Beasts at Sea

We landed on Phecus, one of the Sister Isles, to restock the ship and decide our next move.
 
Lord Rohrouk read more from his book Deltavrian History, on Petronia and Patronia:
 
Like all things, they disagree on everything. Whichever city it was, one of the two was the first human city upon the sea (both claim this, of course)
 
To kill time, Luce and Rohrouk headed to the pubs on the harbor to listen in on any new news. There’s nothing new, save for:
 
Ship travel between Karakedum and their hold on Tier Shannigray has doubled; the war’s gotten worse
 
We were approached by a tattooed half-elf, a rough looking type. He, Badik, claims to work for someone in Forcalish, a man who “is taking an eye on the Grand Odyssey”. He knows we sailed from the straits of Hamaeus, and before that from haunted Timadaea. Badik knows we fought “small ones” (dwarves), who have returned home. He has offered to sell us information, particularly
 
Rohrouk did pay, and Badik conveyed that the kobolds are not far from us now, on a secluded island of sorts – they may or may not have run their ship aground. We recognized his description as the place Kiryntes marked for us as well, where Deltavros’ tomb is.
 
Just a Badik left, Luce paid him for a means of communication. He was given (for 100gp) a magical earring (which Lice promptly got pierced).
 
In the meanwhile Avrios accompanied Cassandra to the island’s temple to the Raven Queen. Luce wasn’t privy to her/their conversation(s), but he did later learn that Cass pulled another card from her sacred deck, and had another vision upon the ink-black sea. There was something to do with a sword and a two-handed axe, and a mountain of weapons (that later catch on fire).
 
Avrois’ lie, at Cassandra’s behest to keep what happened secret, was to Luce that he was teaching Cass and Eragon how to swim.
 
Cass mused that the Children of Loscipulus would be inclined to spy on the other teams, including us.
 
 

The Harpies

 
Finally, we resolved to take on Kiryntes’ mission to defeat a sea monster. It took us a day to return to the spot the dragon had pointed out, and Cassandra pointed out a ship moored nearby on our approach. To her horror, they shot down her owl.
 
”Harpies’ Keening off the port bow! They have the wind!”
 
We turned to try and avoid the Harpies’ Keening, but she caught up to us. Her captain called for an attack, and a strange metal device – a huge wand of sorts? – unloaded lead and fire upon the side of the Shortreef. The magical device tore through the lower decks.
 
On the top deck, a woman dressed in red (a noblewoman) showed us she could command fucking lightning. More importantly, Eragon showed he can also command lightning.
 
When the captain and her berserker goliath boarded the ship, I was (finally) able to pull her strong-boy friend with me overboard. “Hope you like chum.”
 

Turns out these magic, fancy guns don’t work underwater

 
At last, with some help from Avrios, Luce took down the two unfortunate souls (the berserker and a goblin mechanic or inventor) and sent them to the deep. The Harpies’ Keening had turned tail and fled when the fight had swung in the Fatecarvers’ favor, and all that was left was to haul themselves back up on deck (thanks to a line from Cass) and run to help the crew make the ship seaworthy-enough.