Excitedly I went to meet Merrick at the Jeholm Docks. At last we were going to have the archery contest.   Several archers and their supporters had already arrived.

Muttering Merrick stepped out of the gate ” Amelia, that sounds familiar but where from…Oh! Good evening everyone.” He began looking in his pocket for something.  Not finding it he left us to go to the Luna bank.  He quickly returned.  “WOAH,WOAH!  I went to the bank for the rewards for tonight’s  and…” He hesitated.  He explained that as his gate opened at the bank, he found him self surrounded by Pirates.

“I was lucky they didn’t see me.” Quickly he opened a gate for us.  The battle began as we rushed the pirates.

It seemed as if they couldn’t be damaged.  Promathia discoverd that in fact you could hire the pirates.  Typical of mercenaries, gold is the way to end the battle.  Others began hiring the other pirates until at last the bank was again ours.

 

“What cocked scheme is that? Trying to rob the Luna bank.  Looking down, he  found muddy footprints, leading away from the city.  We began to following them. When  Merrick stopped.  He had found a trail made of gold coins.  Not knowing who had left the trail, we cautiously we followed it.  Again we ran into pirates.  Ever the diplomat, Merrick tried to talk to the leader.  But with a shout, Silverblade and his band attacked us.   With the battle won,  Merrick stated. “Only one person I know is foolish enough to try something so stupid…. White Beard!”  Merrick lead us to the Exhausted Path Inn  in Tokuno.   Yuuk’s  greeting made it  clear that Merrick was well known. Inside Hidete , greeting him an told him that  Yuki wishes to talk to you.  She has word of the person you are looking for.

 

Yuki  told us that the pirate White Beard was waiting at Modest Damsel in New Magincia.    Merrick gated us to New Magincia.  Now we will find out what he knows.

 

Just as we were about to go in, Merrick warned us to be careful as Whitebeard was a tricky one.  Inside Merrick confronted Whitebeard.  “So the pirate attacks were to lure us here. challenged Merrick.  You didn’t care about getting the gold at Luna.

“What?” said Whitebeard in surprise, ” Lad I care about getting the gold, do you know how long it took to put together that crew.

“Apologies then, the ones who didn’t switch sides, ran away.” laughed Merrick. 

Whitebeard shook his head, ” Aye, who am I kidding?  I tossed a gold coin in the middle of a room and the whole lot of them went for it., I told them if they wanted more I had plans to rob a bank.”  “Good help is so hard to get these days,” he sighed.

“Never mind that,” Merrick frowned. “we have some questions for you.”

” I be waiting ta hear why yer suddenly after me. Ask your questions.” Whitebeard said.

“Remember that treasure?” questioned Merrick.  “Never did find it did we?” Whitebeard answered with a wink.

Annoyed Merrick continued, “You still have the clues though don’t you.”

Whitebeard leaned forward,   “Found something, did ya, matey?  I be curious, how did ye find out?”

Merrick smiled, ” The  sellsword you paid.  You had to know she couldn’t keep her mouth shut.”

“Aye I was counting on it,” Whitebeard said with a twinkle in his eye.

After much discussion,  Whitebeard and Merrick made a deal.  Whitebeard would share his clues after we sorted out the details of the map.  Once outside, Merrick took out the map. ” He asked, ” So where the heck is this map pointing…”  “North,” replied Nightwolf.
” You are right it is… but not here.  It says something about strange elementals ….In the frozen norths of the Lost Lands.”  Merrick continued,  “Hope all of you have something warm to wear.”  Off we went to the frozen north.

We were meet by more pirates.  Defeating them, we continued until we found the strange snow elementals.  The snow dragons were dazzling but deadly.  Bravely we fought.  It was with  a touch of sadness that we had to destroy such beauty.

 

Merrick read the next part of the note. ” After killing the snow elementals some thing  else will appear.  When you find it, it will look like a red beast with four legs and a long tail. It only appears when the garden, at south end of Occlo, blooms.  Off we went.   Going south west we  looked for the garden.  “Oh, I found it,” shouted  Veronica Mars.  “Where,” asked Merrick.   “Here,” Jinx replied. “Night blood roses.” Arriving Merrick lead us south west to Althaye’s Garden the only place the Night blood Roses grow.  Merrick warned us. “Be careful for the untended ones outside the garden, very deadly if eaten.”

 

As  Merrick bent to pick a rose, sleeping elementals in the form of red dragons appeared.  They proved to be tougher than the snow dragons.  But we defeated them.

After the beasts had been defeated, Merrick picked up a strange globe.  “Does it do something?” he wondered aloud.  Shaking it, some dust from the globe spilled on the ground.  A strange door appeared in the garden.

Merrick dropped the globe.  ” Time to ask Whitebeard more questions”  Arriving we found, Whitebeard was gone.   “Did you see where he went?” Merrick asked Alaira.  “No, but he left you this note.” Alaira handed Merrick a note. “He said he would meet you at a different time.” Disgustedly, Merrick lead us outside.

 

He looked at the list of clues.  ” I wonder how many clues Whitebeard figured out.  “The next clue is invisible.  Can any of you read it?”  We shook are heads.  “Then I must find a quiet place to work on this.”  With that a gate opened and Merrick left.