Sea Haggling

## Synopsis

In Season 2, Chapter 41: Sea Haggling, the waning hours of the day tantalized us with the prospect of a night's sleep – but as we followed the river and searched for a suitable spot to lay our heads, we found the forest had one more challenge yet to bear.

A purposely-misfired arrow landed at our feet and alerted us to someone lurking on the opposite bank; a mysterious figure that motioned to keep quiet – and though we quickly grew anxious by an extended period of silence and inaction, our trust was thankfully not misplaced… for moments later the shadowy silhouette of a night scavver drifted overhead.

This massive, stealthy beast was the last thing we wanted to see after a full day of fighting, so we ducked our heads and held our breath in the reeds by the edge of the water.  When the shadow passed, we knew that fortune had smiled upon us – and with our relief came a follow-up arrow, this one bearing a note from our fellow explorer across the way.

His advice was to speak only in moderation and avoid traveling in darkness – recommendations we were happy to take as we located a small den he offered up as a place of relative safety.  The smell of troll urine was pungent in the air, but not even that could stop us from falling promptly asleep – exhaustion overtaking us as we rotated through our watches.

After Graven had failed to keep his word to Q'usñi, his vivid dreams fostered a bit of restlessness – but we still rose the following morning with fresh eyes and restored magical reserves… not to mention a small gathering of edible offerings from the forest critters who had perhaps received word of our integrity from Scooter the Wise.

As we ventured forth and got closer to the coast, a mildly swampy stretch revealed new creatures endemic to such environments – most notably a pack of bullywugs, who (judging by their bulging satchel) had been scavenging for trinkets as their species was known to do.

Upon sensing our presence, they hopped over rather aggressively and we braced ourselves for conflict – but they were actually more interested in bartering for baubles, and we quickly got the sense that they might have been returning from the crashed Mollefaire boat based on the items they'd acquired.

We traded for some odds and ends, including a keyring we thought might come in handy later, then gave a farewell salute and began the first of many conversations about what risks were worth taking when it came to sea hags and sunken treasure – a debate that would only be complicated further when we reached the shore and found a mutilated body with the phrase "no deal, I steal" carved into its back.

It was a complicated mixture of emotions we were experiencing on the beach because in addition to this grim warning we also, for the first time, laid eyes on both Finlock Forest and the Isthmus of Ricra – still a few hours away on foot but breathtakingly close after all we had overcome to get here.

With time to spare, we proceeded cautiously toward the area around the shipwreck and found plenty of troubling signs to confirm what we already knew – that the sea hag had cultivated a lair here… and that any attempt to enter might be fraught with danger.

Armed with the intel provided by Spud and what we knew about hags in general regarding their proclivity toward treacherous bargains, it seemed we had our pick of strategies.  Would we go in looking to make a deal, knowing it might cost us something of great importance – or would we strike swiftly with an ambush, bypassing negotiation in the hopes of walking away with all of the remaining goods?

After hashing it out extensively, however, we came to the conclusion that it was simply too risky – and it might deplete us of resources better served getting us in or out of the Shade Assembly.   With that in mind, we kept our distance and picked up the trail east along the coast – looking forward to tomorrow's rendezvous.

## Trivia

* Natural one count: two natural ones were rolled in this Chapter, by Riley.