Above & Below

Cadmael flies up above the tavern, riding the wind toward the docks. There's a thin fog surrounding the coast, though, and he can really only make out the silhouettes of the docks and some of the ships. There's movement all around, but he can't get close enough without losing your link to actually discern what's what.

Meanwhile, Brask goes up to a few tables, most of whom respond by muttering in fright or jumping up and rushing out of the tavern. As he scares off a pair of young dockhands, someone taps him on the shoulder. Brask turns to find a bald, bearded man behind him, almost as tall as he is. He has scars across his bald head and on his hair arms. A second man stands behind him, although they look...exactly the same? Brask is confused for a second.

"You looking for muscle, my brother and I are the ones you seek. Grognan and Gorgnan of the northern forest." He gestures to himself first, then to his brother. 

Yeah, got a job, quick work, dangerous I guess, though you'll be fighting alongside me so the outcome's not in doubt.  Probably today or tomorrow.  You free?  Brask sizes the two men up, trying to get a sense of how competent and experienced they look.  He doesn't have a feature that allows that, so it's just a general check based on superficial characteristics, presence of scars etc.

While you can't necessarily tell how competent they are, they certainly look the part. Their size speaks for itself, and the scars at least indicate that they've seen some kind of combat.

"We are free. Just finished another job. How much are you paying? Danger means more money for us."

Yeah, I don't do the money.  You need to talk to the lady.  Come on.  He walks back to the others, hopefully with two mercs in tow.

Effort, slightly distracted from Cadmael's lack of success, looks up to see Brask approaching with the two heavies behind him and quickly swears under her breath, touching her forehead and whispering for strength as she tries to figure out what he's up to .

Are the mercs following?

Yup, they're right behind you!

Hey, Effort, if we're... doing the thing that we're doing, these guys are up for hire.  Okay lads, introduce yourselves to Kurama, Pip and Effort.  Effort's the boss, he says that last part in a loud stage whisper.  He then walks behind the two mercs and continues sizing them up, inspecting their muscles and condition of their armour.

(Mobile) 

As Brask brought the two men to the group, Kurama leaned over and whispered, "What is happening?  I believe I must have missed something earlier.  Why do we need these... gentlemen?"

After Brask gave the pair a quick introduction, Kurama nodded to them politely and said, "A pleasure.  Are you from these parts?  We're relatively new to this region."

Effort takes a glance at the two beefy mercenaries behind Brask, and internally sighs a little.  Eying Kurama and making faint motions for him to cut down on the friendly chatter, she puts on an imperious expression and continues.

"Yes.  We are, indeed, new to this region, yet already we've run into some irritants that are making establishing ourselves here rather inconvenient."  She stares at the two men.  "You two look like you abhor inconvenience as much as we do.  If you are willing to be part of the solution to our problem, I am willing to offer you a payment of 2 gold coins to each of you.  One to each of you right here and now, and one on the successful completion of our mission."  She eyes the two men.  "I warn you.  It will not be for the faint of heart.  Our opponents will be strong."  A slight smirk plays across her lips.  "However we are much stronger."

(I'm going with deception, since Effort really has no idea how strong the Black Forest folks at the dock really are and therefore can't really give them assurances this will be a steamroll)
Deception: 17, if advantage from Brask, 20

"Hm." One of them frowns. "That doesn't seem like much gold for such a dangerous mission." He looks to his brother.

"Yeah, but I'm bored."

"Okay, we're in." He shrugs, and then extends his hand and takes the gold from Effort. "When do we start? Our weapons are outside with our mules."

Brask gives Effort a big thumbs up.  Good.  Okay, fellas.  You'll be taking orders from me.  As Effort hands over the initial gold, Brask looks around:  Are the Dark Forest folks still in the room?

Yup - two of them at the far end of the room, drinking ale. They seem to be relaxed and not conducting any official business.

Brask directs the two mercs to wait in the room or nearby, but far enough away that he can't overhear the group.  He then rejoins Effort, Kurama and Pip to finalise the plans.

"Well.  Here is what I think," Effort says quietly.  "If we are all rested up and want the element of surprise before the ship sails, we should tell those Black Forest types over there that we wish to hire on immediately, and convince them to take us to the ship.  When we are close enough to know which ship this is, and if we are lucky, a bit more about their security, we get 'mugged' by our two new friends, who will focus on these Foresters.  And while they are distracted, we finish them quickly and quietly from behind.  Then we move together to infiltrate the ship.

There are many ways we can do that. 

A foolhardy head-on assault, which I know Brask would enjoy but would go poorly for us. 

But a stealthy infilatration, which Kurama and Pip could pull off, might go poorly for Brask and myself. 

Cunning -- a deception of some sorts... is an option.  We could try the new hire story again.  Or we could even drag those two soon-to-be corpses back to their place of employment after we stumbled across their unfortunate predicament in the street.  We could throw about Rastel's name, as they're already fed up with him.  Convince them that perhaps he hired our two new friends, and that we drove them off as a sign of good faith."

She waits, obviously waiting to hear if the others have ideas, preferences, or plans of their own to suggest.

Hey, I have stealthy days.  Sometimes.  Not often.  And cunning days too.  We need to make sure they can't all fight us together.  That's where they get you.  Split em up into two nice groups and bash their skulls in.  Perhaps start by capturing those two over there and questioning them.  Maybe trade their lives for useful info.  We all have our different methods of persuading, after all.  He cracks his knuckles and grins in anticipation.  Or, you have any magic to control them?  Like, turn them into puppets?

"I do not think stealth is not my strong suit..." Kurama mused to himself as he remembered a rather awkward and unfortunate mishap in the woods not to long ago.  "That being said, we should probably figure out their numbers first.  Perhaps Brask is right that we should 'question' those two gentlemen over there."  He paused to look over at the two Dark Forrest thugs direction before scrunching his face in deep thought, "Can any of you sail a boat?  I've read many books on the subject but I cannot say that I've experienced the thrill of climbing a mast and unfurling a sail myself.  If our goal is to commandeer this boat, we should make sure we can actually use it, or find someone who can..."   

"I have no skill whatsoever on water," Effort declares.  "If we're going to take a boat out over the ocean, it's going to have to be something we hire.  Which might be easier if we make a good impression on the fishermen here.  This Forest boat sounds like a smuggling operation, and those are usually large and unwieldly... likely not what we would want to greet a sister retreating to the middle of the ocean for privacy with."

We can kidnap a few fish peasants to sail the damned thing, says Brask.  Or hire, I suppose.  Hey Pip, you know how to sail, right?  That just riverboats, or does it work for big boats too?

"Oh, um..." Pip furrows his brow in thought. "I think it would be pretty similar. Not sure though. Maybe with my skills and Kurama's book learning we could manage..."