Fooling around...

After saving little Bianca, we set off to Hermsdorf. There we would find Herr Wilhelm Leibniz, Baron Von Radische's steward, who would then take care of the Baron's only heir. And hopefully a nice reward for our brave, corageous, altruistic, selfless, and humanitary efforts.

Nothing happened during the first day of travel... Just some strange sounds from the woods, a big flock of birds flying from the trees as if scared... We really didn't stop at all to check it out, just moved faster along the road. Eventually, we reached an inn by rivershore, called "The Leaping Frog", where we settled for the night.

We had a nice meal, and a few tankards of fine ale to quench our parched throats. Hanselm, the storytelling vagabond, tried his luck once again. Unfortunately he tried the same story (which we all now know by heart) and apparently some of the patrons of the Stirring Cock in the previous night were travelling down the same road we were... Which meant that half of the inn already knew that story too. The vagabond was lucky enough not to start a bloody bar brawl due to his lame storytelling skills.

Meanwhile, the rest of us mingled with the patrons. Some casual conversation, accompanied by some ale drinking, led to the discovery of some (not so) useful information: we were in a zone favoured by some smugglers and they had a wealthy stash hidden somewhere in the vicinity of the river. There were also some rumours about some ruins northeast of Hermsdorf, near the town of Radische. "Some ruins? What's so special about them?", one of us asked. "They're... strange!", was the reply. Of course that we, as curious adventure seekers, couldn't help but investigate some ruins, most of all some 'strange' ruins. We also managed to find a small ship travelling to Hermsdorf that already carried some merchants aboard as well as their trading products, whose captain was willing to take a few more passengers. How lucky was that?

We set sail the next morning. The crew didn't talk much, nor did the merchants. Their bodyguards spoke even less... A dull trip it promised to be! The first day went on without incident and we passed the night in another inn by the shore. A bit more of rumour gathering, which confirmed the information aquired at "The Leaping Frog".Another fine day on the river passed on. Around the afternoon a river patrol sailed by and the crew of the ship immediately started working on the deck, looking even slightly nervous, and the captain barked orders left and right, mentioning "honest work" in his belows quite a few times. A hint of comprehension dawned in our dimmed and numb minds... Could this be a smuggler ship? We had to take the obvious course of action: poke around! It was our duty as law abiding citizens of the Empire! It was a moral obligation to try to bring these pirates to justice! It had nothing to do with the rumours of a secret stash or the possibly valuable cargo they were smuggling!

That night we anchored at a small cove. The captain went to shore accompanied by two of his sailors and quickly disappeared in the surrounding forest. That was the time for action. Hanselm distracted the firstmate and a few members of the crew with some smalltalk and a bottle of spirits while I, the always intrepid, cunning, smart and perspicaceous marine, asked intelligent questions to one of the sailors: "So... why are we stopping here? Where did the captain go?" Surprisingly, I didn't get any useful answers... Gundolf, the nobleman didn't really do much during this time, but as for that pointed ear hunter... Well, he just had to show that since he's an elf and all that, he was sooo superior, with sooo many good ideas! He took this chance to go below deck and investigate the cargo hold... He didn't find anything suspicious, just a bunch of crates with unlabelled wine bottles and some unmarked sacks containing grain of some sort... He had to dodge one of the sailors and his investigations couldn't be led further because one of the merchants and his bodyguards went down to sleep for the night. When he reported his findings to the rest of us, we immediatly understood that the grain and the bottles had to be the smuggling products. Which meant that the captain probably went for his stash during his night walk. We decided to take care of this business later. After all, we still had to deliver Bianca safely.

We reached Hermsdorf the next day and asked for Herr Leibniz's place. It was quite easy to find, and we knocked on the door. A servant came to ask what our business was. Our nobleman handled it in quite a politely manner, saying that we had private business with his master. Everything went smoothly, we were invited in. A nice house it was, with some artpieces decorating it, and high bookshelves in the Steward's study. We showed him the letter, gave him the medallion, he took the girl, payed us. That was swell... But sadly, the girl's father, the baron, had died in a dreadful hunt accident. His most important rival, who was present in the hunt as well, was surely filled with grief as he took possession of the Von Radische's lands and estates. So, as we took payment we swore on our graves not to say a word about what happened, for that could cause great peril to little Bianca, the last of the Von Radisches.

With fresh money in our pockets, and the possibility to "aprehend" illegal money from the smugglers, we went for some shopping. We sold some weapons taken from the dead goblins and bought some pieces of armour. With that done, we went to an inn near the docks to spy on the smuggler ship, gossip a little, drink some beers and plot our next course of action.