Chapter 5 - Session 10

Articles of Agreement and Preparations for the Shatters

Events and Actions

The senior officers turned to finalizing the articles for their ship, The Medallion, working from Leopold's draft and amendments Riu had proposed in the interim. They agreed on a command structure of eight senior officers — quartermaster, captain, master at arms (Mani), master of fog (Cosimo), master lookout (Noddy), master surgeon (Riu), master gunner (Werner), and master of sail (De Torres) — who hold a vote on all matters of moment, with the captain's word absolute only in times of chase or battle and the quartermaster acting as magistrate, mediating disputes and speaking for the ordinary crew. Because eight officers meant a tie was possible, the party debated at length how to break one — proposals ranged from letting whichever officer's specialty was most relevant to the dispute decide, to a captain's tiebreak, to leaving deadlocks to be settled by violence — before settling on "the most appropriate senior leader decides," with outright violence acknowledged as the fallback should that fail. On the division of spoils, common seamen would draw one share, junior officers and specialists two, and senior officers three, with an extra half-share available at the officers' discretion for acts of uncommon valor; the ship herself would also be allotted a number of shares toward her own upkeep, a figure Leopold offered to work out and propose later. Leopold's suggested compensation for grievous wounds — scaled from 600 pieces of eight for a lost right arm down to 100 for an eye or a finger, drawn from his experience aboard true pirate ships living on plunder — was negotiated down by a full order of magnitude to a flat five gold per injury regardless of the wound, with the door left open to award more in cases of unusual bravery.

On discipline, quarrels between crew would go first to the quartermaster for mediation and only then to the captain; personal disputes that could not be reconciled were to be settled ashore by duel, while formal offenses carried fixed penalties — theft meant the lash and forfeiture of the next prize share, drunkenness meant irons for seamen or a tenth-share forfeiture for officers, and sleeping on watch or otherwise neglecting one's station meant a lashing or forfeited share at the company's discretion. Every man was further bound to keep his weapons clean and fit for service. Deserting one's post in battle was punishable by death or marooning, as was defrauding the company by keeping plunder back from the common share; good quarter would be given to any who asked for it unless the captain declared "no quarter" before a battle began. Every man and woman aboard was guaranteed an equal share of food and drink regardless of rank, and no smoking or gunfire would be allowed in the powder hold. No one could speak of quitting the company's service until they had earned 500 silver apiece, talked down from Leopold's opening figure of 1,000 silver. After a heated debate over slavery, weighing its acceptance in the North against the party's wish to distinguish themselves from other Northern crews, the officers voted, effectively unanimously, that the ship and her company would take no part whatsoever in the trade of human souls; valuable prisoners could still be ransomed, and the rest set ashore or otherwise released rather than sold. The articles closed with guarantees of freedom of worship, a rule barring passengers without the captain's express consent (with any passenger bound by the same articles), a berth set aside for the sick and wounded including prisoners, a standing duty to detect and punish any aboard — prisoners included — who violated the ship's good order, and a clause condemning to death anyone who forced themselves upon another crew member without their consent, extended in the final wording to cover men and boys as well as women. Since women would now serve aboard for the first time on a ship of this kind, the officers briefly weighed whether to legislate personal relations among crew directly, but declined to add anything beyond the consent protections already agreed, leaving such matters to individual discretion. In the midst of that discussion, Cosimo made a private admission to his fellow officers: though his illusion powers were awakened through his devotion to the Two, and he owes his early training in them to that faith, he has come to believe over recent months that the Two are not actually the true source of his power. Every article would be put in writing and signed by the entire company, senior officers included, with no exceptions, and could only be amended by a majority vote of the senior officers; Leopold further insisted that anyone who objected to the finished articles and could not in good conscience put their mark to them be released from service despite having already been paid, a condition the officers accepted. Before moving on, the party also held a formal vote on Nicolas and turned him down four to one, with one abstention — Cosimo's waiting illusion of Handsome Gulliver Gold would nonetheless return to appear before Nicolas's congregation a second time, reinforcing its call to build an intelligence network in port, once the party had actually left. They also weighed asking the Elves to reach out again about a second missing ship, the "Mother's Sorrow," but never followed through on it before turning to other business.

With the articles settled, focus shifted to preparing for the journey to Spider Island (referred to by the party as Leela's Island). The party consulted Gam, the ship's pilot, showing him their existing charts — including one marked with a well-traveled north-south route maintained by beacons of the Northern Navy, and a scatter of "K" markings left by the explorer Colchester noting kraken sightings. Gam warned them off that charted route as one likely to bring them into contact with Northern fleets, and estimated the epicenter of the Shatters lay to the north and west of their current position, cautioning that the charts themselves could not be fully trusted since the reefs and shoals were still shifting. His central warning concerned the krakens: since the Shatters' creation disturbed the seafloor, the creatures have moved into the newly shallow waters in search of easier hunting, so the party should take frequent soundings and keep to deep water wherever possible. This led to a long brainstorming session on anti-kraken tactics: Riu, drawing on what he knew from his pet squid, warned that krakens do not fear ships at all — to them, a ship is simply prey — and judged the creatures hunt by sight and smell rather than sound, which ruled out noise as a reliable deterrent or lure; the party instead discussed painting eyes on the hull, having Cosimo mask the ship's silhouette and sound with illusion, rigging illusioned decoy barrels to smell like prey or a rival kraken, stocking oil for burning the water, and weighing harpoons and an anchor-and-rope tactic against simply relying on cannon and swivel guns. They settled on a shopping list of a field gun carriage, extra swivel guns, large harpoons, a crate of grenades, rifles and rifle muskets, oil, long spears and boarding axes for repelling tentacles that came aboard, and a few goats to sacrifice as chum if needed.

To fund that list, the officers decided to sell some of their raw gold. They first met with Captain Corbin Vance, who opened with a lowball offer before a round of haggling settled on 10 lbs of gold for 300 gold coins, on the condition that they take his 14-year-old stepson, Tolly, aboard as crew; Riu drew up a formal receipt for the exchange. Weighing and appraising each chunk confirmed the party was sitting on a genuine fortune in raw gold. Needing still more to cover Leopold's itemized total of 398 gold, 6 silver — 99 gold for ordnance and powder, 45 gold for three months of ship's stores, 120 gold for three months of provisions for a crew of eighty, and 102 gold for a small-arms locker of muskets, pistols, cutlasses, and boarding axes — they returned and sold another 5 lbs of gold to Vance for 145 gold, setting aside 20 gold for Leopold to cover the extra kraken-preparation shopping list and splitting the remainder among themselves for personal purchases.

During the downtime, Mani purchased a pair of exquisite dueling pistols from a gunsmith recommended in town; after haggling down from an opening price of 40 gold and having them test-fired and gunsmith-appraised, they proved to be enchanted, granting a much larger bonus when the pair is used against each other in a formal duel, and Mani closed the deal at 25 gold. He also picked up a plain rifle for 2 gold, along with the collected works of Raphael Sabatini and several books by the author Sebastian de Castell, whose definition of swashbuckling — "solving an unsolvable problem with a preposterous level of daring" — Mani adopted as his new personal credo, along with a resolution to have a kraken tattooed across his shoulder. Riu made a second attempt to commission a carving from Old Man Rayhar, who again insisted on understanding the "truth" and source of Riu's power before he would begin work on Riu's own likeness, though his figurehead carving of Mistress Clara was well underway and unmistakably lifelike. On his way in, Riu crossed paths with Clara herself, leaving her own sitting; a subsequent conversation with her reinforced her belief that their powers originate from The Two, though Riu remained privately unconvinced. With the ship's refit — held up mainly by the figurehead work — expected to take about two weeks under Master Borin's schedule, the officers laid out their plans for the downtime: Werner would drill the gun crews on loading and handling, short of live fire since the ship remained in port; Noddy would identify the crew's best fighters and shooters and drill defense against boarding tentacles; Mani would practice swordsmanship daily with his new blades; Cosimo would apprentice under De Torres to learn the specific rigging of their own ship; and Riu would conduct physicals on all eighty crew members, senior officers included. They also commissioned a new ship's flag in blue and gold.

NPCs & Creatures

Leopold: The ship's Quartermaster, who drafted and amended the ship's articles, mediated the officers' debate over them, and presented an itemized accounting of the ship's outfitting costs, kept — by his own admission, out of frugality — on scraps of sailcloth for want of good parchment in town.
Gam: The ship's pilot, a former Northern Navy sailor who has personally traversed the well-traveled north-south passage through the Shatters and warned the party of the dangers ahead.
Corbin Vance: A fellow "turncoat" captain in the port who purchased the party's raw gold, twice haggled up from a lowball opening offer, and asked them to take on his stepson. His clerk weighed and appraised the gold each time, confirming its value.
Tolly: Captain Vance's 14-year-old stepson, taken aboard as crew to be tried out across several ship's duties.
Old Man Rayhar: The carver commissioned to create the ship's figurehead. He again pressed Riu to explain the true source of his power, while his carving of Mistress Clara neared completion.
Mistress Clara: Seen leaving Old Man Rayhar's workshop after her own first sitting for the figurehead; spoke with Riu about the nature of their powers.
De Torres: The ship's Master of Sail, formally named among the eight senior officers entitled to a vote under the new articles.
Master Borin: The shipwright overseeing the ship's refit, expected to take about two weeks, with the figurehead work the chief holdup.
Pocket: Noddy's seagull, present on his shoulder for the senior officers' debate over how to break a tied vote.
Kraken: Discussed at length as a primary threat within the Shatters, alongside tales of sea serpents and other great sea monsters.

Locations

Drowned Man's Port: The primary location for the session's events, including the articles debate aboard the party's ship, The Medallion, the gold-sale negotiations aboard Captain Vance's ship, and visits to a gunsmith's shop and Old Man Rayhar's workshop.
The Shatters: Discussed in detail as the party's next destination, focusing on its shifting reefs, unpredictable currents, and kraken-infested shallows.
Spider Island: Referred to by the party as Leela's Island; their chosen destination, discussed at length with Gam regarding safe navigation there.

Conflicts

A lengthy debate occurred among the senior officers to finalize the ship's articles, with notable disagreements over how to break a tied vote among eight officers, the value of compensation for grievous wounds (talked down from as much as 600 pieces of eight per limb to a flat five gold), and the ship's policy on slavery, before reaching consensus on each point.
The officers also briefly debated whether to formally address personal relations among crew members, now that women would serve aboard for the first time on a ship of this kind, ultimately declining to legislate further and leaving the matter to individual discretion under the consent protections already agreed.
A related debate revisited the ship's stance on piracy versus "spicy adventuring," with the party reaffirming they would not go looking for prizes but would fight and take ships when enemies gave them cause.
The party negotiated with Captain Corbin Vance over the exchange rate for their raw gold, haggling him upward on two separate sales.

Learnings and Discussions

The ship's articles were formally established, defining an eight-officer command structure (with the quartermaster acting as magistrate and the captain's word absolute only in chase or battle), the division of spoils, fixed penalties for onboard offenses, a minimum of 500 silver earned before any crew member could quit the company, conduct in battle, and a guarantee that the ship and company would take no part in the slave trade, though valuable prisoners could still be ransomed.
Gam advised that the Shatters are highly dangerous, with shallow waters — disturbed by the Shatters' creation — now the preferred hunting ground for krakens, and warned against the charted north-south route as one likely to draw the attention of Northern fleets. He also mentioned tales of sea serpents and other great sea monsters.
Riu's knowledge of squids indicated krakens do not fear ships — a ship is simply prey to them — and hunt primarily by sight and smell rather than sound, informing the party's anti-kraken preparations.
The artist Old Man Rayhar requires a deep philosophical understanding of his subjects before he will carve them from the magical wood.
Mistress Clara stated her belief that her and Riu's powers are a gift from The Two, though Riu remained privately unconvinced.
During the articles debate, Cosimo privately admitted to his fellow officers that although his illusion powers were awakened through his devotion to the Two, and he owes his early training in them to that faith, he has come to believe over recent months that the Two are not actually the true source of his power.
Cosimo confirmed the ship can currently answer only yes-or-no questions through its bell, and only after a multi-minute ritual to channel it; a faster or more convenient way to communicate with the ship remains an open problem, though Cosimo floated layering a waiting effect atop the ritual so any crew member could trigger a question within a day of it being cast. The party intends to test the ship's sense for danger — such as nearby kraken — once they are underway.

Items Gained

445 gold coins from selling 15 lbs of raw gold to Captain Vance.
A pair of exquisite dueling pistols acquired by Mani, revealed under appraisal to be enchanted, granting a much larger bonus when the pair is used against each other in a formal duel.
A new rifle acquired by Mani, along with three swords (an arming sword, a scimitar, and a two-handed scimitar), new clothes, a collection of swashbuckling novels (the complete works of Raphael Sabatini and several books by Sebastian de Castell), and a set of scabbards made from kraken skin.
Two ship's boats, a longboat and a jolly boat, confirmed as part of the ship's outfitting.

Items Lost

15 lbs of raw gold, sold to Captain Vance.
Approximately 417 gold, spent on ship provisions, ordnance, and stores, Mani's dueling pistols and rifle, and other personal purchases.