4) Pirate radio

Sue's question sent the whole crew tromping up to the steering deck to where Ryan and Erin stood giving the rest of us a wide-eyed look. The goth girl squeezed aside to let me, Sandra, and Rob up top. "What's going on?"

Sandra grabbed the microphone, “We’re calling for help.” She held up the mic. “Mayday, mayday.”

Rob reached over to turn on the radio to a squelch of static. Sandra looked over at him and smiled. "Thanks" then tried the mic again. "Mayday, Mayday. Is there anyone out there?" She glanced down at the radio. "How do I change channels?"

Kev spoke up. "It's the two buttons under the volume knob. Try channel sixteen, it's for emergencies."

Rob fiddled with the radio and then gave Sandra a nod. She grinned at him and called again.

The radio made some white noise for a moment then a crackly voice answered. "This is port Rogue. Who is declaring an emergency?"

Sandra looked around, then handed the microphone out to me, stretching out the curly wire as far as it could go. "I don't even know the name of the ship, you talk to them."

I took the mic and looked around for some hint of approval before I began to speak. Seeing no objections, "This is the Last Chance. We were swept up in a storm and are now lost at sea..."

“We aren't seeing any stars. Copy.”

There was a pause that went on almost long enough for me to try to contact them again.

"Roger Last Chance, I regret to tell you there aren't any here. Did you see the blue square? Copy."

“Roger Port Rogue. It said we were in the Sunless Seas, and that we were Starter Pirates. Copy?”

Rob shot me a questioning look, then nodded to himself. No one questioned my decision now to mention the whole blood of an immortal or the upgrade to players.

“Roger Last Chance. If you’re pirates you need to watch out for anyone labeled as Corsairs or Reivers. Pirates can advance by capturing other ships. Corsairs need to capture other people to sell as slaves and Raider need to kill people and destroy ships."

"But you need to capture one of their ships. It is the only way to find a chart that will appear once you capture a ship, as well as a treasure chest with coins and other rewards. Copy."

I thought that one over. "Rodger. So I'm guessing we can't find our way without a chart because we don't have a sun or stars to navigate by. Copy.'

“No Last Chance. Places move around in the dark. The only way to find any place is to get a chart and the only ones any of us can get are charts to our home isle. But you need to watch out. If your ship just arrived the closest Corsair and Reiver ships will have gotten a mission to go after you."

“If they capture you it's death if it's a Reiver and slavery if it's a Corsair. And if they get ahold of the woman that was talking first. She is in for a bad time before she gets sold off or killed."

“I'm not trying to scare her. But if it looks like you are going to get taken. She might want to jump overboard and swim down as far as she can go, then take a deep breath. The bodies of people who got shanghaied here vanish when they die. So it might be the only way to escape this place."

Sandra had gone pale and wide eyed. Looking over my should I could see Sue grinding her fist into her palm and Erin looking kind of intrigued.

I was hoping it was the vanishing bodies that had caught her attention.

“Roger. Thanks for that information Port Rogue. Very helpful. Copy.”

“Roger Last Chance. The only other thing you need to know right this moment is that anyone coming your way is using a chart that leads to the location you arrived in. Not your vessel, so you might want to get a move on. Copy."

I gave Port Royal a distracted, “Roger. Over and out.”

Kev held up the yellow plastic case and gave me a questioning look.

I nodded. "Everyone, if we just head off in a random direction we might end up running right into whoever is coming for us. But we have a flare gun which might light things up enough to see anyone who is closing in."

"But it will also let anyone for miles around know exactly where we are. But since we are going to be moving on right after that. I think it's our best bet. Thoughts?"

Most of them just nodded or seemed reluctant to answer, but Kev was already opening the case and loading one of the three big shotgun shell looking flares into it.

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Then he reached up to hand it to Ryan. “You’re the tallest, so it will go higher if you shoot it.”

I shook my head a bit. Kev logic, usually correct, but just off.

Ryan leaned out to get to aim past the roof over the steering deck and fired.

The red light shot up with a loud sharp bang. Climbing higher and higher.

Until we saw the stone ceiling above.

The ceiling of the unearthly massive cave stretched out in all directions. Entirely unsupported. And directly above us was a carved circle with us directly below its center. The circle was so large we could only see the edges of its two parallel curved lines and the symbols, dozens of feet long, carved within.

Then Erin, who was the only one to remember that we were supposed to be looking around instead of up called out. "Boats."

I looked down and saw the boats as Ryan held up the binoculars from the steering deck to his face, then lowered them as the flare fell into the sea.

A mighty roar sounded from the five small ships.

"Corsair ships. In big red lettering above each one of the ships."

I started the fired up the ship's engine and called out. "Kev, get up and steer us out of here." Only to see his sun-bleached head running along the side of the cabin toward the front of the ship.

"Just keep going forward, I'm getting grandpa's shotgun he got for skeet shooting and the spear gun."

My shout of "Yeah, but how do I make it go faster?" Resulted in Rob hip-checking and shoving at me until I moved out of his way. Then he cranked the something or other and the ship surged ahead, nearly sending me tumbling down the steps.

“A little warning would be nice!”

Looking back I could now see lights appearing on the boats behind us. Lanterns were rising up on ropes, silhouetting figures gathered up on the front parts of their boats.

And small somethings flying in the air between us.

Pets? Or do some people choose raven shifter or some other shapeshifting bird?

“Prepare to be boarded! We got bandits in the air! Many, many bandits!”

A feminine voice “What?”

"Flying things! Maybe shapeshifters. I don't know what, but they are starting to catch up with us."

Rob yelled out. "We're in an old trawler turned into a retirement yacht, this as fast as we go.”

It wasn't like I thought I could hit a bird in the air, in the dark. But I thought having my rifle in hand might be useful. "Spirit weapon!"

[ Spirit weapon is on cool down for 27 minutes ]

“Crap, it’s on a cool down!”

Erin's skeleton monster came around the cabin with three of the Makoan's crappy little spears in hand and then dumped them on the deck. I grabbed one and then turned around to see Ryan standing on the top of the stairs with five-foot long pole with a small chainsaw on the end. Revving it up with a trigger on the handle on one end of the pole.

He grinned at me. "Rob used one of these to trim tree branches. It's electric."

Sandra was sort of cowering behind the other captain's chair, halfway under the instrument panel. Erin had vanished and Sue was coiling up some rope while looking up and around.

Well since no one else was interested. I threw the two foot long stone tipped spears up onto the steering deck and took the other two for myself. One for each hand.

“Alright. Time to play angry birds.”

Two ravens, crows, or some kind of blackbirds breezed by me, too far out from the ship to swing at, but I sent a spear tumbling out at one of them. The tumble was not on purpose. It came close enough as it spun around to force one of the birds to slightly veer off before it disappeared into the dark water around us.

It was a particularly bad throw and I can't even say I never threw a spear before. Spears, even javelins, I have just never been able to get the hang of them. Bows, knives, and axes, I never put any real training into them, but I at least had a feel for them.

An owl and something nightmarish with scales also swept by, all of them heading to the undefended front of the ship.

It's almost like they know what the hell they were doing compared to us.

Sue headed up one side of the ship, while I headed up the other. Just in time to see all five of them turn from bird to…

Not human.

At least for four of them. The flying lizard turned into some sort of spiky lizard guy in a vest and baggy stained white pants with a cutlass with a half circle cut out of the back which looked wicked but could only weaken the strength of the blade.

He turned around and flourished it dramatically only to get swatted off the boat by the heavy coil of rope in Sue's hands. Oh, he tried to knock it aside with his blade, but all that did was get his sword knocked into his chest before he got launched over the railing. Along with Sue's rope.

It must have gotten caught on the notch on his sword. I guess it did do something useful. Rope floats.

Two of the blackbirds turned into some fairly short cat guys in loincloths with hatchets. While the other one turned into a scared one-eyed woman in a stained worn leather jerkin covered in metal rings. She had on loose pants and sandals held on with straps up to her knees. She also had a set of blades that consisted of a rapier and a dagger with matching oversized brass hand guards with elaborate designs cut into them.

I thought to myself that if I survived this fight I was definitely going to call dibs on those.

The owl turned into a red-skinned man with four arms, each one of them holding a cutlass. His head was shaved except for a long orange top knot running down his back.

As he turned around I could see his demonic looking face and his cruel smile.

For moment. Then Sandra shouted out. "Save my ass!" And stood up with her fully lit tiara shining down on the pirates who had just flown in with their eyes adjusted to the near absolute darkness around and on top of the ships.

As they flinched away, Ryan lunged over the top of the instrument panel with his arm, and the electric branch cutter fully extended. Pulling the trigger just before the blade stabbed into the blinded four-armed owl shapeshifter's throat.

I whispered to myself. “You, lucky, bastard...”

Then I was rushing forward toward the next closest Corsair to me, not being all that concerned with the guy trying to stop the blood spraying out of his neck with all four hands. I swear. Pure freaking luck. Ryan is just not that good.

The cat's guy was a Lesser Corsair, the label over his head spelled out in red.

And I completely forgot to hit him with the pointy end, instead, I took a swing and broke the spear over his head.

Then I caught the broken end in my other hand as it began to fly off, knelt down by the cat guy who had gone down when I hit him, and drove the chipped stone tip into his neck.

That finished him off, but I just knew no one had seen me pull off the lucky as hell catch.

"Or lucky as light..." Me and Ryan had pulled off our move just as Princess Light-bright turned on her Corsair zapper.

Okay, fine. She can just hide in a fight if it's that effective.

Sue had taken the other cat guy to the deck and was kneeling on his neck while gripping his head in both hands and twisting it sharply to the side for what seemed to be at least the second time considering her look of frustration.

That left the woman with my blades who was holding her dagger holding hand up to shield her eyes and looking shocked at the slowly tumbling over red man.

Then she dove over the side of the ship. With my set of fancy matching blades. “Hey.”

As I looked over the railing I saw a blackbird fly up, and heard a snapping sound behind me.

“Finally." Well, at least sue accomplished her goal.

The Corsairs continued to drop behind as Kev came running up out of the cabin with a shotgun followed by Erin with a loaded speargun.

Our captain brandished the shotgun and triumphantly yelled. "Alright, let's kill some birds!" Then saw the corpses.

“Dam. You would think someone who was four-armed would have been forewarned he shouldn't board my ship."

Yeah. That’s a Kev thing to say.