Chapter Six: The Muster of Caltlikrath

Halfway up the coast to Utwar, in the second to last hour before dawn. the longships appeared. Three of them. They emerged from the fog silently at first, but as they sailed to hailing range, the chanting began. Low, staccato, with an unsettling, uneven rhythm. Only a weak southerly wind lifted their gray sails, just enough to reveal glimpses of the weeping eyes painted on them.

Cornflower stands on the foredeck, hands on his hips, his face unreadable. His men are a different story. Their rapid, strained chatter plainly reveals fear even when words cannot be understood.

A small figure clad head to toe in rags steps up to the very front of the foremost longship and holds a long pole out over the water. A rope is tied to the end of the pole, and dangling from the end of the rope is a crude effigy made of driftwood, pitch, feathers, and shells.

Some of you can make out some of the words being chanted and detect an Engolan vocabulary and accent.

You have no right
No law nor god
The surface ever-changing
Bears no king's weight
Abdicate!
You have no right
Nourish the deep

...and on and on and so forth, never seeming to repeat exactly.

Cornflower rubs his chin. The figure in rags lowers his pole until the effigy is submerged in the water.

"It is the Mournful Mother," a crew member standing near the party whispers. "We all will surely die."

Cornflower snaps his head around, staring balefully at the frightened crewman. "They're just pirates," he snaps. "Prepare to be boarded. We have little to give them. Do not make cowards of yourselves!"

The longships begin rowing toward the Swiftness of Camazotz. A dozen or so men on each longship stand up and draw longbows, holding them at the ready.

Welcome back, party. What do you do?

"We cannot contest their numbers," Cornflower says grimly. "We will let them board. They will take what they will. I will negotiate for our lives. I have done this before. Do not act foolishly or out of cowardice, and we may yet live to set foot on land again."

The leftmost longboat starts to pull ahead of the others. You can see the crew readying a ramp for boarding.

The longboat pulls alongside the Swiftness of Camazotz and leans its boarding ramp against the port side. The bowmen remain at the ready. Four men begin to ascend the ramp. The first is nearly seven feet tall and shockingly ugly, with a long lower tooth that extends over his upper lip for nearly an inch and a half, giving him a permanent sneer. This, and the grayish tinge to his skin, suggests he might have some orcish parentage. A long curved knife is sheathed at his belt.

"Negotiations and love songs, apparently." Domarc murmurs. "We must assume the Captain knows what he's about, but be ready in case a more aggressive form of diplomacy is needed."

Let me know if someone comes close enough for a Sneak Attack. Not saying he's for sure going to do it, but if someone walks past Mordred's hiding spot, he's going to give it some thought.

The half-orc steps on to the deck, flanked by two pale-skinned human men and a much shorter, female half-orc with half of her head shaven. The men carry studded clubs, the half-orc woman has a scimitar dangling from her hip. Cornflower turns to face the leader of the boarding party.

"We carry passengers only. There is very little here to interest you. Take what you will and leave us in peace, with provisions enough to reach the shore."

The half-orc nods slowly. He turns to look at the party members standing in view. "Let us take inventory of what interests us. Strip to the nothings. Leave all armor, weapons, and trinkets on the deck, then go for a little swim. All of it. Now. If you swim, you live."

Some of the crew members start immediately taking off what clothing they have. You hear a splash; the first of them is already over the side.

The half-orc woman does a quick double take at where Domarc had been standing, but does nothing.

Cornflower nods slightly and starts to follow the pirate's orders. A few more crewmen leap into the water. The pirate crew on the longboat set another ramp in place, and one of the other longboats starts to approach the port side of the Swiftness of Camazotz.

So, everybody who isn't invisible: are you going to start immediately complying with the pirate's demands, or not?