The The sound of dock workers getting ready for thier day wakes Aleron from his drunken sleep. The sun is still hidden by the frostmaiden's magic, which for a drowis a blessing, do to the effects the sun has on his sight.The lake around the creaky docks is frozen, forcing fishers to pull their row boats up onto the ice. Pulling himself up and feeling the cold for the first time since he woke. Aleron gathered his bag, checking his equipment and coin pouch. Aleron brushed his silver hair out of his dark blue eyes. Across the way Aleron noticed a human man, just starting to wake up. Aleron remembers the man a little, he was in the tavern before the gaurds came in and closed it down for the night.
The man looks around in his confusion, still shaking of the Mead from the night before. The man stands up and starts to gather his stuff off the dock, slinging his glaive across his back and throwing his bag over that.
Aleron then noticed the dragonborn Humanoid in chain mail, a shield strapped to his back and a scimitar on his left hip. He stands tall with his brass scales shine in what little light comes through the clouds and snow. Next to him is a female wood elf, also in chain mail, with a shield strapped to her back,to her left hip she has a mace and to her right side almost at her back is a crossbow ready to be loaded and fired.
Behind them a gray hood hides most of the humanoid's face, but you can make out a wide nose and a long, frosty beard. The stout figure stamps their feet,looking around till he looks in Aleron's direction and starts stomping toward him. Now getting a better look at the shield dwarf he recalls his name to be Grynsk Berylbore, always at the tavern getting drunk looking for people to go out fishing. He stamps past the wood elf and dragonborn until he is standing in front of both Aleron and the human. "well it's about bloody time you show your faces. Get to it, ingrates! Those fish ain't gonna catch themselves!" Grynsk says as he points to two rowboats where he was once standing. " what are you talking about?" the human says looking at the two boats, one of which looks slightly damaged. "We had a deal..."Grynsklooks at him, starts to say something before passing with a puzzled look on his face. "What is your name again?"
The human brushed frost of his clothes," Rochester, my name is Rochester." Grynsk looks a little more confused at the name but brushes it off. "You humans, can't hold your liquor. We had a deal, you two and your two friends would be here early, go out and catch me some bloody fish and I would pay you five copper a fish." Grynsk is now looking more upset. "Let's go were wasting time."
Aleron confused by the dwarf as he recalls the night, seeing him talking to four other men in the tavern last night. However feeling his coin pouch lighter then he likes" Yes of course I remember, but he was not with me last night."
Grynsk waves Aleron." Who cares, do you want to make some coin for an easy day's work or do you want to go hungry and cold to night." Aleron looks at the dwarf. "Five copper a fish, if i heard you correctly. Sounds good to me."
Grynsk smiles at that then turns to see the elf and dragonborn. "you there, how about you." he yells out as he makes his way over. " I could use your help, me lady and... um sir." the Dragonborn looks down on the dwarf and crosses his arm. "Fishing, do you think that a hero like me would do such a mundane task." he says as he starts to walk away.
"Hero, bah. You call yourself a hero but let the kid go hungry because you're to prideful to go and catch some fish." Grynsk says with a slight grin. This stops the dragonborn in his tracks, he turns and walks back to the dwarf. " Fine but when they ask who got this fish you had better tell them it was the great hero Morgath."
Grynsk turns back to the the elf. "And you my lady?" The elf shrugs "what the hell, why not. Are you supplying the equipment?" she asks as she follows Grynsk to the boats. "Oh yes, of course I will." They walk to the end of the dock and start to load the boats. "what is your name my dear?" Gyrnsk asks as he holds out his hand. " I am lady Ularra of house Xiloscient." she grasps his thick working man's hand.
As Morgath, Rochester and Aleron loaded the boats the sound of foot steps approaching catches their attention. "You have no honor, Berylbore!" Another figure covered head to toe in cold weather clothing pointing his finger at the dwarf. pulling down a woolen muffler to reveal a pale, half-elven face. "You're sending these innocent people to their deaths. And for what, a few fish?"
"pay no mind to this blood fool, just get to work before I decide to find some one new." Grynsk storm's off down the dock leaving the group of four looking at each other in confusion.
The Half-elf looks at the group "look there is more to this then just fish, a monster has been attacking and killing people. just last week it killed the last crew of that boat leaving nothing but a damaged boat floating down the river. If you intend on going I ask a favor." He hands Aleron a black notebook." Just need you to document as much about what you see out there as you can and if you can document the monster, I will be willing to pay you five gold for that.
Aleron takes the note book " Who's good at taking notes?"
Rochester holds out his hand. "I got this." he says as he takes the book. He places the book into his backpack that is now laying on a damaged boat named Pronged Goat. The side of the boat is broken at the front on the side. It appears to be able to float with no problems, but if they are not careful could lead to some problems. Aleron places his stuff in the same boat, Morgath and Ularra place there stuff in the good boat named Burly Ram.
After a few minutes they set off on to the freezing water. They make there way down the river for a half hour and come up on some ice flow. With Rochester and Morgath rowing the boats they attempt to make there way through the ice. Rochester had a close call almost running into a chunk of ice. With a quick turn manages to only scrap the side of the boat.
After the close call it is only another half hour they make it to the part were the river meets lake Maer Dualdon. "this looks like a good spot." Morgath says as he starts to get the fishing pole ready. Aleron, Rochester, and Ularra do the same and all four cast there lines into the water. Rochester takes a moment to look around the area, cold and full of the normal creature life but nothing out of the ordinary. the waters are calm and the sky while dark show no signs of storms at least for the time being. Its not until a hour till there poles begin to pull slightly, they grasp the rods tightly and proper for the fish to swallow the hook. With in moments almost at once the lines go tight and the poles start to bow. The four pulled and struggled to pull in there prize, Ularra and Aleron were the first to pull them into the boats. The fish were large, weighting around 40 to 50 pounds with crimson scales with white scales underneath. There heads are rounded like a knuckle giving it its name knuckhead. They tightly rope the fish to the side of the boat and remove the hook from there mouth. After a moment longer Morgath pulls up his knuckhead and does the same. Rochester still fighting the fish stands pulling his line with all he has. A moment longer a snap of the sends Rochester into the freezing water, Aleron barely able to stay in the boat quickly reaches in and pulls Rochester back into the boat. "shit are you ok?" He grabbed his blanket out and throws it over him." we have got to go back..." stopping his words as he noticed that Rochester was not even shivering, even with the ice starting to form over his clothes. "I'm fine" he says as he starts to take off his clothes and ring them out.
Rochester seemingly unfazed by the extreme cold changes into some dry clothes, the new clothes are not meant for the extreme cold but he still seems unfazed. Rochester pulled out a torch, lights it and sets his wet clothes next to it. "Are you sure your good." Aleron asked puzzled why he shows no signs of Hypothermia. "Ya I'm good, let's get some fish." He then relines his pole and recasts.
After a few more hours of fishing giving, them a total of 9 fish, they still had not seen any sight of a monster. Aleron looks up at the sky knowing that it will be dark soon, even though its only noon. "We should start to head back soon, its going to take about two hours to fight up the current getting back to town." With that the four of them start to row back up stream the current of the river made things a bit more difficult, but slowly they made there way back up river. They came upon the ice flow once more, the wind has started to pick up. Aleron carefully moves the boat throw the ice, Morgath however not paying attention grinds against the side of a large chunk of ice and in attempt to lesser the damage slams into anther chunk of ice head on. "Be careful!" Ularra yells out as she takes the oars from Morgath. Aleron ,however, had already cleared the ice and looks back shaking his head, when the sound of something leaping out of the water and the sound of snapping wood, caught his attention. Rochester getting a good look of a large plesiosaurus launching it's head out of the water, sinking its almost foot long teeth into the side of the boat and ripping a chunk out of the boat. Icy water start to slowly fill the boat as each wave crashed into the boat pouring in through the damaged sides. The plesiosaurus sinks its head under the water keeping its eyes just above the water watching the boats. Aleron draws out his short swords readying for another attack "What in the nine hells is that!" The beast keeps its distance just watching. "That is a plesiosaur, it must be attracted by the fish." Rochester says with his glaive in hand. At this point Ularra has loaded her crossbow and Morgath pulls his scimitar. "What do you want beast?" Aleron yells out of frustration. "they don't speak..." Rochester starts before he is interrupted by a hissing voice. "not what sssi want. Massster wantsss, massster commandss me to sssenk boatss from Breman" Rochester taken by surprise starts to note down the plesiosaurus in the note book. "who is your master?" Aleron asked now lowering his swords. " My master gave me this gift. Isss named Ravisssin and claimed to ssserve the Frossstmaiden. Ravisssin sssaid I must do my part to help the Frossstmaiden, who wantsss the people of Bremen to sssuffer." Aleron looks over at Rochester. "Do you think it's telling the truth?" he whispered. "I don't know, it shouldn't be able talk and I don't know how it is. With that I don't know if it can tell a lie." Rochester said as he wrote in to the book about everything the creature had said and as much detail as he could muster about it. "So now what, you going to kill us like the other's?" Aleron asked as he slightly raised his swords readying for the next attack. "I have killed no one, they fell into the watersss and froze to death. I only do thisss ssso that I can keep my massstersss gift. I do not want to become a ssstupid beassst again."
"So can we leave or are you going to try to kill us again?" Aleron asks again unsure of weather or not he was given an answer. The plesiosaur says nothing as it sinks back into the water. The group waits for the plesiosaur to reappear or attack again. After nothing for a few moments they quickly row away, after about twenty minutes they made it back to the docks. There already waiting for them stands Grynsk, eager to see the fish they bought back. His joy turns quickly to shock and anger as he sees the damage to his boats. "What the bloody nine hells have you done to my boats." Grynsk yells as they secure the boats to the dock. "Well she hit some ice on the way in." Morgath says unconvincingly and as he points at Ularra. Ularra glares Daggers at Morgath as she pulls the fish up on the dock. "I'm not paying you, the damage you have done is going to put me out for at least a week." Grynsk Yells as he takes the fish and storm's off to a cart were he starts to load the fish. Aleron and Rochester cursed under there breaths. As they start to gather there stuff, Tali the Half-elf quickly and eagerly walks to them. " Did you see it?" he asks. "Yes we have it right here, but you may find it hard to believe." Rochester says as he hands him the book. Quickly taking the book and turning to the page that they added he begins to reading. " Really, a talking plesiosaur how interesting. If this is true I will owe you a debt of gratitude." He hands Rochester a small pouch of five gold coins and a scroll. "This all i can give for now." Tali then turns and walks off, eyes glued to the book reading as he speaks to himself in elfish. "Well if you will excuse me I must return to my dutys, not that it has not been fun." Ularra says before Rochester can split the coins and starts to walk away. "Yes i must report in, a hero such as my self has no need to take money for this kind of work." Morgath says as he pridefuly walks off back to the town. Rochester takes two of the coins and hands it to Aleron, who then holds up one coin. "How about we go to the tavern and split this coin with food and ale." With a slight smile pats him on the shoulder. " Now your speaking my language." With that the two head off to the tavern.