The woman gave off a disconcerting aura of otherworldliness, but her sort usually did. He had always suspected that she dabbled in augery of some fashion when nobody was looking, or, at the very least, was overly nosy.

In either case, it might actually be useful, given how decidedly little the captain had been willing to divulge. It also meant that being more or less honest, was the best course of action.

[color=f9ad81]"There's no helping it, but I find that I am now pretty much committed to going on this farce of a search."[/color] he opened. [color=f9ad81]"Even if nothing of the missing woman is found, or worse, we DO find her, and it's a state the duke is... unwilling.. to pay up for, I have my own plan to at least recover some of the expenses your counterparts in town have wrought on my pocketbook this evening. That plan may well require some of your product; Bandages, Salves, in the event of the unfortunate. It is in no small part, due to their excessive mercantilism that I find myself now committed."[/color]

He hunched over a little, and huffed through his mustache in vexation.

[color=f9ad81]"I had [i]Initially[/i] planned this as a mere hedge against this being the fool's errand it appears to be, and to try to make something good of a bad situation; I have a ledger, and some pencils, and intended to survey the woods, and sell the results to one of our local competitors, and recover my expenses, at the least. The captain running this doomed little outing has a lot of bluster and bravado, for a man with nothing of substance to say. -- He DID say, that you have words of warning about the area. Mainly, I had come here for that, more than for the bandages and salve."[/color]