Session 17: On the Road 2

General Summary

We pick up the session with Mitzu doing some shopping. He picked up some new armor and bought himself an Alchemy jug for the road.
The party headed out the next morning on the barge bringing the horses with them. Rahl convinced the party that braving the dangers of pushing through the night was worth the time saved to make the trip in two days instead of three.

Taking the first watch Rahl hears an increasingly loud roaring noise and notices, almost too late, that there is a split in the river just ahead, one branch heading towards some rough but manageable rapids, and another towards a waterfall and they're heading straight towards the waterfall. With some quick action using the poles to redirect with the help of the sailor on duty he manages to start to steer them towards the other branch. Deciding that some help would be good he attempts to kick first one then another bucket towards Jameak in an attempt to wake him, but they fly wide. Despite this with some help from a quick blast of his flame breath used as a jet and the two men working together he manages to guide them safely away from the danger and down the safer fork with little more than some minor bumps into rocks along the way.

The two forks soon rejoin and Rahl finds himself and the barge in a wide and calm section of the river with the waterfall in the near distance and surrounded by meadows, the forest a few hundred feet away. Rahl wakes Jameak for his watch who notices the idyllic scene around him and that the water, despite the churn, is surprisingly clear and even in the dark he can see numerous fish swimming in the waters below.

Continuing down the Chionthar River Jameak's watch goes uneventful aside from seeing shapes in the darkness and Mitzu soon takes over watch.

Towards the end of his watch Mitzu finds himself in a wide and deep section of the river and catches sight of sinuous shapes in the water. He informs the sailor on duty of what he saw and decides that pulling over and stopping for the night would be the best course of action. As they do the barge is bumped a few times, but otherwise seems unbothered. They wake up the crew and move the people and horses onto shore for the remainder of the night.

Determined to see what is in the water Mitzu summons a bat and has it scout out into the river. It is quickly disappeared by whatever is in the river before he can see what got to it. Deciding to use his second wildshape he summons another bat, Jimmothy II, to scout. This one is also quickly disappeared, but not before Mitzu is able to catch a good look at a large mouth full of sharp teeth on the end of a long sinuous neck and recognizes it as a creature he's heard about, but not seen before.

Waking with the dawn the party makes the rest of their way down the river uneventfully and arrives to the outskirts of Baldur’s Gate. The captain of the barge informs them that horses aren't allowed inside city limits, but that they won't have any trouble finding stables outside the city to hold their horses if they need. Mitzu, perhaps feeling like the crew should get some compensation for the increased danger of the ship gives the captain an extra 20 gold out of sight of the rest of the party and they head off towards the city to find jobs for the next stage of their journey.