by Floyd Fiftynames, Licensed Bard
After Lothar and his friends killed the werewolf lord in the back of Jonas the Gnome's Oddities Shop, they learned a few new lessons:
1. Werewolf Lords are hard to kill, even for five highly trained evil dispatchers
2. Walls are thinner than doors
3. Killing a monster who reverts back to a man upon death means it's time to go for everyone involved
And so it was that Jonas came to stop having a shop in Aaron's Port, but that seemed like a small part of the larger overall story (only time will tell), especially when compared to the party's first boat ride.
Lothar had seen plenty of magic in his life by this point. He had stood on the edge of a mountain, overlooking forever, and he had seen the great chasm, which seemingly had no bottom, but as he looked out over the water, truly for the first time that morning (their previous trip to the docks had been after sunset, when the true majesty of the sea could not be fully appreciated), he felt, for the very first time, that he was seeing something infinite.
What it is about the mysteries of the great water which draw men in, this bard cannot say. He comes from a long line of earth dwellers, of proud gnomes who came from beneath the hills and lived among the rocks and soil. The ocean is not in his blood, but for men, it's different. For humans, the sea is somehow their mother, and it's terrible wrath is a small price to pay for the sound of it's song, and the embrace of the waves.
Lothar took well to being on a boat. After a few days in, he could see an alternate life for himself, had he not become a hero, wherein he could have been a sailor, and plied his tanner trade aboard a mighty sailing vessel. He celebrated nightly with the ship's crew and the other passengers, finding a solace and relief he had not known for some time.
In the meantime, Lioto and Salem were making friends - members of Lioto's order, who were undertaking a pilgrimage. One admired Lioto very much. The other took himself very seriously. Ajanni became a seagull to learn more about the high ship walls that came up every night, and discovered the ship was being driven by water elementals at night to make it go faster. Riordan took the party to see the captain, and let him know they were wise to him, but had no issues with this practice. In fact, the party offered their heroic services to him, should the need arise. The captain thanked the boys, and assured them he would call on them if trouble found their voyage.
Sure enough, trouble found them.
FF
This is great.
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