Relieved that Colter and Jana were not deeply upset by the loss of their very expensive belongings, that the deal was a poor one, or about something going awry here in the moment, Varis finishes his cup of tea. "Yes, I understand your concern. And I think you are right, it will be challenging. But what hasn't been for us these last few days? I think it may be one we can take head on."

Varis then approaches Lemmy pulling out the silver tiara set with diamonds from his pack. "My good pirate, sir. May I trouble you to find out how much this tiara would be worth to you? Or what would you trade me for it?"

Grimnir, wiping his large hand upwards against his forehead and back through his thick, tangled black hair emits a conciliatory grunt in Guido's direction and then goes on to find where he left his tankard.

"Tell me, songbird, what did you see from the crow's nest?" He extends his long arm forward, producing his once misplaced drinking vessel, pushing it forward to be filled.

Varis

Lemmy looks at the tiara, then back at you, and again to the tiara. "Tell ya what boy. I can offer you a simple trade." he digs through a chest before revealing a jewel adorn Scimitar. "If ya want to be a real pirate, it'll be best that you take this. It's special, don't know what it does, but a magic fella brought it round. Course' he came round without permission, so I 'liberated' this particular piece from his corpse... But all's well that ends well, ain't it?"

Grimnir and Guido

Grimnir hears Guido's drunken ramble, and sees his arm flop limp over the side of the crows nest. You keep an eye on the fire but it never really changes. The night passes peacefully and you are able to get a full rest.

*Guido, take +1 inspiration for great drunken role-playing and a -1 to CON for being hung over in the morning. You can clear it with a short rest or it will clear by itself after 12 hours.

Varis delights in the trade thinking this is just the kind of thing he was looking for and hands the tiara and takes the sword. "Thank you, Lemmy, I believe this will do me well." He tries a couple different ways for carrying his scimitar, being mostly used to just his mace hanging to his side. He decides that the best place will be at his hip opposite his mace. Varis then decides to examine it a bit better. 

He then approaches Kelpos and asks, "Well, Captain, is there anything else we need to do here? Or shall we return to the ship?"

Grimnir leans over the railing of the ship, looking out towards the billowing smoke. 

After a few moments spent in silent contemplation, he reaches into his tunic and produces a small medallion of the Vaseci military which covertly hung from his neck on a braided leather cord.

The medallion, once a glinting object of precious metal, shows the signs of aging and discolouration from being rubbed for many, many years; this later detail made obvious by Grimnir's almost ritualistic practice of doing just that. 

After he runs his thumb over the face of the medallion for the fifth time, he clutches it tightly in his fist. 

"You owe them nothing..." he whispers to himself, returning his gaze to the billowing smoke in the distance.

Varis

Kelpos looks at you and and says; "No me boy. I am going to polish off a keg with Lemmy tonight, you are welcome to stay, if you prefer the company of your cot on the ship, that'll do too." You see Colter and Jana get up and head back for the ship quietly.

Grim

You recognize the smoke. Even from miles away you can feel it filling your nostrils. You hear the sounds of women and children screaming for help; the sounds of men struggling against other men. It is the smoke of war.

Varis returns to the ship behind Jana and Colter. He is still staring at the sword, in awe of it, yet very intrigued by it's enchantment. 

 He boards the ship and heads to his bunk below deck and lays down for his nightly trance. 

Varis:

The sword is slender and long, well balanced though. You see the hilt is encrusted with a few small jewels, and is made of solid gold. At the very bottom you see a small inscription, it looks like it says "Todgrin" It is capitalized, so you assume it to be a name, though you are not sure who it could be. You also feel a strong Transmutation aura coming from it.

Varis comes out of his trance and makes his way to the deck of the ship. Though he was rather intrigued by his sword, he knew he needed to rest. Now, that it's the middle of the night and he is alone and looks for things that he can stab and whack with his sword. He's interested in knowing how the transmutation magic of the sword will react with things.

Once he has located some things to "spar" with, he begins his work to see what this sword can do. He will frequently cast mending in order to fix what he has done and go at it again. Yet, while he practices he's noticing that something is off--not only with himself, but with the ship, too.

As the sun begins to rise, he is even more off put by this feeling and begins to look around the ship to see if he can figure it out. 

Varis

As the sun rises everyone starts to stir. You see Colter and Jana making breakfast, Pafaren is stirring up some liquid in a vial toward the back of the ship. You see Grimnir, but no Guido. You also see smoke off in the distance, far enough away that it is barely visible at all. 

"The bard left..." Grimnir interjects solemnly. "...he'd had his fill of our adventures."

Grimnir stands upright, stretching his long physique. Looking first to Varis's sword, then to Varis's face he speaks.

"Don't think that this means that we'll become fast friends, spell-flinger. I have a distinct distaste for magic."

He walks as if he is going to pass Varis but stops just at his side before leaning in a bit closer and speaking in a hushed tone to him.

"Change my mind about your kind...I trust the others even less than you."

Grimnir and Varis

As the exchanging of words ends, Kelpos staggers up to the boat, he looks awful. "Me boy..." he says pointing at Colter, "I'm drunk. West we go." he then falls flat on his face.

Varis is a little shaken, yet encouraged by Grimnir's hushed words. He also whispers, "May the Divine bless him," in regards to the news of Guido's departure. 

This resolves his weird feelings about the ship, but it doesn't resolve his feelings about himself. His mending worked at first, but the more that tried to use it the less it worked. Eventually, he found that his mending wasn't working at all, but something cold was coming out of his hands. It's as if the items were starting to freeze, but they aren't frozen. He is just unsure what is going on with his magics. He is concerned about his future abilities to defend himself and the others on the ship well. And all the while, he still wasn't sure how his sword was working magically. 

But for now, he must focus. The captain has returned, yet given an order. He takes it upon himself to get the ship moving. Varis calls out to the others to prepare to set sail as he goes to the ship's wheel. "West, we sail!"

Grimnir and Varis

With what little knowledge you have of navigating you manage to stay on course, heading due west straight into the sea. You have no idea where you're going, only that Kelpos had instructed you to head west. The morning turns into afternoon and the afternoon turns into evening. Eventually Kelpos wakes, and staggers up to you. "I'll take the evening shift me boy. According to the shanties, if we head straight into Kleggars Sparks until we run out of ocean, we will be docking on the shores of Yelberos." He pauses for a moment then shouts to the back of the boat, "Elf man! Do you have any thing for hangovers?!" He grimaces at the sound of his own voice. Pafaren slowly walks up to the two of you and hands Kelpos a vial of clear liquid. "What is this Elf man?" Pafaren looks at him dismissively. "That is water." He says, the tone in his voice is soft and even, almost robotic. "The best cure for a hang over is responsibility." And with that Pafaren returns to the back of the boat to mix his alchemical elements. 

The moon begins to rise in the sky. As the stars start appearing Kelpos points out the constellation of Kleggars Sparks. It is a cluster of dim, blue and yellow stars that look like the sparks a blacksmith makes at their forge. As he is explaining this to you, a strange green fog begins to roll in. At first it is light, but gradually it gets more dense, to the point that you cannot see more than 20 yards ahead. There is a sound that begins to rise, like a thousand voices calling for help, it sounds almost like wind at first but soon it grows so loud, you can barely hear your own thoughts. Kelpos' face turns cold as stone, "Oh, gods. This aint good me boy." and just as the last word falls out of his mouth a large black shadow in the shape of a pirate ship pulls along beside you. You see the silhouettes of humanoid figures on the ship. They are standing perfectly still. All at once the sounds vanish and the sea stands still. A large humanoid figure steps to the front of the ship, he looks like a pirate captain, but the closer you look, it seems that he is more skeleton than man being held together with strips of muscle and sinew. He raises an inky black scimitar and screams. His voice sounds more like a lion's roar than a man issuing a command, but as soon as his voice fades the other humanoid figures spring to life. In a matter of seconds they have grappling hooks on your ship and are climbing across. You see 3 Skeletal pirates boarding the ship, climbing over the railing, surprisingly fast for skeletons.

 Player turn begin.

 Varis casts his (now standard) friend, guiding bolt at the closest of the 3 skeletons. 

Varis

The blast of energy leaves your hand with a distinctively different feeling. Your hands burn, and start to turn black as a purple smoking orb of light forms in your hand. It distracts you so much that the blast sails high into the night sky.

Varis is confused and frightened by what is coming from his hands. His magic has changed. This is not guiding bolt, this is necrotic power. 

And he thinks, "It's caught up with me," and swears under his breath. 

Pafaren

Pafaren shouts from the back of the ship, "Everyone, close your eyes!" As soon as he has seen that you have shielded your eyes he hurls a large vial toward the 3 Skeletons that have boarded the ship.

 Jana 

Jana loads a bolt into her crossbow, a puff of gray smoke appears as the bolt begins its voyage toward the skeleton closest to the party.

 Colter 

Colter grabs his daggers and steps into a defensive position in front of Jana.

Kelpos 

Kelpos shouts, "Alright everyone, this is bad. Hold em off, I'll try to get us out of here." You see his knuckles turn white as he grips the wheel. 

You see a fog of colorful mist surround the 3 skeletons. You can barely see their silhouettes through the mist, but you see them begin to stumble around reaching out to feel their surroundings. You believe that they are unable to see through the mist. Jana's bolt flies into the mist and connects with satisfying snap as you hear bone break away from one of the skeletons. 

Grimnir, visibly shaken by the appearance of both the fog and the encroaching skeletal army, panics but manages to get to his feet quickly enough to grab his sword and try to defend himself.