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Rhemus is glad to find Aerel in the Crow's Nest as he clears the tops, Good someone beat me so I hope they do not pick me for the Rigger.
"Good climb elf friend. We were not able to speak at the Formidably Maid, or at least I do not remember if we spoke... he he... I am Rhemus by the way."
He will watch the rest of his crew struggle up the main mast.
He helps Baltzar scamper into the Crow's Nest once she makes it up.
"Yes your monkey would have a good laugh at our expense, as I am sure Harrigan's men are enjoying the show. It is important to show that we are a capable and skilled group, less they choose to pick on us as the fresh meat on board."
The elf turns, looking down at the halfling, cocks his head and stares intently, his vibrant violet orbs unblinking in the bright sunlight.
Mr. Plugg gives a quick nod to Master Scourge and a second later his whip strikes Nivian across the back.
Non-lethal damage to Nivian.
"I said climb ye scalawag!" shouts Mr. Plugg.
A few of the pirates chuckle as the whip cracks, but they laugh out loud as they watch Nivian (appear to) struggle with the climb. They laugh even harder as Rillum crashes back down to the deck.
"Maybe he's a bilge rat!" one of them shouts which causes a raucous laugh to ensue.
"Alright alright, quiet down ya louts! That's enough now." says Mr. Plugg as he turns to the pirates to see who is undermining his authority.
He turns back to the new recruits and turns his attention upwards "And yous, get back down here now. We gots more to sort out."
Once everyone is back on deck and lined up again, Mr. Plugg begins again . He nominates Aerel as the new rigger. "Have a seat, I'll give you your orders once we're done with the rest of these scalawags."
"Now, which one of you can cook?" he asks while walking up and down the line.
Sandman took a moment to check the lash on the blue lady's back while the others climbed back down. He pursed his lips, looking angry, but said nothing.
He lined up with the others but didn't respond to the question. He could cook just fine, but he knew he would be of more use on deck.
"Cooking. I can do this. Cooking, I am very good. Good food and with spices, many spices."
Thinking that the kitchen is most likely to have tools he can use to ply his trade, Rillum immediately steps forward.
Baltzar looks down at the rat, starts to say something, then is silent.
"I..."
Ouch. I let my guard down, wasn't prepared for that while climbing. Idiots. I should cook YOU, you balding bastard!
After being allowed to give up, she smiles towards a few crew members nearby that watch.
Yeah, just believe it was an act all along. None of you need to know I really can't climb worth a damn.
Upon lining up again for the next job pick, Nivian for a moment considers nominating the ratfolk, if only to get a sickly looking rat into their kitchen, but thinks better of it. If they really pick him, I'd end up eating that stuff too, and if they think its a joke...That lash wasn't too bad, but I don't know if it would be wise to provoke another...
She stands still in the line, taking the short break to muster the other people on deck, especially looking for others who don't quite seem to fit in.
"Master Plugg, I was the cook's mate aboard The Fury and have some expertise in the area. I will of course defer to your decision." He says respectfully to the balding man carrying the whip, If he selects the rat man... Heaven help us .
EDITED: For typo
"The rat cooks well. I've eaten it. Wasn't disappointed." Sandman rumbled.
Rhemus watches Rillum slowly get up from the deck and line up with the rest and realizes that the little guy will have a hard time adapting to life on a ship...
"Ahem, Master Plugg, I am also an excellent deck swab. I too have tasted the delightful cooking of Mr. Rillum in Port Peril."
He then coughs and sneezes. He then noisily blows his nose in his hand, and wipes it messily on his shirt.
Rillum looks to the halfling and the man with blue scars. Allies, yes. Friends maybe. Friends get thing back too. They may help melt and burn those who stole from us. those who laugh. He makes note of the pirates laughing the loudest and longest.
Avoids saying anything else... As long as she isn't the cook... the rat's okay... After all, he's... a respectable looking rat, for a pirate that is.
Avoids saying anything else... As long as she isn't the cook... the rat's okay... After all, he's... a respectable looking rat, for a pirate that is.
@Rhemus - Mr. Plugg is not the Quartermaster. A respectful tone is about all that is needed, but even that may not work as well as it should.
Mr. Plugg looks at Rhemus "You're a cook's mate now, report to Ambrose Kroop in the galley. The rest of you are now swabs and report to Master Scourge. Now all of yous, gets to work."
Rhemus enters the galley and finds a heavy set man passed out. He reeks of alcohol, and snores loudly. Once awoken, he introduces himself. "Ah, you must be me new mate. Ambrose Kroop's the name, though most call me Fishguts. Now, take those harpoons and nets and go get us some dinner for the pots" After Rhemus introduces himself, Fishguts gives him a brief lecture about the ins and outs of turtle hunting.
Mr. Plugg walks up to Aerel and assigns him Line Work with some of the other riggers. "If I catch ye slackin' off or doin' what I don't like, it's the lash for ye."
Master Scourge sends Batlzar and Nivian below decks to catch rats. "Let's just see how ladylike you really is"
He looks at Sandman and says "I've heard of ye. Ye supposed to be good with thread and a needle. You'll be mendin' the sails and ropes."
Master Scourge looks at Rillum with obvious disdain. "Come with me." he says as he leads you all the way back down to the lower deck. He opens a trapdoor in the floor. "Into the bilge ya bilge rat."
Rhemus will wake up the fat cook Fishguts, and introduces himself once he finally wakes up, "The name is Rhemus Frayne, and aye, I'm your new cook's mate, Mr. Kroop." He takes special note of where Fishguts pulls the harpoons and nets from.
He will then head out on the small ships's dingy and tries his luck on catching a few of the leatherbacks.
Rhemus returns from successfully hunting some turtles and notices the fat cook is again fast asleep with a bottle of rum clutched hard in his hand. He returns all but one of the harpoons and nets to where Fishguts stores them, and hides one of each in a little used part of the galley.
He will then Sneak around the galley looking for any long forgotten weapons, hoarded treasures, equipment or coins.
After he completes his search he will re-awaken the fat man and proudly show him the catch of the day.
This cramped and chaotic kitchen holds two wooden worktables, several wooden cupboards, and two small stoves against the port wall, as well as virtually every cooking utensil imaginable and a frightening array of meat cleavers. A score of chickens and three goats wander freely throughout the chamber. A cage where the goats apparently have been kept lies open. The kitchen is a madness of dirt, food, and knives. The stoves are perpetually lit, and large cauldrons bubble away atop them at all times. A huge array of spices mingle with barrels of rainwater, two tuns of rum, cupboards full of ship's biscuit and salted beef, barrels of sauerkraut, and a small supply of fresh vegetables.
After a few hours in the dingy, you've managed to acquire quite a haul. It appears you may have more trouble relocating your spoils to the galley than you did acquiring them.
It's not hard to find a place to stash the harpoon and net out of site and while looking you notice that one of the butcher's knives is really a masterwork dagger. You also get the feeling that you could probably find more with a more thorough search given the amount of cluttered chaos about.
Rillum mutters very lowly under his breath, "Is Rillum, but brain must be addled from playtimes with goats, goats and sheep. . . " He represses a hiss each time the human slaps him forward, and enters the bilge without further potentially audible complaints.
He begins with a show of effort, until the trapdoor closes or 15 minutes after the last learing face is visible, whichever comes first. When reasonably convinced he is alone, he takes a quick look around his environs. After a quick look around, he returns and dedicates himself to his task.
The long day and unaccustomed work leaves the ratfolk weary, covered with wet and stink when dragged back to the inhabited portions of the ship.
Wait. Wait and watch and when they slip, I win. They think I am weak, think I am weak like the others did, but they will know. He is chuckling a bit to himself as he is shut into his bearth. Find the Sandman, find the halfling. Work together, melt them, burn them, get back our stuff. But first new stuff - to make the burning, the melting, and more friends. New spices.
Sandman simply nodded and got to work, tracking down the pile of sails that needed darning down in the hold and expertly stitching for hours. He worked quickly and finished what could reasonably be done in one day, and then walked down stairs to the lower hold. He knew he was taking a risk, but Plugg and Scourge were on the top deck and weren't likely paying attention to what happened in the holds.
He made his way to the bilge and helped Rillum catch vermin. He knew how hard bilge work could be. Scourge was looking to make an example of someone. Sandman wasn't going to give him the chance.
He found Rillum making little progress. He smiled and illuminated the bilge with a trio of ghost-lights. "You look like you could use a hand."
When he and Rillum finished in the bilges he came up to the main deck, hauled up a bucked of sea water and sluiced himself off with it. He looked no worse for wear for having done the work of two crewmen.
Rhemus will help Fishguts prepare dinner once he wakes him up. If Fishguts allows him he will share his turtle soup recipe with brandy sauce.
Don't forget the +2 for mw galley to profession (cook).
The trapdoor above opens unexpectedly. Rillum cringes, knowing the bastards above are returning to exact more fun.
The big man with scars comes carefully down the ladder, indicating that both should remain silent, then plys the pumps with him. Cautious, he accepts the help, clearing the bilge in silence.
Only one time does he break the quiet. "I do not know why, but thanks . . . thanks to you. But do not fear for me, and do not bring danger to you. They will try to break, to beat, but better than them lie dead in street, in ditch, laugh the laughs forever, smiles burned forever. In time. I will live, and in time, in time they will learn. You are a friend. Thank you, thank you, but do not risk. Together we make them learn hard lessons."
The rest of the time they work.
"Hard lessons are the only lessons."
"We are crew now." Sandman shrugged. "No more reason needed than that."
"Besides, you still owe me some medicines. I'll never get them if I let them keelhaul you."
"You will see. You will see such medicines. And I remember your requirements, your concerns." Rillum's mouth thins in a humorless grin, "They will feel all the pain."
The lowest deck of the ship, the bilges are a foul, damp place with thick cobwebs above and 1 foot of dark, brackish water that stinks abominably below. A ladder leads up to the trap door that opens into the lower hold, and a single bilge pump rests near the stern. The bilges also double as the ship's brig, and six sets of masterwork manacles with average locks are fixed to the bulkheads in the forward position of the deck. There is currently one human man in chains.
A number of discarded crates and boxes packed with straw lie in the bilges, among which you find a tanglefoot bag and two tindertwigs.
Thanks to Sandman's help, you complete your daily task. However, all of the hard work does leave you fatigued for the remainder of the day.
You may read Rillum's spoiler and you find a buckler while searching the bilges.
Sandman nodded, a small smile on his lips.
Rillum slips the tanglefoot bag and tinder twigs under his outfit and spirits them to his bearth to be hidden in his bunk.
Rillum slips the tanglefoot bag and tinder twigs under his outfit and spirits them to his bearth to be hidden in his bunk.
An opportunity, perhaps? Sandman thought as he eyed the prisoner hanging from the bilge shackles.
Approaching the shackled man he looked him over with a professional eye. "You look like you could uses drink. Rillum, can you slip up to the galley and ask Rhemus for a cup, some rum, and a water skin?"
"What got you stuck down here?" Sandman asked the chained sailor
An opportunity, perhaps? Sandman thought as he eyed the prisoner hanging from the bilge shackles.
Approaching the shackled man he looked him over with a professional eye. "You look like you could uses drink. Rillum, can you slip up to the galley and ask Rhemus for a cup, some rum, and a water skin?"
"Don't bother" he says. "I'm not worth risking the lash over."
"What got you stuck down here?" Sandman asked the chained sailor
"Caught stealin' from the galley I was."
Rillum makes his careful way to the galley. Rhemus is unavailable, floating and fishing behind the ship. Avoiding the drunken chef, he grabs a skin of water and returns to the bilge.
Assuming he returns unobserved, he lends his support to Sandman questioning the prisoner.
Sandman didn't seem bothered by the threat of lashing. He just shrugged.
"That is not something they take kindly to at sea. What is the punishment on this ship?"
Sandman didn't seem bothered by the threat of lashing. He just shrugged.
"That is not something they take kindly to at sea. What is the punishment on this ship?"
"I'm to be keelhauled at dusk" he says grimly.
Sandman took a deep breath. Keel hauling was usually a death sentence. He nodded. "Anything I can do for you before that happens?"
"If you could...poison me, before the Bloody Hour, I'd tell ye anything I know. I'd prefer my death be quicker then keelhauling. I've seen it done..." he trails off at that with a heavy sigh.
"How about I make it look like you bit your tongue off and bled out?"
Realizing that the halfling was looking him directly in the face, he finally registered the wind blowing on his skin. Eyes widening in alarm, he reached up and felt his own face bereft of the ever present mask. He covered his face in shame at this humiliation and squatted down with his knees in his chest, slightly rocking to and fro. After several moments as the first mate hollered at them to come back down, he turned from the halfling and began to slowly remove his hands from his face and crept over the side of the crow's nest and climb down to the main deck. Once down, he lowered his head, letting the long locks of white blond hair hang down over his face and cover his features.
At the command, he knelt down on the deck awaiting his orders. When ordered to Line Work he rose, and keeping his hair hanging in front of his face, he went to work in the rigging, keeping himself to himself and staying quiet unless directly addressed in Polyglot.
That night after duties, he ate the food offered without comment or complaint and went to a quiet corner of the deck where he began to gather his hair together in strands of three which he then braided together. He repeated this for hours until all of his hair was in many braids. He then took the individual braids and begin to weave them together in front of his face, creating a mask of hair to hide everything lower than his eyes.
Once done with his hair, the elf finds an empty hammock and falls asleep.
Baltzar mutters something to herself about being ladylike in Varisian then starts rat hunting, mostly concentrating on the rat hunting.
Hunting rats? Thats what they want me to do? Why didn't they abduct a street cat?
Nivian does as is asked of her, without putting in more effort than she deems necessary, trying to get to know Baltzar, idly chatting with her during their time together, as she feels a certain...connection to her.
Upon finding rats, she uses "Guidance" before trying to catch them.
Since we are not alone, I expect other sailors to be around. Nivian will pick one out that seems to show interest(good or bad) in the two witches working and attempts to influence him or her. Getting a friend in the existing crew could help newcomers a lot...
Edit:
While stirring up and hunting down rats, I'll keep my eyes open in case anything useful(e.g. a knife) seems unattended/on the floor/behind crates etc. Not actively searching the area, just being opportunistic while doing my job.
Approaching the shackled man he looked him over with a professional eye. "You look like you could uses drink. Rillum, can you slip up to the galley and ask Rhemus for a cup, some rum, and a water skin?"
"Don't bother" he says. "I'm not worth risking the lash over."
Rillum stops short and settles next to Sandman to hear what the prisoner has to say.
"How about I make it look like you bit your tongue off and bled out?"
"That doesn't sound much better than the keelhauling. Perhaps you should just leave me to my fate" he says with a nervous gulp.
Your actions are fine, but more will occur before lights out.
"It won't hurt at all." Sandman said. "Anything you want to tell us first?"
"It won't hurt at all." Sandman said.
"What exactly are you going to do to me?"
"Anything you want to tell us first?"
"Don't trust any of the officers. Any gear you have was probably either given to the quartermaster, the mage, or maybe even stored in the armory. Just about anything with a lock on it is trapped. You seem like a decent person. Most on this ship aren't, but Sandara Quinn is a good person too."
Sandman nodded his thanks.
"I'm going to press on the artery that brings blood to your head. It will make you pass out in about ten seconds. You just won't wake up after that. All I need you to do is stick out your tongue."
"Are you ready?"
"Okay...I am ready."
He opens his mouth and sticks his tongue out while closing his eyes which are beginning to water.
Sandman pressed two thick fingers to the side of his neck and pressed his head back aground the hull so he couldn't jerk free when he started to pass out. It didn't take long. He started thrashing involuntarily for a few seconds. His eyes popped open and his tongue went back into his mouth. His eyes were pleading. Sandman gave him a sad, reassuring smile. The man stuck his tongue back out again, a final act of bravery before he passed out.
As soon as he started to go limp, Sandman chucked him under the chin with his meaty hand, holding his jaw closed. Then he shook the man's lower jaw back and forth in a quick jerk, dragging his teeth through the meat of his tongue.
His tongue gushed blood. It was nearly severed. The subconscious pain shock caused the man to start to stir for a moment, but Sandman shook his head.
"Shhhh. Sleep now. Your pain is over. Dream of better things."
The man dropped, supported now only by the chains. His tongue held by a string and turned in a slow circle dripping his last heartbeats into the filthy bilge water.
Noticing Nivian wants to talk, Baltzar introduces herself.
"I'm Baltzar, priestess of Besmara." said with a slight smirk.