World of Greyhawk: Company of the Grey Chain

"Interesting... that does seem to be an unusual arrangement." Theldrin comments with a raised eyebrow as he sips his tea.  He hadn't know what a Crown Token was either but felt that Alaric seemed promising as a potential ally or patron, so was just going along with the idea.

Xanrym was initially confused, but if Khessa is correct in her understanding of the system that Lord Alaric is describing, he also finds it very strange.  He shrugs at Theldrin and says, "Quite unusual!  Maybe it's just their way to discourage passengers from pestering the Broken Crown to keep providing access to the cargo hold?  But buying a 'share' of the hold makes it sound more like the kind of thing Aubrek spoke about where multiple traders pool resources for some larger mercantile transaction.  Or maybe similar to our own Company's way of dividing treasure."  He wonders whether that means that this is a sort of pirate ship.  If they plundered another ship or a coastal town, taking to the skies would be an effective way to avoid pursuit. 

Quote from drumdigby>>

I only stored an empty chest down there, as I thought I'd be getting off the ship early. But I wanted to see what the others were stashing, for intelligence reasons mainly."

Xanrym laughs and says, "That was clever!  Did you learn anything by it?  I'm a lover of puzzles and secrets, myself, and I'd be willing to offer you a lower price for our assistance if you had any useful intelligence to share."

Alaric goes on, pocketing the Token again, "If you want to gain access to the Lower Cargo Hold before the end of the journey, you must provide The Broken Crown with 3 Crown Tokens. I have one, and four other groups on the ship have others, with a total of 5 Crown Tokens currently in play."

Xanrym tells Lord Alaric, "Keep your crown token for tonight, but we may need it tomorrow."  He looks over to Coriana and suggests, "Maybe we could purchase a crown token ourselves from Darci?  That way, with our token and Lord Alaric's, we'd only need to convince one of the other groups to help us get access to the hold when we want to get something out of it."

Khessa doesn't want to speak in front of Alaric, but as soon as the Company is alone again she adds: "The small group dressed in green doesn't have Captain Shuro's sympathy - so probably no one will defend them if, while we 'discover their secrets,' we also 'convince' them to give us their token. And that would raise the number to 3."

Alaric shakes his head and laughs, "I had the same questions, stupid system if you ask me. They gave me some horsetrough about making sure no one party tried to steal from the other and making the rules clear for everyone. They bill themselves as a legitimate mercenary company, but they are from The Bandit Kingdoms, what more needs to be said? They are fools!" To Xanrym he continues, "Yes, there were a few interesting tidbits down there. The tiefling brought on board a huge box, it sits up the back of the cargo hold shadowing everything else. The Horned Society priests also had a heavy looking chest, clearly magically protected. But you can find out yourself if you manage to get a hold of a couple other Crown Tokens"

At Xanrym's last sentence, Alaric's eyes widen slightly and pauses before saying, "Probably best not to talk with The Broken Crown about this, you might get a knife in the back for trying to get around their dunce of a security system. Ultimately that is truly where their authority on this boat comes from: they're the ones with the knives."

Quote from drumdigby >>

At Xanrym's last sentence, Alaric's eyes widen slightly and pauses before saying, "Probably best not to talk with The Broken Crown about this, you might get a knife in the back for trying to get around their dunce of a security system. Ultimately that is truly where their authority on this boat comes from: they're the ones with the knives."

"Thank you for the advice," Xanrym says. "But you can let us worry about the Broken Crown.  Just know that we will probably need your Crown Token tomorrow, and you two should make sure that you're ready to depart at a moment's notice.  When the time comes, you won't have an opportunity to gather your things or go fetch something."

Turning back to the original negotiation, Xanrym says, "Let's say that we accept the use of your Crown Token in exchange for getting you off the ship and back to the ground before it reaches Iuz.  But would you also want our assistance and protection until you reach a safe city?  When you leave the ship, you will mostly likely find yourself in wilderness.  We may end in the contested lands between Furyondy and the Horned Society.  And even if you're somewhere on the northern frontier of the Shield Lands, I have heard that there is fighting there too." 

Persuasion: 18 (including Silver Tongue feature)
Xanrym is trying to persuade Lord Alaric to employ The Company to escort him to the nearest safe / friendly settlement once they land on the ground.  Lord Alaric already mentioned gold, but Xanrym is also willing to entertain offers of political favors, assuming that we believe that he really is a diplomat with real connections in the Shield Lands and not just some random noble with delusions of grandeur. 

(OOC: Once we finish negotiating terms for escorting Lord Alaric to safety, Xanrym is ready to return to The Company's room to get some rest and start planning for tomorrow.)

During the conversation Theldrin has been discreetly keeping an eye on Alaric and his scribe, looking for anything that seems out of place for whom they claim to be.  Growing up in a wealthy merchant family and being trained to take over the family business, he spent a lot of time with various aristocrats and nobles in his youth before choosing to leave that world behind.  As the meeting concludes, he thanks Alaric for his time and is ready to head back to the room and discuss the party's next move.

Perception: 24
Insight: 23

Syllen seems confused by the rules of the ship. It feels like the captain wants people to backstab each other. Syllen is ready to return to their room to plan.

(Perhaps a little misunderstanding here. He wants to get dropped off right over Critwal, which you'll be over in the morning, a few hours away. That won't be within enemy territory, and also is happening pretty soon, so you likely won't have time to do everything you need to do on the ship before then.)

Theldrin is certainly able to intuit that Alaric is on the level, a powerful noble. Perhaps he talks his diplomatic skill and importance up a little, but that's fairly common in those circles.

[[ Darci is one of the broken crown mercenaries, is she not? We'd likely have the same level of luck just trying to talk her into letting us into the secure hold.]]

(OOC: Worth a try though guess it depends on how good of a relationship Darci and Coriana have, given that the Broken Crown is being paid to guard the cargo.  Perhaps she would be open to a bribe...)

Alright so if you want to keep working throughout the night, I'll get an Exhaustion check from everyone.

[[ OOC: maybe I did not understand, but I thought we wanted to take our Long Rest during the night, and try to get in the cargo hold the next day. ]]

Quote from drumdigby>>

(Perhaps a little misunderstanding here. He wants to get dropped off right over Critwal, which you'll be over in the morning, a few hours away. That won't be within enemy territory, and also is happening pretty soon, so you likely won't have time to do everything you need to do on the ship before then.)

Xanrym says, "Oh!  Well, then we might not be able to help you, Lord Alaric.  We'll do what we can, of course."  

The most Xanrym is willing to offer is that The Company can throw Alaric and Clayton overboard when the ship passes over Critwall, using our magic to ensure that he lands safely on the ground. We can either do it openly, "helping" Alaric and Clayton get to the ground safely, or we can pretend that we're stealing his Crown Token and throwing him off the ship, depending on what we think will improve our relationship and credibility with the other passengers or the Broken Crown itself.  "But we can only do that if the Malachite Hierarch is no more than about 500-ft above ground when we pass near Critwall," Xanrym explains.  "Otherwise, Khessa's magic would wear off before you reach the ground, and you'd fall to the ground!  If the ship is higher than that, then you'll just have to wait until our Company is ready to leave the ship, which might not be until tomorrow night.  We could take you off the ship with us then.  That should be before we reach Iuz, but we might be in what you would consider to be 'enemy territory'."  

The only other option is to find and secure the Forgotten King's bones overnight.  (That way, we could jump over board with Alaric and Clayton so that Khessa could cast her once reach an altitude of 500 feet.)  But Xanrym does not want to hurry their primary mission that much, and he thinks that The Company really needs a Long Rest before we attempt anything that might put us in a fight with the Broken Crown, Nithrissa, or anyone else.

Quote from drumdigby >>

Alright so if you want to keep working throughout the night, I'll get an Exhaustion check from everyone.

Quote from Painted_Beyond >>

[[ OOC: maybe I did not understand, but I thought we wanted to take our Long Rest during the night, and try to get in the cargo hold the next day. ]]

(OOC: Right.  Xanrym is proposing a Long Rest now.  We can hope that the ship is low enough for Feather Fall to work tomorrow morning.  Xanrym could even try to convince Captain Ironsmile or her sailors to fly lower if they usually don't fly that low.  If the ship is low enoough, we will get Alaric and Clayton off in the morning.  If not, they'll have to wait until The Company finishes our primary mission here.  Beggars can't be choosers!)

"I'd consider Darci slightly above acquaintance, she was willing to get us onboard and offer us space, but the relationship is not gonna stop her from turning us in if she thinks it is worth her while. I'd wager she has a price her assistance can be bought for, but its probably high, unless the assistance can be done without it being tracked to her."

(So you're currently flying about 1000ft above the air. If you need the airship to lower, you'll need to talk to Captian Ironsmile, and I'll let you know that she'll be far more convinced if you perform one of the jobs she tasked you.)

Lots to do... Collect at least three tokens... Access the Cargo... Convince the Captain to fly at a (slightly) lower altitude... And then complete at least one of the "jobs" she wanted...

Fortunately, the goals are likely overlapping—for example, investigating/eliminating the greens as the Captain would like can simultaneously earn the Company the greens token.

Anyway, she's ready to rest and be informed tomorrow. Looks like she'll need it!

Theldrin agrees the Company should prioritize getting some rest... it's been quite a long day!  Then accommodate Alaric as best they can, while keeping an eye on the prize.

Quote from drumdigby >>

(So you're currently flying about 1000ft above the air. If you need the airship to lower, you'll need to talk to Captian Ironsmile, and I'll let you know that she'll be far more convinced if you perform one of the jobs she tasked you.)

(OOC: Thanks.  So, we can take a Long Rest now, setting a watch overnight: we don't trust Nithrissa, the Broken Crown, or most of the other passengers!  Then, first thing in the morning, we could maybe split into two subgroups to try to learn more about a couple of the other groups of passengers.  That'll give us some information to take to Captain Ironside when we want to ask her to descend to 600 feet as the ship passes Critwall.  Once we get Lord Alaric and Clayton off the ship, we can continue with our effort to get into the cargo hold and get the Forgotten King's bones before the ship makes it to Iuz.)

Khessa, however, as a precaution, protects the area where the Company sleeps with Alarm (ritual-casting it).