Swamped

You feel the ship shaking.

"Either they hit us real hard or they hit us close by!" someone shouts. "Find out where that hit! We're in real trouble if it struck the bridge!"

The sailors start running around. You opt to join them, just to avoid drawing suspicion. Maybe you can use the confusion to head up the stairs, even.

"Found it!" you hear someone say. "It hit the training room!"

"Not a high-priority target," someone near you mumbles. "We don't do a lot of combat training, it's mostly just to keep in shape.Think they're aiming higher to try and get the bridge."

Well. That's worrying.

"Wouldn't worry too much about the bridge," another sailor replies gruffly. "They've got a wizard to protect them, after all. I'm more worried about being hit by one of the shots that doesn't make it."

Hang on. If the bridge is up high... and they can't make direct shots... couldn't they knock out the floors beneath it until there's a collapse? You wonder if you should risk drawing attention to yourself by raising the idea, but fortunately, another sailor soon does it for you.

"Hold on, what if they just keep shooting at this floor until there isn't enough holding up the bridge? Do we have a plan for that?"

"Yeah," a large sailor replies as he approaches the group you're following. "The plan is, get the bastards off our tail before then, one way or another. In the meantime, if you have time to jabber, you have time to grab sandbags to soften the impact if they take another shot there."

Everyone starts running off, including you. You split off from the group when you reach an intersection in the hallway. No one seems to pay you much mind, fortunately.

But hells, that hit was worrying. And if the wizard's their main defense against those... well, you'd feel bad about distracting him. Still, it's not like you have another plan. You can't really trust Carma or Azel, and beyond that your best bet is hanging around near Bigfoot.

Maybe if it gets worse you'll run back down and try that. But you hope it doesn't come to that.

Your thoughts turn back to your immediate surroundings. It's not hard to reach the stairs, but two sailors are standing in front of them. Are they guarding the way to the bridge, or are they here for some other reason?

Well, it turns out another sailor is heading towards them, so maybe you can just watch and see what happens.