2
The crew of the Broken Oath watched the us get onto the ship, watching them all as if they were delicious foods just out of reach. The captain watched us as if they was a predator and they was determining which among them was the weakest of the herd. They rested their one hand on the handle of the pistol tucked into the piece of blood brown silk wrapped around their midriff
“Squire, your hermit could read the map’s runes?”
“I know all of the secrets of the Hellfort, Captain Von,” Belum lied.
Strong and Tough climbed the rigging and disappeared into the mast. Not Bad brayed at being hauled aboard with ropes and harness into the hold.
“I’m…”
REACTION ROLL
10, Almost Friendly
“I don’t care what your mother told the world to call you, hermit. See that the monkeys don’t chew any ropes.”
One of the sailors said, “If they nibble on one rope, we’ll feed you and yer damned menagerie to the child who lives in the bilge.”
“There is no child in the damned bilge,” Captain Von hissed.
BILGE CHILD
STR -1
STEALTHY, ALL RELATED DR’S -2
PRE -3
AGI -3
TO +0
HP 3
40SILVER
OMENS 2
EXCRETAL STEALTH
The sailor who had wanted to threaten me with the Bilge Child shrugged and mumbled something the wind made unintelligible.
“You and Belum will join me and the officers for dinner,” the captain said and I remembered that when groups of people gathered they set times for meals. It would be odd not just eating when Strong or Tough left me something half chewed along my path. Some part of my rebelled against the structure, even panicked a bit.
I tried to stammer an excuse to miss the meal but Captain Von just smiled, showing me all six teeth.
“I spent time on a deserted island for near a decade. I know that after a while of being away from humanity, when one is among them again it can be a fearful thing. Fight that fear and join us anyways. We have much to discuss,” the captain said and I was shocked to see my panic and fear subside, as if someone understanding what I felt somehow made it more bearable.
This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.
“Thank you, captain,” I said, sitting down on the deck, unable to believe their kindness.
Belum left me alone until dinner.
The sailors did not.
“How much for the blade?”
“2 gold dragons for the armor if it fits me.”
“How much for time with one of the monkeys? What about with both of them?”
“Whatever has been offered for the sword, I’ll double it…”
“The bear trap…10 silver, take it or leave it, hermit.”
“What about the monkeys and the donkey?”
I did not take any of these deals but reached under my right armpit and took out my silver.
ROLL 1d6X10 FOR SILVER
5
50 SILVER
I bought a lamp and 30 foot of rope from a Kargussian carpenter. A Griften bone-setter sold me their spare medicine box for 15 silver. I tried to bargain the bastard down but folk in Grift are known for not budging in the market and so I gave up and paid up. From the Kargussian carpenter’s lover I bought lantern oil and a length of heavy chain that was spotted with rust but was solid metal nonetheless; their accent made no sense to me - no idea where they were from and they were not forthcoming. They assured me that the chain had offered them good times but they had debts that would not wait. I didn’t know how to tell them that their reason for parting with the chain meant nothing to me and so I just awkwardly thanked them and wished them well on the paying of their debts.
They all heard my valley tongue and identified it right off. I was fending off questions about undead, trying to see if any of them had a sack where I could stow my new belongings when Belum came to collect me for dinner.
I thanked them for not mugging me and they all smiled as if the night was still young yet.
“Captain likes you too much to mug ya and your monkeys look too mean,” one of them said as we walked away. I looked up to see Tough showing the sailors their teeth and jumping up and down on a length of wood on the mast no wider than my hand, thirty feet above the deck.
Captain Von and Belum pinned the map of the Hellfort on a nearby wall so we could look it over while we ate. The food was hardy, some kind of chowder with rum to drink. I realized I wasn’t sure when I had eaten something that wasn’t masticated by a caring but emotionally distant monkey or washed up on the black beach near the monolith and its cave.
I thought of the monolith somewhere behind me, somewhere in my past and got sad as if it was a friend I had left behind. I felt my eyes get wet.
I realized all dinner talk had stopped due to my weeping and everyone was watching me closely.
The captain said, “How long has it been since you imbibed of rum, hermit?”
“Long time,” I said, stuttering the T in time.
Belum got back to the tense discussion that my weeping had interrupted. “I know how I’m going to get to the island but how will we find it in this unnamed sea?”
Captain Von smiled, dipping old bread into his chowder to mop up the last of it. “Leave that to me. I know the way.”
“If Captain Von can read the sea half aso well as they can read the people on the Broken Oath we’ll be at the Hellfort in no time at all,” I said, offering the only thing I could other than the 6 silver hidden under my right armpit - my clarity and calm.
Captain Von looked at me and I could tell it had been a long time since anyone had shown such confidence in the captain’s eye for human nature nor tidal wisdom.
The sailor who had sold me the chain barged in, having had been on watch, “Captain, we saw a flume go up. We’re following a whale - a big ‘un, cap.”
We all filed out onto the deck and Captain Von looked out onto the sea and barked orders. The sailors followed the orders after a fashion but made a show of asking around if each order was a good idea or not before doing it. The captain ignored their petty mutinies, keeping eyes on the whale in the distance.
“It is said the Hellfort smells of tar and whale lard. I don’t know where the tar is from but the whale is due to the vicious rocks surrounding it that many-a-whale impales itself on, singing its saddest songs into the sea before it goes,” Captain Von said, looking out for whale-sign. Von’s boney finger pointed at the plume, barely visible.
“We follow that beast to its terrible end and beyond the shallows that bring about that end we’ll find your treasure, Squire Belum,” the captain said, sounding sad and tired.
Two days later the whale killed itself against Hellfort’s vicious halo of rocks; we had found the fell home of our cursed treasure.