Scented Flowers, Sonorous Birdsongs

Discovery, Exploration

The Iron Wolves sign a contract to help the herbalist Aldarina acquire one more component upon Agate Cay.  I sleepless storming night by boat led into a harsh harvest of a a deadly flower.  With dangerous supposedly past, the party heard cannon fire from shore.  Rushing back they witnessed their vessel get robbed by pirates.  As the pirates retreated, a signal arrow summon harpies from the rocky shore to lure the ship and passengers to their doom.  The Iron Wolves battle to save their fishermen and voyage from the island ranged from shore to boat to rocking nesting ground.  In they end, the part spent their next night continental within the private homes of the villagers.

Having done an exquisite job with their chimera venom gland harvest, Ladore Aldarina offered the Iron Wolves an opportunity to help retrieve one last component before returning to Phaloxil. Without any other immediate claims upon their time and the desire to keep less prepared individuals from being drafted, the Iron Wolves agreed. For this next task, a contract was signed due to Aldarina not having any reward on hand... as well as the fact that he would be joining these dangerous strangers out to a coastal island trusting that they wouldn't murder him. By trusting, I mean sending a Duplication Seal copy of the contract back to the Marquis Bifulco with their signatures incase anything happened to him.   The Iron Wolves met Aldarina's carriage driver Peter Fulcman the next day. Aldarina spent the drive alone in his carriage while the other walked, rode summoned creatures, and took turns up front with Mr. Fulcman. Meeting the shoreline with the night and a storm at the same time, Aldarina pressed to head out immediately. The elvish indvidual pressed money into the sailors hands, using the influence of money over self safety. This lead to a less than restful night. Kain was left without a hammock to ease the swaying of the vessel while Zeran's ports and plumbing were not near ready for the salt.   The morning showed Agate Cay not too far off but the fishing vessel couldn't safely get closer and the boat was too small (and villagers too poor) to have a secondary row boat. Getting to the island involved a bit of a contest of being Extra as well as the veiled pomp of backhanded etiquette. Aldarina stored his excess clothes on the ship, only taking his work bags. Jumping from the vessel, his boots buoyed under the water slightly before lifting him back up to walk across the surface. While Daniel stored his spell tome and card materials on the ship, Lyle took off in dolpin form to out-do the herbalist. When that wasn't appreciated, Lyle simple splashed and soaked the dry man multiple times.
  While the initial plan was to have Aldarina ready on the shore to perform the material harvesting in the safety of the open, Gregor's scan of the area revealed a discreet canvas flag hanging from a tree to better track the shoreline. Aldarina joined the Iron Wolves in woods to not only find the desired musk flower, but also a few other dangerous fronds. Joining the plants were the incubated musk corpses of sailors not so lucky to have found the yellow musk flower.   The allure of the fronds mixed with the digestive enzymes and tangling vines to prove quite the dangerous combination. The soggy corpses proved the final layer of difficulty as they would be damaged and fall apart but would not fully die as fast as desired. As the harvest was completed (though no other preservation has yet been done), the party heard the din of cannon fire in the distance. The voyage from this island may not look like the voyage away from it.   After acquiring the Musk Flower taproot, the party rushed back to the shoreline to witness the fishing boat a half mile off shore being ransacked by pirates. While the party decided what they should do, they witnessed the pirate crew begin to depart from the vessel, firing a flaming, screeching arrow into the air on a very high, narrow arc. As the Pirates sailed away to the left, to the right the party could see two winged humanoids flying from the rocky shore.   The Party split three ways, Daniel taking immediate lead swimming out to the boat followed by Zeran, Gregor and Kain staying on the shore attempting to get the harpies' attention, and Lyle running down the shore with Atohi to investigate where the monsters had come from.   Gregor's bellows managed to split one of the harpies to the shore but it only got close enough to ensnare Kain in it's song. Enhanced by Daniel's growth dweomer, Zeran got to the fishing boat just as the second Harpy arrived but was not fast enough to get to it before she began her song and took to the air once more. The fisherman fell under the sway and began piloting the vessel towards the song. Zeran attempted to stop the vessel with the anchor as Daniel finished his swimming approach. Daniel grabbed a stray bit of timber before demanding that Zeran heave him into the air. As he reached his pinnacle, he lobbed the refuse up higher and as he fell, he empower the piece with a catapult enchantment to fire further upward. In dismay, the object peak under the altitude of the Harpy and began it's descent again as Daniel impacted back on the deck. With the other harpy returning to it's companion, the two heroes fell under the sway of both harpy songs.   Upon the shore, Lyle's endeavor with Ahoti located the origin of the harpies: a craggy shoreline nest among other ships that had been run upon the rocks. Retreating just enough to return to Gregor and Kain, the trio made their way to the crags, cutting across land to cut the distance short. Lyle had taken a moment to entangle the boat in seaweed to gain them time to arrive soon enough to begin dealing with the resident harpies before the duo with the fishing boat could fully return.   The battle commenced upon the cliffs, down to the boats, and across the waves where the impending doom of the rocks allowed Zeran and Daniel to free themselves. Blasts of divine light and and catapulted debris mixed with the made fury of halberd and spectral fist. The Harpy's song lured the ship onward and Kain upward toward the cliffs and diving flurries of talon and wing attempted to crushed and knock heroes from ledges. In the end, a few harpies died while a majority of them retreated marred by searing light and battered. The heroes quickly gathered the strength of the sailors, retrieved the stalking herbalist, and made their way back to the continent.   Aldarina paid for temporary usage of two villagers huts and in the morning, the arrogant man took the carriage's front bench with Peter Fulcman and gave the Iron Wolves use of the carriages interior.