>>6146167>>6145936>>6145916>>6145876<span class="mu-r">You</span> haven’t gone soft. No, seriously, you haven’t! it’s just a matter of practicality hat carries you—and everyone else aboard the Pearl—towards the Delvers’ dire dinghy. After all, though the rival adventuring party isn’t human, their members are safely within the realm of the humanoid, or DEMIhuman—not a bunch of goblins and beastfolk. Sure, you’re hot as hell by human standards these days (well, MOST human standards), but you don’t trust it: if it comes down to he-said-she-said shit, you know that the halflings and dwarves of the world have that shit on lock. Better to get in good with them and to negotiate from a place of camaraderie, than to get into a whole pissing match in front of the guards and everyone else.
As you approach, Svanhilda slows down to pull up gracefully alongside the Delvers’ vessel. You glower down, appraising the adversary. Their boat is borrowed, surely as yours is, but it has seen some heavy modifications. Strange buoys bob about it, inflated leather sacks studded with metal sensors and strange barbels that remind you of the Lake Monster’s whiskers You’re no expert artificer, but you assume this to be the sensory array that pinpointed YOUR prey, and enabled them to beat CZ to the punch. On the deck, you see the same motley assortment of dweebs you recognize from the ports on the two days prior, though you’d never paid them especially close attention: a gaggle of little men (and a couple ladies, too, you suppose), gathered around a starnegly-armoured individual all strapped with tubes and shit, and holding a spear that seems to be affixed to his arm.
“That one!” Cara-Zi whispers excitedly, pointing at the walking tin can. “That’s the knight!”
“No shit,” you whisper back, and then more loudly, you shout: “Hello there! Permission to come aboard?”
The Delvers look your way, a sea (well, pond) of big eyes and bearded faces. Well, except the gnomes—they go in for well-waxed, weirdly-shaped mustaches, as a general rule. All at once, you feel their eyes on you, and your realization is renewed: these are NERDS, and they have only a single, rather dumpy-looking halfling woman in their entire assembly. You smirk a little, and strike a pose, for you can work with THIS. Needless to say, it’s only a moment before you’re invited aboard. You bring Cara-Zi along as well, of course—she DID save the life of the ‘knight’ as she tells it.
