Tof-240117-eric

We make it back to the ship (minor ret-con)
- We drop the prisoner off with some of the crew, and I make sure the guards on our ship are doubled
  - There are a few stragglers who wanted to apply, one of them is a #Gnoll who seems actually pretty competent
    - His name is Fish-Kicker and he was healing people when we got there
      - He says he's had some sailing experience, and animal wrangling (but not monster hunting)
        
        I welcome him to the crew, and we head to Tedrick Graime's place
We get there, and the place is burning and full of smoke
- Ell points out that he hears voices that do not sound panicked
  - We suspect cultists, and start getting ready
    - I tell everyone to fan out a bit to try to look for possible survivors in case it's not just cultists
      - We find cultists!
We fight them, they continue to get sucked into some weird portal when they die
- We fight them downstairs, several of them gang up on me
  - Some of them seem to be mutating or displaying some kind of squid-like attributes
    - There are other cultists upstairs, some of the party go after them while I'm busy with the ones downstairs
      - After we clean up the ones downstairs, we head upstairs
        
        I carve my way through another on the stairs
The cultists seem satisfied, it seems they got what they came for
- The remaining ones leave
  - We follow a trail of blood to a locked door
    - Ell has shapeshifted into a giant boar, and rams down the door
      - I step in, and narrowly avoid getting hit in the head by a crossbow bolt
        
        Tedrick Graime is here, but he looks really bad
        
        His face is smashed up, and he's missing a hand
        
        The cultists got his ring
We heal Tedrick Graime a bit
- The fire is still going on
  - We see signs that the fight here went on for a while, this was a protracted battle
    - We get the fires put out, and lead Tedrick Graime out to take him to our ship. He needs rest
      - We bump into Avercrumbie Finch on our way towards the ship
        
        He is very upset about Tedrick Graime, he implies he wants to join our voyage, and asks how Johan Baraxus is doing
        
        We send Ell to drop Tedrick Graime off with our ship
Johan Baraxus's place is very smashed, but he isn't there
- His sister, Sasha Baraxus is trying to take care of things in his absence
  - She says he has been gone for a few days, he's out on a raid
    - We offer our condolences and ask if she knows who had the third ring
      - She says it was someone pretty posh, who had some snooty shop in Greengarden
We head into Greengarden looking for the person in question
- We track down his shop
  - It's not closed, but nobody else is there
    - I smell blood, and we find the shop keeper dead in the back
      - His hand is also cut off
        
        Ell follows some tracks and finds a lingering magical trace where the perpetrator teleported away
        
        Milhouse found some coins, they match the ones he found at Tedrick Graime's place. They came from Kamangara
I surmise that the cultists might still be around, since there is no teleportation device and they didn't seem like powerful mages
- We set off for the Captain's Castle to try to get a halt on any ships leaving port
  - We find the castle has a hole in the wall, and an old friend of ours is stuck
    - It seems he was trying to escape from jail in the chaos
      - Viticus asks for help getting out, we're able to get him unstuck
        
        He says he saw some cultists heading to the graveyard, so we can probably ignore them (because Sampson would kill them)
        
        He says Ash-heart Flint is at the docks, so we head that way
We find Ash-heart Flint and Myungja Guanyin at the docks, talking to Avercrumbie Finch and telling him he's not allowed to “go down the trench lane”
- Avercrumbie Finch asks to join us on our hunt for the Kraken
  - He says he's dying, he's 87 years old and “needs to do somethings” before he goes
    - I agree, but ask him what the “trench lane” is
      - He says “it's where the dead go”

session, TOF