The discreet boat noses between black rocks into the Scilly Islands Hideout. Arus steps ashore alone, while the pilot remains with the skiff and Bessy, Miller, and the redcoats stay behind at the cove.
Stacked cargo, tarred sheds, and rough shelters crowd the narrow landing. Smugglers and fugitives watch from every shadow, their attention fixed on the coded estate mark concealed beneath Arus’s clothing.
Arus Gandon
The token is recognized, but not welcomed.
Scilly Hideout Smuggler or Fugitive 2
That mark belongs to Carter’s dealings. Speak your business before the island decides you brought trouble with you.
No one reaches for a pistol, yet several hands rest near belts and knife hilts. Beyond them, a shuttered storehouse bears fresh scratches around its lock.
Scilly Hideout Smuggler or Fugitive 2
The handoff was meant to carry contraband, but the rumor says it carries a surviving piece of Billings’s accounts. Carter’s enemies are listening for whoever comes asking.
Wind combs the rigging behind him, carrying the boat’s quiet creak out toward open water. The islanders leave a narrow path toward the storehouse, waiting to see whether Arus follows it or names his purpose first.
Somewhere beyond the shelters, a single bell gives one dull note, and every watcher turns toward the sound before looking back to Arus.
✓ Quest Accepted
Learn who is listening for Carter’s enemies
“Do I have my flintlock pistol properly loaded if not cocked and ready before going into danger?”
NO, AND WORSE (Unlikely, rolled 93)
Inside his coat, the flintlock gives no reassuring weight. The powder horn has leaked into the lining, and the pistol’s pan is packed with damp salt instead of priming powder.
Arus Gandon
The pan is empty, and the main charge may be fouled as well.
A tiny metal click carries across the landing. The dull bell answers with a second note, and shutters lift around the shelters as silhouettes turn toward the storehouse path.
Scilly Hideout Smuggler or Fugitive 2
Hands where we can see them. The island does not welcome a man who arrives armed, then makes a weapon fail in the dark.
The narrow path closes beneath a spreading ring of wary smugglers and fugitives. Behind Arus, the skiff’s pilot pushes off from the rocks, leaving open water farther away than before.
Scilly Hideout Smuggler or Fugitive 2
The storehouse is sealed now. Name the handoff, or we search you and decide whether Carter sent a messenger or a trap.
“Is my dueling sword ready to draw quickly if I choose to instead leave it in it's scabbard while slowly walk through the crowd...”
YES, BUT (Likely, rolled 60)
Arus leaves the sword in its scabbard and advances at an unhurried pace. His fingers remain near the hilt, and the blade would clear leather swiftly if the crowd turns violent.
The islanders part by inches, watching his hands rather than his face. His scabbard catches briefly against a stacked crate, forcing him to angle his body and costing him the cleanest line toward the storehouse.
Arus Gandon
The sword is ready, but the crowd has measured the reach of my draw.
Scilly Hideout Smuggler or Fugitive 2
Slowly, then. Keep your hands clear of the hilt, and no one here need mistake caution for an attack.
Arus passes the first ring without drawing steel. The failed pistol has made the islanders bolder, and one fugitive, a young adult man with a lean build, wind-reddened skin, cropped black hair, and a dark wool jacket shadows his shoulder closely enough to seize his sword arm before a full cut could begin.
Scilly Hideout Smuggler or Fugitive 2
The storehouse door is ahead. Reach it without touching that weapon, and we may believe Carter sent you instead of some desperate claimant.
The path opens before him, narrow but passable. The sword remains sheathed and immediately drawable, while the cost of passage is plain: every step now leaves an islander within arm’s reach of his weapon hand.
“I will step slowly through the locals like a man taking a relaxed stroll, but with my sword hand hanging by the thumb from my waist belt buckle, mere fingers' lengths from my sword grip. "Any man here who calls himself a friend of John Carter may call himself a friend of mine. And if there is any man here who is as great a fool as to call himself anything other that John Carter's friend," and then I will stand still and coldly stare death into all of their surrounding eyes, "...then let him speak up, plain and loud, to me!..." And then I will stand as still as a statue and wait for anyone who wants to speak up and accept my challenge, that of being John Carter's enemy means they are my enemy... If anyone moves first without speaking, I will draw my sword with such speed and precision to bring it's deadly tip pointed directly in the path of whoever moved that it will clearly be intended as a display of warning as well as a demonstration of the danger of challenging an obvious master.”
SUCCESS (Superb Willpower, rolled -2)
Arus Gandon
Any man here who calls himself a friend of John Carter may call himself a friend of mine. If any fool claims otherwise, let him speak plainly and loud.
Arus stops like a statue, thumb hooked by the belt buckle, fingers resting mere inches from the sword grip. His stare passes coldly over every watching face.
Arus Gandon
Speak up, then. Name yourself John Carter’s enemy, and you name yourself mine.
The silence lengthens. His will holds the landing, but the effort draws a dry catch into his throat; the young fugitive notices that instant and sees how tightly the threat is being maintained.
Scilly Hideout Smuggler or Fugitive 2
No enemy speaks here. Carter’s friend stands among Carter’s friends, and no one is foolish enough to test the point of your blade.
No hand moves toward a weapon. The ring opens fully, granting Arus an unobstructed path to the shuttered storehouse, while the islanders lower their eyes and let his challenge stand answered.
✓ Quest Accepted
Secure the Scilly hideout’s cooperation
“Once my dominance has been asserted over the suspicious accusations from the locals, I will proceed to the storehouse door and wrap John Carter's secret code on the door with my knuckles before calling his name quietly and waiting patiently for an answer, adding, "Come hear welcome news for once..."”
SUCCESS (Great Intrigue, rolled +0)
The islanders keep their distance as Arus crosses to the storehouse. Their lowered voices follow him, and the young fugitive remains close enough to witness whatever answer comes.
Arus wraps his knuckles against the shutter in John Carter’s secret rhythm. The sound dies into the timber, then returns faintly from within.
Arus Gandon
John Carter. Come hear welcome news for once.
A bar lifts. John Carter, an elderly, broad-shouldered man with iron-gray hair, a weathered face, and a dark seaman’s coat, opens the door only wide enough to study Arus.
John Carter
Welcome news has a price in these islands. Come inside, but understand that every watcher outside now expects you to answer for my name.
Carter admits Arus and closes the door against the watching refuge. The welcome is secured, but the islanders’ trust has become Carter’s wager, and its debt is plainly public.
“Is he apparently alone inside?”
NO (VeryUnlikely, rolled 57)
The storehouse is not empty. A young adult woman with a narrow face, tawny braid, and a faded blue sailor’s coat stands beside stacked crates, one hand resting near a small knife.
John Carter
Easy, Nan. He is expected, though I had hoped to receive him without an audience inside my own walls.
Scilly Hideout Smuggler or Fugitive 2
Expected by you, perhaps. The refuge heard his challenge, and I was sent to learn whether his courage survived the door.
She leaves the crates but does not approach. Behind her, the storehouse contains bales, salt boxes, and a narrow rear door standing ajar on the sea-facing side.
John Carter
Nan keeps the rear watch. She knows every boat that comes near these rocks, and she knows which questions are safer left unanswered.
Scilly Hideout Smuggler or Fugitive 2
Then ask your questions plainly, Carter. The island has already wagered its patience on this visitor.