That's One

General Summary

The scepter lay on the ground (Thorn whip for the win! ). I certainly didn't want to touch it, I remembered what happened when Cap picked up the cursed sword (Don't pick up cursed weapons , and I don't think it will be any different with the scepter.
"Could you break it with the unmade blade?" Cap asked.
"I don't see why not?" I started to say, but I had a feeling that it would not work, "No, I feel like there's something wrong with doing it that way, like it won't work."
"Men," the thane said behind us, "We must rid ourselves of the monster holding us here."Once it is gone, we'll be able to roam the seas as we were intended to."
"We gotta stop that," I said running over to the thane. "Stop!" The thane looked at me in outrage.
"How dare you interrupt me?" 
"You can't Thane," I said running up. "Please give us a few minutes, and we can get rid of the sea monsters, but killing that monster right now will only cause more problems."
"Very well, because you freed me from the grip of that false skald, we will give you an hour."
I ran back to Cap and Marcus, "Okay, I have an idea. Meet me up at the promontory. I'm going to get tongs to carry that scepter up."
The blacksmith, was reluctant to sell us his tongs, because he only had the ones he used, so I paid way too much. I grabbed the all-too-expensive tongs and carefully carried the scepter up to the promontory. As I did, I studied the scepter to see what I might be able to do with it. 
"Marcus, Cap, guard the scepter as I call Death From Below."  I transformed into a dolphin and jumped into the sea, "Death from Below, we call you to us. We have fulfilled our bargain. Death From Below we call you to fulfill your half of the bargain." I swam down as far as I can, then quickly swam up, leaping towards the promontory and transformed back into a human landing on the promontory. "Death From Below, we call you forth to witness the destruction of the scepter."
Then we waited. It didn't take too long, but the storm grew, and the waves built, until the waves crashed over the promontory, and Death From Below appeared.
"Death From Below," I said, "We come with the scepter to seal our bargain. To prepare us to properly destroy it, what can you tell us of its creation?"
Her voice echoed from the oceans, "It was called forth from the Dark One's forges, and used the servant of the Fallen Lady to create the profane scepter."
"We need to find a way to make sure the soul doesn't escape, Cap can you help me?" He chanted briefly and I could feel the change in the ground. I carefully pulled the unmade blade and I felt my vision shift and I could see the soul tethered to the weapon, and I carefully slashed, freeing the soul from the blade.
"Thank you for freeing me from my imprisonment," the he turned to Marcus, "My Prince, long have we awaited your return," and he turned back to me. "Please, take my soul to help my Lady be reborn ( Fae/Dark One War  ) ." 
I nodded and struck. I heard a crystal sound and an amethyst jewel appeared. I heard my old friend's voice, "That's one."

Getting to the Thane Moot

"Thane," Cap said, "We be needing to get to the moot. May we join your crew to go?"
"And why would I allow you to do that?" he asked curiously.
"We did be savin' you from the false skald."
"That is true, but we do not have a dragon skull to allow us to come to the thane moot. If you can get me a dragon skull, then I will allow you to go with my crew."
"We can do that," Cap held out his hand, "Do I have your word?"
"I, Thane Eric Stormsrage, swear if you bring me the dragon skull you can attend the thane's moot with me."
We buy a hand cart, head out into the forest and pull out the largest sea monster skull we can from the cave. While there we also get several monster scales. I grabbed 10 red scales and 5 fangs and put them into the bag of holding.

Bad news from Brandenburg

We left the crystal ship at the last free city. There we checked in with our factor, they've moved locations for their primary location because half of the Brandenburg duchy has fallen to the undead.

A bit of Sea Folk lore

As we traveled Thane Stormsrage tells us about the twelve gods of the Sea Folk: Odina, Thif, Tor, Tire, Frir (and a bunch more I didn't get written down). They are between the Seafolk and the great beyond.
For the Thane's Moot you have to cross through the Boar and get to a location in the clouds where you can see a structure glinting. It sounds to me an awful lot like the city of the Artificers .

Report Date

22 Jul 2022