PREMIUM FEST: Here is a sneak peek at _whatever_ Gentleman Hoorne may be up to for the Premium Festival. He’s making a deal in the darkness with something with a hissing voice, speaking of profits and a six-Sided Grotto. Also, there is a mysterious satchel involved. I mean, What Could Possibly Go Wrong? Here’s the must-read full vignette:
Text of Discord Post follows:
GM Kaonashi
[Premium] Vignette Teaser: The Six-Sided Grotto
on 12 Jun 2025 5:14 PM
from the Official GemStoneIV Discord
on #premium forum channel
“Sure, I’ve got a boat you can rent to take you out on the water,” Niro said. He spat a thick glob of mucous on the dock’s whitewashed boards and put a hand on his hip. “If you’ve got the silver.”
Hoorne Cornelius nodded curtly and handed the man a small pouch. “It’s all there,” he said. “Twice over, for your silence.”
“Whatever you say,” the sailor said as he flashed a toothy grin. “You won’t mind if I count it while you’re out enjoying the ride. Not that I don’t trust the illustrious Gentleman Hoorne, or wonder what he’s doing renting one of my pedal boats in the dark of night.”
Hoorne shrugged, waved a dismissive hand at the sailor, and tapped the vivid ‘I HEART BOATS’ inking on his chest. “I won’t be long,” he said.
The colorful umbrellas attached to the dock’s polished railings were lashed shut with thick, weather-worn rope. A sliver of pale moon cast the barest light on dark water, its reflection rippling with the tide’s flow. Hoorne untied one of the whitewashed pedal boats at the end of the dock, stepped down into it, and, with one hand on the tiller, began to pedal.
“Steer clear of Charl’s Teeth,” Niro shouted. “I heart my boats too, but if you run into trouble I’m not pedaling out to save you!”
Hoorne raised a hand in thanks without looking back toward the dock as he laboriously began to push against the boat’s pedals. Ahead, the dark of the waterway had a fluid, limitless quality, like a thick pitch drawn against the horizon’s edge with just enough give to allow him to be drawn deeper in. He turned his head to look behind him, and by comparison the lantern and torch-lit edges of Mist Harbor and its docks were increasingly diminished.
“Ten minutes east, and then another ten to the south,” Hoorne muttered to himself as he adjusted the pedal boat’s tiller. “Past the short sea wall, around the first isle, to the black sands.”
Hoorne squinted ahead into the dark and continued to pedal, periodically adjusting the boat’s tiller. After several long minutes of labored work, he eased off and let the boat coast to a stop. For a few moments he sat in silence, eyes wide, staring into the darkness while breathing in time with the ebb and flow of the tide. He then produced a small oilcloth-wrapped torch and a matchbook from his leather shoulder-slung satchel.
“Here, fishy, fishy, fishy,” Hoorne said as he lit his torch with a match. As flames consumed the torch’s head, the immediate area was lit in an arc of shadow-crossed, flickering light, revealing a dock that stretched over a black sand beach that lined a nearby, small islet.
Waves lapped against the pedal boat’s sides. Somewhere in the distance, a large creature breached the water before crashing back down. Hoorne held his torch ahead of him and peered into the distance, idly running his hands over the pearlescent nautilus shell amulet around his neck.
“That you, Miiiiiister Hoorne?” a voice hissed from somewhere nearby.
“Show yourself, Slymie,” Hoorne said. He moved his torch horizontally along the pedal boat’s edge.
‘I am heeeeere, my loooooyal partner,” the voice hissed. A figure appeared alongside the boat. The water’s surface around them was a spray of iridescent color reflecting from the figure’s luminous scales, like a faint, glowing oil paint resting on the water’s surface. “The question is, do yoooooou have what I asked foooooor?”
Holding the torch out ahead of him, Hoorne squinted as he slid the satchel off his shoulder. “It’s all here,” he said. “Gems, crystals,and precious stones from far-flung lands. For our joint effort.”
“Excellent, most eeeeeexcellent,” the scaled figure said as it reached for the satchel. As it took hold of the satchel, however, Hoorne gripped it tighter, not letting go.
“You remember our deal?” Hoorne said.
“Yes, yessss, of course,” the figure hissed. “I intend to honor it.” The figure flashed a broad grin. “It’s a great way for enterprising swimmers and sand-walkers alike to make a little extra silver, after all.”
Hoorne released his grip on the satchel. “Good. See that you do,” he said.
With a guttural, gurgling chortle, the iridescent scaled figure took the satchel and slipped beneath the water, leaving only thin ripples across its surface. Dousing his torch in the water alongside his boat, Hoorne exhaled deeply and put his hand back on the tiller. He began to pedal once more, steering himself back toward Mist Harbor.
What is Gentleman Hoorne up to? Who is the mysterious, scaled figure? What was actually in the satchel?
Find out more at Gemstone IV’s upcoming Currents of Myth Premium Festival, to be held between June 20 and June 27 in the waters alongside Mist Harbor.
Hoorne has promised Premium Festival attendees that he will offer them a “nifty” and “very special” opportunity “to make some fast silver” — whatever that actually means. While he will not be in attendance personally, he has assured me that his scaled friend has “everything in-fin” and that he “cannot wait for you to see their joint venture” at the festival, in the form of a boutique shop he has helped fund with the help of his Purveyor friend.
We look forward to having you at this event, coming in one week to the waters near Mist Harbor!
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