Byron replies to Aliana in quiet whisper.  Knowing that people will eavesdrop if given half a chance.

This is not the place to look for trouble.  You were smart not to follow them.  The best thing is to let him know they are in town. If you saw them they might have recognized me immediately if I had been with you.  Help yourself to some of the food on the plate if you want.

Aliana nodded, and gratefully poured herself some water,  and ate some cheese and fruit.  As worried as she was, the delicious food soon calmed her nerves.  She ate too much iron rations as an Adventuring cleric, and missed regular meals at the library

"Oi never seen Ruben before. Durgen be with us when I be killed at da tower. Nelson's brother. Wizard."

Aliana will convey what Vernon said to Byron, though less colloquially

Byron replies just as quietly as he can.
 
The lot of them are bad news.  I would love to know what they are up to however it is that we best avoid them as much as possible here.  We don't want to lose a very helpful ally in Lord Dhelt.

Timber could tell from the look on Myarra's face that the ship needs a lot of repair and that the ship doesn't have a gangplank.

"Don't worry about it. I know a guy who has a lot of lumber." Timber laughed "We'll stack cords of wood to get on deck so we can seal the below deck. Unless you're going to hang out here and watch all day, you might as well go to town and get food and probably buy some equipment for your Mariasha."
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Vernon tries to grab some of the food, but just laughs when his hand goes through it. Aliana gets some cheese and some water and sits down and waits with Byron. It's a long, boring day, but around 3pm, an Acolyte comes in to escort you to a private chamber to meet Lord Dhelt.

Lord Dhelt is looking out the window when Byron and Aliana, with Vernon are escorted into the room. Dhelt looks at Vernon and smiles,

"What news have you brought me about the mines?" Dhelt asked the 3 of you

"Yeah, we're missing a lot of the niceties. The Mariasha and I are both works in progress.

I'll let the others decide for themselves, but I'm going to hang around. No insult intended. I have a lot to learn about her, and your folks will be the first to note anything strange. And, right now, strange things are exactly what I need to learn about.

I promise not to get underfoot. If I do, just tell me to bugger off and off I shall bugger. That said, if you have anything heavy and simple that a total moron could safely move, consider me just such a moron."

She lowers her voice and leans in a little.

"I want the arrival of the Mariasha to be something your folks look forward to in the future. So if I can get them home to their families a little earlier tonight, that's a bit of effort that will make my life significantly easier in the future."

She looks around for a second, then leans in even closer and whispers, "Where's the best place in town to buy a fancy hat?"

Byron looks at Lord Dhelt and replies in the most politic and diplomatic way he can.  A change from his usual light and sometimes carefree manor of speaking.

Good afternoon Lord Dhelt.  We have run into a serious concern regarding the slaves in the mines.  We do not want to leave them to be slaughtered, nor do we think that they can survive on their own.  If we succeed may we bring them here as we feel this would be the best location for them?  They will need help in adjusting to life a non-slave.

Yes, I could use your help. I'll team you up with Dwight to bring in the buckets of pitch. I'm not making fun or you or anything, but there were many times I wish I had wings instead of going up and down a ladder a hundred times a day." Timber replied "As for a hat? Like a Captain's hat? I doubt you'll find something off the shelf around here, but I'm sure one of the local tailors could make something up for you, unless you're going to Scornubel or something. I'm sure you could easily find a hat there."

Timber pairs you up with Dwight, who's busy heating up the pitch and scooping it into buckets and hustling over to the ship and slopping it on the hull with a mop. He then hustles back with other empty buckets to repeat the process.

Dwight didn't look too happy to be paired up with Myarra and the look on his face said so. But, he accepted it and moved on without a word about it.

"Just keep stirring the cauldron so the top doesn't start to cool down. It's a pain in the ass to get solid chunks out of there without burning yourself. When we're ready to go on the ship, we'll switch jobs and you can fly the buckets on deck and down through your cargo hold. That will save us a lot of time from those damn ladders. Don't know how many buckets everyone has dropped, wasting time."

Working with Dwight, you can see that his body has seen a rough life.

Roenthelm and Twiggy are staying on deck, but what are Nolan and Amara doing?

"How many refugees are we talking about here?"

"Then I will go see about obtaining provisions that store fairly well. Things like root vegetables, salted meat, etc. Likely those we rescue will want some sort of food." Amara said. "Anyone want to come with me?"

Myarra nods, first at Timber, accepting the assignment, then at Dwight, acknowledging him. The man was clearly unhappy to be paired with her, but Myarra paid it no mind. She's faced down monsters that would eat your face if you showed the slightest weakness. Dwight was not going to be an issue.

As soon as enough pitch is ready, she hands the stirring stick to Dwight, fills two buckets and flies them up onto the deck. The hatch into the cargo hold isn't big enough for her to fly in with her wings fully stretched out and, with two buckets of pitch, she doesn't dare try anything fancy.  She simply lands, then carries each bucket in turn down to where the Timber's men are working, then retrieves the empty buckets to return.

On the way, she pauses by Shannon and whispers in the cat's ear.  Giving her a pet, she gets a rock-hard headbutt in return, and waits a few seconds while Shannon scampers away before gathering up the buckets and casually flying back to Dwight.

The lynx listens to her mistress. She can't understand the strange noises, but she can sense the intent.

She takes the opportunity to head-butt her biped while their heads are close, then turns and heads to the edge of the ship and uses the ladder and lumber to make her way down to the ground, where she quickly spots her quarry.

At first, she's not sure why her mistress has sent her, but once she gets a smell ... difficult with the hot oil smells all around, she recognizes him. He'd been on the road with her mistress and the other bipeds. There had been a lot of bad feelings back and forth, but the man himself had been pleasant, giving her pettings and even scritching her behind her ears without having to be specifically instructed.

Finding him here was probably one of the few good things to happen to her today. With her mistress' blessing, she quickly loped over, hoping the human would have time for a few pettings.

Yes, I will go with you. I need to find some spell components while I'm here.

Roenthelm and Twiggy are busy playing guards on the ship so nobody will steal it, while Nolan and Amara go into town to purchase stuff for the cargo hold and food for the refugees. Myarra is busy helping the workers restore her ship by flying buckets of pitch to seal up the cargo hold while the outside hull dries and cools down for the day. Not having to climb out of the hold and down the ladders makes the workers jobs so much easier and Timber thinks will shave off a few hours to get the job done. Shannon hung out with Dwight and when Myarra came by for pitch refills, she could see that his attitude improved greatly as he was talking to the Lynx and scratching exactly where she wanted it. Myarra has seen people like Dwight before. Animals just flock to this person.

The rest of the day goes on without any problems.
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Byron gives Lord Dhelt the estimate of refugees and he writes it down, as if he were making plans. He doesn't ask how you were going to get them to Elturel, so you don't have to say anything about the Mariasha, if you didn't want to.

Dwight is carrying on a full conversation with Shannon while stirring the cauldron and filling the buckets when Myarra arrived with the empties. While another pot of pitch is being prepped, that's when you take breaks and Dwight is sitting in the shade eating lunch, which he shares with Shannon, who is loving the fried chicken, even though it's cold.

"Oh yeah? That's mighty nice of you. Oh, really?" Dwight said while talking with Shannon

"Thank the Gods it's still summer. We can put the refugees in the Trader Camp outside until we figure out where to put people. Those who need medical attention can be healed as we find out if any of these people have relatives anywhere." Lord Dhelt said as he talked to Aliana, Byron and Vernon "100+ people is a lot, but not impossible."

"I certainly don't mind helping with the healing, sir."

Myarra gives Dwight and Shannon a smile but otherwise leaves them alone and concentrates on hauling the buckets or smearing on pitch, whatever needs doing. Dwight is almost an entirely different man when Shannon is there and it's a good change for however long it lasts.

She sits down not far away from the pair and has some rations for lunch. When Shannon looks over at her, she nods her head toward Dwight, giving the lynx permission to continue to suck up outrageously.

It's going to be a long day and at least two people, not including her, might as well get some enjoyment out of it.

"From the sound of things up there, it sounds like your services would be much appreciated. Do you think they're capable of the march down here? That's pushing 60 miles. Unless you'll be Teleporting again?"

The priestess let Byron give more information

Byron replies to Lord Dhelt both sincerely and a bit vaguely as the condition of the Marissa isn't fully known to Aliana or myself nor the feasibility of using it for this porpuse.

We believe that we will have an alternate form of transportation that does not require walking or teleporting.  However, at this time I do not want to go into detail as our friends are still working on that aspect of our mission.

Aliana and Lord Dhelt can see that Vernon doesn't look at all worried about the transport of the refugees. He's trying to hide a smile.