Sapphire:Sessions:20150815

Ahn-Lee wakes early, eats breakfast, and arrives at the baron's castle at sunrise. A guard shows him to the practice ground. Eli Berlin greets Ahn-Lee and spends the next three-quarters of an hour sparring with him in the two-sword technique. Ahn-Lee performs so well that at the end of the session Berlin states "there's not much more I can teach you."

Ahn-Lee gladly accepts a second breakfast, and during their meal Berlin asks him about "events" on the ship. Berlin: "Malprin ship, eh? Slavers, then. Dangerous for them to be so far north, what with the patrols." Ahn-Lee: "If you talk to the ones that are still alive, they'd agree."

Barak calls Branamin down to breakfast; the eager young mage quizzes the goblin about Fire spells. Later, Branamin visits an alchemist's shop where he selects a number of items, then hits up Ahn-Lee for a loan. "I'm good for it! I'll be a hero just like you someday! By the way... who pays us?" Ahn-Lee replies, "Pick out what you need. Then whenever you find money, pay me back -- I'll remember." Branamin bargains the shopkeeper's prices down, pays him with coppers that he has slyly cast the illusion of silver upon, and remarks to Ahn-Lee, "We should leave pretty soon."

Chalker locates a seamstress, Earline, and describes the flag he wants made: a field of red with three five-pointed stars, one white, one blue, and one gold. He offers a good price for it to be finished within two hours. Ahn-Lee burns the slavers' old flag.

On the ship, Branamin picks out the cabin where he will set up his lab. Searching the cells where he and the other captive mages had been held, he locates the anti-magic artifacts, which are three-inch-long crystals.