Sun sets, and a sort of featherless-looking crow lands, with a message tied to its leg. It’s from Jolliver, and it reads:

Freedom is no more.

This … this is not good. I’m sure we will learn more soon, but this weighs heavily on me. And Lazra – I hope she got away.

Since we have a recognizable ship, we decide to sleep for the night and travel to Dragon’s Bowl by day – it will be safer, and there will be less travelers who may recognize the River Maiden. I’m sure we could come up with a story, but if we don’t need to, that’s much better. The best lie is the one you don’t have to tell.

The widow wishes to be dropped off along the way at Freedom, despite the message we received. Well, it’s her call. So as we start approaching Freedom, things aren’t looking so good. Dead bodies and wrecked settlements – building that look like they’ve been twisted and rent apart. The surround area is just wrecked. We see a bit off a group of bald-headed aarakocra dragging bodies into a sort of pit. We bring the ship to a stop so Kary’klii can talk to them and get more info.

Kary’klii goes off to them, chats a bit, and returns to give us the dirt from the not super talkative and super suspicious birdfolk. They’re members of the Black Dust Tribe and all they know is that Freedom and the surrounding area was destroyed by a giant wind storm. Perhaps the Feathergale was involved? And I wonder if Cocoton‘s daughter Savra (who is with the Feathergale) had any involvement.

Well, the widow seems less sure of her decision, but asks that we get closer. We do, but outside easy visual range. We use the spyglass we recently acquired with the ship to take a closer look at Freedom – it’s demolished. There’s smoke, crushed buildings, and even the Thunderdome got overturned. The news is true – Freedom has fallen. We continue to Dragon’s Bowl, and the widow and her remaining children come with us.

After a few days time or pretty quiet travel (hoo-goddamn-ray!), we arrive at Dragon’s Bowl. We promptly head to Dane & Mal‘s scrapyard – we’d chatted with them before, when we went on the rescue mission that lead us to the monastery. We work out some business – over the next two weeks, they’ll change the profile, paint it (a nice sandy color), and do some repairs to the River Maiden Sand Witch and we’ll pay them 500g – that’s after they count the gilding and extra parts they’ll keep.

So. Two weeks. Twoooooo weeeeeeeeeeeeks. What to do? Oh, I know!

DRINKS!

We head to the tavern – and Bjorn’s there! And his #1 customer that we rescued! If there’s something I like more than drinks, it’s FREE DRINKS! We chat with Bjorn, explain the widow’s situation, and he takes them in. Good man. While there, someone asks Ghirgaz if that’s Quandril‘s coat and hat, and Ghirgaz manages that they’re just replicas. Perhaps we should have the coat dyed? Hate to get into a brawl because of a coat. I bet Ghirgaz’d love that though. So, we head to Furian’s – that odd little potions shop we’ve been to before. I’m just kinda poking around, not really paying attention to Ghirgaz talking dyes with them, but I do overhear them say that Kled was suffering from earthquakes! Freedom knocked out by air cultists, and now Kled in trouble by Black Earth cultists? This world is falling apart.

Thankfully, we can do more business with them than just the coat – they can fence some of the goods from the ship, and we can get some potions – at the end of the day, we walk out of the shop with an extra 345gp, 3 Potions of Healing (common,  2d4+2), and 1 Elixir of Health. Not too shabby.

** Back room company discussion of which I”l only report the following: we’re open/honest with Bev and invite her to join us as a partner. She accepts. **

Due to our backstory recap with Bev, I recall running across a book in town about Tyar-Besil, and the moderator/meeting facilitator runs off to fetch it. My Ancient Dwarvish is a bit rusty, but here’s what we learned:

• It’s centered in the Slumber Hills
• Built by Dwarves. Being dwarves, they kept expanding down.
• Came across older ruins deep below, and a structure called “The Fane” – a series of portals.
• It’s known as the Temple of Elemental Evil

So, the Temple of Elemental Evil – that sure explains a lot. The bit about the Fane rings a bell – we have a message from Marlos to Arisi, the Queen of the Feathergale. Considering that it looks like Feathergale had a hand in the destruction of Freedom, seems like as good a time as any to head that way to see our old “friends”.

We get our ship – and hot damn does she look good! Two-tone sand colors, looks kinda camouflaged! And the Manticore theme came out great!

On to Feathergale! And, maybe a stop at that stronghold on the way?

Session Date: 09/15/16 Prior Journal XP: 250, Session XP: 1,000, Total XP: 13,026
Title: Ramin Djawadi – Dark Wings, Dark Words