Limitless Seas, Chapter 27.

Chapter 27.

Larson made his way back to the Sea Venom; they had a lot to do and a short time to get it done. On the way, he could see the recruits being put through their paces by Shada and Tarley. From what he could see, they were doing both basic shipboard drills as well as some sparring with blunted weapons to see who had any skill in fighting. Almost any sailor was good in a barroom brawl, but it took a different type of person to be willing to stick a piece of steel into another living being.

“Captain, welcome back, I assume you’ve found us some work?” Tarley asked.

“Aye, grab Shada and meet me in my cabin, there’s a lot to go over,” Larson ordered.

“Did we find the pirates?” Shada asked when she walked into the cabin.

“That we did, but there’s a whole lot more of them than we initially thought. I figured on fighting a few ships, but there’s over score according to this,” Larson said, passing over the note that Lord Buxton had given him.

“What does he expect us to do with two ships?” Tarley asked.

“I think he expects us to work miracles and I don’t have any hidden up my sleeves, and with my new pair of arms, I have a lot of sleeves,” Larson joked, trying to lighten the mood. Both officers looked shocked at the numbers facing them.

“You have a plan to deal with this, I assume?” Tarley asked skeptically.

“I do, we need to raid the stronghold, and once that’s done, we can pick off the stragglers at our leisure. It’s unlikely that there are more than a few ships at the stronghold, and we can handle two or three with our new weapons,” Larson said.

“These guns you’re talking about better work as advertised, or our career as privateers is going to be a very short-lived one,” Shada said.

“Once we get the guns aboard and ready to fire, I think you’ll be impressed. The only problem is that I don’t know how many weapons we’ll have ready before we need to sail. We’ve been given three days to get moving or we risk Buxton and the other lords looking for someone else to get it done. We’ve got funds to start with and some of the city’s marines will be joining us as well,” Larson said, passing over the large sack of coins. Tarley immediately began counting it out.

“Three days, that’s not a lot of time to work with. We need to get the crew squared away and take on supplies for the journey. How far away is this stronghold and how long can we expect to be at sea?” Shada asked. Larson opened his map, showing them their target.

“Let’s figure it will take us a week to get there and another to return. If we have to haul back a prize or two, it’ll take longer. Figure twenty to thirty days all told. How much did we get Tarley?” Larson asked, watching as the man finished counting up their advance.

“Not bad, 30 ducats, 1,223 landsmen gold, and 1,411 fins. It’s all silver and gold, no scales this time. It’s more than enough to provision the ships, do we pay the crew on this as well?” Tarley asked. With so many of them just having signed up, it seemed strange to pay out already, but it didn’t sit right with Larson to not give a share like he promised to.

“Pay for our provisions and some extra weapons. You’ll have to work with Lucian on them, Felicia’s busy getting the guns made. Once we’ve paid our expenses, work up the shares for the rest. We’ll pay them after we set sail, I don’t want to pay them early, too many will be tempted to just jump ship with their purses this full,” Larson ordered.

“That will work, how do we go about picking up the guns and the crew left at the estate?” Tarley asked.

“We’ll provision the Sea Venom first, and once we have everything onboard, I’ll head back to the estate. You’ll keep recruiting and training aboard the Souland before the three days are up, you’ll sail to meet us at the estate. I don’t think Buxton will give us trouble for stopping off there to pick up our crew before heading out, but I don’t think he’ll be happy if we linger there for more than a day,” Larson said.

“Good, I’ll stick around with Tarley to help with the recruiting and provisioning of the Lost Soul. When you leave, you can take some of the new crew along to get them acclimated,” Shada offered.

“It sounds like we have a plan, let’s get to work,” Larson said, ending the meeting. He let the others know that he would meet with Lucian to go over their needs, allowing his officers to continue to work with the crew.

The store that he and Lucian owned was busy this late afternoon and the people leaving with numerous packages gave Larson confidence he had chosen the right man for the job. When he entered the shop, Lucian was finishing up with a customer and waved Larson around to the back of the store. As he made his way toward the rear areas of the store, he was surprised to see several gnolls back there, pulling goods from the stockroom to replace those sold off the shelves. When they spotted him, the gnolls bowed and raised their necks to him in a sign of submission.

“Don’t worry about that, I’m not here to interrupt your work,” Larson said. He would be lying if he didn’t enjoy the deference a little bit, but he had wielded power in his old life and knew that such gestures were fleeting, and his fortunes could turn on a dime. It did feel good to have helped the gnolls. From what he knew, their reputation for savagery was well earned, but the ones here in town seemed like they had been ground down by life, and had proven to be excellent workers and loyal warriors. The group here in the shop were mostly the younglings, about like what an early teen would be for a human, along with several of the older women of the tribe to keep them in line.

“Larson, good to see you again, Millie will be glad you’re back,” Lucian said as joined Larson at a small desk placed in the back of the shop.

“I won’t be able to stay very long, there’s a lot to do and we need to sail in the next three days,” Larson said.

“Just like normal for you, I assume you’ll need me to arrange some supplies?” Lucian asked.

“Aye, we’ll need full provisions for both ships, figure thirty days at sea, just to be safe. Our crew’s expanded, so take into consideration that both ships could have up to fifty or sixty mouths to feed. I’ll also need to stock up on some weapons, Shada can you give you an exact count, it should be just the usual stuff we need, swords, shields, spears, daggers, crossbows, ammo, and whatever else she tells you. Felicia Burrowton is working on a special project with us, so you’ll have to look elsewhere. This should get you started,” Larson said, plopping half of the coins from the advance on the desk.

“That shouldn’t be too hard to do, I’ll get the first of the provisions over tonight after we close the shop. The weapons may take a day or two depending on what’s available. Anything else you need me to help with?” Lucian asked.

“Yes, one more thing, it involves the special project we’ve been working on. I need you to secure as much sorcerer’s sand as you can get your hands on. It’s important that you don’t attract too much attention while doing so. We have a new weapon that will swing things in our favor, and I don’t want others to figure out how we made it work,” Larson said, checking to see there was nobody nearby to overhear.

“I don’t need, or want to know the details of that. I’ll get to work on it, but it may take time, that’s usually sold in small quantities for decorative purposes. Is this going to be a regular purchase item for us?” Lucian asked.

“Absolutely, we’ll need a constant supply, as well as iron and steelwood,” Larson said.

“Hmm, I’ll gather what I can locally, but I’ll also try to track down whoever’s harvesting the stuff, maybe we can get a direct purchase going with them eventually. For now, I’ll do what I can, but it’ll take more coin than this,” Lucian said, pointing toward the sack of coins on his desk. Larson hated to spend the money, but it was necessary. Without touching the rest of the advance funds he had received from Lord Buxton, which he wanted to keep a good chunk of to pay out the crew with, Larson pulled out half the remaining coin he had in his void storage, the pile astonishing Lucian a bit.

“That will do the trick, and should keep the supplies flowing for quite a while,” Lucian said.

“When you have a good amount of the raw materials ready, send them out to the old Buxton estate that I’ll show you on my map. After we leave, Felica and some of the others will remain behind there to keep working on our new weapons,” Larson said, showing Lucian where the estate was located. He would need several wagons to make the haul, as well as guards, so they couldn’t keep their presence there a secret, but he could schedule the supplies to arrive at specific times so Felicia could hold off on any live-fire testing on the days when they anticipated a delivery.

“I’ll get it done,” Lucian said.

“Great, oh, and this is for Millie, let her get something fun,” Larson said, giving the man a small pile of scales for the child to buy a toy with. He liked the kid and hated that she had experienced such a rough childhood up to now.

“You’ll spoil her more than I do, thank you,” Lucian said. Larson headed back to the dock, letting Lucian organize what he needed.

While they waited for the supplies to arrive, Larson worked with the other officers to get the crew in shape. They weren’t bad, and a few showed real potential. He did cut five of them from the roster, there were always those that had potential but were too lazy to give a fair day’s work. All told, they had ended up with sixty-eight recruits by the time the last of the supplies arrived on the second day. Larson took thirty-eight with him on the Sea Venom and set sail for the estate. Lucian promised to have the Lost Soul fully provisioned the next day, and then Tarley would follow with the remaining crew and any others that they managed to sign on before they left.

He took his time on their way toward the estate, the crew getting more practice in, as well as some experience firing the ballista while on a moving ship. Dredge would have his work cut out for him, but the old geezer of a sailor knew his stuff and would get the best of the lot turned into gunners’ mates in no time. The familiar boom of the guns was heard as the Venom entered the cove near the estate. A sailor on watch waved them in, helping to tie off the Sea Venom. Larson gave the sailors instructions on what drills to work on and made his way to the draw where more cannon blasts were heard.

Looking down into the draw, Larson could see two larger guns, the twelve-pounders that Felicia had been working on. Both guns were mounted on simple wooden carriages, narrow enough to be used easily aboard their ships. A crowd of crewmen worked the guns under the tutelage of Dredge while Bug Bartholomew hovered nearby.

“Good to see you haven’t blown up since I was gone, Larson said between blasts.

“Finally made it back, I see, any word on our next assignment? Ibn asked.

“Aye, I’ll give you all the details once you’re done here. How are the guns performing?” Larson said, anxious to see them do their thing.

“Well enough, each gun has fired over a dozen shots without any trouble. After a couple of full charges to test the barrels, we’ve gone to a small charge to conserve our sand while they work on reloading drills,” Dredge advised.

“Do we have just the two guns?” Larson asked.

“Yes, these two plus the little four-pounder. We whipped up a swivel mount for it, so we can move it around the ship without too much trouble. I’ve got another twelve-pounder that should be done in the morning once Narbos works his magic, and I can have a fourth out a couple of days after. Once they’re completed, we’ll have to wait for more steelwood and iron if we want additional guns,” Felica said.

Larson wanted to see rows of guns waiting to be hauled aboard the Sea Venom, but having two already completed was quite the accomplishment, given that they were making them by hand. He could picture large assembly lines in his head, a standard feature of production in his previous life, but one that they weren’t quite ready for here in this world.

“Felicia, we’ll be heading out as soon as the Los Soul joins us, which should be in a day or two. Once she’s here, we’re going after the pirates. If you can get all four twelve pounders ready before then, it could save some lives,” Larson said.

“I’m pretty sure we can get all four ready before you leave unless we run into any new problems. Dredge and the first of the crew are training up nicely, I’m sure he’d like to get these babies mounted on the Venom so you can get real practice in,” Felicia said.

“That I do, let me work with Cassia and Bug Bartholomew to find the right place to mount them. While we’re gone, can you stay behind with some crew and keep producing guns for us?” Larson asked.

“If you pay me well enough, and if you leave dark and creepy behind to help,” Felicia said, pointing toward Narbos.

“I may need him aboard for this fight, is there any way you can get along without his help?” Larson asked. They needed all the magic support they could get, but it did appear that Narbos was crucial to the construction project.

“I can get the gun’s cast and ready, but without him working his magic on the steelwood, we won’t be able to fire them,” Felicia said.

“That might be okay, how long does it take you to do your part on the guns, Narbos?” Larson asked.

“A couple of hours each time, but Bug Bartholomew may have another solution to the breaching problem,” Narbos said.

“We makeses the guns not splode whens we donts wants them to,” Bartholomew said.

“What my brother means is that we believe we can forge a steel reinforcement around the weak point near the touchhole. It will take much longer to make each weapon, but it will negate the need for additional necromantic support. I should mention that there is a downside, the guns created this way will be heavier than they would be using the steelwood,” Bug said.

He explained that the process required more material when they didn’t have the finesse of a mage using his magic to create exactly what they needed. This would result in a slightly thicker barrel and a corresponding weight increase of at least twenty pounds per weapon. Given that he wanted dozens of guns on each ship, the weight could be a problem, but for now, they needed every weapon they could make, and the necromancer’s deadly abilities would be needed to combat the pirates.

“Plan on doing what you need to the guns without Narbos being around, or Bug Bartholomew for that matter. We should be back in thirty days or so, and I’d like to have as much firepower as we can get when I return,” Larson said. They worked out a pay plan for Felicia, a landsman per gun with a bonus of a ducat if she could get at least twelve new weapons completed before he returned. It was much much more than she could expect to make banging out horseshoes at the small shop in the city, but not too much that it would cripple Larson’s budget.

They spent the rest of the day getting the first pair of guns mounted on the Sea Venom. Having so many new crew available made the task of hauling the heavy guns around easier. In the morning, Larson would take the ship out and try some live-fire exercises with a full powder charge and various types of shot. The new crew wasn’t sure what to make of the weapons, and many appeared skeptical they would work as advertised.