Pulled to reality before he can get excited over the idea of a mysterious ship appearing out of nowhere - surely a key point in an exciting story - Khond hurries to the side where the person is calling for help, pulling the rope from his packs and tossing one end down, "Coil it around your arm and hold on tight, I'll get you up in a blink."  Once they have a grip on the rope, he starts backing up and pulling in the rope.

Slick hurries over to the man and is asking before he can even come up, after if he checks if the guy is a tiefling,

"Hello! Rick welcomes you aboard his boat! Where are you coming out of? Zomaru?"

If the guy isn't a tiefling he starts looking around at the water for tieflings while he waits for the answers.

Perception: 11

Nuria looks at the man in the boat, "Whatever do you mean? The city is fine-- Wha-What happened to your ship?" Her grip on her bow tightens, she has a bad feeling about this whole incident. A feeling that had been there from the start, and yet she had ignored it, and run headlong into this mess. Now that feeling was screaming to be heard, but it is to late to turn back now. She glances at Breldo, then to the man, then back at the ship and the water. This man was clearly exhausted, might as well look for more survivors while he gains enough strength to give them their answers.

Perception: 18

Breldo could probably swear that for a moment swear he saw the horseman again on a different boat. Together with a tabaxi's who's coat glitters in the sun. He's not sure whether to consider that glorious, or disgusting, or both. 

Both his and Nuria's attention turn toward the sailor however, both questioning whatever he means. The man seems just as surprised, as if what he's talking about should be self evident.

"The... The storm. Don't. Did you not- We only left it a few hours ago at most, it was- The city's right there, is it not? Did you not see it? How could you not have-"

"Easy there my good man," the captain interrupts, almost forcing the man down to rest. "You are safe now. The city is fine. We are heading to the ship for others before heading back. Do you know how many are left?"

The man hesitated. "I think... A good many people on the deck. But you have to be careful! Half the crew's gone mad!"

---

Rick and Khond meanwhile deal with their own rescue. Khond proves his worth by throwing a rope down, easily managing to hoist up the person in question. Although it is Slick who pulls him up the final bit, beginning to ask strangely pointed questions before he is even fully on board. Although there might be a slight inclination to push the confused definite human back over on the realization that was not a Tiefling.

"Y-Yeah? How did you know?"

As the tabaxi looks about for any signs of the actual guy he needs, he realizes that he actually sees a fair few people on the ship's deck... Mostly argueing, seems like. And, by sheer miracle, he DOES spot a tiefling that could very well be the one he needs. In an argument against several other people. It seems like they're potentially mere seconds away from an outright brawl.

And he also notices something else. The ship has... Stopped. Completely. Earlier, it was still slowly drifting closer to shore, tilting as if sinking, but now rescue ships were actually getting close it seems to have become almost frozen in place. It... Didn't SEEM like there could be any rocks it could have beached on...

Khond moves to the side of the ship once his hauling is done, peering out into the water to look for any others nearby who may not have the luxury of calling for help.

Perception: 8

"You just left the city? What's the name of your ship?"

He'll look to the Captain to see if the name of the ship sounds familiar.

"Rick is an excellent guesser!"

Rick then ignores the man and addresses his crew, pointing to where he sees the tiefling,

"Rick sees many people on the deck of the boat that need help! Best to get there and save them! Onward!"

Then he says,

"Uh, Rick is pretty sure the boat is not moving anymore? No rocks about. Horseman, stop looking at the water and look at the boat. It's stopped? Onward, carefully!"

Nuria stares at the man. Storm? There was no storm. What is this man talking about? There has to be some explanation. There has to be! Magic is not real! She squeezes her eyes shut, then opens them again then the man continues. “The-the crew? Mad?” She turns to look back at the ship. She’d said this mostly to herself, as she doesn’t want to bombard the poor man with too many questions at once. 

Khond looks out over the waters, seeing at least a few more blips of people who tried to dare the waters rather than stay on the ship. Luckily, most are already being intercepted by various rowboats manned by the city guards, and a few good samaritans he helped act up. Also luckily, he doesn't seem to notice any of those people in the water to not be moving- Or doesn't spot anyone that is in serious trouble, at least. 

Their ship is approaching the big vessel by now, the fishermen beginning to temper the sails a bit, even as Slick starts commanding them about- They do take his words to get a bit closer to the vessel, though.

"Not sure we should get much closer... How would we best go about getting them on board?"

There's also a distinct pause as the tabaxi points out that the ship has just seemed to stop moving. One of the sailors suggests that maybe it's taken on too much water, or the wind is going against it too hard? But he does not seem convinced.

---

"No no no," the man hurries to say, in between a few agitated pants. "I mean- That's Mezzra there, right? We only just left that damned storm, you must at least have seen it! We've been en route from Zomaru for a week!"

Captain Gilgamesh gently pushes the man down to relax again, while another hand gestures to Breldo to ease off on the topic. Clearly, the man has been through a lot, not entirely lucid. Even though he makes no more effort to get up, he does mutter a few words.

"Little hope."

"Hmm? What hope?"

"No, no- The name of the ship. Little Hope."

Gilgamesh pauses, the apparent irony not entirely lost on him. Nor does he stop Nuria's question, seemingly at least somewhat intrigued by the question himself.

"I- I don't know. Things happened so fast. I was trying to secure loose furniture on the personel deck when I heard the shouting come from below. Next I know someone comes out of the cargo deck just to throw a dagger in Johnsson's back. I got off the ship as fast as I could..."

(Breldo, give me a insight check. Both of you give me a d20 roll)

Breldo insight: 6

D20: 10

If the name "Little Hope" means anything to Gilgamesh, Breldo does not notice it. Breldo is also aware that the travel time between Mezzra and port Zomaru averages two to three weeks.

Insight: 13

D20: 15

Nuria isn't sure whether Gilgamesh recognizes that name.

"I guess if the wind's pushing us toward it then it makes sense for a waterlogged ship to stop?  Hm, though if I write a story about this it would need a much more dramatic reason.  The boat knew that rescue was at hand, its passengers soon to be saved.  Having carried them as far as it could, the ship finally came to a halt as it's life puttered out...  Well, it's a good start, but that's going to need a lot of refining.  Maybe a line from one of the crew members praising the ship's spirit."

"Slick will climb the sinking boat and let them know salvation has arrived! You stay here and await Rick's return. Horseman is in charge until then."

Slick dives into the water and swims over to the ship before using his claws to scramble up the side. He is aiming to come up by the tiefling.

Khond looks around at the crew when Rick jumps overboard, "He's not actually in any sort of position to give orders, right?"

Currently Nuria's attention is fixed on the ship, she tries to catch a glimpse of the crew in an attempt to determine if what the man said was correct. If he is, then she tries to determine which of the crew is mad and which need rescuing. From what the man said, she's not sure if the crew is actually crazy, or if they were just trying to take over the ship. Though, neither option sounded great.

Perception: 9

(Would she be able to see the tiefling and Rick? Or are they on the other side of the ship.)

The person lying on Khond and Slick's deck hesitates for a moment.

"...She carried that little hope far..?"

After providing that helpful quote for Khond to put in his stories (probably after some further adjustments), does Slick run off from the ship, gracing through the water with help of his oily coat, and starts scrambling up the ship itself. Khond exchanges questions with the small crew after... No, he probably doesn't have any kind of authority. Maybe he has a hero complex?

(Not gonna put you up on the deck yet, technically the others would have probably gotten there before you so going to let them get a bit closer first.)

---

Nuria examines the ship from a distance. She does spot a crowd on the deck, and while  it seems like there's some definite agitation, she doesn't see outright fighting. As for Slick...

2

She doesn't see anyone already climbing onto the boat, but it does seem some boats have approached from the other side. As the larger vessel gets in close range, the captain insisting on it, he calls up over the lower listing side of the ship if someone can toss down a rope. A trio of people - Not looking like the sailor type of person, stop whatever apparent argument they were having, praise the heavens, and then toss down a rope.

Khond snaps his fingers once and points at the partially-drowned man, "That is an excellent idea.  You should consider going into writing.  So long as most of the work is passable, having the occasional inspiring or heart wrenching line can make you decently popular.  Not an expert, but decent enough...  What was that ship's name, in any case?"

"Oh, it's... It's Little Hope. That's why, erm, I said... Yeah-"