In the morning, the Crown fended off a sudden ambush by two skeleton-crewed gunboats laying in wait beneath the waves. Krijkor suspected Karrns: it was an ambush deployed with considerable resources, military forethought, and above all, undead.
Later that evening, the Crown made landfall in Regalport amidst a miserable storm. After extracting a very nice feathered hat from the hapless harbor pilot, the party established a long shore leave with which to conduct repairs and disembarked.
Their first stop was the Brelish embassy, where they met with Testra ir’Gawaine, Breland’s chief diplomat to Lhazaar. Testra, a woman of regal bearing and masterful etiquette, did indeed know where Captain Tyrn was—but, much to the party’s disappointment, she was unwilling to tell them. They worked out an agreement: the party would bring Captain Arazka back to Testra—alive—so he could face Brelish justice. In return, Testra would share what she knew about Tyrn.
Testra’s suggestion for finding Arazka was to speak to Rygar ir’Wynarn, Lord of Greentarn and High Prince of Lhazaar. Arazka had just departed Regalport, and prior to this he had spent much time in Rygar’s court. Satisfied, the party departed.
The next morning, Rygar held audience with them. They plead their case before him: Arazka was a dishonorable scoundrel who had wronged them, and they sought him in order to regress their grievances. Rygar was amenable to this, and he indicated right away that Arazka had departed for nearby Kingmaker Island with Rygar’s permission to retake it from its recalcitrant sealord. He asked his own favor, however: he wanted Arazka dead, troublemaker he was.
Lastly, the party staked out the Rainbow Inn and Keep for more clues.
At the Rainbow Inn and Keep, the party arranged a meeting with a seedy underworld figure, and in the wee hours of the next night they arrived at the pre-arranged alley rendezvous. Amidst a tense game of maneuvering, each party attempting to insure themselves against treachery, the mafioso, Thalm, identified the stolen necklace as a trap: a glittering sapphire set into a silver chain with a tiny pin that would explode if the parts were separated, maiming any would-be thief in the process. Evie and Thorpe were able to disarm the situation, completing the exchange (for the sum of 100 platinum dragons) and learning that Thalm, a member of the Boromar Clan crime family, was willing, if not eager, to do repeat business with the party.
Also of note, Mr. Chatham was in the market for a weapon, and he located Xodon and Manfan, famed craftsman and joint proprietors of a forge and enchantery of some repute. They will forge and enchant a weapon for 500 galifars.
Finally, the party sought out the Seafarer’s guild and procured a chart of Kingmaker Island, indicating a defensible cove with deep water leading up to it—a likely hideout for any would-be Sealord, or perhaps a marauding pirate.
Four days later, on Zarantyr 19, the Crown set sail for Kingmaker Island, searching for Captain Arazka, who was said to have set sail for it.
There, after doing some exhausting climbing and reconnaissance, they found their old longboat, last seen the day the Mercurial attacked, beached before a cave… and laying in wait, a Sahuagin hunting party.
The party delved further into the caves on Kingmaker Island. They fought off sahuagin laying in wait on the shore, they battled more as they crossed a bridge to the south beach, and they forced their way into the caves through yet another squad of fish-men, led by a land-shark-riding lieutenant.
Finally, they cut down the towering Baron of the piscine hunters, and they plumbed the deepest depth of the cave, where they found Captain Arazka, defeated and imprisoned, apparently being saved for dessert.
The party alternately bullied and bribed much of the information they sought out of the deeply drunk captain. Arazka had arrived on this island in hopes of conquering it, but the landing party he led had been cut down, and the rest of the crew had apparently mutinied and took the Mercurial out to sea, leaving Arazka behind in captivity.
More importantly, Arazka had indeed been selling Dreamlily to Tyrn, and he had been receiving Dragonshards in return, to take back to his patron—whom he kept referring to as the Lord of the Storms, with a strange mirth. But his patron’s desire for the magical minerals eventually evaporated, and Arazka saw one last opportunity for profit in his relationship to Tyrn: to try to steal his ship, and to sell him out to his enemies. And so he did: he detained Tyrn aboard the Mercurial and sent Camouflage and a detachment of marines to attempt to seize the Crown, and then he sailed to Regalport to turn over Tyrn to the Brelish authorities.
The crew of the Crown has charted a course into treacherous waters. Testra, chief Brelish diplomat in Regalport, has told them that if they bring her Arazka alive, she can tell them where Captain Tyrn is. But now they have a good guess as to how it is she knows his whereabouts, and it does not fill them with admiration for her. Almost certain death by hanging awaits Tyrn if he is languishing in her custody. And yet she remains one of the few people in Lhazaar who can lead the party to him.
Meanwhile, what were Tyrn’s motives? His relationship with Arazka is now undeniable, as are the lengths he went to to conceal it from the party. But the party has no clear picture as to why he would pursue, and then hide, business like this.
And that leads to the greatest mystery hanging over the wayward crew: the Lord of the Storms. Arazka does not seem to take the notion that he is making midnight sacrifices to the Devourer very seriously, and even besides that, Dragonshards seem like an odd sacrifice to the Sovereign of the Waves. But the titanic storms crashing through the Lhazaaran Principalities every week are not easy to dismiss as a mere coincidence.
What were Arazka and Tyrn up to all those months ago, and what awaits them tonight?