Brooding somewhat, and with a troubled expression, Hoskar boards the craft; wincing at the sounds of distress from widows and orphans. Heavy purse, heavy heart. Oh Issaries, how can I keep these deals together?
I'd let Melock do the talking; or say you don't speak trade and let me translate...ah...creatively he murmurs to Tarnessh before moving to sit by the boat's edge, scanning the surroundings and for all the world looking like an attentive guard.

He looks her up and down and leers at her, then shakes his head and laughs. He watches the new arrivals with interest, then turns to Ohanzee, "Would that be the one who had his goons shoot you?" he thinks briefly, "Either way, as guards I suppose we should check they aren't carrying anything that might help the prisoner escape." He walks towards the trader, "Hoskar, can you come and tell him what I'm saying?"

Startled from his thoughts, it takes Hoskar a moment to register what he's been asked. Wha? Oh. Certainly. Don't want any little misunderstandings, do we?

In reply to Hoskar Feather (msg # 12):

"My thanks" He approaches the trader and smiles, "We are guarding him" He points to Desi "So we know your not here to help him escape, you will need to undo one of those" He points to the bundles of cloth, "and place all your weapons in it and tie it back up and then leave it with us, until we get to Pavis" He does his best to look intimidating and rests his hand on his axe.

The Trader stands, rather unsteadily, listens to the translation and scoffs "I am a Lunar citizen. You can not order me around, guard or not. Do not speak to me again."

He turns to his men, speaks to them in a strange language. Both men stand, place their hands on their swords and stand before their master.

The boat is now about one hundred metres from shore and heading North, whilst riding the tidal current with the aid of a brisk breeze.

The two scribes, both men in their middle twenties, stare from Melock to the Trader, to Indigo Hue and his naked male slave, to Handsome Desi and the other Rangers and finally at the crew and Black Eel river folk.

Eyebrows are raised, shoulders shrugged and then they both make themselves comfortable amongst the cargo on the deck, open their large packs and remove food and drink.

In reply to GM (msg # 14):

"As you are a Lunar citizen, that is good enough for me." He walks back to his gear and making sure he has a good view of the trader and scribes, sits down and watches them, ready to spring in to action. I can see this being a slow trip till we make our move. That traders guards might be a problem though.

The Trader moves to the rear of the boat, followed by his men, one of whom stops and begins staring at the prow where Ohanzee is.

When the trader and his henchmen are out of earshot, Hoskar resumes his scanning of the boat's surroundings...or is it musing?

Praxian What a charmless fellow, he remarks pleasantly into the empty air; then adding Tradetalk mighty hostile for a trader. How odd.

Maybe if he can be induced to pick a fight that would sort out the contract: didn't see anything that said I can't defend myself if set upon. In fact, "defend against all attacks" or something, wasn't it?

The boat is surprisingly nimble and the crew in good spirits despite the odd collection of people on board.

As they looks back at Corflu, Henal and Amara notice two other boats pulling out from the Northern shore, roughly from where the Deep Channel settlement is. They too have sails. It's a bit far to see exactly how many people they have on board without magical aid.

Ohanzee Looks on with a growing smile as the trader and his men board the boat. This is looking up, one escape turns into one escape and three revenges.

He says nothing, just watching them do their smug thing, but when they look his way and recognition crosses their races he smiles directly at them and nods to them.

Tarnessh sighed as the traders appeared. More Lunars, that meant more complications, more things to worry about messing up the plan, and a greater need to keep his mouth shut so he didn't tell the truth and ruin everything. For now, he just continued playing the silent guard and hoped that the traders would think he was too stupid to talk...or listen. Because Tarnessh was quite a good listener.

Amara remained looking back at the town they left, sorry to be leaving Zara behind, but also thankful to be leaving Lunar decadence behind. Her eyes narrowed as she spotted the boats heading towards their own, wondering if she'd need to involve herself in anything that might occur.

From where he is sitting Melock watches Ohanzee's reaction to the trader and manages to surpress a smile, Thank you Raven for this bounty of good luck

Seeing Ohanzee look at the trader and smile Henal grins back at him.

Looks like the gods have delivered us a few good chances here he thinks.

As the boat leaves the dock, Kobal gives a silent prayer to Zola Fel to smooth their journey, that the boat won't capsize or sink.

One of the last three men to get on the boat looks familiar.  Kobal hands the chains to Nixa and slowly but casually makes his way towards Ohanzee.   He sees that the rhino brave has also recognised the men but still he continues to the front of the boat and then speaks quietly to Ohanzee.

"If we can create an argument with those men, so that one of them draws their sword, the rest of the people on board won't be so scared when we fight and kill those three."
This message was last edited by the player at 07:46, Tue 16 Dec 2014.

Fortunately scanning the area, Hoskar notices the boat has company, but also can't make out who it might be. Not wanting to be taken by surprise, he mutters his charm to see clearer at a distance.

With a shrug Ohanzee replies quietly ”I dare say I could provoke an argument, but why are you worried what the others think, they are all to be murdered aren’t they?”

The question is put simply as that, the day to calm off having apparently made a remarkable change in the young Raven brave’s mood. It is not that he is happy, at least not until the trader appeared, rather that he seems detached from it, emotionless almost.

”Logically speaking I mean. The contract was to guard the boat to Pavis, so the act of leaving it is enough to break that. Might as well then leave no witnesses hey?”

“Or was the idea to take them all as slaves? But in that case who cares what they think?”

“By the way, the trader had a bound spirit up in the rafters of the Craft Barn, so we’ll need to deal with that when we make the move.” and Ohanzee looks up into the rigging and the air about for anything that might hold the spirit.

"Because," replies Kobal quietly, "there is a wizard on this boat, and two scribes.  I do not know what powers they have.  If those thugs draw swords on us, neither the wizard nor the scribes will have cause to turn against us.  Why invite trouble?  If we need to fight the wizard and scribes later, then so be it.  But easier to deal with three men first, then another three men later (four if you count the slave), rather than have to suddenly fight six men all at once, one of them an Agimori wizard."



"There are too many to take all as slaves.  I know not how powerful the wizard is.  I have no quarrel with the women and children.  We should only kill them if we need to.  Even if we kill all on the boat, can you guarantee no spirits would escape?  That no divination would discern the truth?  Even if there are no witnesses, the Moon worshippers and Tolkazzi will be suspicious of us in future.  Unless we can convince the wizard to lie about us."



Kobal sends a message to his animal familiar, who is lounging under the shade of one of the sails, licking its paws.  "Haaro, do you sense any spirits with the trader and his thugs?  Are they powerful?  Any spirits with the wizard for that matter?"
This message was last edited by the player at 10:19, Tue 16 Dec 2014.

The man pales as he recognises Ohanzee, looking from the  brave to his group of friends, armed and in many cases looking at him.

He quickly moves to the rear of the boat where he obviously informs his boss about who he has just seen.



Hoskar sees that the two boats are full of men. Not Lunars, but riverfolk and a good ten on each boat. They look to be armed with spears.

Both boats are moving swiftly, powered by sails and the incoming tide.



Ohanzee spies nothing out of the ordinary, just Tarnessh's Vrok Hawk shadowing them, high above and to the rear.




Haaro comes back immediately "The trader has a familiar about his person, average in power, the Wizard has several bound spirits and artifices of power and the Scribes both have bound spirits varying in power."

You are informed that both the wizard, trader and two scribes have bound spirits.

At last the boat moves into a separate channel, hidden from view from Corflu. The banks are covered in dense vegetation, which at times touches over head.

Every now and again side channels open on to the main channel and it's from one of these, about two hundred metres ahead, that a small boat with a sail appears pulling out and heading upstream....

After passing on Haaro's information about the spirits to Ohanzee (the scribes may not be as weak as they seem), Kobal leaves the man to walk over to one of the Deep Channel men.  He taps him on the shoulder and nods towards the two other boats.  "What's up with those boats?" he asks.
This message was last edited by the player at 10:46, Tue 16 Dec 2014.

The man looks to where Kobal's pointing, shielding his eyes from the glare as the two boats enter the same channel as their own boat

"Not sure. Might be off fishing, or going to one of our other settlements upriver."

He shrugs, continuing coiling the rope in his hand.
This message was last edited by the GM at 11:08, Tue 16 Dec 2014.

”Lie for us?” Ohanzee looks unconvinced ”Good luck with that.” he snorts. ”Still, I sense that he will not interfere so long as he gets to the tower. He is not one of them, a crazy outsider sure, but not a Lunar.”

Then he glances at the women folk and the scribes ”Those who scratch on the paper? You are afraid that they can better us? They haven’t even weapons have they?”

Then he looks Kobal in the eye ”I don’t know why you worry about what Tolkazzi and the Lunars think, either letting Desi escape or failing to turn up in Pavis with the boat, or protecting the people on it is enough to mark you as all outlaws, but in fact all three will be done.”

Finally he looks back at the trader and his men ”I’ll start nothing yet, I’m happy to watch them wriggle for the while.”

He turns to see what the others are looking at, but because of the bright light can not see anything. As the goon goes and tells the trader something, Melock smiles. So it is the trader who tried to kill Ohanzee, this will be fun.