<hr/><div align="center">(https://i.imgur.com/z0gt7ut.png)</div><div align="center"><span class="bbc_size" style="font-size: 24pt;"><span class="bbc_font" style="font-family: impact;">THE SHOW MUST GO ON</span></span><br/>A D&amp;D 5E Adventure</div><hr/><br/><div class="floatright">(https://i.imgur.com/C6F2M00.png)</div><strong>BOOK I, CHAPTER I.  YESTERDAY'S TIDE</strong><br/><br/><em>The tide rises, the tide falls,<br/>The twilight darkens, the curlew calls;<br/>Along the sea-sands damp and brown<br/>The traveller hastens toward the town,<br/>      And the tide rises, the tide falls.<br/><br/><br/>Darkness settles on roofs and walls,<br/>But the sea, the sea in the darkness calls;<br/>The little waves, with their soft, white hands,<br/>Efface the footprints in the sands,<br/>      And the tide rises, the tide falls.<br/><br/><br/>The morning breaks; the steeds in their stalls<br/>Stamp and neigh, as the hostler calls;<br/>The day returns, but nevermore<br/>Returns the traveller to the shore,<br/>      And the tide rises, the tide falls.<br/><br/></em>-- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow<br/><br/>My beloved Blaise, the emblem of beauty in my heart, you awaken in a foreign bed made of straw in a foreign room made of lumber beneath a quilted blanket made of cotton.  On the other side of the room, you see with your radiant orange gaze a handsome human male, your friend and companion, Roen Tusk.  He is asleep on his side, his body tucked at the waist.  You can see by the rise and fall of his chest that he is still alive.<br/><br/>Still alive.<br/><br/><em>"Hold on!" Roen had said some time long ago.   "Hold on, please!"  You were both holding on to the railing of a capsizing vessel in a stormy sea.  Another gigantic wave had rocked the vessel towards the ship's starboard side, snapping the main mast in twain.  It fell between you, shaking you off from your hold of the railing as if they were leaves falling from a limb.   "BLAISE!"<br/><br/>You fell nearly sixty feet into the cold waters below.  Cold...</em><br/><br/>Blaise, you reach out with your senses, and these are the things you see, smell, and hear.<br/><br/>First, you see the room.  It is fairly small.  There are two beds separated by a small alley.  A trunk sits between the beds and serves as a little nightstand.  The chest sits below a window that is open.  From your vantage, you do not see anything but a gray sky beyond.  The door of the room is at the foot of your bed.  By the foot of Roen's bed, there is a little desk that is manned by someone, a young man, perhaps a boy, reading a book by candlelight.<br/><br/>Second, what you smell.  You smell the salt and fishiness of the ocean.  Though you may have liked this smell, today... well, today, it is a scent that you despise.  You also detect...  yes, you detect the faint aroma of fresh wheat bread being baked in an oven.<br/><br/>Third, what you hear.  In the distance, you hear the hubbub of merchant life along the harbor.  There are cries, heave hoes, and bells, as ships arrive and depart from your cone of sound.  Beneath you, you hear the din of the tap room.  You are in a tap room.<br/><br/>The boy who is sitting at the desk does not notice that you are now awake.