Because of the large crate they must transport, the heroes are immobilized
for several more days in Villa de los Gordos by the bad weather and worse
roads. Then Helena, the young woman who helped them capture the Wolf
Pack, returns to ask for their help because her fiance Ramon has been captured
by the Montaignes after organizing an ambush against them, and is going
to be executed at dawn. Frantic with the last two week's forced inactivity,
the heroes agree to help rescue Ramon. They ride through the night
to Caballos Nuevos, a small village just north of the enemy lines.
There, they find the villagers assembled under threat of the Montaigne
bayonets to watch the execution. Some fifty Montaigne soldiers, commanded
by a lieutenant and two sergeants, are watching out for trouble.
Lucas dresses up as El Vago and creates a distraction, lobbing Molotov
cocktails at the soldiers, while Ferdinand stealthily creeps near the scaffolding
to free Ramon. Melisandre rides up to grab Ramon, but he falls from
the horse and is knocked out, while the executioner, a fierce Eisen mercenary
called Sergeant Detmer, grabs Ferdinand and attempts to crush the life
out of him. Constanza attacks a second group of soldiers to further
the distraction started by Lucas/El Vago, and Helena rides to rescue the
unconscious Ramone. Much fighting. Everyone gets sorely wounded
but soldiers are falling left and right; at one point it looks bad for
El Vago, but then good old Charles du Chevalier himself is spotted, shooting
at Lieutenant Lalonde, whom he thens pursues and beats the crap out of.
The heroes are victorious, grab Ramon, and flee. Ferdinand makes
sure to take his foe Detmer's whip as a trophy.
The heroes go back to Villa de los Gordos to find the Maris Stella
has returned to fetch them. They meet with Admiral Enrique Orduño
in San Augustin, then take Lucas's crate to Tarago. Melisandre takes
the opportunity in both port cities to ask about the Daydream, her
father's old ship, and receives creepy answers. Ferdinand goes shopping
for a new broadsword. Admiral Orduño charges Constanza with
finding a man who claims to be the pirate Philippe Gosse, returned after
twenty years of absence to attack trade vessels near Théah.
Constanza also learns that Gosse and her father had been both rivals and
friends. She decides he must be the man mentioned in the Vesten Prophecy.
The Maris Stella sails out to patrol the trade routes south of
Castille, and finally encounters an old frigate that seems very interested
in cutting its route. Constanza outsails the larger vessel for a
while, until the two are evenly matched and play cat-and-mouse with each
other for nearly a day. The arrival of a sail on the horizon, which
Constanza identifies as the Crimson Roger, breaks the standoff.
The heroes ask for, and receive, permission to repair aboard the Uncharted
Course (for it is her) and talk to Philippe Gosse and his daughter
Melinda, the new captain. Constanza explains briefly who Reis is,
and also the prophecy that leads her to believe that Gosse will soon need
her help, though she seems to be the one in trouble right now. The
two vessels agree on signals and plunge into a fog bank to escape the
Crimson Roger.
After tense hours, they hear the muffled sounds of a ship to port and
waves crashing on land to starboard, so remembering the Prophecy, Constanza
manoeuvres towards the land. From the fog emerges a vessel which
all recognize as the Crimson Roger, and its first broadside cripples
the Maris Stella by clipping her main mast. The answering
broadside hits, but not enough. Constanza continues to direct her
vessel towards the unseen coast, slipping in a cove, and the heroes suddenly
find themselves near a beautiful shore as the fog clears. They spot
a castle in which they recognize faerie architecture, and Lucas is suddenly
speaking Avalon instead of Castillan!
