Shipwrecked in Saltmarsh

"What I have done? What I have done?" He calls after Fianna and Dain, with exasperation and growing fear. "I've done nothing! You barged in here an' slaughtered everyone! I'm just a merchant! I'm an honest trader! Please!"

Farley spits on the ground in front of him.

Butts takes a moment to process Molo's question. "Well, uh. I'm, uh, I can read an' write an' do sums. I keep books. I can barter. I can appraise value. Gemstones, art, weapons, old stuff. I can shoot a crossbow okay. Uh, I used to be a deckhand. An' I do what I'm told. I can be of great service to you, Mr. Lizardman." He nods gravely.

     "An honest merchant who works out of a cave and abandoned haunted house... riiiiiiiiiiight," Fianna muttered to herself as she exited.  Let him talk to Molo if he wanted, Fianna was done with the whole affair and ready to turn it over to someone else.

     Exiting the house, Fianna would look to see if Butter was still sleeping or not.  If he is, Fianna would just go about slowly getting the cart ready to leave and leaves once ready.  If the others followed, they can clamber in.  If the haven't then they can walk whenever they get around to it.

     If Butter is awake, Fianna will try to restrain her surprise and as calmly as she can explain that Farley is inside with a smuggling prisoner and that he needs his assistance.  If/when he leaves, Fianna will then prep the cart...

Butter is still fast asleep under the cart, oblivious to the growing puddle around his feet. The horses are tied up nearby, sampling the tall dead grass. A thin drizzle falls. Fianna can hear the ocean booming far below, over the cliffs.

Molo narrows his eyes at the little booger.

”We could be in need of someone skilled at bartering. Follow. Bring everything with you.”

Butts does as he is told.  But he has nothing to bring - the casks and bolts are too heavy for one person to carry more than one at a time. 

Isn’t there a wagon? From the guards?

(Yes - it's a wagon, not a cart, technically. Four wheels, uncovered, ancient wooden frame. Butter is sleeping under it. You could definitely use it to carry the casks and bolts back to town, if you choose.)

((Wagon, cart, SUV, Minivan...  I'm not always the most detail oriented.  It's transportation!  lol))

Quote from Kaemgen >>

((Wagon, cart, SUV, Minivan...  I'm not always the most detail oriented.  It's transportation!  lol))

( I'm with you - I realized I was calling it a "cart" so I had to go google the difference. I'm just correcting myself for the record!)

 Is Molo and Fianna's intent to direct Butts to load up Butter's cart with the brandy and silk?

Molo is, and lets leave Butters there. 

Kelnan sighs and tries most unhelpfully to resolve the situation. ((Sorry, holiday weekend so I haven't been on much!))

"Let me know if the wagon can't take it all. I'm sure my floating platform trick could be of use there. As for the fat man, he worked with those who killed my friend so I say let the guards have him, but he seems a decent sort otherwise. Hmph, whatever you lot think. We'll take the cargo though, should sell."

Dain is prepared to follow Fianna on this one.  She seems to have emerged from the recent struggles as de facto party leader if nothing else because she makes decisions, and they appear to be good ones.

'Tis a shame is Butts gets in trouble.  He did help me when I was captured.  But he was working with smugglers, so he gets what is coming to him I suppose.  I am prepared to tell people that he helped me though if I get the chance.

Dain will help load the silks and casks onto the wagon if that is the agreed next step.

It takes a few trips, but you manage to get the casks and the bolts all loaded into the old wagon. The house remains quiet.

Farley, still wearing the fancy floor-length oilskin coat he found, barks orders about how to load the wet wagon properly.

Butter wakes up, shivering with cold, and badly hungover. He crawls atop the bolts in the back of the wagon and tries to go back to sleep.

Butts, his hands still tied, tries to make jovial small talk, still sweating profusely. 

(Anything else to load? Ready to head back to town?)

((I think that's everything?))

     Before departure Fianna will ask Butter and Farley if they wanted to bring the corpse of their coworker.  "Seems the least you could do is bring him home for a proper burial..."

     If they do go retrieve their companion, Fianna will suggest to the rest that we leave them behind so we can tell the truth of the tale, not however those two Barney Fife's decide things went.  If they don't go, so be it.

     On the way back to town, at some point where the guards aren't paying attention - which honestly seems like most of the time - Fianna will pull Dain aside for a quiet moment. "Would be a shame if the guy who saved your life escaped... Not sure anyone would notice if he undid his binds and slipped away."  Fianna will then shrug and wander back off to distract the guards if they are paying any attention what so ever. 

     Molo and Kelnan are both given general words of "Well done back there" and other praise.  Nothing too dramatic just chummy chatter.

     Katernin though, Fianna spend a long time just walking besides them quietly.  It wouldn't be until they were nearly back to town before Fianna spoke up.  "I should have done better, back there.  Both times.  I should have got us out before anyone died..."

Dain will wait for an opportune moment when Fianna is distracting the guards and approach Butts.   "One good turn deserves another, I always thinks," he tells the obese man.   Slitting his bonds with a pocket knife, he says, "Find a suitable time when the guards are distracted and make a break for freedom.  Maybe when we go back into the house to reclaim the dead guard's body.   Now, we're even."

Dain will go up to the guards and say, "We're not leaving the dead body of your leader here, I assume?   I'll happily help carry him back out."  He'll try and encourage the guards back into the mansion to get the body, firstly because he thinks it's the right thing to do, but also because it will give Butts a chance to make his escape.

Farley shrugs at Fianna'a suggestion of fetching Seth's body. "Nice pyre right here." He fetches his tinder box from his pack and looks for some dry wood to light on the house trim. But he finds nothing flammable - just rotten wood, soggy in the drizzle. He shrugs again and sulks. Butter is not arising, so Farley prepares to drive the wagon. He ties his and Seth's horses to the rear. It's clear he's in no mood to fetch Seth, and is ready to head home now. "Let's go," he snaps.

But with Butter still asleep and Farley sullen and apathetic (and driving), it's shouldn't be too difficult to deceive the guards. (Nevertheless, Dain or Fianna should roll a DC10 Deception check, with advantage.)

Fianna Deception:  Unable to parse dice roll.

     Fianna will NOT allow them to burn down the house with the body inside.  She is tempted to insist on retrieving the corpse but she didn't know the guy and she is more concerned about her own people.  The captain can send people back, she guesses...  But this guy will not destroy it.

((Sorry, i've been busy with finals the last couple of weeks... but didn't Katernin go to retrieve the body? Unless there's another i've forgotten...))

Quote from cbaer8 >>

 

Katernin finds the crushed body of Seth still where he fell among the skeletons. The candle gutters in the small bedroom off the barracks room where she had found the signaling notes and the books. She hefts Seth's bloody body over one shoulder. He doesn't weigh a lot for a guy with such a big ego. 

Katernin lifts Seth's body from where she had placed it in the grass, and loads it into the cart next to Butter, who's fallen back asleep. 

Unless there is other business, the party sets off, back to Saltmarsh. Farley drives the laden wagon; Butter sleeps next to the crushed body of his boss amidst casks of brandy and bolts of fine silk, two horses tied in tandem behind. Dain walks alongside; the rest of you ride in the cold drizzle. It's late morning. 

Fianna and Dain work together to distract Farley and release Butts. Butts smiles and waves before disappearing into the scrub along the side of the ancient sandy highway. Farley doesn't notice a thing.