Harrowed Halls

This week Ben began his Savage Worlds Pirates of the Spanish Main game. Everyone made a character:

Evil Mike as Buck U Charlie, a thief on a mission and with a past.
Owen as Nicholas Hawksworth, a yellow, confrontation avoiding adorer of women.
Mike Byrd as Thomas Longshot, a branded former pirate and expert with his musket.
Steve (me) as Duncan Crain, a schizophrenic with an imaginary brother, Desmond.

We all had our reasons for wanting to escape our current circumstances. Whether it was an indignant father of a former lover or the authorities of an insane asylum, it mattered not. Our escape routes found us all on the same two and half week carriage journey to a coastal town called Foulmouth. It was during the journey that our characters became acquainted.

Once in Foulmouth, with our resources spent, we were all looking for work and staying at the local inn. Much happened on our first night at the inn. Nicholas was immediately attracted to a dark beauty carousing with a group of rowdy sailors in one corner of the inn. I was stolen from, accused of accosting a child, and lost what dignity I might have had at the hands of some dandy. Had Buck not been aiming to steal from the dandy, all might have gone worse. Desmond was of no help. As it was, the child and the dandy were revealed to be a pair of thieves working together to relieve the inn’s patrons of their money. Buck ran them out of the inn and, on the way out, stole the dandy’s purse. It turns out that Nicholas’s love interest offered us all a job. I think Nicholas’s terms were different from what the rest of us received. Oh and I almost forgot…Thomas Longshot dropped his rifle in the inn. ALtho0ugh he did hold it menacingly there for a while. Yep. That’s excitement for ya.

The woman turned out to be the acting captain of the Clementine–a small merchant vessel that was illegally smuggling rum into England from Holland. She hired us as labor and guards for the next run. Of which Nicholas did neither.

The run to Holland was uneventful until our return to England on a rainy morn. Though honestly, it was always raining in England. As we unloaded our illicit cargo, we were spotted by a group of guards. Our watchman, Thomas, saw them only at the last minute and fired a shot at them…and missed, I think. The rest of us sprang into action. The crew in the longboat began rowing back out to the ship with Nicholas jumping in the water and calling after them to wait for him. Duncan and Desmond climbed onto the wagon that was being loaded with the barrels of rum. Duncan relieved the driver of his position and spurred the horses forward. Buck climbed aboard and began throwing his knives at the captain of the guards. After some tense moments, we made our escape.

But what happened to Nicholas you might ask? His boat-mates threw him overboard. He swam to the rocks and hid. Later he made his off the beach alone.

…and so ended the first episode of our story.

Chaos Steve