The group is called to Gaelyn the morning following the incident outside of Da Derga’s Hostel. He introduces them to another man they have yet to meet, Iarbonel. Iarbonel smiles pleasantly and greets the party. Ainfean is there too, smirking. Gaelyn questions Ainfean as to why the prisoner was released in the first place and where she has been all this time. Ainfean acidly states she put it in their capable hands, much like Gaelyn has put his trust in them several times. She is obviously quite pleased that things went so miserably for the group and that the original prisoner escaped. Dierdre and Cinn Oir set into Ain who almost gleefully reminds them of their failure. Soon the whole room is bickering. Things quickly fall apart and Ain asks Cian (or was it Liam) if he wants to step out side. Gaelyn interrupts and tells Ain to "check the guard rotations or something." She leaves, still visibly pleased with herself.

Gaelyn sighs and turns things over to Iarbonel. It turns out Iarbonel is Gaelyn’s "information officer". He tells the party that they have interrogated the man that was captured last night (previous session—the guy who made things dark and uncomfortable) and apparently he knows nothing of who the other prisoner was. The operative claims that he was simply having dinner when Liam and the imposter approached him. The imposter then leaned toward him and whispered that they were there to kill him and that is when he tried to leave and all heck broke loose.

In fact, Iarbonel mentions that he knew this "operative" was in the city all along and they have been watching him for several months. The operative occasionally sends messages out by bird and Iarbonel and his "boys" have intercepted several of them. None of the messages seemed to be a huge security risk so they continued to let him operate and kept a good watch on him. Better that than to gain too much attention from the Fist. Further they knew that while he was only a second rate spy he was a moderately powerful cleric and "taking him out" would probably cause a scene (something they didn’t want to do but of course, something the party is always comfortable with!) Dierdre is pretty upset about this new information and lets Gaelyn know that if they are going to help him they need to know things like this in advance. Iarbonel apologizes but pretty much states that he figured the party knew. In fact, Iarbonel knows of only two people this Fist contact has spoken with and Cian is one of them (This is the same cleric from Session 14 which gave Cian his sight back and tried to force him to "work for him"...)

Iarbonel goes on to say he doesn’t think this imposter is linked to the Fist agent at all. He and Gaelyn have speculated that if this imposter can change shape easily then perhaps the tattoo Cian discovered on her arm was also fake. Further, it would explain how they never saw her leave the Darkness field once she entered. Several people out on the street were caught in the dark and anyone of them that subsequently left could have been her in disguise. Iarbonel also mentions that this imposter was very careful and obviously a skilled spy herself. She may have simply spotted the cleric from the Fist prior to the whole operation and decided to try to pin this whole mess on him and his organization. The party is very devastated as it seems they have traded one prisoner for a useless one.

Cian demands to know Ainfean’s connection to this. Gaelyn admits it looks like she set them up. However, he is pretty well convinced that Ain didn’t know much about what might happen when the party led the imposter out of her cell. She most likely only had a good idea that the imposter was lying and simply wanting to get out of her cell and find a way to escape; while Ain is a bitch, she is fairly astute judge of character (Sense Motive.) Gaelyn apologizes and mentions he will have a talk with her. He then tells the party to take a break. Let Iarbonel and his men do the information gathering and he’ll let them know when they find out more.

The party returns to their small house somewhat dejected. They spend the next several weeks working on personal projects they haven’t had time for. Cian makes several magic items. He crafts a magical Tattooist needle which grants him a +6 bonus to his Tattoo Artist craft. He then sets about trying to give Cinn Oir a magical tattoo. Three very painful days later, Cinn Oir now has a tattoo of a snake just below her ear. It is imbued (with Liam’s help) with a Cure Moderate Wounds spell. Cian also manages to make a Horse of the Northlands and Witch’s Needle.

Dierdre decides to spend a chunk of change and buy an Alchemy Lab. At first, she tries to talk Gaelyn into paying for it and explains how her creations can benefit his men. He seems less than excited about the idea. So she decides to pay for it herself. She searches for several days and after placing some weird orders with some of the local "shopkeepers" she gathers together supplies for a nice lab. She then petitions Gaelyn for space for her lab. She explains that she will only share her creations with her party and his men and further describes things like greek fire. Gaelyn gives in and has space cleared in a small room off of the forge. Dierdre spends weeks and finally comes up with some greek fire! She arranges for a demonstration for Gaelyn who seems mildly impressed. He offers to have his men gather materials for her next experiments.

Liam spends his time training his horse to be less afraid of combat situations. It is a tough, exhausting job and he finally decides he’ll just buy a war horse. He locates a man who says he can definitely find a good horse for him. The man seems knowledgeable about horses and Liam agrees to pay a small finder’s fee to the man whether he buys the horse or not. Within a week, the man has returned and has with him one very nice looking Light Warhorse. Liam looks it over and is frustrated to note a brand on it. He doesn’t inquire about it much and pays the man for the horse. Liam then spend the rest of his time helping Cian with his tattoo and continuing to train his other horse which he has decided to keep as well.

Cinn Oir spends her time being painfully poked and prodded by Cian. Besides that though, her and Cian spend nearly a week out in the woods looking for "interesting components". Anything which he could use in constructing any of his magic items. They are mostly successful on their shopping list and have a close encounter with a very strange type of feline. Cinn Oir collects some of the fur for Dierdre who has been interested in calling a familiar. Dierdre uses the fur and is joined by a furry and slightly predatory looking cat. It is mostly a tabby but has an interesting mane of fur behind its neck and a few spots on its fur among the stripes.

Three weeks or so pass in total. The festival of Lughnasadh goes by mostly unobserved by the rough populace of Tir Gaelyn. Cinn Oir notes its passage and also notes that it rains the entire day—a sign that Lugh himself is present (though in the boglands it rains often….) At the end of this period, there is a knock on their door. Dierdre answers it and she is greeted by a tall, gorgeous, redhead female who carries a harp with her. She smiles and seem genuinely excited to meet the party. She explains she has heard much about them. Dierdre asks who she is and she says her name is Etain and that Gaelyn had mentioned to her a while back that you had need of some appraisal services. Dierdre invites her in and she greets the party enthusiastically, apparently knowing them all by name.

They speak to Etain for a bit and the group decides to let her look at some of their items. They start with the gems which she appraises for them free of charge. Cian then produces the bone wand which they recovered in the cellar of the ruined giant’s tower. Etain seems very intrigued. She inspects it, strumming lightly on her harp as a sort of meditation. She then asks the party if they mind and she casts a Detect Magic. The party produces several items for her at this point and she pours over them. She is very amazed at these interesting items and offers to glean more information…for a price. The party pays her two hundred gold and she agrees to Identify two items. She explains it will take a while and, if they don’t mind letting her take them back to her room at Da Derga’s. They agree and she carefully wraps the items in her backpack and leaves.

That evening they meet with Iarbonel. He gives them some new information. The boat that waylaid Gaelyn and Ainfean was headed for a small keep/town called Dun Brees further up the northern coast. He knows for certain that the boat never made it nor did it ever return to its home port. Rumor has it that pirates captured which he knows is not the case (Tir Gaelyn’s inhabitants are in general "the pirates".) Whoever waylaid Gaelyn must have taken it from the original sailors (killed them most likely) and set up the false rumor of a weapon shipment. The ship may still be active or most likely was scuttled just after the operation. That is all he knows for now and says he’ll keep the party posted. He also mentions )since Gaelyn isn’t in the room) that he’s sort of glad they brought in that Fist spy. He’d been wanting to do it for months but Gaelyn was convinced it would cause too much of a scene. Well, it did and he’s glad he’s not the one that caused it, but he’s glad its done and over.

The next morning the group meets Etain for breakfast at the hostel (yes she is there!) She gives them the details of the two items: The Bone Wand is loaded with Ghoul Touch and the Onyx Raven Statuette has Shield Other imbued in it. Again, she seems fascinated with the items and even just as fascinated by the giant gold coins they paid her with. She seems to be something of a history buff as well as an information junky. Dierdre and Cian take the opportunity to tell her about several of their adventures. Etain listens in awe and compliments Diedre’s story telling ability. They talk for several hours and Etain tells a few stories of her own. That a body washed up on shore at Dun Brees and that there are weird rumors of giants attacking the countryside near the city of Lynn.

Overall Etain is generally impressed with the party and Cian passingly mentions they may head North as in North of the Woods Between. Etain seems very excited about that and asks if she can accompany them on their adventures. She has apparently traveled coast to coast (though not North of the Wood Between or even into it) and knows quite a bit about Eyru. The party thinks she’ll be a good asset and agrees. The group then decides to leave in the morning, first to head south to get their boat then next to head north to Dun Brees and investigate the body.

The trip south is mostly uneventful and they pick up Cian’s boat with little trouble. Cian tries his hand at tattooing the locals again and Dierdre has a drink with the guy that looked after their boat (he’s pleasantly surprised she agrees to this.) Etain plays at the local tavern and draws a good crowd. The next morning they head up river and encounter a very familiar blockade. Between Dierdre and Etain’s "charming" nature, they manage to get by it with little trouble.

Traveling north along the coast they are set upon in the middle of the night strange forces. The wind picks up and begins to toss the boat about. Suddenly several powerful gusts strike the deck and throw Cinn Oir overboard. Another gust takes Dierdre and Etain and Cian finds himself on deck facing three small air elementals. A fierce combat breaks out with the elementals basically throwing everyone overboard. Dierdre, from the water, uses her Still Spell feat and manages to cast several Magic Missiles, bringing down one of the creatures. Cian, one of the few people in the party that actually has swimming, spends his time trying to get Cinn Oir back on deck and help Etain as well. Once Cinn Oir manages to reach the deck, she attacks the nearest Air elemental. Once wounded they flee at top speed, racing out of sight in seconds. The party is completely confused by this. Cian knows they aren’t naturally occurring creatures, but being off shore at night makes a search next to impossible. They continue on their way north to reach Tir Gaelyn and then head to Dun Brees…..