The party regathers in the kitchen, as Peri begins to barricade the damaged doorway and Boko finishes healing those who need it.

All remains quiet, aside from sheets of rain hitting the exterior of the building between gusts of wind. The storm continues to subside, albeit very slowly. It is still a couple of hours before sunrise.

Janore waits in the kitchen, on alert.  "I... I had more visions last night. Something about the halfling's shoes..." – she points to Peri's slippers – "and the sunken Tammeraut, and something about an invasion. One of the things must have dropped a document in their first assault," – she holds up a single piece of damp, crumpled parchment showing barely legible lines and writing. "It's a map, a navigator's map from the Tammeraut, I think. Waterproofed once, although it has clearly spent years in the depths. My vision showed me where to find it – it was in the mess in the larder – and helped me understand it. It shows Firewatch Island, and the nearby coast, and the city – The Styes – and has diagrams that convey a plan for using this island as a staging ground for a full-on assault against the mainland. I think there are more of these dead things. They're coming from the Tammeraut." 

Qivys pats Boko as she hugs him. "It's alright lass." he tells her. "I wouldn't want a thing ta happen ta you either, or any of ya. Its why I make tha decisions I do." 

Qivys listens to Preist but says nothing, deep in thought. 

Boko listens to the stories about the vision. "Another full-on assault against the mainland?" 

She slumps a bit. 

"They are coming here to take the island and then the mainland. I wonder if they are... were? working with the sahaugin. Let me see the map, where is this sunken ship?"

Taking a look at the map, she tries to sort out what she sees, and looks to see if she recognizes anything.

Bonus heal rolls, apportion as you wish: 5 6 9 8 8 7 

Gerrard:

”Thank you, Master Fenwader, and yes, I suppose you are right that we are fortunate to have escaped with our own skins—plus the one remaining member of the crew.  We did what we could for their families, and avenged the Winter by killing that Iuz sorcerer,” responds Gerrard.

””Though I feel I have failed on multiple fronts—not the least of which is missing out on the war against the Sahuagin I promised my beloved I would pursue—I can’t think what we should have done differently knowing what we did at the time we acted.  We just take what comes and try to make the best of it—and it looks like we have another assault planned on the mainland to deal with now,” he surmises after hearing of the invasion plans.

Gerrard nods in thanks at Boko’s wise words and gladly accepts her healing.

He also takes his second wind:  12

Thwack 

"I go by door" he shouts in a deflated voice to Gerrards offer. He trudges back through to the kitchen. Usually he would search the fallen, but given the state if their boils he avoids all the corpses. Upon his return he walks up to Peri without meeting his gaze. "Thwack no good at killer. Mask one got away" he chirps up a little as he continues "I hit him but not hard like Shivers or Bernard. Please don't send Thwack to find the sun like Doug. Please?" His voice wavers with his last plead.

Peri:

Peri is taken back by Thwack's speech. "You did great Thwack! You got him to stop shootin' at us, and that's the important part! And don't worry, nobody's gettin' sent away to find the sun. There's not one of us here that hasn't messed up something big; we don't toss each other out for mistakes. Though, with the look of this invasion, takin' that boat and sailin' far away to find the sun sounds pretty good."

"Are we gonna get sidetracked with this undead army thing, or are we gonna head back to Saltmarsh at first light and find out what's goin' on there? Feels like months have gone by since we learned about our lost time, and I'd really like to know whether those kids made it home, if the lizardfolk got their home back, and if those council weasels gave our shacks away."

((Peri rolled a 12 in Avrae, so I'll take the 5 and 7 healing. Brings him up to half health.))

Qivys will take an 8 & 9 for healing, if open.

Boko examines the map. It's nearly illegible. The waterfront of the Styes is explicitly marked, as is the general location of Firewatch. Looking closer, it has diagrams that clearly convey the intent of a planned invasion. But the location of the sunken Tammeraut is far from clear, however. Then, Boko remembers Archais’s journal, which gave an exact location in nautical coordinates. (His journal included a list of different sunken ships Archais the wizard had explored in these surrounding waters. The final entry on this list gives the location of the sunken Tammeraut.)

Qivys also remembers an unnerving place, deep underwater in that general location, which he stumbled by shortly after first appearing in these waters out of the vampire's basement.

The gloom is beginning to lift. Sunrise is near. All remains quiet. You may receive the benefits of a Short Rest. 

Gerrard:

Waking from his rest and hearing the discussion, Gerrard says, “I am concerned about Saltmarsh as well, Master Fenwader—we left way too much unfinished business there. But we have been gone for months, and I’m not sure how urgent the timing of our return is, given the elapsed time.”

”Perhaps we claim our reward of cold ale, hot food, and a warm bed on the mainland with our rescued friends in tow.   Janore can give them details of this threat, so they will be warned.  The Sea Princes are always looking to raid Keoland, but an undead army is a different and troubling development that could unbalance the tenuous stalemate,” he suggests.

”If they thank us for our aid and our warning, then send us on our way to Saltmarsh, well and good. If they wish to engage us to take out the undead army source, well, that is another negotiation and must be weighed against our desire to return home,” he adds.

Short Rest 1HD:  9

Qivys History check-The Styes" 5

Before the short rest happens, Boko says, "some of us got hit. Janore, what was it like when the blue disease hit you, was it sudden or gradual? Show me where to look or what to look for and we can try to find out if anyone who fought needs healing or cures."

Boko tries to look at everyone who got hit, including herself, with Janore's and anyone else's help who offers. If she finds signs that anyone might be coming down with what the survivors did, she will prepare to cast lesser restoration to cure the disease.

Medicine with help: 12

Peri:

Feeling battered, Peri tends to his wounds. (5 hit dice for 29 healing) A couple do look bad, as though they're infected even though they're minutes old.

Thwack 

Peri's words do well to lift Thwack's mood. "I do good?" His mood changes almost immediately. "What is Saltmarsh?  Or The Styes? We go to th..." His questioning cut off mid sentence by a single floating, oversized playing card. "Oooh, magics" Thwack says with excitement. He looks at Peri "You do magic's Kerri?" 

The card appears to be a replica of part of the map Boko studies. This illusionary map focuses only on The Styes though. In diagonally opposing corners is a large K.

Qivys knows little of the Styes. It's a coastal city, somewhere north of Seaton. Kei hailed from there, he recalls; and from the tales he remembers Kei spinning, the Styes sounded like a rather seedy and rather dangerous place.

Boko sees no ill effects from their deathly encounter with the horde. "The blue boils came within a few hours," replies Janore. "Then the fever, and tingling in the fingers and toes." 

The gloom continues to lift. Sunrise is near, even as storm clouds continue to race low over the fortress, and intermittent rain squalls strike its walls.

"I think tha first order of business is ta make sure that those blue boils don't show up on any of us," Qivys says. "Before we go worrin' about savin' others and warning grown adult folks that they need ta beware of this, that an' tha other." 

Gerrard:

Pausing for a moment, Gerrard says, ”Exactly so, Master Qivys, it wouldn’t do for us to transmit this disease to the unsuspecting folk of Uskarn.  Do you have a way to detect if we have been infected?  I know I was struck several times, but I don’t feel anything unusual to this point.”

Peering outside, you can see that day has arrived, and the storm is nearing its end. The ocean is tossed with whitecaps, and you can see the captain's vessel safely hunkered down in the cove. There are no signs of life except a few distant birds wheeling over the hilltop. One lone bird circles in lazy loops before descending and alighting on a nearby rock. It’s a gull, and an old one at that, with a chipped beak and patches missing from its thinning feathers. It waddles closer, gazing intelligently at you with weak, rheumy eyes.

Meanwhile, Peri has begun to feel sick - itchy, tingly, sweaty - and then the blue boils begin to form on his face and back. (His constitution is lowered by 4 and his charisma by 4.)

Gerrard:

As day breaks and the storm abates, Gerrard goes out front and drags the body of Rasp into the main hall so Boko can salvage what she needs from it—probably the hide for the tanner on Saltmarsh, if he is guessing.

He then goes to the back door to hail the ship, asking, “How do you fare, Captain?  Did you get my message last night?”

Boko, the second she gets a single clue that Peri is sick, casts lesser restoration on Peri. For good measure, she casts it on herself as well. She spends a few minutes binding and examining her own wounds (rolled three HD, back up to one shy of full).

When she sees the bird arrive, she begins to ritually cast speak with animals and asks it what it's looking for.

Thwack 

Thwack, who had spent the last hour or so intently practising his swings with an imaginary dagger, turns his attention back to the group with arrival of the gull. He spots Peri out the corner of his eye. "Arghh!!" He cries out at the shocking sight of Peri's disfigured face. He approaches gingerly. "You turning into monster?" He bares his teeth, perhaps in preparation or maybe in disgust. He relaxes a little when Boko casts her spell on him, figuring she has just prevented his turning.