Shells and Spies
The fifth Day of Elnu-eza (Elnu Ascendant), 1349 A. L. (After Landfall)
In the end you wish your unexpected visitors well, hoping that they would find their lost kin and return with renewed vigor to deafest the one who had made deals with the Formless Ones. The Marcella has run the straights before and she will do it again. Still, you ask Esha to write a letter for Wayfarer's Respite so that the Knikut might speak to the garrison there.
Better if you could write it in French than the local tongue and local script that Neios knows, but Hugh cannot read nor write more than his name. Something to think about remedying when next you are home... you think as Antonio chats with the more linguistically skilled, not to mention more friendly, Knikut by the light of the campfire, talking trade and trying to learn more of how their tribe is ordered, 'just in case' he says. To be honest you rather suspect Antonio is the sort of man who regrets not having new people around him for any span of time. You are not sure if that makes being a sailor a good fit for him not, six of one and half a dozen of the other maybe.
Some sort of talisman trades hands of the missive... and not just that missive. Antonio also passes one of his own for House Koire as well as handing out advice for what places to go in Orinilu and what places to steer clear of as well as, much to your surprise. a pouch of silver. Across the campfire Zaia looks just as confused as you, but eventually shrugs. Antonio must have seen some profit from it.
A moment later that profit materializes in the form of a seashell roughly pierced to make a talisman. It seems to you a small thing to exchange for that much silver, but listening more closely you realize it is a sign of recognition that might help you if you should come into a confrontation with the tribe.
Lost 200 gp
Gained Knikut Talisman of Passage
"We should be careful of showing that," Zaia muses. "A clever foe might think we took it off the bodies of the slain..." Thankfully he had not been the only one to think of that for you come away from the conversation not only with a physical token, but also with advice on who to show it to and how if you would speak to the tribe, not as good as an escort, not by far, but it might ward off battle with a bit of luck.
The unfamiliar feeling of a small paw tapping your knee calls attention to Swift Pebble as she scampers over. Most of the otter-kin had chosen to stay on the ship this time around as guards and lookouts so you are surprised to see her.
"Marcella says she is sorry for not just eating the watcher-fish. She knew it was up to no good, and it would have been tasty," she sends.
It... she, you correct yourself mentally,
can understand so much of what is being said and none near her. The realization is a strange one, not fear exactly, but a sort of nervousness that comes with the realization that you are being watched by unfamiliar eyes. It is easy to forget that the ship is more than wood and tar, ropes and nails, and then all at once it offers comment... and offers.
"She asked if she should eat anymore fish like that that come close," Swift Pebble continues.
Antonio is surprised to be called over so suddenly, though he takes the matter in stride. "Far as I'm concerned anything that's willing to kill a man and wear his skin for months on end is near enough a devil that I'd count it well eaten."
By contrast Zaia offers a word of caution. "Perhaps that is so, but we have no legion of angels and holy men at our back. To kill for watching might make us foes we would not otherwise have and we know little of these deep dwellers, their factions and their pacts. Should a bandit come upon you in the woods would you then hang every man who is alike to him in color of hair and eye, who speaks in the same tongue?"
"Men are men and these are not," Antonio presses. "I don't want any sunken eyes on my ship and the best way to handle them is to let it handle them. I trust her judgement for it's served me well."
"And fey are fey, the well spirit that enchanted one of us and sent us on a perilous journey as well as the envoy who dealt with us in peace and answered our questions. I do not think it is wise to judge these shape-changers based on the actions of a few or even just one, nor on the word of Ohun who is but one man..."
The captain is not swayed, not in the least. "I seem to recall a magic rat bloodying one of the Fellowship's men, who came out with his life by his own skill and no mercy of that thing.
That was sent by the shaman and the shaman is friend of the Formless Ones, maybe just those in the waters of the Mouth of the World, but it is by the Mouth of the World that we have to pass. I'd rather we did not end up with another Ulk among us and this one on our own ship."
"Holy water would mark them," the scholar replies, but this time it is Inge who speaks up from beside you.
"They aren't Neverborn, disdained and abhorred. They find their peace in the sea and so the sea won't mark them."
"See there... we aught to kill their spies while they are still in the water." From the way both Antonio and Zaia look to you it is clear you are once more the deciding voice.
"What if it were to warn us and then we could all decide what to do depending on what Marcella sees," you try to offer a compromise, but this time it is Swift Pebble who shakes her head.
"She can't talk often or well... makes head itchy on the inside."
What do you do?
[] Let the Marcella eat any spies it sees similar to the watcher-fish at the Mouth of the World
[] Do not let the Marcella eat any spies it sees similar to the watcher-fish at the Mouth of the World
[] Write in
OOC: You do not have to roll a diplo DC this time around because you are the deciding vote, but if you want to include a reasoning you can. 
