Captain Evencane hated this part of hiring freebooters. The negotiation, the bickering, the need to exaggerate safety or threats on one side or the other. He seemed confident enough to deflect the ogre woman/women's attempt to ratchet up the price, but then smooth-voiced magistrix made a reasonable case that he had trouble deflecting. And just as he seemed to flounder and gather himself to rebuke the effort, a third voice - this the elven mage apprentice, and the most compelling voice of the sequence so far - compounded the case for additional compensation and left Evencane at the bottom of a very tall pile of escalated expectations. Flustered, he concedes to the aside with the Isaera; with an expression creeping into the steel of his eyes that suggests he's almost -grateful- to her, to be pulled out of a moment in which he was feeling outside his expertise. He listens to some quiet petition, and seems to have been bludgeoned into atleast partial submission by the cannonade of the groups' charms. He even goes so far as to raise a steadying hand to the confused and alarmed onlookers tormented by Isaera's display, and then sighs with a deep spirit of concession. Running a hand through his now moreso sweat-messed flat top, he makes a new offer.

"...You can't breathe a word of this away from this table. If other freebooters learn I've bent the pricing for one group, they'll be charging an arm and a leg for every wolf tail or murloc eye they're sent to get. There's obviously power in the four of you. Two of you will seem friendly enough faces to the horde that they won't take you for alliance assets if you run into them; two of you are friendly enough faces that the cadets won't take an offer for help from you as an outright trap. If you do it right, it'll be the easiest coin you've ever made."

He rubs the bridge of his nose.

"As for more help... A boat to take across the inlet won't help; you'd lose the time you'd gained crawling through the hillcountry and ridges heading back inland. And this Theramore has the closest portal anchor to the destination. The roads are the safest and quickest way there, but I can arrange for a cart - "

He pauses, glancing to Mor'Lag.

"Two carts for your group, to make the travel too and from easier. You'll need them to keep up with the medical crew anyway, but you'll have to leave them at Northpoint. At that time, you'll be striking out into the swamp anyway, and there's no sense breaking horse legs. And I'll raise the compensation to... To fifty silver for each cadet whose body isn't lost to the swamp, and a round gold for each back alive. That's me cutting into my own wage for you, so don't ask for more. Is that satisfactory? Because if it's not, I need to get outside and round up a group of marines, and take my chances with the kindness of orcs."

A final look to Isaera - suggesting he hasn't discarded her discreet commentary - before he gestures to the collection of adventurers with an open hand, as if to ask 'what's it gonna be?'