Missing Caravan

[Mardak Trannyth]

Mardak pulls his face out of the water and spits out a minnow.  "I showwed that lil' bugger.  HAHA.  I sure whupped it's ass!!"  Then proceeds in hacking and coughing disguising it quite well with his laughter.  After calming himself down, he tries to actually TIE the rope to his waist.  "Hey throw me some more ropes...Oners that are attached to the ponies er whatever the hell they are.  The ponies and I will drag the bitch onto shore!!"

[Jonath]

"While you all investigate the boat, I think I will go scout those bushes. I don't care to be ambushed while we're distracted with a salvage operation."

Jonath moves off the path into the underbrush and works his way quietly towards the area where the footprints disappear, attempting to follow them if he can, otherwise just generally scouting the area.

Hide:1d20+13 → [1,13] = (14)
Move Silently:1d20+12 → [1,12] = (13)

LMAO. What was that you were saying about bad rolls?

Spot:1d20+4 → [12,4] = (16)
Listen:1d20+5 → [10,5] = (15)

[Betimi]

"I only have the one rope. Anyone else have any for Sir Mardak."

She looks towards the others as she ties the other end of the rope to Beast to anchor Mardak.

[Selina Parcellus]

Selina seems to snap herself out of her reverie, reaches into her pack, and find a coil of rope, handing it to Betimi seemingly absentmindedly.

[Betimi]

"My thanks Selina. With your permission..."

She proceeds to anchor one end of this rope to Selina's pack mule and then goes to the shore near Mardak.

"Here Sir Mardak, if you could tie this off to the boat when you reach it, it may help us either prevent the boat from rolling while you investigate it , or maybe even allow us to haul it in."

[Mardak Trannyth]

Once again trying to figure out the woman in front of him, he just takes the rope and says "Don't you worry your little heart."
Mardak works up the courage to wade into the frigid depths once again. 

Swim Check

Once there or if he gets there without any attacks, he will try to attach the rope then come up for breath.

[GM Marvel]

[OoC: So are you using 1 rope and 1 mule or is Mardak going to tie off his rope to the stem while he holds on so you can get a second mule with a rope to pull?  I will assume the latter because you will most likely need 2 mules to pull it out of the mud.]

This time Mardak negotiates the current well and ties off both ropes to the stem.  While holding on for fear of being whisked away by the current, the mules struggle with the riverboat until finally it begins to pull away from the suction of the mud.  It's slow going but you finally pull the boat up onto shore where it begins to quickly shed the water through several holes in its underbelly. You observe that its mast has been chopped off too.   There are several solid benches for passengers and a larger bench at the front and back of the boat for the ferrymen to sit.

[OoC: Something like this except larger and with a broken mast and more benches.]

---

[OoC: @Jonath I know right?  Horrible rolls for all of you, even with everybody's good stats!  Thankfully you can't automatically fail or critically fail skill rolls or you would have tripped on a snail and a ray of sunshine spotlight your every move.   [emoji14] ]

Jonath continues on for a short ways through the narrow trail and doesn't spot anything strange.  After about 100 yards the path opens up onto more shoreline where in the soft dirt you can see more Kobold and several mannish booted tracks.  You aren't a tracker but you surmise that there are definitely more than a dozen of the kobold tracks and at least half as many of the booted prints of various sizes.  Whoever made these tracks are no wheres to be seen but they continue north out of sight.

[Mardak Trannyth]

"See?, nothin' ta worry about!"  Mardak says as he clambers up to get his armour, sword and shield then most importantly his Stetson-like hat and puts them on.  "Just gimme a minute, I will fix up that seahorse in no time flat...If I had tools and patchwork and a mast" 

[Selina Parcellus]

((Ooc: Selina gave Betimi her coil of rope, so there should be at least 2 coils that Mardak could bind together.))

[Betimi]

"I think it is useless to attempt to fix it, the kobolds obviously didn't flee by water, so I doubt we can pursue by water"

She looks at Selina. Did the guard give any indication how long ago the attack was? I bet they only sunk the boat to prevent any escapees from sailing downriver to Cantus to bring help.

She quickly unties the ropes from the boat while still waiting for the water to drain from the boat.

"I know you are quite unwell sir Mardak, and Jonath is not at his best either. Do you think you are able to push on in pursuit of these creatures? They have a very good head-start."