The Captain's Caper! (Dunamin judging)

[Phoenix8008]

Quagmire ignores Captain Azrael. He sighs, and spits a wad of bloody mucus onto the sand. "Azrael was an idiot, to be sure, but he was smart enough to hire us. He may have lost the cargo originally, but he's busted his oversized backside trying to get it back. As you can see, he has succeeded, and delivered the cargo safely. Is your Lady really such a fool as to put her pride before her life and her own business interests?"

"You can ask her yourself then. When we saw the ship coming and reported to her who it was, she said that Azrael had earned his death, but we could let you do the work of offloading the cargo if we wanted. If you'd like to try and convince her otherwise, go right ahead." the dragonborn says with a growling chuckle.

 

[Atanatotatos]

So how are we handling this one, mates? Brain or brawn? asks Alexander, still keeping an eye on the dragonborn. Myself, I prefer a straightforward approach, ya know...

 

[covaithe]

Quagmire sighs. "I hate it when employers don't listen to reason, don't you?" he asks the dragonborn captive. "How did yer boss get to this island? She got a boat around here somewhere?"

[sblock=ooc]If I find myself thinking, "What would Palindrome do?"... that's bad, right?

Here's some brainstorming of ways to deal with this situation that don't involve charging up the path into a meat grinder:

• Leave. Find another buyer for Azrael's cargo, buy him a one-way ticket to the Kingdom of Jade, and wash our hands of the situation.
• Set the jungle on fire. Wait, preferably upwind.
• Sail around the island, looking for other boats. Sink or steal them. Then send the captive dragonborn back up the trail to tell his mistress that if she won't deal with us, we'll just sail away and leave her here to starve.
• Sail around and find other boats. Set an ambush, preferably with some makeshift pit traps. Wait.
• Sail to the main island of Kythira, make contact with the fey court, and tell them about smugglers operating off of this island. Accept their grateful thanks and sail into the sunset.
• Tie Azrael up and send him up the trail with the Dragonborn, while we take the cargo and sail off to find another buyer. Appealing as this sounds, Quagmire would probably not go for it.

You get the idea. Even if we decide that it's better not to leave living enemies behind, we still shouldn't go straight up the path, we should try to go through the jungle or something and get the drop on them from behind.

[/sblock]

 

[Atanatotatos]

[sblock=ooc]uhmmm... nice ideas:

*that'd be a bit like giving up, wouldn't it? Not very good for reputation...
*that would definitely piss off the fey lords, I guess
*would take quite some time, and what if they spot us, take sail, and try to sink us all?
*this one might work, but I think we'd only be catching small fries
*clever idea, too, but what if the feys actually have an agreement with the Dragonborn mistress? They might execute us in place!
*this one sounds very fun, but Alexander is still too much of a good boy for that, too

Going through the jungle and surprise them seems like the best choice to me. We might even decide to risk leaving the dragonborn alive to lead us...[/sblock]

Alexander looks at the dragonborn for a while, thoughtful, then pats softly again on his shoulder with the flat of his sword, and asks:
Alright, lizard face, what I want to know now is, how loyal are you to this Mistress of yours? Consider how important the answer might be for your well-being in the immediate future...

 

[The Digger]

While he waited for the dragonborn to reply Girth stared him in the eye. His tongue licked across his lips and his eyes promised a death most horrible - if necessary.

Without averting his eyes he spoke quietly to the others.

"Unthinkable it would be to sail away. This Lady of the dragonborn an enemy is and to leave an enemy at one's back a dreadful error is. Difficult it will be a course of action to decide but a course of action there must be - not a course of inaction."

His eyes flickered briefly to his companions. "Whatever is decided, know this; Girth is with thee, always!"

 

[Atanatotatos]

[sblock=ooc]gotta love how creepy and ruthless with enemies, and ever loyal and kinda cute too with companions, Girth is [/sblock]

 

[garyh]

"The way I see it," Hrav grunts, "we're going to have to kill this Lady eventually. If we get it done now, that means she can't try - again - to off us first."

[sblock=OOC]I'd like to come up with something else creative but I can't really see a more-likely-to-work option than brute force. Plus, Hrav's all about brute force. ; )

I wouldn't mind going for the "steal her boat" approach, though. That might work, and it'd be fun to have a boat.[/sblock]

 

[covaithe]

Quagmire nods, and polishes his tusks absently. "Aye, fair enough. I've no great desire to have knives in my back, either. Let's be about it, then."

 

[Atanatotatos]

[sblock=ooc]so do we try to ambush them from the jungle, or do we look for the ships?[/sblock]

 

[covaithe]

ooc: I suppose that depends on what the Dragonborn answers to Quagmire's question about whether they've got a boat. We might decide just to go in through the jungle anyways, with Hrav scouting. On the other hand, by ambushing the boat, we might be able to take an extended rest. Dunno, it's a tossup to me I guess.