Closed Laviku’s Plunder

[Tribal]

Winter 515 Main Event

Commencing early January 2016

33rd: A fleet of black ships anchor across the coast. Before the 5th bell the men from these ships manage to round up and steal approximately 300 Zibri, 50 Striders, 600 Drykas men, 180 women, and 40 children, and a large part of the winter food stores. Most of the adults were skilled doctors, hunters, labourers, watchmen etc, leaving behind loved ones that will struggle or even pass this winter due to their absence. No one knows where the pirates have come from or where they’re heading too. Not only is the city devastated by the loss of these people, but also by the deaths of almost 400 warriors who lost their lives trying to stop the pirates, including a handful of high ranking Drykas watchmen and women, clan officials, and old teachers. [Super Moderated Event]

Details

This is a two part event in that there will be two threads running simultaneously. One of the boats will be returning to Endrykas as noted on the calendar while the other is going to sail to another city (possibly two) and sell its captives as slaves. There may be a guest storyteller to run one of the ships.

Warning

These pirates are not friendly, your character will not have fun during this voyage, your character will not be treated fairly unless they manage to win favour with one of the crew members somehow (NPCs listed below). There may be some mature/adult themes, including but not limited to, addiction, alcohol, blood, crime, drugs, murder, torture, sexuality (fade to black scenes only), suicide, and violence. If you're uncomfortable with this but still want to participate please let me know via PM.

Options

1. Take the boat that returns to Endrykas a little worse for wear.

2. Take the boat to a foreign city and spend some time either travelling home over the next season or two, or save up to buy a ride back home by sea (alternatively you could stay in that city if you prefer and start building a new life for your PC).

3. Get thrown overboard (a short swim from Riverfall) and stay there until spring (or longer if you prefer).

Ship: Laviku’s Plunder

Unlike Glorg's Howl, Laviku's Plunder is a much smaller ship built for stealth and speed. The Schooner is one of nine in the Painted Wolves fleet, personally owned by Captain Mack Prout and run by his crew of thirty-seven men and two women. The red sails are arranged in the shape of a fish, which Mack believes brings them luck while they sail from place to place, picking on shorelines and cities without navies.

Captain Mack Prout (Spoons)	Gloria Loch (Bones)	Ramsay Noon (Pepper)
Details	Details	Details
Age: 42 Height: 6'2" Hair Colour: Light Brown Eye Colour: Blue Tattoos: Back Scars: Chest, arms, and right thigh Languages: Fratava (fluent), Common (fluent), Pavi (basic), Shiber (poor). Mack is smug and likes his ego to be stroked. Of the two captains he is the most respected if not feared (for few have witnessed what he is really capable of). Mack is a strong leader with over twenty years of sailing experience, in fact, forget seasickness, Mack only looks pale and a bit shaky in the knees when he sets two feet on dry land. He earned his nickname for his love of playing the spoons (as an instrument), though he also indulges a nasty little habit from time to time that isn't quite so musical. Mack wears a wooden dog whistle around his neck and fancies himself a ladies man who doesn't often sleep alone. He always seems to have a bottle of wine in one hand and a knife or map in the other. It is said that people who cross him are fed to his pet shark, Elsa.	Age: Unknown Height: 6'1" Hair Colour: Light Brown Eye Colour: Red Tattoos: Hips, ankles, and belly Scars: Only mental ones Languages: Fratava (fluent), Kontinese (fluent), Common (basic), Nari (basic), Pavi (poor). Known for her skill in interrogation, Gloria earned the nickname bones after cutting her husband's throat when she was captured and grinding his bones down to dust to mix into the soft, pastel coloured paints she then used to decorate her face. She kept his knucklebones as a memento and often toys with them in the palm of her hand while she is thinking. Of all the crew members, Gloria is the most loyal, but unpredictable. Gloria keeps a pet sea eagle who has acquired a taste for human flesh, particularly the eyeballs.	Age: 22 Height: 5'2" Hair Colour: Brown Eye Colour: Hazel Tattoos: Back and hands Scars: Midsection Languages: Pavi (fluent), Shiber (fluent), Common (fluent), Fratava (basic), Tawna (basic), Myrian (poor). Every bit as fearless as the rest of the crew, Pepper is rumoured to be Salt's ex-wife who fought the man for leadership of the slaver ships she has worked on for the last eight summers when she was originally taken as a captive. After failing to rally enough support for a takeover and almost losing her life two summers ago, her pride is low and ego shattered which causes her to lash out unexpectedly especially towards women or men she feels are 'weak'. She has a long scar on the left side of her midsection and walks with a slight limp.
Skills	Skills	Skills
Sailing 78, Climbing 74, Brawling 53, Negotiation 54, Seduction 32, Weapon, Gladius 45, Leadership 58, Swimming 15, Planning 62	Astronomy 82, Sailing 49, Cooking 39, Falconry 47, Interrogation 61, Swimming 81, Subterfuge 46, Weapon, Rapier 57, Writing 32, Medicine 44	Climbing 67, Brawling 48, Singing 46, Shipbuilding 57, Swimming 23, Escape Artist 30, Weapon, Scimitar 39, Storytelling 41, Wilderness Survival 54, Trapping 36

[Tribal]

They came with fire, oil, and steel; masters of stealth, tactics, and the blade. Their aim was capture rather than kill, though that did not stop them a lot of the time. In pairs they had managed to sneak through the campsites on the southwest side of Endrykas, where the majority of the Diamond and Opal Clans had set up their homes and businesses for the season. The Warriors of the Diamond Clan did not go down without a fight, though separated and cut off from the rest of the city, most were forced to flee, die, or be taken; for the Drykas, somehow capture was a worse fate than death itself as these were a free, proud race of men and women.

The storm was no match for their oil barrels and fire, the flames making short work of tents, belongings, and structures, causing animals to scatter and in some cases stampede; crushing anyone or thing that stood in their way. Most were taken from their beds, some on their way to work or home, and others were just in the wrong place at the wrong time.

When the city's defences rose in force and the men and women of The Watch gathered their weapons and took aim, arrows whizzing through the wall of flames to devastate the foreigners numbers, only then did the Pirates fold back, cut their losses and head to their boats with a bounty that would make history. They had taken doctors, tanners, smiths, teachers, warriors, hunters, and slaves. In less than an hour's worth of raiding they had managed to overwhelm the Drykas numbers, set fire to their city, and tear families apart.

As their ships raced away from the shore and the rain washed the blood of the fallen from Semele's skin, a strange quiet settled across the plain; a moment of sheer bewilderment, anguish, and loss shared by all. They would put out the fires, tend to the dying, pray for taken, rebuild, but never forget.

* * *

The sound of weighted rope and a creaking bow was drowned out by the panicked voices and worried whispers of the men, women, and children being led down into the brig. Those who fought back were quickly lashed and put in chains, stripped of their belongings, weapons, and finery. Most were left with only the clothes on their backs, and some were not even afforded that much.

The sea was rough this close to the mainland, where an onshore wind caused the water to break and roll into pushy waves, tossing the schooner this way and that as the Pirates fought to keep the vessel and its occupants under control. Soon, however, when they managed to break away from the bay and let their sails down, the sea calmed and the tossing tide seemed tame, for now.

"Captain!" A voice roared overhead on the main deck where the cannons where being tied down and a man with a heavy tread strode out of the main cabin to greet his crew.
"Where is the gangplank gone?"
"We lost it during the escape, Captain Mack."
"The sea took 'er," a woman's voice added.

There was a rattling sound, two spoons drummed together followed by an unsettling silence.
"Why is there a hole in my jib?" Mack raised his voice, he used a deep, forced tone of voice, one that said he ruled with fear and had long earned the respect if his crew.
"A stray fire arrow, Cap; they set light to it as we were departing."
Mack sighed, "Are there any more problems you're keeping from me?"
"No, sir."
"Then get back to work or I'll feed you to Elsa."

There sounded a wave of nervous laughter followed by quick moving feet and a roar of commands spoken in a foreign tongue. Mack spoke common well enough, but anyone could tell that was not his first language. Most of the Pirates spoke Fratava, a trade language often used while bartering that some of the Drykas who had even spent a little time in a port city will have come across before, though it was unlikely any spoke it fluently. Like Pavi, Fratava was a very colourful language, quick spoken and accompanied by wild hand gestures and animated facial features.

Mack looked down through the grid of wood and iron bars at the group his crew had managed to capture, a handful of children, twenty plus women, and that again and some in men. He crouched down and let his eye rove over the group slowly before offering a menacing smile and taking his leave.

* * *

Down in the belly of the ship where the captives were kept, some bound and tied, there was little protection from the morning sun that shone down through the hatches. Every now and then relief would come in the form of an icy wave that breeched the side of the boat to race across the gun deck and rain over the Drykas; something they would dread come nightfall when they would struggle to stay dry and warm.

For a land roaming race the sea saw many lose the contents of their stomachs, which would not be feed this night, or the next, causing some of the men to argue that they might be tempted to eat their own arms if a meal was not provided by the third day. It came in the form of raw root vegetables and a basket of dry, sour bread, lowered down into the keep for the Drykas to fight over. By then no one seemed to have the strength or will to spat over food, and those who had complained the day before seemed content to let the woman and children eat first.
"Eat," a young woman encouraged her father, "we may need your strength soon."
"I fear it is long gone, child," the man lifted his hand from his side to reveal a flesh wound where he had been cut, by arrow or blade, he could not be sure, "if it is infected... I am already gone."
"Will they at least give us a bucket to relieve ourselves?" A woman complained, "Even their dogs live better than this."
"Look around," the wounded man coughed, "a couple of empty grain sacks and tattered old sails to warm our bones of a night, no light save for Syna's grace each day, and a mess of knotted rope to hang ourselves if we please; forget the comforts you know, this is what we have now and until landfall we'll just hand to make do."

* * *
NoteDate: 35th Winter. Your first meal and no one knows when the next will come. There isn't much to go around, and though there seems little to work with, perhaps you can be creative. Rules: you get one post, once everyone has posted, I will post again with a new day. There is no posting order as long as the four of you manage to post each time. If you are unable to post in a timely fashion (within three days), you may be skipped on certain days. For your first post, feel free to go into detail as to how your character was captured and anything they may have experienced on the days we skip story wise. You can interact with NPCs, though the pirates are generally off limits (other than getting their attention). So far you have a wounded man in his late forties, his daughter (in her teens), and a woman that sounds a bit like a nag. I haven’t added anything specific because this is your chance to get creative and build the kind of story you find fun to be a part of. Please make sure you read everyone’s posts carefully and interact as best you can either with NPCs or other PCs. Above all enjoy and feel free to ask questions in PM or discuss things in our OOC chat: ‘Moving with the Herd’.

[Amunet]

One moment Amunet was with Nehrar getting a lesson in setting broken bones, next moment there was chaos of people running and screaming. She was told to run. She did as she ran out the back. They seemed to be waiting for her. They seemed to know exactly who to grab. She struggled from the meaty hands that had her as a sack was put over her head and rope bound her upper arms to keep her out of trouble. She didn’t know who all was alongside her as there was crying and whimpering and yelling. Her mind had nothing to grasp as she went quiet. It was as if the great winds had taken her speech from her as she simply just went silent.

This bit of a docile act of quiet had her being pushed and pulled this way and that which eventually lead her to having her arms unbound and the sack taken off in time to be able to manage the gang plank to be pushed into the brig. She huddled in a corner pulled her cowl up onto her head, her knees up against her chest and held onto the sides of the ship as it was tossed hither and yon. It was not long after that her stomach heaved as much as the boat heaved. Her stomach empty, it certainly didn’t want anything else in it as a slight green caste remained on her face as she held onto the bars and leaned against them. The look from the crew above as they looked down into the hatch did nothing to resolve her fears. They made them raise more. How was she going to hide what she was? They already know she was medically trained, but hopefully they didn’t know she was a healer.

The next day saw more of her stomach in disarray. The fear and woe lay thick amongst them. Even her own fear was thick. Her head lifted up as she focused on one face then another as she looked around at the group. Slowly at first, she would move from one child to the next. In easy slow motions she checked each one. She may check one or two children in a bell. After a time, the children would be huddled near her. Her touch seeming to ease something within them as they felt maybe a little warmer and less of their stomach was upset. Her hair and the cowl hid her mark as she bade them to keep quiet and keep close especially at night. Together they were warmer than apart. The younger ones she tried to keep in the middle.

When the food was finally lowered into where they were held, the children gave her some as they gathered. She ate a little as she made sure the children ate what they had as the other adults made sure the children got first. One of the children pointed out one of the older men was not in good shape. Amunet nodded as she told the older of the children to keep watch. Amunet moved slowly closer to the older man. Very quietly she spoke softly. “Don’t give up hope, please.” The child sat close huddled against the teenager looking up randomly. Amunet gazed up before putting her hand on the cut. She had no water or nothing else but it didn’t matter. The cut would go from putrid to healthy pink/red before everyone’s eyes like a hand wiping away dirt on the skin. The shallow part of the wound was closed up which only left the deeper portion.

To the woman who complained she looked at her. “Their dogs know how to obey. We Drykas obey no one. We can designate an area for bodily waste till someone determines we need a bucket. “ The girl said in an awful reasonable and pragmatic quiet voice as she looked over each of the adults.

“That’s right, we must make do with what we have.” Amunet echoed part of the elder man’s sentiment and looked around. “The rope there, can we un-knot it and make hammocks out of it? “She had seen these with traders from Syliras. They said it was for sleeping in and some used it for nets to trap with. It was dual purpose. The grain sacks and pieces of sail were daunting.

The young woman carefully looked around at the other adults to see who needed tending to. She bade to get the wounded older man who she would need to look at daily make sure he would heal sufficiently. This infection was purified, but with it not completely closed, it would need to be looked at till it did close. The lack of proper food did have its toll as she used her gift for those who needed it. It did tire her. She closed her eyes for a moment to regain some energy. There was none to retrieve.

[Kyo]

Solo of Kyo being captured: HERE, if anyone's interested.

first day

Kyo had held up the line of captives when he'd seen the cage-- what the bad-men here seemed to call the brig. It wasn't good. Wasn't good. There was little room in there for so many people. The coyote-man was used to freedom; used to running miles per day, sometimes more. He could not sit. He could not hold still. Not for long.

So his body held him back when he saw that trap of wood and metal. Something sparked like a memory inside his head, a feeling of deep horror followed by a second memory, redoubling the fear: people in Riverfall, newly-freed slaves. Dirty and ragged and underfed and sick. He could not willingly go into that cage.

But then he had held back too long and something cracked against his back, throwing him forward into the man in front of him, and together they stumbled forward and into the hole.

By the time he got over the pain of the lash, more people had piled in and there was no escape. Trembling and pale-faced, Kyo crouched in the back, trying to grope for some semblance of calm.

It didn't come.

Eventually he just faded away into the feel of his injuries: the deep gash from a knife in his cheek and the shallower one at the side of his neck. Bruises from being hit and kicked when he was captured. And now the mark stretching across his back and curling onto his shoulder. He focused on these instead of on the horror of this place, of how small it was.

He sat like that for almost the whole first day, not talking or looking at anyone, staring down at the muck-crusted floor while the sun beat down on him and the waves tossed his stomach. Though he had already thrown up once before getting onto the big boat, his belly tried to make him do it again, though there was nothing inside to come out. He wiped his mouth against his shoulder after, thinking of his dogs and his friends and his Sky, wondering if any of them were safe.

second day

When he finally began to stir from his stupor, it was far into the passage of the ship, well after the sun had gone down and come back up again and the waves had settled as if asleep. His hands were still tied behind his back and the first thing he did was get someone to help undo the knots. When his hands came free they were red and fumbling and he could barely use them. He massaged them gently, pressing them together and trying to work the fingers, trying to make all the feeling come back.

When it did, it came with pain to match the pain in his shoulders from holding the same position for nearly a day. He was still too upset about being trapped to care about pain though; in fact, the pain helped him, grounded him. Every once and a while he would touch a hand to the cut on his face and press, eyes looking around the room and taking everything in.

The cage was large enough to hold everyone, but with little room to spread out. Much of the floor was soiled by vomit or waste. The smell was already rising, but he thought it might have been much worse if the cold sea had not been washing in every once and a while. There was little in the room to offer comfort or help.

As for the people, some of them seemed almost entirely unhurt; others had not been as lucky. Some were badly injured, mostly from the whipping when they refused to get in the cage. One man's back had split open; he was shivering next to Kyo. A couple of the women were crying, though they seemed to have only bruises and scratches; one held her stomach and refused to move. The ones who had fought the most had been chained up with metal, and so they could not be untied.

He hadn't wanted to see other people he knew stuck in this awful place, but there were some. The worst to see was Ryun, one of his friend Ramsay's grandchildren who could only be a few years old. She was wearing a dress that had blood spilled all down the front, though it didn't seem to be her own. To these people he offered a quick, sorrowful glance of acknowledgement, too unhappy to even attempt to smile.

After scoping everything out he was tired, and people weren't much talking, or at least not in a way that he could understand. Most were speaking only using signs, thinking the bad-men --which were called pirates-- would not be able to overhear them this way. But Kyo did not know many signs, and the ones he did know were very simple. He turned his back, closed his eyes, and went to sleep.

---

He awoke in the night when a large wave swept over him, soaking him to the bone. When he slept again, shuddering from the chill and huddling in his clothes, he dreamt of his dead bondmate, Ulric, and it was the dream that the goddess-one called Caiyha had sent upon the fruit of the strange-tree. For a few moments, his terror passed. His dreams went on to other peaceful topics: he was with his dogs hunting, he was outside and could run and run and run, he was with Sky.

third day

Kyo woke to someone opening the top of the cage to lower down food. Without any hesitation he leapt to his feet, looking up, trying to reach the bars above. He jumped and grabbed hold but his aching shoulders gasped with pain --a little too much pain this time-- and he couldn't pull himself up. He let go and dropped to his feet, standing upright. Then the boat rocked and he nearly toppled over. After that he lowered into a crouch, bracing his hands on the dirty floor, eyes flicking around.

His wildness wrapped around him like winter clothing. As the others divided food he paced as much as he could in the enclosed area, having to hold onto walls and sometimes people to keep upright. Every once and a while he would stop and rattle some of the bars; there were bars at the top and bars to one side, a type of locked door. He tried the door multiple times as if it might suddenly open. The look on his face quickly went to one of irritation, even aggravation. After periods of pacing around and checking all the walls for any cracks or openings, he would have to stop and go back into a resting crouch, panting from thirst and hunger.

Though not everyone ate, the arrival of food seemed to have sparked conversation. He saw Drykas hands fluttering back and forth, people shaking heads and muttering, even children signing questions at the adults. Some speech was even spoken aloud.

He had been thinking very hard about things himself and he had his own questions, but he didn't know if he had the words to ask them. He needed to ask these questions; he was still trying to figure out everything they had. Everything they could use, maybe, to get free.

"Please listen," he started abruptly, talking to the group in a voice just loud enough to be heard over the creak of wood and swoosh of water. Some people looked up at him, but others had already been watching as he paced and tested the walls. "My name Kyo. You-I try leave. Please, you help I." That was the best he could do in Pavi. He signed, please, you welcome-help.

Then, in Common, trying to better explain: "Help me, please? Can anyone here shift forms? If yes, what animal are you?" Normally he might be able to tell by smell, but the scents of blood and excrement and sweat were too strong. "What pavilion are you all?" Asking, in a different way, what skills they all had. "Do anyone have good things with them to help go outside, so not to be captured anymore?" He meant anything that might be useful in their pockets; the pirates had not seemed to search anyone except those who had fought. Someone might have something useful. Please? he signed.

If people understood what he was asking, then maybe they could figure out how to get out of here using their skills and whatever small things they happened to have with them. Getting out was his only goal. He went back to his pacing, once again checking the walls and doors, making guesses as to if a coyote would be skinny enough to fit through the bars.

If he couldn't fit now, then maybe if he didn't eat he might soon.

"Speaking in Common"
"And in Vani{descriptors}"
"And in Tukant [implications, descriptors]"
"And in Pavi" grassland sign

[Pearl]

Pearl lay in bed curled in against her husband’s side; his warmth keeping her from straying too far away. Her arm was stretched out over him so that her hand lay touching her wife and their newest addition, Jaeger. Syna’s light had yet to appear and Leth still claimed his hold upon the skies when Pearl felt a small hand at her shoulder gently shaking her from her sleep. Not startled by the act in the least, for she was accustomed to being summoned from her rest often due to her occupation, she turned her head to see who it was that was in need of her.

When she saw that it was Lӧwe, she lifted her head and blinked several times, startled some that it was him as she knew Fara was closing in on her due date for the birth of her fourth child. Placing a finger to her lips to indicate to Lӧwe to remain quiet, she moved herself carefully out of the bed so as not to disturb her family. Dressing quickly, she picked up her medical bag and then followed Lӧwe out of the tent.

Fara was pacing around the fire pit which she had obviously already stirred to flame, with one had at her lower back and another at her lower abdomen. “Pearl, something’s wrong. The pains are too early.”
Déjà vu struck Pearl and she went directly to Fara, leaving her bag on one of the sitting logs they had positioned closer to the fire pit. A hand to either side of her pregnant abdomen, she began to feel for the position of the baby. Her brow furrowed when she felt it still with its feet toward the birth canal. Thankfully though, they were much higher than she had at first expected to find them, which was a blessing. “Tell me about the pains,” she stated as she kept her hands upon Fara’s sides.
“Not as hard as they should be. Some of them are. But they aren’t steady. At first they were a few chimes apart and steady, but now they aren’t. “
Pearl nodded, “and walking helps ease them, making them farther apart?” she asked.
“Yes, but if I stop walking, they come back more frequently.”
“Alright. Walk with to The River Flower. We’ll keep the pace slow and steady.” When Fara’s eyes widened and she opened her mouth to protect, Pearl shook her head. “No, I don’t think you are in labor, but I want to walk with you for a little while and observe. Also, the herbs I need to make you a tea are at my office and they should help with the pains. It’s a false labor pain and the tea should ease that and let you relax until it’s no longer false labor,” she explained.

Understanding that, Fara was much more compliant and smiled, “Lӧwe, stay with your brother and sister and make sure Da knows where we went when he wakes.”
Lӧwe nodded his understanding and went to the tent to go inside and take up his position as keeper of the children proudly. The look on his face when he had done so caused a small smile to turn up the corners of Pearl’s lips. He was so much like Dravite in so many ways that she had difficulty believing that he wasn’t indeed Dravite’s son by blood, no matter the protesting that Belkaia did to the contrary.

***

“What is that?” asked Fara, rising up on her toes to look at the strange light that was reflecting off the sides of the tents, one hand holding to Pearl’s upper arm.
Pearl looked in the direction Fara was pointing out and her heart sank in her chest, “fire,” she said in somewhat of a whisper as if she were questioning what she knew to be truth.
Both women quickened their steps towards the flames only to be suddenly blocked by four men dressed in odd clothing that was not common to Endrykas. The menacing glare they received was enough to turn Pearl’s blood cold in her veins. The men were talking in a language that neither Pearl nor Fara was familiar with and pointing at Pearl as if they recognized her.

Immediately, Pearl placed herself between Fara and the threat of the men, not willing to allow them to harm Fara or the unborn child she carried. Pulling her dagger from its sheath, she wielded it before. The action itself caused the men to speak faster in the foreign language and even laugh as they began to close in around the two.

When one of them was close enough, Pearl lunged forward just as the man made a grab for her, turning her body and shouldering him as hard as she could while she brought her dagger up and thrust it into the fleshy muscle that covered his abdomen, jerking her hand as hard as she was able to rip open a gash. She scarcely felt the warmth of the blood as it coated her hand before she heard the screams of Fara behind her.

Whirling around, dagger poised once more, she was ready to make her second attack when both arms were captured from behind her and the dagger wrenched from her hand. She kicked out as hard as she could with both feet, catching one of the men that was holding Fara, square in his jaw. His head went back and he spat out blood along with a tooth, but unfortunately never lost his grip on her wife’s sister. Instead he took out his own knife and with a bloody grin he pressed the blade to Fara’s throat.

Pearl thrashed as much as she could, trying to free herself from the men that held her, to no avail. A thin red line formed on Fara’s neck and Pearl screamed out. Her gaze leveled on Fara and she feared the worst; that this was the end for them both. “No! Stop! Please stop!” she yelled at them in common, “Stop! Let her go!” She had no idea if they understood the common language or not, but continued to yell, “What do you want? Please don’t hurt her! Let her go!”

She kicked with her foot, this time behind her, catching one of the men in the shin. When his grip loosened on her, she jerked her arm free and made a lunge at the man with the knife at Fara’s throat, grabbing for his arm. Suddenly, she felt a sharp pain at the back of her head, just before the world faded to black.

***

When Pearl woke it was to the rolling of the ship and with a pounding headache. Fara brushed the hair back from Pearl’s face as she looked down to her with Pearl’s head cradled in her lap. “Don’t move, just rest,” she told her. “You took a nasty blow to the head. Even I know you shouldn’t move much.”
“How long have I been out,” she asked.
“A few bells.”
Pearl’s hand went to the spot on her head that ached the most, feeling the goose egg that had formed, and winced. She looked back up at Fara, immediately searching her neck for the severity of the injury from the knife as the events came flooding back to her. “You’re okay?” she asked.
“I am, mostly,” Fara confirmed.
“Anymore pains? Contractions?”
Fara shook her head.
“My bag?”
“They took it, and your dagger. They called you by name. I heard them say Pearl several times while they were loading us all onto the ship.”

That information, along with the rolling of the sea, was too much for Pearl. Sea sickness overtook her and for the next several bells all she did was wretch and lay with her head in Fara’s lap.

Nothing about being on this ship was pleasant and regardless of how much she tried to ignore it, it simply didn’t go away. Perhaps it was the head injury she had taken during her capture that wasn’t allowing her to push through and focus, but she simply couldn’t. Fara was the only ounce of comfort she found at the moment and she clung to it; her. She guessed it had been three days perhaps since they had been taken, though she wasn’t certain. A voice drew her attention. There was something familiar about that voice and the broken Pavi that he spoke. She lifted her head from Fara’s lap and searched for the owner. When she found him, she smiled and pushed herself up to sit next to Fara. “Kyo?”

.
.
.

[Tribal]

The handful on children locked up with the rest of the Drykas, all between the ages of five and twelve, seemed to have found their place alongside the Healer. Amunet had done her best to see to the wounded, but more existed on board and the elderly man with a gash in his side, cringed at the foul smelling gunk his wound drooled every now and then, “Try and keep it clean,” his daughter whispered, touching his forearm lightly.

When Kyo finally found his voice, they Drykas looked at him like the foreigner he was, distrust evident in their eyes; some spoke amongst themselves in Pavi just to spite him, and others hung their heads, defeated. “Don’t you think we would have presented anything we had by now to get out of here?” One woman, that same who had complained about smell, spoke up in Common, “I would give you the clothes off my back if I thought that would do us any good, but I think I’d rather die with a shred of dignity remaining.”

“I…, “ a young man by the name of Theo Quicktide murmured, “I might be able to help you,” he said to Kyo and moved closer to the Kelvic, slumping down alongside the man.

Two men got to work trying to fashion hammocks out of the rope and old sails lying around, running with Amunet’s idea as they looked to her for guidance, “Higher, lower?” They asked her, fixing the bedding high enough that it kept a few of their people off the ground, especially those who were wounded, or like Fara, heavily pregnant.

“I can, change,” Theo told the Kelvic, “Not like you, different,” he spoke softly, keeping his voice down, not wanting to raise any suspicion from the pirates moving around overhead on the deck, “I can change shape, form, face,” he explained and as he looked Kyo in the eye, his face slowly changed, morphing to match the Kelvic’s almost identically.

* * *
37 Winter 515

That night the sea was unrelenting and it seemed no one was going to get any sleep, though the constant back and forth of the rocking ship exhausted many and by the time relative calm struck, those who had fought to hold on to what they could, curled up together in a corner and closed their eyes to rest.

Come morning, the sea was dead still and the red sails visible through the top of the brig quietened and hung low, not a whisper of breeze there to grace them. A woman the other pirates referred to only as ‘Pepper’ poked her head over the side of the grid above the Drykas and held her nose, “Mack!” She boomed in a powerful voice that sounded strange coming from such a small woman.

She leaned back, pulling a mess of frizzy hair out of her face. A heavy tread crossed the deck and soon, Captain Mack stood over the brig, looking down at his captives, “Petch,” he covered his mouth and nose, “Who left them in this state? How will we get any money for a bunch of dead folk?” he roared with a voice like thunder, barking at his crew to ‘clean it up’.
“That one doesn’t look very good,” Pepper pointed to the man holding his side white faced and breathing laboured.
Mack crouched down and smiled with wicked, yet somehow inviting, smug little grin, “Is anyone here a doctor?” he asked in Common before forming the Pavi sign for ‘doctor’.
“The men took a bag full of supplies from that one,” Pepper pointed and Mack looked down, reassured by the looks on all the Drykas faces, as they did their best not to look at Pearl, that she indeed was a well-known physician within their community.
“Very well, bring her up,” Mack order.

As two burly men opened the hatch and climbed into the brig with weapons drawn, the Drykas men stood, forming a wall between the pirates and their people, “Calm down,” Mack told them, “we don’t want to hurt anyone… yet.”

Two of the Drykas men were pushed aside, another smacked in the face with the pommel of a pirate’s sword, and a fourth taken round the neck when he got too close, choked until he raised his arms in submission. They snatched Pearl up and dragged her from the brig with Fara clinging to the woman’s ankles as they raised her up out of the hold, “No!” she screamed, “No, let her go! Pearl!” her voice desperate, hands clawing at the wood-iron grid as the crossbars were folded over again.
“Don’t worry,” Mack tipped his head, watching the pregnant woman with menacing eyes, “you’re next.”

For an hour they had disappeared, and no one knew what would become of Pearl. Fara paced back and forth, screaming and shouting every now and then for the pirates to return the good doctor, but none listened.

In the Captain's room, Pearl was offered clean clothes, a warm meal, and something to drink, “You must be focused,” Mack smiled, stroking the woman’s cheek with the back of his fingers as he stood over her, “so that you can help your friends.”

Pearl was given her bag, though anything sharp had been removed; she had all of her herb, bandages, and remedies, including the book she often carried around with her while gathering herbs, the odd, dried leaf pegged between pages, fell out as Mack flicked through the medical journal.

When they finally returned, some of the crew came through a door leading into the brig and blindfolded and bound those who needed serious attention. Kyo with the laceration to his cheek, the old man, and a handful of others, each bound and dragged away. The healthy, strong Drykas men that remained, were shackled with chain, a cuff closed around their right or left ankles, “we need rowers,” one of the pirates let slip, “strong rowers to get this boat here moving.”

They would be taken down a level where, along with the rest of the crew, they would be forced to row and row until the sea decided to move again or the wind picked up. Kyo would find himself on the deck once his blindfold was removed, with Pearl sitting nearby, attending to one of the injured.

The remaining women and children in the hold were left to clean up, given buckets of water to wash the floor with and make the room fit for living again. Pepper would oversee everything, choosing to stand inside the brig while she watched the women work and filled a large barrel with fresh water, with buckets handed down to her by one of the crew, “for drinking,” he pointed to the barrel, looking at Amunet, “for business,” she then pointed to a bucket they had all been deprived of up until this point.

[Kyo]

Kyo's eyes, pleading before, became almost angry when the Drykas sat and ignored him and looked away with empty faces. To the woman who spoke out he wanted to bare his teeth, but caught himself at the last moment and touched a hand to his knife-cut face, trying to keep calm. His other hand was clenched into a tight ball.

He couldn't understand why they were like this. Sitting there, most of them doing nothing. They needed to get out. They needed to be free.

The urge inside him to be away from this cage was festering like a wound gone bad. It had grown all the more urgent when a woman had stirred from sleep, not far away, and looked at him and said his name.

No, not just some woman. Pearl. And next to her, belly round with pup, Fara.

No.

Somehow he hadn't seen them before. They had been too still and quiet, blending into the faces. The look he gave them was one of bewilderment. Disbelief. The little forced patience he had with this situation cracked across his face. No. Not them.

Not them.

Amunet --someone who had helped him once-- and the children grouped around her were another blow to the facade of calm.

He almost shut down again as he had the first day in this prison, his mind whirring and coming up blank. Now more than ever he needed something, anything, to help him. Anyone...

"I..." a quiet voice called out. “I might be able to help you.”

---

The young man's name was Theo Quicktide and he could change his face. He said he could change his form. Normally it would have frightened the coyote-man, this strange unknown way of body-changing, not at all like the spinning lights of the shifters he knew. Now, though, it was what he had. He clasped arms with the man like he never wanted to let go.

His questions came low and rushed and in Common, as the man seemed to speak it. "Can you change big or small?" he asked, reverting to his original plan. If someone could just be small enough to wiggle through the bars... or big enough to bash the door from the wall... He needed to know the man's abilities. "What can you do?" Even being able to look like other people was something, though Kyo was not yet certain how it might help. He would think of something. He had to. "You can do forms? What forms? Animals? Other?" Around him, he thought he felt some Drykas listening in, and hoped against hope that this quick-quiet talk would help others feel their bravery and smarts. More ideas, human ideas that the coyote-man was ignorant of, might be something that would save all their lives.

---

That night, while the boat rocked and many huddled for warmth and sleep, Kyo and the Quicktide picked at the bars on the side, trying to figure out a way to escape. Silently, the coyote-man removed his clothes and handed them to Quicktide, then waited as his Drykas ally held up the discarded coat as best as he could to block any light. In a whisper, Kyo shifted. Suddenly there was an animal amongst the prisoners, and the coyote looked up with a hammering heart to the sky, waiting to see if anyone had noticed the spark from his transformation.

It was quiet, and so he and Quicktide moved on.

For the longest time the coyote pressed himself to the bars, which were forged into a strange shape, both up and down and side to side. A grid, the others called it. The squares of space were small, but not so small that he worried just looking at them that he could not fit through. Still, they were small enough that none of the children would fit, and if he was able it would be a very very tight squeeze.

He tried many different positions, first trying to press his head through, then turning his head and trying another way. Shoulder first, which didn't work at all. He stuck his front legs through one at a time and found his head blocked the way again. He tried backing up and stuck both back legs out, then shoved his way backwards as hard as he could. His hips slipped through but the square caught at his ribs and belly. After that no matter how hard he pushed he could not back through, the metal scraping at his sides, making him stuck. Eventually he had to give up and let Quicktide tug him forcefully back into the cage.

The coyote still held onto the hope he had: if he didn't eat, if he let himself grow even thinner, he might, just might, squeak through.

Once he was inside and his panting had gone back down they did the shift-process again, Quicktide holding up the coat as cover, the coyote shifting back to man. He dressed quickly as he could, pulling on pants and shirt and coat and stained shoes, and then they spent a while longer testing the bars some more, seeing how far they could mash their arms out (one arm could fit out to the shoulder), and testing their strength against the metal and wood, trying to see if anywhere in the structure there might be weakness.

Quicktide was tired from changing his form earlier for Kyo to see, and so they rested for the remainder of that night. Kyo kept himself close to Pearl and Fara, and for a while Ramsay's granddaughter, little Ryun, slept wedged between him and Amunet.

---

He must have fallen asleep because when he was next aware there was the clang of the doors and there were pirates in the brig. He scrambled to his feet, trying to figure out what was going on, and fought nearly as badly as Fara when they tried to take Pearl. He received a sharp jab to his sour stomach and went down gasping, struggling to blink back tears of pain.

After Pearl was taken Fara's screams went on and on, and Kyo sat slumped against the wall with his hands covering his ears, unable to take the sound. Many children, he saw, looked frightened and were doing the same.

When the men came back Kyo got to his feet, unsteady, and when they tried to grab him he fought. His fighting lasted only a few moments. Then he realized that the pirates were planning to take him out, out of the cage, out to where Pearl was, and he went placid under their rough hands. His own arms were tied behind him and it was hard not to panic, even though he wanted to go out; even harder not to panic when the material went over his eyes and he could no longer see.

But his ears were still good, better than any human's. He listened as intently as he could as he was marched stumbling down a creaking hall, trying to figure out anything he could about the ship as they walked.

It was on the deck, when the blindfold was removed, that he finally fully understood their situation. He expected the boat to sit on water, because that was what boats did. But here there was blue all around. So much that there was no land to see.

No land. They were lost out here, nothing to tell them where to go.

Abruptly the seasickness rose again in him and he had to fight back bile. He went willingly down as he was sat on the deck, and he put his head down as far as he could. For the umpteenth time he tried to gain control of himself; for the first time he had realized that their cage was more than just the bars. Their cage was the whole ship.

Okay. Okay. He needed to be calm. He needed to see all of their cage. He needed to understand it. He forced his head up again and opened his eyes, looking around.

The relief to see Pearl again was huge and he trembled out a smile for her before his eyes went back and forth, looking, cataloging. There were many men on the deck sneering back at the look on his pale face. He let the fear show openly. Maybe they would not expect him to fight when the time came.

He looked for anything that might be of use, the layout of the ship, places that he might be able to hide in human or coyote form. He looked at the way the people worked, especially the way they spoke to each other. There was one man that was different from the rest. He smiled more and seemed to be their leader. The others called him Mack.

Then there were the dogs. That was a whole other dynamic, and one he might be able to fit himself into. A few of the canines sniffed around, watching the newcomers with flat eyes. Kyo watched them closely. One of them bared its teeth at him, and he showed his teeth back.

After a while he tore his gaze away from the dog, feeling its growl more than hearing it, and looked up at the pirate-leader. Kyo remembered the way the man had looked at Fara with those ugly eyes, and didn't like the way he looked at Pearl now. He spoke up suddenly, hoping to have those eyes off Pearl for as long as possible. "Mack. Let us go. Let us go home."

"Speaking in Common"
"And in Vani{descriptors}"
"And in Tukant [implications, descriptors]"
"And in Pavi" grassland sign

[Amunet]

Hope. That was all she had to cling to. That was what she tried to give. She couldn’t lose hope. The little red head refused to give up on it. It was part of what drove her aside from her curious nature. Amunet smiled a brief gentle curl of her lips as the men took her suggestion to fashion the tangled ropes and pieces of sail that was there into hammocks to get some of them off of the mess that was on the floor. Some even took her suggestion to deposit waste in a designated spot. She directed them on what heights would be best suited for them.

There was additional comfort in finding Pearl among them. “Pearl!” Though they seldom came across each other in the River Flower, she was sure her documentation had been monitored by the gentle woman for one reason or another. Nahrar had not assigned her a mentor yet, but now it didn’t matter. She clasped the woman by the shoulders to turn and see the one near her that was obviously pregnant. The introductions made she politely asked, “It is lovely to meet you, how far along are you?” The young healer asked with a concerned frown. There was no need to be uncivilized in a barbaric situation. She had gained a reputation for being a decent and competent midwife. Her birthing success rate for both infant and mother was fairly high somehow. She would speak gently to Fara as those brilliant sky blue eyes held a golden surreal sunburst in them that seemed to glimmer every so often.

Then as it seemed the course of their inventory of personel increased, Kyo made his presense known. The young woman smiled, “Kyo!!” She exclaimed quietly. Before she could see to his laceration he had moved away to talk to some other man that seemed to be an outsider. It mattered not to Amunet and their circumstances did not allow for prejudices to run high. Her eyes widened and went to her hairline and looked away to attend to Pearl and the pregnant Fara. They spoke and signed in low and careful ways. The mass of red hair had been pulled along her right side of her face and the cowl pulled up. The shimmering the mark did when it released to someone in need she hoped was hidden enough. Her hand on a shoulder, a hand, a back, a touch and a knowing, a willingness to help make that person stronger, of better health was all that was needed it seemed.

The divine magic was endless; however, the mortal body was not. Amunet was feeling the strain. Once Fara was comfortable in a hammock to cradle her off of her feet she rechecked the children out of habit. Their conditions were dismal but so far as well as can be expected, she hoped. That was she remained to cling to. It was all she had. Her head would lift up now and again to see the pirates walk hither and yon catching glimpse of one face or another. The steps began to differentiate but those steps did not yet match the faces. Amunet and the children settled near Pearl, Fara and Kyo that night. She had the smaller of the five year olds in her lap.

That night the ship rolled. It was all she could do to keep the children from getting bruised up by the being slammed against one side of the ship or the other. It was often her body that took the bruise as the younger ones was her focus. The water that crashed over churned all of the puke, refuse, urine and Gods only knows what else was on the floor deposited by sickness or injury was mixed with the water and ran one way or the other in the Brig. By the morning of the sleepless night the slurry mess gave way to a most unsettling condition of the Brig and its occupants. The fumes were not good for lungs much less any other part of the mortal coil. Amunet hadn’t eaten much but even her strong constitution was tested given her exhausted state and energy spent.

The red head’s pale face looked up about the same time the tangle of curly hair peaked over. The gold sunbursts looked her in the eyes as it seemed surreal. She heard her scream for someone’s name. Captain she called him. Maybe that was the scary one. It was not that any of the others were not as scary, but this one’s eyes were calculating and dangerous. Indeed moments later he poked his head over to cuss and then disappear again give orders to his crew. That heavy tread she marked, that was his. The details in her complicated mind were storing up these details, cataloguing as she went along till it made sense. It was till the moment was right to utilize the knowledge. Amunet would do this with each face and each set of steps that went by marking them in a way.

It was about that time that they came in and took Pearl. Just took her as if she was a piece of fruit being picked from a tree. She stood up and got between the children and the pirates. As they took their prize, she was there to try and console the now distraught Fara. The words of the Captain sparked in her eyes as a fire lit. This fire she keeps stoked and banked till it needed to flare up. The deep breath of infested fumes as all she could manage as she tried to get the pregnant woman to calm and get to her hammock, telling her the stress was not good for her or the baby. Kyo was doing something she didn’t know what as she had her hands full with children. There so many to help, to work on. The young woman took a moment to look down at the wood on the floor as it seemed hope had just plucked out of their lives. Her eyes where closed as she girded her strength to find that spot of hope again.

They came again only they chained the uninjured men and took them away. Apparently, they took them to work as she caught the escaped words from the pirates. Then the wounded was bound and taken away. It all seem some endless stream of one tragedy after another till one of them came back into the Brig. Hope came in a form of scrub brushes and cleaning water. The one with the mess of dark curly hair was in the brig. For once there was someone not taller than her. She was eye to eye with this one as she pointed to the drinking water and the bucket for waste disposal. There was the incline of her head in respect and in a thank you. “Thank you.” She said as she took inventory of the drinking water and the waste bucket.

Amunet got right to it as she wasted no time to get the women and older children to start cleaning. She asked Fara to watch the little ones as she asked the little ones to tell her quietly if Fara starts feeling poorly. The industrious girl rolled up the sleeves of her wool shirt, picked up a scrub brush and got down to business. She was tired. She was exhausted but nothing was going to stop her from scrubbing this Brig. It was needed. It would help the people. It would serve a better good as well as keep them as healthy as possible. Healthy for what, it was unclear but she scrubbed. The woman would scrub the wood white if she could. With this mindset she kept scrubbing even after the other women stopped as they deemed what they did clean enough. It wasn’t clean enough; it would be never clean enough. The little red head would not say a word, nothing. She just kept scrubbing.

[Tribal]

G R A D E S

Amunet

Experience

• Childcare: 2
• Leadership: 1
• Planning: 1
• Intelligence: 1
• Observation: 1
• Rhetoric: 1
• Socialisation: 1

Lore

• Amunet: Taken by pirates
• Gangplank: Part of a ship
• Mack The Captain of Laviku’s Plunder
• Kyo and Pearl captured

Kyo

Experience

• Observation: 2
• Logic: 1
• Endurance: 1
• Climbing: 1
• Planning: 1
• Rhetoric: 2
• Socialisation: 2

Lore

• Brig: A ship's hold
• Kyo: Taken by pirates
• Mack The Captain of Laviku’s Plunder

Pearl

Experience

• Organisation: 1
• Observation: 1
• Medicine: 1
• Persuasion: 1
• Unarmed Combat: 1
• Wrestling: 1
• Leadership: 1

Lore

• Jaeger: Belkaia's newest son
• Unarmed Combat: Using body weight to strike
• Fara: Taken by pirates
• Pearl: Taken by pirates
• Mack The Captain of Laviku’s Plunder

Notes

The boat returns home against the pirate's plans (turned back by a ship they don't want to cross out on the open water). A big battle follows and the Drykas are successful, many families reunited. Endrykas counts its losses, which were not as bad as they first thought in terms of people, though they are short a few strider and cattle, they will rebuild and flourish again soon.