“Despite the sayings, Fortune neither favors the bold nor the foolish. Fortune just shits on everyone equally, most of the time.” - Bertrand Gurainos Avalah, founder of the Pragmatism movement amongst philosophers, circa 318 VA.
“T’was a pretty quiet summer evening at that time, not the sort of weather anyone would have expected a storm in, but it stormed nonetheless,” said the old captain with a wistful sigh as he related his tale to Aideen and Celia. “Of course, me and my crew just happened to be caught smack dab right in that storm with no way out in sight.”
“We tried our damndest, did what we could to get out from the storm, then when that clearly failed, did whatever we could in an attempt to weather it instead, all to no avail. I probably lost nearly a third of my crew in those futile attempts,” he continued with a deep sigh. “In the end, nothing helped, the ship leaked and was about to go down, so I gave the order for my crew to abandon ship.”
“In the middle of a raging storm?” asked Celia with a raised eyebrow. Her doubt was a natural one, as the idea of abandoning ship in the middle of a storm sounded like an incredulous one. Then again, when said ship was already sinking, it was perhaps the last resort available to the people in the situation.
“It wasn’t like we had any other choice, milady,” replied the captain with another wistful sigh. “By that point I had everyone left take their pick out of whichever part of the ship was most likely to remain floating and jump into the seas. Some took lifeboats, others just large planks ripped straight off the deck. Anything that might float. Anything at all. It was a desperate time.”
“And you stayed with your ship till the end,” stated Aideen simply, which the old captain replied to with a firm nod.
“That I did. I stayed at the helm until she went down the waters. I had given up at the time, though probably I was still indignant deep within my heart, which might be why I returned to this world once more in this guise I now wear,” admitted the old captain as he took another drink from his cup of rum. “Indignant over my… no… our existence amounting to so little, I guess. That despite our best efforts, all we managed in our attempts to change our nation was to at most inconvenience some of the actors on the political stage. Not counting the one I had the fortune of catching and keelhauling, that is.”
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“It’s… a frustration I can understand, given your circumstances, yeah,” mentioned Aideen as she nodded in understanding. She herself knew how fortunate she had been to be born in a position where she had both power and backing to change things when she really desired to. Not everyone had that sort of fortune, however, with people like Celia and Arquivaldo more often being carried around by the currents of life rather than directing it, or wading it to walk their own way like she did.
“Aye, it is so at times, milady. Either way, when I regained… my senses, I was already at the bottom of the ocean. Had to admit I panicked for quite a bit at first, until I realized that apparently I had no more need to breathe,” said the old captain with a self-depreciatory chuckle. “Then I realized that I was with my ship, right where she sank. I think I stayed there for a few days, if not weeks after the fact at first, before I started walking the bottom of the sea, lost and uncaring about where my feet took me.”
“I honestly don’t know how long I spent walking, and how long I spent just laying down on the carcass of my beloved ship, it was dark as hell that far down the ocean and I couldn’t see shit back then anyway. Not even my affinity for water helped me find the way. All I knew was that one day the light started to reach far enough down that I could see some things again, and I kept going towards the direction where I could see more light.”
“Since you ended up indebted to Ginnie… I assume your ship sank somewhere between the islands and the mainland then?” asked Aideen.
“Around there, yeah. I made for quite a show too, when I first reached the mainland. Must have sent a good lot of people running for the guards in their beachwear when I walked up the shore, all bitten up and rather bloated from having been underwater for what turned out to be months by then,” said the captain with a chuckle as he recalled the experience. “All but a pair of old dwarves who were just fishing by the pier and didn’t give a damn, that was.”
“Sounds like Ginnie, all right,” replied Aideen with a chuckle of her own. It wasn’t strange for old Ginnie to be unflappable in such a situation, given that she had served as the ruler and general of the most important fortified city in Knallzog for over two centuries of her life, and even went through a couple wars between the dwarven nations in her younger days. “She hooked you up with your current gig, then I assume?”
“That she did, yes. Markgraf Stahlfaust helped me recover, as she had noticed what I was when the others failed to do so. She also sponsored me this ship and some money to hire my crew with,” replied Arquivaldo with a wistful sigh. “She even helped me find the whereabouts of my former crew. I learned from her that many didn’t survive the storm, and a few drifted back to Verona where they were hung for being pirates. I did manage to contact a few who reached land in Knallzog territory and helped them out, though. They now helped handle part of my business as my liaisons on land.”
“Why? They didn’t want to return to the sea anymore?” asked Celia.
“Almost drowning would do that to most sailors, milady, so I do not begrudge them their choice. If anything, I am thankful that they could pursue a safer, stable life on land, after the experience that ended our piratical days.”