Following Alessandra Chaenath nudges the half orc girl and says I could send some spiders to them instead!
Quickly catching up to the ladies, Ethron tries his best to step ahead of them. "Ah, let me handle this, ok? Let's be honest, you two aren't the best of negotiators." Before he turns to walk towards the group, he says, "But keep your weapons and spells ready. I don't like this," under his breath.
Taking a good stride in front of the ladies, Ethron approaches the "marines" with a smile and a "Heyo!"
"Gentlemen! Welcome! Might I be able to inquire your business here?" With his flashiest grin, the Inquisitor is ready to be these guys' new best friend!
One of the sailors in the opposite group stands tall and proud. He has dark hair, a long blue jacket with something on the sleeve, a pegleg, and an exceptionally large sword in his hands, clearly the leader "You may. And you might even be able to guess that our business twas to be the same as all who come here. We did not realize that you lot were here, or we'd not have come ashore at all, but we got no warning from the lookout," and he points into the distance.
Sense Motive:
Knowledge(local) or (nobility):
Chaenath tugs at Enroth's sleeve. Freedom lover Andoran he is. Not devil worshiping Chelaxian. But ship is Chelish. How mysteeerious.
Alessandra grinds her tusks at Ethron's intervention. Humans! So &*%£#*@&%£&*#@ arrogant! She glares at him, giving him her best hard stare. Hopeless. You have to admit though, he does have a nice grin... She squashes that errant thought like a bug. A particularly nasty, icky bug.
"If you're not too high an' aloof to listen to someone who's only spent like her whole life reading people for a living, looks like they come in peace," she mutters resentfully to the inquisitor.
Ethron chuckles at Alessandra. "But did you receive training in the art of telegraph from the Order of the Silver Flagon?"
"Note the way he's looking between us and the crowd. He thinks he's intruding on something private. And the way he's standing to actively avoid looking at the Chimera? He's seen it before." He gives the Half-Orc a pat on the shoulder. "Try to keep up, hm?" With another grin, he turns back to the commander.
"No, no, relax! We're here to get repairs to our ship. I assume you saw it on your way in, yes? The Chimera? Beautiful ship I'm proud to call home. I do miss my home in Andoran, as I'm sure you do as well." He raises an eyebrow in that smug fashion that says he knows more than he's giving. "Might I inquire whom I'm speaking to? Oh wait, where are my manners? I am Ethron Cordigal, priest of Cayden Caylin and resident medic aboard the Chimera." He offers his hand in friendship.
You can see that the stranger says something to his men, who immediately relax. "A fellow free spirit eh? Well, any lot who has balls and stupidity in appropriate portions to have taken a ship from that butchering slaver Barnabas Harrigan is the sort that can count themselves friends with Merrill Pegsworthy." He looks at your ship again, "aye, the Chimera is it? Well of course it is, and when ol' Rickety is done with her, nobody will know her as anything but, and your secret is safe with me." He puts his sword away in a sheath over his shoulder. "I'd be pleased to stay around and christen her for you, call it my credit to a bunch of brave stalwarts who stuck it in the eye of one who seriously needed it."
That would be good. People would like that. Chaenath says as Swum creeps out of her cloak and gives Pegsworthy's boot an inquisitive sniff.
Do you hate Harrigan? We hate Harrigan. I think Harrign thinks that we are dead. Why are you in a Chelish ship? Does Andorra not make nice ships?
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"Enemy o' me enemy, an' all that... So let me get a few bottles of me finest rum. One bottle ye can use t' christen the Chimera, and the rest we use to drink ourselves merry," Rogar says. All this talk about hating Harrigan makes him feel good. Although most of his dwarven hate effort went towards Harrigan's cronies Plugg and Scourge, and with them dead most of the steam went off, too.
"And what may Captain Pegsworthy be doing be doing with ol' Rickety?" That was not much of a question, Rogar can very well guess why an Andoran captain with a Chellish ship would be doing business here. But it's good to keep the chin wagging, since this looks to be a friendly talk rather than fighting.
Pegsworthy smiles, "Didn't your ship's medic ask that question up front, and didn't I answer it? So about that rum?"
Alessandra glares at Ethron again as he pats her on the shoulder; the stupid pinkskin human is really pushing her buttons. "No, I didn't go to any &£-£&#"*damn £-%#%-+#&"&ing Order. Grew up on the streets." She grates at him. "And I don't have to keep up with people - just need to keep them in range."
She is NOT going to give him the satisfaction of storming off in a huff again. No, it's just she's remembered something that needs doing on board ship. Urgently. In the hold. She's First Mate, it's her job to look after the ship. So that's what she's doing. Yeah.
Someone want to speak for Ethron?
Having survived the giant wasp attack and met Captain Merrill Pegsworthy, exchanged pleasantries, and accepted his offer to christen your vessel, you are feeling like the day is going pretty well for you.
Rickety comes down the pier yelling to some of his men to go on and get back to work at squibbing the Chimera.
"Ahhh, Pegsworthy, back again I see, always glad to do business with you. However the lack of a warning regarding your arrival from my lookout has me concerned." He turns to Alessandra, "I fear something may have happened to Godwin," he points to the southeast across the water, to a point in the distance where a long peninsula of land ends, "mayhap he just fell asleep, but that's not like Godwin at all. Could I convince the lot of you to go out and check on him? I'd be appreciative and would knock off 100 gold from the price of yer squibbin' if you'd do it for me?"
Is it very urgent ship decorator? After the wasps maybe we should rest a bit.
"Is it urgent?," Rickety asks, "to check on a man who may be dying out there? I should think so."
Ethron turns to Rickety. "Gladly. You're fixing our ship, I'll fix your man. Just point the way."
Rickety leads you to a trail back through the brush, "the trail goes west for a bit, and turns south, to go around the bay, and finally comes back east towards the end of the peninsula there. the watchtower is right at the end of the jut of land."
This is pretty straightforward, you go along the trail, through the brush, it's hot and sticky and such. As you are approaching the end of the trail, it is rising up to the watchtower, and falls off to both sides, so 5' wide. You encounter a pair of wild boars, who spy you and immediately go to attack.
Shall we assume Ethron was in the lead, since Malevor is AFK?
View this tactically as a long 5' wide corridor, don't fall off the sides, there are plummet to the ground rules, and it's kind of far. So Ethron is your front guy, and one of the boars is theirs.
Commence fighting!
All of you go before the boars.
Chaenath hits the closest boar with an Evil Eye and laughs to keep it going.
Those are boars. They are tasty
Fail
Rogar cleverly misses the flatfooted touch AC of the boar!
Alessandra slings the bow off her back and takes a moment to aim at the lead boar, before firing. It's not her best shot - she's still sulking at Ethron/the world in general - but her natural instincts and training are (hopefully) enough to overcome this.
Snap out of it, Stupid! Yes, pinkskins are annoying - you've always known that. Now pull yourself together!
She grits her tusks in annoyance, and promises herself to do better next time.
Alessandra's arrow strikes true into the lead boar, which squeals in pain.
Malevor has no appreciable ranged combat ability, so he'll defer to Ethron.
My bad, Ethron is more of an archer, so here:
Swift action to invoke Judgement of Justice, +1 to hit.
Ethron aims at the lead pig.
Between Alessandra and Ethron, the first boar is dispatched.
Malevor does charge on up and attacks the second boar with his rapier.
The bore attempts to gore Malevor.
Miss.
You guys are up! Finish this boar off, and let's move on!
Alessandra's blood is up; yelling wordlessly, she fires arrows at the pig, doing her best to turn it into kebab.
Pig #2 handled!
Sounded like you'll truss them up and haul them back for a luau?
Shortly after the boars are defeated, a large, colorful parrot flaps down at youand squawks, “Shoo, fly, don’t bother me!” several times before turning and flying back along the trail toward the watchtower. Following the parrot, you come to the watchtower. You find a number of broken rum bottles on the ground below the tower. Climbing up the ladder to the tower’s simple wooden platform, you find the twisted remains of a rope hammock and a few scattered items of clothing. Lying beneath the hammock, with one boot on and the other lying across the floor from it, is the flyspecked corpse of an elderly man. He is recently deceased, and one side of his neck is black and swollen to the size of a melon. A dried ring of foam cakes the man’s beard and moustache around his lips. The parrot flaps over, alights on the corpse, and squawks again, “Shoo, fly, don’t bother me!”
This sad sight is the mortal remains of the lookout Lyle Godwin.
You find a MW Morningstar, which does detect as magic.
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Chaenath kneels next to the man and hens and haws for a while before looking up and announcing This man is dead!
"Argh! I can see that, I'm good at telling when someone's dead - 's part of my job! I was hoping for more detail."
Grumbling, the half-orc girl kneels down and looks the corpse over a few times.
Not convinced one can Aid for that, but it doesn't matter, ok, so read the spoiler.
"And not just dead. Very dead. I've never seen an allergic reaction to giant wasp venom, but I've seen wasp venom before, and this just looks like that on a bigger scale."
Ethron picks up the morning star and looks it over. "This is a nice weapon...and it's magic."
"Can anyone else take a look at this thing?"
Chaenath looks over the mace.
It is a +1 weapon.
Alessandra disagrees. "Just bury him. I'd rather carry pork than a body that's no use to anyone. We can do a proper grave with a marker and Rickety can come here if he wants to pay his respects."
She glances briefly at the morningstar: nice, but not really her sort of weapon.
Ethron sighs. "As much as I want bring home the bacon, I think we should bring his body back. If you wish to carry the hogs back down, you can, but I want to bring this man's body for a proper funeral."
Ethron assists Doc and helps to make a stretcher from some canvas. "I'll be pouring a drink out for him tonight."
Why not make TWO trips? Also the mace is just a bit macier than a normal mace Chaenath says as she picks it up.
Just let me know what you guys actually do.
Alessandra frowns. "He's not gonna get any less dead!" Humans. What's the use?
Stomping back to the pigs, she carves off the legs and haunches and wraps them up as best she can to take back. Shame to leave the rest... She looks balefully at the others "Never waste food, you don't know when you might eat next." She shivers involuntarily at bad memories.
Truly, you can take the girl out of the streets, but you can't take the streets out of the girl.
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"Yer a strong lass, 'Sandra. Ye can carry one o' the' boars, an' maybe horned boy can take th' other. Meanwhile me an' Ethron carry the late Godwin. Then everyone's happy, right?" Rogar says and lifts the stretcher and starts marching back to town.
"Besides, man can go weeks without eatin'. Now if I had to choose between a stiff an' a keg o' beer, might be different story..."
You carry Lyle and the pigs back to town. His parrot follows you back, mimicking your speech and throwing out random phrases the whole way. When you arrive, several of the women come out clucking about, and bemoaning his fate. They take his body to prep him for a memorial.
Rickety comes to you, Your help is much appreciated, poor Lyle to have died out there all alone. Well, do keep his weapon. He has no family, and by rights it is yours for bringing him back.
"The two boars you brought back will make quite a feast for the christening of your Chimera"
When the squibbing of your ship is finally complete, Rickety holds a ceremony to rechristen the Man’s Promise as the Chimera. Before the chocks are released and the ship slides down into the estuary, a bottle of Sargavan wine is smashed upon its keel by Captain Pegsworthy who offers this bit of Shackles lore as a toast before you set out to make your fortunes: “Good fortune and sure sail await what one can crack the Tidewater Rock."
If we can get Tidewater Rock then will we be known as 'Rock Crackers'? Chaenath giggles.
Right after the christening ceremony some may notice Chaenath carrying a bottle of beer to one of the lifeboats on the Chimera. Smacking it aginst the side she intones I christen thee Dead Wood
Alessandra smirks "Best not let Ethron see you wasting beer like that..."
Ethron doesn't see Chaenath wasting beer as he's too busy with Doc celebrating!
All of a sudden, he gets a chill down his back. "I sense a disturbance in the liquor...Like the sound of a bottle fine booze opening in triumph, but not being drunk..."