Chapter 1 - The Skin Chart

Keekik's sharp eyes managed to spot the other ship before the Dawn got noticed itself but unfortunately not early enough. Tektek's attempt to turn the boat around and hide from the other vessel behind one of the green waves came too late and Keekik sees the other ship turn, adjusting its course to intercept the Fading Dawn.

Unless the Dawn's crew acts quickly, the heavily armed ship will soon have closed the distance between them.

With turn completed and the engine powering at a quarter they briefly attempted to slip away unnoticed, by the Fading Dawn was a shining metal dagger in the verdant seascape and it was not to be. KeekiK spots the turning of their ship, standing just over the height of the deck and calls to the helm. "They have spotted us!"

No, no, no this wasn’t good. "We need to keep out of range!" Not only did they need to run, but they needed a place to run to. Keekik searches through their memories. They call out a change of heading. "... Run Her Full!" That massive tug, couldn’t be a match for the Fading Dawn’s engines, They hoped. Course correction had been estimated, but They began a count as soon as they had begun to come around. Ticking away, Keekik climbed down into the Helm to be more hands on with the charts.

[rolling Speed 5]

As the Dawn pushes itself forward over the waves at great speeds, an explosion shakes the trees next to it as a blastbow bolt explodes just meter off to the side of the ship. A direct hit could have been devastating.

The Dawn continues trying to get away but the other ship matches its speed and after a while fires another shot, this one exploding a good bit of distance ahead of the Dawn, far enough away that the Dawn's crew believes this one was only meant to be a warning shot. Unwilling to get blasted apart by the next attack, they slow down enough for the larger ship to catch up with them after a few minutes.

An ardent man in a stitched up fur coat on the larger ship waves two flags. Keekik has no trouble understanding the gesture but even those without any knowledge of Signalling have seen this before. It simply means "Stop"

Reluctantly, the Dawn's crew follows the signal and turns off their engine. The larger ship does the same and from up close, the three wildsailors recognize that this ship, carved from roughbark and bone, is made in the style of the nomadic hunting families. Those are usually a rough bunch but they're not known for killing randomly and in fact almost always follow a strict code of honor. It seems very unlikely that a hunting family would have caused the massacre on the ektus ship.

Once both ships have stopped side by side, the ardent looks over the side of his vessel at the crew of the Dawn. He turns around and yells something in Raka Spit over his shoulder before turning back to them. In Low Sour, he asks: "Who are you? What are you doing in these waves?"

Tektek speaks concisely and clearly.

"We are the Fading Dawn. We are following a chart we found."

The ardent thinks for a moment. He looks over the Fading Dawn from front to back and then says: "A chart, huh? You're not looking for anything specific? You're not looking to poach in these parts?"

The tzelicrae stays back for now, trying not to bring too much attention. There were some among the ardent in particular that did not trust the spiders, And they didn’t need more trouble, although they felt drastic relief that this ship was not the pirates the last ship encountered. The ship would mostly speak for itself. They weren’t a harvester, or outfitted for piracy. They were salvagers, and did not hold crew for large scale poaching. Keekik, listened intently, hoping they was more the Ardent wished to share with them.

Tektek replies back.

"No, just the chart. We are avoiding others ships because we came across a shipwreck. Seemed to have been attacked. Best to be safe."

The man mutters some colorful curses. "So these bastards have graduated from poaching to piracy," he says. "We've been finding dead and mutilated animals in the region and are trying to stop these poachers. Did you find any clues on the attackers? Or can you direct us to the dead ship?"

Tektek points.

"About that way. Seemed to have been an Ektus ship on pilgrimage."

He looks at Keekik, wondering if they should show the Crezzerin Amulet.

Keekik 'looks' back to their crewmate wondering the same, but offers a heading to back up Tektek's 'off-yonder' gesture. "Little left... but signs of Cultists."

"Cultists?", the man asks. "Well, that sounds consistent with what we found. Mutilated animals. Whoever these poachers are, they have no hunter's honor. They didn't even take the meat, just trophies." He shakes his head in disappointment.

"You wouldn't mind us searching your ship, would you?" Suddenly, his tone is less conversational and more serious. "To make sure you're not hiding anything about these poachers from us. Or even any trophies..."

Tektek shrugs.

"Make it quick."

The man waves back to someone on his ship and quickly, two hunters, both armed with some sort of rifle, climb down a rope onto the deck of the smaller Fading Dawn. They head under deck and quickly search through the ship. If the Dawn's crew follows them to observe their search, they find that the hunters are careful in their search not to destroy any property and while they search for hidden compartments they damage neither ship nor cargo.

Soon, they return to deck and bark something in Raka Spit at the ardent man leaning over the edge of the hunters' ship and he replies in Low Sour: "My people have found nothing suspicious on your ship. Thank you for letting us do our duty in keeping these waves safe!"
The hunters climb back aboard of their own ship and the man who has been speaking to the Dawn's crew all this time asks once again for the direction in which they found the attacked ship and then slowly starts up his engines and bite, driving the large ship that way, leaving the Dawn behind.

As the Fading Dawn continues pushing through the rustling waves of the wildsea, Tektek spots something some distance ahead.

A small group of white creatures is perching atop a large tree, poking out a little bit above the surrounding canopy, though not nearly enough to be considered a tallshank.
Tektek quickly recognizes these creatures as throwmonkeys, very territorial critters about half the size of a human with long and very sharp claws. While dangerous if cornered, these creatures are generally regarded to be a lucky sight on the waves as their first instinct when confronted with something they consider a threat is to throw whatever they can find at it.
If that perceived threat is a ship, that can of course be dangerous depending on what the throwmonkeys can find around them but in most cases, they simply throw useless seedpods or pieces of wood. In some cases, they can also throw useful resources, however, which is why most ships take the risk and approach them, hoping for something positive to hit their deck in the monkeys' attack.

"Found throwmonkeys. Might get some salvage if we come close. Should we?"

Salvage was always worth it. Always. 'Sounds like a good idea. Anything of use against those we are following will help'