Mary opened up her secret dock cavern on Children’s Island and slowly filled the locks with water from the lagoon. She watched with satisfaction as the first two of her reconditioned captures sailed slowly across the lagoon. Then she moved the remaining two sunken vessels into the shipyard cavern and pumping out the locks closed it up once again.

Her first cat beastfolk went with them aiding the scratch crews of former natives. She was well satisfied and felt that giving the locals one of the former pirate ships was a good bargain for their help fixing all four ships.

As for Thomas, she was really pleased, maybe he was prone to taking naps at the drop of a hat, and had far less endurance than normal humans but he could leap twice his body height, had incredible reflexes and speed. She thought that his striped brownish ginger bushy tail and hair were cute.

Also that monster type thing had proved useful as she was able to use it to give him seaman and command skills. Making him a free willed being free of the dungeon had been harder but worth it. Her plan for humiliating and destroying that beep pirate was coming along nicely.

Next step, to build a trimaran on the lines of the Gitana 17 she had drooled over back on earth, nothing on this world would be able to catch a trimaran capable of fifty knots.

Danilus watched the two mid-sized brigantines flying a blueish green flag emblazoned with a white dolphin sail across the lagoon heading for the harbour, he noted in passing that a passage had opened in the protective coral reef to allow them to enter harbour.

He was at the dock when they arrived and noticed with some amusement that the larger of the two was named Dolphin and apparently belonged to a collective of former natives, the other was the Alessandrina’s Glory and belonged to the dungeon.

He joined in the celebrations but left early and returned to his duties. This was the first he had heard of the underground dock and shipyard on the Children’s Island and of Mary being willing to hire the admittedly very loyal islanders. He wondered if Alessandrina’s Glory would be available for leasing.

Thomas Felix left Silverton a week later as paid supercargo on the Sea Sprite to learn navigation and ship handling. Mary had selected the Sea Sprite because it was doing the regular supply runs for the temple and tended to turn up every month or so.

* * *

Sildanus watched Tankard Strongarm the leader of New Town’s dwarven community emerge from the water-lock into the inns bar and wade through the – for him – chest deep water to his table.

“Sildanus is that quest on the up and up?” asked Tankard urgently.

Sildanus grinned, dwarves and mithril, it seemed old Tankard wasn’t immune. “which one? You mean the one to catch a pair of wolves, yes it is.”

“Who cares about sodding wolves, I mean the mithril ... ah four royals one,” insisted an agitated Tankard.

“That one, yes it is, you want an ale?”

“Sod that, I’ve got to let my cousin know, he’s a lunatic adventurer and he needs to know,” said Tankard as he turned and left hastily.

Dwarves and mithril indeed. Sildanus managed to restrain his laughter until the dwarf had left.

* * *

With their catamaran once again hidden the man-rats, both rat and humanoid resumed their activities in Drakoton. They found the hardest part of their mission was to avoid carelessness as nobody who saw a rat suspected anything unusual. One clerk had even chased one of them with wails of horror as he thought the rat was about to eat the valuable secret trade agreement on the table.

This time the leader of the band decided on a more public lesson. They had learned that their target was going to be at a banquet given by the local mayor and they even had the seating plan for the guests, so...

First, two nights were spent widening, creating and checking rat tunnels in the town hall and almost creating a new rat hole in the wainscoting behind the bench where their object lesson was going to be sitting.

On the night of the banquet Mary’s assassins watched the guests arrive and as soon as their target arrived they infiltrated the Town Hall. The humanoid leader and two of the rats moved through the tunnels they had prepared. Once the speeches had been given and the sound of the festivities could be heard the rats finished their entrance, their leader followed his potential decoys into the hall and prepared his blowpipe and darts as he verified his target’s location.

Two quick puffs, a second to assure himself of his aim and the leader of the band departed followed by his minions. Once again the merry band of rodents were skimming the waves on their way home within the hour.

Behind them the judge that had presided over the trial of the pirates and had willingly carried out the former chief magistrates orders clutched at the back of his neck, spasmed in agony and landed face down in his plate quite dead.

The head of the local Night Watch threw his hands up in the air and passed the case of the invisible assassin into the hands of the lord’s Justicar. He just hoped all the furore wouldn’t cost him his cushy job.

The Lord’s Justicar had mixed feelings, he knew himself to be a methodical sort of man but no great solver of mysteries. However this case did allow Lord Hillier to claw back some of the authority over Drakoton that his father had foolishly ceded and anyway he had people to do the puzzle solving for him so all he had to do was select one or two of these and turn them loose with letters of authority.

* * *

Blacksand hunted out his friend Trisha, “Trisha what does Mary want with two flea bitten wolves, did you know I’ve got a couple of arrogant adventurers in my inn asking for Thomas Felix and their two imperials.”

Trisha blanked out momentarily as she checked with Mary, then she smiled and said, “That’s OK, I’ll just give Jaasoon two imperials and a little bonus for a fast job and ask him to send one of his people to pretend to be Thomas and pay the adventurers for completing the quest.”

Trisha giggled and regarded her friend with a glint in her eye.

“What! Why are you looking at me like that for,” Blacksand asked uneasily.

“You’ll soon see,” grinned Trisha and left.

Not much later a stocky middle-aged man entered the common room of the Spirit Dolphin Inn and after a quick look round headed for the corner table where two obviously tough individuals were seated sipping their ales while a pair of wolves watched the room unhappily from their small cage.

“Good afternoon, I’m Thomas Felix and I see you have fulfilled my quest,” he placed a small almost empty looking purse on the table. “Your reward and something extra for a quick job.”

One of the adventurers picked up and checked the purse and checked the contents while the other watched the common room warily.

“Very nice, thanks for the bonus, hope to do business with you again.” Said the adventurer as he pocketed the purse, “three coins, two imperials and a noble,” he informed his partner quietly.

“I’ll just get a couple of friends to remove the wolves, do you want the cage back?”

“Keep it,” replied the adventurer.

“So why did you want a pair of wolves,” Trisha asked Mary later as they watched the pair explore the tree filled cavern that was to be their new home.

« I need wolves for my fairy tales and while a ship’s cat is all well and good I want some proper sea dogs to man my ships. »

* * * INTERLUDE 1 * * *

It had taken longer than either of them had expected but the finally they had regained level five. Hell’s Mouth and Arbogar agonised over the choices they had available and finally, reluctantly they opted for Goblins as their new monster choice. As goblin dungeons were fairly common they figured it would hopefully give them cover when they finally arrived at their new location, and anyway the nasty little creatures did not object to coexisting with demons and undead unlike most of their other choices.

The second choice they had was somewhat easier, thanks to having finally exhausted their store of Azurea’s divine mana they discarded their tentative and unreturned allegiance to Azurea and embraced Hel-Arlizzy as their protector.

Soon, another couple of months or so and they would be ready to settle in, lure in new victims and grow.

* * * INTERLUDE 2 * * *

Erekosë panicked and fled back to his queen. It was those monsters again, all of them even the one they had killed.

Sandrinna was no happier despite Hel-Arlizzy’s recent assurances that recent misunderstandings had been cleared up. She just couldn’t bring herself to trust his assurances and had her core moved to the small cave near the exit of her escape tunnel.

* * *

Harrassan was impressed once again by his guides, Avor and Essa had followed the faint trail left by the previous expedition unerringly and it took them just over a day and a half to arrive at the dungeon instead of the three days Burritis had said. Gressissa the seer also seemed to be impressed by the twins complimenting them on the quality of their camels.

They camped about a kilometre from the dungeon at the request of Gressissa who spent several hours setting up a ritual.

The ritual was done by the end of the day and Gressissa informed them of the results even as she filled in the forms required by the guild.

“Three levels but it’s level five, has Kobolds, evolved Kobolds and Lizardmen. Main affinities water and earth and is deathly afraid of something.”

Harrassan cursed, he knew they would have to do something to reassure the thing so it wouldn’t bolt again.

* * * INTERLUDE 3 * * *

Mary Moving hesitantly as Flip held his hands over her eyes, then with a “Ta Ra” he removed his hands leaving her looking at a rather antiquated looking green canvas topped jeep.

Mary looked round at Flip ignoring the other man in the garage, “So Flip, I can see it’s kinda cute in a rugged kinda way, but...”

Flip handed her a set of keys and said, “That Sis is your new car, a present from me for passing your test.”

Mary blinked and studied her new transport, “But Flip...”

The other man came forward, “Hey Mary don’t worry we fixed it up a treat, that’s a genuine 1968 M38A1 Truck, Utility: 1/4 ton, 4x4, or Willys MD. Any problems and I’ll fix them and give ya the same discount I give your brother.”

‘Her wheels, the beep thing was growin’ on her. It was certainly distinctive.’

“It suits you Sis, no way I can afford the yachts you lust over but this is you. Blunt as a truck and bullheaded.” Flip ducked but his sister didn’t swat him, she just grinned and then hugged him.

“Hey Mary, if ya want ya can sell it for a fair sum and buy something smaller and handier, and have something left over.”

Mary released her brother, “Na I’ll keep it, think it suits me. Thanks guys.”