Dramatis Personae

Sheila Heidmarch                    Pathfinder Venture Captain, resides at Heidmarch Manor
Natalya Vancaskerkin              Former Tower Girl, at Heidmarch Manor, working for VC SH
Lan                                           A local fisherman
Olar                                          A local fisherman
Rasmiri Jaikarko                      Sczarni crime boss. One of us owes him a favor(?)
Doctor Landis                          Curator at the Museum of Ages
Laureline Landis                     Doc's wife; threw a garden party which was attacked by oozes
Justine Landis                          Doc's daughter; very attractive; Alejandro has "dibs"
Dr. Archisa Aparna                 Pathfinder, resides at Heidmarch Manor
Koriah Azmeren                      Pathfinder assistant, works for VC Sheila Heidmarch
Dremis                                     Defeated foe; was trying to impress Aspis lodge in Capital District
Ol' Ma'am                                Proprietress of the Old Fang
Zograthy, the Magnificent      Fortune teller in Washer's Row; pesh head
Sabriyya Kalmeralm               Princess of the Market; really likes us
Lt. Kaseidi                              Lt. of the Watch, often at the Avensoar; Alejandro has "dibs"
Billiver Billiven                       Gnome alchemist, runs Billiven’s BB&EE
King Zugga                             Deceased; King of the Mites; mourned the loss of Clickylegs
Fenster                                    Deceased Madman; warehouse squatter in Underbridge
Ayala "The Rat" Javeski         Tower Girl leader, wererat, whereabouts unknown
Terisha Skiloni                        Tower Girl lieutenant, whip-wielding ambusher, location unknown

The bireme sets sail...

As you watch, the sides of the vessel suddenly sprout oars, and a several deck hands run up from below and scurry into the rigging to unfurl the ship's large, single sail. The ship starts to move out of the bay out to sea, and as its speed rises, you are able to spy two flags fluttering from an ensign staff at the rear of the boat:

Lower Levels of the Crowe

Anyone who peeks over Garath's shoulder is able to see the maps and notations Garath has made regarding the lower levels of the Crowe . . .

30- Fight with ants
31- Mining mites flee
32- Black widow fight
33- Zugga's "throne room"

34- Secret door!

35- Mites' bedchamber (abandoned)
36- Stairs down
37- Water spider's lair

 

38- Stairs back up
39- Dog spider battle, nearly killed Garath
40- Sinspawn in cages
41- Webbed spider lair... Garath navigated this in dark
42- Healing pool
43- Ancient kitchen (centipedes in ovens)
44- Ancient pantry (skeleton servers)
45- Battle with Clickylegs
46- Barracks leading to stairs down . . .

He has not yet set down the map for the lowest level, wherein there be devils.

Thinking of a Woman

Just as Alejandro begins to explain to the group the common uses for a vessel like a bireme which Kagome spotted out upon the bay of Magnimar, he turns back to the beautiful woman who made such an observation. 

"Mi Amore Kagome... a thought has just occurred to me.  Did you find it interesting the decor of the level where the demon was found.  I have known many women, and laid in many parlors.  I have ventured the far expanse of the inner sea and paid my respects to all sorts of churches and temples.  That level of the Crow did not seem to me to be like a temple."
  
Turning to Gareth, "You know that the place we have been wandering through is really old (I mean REALLY old), and the other runelords have been dead for almost 10,000 years, so nobody knows what they really looked like, right?"

"Krang, isn't it true that statues that have been found in other places depict Alaznist as a beautiful, yet enraged human woman with long hair, flowing robes, and wielding a thorny ranseur." Alejandro pauses to mumble something about carpet and drapes under his breath.  "Isn't that’s what the mural that was here and is now gone looked like, and so did the statue where we fought the abyssal larva."

Looking back to Kagome, "Which leads me back to my initial thought.   As I think about the depictions of Alaznist that we have found, I get the feeling that they aren't so much of statues in temples or places of worship.  They feel more like family portraits, or personal memorabilia.  All of this seems to suggest that perhaps this wasn’t just an outpost of Alaznist’s followers, but a redoubt of the Runelord herself."  

"Krang, what do you know of this runelord?  All I know is that Alaznist is said to have been impatient and impulsive, caring little for magical research, and preferred modifying her many troops by magical means.  Gareth, do you think this has any relation to these 'sinspawn' that the professor asked us to get samples of?"