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.
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