Max doesn't notice Heinrich's look of disappointment, since he's too busy asking Mortus if she's OK and generally fussing around her. He gives Mortus the sleeping potion, warning her not to use it too often.
Once everyone is aboard and ready, Billy casts off the lines and sets sail. The Faithful Hound leaves Grissenwald and goes onto the mighty River Reik. The river is almost 200 yards wide here, the banks lined by the dense Reikwald Forest. From time to time, strange things can be glimpsed in the trees.
The Hound is not alone on the river. Dozens of other boats of all sizes can be seen traveling in both directions. Billy pilots the barge expertly, catching the best winds and easily avoiding the occasional rocky islands. Heinrich watches the halfling work, after a while asking him questions about boat-handling. Billy is wary at first, but once he realises that Heinrich respects his skill he is more than willing to teach him.
[keep in mind though that learning non-career skills requires a successful Int test, with failure resulting in the loss of the EXP!]
Klaus comes up with a good plan to get information from the injured bounty hunter the party found in Etelka's tower. Unfortunately, the surgeon gave the man a large dose of sleeping drugs, sufficient to keep him under for a couple of days. There's no chance of waking him until they reach Nuln.
Billy stops the boat at a riverside inn called the Eight-fold Star once the daylight is starting to fade. The party go inside for dinner and a few drinks (and may stay the night at the inn if they don't fancy sleeping on the boat). Klaus starts a card game. Ragni joins in enthusiastically, while drinking very heavily. Billy sits by himself and just drinks.
The next morning, the boat sets sail again. Klaus tries to talk to Billy about his life. Billy isn't interested at first, saying, "I don't need some bald-footed human meddling in my private business." But Klaus persists...
[Klaus Fel test = 26, pass]
...and at last manages to get Billy to talk to him. Billy says he left the Moot hoping to become a famous ship captain, like his ancestor Fred, but found that no one would hire a halfling as anything but a cook. He eventually gave in and became the cook aboard a riverboat sailing between Nuln and Altdorf. While he was working there, he gradually learned how to work a boat for himself, and saved enough money to buy a small barge. He spent the next couple of years as a minor trader and passenger carrier, until he fell foul of a corrupt exciseman in Kemperbad. Billy couldn't afford to pay the bribe the exciseman demanded, and so his boat was confiscated. When he went to the authorities in Kemperbad, the exciseman accused him of smuggling. Billy was flogged in the town square. After that, he's struggled to make a living as a deckhand... but he refuses to be a cook, ever again.
Klaus talks to Max about Billy's story. Max is of course outraged, and swears in Verena's name that he'll try to do something about it if they ever go to Kemperbad.
By noon that day, the Faithful Hound approaches Nuln, the jewel of the Reik: the second-greatest city in The Empire.
[continues]
