Surrounding Waters
6th Ashan, 717
6th Ashan, 717
Ashan was turning out to be a slow season so far. The ships crossing through Scalvoris’ waters were either too carefully guarded to be worth attacking, or carried such cheap cargo that it wasn't worth the effort. Information on shipping schedules had been hard to come by, which forced Tio to make the rather risky move of taking his crew out on a blind raid: to wander around the sea aimlessly and hope to cross paths with a worthwhile target. It wasn't very often that blind raids paid off, but what choice did he have? Running a crew was expensive, and loitering around in port wouldn't earn them any nel.
It was in the middle of the day, as Tio was sat on the starboard side of The Rude Jester failing to catch some more fish for dinner that night, that a shout of “ship ahoy” rang out from the crows nest. He threw his rod back into deck and scrambled to get his spyglass out, and when he aimed it in the direction his crew member was pointing in spotted a ship on the far off horizon.
“How does it look? Any worth as a prize?” Teddie, who'd come up to sit next to him, asked. Military discipline had helped him to stay calm and collected despite their precarious situation, but even he sounded just a little bit antsy for some good news.
Which was a shame, since Tio couldn't give him any. “It's a no-go.” He sighed, mentally cursing whatever deity was responsible for his string of bad luck and folding up his spyglass. “It's just a small transport ship. No signs of anything valuable.”
A resounding groan of dissatisfaction rang out from his crew as they cursed their poor fortune yet again. All except for Grace, who merely frowned at the image in the distance and took the folded spyglass out of his hand. She used it to look at the ship for a while, and then a ghost of a smile flickered on the corners of her mouth. “Captain… come have another look.”
Hesitantly Tio did so, and took another look at the ship. It was a sloop, built in the standard design and with no unusual features besides being fairly new, and only had two crew members above deck he could see at the time; one a typical rough-shaven sailor, and the other a hooded figure in a brown cloak standing by the helm.
“I don’t get it. What am I looking at?”
Grace rolled her eyes. “The man in the cloak. Look at his figure.”
Tio turned his attention to the cloaked figure. True he seemed a little bulky, and there was something strange about the shape of his shoulders, but nothing else. Except… “His stance is pretty strange. What’s wrong with him? It’s like he’s weighed down, or…” and suddenly it struck him. “Armoured! He’s wearing armour, a full set of it!”
Tio didn’t even need to look at Grace to know that she was smirking at him, he could feel it crackling in the air. “Correct. Now why would anyone pay for a fully armoured soldier to protect their ship if there was nothing valuable in it?”
“I see! A diamond pretending to be coal!” Tio laughed, grabbing his mask and fixing it onto his face. “Grab your gear my friends! We’re going hunting!”
Running down the sloop hadn’t been a problem in the slightest. Customising the little ship to endure the power of the deep ocean had cost it speed, and that meant it hadn’t had a chance of outrunning them on a trial with such calm weather. What had been a speck in the distance only a few breaks ago was now right up close and personal, and with a solid clunk the gangplank snapped down, binding the two vessels together and allowing Tio and his crew to hop straight over.
As Tio, dressed head to toe in his Captain Taboo guise, stepped forwards onto the deck of the target ship, he was pleasantly surprised to see that this wasn’t going to be over too quickly. While the sailor he’d seen earlier, and another one who must have been below deck at the time, were knelt down with their hands up in a gesture of compliance, the stranger in the brown cloak had a two-handed sword drawn and was settled into a fighting stance; a good fighting stance. This man was a soldier.
No, not a man; a woman. The armor had concealed her figure so Tio had made an assumption, and it turned out he was incorrect. While he couldn’t make out much beneath her hood, her mouth was unmistakably feminine. That was a careless mistake even for him.
Not only had he been wrong about that, but it seemed that he’d been wrong about her profession as well. The armour she was wearing was decorated and stylish, built just as much for fashion as for function, and was almost never found among mercenaries since it cost so much more but offered no additional protection. No, this was the armour of a knight; a Rynmerian by the looks of things. Now what business did a Rynmerian knight have on a ship like this?
“It’s strange to find one of King Cassy’s brave knights so far away from home, especially such a pretty one. What brings you into Scalvoris’ waters?” He asked, a mocking hint in his tone. “And on such a… prestigious vessel… as this one?”
“I’m on vacation.” The knight replied in the clipped, stilted tones of someone with neither practice nor talent in lying.
Tio chuckled gently. “Are you now? Well I’d hate to interrupt your precious holiday, so how about we skip straight down to business? You drop your weapon and hand over everything of value on this vessel, and we leave you with just enough supplies to drift on back home and give the king my love. Deal?”
The knight’s mouth grit in frustration, and she raised her weapon higher. “There’s nothing on this ship worth taking, pirate! Leave!”
“My dear there’s always something worth taking. A beauty like yourself, with skill in combat and a prodigious title, could fetch a high price in certain markets. I guess you’re lucky we don’t roll that way.” Tio replied, putting a subtle sharp edge into his tone. He took a step forwards towards the cabin. “Well… not so unlucky anyway.”
He took another step towards the cabin, noticing how the knight had tensed up considerably when he moved in that direction, and was rewarded when the knight stepped towards him and settled into a more aggressive stance. “I challenge you to a duel!” She cried out, trying and failing to keep the note of panic out of her voice.
Behind his mask Tio raised an eyebrow. “Now why would I do that? I suspect that you’re a much better fighter than I am, or any of my crew to be honest. It’s our numbers that gives us our overwhelming advantage over you.”
“It’s honourable!”
“I’m a pirate, I don’t care.”
“Have you no dignity as a captain?”
“Missy I have no dignity as a person. If you’re trying to appeal to a sense of moral character in me I’m afraid it’s not going to work. Now the real question here is what’s so important to you in that cabin that you would try to protect it like this?”
“There’s nothing! Stay back!”
“Enough of this.” Tio snapped, growing tired of the argument. “Kai’ran!”
The Sev’ryn archer needed no more instruction. In a quick movement an arrow was knocked in his bow and pointed at the knight, an arrow that she was too close to dodge. Had the other crew members not been around she could have definitely reached him and cut that bow in half before he could fire it, but being outnumbered as she was there was nothing she could do.
“There are two ways this can go down. Either you surrender and we take what we want, or we shoot you and take what we want. Either way, we get what we want. The question is whether you come out alive as well or not. Now are you going to drop your weapon, or do I have to give the order to fire?”
The hooded knight gripped the handle of her sword so tightly that her knuckles turned white as she wrestled with her dilemma, but ultimately there wasn’t much of a choice to make. Resignation settled across her body like a weight, seeping down into her bones, and slowly she lowered her sword to the ground. So sooner had the tip touched the ground then Teddie and some of the others stepped forwards, weapons drawn, and led her and the two sailors away to be tied up somewhere safe.
“Alrighty then, let’s see what was so important that it was worth going through all this effort to protect.” Tio declared, clapping his hands together like a child in a chocolate shop. Grace came up to stand beside him, and together the two of them walked over to the cabin door and pushed it open.
In contrast to the outside of the sloop, the cabin, while small, was lavishly decorated to an excessive degree. Rich fabrics, finely crafted furnishings, gaudy art; it was like a palace compressed into a single tiny room. Seated on a throne of giant cushy pillows beneath a banner with the symbol of a ram with a pair of large, curved horns upon it, sat another woman in a blue dress and jewelry expensive enough to feed a village for a month. Her face was pale, her mouth fixed open in silent terror, yet Grace paid her no mind and instead focused her attention on the symbol on the banner.
“I know that symbol…” She whispered urgently, eyes alighting in that way it always did when she hit upon a way to make heaps on money. “That’s the symbol of House Lancaster, one of the merchant houses of Rynmere!”
“Is it now!” Tio replied, the grin hidden behind his mask clear in his tone. Slowly he looked down towards the woman sitting beneath the symbol, catching a glimpse of his own masked face reflected in her eyes as she stared up at him with horror. “Well now… Get Teddie in here! It looks like we'll be keeping a guest with us for the foreseeable future.”[/color]
It was in the middle of the day, as Tio was sat on the starboard side of The Rude Jester failing to catch some more fish for dinner that night, that a shout of “ship ahoy” rang out from the crows nest. He threw his rod back into deck and scrambled to get his spyglass out, and when he aimed it in the direction his crew member was pointing in spotted a ship on the far off horizon.
“How does it look? Any worth as a prize?” Teddie, who'd come up to sit next to him, asked. Military discipline had helped him to stay calm and collected despite their precarious situation, but even he sounded just a little bit antsy for some good news.
Which was a shame, since Tio couldn't give him any. “It's a no-go.” He sighed, mentally cursing whatever deity was responsible for his string of bad luck and folding up his spyglass. “It's just a small transport ship. No signs of anything valuable.”
A resounding groan of dissatisfaction rang out from his crew as they cursed their poor fortune yet again. All except for Grace, who merely frowned at the image in the distance and took the folded spyglass out of his hand. She used it to look at the ship for a while, and then a ghost of a smile flickered on the corners of her mouth. “Captain… come have another look.”
Hesitantly Tio did so, and took another look at the ship. It was a sloop, built in the standard design and with no unusual features besides being fairly new, and only had two crew members above deck he could see at the time; one a typical rough-shaven sailor, and the other a hooded figure in a brown cloak standing by the helm.
“I don’t get it. What am I looking at?”
Grace rolled her eyes. “The man in the cloak. Look at his figure.”
Tio turned his attention to the cloaked figure. True he seemed a little bulky, and there was something strange about the shape of his shoulders, but nothing else. Except… “His stance is pretty strange. What’s wrong with him? It’s like he’s weighed down, or…” and suddenly it struck him. “Armoured! He’s wearing armour, a full set of it!”
Tio didn’t even need to look at Grace to know that she was smirking at him, he could feel it crackling in the air. “Correct. Now why would anyone pay for a fully armoured soldier to protect their ship if there was nothing valuable in it?”
“I see! A diamond pretending to be coal!” Tio laughed, grabbing his mask and fixing it onto his face. “Grab your gear my friends! We’re going hunting!”
Running down the sloop hadn’t been a problem in the slightest. Customising the little ship to endure the power of the deep ocean had cost it speed, and that meant it hadn’t had a chance of outrunning them on a trial with such calm weather. What had been a speck in the distance only a few breaks ago was now right up close and personal, and with a solid clunk the gangplank snapped down, binding the two vessels together and allowing Tio and his crew to hop straight over.
As Tio, dressed head to toe in his Captain Taboo guise, stepped forwards onto the deck of the target ship, he was pleasantly surprised to see that this wasn’t going to be over too quickly. While the sailor he’d seen earlier, and another one who must have been below deck at the time, were knelt down with their hands up in a gesture of compliance, the stranger in the brown cloak had a two-handed sword drawn and was settled into a fighting stance; a good fighting stance. This man was a soldier.
No, not a man; a woman. The armor had concealed her figure so Tio had made an assumption, and it turned out he was incorrect. While he couldn’t make out much beneath her hood, her mouth was unmistakably feminine. That was a careless mistake even for him.
Not only had he been wrong about that, but it seemed that he’d been wrong about her profession as well. The armour she was wearing was decorated and stylish, built just as much for fashion as for function, and was almost never found among mercenaries since it cost so much more but offered no additional protection. No, this was the armour of a knight; a Rynmerian by the looks of things. Now what business did a Rynmerian knight have on a ship like this?
“It’s strange to find one of King Cassy’s brave knights so far away from home, especially such a pretty one. What brings you into Scalvoris’ waters?” He asked, a mocking hint in his tone. “And on such a… prestigious vessel… as this one?”
“I’m on vacation.” The knight replied in the clipped, stilted tones of someone with neither practice nor talent in lying.
Tio chuckled gently. “Are you now? Well I’d hate to interrupt your precious holiday, so how about we skip straight down to business? You drop your weapon and hand over everything of value on this vessel, and we leave you with just enough supplies to drift on back home and give the king my love. Deal?”
The knight’s mouth grit in frustration, and she raised her weapon higher. “There’s nothing on this ship worth taking, pirate! Leave!”
“My dear there’s always something worth taking. A beauty like yourself, with skill in combat and a prodigious title, could fetch a high price in certain markets. I guess you’re lucky we don’t roll that way.” Tio replied, putting a subtle sharp edge into his tone. He took a step forwards towards the cabin. “Well… not so unlucky anyway.”
He took another step towards the cabin, noticing how the knight had tensed up considerably when he moved in that direction, and was rewarded when the knight stepped towards him and settled into a more aggressive stance. “I challenge you to a duel!” She cried out, trying and failing to keep the note of panic out of her voice.
Behind his mask Tio raised an eyebrow. “Now why would I do that? I suspect that you’re a much better fighter than I am, or any of my crew to be honest. It’s our numbers that gives us our overwhelming advantage over you.”
“It’s honourable!”
“I’m a pirate, I don’t care.”
“Have you no dignity as a captain?”
“Missy I have no dignity as a person. If you’re trying to appeal to a sense of moral character in me I’m afraid it’s not going to work. Now the real question here is what’s so important to you in that cabin that you would try to protect it like this?”
“There’s nothing! Stay back!”
“Enough of this.” Tio snapped, growing tired of the argument. “Kai’ran!”
The Sev’ryn archer needed no more instruction. In a quick movement an arrow was knocked in his bow and pointed at the knight, an arrow that she was too close to dodge. Had the other crew members not been around she could have definitely reached him and cut that bow in half before he could fire it, but being outnumbered as she was there was nothing she could do.
“There are two ways this can go down. Either you surrender and we take what we want, or we shoot you and take what we want. Either way, we get what we want. The question is whether you come out alive as well or not. Now are you going to drop your weapon, or do I have to give the order to fire?”
The hooded knight gripped the handle of her sword so tightly that her knuckles turned white as she wrestled with her dilemma, but ultimately there wasn’t much of a choice to make. Resignation settled across her body like a weight, seeping down into her bones, and slowly she lowered her sword to the ground. So sooner had the tip touched the ground then Teddie and some of the others stepped forwards, weapons drawn, and led her and the two sailors away to be tied up somewhere safe.
“Alrighty then, let’s see what was so important that it was worth going through all this effort to protect.” Tio declared, clapping his hands together like a child in a chocolate shop. Grace came up to stand beside him, and together the two of them walked over to the cabin door and pushed it open.
In contrast to the outside of the sloop, the cabin, while small, was lavishly decorated to an excessive degree. Rich fabrics, finely crafted furnishings, gaudy art; it was like a palace compressed into a single tiny room. Seated on a throne of giant cushy pillows beneath a banner with the symbol of a ram with a pair of large, curved horns upon it, sat another woman in a blue dress and jewelry expensive enough to feed a village for a month. Her face was pale, her mouth fixed open in silent terror, yet Grace paid her no mind and instead focused her attention on the symbol on the banner.
“I know that symbol…” She whispered urgently, eyes alighting in that way it always did when she hit upon a way to make heaps on money. “That’s the symbol of House Lancaster, one of the merchant houses of Rynmere!”
“Is it now!” Tio replied, the grin hidden behind his mask clear in his tone. Slowly he looked down towards the woman sitting beneath the symbol, catching a glimpse of his own masked face reflected in her eyes as she stared up at him with horror. “Well now… Get Teddie in here! It looks like we'll be keeping a guest with us for the foreseeable future.”[/color]
