The Esmeraldas' Triumph slowly glided north following the Snake River on the trail of the Fertility Statue of Lamech. Deep within the airship a pleasant tune slowly emanated from the kitchen. " Cooking is so great! Cooking is so fun!" sang Samantha Martell, the Esmeraldas' Triumph's cook and the younger sister of Sebastian, " now let's take a break and see what we have done."
Sam carefully took the roast from the oven; the smell was rather powerful, very, very powerful. Sam grabbed some rosemary from her spice rack and liberally sprinkled the entire roast with it. It did the trick; Sam picked the roast up and brought it to the galley to her hungry crew. " Looks interesting" said Gabriel, " what is that smell?"
" Rosemary" said Sam, " it is an old Faerie recipe I found in one of my books, I thought we have a Faerie guest with us I thought hey it might be fun to try it."
" Thank you" said Elsenor.
The crew eagerly dug into the roast and began to eat. Elanna was the most polite and only violently spit it into her napkin, Tanis drowned the piece in an entire mug of ale, Gabriel swallowed it but turned several shades of green. Audrey and Alexus both sat it on their plates and hissed at the food. Sebastian was repulsed by the smell and pushed his plate into the middle of the table. Elsenor on the other hand was content to keep eating, " Thank you Samantha" said Elsenor, " the rosemary is a bit heavy but this does remind me of home."
The crew looked back at their pieces of roast and slowly one by one began to eat once again, now a little more accepting of its taste.

After dinner was over Gabriel brought out one of his maps and laid it over the table. " Okay, I think the best course will be to go up the Snake River Valley, it will shave two days off our journey to Shackleford, and possibly the last crew went down it heading back" said Gabriel.
" But" said Audrey.
" Well?" asked Alexus.
" It is a little dangerous" said Gabriel, " mainly from the cross winds."
" Or the fact that this valley is close to a goblyn stronghold" said Elanna, pointing to the word Gobylns in the mountains on the left side of the valley.
" It will shave 2 days off, besides I doubt we have anything to worry about from a little fortress of goblyns" said Sebastian, " its settled, Gabriel set our course."
" Wait a second" said Sam, " are we totally sure that the goblyns there don't have airships?"
" Positive" said Sebastian, " besides we have Tanis' cannons, unless we try and steal the goblyn women or their booze we have nothing to worry about."
" I hope none of you have ever done that" said Elsenor from the end of the table.
" I don't know" said Tanis, " Sebastian has been desperate a couple of times."
The group erupted into laughter, even Elanna had to giggled a little at Sebastian's rather red face. " Okay, okay, I think we should go to work now" said Elanna, " I don't think we want any more of Sebastian's questionable relationships."
Sebastian and Gabriel climbed up to the flying deck and slowly adjusted the ship's course. " You think we're going to have trouble with the goblyns?" asked Gabriel.
" Probably" said Sebastian, " I've had a sneaking suspicion that they might have been behind the whole 'loss' of the statue in the first place."
" What? You mean Schwartzenselbe lied to us?" asked Gabriel in the most sarcastic tone.
" Wouldn't be the first time" said Sebastian, " but the money was too good to pass up."
" With you, the money is never too good to pass up" said Gabriel.
" Hey I have ambitions" said Sebastian.
" I know, your problem is you need to find a woman that can tolerate living on this ship with you while you explore the entire continent" said Gabriel.
" Honey, have any plans for the rest of your life?" asked Sebastian, batting his eyes.
" Certainly honey" said Gabriel, " I'll take the first watch, you try and get some sleep."
Sebastian went down into the ship leaving Gabriel to pilot the vessel.

The first day of the journey passed a pleasantly as could have been possibly expected, the sky was clear and blue, the wind was just right, it was like Esmeraldas, goddess of the sky, was giving the crew a hand. They entered the Snake River Valley the winds picked up and ominous purple black storm clouds began to boil on the mountaintops to their left. The airship began to rock back and forth as the crosswinds whipped across the vessel. " You're sure this was a good idea?" asked Elanna, as she and Gabriel fought with the wheel.
" It will cut our travel time in half" said Gabriel.
Elanna's ears twitched, and she suddenly let go of the wheel, which promptly spun directly at Gabriel smacking him in the face. " What?" asked Gabriel, a large red spot on his forehead.
" I heard something" said Elanna, " sails."
Gabriel and Elanna looked in every direction but saw no other airships. Elanna finally leaned over the side of the ship, and shouted, " A ship!"
" Where?" asked Sebastian sticking his head out his cabin window directly below Elanna.
Sebastian looked down and saw an airship, or the shattered remains in the forest below them. Sebastian looked up; he was in the perfect angle to see straight up Elanna's shirt. " So what should we do?" asked Elanna.
Sebastian just kept smiling, " Sebastian?" asked Elanna.
" Stay put for about fifteen more seconds" said Sebastian, " I want to make sure I remember."
Elanna's ears turned bright red and she pulled the top of her shirt into a tight ball. " I guess we're going for a look, I'll tell Audrey and Alexus to bring up to a hover" said Sebastian.
" I won't be easy in this wind" shouted Gabriel, " I can barely keep it steady, plus I think those big nasty purple clouds over there might get in the way."
" Then we will be fast" said Sebastian.

Ten minutes later, the Esmeraldas' Triumph was holding a shaking hover directly above the crashed airship. A rope ladder was tossed over the side and Sebastian and Elanna climbed down into the dark forest below. " Let's make this quick" said Elanna, " I really don't want to become the main entrée in some goblyn feast."
" Right" said Sebastian.
The pair produced opaque stones and rubbed them until they produced light bright enough to illuminate the area around them. The battered wooden hull of the ship was illuminated in the glow stone's light. Arrows and bolts pocked the side of the ship, hundreds of them making it look like a giant pin cushion, the shafts of the missiles were made of distinct black wood, the fletching red feathers, there was no doubt this was the work of goblyns. An odd piece of damage was a massive gaping hole in the rear where the rudder and most of the rear of the ship should have been. " You think they're firing boulders now?" asked Elanna.
" Got Me," said Sebastian, " that is huge."
The ship's condition with exception of the battle damage was clean and well maintained, no animals began to nest in the ship, this hadn't been in the forest long. Both quietly drew their swords, goblyns usually never left a prize unguarded. " I'll check the captain's cabin for a log" whispered Elanna, " search the ship for any survivors."
" You really think that he had a log?" asked Sebastian.
" Most captains keep a log, unlike some" said Elanna.
" I'm a trend setter" said Sebastian.
" Or amazingly lazy" said Elanna.
" Just be careful" said Sebastian, " if you find anybody give the usual signal."
Elanna nodded and slipped through the window above her. Sebastian took a moment to watch her spectacularly tight ass encased in soft leather pants wiggle through the window, life simple pleasures. Sebastian found the gang opening and lept up. He got a hold of the side but the sword in his hand made it difficult to hang on and he fell to the ground with soft thump. Sebastian looked around; thankfully no one saw his less than graceful fall. Sebastian tried again and was successful. He pulled himself on the tilted deck and found it was slick as he slid into the railing that surrounded the stairs down. It wasn't water or oil but a great expanse of blood that almost coated the entire deck like paint; goblyns never took prisoners. Sebastian heard the ominous rumbling of the thunder, the storm was moving fast. Sebastian gathered his courage and descended into the ship. The interior was a mess, either the goblyns had already cleaned it out or the crew lived like pigs. Sebastian wished Elanna let them live like this. He made his was to the forward hold, his eyes leaping to every shadow the glowing stone created as he moved. He hated this, he knew any second a thousand of those little greened skinned bastards would jump out at him and devour him with those big ugly yellowed teeth, but Sebastian continued on the reward money keeping his courage strong.
Sebastian found the forward hull remarkably well kept or until the rather violent stop the ship suffered tossed everything around. The cargo was rather mundane, barrels of sugar, flour, brightly coloured cloth, and barrel of cheap glass beeds. All of the cargo was probably destined for Westfell for the big summer festival. Sebastian began to believe he had just run across an average air merchant that happened to run into the goblyns. Sebastian kicked the floor, of course it would be too easy just to find the stupid statue now and get the extra 5 thousand for two days worth of travel. Sebastian started back towards the door when he heard a strange hollow knock under his boot. Sebastian hit the spot again, the hollow knock echoed back. A smile crossed his lips, he knew that sound, his hold made the same sounds; there was a false bottom under his foot. Sebastian found a mallet in the next room and walked back in. With a single strike Sebastian broke the floor open. Inside where several small boxes with large locks and the symbol of the Oligarchy of Iokonia above the locks, they were too small to contain the statue but they had to worth something. Sebastian loaded them into a sack he found in the hold and started to leave.
He looked up to see if he could tell how close the storm was when he saw a figure standing next to the hatch suddenly disappear as if they leapt off the side. Fearing goblyns he raced into the next room and looked out the porthole. He saw a figure in the forest, he reached out with his glow stone and tried to shine light on his mysterious guest. For the briefest of moments the glow stone illuminated a face. It was an elf; her skin was as white a virgin moonlight, her eyes black as the deepest cave. She moved back disappearing from Sebastian's sight. Sebastian quickly pulled himself back in, it couldn't be, that simply couldn't be. He shook his head, Night Elves are just a myth, but he saw one, no elves had black eyes. Why would one be here unless she was after the exact same thing, what if she had it, he wasn't willing to go up against one of the most dangerous races in the world, not for 90 thousand, not for a million.
Sebastian felt a hand on his shoulder making his spin around with his sword at the ready, his eyes wild. " Shit!" exclaimed Elanna.
" Sorry" said Sebastian, very relieved to see Elanna, " I just saw something."
" What, a body?" asked Elanna.
" No, I think I just saw a Night Elf" he whispered as if the mention of the name would bring her down upon him.
" Your sure?" asked Elanna, " after seeing those bodies in the rear hold I'm a little on edge too."
" No, I was not going crazy, I haven't seen a damn body" said Sebastian, " and no I was not taking a break in the galley's ale."
" Maybe you saw me" said Elanna.
" Elanna, you don't have black eyes and you were outside two seconds ago" said Sebastian.
Elanna looked out the porthole, " I don't see anything except the storm, come on I found the log and most of the crew" said Elanna.
" Dead?" asked Sebastian.
She nodded gravely, " Looks like the goblyns drove them down there and just shot the shit out of them. I just want off this damn tub."
" I can't agree more" said Sebastian.
The pair hastily climbed back up the ladder. " Gabriel get us out of here now" said Sebastian.
" No argument here" said Gabriel.

From the forest below Serenity Darkheath watched the airship lift into the air and start heading north again. Next to her the four dead goblyn sentries lay on the forest floor. She drew her hood over her face and started north as well. The goblyns would soon know that they had been here; they would want blood.

Dirk Hallston walked into Tobias Schwartzenselbe's study, he was always in the awe of the size of it. The walls were filled with rare books; most didn't have pictures or naked ladies a real waste of space. " Mr. Hallston" said Tobias, " thank you for coming so late."
" No problem Mr Schwartzenselbe" said Dirk, " how may I serve you?"
" I lost one of my cargo ships in the Snake River Valley, it contained some rather sensitive items" said Tobias, " you will find these items underneath the floorboards of the front cargo hold, I need them returned to me before the summer festival. I am willing to pay you 20 thousand gold coins for all five boxes."
" My ship will leave tomorrow morning" said Dirk.
" Thank you very much Mr. Hallston" said Tobias.
Dirk quickly left the study, his ship would need supplies and his men would need to sober up. Dirk never asked questions, a professional never cared about the why, it only conflicted with getting the job done.

" I know what I saw" protested Sebastian.
" Night Elves are a myth" said Gabriel.
" He's right laddy" said Tanis, " a race of killer elves, it was just made up to taint the elves rather spotless record as peacemakers and friendly people."
" But elves don't have black eyes" said Sebastian, " Elanna, you have to stick up for me."
" He was rather agitated on the ship" said Elanna.
" What you believe in Night Elves?" asked Gabriel.
" Yes, it is because they exist" said Elanna.
Both Gabriel and Tanis stopped and looked at her with their mouths agape. " We don't like talking about it, we aren't exactly proud of this" said Elanna, " but a long, long time ago a group of elves began to dabble in the dark arts, when my people found out about them they were banished. They went far to the west, beyond the World's End Mountains. They became the Night Elves, a small race of dark magicians and assassins. They use to plague our cities, assassinating influential leaders and causing chaos. We thought that we had eradicated them centuries ago, but..."
" Yes, yes?" asked both Gabriel and Tanis like kids listening to a ghost story.
" Within the last few decades people have been seeing elves with black eyes here and there" said Elanna, " there have been no killings or havoc associated to them, my mother believes that they are watching and waiting for something."
" You think it has something to do with this statue we're after?" asked Gabriel.
" The way our luck has been running lately, it wouldn't surprise me" said Sebastian.