Go retrieve our sword, then straight to the harbormaster or whatever so we can bribe them into searching the ship. Keep an eye out for ambushes.
Deciding on a different tack, you decide to go to the harbourmaster's office to try and get the ship searched. If it's carrying contraband, things may go badly if they're caught.
The harbourmaster offices are in a two story wooden building near the docks. Here there are the registration books for local ships, along with many documents related to the port here, such as the soundings of the local harbour, and the overall records of ownership, arrivals and departures. These also include administrative records, such as reciepts and the incident logs. The building is quite large, and there are generally several people working in here at all times.
Today is no exception. When you enter, there are two men at desks, one next to the sand-table with the distance writer to and from the lookouts, and one copying a wax tablet into a page of a book. You proceed past the clerks and head upstairs towards the customs offices.
On the next floor, there is a third man at a desk, whose job is obviously to guard the harbourmaster's time from routine inquiries, busybodies, and sundry ner-do-wells. Fortunately, your recent experiences have given you the self-confidence and assuredness to smoothly bypass this person and get let inside.
The harbourmaster himself looks fairly impressive in his robes of office, although you don't know how much of the impression is the dress rather than the man. Still, after you give an account of the ship, and after a bit of money changes hands, he agrees to go inspect it.
(-4 silver)
The two of you head downstairs, and the harbourmaster asks one of the clerks who owns the Swallow's Fortune and when it arrived. The clerk responds at once that he knows it's one of Daiyan's ships, and that it was here for the festival. The harbourmaster then waves the clerk off, and the two of you head out the door.
He tells you that this could take some time and that you shouldn't wait up for him. You accept that courteously, and then try to follow him. You lose him when you have to stop to cuff some urchin who tries to pickpocket you, but pick up the harbourmaster while he's on his way towards the ship. He is now walking with a pair of armed port officers, and the three proceed towards the Swallow's Fortune. One is armed with a sword, and the other one has a short gun. Onboard you see them meet up with that leading seaman who grabbed you in the bar the other day, and you watch the three of them being introduced to the captain.
The captain looks very dangerous. He's armed with a curved sword and carries two holstered pistols, which seems quite strange for a captain on his ship while it's in port, and looks to be approximately three thousand years old, in mind if not in body. The groups exchange a number of words, and they all eventually proceed belowdecks.
Not much happens for the next twenty minutes or so. Eventually, the harbourmaster and his soldiers emerge from belowdecks, followed by the captain, and they all part without any violence or harsh words. It seems that either nothing was found or nothing will be done.
Do you want to converse with the harbourmaster, or proceed with another action?
Assets and Abilities:
Prestige =
239 silver.
Ancient bronze short jian.
fine map of the Empire
poor maps of the countries across the sea.
plan for travelling across the sea by ship.
Skills:
Gather information, +1
Shopping, +1
Urban Navigation, +1
Weapon handling IJian skill +2/+2Allies:
Min Li, spirit reader, 2 prestige, 1 favor
Huan Zhang, diplomat, 2 prestige, 0 favors
Job to waylay the costal trade ship the
Swallow's Fortune, or damage her cargo. It's due to leave about end of week 18.
Spirit reading with Min Li scheduled for week 19
Author
Topic: Sh [SG] Post Game Writeup. (Read 27694 times)