A Warlock Alone, Island Empire solo game

[J. Alexander]

The Crew

As he is preparing to retire to his cabin and overhearing the low rumblings of the crew, Michael will step to the railing of the quarterdeck and say. "Gentlemen, we have done well, Madame Nac'Losin has prepared an inventory list which is most impressive. When we are well away from the Shark Men's Lair, say tomorrow morning, we will bring it out again for all of you to see and enjoy before securing it in a more permeant fashion. Personally I have always felt that gold gleamed better in the light of day than by the light of a latern (it is dark afterall) and wish for you to see what your bravery has won in full light of the sun so you can enjoy it more and savory a nights sleep dreaming of the riches to be handled tomorroww."

"But first we must see to leaving the area and remaing on our guard for a bit. any who wish may look at the inventory list tonight when you have time from your duties"

And Last, enjoy the dinner Master Avilnor has pepared, It is a rushed job but it iwll be no doubt be good. Tomorrow or perphaps the next day will shall have a feast in honor of our fallen crewmate"

Turning to Mr Mangrum he will say, Dinner in a little over an hour in my cabin please. We need to discuss these events in more detail." Michael will then go to his cabin.

Once in his cabin, he will summon Guiessppiee and ask him to make his way among the crew and stand so as he can hear the odd comment. We do not need a mutniey at this time by all means but we may have to prepare for one.

 

[Scotley]

To Mermaid's Rest

No one protests further as Michael makes his way below. Gusseppi makes his way among the crew and says that they are generally pleased with their success. The way Michael dove in to save a crewman certainly impressed them. A few of the men are a little worried that the spoils may not be divided as generously as promised. This is not an uncommon thought among the crew of any ship, but especially one with a new captain.

Dinner arrives on time. Grumbar has a previously unsuspected sense of irony. The meal starts with a shark fin soup. It is excellent. The second course is pork dumplings wraped in cabbage leaves and served with a piquant sauce. Mr. Mangram is in attendance.

 

[J. Alexander]

Dinner

SEeing that Nac'Losin and Chandar are not present, he will ask Guiessepp to go get them. I am assuming Grond is present, if he is not he will be invited also as that was Michaels intent with the offer of dinner earlier ,

"Mr. Mangrum, if you dont mind, we will wait for the others to assemble. Before they arrive I would like to commend you on your behavior and actions during they were both comptent and brave and you handled the ship in a very professional way"

Michael will also make sure Grumbar has prepared enoouhg food. Michael did say officers and was expecting to feed several other individuals.

 

[Scotley]

Officer's Mess

There is plenty of food. The others begin to arrive almost immediately and take their places. Everyone seems to be in a pleasant mood after the day's success. Mr. Mangram accepts the complement with a bow of the head. "Thank you sir. The men were inspired by your own bravery and coolness under fire."

 

[J. Alexander]

The Dinner

Michael will greet his guests and thank them for coming. When all have been seated Michael will take his seat and say. "It looks as if Master Avilnor has outdone himself whith such short notice. I fear my waiste line may expand faster than the ship's profits" Smiling and turning to a more serious tone he will contiune "It is not my usual custom to discuss business while eating but only after the dinner has been completed, but I fear we have all had a long day and do not wish to linger into the wee hours discussing todays events when we could be abed. So if there is no objection, i propose we dispense with that custom for tonight and have our conversation during our meal. Are there any objections?" Hopefully there will be none and Michael will contiue.

"As tradition dictates I would like to start our conversation with the most junior officer present given his impression of what went right and what went wrond as well as general observations then move onto the next junior officer etc. Thus the order would be, Mr. Cardossa, Captain Chandar, Mr. Mangrum, Grond then Myself. Madame Nac'Losin shall go last and offer us her insight into the matter as well"

"After that there are a few details i wish to discuss with you in regards to our recently acquired profits. Then we shall dismiss and have a day to think about what has been said and discussed then we shall meet again to see what conculusions we can reach"

So shall we begin?

 

[Scotley]

Officer's Mess

Gusseppi chokes down a dumpling, somewhat startled to be next. He recovers quickly. "Well we did quite good didn't we? I was troubled by the loss of a man, but given how many we dispatched and the profit reaped I think it was a fine day. Our sucess is obvious. I know some people are concerned about the rewards and how they will be given out, but once they get them I think the mood will change. As for what we did wrong, we underestimated the defenses of the Sahaugin village, but we did send scouts, so I don't know what else we could have done. I don't know that much about magic could we have scryed on them? The shark with the rope was a big surprise. I never heard of such a thing. I don't think we could have anticipated that, but perhaps we could rig up a stop of some sort so a rope couldn't slide all the way down. Perhaps having some axes on deck for cutting ropes would help? They'd be good if someone tried to board us too wouldn't they?" He raises a glass, "I must offer a toast to our captain for bravely going into the water to save a man. I also toast Chandar and his Marines for their successful raid, Mr. Mangram and his crew for their handling of the boat and stalwart defense against the sharks, and to Nac'Losin for her healing gifts and wisdom."

 

[Scotley]

Officer's Mess

As Michael turns to Chandar he has a realization. The furniture is sized for humans. Both Chandar and to a lessor extent Grond are crammed into chairs much too small at a table really too low. Next Chandar speaks, "Thank you Mr. Cardossa for your kind words. I'll follow your form and speak first to our successes. We had only a few casualties, but the loss of life is most regretable. Without the efforts of Captain Storm and Priestess Nac'Losin the loss would have been much greater. I am generally pleased with the treasure brought up from the village. There was more, but I do not think another raid would be wise. We took most of the coins and the most portable items. We didn't have time to go through everything before we brought it up. I do regret that two of my men found wine to be the most desirable item to bring up, we might have gotten more value from something else, but I suspect those two were the sort to drink their share anyway. Good fighters, but fond of the bottle you know. As Mr. Cardossa said the defenses were stong. The deadly sea life they had cultivated was beyond my men's experience. My men fought well down below. I think had we gone in against the sharks we could have bested them, but we might have been to winded for the deep dive to the village." Chandar does not offer a toast and only took a sip of wine at the Gusseppi's toast, appearently not yet having acquired a taste for it. Instead he says, "I salute you all and your brave men. It is an honor to be part of the team."

 

[Scotley]

Officer's Mess

Mr. Mangram nods to Chandar, "Thank you sir, your troops are as fine as I've ever seen." He takes a drink as he prepares to speak, wiping his lips on a napkin he begins, "We were successful today and commend you all for the fine job that you did, but I am not as pleased with our success as some others. I think we could have done much better. She's a fine boat, but better equiped for speed than attack. I realize that the facilities at Tregere were limited and we also had limited time for refitting, but I'd like to see us add more ballistas and perhaps even something heavier. Also, the men did a fair job, but they haven't really had a chance to be polished into a team. Chandar had more time to work his people on combat and teamwork, while my men were engaged in the refit. I'd like a chance to do more drilling and training. I agree with Mr. Cardossa that we could better prepare the ship for various contingencies as well. All that said, under the circumstances we did quite well."

 

[J. Alexander]

Officers Dinner

5th day of Sun's Time in the 2nd year of the reign of Xenieda the First
At Sea
3 hours after sunset

Michael will listen to Guiesspee, Chandar and Mangrums comments. When mangrum has finished, he will say "Yes indeed we did learn a lot about our ship and ourselves during the engagement." Turning to Grond and Chandar he will say "Gentlemen, I am sorry for the seating accomodations, I have just realized you must be very uncomortable. Please feel free to make yourselfs as comfortable as possible even if it means sitting sideways to accomodate your height. In the future, I will try to make better arrangements for you"

As Grond has remained silent, Michael will take his turn.

"All that has been said makes perfect sense. We do need to see about further training and perhaps some more aramment and equipment for the "Retribution" and that can only be remedyed in time and our making ports of call where we can obtain then necessary equipments.
Perhaps in the next few days, Mr. Mangrum and Captain Chandar can draw up a wish list of what we need to add in consultation with the other officers and even the crew. They may well indeed have some ideas that may not occur to us that could prove valuable. Off the top of my head, I would suggest pehaprs two additional ballistas and maybe one or two swivel guns or prehaps grenade lauchers depending on what we can acquire."

One point that Mr. Mangrum made that i think we should all keep in mind is his observation about out speed. I think we should prepare our arament and our attack plans using that speed and train the crew in distance attacks if possible, to hit and run, hit and run, hit and run until we wear our opponets down, much like we did with the sharks, until we release Captain Chandar and his strike team upon them. We should increase our marines their maximuve as soon as can, depending on the quality of recruits we find and that pass Captain Chandars inspection"

"Captain Chandar is right, another raid is unwise, and I will order no such raid at this time. We need time to train the crew and time to arm the ship. Now that we know the location, we can hit it again upon our return if we so decide it"

"As to magical protections and scrying devices, they indeed need to be worked upon. Perhaps in time we can build such defencse with Nac'Losin help and the help of a Ship's Mage when we can recruit one. That recuitment is perhaps one of our most pressing recruitment problems. Also in that respect, I will ask Madame Nac"losin to help stock our sick bay wiht more potions and magiacl healing items that we currently do not possess so as not to tax her and impose upon her skills when they may be desperatley needed to help ward the ship"

"Further, I would ask her to head up a small working group to discuss what magical protections may be feasiable and to list those protections the officers and crew may have experienced or heard about so as to make this a safer and healther ship"

Assuming that dinner is somewhat finished at this point, Michael will offer a cigar to everyone and ask if they would like to step to the quarterdeck and stretch their legs while we continur the conservaion. "I have but a few more points to make before I shall leave the floor to Madame Nac'Losin and feel we may enjoy the fresh air somewhat than the air of this stuffy cabin"

Once that deceions has been made, Michael will continue with hie points.

"I know the crew is very much concered about the treasure and it's division. The crew signed on for an 8th month salaried conttact with the final payment of 1/2 of the crew share to be divided among them upon the completion of the contract. Given our good fortune in today's raid, I feel that this may prove to be unfair to them. In the next few weeks, we shall dicuss this matter in depth and will ask for the crews input. The hard decsion that lies before them is if they wish to void the current contract and it's ending in 8 months and their passage home or their decision in 6 months to join the crew. If the contract is voided, then they must be willing to accpet just a small allowance for personal expenses until such time as crew shares can be apportioned and distributed. Hopefull this can be as often as once a month but could well be once every quarter. Should they delay the decsion till the six month mark then they will lose their right to a full crew share. Then there are all the obilgations etc that they must be willing to sign onto should they become crew members. As this is a weighty deceions it must be up to each individual to choose his course. However, regardelss of their choice, a bonus will be paid to each crew member which shall be determined at the time of their seperation and I will rely upon the input of the ships councilers in fixing the amount of that bonus. As of this moment, based upon the cash recently acquired it should at least be in the range of 25gp per crew member and may well go up depending upon the amount realized from the sale of the odd goods as well as how successful the sale of the cargo acquired by me is.

Finally, I need assistance in the customs of how we should deal with the death of one of our own. Of course his family will immediately recive the full value of his contract and the payment of his crew share when it becomes due. What I am unsure of is if the ship owes his family a wereguild or blood price for his death and what commermative services may be necessary for him. any help would be deeply appreciated in this regard.

Turning to the Nac'Losin he will say, "your thoughts Madame"

 

[Scotley]

Officer's Mess

OOC: Sorry, I don't know what happened to Grond's comments. I posted them. He didn't have much to add other than a willingness to help with the training of the crew.

As you move on deck everyone takes a cigar. Gusseppi looks a little green, but it trying to look mature. Nac'Losin draws heavily on her cigar and sighs with pleasure. "I don't profess any great knowledge of protective or offensive magic. The Godess is most wise and her follower are taught to focus on counseling and healing. Be that as it may, I will make a study of such things when the resources are available. I have already been asked by the lost crewman's friends to perform the traditional rites of our faith. These are simple envolving a short ceremony of traditional songs and chants at sunset tomorrow. If we can have your permission Captain?

Afterward, it you wish to have a more traditional seaman's burial at sea that would be a good way to bring some unity to the crew. I fear our traditional rites will leave those of other races feeling left out.

As to the crew's shares, I think giving them a bonus now with an understanding that the bulk of their share must wait until the end on the contract will be the safest course. I do not thing it sets a good precident to renegotiate contracts whenever something happens. They made a deal and should honor it. However, it never hurts for the Captain to show his generousity and appreciation after a great success."