What shall we do with the Drunken Sailor – a Nautical themed set of Adventures in the Moonshae Islands

"That's better than nothing, I guess," Gilly says more to himself. He looks at his hands. "I might can coax the water in the marsh to make it easier to continue using the boat. We'll have to see when we get there."

"Good Plan" Thrash would reply with a nod.

Rowing up the river is a good idea but ....

As the party starts to load the rowboat they remember that it took several trips to get them all to the shore. The rowboat can seat four (two rowers and two passengers) plus carry 400 lbs of equipment. The party looks at the large pile of equipment (350 lbs - I've deducted armour, missiles and personal weapons - but not the complete armoury that Tiro seems to be carrying from the total) and the weapons and electrum ingots they have to take to the Queen (another 350 lbs). "Without stating the obvious, it-and us for that matter-isn't going to fit into that small boat" Zin comments. He turns to Tiro and continues "I'd heard you Tritons were good swimmers but do you really need two daggers, two spears, a shortsword and a Trident - how do you swim with that lot." He then turns and looks at own shield, longbow (+arrows), rapier, two handaxes and dagger "that said not sure I need all of this either?"   

"I guess we should all take what we can carry and march," Gilly says.

"I guess so." says Tiro resignedly. "There's six of us, but Hallard will find it tough enough, can the other five of us carry 70lb each?"  (OOC: only 32kg shouldn't be too hard.) "We will have to bundle it up in like items to make it easier to manage in the marsh." Tiro will take the electrum.

"I'm only a puny human & can manage another 100lb, so it shouldn't be too hard splitting up the load.  The taller people should carry the long things like spears, etc.  It might also be wise to split the electrum up between a couple of people.  Better to be safe than sorry." says Griff

Ok divide up 10 x long swords, 10 x morning stars, 11 x shields, 20 x javelins and 10 x 20lb ingots and add them to your character sheets.

"We could take many trips in boat.. then split load to carry" Thrash would suggest. "I good at swim, I carry load and swim next to boat." 

From Gilly and Tiro's excursion, should they have an opinion on whether it would be better to just cart it all or if Thrash's suggestion of making multiple boat trips as far as possible would be better?

Gilly can carry another 103 lbs.

Carting it all in one trip could be very slow as you’d probably be encumbered and wading/swimming through the marsh Gilly would recall was not fun. Without wanting influence to much look at some of the spare equipment you’re all carrying.

OOC: Alright, everybody, that's twice now that the DM has drawn attention to our inventories. What have we got that we can use? The only things I have that might be of interest is rope and whale oil.

OOC: Thrash can carry another 80 pounds and not be encumbered. he has his flail, shield, and crossbow. Otherwise the only thing of any real weight are his smithing tools that he would refuse to leave behind. Thrash could carry 80 pounds on him and not be encumbered and could swim beside the raft as we take items to the shore. Once on the shore we could stash the the weapons we can't carry if we needed and instruct the Queen on where to send some lackies to collect the remaining. As long as it was all off the boat and moved off of the beach. maybe even hidden a bit? I don't think it would be a problem. If the queen complains about us not hauling it all to her, we tell her that the other lizardfolk are weak and worthless and should have carried some instead of running off ahead of us

The weight of the items is not the issue, the bulkiness is. Tiro says "If we each carry two of the ingots - we can slip those into our backpacks - (not Hallard, we do not want to weigh him down) -  "then that is 40 lb each. The 20 javelins (2 lb) and 10 long-swords (3 lb) are relatively easy. The shields (6 lb) and morning-stars (4 lb) are the issue. We will be slowed down a bit, but I think we should be able to carry most stuff if we share it around."

"I'll carry 2 shields and 2 morning stars as well as the 2 ingots. We can use some rope to bundle the javelins up into two bundles of 10 javelins each." 

(Under  10xStr, I can carry 70 lb extra (2 Ingots, 2 shields and 2 Morning stars makes 60lb)

(OOC:  From my reading of the rules: 5 x Strength= encumbered, 10 x Str = heavily encumbered, 15 x Str = max carry, 30 x Str = max drag/push)

(BTW: I was only carrying the Bosun's spear and dagger to first cast a det magic on it before I ascertained if they were worth keeping. This should have been done at sea, but I forgot. I think the shortsword was a borrow just after I was freed the first time.)

OOC: Leave the ingots on the beach for now if needed, they were used to pay for the equipment and while she would like them back, those shouldn't matter much now. the other stuff we could make some sleds and pile gear on to the shields and pull them behind us with ropes or something

Thrash approaches the rowboat and places a claw on the top plank as if he is going to rip it off and start building a sled , then suddenly he curses ”Dumt skalhode. Du har sumpsøl for hjerner! Dit is 'n uitstekende boot, gebruik dit!” He then turns to the party and looks at Tiro, Zin and Gilly “we like water yes” then pointing to Griff “he not like water” and then at Hallard “and he got dicky leg!” So we put all stuff in boat these two on top and we tow boat through marsh yes?” He then looks at Griff “Thrash like your singing – you can do more!”  

Curses translation

Zin looks at everyone and then takes his bag and starts stuffing equipment into it.  All of the swords, javelins, morning stars, shields (176lbs if my math is right).  He then adds all of the ingots (200lbs).

"There, all done."

He says holding the bag up with one hand.

"I knew this Bag of Holding was a good find. Are we ready to go then?"

Are we ready to leave. Are we wading through the marsh, taking the boat (it will fit all six but is dangerously overloaded) , or what? 

If Zin has the cargo handled, I guess we should leave the boat here and walk the rest of the way.

Without needing much encouragement, Griff settles into the boat and bursts once more into song (if you can call what comes out of his mouth as singing).

tow tow tow this boat gently over the channel,
up and down over the bumps like a bloody camel,

tow tow tow this boat gently through the moosh,
if we hit a sandbank, we'll have to get out and push,

tow tow tow this boat gently through the swamp,
if we don't want to upset the queen, we better try and be prompt,

tow tow tow this boat gently through the mud,
if we see a Sahuagin make sure we draw first blood,

tow tow tow this boat gently through the marsh,
pull and pull until you can no more and then we'll have to march

"I'll swim.  Those who can't will ride in the boat to go as far as we can."

Zin says