Tim is gone, continuing his nearly incomprehensible loyalty to family in the face of an opportunity to waste his life hanging about with his layabout friends. Everyone else shows up, including Chris (Dojango Sangaree), Paul (Marik), Chuck (Arnoux Urag) and Bruce (who lurks around a lot and makes jokes about German Gas Mask Porn). The game starts late and ends rapidly, due to a combination of Frag (which proves to be a very entertaining game) and referee sluggishness.
Loot from last time includes a six-point Powerstone in a necklace setting (obtained from the "peaceful" hermit) and two bags of naurur bulbs. The characters negotiate with each other over who gets what. They ultimately leave Marik with the Powerstone, as he and Antok of the Storm Tribe are the only characters able to use it. At one point, Marik offers to give Dojango Sangaree the necklace, and to buy him a nice stone for the setting. Marik suggests that it would make a nice gift for Dojango's would-be mate. Dojango offers back, "That's okay, I'd rather share it evenly. Here, I'll split it in half with a rock for you. Hey, I'm just joking. Stop looking so pale." Arnoux Urag takes the hermit's brandy as his share, and then promptly drinks it down. Dojango is upset to watch five or six panthers' worth of liquor go away so fast.
The characters discuss gathering flowers. The Red Tower magician Gullug gave them some information about the plants he wants when he talked to them back on board Yaggo's Boat. Specifically, he mentioned that they grow on small bushes. He rather pointedly didn't say anything about tentacles, toxic gases, hallucinogens, etc. Dojango speculates rather wildly upon all of these possibilities, and then stubbornly comments, "If we find out any of this is true, and Gullug knew this, I'm going to go back and kill him." The rest of the characters urge Dojango to be a bit calmer and audibly wish that they could slip some Valium into his coffee.
The characters spend some time wandering around the Thunafel carnival and find a local who is able to provide some specific detail upon reaching the valley where the blue flowers grow. He tells them that the simplest way to find them is to travel up the river until they reach the ruins of the city of Kufry, then go across the river.
The characters head down toward the river, where they find a number of fishing piers near the large stone bridge across the river. Dojango negotiates with a fisherman (making good use of his Gesture and Merchant skills) to buy the man's spare boat for 100 gazelles. Half of this money comes from Antok, the other half from Marik. The boat comes with two ratty sails, some rigging, a damaged seine net, oars and two gaffs. The characters also spend some time pricing machetes (which turn out to cost some 160 gazelles each), but refrain from buying any when they notice one fellow selling them as "anti foreigner devices". They do buy two sickles at a cost of 15 gazelles each.
Their shopping done the characters head upstream, accompanied by Bauen, the onetime Envoy and botanist they took from the city of Dith Lun. Marik neatly bypasses their lack of boating expertise with his Flying Carpet magic. With frequent rest stops, he estimates that it will take them two days to reach the valley.
After the first day of travel, the characters stop at a small fishing village. They are met at the dock by two men who don't understand them but who do offer to tie up the boat, and by two more men who also don't understand them but who do refrain from using their long, threatening polearms as anything more than decoration.
Once the villagers have helped the characters disembark, they introduce them to an old woman who is able to speak a small quantity of Market Tongue. She leads them into a longhouse that looks more like a whole village in a building. She takes them past folk sharpening spears, a group of women working a loom, and an old man telling some children a story, then gestures them into an alcove made from some simple tapestries. She sits down on the only cushion and tells them, "Talk story". The characters very slowly tell her the story of their battle against the greyfeather storks. She listens intently, then tells them that they are from the Great Boat. It develops that she spent some time aboard Yaggo's Boat during her youth, but then returned to Aeldrine when she decided that she did not like life aboard. Since then she has lived a simple life as a villager, and has been blessed with many children and grandchildren. The entire conversation proceeds at a painfully slow rate because nobody shares a language with any skill.
The characters finally tell her that they are looking for the blue flowers that grow in a valley to the south. The woman warns them of two dangers. First, she cautions them about the Long-Necks, smart creatures that hunt humans. She knows that the creatures are snakelike, but knows little else. She suggests that the tribesmen living closer to the ruins of Kufry might know more, as the Long-Necks attack them often. She also warns the characters about the long-dead people of Kufry and the surrounding villages. She says that they are long dead, but they refuse to depart for love of material wealth. They can be a danger near any ruins.
The session ends rather quickly, with the characters encamped in a small fishing village a day's irregular flight upstream of Thunafel. Each character gains three experience points.