"I can think of ways around that but they are not subtle at all."

Nuts: "Everyone seems to like the Steward, Steward this, Steward that, but they must be very very very busy."

June: "Maybe find a scout team on the ice and talk to them. They'd have lines of reporting."

Leon: "I think we should go home before we do anything irreversible, it's just - whether to investigate contacts first or head home now we're discussing, correct?"

Blai agrees with Leon and nods.

"If we go talk to someone official they could capture us all again. Though they might now if there's no violence ongoing." Leon muses.

"I wouldn't know where to start looking for someone to negotiate with without - giving away too much." June admits. "Who'd have the right kind of attitude? Do we approach one of the factions? Or maybe find a scout leader?"

"Let's just go home," Nuts says, grousingly. "We can always come back. The trip here wasn't the dangerous part."

No objections to going home here.

Right. Home they go.

It's a pretty boring trip.

Suits him fine. He's got Acts to study and if it's ever dark and they don't want to risk magic light he can practice Prestidigitation.

They encounter another group on the second day- Well, 'encounter' is a strong word. The two groups spot each other at a distance and seem to mutually decide on avoidance, though everyone is tense for the whole rest of the day. June does her best to obscure their trail a bit.

She can get a Guidance for it, small help that it may be.

The remainder of the trip, treading ground they already passed once, is uneventful.

Back at the Old Dreadnought, their life continues as it has been. Everyone is eager to hear the news from New London (and also for more fruits and vitamins, look, the scurvy and pellagra is all gone)- Reactions are mixed, especially about the member of their group who didn't come back. The words 'desertion' and 'defection' get thrown around.

Any reaction to the idea of trying to sell the location of the fuel?

Probably a mile better than just sitting here and them finding it anyway and being less inclined to be generous at that point.

Also, like. They'd be saving people or something. Not everyone finds this a notable factor.

Does anyone have a brilliant idea about negotiating securely? What would they want to sell it for?

Maybe they can tell them they can either get the oil now or risk freezing to death trying to find it?

Maybe they can all go join the nomads the next time they come... Oh shit, the nomads. They come here once every ten years or so and bury their dead in one of the oil cars. (Why? Unclear. Some sort of religious practice.) They have to be considered in any deal too.

When are the nomads next expected, approximately?

Three years-odd.

Some of the older hands speak confidently about these nomads; They just call themselves the Wanderers, and the group is reasonably sure that they'd accept their usual site being disturbed if New London paid them with refined metal and tools. The rituals and routines are really more about survival than deeply held beliefs and tools are good for survival. There's about ten thousand of 'em, call it a hundred pounds of tools, food, and supplies per person to be very generous and that's, what, five hundred tons of stuff? Their party saw more than that shipped in to take control of that old bunker.

...Descriptions of all the tools and amenities London built by the old bunker get everyone thinking. If New London builds out a proper town around the old dreadnought and they could all stay here, maybe not be in charge but be respected members of the new community with some sort of official status, and they'd still work of course... That would be a pretty good deal actually?

If they hold to it.

What sort of status? What kind of guarantee would they trust?

They heard about the factions thing; Maybe pre-New London inhabitants of the wreck count as their own faction and get to appoint one voter? But one vote out of a hundred wouldn't change much. Some sort of veto, only on local matters? Hmm. Not just a symbolic title, at any rate.

And yeah, that's the difficult part, isn't it?

...A promise direct from the Steward, not that democratic council, would probably be fine. The Captain appointed her, and the Captain was a downright legendary figure spoken of in respectful whispers even out here.

And who wants to go on a diplomatic trip to go propose this exchange? Blai can of course go for the Endures and the food.

Well, the original party is up for it. Plus two more hunter types and a middle aged woman (chosen apparently for being a weather-predictor?), for a total of seven people.

Blai can also predict the weather but it trades off against Endures.

They also want her along for wider representation of the interests in the old dreadnought community.

Valid. He is... going to be using kind of a lot of slots on Endures with a party this size, though.

The four hunter types don't strictly need 'em. They have to move a little more bundled up and be a little more miserable, but they're used to operating without on hunting trips.

If they say so.