Bessy Bussow’s supply boat surges up alongside the skiff, so close the hulls shudder together. She grips the tiller one-handed, rain streaming off her cap, and barks over the gale that the Sergeant is in her cellars now.
Bessy Bussow
That gin I sold them was not a kindness. If Miller finds the rest, he finds me tied to your lie.
Arus opens the satchel against his chest. The oilskin-wrapped papers are not tax rolls at all, but copied landing orders, names of watchers, and a sealed route note marked for the quay and the cove.
Elizabeth Billings
Those are not merchant papers. They name who searches, and who is meant to be missed.
Another wave slaps the skiff. Bessy stares at the documents, then at the cutter ahead, and all the color leaves her face. If the Sergeant learns she fed his men and hid this trail, her cellar is only the beginning of her trouble.
Lieutenant Spelling
You have been carrying the wrong prize, Arus. Surrender the papers, and I may yet keep this from becoming a hanging matter.
“I will yell back at Spelling, "I will do no such thing, navy scum! Now drop your pursuit before this becomes a killing matter, unless you're man enough to cross blades with the most lethal sailor to ever defy your paltry threats, cabin boy!"”
SUCCESS (Fair Willpower, rolled +1)
Arus Gandon
I am no navy prize. If you want these papers, come take them yourself.
Lieutenant Spelling
Bold words for a man in a leaking skiff. I cross blades with better men than you, and bury them with cleaner hands.
Spelling’s cutter holds, but his men do not surge. The rain drums hard on canvas, and the threat in his voice slackens under the weight of Arus’s challenge.
Bessy Bussow
If this turns bloody, it splashes onto my name too. I need to know who is buying silence, and what I am being paid to risk.
Elizabeth Billings
He has turned a trap into a bargain. If Bessy talks, they all live longer.
Arus’s nicked thumb stings as he tightens his grip on the satchel, and the torn scrap from Carter’s note flaps wetly at his wrist.
Arus Gandon
Help us clear this water, Bessy, and I make sure your part stays between us.
Bessy Bussow
Then hear mine. I sell gin, not gallows. Keep that promise, and I pull you through the next mile.
“I will ask Bessy what her strategy is for negotiating with Lieutenant Spelling.”
SUCCESS (Fair Intrigue, rolled -1)
Arus Gandon
What is your plan with Spelling?
Bessy Bussow
I do not outshout a cutter, I outwait it. Spelling wants papers and pride, so I give him neither in full. I let him think I am useful, then I make his choice costly enough to taste.
Elizabeth Billings
She is buying time with fear and vanity. Clever.
Bessy Bussow
You keep that satchel low, and your face calmer than his. If he boards, I steer him toward talking, not slicing. Men like him hate witnesses, but they hate witnesses who know their name most of all.
A hard gust snaps the Carter scrap against Arus’s wrist, and the wet paper tears free into the spray. The sting in his thumb sharpens as he catches for it too late.
Bessy Bussow
If I pull us through, you owe me silence about my cellar, my boat, and anything else you have learned. Swear it plain, and I will row you past his reach.
Elizabeth Billings
He will swear. He knows a bargain when one is offered.
✓ Quest Accepted
Keep Bessy Bussow silent
“Is the navy cutter staying out of boarding range?”
YES (Even, rolled 33)
The cutter's crew hesitates, their oars dipping into the churning water but failing to close the distance. Lieutenant Spelling remains at the rail, his gaze fixed on the gap between the vessels as he signals his men to hold their position against the rising tide.
Arus Gandon
He is wary of the shoals. He will not risk his hull to board us in this weather.
{"action":"I will tell Bessy to ignore his threats and steer her supply boat away with Elizabeth on it and through the shoals where his larger navy cutter runs a greater risk of running aground and will not follow, and that Elizabeth is to get ashore and head straight for the village near Mont Cove, and bring all of the locals they can find and wake to watch a serious duel of swordsmen over the secret truth of who is corrupting Cornwall at the expense of it's people. I will tell Elizabeth that I will take the satchel
(where Spelling can see it) and lead him and his cutter away towards the beach at Mont Cove. I will tell Bessy to get there first and warn John Carter's contact near the beach
(probably his brother) what is coming.","outcome":"success","trait":"Agility","traitLevel":"Superb","roll":-1,"sceneTitle":"The Bait and the Shoals","location":"Storm-dark Mount's Bay"}
Arus barks his plan across the spray, and Bessy hears the shape of it at once. She yanks her helm over, snapping her little supply boat into the darker water beyond the cutter’s reach.
Bessy Bussow
Aye, I know these shallows better than the King’s men. If I clear them first, their big belly of a ship can keep its distance.
Elizabeth takes the cue without argument, clutching the satchel close as Arus lifts it where the cutter can see. The gesture turns the papers into bait and a challenge at once.
Elizabeth Billings
Then I go for the shore, and I bring every waking soul I can rouse. Let Cornwall see who chases whom.
Bessy’s mouth quirks despite the weather. She gives Arus a quick, sharp nod, the sort that means a bargain has teeth.
Bessy Bussow
Your silence, then. And if Carter’s man is where you think he is, he’ll hear the warning before the tide turns.
The boats part cleanly, spray hissing between them. Arus keeps the satchel high, his thumb smarting, while Spelling’s cutter hangs back in the swell, forced to watch the skiffs choose the route he cannot dare.
Quest Complete
Keep Bessy Bussow silent