The skiff glides under the mount’s shadow, where drying huts crouch along the shore and lanterns bob like nervous fireflies. Royal soldiers prowl the docks, prying at nets and hatches.
Elizabeth Billings
If they search this quay, they find me, and then they find the papers.
Ahead, a fishmonger’s cart rattles out of the lane, briefly blocking a redcoat’s view of the water. Beyond it, the road to the Viscount’s castle bends inland, dark and open.
Arus Gandon
The cart buys a heartbeat, not a victory.
A pair of soldiers turn toward the skiff, lantern light skimming the ripples. One points. The other starts down the steps toward the tide.
Elizabeth Billings
Land here, or go on and trust the coast. Either way, we move now.
Arus and Elizabeth have their answer. The nearest landing puts them within reach of the patrol, but it is the fastest path to the Viscount’s road. The longer sail offers safety, yet every mile gives Baron Billings more time to tighten the net.
✓ Quest Accepted
Reach the Viscount's castle
“Is there a nearby bit of shoreline that I already know of that is not far from the docks where we can land the skiff, even if it doesn't get us much closer to the long way to the castle?”
NO (Likely, rolled 90)
The shoreline remains a jagged, unforgiving wall of slick rock and crashing surf, offering no hidden coves or quiet inlets to break the patrol's line of sight. Every inch of the coast is exposed to the lanterns of the redcoats, leaving no alternative but to face the docks or risk the open sea.
“I will make my thinking clear to Elizabeth, "The docks are crawling with redcoats and their torches and lanterns... The sea may be hazardous, but I know both hazards well, and a few men I can defeat, but open water cares so little about our presence, it will do us no favors, but neither is it seeking to imprison us. I believe we should take the longer way to the farther side of the castle and search for an alternate route up from the shoreline." I will not delay the execution of this plan, as Elizabeth has already endorsed haste. I will only add, "Keep your eyes towards the open water. Our best chance is the path we've chosen, as long as we do not let the phantom shape of Spelling's cutter creep up on us in the darkness... Look for any signs of a navy ship's lanterns, as an officer like Spelling will have too much pride to sneak around along his own country's shores in the dark with no running light like a common cutpurse. We should see him before he sees us...."”
SUCCESS (Great Perception, rolled +1)
Arus swings the skiff wider, taking the long dark line of water instead of the lantern-bright docks. The oar bites, the hull answering with a low groan as spray beads on the satchel and Elizabeth braces hard against the shift.
Arus Gandon
The docks are crawling with redcoats and lanterns. The sea is dangerous, but I know these hazards better than I know prison. We take the longer way round the castle and look for a shore path up.
Arus Gandon
Keep your eyes on the water. If Spelling is chasing us, his cutter will have to show its lantern before it gets close.
Elizabeth nods once and turns her head seaward, the papers pressed tight beneath her cloak. The skiff climbs and falls over black water, but the castle wall begins to slide across the horizon on their right.
Then Arus catches it, a faint moving pinprick beyond the chop, too disciplined to be a fishing light. It stays low and careful, shadowing the coast instead of bearing straight in.
Elizabeth Billings
There. A lantern on the water... and it is not ours.
The skiff clears the worst of the harbor shadow and glides into the lee by the castle side, where broken rock juts out below the walls. The hidden waterline path lies ahead, half-seen between surf and stone, while the suspicious lantern keeps moving in the dark behind them.
“Does the mystery vessel appear far enough away that it has still not noticed the tiny shape of our skiff in the dark?”
YES (Likely, rolled 31)
The lantern light remains a steady, distant spark, never wavering or turning to track their wake. It continues its slow, rhythmic patrol along the outer harbor, clearly oblivious to the small, dark shape of the skiff hugging the castle's jagged base.
Arus Gandon
They are looking for a larger vessel, or perhaps they are just patrolling the main channel. Either way, the darkness is our best ally tonight.
“I will keep rowing quickly, but as quietly as possible until we find any suitable landing adequate enough to get us on the shore somewhere with a practical footpath up towards the castle entrance and not just trapped somewhere between beneath the sheer castle walls and the harbor's surf.”
SUCCESS (Superb Agility, rolled +0)
Arus rows with short, careful strokes, letting the oars kiss the water instead of slap it. The skiff slips along the castle's black base until a broken seam in the rock opens into a narrow strand, half hidden by weed and tide.
He eases the bow in first. The hull grates once on wet shingle, then settles. Ahead, a slanted run of worn stone and root gives the shore a practical climb toward the walls, not a dead end beneath them.
Arus Gandon
This is the landing.
Elizabeth shifts her weight and gathers the satchel close as the boat comes to rest. The water hisses back from the stones, and the skiff lies shadowed, quiet enough to pass for driftwood.
Elizabeth Billings
That path leads up. We take it now, before anyone looks this way.
A lantern flickers somewhere above the bend in the wall, distant but real. Its glow touches the wet stone for an instant, then moves on, leaving the landing dark again.
Arus has the shore under him at last, with footing to climb and the castle directly above. The next choice waits in the dark path, while the watch above keeps walking.
“Can it be determined if the watch is composed of Lord Falmouth personal guard instead of redcoats from the 25th Regiment that may be under Baron Billings?”
YES (Unlikely, rolled 9)
Arus catches the glint of a badge on the guard's chest as the lantern light swings low, revealing the distinct crest of the Viscount's house rather than the redcoat's standard issue. The patrol is not the Baron's men, but the Viscount's own household guard, currently unaware of the intruders beneath their feet.
Arus Gandon
The Viscount's men. If they are the ones patrolling the walls, the Baron's reach here is thinner than I thought.
“This is excellent news. I will inform Elizabeth, "These men are not under your father's command. We are away from the harbor's patrols and close to our destination! This is not the place to be skulking in the darkness like potential villains, this is the time and place for the daughter of Cornwall's Sheriff to announce herself at the gate with her loyal escort on a matter of urgent business for the Viscount..." I get out the flint and steel to light the lantern and find our way around to the path that leads up to the front gate in an open, non-threatening approach at this late hour of the night seeking sanctuary.”
SUCCESS (Superb Deception, rolled +0)
Arus slips the flint and steel from his pocket and shields the lantern glass with one hand. A spark catches, then steadies into a low gold flame, enough to show the wet stone path curling up toward the castle gate.
Elizabeth Billings
Then we go openly. If their crest is on the walls, let them see who comes calling.
He sets the lantern in his grip and starts up the worn path, the decoy satchel bumping at his side while the real papers stay hidden. Elizabeth falls in beside him, chin high, as if the cliff were her own doorstep.
The lane opens onto the outer approach, and the pair are fully out from under the harbor shadows. Above them, a guard post lantern swings toward the sound of footsteps.
Viscount Guard
Halt there. Name your business at this hour.
Arus keeps the lantern raised instead of his blade, and the light catches Elizabeth’s face as they stop at the gate approach, plain to see and impossible to mistake for thieves.
Elizabeth Billings
I am Elizabeth Billings, and I require the Viscount at once on urgent business.
Quest Complete
Reach the Viscount's castle
Attribute Upgrade: Agility Superb→Legendary