12/09/2022
Arriving in Topside, Tough As Dirt set up a base at an inn called The Gutted Squid, a place adorned with various tentacle accoutrement including an aquarium ceiling with "baby kraken."
After a quick bite to eat at Sea Salt Sally's, the group went to visit an old friend of Varsmack's named Bad Eye MacGreggor, a fence who had moved up the ranks in Topside to setup shop in the Collector's House Auction and Market selling the gains of the Sea Bosom.
The group decided to not get in contact with Ricco's old friend, Twinkletoes Tina, who used to give Ricco sword lessons
On their way, Brother Moor and Gideon stumbled upon a book seller, Zufar, who actually had a rare journal accounting an expedition into the heart of Mythrasil Forest. Brother Moor bought the book.
MacGreggor told the group that the woman they sought, Babbitt Galloway, sometimes hung around Cutter's Wharf, swapping tales with retired sea dogs
On their way to the tavern, Tough As Dirt was hailed by a colorfully decorated Dragonborn named Sarzava looking for a new crew for his ship, Poisoned Arrow
The group indulged him as he spun a tale about taking his crew to an uncharted island south of the Tenth Layer, where he found not only a shipwreck of a ship called the Ocean Shape but a magic portal to the Phantom Plains in Core Vandal. He provided proof by showing off a crystal legitimately from that region.
The group joined him inside and he revealed he had a map back to the shipwreck -- he had gone through the portal after seeing two people flee through it but couldn't find them on the other side
Tough As Dirt decided they'd come back once their business was concluded, but Sarzava sent them off with a poisoned bottle of First Mate rum, which Winslow promptly drank outside to prove his toughness
With Winslow dying, Moor attended him as Varsmack chased down Sarzava, forced him into revealing the location of the map, took the map, and escorted the dragonborn to a public stockade, where a gnome with a feather tickled his face
The group arrived at Cutter's Wharf but a day late to find Babbitt
Instead, they found an old dwarf named Yella, whose addled mind mistook Moor as his son, Arnor, who he'd lost at sea
The group learned from Yella, a close friend of Babbitt, that she was on her way to a small island called Calvara, not far from Topside
Yella insisted on going with them, so they made their way to the Poisoned Arrow, having claimed it from Sarzava.
Aboard the ship, they found evidence that Sarzava had actually poisoned his previous crew, apparently to keep the location of the shipwreck a secret
Tough as Dirt needed one more sailor to make the journey, so they went to the Long Way Home and found an Aarakocran named Cookeg who joined up with little convincing
The group made the ship ready to depart and set out toward Calvara Island.