"How'd get you then?" He grunts as you are deposited in the cage.
Sitting up you take another look around the "animal deck", still not quite believing that you fell for that. The two covered cages at the far end are now exposed. There's a dwarf in one and a human woman in the other.
"Well Besmara is lookin out for me." She retorted, tossing a pouch which clinked pleasantly. "So you keep your goddess and I'll keep mine. Enjoy your voyage!"
There's quite a few people in the cages around you. A one-handed dwarf, a darker skinned woman who is probably tall when she's not stuck in a cage, and a half orc who is looking at you in a rather odd manner...
"Hey, hey look everyone. She's awake! Hey, I'm Lightfoot. Who are you?"
Cordelia curses Desna for her rotten luck. Of all the ships to have rescued her, of course it had to be a slave ship. She glared daggers at her captors as they threw her in the cage, her silver eyes gleaming with fury and something else, deeper inside her soul.
She turns to the dwarf beside her. ”My last ship was sunk in a storm. I... I think I was the only survivor, though I pray the others made it somehow.” The woman closes her eyes and thinks of Variel. She still held onto a slim hope that she would see the elf again.
Opening her eyes, she looks at the dwarf again. ”I am Cordelia Jerrell. And I am going to get out of here. Mark my words.”
***
Days passed, and more prisoners were brought onboard. Some Cordelia knew from her youth. Whether that was coincidence or fate was hard to say, but she shared with each her determination to be free of these chains. She only hoped that day would come soon.
"Brelkar." The dwarf replies. "Good luck to ye'. Been 'ere days already, the Captain's a right b%!&~. But keep yer' confidence girl. It'll do ye good."
Bukis sat there for about an hour, head down and muttering under his breath. Finally he looks over at the other two in their cages. "Bukis. Damn bad luck for all of us. You two here, how?" As he listens to their answers he also tries to find a way out of his cage, his hands raw and bloody by the time he reluctantly admits (temporary) defeat. "Can't be the only ones. " This is directed at anyone passing by and repeated until he gets a response.
”Tell me more about the captain and the crew. How long have you been here?” Cordelia asks the dwarf.
***
Cordelia tells Bukis about her shipwreck and subsequent capture. ”We have been the only two so far.”
"Oh no! At least one more!" He says quite emphatically. "If I was wrong someone will die! She needs to show soon." With that Bukis starts to look around and he begins again the yelling about other prisoners. This time there is a slight hint of worry in his voice.
Eventually, a light ginger woman is pulled into the cage. "Your --- Mother--- think of her. Would she --- want you --- to be doing --- this!?!?" she's ignored of course, though by the scowl on the guard, she might be right. Typical Moms do look down on a life of enslaving others. The last little bit is over the lug's shoulder ass forward as she hammers away ineffectually at his back.
"Umpft" is the ignoble sound she makes as she is dropped like a sack on the hard floor. Without much of a pause, she pulls herself to her knees, wincing a bit. At the bars, she yells out "It's not too late to make her proud, TO-" a frown inherited from her own mother settles in, as she is ignored and he leaves.
After a moment or ten of chewing her lip thinking, she notices the others. "Oh, Hi... I'm Lilly."
As Lilly gets dropped into her cage Bukis instantly calms down, stops his yelling, and turns toward her. When she stops speaking he starts. "You okay? Not hurt you?" His fingers reach through the cage reaching toward her even though he knows he can't reach her. "Don't worry I'll get you out." He turns to look at the other's. "Get all out." He says emphatically.
Lilly's mouth opens to reply when she stops. She shifts to sit on her bottom and looks at the half-orc really hard "Do I know you?" she asks herself softly, then discards the thought "that would be silly. Arrested, beaten up a bit, laughed at quite a lot, then thrown into the hull of a ship to be sold off, but coincidences of coincidences, its filled with people I know." she gets back up(ish) in the small cage, and extends her hand through the bars to shake the orc's finger. They are too far apart, so it just looks silly.
"Yes. We'll get out of this... once again I'm Lilly, you are?"
He looks at her with...hopful expectation? on his face only to look down once again at the end of her thought. "Adsiz." He responds gruffly. He does stretch his fingers as far as he can and Lilly can see that they have recently been rubbed raw and bleeding. When it's apparent that they cannot touch he pulls his hand in and shakes his cage angrily. "I'm Adsiz, I'm nobody." He stands there, hands gripping tight on his cage, looking toward Lilly but not at her. His voice just a whisper. "...and I'll keep you safe."
A perky looking gnome points from across a narrow walkway.
"Hey, hey look everyone. She's awake! Hey, I'm Lightfoot. Who are you?"
The beautiful white-haired woman groans as she begins to stir. She doesn't get off the floor but rather cranes her neck until she's looking up at the gnome with her sky blue eyes. "Hello, Lightfoot," she answers with a voice that is sweet and almost melodic, "I'm Maia. It's a pleasure to meet you, although it doesn't seem to be under the best of circumstances. Would you mind if I asked you a couple questions?"
"What ship is this? Where are we heading? And, why are we locked in cages on it?"
She has the same moment of startling familiarity with Cordelia "Do I... this is getting a little creepy. Maybe they hit me in the head a few too many times making everyone look..." her eyes move down to the dwarf "Oh good, I have no idea who you are." she sighs with relief. She introduces herself, thinking of only her first name to tell them, and chats lightly unless revelations are given.
------------
"I don't know answers one or two, though the captain is an unpleasant woman named Redstone, who follows unsurprisingly Besmara." a weary voice attempting to sound light-hearted arrises from another cage on the other side of the hull. "The 'why' is because there are people in our world who still condone the practice of buying and selling each other like... um... guinea pigs." sleeping in the cage overnight after a few days in a jail cell, combined with random beatings and 'inspections' has robbed her of the ability to come up with a good analogy.
"Chattel. Property only." Bukis says as he lays on his back, one dark, fuzzy arm over his face. Sitting up he looks at the newest arrival. "Bukis." He says flat, as if announcing the sun came up today. After a slight pause he starts talking again. "Anyone, anything for weapon or tool?" He looks at everyone when he asks this and pats the pockets on his pants as he does, indicating that they might be carrying something they aren't aware of.
"Bukis is our friend here's name." Lilly points out to the new one "Lilly is mine." she pats her shapeless slave smock around her hips. "No pockets for me to hide anything in. And they were through in their searching to make sure I didn't have anything in... well... places." she frowned something fierce at that.
"Though I suppose if someone could carve a piece of wood into a butterfly, I might be able to make it work. Never tried that really."
The white-haired woman tries to crane her neck far enough to see the others but when she realizes it would require rolling over on the filthy floor she stands up instead. Doing so reveals that her body is as striking as her face; even in her flat shoes that look like dancing slippers, she must be within a few inches of being six feet tall, with a pronounced hourglass shape to her figure. The top few buttons of her frilly blue blouse are open, allowing just a glimpse of her ample cleavage, and there's a bit of bare flesh visible between her top and her knee-length skirt.
"Slavery? That certainly wouldn't have been my first choice," she remarks looking at her cagemates. When she gets to the half-orc her eyes linger for a moment. "Hello, Bukis; I'm Maia. You have nice teeth. I know being trapped here must be hard but I hope that whenever you look at me you'll smile so I can see those big, handsome teeth of yours."
She continues looking over the other prisoners until she spots the woman who spoke to her. Her face scrunches up as she stares at the orange-haired girl as if trying to puzzle something together. "Lilly?!? By the gods... the Lilly... how can this be?" She breaks into a huge smile as she continues, "It's me, Maia! My mothers used to bring me and my brother to play with you. They'd all sit around and whisper about boring adult stuff while the three of us played. Do you remember?"
"the Lilly" she repeats as she stares thinking "YES! I remember your brother was h-" she stands quickly hitting the top of her cage with a thwack, ending her sentence in a vile curse in gnomish. "So I'm not going crazy... does that mean you two are people I know too?" she looks to Bukis and Cordelia, but not the dwarf, well a really quick look to double check and see if she was wrong at first staring.
”Yeah, I’m Marisan’s daughter. The dancer? I wonder if it’s just coincidence that we all needed up here together, or if it is fate. Our parents did all meet under similar circumstances after all,” Cordelia offers.
”Cordelia?!? I didn’t see you over there!” Maia exclaims in bewilderment. ”How incredible... it must be fate, how else could we all be here?”
She smiles warmly and confesses, ”you two probably don’t remember this but, aside from my brother, you were just about the only friends I had until I moved to Ilizmagorti for schooling. I’d rather none of us were in a cage, but if I need to escape a trip to the Chelish slave markets I’m glad to do it with friends...”
”Did you all get captured last night too?”
Bukis looks at Lilly, staring directly in her eyes. "Not grow with you." He holds her gaze for a moment then starts pacing as best he can in his cell. After a moment he stops and starts to speak again. "Cages open I fight, you run. " He looks around at everybody, making sure they understand that he's talking to all of them.
"That's very brave, Bukis," Maia answers with a smile, "but if we run away while you fight one guard, we'd just be running towards the other guards... if we're really going to escape we'll have to be patient, and cunning. Maybe we could turn some of the guards to help us, or at least get them chatting so we can learn more about how many there are and what they're planning... I wonder if they'll assign us to work details while we're at sea?"
”Tell me more about the captain and the crew. How long have you been here?” Cordelia asks the dwarf.
"Bout three days now." Brelkar grunts. "Got marooned after me last Captain didn't like me telling him that the sun didn't shine out his arse. Woman is charge is called 'Imperia' a' think. Crew seem right scared o' er. Ma' guess is we're headed to the Shackles, good place for slavin'."
"Oh no! At least one more!" He says quite emphatically. "If I was wrong someone will die! She needs to show soon." With that Bukis starts to look around and he begins again the yelling about other prisoners.
"Shut your trap animal!" A tall man with neatly curled black hair and perfect white teeth, currently displayed in a snarl, marches up the middle of the deck with a short whip in one hand. "Or I'll shut it for you!" He strikes with obvious practise, leaving a welt on the half orc's arm.
"Now be silent or you'll be finding there isn't enough food tonight." He adds, smiling now although the expression is full of malice. "I'm the Slave Master aboard the Devils' Due and you pray to me before the gods! Got it beast?"
The beautiful white-haired woman groans as she begins to stir. She doesn't get off the floor but rather cranes her neck until she's looking up at the gnome with her sky blue eyes. "Hello, Lightfoot," she answers with a voice that is sweet and almost melodic, "I'm Maia. It's a pleasure to meet you, although it doesn't seem to be under the best of circumstances. Would you mind if I asked you a couple questions?"
"What ship is this? Where are we heading? And, why are we locked in cages on it?"
"Sure," Lightfoot replies cheerfully. "But I only just got here myself. You might want to ask Brelkar or Cordelia, they've been here ages."
Once Maia actually asks her questions the gnomes face falls. "I don't know." He says sadly. "But I think we're going to Cheliax! And we're slaves. isn't that exciting? I've never been a slave before!" He seems to bounce back form disappointment quickly. "And so many new people, I love meeting new people and now I've met Cordelia, and Brelkar, and Bukis and Lilly and Maia and... and!" He waves a hand towards some of the other cages. "Lots of other people who don't talk much."
"I don't know answers one or two, though the captain is an unpleasant woman named Redstone, who follows unsurprisingly Besmara." a weary voice attempting to sound light-hearted arrises from another cage on the other side of the hull. "The 'why' is because there are people in our world who still condone the practice of buying and selling each other like... um... guinea pigs." sleeping in the cage overnight after a few days in a jail cell, combined with random beatings and 'inspections' has robbed her of the ability to come up with a good analogy.
After a slight pause he starts talking again. "Anyone, anything for weapon or tool?" He looks at everyone when he asks this and pats the pockets on his pants as he does, indicating that they might be carrying something they aren't aware of.
"Naw lass." The dwarf, who Lightfoot introduced as Brelkar, speaks up. "Captain is a woman named Imperia, proper chelish b-witch. Sound ta' me like Redstone is a Free Captain if she be responsible for ya endin' up here." He scratches idly at the end of his arm, which ends in a rounded cap of flesh. "She took ma' hook big 'un, so naw I ain't got nothing to help ye."
"I haven't either." Lightfoot says, looking sad. "She took my flute! And my favorite boots. That made me very sad. My mother made me those boots. Maybe if I ask nicely she'll give them back?" He adds hopefully. "I look much taller in them, so I'd probably be worth more!"
-----------------------------------------
In the end there are no work details assigned, it appears that the cargo is to be exclusively cargo, allowing for no opportunities to explore the ship, come up with plans or steal weapons. Thankfully the crewman who delivers the ship's food, a small fellow named Rimes soon falls prey to her considerable charms, smuggling in larger portions and eventually, at her urging, a pouch of bat guano, rose petals and other odds and ends.
Sadly even with this positive news there is little else to be pleased about. The Devils' Due collects more slave, fighting in at least one battle in the process, after which Rimes is seen no more and a new, much more sullen slaver, takes over his duties. Brelkar and Lightfoot are put in the same cage to make more space and so the days stretch into weeks. Ever since leaving the Shackles and entering the Eye of Abendego the ship has been plagued by foul weather; contrary winds and mighty storms at almost all hours leaving the ship alternately rolling onto its beam-ends or completely becalmed. Everyone, including the Captain, has been on short rations for some time and even in the slave pens it has been easy to hear the crew muttering about curses and foul luck.
----------------------------------------------
Suddenly the darkness of the night is broken by a shattering roar. A cry comes from on deck “Mainmast’s gone! To the boats!” The cry prompts a rush of feet and the Slavemaster, ‘Smiler’ Kendrick pauses to sneer at the slaves huddled in his cages on his way to the ladder.
“Hope you can all swim!” He grins, revealing those remarkably perfect teeth. “Cause I got the keys and I ain’t gonna let you go.”
If a PC is successful, they can make a DC17 Sleight of Hand check to swipe the keys or a DC17 grapple check to wrench them from Kendrick’s belt.
As the weeks roll on, Lilly fights to keep up her spirits. She talks to all who will listen. About mothers, about why Burkis is attached to her, about how she was captured. She makes plans about what to do when they have an opportunity (which they never do), tries to keep the spirits up of the silent one, though her own drowning ones makes that hard.
Then... 'Smiler' gives them the news about their drowning. She holds her bars white knuckled with rage in her eyes. She can't even find the words to yell at him through the red.
”Not even me?” Maia asks with a sultry pout. Leaning forward against the bars she offers, ”if you saved my life, I would owe it to you... you could do anything you wanted to with me... you could have me to be only yours... or you could make a small fortune whoring me out... I don’t even need a seat on the life boat, I’ll just sit on your lap...”
Kendrick takes a few steps closer and gives Maia an appraising look, dangling the keys in front of her. [b]"Nice offer whore, but no. I'll keep my life and find another pretty thing later.
Bukis watches as Maia attempts to woo the guard, his body tense, ready to react at the first opportunity. When he sees the guard with the keys in his hand Bukis will try to goad the guard hoping to provoke him into a confrontation if Maia's attempt fails. "You scared? Great big wussy boy." Bukis puts all his anger at the situation into his voice.
Cordelia waits and watches, hoping the others' gambit will work.
Lilly holds her breath, standing at the bars, hoping...
Bukis grabs at the keys, catching Smiler by surprise and wrenching the keys from his grasp. Kendrick snarls but a sudden crash and a grinding lurch throws him onto his backside and sends everyone to the floor of their respective cages. The Slavemaster glowers for a moment and then runs for the ladder.
“Enjoy your freedom!” He yells, and then vanishes out of sight.
Having what he wants Bukis ignores the taunt of Smiler. He now searches for the right key to free him as well as his allies. However with the threat of drowning and the possibility of not freeing Lilly he cannot find the correct key right away.
Fighting down his panic Bukis searches thru the keys a couple more times.
Once he gets his own cage open Bukis moves immediately to Lilly's "Swim?" He asks as he opens her door. He repeats the question with everybody when he frees them and if he sees anybody not getting off the ship he repeats himself with more emphasis.
"That one... or that one... maybe the one with the..." Lilly doesn't help at all. She gives the big guy a beaming smile as she is FREED. "Never been the best at that, but it beats dying here." she runs behind Bukis helping everyone out of their cage as quick as can be.
Maia jumps to her feet after the ship lurches. When Bukis reaches her cage, she gently places her hand on his and looks into his eyes. ”Take a deep breath, you can do this. There’s no water in here... we don’t even know for sure that we’re sinking yet... just stay calm and get the doors open and then we can all figure out the next step after that together. Okay?”
Listening to Maia Bukis stops for a minute, slows, hears what she says and smiles at her. "Calm." He says as he takes a deep breath and, if anyone is looking, they can see the veins in his eyes expand back to normal. With that he calmly starts to release the rest of the caged people and looks around for a storage area. "Storage. Need stuff. " He says to anyone who might listen.
"Thanks!" Cordelia says as Bukis unlocks her cell. She doesn't waste time, rushing out to search around the area for anything of use--most preferably, her sword!
Cordelia doesn't find her sword, but she does notice Kendrick's, which seems to have fallen when he did and the coward didn't bother waiting to pick it up.
The Devils' Due lurches once again and you can all feel how it's movements are becoming heavier. Whatever has happened has done serious damage and the next few minutes are likely to be crucial!
"Can you let us out too?" Lightfoot asks, "I'm not very good at swimming!" The other slaves are less restrained, begging and pleading to be freed as quickly as possible.
"Sailor? Fix ship?" Bukis asks as he frees the rest from their cages. He moves to go downstairs if anyone indicates that they know how to keep the ship seaworthy. He realizes that chances are over half of them can't swim and he isn't willing to risk their lives on his ability to keep them all floating in the water. While waiting for a response on anyone's ability to keep the ship floating he looks at Cordelia, who has been the only one who has admitted to having experience on a ship. "Topside! How's water?" He points upstairs to try and make it clear what he wants her to do.
"I know how to sail ships but lack my mother's skill at fixing the things." Lilly turns to the slaves "Don't sit there. UP!" in the panic of the moment all her hard practiced social skills are lost and she reverts to yelling.
Unable to sway them she'll run up deck side to see if she can help keep the barge afloat and save them that way.
”Ladies and gentlemen,” Maia calls out to get the other freed slaves’ attention, ”you are free once again, and I won’t presume to give you orders, but the reality is that this ship is taking on water, the mainmast is broke, the ship’s boats are gone, full of the cowards who should be fighting to keep her afloat, and we’re days out from port. If we don’t all do everything in our power now we’re all going to die. If anyone has any skills that might help keep us from tearing any more holes in the hull please hurry to the deck and do whatever you can. If anyone knows anything about plugging holes in hulls please head down and do whatever you can. If you don’t know how to do either, we could use a few people on bilge pumps trying to get some of the water out. And, if you’re the praying type, get started.”
Knowing that she won’t be much use on the pumps, Maia hurries toward the upper deck with everyone else headed that way.
Watching Maia trying to be diplomatic to a group whose main goal is survival of self is somewhat amusing to Bukis, not that he doesn't appreciate what she is trying to do it just isn't the way he would try to do things. To Bukis people respond to intimidation and that is his go to. However since some seem as if they might respond to her if someone else does as well he tries to throw is support behind her. "She's right, all help, all survive. You follow me, rest follow Maia." He points to some of the slaves and starts to head downstairs hoping to patch the hull, while the rest go topside to try and guide the boat through whatever difficulty is causing the crew to panic.
better to die trying to save us all than die locked in a cage. the young woman says to herself as she runs up to the deck trying to see what is happening.
Maia can feel a pit twisting up in her stomach as she realizes her words are causing too much panic to be effective. But relief comes when the half-orc steps in and gets people moving more effectively. ”Thank you, Bukis,” she says with a warm smile as he turns to head down, ”that was great.”
With orders to follow the prisoners scatter but in a reasonably organised fashion, Brelkar commandeers half a dozen and heads to the hold to do what he can. Lightfoot heads up onto deck with the rest of you.
"Oh wow!" The gnome says as they reach the deck and indeed the storm is oddly beautiful, if one can ignore the imminent peril it's putting you in! The main deck is awash with sea water and blood as lightning crashes overhead and the wind howls through what remains of the rigging. At the stern, the door to the Captain’s cabin throws a beam of light onto the deck as two frantic sailors try to free the final ship’s boat from the wreckage of the mainmast.
Lilly pauses with wide eyes and open mouth at the vivid flash tearing across the boiling sky. Her brain goes into recording mode briefly, hoping she lives through this night so she can paint it. Pulling her gaze away, she looks at the mess. "Gods, the mainmast is Gone." she does a quick math, one boat lots of people, no way that is going to work, so she runs to the forecastle.
Cordelia follows Lilly up to the main deck and takes stock of things. "Well, we didn't need that anyway, did we?" she quips, making jokes to avoid from screaming in terror. She rushes to the ship's wheel and does her best to get things under some semblance of control.
Maia follows along with her childhood friends. When they reach the wheel she looks for some way to help. Remembering that neither of them can see in the dark, she tries to remain calm as she looks to the sides of the ship and begins calling out potential hazards.
Bukis leads a small group of newly freed future slaves down the stairs to where water is entering the ship. If anyone seems to know what they are doing Bukis will follow the directions given. If no one else seems to have any better ideas Bukis will find something to stuff into the holes (towels, cushions, whatever can slow the water down), then direct others to find a way to keep the hole covered. He knows this isn't a permanent fix but is hoping it lasts long enough to get them out of the trouble they're in.
Reaching the wheel Cordelia takes a grip on the spokes and finds a tell-tale slackness. The ropes connecting the wheel to the tiller have been cut. The only way to fix that going to be to head below and see what happened.
On the main deck the sailors have freed the boat, it looks like soon there will be no sailors left on the Devils' Due, just the (former) slaves. Unless you stop them...