Headquarters is set up. Nalla accidentally insults Patsky by suggesting that a kobold would be good at making traps. He IS good at that, but resents the implication that it is good because he is a kobold.
Talanatha Three Coins is missing, and Claire is investigating.
During the downtime, after the Mire of Dead Men fiasco, Claire has letters sent through official channels to ask about franchises. On Wednesday, she receives a message from Head Office saying they will put us in contact with an information broker. A day later, there is an envelope sitting on her bed, sealed with red wax and a letter G. “What do you want to know? Leave message in stump to west of your manor. -G”
The Order of the Stout Half-pint
The next day, after putting in the information, Claire goes about her day in her tinkering room. Inside a drawer is a larger envelope with a wax-sealed G. Creepy. Inside it is a map with an island northwest of Neverwinter circled and labeled “Lighthouse” on the Silent Sound.
The party will find a path to Neverwinter via sea. Johnny takes the party to the coast. There, the party meets The Stale Whale. It's a poorly-carved blue whale head, with a poorly carved figurehead, and seems to barely be sea-worthy. The dwarf captain, Captain Stonefoot, welcomes the party aboard. He goes to cast off, and just breaks off the attachment point for the rope and coils up the rope and anchor, which he tosses into the ship. Claire casts Mending, and attempts to fix the ship in general. Stonefoot does not inspire competence, especially with the phrase “I just keep the coast on my right and we'll be fine” (not starboard, right).
Sailing up the coast, the party sees a ship on the horizon. Clearly making out the shape from afar, this indicates that the ship is quite large. It's bigger than a Man of War, with multiple blue-skinned humanoids with white beards and horned helmets. Clearly, frost giants, which are widely known as raiders. It's strange for them to be so far south. Stonebeard fans the reins of the boat (?) and walks away to where the sails are to unfurl them fully. Piffany falls over and gets her arm stuck in a hole. Claire also falls slightly, but not to a hilarious effect.
Several frost giants pick up blocks of pure ice and throw them at the boat, narrowly missing them. “No one can outsail the Stale Whale… AT HYPERSPEED” says Stonefoot, who goes to grab oars. Wraq drops his oar, Thorfin and Nalla row quite well, while Claire and Piffany do moderately okay. Against all odds, the Stale Whale outpaces the frost giants.
Continuing past Neverwinter, the party heads to the lighthouse, only to find Wraq's satchel shaking. “I'm going to need you to do some extra work for me. I have a contract in Neverwinter, Appal DeScart you can find in the Stable Quiver in the Black Lake part of town. She's a shapeshifter, so I can't say what she'll look like. You can suss her out with the phrase 'That's a big henhouse.' 'Only to a small fox.' Tell her it's safe to move the cargo along the Platinum Road. The affair should only take a few hours, and then you should be on your way.” The party makes a note to head to Neverwinter after the Lighthouse.
The Silent Sound Lighthouse comes into view over a promontory of dangerous-looking rocks. If a lighthouse is supposed to act as a beacon, then something is seriously wrong. Its top is hazy and indistinct, as if fog is obscuring the lantern room. Also, for a place that's supposed to be occupied, there's a lot of scaffolding, and three tents are propped up on the ground. The sound of panicked shouts can be heard, with tentacles rising out of the sea thrashing against a longboat.
ROLL INITIATIVE
After defeating the tentacles, a woman Bell Maire from the Tortured Tortle caravel ship thanks the party for rescuing them. They are are smugglers who were moving things from a sea cave. Stonefoot sidles up to the other ship, and Wraq reads a note that appeared during combat. The paperwork is harassment paperwork that must be signed by Nalla, filed by Patsky. The smugglers are kept in line by their captain, who threatens deserters with death. The captain is under the sway of a sea lady Sister Foam, and is edging closer to piracy and slave trading. They are not prone to share what sort of specialty goods are in the cave so long as their captain has half of the crew as hostages.
Stonefoot asks if the party is going to go after a new ship, and if it is more seaworthy than his current ship. He then chucks his anchor over the side, having foregone tying it to a ship in advance. So he goes to grab a box of rocks, ties a rope to it, and chucks it overboard, denting the mast of the ship.
The party advances to the beach of the lighthouse, where there are three tents and evidence from a fight several days ago. All of the abandoned supplies feature the Dronn Enterprises logo crudely scrawled. There are 2 kegs of ale and a chest. The chest is locked, and contains 500 sp, assorted gems worth 250 gp (100 + 100 + 50), 3 potions of healing, and a potion of heroism. The empty chest and full kegs are put on the ship, and Captain Stonefoot sweats a bit at the prospect of ale. Claire says the kegs are trapped and will explode if messed with.
The party continues to the lighthouse. Nalla knocks on the door to no answer, shouts up to the door to no answer, then opens the door to six arrows. A square room has a spiral staircase at the center of the room. There is a corpse of a halfling in the floor, but a spectral halfling floating above it does move towards the party.
ROLL INITIATIVE.
The ghost rapidly ages Claire, and then possesses Piffany. Piffany is knocked out, then Wraq kills the ghost.