C.A.R.P.S.

The guard stays on shore, but with water-breathing capabilities, Mary and Aurora plunge into the chilling depths of the Tarragon River. Before long they arrive at the spot where Mary recalls dropping the stone. An indent in the riverbed indicates where it might have been, but a search of the general area proves the Essence Stone is indeed no longer present.

*aroura waves to mary to go to the surface*

*when we surface* Well something certainly to be worried about. Lets see if we can tell if it was dragged in any direction or if not someone must have hoisted it up from a boat or something.

*waits on a responce and dives back down to see if she can see any drag marks*

Mary pulls herself out of the water and shivers. Looking around to see locals staring at her for jumping into near freezing waters and now standing dripping wet. She grabs her cloak, the only thing not wet, and wraps it around her tightly.

Waiting for Aurora to surface she looks for the approach of Sylas and any others who may have followed from town.

*Aurora spots no signs of dragging*

Sitting on the north shore with a wool hat pulled low over his ears and a fishing pole in the water, a tall, lanky man calls out to Mary.

"You after that big rock, too? Popular stone! You're too late, though, the shark men all ready got it. Made it look easy, too - just levitated it up from the river bed and floated it out to the bottom of the lake! 'Cept the lake got no bottom, of course."

"Sharkmen?" She calls back questioningly.

"When did this occur? What do you remember?"

A decidedly fallen look crosses her face for a brief moment and then she hides it away again. Deep in thought she sighs heavily and begins rubbing her hair dry with the edge of her cloak.
To herself she mutters, "I bet frogmen could have helped us with this situation. Of all the damned luck..."

*aroura surfaces and walks out to the side of shore by mary*
*she then gathers wood and starts a nice big fire* If there were just a couple spells i could have gotten from D before he desided to be dumb. It would deffently included the clean clothes spell.

To Mary who are the shark men? I don't remember hearing of them.

To the cloaked man, which lake did they take it to? Does this river lead to it?

To Aurora, "I've never met or encountered any such thing as a sharkman before. I can only assume they are as described, and imagine they live in the depths of that bottomless lake. Why they'd need an essence stone, I have no idea. I guess that's what we need to find out. Perhaps we can find some merfolk that would know more."

*to mary* well i suggest waiting for a moment and drying off. Sylas said he'd head this way as soon as possible, we'll need other people to get this figured out. *stands close to fire*

“When’d they take the rock?” The lanky fisherman rubs his chin thoughtfully. “Yesterday? No, more like a week ago. Three days back?… It was before today!” He smiles wide and nods his head, pleased with is answer.

“They were like mermen, but without the ‘man’, if you know what I mean. They had them googly-eyed hammer-like shark heads and all.”

“The took it out into Lake Paradise right here – the source of the Tarragon River, and on the shores of which lays Harrison’s Folly.”

Solari and Sylas appear in mid air over the middle of the river and plunge into the icey depths yelling "CANNONBALL!"

*aroura walks around gathering more wood*
well they'll be needing a bit of warmth in a moment.

*apears near the shore laughing histaricly and pointing at the waves in the water. Pauses for a min, thinks to himself*

I'd say Sylas won, although solari was certainly a close second

*Pops his head out of the water laughing hysterically while Solari bobs up and down screaming like a girl*

"That my freind.. is a 'Cannonball'. Haha"

*noticing the others on the shore*

"Hey Aroura! Did you check already or should I dive down to look?"

we've already checked and know where it has gone to. come ashore and mary and i can explain.

*once they come ashore*
Well we found out from the nice man over there *points to the man in a cloak* that some shark-men took it away to Lake Paradise at the head of the river. And dropped it in the middle of the lake.

Oh on another interesting note, Bull is calling himself a Thane now. *rolls eyes* i'm sure this is going to get really interesting.

Anyway that's where we stand right now. What happened with the from men and adventureses?

*swimming to shore still laughing, then looking at Divin as he shivers*

"Wuss."

*listening to Aroura the mirth begins to drain from his face*

*sigh* *turning to Solari still in the water*

"Told you so."

*turning back to the group shivering*

"The Shark-man thing was unexpected, but the rest doesnt suprise me. And just like 'Thane' Bull theres a Toevass Head here whos feelin a little big for his britches. He hired the Mercenaries Guild to exterminate them."