Sira Saran: Poking the scorpion in his den

After some days rushing south we arrived in Daiking. An amazing city it is and strangely organized.

Right from the docks we got invited to a special dinner with one of the local warlords. He proposed an arrangement in which we set fire to a local business. The capt'n declined the proposal.

Back to the real business it was. We searched the city for some "ghosttalker" or spiritualist as the capt'n called it. I have no idea how that would change the problem of the devils contract. We found someone and that one had some really nice services to offer, but we would have to rescue his daughter first. That is something we could do.

Some time later we got hold of a mystic, who, for some money, promised to at least check out that evil, which seemed to got a hold of our ship. That went not really well. Whatever she saw, it was really bad.

We got back to our rescue plan and put that in motion. After nightfall we broke in the compound. The girl seems to be in the house of a henchman of the scorpion warlord.

Some guards needed to be disabled and after first confusion and problems getting over the wall, we made our way through the entrance of the house and made our way to the first floor.

The number of guards will make for a really exciting adventure.

Hélène: Into the Scorpion's den

After docking in Daiking, we are welcomed to the city by the harbourmaster, a peculiar, pony-tailed man wearing a robe and hat. After paying our fee, we are permitted to stay for a month, and are recommended the numerous services and wonderful establishments the city has to offer. Before we could go ashore on our own, though, we were intercepted by a squad of people in armour, who invited our Captain and entourage to a personal meeting with a local businessperson.

We decided to go to that meeting, and while I will not go into details, the person wanted an outside force to exact revenge on a competitor. We got offered valuable commodities if we set fire to this competitor's livelihood. For us, performing a vile deed like that was out of the question, also we could not afford having to leave the city early. We declined, and were threatened not to divulge details of the conversation we just had. This, at least, we could comply with.

At least, this experience provided an experience how affairs were settled in this city, and with renewed caution, we made our way through the crowded alley, looking for a specialist in spiritual matters who would help us resolve our Captain's problem.

Our first candidate was a shop adorned by all sorts of wondrous, colourful drawings. What was sold here we could not immediately ascertain, for lack of cultural familiarity, I suppose. Inside, we quickly found out the place was a tattoo parlour, and we had a chat with its proprietor. He boasted that his work, indeed, bore aspects of the supernatural, and his most unique works had mystical powers.

He also told us a bit about the city's structure and history, having been founded by a dozen captains from a junk fleet who were now the twelve warlords who ruled the districts of this city. His mood darkened when he explained, that his daughter had recently been abducted, by a the lieutenant of one of these warlords. We agreed to investigate, and attempt to free his daughter at our earliest opportunity.

He then proceeded to close the parlour, pack his things, perform some incomprehensible errand for Master Krastus, and then meet us aboard our ship. We, in turn, continued our search for a mystic, and finally found a small shack displaying charms and curiosities. Inside, we met a tiny old woman who was immediately intrigued by Master Krastus, and offered to buy one of his eyestalks.

Our Mage, as usual, was very protective of his eyestalks, and emphatically declined. Despite her disappointment, the old lady agreed to look into the Captain's problem, for a fee of 500 pieces, plus the cost of the required incense. We would meet aboard our ship on the following night, to perform a ritual when the moon is at its highest position. In the time that remained, we concluded our business, exchanging commodities with local traders and getting the ship ready again.

In the night, indeed, the old lady met us, had a brief talk with Master Krastus, and then she was introduced to the Captain. Upon looking at him, she immediately turned pale, exclaimed that there was a great evil within this man, and backed away. She offered to refund our money, but would not be convinced to stay any longer, or give more detail of what she saw. While we were still confused by what had just occurred, Carlton exclaimed that he had seen how, in the moonlight, the Captain's shadow had just detached from its proper place, and slipped away overboard. Carlton was known as our prime source for tall tales, but when Sira confirmed that this had indeed just happened, we were more than just a bit concerned. Still, how would one pursue a shadow, one that was unaffected by the laws of the physical world?

We had something else to do, of course, and that was the rescue of the tattoo artist's daughter. Sira and Carlton had determined where the lieutenant's mansion was located, and also observed the surroundings a bit, but the compound was heavily guarded, and we would have to investigate further to find a gap in their security. Still well during the night, we found an opportunity to scale an outer wall unnoticed, and we could put the equipment, which we had previously bought for a mountain treasure hunt, to good use.

We found ourselves behind a building that housed the guard barracks, and we had to move around carefully to avoid the occasional patrol. The main building, our mark, had no windows at ground level, and the single entryway we could find was guarded by two sentries. We decided against a loud or a fiery distraction, and blocked the doors to the barracks with a length of rope. Then I set out to silently deal with the two guards in front. With my magic, I was able to stun one of them, at least, and as the other guard examined his colleague, the others rushed in to incapacitate him, quickly, and managed to do so before he could call for aid. We took the keys from them, entered the building, and to win time, locked the door behind us.

A long corridor ended in a large set of stairs upwards. Carlton took the lead and snuck ahead. Halfway up the stairs, he noticed that there were two additional persons, obviously guards as well, but he was able to retreat unnoticed. I tried my magic again and found these ones to be much more receptive, and we could overwhelm them without bloodshed. There was hardly any turning back at this point, but things had gone well this far, and I hoped our fortune would stay with us for a little longer.

Krastus: A sad lack of fire and a mollesty shadow

People always seem to want to play with my eyes. The captain tried to guilt me into selling my eyes to some mystic lady - who in the end chided him for that. An odd man, our captain. And odder still, for when we lit the smelly incense to create the right atmosphere for the mystic woman when she came aboard and when she did...well. She saw great evil.

Amusingly, she saw that in the captain. And she fled, offering us a refund - which is nice. On the downside shortly after the captain's shadow detached and ran away, presumably to abuse small blond boys. That is not a good habit for a man's shadow to have - and we will have to go and see the captain's little devil friends about that. Otherwise we'd get a reputation.

In the meantime we had picked up a mission, to rescue another small human from another not so small human. For some reason my suggestions to blast our way in were rejected and we tried to be stealthy. We were not amazing, but thankfully the guards at the compound must suffer from old age or some form of defect. Clearly not scurillians.

Once inside we again rejected the plan to start fires to distract the guards - there is only one way in. The captain decided to tie up the doors on the bunkhouse....and again not start a fire...and have us rush the front door to break in.

Helene used her weird magic to try and stun the men. It didn't work. She tried again, it didn't work. As a result I charged the two men and attacked them. The others came to help but thankfully my magic and my pincer dealt with the two guards.

As we snuck in, we went to the stairs - Helene did her duty and took out two more - and I followed the captain. Now, now we have to find the girl. And then escape without being caught. I predict we might do one of those things, but not both. Still, I have not yet shown the crew my new tricks with magic.

Cortez: Cursed Shadows

Deiking is something else... we pulled into port to try to find a solution to the murders... we may have. But we also found the local warlords, who rule the city, are always looking for others to do jobs. We had a chance to sabotage a fireworks factory, that probably would have been pretty... but we found, instead, a man whose daughter was taken as... well... it sounds like a sex slave.

Since we are, now, dedicated slave hunters, we're going to rescue the girl and father and flee the city...

I'll update again soon...

Of course, I should probably note that a mystic woman we hired wound up looking at me, claiming I was a great evil and fleeing without her fee. That was... troubling... and it means a visit to my loan-demons in Shark Bay after this is over.

Are you a pirate if you fight pirates?

We left port, after the captain gave a man's soul to demons (or so I'm told) - sailing south with a cargo hold full of assorted goods. Rather dull trinkets, but humans pay good coin for them.

As we headed around the island, powered in large part due to my superior magic - little do the rest of the crew know yet about my new firey tricks - we spotted a sail. We raised a flag, tried to identify ourselves and do the proper thing. In return they raised their pirate colours and attacked. Very rude - if pirates start attacking pirates, then this is all very confusing. We gave them a good fight and what was left of them boarded. I grabbed my hammer and bashed my way through them - obviously showing my superiority to the captain.

Regretfully they died quickly, and we looked to salvage their ship - I tried to repair it, having argued sensibly for us to get the prize, but a storm came. The captain's good work - though let us not tell him that - kept the ship going but our prize was lost.

We went sailing again, trying to finish our trading runs - but now tales follow us of young boys dying. Now, this isn't a huge concern - boys die all the time, some of them mollested by man the captain sells the souls of apparently. But this has the girls concerned. And when Sira is concerned she gets a bit....shooty.

Sira Saran: Hunting pirates, being hunted by the devil

Our departure from New Madrid was rather fast and very unspectacular, we left before any questions could arise. With a new Letter of Marque and some cargo we set off to new coasts, so much towns to visit and places to see.

A pirate ship crossed our way south. This was our first catch. We got ready and the capt'n did an excellent job getting our broadsides on target. We hit the pirates hard and right before boarding we managed to get some canistershots into the pirate hoard.

The fight was hard and in the end we managed to get the upper hand and crush them.

Sadly we couldn't take the ship as a pize. It was to badly damaged and a strom was approaching fast.

We headed to Wasserton and further south, but something followed us!

In every harbor we anchored little blonde boys were killed in a gruesome way. Either the killer is on the ship, or we are cursed and the evil is following us, so the capt'n decided to sail to Deiking to search for some kind of spiritualist.

Hélène: Death on our trail

The Captain had attempted to find volunteers for our crew in New Madrid, and with great success. Now that our ship was officially aligned with the city, filling our ranks appeared easy, even on such a short notice. After the happenings in the cathedral, we preferred a hasty departure. Nevertheless, by the time we left harbour, every single of our crew bunks was occupied.

We intended to sail back southwards, trying to sell our goods at any of the island ports, and set course along the coast. The voyage was uneventful in the beginning, but in the early afternoon of the first day, we spotted the sails of another frigate in the horizon. They might just have been heading in the same direction by chance, for all I knew, but after a while the Captain declared they were actively pursuing us.

As we did not actively try to evade them, they gained on us, and indeed, when they had closed in by a fair amount, they hoisted a pirate flag of sorts, bearing white shapes on a black background. The Captain ordered that we ready for battle, and turned the ship while Sira had the cannon readied. After a bout of manoeuvring, we had gained the upper hand, fired three unopposed broadsides at the enemy vessel, and then went alongside for boarding.

I stayed behind with the defenders while our boarding party took the fight to the other ship. After a short but intense battle, the enemy surrendered, and our crew took control over their ship. After treating the injured, we allowed the opposing crewmen to go ashore in their dinghy, and Master Krastus ascertained the damage. He found that the other ship had suffered badly from our attacks, but after about a week of work, we would get it fully seaworthy again and could send it to New Madrid as our first prize. So we anchored the ships and went to work.

Alas, our efforts were cut short for on the next day, our lookout, Carlton, spotted a storm approaching. and we retreated to our ship and try to weather the violent gale. Long, terrifying hours followed, and I presume it was only due to the experience of our Captain and crew that we made it through the storm unscathed. The other ship, however, had sunk and was lost.

After the storm had settled, we continued our voyage and reached the port of Wrasseton. This was a small town that had suffered greatly from pirate incursions and plunderings, so the news that we had intercepted a pirate vessel was well received. I went to the market to offer our cargo and quickly found out that no one here was willing or capable to pay enough for us to make a small profit. However, I met a man who professed to be a brewer and vintner, who had a special transportation request. I summoned the Captain to negotiate with him.

It turned out that he wanted to sell us a large lot of good wine for a good price, on the condition that we would transport it to a pirate town and offer it there. He claimed that receiving a shipment of good wine would possibly soothe the pirates' anger and accept Wrasseton as a place to be preserved and be friends with, not plundered at every occasion. Given the nature of man, I was skeptical if such a plan were promising or even remotely logical, but since he also offered to buy part of our current stocks for a good price, to make room for the shipment, the Captain agreed to his terms.

Sira, in turn, was even more skeptical, and eyed the casks of wine with suspicion. She even checked if any of them were used as a hiding place for stowaways, but she found none. The next morning, while we were preparing our leave, we heard rumors on the dock that there had been a murder in town. A young, blond boy had been brutally murdered in the previous night. We wondered if we should investigate this, but thought that, as outsiders, it was presumptuous to interfere in what was obviously a local affair.

So, we left towards our next stop, Calib's Rock, where we arrived after three days of rather uneventful travel. In the small settlement, there was only a market for a small portion of our goods, but we had calculated with that. Somehow, however, the idea emerged that Carlton, as a proficient gambler, would be able to increase our funds, so he was given an instalment to work with during our stay. Lady Luck however was not with him, apparently, and after only a short while, a person walked up to the ship and demanded us to pay a gambling debt. The Captain wanted to speak to Carlton in person about that, but in the end, it appeared that their demands were legitimate, and we had to pay them out of our ship's funds.

On our way back to the docks, we heard a woman's scream from one of the nearby shacks. Alarmed, we rushed over and forced the door open. Our hearts sunk at the ghastly aspect we faced. A young mother was lamenting the death of one of her sons. The child had been killed, and literally been eviscerated. It was a gruesome sight, and with all our magic, there was nothing we could do here. We rushed back to the ship and convened in private.

It was obvious, there was a perverted killer, following our every step, striking in Wrasseton first, now here. The parallels to what happened in the New Madrid cathedral were blatant. Was the killer among our crew, or a stowaway? Or were we relentlessly pursued by a ghost, or a servant of the Devil? Whatever it was, we had to leave here quickly, lest it strike again. So we cast off quickly, to sail along Cuwayo's western coast to Daiking. There, we hoped we might find someone who could help us cast off this deadly shadow.

Carlton Grey and the Ghost of the Very Recent Past

After leaving New Madrid, we could finally try out our privateering skills. We didn’t even had to look for a pirate ship to fight with, since they found us, which was nice of them. There was a great big battle on sea and we won! We now had a new ship and some money too. The ship did not last long however, because a storm came a few days later and sunk it. Maybe it just became a privateer too, and it was jealous of our success.

We sailed to Wrasseton next, where we wanted to sell stuff but it turned out that we shouldn’t, so we sailed on. We learned about some blond boy, who got murdered, which was sad, but had nothing to do with us, except when later it did.
Our next stop was Calib’s rock, which was a nice little town. The others could finally sell some things, and I could go gambling for a bit which was fun.  I also learned about some treasure someone once almost got but then he could not. These treasures seem to be really good at getting people into trouble, hopefully we never encounter them again.
After that we were ready to leave, but then we learned about the murder in the shantytown. It was another young blond boy, which was suspicious, so we started to investigate.

Obviously this was about the ghost of the child-molester priest, so I immediately started looking for ghostly clues, but I found nothing, not even the smallest piece of ectoplasm. The ghost-priest must be really good at covering his tracks. We needed another line of inquiry, and I had an idea. Apparently there is a ghost wandering about on this island, so I thought that we should go and ask him if he saw a new ghost around. The others did not like it however, so we ended up setting sail.

Our destination is Deiking, where there fewer blond children, and people are Chinese, so maybe it will be easier to spot the evil murdering ghost-priest. We also might find someone who knows about ghosts. Who knows, maybe we could even form a professional ghost hunting team if this turns out right. That would be even better, than privateering.

Cortez: A Devil's Curse

It's hard to deny the extra-ordinary when you're sucked through to a world that is not of our time or place. So the logical side of me, the practical side, wants to say that there is just random chance that murders are taking place since I paid back my deal with the devils. But I'd just called naive. And I'd be the one calling myself that.

In two harbors, so far, we've heard about murders of children. Blonde boys. Just like the twin boys at the cathedral in New Madrid. I believe they were molested by the man who was... sacrificed? Ritually murdered? Whatever. My question now becomes why are these murders following us port to port? Is it a member of our crew? A deranged man who heard the rumors or details of what happened in New Madrid and is now acting out some sick fantasies of his own? I do not wish to suspect any of my crew, but that is almost preferable to the alternative...

The idea that we are being haunted by the spirit of the priest who was ritually murdered. And he, unable or unwilling to attack us directly, is harming those most similar to the boys he harmed in his life. But rather than simple molestation, he is re-enacting his sacrifice on them. Is this a torture to me? I do not hold myself responsible, I do not hold the knife, after all, but if I was the one who threw the first stone and now a rock slide has begun... I should be the one who works to find a way to stop it.

We pull into Deiking today. This city is large, and hopefully has fewer blonde children. But I hope to find some spiritualist... often cranks and fools back on Earth... I cannot deny that they may be my only hope here in Caribdus.

Sira Saran: How to become a privateer!

The Capt'n had decided to catch the slavers and trade them in for a bounty in New Madrid! In the aftermath of the battle of the Slaver's Beach everything was sorted out and decisions were made. New Madrid it was.

We set sails and our frigate "The Grandpa's Revenge" was flying north up the coast towards our new destination. Maybe we would have luck all along. The weather looked like it.

Only a few days later New Madrid was in sight and it was a marvel to look upon. Two big fortresses guarding a natural bay with a huge town in a rather unfamiliar style, a huge building called a cathedral in the center of it. It's like a temple, they said.

But harbormaster and other officials first. And that was something nobody really needs. Papers here, papers there, papers where? Papers everywhere! After the Capt'n was more then bored with these annoying bureaucrats, he gave up and left the haggling to Helene. At least there was a deal to be made so our quartermaster stroke one leaving us broke again but with legal papers and a "Letter of Marque" from the Spanish Guild.
We are now officially privateers! Hurray!

Time to hit the taverns and get us some rum!

And then there was this strange guy! A man in a robe with a strange accent talking to the capt'n.
Seemed like we got some special errand to run for the guy.
And we could only do that in strange cloth. Quiet unflashy... black with white collars and a hood. So I packed a knife and some pistols under it and feeled better.

All I understood of the whole errand was: "Get the guy and leave him there in the main room of temple." That was not so easy as it was sold to us. A lot of strange people, all dressed in black, talking rather high and mighty of their lord.

Ok we managed to avoid a mayor desaster and did what was expected of us and again it happened! The unexpected took us by suprise. Thirteen cloaked figures came out of nothing, like demons and took the guy. Really creepy guys! We left rather hastily and got back to our ship fast before anyone could see us.

Strange town this New Madrid!

Carlton Grey, and the Mission that was Possible but Quite Unpleasant

Arriving in New Madrid, we were presented by a great big city with a lot of amazing buildings and interesting places to see. Before we could go and explore it however, we had to get rid of the slaves, who weren't slaves any more. The captain released them, and asked them if they wanted to come with us on our journey, but they didn't. It was understandable, since we did not have any exciting adventures while they were on board, so they must have thought sea life with us would be boring.
I thought after this was done we can go to the city, but someone appeared and wanted some sort of papers we did not have. Then we had to buy the papers, and we became privateers, which is sort of like a pirate, except that government people say it's good instead of bad, so they don't attack you if you are doing it. I don't get why don't all pirates become privateers, since it seems a much nicer gig. Maybe they just don't know about this.
This matter also settled, I hoped to finally see the city, but no, another weird guy popped up, and told the captain about some old debt he had to pay back by doing some task in the next day, and left. So now we could not go to see the interesting stuff, because we had to help the captain to do his task in time. It was about freeing some prisoner who was held under a cathedral, and bringing him up to the cathedral. As far as rescue missions go, this did not seem to be a very effective one.
I gathered some information about the prisoner on the streets and also visited the cathedral. It was fine, until I got caught by some priest, who made me tell him about our adventures. I did, and apparently we did some bad things, and I should become a monk or something like that to atone for them. That sounded really horrible, but thankfully it turned out, that you can just pay some money instead.
I went to gamble for some money to pay for my sins, but lost. Doing God's work is much harder then it seems. I could not try again, because there was no more time.

We hatched a clever plan to get our man out from the cathedral. It was really exciting, we bought disguises, and planned distractions, and had to smuggle our weapons, just like in a dime novel. The only thing we forgot was making animal noises to notify each other about stuff.  Also poor Krastus could not come, because he would have been too suspicious, even in his nice new clothes.
Anyway, we went in in the evening, and met the priests and nuns and they were all pretty nice, we did not have to shoot anyone. We got invited to dinner instead, which was a little more boring, but also more pleasant. I was sort of sorry that we had to lie to them about things. This must be easier for professional spy-people, since they usually infiltrate bad guys, who you are allowed to lie to. The priest, who took my earlier confession was a bit hard to convince, but thankfully I had a pretty bulletproof twin-brother story prepared.
We also met the guy we were supposed to free, and he was friendly too, although also a child molester. I was quite uneasy about freeing him, but truth to be told, he could have left at any time, so really, all we were doing is bringing him upstairs.

Something really weird happened though, when we took him to the altar. Hooded monk-type people appeared, and attacked him, saying that they were demons or something like that. I started to feel sorry for the child-molester priest, but the captain said that we should leave him and go, so we did. I hope we don't meet this guys again, even if they were just pretending to be demons. Truth to be told, they were kind of scary.

Hélène: A change of allegiance

After the battle, we discussed our next step. The Captain decided that we live up to our promise and set our still skeptical passengers ashore in a nearby friendly port. So, we set course to New Madrid, where we arrived after three uneventful days of voyage. None of them were interested in joining our crew, however, as it appeared they did not want to break up their group they felt safer in. Each of them was given one hundred coins to found their new life on, and then they were on their way.

As for us, we still had to complete the official part of our docking procedure. A city official had arrived and wanted to know everything about our ship. It turned out that among the original Kieran paperwork and the documents Equias had procured, there was nothing there was nothing that legitimised us, and the authorities would consider us pirates, an assessment that had some merit, sadly. However, given our actions were largely within the interests of the Spanish Guild, who considered the Kierans their competition, they were willing to provide us with official documentation and a Letter of Marque, at a steep but ultimately acceptable price. As it turned out, part of the amount needed to be a bribe, as we had to avoid the proud Master Krastus from being reported to the local inquisitor, Torquemada, a relentless man who was said to hunt mages of all sorts.

While we were preparing to go to town, a second messenger arrived from the docks. A man dressed like a monk, in a dark hooded robe, wanted to speak with the Captain. He claimed that the latter was indebted to him or his peers, and now was the time to repay that debt. I will omit the details here, as I do not know much of them. At any rate, what was demanded from him was to ensure that a certain person, who was currently residing in the basement of the local cathedral, would be brought to the altar at midnight. With that curious request uttered, the man left.

Since the Captain was in dire need, we conspired to find a solution. First, the location had to be inspected, in order to see what that basement was like. So, Carlton went into the cathedral to view it, and one of the priests invited him to confess his sins. As we would realise later, he didn't stop at that, but proceeded to tell the story of his entire life to the man. Probably desiring to be compensated for that ordeal, the priest offered to sell an indulgence to him, but Carlton, short of funds, told him that he needed to gamble some more to be able to afford that.

The second step of the plan involved obtaining suitable garments and entering the cathedral as a group, posing as priests and nuns from abroad. The first part, at least, was fairly easy to accomplish, and after we had attended mass, we spoke with the local clergymen and were invited to dinner. It appeared that the cathedral's basement did not contain a prison as we suspected, but rather a living area for the priests. Thus, we could take a look around, and also find the chamber of the man we were looking for. Obviously he was one of the priests, and he was not a prisoner in the narrow sense. He had done misdeeds too horrible to mention, and sought penance in isolation.

Soon, we were invited to join the clergymen for dinner. Alas, the priest with whom Carlton had spoken was at the table as well, and so he and the Captain had to quickly improvise a story about a righteous priest and his lawless identical twin. Overall, however, our plan went well, and we managed to mingle with the unsuspecting priests. In the end, the lot of them went to sleep, and at the right time, the Captain sprung to action. Under the pretext that the Cardinal wanted to talk to him upstairs in the nave, he lured his mark to the altar. I was not sure at all who would show up. I suspected that maybe a friend of his suspected his imprisonment and wanted to have him freed. Or maybe a family member of one of those he had wronged would seek satisfaction. I was not, however, prepared for what happened next, when about a dozen similarly hooded persons emerged out of the shadows and from behind the columns and closed in on him. Their leader proclaimed that the priest had, with his deeds, proclaimed allegiance to their dark path, and would now be taken in by their dark lord, the Devil. The Captain, however, was told that the deed was done, and we were now required to leave, lest we be taken by the darkness also. As the cultists closed their ranks around the terrified priest, we prudently left the cathedral, out into the night and back towards the docks.

The next morning we learnt that an eviscerated corpse had been found on the altar.

Krastus: The tenacity of humans

New Madrid is an interesting place - I'm impressed the humans have managed to put quite so many bricks on top of quite so many other bricks with only 4 limbs. A testimony to their tenacity I suppose. Regardless, as we arrived - complete with box full of hands - we were met by an officer of the Spanish Guild. They asked about our cargo, I dutifully presented our box of hands. And then the captain decided to tell them we were from Shark Bay. This was not ideal - one tends not to tell merchants you are from a slaver port, even if you are, which we aren't. I mean, Shark Bay mostly just imprisoned, shot at, tried to stab, or enslaved us. It was not a nice place. I mean, better than Brigandy Bay. But that is not saying much. And it still had Frenchmen.

I did try to talk to the port official nicely, I even had a nice new feather put on my helmet and carefully had scraped and prepared my shell. But no. It did not help. Though I think he wanted to mate with me. Very strange. I suppose Carlton's pants were already occupied or some-such thing, or I'd somehow bumped into him and got some of his pheromones on me.

Still, after paying sufficient bribes - in part due to my superior status as a mage, the humans do get so jealous of us superior beings. Really. I do almost pity them - we obtained a letter of marque and some new ships documents. We were official. The Captain then decided to go and attack our new found allies and liberate a priest because someone asked nicely. Sounds damned fishy to me, and I do wonder if the captain isn't somehow imbibing more than his fair share of rum when I'm not looking, but off they went - and oddly left me behind. Well, it gave me some time to polish the railings.

And to carefully preen the nice feather I added to my polished helmet.

Cortez: New Madrid

We arrived at New Madrid and it is a beautiful city. It reminds me of home more than most cities here in this world. But it also is a little bit... rule-heavy for my tastes.

However, despite these rules, we've managed to obtain a letter of Marque and that will enable us to be... less pirates and more privateers. There is a subtle difference, I suppose, but it will help in many ways. None of the slaves wanted to join us, and I suppose that's for the best as they were unskilled. I managed to do some skilled recruiting in the local taverns and our Frigate is now fully loaded with sailors and marines.

Something less nice, depending on how you look at is, is my mysterious lender-organization called in their favor to me. I had to liberate a priest... to his own cathedral. My team planned quite well... but in the end our plans seemed almost too much. We broke this priest out of his cell which was unguarded and we found he was a child-molester. I have little sympathy for them, and that's good... because there was some dark spirits that took his life on the altar of the cathedral...

They numbered thirteen. Bad omen? Or simply a sign of what they are? Demons? Agents of the Devil? Or maybe just a different group entirely here in this world. I hope to steer clear of them in the future, lest my soul be forfeit.