<strong>Point Respite town hall and military headquarters, outside</strong><br/><br/>Tabetha shrugged at Aeryn's not-quite-apology. Still, her tone seemed slightly more pleasant as she replied, "It ain't my business what most people think of me. Vin pays me and I stop people from tripping over their own asses when I can. I wasn't lying when I warned you that I might get us all killed if she matches us up, though. It happens from time to time. The island's just such a nasty piece of work. Sophies gave up on selling us maps a few weeks back when one of their 'safe paths' lead into a frogemeth spawning ground. Again. I gotta admit that I somewhat prefer it this way. Means more coin in my pocket."<br/><br/>It quickly became clear that Tabetha knew the city nearly as well as she knew the wilderness, particularly to Reliyian and Lazerette, who had already crossed the city. In less than two thirds of the time that either of their trips had taken, the group stood before the town's sole stone building. "Hoy, Reginald! How's the wall-supporting business?" Tabetha called to one of the men guarding the door, interrupting some sort of ongoing conversation.<br/><br/>The man, a sharp-looking fellow with a neatly trimmed beard, glanced up and then gave her an amicable scowl. "Terrible! I swear that it'd keep itself up, if I walked away, but they keep me here anyway!" He then turned his gaze towards the women trailing behind her. "Nice-looking lot you have with you. What's the Commandant want them for?"<br/><br/>When Tabetha responded with a shrug, he nodded. "Fair enough. Well, ladies, if the Commandant wants to talk to  you, then you know what you're doing on the island. Still, like I tell anyone who walks through these doors: do be careful. It'd be a shame to have to bury you … Or whatever bits we can recover, if you get into a real scrape."<br/><br/>"Regardless, she's waiting for you. Go right in."<br/><br/><strong>Point Respite town hall and military headquarters, inside</strong><br/><br/>"Good morning ladies." Inside the building's large, open foyer, a single woman greeted the would-be explorers with a pleasant, almost matronly, smile. "Please, have a seat and make yourselves comfortable." She gestured at the semicircle of around twenty wooden stools surrounding her. "I, as you may or may not have guessed, am Commandant Vin. Since you are only my subordinates in the most technical of terms, you may refer to me as Vin, if you wish. Please don't mistake my attempt at informality for softness, however. I want to make our stay on this damned island as pleasant as possible, as we are all fairly thoroughly trapped here, but I also want to ensure that most everyone survives it. Should it be necessary to give orders, you will follow them. Is that understood?"<br/><br/>Commandant Lessa Vin was a tall, slightly tanned woman with a round face and short-cropped brown hair. She also showed signs of age: a few grey hairs speckled her head and her eyes had noticeable, if minor, wrinkles around them. Unlike the soldiers (and the occasional officer) the group had seen passing on the street, she bore only a small metal pin of gold and bronze, the sort that a<strong>fairly</strong>knowledgable observer would recognize as an award for exceptionally valorous or selfless conduct in the Dominion Navy. Rather than formal military attire, she had settled for a plain, but extremely fine-woven linen smock and matching trousers, the sort that had been all the rage in the capitol, several months back. She also wore comfortable-looking shoes, rather than heavy boots. Apparently she didn't have much need for the heavier protection that most of the townsfolk did.<br/><br/>"Now, I have no doubts that some of you have questions about why I called you. Quite simply,<em>I Know Who's Worth My Time</em>. Captain Welterforge is a good friend of mine, and did his best to keep tabs on those on the boat. You six, among others, caught my eye."<br/><br/>"A day and a half northeast of town, by foot," she said, before pausing for a moment, her eyes monetarily resting on Eshalu, "or perhaps less, depending on how swiftly you travel, there is a large cave. We believe to have been artificially carved, but regardless of its origins, it is currently home to an extremely large spider. The exact size is somewhat unclear, as some reports have described it favorably when compared to this building. If that were true, however, then the cave is clearly not its home, as it's much too small for such an immense creature."<br/><br/>"I will not ask you to kill this thing, as I believe such a task to be beyond the capabilities of a small army, much less six individuals. However, where there're giant spiders, there's giant spider silk. We've recovered almost five hundred pounds of silk so far, just from outlying web remnants. Unfortunately, the single group larger than eight individuals that I sent disappeared, which has severely limited our scouting and recovery possibilities. I need someone, preferably including you lot, to go and give me an accurate description of this spider, or at least of the cave and the surrounding webs.<br/><br/>"I realize that the likelihood of finding artifacts and treasure is somewhat low in this particular instance. Instead, I'll offer the following: whatever you deem necessary for the expedition from our stocks, within reasonableness, plus thirty crowns a head for the scouting work, plus a half-crown for each pound of silk recovered, plus a fifty crown bounty for any bodies you can recover. And, of course, my gratitude. But I don't know what that's worth to any of you," she finished, eyeing the small crowd appraisingly.<br/><br/><div class="spoiler_container"><div class="spoiler_header" onclick="hideSecond (this);" role="button">Spoiler: Click to Show/Hide</div><div class="spoiler_body">Roll Result: Commandant Vin rolled: 4d6<br/>Comment: Contacts<br/>Result: 4, 2, 1, 1,<br/>Total: 8<br/>Despite this rather awful roll (net result -2), Vin's Contacts raises the result to Good (+3), while the Fate point she spent to invoke her own aspect of <em>I Know Who's Worth My Time</em> raises it to a Superb (+5). The aspect being created here is simply a scene-related one, not one attached to a particular character. She's creating the impression that she knows who and what you each are, but obviously the period of time during which her contact had time to gather information somewhat limits the true depths of her knowledge.<br/><br/>It's worth noting that defending against a Create Advantage Roll isn't possible to do via teamwork. The individual with the highest appropriate skill (likely Deceit or Contacts of one's own) rolls (and receives the Fate Point that Vin spent).<br/><br/>Is this all clear enough? Does anyone have any clarifications? If so, ask them in the OOC thread. I'll do my best to be more clear. (The same goes for any clarifications of the in-game post.</div></div>