View source for RPM:15 Politely Asked To Leave For A While

{{Starring
|pc={{Ehsan}}, {{Ildefons}}, {{OneTusk}}, {{Milady Rosalie}}
|npc=[[RPM:Face/Lemuel|Lemuel]], [[RPM:Face/Hernaut|Hernaut]],
[[RPM:Face/Estafana “The Parrot”|Estafana “The Parrot”]], [[RPM:Face/Scalehard|Scalehard]], [[RPM:Face/Wilfred Mace|Wilfred Mace]], [[RPM:Face/Wish Dreamer|Wish Dreamer]], [[RPM:Face/Cuthati|Stowaway (Cuthati)]]
|location=[[RPM:Places/Bluebird|''Bluebird'']]
|foe=
|date=23 Aug 2017
|prev=[[RPM:14 Elephant in the Room]]
|next=[[RPM:16 Sea Storm]]
}}

== Assigned to on an Escort Mission, away from Lisway ==
...Six weeks after "Hernault's Quake"...

<blockquote>Eben has collected funds for the ''Treasury of Bonds and Donations'' to help Eben with illness and poverty as the young nation grows, has requested attendants to guard them on their way to Leaning Bear Hollow in Eben.</blockquote>

{{Ildefons}}: The acting captain wants us gone. "Go there, take do that, then go that other place. Take your time." They want the political backlash of our involvement with Hernault to settle down, as well as making sure we get some time to "blow off some steam" while we're gone; we have been tense lately. We're to escort some folk to Eben...

{{OneTusk}}: Okay, I get the idea of lying low. I mean… of course I do. But there's a whole political side to this that I don't even want to contemplate. Still, we're escorting some charity funds… it's not the worst thing. I could write a treatise on all the ways this sort of charity is but a sop and an insult to the proletariat, but… I mean… people gotta eat.

{{Milady Rosalie}}: I still have the shakes. I went so long without this flowing through my body, I forgot the pain that it bring me. We have a new acting mission, though, and I have to suck it up. Doing a milk run like this would at least keep my mind off of things. I'm just glad I won't have to look at Hernault. The thought of him still makes me boil.

=== Ehsan comes clean about her family ===

{{DM}}: Ehsan told a few people about her history and it got flagged all the way up to the Senate, who agreed to keep her secret quiet as long as she represents Arkstone as an official diplomat to Kirkush and helps with Arkstone's interests.

{{Ildefons}}: ...and then the mission creeps into a diplomatic envoy (Ehsan, diplomat) to Kirkush. This more than doubles our total trip. However, family matters, and this is the only way they'd let her go. I expect it will be tense while we're with House Mahalakala.

Before we go, Lemuel paid me a visit for a well-wishing for our trip, and told me has found he's quite the marksman. I hope they don't sully his sharp, extraordinary mind, 

{{Milady Rosalie}}: I always knew Eshan was... special, but I didn't know this was the full breadth of it. I'm glad that it is out in the open now. It will make anyone that we run into that knows of her more apparent in their reaction and we can maybe be one step ahead of our obstacles for a change.

== ''Bluebird'' ==
{{OneTusk}}: Upon boarding the Bluebird, I note two things: the captain is a scoundrel and a smuggler and shouldn't be trusted, ''and'' Wish-Dreamer is a comely elephant-blood. I make a bit of a fool of myself helping her get things loaded, and she has a pangolin-blooded escort who's doing most of the heavy lifting anyway.

Wish-Dreamer ends up being a bit of a… dead-end on that front. She's in a long-term relationship with Scalehard. Ildefons helpfully does some snooping, and suggests that they're looking for a surrogate so they can have children… but ''that's'' just a terrifying thought. Me? A father?

{{Ildefons}}: I've heard of this ship participating in ill-gotten gains from various people around the city, notably, Hugo. But, it's what the city arranged, so it's to be our ship. Captain Estafana is a bit awkward of a wee woman, but she leaves no questioning her capabilities as a captain. OneTusk is doing his duty and inspecting thoroughly nevertheless.

The second in command, Wilfred Mace, seems to be a larger-than-life man, but he also seems to handle himself around people and the crew. I suspect he does much of the heavy lifting.

{{Milady Rosalie}}: The Captian is a tiny piece of work, but I find her second, Wilfred, as close to pleasurable as I've found in the past few weeks. I can tell he has ulterior motives, but none of them sinister.

There are many others traveling with us, and I find a elephant wildblood that looks just One-Tusk type. She is taken, but looking to have a child. Maybe there is an opportunity here to get rid of his pan-far or whatever they call it.

=== Chest ===
{{Ildefons}}: Mace takes us to meet our escortees, Wishdreamer the elephantine wild-blood cow; a solicitor for generous donations to Eben. She and her guard, a less-intelligent, yet still sentient, pangolin named Scale Hard are taking a coffer of their findings to Eben for development. (We, and I mean OneTusk, takes a detailed enumeration of the contents of the chest.) As a group, we decide one of us must, at all times, be guarding the chest -- which is itself finely-crafted by the Basketweavers guild as a donation. And, with that, we are off to sea.

{{OneTusk}}: It's most important, in my mind, to properly secure the chest, especially given that we can't trust the crew. That means it must always be attended, preferably by two people. It's for the best. Everyone else thinks this is inconvenient, but once the chest arrives without any loss, they'll thank me for it.

{{Milady Rosalie}}: I know how lax some of us can get at guard duty, so I build a makeshift desk for some comfort. It will guarantee compliance.

=== Hernaut ===
{{Ildefons}}: Also aboard are a detachment of the Red Wolf Brigade which, we discover, is headed up by Hernault. We avoid them, for a while. It would be awkward.

{{Milady Rosalie}}: No! NO! NO!!!

I can't do this. I need a drink. The fury rushes through me and burns off one of my gloves, turning it into a melted wad of festering fabric. I'm glad I packed some spares, but I dare not put it on until I can calm my nerves.

ADD NOTES ABOUT GRGORI/ERTHIL/SILLAGE-CREATURES.

=== Castaway on Board ===
{{OneTusk}}: I'm pleasantly surprised to discover that I don't get sea-sick. I load ships, but I don't ride on them. I want to stress that last part, because I need to lean on my ignorance to justify my next actions.

A young tame-blood claims that the captain wants to mend our disagreements, and she's been tasked to ensure our comfort. As such, she offers to… do laundry. Now, I know we expect some rain on this voyage, so I can assume that fresh water isn't a massive concern, but… I thought this was odd. Further, she speaks ill of Estafana, the captain. Even odder, but perhaps smugglers lack discipline. Still, I am inexperienced in ocean travel, and admittedly may have been a bit distracted by Wish Dreamer coming up on deck, so I absently give her permission.

She robs us blind. All of our weapons, stolen. ''Because this is a ship of scoundrels and criminals'', obviously. I was happy to ignore whatever smuggling they were doing- the Revolution depended on smuggling contraband and weapons, and I know that even the strictest regulations aren't going to stamp it out… at least not yet. But now we've been impacted, our mission has been jeopardized.

I move to tear the ship down to the hull, but shockingly, no one likes ''that'' plan. Instead, we talk to the crew, the captain disavows knowledge of the thief, a search of the ship turns up nothing. I wish to note, however, that we were not given a free hand- the captain, Estafana, doesn't want us upsetting her little smuggling ring. She runs the search, and shockingly, finds nothing.

Days pass. Daaaaaayyyyys. I become increasingly frustrated, and eventually storm into the captain's cabin, where Rosalie and Wilfred are having tea with Estafana. I'm on the offense, this time. I hurl insults, question her fitness as a captain, all but call her a criminal. Furious, she raises a hand to slap me, I catch it in my trunk… the musth takes over…

… and fifteen minutes later Ehsan comes barging in. They've found the stowaway's hidey-hole. Well, this is awkward.

{{Ildefons}}: OneTuke's report is thorough and accurate. Days.

{{Milady Rosalie}}: Alcohol is good. It calms the seas and my nerves. Then again, both of these are just altered perception, but I'll take it.

It barely registers that our weapons were taken. When you are a walking embodiment of pain (in more ways than one), things like that don't matter.

Wilfred runs into me as I am taking my rounds through the ship. He invites me to sit down with the Captain to talk for a bit, and I do, attempting to make a little small talk. I must have been short, as things quickly got argumentative. One Tusk comes in, and I gladly take that moment to excuse myself. I just can't manage pleasantries.

Wilfred can easily tell that I'm having the rough of it and we take a sit in front of the Captains door with a bottle of wine. There is some yelling, some random thumping, then some more rhythmic thumping coming from inside. From my personal encounters with Alyn back in the day, I know what is going on.

Ehsan comes charging though, looking for the Captain. We don't hold her back, and she gets more than an eye full. The folly of youth...

[[Category:Royal Pride of Musketeers]]
[[Category:RPM:Sessions|15]]