Chapter 1: First Meeting

Briya makes eye contact with each of her fellow escapees. They one at a time give a cautious but determined nod. She then nods to Tasya and Mischa before turning back to Admiral and saying,

"Well then, let’s get to work!"

As the crew disperse and get to work managing the sails, Admiral catches Skeev by the shoulder and gives the goblin his spyglass. "Keep an eye on the Whisker for me, alright? Don’t let her out of your sight."

He then divides the remaining tasks between those few people who are not occupied sailing the ship. "Taresh and Mischa, have a look around below decks and see if you can find some empty barrels or something, please. Tasya, would you like to help me figure out how to hide all these cages and things?"

Tasya looks over at the cages and shrugs. "it would be easiest if we could simply toss them overboard, but they may be too heavy and bolted down to do that."

Briya shouts instructions and the crew gets into motion. Within minutes the sails catch wind and the ship moves.

Tasya and Admiral set to work unfastening the cages and stockades and begin to push them overboard as the ship heads out of the harbor.

Skeev stations himself on the aft deck near Briya, with the spyglass expanded. He looks through it and relays the position of the Whisker to Briya who orders adjustments to the tillers and sails accordingly.

Mischa and Taresh head below deck to search for barrels and other ways to weigh down the ship. As they go, both Tasya and Admiral can hear them heavily engaged in conversation about The Keis and its rogue offshoot The Order of The Shadow.

An hour goes by. Skeev keeps the Whisker in sight; Briya maintains distance from it as Tasya, Admiral, Taresh, and Mischa sufficiently disguise the slaver vessel and weigh it down to make it appear to hold cargo. When the ship’s disguise is completed, Briya takes advantage of a turn the Whisker makes and navigates the now disguised vessel on a trajectory that will intercept the Whisker’s new direction, or at least come close enough to be noticed by the Whisker. The slaver vessel should come close enough to the Whisker in another hour or so.

Satisfied that Briya seems to have things under control, Admiral slinks off to find somewhere quiet and out-of-sight to take a quick nap and recuperate his strength.

Tasya refills her waterskin from the ship's supplies and takes a few moments to sit down and rest below deck. She hopes this goes well. The prospect of being held by other pirates or sold to the slavers does not set kindly with her.

Shortly after an hour passes, Briya makes the rounds to let Tasya, Admiral, and the others know that the Whisker has now changed its course and is heading toward their ship.

"If we changed our mind now we couldn't possibly outrun them," she admits. "The Whisker will be within firing range in less than 15 minutes and boarding range shortly thereafter. I hope your plan goes well, Captain Admiral."


Admiral--Current HP: 27, Temp HP: 0, Spell Slots: 2/2, PP: 3/3, Pact Tally: 27/400
Tasya--Current HP: 24, Temp HP: 0
Mischa--Current HP: 21, Temp HP: 0
Petalwing--Current HP: 10
Skeev--Current HP: 31, Temp HP: 0
Taresh--Current HP: 45, Temp HP: 0. Ki: 7
Briya--Current HP: 18

Admiral laughs. He is crouched behind a crate of ammunition, hiding from the Whisker. "It’s going swimmingly, Briya! The plan was to entice the Whisker into chasing us, remember? There’s no plan after that."

Briya seems to purposefully disregard Admiral's last sentence--as if she attempts to will it to be untrue--and walks on to a mast and ties a white flag onto a pulley rig. As she does, Skeev exclaims, "They're raising their colors!" while peering through the spy glass.
Admiral--Current HP: 27, Temp HP: 7, Spell Slots: 2/2, PP: 3/3, Pact Tally: 27/400

Resisting the temptation to peek over the crate and take a look himself, Admiral calls out orders from his hiding spot behind the crate, "Excellent! Raise the white flag! Drop the anchors! Anyone who wishes to hide below decks, do so now!"

Tasya is in the hold of the ship listening to the progress above as is it relayed to them.

Briya raises the white flag and the crew drops the anchor. Just a few minutes later Skeev exclaims, "They are picking up speed and coming our way fast!" Soon everyone above deck can easily make out the Whisker, an elegant 12-ballista brig, it appears fast and agile built to efficiently catch and corner prey.



It heads fervently toward the disguised slaver vessel, but just before it makes it into firing range, the Whisker unexpectedly slows to a halt. It stops about a 1000 feet away from the party’s ship.

After a couple of minutes, Admiral pokes his head up from behind the crate, risking a peek at the puzzling situation. "What the fuck are they doing?" he mutters. Louder, he calls out to Skeev, "Can you see what’s happening on board?"

Skeev peers back into the spyglass before reporting, "Looks like an old peg leg human is arguing with a pointy ear elf. There's another human standing near them in some ugly purple clothes. The rest of them on deck look like the crew. They’re just standing still, watching the argument."

Admiral watches the Whisker bobbing on the waves— near enough to taunt him but still just out of his reach— with growing impatience and frustration. He frowns. "This is taking too long… Let’s pull the anchor back up and see if we can’t sidle up next to them while they’re busy bickering."

The anchor is raised and the ship begins to close the distance. It's not long before it does in fact come up along side of the Whisker. The slaver ship is close enough that some loud words of a gruff male voice can be heard over the ocean air. They are hard to make out but an occasional word or phrase cuts through. One such distinguishable phrase is, "you're no better than that soft spinless racasta we disposed!"