Prologue: Just another day

The Myr mage turns to the captain. "Are you sure you want to bring her with us, sir?"

The man, pleased to feel the wind on his face, turns to Konrad and says, "Well, your colleague just paid for her passage, so I'm fine with it. It's unlikely we meet any pirate stupid enough to attack us; and even if we do, we also have the five of you on our side, right?"

His eyes turn to the horizon. The captain seems really happy to be sailing again.

The feeling washes over Konrad as well, edging the matter to the back of his mind. "Those are both excellent points. Where are our bunks, sir?"

"Oh, you all have your own cabins. You are our only passengers, so take whichever that's empty. I trust you remember your way around this ship?"

"Yes sir! It's good to be aboard the Barracuda again Captain. She's a good ship with a good crew." Steve tips his hat and waves one last time at Zelk as he heads for his cabin. "Come on Amber, I'll show you."

"Go with the man in the hat, Amber. He knows the way."

Konrad nods and leaves to claim a cabin. Again, his own cabin. Not quite like the captain's, but spiffy for your average sailor.

Amber nods at Mihai, amused, and says to Steve, "Okay, thanks!" She then turns around to wave goodbye to Zelk. The ship is already starting to move away from the docks. "Bye Zelk! And make sure to choose nice flowers for the wedding!"

"Yeah, goodbye Zelky!" the fairy shouts. "Lots of blue roses! They're the best!"

Mihai gives Zelk a wave - "Back in a week. Take care."

With a serene smile, Zelk responds in kind to the party's goodbyes.

The Barracuda slowly drifts away towards the sea, leaving Zelk and the rest of Highwind behind. Fifteen minutes later, the ship has reached full speed, taking the party members towards their destination; Narrowfist.

As the port disappears, Konrad visits with the captain. "Per our orders, we will be keeping a guard on the shipment consisting of at least one Coins member. Blue is a valid candidate for the schedule. Do you want to give your say on this?"

"You and your group are the ones in charge of the cargo," Jim says. "As long as you don't do anything to the ship itself, it's not my place to tell you how to do your job."

"Alright then."

Konrad goes to the shipment to watch it while he makes a schedule.

Schedule
Day 1 Morning: Konrad+Fedler
Day 1 Evening: Mihai+Guard
Day 1 Overnight: Steve+Breeze
-
Day 2 Morning: Fedler+Guard
Day 2 Evening: Steve+Konrad
Narrowfist Overnight: Mihai+Breeze

Once Konrad is alone with Fedler and the crates, he examines the exterior of the crate, then holds his ear to the side of it for a good 5 minutes. Then, he opens his 3rd eye for anything magical in nature, be it an object within, or remnants of magic nearby.

Bored already, Fedler sits down on a crate that faces the door. She takes out her harp and starts fine-tuning it.

Konrad, determined to learn more about the contents of the crates, approaches one of them and attempts to sense any sort of abnormality in the flow of magic. After a few seconds, he realizes that every crate contains something of a magical nature within them.

Konrad then passes over each crate, trying to get a sense for what may be inside each one, be it fettered or raw magic or somethinc completely alien to him.

There's something magical in each of those crates; the big ones have something to do with magic repulsion, while the small ones have elemental energy coming from them. In fact, one crate has Fire energy coming off of it, the next one Water, the other Earth, etc. All eight Elements are present.

There are 8 big crates, and 16 small ones.

Konrad determines the purpose of these things to be offensive, but he cannot guess what that would be. Probably weapons. He relays this information to the others, and of course it's unspoken that these findings do not become known to non-Coins, and the fact that they dug around kept from their handler in case they get in huge trouble for it. Maybe Steve can guess what the weapon is, but it's pretty clear to Konrad that the Coins are gearing up for the war or some big confrontation. Konrad also explains to them that the quartermaster has been under orders to stockpile arms and armor since before Konrad was conscripted.

It's probably nothing.

Steve suggests the elemental crates contain new arms or munitions for attacking specific elemental weaknesses. Perhaps the Coin's are testing some new weapons to meet the rising threat from new magical creatures.

When the 113th members check in at the end of the evening, Konrad asks to see the orb that so far is tethered to no one, and asks Breeze to come forward for a scan.

Lvl 4 Scan on orb
Lvl 4 Scan on Breeze
(2 Level 5 Scans for 6 mana each)

This orb seems to have a vitreous surface to it, like if the Eight Elements present within it were encased within glass. However, you detect only magic, and no physical component. What's more curious is that the energy doesn't dissipate as it should, which indicates there's a structure behind it, and thus a purpose; considering your past experience with orbs, you imagine its purpose is to store memories.

After some more examination, you determine that the Elements are continuously being rewoven, which is unheard of since there is no weaver present to make this possible. Moreover, this weaving process is done without raw magic, which is contrary to what you've been studying on the subject. However, you now that this orb is less "active" than the ones you and your party members are using.

Breeze is always willing to go under a scan spell. She takes a pose and lets Konrad do his work.

She seems to be a smaller version of a human, identical in almost every way, except for the wings that are clearly magical in nature and that she "summons" at will. However, there's also a concentrated amount of the eight elements within her, all circling through her body like rivers flowing back unto themselves. The amount of fizzled magic within her is impressive; there must be the equivalent of at least a level 15 spell.

There's nothing out of the "ordinary" however. Still not sure how she manages to eat so much.

Mihai suggests that the boxes may contain components for a single device that directs the elements for reasons unknown. Steve thinks this an interesting idea though he has no idea what the device might be for.

Over the course of the voyage Steve practices his music and does his job, passing his time off duty playing Joker Poker with anyone who is interested.

Still nothing new, and now Konrad is frustrated at his own limitations.

While off duty, Konrad will play poker with the joker and enjoy a good smoke at the aft of the ship. When the others are bored of games, he'll be in his cabin, weaving a magic glove.

When not on guard duty, Mihai is with the family.

He's a bit protective of Amber, despite the fact that she's sailed before.

The voyage to Narrowfist is thankfully uneventful.

For the first few hours, Amber explores the ship from top to bottom; every place she's allowed to go anyway. She sees to enjoy this little vacation, and the captain even agrees to give her a tour of his quarters. It hasn't changed that much since Konrad's brief tenure as captain, but the large space reserved for one person alone manages to impress her.

Once Zywia, the old white mage of the crew, learns that Steve got engaged to that lady that traveled with them, she immediately goes to congratulate him. She seems to have a soft spot for romantic stories, and when she notices that Mihai and Fedler are still together, she winks at the rogue while clutching her cane - the one with a cute cat head.

There is a little surprise for the party however, one with long ears and a red horn.

It appears that Florolf has somehow made his way onto the ship. The first person who sees him is the captain, who've noticed something with white fur walk on top of the mast. When brought to her attention, Fedler explains that she knows this carbuncle and there's no reason to worry. And indeed, for the rest of the voyage, Florolf proves himself to be as stealthy as he is shy. The only people he lets pet him are Fedler, and surprisingly enough, Amber. The carbuncle otherwise stays hidden from everyone's sight and sleeps under Amber's bed.

On the 28th of March, at around 8 PM, the Barracuda arrives in Narrowfist, a town that looks similar to Zest's Gate, albeit being half its size. There is currently only one other ship docked at the moment; the Porpoise, a small merchant brig.

Once the Barracuda is docked, Captain Jim comes to talk to the party.

"We can't unload the cargo at this hour," he explains. "My crew will stay on board, so don't worry; they'll be fit to work come tomorrow morning since-"and as he says this, he discreetly glances at the rest of the crew, "they're not going to sneak off at the tavern and get themselves drunk like a bunch of shitheads."

The sailors keep their heads low and obediently go under the deck to get some rest.