After the assault, we decided to return to the relative safety of our ship, and discuss our options there. Since we had already finished our trading and replenishing, a vocal minority was in favour of leaving the town immediately, and for good. With the council opposing us, we would stand no chance of getting the promised reward for dealing with the ghost problem anyway. Others, including me, were in favour of helping the citizens, who the council had obviously intimidated.
We spent the night aboard, without any further incident, and the following day, Sira and I, considering ourselves to be the ones with the potential to be the least conspicuous, decided to go into town again, and research about the council by casually asking around with local merchants and the like.
After a long while, we had to realise that our endeavour was not met with success. There was an awkward silence about town, and even finding out the identities of the councilmembers was difficult, owing to a climate of fear and distrust. At this point, I was ready to admit defeat and return to the ship. Sira, though, apparently needed a way to vent her frustration, and without much pretext, headed towards a local tavern and kicked in the door.
At this, I envisioned we could be in deep trouble with the local watch if we stayed, decided to panic a little, and make my way back to the ship alone. Alas, it appeared that someone had a trap prepared on the way back, and I was the one to spring it. On a small square somebody had been in waiting, and the whole area was infused with sleep magic. As I felt the spell sapping my vigour, I could see bystanders collapse left and right. I was among the last to stand, by finally I succumbed to the magic, which had taken me off guard.
When I came to, the first thing I noticed was bright sunlight, a strong breeze and the odour of oil. The shock brought me to my senses quickly My body felt contorted into a rather awkward position. I found myself far above the deck of a small ship, tied with my back to its main mast. There was no one else visible on deck, but there were tipped-over barrels, and the whole ship was covered in oil. Someone had set up a contraption with a candle, to ignite the whole, highly flammable, mess.
I tried to very carefully get a hand free, when I noticed they had balanced several small items on my arms, outside of my field of view. I decided to be very mindful and not risk anything dropping, but still managed to put myself into a position where I could weave magic, albeit with difficulty. Now, I could conjure up a small quantity of water to douse the candle below, removing the most immediate threat. With this accomplished, I felt time was no longer running against me, nd could take time to consider.
The ship, a small, barely seaworthy sloop, was drifting off the coast of Jomba Town, and I reckoned it would be in good view of the harbour at the same time it would have ignited. This being no longer a concern, I could wait a bit to have a good view of what was going on in the harbour. Our ship was still docked, and when they spotted the sloop, I could see people on deck springing into action. A dinghy was prepared, and several of my crew approached the sloop.
When the closed in, I could see the Captain and some of the officers. I shouted down a warning; The ship was still very flammable. Master Krastus used his magic to allow himself and the Captain to board the ship. They spotted another trap, which the Archmage proceeded to examine, while the Captain climbed up the mast, removed several vials, presumably of a self-igniting mixture, off me and helped me get down onto the deck. From the aft, however, where Master Krastus, had been working, something had still ignited, and the Captain and I darted to the side, to jump off the deck and into the water.
And not a moment to soon, because quickly the flames had spread across the oily deck, setting everything ablaze and dooming the old vessel. We swam around, in a wide circle, to board our dinghy, and returned to our ship. I was eager to get all this oil washed from myself and my garments, and also, in light of to what lengths the council would go to theatrically harm us, we had to reassess our situation now.
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