A Siren's Song - Session Six

Last time on A Siren’s Song…
We find ourselves in the Swashbuckler’s Den tavern in Coral Cove as Nabia has just made her plea for more crew. A large number throw in their lot and are ordered to report to the Edge Dancer before dawn the following morning.
Meanwhile, back on-board Edge Dancer, Zalphid wakes up from his communion with Ozym. He finds himself in a predicament, though, as he’s been strung up to the rafters. Staring in drunken awe below him, are three Kuo-Toa fish people. Zalphid demands that the Kuo-Toa let him down, but they appear not to understand him and only yell back in some unknown tongue. The cacophony, however, has caught the attention of one of the remaining crew and they come to Zalphid’s aid, lowering him from the rafters.
Zalphid, assuming the ship has been stolen, demands to know where he is. The crewmate answers that they are still in port in Coral Cove as the ship needs repairs and that Nabia is still captain. This eases Zalphid a bit and he demands the crewmate take him to The Treasure Hunter's Guild. The crewmate acquiesces and they disembark.
At the Treasure Hunter’s Guild, Zalphid immediately word-vomits his requests to the desk clerk. He doesn’t have the answers for him, but he does go to retrieve an elder guild member by the name of Valarion. As Valarion asks what it is Zalphid seeks, Zalphid word-vomits once more what he requests. Valarion takes this into consideration and shows Zalphid an ancient Triton journal that they have been unable to decipher. Zalphid asks if he can have it to which Valarion agrees, further stating that Zalphid may be able to find more answers at The Pearl of Persana, in the Triton undersea capital of Nautilus.
With thanks, Zalphid exits the guild and makes for the The Guildhall of Navigators, the next stop on his journey. Along the way, he passes the Swashbuckler’s Den where Feeshi Wee**** sees him and calls him in. Zalphid reluctantly goes in and Feeshi and the rest of the party start filling him up with Bul. Having never partaken in any spirit, Zalphid quickly finds himself inebriated with the rest of the crew. Not understanding his state, he claims that he is being poisoned while yet he still continues to swig the swill that is poured before him.
Before leaving, Lalrihyn, although inebriated herself, takes note that the atmosphere of the tavern, while still jovial, seems a bit subdued. She asks the bartender, Magnus, what is up. He claims that there is a mysterious stranger about town who is making people uneasy. He overheard two of his regulars speaking of this person and that a captain at the Navigator’s Guild might have more information.
With that information and completely drunk now, the party decide to join Zalphid on his journey to the Navigator’s Guild. This goes much the same way, though, save for the inebriation. Within, most of the party request the presence of the captain involved with the mysterious stranger while Zalphid, once again, word-vomits his need for answers.
The captain is the first one out and he introduces himself as Captain Elaris. He doesn’t have a lot of information on the stranger, only that they were spotted exiting a ship that was arriving from a far-off land. The individual was wearing a brown cloak and appeared to be female. Captain Elaris then stated that he had heard rumors that she frequents the area of the Blackened Anchor.
After Elaris has divulged his information, a guild member named Liriel comes out to answer Zalphid’s questions. Although she doesn’t have a lot of information, she points Zalphid in the direction of Nautilus.
With what information they have gathered, the party exits the guild and Nabia makes it known that she needs to return to Coral’s Curiosities as she’s decided she wants something she saw there. Once inside, Coral side-eyes their return. Nabia humbles herself and asks Coral about anything that could help her see better at night. Coral presents an eyepatch and states its cost. Being too rich for Nabia’s liking currently, she declines, but Coral prods her to barter with her.
Nabia knows that Coral wants quests fulfilled and offers to commit to complete three of these quests for her and a deal is made wherein Nabia receives the eyepatch immediately. With business concluded, Feeshi makes it known that he needs arms that don’t kick quite as hard but still cause equivalent damage as a standard firearm. He leads the way to The Coral Coast Arms.
Inside they meet Forge, the Warforged artificer and tinkerer. Feeshi requests his need, but finds that he, too, doesn’t have the funds to acquire the weapons. Forge makes a deal with Feeshi wherein if Feeshi tracks down a missing shipment of elemental gems, he’ll develop a miniature flint-lock pistol that packs the same punch as a normal-sized pistol. Feeshi is handed a manifest for a ship that made port earlier named the Dawn Flower that includes the crate of elemental gems.
Leaving Forge, night has fallen and our party returns to the Edge Dancer to turn in. Watches are taken, but nothing out of the ordinary happens overnight. The next morning, before dawn, the new crew are found on the dock to process on board. While the other crew attend to this matter, Nabia calls a core-crew breakfast to determine the party’s next course of action. Captain Argos won’t have the ship ready until about midday, so the party has a little bit of time left in town. Feeshi voices his want to investigate the missing shipment for Forge at the Coral Coast Arms.
While eating, someone notices a lot of the store of pickles has been dumped on the floor. Looking at the faces around the table, Nabia pinpoints Zalphid acting coy about it. She asks him what he has done and he responds that he hasn’t done anything and that the jars are in their proper location. Kodos goes to investigate and finds pickle jars buried in the back with something other than pickles inside. When confronted again, Zalphid admits that they are the brains of Naiara and Aelorin from his torture the night before last.
Nabia admonishes Zalphid about dumping food stores and that Zalphid should have gotten new jars. She tells Zalphid they can go to Argos and acquire more jars as his need requires. Further, it is determined that Zalphid can no longer be left alone and a cabin boy will be permanently assigned to him when he is not with another party member.
After stopping to see Argos about pickle jars, the party head off to help Feeshi with his investigation. At the docks, Feeshi starts asking around and eventually comes across a dockworker who acts suspiciously when questions are asked. Little to their knowledge, Zalphid is probing the thoughts of this individual and relaying the information to Feeshi telepathically. The dockworker eventually relents and points them in the direction of an abandoned warehouse.
The party head off for the abandoned warehouse where they find an unlocked door. They enter and begin investigating, noting signs of recent occupation and what appears to have been a struggle with drag marks on the floor leading to a wall. Further investigation, reveals a loose brick that exposes a latch that opens a door to a hidden room. The room, however, is empty and nothing but a scrap of paper and a piece of fabric are found. The fabric looks like that of the uniforms that The Tideguard Order wear. The scrap paper only makes mention of The Azure Syndicate. As soon as the Azure Syndicate becomes a known entity, Nabia nopes out taking Lolly and Kodos with her. Feeshi and Zalphid develop a plan to find the Azure Syndicate.
Nabia, Kodos, and Lolly head off toward the Blackened Anchor and as they approach, Kodos manages to catch sight of a female figure in a brown cloak and he takes chase. Eventually, Kodos stops her in her tracks and an interrogation is begun. The stranger reveals herself to be Earth Genasi named Elandra. Kodos and Nabia inform her that she’s been making people in town terribly uncomfortable and that she needs to stop whatever sinister activities she’s up to.
In return, Elandra informs that it wasn’t her intent, that she’s new to town and just trying to get her bearings. She claims that she’s very shy and nervous and its because of the guilt she carries from something that happened in her homeland. Kodos demands to know what Elandra is good at, what she wants to do, to which she shyly responds that she likes baking. The three take it upon themselves to drag Elandra to the nearest baker to get her a job so that she’ll quit creeping the locals out.
They find one and Elandra is offered an apprenticeship. Mistaking Kodos motives for kindness, Elandra takes a liking to him and winks at him and states her willingness to see him again as the three head out the door to find Feeshi and Zalphid.
Meanwhile, Zalphid and Feeshi have developed a plan to where Feeshi will go from rooftop to rooftop along a route that Zalphid travels. Zalphid will call out “Azure Syndicate” as loudly as possible to get their attention and draw them out. Once drawn out, Feeshi will start sniping them from the rooftops as they are a known nefarious entity.
This goes on for a while with no results, just odd looks from the locals, until eventually, our party is reunited near the docks where the Edge Dancer is tied up and this is where we fall back into our respective roles. Repairs to the Edge Dancer have been completed, Captain. She’s as good as new! What would you like to do?