You all board the ship and hand Nib hands the woman his silver piece. As she takes the coin she responds to Dardek, brushing a finger nail across her own cheek and pointing at the metallic freckles that mark the boy's celestial ancestry. "Right there..." She says, looking curious. "Ain't never seen nothing like it before. Touched by the fey folk I s'pose..."

She again casts an appraising eye upon the rest of the party, lingering for a moment on Sieg and Ashley as she reaches into a small pouch she has on her side and emerges with five copper coins. "I should charge ya more... Doesn't take a turn of cards t' see you're not a common group of travelers..." She then looks back to Dardek and smiles again. "But I like this one. He's got manners... so, for his sakes, I'll take you and all your troubles crossed to the western shore."

As she hands them to back to Nib he nearly wretches at the smell of rotted fish that covers her clothing. She sees you reaction and smiles, "Heh! Farm folk never can abide the smell of the mother sea can they? No trouble. Just move over there young heffling and it aught ta keep ye downwind."

Once everyone is crowded aboard, she readies her pole and says... "Hold on now. This bage wasn't meant to carry none but me 'n my wares. So, it may be a bumpy ride..."

With a surprisingly strong push of the pole, the craft drifts out into the water. As she warned, the ship itself is a bit wobbly but she manages to keep it balanced. You watch as the commotion regarding the burning wheelbarrow drifts into the distance and the barge presses its way across the current. The old woman pushes the barge slightly upstream as it moves.

"Tricky current runs through here, all the way down from Buckler's Run... By the way she moves and the smell of the wind I'd say we're in for another heavy flood season this year... I remember a bad one some time back nearly took out the whole hamlet of Figbrook..." She looks to Nib. "Your Pappy ever tell you stories about that?"

She shake her head, recalling the grim memory. "Bad times they was. Whole harbor thick with bodies... Feast for the seabirds and the crabs... I can still hear their call sometimes... A flock to darken the sky..." Breaking from her revery, she finally turns to the rest of you. "So... Where are ye all headed if you don't mind the question? Curious sort you all are making your way across river using the trade port, smelling of sewage... Having specks of stardust in your cheeks..."

Dardek stands next to the lady "Thank you again mam. You are very kind....a kindness I have not experienced. I have never heard of this flood. It wasn't in any of the books I have read....It was a natural disaster? Oh you asked where we are headed...Apologies. We are headed across the river, hoping for supplies before we trek out. We haven't decided where...Dwarves, Elves, maybe the woods....I dunno really....Anywhere but here I guess." Dardek wonders himself where they are going...

Pal will loudly clear his throat and cut in to the conversation, "I appreciate the transportation ma'am, but we'd like to keep our affairs private if you don't mind. Although I'd be happy to discuss the weather or listen to more historical tales you might have." He'll then turn to Dardek and say, "Please respect my need for discretion at this time Dardek. We can discuss this later in private."

Dardek, feeling admonished, looks at his feet and moves away from the lady

Nib takes the 5 copper pieces and nods to the woman, moving to the portion of the skiff to get downwind of the strong fish smell.  She starts to speak of the Great Flood, and he grips the edge of the skiff, holding on with white knuckles.  He looks up meeting her face from time to time, but mainly speaking to the center of the skiff, he says “I know xactly of what you speak.  The Great Flood.  My Ma and Pa had built their home fairly close to a branch that feeds the river.  The water swole up and came up close to the house.  I was a little bitty ‘un.  They were fillin up sacks of dirt, trying to make a barricade to protect the house from the river when it all gave way, they were flushed out into the river.  Those from the village found me and told me they could never find their bodies…. Strange to hear the tale from you….”  Nib looks down as he holds the side rail, suddenly getting very quiet, closing his eyes.  With the rocking motion of the skiff, he opens them again and looks upstream, a look of deep sadness on his face.  

Ashley steers clear of the nice lady, nerves completely on edge.  They were moving, they were doing it, they were getting away!  The pull of emotions between excitement and nervousness were really putting her on edge.  She was startled as Dardek relays their plans to the old woman and is glad when Pal puts an end to it.  She makes a note to herself to have a chat with him when they get on their way.

Listening to Nib’s tale takes her away from her thoughts and she puts her arm around him, forgetting her cloak for a moment, “Are you alright?  I’m sorry about your parents.  I um, I don’t remember mine.”

Nib looks up at Ashley and gives her a wan smile.  “Thanks, I’ve made peace with it..” *wipes nose*. “Over time.  Just strange to think about… all the steps and the path, from then to here, and to be traveling on this very same river.”  He stops for a moment, considering, then turns back to face her.  “Never remember ‘em?  I just have bits and pieces, happy memories, a picnic, playing in the fields, their laughter and hugs.  That’s all I can member.  Bits and pieces.  But… I guess its better than nuthin.  I’m sorry you can’t remember yours..”

As you speak, the boat continues to make its way upriver,  about a mile from shore... still crossing, gradually, but moving at a distinctly northernly tilt.

She keeps her eyes focused on Nib as he tells his tale, adding. "You ever hear tell what they say caused that flood that took your Ma and Pa, little heffling? And, no, I'm not talkin' about the rain or the tides... No, nothing that common.... I'm talking about dark magic. Fey magic... I'm talkin' about the old sea witch... the one they call Sally Snailtooth. You ever hear the tale?"

Pal will step between the woman and Nib, placing a hand on Nib's shoulder, "That's enough! Can't you see it's bothering him?"

A couple of tears drop down to the bottom of the skiff, Nib’s face lies contrary to his words, that maybe he hasn’t made as much peace with it as he imagines.  His brow furrows and his red freckled face has a dark look on it as he peers around his friend Pal at the woman, saying “Fey magic?  Sally Snailtooth?  What the heck are you talkin’ about?  Pal, what is this she’s sayin’. You know about such things, do ya?”  He looks back and forth between Pal and the woman, looking for answers.

Dardek listening, quietly after being scolded, meekly says “I don’t remember my parents either” he glances at the woman as he says this before looking back at his feet 

Talon squints as Nib turns to him, declaring no pooping.  He looks really confused, turns, looks at his backside, then back at Nib, and squints again.  

"No pooping?"  Talon says, not sure what to make of this whole thing.  "But...Talon likes to poop hm?  TalonpoopslotswhenTaloneatsbreadyeah!  Poops everywhere!  Oh, but no, in boats?  In boats Talon throws up!"  

He seems very pleased with this.  It isn't until they're in the little boat and underway that his demeanor seems to take a hit.  The topic of parents come up, and the red scales of Talon's face begin to drain of color, taking on a more ashy, gray tone.  

"Oohno, yesno, no."  Talon says, muttering a bit.  "I know that pain.  When I was just young hatchling, my mother fought with Goblin!  Over boot!  Good looking boot too, probably yummy leather.  But Talon was little and got lost.  And never see'd her again.  Yesno."  

The old woman's eyes pass over each of you as you speak... hitting each of you with a disquieting sensation you can't quite place or identify.

At some point during this conversation, you begin to notice some weird thudding against the bottom of the boat. Anyone who glances into the water sees that it is teeming with eels. An unnatural swarm of them. Anyone who looks to the old woman notices she's no longer pushing the setting pole to make the boat move.

It seems to be drifting across on its own power, or perhaps by the power of the eels? Is that even possible?...

Anyways, throughout all of this, the woman maintains her tight-lipped Mona Lisa smile, not even acknowledging the phenomenon.

"Poor little heffling... and all the rest of ye..."

Her smile grows slightly and she lifts a wrinkled eyebrow. "Strange little band of misfits you all are, ain't ye? So pleased, I am, that its me you came to... So tickled that you'd choose me to be the one to help send ye on yer way... Cause, if all my long years on this river learnt me something.. Its that a band of misfits as strange as yerselfs is probly hiding some secrets..."

She giggles slightly and winks. "Tell me... Am I right, young friends?" She points a finger in your direction and starts to twirl it, playfully. "I thinks I is... I truly do."

Her eyes finally lock on Daradek... Her look intense, but still maintaining her smile. "Come now, pretty boy with the stardust in yer cheeks... Don't be naughty... Tell me what it is yer all hiding or you might make me cross." The smile suddenly fades into a pencil-thin frown. Her eyes narrow and her voice drops into a deep baritone. "...and I do not like to be cross."

Dardek looks to the others a little worried "I don't know all of their secrets....We've only just met, but if you'd like to know mine, I will tell you...." Dardek stops and looks up at the old woman "You see mam, I was raised in Qoneus Keep. It's the only place I have ever seen until recently when I was whisked away in the middle of the night. I thought I was being rescued but instead I became captive of another....Apparently I am" He lowers his voice to a whisper and looks down at his feet

Ashley moves to stand between the lady and Dardek and holds the woman's eyes as she frowns.  Turning to Dardek, she says under her breath, "Stop talking."  Then turning back to the woman, "What do you want?  We just want across this river and give you no trouble.  Seems you have some secrets of your own." And she points to the eels that are holding the boat.

She keeps the hood over her head and her skin covered, but glares at the woman, "We aren't hiding anything.  We just need across the river and trust me, you don't want us cross either."

The woman's eyes hungrily devour the information Dardek reveals, opening widely and grinning in delight at the final whisper before Ashley steps in to interrupt...

She listens patiently with polite amusement until Ashley's final word of warning at which she starts giggling... then laughing... then cackling with such force that her form seems to convulse and shift... Her hair beings to slough off in patches, falling to he ground... her clothes rapidly rot away to nothing but a decaying patch of seaweed haphazardly draped over her torso, revealing green withered  covered in festering wounds and barnacles....

Her eyes grow unnaturally huge... the whites and colored irises melt away revealing nothing but large lifeless eyes.... black eyes... like a doll's eyes... They are swarmed by a thick cloud of gnats that seem to cause her no discomfort as they land on he eyes, burrow under her unblinking eyelids in a chaotic feeding frenzy.

Her smile widens to reveal long, sharp needle-like teeth like those of an angler fish as her cackle continues, emitting the most noxious breath you've ever encountered in your existence.

As she completes her transformation her cackle drops away. She stares directly at Ashley, her repulsive, gill-like nostrils flaring and asks in a voice filled with cold, inhuman menace... "And what happens if I do cross you, little minnow?" 

Everyone (Except Pal)  makes a DC 11 Saving Throw vs becoming Frightened

NIb looks on in horror as this thing transforms, he has never seen anything like it.  All he can get out is “Iiii g-g-g-guess we sh-sh-should’ve taken th th the other skiff… aaaiiiiiggggh!”  He cowers down in the back of the boat.  

(WIsdom save : 8)

Dardek stops talking and stands behind Ashley looking down as he typically does. He hears the woman'e response to Ashley and looks up for a split second to see her transform. "Oh no...no...no...no....What have I done....Please don't eat me!" He starts to take several steps towards the end of the boat thinking he should jump off and take his chances with outswimming the eels. 

When the woman completes her awful transformation, Pal wants to scream and dive overboard... But he manages to hold onto a shred of courage and instead stands his ground, shivering with anxiety, and says, "W-what do you want? We can offer you more coin, but if you th-think you're going to harm any of us, *gulp* we will f-fight back!" Pal holds his B.O.O.M. stick with both hands in a white-knuckle grip in front of him. He attention is too focused on the monster to notice the rod whirring and the tip glowing red hot.