Adventure 2

       Over breakfast the merchant man asked for the adventurers to call him uncle, and that he worked for the South Zephyrian Trading Company, a well-connected company of vessels. The job that he generously put on the table for the rag-tag crew, he announced with little remorse, is a very dangerous one. They're headed for a newly discovered chain of islands, in the middle of tumultuous seas that hinder navigation (except for those skilled or determined enough), to embark on a search for a better harboring bay. The current harbor of New Zephyr, the settlement established by the SZTC, was hardly worthy of the high-priced goods from the isle, being it a small inlet that can barely fit an Arythean schooner. Uncle said there had been attempts to search the islands, but there had been indigenous hostility when they reached close enough to shore, among other complications (like that of the SZTC sacrificing themselves to the dangers, hence why they hired a motley band of dockside dwellers). As Skrim asked what exactly they were exporting, the merchant gleamed calculatingly before answering: "there is a rare and desired spice, among exotic wildlife for the most wealthy of pet-lovers and palettes." He continued to explain that the bigger the operation was, the more a chance of it going awry, thus why he picked up a small operative in a trade port instead of hiring an army or professional mercenaries. Just as he invited them to a tour of the ship, the woman in silk garments that was standing on the platform walked in with the captain. The captain, an Arythean man grizzled with the look of someone who has never been out of the sun, greeted the adventurers with a hearty handshake, and introduced himself as Saber. The woman began to introduce herself as Verdana, an Arythean windfinder, before the flashy duelist, Castillo, slid to his knee to meet her hand with his lips. As he began to profess that he has only seen candles in his life, and that she was like looking at the sun for the first time, he pulled the same rose out of his sleeve from his failed attempts the night before and offered it to her. She incredulously stared at him for a second before saying he smelled of a man that had been hanging in the lowest form of dockside culture there is. With that Skrim, Quinn, Dali, and Castillo began to stroll about the ship. Seeing that the entire crew, male and female, had stripped to their pants to reveal brown, tanned skin and black tattoos, Castillo replicated. As the rest of the gang were confirming their reasons for not adhering to the new dress code, a tall, bipedal fox climbed out from the galley, bottle in one hand and scratching his face tufts with the other. The lizard woman, the ratfolk, and the kitsune took each other in for a moment, before a crewmen laughed and said that the fox had come on board in the most peculiar of ways: a princess far west had traded the crew of the Athan Miere 50' belts of silk, a hot commodity among tradesfolk, in exchange for smuggling her out of her land. When the crew of the Athan Miere opened the basket in which the princess was supposed to be stowed in, all they found was a kitsune named Chuntaka, passed out drunk. When the crew began to beat him in anger, he fought back using his fists as well as two kama, all the while spinning kicks high and tripping kicks low to clear the room of any adversaries. At this sight the crew still standing began to rejoice, telling him that his fighting style was great. A friendly exchange of kicking, kneeing, elbowing and grabs went long into the previous night.

       A day of fishing and bathing in the wake of the boat ensued, while Verdana wove spells to create wind, making the ship go faster than any ship the adventurers had even seen. A freak sea storm hit and everyone went inside for a dinner of caught fish and fruit. The sleeping quarters were a labyrinth of net hammocks, wherein every scrambled for the topmost bunks. Being the slowest to understand the dilemma, O'Malley laid on the bottom-most bunk, only for his back to hit the floor. Skrim did the same thing, but didn't bottom out due to his small size.

       The crew woke up to yells, and scrambled to get on the deck to see what the crewmen was yelling about. There was a ship on the horizon, and it looked large. The crewmen closest to Quinn assured him the crew was ready, and always prepared for the worst. All hands on deck, the crew paced around making sure everything, including the three cannons, muskets, and potion bottles, were all in order. Within a few hours the ship had come up alongside them, turning at the last moment to strategically place their ship within 10 feet of the Athan Miere. The captain of the pirate ship announced through an amplifying horn that they were after their ship, and were also curious to see if Arythean women were so tan beneath the silk trousers. As the pirate crew laughed loudly and smashed their swords against the side of their ship, Quinn and a crewmen took the opportunity to fire off some shots, to no accord. Before anyone could react, alchemists fire was thrown on the deck of the Athan Miere, heavily wounding a crewmen and catching Dali on fire. When the crew was over their shock, they saw the pirates had thrown rope bridges across using grappling hooks, and were attempting to board. With the ship so close, a cannonball was too dangerous to let off, so the crew of the AT had to fight man to man to fend off the siege. Dali, rolling out the fire, began to cast spells on the oncoming crew as Quinn, Chuntaka, and Skrim (riding his Husky, Kane) rushed to the rope bridges to fight the oncoming pirates. Holding them off to the best of their ability, the pirates were too great in number to stop completely. The fight came aboard the Athan Miere, Quinn firing his secondhand pistol, Chuntaka slicing with his kamas, Skrim and Kane charging the bridge, all felling opponents left and right. The pirate captain attacked Verdana solely, draining her of energy and sleeting her with ice. She fought back, poisoning his breath and throwing him back with her power over the wind.

       As the fight raged on, Quinn got a chance from battle to fire his pistol and slice his cutlass simultaneously, cutting a rope bridge and sending the pirates on it to the depths. All of the sudden Verdana ordered for the crew to retreat from the bridges, as a wall of wind and water shoots up, severing the remaining ropes and throwing Skrim's small rat body 30 feet into the air back aboard the ship. The Athan Miere then teleported to the other side of the pirate ship, going in the opposite direction. The crew of the Athan Miere switched the sides of the cannons, which were far enough away from the target to use now. The AT was now severed from its captor and was going in the opposite direction, so the ships were not going to be side by side for long. Castillo, Dali, and Skrim swung to the other ship from ropes hanging from the sails, where Dali caught fire to the ship, Castillo pushed over barrels of kerosene and gunpowder, and Skrim skimmed over their loot, taking a sword and musket. The pirate captain turned his attention to the newcomers, but before he could attack, Verdana teleported on board to stop him. As he approached the windfinder he was blown nearly to particles; 50 feet away, Quinn had lit the wick of the cannon with his flint-pistol, aimed true, and slaughtered the pirate ship, killing the captain. All back aboard the Athan Miere, the crew realized none of their own were killed, and began a celebration that would last the whole night.

     With drink aplenty, and an influx of gold due to their contracts, a friendly game of liar's dice quickly turns into a high stakes, winner takes all battle of who is the best bluffer, and who can smell out a fable when they hear it. Because of their voluminous drunken game, they're kicked out of the dining hallway by Captain Saber, who calls them scally-scum who better be able to work tomorrow, and Verdana yells profanity that they won't soon forget. On the deck they go, sitting on the wooden floorboards with their own bottles, playing more and more rounds where small fortunes are won and lost in the lamplight. As some are shaking their heads and others laugh heartily at the weight of their purses, it's quickly hushed by a unanimous groan as they see the sun peeking up over the horizon.