Shipwrecked in Saltmarsh

(Dain has paid 3 x 1 gp for 3 days' living expenses in the inn).

During the 3 days of downtime, Dain works hard on crafting a kite shield.  This is big and sturdy, yet constructed so as to be relatively light when strapped to a forearm.  He does not plan to use it himself (needs two hands for his huge hammer), but will also see if he can sell it during these three days.  Obvious marks would include the guards or maybe popping down to the mine and selling it to a dwarf.

Kelnan is grateful for the work, though his pay quickly ends up in the innkeeper's pocket. He will chat with Fireborn and try to learn more about the Dreadwood and Granny Nightshade, as that sounds like just the kind of excitement he needs. At market he looks to find some powdered silver and iron for use in casting  Protection from Evil and Good

Fianna mills around the Weekly Market. The square (#15 on the map) is bustling, not only with humans, but also with a fair number of halflings and dwarves as well. There is a bit of a carnival atmosphere, as there is a lot of prepared food to eat (mostly fish-related), and even a few musicians, including the scarecrow-like fiddler you saw here last time, playing terrible music. At the center of the square are a dozen long tables where shoppers eat communally. There are tables and carts and barrels stacked with vast amounts of fresh and salted fish, where scores of professional traders are bidding on large lots. (Items from the Player’s Handbook costing up to 150 gp are available for purchase here at the standard price, including everything except magical and silvered items.)

(Molo doesn't get room & board, unless you want to forego the salary and tips. Frankly, the inn is a little fancy and pricey for your tastes - it seems a bit extravagant and wasteful to pay for a whole room to yourself, anyway.)

Mafera, impressed with his work, will gladly sell Dain's shield - give her a few days and she'll unload it for you at a good price. She'll also happily donate powdered iron and silver to Kelnan as a favor to Dain, and he'll be very unlikely to find much of this at the weekly market.

Katernin also finds herself at the weekly market, intent on purchasing a few more days worth of rations, as well as exploring town and trying to get to know the locals better.

Katernin spends her days exploring the crusty old town – its thinly cobbled, sewer-lined roads, its dirty ancient facades with decrepit figures peering out of open windows. There's a constant smell of smoke coming off the distant moors and bogs, and a bone-cold chill in the air. Her only notable encounter during this three-day period is a depressed, middle-aged halfling she meets, doing a liquor run in town. He tends a grove on the edge of the town – the Sea Grove of Obad-Hai - a gathering place for seagulls, sailors, and swamp folk, as well as an information market for traders and trappers. His name is Ferrin Kastilar, and he is a somewhat melancholy individual of middle years, and he tends the shrine with his bullfrog companion, Lorys. One of Ferrin's self-appointed duties is to keep an eye out for rumors of aberrations in the wild. If news of an aberration threatening Saltmarsh reaches him, he notifies the Guard, or recruits help to deal with it. He gives Katernin an open invitation to visit him in his grove.

It's time. You convene at Council Hall at sunset. It's a large brick building in the center of town (next to the Snapping Line; across from the Weekly Market; #15 on the Saltmarsh map.) A sturdy but weatherbeaten platform and gallows stands in front of the hall.

Past a couple of bored-looking City Guards and inside the double doors (capped with a wooden sign depicting a net filled with fish), you find a well-kept interior of hardwood and stone. A number of small offices are evident, and up a wide set of stairs you arrive at the Council Chamber.

Five town council members are seated behind a long bench, chatting. Their names are carved in blocks of wood in front of them: Eda Oweland, Gellan Primewater, Eliander Fireborn, Manistrad Copperlocks, and Anders Salmor. Another guard, a rather ancient old man, stands motionless nearby, and five or six rows of benches fill the room. They are mostly empty. Butter is here, dressed in his finest (but rather old-fashioned and well-worn) clothing. An elderly couple sits quietly nearby. In the back sits a well-dressed, well-groomed man.

The Council:
- Eda Oweland is a gruff, grey-haired woman with a weatherbeaten face. 
- Gellan Primewater is a dapper older gentleman with a neatly trimmed beard and a fancy wardrobe. 
- You well remember peg-legged old Eliander Fireborn, the captain of the Guard. 
- Manistrad Copperlocks is a serious-looking Dwarvish woman and leader of the newly established mining operation in Saltmarsh. She is Dain's old boss. Dain vaguely remembers hearing that she was a member of the Council.
- Anders Salmor is a young, cheery human. You've heard he runs a fishing and trading company.

Oweland gives a signal to the guard, who must be pushing ninety. The Council quiets and watches as he climbs a latter in the rear of the room - very slowly - into a tower above the chamber, and blows a huge horn into the damp outdoor air. Then, as everyone quietly (and nervously) watches, he slowly descends the ladder.

"Let us begin," announces Eda Oweland.

The first order of business is a property line dispute between the elderly couple and their neighbors. It's a long and boring proceeding. At one point, the old guard quietly admonishes Molo for eating snacks in the Council Chamber.

The second issue is a set of citizen complaints against the Town Guard for their effort to crack down on smuggling, going house to house in search of contraband. Fireborn tries to recuse himself, but quickly gets drawn back into the dispute. Copperlocks backs Fireborn, but the other three side with the complainants, and Fireborn finally and begrudgingly agrees to dial it back a bit.

Eventually they get to the "issue of the smuggler house."

Eda Oweland, who seems to be the head of the Council, addresses you. "Thanks for coming. Captain Fireborn has filled us in on the events of the last few days. The Town Council wants to thank you for helping the Guard clear out the old alchemist's place - not only of smugglers, but also of the supernatural elements that have been unnerving our citizens. We'd like to give you a gift of two-hundred gold pieces for uncovering and shutting down the smuggling operation." The old guard presents a bag of coins to Fianna.

"Although the land-based operation of the smuggling ring has been quashed, there must be a seagoing vessel by which the contraband was originally conveyed, and this is still at large. Any surviving smugglers might seek to reestablish their operation from some other base. So we've a job for you. We'd like you to apprehend this vessel and put an end, once and for all, to the smuggling. There'll be a reward of 400 gold for the successful conclusion of this mission."

"We assume the smugglers on the vessel are, as yet, unaware of the deaths of their land-based colleagues, otherwise a return visit might well be expected. Since the last consignment was likely offloaded only a short while ago, another one is not expected immediately — perhaps during the next new moon, which begins in about a weeks’ time.

"The council will arrange for members of the town guard to patrol the potential rendezvous points each night for the next two weeks watching for the smugglers return. As soon as an approaching vessel is spotted, your job will be to board the ship."

"We'll put a small fishing boat at your disposal and provide you with any reasonable equipment you feel you require. The council will also provide the services of two members of the guard to sail the boat for you when needed."

"What say you?"

     Fianna gives a courteous bow and says some kind words of thanks for the reward of gold for their efforts.  She then quiets and listens to the rest of the offer being made.

     "With all due respect...  Some of us have not had the best of luck with ships and such.  Being kidnapped, shanghaied and turned into slaves, the ship sinking and us barely escaping alive.  I'm not sure we're looking to go sailing again so soon," Fianna says, stumbling with her words a bit.  "If you don't mind me asking, isn't that what the town guards are for?  Butter and  Farley did quite the heroic job at the old abandoned house... This stowing aboard smugglers ships job seems right up their alley..."

     "Besides, one smuggler did slip out of their bindings and fled.  It is highly likely this fellow has alerted his fellow smugglers.  And being familiar with the faces of my companions and I...  It does seem like a dire risk for us to take."

     Fianna isn't entirely opposed to taking on smugglers.  She's not even entirely sure she has developed a dislike for ships.  But this isn't really her town.  She is starting to grow a bit of fondness for it but at the same time, the town has some issues.  She's not sure she wants to risk life and limb...  And definitely feels the promised fee is a wee bit on the light side.

Dain stands quietly at the back of the proceedings, listening to what is said.  Four hundred gold coins is a lot a booty.  Especially if Fianna doesn't take them up on the offer, it'll mean more fer me.  But I dunno if I wanna be taking on a ship-load of smugglers on me own.   Maybe I'll just wait and see how this pans out...

"The royal charge of th' Saltmarsh Guard is Saltmarsh," replies Oweland, "We've had goblin ambushes on the highway to Burle, we've had gnoll attacks at our western wall, and we recently had a jackalwere attack right here in town. We need our guards here in town. Ridding our seas of Sea Princes and slavers and smugglers is in our clear interest, but unless they approach th' bay, it is against the Guard's charter to directly board or impede ships at sea."  

Molo twitches at the amount of gold being discussed. 

“You think just us few is enough? In a fishing boat to catch a smuggler’s craft.” He looks at his companions a few times. “The money’s right, folks. Let’s get some grappling hooks, sneak up on board and get our money from their hides.”

Kelnan rises and addresses the assembly.

"I sense some hesitation on the part of my compatriots, and I think I understand why. We've lost a friend already to these brigands, not to mention one of your own guards, so their threat is without question. They are unsure whether risking our lives on the seas, from which they have so recently been freed from captivity, is worth a purse that after dividing amongst ourselves would be just enough to buy some trinkets. Meanwhile the traders and merchants of this town and the larger region see thousands of gold in goods as well as the cost of lost ships and crew, vanish every time these criminals strike. Surely it is worth a considerably higher sum should we prevent just one ship from being taken, not to mention ending the threat for good. 

If I have misunderstood, and the bounty is set at, say, the much more reasonable figure of four hundred gold per member of my group, then I humbly apologize. Thank you all for your generosity thus far, I hope to continue our relationship."

(Should we add 40 gp each?  200 gold divided by five?)

Quote from Blakey >>

(Should we add 40 gp each?  200 gold divided by five?)

 ((Yep, they already gave us that coin...  we’ll split it up after leaving but it would be a fair split... unless someone tried to argue otherwise.))

Kelnan: Persuasion: 10

 Gellan Primewater guffaws at Kelnan's request. Oweland remains stern-faced and silent. 

Fireborn speaks up. "We have no other able-bodied volunteers able to help, although you are welcome to try to recruit from our civilian population. And I'm afraid we do not have the funds to increase our proposed payment. However, we can pay you an additional 10% bonus on the value of any cargo you successfully return. Plus you may keep the personal effects of any of any smugglers you arrest or dispatch."

Kelnan scowls at Primewater and speaks to the others. "If the pay is non-negotiable, perhaps you could arrange a small supply of healing potions as a token of goodwill, to ensure successful completion of the mission with no more unnecessary loss of life."

     Talking to the group, but not trying to be quiet, Fianna says "If we want to be pirates why don't we just steal a ship and be pirates?  We'd lose out the 400 starting gold but we'd get 100% of the cargo and personal effects and if we're at least halfway decent could likely be charging the town protection money in no time..."

     "But no.  I'm not looking to be an outlaw...  But 80 gold each for such a risky proposition, and such an unending one - Put an end to smuggling once and for all?  And we only get paid if successful.  We'll all be dead before once and all can be proven, and smuggling will never be put to an end entirely anyway.  I don't know... I just don't know."

     "We've been through a lot with each other in a short time.  I feel like I can trust you lot and I know I will have your backs if needed.  So if you want to go floating about on the waters with the town guard pilots, hope they find some smugglers, hope we've got enough punch to take them down without losing more of us, and then hope it's good enough for this lot to deign to pay us..."  Fianna shrugs and sighs.  "I just don't know.  I'd prefer a clear cut job - Sink the Salty Bottom or capture the captain of the Lost Hope or whatever.  But if we're a team then we're a team and it's a group decision..."

"I'm sure they don't want us to end all of smuggling," Katernin says, "just get them to leave Saltmarsh alone. Being a pirate seems an awful idea."

     "Agreed but point is that the job is done when they say it is.  And that is when they pay us.  They could just decide not to pay us claiming it's not good enough yet...  So far Farley and Butter are the representatives of the council we know best.  I am not impressed, and I do not trust them," Fianna explains.  "They're preposing we paddle after full blown smuggling ships. It just seems foolhardy, and my life is worth more than 80 pieces of gold..."

     FinFin pokes their head up and our of their little nestling pocket below Fianna's head and gives a bit of a squawk. 

     "That's right... A lot more," Fianna answers.

     FinFin, satisfied, mrowww's and lays their head on Fianna's shoulder and allows their eyes to close halfway.

     "But as I said, I have your backs.  If this sounds good to the rest of you...  I'll be there with you as the whole thing blows up in our faces."

Fireborn bristles at Fianna's talk, however insincere, of becoming pirates. He glowers and grumbles and bangs a fist on the table, then pushes back his chair. Primewater guffaws again and throws his hands in the air, grinning.

Solmor speaks up. "NO amount of money is worth your lives, of course!" he pipes up earnestly. "But we truly do need your help. Freedom is the root of happiness! And so these foul Sea Princes and their slave trade must be scoured from the earth!" He wiggles his fingers over his head, in a awkward attempt to be dramatic. "I'd come with you myself if I could! But I PROMISE you more gold - or at least opportunities for gold..." he holds up one finger, "once you succeed. And a Solmor promise is bond!"