Tangle and Flame
Thirty Fourth Day of Olweje-eza (Olweje Ascending) 1348 A. L. (After Landfall)
"Would you be as useful to him dead as alive?" Antonio's question rings strangely in the uneasy silence of the ship, a whisper louder than a shout. At your horrified expression he shakes his head impatiently. "Obviously I am not proposing we actually kill the lady, I would have enough whit to do it out of earshot if it came to that."
Before you can offer a rebuke for the poor jest Esha gives a soft laugh and flashes the captain a smile. "Fortunate am I then, it would have been an ill thing to have been left in the company of men of low whit given the trouble I have found myself tangled in."
"There is another way..." your stomach recoils at the thought. You had not seen it with your own eyes and thank the Blessed Virgin for that, but you had heard of men and women being burned alive for heresy and blasphemy. "Fire, it is hard to tell how bright it burns from afar, harder I think than it is to mark the skill of a hangman's noose and if the good doctor here could craft some artifice that is more smoke than flame...."
"If you are trying to convince me to make a means of feigning death by fire it is probably best not to remind me I am a healer," Zaia grumbles, though not too seriously for the. "You realize this ship is flimsy as a reed caulked with pitch and carved of kindling..."
"We could use the Marcella then, she is more sturdy..." you begin but this time it is Antonio who cuts you off, the smile gone from his face. "The hell we will set an open flame on my ship for the sake of drawing a monster who just use that to burn us all." He turns to Inge and asks bluntly. "You said the damn thing will only die if you say the right prayers over him and the sea eats him right?"
"The curse cannot be ended by flame or mortal weapon, but only by the embrace of Ikomi," she replies with quiet confidence.
"So what's to stop him using whatever flame we have on deck to burn my whole ship down around our ears to get away eh?" Antonio continues. He stomps his foot down on the planks of the Fortuna. "Solid timbers on this, but it's wealth found drifting on the sea, wagering with easy money and that I am minded to do, not with the ship I paid for by the sweat of my labors for damn near fifteen years."
"I was thinking of rigging the sails of fall on the horror, that we might more easily come upon him with sorcery, steel and oil of vitriol, and the fortuna has less in the way of sails..." you counter, pointing to the single sail above your heads, a little more than half as big as the largest sail on the Genoan galley, though you are not unmoved by the captain's words. For a merchant to lose his ship must be as if for a knight to lose his keep and truth be told you are not sure how you would react to a proposal to burn down Verley Keep, even with the most cunning of plans and the best of reasons.
What do you do about Antonio's intransigence?
[] Try to Insist the Marcella with her larger sails and more room to put archers safely be used (Diplomacy DC 30; With a +2 from Esha for Aid Another)
[] Try the fire plan on the Fortuna (smaller sails, greater danger to the archers)
[] Try the hanging plan on the Marcella (Diplomacy DC 21 to convince Esha with +2 from Antonio Aid Another; greater danger that Esha is hurt by the plan)
[] Write in
OOC: A bit of a short update but it would have been rather out of character for Antonio to be fine with experimental alchemical fires on the deck of his ship. On the plus side no matter which way you choose you will have someone to provide you a guaranteed +2 from aid another because both their skills are higher than the 9 you need to auto succeed that. Not yet edited. 
