Sailing Away (Everyone)

<With all this note-passing we could be in a melodrama of intrigue,> Sithani comments. <What's the plan? Are we rowing up and asking permission to board, or dramatically crashing the party?>

Sithani, do you mind passing everything along again?

Sunrise waits for Sithani to agree to 'broadcast' the message; then, concentrating, she says the following. Ka'Ri and Glen are going to sneak aboard. If we come up on the island over there, where it's dark, they can slip ashore. There's a pause here, then she casts the cantrip again. Then the rest of us will go around to where the party is. Our job is half diplomacy, half distraction; if Korogur is reasonable and - another pause - we can talk him into leading us to Gwyn, great, but if not we'll still buy our sneaky people time to do their jobs. Pause. I intend to go up onto the ship; they may insist that we all do so, but if not, anyone who wants to stay back, one last pause, in the boat as an ace in the hole in case things go wrong is welcome to do so. Everyone ready to go?

As she looks from face to face for nods or objections, she casts her thoughts up to Honey again. Baby, do you feel up to more sneaking around? The "island" over there - don't take any risks, don't let anyone see you, but if you can look around and see what's going on there and if anyone is on shore it would help a lot.

Ka'Ri nods to Glen and tips her cloak around her to mask her shape more in the darkness and prepares the boat for a short stop near the slope to slip off. As she creeps off shore with Glen and Elen she nods to the others and entrusts the ship steering to Thimb with a gentle smile.

Stealth = 25 ( 19 + 6 )

Glen pulls up the hood of his cloak as well after giving Sunrise's shoulder an affectionate squeeze. He and Elen, too, hop out of the boat and onto the small formation.

Glen stealth 22
Elen stealth 15

Sunrise watches them go to shore, then nods at Jarek. Eyes fixed on the pirate ship up ahead, she begins furiously cleaning and drying herself with magic to prepare for meeting Korogur.

Down here by the water, the island is dark and quiet. There are huge lumps of things covered under heavy tarps; a quick glance through one of these confirms that these are supplies for repairing the ship when she makes berth: lumber, pitch, wax, paint, glue, and the like.

Further up the gentle slope are tents--probably for sleeping--which are spottily illuminated by standing torches.

---

As the little dinghy comes around, there is no sign yet that anyone on the ship has seen them. The party continues on with boisterous abandon.

<Either they're very confident or there's some kind of magical sentry,> suggests Sithani.

Here goes nothing.

Taking a deep breath, and resting a hand on Sithani's shoulder for balance, Sunrise carefully gets to her feet inside the small boat. Drawing herself up to her full height, back straight and projecting a confidence she doesn't feel, she raises a hand and waves. "Ahoy the ship!" Her voice is modulated to carry; bold, but not threatening, with a hint of amusement. Her head is high, calm assurance on her face. "Permission to come aboard?"

The scramble that follows isn't one of military precision but neither is it entirely disorganized. Lights are brought to spill over the side of the ship and at least two bows are snatched up and arrows nocked and aimed. They do not, however, fire.

Korogur appears at the ship rail, leaning over and studying the strangers with an amused expression. "Depends!" he hollers back cheerfully. "Who's asking? What business has a wild tiefling princess with simple merchants?"

Oh, good, he's being charming and gregarious, Sithani thinks to herself. We might be able to keep him talking long enough for Glen and Ka'Ri to do their thing, if we can't talk him into helping us.

To her companions, she projects, <I volunteer to go with Sunrise, if they'll let more than one of us to join in. I might be able to spin my home life to build a connection with him, if his relationship with his family is the way I think it is - and if it goes to hell, I have a flashy defence move that should get all eyes on me while Sunrise flees.>

Glen melts into the shadows, taking advantage of the distracted crew to slowly, quietly walk up to the nearest tent, avoiding the nearby torchlight. He listens carefully at the flap for movement, conversation, or breathing. Elen stays closeby, keeping watch.

Glen perception 11
Elen perception 21

"Well, for starters," she calls back, matching his arrogance and cheer, "I see you're having a party without me, and I feel terribly left out. My name is Sunrise."

Glen and Elen do not sense any breathing or bodily warmth in the nearby tent. All seems still.

"Zat right?" he answers with a grin. If the name means anything to the sea-faring captain, it doesn't show on his handsome face. "Wouldn't want you to feel left out, Princess Sunrise. You dance?"

Ever so quietly and carefully, Glen pulls back the flap and peers inside the tent.

She raises an eyebrow, amused. "When I have a partner who can keep up."

The tent is empty.

It is nicely appointed, for a tent: the bed is a cot raised off the ground so as to not be so hard or cold as a sleeping roll would be. An empty water basin sits nearby, presumably to be filled for drinking or washing. A thin book--a volume of letters by a historian whose name Glen vaguely recognizes--lies on the cot. A nearby bag contains what looks like folded clothes. The scene is familiar to his soldier's senses, even if the details are different.

---

"Well, we have some mighty fine dancers," Korogur asserts with a chuckle. "And you did ask real nicely to come aboard." He eyes Sunrise's outfit with mild misgiving. "Can you climb a ladder, milady, or do you require a hand?"

"I can climb," she says with a smile. "Although I do hate to turn down such a gallant offer. Perhaps you'd be willing to help me over the side?"

Glen looks for Ka'Ri and shakes his head, indicating that the tent is empty. If he can, he sneaks over to the next nearest tent and listens at it for any signs of life.

Ka'Ri looks around, lets her eyes adjust to the darkness and then examines the tents and surrounding surface.

She looks around for any activity, human or otherwise and then looks for any tents that might be in positions of higher importance than others (either by having more space around them or by being setup out of pattern with the others).

Investigation = 19 (16+3)

The tents, interestingly enough, all appear to be largely identical in size, shape, and placement detail. There is one tent which is longer than the others and sits roughly in the center of the cluster of tents, but it looks almost too big for a living quarters; from the outside, Ka'Ri would guess a meeting tent or feasting place. These pirates seem unusually egalitarian in their living arrangements--although, of course, it could simply be that the fancier officer rooms are on the ship.

The next tent Glen investigates has the sound of soft snoring inside, a steady pfftt-sshhh-shhhhh noise that repeats in a long slow rhythm.

---

Rope ladders are thrown down the sides of the ship to the dinghy below. The ladders, being that they are rope, cling to the side of the ship and are difficult and unpleasant to climb in good conditions, which these are not. Korogur, happily distracted from these preparations, quickly knots a rope 'seat' to hold himself and whistles to be lowered down to the little boat.

He gathers Sunrise up into his arms like a fine lady and whistles again, the two hoisted into the dizzying air and rotating slightly on the cool cave breeze. He studies her with a face which is somehow younger and more boyish than the posters always make him look. Yet though he is laughing now, she can see little worry lines at the edges of his eyes and receives the strong impression that the young man may be more serious than he looks.

The rest of the boat inhabitants are left to climb the rope ladders as they will or, if they be so bold, request rope seats and escorts of their own.

"Anyone else want new friends?" Sithani calls up. "We may not be as pretty as Sunrise, but we have our compensations."

Sunrise drapes her arms prettily around Korogur's neck, openly studying his face as she's lifted up. Her own is also easy to read: she's enjoying the playful flirting, but although there's no hostility there is an undercurrent of solemnity. "How gallant," she murmurs warmly as she's helped onto the ship.

A fierce orc woman snorts and throws a fresh coil of rope over the side, descending hand-over-hand rather than repeating Korogur's trick with the knotted seat. Landing with a thud that rocks the little dinghy, she wraps a smaller rope around Sithani's waist and secures the girl to her. "Hold on, little elf," she orders, climbing back up hand-over-hand with Sithani's weight slowing her down not a whit.

"We try to treat guests right 'round here," Korogur teases. "Partly on account of them being so rare. Where's my music?" he adds in a playfully outraged roar, sweeping Sunrise into a fast dance that carries them round the ship at practically a gallop.

A delighted laugh escapes her and she dances with him, matching his pace with grace. For a minute she simply lets herself enjoy dancing with a handsome pirate, and moves around the ship with him as if she hasn't a care in the world.

Eventually, when a particular spin lands her in his arms, she leans in and murmurs, low and intimate, "I need to talk to you."

"Oh?" he murmurs, looking highly amused.