I was in Tolamay when I received word of someone abusing their knowledge of the arcane in Chirapher. I booked passage with Captain Sara aboard her ship, the Silver Slipper. Two other individuals also booked passage. Upon boarding the Silver Slipper, I met Vod. Vod is a human monk carrying a great-sword. I am sure there is quite a story behind that combination. Shortly, we were joined by Tifa (Teefa? I am unsure of how she spells it). She is a well dressed Elvish woman (something about her suggests that perhaps she is only Half-elven, but she definitely looks Elvish). While her clothes are of the finest craftsmanship and cut, they nevertheless appear quite practical.
    Shortly after the three of us had made acquaintance with each other, the crew loaded a large, heavy object into the hold. Fabric draped over the object completely obscuring it, but I suspected that it was a statue of some sort. As soon as the crew had the object secured in the hold, the captain set sail.
    Once the captain had things settled, I approached her and began asking her some questions about the tools she uses to navigate. We spoke about her various travels. She primarily makes the Tolamay to Chirapher run, but occasionally takes a load to Golotha and even the mainland. I was surprised to learn that she had changed her mind about stopping in the Elvish port **Look up and include name**. However, it made sense when she revealed that party shipping the statue paid close to twice her normal rate for her to take the statue to Chirapher for trans-shipment to the mainland.
    On the first night out of port, Tifa revealed that she is a courier, while Vod revealed that he is seeking an artifact in order to gain vengeance against the Red Shadows of Agrek. Vod rose early the following morning and began working with the crew. This strikes me as a bit of a bonus for the captain as Vod had paid full fare for the trip, but wishes to learn how to run a ship.
    On the second night, Vod joined the crew in a drinking game, while Tifa and I played some friendly hands of cards. Tifa got out a very fine set of Tarot cards and offered to do readings for the crew, but the crew was adverse to such activity.
    Just as we settled into a routine, one of the crew got up in the middle of the night and danced energetically, and noisily, on the deck until he collapsed. The following morning he had no recollection of doing so. The following day, the captain yelled orders for one of the crew, who could not initially be found. After a short search of the ship, we found him in the hold staring at the statue, from which he had removed the shrouding fabric. Once again, the crewman could not, or would not, explain his actions, claiming to have no recollection of what had happened. The captain was out of sorts after these two events. When I checked with the crew, they expressed the thought that this was atypical for the captain, even considering the strange actions of the two crewmen.
    On the next day at about midday, I spotted a dark blot on the horizon which was not a cloud. When the captain looked at it through her spyglass (I should get myself one of those) she declared that it was six separate flocks of seagulls. After watching them for a few minutes, it became obvious that they were heading straight for the ship. The captain ordered the crew to let out the anchor and then take cover.
    When the birds reached range, I summoned my weapon (a longbow this time) and began firing. Vod retrieved his short-bow, as did the captain. Tifa initially sheltered in our cabin, but when she realized that the crew was having trouble getting the anchor to set she went down into the hold and examined the statue. I agree with her thought that there was likely a link between the birds and the statue although we were unable to determine what that link was. After concentrating our fire on one of the flocks at a time we were able to eliminate two of them before they reached the ship. Before the remaining birds reached the ship I cast darkness in the path of three of the flocks. The captain, Vod, and myself were able to eliminate the remaining flock. When the birds completely closed the distance, Vod was able to strike at them with fire from his fingers that appeared almost as claws of fire. When the final three flocks emerged from my darkness (fortunately, two of the flocks were disoriented in the darkness and thus even further delayed) Tifa stood by the crewmen attempting to get the anchor to set and defended them. She used a shortbow at range and a rapier up close. Vod and the captain took some injury before we were able to dispatch all of the birds, but no real harm came to any of us.
    That night and the following day were uneventful. However, a fog rose up late in the day and remained into the night. Fortunately, Tifa had taken to spending nights on the deck and thus was on deck when pirates attempted to take the ship. Tifa woke Vod and myself. This time I summoned my weapon as a rapier. The pirates consisted of some kind of fish humanoid, another powerful humanoid of some sort and three human thugs. The thugs were able to incapacitate the crew, killing three of them, while we fought off the other two. The pirate’s second in command was able to incapacitate, almost killing, the captain before Vod, Tifa, and myself were able to defeat their commander, the fish humanoid. Even that was touch and go. I was almost convinced that we were done for when their commander finally went down. Once we took out the two officers we made short work of the thugs. Strangely enough, the pirates’ ship disappeared as soon as the second in command was killed.
    The captain wished to toss the statue overboard immediately, but we convinced her that we should wait until everyone had recovered from the combat. After tossing the statue overboard we were able to complete our trip to Chirapher with no further incidents.
    For our aid in protecting her ship, Captain Sara refunded our cost of passage and offered us one free ride any time we seek passage to a port she is heading to.