Blood, Plunder and D&D

We last left our heroes, the Search for Black Alice has led them to the streets of Bawaaba Mbo , gateway to the Holy Empire of the God King and the vast continent of Great Mbo.  The journey to the city was not easy. They were inspected twice, once by a pair of dragon-riding High Justices and once by customs officials in the harbor who charged a tax of 10% of the value of the cargo (a tax the heroes cleverly avoided by using Ricmo's newfound mirror magic). Dakhir noticed with some dismay that each High Justice wore an amulet identical to the Amulet of Theno that he carries. He managed to hide his amulet before the High Justices took notice, however. On the last day of the voyage, the heroes also each had a strange and magical dream in which their various magical patrons gave them advice and, in some cases, special tasks to complete.  Whisperleaf acquired a paper bag of mysterious cookies. Very good cookies. Ricmo acquired a strange mother of pearl ear ring.  They al...

Freddy's Dream That night Freddy dreamed. It started off as a good dream. He was back in Valoria during the heyday of Hot-Red and the Freddies , back before things had gone bad. He remembered the night vividly; they had just finished up a set at The Mended Drum , a set which had gone well. Very well. The crowd had been huge, way more than they had expected, people spilling out the door and into the alleys outside. The music was catching on. Word was getting around. Valorian Swing was becoming a thing.  They had been hanging out after the show at Hot Red’s crib in some getto ass part of Valoria, exhausted, but happy. Ozraeline was lounging on the couch, smoking something or other, and some unnamed drummer was passed out on the floor. They’d never had much luck with drummers; they came and mysteriously went with dizzying regularity. Freddy didn’t remember the names of half of them. Hot Red was pretty particular about the beat, never satisfied with anyone they hired for long. In hinds...

  "OK, new plan," said Whisperleaf as they stared at the now fully active teleport circle. "No pirates. We do this ourselves." "And keep all the treasure," Ricmo agreed. Solving the activation sequence for the abandoned teleport circle hidden deep in the Annwyn Wing of Haven University had forced the companions to consider the details of the next step of their plan. Or Governor Davilia and Maria Teresa 's plan, at least. And the more they had considered it, the more flaws they had exposed. For one thing, it required rallying a large percentage of the fractious pirate captains and somehow getting them from Skull River Bay into position to attack the returning treasure fleet. During Hurricane season, no less. The only way to do that would be to bring the entire fleet through the Shadow and across the Shadow Sea . Difficult, very difficult. But it was really the pirates that had been the turnoff. "I mean, the problem with pirates is they are pirat...