For a moment, Findelgwing wonders if she should have brought her little brother along instead. Still obscured from view near the wreck's waterline she calls upon a minor spirit of the wind to convey a question to Jayse and return with his answer.
"Fin climb?" he hears whispered in his ear. Looking towards the wreck, he can see her indicating that she could climb up.
Jayse takes on an exasperated pose, wiping his face. While his mouth is covered, he whispers his reply, "Good idea. I'll try to keep his attention."
He takes a calming breath before looking back up at the man. "Look. We came here to help, but if pirates have attacked that village, we're not going in there without knowing what all is going on? So the pirates were on this ship? If so, when did they crash here? Who is forcing whom to work the mines? Why are you hiding on the ship? There's just too many questions here, and - like I said - I'm not going in there blind. If you would please just come and tell me the whole story, I'd be very appreciative."
Staying quiet, Findelgwing summons a small breeze to slowly and subtly lift her grappling hook up and hook it over the edge of the ship. She then climbs up bracing against the hull of the ship. Before climbing aboard, she'll pause to take-in whatever she can see hear by peeking over the edge.
Fin sneaks forward beneath the curve of the boat and across the sandbar until she reaches a point where her grapple just barely manages to slither up and find purchase on a bit of decking.
She climbs up rapidly and hangs from the deck's edge - looking around.
In response to Jayse's questions, the man responds, "It wrecked maybe two days past... Whatdayathink?! The pirates forced the townsfolk into the mine and are workin' them... those they didn't cart off, I mean, the women and girls. Why am I hiding?" He seems about to state the obvious reasons for that when something tickles the senses of the secretive man in the crow's nest (you've barely seen the top of his head during this entire exchange). He peeps over the edge of the nest in several spots before he says, his voice laced with suspicion, "Where's your friend."
Fin pulls herself up to the deck and quiets moves to the base of the mast. In addition to keeping out of the view of the man Jayse is occupying, she also tries to minimize her visibility from land.
Once there, she assays whether or not she can climb up either without alerting the man, or before he can raise an alarm, well-aware that he's already suspicious.
Jayse makes a point of keeping eye contact with the strange man, "She won't hurt you if you don't mean us harm. So you're not one of the pirates, huh? I only ask because it seems an odd place for one of the pirates' victims to hide... on their ship."
He pauses, "Listen, we came here to help the village, and I get the feeling you're not telling us everything. Understandable if you really are a victim and these pirates have attacked you. But this is just the sort of thing we came to help prevent."
Something in the way Jayse says "She won't hurt you." sets off this man's paranoia trigger. He swings around expecting to find the tall elf in the nest with them. Not seeing her there he pops up fully and scans the area.... hello!
His eyes light on the woman at the base of the mast.
When the man looks over the edge, Fin smiles in a friendly fashion and says, "Hello! Talk now?"
Race:
1=elf
2=half-elf
3+=human
Upon seeing that the man who is hiding is also an elf, Fin's face lights up with excitement.
The balding elf sneers and hurls a small bag at the elf woman looking expectantly at him from below and then reaches for something else out of sight in the nest...
The bag slams into Fin's head spraying a sticky resin over the elf woman and the mast. Due to the precision of the shot and Fin's closeness to the mast, the majority of the gooey substance stays in her hair and across her torso stiffening her movements. The force of the blow knocks Fin away from the mast. She is fortunate, for as the goo hardens it becomes clear her head would have been glued to the mast.
From the boat, Straehan sees some motion but can't quite make it out...
Sandbar Battle
ORDER:
Close!
Straehan sits up, "Ushari, can you see what's going on over there? I thought I saw some movement on the ship but I'm not sure..."
"I'm sorry, Straehan I can't tell anything from this distance. Still, if there is someone on that wreck, then either they need help, or Fin and Jayse do." Ushari starts getting the Mako underway, and heads towards the wreckage.
"ICK! Not elf! Baldy! Get down baldy."
While she's waiting for the naughty quarter-elf to quit acting like a rude little boy, Fin flexes shattering the hardened goo. She then draws her sword and tries to move to a place with better cover just in case he insists on doing things the hard way.
Given how strange the sight of a balding elf is to Fin, like the odd colorings of certain fish here... it underscores to her that she is clearly from a different world.
Jayse wears his frustration openly now, only keeping it in check because he sees Fin is unharmed.
He forces his body to stillness though, as he yells up, "Last chance! We're here to talk, but if you take one more aggressive action, I will escalate this thing. Who are you and what's the whole story here?" He waits for the response, ready to gauge the man's honesty should he decide to speak instead of attack.
"I'm sorry, Straehan I can't tell anything from this distance. Still, if there is someone on that wreck, then either they need help, or Fin and Jayse do." Ushari starts getting the Mako underway, and heads towards the wreckage.
Straehan turns to regard the small woman, "I'm not sure I would have jumped to either of those conclusions." He shrugs and lets her get the boat underway. He resumes scanning the sandbar intently trying to figure out what's happening.
If the man doesn't stand down, Jayse will take his round of actions directly after the elf.
Fin cracks the rapidly hardening goo from her armor and scuttles around the destroyed ballista.
The balding elf responds to Jayse's polite request with a shortbow shaft. Despite the magical protection surrounding Jayse, the arrow penetrates - slicing across his thigh. The monk instantly launches into a blur of motion...
Meanwhile on the boat, chop off the sea has temporarily blinded Straehan sitting at the bow. However, the keen-eyed Ushari spots that on the sand some sort of kerfuffle is happening. She coaxes as much speed from the Mako as she can but it will take them awhile to sail over there.
ORDER:
36|36
27|32
24|24
28|28
Idiot!
The thought is Jayse's last before the Calm sets in. Three long racing steps get his speed up, and the fourth carries him up into the air. He reorients himself in the air, landing feet-first on the beam, nearly eight feet above the deck. His gifted slippers keep his feet attached to the beam as he quickly finishes his vertical sprint and vaults into the crow's nest with the elf. He lands softly in a combat stance. "Drop the bow."
Jayse takes a breath... his heart beats once.
He has a little bit of trouble running across the sand so he changes tack and leapfrogs across the raised patches of coral and bare stone, culminating in a tremendous jump at the rear (and highest part) of the forward section of the boat. His leap, sadly, is not quite high enough. His legs compress as his feet strike the side of the ship a bit over half-way up. His slippers grip like cleats. Jayse allows the excess kinetic energy to pivot his body to a near standing position. He grabs the lower halves of two broken rails and kicks his feet away from the hull, doing a backflip by pivoting off his hands. In mid-flight, he releases his grip and tucks, landing on his feet, with an audible thump on the tilting deck.
His heart beats a second time...
Jayse takes two quick steps and leaps again across the downward tilting deck. His feet slap against the mast, sticking momentarily in the hardened goo before he races up the rest of the somewhat slick mast and finds purchase on the outside of the crow's nest. He squats like a toad on the barrel of the nest, holding onto the top lip with an iron-hard grip... very much a living gargoyle.
Crow squeaks and his eyes go wide for a moment.
Jayse exhales his lightly held breath and smiles.
ORDER:
Using previous, AoO becomes the acrobatics check.
Jump
Since Jayse appears to have things well in hand, Fin will move closer so that if the fake elf falls, she can keep him from getting away.
Crow is a cornered rat and he knows it. He tosses his bow in Jayse's face to distract him and then pulls his waiting shortsword and tries to cut loose the monk's vice-like grip - four fingers at once! His blow is strong but poorly aimed. It carves a deep groove in the wood between Jayse's fingers...
ORDER:
36|36
27|32
24|24
28|28
"Throw pirate!" Fin calls out stomping her foot on the deck.
Jayse's hand snakes out, grabbing the cornered rat in an iron grip. "This would go so much easier for you if you'd quit attacking me."
Jayse scruffs Crow making him squeak but he continues to struggle.
ORDER:
Coaxing as much wind in the sails as possible, the Mako closes to within 100' of the sandbar... close enough to see the struggle in the crow's nest.
Despite Jayse's strength, Crow tries to strike him down one more time. He lands another strong blow but Jayse twists a joint in his shoulder at the last moment causing the man's body to contort and forces his blow to land harmlessly against the rail. Jayse wiggles a foot to relieve a small toe-cramp.
ORDER:
Straehan struggles to see who is in the crow's nest but the glare of the sunlight on the water makes it impossible for Ushari or Straehan to see a thing.