The brothers exchange an uncertain look.

"I mean, she did save our lives," Harold point out. "She could have easily left us to our fate..."

"You're not wrong," William says. "Though it might have just been to look good at a hearing... still... I definitely am grateful to not be dead..."

William swallows nervously as it looks like the decision is falling to him. "Um... can we think about this for a while? I think we can agree that we don't want her to die for her crimes... but I don't know for sure how wise it is to let her roam the ship as she pleases either."

Yevelda snickers at the sailor's words.
"I'm in no hurry... you boys take your time and figure something out," she says. "But in the meantime, you think maybe we could move the ship? I'd rather not go straight back into the drink if we get hit by the mast."

" Aye! Get your thumbs out of your arses!  We're coming about!"

" Hope you lot weren't looking for landfall too soon, we only just set out and we've a ways to go yet."

Persuasion to get the crew moving- 18

“It’s alright. You just almost died at a wreck.” Emrys said to William as he answered the remaining questions honestly.

His worries about Areleo proved unnecessary. The triton returned with another survivor of the Greyhound. One more than the halfling thought possible at that point. The real surprise came when Yevelda told her tale, or at least part of it. Hailstorm, or rather its impersonator, was indeed haunting those waters. Finding that crew was not so much of a coincidence as a clear sign that the Captain’s activity approached Northport.

“Considering our last fight and his analytical posture, I would say ‘Naut is our arcane specialist.” The warlock said to the barbarian. Technically his magic was arcane in nature, but he didn’t know the first thing about how it worked. “Arleo meant no offense. He’s simply not used to the protocols of us surface dwellers. I will not recriminate you for doing what you needed to survive and as long as you work on the deck and fight on our side, you’re welcome on this ship at least until our next stop. If they decide to keep silence about your former affiliation, well you will be just a very beautiful lady I happened to find at sea.” More importantly, she was living proof that the new Hailstorm would be open to recruitment. Hells, she could even make it easier to get into the crew. “The same extend to three of you. I mean, the working part. Not the beautiful lady thing.” By that time he didn’t know one of them was a cook. “Sae, can you get rid of these manacles?”

"Heh, and here I was thinking someone finally noticed my good looks..." the halfling cook says with a laugh. "But in all seriousness, I'm not much use as a rigger... but I have the skills to make ship rations actually taste like food."

"He's not wrong," Wiliam says with a chuckle. "He's absolutely useless as a rigger."

"But he actually is pretty good at making ship food tolerable..." Harold cuts in. 

Meanwhile, the half-orc ex-pirate actually looks a little bit surprised at being called beautiful, but she smiles and rolls with it.

"Well then Captain... I assume you're the captain at least, I thank you kindly and I'll do my best to earn a place on your ship," Yevelda says, reaching down to shake Emrys' hand.

Quote from Mister_Whisker >>

Quote from ZelocktheDragon >>

I would say that Areleo would still have spearheads in him just broken off.

"Areleo has recovered the little man but no other saviors, Areleo could see. Do not worry for Areleo, Areleo is fine and ready to remove green one if necessary."  

"You know, 'the green one' has a name," Yevelda says with a chuckle. "Look, I get that this looks bad, but I can assure you that I was heading for an acquittal... or at least a reduced sentence... as soon as we got to port on the basis of mitigating circumstances. I didn't start out looking for a life of piracy, I was workin' as an honest guard for various merchant vessels most of my professional life. But I ran into a spell of bad luck when Captain Hailstorm came back from the grave... after all, it isn't wise to refuse Captain Hailstorm when he offers you the choice between livin' as a pirate and going straight to Davy Jones' locker. The man is quite persuasive. And I wasn't even with that crew for more than half a year before they abandoned me. But... if ya'all want to clap me in irons then fair enough. But could ya' maybe take the old ones off first? They aren't doin' much now except giving me a rash anyway."

Quote from Makkiu >>

“It’s alright. You just almost died at a wreck.” Emrys said to William as he answered the remaining questions honestly.

His worries about Areleo proved unnecessary. The triton returned with another survivor of the Greyhound. One more than the halfling thought possible at that point. The real surprise came when Yevelda told her tale, or at least part of it. Hailstorm, or rather its impersonator, was indeed haunting those waters. Finding that crew was not so much of a coincidence as a clear sign that the Captain’s activity approached Northport.

“Considering our last fight and his analytical posture, I would say ‘Naut is our arcane specialist.” The warlock said to the barbarian. Technically his magic was arcane in nature, but he didn’t know the first thing about how it worked. “Arleo meant no offense. He’s simply not used to the protocols of us surface dwellers. I will not recriminate you for doing what you needed to survive and as long as you work on the deck and fight on our side, you’re welcome on this ship at least until our next stop. If they decide to keep silence about your former affiliation, well you will be just a very beautiful lady I happened to find at sea.” More importantly, she was living proof that the new Hailstorm would be open to recruitment. Hells, she could even make it easier to get into the crew. “The same extend to three of you. I mean, the working part. Not the beautiful lady thing.” By that time he didn’t know one of them was a cook. “Sae, can you get rid of these manacles?”

 Sae looks at Yevelda with eyes that are absolute black mirrors as she approaches with her lockpicks.  The pirate isn't sure if she can see her own deepest soul mirrored in those eyes, but she isn't sure Sae can't either.  Of the elf's own thoughts and feelings there is absolutely no trace.  But when she speaks, her voice is calm and reasonable.  Maybe even with the possibility of kindness in it, but its also clear from the sound that judgement is being reserved on that one.

"You know, it doesn't sound like you have much reason to be grateful to 'Captain Hailstorm'.  And I will go so far as to tell you, neither do we.  Perhaps we could talk?  Or more specifically, YOU could talk about the things you think are most likely to help us spike Captain Hailstorm's guns for him.  The next port he was planning to make after attacking the Greyhound,  maybe?

As she speaks, she wipes the sweat of recent exertions off her forehead and resettles her finely crafted boiled leather skullcap with the ridged crest on her head.  As she does, her fingers idly brush across a small dark purple amethyst at the base of the crest that you hadn't noticed until the sun glinted off it with the movement of the cap.

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Sleight of Hand 8

Persuasion 3

detect thoughts from [Tooltip Not Found]

(OOC: Sae will try and time the casting of detect thoughts so Yevelda has already started to answer before she becomes aware of the spell

Yevelda doesn't notice Sae doing anything with her hat. It doesn't seem like Sae is being especially persuasive, but the pirate also doesn't seem to be trying to hide anything (you don't detect any deceit in her surface thoughts).

"Well, the big guy has a lot of ships, about eight or nine of them so far, I think," she says thoughtfully. "He didn't assign me to his flagship, as you might guess by the fact that the Greyhound actually escaped in more-or-less one piece before. And he doesn't even keep all the ships together most of the time... probably because it would attract a bit too much unwanted attention. So I'm afraid I only have limited knowledge of his grand plan... though if I had to guess, I'd say he's probably lookin' to build up a fleet for a pretty dramatic vengeance after that North fellow beat him a decade ago."

Yevelda pauses in thought.

"Also... let's be real here, if he's smart, which I know he is, the Captain probably changed any major plans that he did make before I was captured," she point out. "Though I think that the ship I was on was scheduled to stop at Port Superior after the fight."

"Well, that's something.," Sae replies.  "Nothing else works, we can always try going there, see if some drunk hand talked more than they should when the ship you were on passed through.  Thank you!"  Her face relaxes, and she nods in thanks to Yevelda before turning to whatever her task is in the standing orders for coming about.

=================================

OOC: Since I know its' fairly standard procedure (my grandfather was a captain in the Navy IRL, and there's a long line of merchant and Navy captains in his part of the family tree) I'm assuming that as a paladin of the seas Sayyida would have set up a roster for which crew member does what in most common situations on shipboard.

“This skill is more valuable than looks.” He said pointing to the cook. Emrys had his fair share of ship food long before getting into North’s employment. The chance to make it any better was song to his ears. “You go to the kitchen, everyone else will be accommodated by the First Mate.” The halfling pointed to Sayidda just before Yevelda lowered herself for a handshake. “I usually present myself as a simple merchant.” He noticed, shaking her hand, that her palm was bigger than his entire fist. “A pity we can foresee and avoid for sure Hailstorm’s next strike, but such is life. Now, I have a course to correct. Make sure we don’t lose too much time after avoiding the storm.”

He also had a thing or two to think about. Eight ships, attacks with boarding, recruitment of new recruits. If the runaway gnome was indeed part of the Captain’s crew then Emrys wouldn’t be surprised if they were attacked as soon as tomorrow. Anyhow, where is Merigar? He didn’t see the dwarf since Northport and all boats seemed in place. A question for later, Goldenleaf decided taking into consideration that that their route actually needed some correction. There was no hurry to get to the next harbor, but it was important to keep appearance.

Quote from OisinmacCameron >>

"Well, that's something.," Sae replies.  "Nothing else works, we can always try going there, see if some drunk hand talked more than they should when the ship you were on passed through.  Thank you!"  Her face relaxes, and she nods in thanks to Yevelda before turning to whatever her task is in the standing orders for coming about.

=================================

OOC: Since I know its' fairly standard procedure (my grandfather was a captain in the Navy IRL, and there's a long line of merchant and Navy captains in his part of the family tree) I'm assuming that as a paladin of the seas Sayyida would have set up a roster for which crew member does what in most common situations on shipboard.

"You're welcome," Yevelda says to Sae, rubbing her wrists as the shackles clatter to the deck.

===================================

OOC: I'm not going to bother making Sae roll to unlock the manacles since there's no time constraint here and she could essentially work on them as long as she needs to without trouble. As for whether or not Sayyida has set up a roster... that's up to her and Captain Emrys

As she passes by on her way to her duty, Sae stoops and whispers to Emrys.  "Does  our course pass anywhere near Port Superior?  That ship might still be operating.  And one ship sounds like a lot easier point of first contact than eight.  We are supposed to impress 'Hailstorm' by holding our own in the fight a while."

Dm: I would like to identify what I found, who should I ask about that.

Quote from ZelocktheDragon >>

Dm: I would like to identify what I found, who should I ask about that.

 'Naut has the best chance of figuring out what you got.

Or you could just talk to one of the rescued crew members, there's a good chance that they would know what the items are since you took the items from their ship.

'Naut looks up, having up until this point been leaning up against the gunwale, observing the sinking wreck. The rapt attention the Aquanaut pays the wreck, seemingly indifferent to the rescue attempt, is... abnormal, to say the least. At least, for abnormal for the vertebrates among the crew. At the mention of their name, they trundle up to Aerleo. "Arcane knowledge was mentioned? Have you found something of interest?"

"Areleo would like to speak to Naut alone." Areleo then starts to walk below deck. 

(OOC: 'Naut, since magic items are kind of your specialty and these aren't super-rare items that Areleo found, I'll just go ahead and tell you what they are).

For 'Naut:

Sayyida does have a roster of sorts sketched up but hasn't discussed it with the captain as yet, she does venture support for trying to find somewhere to drop the 'passengers' off somewhere before encountering pirates.

'Naut carefully inspects the items, visor changing colors as a number of lenses slide over it on the inside of the suit, observing the haul on a dozen spectrums, be they mundane, magical, real, imaginary, or purely metaphorical.

"Four items with any real power here. A brooch, which protects the user against the damage inflicted by raw magical power. Useful in a laboratory, perhaps, but a little less impressive unless one has an army of poorly educated mages to combat, in which case their magical missiles will do very little harm. Two stones, unimpressive to look at, but certainly the most valuable items recovered. They subtly tug on the strings of fate, just enough to give the user a slight advantage on almost any task they perform. Finally, a sword which has the unique ability to ruin any and all attempts at stealth, while being quite blinding to look at when nighttime falls."

“We would need to make a detour.” He whispered back at Sea. “It would add a day and a half of our journey, provided we don’t stay for long.” Not the best choice with three extra mouths on board. “Besides it’s likely they will look at our log, see that we suddenly change route to be there during the attack. If they think we are hunting the crew things will become all the more complicated. Rather than impressing him we could end on the book of enemies to be eliminated.”

The more Emrys spoke the surer he was that their safest option was to wait to be attacked. If the gnome was connected to Hailstorm it wouldn’t take long. The problem is if he’s not, said the voice of his mind. Gods damn uncertainty.

“Any strange movement from the newcomers?” He had to ask. The quartet had made a good impression as far as the halfling was concerned. As good of an impression as someone taken from the sea moments after a shipwreck could, at least. But then, first impressions were not everything. Arleo and Sae herself didn’t exactly make for a good impression but their actions proved time and again how trustworthy they are. The contrary could very well be true on the case of castaways.

Areleo and 'Naut:

Emrys:
Nothing strange from the newcomers... the cook is cooking, your riggers are rigging, and the half-orc is doing basically whatever heavy-lifting jobs you need her to do. That being said, Harold does bring to your attention that you seem to be short one lifeboat from regulation minimum for a ship this size and asks you if you had the proper number when you left port (the answer is yes, you did).