Pirates! The Game Thread

Laeren appears as a tall, skinny male drow (dark skin, with white long hair usually worn in a ponytail). He wears mostly black clothes, including a black hooded cloak, but always has one brightly colored item such as a scarf, or a shirt. Laeren, spends the daytime inside, doing his trance sleep and resting, and spends the first few nights mostly on deck, trying to get some fresh air and fighting massive sea sickness. He is often heard muttering "I hate ships." He's feeling better by the 3rd day and after that spends his nights hanging out with whoever stays up late in the common cabin, drinking and playing cards or dice. He doesn't volunteer much about himself but when asked, says he's traveling to the islands because of the warmer climate. He says hates the cold weather on the main continent. "Winter in Waterdeep is brutal, frickin' snow everywhere!" If asked why he left the Underdark he sarcastically answers with an overly sweet voice "because I love sunshine and butterflies". If someone asks what kind of work he does, he shrugs and answers "this and that, whatever pays"

Laeren does ask a lot of questions though. He seems curious about different places and their people, and especially loves to hear stories about encounters with interesting beasts and monsters of the surface world. You get the impression he hasn't spent a lot of time above ground, just a few months in Waterdeep.

Late at night when everyone else has gone to sleep, he goes up on the main deck and sits and watches the stars and the waves.

Zev, an Elven wizard in spotless robes storms out of the common sleeping quarters heading towards the captain. "My good captain, you obviously know who my father is, and you know that I am doing everything I can to leave his name out of it, but to put me with those common quarters is unheard of. I have spent the last 6 months working on this very ship and when you promised me a letter of recommendation and free passage, I assumed it would be as an exalted guest, not as some lowly peasant. To think, one such as I to "bunk", as they say, in some sort of hanging sack trussed up like a sack of rice. It's unheard of and I do protest most strongly." Zev stands there tapping his foot excitedly awaiting a response from the captain.

Ryca, as she has introduced herself as, is a lithe elf with dark gray hair. She is dressed in a plain white gown, keeping her look simple, but the necklace around her neck depicts her as some form of royalty. Her reason for being upon the vessel is unknown other than 'To get away from it all' as she so stately puts it. While she enjoys passing the time with card games, she hardly ever finishes them. She usually excuses herself and disappears for around an hour.

Standing off to the side watching the waves and endless seascape, her hair billowing in the rushing winds, she turns scrunching up her face "Ooooh, please. I swear you're complaining more than a child who got their sweets taken from them. How about instead of focusing on what you aren't getting—for free mind you—focus on the beauty around you." She turns back to the rolling waves "I mean, just look at the endless blue, stretching for miles, specked by the sparse fluffy white clouds conjoined with the beautiful shining sun." She lays against the railings, closing her eyes "And too think, we get this for free. Magic."

Zev quickly starts to back peddle "I.. we, you.. ohhh of all the... I do not have to stand here and take this. I am going to my room." Zev quickly turns around and walks off, "Come along coral, I know when we're not wanted." A greenish gray crab comes skittering along next to him as they head to the bunk room. As Zev goes into the common room he chooses the hammock furthest from the door and using a combination of prestidigitation and mending, he quickly cleans the filth and stains off of the hammock and repairs the small rips. In a practiced motion, he gracefully rolls into the hammock, picking up his crab as part of the movement and placing it onto his chest. After a short time, Zev gently starts tapping the shell with his fingers as the crab burrows into the robes gathered on top of his chest. Talking quietly to the crab he starts muttering, staring up at the ceiling... "Don't worry, this will soon be over, we will have our own ship, then our own fleet, and then and only then will he see me for who I really am."

The little wild man talks little. He eats differently than what you normally see halflings eat. Whereas most eat with their mouths open, spewing stories and sharing food in equal measure. He eats with pursed lips, mouth barely moving as he chews. He has a disheveled appearance, including ratty long hair (much akin to an 80s rocker with a full head of nasty unkept hair. Despite his size, his well-used stone battleaxe, his bear-toothed and bear-clawed necklace, he is pretty friendly if you choose to sit with him and start a conversation.

His speech is pretty broken, but he would introduce himself in the following fashion: Hi. I Hepi. You big. He would smile big, then say, pointing to himself: Man Hepi. Man, Woman, you? After you identified yourself and your gender, he would then explain, Good! People me no shirt. Know quick if woman. He would gesture hefting something near his bosoms with both hands to indicate how he would know quick in his tribe if you were a woman.

When the captain asks for "Happy", Hepi corrects his accent, I (hard H sound)Hu-pee.

He loves spending his nights on deck, watching the open sky, or standing at the front of the boat looking at the darkness and its contrasting celestial lights. He missed this about the wild; Waterdeep had too much light pollution that it was hard to see the familiar sky. The constellations are a bit different out here, moved slightly in the sky, but he still recognizes them to know where he is, how far from his old home.

He comes to the deck when the crew tells him to head back into the common quarters to get out of their way. There, he finds women and tries to cuddle with them, if they will let him. He is very cuddly, after all...

Laeren notices that the wild little man who talks funny comes outside to look at the stars every night too, so after the 1st night, he comes to stand next to him. "We don't have these where I come from. What do your people think they are?" he asks pointing to the stars.

Earlier when Hepy asked his "man, woman, you?" question, Laeren winked and answered "a little bit of column A and a bit of column B".

After moping around the room for the better of an evening, Zev ventures out onto the deck to watch the night and get some food. As he walked towards the galley, he saw two of the more loathsome crew members, the ones who tormented him for the past 6 months, waiting in line for food. Smirking, he cuts in front of the two of them. "Oh pardon me, but I do believe that passengers are fed before the crew. Don't mind me. Ah fish chowder again, I've always loved the delicate flavors of this particular dish, don't you?" Zev takes a deep smell of the bowl and eyes the two bowls the others just picked up. Zev then bends down to feed a piece of fish to his familiar crab, and mutters a quick incantation and changes the flavor of the fish chowder in their bowls to a rancid rotten fish flavor. As he stands back up and turns around, he takes a big spoonful of the chowder "Mmm, chef outdid himself tonight, enjoy..." With a quick smirk, Zev strolls out the door onto the deck to eat his meal under the stars.

Hepi doesn't really understand what the dhekdia-khjila means by this statement. He doesn't get into it, but this androgynous man is asking about the sky, so he responds, as he uses his fingers to connect the dots in the sky: Fire is bear, over is lion, fight bear, bear eat heart of lion, become more strong. Pointing to his own bare and hairy chest, as he puffs it out: Le'nuakuu bear family.

"Bear? Huh?" says Laeren. He then pauses for a moment listening. He hears sounds of fighting coming from the dining area and says with a grin "Well Bear, it looks like this cruise comes with entertainment. I'm going to see what the noise is all about." and starts following the sounds of fighting.

Laeren moves stealthily towards the group of cheering sailors. He moves quietly behind them and into position behind a sailor closest to the exit. He pulls his hood over his head to cover himself as much as possible.