Session 31 - Border Security

As the boat sat in the seas outside of Thay, a smaller rowboat filled with armoured people wearing green cloaks left the shore towards them. Jurgen and John Dungeons recognised these as old signs of resistance against Thay, an alliance between Marica and Luceria.   Yaldranth disguised himself with a similar green cloak in case they boarded. Adam yelled a hello to the other boat, still lightly smoking from the lightning. They stopped and asked what they were and how they managed to get out of Thay. Yaldranth appeared and tried to act like a superior, though they seemed to not be impressed. Adam then quickly tried to explain what had actually happened, saying they could check their memories for proof. The guards seemed hesitant but accepted it for the time being. They fired some kind of flair into the sky, which Jurgen thought was a message to investigate.   As they waited, Yaldranth and Finn started to speak with some of the birds flying around, asking about what there was around them. One seagull landed and asked for food. Finn threw a chip towards them, which immediately caused the rest to descend on the ship in chaos. Yaldranth tried to ask them where they were, but couldn't get any other response from them.   Eventually the investigation team arrived and put up an antimagic field and told the party to line up at the side of the ship. Finn said that as the captain of the ship, he wanted to finish speaking with them. He gave some basic info about himself, then explained that they had found the teleportation circle under Overbridge which seemed to worry the guards. They asked if they had taken anything from Thay, Finn said yes and showed them the cube. They asked him to hand it over as they thought it was an archive of Thay. Finn said he would provided he could be part of the investigation team for it.   They kept asking questions about what they experienced, if they thought any of them had been replaced. Including the fastidious throwatious crustaceous aka. the slingshot crabs. After this was finished, they decided to not immediately shoot us and instead escort the ship to port.   As we set off, they asked a final question: "Does the black moon howl?", to which Finn tentatively answered no. They seemed to accept this and moved on. Jurgen thought they might be testing some kind of activation phrase for mental manipulation.   The ship finally docked at the small town of Westport. In the past it seemed to have been much larger, with fortress walls and ballista, which had since fallen into disrepair. Jurgen and Finn stayed on the ship, debating whether they could possibly fix them. Meanwhile, Yaldranth went into town to book rooms at the inn and Adam started talking with the guards. They gave him a quick history of the surrounding area, then Jurgen and Finn started talking to them about possibly fixing the ballista.   Adam went off to find Yaldranth, and they booked rooms for the night. While sleeping, Adam was pulled into a performance review where he got gold as a bonus, but was also told that Aine hadn't returned to them after being eaten, and they couldn't find her anywhere. He promised to keep looking for her, and was given the next location to investigate within the Pale Forest.   During the night, John Dungeons noticed a strange person looking at the boat accompanied by an automaton. He woke Finn up to deal with them, only for Finn to recognise the person as Ben O'Billy, an old friend and teacher of his. Dungeons was still wary and sensed something strange about the person, but Finn happily showed him around the boat and talked about how their lives had been.