Shipwrecked in Saltmarsh

Molo gets rowing. It’s hard, what with only weighing about the same as a sack of potatoes, but Molo is a master of understanding leverage.

Strength 18 

Kelnan nods at Oceanus. "Well, unless you fight with maps and potions, we should look about. What did they look like?"

He hopes they weren't dumped overboard with the crew.

Oceanus explains to Kelnan what he's looking for:

It's a slow, long slog back to the ship, but you make steady, if exhausting, progress, helped not a little by Molo's command of the little boat.

A sail appears from the west. A vessel is approaching.

Can we make out a flag?  Does anyone including Oceanus know what it means if we can? 

Katernin nods, and helps with searching the whole ship to look for Oceanus's belongings.

     “Pirates or Saltmarsh, d’ya think?” Fianna asks Dain and Molo.  “Our luck, I’ve got a hold on more pirates...”

     Looking for a minute, Fianna tries to gauge if they’ll make it back to the main ship before this newcomer foes.  “Row faster,” she suggests, in either case.

Katernin helps Oceanus search the ship. The upstairs cabins being mostly picked through, he moves downstairs into the lower cabins.

Oceanus starts in the starboard aft cabin, adjacent to the secret weapons cache, which he pauses for a moment to inspect again. He points to the design of a lizard with forked tongue extended emblazoned on the front of a shield, and gives Katernin a quizzical look. 

He picks up the open book on the table and leafs through it quickly. He clearly can't read any of it, but Katernin notes the title, in Common. ("Principles of Navigation" by Da Korma.)

Oceanus pops open the sea chest at the foot of the bed – it's neither locked nor trapped. It contains some garments and a pair of boots, mostly quite old but reasonably clean. He next tries the brass box under the bed, but it is locked. He gives Katernin another look. 

In Elvish:

 ---

Meanwhile, Fianna urges Dain and Molo to hurry. They barely manage to grab the line to the ship before the visiting ship comes within hailing distance. 

"Hey!" shouts a gruff woman's voice from the small ship, as your trio begins to climb back up into the Sea Ghost. You see no flags or identification on the incoming vessel, a sailing ship, but rather a pair of middle-aged women eyeing you closely.

     "Pirates," Fianna says, quietly.

     "Ahoy!" She calls out more loudly...  climbing up onto the bigger ship.

"You th' new jailer?" calls the burly, weatherbeaten woman. "Ye' got a talkin' dragon?"

"I haven't," Katernin says, "I'll see if anyone else does."

“That’ll be our friend here!” Molo calls from the boat

Has this new ship come from the direction of town?

     “Just a small one,” Fianna says.  She uses an action to poof GinFin out of existence, then right back into existence upon her shoulder.

     FinFin stretches their wings, then takes flight, doing a slow lap around the new ship showing off but also eyeballing the crew and assessing them.

Quote from Blakey >>

Has this new ship come from the direction of town?

(Roughly. The town is WNW, and the vessel came in more from WSW.)

The vessel is no pleasure boat - it is a utility boat of some kind, well-worn and old, but solid and tough-looking, rather like its crew.

"Fireborn wants ye' back. Git yer stuff. We're takin' over th' ship," says the captain. She spits into the gray ocean. Two more stout, tough-looking women emerge from belowdecks. "J.J. will take ye' back."

As the ship approaches from the starboard side, sandwiching the little skiff between the two bigger ships, Oceanus, who emerged from belowdecks to see what was going on, quietly retreats to the port rails, and drops silently into the water. 

     "The Love Boat has arrived it seems," Fianna says, turning to look at her companions.  Fianna didn't have any gear to grab nor loot to gather so she waited at railing of the ship and was ready in case they wanted to throw over any ropes or such.

     "Afraid some damage was done to this ship," she called over.  "It's going to need some repairs but you are more than welcome to it."

The approaching vessel lowers its sails and drops anchor - the two ships are now parallel to each other, with the skiff between them. You can board the other ship by climbing down into the skiff, and then climbing up another rope ladder they have thrown down for you.

They have no uniforms or insignia, but purport to be agents of Fireborn and the Saltmarsh Guard. The captain introduces herself as Captain Sal. She's loud and gruff, and laughs often in a grating cackle, but she seems friendly enough, if a little bit intimidating.

She climbs down into the skiff, followed by two of her crew carrying a bag of gear, and begin to climb your ladder.

"We'll get it fixed. Any smugglers or crew alive? What kinds cargo ye' got?"

     "Some escaped, none alive on board," Fianna answers.  

     "Cargo is mostly boring stuff but there were some lizard like people who seemed to have been passengers.  They slipped away before we could stop them.  There was also some weaponry hidden in a secret hold," Fianna adds, vaguely pointing in the directions the objects were.

     Fianna then starts the clambering down one ship and back up the other, having lost interest in the ship and wanting to get back to land.

Captain Sal scowls at the mention of lizardfolk and hoists herself over the rails and onto the deck of the Sea Ghost. Her two crew follow suit.

"Git on board. All 'o ye'," she bellows. "J. J.'ll take ye' back t' see Fireborn." With a swoop of her arm, Sal gestures to the party to climb the rails and board the smaller ship. 

(Let me know if: (1) you are complying or not, (2) if there are any immediate/last-minute errands or actions you want to take, and (3) if there are specific items you do or don't intend on pocketing or taking with you.)

Oceanus is nowhere to be seen.

Molo would like to get a vibe for who these people are, and what - if anything- he knows about ships sailing out of Saltmarsh with no flag. 

Also: who’s got the map? Molo will want to take the weapons shipment for sure.

Katernin looks around, "Um... can it wait a moment? I'm looking for something for someone..."