D&D 5E Spell & Crossbones

[Kobold Stew]

Barrington does not hold out his hand. The money is for the Captain to disburse.

 

[Quickleaf]

[MENTION=11146]CanadienneBacon[/MENTION]

Kid's feet shuffle down the byway descending back into the heart of Nassau, avoiding muddy rivulets leftover from last night's rains. Somehow the Aztec coin feels heavy in his pocket just after a rain, as if the coin knows the wetness lingering in the air, yearning to be engulfed in dark watery depths.

The gangly pirate and broad-shouldered pirate with his arm-in-a-sling chat a bit, cutting east sharply behind a row of tannery buildings. As Kid catches up, he comes face to face with a hissing ferret on top of a barrel nearly Kid's size. There's nowhere to run but back, but the ferret's beady eyes show it's just twitching for an excuse to take a nip out of Kid, little white teeth gleaming. Never before has such a tiny creature appeared so fearsome.

"I told you we were being followed!" exclaims the broad pirate, hand on the hatchet hanging from his belt.

"Ah, it's just Kid!" says the gangly pirate, rolling his eyes and stowing his pistol. "He's a rigger's monkey, a swab, and a Jack o' Whiskey. Ain't got nothing to fear from him. Leave off, Kid, can't you see we've got work needs tending to?"

The ferret continues growling, but casts big uncertain eyes back at its master - the broad pirate - whether it should continue threatening.

 

[peterka99]

Étienne daydreams a little... How Kid reminds him of Nicolas, one of his late sons. He was twelve when...

He removes his hat and shadows the reckless kid...

 

[CanadienneBacon]

OOC: Kid doesn't wear a tunic. He doesn't have any armor, either. He's barechested. He'd be more likely to carry the coin in a breeches pocket; he wouldn't want anyone to see the Aztec coin. Hope this helps with folks' mental depiction of him.

Kid eyed gangly pirate. Where do I know 'im from? Seen 'im afore, I jess know it! "Awww, c'mon! Jess wanna pet the wee beastie a li'l. His fur looks soft. What is he, anyway?" Kid stuck out a trepidatious hand toward the brown ferret, who hissed at him. Kid had heard that you should be calm, bold, brave, with animals, but those teeth looked sharp. Still, the thing's fur did look soft. And Kid had secretly always wanted a pet. He inched his hand closer to the ferret.

"You don't got no work! Yer no-good layabouts, jess like me! I heard you sayin' 'bout treasure down at them sea caves. Neither one'a yous kin swim, though. So how 'bout I find ya a diver? I knows people." Kid tried to keep the conversation going, half on the hope that Gangly and Brutus would let drop a clue about the treasure, and half on the hope that Brutus would forget to tell the ferret to bite. Kid didn't see Etienne following him.

 

[Quickleaf]

OOC: OK! Edited my post to mesh with that.

Barred little teeth grow more intense with the ferret's snarls. "Why, he's a ferret! Smarter than any ol' dog, you can bet your mizzenmast!" proclaims Brutus proudly. And when Kid's nervous hand does finally touch the ferret's head, the ferret tenses for a moment, the barred teeth rapidly fading as it blinks with bleary enjoyment at being stroked. Its fur is indeed very fine and unusually clean considering the disheveled state of the two pirates walking it for a stroll.

"A diver? Why's we going to need a diver? Don't you know who's crew we serve on, Kid?" Gangly cackles to himself, pulling back his ruddy shirt sleeve to reveal an anchor in the maw of a seawolf. The Seawolf. A legend of the high seas. A so-called ghost ship, appearing with cannons thundering and vanishing into the mists with only debris left in its wake. A crew of bloodthirsty savages. Kid knew the legends well, had heard them on many a lip of a drunken sailor. "We's got divers like you wouldn't believe. So what's that leave you to offer us then? A big fat nothing, is what!"

 

[Queenie]

Nodding as he leans on his cane, du Tourbillon doesn't seem surprised. After that magic trick he performed just prior to the recent battle with the seawolf's pirates, it's clear he is a mage of some skill, so perhaps he has acquired his knowledge thru arcane means. At least, since he is newly arrived in the Caribbean and so definitively French, it seems unlikely that he has spies milling about the island already. du Tourbillon listens attentively, his brows knit in focus. "Ah, my man Badouin did mention he'd seen you speaking with the quartermaster for the Winchelsea, Monsieur Barrington," he says, referring to Read Wallace's ship. "I should like to hear of your opinion regarding Captain Wallace's readiness to sail?"

By switching face and securing the cannons for this expedition, Barrington was sure to have left a negative impression on Read Wallace, but essentially spying on him for du Tourbillon, that would undoubtedly earn him an enemy!

"There are forces at work on the island that are clearly hostile to those venturing in search of Le Gloriosa. Of that much I am certain. Thus, I am inclined to acquiesce to an advance of funds. The sooner you can set sail, the better. How much will these cannons cost, Monsieur Barrington?"

Katerina gritted her teeth upon hearing Barrington had been seen speaking to Wallace. Not that she really trusted anyone on the crew, especially those new to her, but it grated on her nonetheless.

"Gracias, Senor, for the advance. I know we'll have more needs and if necessary I'll return but I am trying to get things going without coming back here over and over. Barrington is correct that it would save time to not have to return but I do not foresee another large purchase in the near future. Then again, matters like this are unpredictable."

She paced around the room before speaking again. "We have the Seawolf, the leader of the group that attacked us. Do you know anything about them or their group? You seemed to have some... skills... that lead me to believe you might. We'll be interrogating him and then, well frankly, I do not know yet what we'll do with him."

 

[CanadienneBacon]

Kid's brown hand had been stroking the ferret but came to rest on the creature's back. The ferret, annoyed at the loss of its petting, nipped at Kid's hand. The boy yanked his hand free and sucked at the bite. He eyed the ferret with equal parts yearning and mistrust, wishing for a bit of something to feed it. The lad's brown eyes shifted to Gangly pirate's seawolf tattoo, then widened perceptibly. "The Sea Wolf! That ain't fer real! Ever'one knows that's jess supersutstit-- superna-- MAKE BELIEVE!" Kid's wide eyes and backpedaling gave the lie to his words, however. It was plain the boy did believe the 'Wolf was real.

Kid tried the time-honored thieves' tactic of outright denial as bait. "Yer lyin'! Lily livered liars! You lot ain't no Sea Wolf privateers! If'n ye were, ye'd be part eel or sommat! Go on an' prove it, jelly legs!" The boy took a careful three steps backward, away from Gangly and Brutus. The alley suddenly looked very narrow.

 

[Quickleaf]

The gangly pirate grinned toothily, revealing canine that were quite sharp. All of a sudden, just by thinking of it, Kid could see subtle wolfishness in the men's eyes, their ears a bit too hairy, their limbs a bit exaggerated. Was it just a trick of the mind or was it real?

Across the byway, Etienne notices Kid take a few steps back out of the shadows of the alley.

"Course it's just superstition," says Gangly with a curling lip that leaves very little comfort to his words. He takes a step toward Kid as Brutus picks the ferret back up and glowers the young boy. "After all, it'd have to be superstition...no man would dare wear this mark upon his skin," he points to his anchor in a seawolf's mouth tattoo, "if he believed in the stories of The Seawolf. Why, you've heard what happens to men who falsely claim The Seawolf as their ship, haven't ye?"

Brutus made a handing gesture and stuck out his tongue. Both pirates laughed harshly.

"No, no man would dare wear such a mark...unless it marked him as The Seawolf's own." Gangly stopped a few feet from Kid. Somehow his teeth seemed gleaming and sharper than Kid had noticed before, the way he enunciated his words drawing special attention to them. "Isn't it, Kid? Now, leave off following us or you'll find out what jelly legs really means, won't he?"

Brutus, despite his arm-in-a-sling and a ferret crawling about his shoulder, hefted a wooden mallet from his belt. The kind used for smashing pegs and fixing hulls...as well as for emergency surgery procedures when a doctor wasn't available.

 

[Quickleaf]

Katerina gritted her teeth upon hearing Barrington had been seen speaking to Wallace. Not that she really trusted anyone on the crew, especially those new to her, but it grated on her nonetheless.

"Gracias, Senor, for the advance. I know we'll have more needs and if necessary I'll return but I am trying to get things going without coming back here over and over. Barrington is correct that it would save time to not have to return but I do not foresee another large purchase in the near future. Then again, matters like this are unpredictable."

She paced around the room before speaking again. "We have the Seawolf, the leader of the group that attacked us. Do you know anything about them or their group? You seemed to have some... skills... that lead me to believe you might. We'll be interrogating him and then, well frankly, I do not know yet what we'll do with him."

du Tourbillon, having handed the pouch of 400 Louis d'Or (gp) to Katerina, nods in agreement. While he seems to be a patient sort of man, the Frenchman also seems quite particular in his habits. Pouring himself a tumbler of cordial, even the way he adjusts the bottle just so before pouring, suggest a man given to an obsessive streak. "Ah, The Seawolf, yes. I assure you that the man you have is not the leader. You see, the leader has eluded my every divination. A most startling realization for me, being accustomed to finding people when and where I desire. As you experienced firsthand, Madame del Corazon." He refers to the sending magic he employed to contact Katerina right before the fight with the crewmen of The Seawolf.

"Whoever captains that ship has demonstrated a singular interest in opposing my efforts. He destroyed a ship in my employ three years ago, only two men survived, one missing his ears and the other his tongue. A grim message indeed." du Tourbillon sips the cordial, glancing keenly at Barrington and Nia Steeleyes. " Thus I have been forced to track this mysterious captain, this Loup de Mer, by more traditional means. An African slave ship in which the slaves rebelled in an orgy of blood and gore, with fury the likes of which the one slave who escaped the carnage described as inhuman. A Dutch merchantman whose dwarven crew, in the middle of entertaining an Englishman's daughter, erupted into paroxysms of rage and murdered the dinner party. With each trace, more questions than answers. Who is the captain of The Seawolf? How does he evade my divinations? And why has he set his sights on brining ruin to my ventures?"

Pausing, the Frenchman sits down to rest his bad leg, "I thought I had evaded him this time surely... but there is one more trick I have waiting for him. Bring your captive to me. I believe I shall have use for this D'avard yet."

 

[Shayuri]

Nia purses her lips. She'd had a thought in mind for him as well...but the white skin might be a better idea at that.

"I'd ask you not to kill him until we have de Coral Curse," she said to du Tourbillion. "D'avard may be...of use in lifting its curse, if dis skin de trader obtained is not enough by itself."