Chapter 3: The Darklake

The next day of travel is uneventful. You manage to make your way without any beasts or weird things attacking you. I'll give you guys a chance to RP a bit of that day if you'd like. Magic Surge number is a 9 for those of you casting spells during that 24 hour period.

If you want to handwave the day, we'll proceed.

Days in Darklake: 5. Estimated time to Neverlight: 21 days.

Dustin, as you use your magic hand to dip into the water and grab stuff, you manage to get another 22 pounds of fish (15 pounds clean and raw meat). However, as the final fish comes up, your mage hand hooked the strap on a watertight leather satchel. When you open it up, you find two vials wrapped in cotton tucked inside. The liquid is orange and flickering. You can see a haze of black smoke near the top of the vial, right up by the stopper.

As you go to taste one of the two identical vials, you notice a plume of smoke wafts out when you remove the stopper. When the liquid hits your tongue:

Yes, you are at the end of day 5 traversing the Darklake region. Day 6 is about to "dawn"

As Bildaweer and Georges take over their turns manning the course of their respective boats , everyone else settles into their non-command duties (sleeping, staring out into the void, practicing singing, whatever). As the middle of their watch period draws to a close, the boats are suddenly hit with a terribly rough undercurrent. The keelboats are ripped hither and yon, crates tumble and the hammocks swing wildly. Through quick action, and tireless efforts by all aboard, you manage to keep the boats upright and focused. Just as the torrential current abates, Bildaweer sees a large keelboat adrift on the water, barely moving. It looks to be some kind of trader's craft. The design is substantially different from yours. Rather than the somewhat symmetrical shape of yours, this one has a cabin at the aft of the boat, and it looks to be longer overall than your craft, likely with the intent to be carrying more people to manage the cargo. There are numerous crates and barrels, some tarped off, others not, visible just as you come upon it. At this point, you are all about 30 feet from the craft. You do not see anyone aboard.

What do you do?