Mindartis nods at Del's suggestion, and follows his directions to the watch post

It seems like Q and R are working out how to pull the ship heist; unless they need something from Del he will catch up with E at the Abbey. He needs to talk with Sister Almara about who on the council to approach, and any leverage points. Then he can work with E to set a task for the kids so we can have a nice uprising.

Mindartis goes up the hill toward the richer section of town.  At the edge of the merchant's quarter stands a wall between the market and the residential area, and the watchpost is a small keep just beside the closed gate. A pair of bored-looking soldiers are leaning against the wall chatting, but as Mindartis approached, they stand up straight, looking ready for trouble.  "State your business," says one sharply.

"Sister," began Elwin. "I've got something... very disturbing to tell you." He looked around, keeping his voice low. "I know you've been more than suspicious of the pirates. I can confirm that they're actually abducting their new "hires," and handing them over to a cabal of hags for... nothing positive."

He smiled, not wanting to seem despondent. "You should spread the word, especially to the parents, and any children who haven't been taken in yet. I'll talk with the children too; I have a few questions that might help us stop all this."

Sister Almara is glad to see Elwin and Del, but horrified at your words. "I can certainly try to spread the news," she says. "I'm not sure the children will believe.  They are likely to think we are simply lying to try to scare them away from the pirates."

In response to Del's inquiries, she answers, "I don't have great hopes for the Council. Most of them are motivated by greed and their only aims are to keep themselves in power and increase their own profits. If you can convince them that the pirates are a danger to their purses and businesses, you might make some headway, but for the most part, they are interested in maintaining things the way they are, and merely scheming to outplay each other in economic strategies. I have a few suggestions as to who to approach.  Leshia Sinque is quite old and religious, and her family have all moved away to the east. It seems to me that she has little reason to care how the city fares after she is gone, and may work with you if she believes it will be pleasing to the gods.  Dareth Mewelles is as bad a robber baron as any, but he hates pirates. His family used to have a profitable trading company in Dasterus, but pirates destroyed their fleet, killed many of his kin, and led to their abandoning their home to come here. Rubagina  Badhron is a bit of a firebrand and believes in the rights of the people to decent treatment and fair pay, but she is very young, and the others have little respect for her.  There are rumors they are planning to vote her off the council soon. Since that would put her family at a disadvantage, she may not be willing to rock the boat further.  Noto Armausir is little more than a calculating machine, but the council listens to him.  He has been saying for some time that the current conditions of the city are going to lead to rebellion and revolution, and some are beginning to worry.  I don't know his opinion of how pirates fit into his economic structure, but it is possible he will be an ally.

"Of course, you will have to get into the upper city to speak to any of them," she adds. "That might be a challenge."

Mindartis looks at the guards, "I need to speak to whomevers in charge here about something that needs to be corrected about the way you monitor your streets."

7

The two guardsmen look at each other and roll their eyes. "If you don't like the job we're doing, feel free to submit a written complaint to the council member in charge of your jurisdiction," one says. "Now piss off. And your little pixie, too."

"Do we get to clobber them now?" Flitterbug asks.

Quote from JacWalke >>

“Get me within 500 feet and a clear view or directions and I can get us in and out.” Quentin tells her 

"Well I am guessing that will mean either a swim or renting a rowboat." Raven says with a shrug.  "I was planning on swimming if I went alone, but would love to hear what other options you might have." She looks thoughtful.  "We should probably stroll in that direction, to have a look at the setup.  We are making plans without even knowing the lay of the land around that ship.  It might be that a dock is within 500 feet of those windows, and that would make our job much easier."

The river is fairly wide here, and the pirate ships are in the middle of it, but yes, at the furthest points of the dock, you would seem to be within 500 feet.  Sailors and dockworkers bustle around you, loading and unloading riverboats, idlers and pirates loiter, chatting and playing dice games,  and fishermen dangle their lines and nets off the ends of the dock.

"If need be we could fly as well, I'd cast it on you and you'd have to carry me but that could work. Fly closer pop in pop out. Given ten minutes of time, or waiting until I've had a chance to rest, I could probably put whatever this is in an extra dimensional space that nobody else could get to." Quentin strategies with Raven 

"I am not sure what sort of timeline we are under." Raven says with a frown.  "The goblin said we needed to get a move on before the ship leaves port, but that could be today or next week." She sighs.  "We could check around and see if anyone knows when it is leaving, and then make our plans accordingly."

"As for the flying bit..." Raven says thoughtfully.  "That could work.  If we fly along the dock side, as if we were heading elsewhere, then, just before getting out of range of the windows, you teleport us inside, then there might be less likelihood of us being thought as of having gone there."  She nods.  "Yes, that might work, look as if we are just flying by, and moving off, away from the ship, then teleport inside."

((sorry I assumed smaller distances. 500 feet is large compared to most rivers and ports I've been))

Del takes note of the internal politics Vengeance, religion, justice, economics, and self-preservation are a lot to work with; thank you so much Sister. And we have a noble-elf, and a well-spoken man-of-the-cloth bows a bit and diplomatic experience to work our way in with. Or we can just fly in and crash the party.

We sent some kids we diverted from piracy fandom here Del continues I think we can set them to raising a resistance. We do not know when, Sister, but a fight with the pirates and other hag allies is likely coming. We know more clearly that Red Sails is with them. So I think maybe getting the out of work watchmen and former security folk would help keep this Blessed Place a safer refuge, if we might with the permission of the Abbess.

 (The  river is wide here, and mostly shallow--one of the reasons it makes a good riverport, because the current is mild along the banks. The deep central channel is the only place the sea-going ships can safely be anchored without risking scraping on the bottom.)

Sister Almara nods and says, "The Abbess will most likely say that the will of the Unknown Goddess is unknown, so you may as well try it and see how her favor goes.  Some of the out-of-work security officers and watchmen have left town entirely, some have taken positions with the pirate fleet, and some have found other work in the upper city.  The ones that are left can usually be found hanging around the employment office or the tavern."

"Not yet," Mindartis says, before looking back to the guards, "I could do that. But I want to try this civilly first. You see... you're lack of attention is cause kids to be abducted and sent to work for hags mining up the roots of the Great Pixie Tree. So can I speak to your superiors? Or am I going to have to take this evidence to my associates and start work on a new guard that will actually ensure the saftey of all it's citizens?"

“Should we do this tonight then some darkness to help?” Quentin asks Raven next 

10 (Feel free to roll your own persuasion/intimidation rolls, btw, if you want.)

One of the guards shrugs and leads Mindartis to a door a short distance further down the wall. He opens it to reveal an office, and walks to a desk where a guard with a marked armband is filling out piles of parchment.

"Hey, Sergeant, Mister Feywild here wants to make a report," the guard says, and leaves to return to his post.

The desk sergeant looks up at you inquiringly. "Do you have a crime to report?  Or looking for work?"

((Sorry I've been away from my computer and getting the dice roller to work is tricky))

Mindartis looks at the sergeant, "I find it deeply concerning that you allow these children to run around with pirates that are working with hags to send them to mines that up until recently have been excavating the remains of the Great Pixie Tree."

The other element to be aware of, Sister Del continues is that hags warned and gloated about something happening at the half moon - tomorrow I think, it rises at noon and overhead an dusk, not sure what part of the day, but I worry. I assume something we don't know about will go wrong.

Del checks to see what Elwin was thinking of, but Del wants to send the kids we diverted from the pirates out to recruit other kids to help them, and get grown-ups to gather arms and be ready - out-of-work security and city watch, anyone in the watch now that will stand up, others that can fight. He'll spread some gold, following M's example, make it seem more lucrative than the pirates' side and provide some support for families if people are ditching work. I suppose he could spare 300gp easily. We don't make it sound like a rebellion, it is to defend against the danger of the pirate-hag conspiracy. But having an armed mob might have more than one benefit for the people.

((from your questions I suspect E had an idea how to use deception to get the kids off the ships?))

"My concern about nighttime is that someone might be sleeping in the room."  Raven says with a frown.  "Suppose we need to chance it though.  Tonight it is then."

(( @ Del - yeah, maybe use illusion magic or some such to make it look like there was a breakout of dragon pox, or whatever. But, not only do we not have the illusion magic, I'm not sure it would be serious enough that pirates would be rushing them off their boats. If word got to them, and they even believed it.

@ Everyone - Sorry for being slow to post lately, I kinda lost my train of thought after rethinking the "dragonpox deception," plus have been a bit occupied. ))

Elwin asked to speak with the orphans at the abbey, and eventually sat down with them. He explained the situation with the pirates in simple terms, trying to persuade them to believe him and to stay away, knowing how tempting the pirates' offers were to kids in such a situation.

(( Persuasion Check: 21 ))

He also continued, "Would you also be willing to help us? We're going to try to rescue the others on the boats, and some of them may not want to believe us. When we bring them back, would you help us convince them, and help keep them from trying to go back?" The warlock had already decided he was willing to entice the kids with money or whatever else they wanted if he had to, but decided to appeal to their goodwill first.