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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Dr Midnight" data-source="post: 3622325" data-attributes="member: 69">Session 1 - Chapter 3 WE'RE IN TROUBLEUp in the crow’s nest, Gerrit was getting acquainted with “Rusty” and learning the basics of being a lookout. Gerrit’s portion of the sea would be the northeast, while Rusty covered the northwest and the third man would keep his eyes on the south… which was of course where trouble was likely to come from. Gerrit scanned the horizon from shoulder to shoulder, as Rusty had instructed. The line was clear. By noon the distant islands of Westerwynne and Hallowed Point would become visible. Gerrit watched for them as eagerly as he watched for the privateers.Down on deck, Arianna was having a less enchanting experience. The man cleaning fish was a talkative brute named Belpurt who seemed to think the elf was interested in hearing about the particulars of his job and seeing his skill with a cleaver. “Most can’t clean a fish with a  cleaver,” he said. “They use a filet knife. Like novices.” He laughed and tossed a glut of intestines to the deck. “Could you please be careful?” Arianna asked wearily. “You almost hit me with those.” “You know what the novices also don’t do? Drain the livers. You take a liver, like so, and squeeeeze…” He squeezed a fish liver out over a stained wooden bowl that was filling with vile liquid. “This is the oil. You can get a killing for this stuff at market. I heard someone paid a gold piece for a bottle just yesterday.”“Yes, yes,” Arianna wheezed. “I think I might sit down for a bit. The sun is getting to me.”“Ahh, it does bake down, doesn’t it? Know what’s a good sunscreen? Cod oil. Here, smear some on ya!” He dipped a hand in the bowl and reached for her. Arianna promptly dropped the mop and ran away. “I’ll just run and get Junior. His shift’s back on anyway.” “Suit yourself.” Belpurt shrugged and then rubbed his oily hand all over his face and the back of his neck. He got back to work. Around noon, the cook served a meager fish-hash which had been fried in the skin. Dinner that night was worse. Jade enjoyed Gerrit and Arianna’s shares, and they ate their trail rations below deck, well away from where the sensitive cook would see.When night fell, Arianna took Gerrit’s spot in the crow’s nest. She had eyes that could see better and further in the dark than the crew, and the night wind was soothing on her sunburn anyway. She didn’t need sleep. Gerrit, however, turned in early so that he’d be up at first light to continue the watch. <img src="http://a132.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images01/74/l_8cb59b0bf1f8084d97818e3453a2be0b.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" />Gerrit bounded up to deck, well-rested and ready to watch. “Good morning, Captain Evory.”“Mornin’. Ain’t you chipper.” “Ain’t I just.”“Wind’s with us today. We should reach Palervale around one, maybe earlier.”“Fantastic. Well, I’d best get up there.” Gerrit leapt up and began flipping his way to the nest.Arianna was scanning the horizon dutifully. Her skin was its usual unblemished shade. Gerrit hopped into the nest and said “Goood morning. What happened to your sunburn?”“I couldn’t take it. At some point I just used a cure spell.”“Oh come on, you big baby. I was in the sun twice as long as you were, and you don’t see me burning magic.”Arianna slapped the spyglass against his chest. “I happen to have a very fair complexion, I’ll have you know. Have fun, I’m heading down before the sun gets too high. I won’t make that mistake twice.” She climbed down and Gerrit sighed happily, surveying the ocean. He could see how some could fall in love with a seaman’s life, roving from port to port on the foam.He also liked studying the far-off lands he’d only heard of. Westerwynne was a broad and flat island… just a flattened black patch on the horizon. Wellden, on the other hand, was a small island that had three tall mountains silhouetted against the sky. One of the peaks almost looked like it had a flag planted in it. Gerrit couldn’t see the island too well, but he enjoyed marveling at just why someone would mark the top of a mountain with a flag. He would have so many different cultures to learn about on this trip.Within a half hour, Rusty joined him. “Mornin’ Gerrit. You’re up early.”“Yep. I quite like it up here.”“That’s good,” Rusty said. “I imagine you’ll miss it tonight when you’re back on dry land, eh?”“I just might. Hey Rusty… that’s Wellden, right?”“That island behind Hallowed Point? Yep.”“Why do they have a flag planted on top of one of the mountain peaks? Some local custom?”Rusty held up his spyglass and took a look. His mouth went slack and he dropped the glass, then began ringing the bell that hung over their heads. “Ship! Ship to the north!”Gerrit looked again. “That’s a ship? I… oh no…”“You may not be cut out for this after all, Gerrit. Now think very carefully- when did you first spot the peak with the flag?”“Uh… it came into view about a half hour ago.”Rusty slammed his fist against the nest’s basket and the whole thing trembled. “Damn. They’ve had time enough to spot us for sure.”Evory shouted up from below. “What’s going on up there?”“Ship, captain! Between us and Wellden. They hid in the shadow of the mountains as we breached the horizon.”Arianna came up from below deck to see what all the shouting was about. Rusty tossed her a spyglass, which she caught deftly. “Elf! You’ve got good eyes. Look to the north. There’s a ship, and at the top of the mast is a flag. What’s on the flag?”Arianna looked carefully and said “It looks like three red teardrops on a black field.” The crew began looking to each other fearfully. “The ship is moving to the right of Hallowed Point.”“That’s it then,” Evory said through his teeth. “They’re moving to intercept.”The six mercenaries Evory had hired were roused and armored. They got up onto deck around the time that the ship was completely visible to the right side of Hallowed Point. Evory looked to the garrison and then to the ship again. “I don’t know why I hire the men. To feel safe, I guess. This won’t help us. That’s a fully loaded privateer. Maybe upwards of one hundred thirty men. Probably twelve cannons to a side. At the speed they’re running, they’ll overtake us before we can reach land.”Gerrit said “Despair won’t help. We should come up with a plan.”“What plan could help us now? Despair’s the only hope we have left! If we surrender everything we have, they won’t kill us and send my ship to the bottom of the Strait. Unless you’ve got a fierce plan, I don’t think we’ve got a prayer.”Arianna thought quickly. “If I could just touch their ship, I could warp the wood of their hull and make a big breach. They’d sink within minutes, or at least slow down enough for us to escape.”“You’d have to get over there, first,” Gerrit said. “But how?”“I… I could turn into a fish and swim to the ship’s underside.”Captain Evory said “In these waters? Think again. Since we’ve been shoveling tripe overboard as usual, the sharks have been thick in the water since last night. You’d never make it. If only we had some other way to dispose of the fish guts, eh?”Arianna ignored that. “I could fly over as a bird! But… I couldn’t cast the spell. I need hands and speech to make the spell work. I could turn into myself again, but then I’d be in the water.”“It’s a wash. Do we have another plan?”The ship was beginning to grow larger in the distance. The mast against the gray of the sails could now be seen with the naked eye.Gerrit licked his lips as he thought. “I think I may have something. I think I can keep them off of us until we reach Farplane. Maybe.”“Well by all means, let’s hear your idea.”Gerrit began talking.Coming up THE PLAN.</blockquote>

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