As we were starting to enter the castle, Merrick noticed a note left in the court yard.

 Picking it up he read,   “It was I who stole it, and though I wanted to turn myself in.
I could not bear being imprisoned without a pick or key.
But I lost the picks when I was startled by someone.
Perhaps if I confessed or spoke of it, I would feel better.
If only my wit had been sharper I could have escaped.
An action, an object, becomming a person suddenly.
Letter by letter, raising higher, higher.
Instead I searched for an escape and then fled.”

I wonder what he stole? said Merrick. “Well someone picked the locks on those doors.  But I don’t see anything… was that it?”
We continued to search the castle.  In on of the bedrooms we found a set of lock picks, Merrick looked about to see if there was any other clues. “Anyone else found anything but Lockpicks out of place?” he asked.

“I found a sword in one of the meeting rooms.” called Jahajx Jov. “there are letters inscribed on it”

“Has anyone found anything else that seems to be out of place?” Merrick asked.

“Ya.” said Jinx.

A map that is locked down” added Demoss.  “There is also a marble column.”

Aye.” replied both Zeke Terra and Richared Cranium.

“Odd place for a column.” Jahajx Jov said.

“Actually the North side,” added Jinx.

“While technically north,” Lady Thaila said. “North East Corner.”

” True. But the column is on the East wall.” Merrick pointed out.

“This mark on map is east.”Demoss pointed to the map.

“Oh! the first maps lines up.” JINX said excitedly.

Let me see if anything happens when I shove the column.”  Merrick shoved the column but nothing happened.  “Hm, I missed something.”  Picking up the sexton, Merrick again shoved the column.  “It won’t… budg…. ”  A  gate had opened.  Carefully we went through.

” What? Where are we?  Delucia? Merrick, still holding the sextant, said in surprise.
“There is a note here.” said Lady Thalia picking it up and showed it to Demoss.

“100? what does that mean?” asked Demoss.

” A 10o? Hold on… it’s coming into place…” replied Merrick.

“Could it mean 10 degrees?” asked Lady Thalia.

“Aye,” agreed Demoss.

“10 degrees and the circle has two lines going East and one going South…Assuming it’s connected could it be 10 degrees north of here?  Does that sound right?’ asked Merrick.

“Aye” Richard Cranium replied.

” I think we are south here.” Lady Thalia added.

If that is correct then I’d better mark our coordinates.   Looking at the sexton, he had me write down the coordinates,  78° 25′S, 47° 6′W.

Merrick continued with the map. ” So if there are two lines going East and they are longer. East looks twice as long as north.”

Deciding that was a good place to start, off we went.  Merrick used the sexton to lead us to the coordinate’s,  68o 0’S, 35o 7’W.  When we had reached 710, Merrick stopped.

Merrick stopped checking the sexton. “710 degrees not there yet.   We need to head East as well, don’t want to get stuck on that cliff.”
Merrick stopped  “Look, More brigands. They must be looking for it as well.”

We change our route to miss the brigands.   Merrick stopped again to check the sexton. ” 63o… we’re too far North. It has to be South of us.”

When we arrived, we found a map piece .

Looking at the map, Merrick looked puzzled. “That’s odd, isn’t there usually another clue.”

Zeke Terra pointed to some thing one the ground, “there’s another sextant.”

“Maybe there are cords on the the sextant.” Thalia said.

Hm, We had a sextant at the start… and now another?” Let me look at the map again.” Looking at the two lines Merrick  noted that one is longer than the other.  “Let’s try it again. So… 10 degrees, no… a longer second line. Let see that would be 11 degrees North, if East is twice as long… 22 degrees East. Does 57o 54’S, 13o 55’W sound about right?”

 

Deciding that Merrick’s coordinates were correct, we set off again. Again and again we ran into cliffs and  Ravines.
After a while, Manticore  sighed, ” looks like a circle to me.”

Finally Merrick found a road, ” I’m going to follow the road…Ravines, are annoying.  We’re close.”  Soon we can to another cliff.  “Well…climb it is…” Merrick started to climb the cliff.  Not wanting to become lost, we quickly followed him.  At the top, we found another piece of the map.  Merrick  placed it together along the seams with the first piece.  Angrily he shouted, “An empty map…is this a joke?”

Looking around carefully, Lady Thalia found a cypher on the ground.   “The missing key?” asked Funky Chicken.

Richard Cranium noticed that the were three parts to it.  Merrick picked it up.  “No map, no Whitebeard. Just a broken Cypher. I think I’ve about had it for the night…lets return to Jeholm.  We need a drink.”

 

 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.

“We’ll follow the map later,” Merrick said, “first we should find White Beard and question him.”  Aevar’s note said that White beard would be found at the Wayfarer’s Inn.   Arriving  at his room, we found  evidence that he had not been alone.

Searching the room for the where about of White Beard, Merrick found a note under the bed.

“Keep searching the room. See if you can find more information about the Blue Jewel.” Merrick said in an excited voice.   We found no other clues except a scroll on the bed.  Over and over the name A.M.E.L.I.A.  was written on it. “There is that name again. Who is this Amelia and what does she have to do with our treasure?”  Puzzled Merrick.  “Well that is a mystery to solve later. Let us be off to search the palaces.  We divided up and searched King Blackthorn’s castle and the old castle in Britain.   The searches were in vain.  We regrouped.  “Nothing at all.  But the note said that the jewel would be in a castle.” Wrinkling his forehead in thought, “What have I missed? Is there another castle in the lands?”  “Wait someone shouted. How about the one in NuJelm. ”  Away we went and after a through search we found the jewel.

 

“I wonder if this is part of the treasure?” Merrick said.  “We must put it into a safe place until we find out more.”   But as we left the palace, we were set upon by the same assassins who had killed the old treasure hunter.  They proved to be an even deadlier foes, than Bloody Blade and his minions.

 

 

At last the battle was over.  Friends and pets resurrected,  we followed Merrick as he took us to a house in Jhelom.  Inside we found a secret room that he had built.  After placing the jewel in the room.  Merrick made us swear that we would tell no one of what we had found or seen.  I asked what he planned to do with the map.  “I must study it before I decide what to do.  I will call you when I’ve decided what to do.”  Rubbing his head, he continued, “of even more concern is the name A.M.E.L.I.A.  We must find out more about it.  I wonder if White bead knows.  We must find him.”

 

Quickly I hurried to Skara Brae.  I found Aevar in front of the Skara blacksmith shop.  At first he was reluctant to talk to us.  He kept asking if the Alchemist was with me.  After assuring him that he wasn’t, Aevar agreed to give Merrick the information he wanted.  But first there was a small task that we had to do for him.

 

It seemed to be a simple task.  “Get me some of the good stuff.  The Alchemist is to deliver it himself  or send it with someone to a warehouse in Britain.  He knows the one.” We went back to Merrick with the request.

Shaking his head he replied, “figures he would want me to have Tolivar make him alcohol.

What seemed a simple task soon turn into a problem.  Tolivar’s  recipes had been stolen.  After much searching we found them.  It turned out that he had just misplaced them.  After he had made the brew and it was delivered, we went back to speak to Aevar.  He told me, “White Beard has what Merrick is looking for.  I saw  it with his own two eyes”.  I turned  to leave. “Come back, I have one more thing for you to tell Merrick. Bloody Blade has returned. ”  “Who is Bloody Blade and what does he have to do with the treasure?” I asked.  “Look in Hyloth.” Aevar said with a smile.

With a feeling of dread, We returned to Merrick and told him what we had learned.  Gatheringa band of brave warriors we traveled to Hyloth. There in the depths of Hyloth, we found Bloody Blade. The fight was long and deadly.

 

As the dungeon was still dangerous, Merrick thought it would be best if we returned to Britain.  There he looked at the map trying to decipher it.

I ran into Merrick at the stables in Luna.  He told me a strange story.   “A few days ago I meet a man named Ishim.  He wanted to hire me to guard his father from a group of assassins.  He had heard, that I was the type to not ask questions. Possibly Tavian told him.  Being a royal spy, I was hesitant to accept his offer.  He offered to pay me any thing and show me a handful of jewels .  That peeked my curiosity so  I accepted the task.  Ishim was able to describe the colors the assassins wore and warned me that they were hired by wealthy men to take care of problems. ”  Merrick paused then frowning he continued his tale.  “At last they attacked.  I found it strange that they did not sneak in.  Realizing something wasn’t right, I tried to put down my weapons.  Alas they attacked and I had to kill them all.”  I sensed that Merrick was holding something back.  He continued “After killing the assassins,  I found the father dying.

 

 

 

I asked why he was telling me all of this.  He responded that he needed me to go to Skara Brae and talk to Aevar  Tyon. Perhaps he had more information about what he had learned.  I was puzzled why he didn’t go himself.  He told me, “if I was able to pay him what I owed.  We would no doubt be best of friends.   However since I can’t, I need you to go and see if he will make a deal with us.  Be careful and don’t offer him anything.  Tell him the Alchemist remembers.  That should be enough for a small bit of information.”