All Aboard The Salty Seadog!

The fishing village's port was nearly empty by the time Hirhan and the rest of the party would arrive that night. A single ship remained in the harbor, an aging galleon with faded tan sails. Sailors moped about the deck, some carrying cargo on board for the coming voyage.

"Hopefully this will be our ride to the island." Hirhan choked out as his horse pounded through a pothole in the road that weaved toward the village. "It would be a shame if we had to wait for another to arrive."

In time they would come to the village proper, which opened up into the docks. Calling out to the nearest sailor, Hirhan inquired

"Hello there! Can we speak to the captian of this vessel, we are looking to charter a voyage."

The silver dragon Landed in a clearing in the dock. Many villigers cowered but as soon as they saw the elf on her back they calmed. She was just small enough to be able to board the vessel. The plan was that throughout the journy she would stay air borned lest she neeeded rest. She would catch her own food form the see, an amazing sight to see a dragon dive into water and come up with a dolphin or tuna in her jaws.

Hmm. Flashy, but is it practical?
Indeed, the ship was a beauty to behold. The way its silver padding reflected the strong morning sun, on top of beautifully carved dark wood. Vast in scale, Max couldn't help but wonder if this was a detriment in the open sea, a bit to pirates.

But while preparing to board a ship, e noticed something off in the port.
''Hey there''
Slowly but cautiously he approached,before crouching down to one knee, face to face with what seemed to be a lost dog near the port.
''What are you doing out here, where is your owner?''
For clearly he had a collar with a name tag, he grabbed gently for a minute, it read ''Chop.''
''Alright....Chop, do you need help finding your owner?''
He pet the dog for a bit, awaiting its reaction.

Hirhan stood at the base of the ship's ramp while the rest of the party ran up onto the ship.

"Kids, leaving the old man to parlay with the captain. For shame." He muttered this to himself as he removed the journey's grime from his coat, which was soon immaculate again.

He would negotiate with the captain, settling on just under half of what the sage had given them. They would need the second half for provisions and the trip back.

He joined the rest of the party on the ship, which soon afterward would exit port on it's way to the island.

Hirhan would go follow Ralf, who clearly knew more about the ship than he did. As he paced through the ship looking for where Ralf had wandered off to, Hirhan conscidered the enchantments he would place on the mitheral gear the party had been give. Leiron, Max, and Ralf all had unenchanted gear, and he would be hard-pressed to ignore an opportunity to work on mitheral. That would just be a drop in the bucket compared to the curses he could put on them though. Hirhan grinned, imagining all sorts of buffs he could place on his (willing?) companions. On this long voyage he would certainly have time to do some work.

"RALF, WHERE DID YOU RUN OFF TO?"

Leiron was busy eyeballing the boat. He was unsure about this plan to sail across open water with no land within swimable distance. "I wonder if me and Asadobres can make it there on our own."

Examining the ship so closely almost made Ralf salivate to the point where Chop himself would even be disgusted. Fortunately, that embarrassment was called off when Hirhan hollered for Ralf.

"Yes? Yes, Hirhan, I'm over here," he yelled back from the front of the ship. "Come friend, and tell me of the magics of the sea! I wish to know it all!"

"Curses? I shall have no part of," Ralf answered Hirhan, expressing obvious distaste. "But enchantments? I like the sound of that. Rune Lords back home would enchant weapons and armor like my-" Ralf suddenly stopped speaking. Dare he speak of his family sword? "Like... like... like armor and weapons," he said, telling a pretty terrible lie.

"Ahem, but if you think you could make this shield better than it is now- then be my guest friend!" Ralf readily pulled the shield from his arm and shoved it towards Hirhan. "I'd lend you my belt to enchant it too, but I need my britches at the moment." Ralf turned away once more and looked out at the sea. "If you've some interesting stories of sea beasts, I'd like to hear them. It wouldn't be a good sea voyage if we're not nearly eaten alive by sea beasts, so if there a way to attract such foes, let me know."

Hirhan snatched up the shield, his grin now unnaturally wide, like a comical sculpture.

"Excellent choice. I will get to this tonight as we sail. Sleep is for the weak, AHA! As for curses, no need to balk for reasons like "purity" or "good". Curse is just a name, and inspires no particular evil or good connotations... neutral, utterly. I have some, very minor things really. I like to conserve my energy for casting. Like, for instance. I have perfect memory of the page locations of every item in each of these books, though not the items themselves. Magic! You mentioned sea beasts, watch!"

From his satchel he drew out his beastiary, closing his eyes he spun the pages quickly, allowing then to flip through like a flipbook. Only his thumb measured the pages as they flew by too fast to see. Suddenly he jammed his finger in, his eyes fluttering open.

"Page 2746, Subsection 83- Beasties of the Sea Now, what do you want to hear about? Lameian Sirens, whose calls drive men to dive into the froth to their doom? The Scythed Hydrogar, a territorial beast who's talons could snap our boat in two? Or perhaps the Doomsquid, a kilometer long beast that lurks in the abyss, its tentacles stretching up to snatch ships before dragging them into it's beaked mouth? I have so much to say about sea creatures. Truly, whatever made the creatures of this plane went all out on the creatures of the sea. That or they really, really hate sailors."

As he spoke Hirhan was already flicking through another book, a slimmer volume titled Advanced Enchantment Design, Volume VII. Setting the beastiary onto the floor. (where Ralf could see a series of terrifying looking illustrations), Hirhan produced his notebook. He scribbled some writings and arcane looking sketches, looking back at the enchantment book intermittently.

"Yes, this should be a fun voyage."

"Oh Max, there you are! Mesiaris? Probably just a Great Moirhedron. You know how they are. Aren't too many left, back at the academy we have one of their members embalmed on display!"

Evidently all moral meaning was lost on the wizard.

"As I was saying to Ralf here, we are in for a long voyage, so I figured I would have some fun enchanting your new gear. Normally I charge for the service, but since we ARE going off to face off against dragons and the like, I figured some extra firepower would be... useful."

Hirhan's "I look like a mad scientist" face returned.

"So yes, I figured I would REALLY do a number on your sword, provided you are willing of course. Speaking of willingness, I can also throw some actual curses on you if you want, as opposed to not-weird Soul *snicker* curses. Depending on what you want done, you probably won't even notice them. Heck, someone put a reflex booster on you ages ago, and you seem unhindered. Curses get a bad rap, let me tell you. Best. Spells. Ever."

He enunciated each word. His pen flickered as he spoke, jotting down something onto the notepad that neither man could see from their vantage point.