The Grand Dame slides off into the dusk, leaving the shadows of Yartar behind. The adventurers are paired off: engaged couple Boris of the Feld with Catherine Rosalie, and Teresa Moon the competition winner with the annoyed, random, haughty high elf Siranalda Trandaror. Thoradin and the singing cat are nowhere to be seen, presumably in the staff quarters. Other guests are milling about the deck.

Trays of sparkling elvish wine, delicate and light, appear on the steady arms of waiters, glasses tinkling amongst the hum of conversation and laughter. The guests all seem to know each other and the adventurers stand out. An older rotund gentleman wanders over to Londer and Miss Moss. “New faces, wonderful, who do we have here?”

Londer pulls out his full posh. “I’m Boris of the Feld and this is Catherine Rosalie, my affiance. I’m from a land called ‘the Feld’ and my family has lived there for generations, in the deep south.”

Catherine Rosalie jumps in, flashing what she thinks is a charming grin, trying to change the subject. “Tell me about the tables – which one is the lucky one?” Miss Moss can see the man’s full thought process etched on his face as he looks from one of her eyes to the lazy, aft-pointing other, then back. He quickly regains control of his facial expression. He doesn’t look Miss Moss in the eye again. He laughs a little too loudly, saying, “I always choose the one near the door in case I need to get away quickly!” They all laugh, a little too loud.

An older lady approaches Leshanna and Lia. She’s quite the sight with her hair in an impressively-built grey beehive. “I don’t believe we’ve met,” she drawls, holding out a gloved hand limply. This is Delia Farthing, and she comes here most evenings. She grows clearly less impressed with the competition winner and the haughty elf as every moment goes by, but to her credit, remains largely polite.

Teresa Moon, eyes sparkling, asks with oscar-winning enthusiasm, “Are you lucky?” Teresa seems to sincerely want to know, her smile toothy, her accent indecipherable.

“It’s not so much about the money, I have a lot of that – it’s a social thing for me. Different sorts come on… it’s nice that they’re letting all sorts on…” It doesn’t seem like she thinks it’s nice at all. She exits the conversation and moves on.

The sun is sinking beneath the horizon and the mood shifts. A lady of indeterminate age with a severe dark bob appears, a Shou lady dressed in a pattern of three snakes. She rings a bell to get everyone’s attention, welcomes all guests onboard, and leads them all through to the dining room for dinner.

Ostentatious white gossamer curtains, fancy silverware and chandeliers dazzle the gang as they wander into the dining hall, all but Londer wobbly in such fanciness.

Setting up for games

Thoradin is getting acquainted with the foreman Norm. Thoradin will be working on the Kobold’s Knuckles games, and he confirms to Norm that he’s very familiar with it. Thoradin is escorted up to the gaming floor, psat the dining room and kitchen where he can hear chefs shouting and diners clinking cutlery and chattering.

The gaming room is large, tables laid out across the lush carpeting. There is a huge gold plated statue of a goose resting on a table in the middle. Of the other croupiers, Thoradin is the only dwarf.

Thoradin takes his place nearest to the back of the boat and the goose. He’s spent quite a bit of time in gambling places but this is the finest one he’s ever been in. He’s looking around taking it all in, considering if there’s anything interesting and thinking about the etiquette of the place. There is set up for Sava, a chesslike game that Miss Moss and he played once before.

From the other side of the room, the lady with the severe but elegant bob comes in and walks over to each gaming table by turn. She reaches in and pulls out stacks of chips from her seemingly-too-small sidebag and sets them up on the tables. She comes over to Thoradin’s table. “I don’t believe we’ve met before. My name is Pow Ming.”

“I’m Thoradin Whitehammer.”

“We do things by the book here, I trust there will be no trouble – here are the chips. I’ll be keeping an eye on you, no offence but that’s the way we do things.”

She lays out the chips and Thoradin notices that they are gold chips with an encrusted gold goose logo on each chip. Thoradin asks, “What’s the significance of the golden goose and the magnificent statue?”

She points to a fairly unflattering statue. “Lord Dryland owns the ship and that’s his crest.”

Back in the dining room

Miss Moss is wandering around with food. Londer is sitting down, enjoying the food and trying to start conversations with other guests. Miss Moss realises she looks a bit off and goes to sit down like Londer. Londer’s noble heritage gives him an etiquette advantage. Lia is pretending to get very drunk, sitting at the dining table. Leshanna sits looking annoyed.

After dinner is finished, the guests are all invited to move into the gaming room where musicians play tavern-style music. Looking through the crowd there are three women wearing purple but two of them you know. One is noticeably better dressed. The beautiful purple-clad stranger is talking to an older, noble gentleman and they take a seat at the Sava table. Around her neck are impressive jewels. Londer alerts Miss Moss and subtly signals Lia across the room. They’ve found her.

Pow Ming comes by and asks how many golden goose tokens Londer would like. Ten, he replies. Thoradin is sitting at the back, observing. People are taking quite a lot of chips, stacks of them. Delia with the beehive hair, and a man, quite a bit younger than the others, extremely sharply dressed, dashing with perfect hair. He takes a lot of chips too. Londer considers approaching the lady in the purple dress but he and Miss Moss decide to play games first and settle in.

Thoradin throws cards and chips around skillfully to roars of delight. Leshanna and Lia have a conference in a toilet at the bottom of the boat, which is filled with rowers. Lia thinks they should have used Londer-Boris as noble bait. Could they try to get a message to him? They throw around ideas until someone walks too close and they go back to the game room.

Pow Ming approaches the elves to give them chips. Leshanna takes 10 chips and Lia bravely takes the same (100 gold pieces each). It’s a modest amount compared to what others are purchasing, 50+ chips.

Leshanna sends a magical message to Londer to suggest the plan to act as noble bait. He looks delighted by the idea. Londer whispers to Miss Moss about the new plan. Lia, feeling awkward and sick of small talk with dullards, begins to dance. It’s not great.

Pow Ming stops next to Thoradin’s table and watches as the hands are played. She doesn’t look impressed but doesn’t say anything.

The lady with the beehive hair wanders over to Londer and gushes, “Hello, my name is Delia!” Boris the Feld tries to introduce Miss Moss to Delia, but she isn’t having it and doesn’t even look at Miss Moss or feign politeness. She only has eyes for Londer. Miss Moss feels a bit annoyed. If the boat capsizes, she will not be saving Mrs Beehive Hair, she decides meanly. Londer spins some yarns and Delia clasps her hands in delight and gives him three chips, for what he isn’t sure. Delia slaps Londer’s bum as she walks off. Miss Moss and Londer stifle their laughter.

Londer and Miss Moss decide to stage a fight and find a way to get Londer to speak with the lady in the purple dress alone, perhaps managing to look like a vulnerable noble in need of kidnapping.

A bell rings and the room falls silent

“My darling guests, your attention, please. In just a few moments we have our featured entertainment for the evening. Please, everyone, take the stairs down behind the goose into the dance hall.”

Everyone makes their way down the spiral staircase into a modest room with a stage at one end. It’s dark, smoky and full of atmosphère d’ambiance.

From the stage, the lady announces: “It is a special evening tonight. All the way from the jungles of Mazticker to the river town of Yartar, we have a tremendous guest this evening – a… ” she starts to look very unsure and checks her notes repeatedly, “A one-man pantomime called…”, she checks again, “Miss Malmsbury’s Missing Knickers by Shuki Bigballs.”

As Pow Ming hurries off the stage, the gang see her looking very angry, shaking her head and mouthing “What the fuck?” to an employee.

Dressed in a purple dress like the Tabaxi version of Auntie Jack is Bizarre Gunther, striding out on stage, magnificent and in his element. There is a little heckling, but a very beautiful, funny and touching song erupts from his jowls, with an absolutely ecstatic response from the crowd. The performance is a complete triumph.

Enter stage left Lady Atalia

Londer whispers to Miss Moss, “Hit me, hit me in the face!” Miss Moss looks left to right, then says loudly and haughtily, “How dare you!” and slaps Londer across the cheek a little bit harder than she meant to. It’s been a while since she hasn’t hit to maim.

Londer has a cut lip and a bloody nose. People look over in surprise but look away quickly so as not to stare. Miss Moss storms off to Thoradin’s table and sits down to play, her back to the room, as huffy as she can muster. She dramatically swishes her hair back.

Londer moves over to the drinks fountain with clearly injured pride and dabs at his lip with his sleeve as he gets a drink. He looks so wounded. He’s simply begging to be kidnapped.

Londer mutters to himself shaking his head, “I hate it when she gets like this, I only suggested a threesome with the beehive lady!”

Pow Ming wanders over to Lia and Leshanna, checking if they will start gambling soon. Sirandala gives a knowing look to Pow Ming as she guides the apparently drunk Teresa Moon towards the Sava table where the lady with the purple dress is sitting. As the game is starting to finish up, her male opponent says, “I don’t know how you do it, Lady Atalia – it’s been an absolute pleasure. I have to stop before I squander all the gold I’ve spent a lifetime acquiring.” Lady Atalia smiles and says, “You do that, Lord Hubert.”

Londer makes eye contact with Lady Atalia and gives her and the empty chair a flirty grin. He wanders over. “What game is this?” A clear twinkle appears in her eye at the novice question. She is very charming and beautiful. She explains the rules. “Fancy a game?”

Londer sits down and they introduce themselves. This is Lady Atalia Nimrin. Londer wins the first game. “Beginner’s Luck!” jokes Lady Atalia. She’s giving off a bit of a strange vibe that Londer isn’t quite sure how to take. Is she planning to kidnap him? They make small talk about the deep south. Londer wins a second hand and Lady Atalia congratulates him and hands over five chips.

At the moment she is definitely not drugging him, but it’s unclear why she is acting a bit off. Londer decides to play hard to get and withdraw from the game, play it cool at the bar, make her come to him. He wishes her a good evening and heads to the bar. The man who had left a moment ago comes back and takes his place. He can’t help himself.

Lia and Leshanna move over to Thoradin’s table to play. Lia, rather out of her depth socially, mirrors Leshanna’s every move. Miss Moss heads over to the Sava table where Lady Atalia is playing, but at that moment, Lord Hubert steps up out of his seat and heads to the bar. Miss Moss panics and diverts, now heading to follow Lord Hubert at the bar. During her excruciating small talk, she finds out that Lord Hubert is from the Hubert family who have lived for many centuries in Yartar.

Around the room, Thoradin is noticing a general dissatisfaction with the gang, but not suspicions. Miss Moss tries to catch Londer’s eye to signal a team meeting.

Gunther (Shuki Bigballs) has been making his way over to the Magnificent Lady in Purple. She’s got up from the table to get a drink, where Gunther walks up to her and says “Obviously everyone else didn’t get the memo, wearing the same thing!”

She smiles. “Ahh you must be Kuki, cocky – you’re the entertainment this evening I gather. I didn’t see it myself, not really my thing.” Gunther offers to buy Lady Atalia a drink, she accepts, and they move to the back of the boat. Gunther notices she’s looking back towards the other members of the party.

The pair play a game, but to Gunther’s surprise, he then hears, “Pretend everything is fine, please I need your help”. She is not speaking, her mouth isn’t moving; he just hears the words in his head. He mouths “O.K.!” She says “Please, you and your friends follow me to the docks when we return, nod if you understand me.” He nods a single time and they return to gambling. Gunther wins another 20 chips.

Pow Ming comes over to the table and looks at the gang at Thoradin’s table, where they now do look suspicious – tired of feeling awkward and uncomfortable, the gang have found themselves back together again, in relative safety and comfort. “I’m not sure we’ll be welcoming you here again”, Pow Ming says curtly. Lia just stares at her. She’s had quite enough of this travelling, gambling den and couldn’t care less if they were invited back. The feeling is shared amongst the gang.

Getting off

Pow watches everyone disembark. Londer and Miss Moss start walking home, while Lia ducks behind a skip and quickly changes out of her dress. Thoradin is in animated mid-conversation with some of the other croupiers, after having a rather enjoyable time.

Gunther stands on the deck and tries to signal the others discreetly. Lady Atalia is standing off to the side. Noting the signal, Londer steers Miss Moss back, but they stand a little back, unsure. Gunther walks up and gives Lady Atalia a nod. She asks him, “Will your friends be joining us?”

Gunther says, “I just need to click my fingers.” Gunther tries to click but, embarrassingly, cannot.

Leshanna is nervous about the Tabaxi, noticing the signal, hovering around and wanting to understand what’s going on. She’s reluctant to draw attention to the alliance between the six of them. Thoradin believes he hasn’t been linked with the group and stands back and smokes a pipe. They all mingle around a little, everyone a little gun shy and not sure what’s happening.

“Thank you for trusting me, I need your help,” says Lady Atalia quietly.

“A beautiful lady like you, of course we trust you!” Gunther laughs. It’s only half a joke.

The tone shifts in a heartbeat. “I know who you are, I know what you want. I need your help”. She has their attention. “I abducted the boys. I didn’t do it, I mean, I did it because I was forced to. I can help you find them. There’s an evil sorcerer, his name is Usuf. He’s forced me to do these things. I can’t continue doing it. I can lead you to him, I can tell you what’s going on.”

As they walk to a safer place to talk, a courtyard, Lady Atalia goes on to explain the situation.

“The sorcerer came to town about a month ago. I trusted him, he told me he would teach me how to perform magic. He is cruel and ruthless, he’s not what he said he was.“ She seems honest but there may be more to the story.

Here’s what she knows:

She doesn’t know why he wants the nobles
He asks her to deliver them to the sewers
There’s a place she drops them off to a group of fish people who worship them
She doesn’t think they are killed
She doesn’t know anything about the strange cocoons but she’s not surprised either
Usuf is tall, handsome and dresses well
She’s never seen Usuf on the Grand Dame

Miss Moss, listening from the bushes, pokes her head out with a rustle of leaves and asks, “Who are the fish people?”

Lady Atalia wishes they would drop the charade. A little exasperated, she says, “I know who you are and that you’re all here!” She looks around at each person’s location. She can read thoughts very well, although even given that, it was not difficult to see through the disguises on the boat.

The fish people are little fish people, she doesn’t know the connection. Usuf said he’s going to kill her if she doesn’t help him. She’s been ‘helping’ for about three weeks, but hasn’t been given a target or even a real task beyond the kidnappings. The thought appears in her head, and she must do as she’s told. They are specific Yartar nobles that he requests.

When quizzed, Lady Atalia doesn’t volunteer any information about the nobles that fled from Yartar, she says she doesn’t know about them.

Once they’ve asked all their questions, Lady Atalia leads the gang through the dark streets to a spot, not far from the dock, a little south and down a laneway. At the end of the laneway, there is a manhole cover and it has been lifted recently. She points.