Chapter 6

Vennoa yawned. Even the sun was still asleep. The party was back at the docks, looking for Wolgar’s ship. Luckily, the fishmongers hadn’t set up shop yet this early in the morning, so the air was crisp and salty, without the tangy feel of fish. In the distance, Vennoa could make out some ships approaching the dock. Probably the fishing boats were heading back with their haul for the day. Even if she detested the smell, she had to admit that Ehs had been right about the freshness of the fish.

Several crew members could be seen scurrying around the dock, loading supplies onto their ships. There were groups of dwarves, half-elves, halflings, but strangely, they mostly worked in groups of their own kind, loading their own ships. Vennoa wasn’t sure how they were going to identify Wolgar. As much as they had met him and his crew in the tavern, all dwarves looked the same to Vennoa.

“Yo!” a dwarf called out to them.

Vennoa turned, as did the rest of the party.

The dwarf walked up to them, and said, “Ye’ll looking for Captain Wolgar, ain’t ye? He’s waiting for you fine folk just over there.” The dwarf pointed to a ship nearby. In contrast to the other docked ships, no crew members could be seen loading supplies onto this ship.

Noticing that the party were looking at the docks near the ship, the dwarf continued, “We’ve finished our preparations. Captain Wolgar will have our hide if we ain’t ready to set off at dawn.”

Vennoa noticed that the sky was starting to brighten, as the false dawn was peeking over the horizon. It wouldn’t do to be late. The party hurried as the dwarf led them to the ship.

“Welcome, welcome,” Wolgar said as they boarded the ship. “This be the Soul of Winter, the finest ship in this gold-forsaken place.”

Does everything have to be the finest to everyone here? Vennoa glanced around the ship, but didn’t see anything especially fine. Though, she hadn’t been on the sea or ships before, so she didn’t quite know what to expect. Wolgar and his crew appeared alert and ready to go, even after the heavy drinking that they had been doing the night before.

Wolgar signaled to his crew, and they untied the ropes connecting the ship to the dock. Soon, they were headed out of Saltmarsh. Turning back to the party, Wolgar said, “Now, ye’ll ain’t sailors, are ye?”

The party members shook their heads.

“Thought so,” Wolgar said. “Adventurers! Pfft. Nothing like the sea to put ye to your knees. In any case, this top deck is only for crew. Ye’ll be staying in the cabins below, where it’s safe for ye land folk,” Wolgar smirked as he continued.

“How long will we take to reach the Emperor of the Waves?” Aldalome asked.

“About a week’s travel, if the weather gods treat us right,” Wolgar said.

Ehs closed his eyes and muttered some words. Opening his eyes after a while, he said, “The weather will be fine today, we should not expect any rough seas.”

“Eh, eh! No spellcasting!” Wolgar said. “We still haven’t gotten the scorch marks off the last spellcaster that went crazy up here.”

Wolgar signaled to one of his crew, and a dwarf led them down some stairs to the cabins. Along the way, the dwarf pointed out various rooms, like where they could have their meals.

The cabins were rather small, so only two people could fit inside each. Vennoa was intending to share her cabin with Nat, but for some reason, Ehs chose to bunk with her instead. Vennoa hoped that he wouldn’t eat fish in the cabin, and told him as much.

Smiling, Ehs replied, “Who knows? We might make you a fish connoisseur before the end of this adventure.”

Vennoa scoffed. “I like fish just fine, just not raw fish. I prefer them cooked, like everyone else.”

“Not everyone,” Ehs said. “Fresh fish should be eaten raw.”

Not wanting to get into a discussion about fish, Vennoa laid back onto her bed and closed her eyes. Within an hour or two, she was bored. Was it going to be this boring for the whole trip?

Vennoa sat back up. Ehs had gone off somewhere. Vennoa also headed out the cabin to see what the rest of the party were up to. Walking around the corridor, she didn’t see them in their cabins either. Continuing on, she found them in the mess hall, seated around a table with a few dwarves.

Vennoa pulled up a stool and joined them. Besides drinking ale, some of the dwarves were sharing some stories of their past travels.

The first day passed uneventfully, and the weather was fine, as Ehs had predicted. On the second morning, Ehs had cast some spell in the cabin, seemingly unconcerned about Wolgar’s instruction not to use magic. A bunch of berries had appeared in his hands.

“Want one?” Ehs offered.

“No thanks,” Vennoa replied. She generally wasn’t keen on accepting food and drink from other people. Still, she had known Ehs for a while now, and he was probably trustworthy. Don’t trust anyone. Except me.

Vennoa wasn’t sure if she should be irritated or relieved that the voice was back. I see that you’re back again. The smell of fish kept you away huh? The voice didn’t reply.

“You know what? I’ll try one,” Vennoa said to Ehs.

Ehs happily gave her one berry and said, “This is a goodberry. It will keep you fed for a whole day!”

“Hmm,” Vennoa replied and munched on the small berry. Strangely enough, she did feel rather full after eating that tiny berry. It also tasted rather good, having a nice fresh citrusy feel to it. “Thanks!” she said to Ehs.

“I’m headed up to give some to the crew. Wanna come along?” Ehs asked.

Wolgar told us to stay below deck. Vennoa shrugged, and followed Ehs.

The breeze from the sea was a welcome change from the stale air below deck. Vennoa took a number of deep breaths and stretched.

“Hey! Ye’ll shouldn’t be up here,” a dwarf woman said to them. “Captain Wolgar’ll have ye hides.”

Ehs didn’t reply, and offered the dwarf a berry. “Here, have one.”

The dwarf looked a little skeptical, but took one berry and ate it. A smile blossomed on her face. “That’s a good berry,” she said. “It’s mighty better than our rations.”

Ehs smiled in response, and continued walking on the deck. He signaled for Vennoa to join him. As they wandered the deck and gave berries to the crew, Vennoa spent some time looking out in the sea. She thought she saw something jump out of the water in the distance.

“Those be dolphins,” a crew member told her. “Beautiful creatures, they are.”

After they handed out all the berries, Ehs and Vennoa headed back down, leaving a happy and satiated crew on the deck.

The rest of the day was uneventful again, and Vennoa was already itching for some action, but it was going to be many more days of travel before they even arrived. Vennoa wondered how sailors could stand spending most of their lives in the sea. The hustle and bustle of a city appealed more to Vennoa.

The next day, the ship passed through some rain. Ehs and Vennoa had tried to head up to the deck again, but this time, they were stopped by Wolgar.

“That’s a tasty morsel,” Wolgar said. “But it’s too dangerous for ye up there. There’s a storm headed our way. If ye ain’t careful, ye’ll be swept off the ship!”

Sighing, Vennoa headed back to the cabin. The ship rocked and swayed, and she could even hear heavy raindrops pelting the side of the ship. She laid in bed with her eyes closed, trying to overcome the nausea that was building up in her.

Eventually, the storm passed, and Vennoa headed to the mess hall for a drink. The dwarves there welcomed her heartily, and gave her many mugs of ale to wash down the bile churning in her stomach. Soon after, she was knocked out cold in her cabin.

The next two days were also uneventful. Ehs and Vennoa handed out berries again, and by this time, the crew had grown accustomed to them on the deck, and welcomed their berries.

That night, Vennoa awoke from a loud crashing sound. Is it another storm? Listening intently, she could hear lots of sounds coming from the top deck. Soon, there was banging on her door. Waking Ehs up, they quickly opened the door, and saw two dwarves.

“Arm yeselves! We’re under attack!” they said, and then rushed off to tell the rest of the party and crew.

Vennoa and Ehs rushed out onto the corridor. Glancing around, she could see two figures headed their way from the direction that the dwarves had come from. The figures looked humanoid, yet fish-like in some way. They were also armed.

“There’s no space for me to shapeshift here,” Ehs said. “Get behind me!”

Ehs edged in front of Vennoa, and cast a spell at them. A faint yellow glow surrounded him, which then flew out towards the two humanoids. The glow split into many little glows, almost like insects. The figures swatted at that little lights swarming around them, but the lights deftly avoided their hands.

With the added lights, Vennoa could tell that her initial impression was right. They were fish-like. In fact, they looked like the head that they had seen in the lizard folk lair. The one on the target dummy. What was it called?

Shaking her head to clear her thoughts, Vennoa concentrated on defending themselves from the fish people. With the lights dancing around them, it was much easier to aim, and Vennoa’s firebolt hit the figure on the left. It grunted, but looked mostly unhurt.

By this time, the rest of the party had also rushed out of their cabins, and were squeezed along the corridor.

“There’s more behind us!” Nat shouted. “We can’t fight them here. There’s not enough space and we’ll get swarmed.”

“Push them to the mess hall,” An’gari suggested. “We can hold off the sahuagin there.”

Sahuagin! That’s it! Vennoa nodded her agreement with An’gari’s plan, and shot another firebolt at the sahuagin that she had hit earlier. This second bolt also flew true. This time, Vennoa could tell that the sahuagin was wearing some scaly armor, and her bolt had left some scorch marks.

Aldalome and Nat drew their weapons and held their back, defending against the sahuagin behind the party. The rest of them tried to fight their way forward, with An’gari leading the charge.

One of the sahuagin, the one that Vennoa hadn’t shot at, threw its trident at An’gari. An’gari smirked, and deftly caught the trident with his hand. With a flourish, An’gari threw the trident back, and hit the sahuagin in its chest.

“Hah! Do you like that more than I did?” An’gari taunted.

The sahuagin didn’t reply, but pulled out the trident with a loud grunt. Blood oozed out of the wounds, but it swung the trident menacingly at An’gari and kept coming.

Vennoa squinted her eyes, and took careful aim. She fired her firebolt at the sahuagin that An’gari had struck, at the open wounds caused by the trident. Aided by the dancing lights, her bolt hit the sahuagin squarely in its bleeding wound. The wound was cauterized by her firebolt, but the sahuagin fell to its knees, then collapsed on the ground, dead.