As the adventurers began their investigation into the murder that had taken place earlier that night, a scream cut through the crew’s quarters and Dinni, 2nd Stew, came barreling past Ford and Orpheus. After investigating the cause of the stewards fright, Ettie found Peter poking around on the Pilot Deck as Gollybobble directed the airship.

Vash, meanwhile, stayed in his room and tried not to think about the terrifying experience he had in engineering. Suddenly, he heard a comforting voice telling him that “You think I would have let you die?” The voice responded to him at first, but seemed to go silent.

Everyone came together for drinks and the sleuthing commenced. Ford and Peter discovered from the previously terrified Dinni that there was some yelling coming from engineering earlier in the evening and that she heard Torin, the red Dragonborn in first class, had a slew of poisons and what sounded like implements of torture in their checked bag.

Ettie started a conversation with the sister of the deceased Eredur. Her name was Eredanniel and while it was clear she was hiding something about her brother, she did help Ettie to locate his baggage in the cargo hold and found a package of letters and some books. The books ranged in topics from detective novels to technical manuals dealing with animal tracking and history books on Mror Holds and Karnath. There were 3 letters as well, one from Eredanniel accepting his invitation to travel with him to Krona Peak, one that was an official missive from House Orien stating that they are considering his request for assistance and to stop writing and one from his daughter, Eraina, talking about how excited she was to go with him on this trip.

One of the deckhands, Yosner, saw that Vash seemed to be having some trouble and invited him up to the top deck to take in the fresh air and something else that REALLY took the edge off. Through the haze, Vash would remember that he also spoke about Eredanniel, the aunt of the now orphaned Eraina, leaving the ship after boarding and reappearing upon the ship after it set sail, suggesting that she is a magical being who eats people’s souls. His terror temporarily removed, he went and spoke with Kava, the blue/green dragonborn and they hit it off, and Kava insinuated that the only person it could have been was the man sitting next to her and Torin because of the point from which the magical darkness sprang: the back of Eredur’s coat. Though admitted she wasn’t sure where Hannah or Ettie were in relation to the victim.

Orpheus, Ford and Peter waited until all were gone before exploring the bump they had seen in a carpet behind the stairs. Their curiosity was rewarded with a hatch, which Ford easily opened after Peter and Orpheus loosened it. On the other side of the hatch, they could see the stage in first class where Ettie had been playing at the time of the murder.

After a few more hours of darkness, light began to filter from behind the mountains to the East and and announcement went out for Breakfast. Vash anxiously, but coolly waited for Kava to enter first class dinning to stroll up to the top deck together, but Torin exited first. It was like pulling teeth, but he managed to exchange a few words before Torin’s fist filled his vision.

The band of hands for hire, Eddie, Orpheus, Ford, Peter, and Vash had finally returned to the first place they met, Galifar’s Tits. After a boisterous night of fighting and singing and other… “entertainment” the members of the rescue party awoke and recovered their wages (15g) from House Thrashk before attempting to secure passage on an airship to traverse the Telenta Plains and reach Krona Peak, where they hoped to ascertain a means of finding and fixing the bondline. Their new friend, Ovis Keeper of Books, promised to send any relevant passages from the Draconic Prophecy he finds to the SkyDock Sending Station in Krona Peak.

Several colorful birds flutter about the bow of the airship, which is floating 30ft above the river bank. You see the crew dressed in blue and white uniforms carrying luggage onto the deck and into the belly of the ship. You see metal buttresses protruding from the stern of the ship on both the top and bottom which hang above and below the deck as well as arms that reach out from the port and starbord sides. (Arcana DC:18 to learn about ShardBox, DC:8 to know it’s an elemental).

On the dock, you see several dozen people making their way up the moving staircase toward the gangplank. Eddie enters the dockhouse and becomes gainfully employed by House Lyrandar as entertainment for the 4 day voyage. As she exits the building and rejoins the party, the whistle calls, indicating it is time for all crew to make their way aboard the ship.

Eddie enters the ship and gets shown to her room after meeting Captain Sandy and First Mate Gollybobble. Vash gains employment as an engineer aboard the ship and is sent off to meet Jeni and Status, the Chief Engineer and her faithful Warforged assistant. Orpheus and Ford purchase coach tickets and are shown to their rooms, but Peter is nowhere to be found.

Orientation took place shortly after departure. Vash, getting valuable work experience and trauma, missed it, but managed to find his way about the ship just the same to make contact with Eddie, who had played her first gig and observed the first class flyers, a vibrant young woman drinking by herself, a young girl traveling with her father and aunt, two dragon born dressed in robes, with one empty table. Hannah served first class and was able to give some helpful pointers and much needed nourishment to Vash in the process.

Orpheus knocked back an almost illegal amount of alcohol while Ford tried to make contact with a traveling band of mimes traveling in coach and pumped iron on deck for a bit while a rambunctious dwarven family ran around on deck.

At dinner, Eddie saw the final passenger, a relatively large middle-aged human who carried a pocketwatch. Vash ran into him as well on the way back to Jeni and observed that the watch he carried was rather cheep before carrying on to a fresh hell in the engineering room. In the middle of dinner, one traveler, the father of the little girl, was so moved by Eddie’s melody that he stood to begin a story, “GENTLEFOLK! I have a grave tale of darkness and fear and a deep conspiracy to protect a monster who would be king…” But just then, a magical darkness enveloped first class dining with the exception of Eddie’s location on stage. There was a cry and a splatter and when the darkness cleared, the man was laid down on the floor with a pool of blood spreading from him.

An alarm was sounded and after a brief quarantine, everyone was sent to their rooms. The little girl, there without her aunt, was taken by Hannah to her room where she kept her company.

Gollybobble was given orders by the Captain to investigate, but not feeling up to the task, he asked Eddie to do some of the initial investigation and report back.