So, Queen Neri was very thankful you raised her from the dead. As a thanks, she offers you the 4 most precious treasures they have in the Royal Treasury. An ioun stone of absorption, a ring of shooting stars, a staff of power, and a +1 frost brand.
After this, Serrisa offers the clue she has, that no one else knows about. She holds up a small, wooden coin, with a golden goose on it. This immediately clicks as the same type of coin that the weird guy in Yartar, Lord Khaspere Drylund, dropped after he met you guys. You guys decide to head there, and Serrisa offers to teleport you there, using their meditation chambers.
You guys then arrive in Yartar, and go to the local tavern to spend the day, and try to stay low. Unfortunately, that plan was cut short because of your status of heroes in this city. Lord Drylund and Waterbaroness Nestra Ruthiol both come to greet you, and Nestra pays for your stay. Dot also puts on a ravishing performance, earning quite a lot of silver. She buys everyone present a round. Twice. Lord Drylund offers you guys a free visit on board his ship, and extends the offer to hire you as guards for it again as well. He also reminds you that no armor or weapons are allowed on board unless you’re part of the work staff.
You guys decide that you want to visit the Grand Dame, Lord Drylund’s night time luxury casino cruise, before you take up the guard work offer, so that you have a general idea of the ship’s layout. Lord Drylund shows you around the place, and takes you to right outside his cabin. He bids you wait there, and he enters, and then returns with his pet octopus on his shoulder. After a bit he takes it back in, and bids you head back down, the other guests should be arriving soon.
You have an enjoyable evening: everyone but Arianna gambled a bit (Lord Drylund gave you a few chips to get you started), and Landis lost his starting hand. He “borrowed” Arianna’s, managed to win over a 100 golden geese (all worth 2gp each), and returned Arianna’s 13 chips. Dot got a spot in the dance halls lineup, and put on a hell of a show, earning lots of tips in the process.
Throughout the night, you guys keep an eye on anyone suspicious. Pow Ming, the GM of the place (head of security, chief banker, etc.) has magical items on her person, making Landis suspicious, but Theiafi figures out one of them is just the bag of holding she uses to carry the gambling chips, and her robe with snakes on it is probably a defense mechanism in case someone robs the ship. Theiafi does get a bad reading from Lord Drylund, but can’t quite place her finger on it. At least not until he asked to see her fly, and then she gets the suspicion he would love to own her as a pet.
Eventually the evening ends, and you all cash out as you leave the ship (they seem to be rather suspiciously concerned with making sure none of the coins leave the ship).
The next day, you guys arrive in your armor, and sort out who’s going to be stationed where (6 guards on duty at any time, 3 on each side of the boat. Pyro and Arianna take the side with the other guard, leaving Dot, Theiafi and Landis on the side with the best access to Drylund’s cabin. After some time, Theiafi gains access to the room, and see mostly nothing out of the ordinary. She does find a chest, and manages to pick the lock, but she gets stung by a poison needle trap as she does so. Ignoring the pain, she realizes nothing in the chest (money and gems) has any value in learning what happened to King Hekaton, and so she rearms the trap and locks the chest back. Dot then uses their magical earrings to mention that Drylund is on his way back to his cabin. She slips out so stealthily that Landis, who’s standing close to the door, never sees her leave. Drylund invites him in to the cabin, and Landis is afraid they’re going to find Theiafi inside.
They talk for a bit, with Landis questioning why it was so important that they get all the chips back, and eventually intimidates Drylund into explaining that he was there when they killed Queen Neri, and divulged the location of Hekaton. He also informs you that he is a member of the Kraken Society (and mentions that no one else aboard the ship has any affiliation with them), who worships Slarkrethel, an ancient Kraken from before time began. Throughout all this, he keeps asking if Landis can keep him safe from them for telling him all this stuff, and Landis assures him that they can keep Drylund safe.
Drylund mentions that King Hekaton is aboard the Morkoth, out in the Trackless Sea, and warns that any type of scrying magic will fail. After this, Lord Drylund gets a look of intense pain, and his nose starts to bleed, and he falls over dead.
Shocked, Landis gathers the group together, and they panic and decide what they want to do. Eventually they settle on using the Conch of Teleportation to return to the Maelstrom. The group forms a circle, all hold hands (including Lord Drylund’s) , and arrive back in the Maelstrom.