After Tanner had agreed to work for us, Lee left to attend to something. We
returned to the Roth's palace.

Later in the evening, he arrived back safely, and we ate with the Lord
and Lady. We were served a melange of seafood dishes, which were quite nice.
I suspect that with our long hourney ahead, we'll regret not eating
something less aquatic.

That night we took guard turns as normal, and had an uneventful time of it.
Lee took the last turn, and awoke us a little early. Servants arrived with
6 glasses and wine. Lee announced that he had decided to leave to join
the Knights of the White Bear. Training was to begin in one hour; he would
not be coming with us.

Had someone else done this, I might have thought them a coward. In Lee's
case, I have no doubt he is just making what he believes to be a
necessary decision. Still, it'll be a pity to lose him.

We were all a little thrown by Lee's departure, but we had no choice but to
go ahead as planned. We walked down to the docks in the cold morning air,
and met with Tanner at his ship. He had only 8 crewmen in a ship for 
12 to 18.

One of them was an Inghrebi, wearing a white turban. The swarthy fellow took
us to our rooms. We noticed the crew wore studded leather armour and that
there was a large ballista mounted to the ship. A young boy waved down at
us from the rigging.

As there weren't many crewmen, space was actually not a problem. We had
plenty of rroom to ourselves.

We returned to deck as the ship's sails were hoisted and we left the harbour.

I've travelled quite quickly before on horseback. I once rode flat out all
day with my uncle, going from Morpeth to a nearby town. On horse, you feel
the speed, and the distance. This voyage was very strange to me - we were
making good time over very large distances. We travelled about 200 miles in
not much over a day, to the Beaumont channel in the Archipelego, yet it
seemed effortless. I know that sounds foolish, as no-one would use ships if
they weren't potentially so fast, but I'm not very familiar with ships, so
I was impressed.

We got a chance to meet the crew. They included Michael Forbes, a large man;
Aylwin, the boy in the rigging, who was dumb; the Carpenter Edrick Wright;
Gervais du Perche, a surly Andoulais who was ittirated by our presence on
board for some reason; Laurence Hoblet, a sailor; Thibaut, the cook; and
Herbert Byer, a sailor.

We slept badly that first night. I was violently ill. Ships aren't any
more comfortable than horses, it seems.


22/12/954

Breakfast consisted for whiskey and hard biscuits.

We saw land ahead to port, with more on the horizon. We'd reached the
Archipelego. Tanner knew the currents here, and safely navigated past some
islands.

I noticed Tanner, Aylwin, Byer and Gervais talking seriously. Jack used his
lip reading ability to notice something about a "shadow". Tanner soon
told us we were being followed. He put on more sail, and fetched a chart.
He plotted a course which looked somewhat perilous, passing in through areas
marked with reefs and islands.

We sailed thorugh the day and night.


23/12/954

The islands nearby were low and rocky. The sea here is shallow.
Good weather.

We sailed dangerously all day, until after darkness, when we reached open water
once more. I slept a little better.


24/12/954

Our shadow had nearly caught us. It was the 'Red Maria', captained by
De Vaucoleur, an Andoulaise pirate who apparently hated out own Captain
Tanner.

The two ships raced along at full sail all day. The weather worsened and a
storm approached.

The storm hit after dark. Tanner got all hands on deck. We went at a funny
angle, with the ship tilted at almost 45 degrees at times.


25/12/954

The storm began to blow itself out. We could reach Trajir without being
attacked, by tomorrow morning, with luck.

Unfortunately we clipped a rock and had to drop anchor to inspect the damage.


26/12/954

At dawn, a ship was spotted to port, and an island to starboard. We avoided
being rammer, but were boarded.

I suddenly lost concentration and became momentarily confused.

Crowbow fire commenced, and we killed several of the would-be assailants.
They fired back at us, and threw grappling hooks.

We did more damage with our bolts, but Gervais was hit twice, and went down.

I recovered my concentration, only to see Jack stumble. The attackers jumped
down from their higher ship. Two attack me. There was commotion everywhere.
I won't recount the exact details of the fight, as it was unclear and
confused. Devon hacked through a line of opponents. I took a while to get
going and then killed two guys at once. Caed whipped various people.

De Vauc jumped down beside Tanner. Tanner and DV fought furiously, until
DV's rage overcame him. He lunged at Tanner, risking everything in an 
all-or-nothing attack. Tanner ducked, barely avoiding DV's sword, and then
ran DV through. DV stumbled backwards, and fell into the sea.

Meanwhile another fearsome oppentent had appeared, and fought well. We
weren't sure who it was, but later realised it was Eric the Younger. When
the fight was lost, he jumped off the ship and *disappeared* in
thin air.

Gervais was seriously injured and probably dying; Bayer was dead.

We boarded the enemy ship, and found a chest with valuables worth around
200 gp. We took 50, and the rest went to Tanner and his crew. I also
took a pair of nice long-knives.

We also found Eric's room. Jack picked the lock and we went in, with Dev.
Dev's curiosity got the better of him, and he ignored warnings to be
careful. He picked up a red gem, and *boom*, the room exploded in fire.
I was thrown back, stunned; Devon's beard was burnt off.

We returned to our own ship and scuppered the Red Maria. Jack bought a nice
cape-pin off Tanner, which the Captain had found on the Maria.


27/12/954

Night passed, and we reached Acre in Trajir. The harbour had well built stone
wave-breakers, and was somewhat fortified, though not a fortress by any means.
There was a catapult visible though.

On land, we could see men and dwarrow, who greeted us as we landed at the
small town. I guessed there might be 2000 inhabitants.

We walked down to Caed's old local, the imaginatively titled "The Trajir".
The pub was full of sailors from the fishing fleet. We ate a good meal
of potatoes and seafood. I suspect I wouldn't have been as inpressed back
home, but after all that weavil-filled biscuit, it was tasty.

Caed wanted to talk in private, so we got a room in the pub. Jack did some
crazy trick with a candle that seemed to stop noise leaving the room.
Tanner and crew left us to talk.

Caed explained about this place. He'd studied here, and gotten the scroll off
Professor Le Roux.

We went to the College. A servant saw Caed Hones.
"Master Caed! You've returned, safe and unhurt! And Master Surefoot!"
(I had forgetten that Surefoot had been here.)

He brought us to our rooms, and then to Le Roux. Le Roux was old, with
grey hair, but young looking skin.

Jack did the silence trick again, and Caed asked about the scroll. Le Roux
told us that it came from the Knights of the Grey Lady. (It sounds as if
there's an established intelligence community which shares information.)
The scroll had been taken from an elven messenger, and passed along until
it reached us.

We also learned that the Brother General of the Grey Lady had fallen ill
recently, and that two rivals were contesting the leadership.

Regarding the contents of the scroll, the Sword is of the House of Maladorn,
a member of the Elven Council, and a general who fought at the Wall.

The Dragon is Ahlana, a High Mage of the Elves.

After we'd spoken to Le Roux, we went to bed. I took first watch, and then
slept.

I was awoken by the noise of someone slumping onto the ground out in the
corridor. I jumped up, silently, and moved to the door, knifes in hands.
There was no sound outside. I didn't figure I'd open the door quickly and
silently enough to surprise the presumed attacked, so I just threw it open
and started shouting warnings of the attacker's presence.

I jumped into the corridor. Surefoot was lying on the ground, with the Green
Hunter about to stab him. He turned to face me as I ran at him. We both
attacked and did a poor job of it.

We fought, and Devon and Jack ran out. (Caed had been sleeping elsewhere.)
We had the Hunter surrounded and flanked, but he flipped over Jack, scamped
back a short way, and quaffed a potion. Within moments, he began to
transform. He broadened, and darkened, and became hairy... and then we were
facing a huge werewolf that filled the corridor. It charged at me. Jack
was injured and retreated to the safety of his room. Devon ran for his
crossbow. I had to face it alone, unarmoured.

I slashed it, again and again. It began to bleed, blood dripping out of a
dozen wounds. The thing didn't weaken though. Devon returned to the melee,
to be picked up and almost eaten. Seeing the danger, I abandoned my
normal defensive expertise and threw everything into an attack that
hurt it greatly. Devon managed to force it to drop him and get a little way
back from it. I was left exposed. It swiped at me with its left paw,
sending me flying into the wall. My head hit the stone, and I lost
consciousness.

I'm afraid that I don't remember anything much of the next few days, but
needless to say, we triumphed in the combat. The Green Hunter was killed,
and Eric the Younger (who'd gone for Caed) was also dead.

I spend the next 2 weeks or so recovering. I had headaches at first, and
couldn't remember much; even simple things I knew as a child were hard to
recall. It was an interesting feeling to wake up each morning and know
a little more than the previous evening.


13/1/955

We got a copy of the South-East of the Archipelego, and left Acre.

The sea was cold, and ice had almost started to form. I was glad to be
heading south.

We saw La Perche to starboard.


16/1/955

Past Estruen, St. Michel.

Headaches now almost entirely gone. Felt keen for a little sparring.


17/1/955

Tanner says the lands here are lived in by wild people. He's taking a wierd
route through the islands.


18/1/955

Entered the Windy Sea.


19/1/955

This evening, we saw a most amazing sight. We felt a draft of air, and heard
a loud screech overhead. A large, winged serpent dived down and grabbed
Aylwin, then soared upwards.

We thought the boy was finished, but a truly enormous beast emerged from the
water and arced through the sky, catching the tail of the serpent in its
mouth. (The boy fell safely to the sea.) The thing was giant beyond
belief. It's torse was wider than our ship, and it seemed to soar to the
clouds. I have seen some impressive things of late, and none of them have
filled me with half as much awe as this one. I've never before seen a creature
and known myself to be completely insignificant to it.

Aylwin's leg and back were hurt, but he was ok. We sailed onwards.


20/1/955

Headed for Jathiere.

We saw a Dwarven ship about mid-day. The black ship was twice the size of
out own little vessel. The hull was made of 'stone wood', from 'Versin',
I think.

The Captain was one Gareth de Choisy, and was following an "Elf-storm".
This, we were told, was a localised storm used to hide elf-ships.

We accompanied the dwarves to Port Jathiere. As we drew near, a column of
smoke was visible. The town was afire. We went ashore in longboatds; the
inhabitants lay slaughtered all around.

We spotted the elf-ship to the north. Returning to the Heron, we saw the
black ship persued it. 10 Dwarven marines came with us, led by
Arno de Choisy.


21/1/955

The weather worsened. Darkness, storm, wind, rain. Thunder rolled across the
sea.

Two bright lights were seen to port, floating in the sky. This was
St Michel's Fire. It bobbed about, and we followed it, as it illuminated the
jagged rocks around us.

We reached an opening in the rock. It was clearly artificial, being
straight and smoothly hewn. We went in, escaping the storm.
The plumb-line read 20 fathoms, and it got deeper for a while, before
becoming shallower.

We soon left the passage through the rock, and entered a calm area of
darkness, which we soon reasoned to be a cavern.

Ahead of us lay a sandy shore, and upon the shore stood a beautiful woman.
Hailing her got no reply. Suspicion filled our thoughts, but the only
thing for it was to go across in a long-boat. Tanner and two dwarven marines
accompanied us.

The barefoot woman was called Seraphin. She would not tell us much, except
that her husband wanted to talk to us.

Walking past some ancient dwarven pilars bathed in orange light, we entered
a hall in which lay a long table covered in food and drink. A tall man
sat silently at the head of the table, smiling faintly. The old fellow wore
a white shirt, brown trousers, and a medallion.

His name was Nathaniel de Joy, and he invited us to dine with him. His
other guests were his wife, and (to the surprise of us all, except Jack),
Lady Isolde, the woman from the painting in Isolde's tower.

De Joy explained the importance of the Amulet, and said that he could not
enter the passages beyond. (This was no doubt true; interesting though,
I later noticed that he was tired by all of this. I think he might not have
been up to it.)

De Joy, it seems (and I can barely belief how casually I can write this)
was one of the wizards at the battle of the Wall. Jack confirms this.


22/1/955

De Joy gave Jack a staff to aid him in his magics. Then he opened a pair of
ornate doors, and we walked in. Louis, Phillipe and Arno accompanied us.
Tanner and the others stayed with the ship.