Jewel struggles to hold the rope but notices that the sounds of the battle are dying. "Tarjun! I think the other ship has lost the battle. Come on, I can't hold this rope much longer.... Clara. I'll try to protect you with my hex but you can come up too!"
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Oh no oh no oh no oh no, Pierce thought as he scampered back down the gangway, his rapier still wet with blood where he had stabbed the pirate through the leg. No! No no no! his thoughts screamed as the enormity of what he had just seen and done began to seep into his conscious mind. It seemed like they were losing the battle above decks, and he hadn't been able to see the captain anywhere. The fog was thick, and the smells were awful. What was going to happen now? Pierce didn't like to think about that. He raced to the furthest corner of the bilges and hid himself behind one of the worm barrels. He tried to make himself stop panting, wondering if that man was following him. The sound of clashing blades and screaming from above made it hard to concentrate. Was that a step? Did someone just come down the ladder? He held his breath and tensed, closing his eyes and gritting his teeth.
Clara doesn't like being eaten and therefore withdraws from the water via levitate.
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Tarjun climbs up the rope until he's standing by Jewel's side. He shakes his head as Clara levitates past him. "Show off."
When he finally hauls himself on deck, he realizes that he can't hear much battle noise. It's probably not a good sign.
"Are they taking prisoners?" he asks Jewel, squinting through the thick fog to steal a glimpse of what's happening on the other ship.
Four of the merchant's guards get away with the boat. If that will be a successful flight only time will show. For now, none of the pirates tries to get after them.
On board of the merchant the crew is lined up. Every corner of the ship is searched so nobody is missed. And they are thorough, which has Pierce lined up with the others. Then the pirate captain stands in front of them and musters what is left.
Mr. Plugg walks behind the merchant's crew. "You get to choose. You can pledge your life and your loyality to our captain and become part of the crew. Or you can choose not to."
He stops behind the captain of the merchant ship. "Do you pledge your life and your loyality to our captain, yes or no?"
The "No, never will I..." is interrupted by a cutlass blade coming out of the chest of the merchant captain. As Plugg pulls it out, the captain collapses. Two pirates grab the body and throw it overboard to feed the sharks.
Plug continues down the line and repeats "Do you pledge your life and your loyality to our captain, yes or no?"
From there on, every man and woman answers with a short and uncommented "Yes."
With that part done, the crew of the merchant is brought to the pirate ship and locked away for now.
For Clara, Jewel and Tarjun there is an unpleasant surprise. On the way back to the pirate ship Plug notices them, completely wet. "You had one job. You failed. Four of the crew fled, so you get four lashes each."
After those are applied, you are locked away with the merchant crew. Then the party begins. The merchant ship is plundered, and the riches are shared. The captain decides who gets how much, depending on their contribution to the fight. And Fishguts cooks a feast with the best the merchant has to offer. It would have been better if he'd had help, but you cant do much wrong roasting two pigs.
And so the crew has fun for a whole day and night.
Pierce cries when he is dragged out from his hiding place, but he tries to look brave when they are all lined up. He sees the captain and is briefly hopeful that all will be well until the man is skewered. Like everyone else, he immediately says "Yes!" in a high-pitched, terrified voice when he is offered his life in exchange for swearing to serve the pirate captain.
When the three kids are thrown into the cells with the rest of the merchantman prisoners, Pierce boldly goes over to them. "Oi, where did you come from? Are you pirates? You don't look like pirates. My name's Pierce, on accounta I have a sword. What's your names?"
Barely able to stand after the lashes Jewel still waits until they lock them up below and the pirates return to the upper deck and the party before she calls on Erastil for healing.
"No, we're not pirates. We thought that we were hiring on to get passage back to our homes. We're just kids! Well, maybe a little more, but not pirates!"
"Oh, my name is Jewel. I'm a priestess of Erastil. Over there is my brother Tarjun, and our friend Clara. Tarjun is an Oracle, and technically Clara and I are witches."
"Could you not tell everyone we just met our life story." Clara complains. It is not that long ago that someone went for the stereotypical 'burn the witch'. When is she going to learn?
So, if you have to introduce yourself to someone, please think in stereotypes. Like how the people would understand what you say if they were not in the position to read the APG.
Witches are known for seducing your husband/making you impotent or cursing your land (All of that is solidly backed in the pathfinder witch abilities - Charm Hex, and Blight come to mind). So there is no reason to assume people in Golarion would react positively on meeting a witch.
"Also, you can be a witch all you want. I'm a Guardian of Oaksteadt!"
Pierce's eyes widen. "Witches? Wicked!" he enthuses. He doesn't seem intimidated or fearful of them. "You cast spells, huh? Can you make people fall asleep? Or make lightning? KAKOOM!" He gestures like a thunderbolt coming down to the ship. "Or maybe you could, like, poison somebody? Put something in their food so they go to bed and never wake up?" He seems strangely hopeful about this idea.
"Don't ask me, I'm not a witch. I'm a guardian. I heal nice people and I burn bad people." Clara replies. "And I'm pretty good at finding out who is nice and who is bad." she adds mustering Pierce with suspicion.
"Hmm," Pierce says, slightly disappointed. He looks at Jewel and Tarjun.
Clara can tell easily that he has someone in mind to be poisoned. Or burned.
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"I can make people fall asleep," Tarjun chimes in, a little bit proudly.
The lashing session was every bit as painful as the last one, but at least he mostly managed not to scream -and then felt silly for taking such pride in clutching for his dignity when Jewel and Clara were left so bloodied and shaken.
Jewel, especially, seems to be bearing the brunt of it, and he rubs her back soothingly. "It's okay. We're gonna go out of this okay. What about you? What do you do?" he aims thosse last two questions at Pierce.
"But!?! I didn't.... Well Clara, you're right. But they're prisoners just like us. We had one thing to do? How were we supposed to do that when we couldn't even get to the other ship! If we could've got there we might have been able to help them win the battle!"
Hadn't thought of things that way. I think the priestess title is right since she does think of herself that way, priestess not cleric. But witch or oracle or whatever.... you are absolutely right! Thanks for pointing that out. "Magically gifted kids" Yep! And we were the "Guardians of Erastil", sort of or maybe in training?
"Actually most of what I do is to protect people, heal.... Oh, and i can talk to animals. But mostly we were just trying to be kids. These pirates? I guess I can stop being nice and calling them sailors! These pirates are trying to make us pirates. Sometimes I wish I had powerful magic that would let me just dump them all in the ocean so we could take this ship and get home!"
"I've been working with the chef so I could probably put something in the food to make them all sick. But since they've caged us for not doing what they didn't tell us to do? I don't know if they'll let me cook anymore. Probably have all three of us scrubbing the bilge."
After the festivities are over and the crew is somewhat sober again all men are called on deck, including the cage dwellers.
They are put in two lines, pirate crew and merchant crew facing each other. Then the captain appoints pirates to become the new crew for the merchant ship.
"All right, you scurvy tars! You’ve done a right good job by me — we’ve got a second ship now, and she’s quite a prize from the looks of her. But I still have only one crew. So here’s the plan — our ship will sail on to our planned destination with our new shipmates here, while Mr. Plugg will pick a skeleton crew to sail the Merchant to Port Peril, where she’ll be worth a pretty penny as salvage."
Mr. Plugg becomes the new captain. He chooses Master Scourge, Owlbear Hartshorn, Conchobhar Shortstone, Rosie Cusswell, Sandara Quinn, Tarjun, Jewel and Clara.
At that point the captain interrupts him. "That's enough! Take that kid, I need the rest of my crew myself." He pushes Pierce over to the selected crew. "Now get over and untie the ships. I want both of them underway in 15 minutes!"
Jewel moves toward the merchant ship thinking. She responds with a "Yes Captain!" to the order. If she gets anywhere near the hatch/caboose she calls out, "Sorry Ambrose. I'm headed to the other ship. Maybe we'll see you again someday." Then she switches to her feral speech hex to speak to rats and adds, "Remy. We have to go to the other ship."
Then she quickly strides to the ropes and carefully crosses over.
"I don't know. I've never been to Annesley."
"See ya." Ambrose calls and then mumbles "Now I have to cook myself again."
"What about you? What do you do?"
Pierce shrugs noncommittally. "I used to fetch the captain's letters and help him get dressed. And he would have me do other stuff, like clean his clothes and bring him his food and that. Cabin boy, they call it. Now, I guess I just stab people. I don't know nothing about healing people or being a guardian. I bet it's fun burning bad people though."
He pushes Pierce over to the selected crew.
Pierce is startled by the new captain's order, but quickly scampers over to the other ship with the rest of the group. He keeps his head down and tries not to look at any of the adults.
Plugg orders the crew around to their jobs. As the crew is shorthanded, there is no one assigned to scrubbing. Almost everyone has to help in the riggs.
And because of his special dislike of the kids, Tarjun and Clara get bilge dutry again.
"And you go cooking.!" he orders Jewel. You can clearly see, that he'd like to punish her too with a dirt job. But he is not willing to sacrifice getting a decent meal himself for that.
The ships are untied, both set sails and leave in perpendicular directions. For several hours it is possible to see the other ship, but finally the curvature of the world, and the setting sun swallows it up.
All have to work diligently under the keen eye of Plugg and only as the stars come out the sails are reefed and the anchor is dropped for the night.
The evening procedure is the same as always, only that it is now Jewel who has to hand out the rum.
And afterwards there is a gloom mood, as the usual groups who'd play the reckless pirate games are torn apart. Only Conchobar tries to lighten things up with some songs.
"Bring my dinner to my cabin. Then serve the crew." Plugg demands. He enjoys being the captain.
When Mr. Plugg orders Jewel to be the cook she responds with a quick "Yes Sir" and heads down to see what supplies are available, then to the caboose to verify that the required pots, pans, spices, etc. are available. She wonders whether or not Remy heard her and was able to sneak over to this ship, but first has to figure out as decent of a meal as she could. Remembering Ambrose's comment she looks for any meat to add to the Captain's meal.
When it comes time to hand out the rum Jewel considers casting Purify Food & Water on it before giving to her friends, but decides not to risk it, certain that she will be watched. Better to gain trust first....
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After another tedious day of working the bilge and blasting the filthy water with Purify spells, Tarjun approaches Conchobar after dinner is over. Even Jewel's delicious cooking (which, for one, he greatly enjoyed) seemed to have done nothing to lift the mood of the crew.
"D'you think they might all like some music being played?" he suggests. "Always cheers me up." It's been a long day, and surely it can't make things worse.
Clara is not made for this. The rum rations make her dizzy, and in the long run give her headaches. "Dish drink ish not good." she states before falling face first on the planks and staying there.
After a while she manages to pull herself up to enjoy supper.
Conchobar isn't very excited about Tarjun's approaching. "My music didn't help. If you think you can do it better, you're welcome to try."
"C'est bon." Rémy comments as he tries the meal Jewel prepared, while no one is in the kitchen.
Jewel glances around, then grins at Remy. "Remy! I'm glad you made it. But I don't know how we're ever going to get to Annesley. This ship is supposed to be going to somewhere called Port Peril, then it will be sold. I don't know what happens after that.... How am I ever going to get home, or get Tarjun and Clara home? And now we've got another kid with us, although he seems more settled in to this life. He says he was the Captain's boy on this ship. But now that Captain is dead so now he just stabs people?"
Pierce works hard and keeps his head down, but he obviously doesn't like the new captain.
"What is this stuff?" Pierce whispers to Jewel as she gives him a rum ration. He wrinkles up his face as he drinks it. "It tastes foul!" His reaction is similar to Clara's-- he looks like he might vomit, but at Plugg's evil eye he swallows his bile and staggers. He briefly wonders if they overheard him asking about poisoning the captain and decided to poison him first! In a daze, he vows to himself not to talk of poisoning any more. Then he falls into a sitting position and gets a weird look on his face like he is snoring without making any noise.
"It is foul. But they'll whip you if you don't drink it. They did whip Tarjun when he dumped his and conjured water. I'm trying to figure out how to neutralize what we drink but it isn't safe now" She glances around and calls out, "Next!" as Pierce struggles to keep the swallow down.
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Undeterred, Tarjun begins an improvised flute rendition of a sea shanty he heard from the pirates -perhaps inspired by both Clara and Pierce's bad experiences with the grog.
Conchobar isn't very enthusiastic at first, but as Tarjun keeps playing music he finally joins in and harmonizes over the the melody by humming and singing 'lalala'
As the two keep making music Rosie fetches her violin and joins in too.
But it sounds horrible.
Once everyone has had their nightly dose of the foul drink Jewel moves around looking for Mr. Plugg. "Sir? I mean Captain, Sir? I've never handled the drink before. If anyone wants more are they allowed? Or should it be stowed for the night?"
"And Captain Sir? How long 'til we get to our destination? I haven't taken inventory to be sure we have the needed food and such for the journey. Shall I start now?"
"Finally learning your lesson and trying to suck up? Hehe." Plugg retorts. "Stow it away. If anyone wants more they have to pay. Five silver a mug."
Ignoring Jewel's question he orders "Check for how many days the food will last and report."
Jewel understands decides not to comment. "Yes Captain. I'll try to be quick. If there are sealed crates are there any tools anywhere to open them, to determine what they contain?" She shakes her head and continues, "Never mind me sir. I can search. I'll be back as quick as I can. I'll tell Tarjun to guard the rum. He won't take any extra. He hates the taste."
She turns and calls Tarjun and Clara to the rum cask. "Please guard the rum while I go below to take inventory. Need to know how much food we have. If anyone wants more they have to pay 5 silver per mug."
"Clara, cast message. I don't have it prepared today."
She runs back to the caboose looking for any tool that could be used to open a crate if there are any still sealed, then heads down to search the hold. She casts Dancing Lights so she can see better, also looking for any tools or weapons that might have been forgotten.
She verifies the contents of any container that indicates food, checking to see if there is any spoilage. She has access to Purify Food and Water but doesn't want to give Plugg that information. Once she is comfortable with the information she returns and reports to Plugg.
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Tarjun grimaces while Rosie works her violin, and eventually puts down his flute. "Maybe we'll just save this for another song?" he quietly suggests to her, in the friendliest way possible.
"Please guard the rum while I go below to take inventory. Need to know how much food we have. If anyone wants more they have to pay 5 silver per mug."
Tarjun does a comical salute. "Aye, captain!"
He pokes the unconscious Clara. "Hey, Clara! Wake up! Didya hear what she said? You dead?" If she's not responding, he snaps his fingers, and tiny rain clouds start pouring down on her face.
Clara is not made for this. The rum rations make her dizzy, and in the long run give her headaches. "Dish drink ish not good." she states before falling face first on the planks and staying there.
After a while she manages to pull herself up to enjoy supper.
Clara shoveling her soup/stew into her head in slow motion turns to Tarjun who is obviously looking at someone else. "What?"
"Yeah, I heard her. hicks She doesn't do what the captain told her hicks." Then she turns to the soup/stew again and tries to align the two spoons in her two right hands with the two bowls in front of her.
Then she remembers that Clara asked something of her. Casting message, yes thet was it. "On whom?" But Jewel is already gone.
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"On her? So we can stay in contact?" Tarjun looks around, but Jewel is already gone. He spots Pierce looking half-asleep already. "Why's everyone down?!"
He gets up, walks to Pierce, and poke him with the end of his staff. "Hey, Jewel's gone to the inventory. Can you find her and ask her who Clara is supposed to send a message to?"
Pierce shakes his head, reluctant to wake from his stupor, but upon being poked with Tarjun's staff, leaps to his feet. "Owwww!" he complains. "Whatcha say? All right, all right, you don't gotta get all physical about it." He shuffles off below, looking for Jewel.
When he finds her, he tries to explain. "Hi hi. Um, Tarjan says to ask you who Clara is supposed to send a message to. I dunno what that was about. Anythin' I can do to help? I'm pretty good at carryin' messages too. When my head isn't hurting from that awful poison stuff!" He laughs and makes an exaggerated gagging noise. "The new captain gonna make you make us drink that every night now?"
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Satisfied with Pierce's diligence, Tarjun returns to the barrel of grog to watch over it.
Since people aren't exactly queueing to get their drink, he turns back to the musicians. "How 'bout another one? And a one, and a two, and a one two three -Clara, keep your eyes peeled in case someone comes over!"
Jewel is surprised when Pierce comes down with a message from Tarjun. She had realized that Clara was too out of it to cast the spell but had already said it.... "I'm sorry. I was asking Clara to cast a message spell on me so we could talk from anywhere on the ship. It's one of the more useful spells that we can use but I didn't prepare mine today. I had more combat related spells planned but then wasn't able to use any of them. Sorry about that. Tarjun fell off of the boarding planks and I had to save him. He's my brother so...."
"And yes, the Captain does demand that everyone drink their 'ration' of that nasty stuff. Tarjun tried dumping his mug and creating water to replace it. They whipped him and forced another mug of it down his throat. I think it's to make everyone easier to control. Some of them seem to like it so maybe it is addictive? I'm trying to figure out how to clean it up for those of us that can't stand it. If there was some way to distract from being watched I'd try magic to purify it. Not sure how that would taste but at least it wouldn't be that poisonous brew!"
Finishing the inventory she turns to head back upstairs, stopping at the bottom. "If you happen to see any rats down here, or with me up on deck, don't say anything. They're friends." She glances around and calls out with her feral hex, "Sorry I didn't have time to chat Remy. The new captain just wanted an inventory of what food we have available. And he wants me back topside quickly. I'll try to get back down soon to chat with you and the other rats here. Let me know if I can help with anything."
Running back up she looks around for Plugg to report. "Captain Sir! I've looked over the foodstuffs below and in the caboose. We could do with some better spices and such to make the food better, but we do have the basics."
"It's one of the more useful spells that we can use but I didn't prepare mine today."
Pierce looks confused and a little aggrieved by the unfairness. "What do you mean, prepare? Like, you have a choice of magic spells? I thought that all the spells I can cast are just what I get..." He stops himself suddenly, obviously embarrassed, and looks guilty as he lets Jewel continue.
"That message spell sounds really cool," Pierce says later, after enough time has passed that he hopes Jewel has forgotten his outburst. "If you ever send me a message with it, I'll be sure to say hi. Does it sound like you? How would I know who it's from?"
He looks startled by the revelation that Jewel has rat friends, and looks around eagerly, imagining rats hiding in every corner. "Wicked!" he breathes.
"Stupid grog, stupid captain. I'm going to drink f%$@ all." Clara states to no one in particular.
Then she gets up and walks over to the barrel and casts a fiery spell on it.
Having let out her frustration about the spinning world and her onsetting headache, she walks back to her stew.
The rum might be of the dirt cheap kind, but is really strong and catches fire immediately.
As is the case with alcohol the flame is blue and almost invisible until the barrel itself catches fire too and the immense heat the fire produces becomes noticable even in the distance.
shouts the first pirate to notice.
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Tarjun is startled, and turns around, snapping his fingers. Thick, gray clouds appear above the barrel, and rain comes pouring down.
"" he yells. "" As soon as the clouds begin to dissipate, he snaps his fingers a second time, and they gather up once again. A miniature storm seems to be pouring down on the barrel.
Tarjun creates water and makes the barrel flow over, spreading the fire on the ship.