"Ah! The main mast. We meet again." The young sailor grumbles as he gazes skyward toward the crow's nest, his face getting wet almost immediately.
Rigger - Lookout
Rosanne struggles greatly with climbing to the rigging but manages not to hurt herself and start repairing damage to the rigging.
Grok is not in her shop, she is helping the ship through the storm too. The low number of crew is quite serious, all the officers ore doing something.
After many hours of non-stop work, the ship's bell ring, quiet compared to the storm. The Captain instructs Fishguts to go get the ship's biscuits and feed the crew. The biscuits are bland but they help you keep going.
Just as you are about to have a quick bite of food you hear a shout. Cnut has fallen overboard while climbing down from the rigging! He manages to stay near the ship (10ft. away) but cannot climb up by himself and is in danger of drifting away and being lost in the storm.
After a horrible tumble, Tobias manages to climb into the crow's nest.
Seaborn I (Ex) The godling may always take 10 on a Swim check, even if threats and distractions would normally prevent him from doing so.
Jacques looks about quickly for a long rope, and when he sees that Tobias intends to dive in after Cnut, he rushes to give Tobias one end of it before he goes, intending to tie the other end to the mast.
Jacques looks about quickly for a long rope, and when he sees that Tobias intends to dive in after Cnut, he rushes to give Tobias one end of it before he goes, intending to tie the other end to the mast.
Emboldened by Jacques's tether idea, the young sailor ties the rope around his waist, while making a silent prayer to Besmara. Mother, watch as your son does something potentially very stupid, but heroic; so I might be worth your time!
Tobias leaps off the crow's nest to dive into the stormy sea, tethered to the mast. "Geronimo!!!!"
Tobias attaches a long rope to himself before diving into the stormy sea. Rosanne comes to help Jacques hold the rope. Sandara sees and also come to help pull them in.
Tobias is in just under the surface of the water 10ft. from Cnut.
Cnut sees him and tries to make his way toward him but makes no progress, only able to keep his head above the water.
Rosanne keeps a firm hold on the rope, not sure what use she'll be with her puny arms but ready to help.
Toby and Cnut are both underwater holding their breaths and drift 20ft. further away from the Wormwood (so 30ft. away now). There is still plenty of rope.
Jacques also holds tightly to the rope, after making sure it is secure. To the sailors nearby, he shouts (to be heard above the storm): "When Tobias, he makes it to Cnut, we must heave the rope to drag them back!"
Cnut gets his head back above water and swims towards Toby and tries to grab onto him.
Rosie Cusswell joins the team at the rope, ready to pull it in.
"Get ready, they're close!" Rosanne calls. Her eyes easily cutting through the darkness of the storm.
Cnut and Toby are both under water, unable to be seen by the others and keep drifting away from the ship, now 90ft. away.
Cnut surfaces for breath again, swimming to stay near Tobias as he drifts further away from the ship, now 110 ft. away. He finally manages to grab hold of Tobias but goes under again, tugging on the rope to signal those on board who can not see them through the rain and waves any longer.
23+2+2-2 = 25ft.
18+2-2-2 = 16ft.
22+2+2-2 = 24 ft.
18+2+2-2 = 20 ft.
20+2+2+2 = 26 ft.
total = 111 ft.
Cnut does his best to swim with one arm, the other holding on to his lifeline, Tobias. Tobias himself struggles to keep his head up but does manage to fill his lungs once as the rope is pulled taut slowly fighting the wind and waves to pull the men in.
Jacques, Rosanne, Sandara and Rosie feel the sharp tug on the rope and begin pulling it back in. Hoping that it would be 2 that they were rescuing. They couldn't see further than 60 ft. past the railing.
Slowly but surely the rope was pulled in, equal efforts from all four made for a swift job. Cnut and Tobias were hauled aboard. Alive! The storm would not claim any lives right now. Sandara looks you over and quickly touches a hand to you, removing most of the injury from your fall earlier. "That was brave. But quite foolish. I am glad you survived."
You get the feeling of someone shaking their head in disapproval at you. It passes almost as soon as you feel it.
After you have recovered your breath and eaten the ship's biscuits Fishguts had handed out for dinner (the rum ration was not brought out) Master Scourge assigns new jobs. "No one rests until we're out of the storm! Get to it!"
Rigging Jobs
Lookout: DC 12 Climb checks followed by a DC 12 Perception check.
Jacques is assigned to climb to the crow's nest and keep an eye out for reefs, land, rocks and other dangers.
Rigging Repair: DC 12 Climb checks to reach the rigging 30 feet up, followed by a DC 12 Profession (sailor) or Dexterity check.
Rosanne is assigned to repair the ship's rigging.
Rigging Repair: DC 12 Climb checks to reach the rigging 30 feet up, followed by a DC 12 Profession (sailor) or Dexterity check.
Rosanne is assigned to repair the ship's rigging.
Sandara looks you over and quickly touches a hand to you, removing most of the injury from your fall earlier. "That was brave. But quite foolish. I am glad you survived."
"Boy, I sure hope that cute besmara cleric saw", Tobias said with a wink.
A feeling washes over Tobias then leaves. "Damn." The young sailor says to himself.
After you have recovered your breath and eaten the ship's biscuits Fishguts had handed out for dinner Master Scourge assigns new jobs. "No one rests until we're out of the storm! Get to it!"
"No rest for the extremely brave and handsome", Tobias sigh as he get gets his new assignment.
Rigger - Rigging Repair
Despite his admirable work on the rigging, thanks to the rescue effort, Tobias has had a long day. Joints that ache and heavily eyelids, the young sailor is feeling his mortality.
Jacques nods his head to Tobias and Cnut, as if to say that he is glad they have survived.
He is feeling the effort in all of his limbs when he rests, and reluctantly struggles to his feet when new tasks are assigned.
Battered, bruised and achingly tired Rosanne is almost grateful for the wind and rain hitting her as she clings to the mast. It keeps her eyes open as she struggles to repair heavy, sodden rope.
Everyone manages to succeed at their jobs during the night shift as the storm raged away. Unfortunately Jacques became exhausted and fell asleep up in the crow's nest. He was awoken by an angry kick from Master Scourge who berated him and marked him down for 6 lashes if they survived the storm.
.
Working through the night has made many of the crew very tired. There are too few crew to keep it up like this but the Captain demands that the Wormwood does not stop until the next evening. Thankfully the worst of the storm has passed and been reduced to just heavy rain which gets progressively lighter as the day goes on, abating completely late the afternoon of day 9.
Regular Jobs
Swab the Decks: DC 10 Strength or Constitution check and DC 18 Constitution check to avoid falling asleep again.
Jacques is assigned to backbreaking work mopping the decks and scrubbing them with sandstone blocks called holystones.
Runner: DC 10 Acrobatics check and a DC 18 Constitution check to avoid exhaustion and falling asleep.
Toby is assigned to passing messages to the crew and officers of the Wormwood in all parts of the ship except officers’ cabins.
Cook: DC 10 Profession (cook) or Intelligence check and a DC 18 Constitution check to avoid exhaustion and falling asleep.
Rosanne is assigned to Assist Ambrose Kroop in preparing the day’s meal.
Jacques is falling over from fatigue, and so he decides to summon his unseen servant to help him with his tasks. He does his best to focus on the job and does not take any extra time to indulge in other activities.
Swab - Runner
Tobias struggled throughout the day as runner. Singing silly songs to himself, praying aloud to Besmara, pinching himself, and ultimately acting foolish; Tobias was able to deliver all messages in a timely manner. Sadly, the young sailor used up all his energy trying to stay awake, and he passed out.
Blinking her eyes furiously, and resorting to a pinch of pepper when she feels drowsy Rosanne does talk to Fishguts, "Surely it's better to stop the ship and check for damage after a storm like the one we went through?"
Tobias was just sitting down for a minute while had didn't have any messages to pass and accidentally dozed off. The next thing he know Plugg was shaking him awake. "Sleeping on the job! Perhaps you should have drowned when you jumped into the storm like an idiot. You'll get 6 lashes anyway once we're out of this storm."
Jacques used a bit of careful magic to help get his task done. "Can he do that?" Some comment when they see the holystones moving by themselves next to him.
Rosanne has the simple job of helping Kroop with the regular soup and thankfully has no mishaps in the galley. "You look like ye could fall asleep any minute. Ha, I feel like that meself. Well it would be nice wouldn't it. We'd have word from the bilges if something very bad had happened to the ship. The Captain seems in a hurry to get where he is going. Not even letting the danger of the storm stop him. Ah well, none of my business."
After 2 days of non-stop exhausting work, struggling through a terrible storm, almost losing 2 crewmen to the depths, the ship bell finally rings again, signaling work to stop. The rain has stopped several hours ago and is a nice cool afternoon. A shout from the crow's nest gets everyone's attention to the horizon. "Tide's bringing in a floater! Must've sunk last night!" The Wormwood wasn't the only ship to battle the storm, but she fared better than some.
Ropes are lowered when the crew sees someone is alive and help them aboard.
Jacques glares intimidatingly at the crewmembers questioning whether he can use magic to help with his duties on the ship, but does not get into a discussion about it. He tries his best not to look as tired as he feels.
The loud sounds of twenty men snoring come from a single ale barrel bobbing in the waves. As the ship approaches, the source of the sound can be identified as a single dwarf man clutching a dented pewter mug in one hand and a broken-off spigot in the other. He doesn't wake until one of the dropped ropes hits him in the face, prompting the replacement of snoring with a string of curses fit for the Pirate Queen herself.
"...wrong end of a gull and spit on yer watery grave," he concludes, pulling himself up over the ship's railing before collapsing in a pile of salty, soggy dwarf on Jacques' freshly-cleaned deck. "'N' who're you lot? Stop... stop spinning around and stand still so I can get a good look at yer." His eyes try to track Tobias's stationary form, but keep veering off to the side. "Or... or so 'elp me, sure as me name's Torgal Cailean, I'll... I'll..." His head hits the deck before he can finish his thought and once more the sound of snoring fills the air.
A dwarf, newly salvaged, flops down at Tobias's feet. Looking wordlessly at Jacques, the young sailor attempts to pick up the drowsy newcomer.
Jacques looks around furtively, his eyes narrowed with suspicion. "When they see him, they will take everything from him. If we desire to befriend him, ah, perhaps we should hide his equipment elsewhere for him, oui?
Eyes wide, Tobias looks at Jacques in disbelief. "With this many eyes on him?" Shaking his head, the young sailor attempts to steal save some item from Grok's store.
Jacques takes a deep breath and tries to cause a distraction. "Look at this mess this dwarf-man has made on the deck, the deck I have only just finished with the work of all day and night! See here, it is scratched! And here! Step back, all of you, or you will make it worse!"
No one seems to care if Jacques' work is ruined and many crowd around Torgal, but in the commotion Tobias slips something small into his pockets.
Master Scourge pushes through to see the dwarf just before he falls unconscious. He wears a red bandana, a long dark beard and several earrings and other jewelry around his neck and on his fingers. A long and slightly tattered black cloak covers his trousers and leather covered chest. A nasty looking hand-axe rests in his belt and a dagger sheath is strapped to his right thigh. As you look up at him from the floor his dark eyes glare at you of an arrow shaped nose. "Welcome aboard the Wormwood. We're glad to have you join us."
Once he is out Scourge directs several of his sycophants to carry the dwarf below and tie him up. "For his own safety." He will wake tomorrow, confused as the rest of you were. Aretta, Fipps and Tam see to carrying him, with a couple grunts about his weight thrown in.
Scourge sees to the confiscation of Torgal's equipment into Grok's hands though they leave him holding his tankard. Tobias has also pilfered his Iron Holy Symbol of Cayden Cailean before they took him below.
The crew sleeps deeply, many are fatigued and no one stays up late this night.
The ship bell rings calling the crew on deck. Master Scourge comes below and surrounds the sleeping Torgal with Fipps and Jape. Jape has a bucket of cold seawater and tosses it in Torgal's face to wake him up. "On your feet, ye filthy swab! Get up on deck and report for duty before Cap’n
Harrigan sends ye to the bottom o' the sea trapped inside that old barrel!" Scourge commands.
Jape has to duck as the dwarf's tankard flies through the air and bounces off the ceiling near where his head was. "Oi, try that one more time ye lily-livered hedge-pig!" Torgal bellows, his long wet hair and beard flat against his head and heaving chest (respectively). "What's all this noise about reportin' fer duty? Can't a fellow get some rest after survivin' a shipkiller storm?" Begrudgingly he gets to his feet, collects his tankard and hangs it on his belt, and slowly makes his way up to the deck.
Scourge's whip cracks through the air. "Why don't ye go and put yer grievances b'fore the Cap'n! On deck, now!" Up the stairs, through the main hold and up a ladder brings you to the main deck.
As you get on deck, the crew has started to work already, getting the ship under way. The day is sunny, quite hot after the last several days' winds and rains. The other crew members are going about their jobs, swabbing or up in the rigging, constantly adjusting the sails to keep the ship moving at full speed. In front of you the main mast rises up 60 ft. in the air topped with a crow's nest. The rigging connects each of the three masts and their sails. At the foot of the main mast, thick strands of rope have been wound around it for use as a whipping post. A foot above that hangs the ship’s clock, a macabre brass-and-copper object depicting worms writhing through whale corpses. On the port side a jolly boat is tied with oars secured nearby.
"Glad you could join us dwarf! Welcome to the Wormwood! My thanks for ‘volunteering’ to join my crew. I’m Barnabas Harrigan. That’s Captain Barnabas Harrigan to you, not that you’ll ever need to address me. I have only one rule—don’t speak to me. I like talk, but I don’t like your talk. Follow that rule and we’ll all get along fine." Another voice booms out from above you to the front of the ship. At the guardrail of the poop deck above stands your captain, a broad, muscular Garundi man with a shaven head, a long beard bound with gold rings, and an eye patch.
Next to him is a younger, balding man with a long black ponytail, wearing a long coat and carrying a well-used cat-o’-nine-tails. "Oh, and one more thing. Even with recent new recruits, we’re still short-handed, and I aim to keep what crew I have. There’ll be a keelhaulin’ for anyone caught killin’ anyone. Mr. Plugg! If you’d be so kind as to make a pirate out of this landlubber, it’ll save me having to put him in the sweatbox for a year and a day before I make pies out of ’im."
Mr. Plugg grinned next to him and looked at the sweatbox behind you, an iron-bound wooden box under the bridge that would get extremely uncomfortable if you were to be stuffed inside. Captain Harrigan walked away to allow Plugg to take charge. With his cat-o-nine in hand he examines you with a sharp eye. "As our Cap'n said. We're short on crew. My name is Mister Plugg to you and any failure to complete your assigned duties will answer to me and my cat 'ere." He dangles the cat-o-nine in the air for emphasis. "Go see Master Scourge for yer duties Swab."
Torgal’s hand goes instinctively to his tankard as the so-called “captain” speaks, but he doesn’t remove it from its home on his belt. Judging by how red his face is getting though, the dwarf is either extremely sensitive to sunlight or is struggling very hard to keep himself under control.
Once Master Plugg finishes speaking, Torgal gives up the fight. ”Then why in the name of the seven slimy Hells did y’all send me up here just t’ go back downstairs t’ get bossed around som’more!?” he roars. ”Are ya tryin’ t’ use that overgrown hairpiece as compensation fer somethin’ that’s missin’ ‘tween yer legs?” He continues to grumble loudly as he retraces his steps back down to the hold where he had awakened - or to this Master Scourge, if he’d moved.
Buncha bean-brained, water-drinking, two-teethed bildgerats - the whole lot! Lucky Drunk, at least send me something t’ drink t’ make this slavery bearable.
Jobs
Rat Catcher: DC 10 Stealth check, Survival check, or Dexterity check.
Jacques is assigned to catching rats and other vermin belowdecks.
Rat Catcher: DC 10 Stealth check, Survival check, or Dexterity check.
Toby is assigned to catching rats and other vermin belowdecks.
Runner: DC 10 Acrobatics check and DC 10 Constitution check.
Torgal is assigned to passing messages to the crew and officers of the Wormwood in all parts of the ship except officers’ cabins.
Cook: DC 10 Profession (cook) or Intelligence check.
Rosanne is assigned to Assist Ambrose Kroop in preparing the day’s meal.
"It won't kill anybody." Rosanne says with a shrug, looking at the finished meal.
With the meal being prepared and edible Rosanne will slip into the Lower hold and look around for anything that she can use, or trade with Grok?
If anyone is there she doesn't lift anything until it's safe.
Swab - Rat Catcher
Both Wraithborn and Lacrimoisi had rat catcher duty, which made Toby smile. Finally, someone he knew well to work together with! Both sailor worked well as a team, covering for the other one's shortcomings and magnifying their strengths. Rat Catching also didn't seem like work that day.
Daytime Ship Activity - Shop
Toby thought now was his chance to finally see if he can shop for the rest of his stuff.
Torgal’s gait may be unsteady at times, but the dwarf almost looks like he’s enjoying running around the ship’s deck and through the hold. During a brief moment of solitude in the belly of the Wormwood, he pauses and murmurs softly into his tankard before grinning and downing the entire mug of ale in one gulp. ”Aye, that’s more like it. Cheers!” Splashing the last of the drink on the deck as a libation to the Lucky Drunk, he gets back to work.