Telemachus calls out again, "If you pull up alongside, we can drop a rope and so we can haul up the fish, and we can drop a purse to you."

He steps back from the rail, and grabs a rope, and speaks quietly to Storm, "I trust them Storm, but I have been fooled often these past few days. Did you detect any taint of evil on them?"
This message was last edited by the player at 03:39, Sun 23 May 2021.

"Very well," said one of the men, and they rowed a little closer, more alongside the Ananke.

Lenelle listened and observed, content with the way this was being handled by the others.  It would help to know more about this Cannibal and his followers, but information was something they and their new allies didn't have.

Still striving to learn more about the ship and the ways of the sea, she assisted Wick with the tasks he was working on.

Pan smiles and rubs his hands together, "Fresh flounder, I can already taste it".  He pulls out a few coins to show he's not kidding about buying some.

"Blah, blah, blah, every town we've run about has bad men about it, same old story, sure its nothing a couple of tough nuts like yourselves can't crack, eh?.....'unless, its worse than that?"

"Well, it not as easy as that," said the man who had spoken second.  "Best be the nail that don't stand too high, there's some fair deadly folk in town what ... well, you hit 'im and he just heal right up."


The man who had first spoken held up a flounder from their net.  The fish was probably around two feet in length from a rough guess.  "Twenty asil?"

---

Depending on the size of the fish, you'd expect to pay about 3 asil per pound, a rough guess would put the fish on display at 7 to 7.5 pounds, so 21 asil to 22 asil, 4 griel would be expected pricing.

Wick gives Panatix a nod, thinking the deal fair enough.  "We could do with a couple more if they got more that size, have a right fine fish fry.  Of course, we would be better if we could get something to wash it down with ashore, maybe a bit of sweet for after."

Wick could call to the men direct of course, but no need to spook them more, not after they got a bit of a scare.

Turning back to Lenelle, he starts talking knots, which ones are best for which situations, shanks, slip knots, seaman's knots...  There really weren't more than a few, but then each had a few different types based on the details...  and then there was rope coiling, had to be done just proper to make sure it didn't foul the rigging when time was short.

Pan nods, "Fair enough, got three at that price, got a lot of mouths to feed over here", the gnome laughs.  If they do, he will pay the men.

"Not sure I quite understand about that just healin' up thing, that seems unnatural for a man, "

Telemachus returns to the rail and tosses a rope down to the smaller boat, so the fish can be hauled up.

He will toss a purse down with the agreed amount of coin, if Panatix does not have funds readily available.

While the fish are being tied to the line, he calls down again, "I wonder if you might be interested in earning another 50 asils?

We came to Farnsworth to see if we can't help to get rid of the Cannibal who has taken over the town. We plan on meeting with others of a like mind shortly. But we need to leave our ship, anchored out here as we don't trust the harbour at the moment.

If you are willing to simply fish near our ship, and ensure no one boards her until we return, you will have earned my gratitude, and the 50 asils.

What do you say?"

---

Fish money and reward can come out of the common funds.

Westin, OK to leave Jade on the ship again as our alarm system?

Westin joins Lenelle in listening to Wick talk about knots. Despite his skill in Sailing, he has much to learn when it comes to making knots.

OOC:
Re: Leaving Jade on board. You can ask Westin about leaving Jade, but I it's probably unlikely Westin would even want to ask her. Quite a bit different leaving Jade amongst friends docked or right by the shore vs leaving her alone (or with strangers) on a ship in a harbor or at sea. It's not like she's a guard dog.

The men were able to come up with a total of three fish of a size similar to the first one displayed for which they had asked twenty asil.  They were also willing to keep watch over the Ananke while they continued fishing.  Of course, this is about a good four hundred feet from the town proper, and while the church on the hill is very visible, there is not much cover, except from the east side where there are a few scattered trees.

Lenelle watched and listened attentively to Wick's examples, striving to get it right.  She had the dexterous fingers of her larcenous mother and the Tanasi-elven father she'd never met, which helped in working with the rope.   She was looking forward to spending time aboard the Ananke; the enthusiasm the others had for sailing had proven contagious.

Once Westin began working with them, she ventured "Dak believes Eliphas may still be out here.  So, perhaps there will be another opportunity for you to find the Ars Mathematica, hey?"   

"Thank you, let's head to shore my friends, and please, don't put yourselves in danger to protect our ship, I'll cast a spell on it before we leave that should protect it from any nere'do'wells..." Pan nods and winks to the fishermen.

ooc: let's assume we lower the ashore boat and make our way that aways!  Once we are all heading towards shore, Pan will cast chromatic orb on the ship, causing a glow of bright light to flare around the ship for a minute before fading, a simple light spell basically, but should keep the fishermen from deciding to do anything bad.

Storm thanks the fishermen and blesses them. He sincerely hopes that these honest men will be safe.

At that point, he reflects on his own life, knowing that he will be a shepherd if not for the events that transpired in his life. Thinking through, a smile escapes his face as he renews his vows to protect the weak.

Now that they were ashore, the group just needed to traverse the path to the church where they would expect to find the others they had met.  The church was clear, as it was atop a hill.  From the bell tower, it seemed that they caught a brief glimpse of someone up there--the distance made it difficult to be absolutely certain, but it did seem to be consistent with the priestess of the other group, popping up and then returning to cover.

The village itself had a rather empty air, as though few dared to go openly about business in the town, although in the distance, fields could be seen where some folk were at work.

"Let us move into town with our arms and amour ready for a fight," Storm says. He had spent the time maintaining his arms and armour.

"Shouldn't we go to the church and join the others?" Westin ventures. He felt very uneasy about the town, that it seemed so empty. He very much wanted to join the others to create a larger group and perhaps find some safety in numbers. He felt sure their arrival had been noted, perhaps there was even a spy in the town, he reflected darkly. Nervous, he reached for his dagger, making sure it was still there. Hopefully any fight would go better than the disastrous fight they had had with Eliphas and his gang.

"I believe that is our destination, Westin.

And while it looks like we will have to move through the town to get there, I suggest that we avoid as much of the town as we can, on our way to the church."

---

This is the last marching order we used (I think):

           Wick
    Panatix and Storm
    Westin and Telemachus
    Lenelle and Vendavel

"Yeah, let's just walk through the deserted town to the church, no one should notice us much". The gnome laughs to himself.  They look like a war mob, nothing suspicious to note here!

Wick looks over the layout.  "Or maybe we act like merchants or something, wait until night fall and let the sneaky types do a bit of a scout..."

Wick wasn't typically one to volunteer for hazardous duty, but at least if he tried to sneak in on his own, he'd be less likely to end up in a stand up fight.  If needs be, he could probably outrun any armor-clad muscle and wizards weren't known for being fleet of foot.

"Whatever we do, we need to walk. I dont suppose we have a nice sandy area just beside the church to unload ourselves? Let us prepr our arms and armour. I think there is not much point in subterfuge since a bunch of us moving will stick out like sore thumbs and we really dont have time to move in one by one. Besides, we are safer in numbers," Storm explains his thoughts.

"And bad things happen when people get separated from the group," Westin adds morbidly. Karel's death in particular sprung to his mind not to mention the whole situation with Dak.

“Yes! Definitely better for us to stick as a group and help one another. We should have a marching order with us spaced out a little so we don’t get caught up in a sudden ambush,” Storm says.

Doing their best to skirt along the edge of the town, the group did find there was not much cover on the hill the church sat upon.  As they made their way uphill, a group of five men burst out from a small building ((small rectangle on same side of road at the lower middle left)).

"Hold!" said one man, "you need to pay up, coming into my town."

The four men behind him seemed to be wearing leather tunics over their clothing, two of them armed with long swords, one with what appeared to be an old, battered scimitar, and another with a battle axe.

Storm steps forward, performs a salute and says,"Hail strangers! May I ask for your good name? I assume you must be the lord of the town to have the means to ask for tolls. Pray show thy lawful authorit to enforce your words."

With the start of combat, "Reunited" is the active thread.