The boats are quite large and typical of the large river passenger / transport craft that you would see on these rivers. They have a covered area and a place for cargo. You would guess probably a crew of 4-6 each. On the largest you can see unfurled sails, which probably aren’t used much on river, oars and poles which are probably used on the river and a large amount of rope that is probably used to connect the craft to horses or other land based mechanisms of pulling a large boat up the river against the current. This is clearly a working craft, but well maintained. As you are going up river you imagine that any assistance moving the craft would be appreciated. Horses walking along the bank are unlikely to be used with the dangerous animal around.

You don’t see anyone aboard, you wonder why it is left unguarded.    

As you land on the deck, everyone within 60 feet hears the sound of a hand bell for 10 seconds as you trigger the Alarm. Everyone else is currently in the Inn, what do you do?

[OOC] I did a little checking and the general consensus was that neither perception nor investigation would pick up the spell, as this wasn’t mentioned in the spell description. I would have allowed something for a really high role or an arcana check. Detect magic or similar would also have worked.

Chrys will quickly flit up to perch on one of the crossbars of the main mast, and attempt to conceal herself in the rigging.

Stealth 5

Inside the Inn, the crew of the two boats immediately react to the sound of the bell Capt Thread shouts to another man “Is that yours or mine” the other captain replies “How should I know, they all just sound like bells to me!”. The two Captains and crew member for each boat  rush out of the door and approach the boats, the passengers remain at the tables. You hear one of the group of six passengers saying “What’s that noise?”, the higher class couple appear unperturbed and carry on their conversation ignoring the sound of the bell.

Once outside both captains easily spot Chrys, Capt Thread says “There’s a bloody Fairy in me rigging!”

What do you do as a party? Do you attempt to de-escalate the issue? 

Sinak and Falkas can still roll the previous persuasion checks, to see how Capt Thread viewed your proposal before the issue happened or you can skip that and try a new approach. 

((Before))

Sinak says “Yes sir, can clean your deck as we make our way upstream!  Cleanest deck you will have seen!  I have a wonderful mop and I am very skilled sir, please allow us passage and we will serve on board, it is a win-win situation.  Gonna be hired by the casino for my cleaning abilities in fact.”  Sinak looks up at the Captain and gives him a thumbs up, gathering his mop and bucket.  As he gives the thumbs up, he grasps the carving of a raven in his pocket and focuses, hoping to give more weight to his words.  

Persuasion : 8 + guidance 2 = 10

((Sorry! Just got off a 12 hour shift. Persuasion: 19)

While Falkas and Sinak had sauntered over to talk to one of the captains, Sorith... had become distracted by a drinking contest. Upon hearing the sudden loud ringing of a bell from outside along with people shouting from near the bar, the dragonborn curses under her breath in Draconic before she hurries out of the inn after the others, sliding to a stop just behind the main group in time to hear one of the captains shout something about a 'bloody fairy'.

"Actually, there's no blood on her," Sorith corrects before shrugging,  "she probably went up there to take a nap. Why? I dunno, I'm no expert on mosquitos."

Falkas is very persuasive and Sinak is OK. Capt Thread is now seriously considering taking you on as crew. The alarm is set off before he responds.

After running out he looks at Sorith and says "Take a nap. Why are they napping on my ship? Do fairies do that? Is it an infestation, like with owls? Do they attract mosquitoes? I don’t want my ship full of fairies and fey mosquitoes"

He looks at Sinak “Hey mop boy. Here is your chance, clean up that Fairy before it nests and attracts mosquitoes. And look for any more while you are at it.”

Sinak snaps to attention, saying “Aye aye, Captain.  I’ll handle it, you better believe it!  You won’t have any fairies or mosquitoes on this ship, that’s for sure!  Righto!”  He grabs the “mop” and goes running up the gangplank with vigor, jumping up and swatting at Chrys, making a show of it and swinging at the fairy.  He whispers pointedly to Chrys, saying “Psst!  Make it look good!  Fall into the water!”  

Then loudly, “Get out of here you fairy!”  *swat*   “Don’t make me put you in this bucket!”

”Mop” : Attack: 1 Damage: 3 non lethal damage.  

(Sorry for being AWOL for a bit. I'm back now)

12, seeing the fairy in the rigging as an opportunity to ingratiate himself with the captain, rushes past Sinak and begins to climb the rigging. "I'll get her!" he shouts with enough enthusiasm that Chrys might have reason to be a little worried.

Acrobatics: 17 (game log)

Sinak fails to actually hit Chrys but they can fake being hit with a deception check. 12 does some pretty impressive jumps and twirls all around the rigging.

Chrys, how do you react?

"I have no idea, I've never been to the Feywild," Sorith replies with a shrug before, with a roar, she charges onto the ship, planning on climbing up the rigging in order to try and grab at Chrys... only to end up tripping over some loose rope laying out on deck and falling flat on her face. "SHOO! GET OUT OF HERE YOU BLOOD-SUCKING MEN--"

Athletics: 7

Falkas stares with mouth agape at everything going on that he's left speechless for a few seconds. "Wha..why are you all attacking my familiar! I told them to go check on the ships to see if anyone was there while I went inside so we could hire them!"

Deception: 23

Nonplussed that her attempt at hiding failed miserably, Chrys will allow herself to be shooed away. She whispers "I'll follow along behind," to Sirak and then she feigns falling to the water, although she straightens out and flies horizontally before actually entering the water, heading for the far riverbank.

Deception 18

Capt Thread throws up his hands, utterly confused. “I need more drink. But you got rid of the Fairy and I don’t feel like rowing the last leg of the journey, so welcome aboard” He points to two of his more well muscled crew members and says “You two, show the new crew the oars and get them settled.” He then addresses Sinak directly “Make sure that you give everything a good clean and check for any more fairies. I don’t care if they are familiars of not, I don’t want them nesting on my boat.”.

One of the crew approaches the party and says “Well lets get you settled, I hope that you all like rowing because I don’t. Also if you cause trouble me and Bert here will chuck you in the water.” Bert agrees with a “Yeah!”.

Bert shows you down into the rowing deck, except for Sinak who is left to mop.

Chrys, what do you do now?

Chrys was planning on paralleling the movement of the boat from the opposite shore, unless that is impractical for some reason.  Just flying along from treetop to treetop.

The crew and other passengers finish their meals and reboard the boat. Capt Thread says "Welcome aboard my temporary shipmates. Now get to work". The crew cast off and the boat attempts to travel up the river. Chrys tries to move along the bank in parallel to the boat.

Sinak, please perform a Dexterity check for cleaning and mopping.

Chrys, please perform a survival check

Everyone else, please perform a Strength check for rowing 

Sinak says “Aye aye, sir!” and gives a mock salute in the best fashion that he knows how.  He uses the mop to swab the deck back and forth, bouncing to a little melody in his head apparently. 

Dex check : 11

"Should be simple enough," the dragonborn says, mostly to herself. After taking a seat at one of the vacant oars, she takes a moment to observe the permanent crew members to see how this rowing thing works. Satisfied, Sorith cracks her knuckles before grabbing hold of the oar handle and doing what she can to mimic the others.

Strength Check: 17