The Crown staggered into Port Krez through a brutal and unseasonable northeasterly storm, bruised and humbled but intact.
They were immediately faced with another indignity: a band of goons, led by an Orc named Dwarf and a Dwarf named Orc, on the pier demanding to be paid an “import duty.” Krijkor called their bluff and the resulting fight left three of the goons dead and the rest scrambling for the safety of North Port Row.
The Captain and his officers resolved to give the crew one day of badly needed shore leave while they scattered across the port to take care of the necessary business.
Henry and Midge sought out the dockmaster, Okurg, and persuaded him to furnish them the necessary supplies for repairs at a fair price. They punctuated their case by thwarting a thief attempting to make off with Okurg’s hard-earned money, Evie, Oracle, and Krijkor canvassed the Sudden Tankard for potential recruits and information. There they met Unrugagh, who was able to tell them that the Mercurial occasionally makes runs to Regalport as well as several uninhabited islands in Lhazaar. They also met a pair of drunken, talkative half-elves who seemed astonished by the unnatural, stormy weather this season. Seabern and Fox arranged for entertainment for the crew. While doing so, Fox met Zia, who claimed to have learned of the Crown’s sinking as reported in Regalport and who mysteriously handed her a chart of an uninhabited island to the northwest, claiming that the Mercurial makes land there. Finally, at Evie’s insistence, the party solicited work from Riggy Rockface, the effective Number Two of Port Krez. Riggy chuckled at the notion of honest work but had something like it: there was a freighter full of dead bodies making a long journey from Q’Barra to Karrnath, and the Crown was a perfect candidate to waylay it.
Repairs finished, crew rounded up, and parties thrown, the Crown’s business in Port Krez had concluded. She laid in a course for Watchdog Island in renewal of her hunt for the Mercurial.