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My apologies about not posting. We are, indeed playing. We're on the Tangled Web Backup Server at the moment.

As Seker's hot gaze drove away the gray morning mist an island slowly appeared. Its emerald crown was seperated from Manannan's glistening scales by vertical white cliffs that wrapped around an inviting, torquoise lagoon. At the base of that lagoon was a tiny black-sand beach, and the gaping maw of a dark, damp cave. Toki, Arsinoe, Amal and Lexus, those champions of the meek, defenders of the weak, and harbingers of justice, set forth in the bireme's launch, anxious to fight for their own freedom so they might once again fight for the freedom of those most needy of their swords. Joining them were two new champions, erstwhile passengers on the ship who felt it was their duty to lend a hand toward rescuing their fellows from their current plight.

The small boat cut quickly over Manannan's waves, propelled by Lexus' and Toki's prodigious strength and skill -- they had grown well-used to rowing in the bowels of the bireme, under the master-rower's lash. Soon Manannan caught them in a fist of surf, which they rode, laughing and lurching, onto the sand. They quickly hid their boat and approached the cave entrance, at which time Arsinoe's quick eye spotted a goblin look-out in a concealed perch. Knowing their approach had been discovered, Arsinoe let out a great cry and urged her fellows to battle. They sallied forth into the mouth of the cave, and immediately did battle with the goblin guards that there awaited them.

Despite the fact that the goblins were well-dug-in, they could not resist the strong spears of Lexus and Toki, supported as they were by Arsinoe's channeling of Seker's magics. Their new companion, too, an Alryan troubadore, instilled them with courage, singing, as he did, manly songs of battle in a manly voice. This stranger was no mere minstrel, either, for when the situation demanded it he unslung from his back a sharp glaive, with which he split more than one goblin skull in twain.

Breaking through the goblin defenses, the heroic slaves ran into the next line of defense -- a concealed pit the troubadore avoided through fleetness of foot. The goblins had magic on their side, for their hideous little queen called upon her her dark Patron and summoned a thick mist. Toki delved that mist and was struck many times by the spiked clubs of the invisible, silent little beasts that hid within. But with each strike they gave away their positions, and while their weak blows drew blood or bruised ribs, Toki's riposte's disemboweled his opponents in single strikes. Soon the goblins were defeated, and their dark queen was all that remained. Rather than standing and fighting to the end, she ran, using the magical mist to hide her retreat. Rather than pursue, the champions of good decided to explore the caves they had thus far delved. Toki, made immune from foul disease by his Lord Odin, dug through the goblin latrine and was rewarded for his effort with the discovery of a small-sized dagger treated with alchemical silver. The queen's bedroom revealed many treasures, including a thunderstone, another silvered dagger, this one medium, a copper chalice, three neatly labeled potions of cure light wounds, 35 gold pieces in a leather purse, and a set of books entitled "The Practical Wizard's Guide to Making Friends: How to Bind Familiars Against their Will".

The goblins' storage room contained items that would, no doubt, bring great joy to the crew of the Antillian Bireme. In addition to fresh water and smoked fish, the heroes found a lyre, a 5-gallon keg of fine ale, a bottle of Actunian wine, and a set of manacles missing its lock.

As they searched the storage room the heroes could not help but notice the sound of running water coming from the bottom of a winding flight of stairs. None the less, they chose to ignore further exploration in that direction in favor of finding the goblin queen, whom they worried was busily involved in dark incantations designed to seal their doom. They drove forth deeper into the caves, where they found a sudden chamber of worked masonry. The room was a crypt of sorts, and, not surprisingly, the skeletons rose to defend their inner sanctum. The heroes easily dispatched the undead, however.

When they opened the next pair of double doors, they found themselves in a large, dark chamber, the center of which was dominated by a large round fountain. At the edge of the fountain stood the goblin queen, screaming in her infernal language at some party unseen. The troubadore rushed forward to grapple with the little creature, and would likely have choked the life from her had not the gigantic skeleton of a dragon risen suddenly from beneath the fountain's waters and broke his back in its jaws.

Lexus grabbed the unconscious body of the troubadore and Toki healed him with Odin's grace. The rest of the heroes shut fast the double doors and piled the sarcophogi against them, hoping to formulate a plan to better combat the draconic beast.

22 damage had been done to Snapper
11 damage (healed) had been done to Neegla

LOOT
Leader's Bedroom:
1 Thunderstone
1 Jagged Silver Ceremonial Dagger
1 Copper Chalice
1 Set of Books -- The Practical Wizard's Guide to Making Friends: How to Bind Familiars Against their Will".
3 Potions of Cure Light Wounds
35 gp
Storage Room:
1 Lyre
5 gallon Keg of fine Ale
1 Bottle Fine Elven Wine
1 Set Manacles w/o lock
Refuse Pit:
1 Small-sized Silver Dagger

The heroes decided to retire to the goblin barraks so as to rest and regain their strength. But once again the sound of running water drew their curiosity. Descending a slippery set of stairs Jamkas, known to some as "the hunter", to others as "the troubadore", and to the athletes of his local village as "the boxer", found himself suddenly falling headlong into an underground pool...a pool that he quickly discovered was really a swift-moving river. The current dragged him through a subterranean cave and spit him into the cold ocean where, little worse for wear, he clambered back onto the black sand and re-joined his companions from their rear. He had, however, noticed during his harrowing journey a dead body lodged beneath a submerged rock, and he dove the pool to see what he could recover from the corpse. A magical, silvery substance was his prize, and soon his companions would add "the Swimmer" to his long list of monikers.

The champions of valor spent the entire day and the following evening resting. Occasionally they heard the sharp voice of Neegla, screaming out to some party unknown, but her language was the foreign, gutteral goblin-speak with which none of the bireme's marines were familiar. Feeling re-invigorated with Arsinoe's sermons, Toki's commands, and Jamkas' songs and stories of valor, the group re-armed themselves and set forth to do mortal battle with foul undead and fouler witch. But as they approached the sealed double doors they were surprised to hear a voice in common appeal for mercy. It was Neegla, the goblin queen, who desired little more than she be left alive with her precious books. She offered the heroes all the treasure they had yet discovered, admitting defeat and relinquishing the plunder of her many treasures. But she spoke of an imp that had double-crossed them both; a little devil that deserved to have vengeance visited upon it, and in order to deliver that vengeance she needed her books intact.

The heroes, thinking hard upon their quest, decided that they would abide by Neegla's conditions, uncertain, as they were, as to whether they could defeat the skeletal dragon, and knowing that their first priority was the rescue of the bireme's crew and slaves. But hardly had they come to such a decision that an invisible creature, smaller even than Amal, its head horned, its skin red, its tail barbed, and its hands and feet ending in clawed talons, suddenly appeared on Toki's shoulder, attempting to whisper foul magic in that stalwart dwarf's ear.

But the paladin of justice was little moved by the sorcery, and Toki's champions, already prepared, as they were, for battle, immediately directed their spears, clubs and axes against the little devil. Though it made some effort to escape, even its magical nature could not resist the hard steel directed against it, and in a moment it had fallen, bleeding, to the ground.

Neegla, hearing the combat, cried out in anguish, and begged the heroes not to kill the beast. This was the very creature, she explained, that had double-crossed them...a creature she wished to bind to her will through the ritual of the familiar. It had drawn them to her cave with a promise of salvation, but really it was merely hoping that they kill her in order to free it from its promise to serve her. The heroes, having little sympathy for demons or devils, bound the beast's wounds, and delivered it to Neegla, under the condition that she allow them passage past the skeletal dragon and into the further caves. She agreed.

Amal, trained, as he was, in the ancient art of breaking and entering, detected a magical glyph on two doors deeper in the caves. Lacking proper tools, he failed to erase it, but easily ducked the spit of eldritch flame that sought to burn him. Lilith, unfortunately, was not so fortunate. None the less Toki blessed her with Odin's grace, cooling her wounds. Inside the room the heroes found many odd treasures, and they took these, along with those items they had already liberated from the goblins, back to the bireme, where they were greeted by a cheering crew.

Toki, Arsinoe, Lexus and Amal were sent back to the rower's bench, since their backs were still needed if the ship were ever to again find civilized port. Yet the Captain re-iterated his promise that when, indeed, they achieved port in the City of Tell Qa, they would be freed. And though the slave-master and row-master grumbled, the Captain honored the heroes' request to take those benches unchained. So though their labor remained tiring and fierce, Toki, Lexus, Amal and Arsinoe could now enjoy the dignity of freedom -- a dignity they hoped eventually to share with those poor souls that shared the bench with them.

Another day and another night passed before the watchmen called out those delicious words: "Land ho!". Lilith and Jamkas raced to the vessel's rail and spied a dark, raw coastline broken by sharp rocks and dark caves, a majestic range of mountains flexing toward the sky behind it, the green canopies of thick forests sucking in the pale sunlight and cold mists. And, though they could not be sure which part of this long land they now spied, there was no mistaking the Tharbrian Coast. The Captain gave the order to turn west, and all aboard were relieved to know that so long as they kept that dangerous coast within sight, the mouth of the Aves Sanctuary, the Lalyn Estuary, and Sharryn River -- that long road to Tall Qa -- would eventually appear. It was only a question of time. And yet, despite the elation at being delivered from their tribulations, they all knew, down deep, that before long their stores would once again run out, and they would be forced to make landfall on that unfriendly coast.