• Closed • Taboo Strikes III: A Spot of Piracy

[Tio Silver]

Almund Beach
75th Ymiden, 717
Night

A true thief at heart, Tio was always on the lookout for a good opportunity to quickly make some money. Considering that his decision to move to Almund might well have been one of the best moves he’d ever made, because anyone who looked for it could easily find some kind of dodgy dealing going on it the city of shipwrecks and could, if they were good enough, get in on that work. Said work was almost always illegal of course, and more than a little dangerous, but the payoff was often worth it.

When Tio had stayed up last night to have a drink and a chat with the daughter of the owner of the inn he was staying at, Ceressa Reyes, he hadn’t been looking for work. All he’d wanted to do was get to know the innkeeper a bit so that if trouble ever found its way to his door he might have a friend to cover for him when he needed it. However when the topic of what Tio did for a living came up and he’d hinted that he involved himself in less-than-legal work he’d been pleasantly surprised when the young woman had shared with him the details of a job opportunity as thanks for the drink. Unsurprisingly even though the 20 Pirate Lords were gone there was still a notably strong presence of pirates in the city, and a group of them were banding together under a young new captain to raid an iron merchant ship, called the Jane Dane, from Rynmere passing by Scalvoris on the way to Nekhet.

And as it so happened this band was recruiting more crewmembers for the raid in the Scalvoris Sapphire Inn, the very same inn he was staying at! After a quick introduction from Ceressa, Tio had got talking with the quartermaster of the fledging crew, and had secured a place for himself on the crew. Which was why he now found himself heading down to the beach late at night, where the crew was meeting before they boarded, after purchasing a simple short-sword from little Korlasir to use in the raid.

“You Silver?” A bald man with a large scar across his forehead asked them, eyeing Tio’s skinny frame doubtfully.

“Aye, that’s me. I’m not late am I?” Tio replied.

The bald man grunted. “Nah, but you are the last to arrive.” He turned away and started walking towards a rowboat beached a few feet from the ocean, raising his voice so that everyone could hear. “OK LADS EVERYONE’S HERE, GET IN THE BOAT AND LET’S GET GOING! HOPE YOU NEWBIES SAID GOODBYE TO YOUR LOVED ONES, ‘COS CHANCES ARE THEY WON’T BE SEEING YOU AGAIN!”

The crewmembers started heading towards the rowboat, muttering quietly to themselves in their own small groups. Tio followed at the rear of the group, and as he looked around at the crew of scarred, thuggish looking people of all different races armed to the teeth with various weapons he had to wonder if doing this was really a good idea after all.

No, it would be fine. How bad could a spot of piracy be after all?

Off Topic

I've deducted 13gn from my ledger for the sword.

[Tio Silver]

The journey at sea, however brief it had been, had not been an especially enjoyable one. The captain of this venture, who’s name and face Tio still didn’t know as the bastard hadn’t set foot outside of his cabin once throughout the entire voyage, had clearly been of the mind that a short voyage meant they could drive the crew hard since there wasn’t enough time to make mutiny worthwhile, and so had all the crewmembers working tirelessly to make sure the ship ran as smoothly as possible. As he had little sailing experience and this was his first voyage Tio had been assigned to keep the ship clean before they reached the Jane Dane, and must have scrubbed every room of the ship top-to-bottom seven times over because the bloody captain wanted to keep their precious pile of wood as clean as they good.

Fortunately he, and everyone else in the crew, had been given a long break to rest and prepare themselves for the upcoming fight once the ship had reached the trade line their target was taking. The captain’s plan was a simple one; since their ship was a small merchant vessel that stood no chance of catching anything they would instead raise their distress flags and wait on the trade line, pretending to be a merchant vessel that’d been attacked by pirates and was in need of assistance. When the Jane Dane came along as saw them it would pull alongside them to offer aid, and as soon as it did they would burst out from below deck and ambush them. It was an underhanded tactic to be sure, but then again whoever said pirates played fair?

There was a tense silence below deck as the crew waited for the Jane Dane to arrive. The air was so thick you could’ve knitted it, and any attempts at conversation soon faltered and failed as nobody could get in the mood for small talk. The more experienced members of the crew, obviously far more used to the tension than the newbies, played rounds of captain’s cards and occasionally made light conversation over bets with each other but even they didn’t let their hands stray far from their weapons.

“Y’alright mate? You seem pale. Not feeling sick are you?” The man sitting on his right, who Tio had been chatting to during the voyage and learnt was named Artur, asked him. He was an aging but muscular looking man with wispy grey hair, and was seemingly unaffected entirely by the tension somehow, asked curiously.

Tio shook his head, his face uncommonly clear of the humour that he was normally never seen without underneath the Taboo mask he’d decided to wear more for the head protection it offered him than to protect his identity this time around. “I’m fine, I just wish the target would hurry up and arrive already. The anticipation is killing me.”

“SHIP HO!” A voice cried out from somewhere above deck, and at once the tension skyrocketed as everybody’s hands went to their weapons, drawing them ever so slightly from their sheathes.

“Well it looks like you’ve got your wish.” Artur replied with an encouraging grin. “Now listen to me, because what I’m about to tell you might just save your life. In combat there’s only one thing more important than killing your enemies; keeping yourself alive! And the best way to do that is to make sure someone always has your back, so when the fighting starts we stick together no matter what, we don’t stray more than a sword’s length away from each other, and we make sure to keep track of what the other is doing at all times. Two blades are better than one, so if we deal with every opponent that comes our way together and don’t engage in more that 2-on-2 combat our chances of survival will be drastically higher than they would be alone.”

Tio nodded in response, and the two took positions with the rest of the crew at the foot of the staircase up to the deck, their swords drawn and ready. For thirty bits the crew waited in complete silence as the Jane Dane drew near and the crewmembers disguised as merchants above deck lured them into tethering up to them, all ears impatiently waiting for the cue to attack. They listened as the target lowered their gangplanks onto the side of their ship, as a few of the Jane Dane guards came aboard to talk to them…

And then there rang out the sound of a boot stomping on the deck hatch above them. The sign to attack.

“CHARGE!”

[Tio Silver]

“CHARGE!” Cried the quartermaster, and with a roar the pirate crew burst forth and fell upon the guards like a wave, slaughtering the first of the unsuspecting soldiers before they knew what’d hit them. Realising they were in a trap the remaining guards that’d come aboard their ship retreated, ordering their ship to cut the lines and run for it immediately, but the pirate crew followed them across the gangplanks onto their ship before they had a chance and a full on battle broke out on the deck of the Jane Dane.

There had been roughly fifty armed people on the Jane Dane, which outnumbered the forty or so pirates, however thanks to the surprise ambush earlier roughly ten soldiers had fallen before they knew what was happening, and so both forces were roughly evenly matched. As Artur had said to do Tio stuck close to him as the pair crossed the gangplank, and as soon as they were across onto the other ship the two stood back-to-back, holding their claimed ground and working together to finish off any opponents that came their way.

One lance-wielding guard charged straight at the pair of them, screaming bloody murder as he tried to impale Artur straight through the chest. The two of them sidestepped the lance in opposite directions, and when Artur aimed a swing at the guards head and the guard raised his lance up o parry it Tio saw an opening and stabbed his sword into his open side, sending the man down to the ground in a cry of pain. Before he had a chance to remove his blade from the unfortunate man’s side though a sword-wielding merchant came at him from behind, swinging a wide arc at his neck in the hopes of decapitation him. Luckily Artur had seen the man coming, and parried the blow away with his own sword mere inches away from Tio’s neck.

Artur and the merchant dueled briefly as Tio stepped back out of range and finally freed his own sword. As the Yludih prepared to re-enter the fray again however another merchant, this one with a heavy looking axe, came to back up his comrade, and Tio was forced to intercept him before he could get within attacking range of Artur. The duel turned into a two-on-two brawl, with all the participants attacking and defending in unison with their teammates as they struggled to gain an advantage over the other.

What the axe wielder had in strength and weight though it lacked in speed and maneuverability, and on an open deck both Artur and Tio were able to dodge out of the way of its swings with little trouble. Realising that he’d soon tire the axeman made a desperate swing at them in an attempt to finish the fight while he still could, and sensing an opportunity Tio rolled underneath the swing and quickly punched the axeman in the face before his partner could react. While the axeman was stunned the blow Artur and Tio attacked the swordsman together, quickly overwhelming him with a flurry of thrusts and disarming him before stabbing him in the kneecap to take him out of the fight. With impressive agility Artur quickly turned and put his sword tip to the neck of the axeman, who’d just recovered from Tio’s punch enough to raise his axe to strike again, and realizing that he’d been beaten the axeman dropped his weapon and put his hands up in a show of surrender.

Around the deck the other Jane Dane crew members were also realising the battle was lost, and one by one dropped their weapons in a show of surrender. The conflict had overall been a short one, lasting no more than a quarter of a break, and though there had been a number of injuries there had been very few casualties on either side. It really had been a decisive victory for the pirates.

The element of surprise had simply been too much for the merchant crew to overcome. Tio made a mental note to never underestimate the advantage of an ambush; despite their advantage in numbers and favourable position the merchants had lost simply because they’d been caught completely off guard. That one disadvantage had been enough to destroy them.

There was a round of cheers from the pirate crew as the quartermaster proclaimed their victory, followed by barked instructions to tie up the Jane Dane’s crew in the deck of their ship and start transferring their cargo over to their ship. As the rush of battle started to fade and the reality of the fact that he’d survive hit Tio the Yludih grinned to himself and joined in the cheering, letting the exhilaration of victory wash over him.

Being a pirate wasn’t so bad after all…

[Patrick]

Name: Tio

Knowledge:

• Blades: Aim for an opening
• Blades: Use speed to your advantage against heavy weapons
• Blades: Two blades are better than one
• Blades: Stabbing with a cutlass
• Blades: The knee is a weakness
• Tactics: Have someone watch your back in combat
• Tactics: Fighting in a pair
• Seafaring: Ships need to be kept clean

Loot: N/A
Injuries: N/A
Fame: Taboo: Breaking the Law (-2)
Devotion: Syroa +2 (Concealed True Identity)
Magic: These points cannot be used for magic.

Points: 10

If you have any questions, comments or concerns, please let me know.