Post by Tazmuck on Aug 16, 2019 15:42:15 GMT
"We'll chase them all the night
And the wind will fill our sails
We'll chase them all the day
And the wind will fill our sails
We'll chase them 'cross the sea
And the wind will fill our sails
As Valkur sees us fare"
In the early hours of the morning, Tazmuk Leathertail is almost alone on the deck of Rose of the Wind. He’s singing the shanty to himself that Captain Jack Three-Fingers taught him earlier about a group of sailors chasing down some pirates who kidnapped their captain. Preposterous narrative, yet the tune was catchy and Taz always enjoyed a new song. Captain Jack had also told them of how he lost his own boat, his crew, and some of his fingers to a group of pirates. But that was the way of the sea, thought Taz: if not pirates, then a storm, or a fog, or an aboleth. The sea is chaos - as any true seafarer understands.
The ship is returning from a sponsored exploration mission. There'd been a group of four islands to investigate, with a deep channel in between that made navigating the area easy. They'd managed to land on two of these, starting with the one in the south eastern corner of the group. It was barren bar some pearl oysters and a few large lizards. But there was one curiosity: man apparently living in a small cave there, hiding from civilisation. He seemed particularly worried about 'the rich people in Port Ffirst’, although it was difficult to tell if he was really on the run, or just mad. Taz remembered a castaway they had encountered a several years ago who had been driven mad by loneliness. He'd sworn the island they found him on was surrounded by sea elves guarding an important treasure and Taz's crew had wasted days searching for it before realising the castaway had lost his mind.
The second island they'd landed on was the one in the north west. Again, quite small - about an hours walk across. A good beach for landing, and a rocky peak in the middle. A large bird had been at the top. Such a large bird, actually, that it had put up a pretty big fight. Still, its nest had contained a few things of value. Hardly the hoard of treasure he'd dreamt of the night before, but a few things of value that Taz badly needed.
The other two islands had gone unexplored. The smallest one - in the south western corner - had looked swampy and nothing was visible from the crow's nest so they hadn't bothered more with it. The final one - in the north eastern corner - was large, with multiple rocky peaks towering out of the water. There had been no clear landing place and it looked inhospitable, so they left that one too.
Overall they'd found few things of interest, and anything they had found was now in the ships hull being divvied up between them. Taz briefly wondered what the real value of this mission was to their wealthy sponsor. Soros Lenoire looked like a man who knew the value of things - and the map they had drawn did look to Taz like it was worth what Soros was paying them for it. Taz was starting to learn that things on the land were more complicated than life at sea. Or maybe it was just his own discomfort that made it seem that way.
They still have a few days sail ahead of them to enjoy. Perhaps tomorrow he'd see how Arkadius was recovering, or see if Stedd had any good stories from his time at sea. And then there was Tiny Storm. He'd never met a forest gnome before, but he'd heard of them, and he hadn't imagined them as fearless warriors like the one he'd just met. For now - time to sleep off the wine he'd shared with the Captain.
And the wind will fill our sails
We'll chase them all the day
And the wind will fill our sails
We'll chase them 'cross the sea
And the wind will fill our sails
As Valkur sees us fare"
In the early hours of the morning, Tazmuk Leathertail is almost alone on the deck of Rose of the Wind. He’s singing the shanty to himself that Captain Jack Three-Fingers taught him earlier about a group of sailors chasing down some pirates who kidnapped their captain. Preposterous narrative, yet the tune was catchy and Taz always enjoyed a new song. Captain Jack had also told them of how he lost his own boat, his crew, and some of his fingers to a group of pirates. But that was the way of the sea, thought Taz: if not pirates, then a storm, or a fog, or an aboleth. The sea is chaos - as any true seafarer understands.
The ship is returning from a sponsored exploration mission. There'd been a group of four islands to investigate, with a deep channel in between that made navigating the area easy. They'd managed to land on two of these, starting with the one in the south eastern corner of the group. It was barren bar some pearl oysters and a few large lizards. But there was one curiosity: man apparently living in a small cave there, hiding from civilisation. He seemed particularly worried about 'the rich people in Port Ffirst’, although it was difficult to tell if he was really on the run, or just mad. Taz remembered a castaway they had encountered a several years ago who had been driven mad by loneliness. He'd sworn the island they found him on was surrounded by sea elves guarding an important treasure and Taz's crew had wasted days searching for it before realising the castaway had lost his mind.
The second island they'd landed on was the one in the north west. Again, quite small - about an hours walk across. A good beach for landing, and a rocky peak in the middle. A large bird had been at the top. Such a large bird, actually, that it had put up a pretty big fight. Still, its nest had contained a few things of value. Hardly the hoard of treasure he'd dreamt of the night before, but a few things of value that Taz badly needed.
The other two islands had gone unexplored. The smallest one - in the south western corner - had looked swampy and nothing was visible from the crow's nest so they hadn't bothered more with it. The final one - in the north eastern corner - was large, with multiple rocky peaks towering out of the water. There had been no clear landing place and it looked inhospitable, so they left that one too.
Overall they'd found few things of interest, and anything they had found was now in the ships hull being divvied up between them. Taz briefly wondered what the real value of this mission was to their wealthy sponsor. Soros Lenoire looked like a man who knew the value of things - and the map they had drawn did look to Taz like it was worth what Soros was paying them for it. Taz was starting to learn that things on the land were more complicated than life at sea. Or maybe it was just his own discomfort that made it seem that way.
They still have a few days sail ahead of them to enjoy. Perhaps tomorrow he'd see how Arkadius was recovering, or see if Stedd had any good stories from his time at sea. And then there was Tiny Storm. He'd never met a forest gnome before, but he'd heard of them, and he hadn't imagined them as fearless warriors like the one he'd just met. For now - time to sleep off the wine he'd shared with the Captain.
