At the Magic Academy, Zelda was ready to see if she had learned her new spell. Her study was rewarded with new knowledge, and by the end of the day she was ready to scribe the spell from the scroll into her spell book.
Meanwhile, the rest of the party looked around the city some more, and took advantage of various opportunities for entertainment and enlightment, at the city theater and other venues.
Thurl caught up with the adventurers at day’s end. “We leave in the morning,” said the merchant. “Full cargo!”
The party rose pre-dawn, and by 5 am had returned to the city docks, where the keelboat lay at anchor, fully loaded. The adventurers boarded, and together with the ship’s crew, rowed back to South Gate, where they re-acquired the mule team and hitched it to the ship for towing back to Eastgate. The return journey proceeded smoothly, and by 1 am the next morning the party reached their destination. They checked into the same inn as previously, for what remained of the night.
By 5am, all cargo had been transferred from Thurl’s keelboat to the Desperate Venture. “Shore leave for an hour or so, until I get clearance to depart,” Thurl told the adventurers.
Eastgate as yet lacked much of a commercial district. It did, however, have a bazaar on the outskirts of tow, which was just opening up for early-morning business. The adventurers proceeded to the bazaar to shop for bargains. At one of the stalls, Arya found a scroll with the zone of truth spell. After some hard negotiation, she managed to get the vendor to accept 100 gold pieces for the scroll–a major bargain.
Nothing of significance occurred during the leg of the journey back to Thornward. Thurl sold his cargo in town (which included tons of metals, weapons, armor, tools, magic potions from the Darksea Magic Academy, dried mushrooms, and twenty barrels of beer from Miae’s brewery) for a huge profit. He promptly paid the adventurers their cut: 1975 gold pieces! “Oh, and here’s six more gold for three days’ salary, too,” he added. The adventurers were thrilled to see how well the mission was paying off.
Thurl and Elwood spent the rest of the day tending to the next load of foodstuffs, manufactured goods and spirits, and to the ship, respectively. The adventurers spent a restful day in Thornward.
At dawn, the now-reloaded Desperate Venture departed, bound for Mitrik once again. Around noon, the ship dropped anchor on the south shore of river.
“I hear there are wild boars in this area,” said Captain Elwood. “We could get some fresh meat.”
“Yes,” agreed Thurl. “Let’s hunt some pork!” Thurl invited the adventurers to accompany him and Elwood, to which offer they readily agreed.
After about an hour of hunting, the party came upon some tracks that appeared to be those of a wild boar. “Quietly, quietly,” said Elwood, as the party began to stalk their prey.
Arya, however, was unusually clumsy. She tripped on a tree root and made a considerable racket.
Suddenly, out of the woods charged a huge wild boar! All of the party except Arya and Balefire were caught by surprise.
The boar charged into Strife, knocking him over. The beast’s vicious tusks gored the elven ranger, leaving him mortally wounded! Balefire rushed around the fallen elf and attacked the boar, but missed. Arya followed the rogue, and delivered a heavy two-handed blow to the beast with her heavy mace.
Now the rest of the party joined in. Kronk and Thurl both battered the boar. The boar tried to gore Kronk in turn, but the half-orc evaded the thrust. Zelda, well aware that she didn’t belong in melee, backed up about thirty feet, then shot an arrow at the boar. The shot missed high. Elwood ran around the others to flank the boar, then struck with his flail.
Strife, oblivious, lay dying and continued to bleed. Arya left the fighting to the others, and used her wand of cure light wounds to bring the wounded ranger back from the brink.
“Time for making bacon!” grunted Kronk. He swung his greatsword at the boar, slashing its head almost clean off. It fell dead.
“And ham, and pork chops, and ribs!” replied Strife, as he and Zelda spent the next half hour or so field-dressing the boar. “Plenty of meat!” said Elwood when the butchering was finished. “Let’s head back to the ship.” The party promptly began their return to the river bank.
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