In a random location while doing my job.
Reinald looks at Scourge and shrugs innocently, "Oh are we late we helped Fipps . . . he made a mess. " he lifts and strokes his hand rubbing some blood off his gloves, is it Fipp's is it his who knows. Reinald I think you just pushed it too far lay off the jokes.
Aria gives Sapphire a kind face in response to her comment.
"I'm the one who should be thanking you. I didn't do anything compared to you."
The Merfolk doesn't seem to have time to carry on with the conversation though as Scourge begins quickly assigning jobs. Not wanting to find any more trouble Aria quickly attends to her work.
Evening focusing just on her work Aria finds herself exhausted by the manual labor.
While running through the main hold Hunter sees a door and tests it finding it unlocked. You realise you have some spare time and take a look inside to find a small cabin with two beds and two locked footlockers. It appears to be the cabin where the Cook and Quartermaster sleep as well as a few chickens.
The Wormwood sails onward as the sun rises and then begins to set. The crew working and little else. A human female comes up on deck with a spyglass for about an hour then disappears back inside. Plugg and Scourge yell their usual curses at any who do a poor job. Several directed at Aria, "You think you're too pretty for work like this? Put your back into it or we'll sell ya to the first brothel we find! Exotic thing like you oughta fetch business there."
When the sun is about to set the anchor is finally dropped and the 'Bloody hour' arrives Master Scourge comes forward with Fipps behind him looking not as bad as he did this morning. He has been to see the Surgeon today. Scourge looks at Reinald, "Have you been assaulting others of the crew? Fipps tells me that you attacked him without cause. Is this true?"
Even exhausted Aria's blood boils at the men's comments. She was already on edge after having to submit to someone else and the cruel comments weren't helping much. In fact the only thing holding her back was Sandara's words and her fear of being whipped. Taking in a deep breath the woman musters out a "yes sir" though she takes no attempt to hide the gritting of her teeth as she does so.
I'll make them pay for this, but now isn't the time nor the place.
During Hunters job, Hunter sabotages the food or the tools the chef uses after all it is the cooks room, he poisons it with cross contamination of some sort or improvised poison, since he doesn't have access to poison.
Fair enough, wasn't sure if there was an insect or something else nearby, or allow raw meat to touch other food.
Hunter wants to hide in the room, either under the bed or elsewhere. I'm not wearing the armor so I don't take the 1 penalty it would give, unless I don't have to roll stealth to hide under the bed.
hunter successfully hides under the bed.
Reinald knows he is in for a beating. I need this be to just be my beating. Reinald smirks looking back at Scourge, "Without cause no." He adds a shrug to his explination, "What's a sailor to do? Second morning on a new ship and a bunch of lads figure you're and easy mark. He wanted a tussle he got more than he wanted." I know I am going to get the lash I just need to sell the fact that I am getting the lash but I need a few of these sailors to know I am getting beat for doing exactly what they would have done in my place. He lets his voice grow a little louder as he finishes with his rhetorical question, "Am I aboard the only pirate ship in the wide Fever Sea that doesn't expect a man before the mast to give back better than he is given?"
"You watch your scrawny mouth boy! Your on board Cap'n Harrigan's ship. Seems to me that your agreeing to hitting Fipps first." He tells another two of the crew, "Strap him to the mast!"
Jape and Tate step Reinaforward and tie ld up while Scourge cracks his whip a few times to warm up. "You attack your fellow crewman and claim you have a cause. Look at you, hardly a scratch compared to him. If any of you have a problem with another, deal with it in your time not mine!"
He seems to put all his strength into it and Reinald passes out after the third blow. Scourge and Plugg walk away and most of the crew heads down to the galley to eat. No one seems to want to come forward to untie him. Fipps smirks as he makes his way down.
Rrruh bristled eyeing the one called fipps quite obviously. Then he moved immediately to friend Reinald untying him from the mast.
"Cowards the lot of them yes yes. Come come friend Reinald, lets get you some food to shake off the bad things." He added his tail still lashing and his ears laid back. He should have spoke up, he should have stood with Reinald in punishment, after all, he had indeed been fighting just as hard.
That strange one, hunter, he thought he was called, he didnt notice at punishment. He wondered where he had went to. He shrugged it off and went to the food with Reinald in tow
hunter successfully hides under the bed.
Long enough to spy on the cook and whoever else goes into the room, as I am well hidden.
Which reminds me, when I do spy on whoever, this is my perception.
Sapphire keeps going to say something, but all the possibilities for what she thinks to say just end up with more of the group getting the lash, so she keeps quiet. She admires Reinald for keeping quiet, not giving them the satisfaction.
She moves forward to help Rrruh carry Reinald to the food.
Sapphire will find someone new to sit with and get to know, she spies Rosie Cusswell after dinner and moves over to talk to her.
She'll ask after when Rosie came aboard (and how) and try to find out what she knows of the ship and its crew.
Hunter waits under the bed for a while but no one comes in during the day. You hear the drunken rambling of the Cook talking to Sapphire and also the Quarter-Master who comes in for a short time to share a drink with them before leaving again.
Sandara joins Sapphire and Rrruh in helping Reinald get below. "Help me get him to the lower hold so I can get him back to consciousness," she says quietly so that no others will hear. She seems to almost be one of the only friendly souls on this entire ship. In the darkness of the lower hold with only a lamp for light you lay him down back up. It looks alot worse than what happened to Rrruh yesterday. Scourge really did put all his strength into it. Sandara lays her hands on him and closes over the wounds. Only a few bruises remain.
"You should be fully recovered within a few hours but try not to give away that you are healed yet. At least until tomorrow," she advises Reinald.
The Halfling Rosie Cusswell sits in the main hold drinking yesterdays soup and talking in broken up conversation with several others, Jack Scrimshaw and Giffer Tibbs. From what you hear before you sit down in her remarks about an old lover it is easy to tell how she came by her second name. "Ah the new cooks mate. If I had to bloody stay down there with him all day I think I'd go mad. This soup, can you get him to give us something less than a month old. Surely we just stocked up on fresh produce in Port Peril." She laughs when she thinks about port peril and you ask when she came aboard. "3 days ago the bastards got me. Was only there looking for work. PAID work. Not forced to work for bloody pirates. Anyone who hears that and doesn't like it can shove it. At least the grog is passable. Give me enough of that stuff and I can forget this hell hole i'm in. Well blue one, strange looking elf you are. How did you end up here?"
Hunter will continue to stay hidden in the room, but if a teammate of his gets attacked he will jump in. If another teammate gets attacked, Hunter will run up and make an unarmed attacked against the attacker.
If this all goes down, he will say... No one lays a hand on my friends.
Mostly curious than anything else, the dark furred feline took his grog ration after dinner then hung about... until he could safely toss it over the edge hopefully un-noticed. Noticing the pretty blue elf chatting up some of the others he decides that indeed making friends with some of the others might not be a bad idea. The one called Jack Scrimshaw he approached giving his best feline smile...
Your second name is scrimshaw yes yes? do you carve things? My great uncle Purrsifal was a carver. I always enjoyed the little things he gave me when i was a small one. Do you have examples I could see?"
He asked with a slight little friendly wiggle.
Reinald comes to looks about he groans slightly. He sees Sandara and Saphire and smirks playfully, "Am I dead cause a blue elf and a red head is not a terrible afterlife. He ends his brief flirt with a look of concern. "Was I first or am I alone in the beating?"
"I will keep the secret safe Sandara. I will make sure I lay low. Somebody help me to my bunk I will try to look pained. . . . We should probably start to making a point to not being alone if we can. During work hours we might not be able to get what we want but we should make a point to not wonder off alone if it could be helped."
Ah well, it seems you and I hold our method of arrival in common then, i too sought work on a ship, and didn't expect so rude an awakening the first morning at sea!
She points at the soup
It's early days but I will try and see what I can do about the food, no promises though
Flattery might earn you more bruises mr Reinald, if'n you can't keep your promised boasts due to injury
she winks at him
Keeping out of trouble sounds a good idea, and yes not going places alone sounds a fine idea too
She nods.
I tried to have a word with Grok about our gear but she's deaf to my pleas, thanks for the hints though Sandara.
she smiles at the red head
So rough as it is, we may have to find, steal or win enough of value to trade back our things with her. Just so you know
Jack smiles at Rrruh, "You guess correctly, I usually try to buy something fresh whenever I get the chance. Selling my older works. I don't get attached to my pieces. Except for one that my grandfather gave me before he died. An old piece of giants skull he engraved his favourite woman on." He chuckled as he pulls a hand sized piece out and shows it to you. On it is the simple engraving of a nude figure. "It's not worth much but it's all i've got left. He taught me everything about the sea that I know."
Sandara smiles at your statement about an afterlife, "They only whipped you fortunately."
Aria watches painfully as Reinald is whipped, but once again holds her tongue. The woman was proud, but she wasn't heartless and could barely stand to watch an innocent man punished. In fact she could barely stand to watch any man be punished. Fighting back the desire to show her building tears the bard watches as a few of the other crew members untie him and begin pulling him away from the mast. It would take Aria more then a few minutes to gather herself back together.
After fighting off her emotions and exhaustion the girl makes her way down to the ship's lower hold to see if she can offer any assistance. To her pleasant surprise she walks in on Reinald regaining consciousness. After giving a slight nod to Sandara and a courteous smile to Sapphire Aria gives word to Reinald.
"Are you alright?"
after getting done with everyone in the lower hold Aria will find early rest if she can.
"I will be fine." He grimaces and reaches a hand to his lower back. "Thank you for your concern. We were just saying that going forward we should try not to wander alone when we can avoid it."
Night action for night 2
Wait a minute, Hunter still has a night action. Um, are you okay with aiding? Hunter is not diplomatic, but he can try aiding if it changes sapphires unsuccess to success. You could say he did this while Sapphire was talking, even though I wasn't around to post it at the time.
Hunter helps sapphire on what to and how to do it politely, assuming I'm allowed to aid. 10 or higher aids her for a +2 bonus.
"Aye me and Sandara discussed that the night before. It's not much, but if you'd like I could at least clean you up a bit."
After speaking Aria makes a visual representation of what she meant. Casting prestidigitation she uses the spell to clean some of the dirt and grime away from her clothes. She wasn't sure how much that would help after being whipped quite so badly, but at the very least it was better then nothing.
Night action
Hunter will entertain the crew by singing.
The crew is entertained by a hobgoblin singing. Not only that, a hobgoblin that isn't terrible at it either.
Those that go to bed sleep soundly.
Waking up almost at the same time as the rest of the crew, you realize how quickly you are adjusting to the ship schedule. Perhaps this worries you or maybe this tells you that this is exactly the sort of life for you. Either way there are no problems getting on deck in time yesterday. Fipps still looks a bit battered though Reinald looks like yesterdays fight was a week ago. The bright sun rising in the sky is just above the horizon as Scourge gives orders and Plugg watches by the side.
Aria Repairs
Hunter Swab the Decks
Reinald Repairs
Rrruh Upper Rigging Work (thanks to climb speed you can always take 10 on climb checks)
Sapphire Bull Session
The Sail Master is on deck with the Captain this morning, a mature but beautiful woman looking to be close to the Captain in age. Asking the crew about her, they tell you not to bother her. She would just as soon cut your throat as have a pleasant conversation with you. Peppery Longfarthing is not to be messed with. You know she stays in the officers quarters most of the day, calculating the ships course, Hunter has carried several such messages for her before. She disappears just as quickly through one of the doors connecting to the main deck.
Sapphire groans inwardly, another day on the sauce if Ambrose is starting like he means to go on. Still, it will give her the opportunity to get more familiar with the kitchen, and maybe do some shopping.
Another visit to Grok is in order, this time Sapphire is taking something of value however. She will claim she won the masterwork dagger in a game of chance last night, and ask what value it would fetch in trade. Whilst eager to get back her own gear, she is also interested in finding out what else is in the store for sale, mentioning any 'new stock' as being of particular interest.
Encouraged by finding the dagger yesterday and the vial the day before, Sapphire eagerly hunts around the galley for more potentially useful items.
He had hoped to get a chance to visit the quartermaster, he wanted to get a few of his things back to feel a bit safer... but he was finally assigned work he thought he could do properly. even then for a brief bit of time he was up in the rigging panicking. So the worked diligently for the rest of the day. He would have loved to chat up any of the other crewmembers but the lithe catfolk did realize that any other riggers were no doubt a bit more focused on the task of not falling.
Sapphire smiles at Grok, but realises she's not fooling her in the slightest, so decides to drop the pretense rather than continue in that vein.
She sighs, and the smile falls off her face like tar from a discarded mop.
Listen Grok, I didn't 'win' it, I found it. I'm still kind of ropey on the rules of ownership round here, so spinning you a tale seemed the better option.
She mutters a word of power and points to the knife in question.
The knife floats up then begins to float around Sapphire's head in a close orbit.
I'm not without my own resources, and its not stolen, no-one will miss it.
The knife settles back in to her palm and she stows it back up her sleeve.
I don't expect you to believe me, so how about we take up this conversation in a day or two? Plenty of time for someone to raise a hue and cry if it was stolen, that way you'll be safe in the knowledge you're not trading for stolen goods
Sapphire can't help but smile now, at the irony of the situation and what she's been reduced to doing.
"Of course I'm not an idiot girl. Perhaps wherever 'you' come from people will believe anything. I don't much care where you got it as long as it isn't stolen from me, which it isn't or I would know." She gives you a knowing grin, "But it looks like a finely made piece. You want some of your things back? I'm prepared to trade." She waits for you to name a price, "Though if it is found to be stolen, it will be known that you took it. The punishment won't be on my head now."
She opens a chest which holds possessions you recognize as yours, perhaps the others who were captured along with you also, a Masterwork Fiddle (Rosie Cusswell mentioned something about her fiddle), flasks of acid and alchemist's fire, thieves tools, an iron box of candles.
There are several other closed and locked chests and trunks full of treasure, most wooden with iron joints but 1 is solid metal.
Reinald works through the day at a point were he can assist Tilly he strikes up a conversation. "I think the whole ship needs repair. Oh can I help you with that. How long you been aboard the Wormwood?"
"Why do you think it's called the 'wormwood'. Actually don't tell anyone I said that." She chuckles and looks around to see who might have heard. No one seems to be paying too much attention so she keeps talking. "I don't need help here. Perfectly fine on my own."
"Been aboard a few weeks. Me and Jack. Cap'n found us floating after our boat wrecked in a storm. Had nothing to lose."
Swab the Deck.
While on the job, Hunter will find Grok and flirt with the half-orc female. Hey you look nice today, and I like a nice strong woman.
Reinald smiles and stays out of Tilly's way. "I suppose this is better than a raft in the open sea."
Grok folds her arms as she turns to face Hunter betraying a small smirk. "Well well, big, ugly AND a smoothtalker. I'm flattered. Is there something you want here? Perhaps you should get back to swabbing before Scourge notices you missing? Swab."
Sorry I bothered you. Hunter gets back to work.
"Just one second," Grok says as Hunter turns to leave, you are about to pass through the door when a thunk sounds at head level on you right. Stuck in the door frame is one of your daggers. "That's for being braver than most." You detect a hint of amusement in her voice. "Now leave."
Sapphire considers things for a moment, then makes a decision.
OK so I want my sword back for sure, family heirloom and all that she indicates the well-made rapier-like blade in the wooden chest.
I'd also like that fiddle she points at Rosie's instrument.
Now by by reckoning I'm shy a few coins
she digs around in her shirt and produces the vial of liquid she found in the galley, and pops it down in front of Grok.
I'm going to continue our policy of honesty and tell you that I have absolutely no clue what that is she grins wickedly.
Is it worth the difference to you?
"A vial of liquid?" She takes a closer look at it, "No idea what it is huh." She takes it along with the dagger then secures the items in a chest. "A fine weapon. Ok it's your again. But you don't seem like the musical type, well it's not my business." She hands you the two items. Tell Fishguts I'll be in for a drink soon. Another day of drinking... one of these days the captain will get rid of him at this rate."[/b]
Sweet, I got my dagger back.
Happy with her purchases and crossing her fingers the vial wasn't anything too expensive, Sapphire returns to the galley via her locker where she deposits the items.
With a grin on her face she gets back to listening to Ambrose as he regales her with yet another tall tale of his times at sea as he crumbles yet more spices in to the now two day old soup he is stirring.
Grok said she'd be along in a while to join us she mentions.
Aria works diligently for the day, save for the occasional small talk with Reinald. She didn't want to fall behind two days in a row.
Alas, the Merfolk was raised as nobility and under the water none the less. It appeared hammers and nails fell quite far out of her area of expertise.
The day passes by with little respite as the sun beats down and the mist from the ocean spray occasionally makes its way on board. With the sun going down the ship turns eastward. Scourge berates Aria whenever he can, the man seems in a foul mood but nobody can tell why. "Didn't your mama ever teach you how to sew like a good little girl? Perhaps you can't sew under the sea. Well you better start learning because if the sails keep tearing you'll be be sent to the bilges for your incompetence!"
Little besides a few clouds are to be seen in the sky and the endless sea on the horizon until the sun is about to fall out of view a point of land is visible. Anchor is dropped several hundred feet from the rocks.
No punishments are in store for today but Plugg seems to have his eyes on several people including you five. The crew heads below to eat and grumble and the food.
Noting Plugg's scowling grimace aimed at her among others, Sapphire keep her head down and stays away as much as possible.
After the meal she seeks out Rosie Cusswell.
So what you said last night about music got me thinking, and I thought about how much I want to hear a certain fo'c'sle song again. You might know it, it's called 'Ladies of Cheliax'.
She puts Rosie's fiddle next to her
Only I've come in to possession of this fiddle that I can't play, I was wondering whether you'd trade it in exchange for playing me my song?