Shipwrecked in Saltmarsh

Kelnan

"Well with any luck, we can take advantage of a dark, windy night and approach without being detected."

Kelnan
"I'm ready, but I recall something about signaling the ship from the old house. Could someone from the guard ride out to the house and flash a light at them? Then we can approach from the far side while the crew looks out for their sadly deceased companions."

Fossie looks around uncertainly, and finally sighs. "Don' think we got time. Fireborn told me to get you strangers there fast. Sendin' someone out there on horseback would delay us a couple o' hours, even in this headwind. Stone faster. But, if the ship ain't there," she smiles brightly now, displaying a rack of big gnarly teeth, "I can git ye' close to shore – if ye' don't mind swimmin' in through the surf – and ye' can wait fer 'em at the house!"

     "Just get us so we can get on board and I have full faith in our ability to totally make a living disaster out of things for all involved," Fianna said with confidence and sincerity...  Though she really didn't know if that was a good thing or not.

Katernin nods in agreement.

And with that, unless you have further business, you push off into the shadowy sea, setting sail on a slowly sinking Stone.

"Did'ja hear about Butter?" Fossie says, cheerily working the lines and tiller, upon seeing Molo's foot. "He was s'posed to sail with us. But these thugs came last night an' roughed him up an' threatened him an' cut his thumb off." She pantomimes cutting one's thumb off and accompanies it with a little thumb-cutting-off noise. "That happen to you, too?"

Fossie is an able sailor, and knows these waters well. At one point, something vaguely iridescent swims by, deep under the surface. 

It requires more than an hour of sailing, at a steady clip in near pitch darkness, tacking repeatedly in the stiff breeze, before you arrive at your destination – well offshore the alchemist's house, which Fossie assures you is there, black silhouetted on near black. 

She squints into the darkness. "I don't see anything," she announces. The rest of you concur. "Okay. No pirate ship. Fireborn told us to wait for a bit, and see if they come back. Anybody need to go to the house, or should I drop anchor here?"

Fossie turns the Stone into the wind, sails luffing. You drift a little in the black breeze, as you decide what to do next.

     "At this point perhaps safest to just wait rather than risk missing it?"

Dain calmly sits, methodically bailing out water and waiting for more wise folk to decide that should happen next.

Fossie lowers the sail, drops a small anchor, and you wait.

You wait, and wait some more, in the pitch dark. The cold seeps into your bones. The water has a little chop, the wind gusts occasionally, and the boat rocks a bit. The only sounds you hear are the waves slapping the side of the Stone, and of Fossie chewing wads of some brown leafy substance and spitting into the water.

Then: lights appear. Dim lights - candles, perhaps, or a hooded lantern - in the distance. It's a ship.

"That's it" announces Fossie, quietly.

Those of you without darkvision cannot see anything but a very faint light in the distance. And although the vessel is several hundred yards away, at least, many of you who can see in the dark can make out some of its broad outlines. The vessel appears pretty much how the guards had relayed it – perhaps 90 feet long, with a single mast, and a crows nest. It comes in quickly from the east, running with the wind. It comes about abruptly, its bow pointing into the wind, its sail flapping. It's quite close to the coast and to the house; perhaps just a few hundred yards from shore. The ship is now lying broadside to the coastline, the port side facing landward.

The Stone is further off the coast, several hundred yards southwest of the new vessel. 

(Crude diagram as it would appear from shore.)

"Guess it's time," Katernin says quietly.

     "I hope you can get us closer than this," Fianna jokes to Fossie.

"Ye' wan' me to git closer? Come up alongside or what? Ye' hailing it? I ain't boardin' it, remember," replies Fossie.

((Ummm, wasn't that the plan?  To get close enough to board?  Or were we suppose to swim from boat to boat?))

"Arright. Fine." Fossie looks uncomfortably at Fianna, maybe just nervous. "I'll tack ahead, then run back. Before we get anywhere near 'em, I'll drop the sail, we'll get out the oars, and we'll pray to Procan they don' hear us comin'. But you guys got a plan? How you boardin' that thing?"

"Now, hold the sail so it doesn't luff when I raise it. I don' know what they got fer ears." She spits into the water again and begins to hoist the anchor.

     "Well the nice, elderly, one-eyed woman named "Al" at the Council offices told us that our requests would be on the guard boat and ready for us when needed.  She told us there would be grappling hooks, ropes, block and tackle. Oh, and rain gear. A component pouch... She got a bit less sure about the rest of the list but she did say she would try.  So... That stuff is on board here, yes?" Fianna said, casting her eyes about the boat.  They would need a way to climb aboard, after all.  Well, the others would, Fianna was fairly sure she could whip something up for herself but unfortunately not passengers.

"Well.. I got some extra rope stowed. ... I 'member hearing about some 'o that stuff, but..."

     "But...?  Do you mean to say I am the only one with even a possible way to get on board?" Fianna asks, stunned.  She looks to the rest of her companions, hoping they have some answers...

"I got me some rope and I be a good climber," answers Dain unhelpfully.  "If ye can get the boat next to the ship them I'm sure I can climbs up the rope-things they have hanging over the side.  They do have rope-things hanging over the side, don't they?"

"Don't be mad at me," says Fossie to Fianna as she raises the sail and prepares to move. "I think they thought you'd be goin' next week."

Dain squints at the distant ship, but he cannot see what might be hanging over the side.

Fossie tacks out to sea to the south, and then turns the vessel and heads northeast, toward the dark line of cliffs. You lose sight of the dark ship briefly in the gloom.

"Ye' ready? We're gonna run in, lower the sails, an' maneuver in with oars. If we're quiet, they shouldn't hear us. But if somebody looks this way, we're caught. I hope they don't got ballista. You guys need a minute, or are ye' ready?" 

     Fianna is as ready as she can be, being totally unready.  If someone has some kind of grappling hook then Fianna will attach a rope to it and hold it at the ready, otherwise Fianna ties a very tight loop at the end of her own 50' rope and stands ready with that.  

     "My plan, unless any of you have a better one, is that once we are next to the ship I shall use my magics to step up onto the deck, secure the rope and toss it down for the rest of you to climb, and then hopefully not get killed while you do..." Fianna explains.  "But I would really love it if one of you had a sounder, less deadly plan."

Kelnan raises his hand. "I can get on board, got a new trick I tried out earlier. I could use a distraction though, to ensure enough time to secure ropes for climbing.

((Can I assume I got a short rest in since recovering Molo, to recover the spell slot I spent on Misty Step earlier? I'd be much more comfortable knowing I have the option of bamfing out if need be.))