Shipwrecked in Saltmarsh

     Back to town it is...  Fianna has dark thoughts about dispatching Farley and Butter before they even get there but forces herself not to dwell on it too much.  They're lazy. Incompetent. Pitiful...  But probably not evil. 

     Though Saltmarsh would likely be better off with just about any two other people as guards...

Dain will stomp along in the drizzle, pleased to have recovered his possessions and achieved some manner of balance by releasing Butts.  Hopefully, he won't cause too much trouble now we've let 'im go.  He is a bit heavy of heart, not really knowing what he's going to do next.

"Fianna?  What is your plan next?  I think me work at the mine has come to an end and I be at a bit of a loose end.  I need to find some other way to earn me keep.  Any ideas?"

Molo would like to take his new friend to go sell some rugs etc.

(here it comes! We might actually have money!)

     “A plan?  Can’t say I’ve ever much had one,” Fianna admits.  “Return to town.  Advise the captain of the guards about what happened.  Offer condolences for his lost guard... Highly praise the bravery of these two...”

     It took her a moment to get the distaste of that idea out of her mouth before she could consider.  “I’d always been a bit of a solo wanderer, never had this much company before.  But it is kind of nice...”

     “Hey, you’ve been around these parts a bit?  What’s with that bridge?  The one that... I dunno, it just felt off each time I crossed it.  You know anything about that?”

((I think it was like a stone footbridge over a stream?  I’d have to really go back and dig to find it...))

"..." Katernin also seems disheartened. "I came here to help people and all I've seem to have done is get 2 people killed..." she says sadly.

Dain will answer about the bridge if he knows (or has heard rumour of) anything about it.

     “You got nobody killed.  They put themselves in danger...  You did all you were capable of, yes?  Was there more you could have done?” Fianna says to Katernin.  “I should have talked everyone out of this.  We’re not the law, there was no point in us doing any of this...”

     “if anything it’s my fault.”

Kelnan

Fiddling with his newly recovered possessions as he rides, Kelnan chimes in without really looking at the others.

"It's not for nothing. The smugglers and slavers are gone, and we ended whatever dark magic was going on in there."

Approaching Katernin and Fianna, and speaking softly so the guards don't overhear,

"Besides, if we had just sent the law, do you honestly believe any of them would have made it back?"

The ride back to town is uneventful, albeit somewhat miserable in the cold drizzle. Butter eventually awakens to find himself nuzzling with Seth's grisly remains. He sits up and silently climbs higher among the cargo, putting a little more distance between himself and his old boss.

Dain recalls nothing about the old bridge, other than its name - "Sharkfin Bridge" - although most people just call it "the bridge". Kelnan and Fiana recalled feeling vaguely nauseated when they crossed that ancient bridge.

It's nearly an hour before Farley looks back and notices that Butts is gone. "Cripes! Where'd he go?" he cries, partly in alarm and partly in frustrated, last-straw defeat.

You are nearly back to the city; and are approaching the junction with the highway to Burle. A pair of mounted Saltmarsh guards in chainmail ride toward the intersection, coming from the direction of Burle. Farley waves to them from a distance, beckoning them to come over.

     Do these guards look as incompetent at Farley and Butters?  How long we been traveling? Have we had time to grab a short rest taking turns riding not he wagon?  Does Farley or Butters know anything about "the bridge?" Local legends or such?

While it's difficult to judge the competency of a guard from a distance, the approaching guards look well-armed and equipped. 

And while it's been a couple of hours, unfortunately you can't rest while traveling, even on horseback. Butter is the only one to earn a short rest, thanks to his catnap with Seth.

Farley didn't offer anything helpful about the bridge (other than some lame and slightly disturbing story about dropping rocks onto passing boats when he was a kid.)  Butter isn't in a talking mood.

"Hey you!" shouts Farley to the approaching guards, in greeting.

     Fianna just watched the interaction between the guards, mainly for it being the only thing happening.  She will kind of watch to see if she gets a sense of how the guards feel about each other, mainly to see if all Saltmarsh guards are so elite as Farley and Butter...  but mostly she figured this doesn’t concern her much.

Dain leans on his huge maul, his bulky biceps dripping water onto the rain-soaked ground.  He wipes the back of his hand across his forehead to clear the water from his eyes but as his hands are drenched it doesn't really achieve much.  Like Fianna, he studies the approaching guards, interested to take their measure and see how they compare to the unimpressive specimens he's encountered so far.

 Suddenly a thought strikes him and he goes over to speak to Kelnan.  "I just remembered; I found me a pipe in the mansion," he speaks quietly so the guards do not hear.  "I thinks it was magical?   Can yae tell me anything about what it does?"

The two guards approach the wagon – they are in their fifties or sixties, and are weatherbeaten from many years in the sun.

"We got 'em!" exclaims Farley to the newcomers. "Killed a whole nest of 'em! They got Seth, though." He extends a thumb over his shoulder at his cargo. "Filthy smugglers. Magicians, too! And skeletons! Dead things, monsters. Killed 'em all!" He leaves out the part about the missing prisoner.

The guards nod politely and eye the cargo with interest. "Royal goods," notes one of them, pointing out a mark on the back of a bolt of silk. "Who was supplyin' em?"

Farley shrugs and continues driving the wagon. The mounted guards join the party; evidently they were patrolling the highway north, and are now headed back to the city as well.

Katernin just smiles sadly at the guards as they join with the group. She keeps her eyes focused on the road ahead.

The party proceeds to the city gates, where a pair of elderly guards toddle over to see what you have. After a brief pause, Farley drives the wagon up the hill to the tower, where Fireborn, the old captain of the guard whom Katernin and Fianna spoke to, stands upon his ornate peg leg, watching you approach. "What happened?" he says, soberly examining Seth's body from a distance. "What did you find?"

Butter climbs out of the cart. He's looking much better, or at least putting on a good show of it.

"Smugglers," reports Butter. "Consortin' with th' dead. We took care of it." 

"Killed 'em all!" pipes in Farley, cheerily.

More guards appear, and begin to unload the goods.

Molo scrabbles on top of the pile of goods and clings to them. “These are mine!”

deception/intimidation 18 

"Molo, these aren't yours," Katernin says, "we found them remember?"

The guards are momentarily paused by Molo's antics. They look to Farley for help. 

The old, burly, and imposing Fireborn, standing upon a finely carved wooden peg, steps forward and speaks to Molo:

"ါ့နဂါးလေးသည်သင်၏ဥစ္စာမဟုတ်၊ သူတို့ကသရဖူပိုင်။ သို့သော်ရွှေ ၂၀၀ သည်သင်နှင့်သင်၏သူငယ်ချင်းများနှင့်မည်သို့သင့်တော်မည်နည်း။"

(Molo understands:)

 To the others, he adds, "Thank you for helping us today. Please come to the Town Council meeting in four nights time, so we can properly compensate you for your troubles today."

Kelnan looks over the pipe. 

"These things take time. Want to know what it does faster, I suggest you smoke it."