When the Tropic Thunder visited Fort Blackwell, Father Feres spent his nights at the shrine of Heironeous.
The last day the expedition spent at the Fort, Father Feres fell desperately ill. His skin flushed, he couldn't keep down food or water, and he grew delirious, moaning and complaining that the world's grown too bright and soft around the edges. A trip to the local shrine of Pelor and its priest located a strange pulsing growth within Father Feres' belly. Harmony attempted to remove and destroy it, but Father Feres did not survive the procedure.
The expedition set out again the following day, and that night the Sea Wyvern was attacked by a gang of foul creatures that appeared more or less humanoid, but had mottled, decaying flesh drawn tight across clearly visible bones. They were mostly hairless and had a carnivore's sharp teeth. Their eyes burned like hot coals in their sunken sockets. The Tropic Thunder, along with the ship's crew, had no trouble disposing of these creatures.
The next few days of travel were quiet, with the passengers of the ships viewing large sharks following them for some time, and other friendly vessels skimming the coast. During this time Harmony tried to learn more of their fellow passengers, hoping to determine who is trying to sabotage the expedition. Her conversations with Amella revealed a woman who makes few attachments and has a poor opinion of gnomes. Harmony's attempts at speaking to Skald left her with the impression that the elf had alternative motives in joining the expedition. While they were conversing, Graim went through his things, but the only thing he found out was that Skald had been in the Styes recently, a foul waterfront far to the northeast.
As the Tropic Thunder neared the mouth of the Havekihu River, the expedition had its first real encounter with poor weather. The ships anchored near the river and took half a day to refill water stores on board from the river's waters (as they will do upon reaching the next three rivers along their route). Near the evening, less than a half hour after the expedition got under way again, a thick fog sprang up. Graim and Urol confirmed that fog banks like this often occur along the coast in this region, but the thickness was nevertheless oppressive. Passengers headed below deck, and the crew grew silent as all ears strained to the starboard side, marking the distant sound of breakers on the shore as the only trustworthy method of ensuring the expedition wouldn't draw draw too close to the shallows while still staying parallel to the coast. The fog grew thicker, and soon even the Blue Nixie, only a few hundred feet ahead, was lost to vision.
At this point, the voice of one of Lavinia's crew called out from the fog to the Sea Wyvern to announce that she ordered the ships to anchor for the night until the fog burns off in the morning. The voice was curiously muted by the fog, but nonetheless easily understood. The Tropic Thunder anchored the Sea Wyvern as well, and prepared themselves for a long night.
Of course, the fog is far from uninhabited. At some point in the night, the entire ship lurched as if striking a reef. In fact, the ship has been attacked by a dangerous aquatic predator called a flotsam ooze. This ooze is an enormous glob of transparent protoplasm that exudes a powerful adhesive that causes driftwood, animal carcasses, ship fragments, rocks, and other objects to cling to its surface.
The ooze itself is fifteen feet in diameter, and the lurching sensation was caused not by the Sea Wyvern hitting bottom, but by the ooze attaching itself to the hull as it prepared to slither up to search for prey.
The flotsam ooze's weight caused the ship to list slightly to the port. Attached to the hull just left of the stairs leading up to the bow, anyone who leans over the rail on the port side can see what appears to be a huge pile of flotsam clinging to the hull. The ooze attacks any target that comes within ten feet of the bottom of the stairs along the port side of the ship.
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