[center][h1]Santorini->Irinoth(ish)[/h1][/center]

The next leg of the journey was, thankfully for everyone sanity and stomachs, pretty much bereft of storms and rough seas. It wasn't devoid of omens on the other hand. A few days entirely without wind, a (thankfully short lived thanks to Aleria) lice outbreak, and a lack of signs of life in any direction. Even the fish that were usually quite plentiful out in this area were seemingly absent. The shortest part of this journey had been extended for several extra days past what they had initially expected.

Today, however, things seemed different. They had the tailwind suddenly, allowing them to continue the journey without any more delay, it was a little foggy, but the fish were suddenly rather abundant. It was almost as if they had simply passed some odd patch of water over the past few days and now that they were through it, things returned to normal. 

At this pace they would be there before they hit nightfall, though at least a few of their number were a bit upset by the delays. There had already been several ships ahead of them, and with all of that wasted time the past few days it was honestly not too surprising to see a couple of ships sailing back towards Santorini...Until they were clearly on an intercept course with the Stinkboat.

In mere moments the calm that had filled the day thus far had changed to a panicked cry for battle stations as the much larger ships seemed to be preparing to engage their vessel. It seemed that whoever was in charge of these aggressors had either seen past the fishing ship ruse or simply didn't care in this moment.

It didn't take long for the ships in question to turn around and pull alongside the Stinkboat, the ladders heavily falling aboard. Of course, this was in part planned by those aboard as while they stood no chance in a true naval battle...perhaps they could overpower their attackers on foot.

For now, they all stayed below deck and waited for the pirates to board. Above deck would have likely been suicide as the other ships most certainly had their own mages and archers that could have easily picked them off. Whispers pervaded the space of the lower deck as everyone tried to figure out what they could do in this situation.

The less combat savvy sailors opted to stay below and prepare to set sail as quickly as possible if the combat team managed to repel the invaders. Now, as the rumbling of feet could be heard crossing the boarding ladders, the time for action approached.

[center][h1][color=007236]Troe Revinah[/color][/h1][/center]

Once everything had gone down, Troe had to be physically shaken to stop his notetaking. He had been writing nonstop recording the happenings of the past few days as he was convinced that they were connected somehow to what was happening. There was no way that deadspot in the ocean was something natural, he could feel it. He had been certain to not miss a detail, asking everybody aboard if they had noticed anything else strange...Even if most of their answers hadn't led to any breakthroughs and had been almost entirely comprised of what they did that morning or how their breakfast might have 'tasted off'.

Of course not all of them had been entirely useless, as per the norm Ashley's astute observations had added several pages to his notes, and the other mages weren't exactly meritless either. They could all agree that something had felt very wrong while they had sailed through the 'Deadspot' as it was being called by the others. If it wasn't relevant to their current investigation, it was at bare minimum worth looking into later. 

Troe felt a bit guilty that he hadn't taken too much time to help Nitonka with her training like he had before they hit the 'Deadspot', but he had to record this immediately to prevent any information from being forgotten. Of course, he personally believed that she could benefit from some solo-study as she tried to find her personal magic affinity amongst the tomes he had bought for her.

Truthfully, his interviews with the others had probably been the most interaction he had had with any of them save for Nitonka and Ashley...And while he didn't regret that after speaking with some of them a bit, he did note that a few of them were worth further study. 

Now, as Troe was informed of the current situation, he carefully closed the book he was writing in and safely stowed it. This wasn't good. The plan to just look like an inconspicuous fishing ship had clearly broken down, and it wasn't just one ship either. Their group wasn't entirely talentless, but they had literally zero intel on the 'pirates' now bearing down on them. [color=007236][i]Can't be helped.[/i] [/color] Troe thought to himself as he readied for combat. It would be a real shame for them all to die before even reaching Irinoth.