Forums » Fantasy Roleplay » Over the Seas and Far Away (Closed)

Tamriel is a large continent surrounded by great seas. For many years, Sings-With-Heart (Me, obviously) has sailed these waters, learning new songs and fighting off bandits on the shoreline. But something is changing; the waters have become more severe, the waves nearly toppling my ship, the Singing Gull. I fear that something may be after us, something big. These waters are dangerous, my lad/lass. Care to sail?

Over the Seas and Far Away, the Pandemic Ocean adventure.

Rules
-No violent language
-No sexuality
-Play fairly... No OP characters
-Stay within Tamrielic/Fantasy laws of physics
-Magic is allowed
-Lore study not required
-Have fun
-At least three sentences per post.

This is the official forum for those in the "Over the Seas and Far Away" adventure (those who replied before anyone else.)
Keep in mind that this is my first Closed forum, and I don't really know how it works, so stay with me.

Captain Morgan looked at the crew, bewildered by the unusually rough seas and what clearly was a bandit's vessel giving them chase, those wretched pirates... he had had already one too many encounters with them and they seldom fare well.

This time, to improve his chances he had hired mercenaries, assassins and bandits to sail with his usual crew, of the most honorable army men. He had chosen to ask names, not ranks or dubious professions to keep his men more at peace though the attire clearly betrayed some like Aynor for example, no way he could pass for a merchant with two swords proding from his back and his belt coated with daggers to the point here were more blades than leather.

"Row men, row for dear life... if Neptune doesn't drown The Singing Gull ... those scallywags certainly will" shouted out Sir Henry Morgan concerned, looking back the lighter thus faster vessel

His eyes gazed briefly at the crow scrambling and scattering to their tasks, turning his attention to the latest addition to the crew. Sings-With-Heart why not lighten the mood with your adventurous melodies?" proposed Morgan taking a swig of rum to appease his nerves a little.

The waters were vast, immense, one could not see the end and thus there was no way they could make it to the shore to scramble for safety nor call out for reinforcements and help either. They very much depended on their own skills and wit to outsmart the pirates that were closing in on them.

He gazed through the spy glass muttering a low curse "Blackbeard and Calico... not one but two sea devils to deal with"complained Morgan mostly to himself counting this as a terrible misfortune, the thought of surrendering did cross his mind but his men would never live it down or forgive him if he did not at least try to offer some resistance

(Ignore this)

"With pleasure, Captain." The Argonian said as he pulled his lute from his pack and began strumming the tune of "Over the Seas and Far Away".

It went...

"Our land bound mates may till their fields,
or fight behind their master's shields,
but a seaman's free to sing and play,
over the seas and far away.

"Over the seas and over the lane,
for Ayrenn, Edelhorn, or the Mane,
the lords command and we obey,
over the seas and far away."

Though Jess wasn't quite so obviously a mercenary as Sings-With-Heart, there were a couple things that set her aside: Foremost were the spiraling scars that wrapped across every inch of her visible skin. The bruises on her knuckles and knives at her belt seemed to be secondary, but marked her as the thug she was.
She'd introduced herself to Captain Morgan on prompting, and anyone else who asked herself. She wasn't rude but struck nobody as friendly and had spent most of the trip so far quietly alone, though some may have heard her laugh when the pirates were spotted.

As of now, she approached the captain, abandoning the spot she'd taken up rowing. Her brown hair was plastered to her skin with sweat and water and she'd discarded the jacket and hat she'd been wearing prior. With a crooked grin (that certainly wasn't a happy one) and some awkwardly placed words, she said, "Captain, with, uh, all due respect, sir, and not to question your judgement, but... There's not a way under any god that we're going to out-row those ships."

Morgan growled at the obvious remark

"And what would you have us do? Not row and become still targets till they drown us? No no, keep rowing, at least a moving target is harder to strike" insisted Morgan looking at the bard in case he had better ideas

"I pride myself in taking counsel from learned men... bard... what say we ought to do here?" asked Morgan seeing the two ships with Calico and Blackbeard close in on them

Sings just looked ahead after finishing his song, observing the seas beyond. "Perhaps we can take them by surprise, catch them off guard?" he suggested, having done this with Maormer ships before.

Jess shrugged, making no argument, watched Sings finish his song, then went to relay the message. She did, however, reappear on the deck minutes later with her hair tied back, just watching the advancing ships and massaging the muscles in her arms.

"We are heavily outgunned and outnumbered... this was meant to be a light, quick yet small vessel to escort the prince to the Capital City. I didn't envisage pirates would be as bold as to come this close to the shore" admitted Morgan deflated

"If we offer resistance they may well gun us down and drown us..If you prefer to surrender so as to not risk our lives endlessly, I will raise a white flag, if you wish to fight and stand our ground, I shall raise a red one and let's ready the assault" offered Morgan feeling in a dire situation.

"His royal highness is sleeping at this late hour... " muttered Morgan "Perhaps they will not find him or take notice of him... Jess, try to wake up his highness prince Merthyr and encourage him dress in a less distinctive clothes" asked Morgan keeping royalty's safety to mind as he looked at the bard for advice on whether to fight or surrender given their current predicament

Sings had never been inside a small boat before, so he had no idea how to solve this problem. "Perhaps one of the other crew members can help, for I am used to sailing in larger vessels, such as the Maormer ships I've sailed." He looked discouraged, having been used to fighting on equal ground.

Morgan took a deep breath, clearly feeling tense.

"If we fight... we will be put to the sword should we fail to fend them off. If we surrender, we have slavery but our necks will be spared... which of the later is more appealing to you?" quizzed Morgan watching grimly at the much larger ships coming to blank either side of their smaller vessel

"Uh... Yes, sir..." Jess, apparently, wasn't feeling quite as stressed as the men. She took off, found her way to the prince's quarters, knocked, and opened the door without waiting.
She unwittingly gave him a horribly informal greeting of, "Hey, buddy, get up and find some commoner's clothes. Danger's closing in. Gotta keep you safe, apparently." She remembered who she was talking to and quickly added, "Uh, your highness."

Merthyr woke up, sitting on his bed, head resting into his hands

"What is the matter now, peasant, that you would address royalty in such lack of respect and haste?" asked Merthyr far too asleep to have caught the message at all

"Have you no manners at all? You know, you wait at the door, I will bid you to enter when I am better dressed..." muttered Merthyr tugging the bathrobe on tighter

"Perhaps all is not lost," Sings remembered as he pulled out a small whistle from his pack. It was taken from a Sea Elf captain in his earlier days of travel. From what he understood, it called a Sea Serpent from the ocean depths to his aid. He had never needed to use it before, so he had never seen it in action. "With your orders, captain," he said hopefully. "I can possibly summon a Sea Serpent to our aid."

"If you deem it best, you have my blessings, I would sooner die than be a slave, yet cannot endanger our prince and future king. If a serpent were to assist our cause that would not be of my own doing thus they cannot put us to the sword" nodded Morgan quite liking the idea

"The matter is that there's pirates, sir," said Jess, in a complete monotone. "The captain suggests you dress in common clothes so that they don't kill you immediately or what-have-you. So please save your big fancy words for later, your highness."
Without waiting for a response or a dismissal, Jess shut the door, allowing him to get changed while acting as a guard of sorts, sighing under her breath. She'd learned what little formal manners she knew a very, very long time ago from someone she did not think of much. And even then, the information wasn't entirely trustworthy. In their current situation, she decided she'd rather deal with the consequences than dig through her memory and embarrass herself.

A shrill whistle blasted through the night sky, and the water started to ripple near the bow of the enemy ship. A serpent's head came forth from the dark waters, roaring with foul breath at the enemies. Then it sunk and barreled straight through the wooden hull, and the ship was rent in twain, pirates flinging this way and that. Then the serpent vanished just as suddenly as it had appeared, the water becoming still again where it had surfaced. Sings looked at amazement at the oyster-made whistle, replacing it into his pack in astonishment. "Well," he said, "That answers that question."

Merthyr understood the urgency got dressed quickly, changing into far more unpleasant attire than the fine silks he was well accustomed to.

Once he had changed to look like any other marauder. He now sported a red shirt, black trousers, black bandana along his head, tucking th hair back for the most part, a thick brown leather belt holding to his fine sword and his golden shoes were now replaced by brown leather boots.

"Well thank you madam for your timely warning, I owe you an apology and my gratitude" muttered Merthyr coming out of his chamber and back on deck ready to fight if came to that

By the time Merthyr got on deck, he saw the mighty beast tear into the much larger pirate ship to their right, leaving them to contend with only the ship to their left who scrambled to pick up what castaways survived the ordeal

The pirates onboard spoke of evil curses and bad omens and angry sea gods, they were superstitious and weary if furious of the sea beast.

We must make a sacrifice to appease Neptune" shouted out Robert pointing the finger at the smaller vessel by them

Without further ado, Blackbeard barked orders and launched an attack at the small vessel by their side, hoping to appease his men and counting on the fact that the hungry beast would eat the easy pickings thus sparing their larger ship by sacrificing this random vessel

Morgan looked on wide eyed in horror as Blackbeard opened fire on them, with intent to drown the ship and feed them all to the sea beast.

"Off to the boats, off to the boats" shouted Morgan alarmed

He looked on in dismay, some men lost to the sea, others like him on the row boats, in all but a few shots his vessel was damaged enough that the water pouring in could neither be slowed nor the ship repaired, forcing them to jump to the safety of the water and what row boats had not been damaged too.

Morgan offered the bard a hand, and the woman and the prince, as well as many men that he could safely fit in the row boats, though such safety would not last long for the pirates did indeed lay hands upon their boats too forcing them aboard.

"You're coming in... if that beast shows up again, we will feed you and your men to it" assured Blackbeard, helping Calico and what pirates survived the strike onto his ship as well

As the ship rocked with the destruction of the pirate ship, Jess looked around and started to head back to the upper deck, just as the prince came out of his room. She turned fullways around to arch her eyebrows at him, surprised to even be receiving an apology. "It's appreciated, sir." With that, she picked up the pace.

She only had a moment to ogle the remains of the pirate ship before the other ship began its attack. "The hell..?" she whispered. Then she bared her teeth and yelled towards the pirate, "Is one quiet trip too much to ask?!"

Jess turned back to Captain Morgan and Sings-With-Heart and cried, "Is there anywhere on this ship I can find a gun?"

"Come over before you drowned" barked Morgana at Jess throwing a rope to get her to come to the row boat safely

He didn't know exactly why but he had grown fond of the woman and the bard for sure and it would be a regretable loss if any harm were to come to either of them