Fearfully huddled around the wreck of the Alanqilis, the ten Spanish sailors take defensive stances with their cutlasses or short swords, trembling and praying in Spanish to the Virgin Mother...
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Mwikali seeks to gather up the others and casts light to help them. After that she speaks."So if we do find a teleportation scroll can it bring the boat with us? I would hate to lose it, or the crew. They have been good men and to lose such a fine vessel, well it just sucks.
After all of the heroes have met the Prince of Portugal, they board the Alanqilis, the trusty dhow captured from Arab slavers by the Desert Jackals, crewed by Spanish sailors from Cordova... The crew of ten Spaniards are experienced at sailing the dhow, and after waiting at dock in Safi for several days, they are enthusiastic as they hoist the anchor and the main sail and set out to sea!
The crewmen of the Alanqilis, anchored at the harbor of Safi, are intimidated by the fleet of Portuguese caravels sailing into the harbor... In Spanish: What is this!? Are we being attacked by Portugal!? The boatswain cries out: Calm down, mates! Remember, we serve the Desert Jackals, who are Prince Henry's commandos... We are on the same side! We've nothing to fear from Portugal! The ship's cook counters, si, senór, but I think our masters had other ideas for Safi than to become another Portuguese colony... Boatswain: It's in the hands of God, now, amigo... We cannot stand against half the Portuguese fleet! Our masters, Captains Wulfgar, Lord Perpireen, Lady Mwikali and Lady Giovanna will have to sort things out with the prince... First Mate: For now, just look sharp and be polite, maties!
In Spanish: Huh? Really? I thought it was to be a free city, not another Portuguese colony... Well, okay, if our bosses really want that... Hoist anchor and set sail!
The crewmen hoist anchor and sail, and put out to sea for the night, dropping anchor some hundred yards from shore.
In English: Very glad to see you, My Lady... Others gone to monastery... Taken by vampire! Just us six left!
The Spanish sailors aboard the Alanqilis appear on deck a moment after Wulfgar hails them, simple crucifixes made of wooden sticks lashed together with fishing net held aloft in their trembling hands, and necklaces of garlic buds around their necks, their faces pale with fear! There are only six of them left, the rest having been turned into vampire spawn over one of the past several nights, and joined the monks inside the monastery... In Spanish: Mother of God! Thank the Lord! It is Captain and the others!
Aboard the Alanqilis, the crewmen decide to be productive and use the dhow as a fishing boat during the days the adventurers are away, in order to supplement their provisions, and sell the surplus fish they catch to cover further berthage should the adventurers fail to return before two weeks have passed.
Another crewman, overhearing the first describe the pirate galleon that captured and sold them into slavery, adds, in Spanish: We were boarded off the coast of Spain near the straits of Hercules (Gibraltar) on the Mediterranean Sea... Far from here, señor!
In response to Volreg, one of the sailors answers: Gracias por liberarnos, señor! ¡Navegaremos en tu barco por ti, donde quieras! Spanish:
Thank you for freeing us, sir! We will sail your fine ship wherever you like to go! To his fellow crewmen, in Spanish: We sail to Safi, but first El Jadid! To Volreg in Spanish: Although we thirst for vengeance against the seadogs who captured us and sold us to the Arabs, we should hate to be the cause of any danger to you, our noble saviors... However, if you insist, I shall do my best to describe their ship and the captain of those pirates... The crewman describes the pirate ship that boarded the Córdoban vessel as a Spanish galleon called El Tiburon, The Shark, with black sails bearing a white shark on them... The captain of the pirates was a tall, muscular, albino orc with a peg leg (left leg was bitten off by a shark), who wields an icy cold scimitar...
One of the Córdoban sailors asks Wulfgar (assuming he is the captain): ¿A qué puerto navegamos, capitán? Spanish: To what port do we sail, captain?
The crewmen, scorched by Mwikali’s magic fire spell, and intimidated by Altin’s and Volreg’s displays of magical power, and by Wulfgar’s and Vanna’s victory over their captain and first mate, run from the caravanserai out into the night!
The crewman dodges Mwikali’s claw swipe!
The crewman dodges Altin's jab...
The crewmen rise and draw scimitars! The one closest to Mwikali takes a swing at her......missing! The three in the area of Altin’s magical grease patch attempt to keep their balance... and and ...but all three slip and fall prone or supine in the magical grease! Wh-whoah!! AAAIIEE!! So slippery! Y-y-yikes!! I’m falling!
"I do hate when my drinking is interrupted!" She says moving over to get behind the three and stepping up to roast them from behind.
The three crewmen scream in fear and pain as Mwikali’s fire fans out to roast them! YEEEOOOOWWWCH!! AAAAAIIIIEEEEEE!! OOH! OOH! OW!! OW!!
Vanna stabs the north most crewman deeply! He screams in agony, but it seems he will remain on his feet...until the swashbuckler thrusts her rapier into him a second time! He shrieks and falls to the floor, twitching in an expanding pool of blood!
The crewmen are still smiling and finishing jokes or gulping down wine or food when the fracas begins!
The southmost crewman manages to stay upright... Wh-whoah! The crewman north of the southmost one slips and falls to the caravanserai floor! Aaaiii—*oof!* The crewman next to the one that fell also slips and falls prone in the magical grease! N-no! *oof!*
Topside, the spooked crewmen hurry down the gangplank, screaming in terror... The remaining four crewmen, alerted to the fact that something supernatural has badly frightened their fellows down in the cargo hold, lose no time in abandoning their posts, following the first two down the gangplank to the quay... In Arabic: Wait, Hazif and Jamal! What is the matter!? Hazif replies: D-d-down in the c-c-cargo hold... a g-g-genie! Jamal whimpers: It is vengeful ghosts of Christian women who died down there! I heard them! Marek: Should we investigate? Or go and tell the captain? Ahmed: Neither! If we go down in the hold to investigate, the genie—or vengeful ghosts—will surely kill us! And if we run to Captain Barak, he will scourge us as cowards and for abandoning ship! Hazif: Let us run away, friends! We can find safer work aboard a ship that ISN’T haunted by genies or vengeful ghosts! Jamal: Agreed! I am with Hazif! The others nod in fearful agreement, and all six crewmen run off northward up the quay!
The block and tackle slam into the back of one of the crewmen as he follows the other up the stairs! In Arabic: OOF!! ALLAH PRESERVE US!! IT IS A GENIE, OR A VENGEFUL GHOST!! The two crewmen nearly fall over each other as they scramble to flee the cargo hold!
A moment passes after Lord Perpireen’s performances, during which the fey lord hears the crew exclaiming in puzzlement over the female voices coming from the supposedly unoccupied cargo hold... Then, two of the crew rush through the hatch and down the steps to investigate, scimitars drawn, looking around the shadowy cargo hold with oil lamps in the hands not holding scimitars...
One exclaims, in Arabic: Allah preserve us! There is no one! The other whispers, in Arabic: Allah save us! It is some genie toying with us! Or ghosts of slave women who died in here, perhaps?? Although clearly unsettled by the mysterious voices they heard coming from the apparently empty cargo hold, the two crewmen carefully search around, peering behind crates, barrels of tar, water, and wine, and into the shadowy corners, but fail to discover the little sprite, nigh invisible in his gully hole...
Grinning a toothless grin at Wulfgar, the sailor replies in Arabic: Ah! Ye be a strapping lad, Northman! Captain Barak could use about six like yerself! Whaddya say, big man? Are you up to cracking a few black skulls and making a purse full of shekels? There’s already enough men to sail the Eel... We just need about half-dozen big fellows like you to do the actual slave-catching... You up to it?
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