Sterling laughs
The man chuckles. "Maybe you have enough grit to be a navigator. Takes a strong mind to handle the Maelstrom." He looks Luna up and down again, and then shrugs. "Ok, so, I'll spend 3 months teaching you, and I'll give you a good set of general maps. I ain't givin' you my maps. But I'll teach you what to look out for. If you're good enough, you'll get your own maps eventually. If you're not, you and your ship will be dead, so it won't matter. Now, what kind of ship do you have?"
Luna smiles and shrugs. "That's yet to be determined. Let's see what kind of ship you can prepare me to master, then we'll consider what kind of ship to acquire. For now we've kept our options open."
The man snorts, and blows smoke at the four people at the table. "Don't be stupid. You can't train a Navigator on land. You have to be in the Maelstrom to train someone. If you don't have a ship, you've got no chance of learning." He takes a swig out of his mug. "Come back when you have a sea worthy vessel." The disgust on his face is obvious.
Luna lofts a brow. "Well, could you start by teaching me to read the charts and maps while my companions secure a vessel? Surely that should be doable...yes? And regardless, perhaps you can suggest a good vessel to acquire?... Perhaps know of one or two for sale that might do for us?"
"I can teach you to read the water charts and current markings. But any idiot can teach you that, and a lot cheaper. I can't teach you to read the Maelstrom markings until you've been in it, the explanation won't make sense." He puffs on his pipe. "Tell me what you want to do with your ship, and I might be able to find you one for sale."
Sterling puts his hand lightly on Luna's hand, giving her the signal that he would take the question. Do we look like we were born yesterday?
Playing the part of a paranoid businessman, he continues. Probing us for details to take to our competitors? Sterling shakes his head a bit. However, we can discuss ship capabilities...Something small and fast and maneuverable, sleeps four, One to two ton cargo hold. Narrow hull. The faster the vessel the better.
The man shakes his head. "Yeah, you do look like you were born yesterday. The only ship you could operate with four people that can handle an ocean journey would be a Ketch. I sure as hell wouldn't try a cross-ocean voyage with only four crew. Only an idiot would. Too many things in the Maelstrom for that small a crew. The fact your asking about a ship like that tells me you have no idea what you're dealing with." He looks disgusted and taps out the tobacco in his pipe, before pulling a bag of weed out of his pouch and beginning to refill it. "Sounds like you're wanting to do smuggling on the coastline, in which case you don't need a Navigator. And we're wasting my time. Long as you're not going out of sight of land, any idiot can teach you what you need to know."
Sterling smiles. I've never met a man so bent on talking himself out of a lucrative contract. Sterling pauses.
For the sake of argument, Let's say we're idiots. The dumbest people to ever be born. Let's say we are not only stupid, but rich as well. Let's say we have a death wish, and want to sail out of sight of land because the deep blue sea makes us horny.
The truth is our business is none of yours. Let's stop d!cking around and you help us buy a Ketch that we would need to do an ocean cross. We'll buy it, and pay you to teach us how to sail it.
The man shrugs. "I ain't worried about money. It's more a way to keep the riff-raff away than anything else." He eyes Sterling, and nods. "Right, rich idiots. So, I will put out some feelers on the Ketch. I'll set aside a month of my time to train your doxy here how to be a navigation. I'm not going more than a day's sail into the Maelstrom with you lot though, you can be suicidal, I'm not. I get 2500 gold pieces."
Fair enough. 2500. We need to know how much on the outside that we'll expect to pay for a Ketch. So we can put our finances in order.
Luna bristles at the use of the word 'doxy' in relation to her, but says nothing and keeps a smile on her face, but maybe with a hint of smirk, but only a hint. Doxy, eh? I'm no one's 'doxy'... but he'll learn that while he's teaching me what he knows... and I will master what he's got to teach and show him who's a 'doxy'.
"Alright, I'll look around. I'd say have a good 15,000 in gold on you, for a ship, crew, incidentals. I'll contact some people I know and see if I can find a ship. Might take a week or two, might have to wait for it to come in from one of the other cities. I can put out word ye're lookin' for crew if ya like." The man reaches out to shake Sterling's hand, since he did most of the talking. Then he gets the inn the group is staying in, and says he'll send word when he has something.
Three weeks later (update gold as appropriate for the stay, let me know if you're doing anything else, I'll give more 'how the city feels' info when it comes up. IE : if you have a specific question now, I can answer it, otherwise, when something comes up in game and you want to know 'was it like this in Verdant Shoals' I can respond with the differences or the sameness), word comes to the inn.
Meeting Vigor at the docks, you find him standing on the dock in front of a trim looking ship.
"Mornin', mates. This be the Intrepid Coward. Trim little ship, ya can rename her if ya like. Just make sure ya have a ceremony for it. Dinnae want tae tick off the ship by not showin' proper respect. She's got an empty hold right now, I negotiated a price for yah. It'll be 13,390 gold. She takes a crew of 8, and has a decent clip. You'll need to put on enough food for 8 crew, plus us, for a few months. Crew should have their own blinders, I'm bettin' you lot don't have yours. You'll need a pair for everyone, even the Navigator." He tugs a pair of goggles out of his belt pouch, showing them to the group. "They'll be about 250 gold in any shop along the docks."
The Intrepid Coward will never do. He looks to Luna and smirks What do you think Capt'n Kirk? How about renaming it to the Enterprise
He turns back to Vigor. We'll need a crew with nothing to lose. Can we press those on death row into service?
The man rubs his chin. "Well, depends on why they're there. Usually a fee to pay off their crime. If you're looking for desperate but competent... might be better off finding some people who can't find a berth because they've got a jinx mark. Or who owe money. Pay off the money if it's low enough, give them a way out of town if it's too much to pay off." He rubs his chin. "Any preference?"
We'll pay well for a good 1st and 2nd mate. For the rest, we can move from cheap to expensive until we meet a quota, but paying off a debt removes a motivation I'd prefer stay intact.
"Enterprise, eh?" She struggles to maintain a straight face and not giggle at the idea. "That sounds fine... but as Vigor says, we'll have to have a proper naming ceremony for her. And install a new plaque with her new name on it."
By the time the ship is ready, Vigor has a handful of scrolls with suggestions for people to hire. The 1st and 2nd mate are both 'jinxes' who can't get a berth on another ship, but they've had 12 and 8 years experience respectively.
The rest are a collection of jinxes, people who owe dangerous people money, and minor criminals who's fine can be paid off cheaply.
The deal is finalized, and the ship transfers ownership. The new crew oversees a renaming ceremony. Although this seems to be more about the new crew getting drunk, although they do get an acolyte to come out and bless the ship.
Once the ship is renamed, it's name plaque redone, and it's ready to sail, the group pays it's docking fees and the ship begins it's maiden voyage under new ownership and name.
The first couple of days are what Vigor calls a 'shakedown' cruise. He's acting as captain for this cruise. The crew is a mix of surly and eager to prove themselves, and even a couple who are both. They begin trying to teach the new owners, once it's made clear the owners intend to learn how to be sailors. Vigor begins training Luna on the basics of navigation by star position, currents, and maps and using dead reckoning.
After the first three days, the crew turns the ship toward the deep sea, and the group feels the tension ratchet up as the ship heads out away from land. As the shore becomes an indistinct smudge on the horizon, Vigor calls out for Goggles Up! The crew all put on the goggles then.
When you put the goggles on, your perceptions are vastly dimmed. All color drains from the world, and it's as if you were looking at a virtual reality version of the world. The black and white vision of the ship stops in a solid grey wall at 30 ft. As you move around, that wall moves, making it look eerily like a computer game as things come into focus and vanish into the wall as you move. The goggles also dampen your sense of hearing, making it hard to hear anything more than 30 ft away. The crew actually positions people every 30 ft on the deck, to act as relays, yelling out communications from one end of the ship to the other.
Even your sense of touch deadens, making it harder to sense temperature and texture.
Luna, not putting on her goggles, as Vigor doesn't either, watches the horizon. Suddenly, as if passing through an invisible wall, the clear open sea vanishes, replaced by a fog that blocks the horizon and erases the land behind them from view. Vigor shouts out. "MAELSTROM! MAELSTROM! MAELSTROM!"
The relays pick up the shout, repeating it so it reaches from one end of the ship to the other. The fog seems to move on it's own, shapes spinning out of it to vanish as another spins in from a different direction. The sounds of things moving in the fog crawls up Luna's spine on thousands of little spiky feat and worms it's way into her ears. Her eyes feel like the fog is pressing against them, trying to push it's way into her brain...
Harry will pick this moment to become seasick.
Luna fights the disorienting affect as much as she can while trying to understand what she is experiencing as fully as possible.
Well... Sterling shouts above the din. You don't see that everyday
Sterling moves behind Luna placing his hand on her shoulder, and infuses her with minor magic.
I also have the mythic ability:
Competent Caster (Ex): You automatically succeed at concentration checks to cast arcane spells. This ability doesn't apply to spells of the highest spell level you can cast.
Edit: I will now put on the goggles and feed Luna Guidance spells
"Ok. That's not normal sailing weather. What the he...ck is going on out at sea.
I'm used to not being able to see where we're going at sea but this is ridiculous.
After seeing the crazyness, Paul puts on his goggles.
Luna will as Vigor more about the Maelstrom, "What is it exactly? what causes it? Is it possible to sail around it? can one stay on the cusp of it, rather than sail through the middle of it?"
"The priests say it's the death curses of thousands o' demons when the Demons were routed. Dinnae know if that's true. Ye ken sail around it as long as ye stay in sight of land. Makes a trip take anywhere from one to four years, depending on where ye start and where ye go. Going straight across is about five to six months trip. We're in the cusp now, and generally the cusp is safer, but... don't bet ye're life on it, there be places where ye go straight to the heart o' hell when you cross the line." He unrolls the charts Luna bought, and begins to note markings. "These lines map the intensity of the Maelstrom, that is, how powerful the halucinations and ghosties are." He denotes a blue line. "Cross that line, the ghosties can start actually doing things to you physically, slap ya, tickle ya, push ye off the yard arms." He notes a red line. "Here they be solid as you or me, and more dangerous. Thing is, only part o' the damn thing is stable. These all mark the stable sections. Beyond that, ye gotta learn to recognize how strong things is, how strong they're becoming, and how to navigate by what ye see and hear." He notes a mouth on the map that is open and showing teeth in a smile. "That shows laughin', so the ghosties laugh. Each Navigator has their own codes, in addition to the standard codes. Ye'll want to use combinations of codes, so ye know what's a real code and what's not, or other's can decipher ye're codes and know what you know about the Maelstrom. That's why Navigator's draw such a high price. We can get people 'round the Maelstrom, and only we know our secret ways..."
"Obviously I have a lot to learn... "
While in his maelstrom canceling headgear, Sterling's head moves a bit like Stevie Wonder.
The ship makes it back to Verdant Shoals after 3 months at sea for training. Then Sterling contracts to have someone come in and do some work on the hold, converting a section of it over into work rooms, reducing the cargo capacity of the ship.
This takes three weeks (during which time you need to pay the crew, or release them).
When that is done, and supplies have been loaded up, the ship is ready to take sail again.
About half-way through the conversion, Forques approaches Sterling. "Pardon me Captain, but I ain't heard nothin' about what cargo we're haulin' with us? I'll need to know what we're haulin'. At least, weight and bulk and such, so we can make sure we get the ship balanced. Don't wanna go over in a storm because the cargo is too much or unbalanced..." She says, as if dancing on eggshells.
She obviously thinks Sterling is going to be smuggling or hauling something illegal, and is trying to get the information he should have given her on mass and bulk, so she can make sure the cargo is loaded safely aboard without asking exactly what it is they're hauling
Sterling motions her to his state room. Have a seat.
He closes the door and moves to his desk, while turning his chair to face her. We carry food and water. Please stow it in a manner that you find acceptable. He pauses and cocks his head. However I assume you are asking about the future. Sterling smiles benignly.
It's funny. In this world they consider you a jinx. In another time and place, I can see you managing thousands and commanding a salary beyond your imaginings. Sterling muses
He quickly snaps back to the original question. I have full confidence that when the times comes, you will square the ship away to satisfaction. In the mean time, I need you to get the sailors battle ready. They need to work as a group and on command.
We have purchased high quality weapons for the crew. Make sure they can board and repel. Keep them sharp.
Do you have any other questions?
The woman looks at Sterling, then her face twists with fury. "You fragging bastard! I don't care if people think I'm a jinx! I'll not be a bloody be damned Pirate!" She screams in Sterling's face and drives a fist at him unexpectedly over the desk.
The blow slams into Sterling's jaw, nearly sending him over backwards. The woman spins on her foot and begins stomping away.