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"Expecting to see a spider the size of a dog, Jewel is surprised that Tarjun is panicked by the little red thing.
""Sorry. I've got to get vegetables and stuff for the stew pot. Are there any more spiders in there?"
"Nah, I think we're done," Tarjun gives up on whacking the spider to death and puts his club away, though not without regrets. If there's any flames left dancing on the beams and cobwebs, he puts it out with his magic little clouds filled with rainwater. "You can come down if needed, Jewie!"
"Right-o. Let's see how that thing works," he ties his shirt above his belly button before making his way to the bilge -eyeing the filthy water before he goes in. "Yuck."
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The bilge pump is a device with no complicated mechanics to it. Just a lever like a seesaw that can be operated by two people.
Jewel glances at Tarjun struggling with the pump. "It might need some oil? But I've gotta run. Don't want FishGuts coming looking for me. I'll be back."
She runs over to the stores to select as many carrots/turnips/onions/whatever that she can carry and rushes back to the stairs.
Getting back to the 'caboose' Jewel sets her load down. "I'll need a knife to chop with, and a board. Then I'll dump these in and get more." She looks at the pot and casts Create Water to start filling it. "Is it OK to start the fire under it now? Is the wood for the fire also down in the hold? Or do you burn coal?"
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Clara feels well rested and full of adrenaline after this fight and pushes the pump dragging Tarjun along. And even after the time it takes to empty the bilge, she still feels fresh.
"Sqeak, squeak, squeeaak?" Rémy inquires when he sees Jewel collecting food.
Hearing the squeaking Jewel activates her Feral Speech hex. "I've only got a little bit of time. They've assigned me to do some cooking upstairs. One big pot to create a mess of stew for the sailors."
"Hey. Pass a warning. If you see more than a couple of humans come down at once, hide. FishGuts said something about sending some guys down here to try and catch rats. I'm not sure what they do with the rats that they catch. ??"
"You get to use the kitchen? Tres bien! Let's do that together, I can help." Rémy states jumping with joy.
Not waiting for an answer he moves through the supplies. "We're limited with the available food, and we have almost nothing fresh, but something with beans would work. If you take those fire beans here, and some of the green beans there, and potatoes, that would get us a nice stew. As a base I suggest adding a big bone from a cow and and some smoked bacon to add some meat and more taste."
"It could use some parsley or a hot pepper, but I haven't seen any spices or herbs, only salt. Maybe in the kitchen?"
"Get to use the kitchen? I got assigned to cook with the man that runs the 'Caboose'. He's called FishGuts, and he is the one that said they'd have to organize a rat hunt if there were visible rats down here. I think I convinced him otherwise, but that's why I warned you in case he decides to do it anyway."
She gathers the beans and other things mentioned, as much as she can carry. "The bone maybe, but the bacon will have to be removed from the stew for the officers before it gets to the men. FishGuts says that the meat goes to the officers! Hmm.... I'll have to search for spices in the Caboose. Mom says salt is for preserving food, not flavoring. I can cast Purify Food and Drink from the magic Erastil grants to me. It won't spice things up but it will clean up anything that is too old...."
As she starts toward the stairs again she pauses, "We can't let FishGuts see you. He'll try to catch or kill you. Might want to add you to the stew. I'll need to come back for more. Once I get the last of it maybe you could hang onto my shirt collar and hide under my hair? You could tell me what to do and I'll be your hands. ??" She wonders what would happen if FishGuts noticed. If he did see the rat would he want rat meat in the stew?"
"Fishguts is always drunk." Rémy replies. "Hiding form him will be easy enough."
Jewel hears the negative attitude from Remy and wonders. This is so different from home. She knew that some of the lumberjacks drank alcohol, but never enough to make them known as 'drunk', at least not to the local children. "I'll trust your judgement on that. I don't know much about people being drunk. There aren't any sailors around my home."
Carrying as much as she can she heads back up to the 'Caboose'. Getting there she adds more water from another casting, then starts cleaning and chopping vegetables to add. When she has a chance she searches around the shelves for any spices other than salt.
Fishguts looks over the ingredients Jewel brought. "Beans? Okay. But you have to cook those hard ones first." Then he takes his bottle of cheap wine, sits in the corner and watches Jewel work. Taking a sip here and a sip there, he finally dozes off and starts snoring.
Rémy gives some advice here and there and scurries around the caboose in search of spices. But the only 'spices' seem to be liquid ones, that Fishguts uses to spice himself.
Seeing Jewel handle the kitchen Rémy is impressed. He lets her do it and only reminds her of stirring now and then. Once the stew simmered for an hour he asks to try the stew.
"C'est haute cuisine! You cook really well."
Once FishGuts passes out Jewel searches the area more thoroughly for spices. "Any chance they might have dried peppers or any other spices down in the hold? This is good, I guess. But is seems a bit bland."
She smiles at Remy's praise, "If we get where we are going and continue to our home I wish you could come with us. My mother can't talk your language, but I think she'd be interested in meeting you and possibly discussing recipes. Do any of the others below know cooking like you?"
"Nah. They are just garbage gluttons. being a food connoisseur as a rat is really hard. No one understands me. Not even my closest family."
"I think my mum said it's two days travel. But I can't remember going there." Clara replies.
Meanwhile on deck the cauldron with stew is brought outside. The bell is rung and everyone who can leave their post lines up with their bowl to get a serving.
Once the first ones start eating, there is a lot of 'aaah' and 'oooh' heard and the mood improves significantly.
"You did well!" Fishguts commends Jewel and pats her back.
Jewel looks up at FishGuts when he complements her cooking. "No sir. You did well. You are the master cook. I only helped you as Mr. Plugg commanded. That's how it works here, right?" She gives him a wide-eyed, innocent look like he might expect from a young girl. "And you are helping me to understand how things work for the sailors on this ship."
"He's a rat but he's also really smart, knows about cooking and likes cooking. If I get the chance I want to take him with us when we get off of this ship. I think Mom might even like him if she can get past him being a rat...."
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"Mom?! Welcoming a rat?!" Tarjun squeaks out - almost a little too loudly. He visibly strains to bring his voice back to a whisper. "Yeah, good look with that!" "
He looks down at his near empty bowl, unsure of whether he's going to keep his lunch in his stomach. He has to repress a gag. " Hey, Jewie, " he says a bit desperately. " Your rat friend, or whatever... It didn't actually touch the stew, right?"
After lunch there is some more work to do. Fishguts tells Jewel "You go and catch some fish for tomorrow." and hands her a fishing rod.
All the other crew goes back to their job, so the others who couldn't leave get their turn on lunch.
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Jewel grins at her brother. "Of course not. I made it. He watched and gave me some suggestions. You won't find any rat fur anywhere in it...."
Later, when FishGuts hands Jewel the rod she gives it a hard look. "OK. I've fished in a stream and a small pond. This shouldn't be too different. If something bites that is too big for me to handle, do I just yell for help? I'm not as big as most of the adults here."
She looks for a place along the rail where she won't be in the way, baits the hook and tosses it out into the water. She looks for some way to tie the rod to something so it won't get yanked overboard.
"What are we going to do? Hide in the bilge before someone gives us another job?" Calra inquires from Tarjun.
"Back to that horrible bilge work. I sweat by only thinking about it. Puh!" Clara voices for everyone to hear totally unsuspicious, wipin gthe sweat off her forehead with a cloth, before going back down to her assigned task.
"Why are you walking funny?" She inquires from tarjun.
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"'Cause we're sneaking away from work," he retorts, humming under his breath. His chainmail rattles on with each step.
Clara is not successful at all. After a very long time where nothing happens, she finds that the bait is gone, but no fish is there in return.
Tarjun and Clara find that they are alone under deck. All other work seems to be ouside.
Seeing the empty hook Jewel walks back to FishGuts, obviously dejected. "Mr. FishGuts? Can I get some more bait? There was a strike.... but I. Well, I was too slow to catch it. Fishing in the big water is very different from the streams and ponds of home."
"Well, that is not good. If we got no fish for tomorrow, you will lose your cooking job privilege and become a swab." Fishguts tells and hands her another piece of rotten fish as bait.
Clara sits in the bilge and is bored. The work sucks, but sitting in that stinking hole with nothing to do isn't much better. "Wanna explore the ship?" she suggests to Tarjun.
Jewel accepts the piece of rotten fish timidly and moves back on deck to try a fish some more. She quietly says a prayer over the disgusting meat, then secures it to the hook and lowers it down to the water again.
On their half stealthy approach to explore the ship they come past the the quartermaster's store. Grok spies them through the open hatch.
"Oh, hi. You need something?"
"Ok. You know where you find me, if that changes."
Grok turns back to sorting through something you can't see from outside through the hatchet.
Clara looks for a bucket or a cask or something and pushes it in front of the hatch. Climbing up to be able to look inside she inquires "What do you have in there?" Clara inquires couriously.
Inside it looks a lot like Janes Gordon's general store in Oakstead. Stuffed with all kinds of gear. There are also weapons inside and some locked chests and a handful of lockers at one wall.
"A lot of things. If you have the coin to pay. Or if you have stuff you don't need, I might buy it."
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A bit relieved that Grod doesn't look close to sounding the alarm, and intrigued by what Clara seems to have discovered inside, Tarjun gets his own cask to climb up on and look through the hatch. "Wow! You've got so much stuff in there!" he exclaims. His gaze surveys the shiny weapons and the gear with marvel.
He points at a big wooden chest at random. "Is this pirate treasure? How'd you get all that?"
"Pirating? And some of the mundane stuff we buy in the harbor we left from."
"But I guess you have to do some pirating of your own, before you can buy stuff here. Or do you have coins"
"Thirty silver and fifteen copper."
"This chest has daggers and other weapons, and this has magical potions." Grok explains.
"But you look like you want to buy candy. One silver for you." She grabs something from a drawer, that looks like a small stick made of tar or soemthing.
Jewel accepts the piece of rotten fish timidly and moves back on deck to try a fish some more. She quietly says a prayer over the disgusting meat, then secures it to the hook and lowers it down to the water again.
[dice=Survival for Fishing?]1d20
Fishing will not become Jewel's new hobby. She catches a fish, but that only makes up for little more that the bait used. At this rate, it'll take her two weeks to catch enough fish for the whole crew. This would only make a fish soup, where no one actually gets fish in it.
And for what it's worth, even pulling out this four pound fish was hard work.
Jewel struggles to pull in the fish. She was happy to catch one.... But as she thinks about it she realizes how many men there are on this ship. One fish isn't close to enough. She takes the fish back to FishGuts. "I got one this time, but I think I'll need at least a dozen to make a stew that would feed the men and have even a taste of fish! How do you do it?"
"If you don't have the coin, you don't need to know what I have, do you?"