The rest of the journey to Dun Brees is mostly uneventful. The party is snowed in by bad weather in a small cave along the way. During this time, Cian practices making some tattoos. He secures the needle to a talon and actually produces several for Bebe which are enchantable. Bebe opts for some healing spells imbued into hers along with Bull’s Strength. The delay gives time for Lance to catch up to the party and he meets them along the route to Dun Brees (traveling west where his vision directed him….)

As they near the coastal keep and its small town, Cian flies in for some quick recon while the rest of the party makes camp about a mile north. Cian notes that there are dozens of tents filling the outer courtyard (between the walls of the keep and its outer wood palisade walls). He also notes a large ship in the harbor with some interesting properties. From eye-level it appears to be a large keelboat. From well above however, the image shifts and Cian finds himself looking down on a war galley. He flies back to camp to report this interesting information.

The group discusses their plans and decides a little more recon would be in order. Cinn Oir offers to explore the keep area by transforming into a mouse and gaining access (DM’s NOTE: I goofed here as her Wild Shape doesn’t allow tiny sizes yet. No harm done….) Liam offers to check out the ship anchored in the small harbor.

Cinn Oir transforms and Cian provides an airlift close to the keep late that night. She easily clambers in through the gate and discovers that the tents near the outer wall are actually populated by the keep’s normal guards. They seem very miffed about having to camp outside and she gathers they have been there for several weeks. She does hear something about Lord Brees being angry about the former Magistrate’s murder and wanting to make space for the strange guests of his. She eavesdrops for a bit then sneaks on into the keep itself.

She is in through the main gate and scurries across the courtyard. From the party description, her first objective is to check out the former magistrate’s office. According to the group (and Session 20) it was the focal point of their showdown with Lord Brees last time. She wiggles her way under the door. It is pitch black and thus very hard to make out much of anything in the room. As hr eyes adjust, she sees a desk facing the door and a figure seated at it. She freezes and listens closely but hears no sign of movement. Quietly, she scampers over to the desk and climbs to the top. She then carefully approaches the figure.

The figure’s hand is across the desk, resting on what seems to be a book. Its other hand is toward its waist, below the table and out of sight. She sneaks a little closer and runs a claw along the figures arm. She recoils as her tiny claw scrapes against a rough surface. It seems to be a statue of some sort. Some what baffled, she climbs down off the table and exits the room.

Cinn Oir then makes for the keeps inner stairs and plans to head for Lord Brees’ own room. She makes her way up the stairs and finds herself in the tapestry room (where the party waited for dinner to be served in Session 20). She squeezes under the door to the left and into antechamber just before Lord Brees’ room. The antechamber is poorly lit with a single torch and the alcove to the right is shrouded in darkness. There seems to be no light coming from the other sid eof Lord Brees’ room so Cinn Oir scampers over to the door and squeezes under it.

As she crosses the threshold there is a whirl of movement. A quick mumbling can be heard and a light suddenly fills the room. From the bed directly opposite her, a figure starts to throw back the sheets. Cinn Oir immediately turns and squeezes back under the door. As she slips out from under it and around the edge of the wall, a crimson robed figure emerges quickly, and stealthily from the dark alcove and throws open the door to Lord Brees’ room. Without looking back, Cinn Oir rushes through the antechamber and towards the inner stair well.

Shouts of alarm can be heard throughout the keep and Cinn Oir eerily notes that as she hits the courtyard, the shadows seem to writhe around her. She runs as fast as she can and slips out the maingate unseen. Breathless, she meets back where Cian dropped her of and he once again transports her back to camp. There she transforms back and relates everything that she saw to the party. Liam has returned as well, though with less exciting news. He was unable to get a good look on the boat however he can verify Cian’s description of the strange illusion and that from below he can see a War Galley but from the sides it appears to be a large keelboat. He did hear some movement on the boat so he knows it is occupied but he has no idea of numbers or occupants.

The party decides on a plan. They will give the alarm time to cool off and then steal a boat from the dock and investigate the ship. Dierdre is not at all thrilled with the plan and refuses to go. She is not happy with the amount of intel gathered and sees these "mysterious" guests and too unpredictable of a variable. Lance, being clad head to to in metal armor, is not comfortable with the idea of heading out to a ship (nor removing his armor) so he offers to stay at the campsite.

Bebe, Cinn Oir, Liam, Archu and Cian sneak to the docks late that night and unlash a small rowboat. Cian keeps an eye on things from above as the rest row out to the ship. They lash the rowboat to the anchor and begin to ascend the anchor-line. Bebe goes first and hauls the rest of the group up on a rope.

They find themselves at the aft of the ship. A two flights of stairs descend to the deck from here, one along each side of the ship. In the middle of the uper deck where they stand, where one might expect a wheel to steer the ship, rests a very interesting device. An intricately carved piece of wood juts out from the dark. A serpents neck and head rise from it. Mouth agape, in its fangs is a large smooth sphere. The carving’s detail is quite phenomenal. Individual scales run its length and the eyes seem to glitter with life.

Cian has an immediate idea as to what it may be and excitedly suggests it is a means of controlling the boat and that the boat is perhaps propelled entirely by magic. Combining this with the interesting illusion that hides this war galley, Cian is now very interested in finding a way to replace his old boat…. The group looks into the strange device for a bit but nothing they try has any effect. They decide to explore the rest of the ship.

The group climbs down to the main deck and decides to search the cabins just below the upper deck. The door to access this area rests just between the two flights of stairs leading down from the upper deck. Liam is the first in, opening the doors and stepping into a narrow, dark hall. There are doors to his immediate left and right and one at the ned of the hall about ten feet away. As Liam’s eyes adjust to the dark and he peers around, someone grabs him from behind and he hears the door slam shut behind him.

Liam suddenly find himself in a wrestling match with two assailants. It doesn’t take long before he realizes he is a bit outclassed. These larger combatants appear to not only have a size but technique advantage as well. Liam struggles to break free and finally tries to Command one of them to flee, but there is no effect. As Liam finally slips free of one of the attackers, the door comes crashing open, taken nearly off it’s hinges by a Bebe. Once Liam is free and Bebe begins swinging her axe, the combatants fall quickly. They do put up a ferocious (but brief) fight and Bebe and Liam both note that their enemy is fighting unarmed.

While Liam and Bebe struggle with the two enemies below the deck, Cian, Cinn Oir and Archu who are struggling to see what is going on the dark hallway, suddenly find themselves under attack by four more of these assailants. The element of surprise allows the robed figures to place a few nice hits. In the dim light the party can only make out crimson robed figures, each attacking without weapons. Cinn Oir magically summons a Wolf to her aid and engages the two closest to her. Archu and Cian combat the remaining two.

The battle is short as Archu slaughters one with a well-placed sneak attack and Cinn Oir and her wolf down another. Soon, Liam and Bebe join the fray outside and help the group finish off robed figures. The fight is brief but their opponent’s at least pique the group’s curiosity with their stealth and ability to fight without weapons. The party examine some of the figures closely and finds that there are even more oddities to these strangers. In the darkness, more than one of the group could have sworn they saw a tail creep out from several of the combatants robes. A quick search verifies this and reveals that these assailants are more lizard then human. The strangers are covered completely in scales with long tails and a head more lizard than human.

The group decides to split up and search the rest of the ship for anymore of these creatures. A search above deck and below deck (where the oars rest) reveals nothing. Archu finds another room beneath the forecastle. Unable to open the lock he spends several minutes hacking at the door with his longsword. (DM’s Note: So much for stealth, eh guys?) The door finally gives way and he enters an interesting room. Sheer fabrics hang from the ceiling in random places, creating a maze of colored walls. A pile of luxurious pillows rests in one corner and a small, delicate desk against the opposite wall.

Archu steps into the room to make his way to the desk and hers a small twang followed by a searing pain in his calf. (DM’s Note: Number one……) He stops and looks down to see a needle protruding from his leg. Pulling the needle out he steps into the room and tries to get a good look at the door jamb. He notes the trap, but unable to disarm it, continues on over to the desk (after making a save of course…..) There he finds several reams of paper, some writing supplies and a locked drawer. Unable to open this…yeah, you guessed it, lockpicking with a longsword again….

Liam at the other end of the boat does his own to add to the noise. Searching the rooms off the hallway where the initial fight broke out he finds several things of interest. The door to the right opens into a store-room. Casting Light on his shortsword, Liam begins to look through stacks of crates pile din this room. The few crates he looks into offer only standard supplies for a long sea voyage and nothing too exotic. The room immediately across the hall has something else of greater interest. Chained to the center of the room is a statue of a man. He is well-dressed in a style of clothing which is unfamiliar to Liam. The statue depicts no weapons or armor or anything else of great interest.

The room at the end of the hall appear to be a bedchamber and a very spartan one at that. There is a bed, a chest and that is all that fills this spacious room. Liam proceeds to the chest and finds it locked. Having taken lock picking lessons from Archu it seems, he begins to hack on the chest to get it open. As it breaks open, there is a burst of flame accompanied by a loud boom and Liam catches a Fire Trap at his feet. This is immediately followed by a second loud boom in the distance as Archu apparently gains access to the locked desk drawer.

Meanwhile, out on shore, Dierdre has decided to leave camp and has been watching the boat from a hidden spot along the beach. It is far enough away that in the dark she can barely make out anything. She sees the party rowboat approach but loses them when they get on deck. Watching for a bit, she hears a lot of noise erupt from the quiet ship. Ransacking of furniture, hacking of doors and two small explosions in the interior of the ship. Dierdre sighs and keeps an eye on the boat, waiting to see if she can make out anything that is going on.

Back on the boat, Archu is stamping out a fire in his section of the ship. The locked desk drawer was mutilated enough in his attempt to open it that the Fire Trap also ignited some of its contents which Archu is trying to save. Cinn Oir, who has been out on the deck this whole time, decides to see what is going on. Cian stays high and keeps an eye out for trouble and Bebe stays out on deck as well.

Cinn Oir crosses into the room Archu is in (DM’s NOTE: Number two……) and after making a save versus poison, joins him at the desk. At that moment, there is a noise behind them. They both wheel around to see two figures materializing behind them. One, is a veiled female in a dark cloak with a shortbow in hand, the other a crimson robed lizardman. Archu starts to jump into action but is just behind the veiled female. In her other hand, she produces a wand and waves it. Archu leaps forward with a slash that should have sent her head rolling, but an unseen force deflects his sword at the last moment.

As he moves, Archu notices something odd about the room. He glides silently across the wood deck, despite the fact that he isn’t trying to be silent. His sword noiselessly slides through the air…in fact now that he thinks of it, its awfully quiet… Cinn Oir notices the same thing, as she raises her staff and tries to shout an alarm, no noise issues from her lips.

The crimson robed figure advances and in a blinding flurry, reigns down several unarmed blows upon Archu. Only two of them strike but they catch Archu with the force of a hammer and he staggers backward. Cinn Oir leaps forward and with a deft twirl of her staff, strikes the crimson robed figure hard. He turns to face her. The veiled female steps back from Archu and pockets the wand. She then raises her bow and prepares for a shot. Archu steps back into the fight once again, keeping his sights set on the female. He swings and strikes this time and she falls back further. The crimson robed figure steps back and produces a kama from his robes. He tries several times to disarm Archu, with no success. Cinn Oir tries to pres her attack but misses.

Outside, Bebe has decided to see what is taking Archu so long. She crosses the deck toward the other room. There is still no light in the room and it seems quiet within. Managing to enter the room without tripping the trap, Bebe finds herself faced with a chaotic and odd scene. A full feldged melee is taking place only someone has cut the volume! Bebe sniffs at this oddity, raises her axe and charges in.

Archu has backed the veiled female into a corner where her robed companion is trying to protect her from Cinn Oir and Archu. As Bebe enters, the crimson robe changes targets and unleashes a series of kicks leveled at Bebe’s head. She takes them with a smile and happily slices into the robed warrior. Archu advances on the veiled female. Cornered, she lowers her bow and reaches up to throw back her veil. Archu is suddenly faced with a horrific sight. Snakes writhe from her head instead of hair and her cruel visage glares at him with glowing eyes. Archu stands motionless for a second, unable to tear his gaze away…unsure if he can ever look away from this horror! With an extreme force of will he looks down to the deck and clumsily swings his sword, striking air.

Out on deck, Liam, unaware of the problems, is chatting with Cian near the anchor. They decide to weigh anchor and set the boat adrift to annoy the owners. Dierdre, on sure, sees the boat start to float slowly off to the south and sighs, heading back to camp to grab the horses and follow it.

Unhappy with being bitten by Bebe’s axe, the robed combatant takes a new approach. With a deft feint and a twist of his Kama, Bebe finds her axe is pulled from her grasp. As it hits the ground, the robed lizard uses a free foot to slide the axe behind him. The lizardman smiles cruelly levels another blow at her. Bebe however, does not find this funny in the least. Bebe is suddenly gripped by uncontrollable rage. She steps forward to rend the lizard limb from limb with her bare hands when, he is suddenly gone along with the veiled female. Cinn Oir advances to where the veiled female last stood and hears her footfalls once again. That small corner of the room had been spared the Silence magic.

By now, Liam has crossed the deck and Cian joins him. Liam steps into the room to see what is going on (DM’s NOTE: Number three!!) and after making a saving throw (DM’s NOTE: Awwwww come on), tries to ask what the heck is happening. Nobody hears him, of course. Bebe is the first to storm outside, her cussing suddenly apparent as she exits the room. The rest of the party moves to join her. Liam gets quickly briefed on the situation as the group stands outside the cabin door. They decide to search the ship in the even that the two are still on board.

Liam proceeds to the edge of the open area to the lower decks and bends over to look inside. As he does, without warning, a bal of fire streaks over him, impacting near the remnants of the door to the cabin. Archu, Liam, Cian, and Cinn Oir are all caught in its blast. Bebe, storming across the deck to the other end of the ship, just escapes the inferno. She also sees exactly where it originated, the short hallway at the opposite end of the ship. She charges in that direction with reckless abandon.

Bebe makes it to the hallway with a full head of steam. Standing at the end of the hall is the crimson robed lizard man, set to block her path. Recalling what Archu said about the veiled woman, Bebe closes her eyes as she hits the end of the hall. She barrels over the robed humanoid coming face to face with the horrible medusae. (DM’s NOTE: For other DM’s out there reading this, this is a modified "lesser" medusae and for my campaign and not the straight out of the book Medusae. No, I’m not so cruel as to place my 5^th level group against a book Medusae with obviously several levels in Wizard or Sorcerer….) Eyes closed, Bebe lets her blindfighting take over and actually scores a solid hit!

The rest of the party gathers themselves up off the deck of the ship and rushes toward the far end. Meanwhile, the crimson robe stranger wil not stay on his back long. He is up and swinging and manages to place a good kick to the base of Bebe’s skull that actually sends her reeling. Archu is the first to enter the hall, rushing to Bebe’s aid as she stands stunned before the crimson robed monk. As he does however, the monk steps quickly into the open doorway to the left (avoiding providing Archu a flank…) They engage and fight for a round while Liam and the rest of the party collects outside the door, trying to find an opening.

Liam, tired of waiting, casts Spiritual Weapon and sends it in after the monk as the medusae has disappeared into the room at the end of the hall. Suddenly, from that end, an enormous volume of thick Webs sprays into the hallway, cascading out onto the deck. The entire party is caught in its sticky strands, (including the enraged Bebe who just now got her chance to move…talk about Rage….) The only occupant of the webs that does save is the enemy monk who sidesteps into the room of the doorway he occupies.

Liam recalls his gifts of Epona and calls forth his Travel domain ability to move unhindered. He penetrates quickly into the web and after a quick glance around, decides to throw a Cure Moderate on a heavily wounded Bebe. As he finishes the spell he sees a flash of crimson from the doorway to his left. The monk appears around the doorframe just long enough to toss a small orange bead. Liam, sensing trouble, dives on top of it (obviously it seems, their enemies have done this before!)

The bead explodes, sending Liam careening into the ceiling and bouncing off the floor in the narrow hall. He absorbs the entire blast of the small Fireball however enough flame escapes to send the Web up in smoke, singeing all within. As the smoke settles, several Magic Missiles fly in from the end of the hall striking Liam, Bebe and Archu.

Archu turns, runs for the rail and dives into the water overboard. (DM’s NOTE: When you ask your players repeatedly if they have read the Swimming rules, don’t believe them…just go over them again with them…)

Bebe moves to pursue the magic missile fire. The monk cuts her off and fends her off with a fighting withdrawal. Liam stands as well, trying to pursue down the hall. Liam can see that Bebe is wounded near inches of her life and he is in bad shape as well. Cian, from the end of the hall, tries to cast a Slow spell into the fray. He is successful at casting but the monk seems unaffected.

The fight presses down the hall. The medusae standing in the center of the room, her bow ready for a clean shot, while the monk holds the door. Bebe and Liam try as they might, cannot move beyond the monk’s blur of fist and feet. Finally a slash from the kama sends Liam to the ground bleeding. Bebe falls back and the door to the room she was facing slams shut in her face. Her rage winding down, she grabs Liam and runs for the main deck.

Bebe dumps the bloody Liam at Cinn Oir’s feet who tries to staunch the bleeding. Cian takes up a position at the end of the hallway watching the far door like a….eagle. The tension builds as Bebe tries to help Cinn Oir stop Liam’s bleeding while Cian eyes the door. Liam appears to stabilize and Bebe lifts him up and rushes to the wench on the upper deck where they climb aboard ont he anchor line.

Fortunately, Liam tied a good knot when he lashed the small rowboat to the anchor and it is dangling from the anchor line (after they decided to pull it in). Bebe sets him down and starts to lower anchor to get the boat back in the water. Meanwhile, Archu is busy dumping equipment in a futile attempt to keep from drowning. As Bebe gets the row boat to water level, she hears a door below deck come flying open.

Cian sees the monk rushing out with the medusae on his heels, bow in hand. He lets lose a series of disparaging remarks which actually gets the monks attention. Cian then takes off, flying to the other end of the ship. An arrow buzzes over his shoulder from the medusae’s bow. Taken aback by the monk’s speed, Cian is surprised to find him still face to face with the scaly warrior who has crossed the length of the deck and hopped atop the forecastle with one fluid motion. Cian leaps from the deck and takes flight out of the reach of the monk.

Meanwhile, Bebe and Cinn Oir have boarded the rowboat. Bebe waits for a second to see if Archu can make it to the rowboat. Seeing him floundering in the water, she growls something about chicken feces, and Bebe starts rowing with what little strength she has left. Recalling the Bull’s Strength tattoo she activates it to counter her horrible fatigue. Cinn Oir looks up to see the hideous medusae glaring over the rail. She fires a parting Magic Missile in their direction. One striking Archu, Bebe, and Cinn Oir. Archu is knocked flat out while Bebe and Cinn Oir manage to shrug off the blows. Cinn Oir casts Obscuring Mist to escape line of sight and Bebe continues to row.

The session ends with Bebe rowing near to the point of passing out while Cian finds Archu’s peacefully floating body and tries to drag him to shore……..