A. Saving Maeva (Again).

Boeden drags Maeva from the first rider’s horse, while Broc fights the second horseman. Vermillion, in turn, runs towards the north gates to rally the town guard and prevent any escape. After taking some injuries, Broc kills the second horseman, and knocks the first off his horse. The surviving kidnaper escapes, regains his mount, and rides through the streets towards the north gates. Broc grabs the second horse to follow.

At the gates, the guard brace their pikes and drive the horseman back. Desperate to escape, he drives past Broc, back the way he came. Boeden and Athron Dolmen both try to stop him, as Broc rides up again. Unable to capture Maeva, the horseman instead stops, draws his bow, and lands an arrow in her chest. Athron removes the arrow and heals her, telling her that she must grow stronger from the wounding and not give into pain Boeden and Broc (badly injured) manage to capture the surviving horseman.

The PCs search the dead horseman and find a red tattoo on the inside of his left wrist – a diamond surrounding a hawk. The prisoner likewise bears the same tattoo. Maeva tells the PCs that the tattoo indicates both men are debt-marked – indentured servants to Sa’iph nobles. Intimidated by the PCs, the survivor says that he was ordered by his master, Lord Dembrosi Antazos, to take Maeva – he does not know why. He and his partner were to ride north on the road to Visaiayin (approximately 3 days away) to meet his master along the way. The PCs remember that the Sa’iph ship that stopped at the lighthouse days before was the personal transport of Lord Antazos.

Athron asks Maeva if she knows why the kidnapers came for her. She tries to lie, but then tells him that her father once bore the same debt-mark as her attackers, and the pirates who raised the false light-tower. After more conversation, Maeva tells Athron that her father is Arkus –Torei’s leader.

B. On the Ship Back to Tarrish.

On the ship back to Tarrish, Athron approaches the other PCs and offers to hire them for 150 gp to help him take Maeva onward to Halveet, where Archmater Retta Pierce had agreed to deliver her to a family friend. He tells them only that Maeva’s father was once an indentured servant to Antazos’s household, and that it is a “point of pride” for Antazos to take the child of his escaped slave.

Cassick points out that it could not be a coincidence for Antazos’s boat to have showed up at the pirate camp, and the PCs surmise that Antazos plotted to take the Freeman in order to get to Maeva and the Archmater, indicating that someone close to Maeva’s father must have known Maeva would be on board. Antazos knows the PCs’ description and at least the name of one of them – Athron Dolmen, a cleric of Hamal. All the PCs agree that it would be to their advantage to get out of Tarrish before Antazos can realize that his henchmen are not on the road between Seawell and Visayain, and the Fortune’s Light can reach Tarrish and post a notice for the PCs at the Vind Hall.

C. Information Gathered in Tarrish.

In Tarrish, the PCs recover their salvage payments. Broc, Cassick and Athron go to the Vind Hall to report on the success of their mission, and to collect any payments owed to [Broc and Cassick from Yardmaster Berrin. While in line, Broc and Cassick see two Middle Redding horseman – one a swordsman and the other a bard – asking to post a notice for the arrest of Duran. They say that the 300 gp reward is offered by Lares, Chief of the Kesten tribe, for the killing of the Chief’s son. As the clerk goes to the board to post the notice, the swordsman tells the bard, “This isn’t the right thing to do.” The bard agrees, but adds that the Chief has ordered them to post the notice. He also points out, “I gave as generic a description as I could.” After they leave, Broc pulls the notice from the wall and pockets it.

Meanwhile, Vermillion has been gathering information in Tarrish about Lord Antazos. He learns that Antazos has a fortune built on ruby mines and owns literally hundreds of indentured servants. He also learns rumors that Antazos once owned Arkus. Vermillion seeks out Athron and Maeva, and asks Maeva who her father is. She freezes, and Vermillion asks if her last name is the same as Arkus’s. Athron answers that, like many former indentured servants who have escaped to Torei, Maeva’s father no longer uses a surname as it would be derived from his owner’s name. However, Athron confirms that Maeva is Arkus’s daughter.

The PCs later meet – minus Duran. While planning, they also discuss what they’ve learned about Duran. For now, they agree not to question Duran about it, and perhaps to raise it later.

D. Sneaking Out of Tarrish.

Cassick goes down to the docks and seeks out a group of drunken sailors, looking for a ship that might be willing to leave at night for the west. He is pointed to Lorimer, captain of the Piebald Pony. Cassick tells the captain that he needs to sneak a distinctive person on board and then off again in Halveet. (The PCs have agreed to use a potion on Boeden to make him look like a normal human to get him on the ship, and a similar potion in Halveet to get him off.) Lorimer agrees, for a price of 25 gp each – he tells Cassick that he hopes to use the gold to fund the purchase of chocolate (a recent import from southern lands) in Darilei, to deliver to the eastern League cities for a considerable profit.

Maeva is hidden under a cloak on Broc’s back, who pretends to be a hunchback. Boeden and Broc both take up residence down in the hold. Up above, a couple of the deckhands remark on the “freak” hunchback, and Cassick breaks in, “That freak is my brother!” in an outraged tone. One of the deckhands remarks that he once had a cousin with a hump – and that when he died, it was apparently revealed to have one eye and a set of teeth.

In Halveet, the ship lands at night again. A customs master greets the ship, asking whether there are any goods to be declared. He looks suspiciously at Broc’s hump and asks whether any goods are hidden under the cloak. Captain Lorimer and the deckhands break in and say that they’ve seen the hump, it has teeth, etc.

Having arrived at night, the PCs decide to find a place to stay until morning. Athron needs to deliver Maeva to Daned Thand, a former debt-marked and a friend of Maeva’s father who now serves as a guard for a very successful gem/jewelry merchant James Laibrook. However, Laibrook’s place of business is currently closed. Instead, the PCs seek out the local holdings of the Temple of Hamal.