Blackscale Lagoon: Part I Thieves in the Night: A Bloody Welcome

"Well sir," says Therin as they clean the gar flesh with fresh water, "this is one hell of a day!"
"Yep," says Cumwold, "one hell of a day."
"We call this one Lockhead,...but we weren't expecting him to be...here. If you look around we're in a deep spot surrounded by shallows. He's too big to have come this way on his own, I reckon," says Therin, scrathing his head.
"And look," says Cumwold, "there's nothing here but clay bottom and a few minnows, he must've been starvin'."
"Mehbee," responds Therin. They both look perplexed.

Benford looks about the area and notices signs of tracks. He asks the men to bring the boat around, where he disembarks. He looks in the salt grass and sees exactly what has happened here. Goblin tracks, some deep, as if they were carrying something heavy, and some leaving the area northeast that look like normal tracks. He follows them a little ways and finds a black net with some scales in it. They match the size, color and shape of the ones that once armored Lockhead. He returns to the boat, reports his findings and winces a bit from the bite Lockhead clamped on him...

Biscuit agrees with Varos.

You move towards a small island where Cumwold and Therin decide to anchor the boat and make a camp. They begin making a small fire and begin cooking a large filet of Gar with freshly picked swamp onions, finely diced turnips and plenty of spice. The smell of hot food gets your stomach grumbling. You can see the logic behind their decision to stop and anchor. The gray sky becomes a little darker as rain clouds begin marching across it and distant thunder peels rumble. The two fishermen are not without experience and while one has been cooking the other has been setting up a large tent, enough for 4 people to set cots and a small table. Twilight is just an hour away as you fill your bellies with roasted fish, biscuits and a beer.

"There's a path about a mile north of here. That's where you'll have to disembark and continue you're journey. Or, you could take a longer path just across to that spit of land there. It meets up with that path, but it's a little bit longer than if you just take the Valdora up that way," he point to an open spot in the salt grass. "The Ruins are a 5 mile walk on that path. It's too dangrous for us, but we know where it's at and we'll take you there in the morning," says Therin.

The night is uneventful. The fishermen take you upstream to a landing where there is trail and it has several tracks. A light rain has begun...

Biscuit wakes up and asks, "Did I miss anything?"

"Just follow the trail lad, it'll get ya' thir soon enough," says Therin. He is grim faced as is Cumwold.
"We'll moor Valdora down where we camped. 3 days...if we don't see ya...," says Cumwold.