Hunting Slavers in Saltmarsh

I had arrived in Luma but that day when I saw a notice that some guild called the 'EEE' wanted to take out some slavers. Slavers, I have a particular interest in slavers so I asked about it and was told that the Enclave of Elder Elementalists wanted to send a backup to a team of theirs who had found some smugglers or slavers in Saltmarsh. Something about a wizard escaping with a dangerous alchemist's tome, but the important thing for me was slavers.

Luma provides fee accommodation and meals at The Inn of Infinite Doors. This was welcome after my travels but, have I escaped from the Feywild for a second time only to come to another place that traps folk under a seeming of kindness? I must be wary, be watchful, be alert.

The Enclave arranged to teleport me and another volunteer, Fartholomay a hafling Bard, to Monmarth, the city closest to Saltmarsh, and from there by boat to Saltmarsh where we should find the team at the Snapping Line tavern. Fartholomay wore a festival outfit of bright colours and a purple ruff. Their hair was shaved except for along the centre where it had been brought up in a rainbow of wedges. Fartholomay carried an instrument I have not seen before. I hope I get to hear them play. I have rarely seen a stranger costume in the Feywild. Beside them I will disappear into the background. Being a Rock Gnome I am no taller and my plain brown coat and trousers and heavy boots do not catch the eye. The handaxes I carry look more tool than proper weapon and the shortbow and quiver are just another bundle on my back.

The travel all went according to the plan. This Enclave has a lot of reach and resources. Once in Saltmarsh, a straggling fishing village, The Snapping Line was easy to find. It was built from salvage of old fishing boats and smelled strongly of fish. Such a smell could hide all manner of wrongness in the food and drink. Such as from the wine being drunk, wich we were told was brewed from lobsters. Two of the team we were looking for were at the bar. C'thie Pepperbeau, a human with long messy hair, an eye patch (which later I learnt was fake) wearing a leather vest with a sleek, strange item that looked like a hand-crossbow stock with a metal tube along where the bolt channel would be. C'thie was miming bad pirate jokes to Odu Bathax, a strange creature who looked like a giant praying mantis. The Thri-Kreen wore a wooden mask, and was pretending to laugh at C'thie's jokes.

As always, when asked my name, I did not answer with it but just said "I'm blink'in serene, I am, calm as a mill pond covered in morning mist". People then seem to call me Blink'in Serene. It works as well for a name as any other would.

The young human woman behind bar called out a hello and asked if we wanted to order anything. Anything so long as it was fish. C'thie told us they were waiting for another of their team to wake, and for C'thie's seagull familiar to return with a report. The food was being paid for by someone else and was not something I had had to gather and cook myself so I got a bowl of fishy stew and something to drink that had not been lobster. As soon as I could politely do so, I begged Fartholomay to play. Fartholomay was not reluctant and produced a performance that drew in a great crowd even though it was early in the afternoon. The music was so good that I cried my stew into a chowder. Fartholomay would have got the praise of the lords of the Fey, not their ire as I had to my great loss and cost.
The tavern was crowded with a raucous audience for Fartholomay's performance but still a seagull flew in and landed by C'thie. C'thie told us their familiar reported the slaver's boat was anchored a little way, 17 miles, along the coast and there seemed to be less than a dozen foes. We gathered our gear, Fartholomay, and Ily's casket (as they still slept) and headed while it was still light to a Master Anders. As we walked I thanked Fartholomay for the music. Master Anders had earlier offered to lend C'thie's team a boat to track down the Sea Princes and made good his promise.

The captain was friendly enough and Ily's casket was secured in such a way that she could still open it when she woke. I evoked Guidance for the captain and indeed he navigated so well that a few hours after dark came we espied a ship's riding light in the distance. C'thie's seagull flew and confirmed it was the same boat and that there was only one on night-watch. We borrowed the ship's rowing boat and quietly slipped over. The night watch on the ship was a half-drow, whittling away their time on the starboard side. We quietly rowed up to the port side. C'thie in panther shape swam to the stern and climb up to the taffrail using her claws. Odu climbed quietly up the side of the boat by the stairs up to the poop deck. They seemed to stay that way for a long time. Maybe Odu was waiting to be sure C'thie reached the taffrail. Then Odu tied a rope and dropped an end to the dingy where Fartholomay and I waited. Fartholomay cast Mage Armour. I tied the rope and went up to the waist as that was as far as I could get swiftly enough. The night-watch saw Odu tie the rope and ran for the ship's bell. C'thie and Odu did their best to stop him. The first to respond were the Second Mate and Bloody Bjon from the forward cabins. The Second Mate Charmed me, but Odu came down, attacked her in passing and tried to use an oar from the ship's boat to block the hatch grating. For his valour he was cut down by Bloody Bjorn but C'thie got Odu up again with a Healing Word. Fartholomay caused the Second Mate and Bloody Bjorn to flee into the sea over the far side of the ship and it was late in the fight before they were given a rope to climb back aboard.

I put on my red cap. I could describe the fight in detail, if you want a blow-by-blow account, but in brief every few seconds a couple more of the crew swarmed out, mostly from the aft cabins. The lizard folk were trapped in the hold as there was always at least two on the hatch grates fighting, their weight preventing the lizard folk opening the hatch. For much of the fight C'thie and Odu were on the poop deck trying to pick off targets and Fartholomay and I held the deck before the stairs against about three times our number of big folk. When the crewman between him and the stairs went down Fartholomay was able to escape up the stairs and I was able to drop my handaxe and pick up a scimitar which suited me better. The crew and cavemen started dying. The captain joined the fight and then spell casters. C'thie attacked the man we were hunting by turning into a Giant Toad and attempting to swallow him but was overwhelmed by attacks from others. I think all of us went down at one stage or another, but always someone else aided with a spell or potion. I went down to Bloody Bjorn after Punketah had hit me with Melf's Acid Arrow and Witch Bolt. C'thie poured a healing potion down me to get me up again, but my red cap had come off.

The Captain had gone down and the others surrendered. By then there was only the Second Mate, Bloody Bjorn, Punketah the spell caster, a deckhand and the three lizard folk still standing. And the four of us.