Sira Saran: The Kieran Betrayal

So we returned to Kiera with mixed feelings.
All seemed well till Krastus went out to get some lockpicks. That may have been a problem.
He met up with a guy and was gone for a long time in a cellar.

That made a lot of people nervous and just as I was going to press some information out of a barkeeper he appeared again.

Meanwhile our crew was raided by a party of guards searching for Serene.
Helene and the Capt'n managed that nicely, so I heard.

Back on the ship Krastus and the Capt'n had a long talk, and I was told to shoot Krastus on sight when there was no special word said.
Sadly the Capt'n said the word and I was robbed of a try with my new blunderbus.

We left port rather fast after that. I'm suspicious. Something is up!

Hélène: Back into the lion's den

After checking our ship's papers and some final preparations to mask any discrepancies, we approached the city of Kiera. After docking, we were soon approached by a distinctively dressed harbour official. When the official warned us about a rogue ship named the Wild Monkey, a conversation with the Captain followed that nearly gave us away, but either our disguise was good enough, or they wanted to lull us into a sense of safety, for now. Anyhow, since our holds were empty except for some provisions, there was not much to check, and after paying the docking fee, we were welcomed into the city.

As usual, it was my task to secure a cargo for our holds, and so I went to the local merchants and determine the current market conditions. Iron was in short supply at the moment, but still prices were significantly better than any other place I've seen. I bought all that was on offer for the day, replenished our provisions, reluctantly purchased some lots of gunpowder to fill our remaining holds, and then headed back to the ship to oversee the loading.

In the mean time, the Proprietor had decided to leave the ship and base himself in the city, so I was to count our funds and pay out his share of our earnings. After that he took his coffers and left for the city. I suggested we paid the outstanding crew salaries as well. The Captain and the other officers agreed, and they and our long-serving crew members got their shares for the month. There were also a couple of new hires to be registered, all experienced sailors. One of them, Robert, was an Englishman, two, Sara and Kurt, were of local origin, and the last one was a rather quiet Kraken fellow, by the name of T'kumla.

I had also received a month's purse, and my official duties for the ship were done for now, so I headed to the city for some private shopping. A staff was considered a sort of status symbol for mages, I had heard, and probably also quite useful to keep enemies at bay, so I picked a visually pleasing specimen from a local vendor. I also bought a fashionable muslin dress to go with it. Late in the evening I returned to the ship, where everything was still calm and normal, and went to sleep shortly afterward.

The next day, around noon, Master Krastus, Sira and Carlton left for a tour around the local taverns, to inquire about the fire mage that we were looking for, and some other personal affairs. Meanwhile, the Captain and I stayed behind on the ship, waiting for them for a conspicuously long while. We were put on alert, however, when a detachment of guardsmen headed by an officer marched along the pier towards our ship, requesting to come aboard.

The officer told our Captain that the Kieran guard was looking for a criminal, specifically a deserter, and demanded a complete inspection of ship and crew. We were also informed that, as a security measure, there were two dinghies off the pier watching our ship, so this was apparently a rather big effort. We reckoned this was about Serene, and while the captain went down to collect the crew, I attempted to win some time by going through the ship's manifest with the officer.

When the crew assembled on deck, the Captain had attempted to disguise Serene as our blind cabin boy, dressed in loose rags and a blindfold, with her hair cut short rather crudely. The officer sternly observed as a small detachment of soldiers walked down the line to inspect the crew, one by one. I was at the very beginning of the column, and I was obviously not Serene, unless they only had a very poor description of her. However, I noticed that they at one point had me pull back my sleeve and inspected my arm rather closely.

At this point we realised that Serene might have a tattoo signifying her former service to the Kieran navy, and our subterfuge would be exposed with but one glimpse. The Captain and I exchanged glances, while the inspectors inexorably advanced along the line. We had to do something to protect our friend.

When they had inspected about two thirds of our crew, the Captain stepped forward and brazenly complained to the officer about this senseless inspection in harsh words. The official was intimidated by the Captain's anger, and the attention of his guards was momentarily broken. This gave me the opportunity to have Serene slip behind the line, hidden from view, and then reenter the line on the side where the inspection had already taken place. Taking the rather conspicuous blindfold off her, I decided to quickly put that on the yet uninspected crew member most similar to Serene.

Eventually, the Captain's mood mollified, and the inspectors continued where they were interrupted, a bit quicker but still reasonably thorough. Fortune was with us, as they didn't realise our ruse, and when the inspection was finished, the were convinced that Serene was not currently on board. It came to us as a shock, however, when we overheard the officer muttering that since she hadn't been found, the crab were in error. Was that our own Archmage who had set them on us? The Captain crossed his arms and looked at me tellingly. Some explanations would have to be made.

Krastus: Of Changing Attitudes

Normally I am quite a sensible Scurillian. I am driven by enlightened self interest in all things - and yet I find myself soft these past few days. And I dislike it. Passing up good money to save the crew? Ridiculous. But I did it, curse my sentimental heart.

We stopped in Kiera and went shopping while the captain sent others to chase down news of the privateer with this item we required for the hags. I needed to obtain a nice new axe - my hammer was starting to get a few dents from my enemies, very inconsiderate of them - and some lockpicks. I've been needing a pair since we were last in Kiera, but they have been hard to come by. And I have money finally.

I found a man who would sell them - but it turned out that he was a bit of an untrustworthy sort who informed on me to the Kieran authorities. As we went to pick them up, and I took along some others from the crew in case it was a trap, I was ushered downstairs. And into a room with an officer of the Kieran authorities.

He seemed to know exactly who I was and what I was about - which is odd as I would have expected that he would have killed me if he knew, but then maybe he wasn't sure of the strength of the men he had with him. Considerable numbers of men. He offered me a choice, I could tell him things about our ship or....well, the alternative was not spelled out, but given the large number of armed men and threats to hurt me I can guess it would not have ended well.

It seems we already have a spy aboard - a man who will identify himself to me with cuttlefish.  And I should help him. The officer wished to know our interest in the prison colony in the Grey Isles - I deflected that well with the story of saving the world - and he also wished to know what we had done, what about slaves, and what about fugitives. I saved the captain on slavery, but my provarication made him suspicious.

He seemed to know that we had someone on board - I'm guessing his informant had tipped him off to Serene. When I tried to delay he called me on it - in the end my choice was between myself and therefore the crew if they did not have me (and without me I am unsure the Kierans would not just sink her) and Serene. So I did the only sensible thing, I confirmed the information they already had and hoped that the Captain might come up with a plan.

In return for this? I was to get 500 a month. He also had the lockpicks I came for, which was useful. Alas I could not get paid in advance. Still, I got the others and headed back to the ship - I would tell the captain what had happened when I arrived and we would work out a solution to keep the ship safe.

When I arrived I told the captain we had to leave port now, before they changed their mind, and that I must talk with him. He tried to dawdle - the man is infuriating. You would think the number of times I've saved the crew that I'd have earned some trust. But no, no, the constant degredation of my status continues.

He levelled accusations at me, that I had seemingly willfully done this and all the rest - very hurtful given my sacrifice of good money to inform them - and even put us all at risk with talk of telling people. As if he would not believe my word that there was a spy on board. And to think, I've been following orders and supporting him since his idiotic choices that lost him his shadow and put slaves aboard the ship. Very hurtful of him to impugn my dignity.

He seemed to grudgingly accept some of what I said though and so we made moves to cast off - Serene it seems was safe. As we left Sira seemed to be waiting menacingly with a weapon. Hrm. Very worryingly. If the captain is going to get quite so confused and impulsive, he will put us all in danger. I could always find another crew I suppose, but I am quite attached to these ones.

Carlton Grey and the Quite Kieran Interlude

We returned to Kiera with our ship disguised as a slightly different ship. I thought it might have been better, if we disguised it as something completely different, like a cathedral or a butterfly, but it was too late by then. It did not matter much, since nobody remembered us anyway.
We had to stay on the ship for a while for some reason, but afterwards we could go and have fun in the city. It was quite enjoyable. I felt sorry for poor Serene, who had to stay on the ship because of the Kieran military holding a grudge against her.

Anyway I bought myself a new coat, and went on to do some gambling and we also asked around for some things the captain wanted to know. I was under strict instructions not to talk about our more exciting adventures though, so it did not go as well as I hoped. I don’t know why the captain wanted it this way. Maybe he is writing a book about it, and doesn’t want to spoil it for potential readers. That would be pretty smart.
In the end we learned about the guy we were after, who is some kind of magical privateer. I am curious to see how that works. Hopefully there are going to be plenty of rabbits pulled from hats, and women sawn in half on his ship. 

We were planning to leave the next day, but we had to wait for Krastus who was going to get some lockpicks from someone. It seems that he got tired of breaking down doors like we did in the dragon-village. Sira and I went with him, while the others stayed on the ship. I do not know why we were needed, but I wasn’t complaining. It’s better if we are around in case he goes berserk again, tries to kill people or turns into a girl.
None of those happened though, so we just had some drinks in this nice little tavern, while he negotiated in the cellar. It took quite a long time, so they must have been some very good lockpicks indeed. 

We went back to the ship next, where everybody was quite excited for some reason. Serene must have been really bored, since she even got a new haircut while we were away. I complimented her, even though it looked a bit silly. Sometimes you just have to be a little considerate to make a relationship work.

Cortez: A Return to Kiera

We fixed up our ship and made our way back to the Kieran Empire. Kiera specifically. Many of the crew had some misgivings on this, since the last time we were there, we had to flee after attacking a secret base, etc. But I was confident in the fact that we had a different ship and it had been more than six months, that we wouldn't be instantly seen.

We managed to avoid an incident with the dock master and paid our fee easily. But things went... rough after that. The crew was allowed to shop. I went looking for new crew. I managed to recruit eight new fellows. Four of whom are quite skilled sailors and fighters. I'm glad to have them join our already experienced crew.

But then we had a bad spot. Krastus went off to get some lockpicks... and while he and Sira and Carlton were gone we had some unwelcome visitors. The Kieran Navy with marines! They demanded to board our ship and I had no choice but to allow them to. I asked what they were looking for, and I, for once, wasn't fearful since we had no illegal cargo... until they said a fugitive. Our crew was forced to line up... one at a time they began checking the forearms of each crew.

As soon as I heard fugitives, I thought of Serene. And I cannot throw her to the jackals. She hasn't been the most productive of crewmembers, but she is still crew all the same, and Carlton's girl. I had cut her hair rather dramatically and put her in a blindfold. But once I realized they were looking for tattoos, I was in trouble.

With only a few crew between the inspectors and Serene I did the only thing I knew how. I told Helene to swap Serene when she saw the chance... and I gave her that chance. I bellowed and made a stink about what a waste of time and tax-money these sort of harassing behaviors were by the Kieran Empire. It didn't stop the inspection. Not at all, but because I was so irate I drew the eyes to me and it allowed Helene a chance to switch people down the line.

I only relaxed when the marines were leaving... but not before I heard the most chilling words I could have. "The crab must have been wrong." And I didn't want to believe it... there are certainly chances we could have been betrayed before. And I've saved Krastus more than once! From Pirates and Enchanted-Axes and Mind-Controlling Liches! He wouldn't betray us...

But when he returned, he asked to speak to me in private. I couldn't take a chance on the rest of the crew's safety. I told Sira to be ready if I exited and didn't say the codeword. And then I went into my cabin with the Crab.

He spun a tale of being cornered by the Kieran Empire and forced to tell them about Serene and our ship. He says they have a spy on board. A SPY. He admits to spying, and then tells me there is another spy! And says they already knew everything. Which I find hard to believe. Very hard to believe. Especially since myself and the entire crew are wanted... almost at the top of the list of all people wanted by Kiera. If they knew that, they would have not left our ship.

Krastus cannot be trusted at his word. But maybe I can give him a test. And maybe test the rest of the crew to find out if we, indeed, have a spy on board. I imagine an action against Kiera will root out loyalties.

Hélène: Proceeding normally

Leaving the Archmage's tower, we set course for the Gray Isles, following the channel separating the halves of Torath-Ka. While doing so, we were very much on the lookout for the wrecked ship the Archmage mentioned, and indeed, after but a short search, we spotted a halfway submerged hulk. Anchoring, we set out to salvage the vessel, with the magical protection of Master Krastus shielding us from the elements.

Alas, it turned out that it did not shield us from the wildlife, and soon we were noticed by several sharks, large and small, who first resorted to circling our group, but then assaulting us simultaneously from all sides. We were scarcely prepared for a fight, and defending against the predators underwater turned out to be a difficult feat for some. Not so for Master Krastus, though, who appeared rather unimpressed and whose magical attacks took a heavy toll on the beasts. After a short while, they found us to be too dangerous prey, and those that were still in swimming shape retreated swiftly, permitting us to quickly salvage the wrecked ship's rigging and sails, which indeed appeared infused by magic.

After this diversion, we continued our course, and in our free time, made plans how to trespass in Kieran waters without incident. Acting as if the ship was still a Kieran privateer commanded by Serene was a risky option, since news of her defection might have reached the Empire through its former crew, who we had left unscathed. We could always just rely on our luck, but looking back at what we had been through so far, it seemed our account with Lady Fortune was well overdrawn.

Archcarpenter Krastus came up with an alternative plan, however. The main idea was to alter the appearance of our ship in order to simulate another ship type. This involved modifying our rigging, adding another mock deck to our superstructure and several smaller alterations. I am not an expert on ship design, but I was assured that this should at least make our ship very much unrecognisable to all but the most trained eye. Making our proud and extroverted Captain unrecognisable was a different task, but I was confident his disguise would hold for the few seconds we'd have before Carlton would accidentally give us away with his first spoken word.

To implement this plan, we needed more wood, though, and after a few days of travel along the channel, we picked a suitable site for landfall, with a rather welcoming beach and one of those dense forests nearby. There, we anchored in shallow water and prepared for work. Most of the crew were given first work orders by Master Krastus. Early the next morning, the Captain assembled a party to scout the inland for suitable wood, and possibly food and water, and I was assigned to this party, as were most of the officers.

The trip through the jungle was uneventful at first, if arduous, until later in the morning, when we heard the suspicious noises of a large animal. In the clearing with the unremarkable ziggurat we spotted the nest of a large reptilian beast, and the very same beast spotted us in turn. It turned to attack us, and was soon towering over us, with its smallish arms and humongous toothy maw. Its confidence, however, was cut short when the Captain deftly assaulted the beast from behind, scaling its body halfway and piercing the back of its skull with ease.

After this event nothing further happened that was out of the ordinary, and we successfully returned to the ship an hour before nightfall. During the journey, I recall having stubbed my toe at some point, but I had no lasting discomfort from this, of course. At the ship, I used my remaining power to remove a mildly painful sunburn. That way I would have an easier time treating Sira's grave injuries the next morning.

Before I could do that though, our Proprietor required an update on our current financial situation. I had shamefully neglected this duty, obviously, and so I scrambled to prepare a thorough and accurate report, which pleased him somewhat, at least. Still, wasting too much time with our ship careened was deemed unadvisable, and so I hastened to put Sira and the others into working shape again. We continued our tasks for another five days, collecting timber from the nearby trees and making the necessary adjustments to the ship. During this time it became clear that Mongrel had at some point left us for good, and I had the sad task of removing him from the roster.

Sira Saran: Under new Management!

It was such a nice day to start with, leaving behind the floating tower, finding magic sails at the bottom of the ocean and having a stupid plan to disguise our two-masted, two-deck kieran patrol ship as a three-masted and three-decked ship of the line. So all was well, till...
...till we needed wood for the stupid plan.

I don't think I will ever set foot into the stupid jungle again.

Sure there is a lot of wood in the jungle, big trees, but why is the jungle overflowing with huge creatures? There seems to be a plan behind it. Maybe it's mathematical:
Jungle + ruins = huge creatures + our crew
that always results in:
jungle + our crew + ruins = doing something stupid
then the whole theory breaks apart into:
our crew + doing something stupid = me nearly dying some horrible death while fighting with nonmagical weapons against magical creatures!

So I warned them, but again there was no use. after killing the huge beast they insisted on exploring a dark tunnel in a ruined temple that clearly said: "Do NOT enter, you will die here!"

And a room full of skeletons is not what i call safe even when the door only tries to bother you with riddles. We got through sure, but then this lich sat there just doing smalltalk and some people can't leave their hands in their own pockets and need to check out the liches possessions even before he is dead and gone.

We fought him and his skeletons and a met a huge dragon. Strangely I can't remember what we did to it! I guess that is just the aftermath of me nearly dying AGAIN!

Who is this strange guy we have on board all of a sudden and why does he own 50% of our ship?

Krastus: Profit! At last, profit!

I made money! Finally - this has been a most unprofitable journey before now. Shiny gold coins befitting of a crab of my status....but, I get ahead of myself.

It all started after we left the archmage's tower - she had told us of a sunken ship near her tower, though it seems only I was listening properly. The captain can be so distracted at times, no doubt staring at her chest or some other human failing. Anyway, we went down and - well - there were sharks. This is probably to be expected, but it was a rude awakening anyway. I'd given everyone protection from the drowning effects of water, but sharks....they are a tad more difficult. Regardless, we fought them and managed to beat them away.

Having recovered the sails, we proceeded to discuss where we should go. The object we needed was in Kiera, and the terrors also still needed dealing with to help the young lady. Assuming she was alive. Or her father was still alive. Still, worth helping. But to get there we would need to be cunning. And so they called for Krastus.

I designed a fine ruse - a fake third mast, broken, and a false third deck to help disguise our profile. Make us look less Kieran. But to do this I need wood - I am not a miracle worker, well not that much of one anyway. So we headed for the coast of Torath Ka. The captain led a team off into the jungle, and then they came back for our help. Me and Sira are quite indispensible.

They had found a temple, and a large beast. We fought the beast and slew it and then made our way inside. There was a door with skeletons standing guard, and it asked a series of riddles. The first threw me a little, but after that I was able to get my mind into thinking as the device has and we were able to give the answers.

What it revealed was....odd. A lich, in a perfectly organised room. He had been there for some time. He guards a dragon, he informed us, and his treasure. And the dragon was not accepting visitors. I asked him for some of the treasure and he kindly obliged - I decided this might be a ruse and dispelled whatever magic he had placed on it, some control spell.

Unfortunately Carlton does not take 'No' very well, and he found a secret entryway, used it and initiated some kind of gruesome confrontation. We fought the liche and...well, then it happened again. Our enemies clearly identify me as the superior being in our group and so they managed to overcome my mind with magics, practiced over thousands of years, and forced me to fight our enemy. The doreen went down, and I hit the captain a few times too - though I admit I rather enjoyed that given his recent treatment of me. Even if it wasn't my choice.

Still, the others fought me off long enough to re-assert my control and we promptly swung the battle back the other way. The downside? Sira went down badly hurt - and as we tried to escape Mongrel was eaten by the zombified remains of the dead dinosaur. We were in, as the humans say, quite the pickle.

Thankfully we were introduced to a fine gentleman of a dragon who recognised my brilliance and wished for us to take an old man along for a journey. As the old man owned part of the ship, that seems quite sensible.

But most importantly, I still had the gold the lich gave me - 30 gold pieces. An easy 300 pieces of eight. Profit! Sweet, blessed profit.

Carlton Grey and the Definitely Dragonless Jungle Adventure

After we left the wet wizard, we decided to return to Kiera, and give those terrors another go. We also wanted to retrieve some supposedly magical sails from a ship underwater.  The ship was underwater, and it was full of sharks, so we had to fight. I do not know, while those sharks wanted the ship and its sails that badly, as they really could sail it underwater. Maybe it was because the sails were magical. Either that, or the sharks must have been dumb.

Anyway, once we had the sails, we had a talk about disguising the ship, so they won’t recognize us after our last adventures there. It might be risky, if they find out the truth, but I don’t think anyone in Kiera can blame us for this. I mean they have an emperor, who has been pretending to be a whale for quite a long time.
We needed some wood for the repairs, so we stopped at Torath Ka to get some.
We went into the forest, but instead of wood we found another Giant Animal Thing. This was a chicken again, but quite a bit larger than the last one. We fought with it for a while, and in the end Cortez beheaded it with his magical sword. I looked for it's eggs but there weren't any.
We now would have been able to look for some wood, but instead we went into a giant temple that stood on the clearing where the giant chicken was before. This seemed to be more interesting anyway, so I did not complain.

In the temple we found some skeletons, and a dragon which was also a door. It was quite boring though, as it just asked stupid rhyming questions, and breathed fire once in a while. I was hoping that we would get to see a not-door dragon soon, but instead we found another dead person inside. He was quite friendly at first, but he also did not want to show us the real dragon. I started looking around, and found a secret door, so I opened it. This made him mad for some reason. Maybe he wanted to find it first.
Anyway we had to fight again. I shot at the dead guy, but he was cheating, and Grandpa could not hurt him, so the others had to kill him. The skeleton guards also came into the room to fight. They must have been quite happy that they don’t have to stand in the corridor with the boring dragon door anymore.

It was a quite tough fight, especially after even the giant chicken corpse started to attack us again. Thankfully this weird old guy came, who helped us defeating everything. He also gave us some money for some parts of the ship or something like that. I hope this doesn’t mean that we cannot go to those parts anymore, but the man is quite nice so I don’t think there will be a problem about that.
All in all it was a pretty fun adventure. I just wish we could have seen a dragon as well.

Cortez: Dinosaurs and Liches!

We've been making decent time toward Kiera and Krastus has informed me our plans to disguise the ship will likely be met with some level of success. Up close inspection might be problematic, but from afar we are likely safe from confrontation.

As we explored the jungle for hardwood necessary to make the disguise, we stumbled upon a clearing with a Ziggarut and a dinosaur nest. I managed to kill the dinosaur rather spectacularly... but Krastus wasn't around to see it, so what's the point? But seriously, I was impressive.

We got the rest of the crew and descended into the Ziggarat itself. We were confronted with a room of statue-like skeleton warriors... at the time we weren't sure if they were alive or not. Or, rather, if they would animate. Instead we found a very animated dragon-door. The dragon-door asked us riddles.

We got the first one right, but then Krastus muttered something out loud after the first one that wasn't correct... wasn't correct at all! The dragon was real enough to breath fire on us all. No one died, but... still. We also answered the rest of the riddles correctly, with Krastus giving most correct answers.

Beyond the door we found a room with a Lich. Really, that was what we found. A room with a Lich at a desk, asking what our business was, and that there was a dragon below. We said we had no business, but were interested in the dragon. Krastus asked for gold and took it. Carlton explored the room and found some secret passage. This proved to be bad.

The Lich attacked us. Or we attacked him. Either way, combat happened. Krastus attacked me... he seems susceptible to magic which makes him attack us... and the Skeleton warriors from the outside room came in and joined the fray.

I did notice Helene's water elemental making an appearance. But it didn't really do anything. Kept dispersing. Strange spell, I hope it will be more useful in the future.

We defeated the Lich... or turned it to dust, and then we explored the office. But we discovered the dead dinosaur was now a zombie dinosaur... maybe a curse of the Ziggarut? Maybe the Lich did it. We were in a terrible situation, about to die, really. But an older man arrived and actually saved us from this beast.

We negotiated, gratefully, for our lives which he had just saved, and he is now the owner of our little ship and expedition. He gathers 50% of our profits! I sure hope there are lots of those for him! He's really a great guy.