We returned to the mill after the trip to the weird cave and brought back the missing child. Gooseneck asks if we can expect any trouble on the road ahead, and Sophie says no, it should be smooth travelling.
We take off the next morning, heading to the next town. There’s less snow, as we’re coming down out of the mountains. After a full day of travel, Pujol finds us a good spot to camp next to a river. We build a fire and settle in for the night.
On 2nd watch, Gooseneck heads something on the other side of the hill we’re camped by. He turns and sees a creature come running up the hill at him. It looks kinda like a large, scraggly rooster. He swings at it, which alerts Fathom who is sharing the watch. A second critter gets to the top of the hill as the first one bites Gooseneck. It seems to have some kind of poison, as his arm looks odd for a few seconds around the bite, and then he recovers.
Another creature gets to camp, tries to peck CornCob. Fathom shoots at it. Pujol wakes up and gets his weapon. CornCob casts a spell, which does some damage to the chicken lizard that is attacking him. By this time, I’ve woken up and spot two others in the distance. I stab the one closest to me. They are very ugly creatures – bat wings, scales, barely any features. Fathom shoots one, and it goes down.
Abran gets up and shoots at the one on CornCob. It goes down. Abran goes up to the top of the hill to shoot at one of the others. Gooseneck runs up to the one by the river, hits it and kills it. Only one is left, and we finish it off pretty quickly.
So much for the chicken lizards. Once we have a chance (and some light) to get a good look at them, we see they are cockatrices. They have a petrifying bite. They are also good eats.
Pujol extracts some of the petrifying poison so we can sell it later. In the morning, CornCob finds the cockatrice nest. A snake slithers away from it, having eaten two of the eggs. There’s one left, and CornCob grabs it.
We continue on down the road. As we continue, the road veers closer to the river. We see a swimming hole and a dock. We see a number of young people swimming, and what looks like some kind of altercation between a couple of halflings on the dock.
As we get closer, we pass a tinker heading the opposite direction from us. Abran tries selling him the tiny tools he found in the weird cave, but couldn’t come to a deal. CornCob asks about the swimmers, and the tinker tells us there’s a hot spring over there. CornCob buys some stuff to waterproof his boots. The tinker tells us there are goblins up ahead, but doesn’t think they’ll bother us.
We head on to the dock. Apparently, a girl was diving for crawfish, but has been under the water too long. They think ‘Old One Eye’, a large catfish, might have got her. Gooseneck jumps into the water, and Pujol and Abran get in a boat to follow after.
Underwater, Gooseneck sees a large…something…swimming around. He bites it. CornCob goes into the water after him.
The giant catfish surfaces, and we all shoot at it. Gooseneck Rages and hits it with lightning. Fathom flies out over the water to get a better angle on it.
Old One Eye swallows CornCob whole and dives. Pujol tries to cast a spell to talk to the fish – he sticks his head under the water and makes ‘alluring catfish sounds’ to call it back. Amazingly, this works. Gooseneck swims after the fish and attacks it.
That takes care of the fish. CornCob finds the woman in the catfish, grabs her hand, and drags her out. They go back to the dock, while the younger halfling jumps in the boat to go after the fish carcass.
The woman offers to make us some crawfish as a show of appreciation for rescuing her. CornCob says catfish is better eating, and next thing you know, we’re having a cook-off. Turns out she is part water Genosi, which makes her part water elemental. Sort of.
She tells us she has a half sister who runs a ship that might take us on as crew. The ship participates in trade and exploration. She gives us a letter of introduction and tells us to find Melloris and the Silver Swan.
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