Yes, once the ship is underway, Jan will recall K'oshash and debrief them.

The dusty, rocky creature appears in front of Jan; a puff of earthy cloud blowing of of K’oshash as he pops into view.

Jan discovers that the mayor had not left the compound while K’oshash was there. He did learn of a secret door in the back wall that may have been how Klein eluded Avaria.

He did overhear orders to gather his guard and secure the perimeter of the compound. Klein then went into some sort of trance. But while in the trance, the mayor took out a sharp, long knife and cut a line across his left hand. He held that hand out over a piece of parchment and the drops of blood splattered down on to the page.

K’oshash isn’t positive, but the pattern of the blood on the page looked like an angry eye.

When the mayor came out of the trance, he wrapped his hand with a clean cloth that was in his desk drawer. While he did, he looked at the parchment and nodded.

The next thing K’oshash new, he was on this ship out at sea with the sun coming up.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 

Bigge seems quite happy with the sea in the morning.

“Good wind, good swells,” Bigge says. “Wherever we’re going, if this keeps up, we’ll get there in good time. No sign of storms.”

But as the morning continues on, Bigge begins to mutter about keeping his mouth shut and not tempting fate.

On the horizon is what looks like a large fog bank.

“Likely to hit that just as night falls,” Bigge says. “Good thing the moon is full tonight.”

Jan will share K'oshash's insights with the others, particularly interested in getting Ethel's take on what it might mean, while pondering it herself.

Arcana: 17

"This man keeps getting stranger and stranger.  A secret back door?" Avaria pounds her palm with her fist, "What a trickster!  Someday that man needs to pay.  I hope we run into him again on our terms..."

She takes some time getting to know the ship again and heads to the goblin cooks to thank them for the dinner they made.  Anything to keep moving and not drive herself crazy.  To Hammerdasher, "Easting Reach going to help you with your destination?"

Discussing with Geffroi:

She nods.  "Good.  I have a great deal of work to accomplish, and I would like to have it complete before we reach the northern shores."

"It will be painstaking and precise work, but it will be invaluable experience for you, and something you could even use to make a good living for yourself if you hone your craft.  The creation of spell scrolls, taking my spells and imbuing their magic into single use, magical vessels of ink and paper, will be difficult enough.  But I also have a scroll which I need to capture and transcribe back into my own book.  That will be... we will need to be patient and perfect as we will only get one chance."

"Spell scrolls, you see, rather than a simple recitation of the spell, are more accurately understood as the casting of the spell, frozen in time and captured on the page in ink and vellum.  To take that, and copy a useable spell back into my spellbook, will involve slowly unwinding that casting... reverse engineering it... and making note of each and every detail before it is lost.  We must not fail.  Once that is out of the way, copying a few sleep spells to scrolls will seem like child's play."  

"On the subject of spellbooks, you have a keen eye for detail.  It's as you describe, and more.  There are established, time-tested incantations and rituals for bending and shaping the weave... spells, as they are commonly known.  And yes, within that established framework, each wizard trains and practices the spell, working out their own method for mastering it.  In a way, each time a wizard learns a new spell, they are reinventing the wheel... while already possessing knowledge of the wheel and how it is supposed to work."

"More than that," she continues, "I've learned that wizards tend toward the short side of paranoid.  The surest way to save time and resources in learning a new spell is to steal the work of another.  Any wizard worth their ink has a few novel creations in their spellbooks, or at least works in progress.  To protect our work from thieves with prying eyes, most develop cyphers and private codes for copying their spells."

She nods, more to herself than to Geffroi.  "Yes.  This will be most beneficial.  We will share a stateroom, as long as that doesn't make you uncomfortable.  We will be busy for most of the journey and its more efficient and less inconvenient to others for us to setup sleeping and workshop conditions all in the same place."

[Ethel has the following inks... 200gp worth of squid and black dragon ink.  Per post 2794 (200 gp would allow the 2 level spell into the spell book, plus 4 spell scrolls of first level spells to be created – 6 level one spell scrolls if the 2 level spell she wants to put in her spellbook is from the School of Necromancy)... she plans to begin work by attempting to copy the second level spell wither and bloom from a spell scroll into her spellbook.  After that, succeed or fail, she plans to create two sleep spell scrolls and then see what mood takes her before selecting what else to make. ]

Upon hearing Jan's news:

Ethel is quiet, thinking.  When she ventures an answer, it is uncertain.  "I can't say absolutely what it was that your familiar saw.  It could have been a divination ritual, with the blood spatter representing a sign or portent.  On the other hand, it could have been the means through which Mayor Klein communicates with the patron which granted him his magical powers.  Either way, he seems to have asked a question, and been given an answer in the form of an angry eye."

[Does an 'angry eye' mean anything tp Ethel, either as a portent of things to come, or as a known occult symbol?  Arcana:  26 ] 

She will only shake her head at the news from the dusty fairy, not having much to add.

She will change back into clothes more her normal size and back to her normal face. While changing she'll find the box she won at the Lintoll and think,

"Oh, right... Well let's see what this is..."

And open the box.

She will thank the goblins, in goblin as they taught her, for the stew,

"This stew was ******** good! ****** you so ****** **** ******. Do you **** ******* teach me to ***** ***** the stew?"

She would like to continue her goblin lessons as they teach her how to cook the stew.

Geffroi is quite excited about the work that Ethel has proposed and takes some notes as she describes the notations many wizards use.

“Yes, I can see the value of that,” Gefrroi says. “Do you supposed Godrick Hargrove has protections of some sort worked into the scrolls here?”

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 

Kriox and Brash laugh good-naturedly at Marrin’s broken Ghukliak. Brash takes a moment to teach her the words for cook and hot pepper and then taps her own head then Kriox’s head and tries teaching Marrin that the recipe is all in their heads.

With a few more weeks of this, Marrin thinks she could at least function with survival level Ghukliak.

The box, while wrapped in colourful metallic paper with a very nice bow on top, feels quite light.

Marrin opens the book, pulls back a piece of tissue paper and finds herself staring at a cuddly toy spider. A small card resting under the toy spider reads “Climb like a spider then watch it climb away.”

As an action, you can stroke the spider to gain the benefit of a spider climb spell that lasts for 1 hour. Once used, the toy turns into a real spider and crawls away.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hammerdasher looks back to Avaria from where he’s been watching the distant fog bank.

“Aye it does.” Hammerdasher says with a smile. “It’ll still be a journey either over the Giantspire Mountains or the long way around through the Great Dale, but it’s a lot closer to Icelace Lake than I am now.”

He turns back to the rail.

“Though I don’t like that fog being between us and the north.”

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 

Jan finds herself agreeing with Ethel’s take on the blood ritual and eye. It could be many things but the two both lean towards some sort of communication with their patron; perhaps part of whatever dragon cult Mayor Klein might be tied up with.

As for the eye itself, that could be many things. Some Ethel is able to dismiss quickly, such as the Arcane Eye, which would not work like Jan’s dust fairy described, or the Elder Elemental Eye, which would need to be more detailed.

She recalls the Eye of Gruumsh, the orc deity, and the Eye of Horus, common in some areas of the southeast around Unthalass and Gheldaneth. Jan remembers a story about the eye of the Oracle of Tyr.

Geffroi listens to the discussion of eyes and looks off into the distance as he thinks.

“I did see something in Gheldaneth,” he begins. “It was like the Eye of Horus but different. It was painted in dark red on walls. Some of the locals said it was a perverted version of the Eye of Horus, influenced by a story about an ancient metal fortress in the mountains of Mulhorand.”

Marrin gives the goblins a disappointed frown on the lack of recipe and says in Ghukliak,

"***** you anyways for new words! I be of watchings as stew do maybe?"

A small smile spreads on Marrin's lips as she looks at the card before sliding it into a pocket.

On deck she'll putter around, chatting with the new sailors to get their names and backgrounds. When Ava is talking to Hammerdasher she'll listen in but won't say anything before finding a spot out of the way to play a few merry songs on her lucky flute.

"Aye, that doesn't look good."  Avaria turns from Hammerdasher and locates Bigge.  "Anything we can do to prepare for that fog approaching?"

"An eye painted in dark read sounds an awful lot like one made in blood. And it's not the first time Mulhorand has come up either..."

Jan will pen a pair of letters describing what K'oshash observed as well as the speculations that she, Geffroi and Ethel arrived at, and dispatch her familiar to invisibly carry them to the Stonecasts and Mard.

At first K'oshash tries to deliver one of Jan’s letters to Ula. When Jan looks at the letter she sees it’s the one she earmarked for the Stonecasts. After a more detailed description of which Stonecasts the letter is supposed to be delivered to, her dust fairy appears confident in what the task is and takes to the sky.

Geffroi mulls over the topic of the ‘eye’ a little bit more and muses out loud, “If the mayor is really associated with a dragon cult of some sort, I wonder what the eye would be about. I can’t think of any dragon cults that use that symbol.”

Bigge joins Avaria and Hammerdasher at the railing, looking at the ever growing fog bank.

“We’ve really only two choices here,” Bigge says. “We go through or we go around.”

He looks to the west and back to the fog.

“If we go around, we’ll need to head out into more open seas, which will expose us to stronger weather and rougher waves. If we go through, we’ll need to trim the sails because our visibility’s going to go for crap. But the water should be calm and we’re not going to have to fight the sea.”

Marrin considers the fog in the distance,

"Captain's choice, but sounds like the fog is the better option."

Avaria nods, "I would agree with both sentiments, Marrin."  Though she doesn't take her eyes off the fog.  She thinks back to those giant squids they fought so long ago.. wonders if they like fog as well.  "You know, maybe that mermaid sighting was an omen?"  at least she hopes so.

"Good or bad omen is the question..."

Marrin says thoughtfully.

Ethel briefly remembers her bout of sea sickness they last time this vessel sailed through rough waters.  She shudders.

"I agree.  Slow and steady through the fog rather than fight the open sea."

With the course of action set, the next hour or so of ship board life is almost pleasant. The sun shines brightly and warmly but not to warm. The breeze carries the marine air through every part of the ship.

Geffroi quizzes Ethel over every possible shorthand and rune metric they could use for her spells and scrolls. He also spends time below rearranging one of the cabins so that he can drag a table inside.

Hammerdasher's spirits seem higher too as you move towards the north.

Eventually the Xanthe's Wish gets closer to the fog bank, and you can all see that it looms up higher than the crow's nest above.

Bigge calls out a few orders and several of the sails are pulled in and lashed down, slowing the ships speed substantially just as the first billows of fog reach the bow.

"We can use every extra set of eyes available to keep watch," Bigge says to the party.

Once the ship enters the fog, the light dims, and the warmth seems to be sucked from the air. A cool mist starts to coat everything and everyone.

(Perception checks from any keeping watch please, plus any other actions/activities anyone wants to do).

Marrin will take a turn at keeping watch, walking around the ship. She'll check the water around the ship as much as she can the limited space further out.

Perception: 4

When she gets tired of that she'll go chat up the goblins for a while before checking all the nooks and crannies of the Wish. After that she'll return to deck and keep looking and listening.

If Geffroi is outwardly excited at the prospect of getting to work on the spell scribing, Ethel is perhaps more restrained but no less motivated.  She spends the day supervising Geffroi's preparations and laying out her inks and parchments just so, as well as securing sufficient candles/lamps to provide the necessary lighting.  She also shares access to her spellbook, showing him her particular scribing style and contrasting it with the notes and scrolls stolen from Godrick.

"I don't think we will run any curses or traps, as these were taken from some of his note, not from his proper spellbook.  Even so, you raise a good point, and I'll inspect the materials before we get to work to try and rule out any nasty surprises." 

[Ethel doesn't suspect there are any boobytraps in the scrolls, but can she check anyway?  Arcana?  18 ]

If she can rule out danger, or at least not encounter any, she wishes to get to work immediately.

She trusts the captain, crew, and her allies to be more than capable of watching the fog and sea, while she works on - to her - more crucial matters.

Jan Perception: 19

((Would we have had time to short rest since getting back aboard? Jan's in single digit HP and out of slots otherwise...))

Jan would have distanced herself from most of her companions once K is sent on their way back to land to deliver notes, either taking up a position in the crow's nest or bow of the boat to provide lookout, but doesn't seem interested in conversation.