Thistle of the league of adventurers has called you to her office to discuss the recent goings-on. Since your stint in the desert top mages have been hard at work deciphering the import of the emerald you recovered, though it has led to some... disquiet among many of the upper brass. Your ability to succeed as the loner party has also not exactly earned you the accolades of your fellow guild mates.

Having shown them up thoroughly and since there is not much else that can be done with the object you retrieved you are being sent out on a special assignment. You are to accompany a top scholar on a trip to retrieve a mysterious object from a patron of the guild. He lives in far off Huxley by the sea- a quaint yet distant fishing port of some repute. Your mission is to protect guild assets as it's scholar goes to observe and if need be retrieve the artifact for further study based on the recommendation of the guild's scholar. This professor- the one who currently has the object in question is to be treated with great reverence as he is a founding member and frequent donor of your very guild- so best behavior all. If nothing else, Thistle adds- at least this gets you out of the house for a bit.

As you prepare to leave for your mission you are met at the gates by your charge for this trip- a guild scholar and gnomish halfling sitting on top of a large travel pack, face buried in her tome. She introduces herself as Xanthe, and when shaking hands you see her eyes glow briefly as she utters a number prophetic for each player (she has glimpsed your future and divined a small piece of it in the days to come). She also edges one of you away from a falling box.

Several days pass uneventfully before you arrive in a grim mist and slight cold rain of the morning rattling down the cobbled streets of Huxley toward the wharf