Swamped

You stop the barge. You've got a lifeboat on board, after all. It won't be as fast, or as good for carrying nets full of fly eggs, but it's important not to be spotted.

You leave Grey in charge, and lower the boat into the water. Nina volunteers to help you with the boat.

You slip by quietly, and you don't seem to catch the attention of the Marshguards. Perhaps this is because they're caught up in their argument, which you can hear as you draw close.

"You can't be serious. Rider told us to stay away from the breeding grounds."

"Rider's a fool. If we don't get those eggs, the Bogknights will, and they'll use them against us. It's better to strike first."

"You really think the Bogknights would try to poison us? Burgundy never played dirty like that, and he hated us. If he wouldn't do it, I can't imagine Long pulling that kind of trick."

"Long's just trying to get us off our guard. You can't trust the Bogknights as far as you can throw them."

Well, this has revealed a new problem, one you hadn't thought of up to now. If they spot you, the brash Marshguard is going to take it as proof of his wrongheaded theory.

It might be better to just speak to them and tell them what you're doing. They won't believe it, but you might at least be able to strike some kind of deal to get back to base with the eggs.

On the other hand, if they know the base is recovering from a rat infestation, they might use that as an opportunity to launch an attack. It's not a small risk.

And, of course, you don't exactly have a lot of time to make any decisions.

Do you proceed forward, knowing that you risk escalating the conflict if you're spotted? Or do you parley, and take the chance of alerting the enemy to the fact that you're not at full readiness?