Chapter 2: Getting your feet wet!

The next few days Jormund, Goran and Ras were getting acquainted with the district of Kruiersmuur. Some time was spent near the Temple of Shallya, Heiligdom, observing the cave that they had discovered a few days earlier. It seemed that the entrance was reasonable camouflaged by a few small boats that were blocking line of sight to the entrance at low tide.

Sweaty Olaf

They also had a look around the ruin of Jormund former pub. A few attempts were made to figure out if anyone knew who could have been responsible for this, with mixed results. a lot of the locals seemed reluctant or afraid to talk, others more or less indicated that it was Jormund's fault. If he had paid for the 'insurance', his inn would have been fine.

After the purchase of a fine wooden lantern (...), they made their way back to the Rusty Barnacle. After discussing what they had done with him, they inquired if Sweaty Olaf knew a certain "Willem", a name they picked up in one of the stores near the burnt down inn. Olaf claimed he didn't know him, but also pointed out that that area was the territory of a different crew.

He informed them that Rikkert had a job for them, and that they should be present in the inn that night, with their gear.

Later that evening he met them there, explaining he needed to hire a few men to take out a few guards of a Bretonnian ship. Their job was to clear the decks, after part of the guards had left the ship. They agreed and made their way to the dock where they had met Olaf a few days earlier. 

Rikkert Bot

This time, a rowboat was waiting for them, and Rikkert indicated to make their way to the west, keeping close to the Southbank. Once opposite Stoessel, to tols Rad, who was doing the rowing, to pull aside. He pointed to a ship, the 'Demoiselle Verte' on the other side of the river.

They laid low for a while, until they saw a large rowboat leave with 6 or so guards. Rikkert gave the all clear for them to move towards the ship. At that stage, they had noticed a large canvas bag underneath Rikkert's bench. He hadn't mentioned it, and they didn't ask any questions. 

Once they had pulled along the ship, they waited for a moment until none of the remaining guards were close, and climbed up, leaving Rikkert and the bag behind. It didn't take long before a fight broke out, and within minutes the three guards on the upper decks were killed, one by a dead-eye shot from Jormund, seconds after the guard had put bolt into Ras' neck, almost killing him. They moved into the captain's quarters where a firefight between Ras with his blunderbus and the leader of the guards wielding his pistol resulted in destruction of most of the crockery on the Captains table. Before the gunsmoke cleared, Goran and Jormund stormed in to finish the brawl with a bit of old fashioned chopping.

The Demoiselle Vert

Then, it went silent. They made their way through the other cabins, not finding anything interesting. Eventually the made their way down to the lower deck, where they found two more guards hiding. After a bit of yelling back and forth, the guards saw it was useless to resist and surrendered.

Ras notified Rikkert that the job was done and was instructed to help pull the bag up onto the deck, after which Rikkert instructed them to take it into the main hold and empty the bag there. He also pointed out that he had no intention to leave two living guards below, so if they could kindly take care of that as well, they would be on their way shortly. After this he made his way into the captain's quarters.

In the hold, they found the body of a man, killed in a fight, stab wounds in his back and chest. They created a bit of a set-up that made it look like the two guards below deck had killed the man. At that stage they heard a thumping sound further in the hole. 

Inspection of the cargo revealed a wooden partition behind some crates, with a metal reinforced door. Opening it, they found four women and a group of children hogtied and gagged. Rikkert wasn't keen on getting involved, pointing out that things like this happened on a daily base, and that it was wiser to get moving, but the other were less inclined to do so. Rikkert made clear that if they wanted to be the heroes and free these slaves, they would have to wait for the other guards to come back, as there was no way to get everyone in their smaller rowboat in one single trip.

An ambush was set up and in a very short time the group was able to kill the other guards, without damaging the cargo they were returning to the Bretonnian ship: a boat full of tied up children. All of these slaves-to-be were distributed over the two rowboats, and a discussion took place about what to do with them. The women were 2 merchants wives from Nuln, who's coach had been held up, after which they were taken prisoner, as well as 2 local prostitutes. The children found in the ship were all Wastelanders, their parent's killed on the road or they themselves kidnapped from their houses. The newly arrived kids were locals, but our group didn't seem too interested in them. A few ideas were swapped, like keeping the Nuln woman as hostages and release them for a ransom, or to use the children to set up their own group of pickpockets, but in the end Goran settled to let the women go back to Nuln; the prostitutes owing them a favour, and would take care of the Wasteland children; and the local children were left at the nearest watch post, tied to the front door.

Rikkert left all of them with a relatively filled purse, and a slightly bitter taste in their mouths. apart from Ras, who spent quite some time inspecting his newly acquired cutlass and pistol, while haggling with Sweaty Olaf over docking fees for his new rowboat.