"I doubt we can now, unless she wants to be found. We could try maybe."
More or less ignoring the downed thieves, Illes heads directly for Vethran grabbing him by both shoulders and looking him over. "What the hells Vethran? Are you okay? What happened here?"
More or less ignoring the downed thieves, Illes heads directly for Vethran grabbing him by both shoulders and looking him over. "What the hells Vethran? Are you okay? What happened here?"
Unable to hear his clearly concerned cousin, Vethran points to his ears. "Thonder-stome," he enunciates slowly. "Cam't hear."
A shout comes from the dockside.
"Murderers! You killed my brothers! They harmed no one!"
The woman and the man from the inn stand at the mouth of an alley. he is trying to pull her away and into hiding but she rants on for a moment more.
"This will go unpunished! Vendetta! Vendetta!"
Finally the man drags her into the alley and out of sight.
"This will go unpunished!"
"Well, if she's as worthless as they were, we have nothing to worry about." Alwyn gives the carcass of the closest would-be robber a good kick, spraying pieces of thief into the river. "Oh, and don't worry about him," he tells Illes. "Bright flash, loud bang, but nothing serious. He'll be fine in a few minutes."
"This will go unpunished!"
"Nualia's tongue thinks differently, brazen wanton..." Hudak murmurs to himself; hefting his steel.
"This will go unpunished!"
“Perhaps we did protect our property somewhat over-vigorously,” muses Elisile. “Illes, is that woman and her clan likely to cause us trouble in the future? Is there anything we can do to repair this situation? I have little sympathy for thieves, but I regret killing them ...” She looks sadly down at the chunks of thief sinking slowly into the dark river waters after being kicked by Alwyn.
“Perhaps we did protect our property somewhat over-vigorously,” muses Elisile. “Illes, is that woman and her clan likely to cause us trouble in the future? Is there anything we can do to repair this situation? I have little sympathy for thieves, but I regret killing them ...” She looks sadly down at the chunks of thief sinking slowly into the dark river waters after being kicked by Alwyn.
"Don't feel overly bad. If they didn't want to meet such ends, they should've chosen a less dangerous way of life."
"This will go unpunished!"
"Thunderstone- okay so this should pass in a while."
" The thing with the Sczarni is they really put the family in crime family. People don't like them but they are sort of a known risk. Thieves, swindlers, con games... The vast majority don't deal in violent crime so typically they might expect a beating or jail time if they get caught. Never death. I think we are in all new territory here. Take an entire crime family and now we've just killed a cousin, brother, or nephew of nearly every single member over a botched robbery. I think it is pretty well certain that we have not seen the last of them."
Murchins comes back on board at sunrise. He hears about the night's events and receives the news with typical phlegmatism. "You didn't go to the Watch? No? Good, we can get going then and not have to worry about any paperwork." The Otter is chugging down the river from Wartle half-and-hour later.
The last section of the run is the longest. The river here is wide, turning in long lazy curves. But the scenery is also fairly monotonous - plains to the north, the swamp to the south. The Otter travels in the middle of the river, far from attack from either bank. There is also a reasonable amount of traffic on the Yondabakari, with another boat passing every hour or so.
"Wow. Good thing I didn't kill any of them..."
Just chilling; Hudak will try to lend his strong back to the sailors as much as possible and try to pick up a thing or two; try to "learn the ropes" as it were.
Probably not too successfully, he'll try not to damage anything though.
Camlo listens to Illes' assessment with a frown.
"Ah, I can keep track of the stones, I should be able to get a good price for them in Magnimar. Old ah-contacts." Camlo says, before slipping away.
Camlo keeps to himself again for the rest of the trip. In his little spot on deck amongst the crates.
The motion of the boat permitting, Elisile will knuckle down and add some spells to her spell book, or scribe a few scrolls.
"Take the bombs too, Camlo - somebody with your knack for stealth can create serious mayhem with those." Alwyn spends most of his time on the river drinking beer and doing calisthenics.
Vethran spends most of the remainder of his time on the ship asleep; waking long enough to eat, wash, and occasionally scribble notes into his spellbook.
The Otter chugs for two days and two nights along the river with no incident. The river gradually widens further, reflecting a sky a broken clouds skudding across the sun. A few hamlets dot the northern shore, along with the odd signal tower capped with the fluttering flag of Magnimar. Murchins makes the occasional stop to pick up supplies and engage in minor trade, or to tie up for the night.
On the last night before reaching Magnimar, the party has moored close to a nameless settlement, little more than a couple of jetties with boats for fishing the river and squat dwellings spiraling woodsmoke from their chimneys. Another golem boat is also there for the night, just out of Magnimar that day and heading the other east up the Yondabakari. Its captain and Murchins are acquainted and they exchange gossip over a pipe.
"Seems you've been having some adventures this trip - word came from the River Patrol in Wartle, it's all over the Shore now. A froghemoth from the swamp, no less! One of your passengers killed it single-handed - and a slip, to boot!"
"Don't believe everything you hear."
"Doesn't matter what I believe. Nataniel's picked up on it, seems he's using it as an excuse to get at the Lord-Mayor and the Council of Ushers. He's organising something. Says the Lord-Mayor and the Council aren't prioritising safety on the river."
"Great. All I need is to get caught up in politics."
"I think it's your passengers need to look out the most. Especially the slip - I think Nataniel has plans for him."
"Aw, crap. I really don't want to get caught up in some Chelish mayoral power play. Anyone up for slipping away in a rowboat before we hit the docks? We can hoof it overland to Sandpoint and then sail on to Riddleport from there."
"We could sell the polearm in Riddleport. Still, it is a fair point."
"Natanial is not likely to trouble us directly. He will use our story to further his own agenda, but shouldn't cause us violence. I would, ah, rather not have my name used in that fashion though. I left Magnimar in rather a, ahhh, hurry. There are people I would rather not see again, who may cause, umm, violence."
"Maybe we'll have a word with him then. People are going to talk about us no matter what we do, because of .....well,.....what we've done. But I guess he needs to shut his yap about Camlo if it's gonna cause him grief."
Elisile shrugs. “If Camlo does not wish the light on him, have Illes spread a tale of Hudak slaying the beast – it is close enough to the truth, and somewhat more credible – I mean no offense Camlo. People will like the idea of Hudak the Hero. It is my experience of humans that most of them are more likely to admire and believe great deeds of a tall human warrior over a Halfling.”
"That's why it's so cool.
Oh; thanks for, like, saving me from being eaten by that thing like a fly, Camlo."
"T-thank you. I am s-sure the might Hudak, must have done more damage on his w-way down the demon's gullet than my puny bolts did. I intended to avoid as much of Magnimar as possible, so I will keep low, and travel out as soon as possible."
"We're government agents on official business, so they can't give us too much crap. Let's just go in and swiftly get our business here over with, before leaving as quickly and quietly as possible. I still think it might be a good idea to leave the Otter by rowboat and enter Magnimar unobtrusively, if nothing else just to stay out of whatever this Nataniel character has planned."
"Let's do it."
“I doubt we will be able to avoid attention if we are trying to find a buyer for that polearm,” suggests Elisile. “But I have no issue with asking the captain to let us off before we reach Magnimar and row or walk into town. We could depart here, hire a cart to haul the weapon and walk from here.”
"Yeah. Let's do that."