While the elf remains with the boat, Reggie and Cosimo manage to make their way below decks thanks to the guards being distracted and annoyed. There they find many cages in the hold, each containing an exotic animal. Reggie busies himself with releasing a number of monkeys and parrots, but soon the pair are discovered by a smuggler and Cosimo is forced to face him in a deadly duel. Though wounded twice, Cosimo is victorious and the unfortunate sailor falls against one of the larger cages (which contains a large, spider-like creature that quickly begins to pull the dead body through the bars... eegh).
Parrots and monkeys are now flapping and leaping all over the ship. The crew becomes alerted to the situation and immediately tries to recapture some of the critters. Erdos, Thada, and Drogg then take the opportunity to get themselves aboard the boat. On the main deck chaos reigns as smugglers emerge from their quarters to deal with the animal (and adventurer) populations. Soon fighting erupts and the heroes are faced with a crew of armed men and their chief, the aforementioned Soller Vark.
Five of Vark's men are killed, two of them surrender, and Vark himself is frozen nearly solid by several repeated blasts of Drogg's cold ray. Shortly thereafter the Blue Nixie is secured. While the prisoners are placed in the brig, Erdos occupies himself with trying to prevent some of the sailors from bleeding to death. Some cannot be helped, but Vark manages to survive (just barely). The new crew then sails the Nixie towards the Azure District where they plan on turning over the criminals and what remains of the animals to the authorities.
Lavinia is overjoyed with the group's success. Not only did she have her ship back in one piece, but the heroes were also able to recover the lost harbormaster fees and Verik Vanderboren's signet ring. The ring was found with a roll of parchment containing five rather strange lines of text, in perhaps some kind of riddle or code. She happily pays each member of the party what she promised, plus she asks if they will stay in service to her family for a generous one-hundred gold coins every month. The adventurers agree and do not have to wait long to learn of their next task.
With her father's signet ring, Lavinia now has access to her family's vault beneath Castle Teraknian. To truly reverse the fortunes of her estate, she needs the valuables contained there. However, many of the noble families in Sasserine notoriously guard their vaults with traps and other fiendish measures. She is hoping that her new employees can accompany her to the vault just as personal bodyguards in case anything unexpected occurs. Which everyone expects.
Her concerns were well-founded. While the ring easily gains them passage through the outer vault door, beyond there is a domed chamber of green marble that is guarded by a metallic creation forged to appear as a venomous serpent. The creature proves virtually impervious to almost all attempts to harm it and it nearly kills both Erdos and Cosimo. However, the companions surround the beast and finally manage to wear the thing down. The most telling blow comes from Thada and moments later, it collapses with its metal skin ruptured.After the harrowing melee, the party catch their breaths and then try to find some way out of the marble chamber. Erdos's keen elven eyes manage to detect a ingeniously disguised switch, and soon he has unveiled the entry into the next part of the vault.
Within the next chamber is a central pillar decorated with many vertical groves. Where this column meets the ceiling, there is an eight-pointed star (or four, two-pointed stars conjoined). Seven of the arms of the star are black, but the eighth (the one pointing towards the entrance) is red. On the surrounding walls of the octagonal-shaped room are elaborate sculptures of fantastic monsters, each with different numbers of bejeweled eyes...
DM Notes: A perilous second session put the adventurers to the test in more ways than just combat. There was some excellent skill usage (including some great Hide, Move Silently, Bluff, Tumble, Search, and Heal checks). The group also needed to use some cleverness and were faced with some difficult choices. They also needed to overcome a crew of smugglers (though outnumbered) and defeat a guardian that possessed both Damage Reduction and Spell Resistance. Things looked bad at times, but they pulled through.
The party earned 330 xp for killing or capturing the smugglers and 120 xp for destroying the iron cobra. They also upgraded some of their equipment and secured gainful employment from a noble family of Sasserine. Not a bad day's work. But now they are faced with a curious puzzle.
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