and suchlike, seeing what additional information we could find out.
Had a Sending Message from Corum:
'Haven't heard of midpoint island, but the rumoured new is north of the whalebones. Possibly same place? Only have 1 sending a day.'
I replied:
'I'm guessing they are headed to Sword Coast. Will come to OJB ASAP'
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