Standing inside the eerie silence of a portable hole, Nowhere, Atlas, Seraphina, Immeral and Dain stand, waiting for some sign that K'ronk has got them out of the Tavern of Woe.  They are joined by Finn of the Riptide as well as an unconscious elven maid.  Atlas, Seraphina and Dain stand on top of the dead body of Sundeth, a slaver and torturer from the Xanathar guild.

Nowhere says "I like your height Seraphina."  

The diminutive halfling boosted in height standing on the great ogre.

"I like the view from here." she says, bouncing up and down on Sundeth's chest.

K'ronk floats motionless near the ceiling on the hunger level of the Tower of Woe, near the cell of Esmard Snowveins, prisoner of the Xanathar and son to Elvira, a former harper agent in Skullport. K'ronk has about 9 minutes left of his fly spell. 

A skreetchy voice cries out from above - "What is going on here, who is creating this HAVOK?  Havok is not productive and must be stopped!"

K'ronk watches as a squad of six hobgoblin guards race up the stairway from below, across the tower room and up the next stairs to Sundeth's aerie. 

K'ronk waits for a moment and more deeply examines the torture implements around the room as well as a strange devices in the center of the room that exhudes magic.  Then he turns to the cell with Esmard. There are emaciated corpses beside him, and he is thin, thinner than he should be, like months in prison have expired, but he was only taken a few days ago.

The skreetchy voice from above starts shouting questions at the hobgoblins.

A voice from the next room, shouts out "what's going on out there"?

Suddenly K'ronk starts feeling a gnawing hunger. It's a deepness of hunger that he has never felt before. He hangs on to the smell of death to squash his appetite.

"Esmard, can you hear me?" he whispers.

He opens his eyes which are sunken, and gets up from the tuft of straw he lays on. "Who's there?" he asks in a delicate voice sounding younger than the man now looks.

My name is K'ronk, your parents sent me to rescue you. 

"There was a fight above, was that you?"

"My friends and I."

"Get me out of here, I'm so hungry." he whispers

The voices above get louder as the skull asks for answers on what is going on.

8 minutes left to fly.

"I'm going to open the door and pick you up. You will be invisible with me."  K'ronk whispers

"OK" he says with concern in his voice.

K'ronk casts knock and the gate of the cell opens a bit.

The door to a side room opens and a massively fat ogre, obviously a jailor, stands in the doorway looking around. He doesnt appear to notice Esmard's cell cracked open.

K'ronk whispers "come out now!" and Esmard does so, and K'ronk quickly scoops him up and he turns invisible.  "Stay still!" he says as K'ronk carefully flies him up into the chains.

"Hey!" says the ogre.  "What's happening?"

The ogre comes over and stands just beneath K'ronk and Esmard.

The commotion gets louder, and blasts of green energy turn the orge towards the stairs.  Hobgoblins start yelling and diving down the stairs.

One of the hobgoblins, rounding the corner, makes too wide a turn and lands against the device in the middle of the room.

Suddenly black and purple necromantic energy lances out from the machine and starts withering him, locking him into position as his comrades race by and leave him.

The last hobgoblin to try to make it out is hit in the back by a dozen magic missiles that kill him and send him smoldering to the floor of the cave.

"There is no arguing with the skulls.  No fighting!" the scratchy voice of the skull finalizes from above.

There are 7 minutes left.

The orge starts swinging wildly with the club, avoiding the hobgoblin that is stuck to the withering machine.  He stands apparently dead, drained of all life, but the energy bolts hold onto his body.

The ogre fails to hit anything and decides to shut off the machine to listen. The hobgoblin's corpse drops to the floor.

"I know you're here" says the ogre.  He shuffles around slowly, randomly reaching out.

K'ronk clanks a chain and moves away quickly as the ogre moves to investigate. Invisible K'ronk notices the green glow of the skull is gone from the stairs and decides to risk going up.

"Come out, come out, where you ever are." says the ogre.  

As K'ronk rises with Esmard in his arms, he sees three dead hobgoblins in addition to the gargoyles and the chamber is now empty. His attention is drawn for a moment to the piles of treasure, but time is of the essence, and he heads past the tempting piles of trophies, a pile of weapons, a group of three chests in one corner, and finally a strange pile of gold and iron chains and manacles.

Fearing that his friends will run out of air, and with only minutes left, he decides there is only one pile that may be of value, the weapons and armor pile.  He puts Esmard down for a moment and says "hang on a second" while he quickly spreads the portable hole and throws the armor and weapons down to his friends, refreshing their air.

There are 6 minutes left.

The Riptide has not moved far in the few minutes of the frenzied attack on the tower, but the remaining hobgoblin guards on the guard towers look around wildly. The ship is under scrutiny, but the crew stands clearly visible on the deck (minus Yut and Finn), apparently watching the "fireworks" from the tower. 

With only a couple of minutes to spare left of his flying spell, K'ronk makes it onto the deck of the ship, announcing to captain Barbarossa and crew "I'm back" and heading into the hold before reappearing. He unfolds the portable hole and releases his friends. The elven girl is awake now, having been given some goodberries by Nowhere to heal. She is a bit traumatized from the experience, and told she has to return to Waterdeep with the rest of the riptide, but will be free to go afterwards. 

Seraphina tells the Wulfa the elven maid a lie that Sundeth was a courtesan-killer, and she sort of believes her (since she is still alive).  I would like to go back to Skullport. 

Nowhere gets a little angry.  "Why do you think we won't just kill you?"

"I thought you were telling me you were the good guys.  Just give me 20 gold and I'll stay quiet."

They all congratulate each other and Finn sets the tired League up with bunks in the hold to sleep as the Riptide anchors in a position to leave through the seacaves tomorrow, appearing to just stage their position for the morning. They tell Thorvin and N'arl they have killed Sundeth, and show them the body in the portable hole. Sizzle comes in and says "Yay, slumber party! And starts dancing around." 

Yut slips back onto the ship in the dark of the cavern, his skin colored black and quickly climbing the anchor chain to re-board. He happily returns to his galley to prepare for breakfast.

"We did good, it's only Cackle, Nihiloor and N'oska left, right?" Immeral asks.

K'ronk says "yes, unless we count Ott." 

Immeral adds "We could weigh down Sundeth and drop him in the water."

Nowhere says "We could drop him in the gelatinous cube."

Atlas adds "But we have to get back into Skullport."

Nowhere replies "I would be worried about them finding him in the water under our ship, or where the ship was seen."

Morning comes and the crew of the Riptide brings the League and friends breakfast. Yut's food is exceptional, and everyone feels better after the sleep and meal. Yut comes in and through the young locanth deckhand named Flip, informs The League that as he was swimming back to the ship the night before, he spotted a strange manta-ray vessel under the water nearby. He didn't investigate further.

Barbarosa interrups. "We'll be underway shortly, as soon as the bell tolls and the Keepers open the path to the Sea Caves. Stay off the deck until one of the crew gives the signal. 

Immediately after the bell tolls for the workday to begin at 8AM, there is an announcement from a great blowhorn on Skull Island. The League hears of it secondhand. All ships in the harbor are to return to the docks for inspection.

Immeral looks startled.

Nowhere states "We could get in Seraphina's protective realm."

Immeral says "But it can't be used again for 10 days. We may need it."

K'ronk says "We can hide in the portable hole again, and K'ronk could fly us again."

Nowhere says "We have rope trick, but it only lasts an hour. We should wait until they board the ship."  

K'ronk says "We cant bring the bag of holding or the portable hole into the rod of security space, we could cause an explosion."

Immeral agrees "Extraplaner spaces crossing into extraplaner space create extraplaner explosions.  Wizarding 101. Maybe - I'm not sure - Seraphina's wand teleports, so...  hmmmm..."

K'ronk says I would prefer invisibility and fly anyway, but that only lasts 10 minutes for flying and air.  We have Thorvin, Narl, Esmard, Nowhere, Seraphina, Atlas, Dain, Immeral, and dead Sundeth. It will be tight, but the portable hole will work."   They agree. 

What about the girl?  She gets off and goes home.  Right?  Wulfa nods.
They all agree

The Riptide docks and as a squad of hobgoblins move to enter the ship, Wulfa makes a scene with captain Barbarossa, exclaiming "I'm getting off" and slapping him and stomping down the gangway.  

The hobgoblins laugh at the scene. "Hold on, where are you going?" says the captain of the guards.

"That captain is a pig, there's no way I am leaving with him. You can lock me up if you have to."  "Pervert!" she yells back at him.

"Sort of true." Lorilla laughs at her captain, who is rubbing his cheek.

"Search away lads! The Riptide's holds are empty, we were on our way back to Waterdeep for a fresh load. Will you let us back to the sea caves first, there is the daughter of a baker waiting for me back in the city. I think I'm available now!"

The hobgoblins laugh some more.

The captain says "The bridge is down, you can't get back to the city anyway."

Wulfa stomps and glares at Barbarossa. "You will drop me off on your way out of town."

"With pleasure my dear." he responds.

As the hobgoblins search the ship, Kronk waits up on the crows nest. The minutes are ticking by.

The crew is lined up on the deck and Yut stands with the rest of them as the hobgoblins board the ship and starts searching.  One guard calls out, pointing to him "What about this octopus - did he blow the bridge?"  Yut looks extra pale under his chef's hat.  "That's my cook" Barbarossa says. The hobgoblin captain responds, "No, it was a black octopus, and the guards in the north tower said it was giant octopus, with fangs".  

Almost ten minutes go by and K'ronk is getting nervous when the hobgoblin captain says, "let's go, if you haven't found anything we have ships to search!"  The search team leaves the ship, and K'ronk invisibly returns to the hold and lets his friends out.

There is a quick trip to drop Wulfa off on the bridge, and Esmard follows.  The League is in the hold and Sizzle comes in crying.

"Sizzle, what's wrong?" Nowhere asks.  

"My brother is in the monster market, in a cage." Sizzle cries. 

"Don't tell me, he's wearing a bear suit too." Nowhere asks.

"No, Fizzle wears a bunny suit" the dancing Kobald replies.

"What other baggage are you going to unload on us?" asks Kronk.  "How many brothers do you have?" asks Nowhere

"No baggage, but I have lots of siblings, I think thirty."

"Don't tell me they're all enslaved performers." Kronk asks.

"They all love to dance!" says Sizzle and he does a little dance before crying again.

But the best dancer is my cousin "Fa'shizzle" Sizzle adds.

Kronk holds his head "By the gods!"

Asking Esmard to wait until they return, the League follows a quickly departing Wulfa, all in disguises, invisibility, cloaks of elvenkind, even a spell or two, and they run over to the Monster Market just yards away. Sizzle's brother Fizzle is there and is as strangely joyous as Sizzle.  He first is singing a bacon pancake song, then changes into a peanut butter jelly song. Two onlookers clap.

"Pay the man, K'ronk" Nowhere tells him.

"What?"

"You're carrying the group money." Nowhere smirks.

K'ronk fumes, but pays the man 20 gold and Sizzle and Fizzle reunite.

They hustle back to the Riptide, and Barbarossa tells them.  "We have to get going. Nar'l and Thorvin are exceedingly nervous."

"Well, they're not the reason we are here, so we are going to stay." Nowhere says.  "We have to get our kids. Will we see you in Waterdeep?"

"Yes, we have nothing planned for a bit. I owe you all my life, if there is anything you need, come find me."

"Visit us at the Three Urchins Inn in a few days. Bring the kobalds and the remaining gear.  Careful of that phylactery. We will either be there or buried in Skullport as we take this entire city down." Nowhere tells him. 

"I am going to drop the phylactory in the deep sea. Otherwise, see you above!" Barbarossa says and tips his hat to them.  Off they sail.

The League gathers up Esmard, and makes their way to the pet shop The Feathered Rat of Ulvira Snowveins and husband Salmarin Bearfriend. The streets are particularly thick with onlookers checking out the collapsed bridge and reconstruction effort, which is being overseen by two skulls of Skullport, which has the laborers quickly restoring the stonework.

Near the bridge is a mind flayer with several intellect devourers with him, the public giving him a wide berth. The intellect devourer is "talking" to a foreman, and before moving off, The League hears the verbal half of the conversation with the man who sounds agitated.  

"The crew is doing their best, but we need an engineer."

"Nobody can find Thorvin."

"Sundeth is missing too, there was an explosion in his tower last night."

One of the skulls chimes in.  "And lightning.  Lightning is not productive.  It is destructive.  There was no one to punish except unproductive hobgoblins. You must restore order!" 

The mind flayer casts a spell and levitates across to Skull Island and then levitates his "pets" over.

The League moves quickly on, and Ulvira and Salmarin are happy to see their son returned, although shocked at his emaciated state.  "It's time to leave Skullport." she says to her husband. "We wont have Harper support until the Xanathar are broken."

"Is there help available from the Harpers?" Nowhere asks.

"Not many." Ulvira says.  "We have lost many in this conflict."

Kronk asks "Won't someone else step in and take over?"

Salmarin says "There are always dark forces seeking power, but you fight the enemy in front of you. There is no permanently 'cleaning up' Skullport.  Save your kids - you can't save the whole world."

K'ronk nods and they depart to make a plan for how to get their wards.  They head to the tavern of Chorin.

They go to the Dizzy Drake and the proprietor Chorin, currently working alone in the empty bar and prepping for the day welcomes them warmly.

"My friends, my saviors, it is so good to see you.  How can I be of assistance?"

K'ronk says we could use a few drinks, perhaps some of that wine you talked about, and we would like to use the cellar for a conference.  "Keep it a secret we are here if anyone asks. We are trying to avoid a tail."

"I have had a table brought down and some chairs, and I just acquired some Embrian wine, I will bring down some glasses.  And my middle name is discretion." and he winks at them.

They settle into a conversation about how to plant more evidence against Cackle, they have a suit of fine plate armor from Sundeth, but they don't have a plan where to plant it.

K'ronk says "We could inform the skulls."  

Nowhere is worried "that sounds dangerously unpredictable."

K'ronk says "we could take the magic greatsword and helm of feather falling. But I haven't examined the rings." K'ronk casts identify on them, and finds they are a ring of gargoyles and a ring of margoyles.  It summon gargoyles or repels them. 

The time passes, the crowd gathers, the drinks are flowing, and The League takes a primo spot to watch the fight.  Behind the scenes, Dain takes only his shield and a javelin and works himself up in a near rage for the fight. The group notices a certain crossbow-handed man enter with an entourage that also takes a ringside position...  Noska U'gray.  The crowd starts cheering "fight, fight, fight, fight!"

Skurren, now equipped with a blowhorn shouts "Fight one!" and the doors open.  Dain steps out and some of the crowd cheers, as the other doors open and a fearsome white bodied drow-spider creature, a drider emerges from the other side.

He rushes at Dain, and the humanoid part of him swings a longsword while crab-walking around Dain for positioning. He hits the barbarian, drawing first blood, then misses, then hits again, slashing his arm and side.

The team notices Noska drinking beer and cheering and enjoying the fight.

Dain flings some sand in the drider's face while scrambling to his feet, but it barely affects him.  He comes up swinging upwards with his shield, bashing the drider badly across the face, drawing gouts of blood. The barbarian swings his javelin and thrusts at the driders body, stabbing him deeply, then drawing it out and spinning the javelin.

The drider howls and swings wildly. He misses on the first swing, but hits on the second, stabbing deep into Dain's side, but missing on a third thrust.

Dain continues swinging his spiked shield hitting its legs, making the spider-creature limp back, as Dain misses on on second swing.

The drider casts fairy fire on Dain, surrounding him in a glowing pink aura which makes him more easy to attack and the crowd ooohs and boos. He swings twice more, but misses each time, attacks glancing off Dain's shield.

Dain croutches down and leaps up into the air, powered by his boots of jumping.  He drops his shield and as he does a fancy leg kick which causes the crowd to cheer, then tucks his spiked shield under his feet and directly lands on his opponents head, kicking down at the same time, squashing his opponent and causing him to wobble under multiple spider-legs.

Dain kicks the shield up into his hands and swings it under his chin, drawing blood and staggering the combatant.  Then he slips under the drider and stabs up with his javelin.

The drider swings wildly, missing with three crazed swings.  Dain moves in for the kill and the crowd cheers.  Some yell "go Keeron, go Keeron!" Wooden mugs are flying into the arena as gamblers see their bets are turning to losses and guards all about smack down some of the more rowdy complainers.

Noska has a big smile on his face, yelling "Finish him!"

Dain taunts him "Had enough?"

Keeron screams "I'll never be defeated!" and leaps at Dain as the dwarf swings everything he has in a rage-fueled shield bash which critically hits the drider.  The creature wobbles, barely maintaining consciousness as his back touches the wall.  With a javelin-spinning flair, Dain impales the creature through the shoulder and it falls unconscious, further impaling itself, and Dain leaves the javelin propped up in the sand.

"Dain, Dain, Dain, Dain!" the crowd cheers.  Noska pounds his chest one-handed in lieu of clapping, and approaches the barbarian as winners give Dain friendly pats on the shoulder and hand him multiple drinks.

"Well done dwarf! I lost money, but was thoroughly entertained. I like your style." 

"Thank you, I've been practicing." Dain replies.

"We're in need of some good entertainment in the Xanathar arena, could you be ready to fight tomorrow night?" Noska asks.

Dain smiles "Oh course!  But I need my support crew with me."

Noska looks them over and says "There are a bunch of you, but alright. Meet at the Xanathar warehouse near the monster market at second bell."  He turns and walks away and the group leaves the Thrown Gauntlet for a night of rest and preparation for tomorrow.  

Immeral says towards K'ronk, "If you go invisible, you can plant treasure from Sundeth in Cackle's room."

Nowhere adds "Hell, you could even leave the body!"

Atlas nods at the insidiousness of it, but says "We will have to come up with a way for it to be discovered."

And with those ideas churning in their heads, they return to the Deepfires Inn for a night of rest.