Limitless Seas 2, Chapter 31.

Chapter 31.

“No, sir, don’t kill us. We’ll tell you everything you want, just let us live. Cast us adrift and we’ll do everything we can to help,” one of the pirates, a chubby man that looked remarkably clean for having been in a brutal fight. He struck Larson as the type to hide in the back and let the others take the risk.

“Tell me what you know and I’ll make it quick,” Larson said, raising his pistols to point at the man,”

“No, let me live, take me on your crew and I’ll help. I’m a good sailor and will work hard for you,” the man whined.

“I don’t think so, something tells me you weren’t exactly the most squared away sailor on this crew, were you?” Larson asked.

“No sir, he wasn’t. He was the captain’s cousin or some such. Lorded it over the rest of us and had us do his work as he ate the rations of any two of us,” one of the other survivors said, his companion nodding in agreement.

“Thank you for your honesty, will you answer my questions?” Larson asked.

“Aye, sir, I will. Always understood when I took up the life that it would likely end like this. If it ends today, I’d rather have it done by your hand than their teeth,” the man said, gesturing toward the undead, resigned to his fate.

“I’ll do as you ask, but first, Narbos!” Larson shouted over to the necromancer who was making his way over to join Larson. He motioned for the necromancer to have his undead take the crying cousin of the pirate leader.

“Will do sir, but these are crude and a bit unwieldy for the task at hand. I have a companion that would be more suited to the task if you don’t mind me summoning him,” Narbos said.

“Unwieldy and painful is what I was hoping for,” Larson said.

“Oh, the pain for him will be exquisite, my friend will make sure of that. It will be a much worse and a much longer experience for this refuse if I order it so,” Narbos said, his human-looking face slipping in Larson’s view for a moment, revealing the creature beneath. The view must have been reserved for Larson, as the crew didn’t react to their ship’s mage being an undead monster.

Of course, with his actions tonight, Larson might be considered by some to be just as much a monster, but he could live with that. This was a harsh world and it needed harsh men to rule it. He didn’t start the fight, and the pirates brought this on themselves. Once his crew returned to port, the story would make its way out there in every tavern and dive bar in Stratwall Harbor. From there, pirate contacts would undoubtedly spread the word that Captain Larson and his crew weren’t to be taken lightly, and it might be in their best interest to leave these waters while they could.

“Go for it,” Larson said to Narbos. The necromancer didn’t appear to do anything, but a whiff of rot filled their nostrils and a dark cloud drifted by the quarterdeck. When the salt air breeze dissipated the cloud, someone else was standing next to Narbos, the crew instinctively backing away from the pair.

“Stay back, men, I control him, but Jimmy sometimes can’t resist taking a taste or two if you get too close,” Narbos said in a disturbingly jovial voice. The companion was a tall lanky man in tattered clothes. His skinny arms were longer than they should be, the fingers tipped in long claws that were crusted in filth. With a bulbous, bald head, the thing grinned with a mouth that was full of thin, needle-like teeth. Dead, clouded eyes could somehow see everything around him, and a partially rotted nose sniffed the air with excitement.

“Mind your manners, Jimmy, take this one below and enjoy yourself. Leave immediately after your fun is through, but make sure you don’t touch anything or anyone except your prize. Make it painful and slow, but make it quiet if you don’t mind,” Narbos said, waiving this thing toward the chubby man who was curled up in a ball, whining in abject terror, his fear so much that he couldn’t manage to raise a proper scream.

The monster, moving fast and with an agility that surprised Larson, leaped forward and sunk his claws into his prey. Giving a single shudder and gasp, the man froze into place, seemingly paralyzed by the touch of the undead monster. It ran back to the Lost Soul, dragging its prize down into the hold. Larson was sure that nobody on the crew would disturb it, and it might be hard to get them to go below even after the thing was done with its deed and gone into the ether once more. As he watched the monster go, the system populated some information about the thing.

Lonely Jimmy, Advanced Ghoul. When a person engages in a life of evil, sometimes, when they die, that evil refuses to leave them. These beings are turned into the undead monsters known as ghouls. Craving carrion as well as living flesh, the ghouls are cunning hunters that stalk the graveyards and forgotten places of this world. A ghoul can infect another, causing the afflicted humanoid to become another ghoul when it expires, but this is a rare occurrence as ghouls seldom leave enough behind to reanimate. Nobody knows where Lonely Jimmy came from, or what dark deeds he indulged in to afflict him with this curse, but the powerful being is now dominated and controlled by the undead necromancer, Narbos.

“With that unpleasantness out of the way, I assume we’ll have no trouble from the two of you?” Larson asked. The two agreed and Larson had them taken under guard to his cabin on the Sea Venom so he could interrogate them.

“What was the butcher's bill, sir?” Tarley asked, joining Larson aboard the pirate ship, a sloop called the Bountiful Land. It must have been the name of the vessel when it was originally taken, and the pirates either hadn’t had the time or didn’t want to expend the effort to rename it something more intimidating. His officers reported the casualties, a disturbingly high number of eleven crew and three marines. In addition, two of the Stratwall Harbor marines had fallen, they hadn’t shirked their duty and all six aboard his vessel threw themselves into the thick of the fight.

“We lost too many, but it would have been worse if Cassia hadn’t warned us. Their ship’s mage must have masked the vessel with a concealment spell which let the double back and sneak up on us,” Larson said.

“Why would they risk it?” Tarley asked.

“Probably to whittle our numbers down before we made it to their base. If they could surprise us and take or damage the Sea Venom, it was unlikely the Lost Soul could continue on her own. Unfortunately for them, we were warned in time. As for the Bountiful Land, we’ll take her as a prize. Have the ship searched for any loot and see what kind of provisions they were carrying. With my numbers depleted, I’ll need you to provide a prize crew and maybe shift around some people,” Larson said.

“Aye sir, she’s a smaller sloop and I think about ten hands could handle her well enough, maybe a pair of marines to help out, just in case?” Tarley offered. Larson agreed, he just needed the ship to maneuver, not participate in the fighting, and he didn’t want to deplete his numbers to fully crew the ship. With the other two ships nearby to lend assistance, a limited crew on the Bountiful Land should be sufficient.

“Good, how has Theo been coming along?” Larson asked.

“Well enough, he’s a sharp lad and not afraid of hard work. A few of the old salts grumbled a bit about someone so young and inexperienced being an officer, but it’s not all that uncommon. Most military vessels have very junior officers recruited from the nobility, and there are plenty of merchantmen out there with a younger son signed about one of their ships as an officer,” Tarley said. Good, Theo had worked as hard or harder than the others with every task he had given him, maybe now was the time to throw him some extra line to see if he would sink or swim as a commanding officer.

“Put him in charge of the Bountiful Land, make sure he has an experienced sailor as his first mate. Do you have any objections to that?” Larson asked.

“No, other than he’s too green, but with this lot, we don’t exactly have the pick of the litter as far as officer material goes,” Tarley said, waving toward the crew hard at work clearing away the wreckage and setting the ship to rights.

“Make it so, why don’t we send Jacil over from the Venom to help out, he’s coming along well and might make a good first mate, given time. I’ll go and have a chat with our prisoners, send Ibn down to assist me,” Larson ordered. Jacil had been one of his first recruits at Stratwall Harbor, and the halfling had done a good job organizing various work parties while learning the finer points of being a sailor. Easy to work with, the man should be a good fit to help out Theo. Larson made his way back over to the Sea Venom, heading to his cabin. A Stratwall Harbor marine stood guard outside and once inside, Larson could see three of his gnolls standing over the two prisoners who were tied to chairs in front of Larson’s desk.

Taking position behind his desk, Larson considered the prisoners. He wasn’t one to let a pirate live, but at least one of them had impressed him with his bravery in the face of death. The other was an unknown quantity, so he’d start with him. Larson motioned for the man that had spoken up to be taken away and the guards to leave him alone with the other prisoner, having them untie his hands and leave a dagger at his feet.

“You can take it any time you wish, I’ll kill you when we’re done, but I want a man to have a chance to defend himself. I’m sure you never gave any of your victims the same opportunity,” Larson said, gesturing toward the knife. The man looked torn, wanting to have something to defend himself with, but terrified of Larson at the same time.

“No sir, I’ll answer what you want, just want to live out my days in peace, sir,” the man said.

“Okay, first question, what was your ship doing out here?” Larson asked.

“We was supposed to be looking for others, the rest of the stragglers coming in. We was also supposed to keep anyone else away, and that was you, I guess,” the man stammered out.

“Why did you attack us tonight instead of just heading back to port?” Larson asked.

“Captain and that wizard of his figured we could sneak up on one of you using a spell. We was going to come aboard and kill you off or if that didn’t work, have the mage blast a hole in the ship and send you to the bottom,” the man admitted.

“Didn’t work out too well for you, did it? I assume this tactic worked in the past?” Larson inquired.

“Aye, sir, we use it on the bigger merchantmen with too many guards or siege engines. Can usually get half their throats cut before anyone’s the wiser, and after that, its simple cleanup,” the man admitted, his face going white as he realized that he had just admitted to wanting to slash Larson’s throat in his sleep.

“What will I find back at your stronghold? How many ships and what other defenses do you have?” Larson asked.

“I don’t know, you’ll let me live if I tell you though, right?” The man whined.

“No, I’ll not lie to you, I’m going to kill you, do the same to you as you were planning to do to me,” Larson admitted.

“But, you’re from the Stratwall Harbor according to your colors. You’re supposed to take prisoners if they yield,” the man argued. It was true, at least for this mission both ships were flying the colors of Stratwall Harbor, but he was free to operate as he pleased.

“I’m a privateer, I’m not required to do anything other than what I wish to do when it comes to eliminating pirates,” Larson replied. The man began to panic, snatching up the dagger before charging Larson. As the pirate lunged over the top of the table, Larson grabbed the wrist holding the knife in one pair of arms and summoned his spear in another, ending the threat with a single thrust.

“Send in the other one, and someone to clean up the mess here,” Larson ordered to the marine waiting outside. A pair of crew came in to remove the body and mop up the worst of the blood, Ghonen bringing in the other prisoner just in time to see that his comrade had met his end.

“Is that what you have planned for me?” The pirate asked, pointing to the stain on the bloodstain on the floor.

“He decided to take his chances, I’ll give you the same opportunity once you’ve answered my questions,” Larson said, throwing a sword down at the man’s feet. So far, this one had been the most cooperative and the bravest of the lot, he deserved a better weapon than the refuse he had just taken out.

“What do you want to know, I’m just a sailor, but I keep my eyes open if you know what I mean,” the man said. He was sharp and likely was smart enough to make note of what was going on at the pirate stronghold while not being nosy enough to draw attention to himself.

“We’ll start with what you were doing out here,” asking the same question he had asked the previous pirate.

“Patrolling the area to guide in the last of the independents and keeping anyone else away from the stronghold. Don’t usually see much traffic out here so the captain figured you were a trouble that needed to be dealt with once he saw the colors you were flying,” the man admitted, his story matching that of the other pirate.

“What’s waiting for us back at the stronghold? How many ships and what other defenses are there?” Larson demanded.

“Not sure now, we’ve been at sea a few days already. Most of the fleet sailed out a couple of days before we left so all that’s left of the Lord Makon’s fleet are another sloop and a merchant vessel we captured that needed too many repairs and wasn’t ready when the rest of the fleet set out,” the man said.

“Where was the fleet going, and what’s this about independents?” Larson asked.

“Lord Makon had a big score, didn’t tell the details to us sailors, of course, but the scuttlebutt was that a big merchant fleet is leaving the Free Isles loaded with valuable trade good on their way toward the mainland. He’s been gathering everything he commands and recruiting every independent pirate he can find to join him. Near as I can tell, he has close to thirty ships of his own, and another twenty or so other pirates joining him for the big score. That’s a fleet to rival anything short of the full muster of the Free Isles fleets,” the man said.

Larson was intrigued, and with that many ships, even a well-guarded convoy was likely to lose if it came to a fight. Lord Makon might even get lucky and have the others surrender without a fight when they saw how outclassed they were. Of course, depending on the value of the goods they were carrying, the merchant fleet might have a powerful escort, perhaps even some of the military vessels from the various Isles. A fleet that size was too much for Larson’s little flotilla to hope to handle, at least for now. Someday, he would command that much, and more.

“Other than the other sloop and the damaged merchantman, are any of the independents in port right now?” Larson asked. With the guns, he could fight well above his weight class, but too many enemies may swarm him, and once boarded, the Sea Venom’s guns didn’t do him a whole lot of good.

“Maybe three or so, we ran into a small flotilla of independents a day ago and herded them toward the port. It wasn’t anything too formidable, a medium-sized converted merchantman as the flagship, mounting a pair of ballistae, and two smaller sloops, a bit smaller than the Bountiful Land. Neither of them had siege engines, but they had archers among the crew,” the man advised.

The Bountiful Land would be bigger than the other sloops, a good-sized vessel that was about three-quarters the size of the Venom. A sloop was a class of ship that could vary greatly in overall size, but even a smaller vessel could hold enough crew to become a threat. He did need to take into account the Bountiful Land was likely over-crewed since they were close to home and didn’t have too far to go to reprovision. These independent pirates were likely far from home and wouldn’t be able to feed and water that many crew, making them less of a threat.

“How about the stronghold itself, how many defenders, and what types of fixed defenses do they have?” Larson asked.

“I can’t tell you exactly, sir, I wasn’t ashore all that much, and the time I did spend there was spent in the small village that the port’s grown into. An old ruin of a temple or some such overlooks the port and serves as the stronghold. I could see at least two catapults mounted there on platforms sticking out from the walls, but I’ve never seen them so much as test-fire the things. Lord Makon had brought in a mercenary company to defend the port and the stronghold. He took some of them aboard to bolster his crews for the attack on the convoy, but you can figure he left enough behind to put up a scrap if they have to,” the main said.

“How many other pirates are in port?” Larson asked.

“The crew of the other sloop, but our captain took on some of her crew for the patrol, when we return, she’ll take up the patrol. I’d say you can count on a maximum of fifty or so pirates, but how many of the mercenaries are still in the stronghold is a mystery. A few of the mercenaries patrol the docks to keep the peace, and you have a few dozen folks working at the docks and in the taverns near the port. Most of those won’t fight, they’re older pirates that aren’t fit for sea, of those captured and forced to work, sir,” the man said, looking a bit uncomfortable when talking about the prisoners forced to work.

“And the merchantman they’re repairing, what about the crew for her?” Larson asked.

“No crew aboard, she was taken as a prize and, well, you know what usually happens to the crew. Lord Makon was going to promote someone to captain her, and the new captain would be responsible for crewing the ship. Usually, there’s no shortage of scum lurking around just about any port who are willing to jump ship for another opportunity. A day or two in any port and the new captain would likely have more than enough scallywags to crew her up,” the man said.

“Anything else I should know about this stronghold?” Larson asked.

“Only one thing I can think of, sir, but it’s just rumor, for the most part. They says that Lord Makon found something under the ruins, something dangerous. He sent men in to take care of whatever it is, but none came back. A month ago, a group of adventurers came into port. Now, these weren’t the kind that goes around saving villages from dragons out of the goodness of their hearts, or whatnot, no, these was something else. Looked dark and dangerous, the type willing to kill anyone for the right amount of coin and just as likely to cut the throat of the one that hired them if they could get away with it. Given the gear they sported, it sure looked like they could handle the job, but I never seen them leave. Don’t mean nothing, though, could have left when I was out on patrol,” the man added.

Okay, he had at least four ships to deal with, a stronghold garrisoned by a depleted force of mercenaries, and a few civilians and prisoners in the town that may or may not fight. In addition, there was something below the ruins that the stronghold had built upon that might be dangerous or was dangerous enough for Lord Makon to give up on dealing with it himself and instead spent coin to hire adventurers to take care of it. He didn’t need to completely clear ou the place, just raid it and do as much damage as he could before reporting back to Stratwall Harbor. Maybe if he got back in time, they could organize some kind of relief force to deal with the pirate fleet heading toward the convoy. The only question was what to do with this last survivor of the pirates.

“Anything else? Or are we done here?” Larson asked.

“Reckon we’re done, sir, I can count on you to hold to your word? It’s not that I’m afraid of pain or anything, but if I’m going out tonight, I like it be without too much fuss,” the man said, trying to be brave, but Larson could see the fear in his eyes. The man was made of some stern stuff, and it did him credit to meet his end with a brave face on.

“What’s your name, pirate? I don’t like to kill a man unless I know his name,” Larson asked.

“Riker, sir, they calls me. Never did see the need to come up with any nickname and none of the ones the other boys tried out on me stuck, so I’ve always just been Riker,” the man said.

“I won’t ask why you became a pirate; we all make our choices in life. Some lead to good things, some lead to this,” Larson said, slithering from behind the desk and summoning his weapons.

“Thank you for that, don’t see no reason to rehash my past when my future ain’t got but a moment or to left on it,” Riker said.

“One final question, could you set the life aside? What if I gave you the chance to live and serve aboard my crew, could you leave the pirate life to hunt your own kind?” Larson asked. Riker seemed a simple man, but was brave and fearless, the type of person that Larson could use on his crew.

“I could, if you’re offering. I’d serve aboard and fight pirates as well as the rest of the lads you got aboard. I weren’t no pirate because I wanted to be, I kind of fell into the life and there weren’t too many ways to get out once you’re in if you catch my drift,” Riker said. It was true, life was hard for a sailor who was rumored to have been a pirate. He wouldn’t advertise the fact, but eventually, someone would recognize him or suspect what his past was.

“If you’re willing to swear to me and the Sea Venom, I’m willing to take a chance on you, Riker. You should know that our ship isn’t some ordinary ship, she’s alive and won’t abide by any who threaten her or her crew. Cassia, do you agree to take Riker aboard as a loyal crewman?” Larson asked, not sure if the ship would, or could, respond. As he was hoping, the image of the serpent figurehead from the bow appeared in his quarters, causing Riker to jump back in fear. It was one thing to be brave in the face of a man or naga with a weapon in his hand, it was another thing to stand tall in the face of a giant disembodied serpent head coming right at you.

“I sense no duplicity in this one, he may serve aboard. Should he betray you, I will know. Any who betray us will be devoured,” Cassia’s ghostly serpent head lunged for Riker as she shouted, ‘be devoured’, disappearing right after.

“That wasn’t some parlor trick or magic illusion, Cassia is real, she is the Sea Venom. Do you pledge to her and to your new captain? Will you serve a year at minimum, and with only a half share of any spoils. Once your year of service is complete, you’ll be welcomed aboard as a full-fledged crewman with all the rights and privileges that come with it,” Larson asked. Riker seemed to recover a bit from his fear before responding.

“Aye, I pledge my service to the Sea Venom and to yourself, Captain Larson, and agree to your terms and conditions,” Riker said, and Larson believed him.

“The pirate Riker is dead, and the privateer crewman Riker is born. You’ve been given a second chance, something you’ll find that I rarely offer to those who stand against me. Serve well and make a life for yourself that you can be proud of,” Larson said.

He called Ghonen in to find Riker a place aboard, letting the marines know to keep a sharp eye on him for the time being. It would be a while before Larson fully trusted the man, but he would allow him to prove himself. With the attack dealt with, it was time to make sail for the pirate stronghold. It was time to introduce them to the Sea Venom and her new guns.