Five Knots found the salvage contract on their third morning in Ironcloud.
The board described one damaged cargo vessel, an evacuated crew, and a recovery window expected to last until the mountain winds changed. The payment exceeded anything available on the ordinary creature removal lists. Half came from recovering the cargo. The rest depended upon whether the vessel's lift assembly survived.
Tessa read the danger notice beneath it.
[Hull position unstable.]
[Remaining lift unreliable.]
[Salvage team must provide rigging, mechanical assessment, structural repair, route reading, and emergency piloting.]
Those five requirements might have been written for them.
They took the posting to the contract counter.
The owner arrived before the clerk finished verifying their party record. Dorran Keldrum was a broad-shouldered dwarf with an iron gray beard divided into three short braids. His coat carried the mark of a freight company rather than a salvage company.
