”You’d never know to look at him. What happened to the boy that was taken?”, he asks with narrowed eyes.
”Making deals with grown adults is one thing, but stealing a child is just not right”, he says sternly.
”And if you want to know who might have a piece of Hamish, you’d have to ask him. I can get him if you like?”, he adds before frowning. “Does Hamish know?”.
The stranger chuckles, 'You don't know much about the Fey, do you? Some of us quite enjoy, well, ******* with you and my subject is one of those. I do not have information about the arrangement, and I highly doubt he knows. The only reason I claimed your friend was because of his association with you.'
She stretches in a remarkably feline fashion, 'I have other business to attend to. If you wish to pass this message on, you may. I merely am warning you to keep an eye on him on my behalf, if he starts acting strangely, this is likely the reason. Good luck.' and with that she vanishes in a swirl of mist.
Hamish is still standing there stunned as Darwin opens the cabin door. He doesn't say anything at first, then just says, "So my family was right? I'm a monster?"
“Hamish”, Darwin says as he opens the door to find his friend.
“You heard”, he says, more as a statement than a question. “It seems you are not what you thought you are, that is true”, he adds.
He motions Hamish inside the cabin and telepathic tells Caper to keep watch outside for any further eavesdroppers. Once Caper confirms he is in position, he shuts the door.
”I won’t pretend to understand all of what is going on here, but it does seem as though you are not human. A Hexblood the Stranger called you. Now I can’t pretend to know how you feel at this moment, but I do know that you have long wanted answers. Well, here is your answer. This is why you are as you are. It is through no fault of your own”.
”In truth, Human or Hexblood, you are my friend. And my friend is kind and gentle, certainly not a monster!”.
Hamish doesn't look at Darwin while the gnome speaks, but stares at his own hands. Hamish finally looks up, and Darwin sees Hamish's eyes roil with color and the boy's face is set with resolve. "Thank you. But if anyone tries to control me again, or trick me, or hurt any of you, I'll become a monster if I need to. I don't ever want to lose the freedom and ... love I've found with you all. I've only ever felt it once before, but she's gone. Let's help Agnarr find this artifact. I need to learn how to better control what I can do if I want to protect you all."
Darwin looks up and meets Hamish's gaze without flinching.
"Quite right to. And don't worry, unless you tell me otherwise, this stays between us", he says. "Now let's go and see what the other's decided about this here boat".
"Agnarr is working to get us a total cost of repairs. My current thoughts are to keep our current crew if they are willing, because we can trust them with the ship while sailing and they have seen King Solvig so they know piracy isn't an option on board. We keep them, have the repairs done and have some of the crew help watch the ship while we search for the artifact. Then hopefully the ship and crew can get us back to Haukberg. It saves time, I don't know how quickly we could assemble a new crew and we would be taking a chance on each of them."
"I'd rather get the repairs squared away and head on our mission. I have a sinking feeling that extra time now could hurt us badly in the future." She looks for Agnarr, and yells to him when she spots him. "Any luck??"
Agnarr comes back up the gang plank, 'Just spoke to the Dock Master. He has a shipwright on staff. Reckons 200 gold will settle the matter.' he says as he approaches. 'Should be doable in a day or two.'
Aoi leans down and quietly responds to Darwin's question, "The crew was last paid in Haukberg. We were paid based on how much the cargo we acquired sold for, and like I said before, we were hardly paid well. If you're wondering how much you would need to pay the crew to retain them, I would suggest offering 1 to 2 silver pieces a day and tell them they can seek other work while the ship is moored as long as they stay in Porto di Baio."
"That seems like a reasonable suggestion", he says and calls Captain Ida over.
"We are going to need to pay the crew if they are to remain available to us. Aoi here suggests we allow them to acquire other work whilst we are away, but pay them a retainer of 3 silver", he says quietly, inflating the price. Having worked at the carnival he feels for the sailors, working hard for little pay. He also didn't think Ida would mind, and he was willing to dip his hand in his own pocket too.
Agnarr clears his throat, 'Well, we persuaded the entire crew to stay on, barring the 8 we killed. I've made a point to meet all of them in the last 24 hours and I can categorically say there are 31 of them, not including Aoi.'
While everyone else talks business, Hamish stares out at the harbor, mind still grappling with what he heard. He lifts his hand and lets the magic surge to create a little ball of pulsing lights that orbits his fingers. If I am actually not of this world, who made me? And why did they leave me with such a horrible family? He moves his fingers sinuously and the ball of light weaves between them before coming to rest in his palm where he crushes it in a puff of harmless sparks. More people to find. More people to get answers from.
"Darwin, if they need 3 pieces per day, that is what we will pay. Hopefully their loyalty will keep them out of trouble while we are docked. I will provide 30 gold pieces, to cover their pay here and for the trip back to Haukberg (32 crew, 3 silver per day= 96 silver times 3 days = 288 silver pieces, or 29 gold to cover). Agnarr, please let them know that we will be providing this pay on the trip back, and make sure each crew members receives at least 3 silver for their work already to get us here. Now, we have a plan, a crew, and repairs sorted. Are we ready to head out?"
“Great, glad that is all sorted”, Darwin says, eager to be on their way.
“Caper”, he calls loudly in common, also telepathically asking the faerie dragon to appear.
”Watch over the ship whilst we are gone, and let me know if ought is amiss. And remember to stay out of sight”, he says loudly when Caper appears.
He instructs Caper to fly to the crows nest and become invisible again. Then to follow them. This was just a display to make the sailors think Caper is keeping an eye on them.
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“A hag!”, Darwin says incredulous.
”You’d never know to look at him. What happened to the boy that was taken?”, he asks with narrowed eyes.
”Making deals with grown adults is one thing, but stealing a child is just not right”, he says sternly.
”And if you want to know who might have a piece of Hamish, you’d have to ask him. I can get him if you like?”, he adds before frowning. “Does Hamish know?”.
The stranger chuckles, 'You don't know much about the Fey, do you? Some of us quite enjoy, well, ******* with you and my subject is one of those. I do not have information about the arrangement, and I highly doubt he knows. The only reason I claimed your friend was because of his association with you.'
She stretches in a remarkably feline fashion, 'I have other business to attend to. If you wish to pass this message on, you may. I merely am warning you to keep an eye on him on my behalf, if he starts acting strangely, this is likely the reason. Good luck.' and with that she vanishes in a swirl of mist.
Once the Stranger has disappeared, Darwin looks to Caper and raises an eyebrow.
The Faerie Dragon cocks it's head as it look back at him. "Don't ask me", Caper says before disappearing from sight.
Darwin turns and makes his way tt the door, opening it with the intention of going to find hamish.
Hamish, what do you do when you hear the interaction end.
Hamish is still standing there stunned as Darwin opens the cabin door. He doesn't say anything at first, then just says, "So my family was right? I'm a monster?"
“Hamish”, Darwin says as he opens the door to find his friend.
“You heard”, he says, more as a statement than a question. “It seems you are not what you thought you are, that is true”, he adds.
He motions Hamish inside the cabin and telepathic tells Caper to keep watch outside for any further eavesdroppers. Once Caper confirms he is in position, he shuts the door.
”I won’t pretend to understand all of what is going on here, but it does seem as though you are not human. A Hexblood the Stranger called you. Now I can’t pretend to know how you feel at this moment, but I do know that you have long wanted answers. Well, here is your answer. This is why you are as you are. It is through no fault of your own”.
”In truth, Human or Hexblood, you are my friend. And my friend is kind and gentle, certainly not a monster!”.
Hamish doesn't look at Darwin while the gnome speaks, but stares at his own hands. Hamish finally looks up, and Darwin sees Hamish's eyes roil with color and the boy's face is set with resolve. "Thank you. But if anyone tries to control me again, or trick me, or hurt any of you, I'll become a monster if I need to. I don't ever want to lose the freedom and ... love I've found with you all. I've only ever felt it once before, but she's gone. Let's help Agnarr find this artifact. I need to learn how to better control what I can do if I want to protect you all."
Darwin looks up and meets Hamish's gaze without flinching.
"Quite right to. And don't worry, unless you tell me otherwise, this stays between us", he says. "Now let's go and see what the other's decided about this here boat".
With that, he opens the door and walks out.
"We got a plan, Ida?", he asks.
"Agnarr is working to get us a total cost of repairs. My current thoughts are to keep our current crew if they are willing, because we can trust them with the ship while sailing and they have seen King Solvig so they know piracy isn't an option on board. We keep them, have the repairs done and have some of the crew help watch the ship while we search for the artifact. Then hopefully the ship and crew can get us back to Haukberg. It saves time, I don't know how quickly we could assemble a new crew and we would be taking a chance on each of them."
“Very well, if you are set on keeping the ship that sounds like a good plan”, Darwin replies.
“Shall we take a look around the port whilst we wait for Agnarr to be done?”, he asks keen to disembark.
"I'd rather get the repairs squared away and head on our mission. I have a sinking feeling that extra time now could hurt us badly in the future." She looks for Agnarr, and yells to him when she spots him. "Any luck??"
Agnarr comes back up the gang plank, 'Just spoke to the Dock Master. He has a shipwright on staff. Reckons 200 gold will settle the matter.' he says as he approaches. 'Should be doable in a day or two.'
“Does everything ship related cost 200 gold!”, Darwin says with mock surprise.
He digs out the pouch he retrieved from the Ravensmast’s captain and throws it to Agnarr.
”I assume it is all there, let’s get this done and then we can move on”.
His brow furrows as he has a thought and he wanders to Aoi and tugs on his trouser leg discreetly, motioning for him to lean down.
If Aoi leans down he quietly asks, “When was the last time the crew was paid? How much do they normally get?”.
Aoi leans down and quietly responds to Darwin's question, "The crew was last paid in Haukberg. We were paid based on how much the cargo we acquired sold for, and like I said before, we were hardly paid well. If you're wondering how much you would need to pay the crew to retain them, I would suggest offering 1 to 2 silver pieces a day and tell them they can seek other work while the ship is moored as long as they stay in Porto di Baio."
Darwin nods and strokes his goatee beard.
"That seems like a reasonable suggestion", he says and calls Captain Ida over.
"We are going to need to pay the crew if they are to remain available to us. Aoi here suggests we allow them to acquire other work whilst we are away, but pay them a retainer of 3 silver", he says quietly, inflating the price. Having worked at the carnival he feels for the sailors, working hard for little pay. He also didn't think Ida would mind, and he was willing to dip his hand in his own pocket too.
"I have some coin. How many sailors do we have?".
Agnarr clears his throat, 'Well, we persuaded the entire crew to stay on, barring the 8 we killed. I've made a point to meet all of them in the last 24 hours and I can categorically say there are 31 of them, not including Aoi.'
While everyone else talks business, Hamish stares out at the harbor, mind still grappling with what he heard. He lifts his hand and lets the magic surge to create a little ball of pulsing lights that orbits his fingers. If I am actually not of this world, who made me? And why did they leave me with such a horrible family? He moves his fingers sinuously and the ball of light weaves between them before coming to rest in his palm where he crushes it in a puff of harmless sparks. More people to find. More people to get answers from.
"Darwin, if they need 3 pieces per day, that is what we will pay. Hopefully their loyalty will keep them out of trouble while we are docked. I will provide 30 gold pieces, to cover their pay here and for the trip back to Haukberg (32 crew, 3 silver per day= 96 silver times 3 days = 288 silver pieces, or 29 gold to cover). Agnarr, please let them know that we will be providing this pay on the trip back, and make sure each crew members receives at least 3 silver for their work already to get us here. Now, we have a plan, a crew, and repairs sorted. Are we ready to head out?"
"I need to go grab a few things from my bunk and then I'll be ready to go."
Aoi turns away from the others and goes to gather his few possessions.
“Great, glad that is all sorted”, Darwin says, eager to be on their way.
“Caper”, he calls loudly in common, also telepathically asking the faerie dragon to appear.
”Watch over the ship whilst we are gone, and let me know if ought is amiss. And remember to stay out of sight”, he says loudly when Caper appears.
He instructs Caper to fly to the crows nest and become invisible again. Then to follow them. This was just a display to make the sailors think Caper is keeping an eye on them.