House Boromar

True to Rothaide’s vision, Temple Valley was a collection of sprawling huts and tents. The dirt track roads and tarps were as accurate as the elven void disciple has described them to be. It was a little past noon when the party, clothed in travel gear and appearing to be travel worn - reached what seemed to be the merchant district of the valley.

The survivors of Temple Valley – those who chose to remain – are exhausted and in the grips of the plague. Most of them appear to be dragonshard miners too stubborn to leave. They are sprawled in the shade of doorways, watching the party with lean, hungry looks and white-encrusted eyes. Rothaide whimpers as seeing this reminds her of her crewmembers back in her old ship. Were they healthy, they might have been dangerous. Now, they don’t look like they have the energy to make trouble.

The group slowly makes its way along the road, keeping to and talking quietly among themselves as to which structure they should head to. It was then that a muscular man leaps from the shadow of a decrepit hut, his veins resembling horrible, black spider webs. His face is twisted in rage as he pulls on Rothaide’s leg.

“You!” he bellows, spittle flying from his snarling lips. “You have some! I can smell it on you! Give me the spice! Give it to me now!”

Not waiting for a reply, the huge man pulls a short baton out of his belt and lunges forward.

The Ravenstorm eventually made its way away from the Resolute’s hangar. It was impressive to see the ship’s bulk overshadowed by that of the much bigger ship. As we pulled away, an escort of three smaller Lyrandar fighters followed at our aft. Each of the fighters were small enough to carry a two man crew but powerful enough to take down a ship as big as the Ravenstorm. They kept to a close position until all the ships were visible to anyone on the island. The lead fighter then fired a warning shot across the Ravenstorm’s prow – far enough to not do any damage but close enough to serve as a warning shot. The fighters then pulled away and made their way back towards their home ship. Captain Devlin explained that it was a way of the fleet saying they are giving permission for the ship to proceed but in the dragonmarked records, the ship was engaged and was able to evade pursuit.

Each of the crewmembers was at the bridge. Captain Devlin was at the wheel, commanding the elemental to take the ship towards the island below. He continuously consulted Coreen and Rothaide for directions. While Rourke and I were unloading the cargo, the girls were able to discern the direction we were to take. After hours of studying maps, we had a general direction to take and bring us to the place Mika Boromar was likely at. She spoke of the halfling being in a valley where a patchwork collection of run down houses served as shelter for miners and roads that were no more than dirt tracks encircling the buildings and a few colorful tarps to mark the different districts.

We flew overland, crossing cities, forests and plains. Though flying a great distance from the ground, the effects of the plague can clearly be seen from the ship. Barricades were placed around cities, no signs of moving transportation between them, cleansing fired burning diseased bodies inside and outside the city walls.

A few hours later we reached the outskirts of the Temple Valley. We circled around the area and failed to find any signs of the halfling’s crashed ship. It was then decided to check the valley itself.

The captain landed the Ravenstorm behind the tree line surrounding the valley. It seems sound that we didn’t take the ship into the valley as it might cause some unnecessary unrest with the populace. He then asked for the horses to be readied. By the time I got the four riding horses and a packhorse ready, the Captain, together with Rourke and Rothaide were ready to ride into the valley. Coreen and I have been instructed to stay and guard the ship.