The Pirate Codes

Oh, I got a sister, she’s nine feet tall,
Weigh, me boys, to Cuba!
Sleeps in the kitchen with her feet in the hall,
Running down to Cuba!
Weigh, me boys, to Cuba!
Running down to Cuba!

“Yep. That thing ain’t working.”

The pirate (whose name you learned was Louis Fay) had quickly led you down into the bowels of the ship, specifically into the heart of the berth deck. He had explained to you that, thankfully, no one had actually died yet to test if the respawner worked or not, but when they happened to come across it, they all could tell at a glance that the thing was inactive. And after taking a good look at it, you had to agree with their conclusion.

“How can you tell?” Anna asked behind you, having followed with curiosity.

“Well, the respawner back in the graveyard looked… well it kinda looked like this. But with less pirate memorabilia.” You say, gesturing to the respawner. Indeed, the two shared some baseline features such as an array of various crystals, the pool of dark liquid where respawned monsters appeared, and a general aura of magic and power. However, this one came with the added decorations of a skull with a roll of parchment in its mouth and a feathered hat on his head, some crossed swords, an old pirate hat, and a couple of small chains holding aloft some metal lanterns. A bit over the top? Sure. But it got the point across and, you have to admit, the pirate design did have a certain charm to it.

But the main difference that catches your eye currently is in the shared features. The respawner back in the graveyard had similar crystals, but those crystals would glow and hum with magic. The pools of black liquid were similar, but while this one remains stagnant the one from the graveyard had an ever-present ripple in it, like a drop of water was repeatedly dropping right in the center of the pool.

“Captain, if the respawner don’t work… then what happens when we die?” Louis asks, nervously rubbing his hands together.

“I’m guessing we will respawn randomly in the wild, or maybe back in the graveyard if we are still tied to that spawner.” you say rubbing your chin in thought. “But I am not going to let that happen. Before we can do anything else, I want to make sure we get this thing up and running properly.”

“And how are we gonna do that, captain?” Louis asks. “I mean, I ain’t never restarted a spawner before.”

“Maybe it’s got something to do with the parchment?” Another pirate says, pointing to the item in the skull’s mouth. “Maybe it’s instructions or something.”

“A fine idea… what is your name?”

“Jamison, sir. Jamison Bellamy.”

“A fine name for a good pirate.” You say with a smile before plucking the parchment out of the skulls mouth. The skull’s jaw doesn’t move at all, and yet you still feel a slight bit of resistance as you pull the paper out. You have no doubt that the skull would keep the paper in his mouth at all times, unless someone like you were to willfully pull it out.

You unfurl the paper, and see the following written out upon it.

The Pirate Codes of The Drowned Pearl
To all those who fly under her flag and call her hull home, they shall abide by these rules less they be deemed unworthy of being called her crew.

But then after that short section, the rest of the page remained blank. Not a single rule nor code graced the rather long sheet.

“What the hell?” Louis exclaims. “No rules? Nothing at all? Just a bit of poetry and a blank sheet?”

‘Or maybe…’ A thought enters your mind, and you reach over to the hat’s feather to confirm your suspicions. Sure, enough, the feather easily comes free, revealing it to be, in fact, a feather pen. You give a small grin and turn to look back at your crew. “Nope. No rules yet. Which is why I think we got to actually write some up.”

“You gonna make some rules then, cap’in?” Jamison asks.

“Hold on, hold on.” Anna interjects, causing all heads to turn and look at her. “You guys are pirates. Why the hell do you need a bunch of rules and regulations? Isn’t your whole piracy thing about breaking the rules of the crown, or whatever?”

“Sure, but we gotta be able to trust one another as well.” You speak. “After all, pirate crews are generally made up of murderers and thieves. If there aren’t rules on the ship, what's to stop one of my fellow murders or thieves from murdering or stealing from me?”

“And a murderer or thief is just gonna listen to those rules?” Anna asks with incredulity.

“If they want to stay on the crew, they will.” Jamison answers, with a bit of a cruel smile. “If the rest of us can be civil towards one of the crew, but one bad egg is trying to ruin everything, then that one bag egg is gonna get tossed overboard and fed to th’ snappers.”

“True.” You say with a smile that matches Jamison’s. “But with that in mind… I want you boys to go gather the crew and have them meet me topside.”

“You throwing people to the snappers?” Louis asks with worry in his voice.

You laugh and shake your head. “No, no. I just want the crew to know about the rules and to help me make them.” You look back at the page and give a small

grin. “I ain’t a tyrant. Might as well have my fellow pirates help us make our first true set of pirate codes after all.”

A few moments later you find yourself standing on the deck of your ship, specifically the poop deck, looking out at the various pirates that have all congregated on the spar. On hand rests on the railing, right next to where Anna is leaning, and the other clutches tightly to the pirate code parchment. However, your thoughts are on neither the sexy sorcerer next to you nor the impeding rules that you must create alongside your crew. No, instead your attention is drawn to the aforementioned crew. Specifically, how… individualized they looked now.

You couldn’t really recall much about how they looked while down in The Galleon’s Graveyard, but that was mostly due to a lack of defining features. Every memory you can recall about your fellow drowned just had generalized features. Human shapes, glowing eyes, vague sailor garb and a tendency to look a bit more dead than alive.

But now… now you weren’t looking at a conglomerate of drowned sailors. Now you were looking at a pirate crew, with personality and individuality. Now you couldn’t even fathom the idea of being able to mistake one pirate for another, as each one had differences from clothing choices to skin color to hair style to even gender. Yeah, some of your pirates were female and honestly you couldn’t even remember any of them being male or female. They were just… drowned.

You take another look at your crew, drinking in the differences from pirate to pirate. You could see Louis talking to Jonas, the short blonde hair sharply contrasting Jonas’ own long black hair that he kept up in a ponytail. Over towards the edge of the ship was Salty Pete, his sheer size making him easily noticeable as well as the fact that the man wore no shirt. Instead, he had on a pair of ratty black pants held up by a rope and chose to display his tanned skin covered in scars. He was almost as tall as Jamison, though Jamison had a much lankier build compared to that of Salty Pete’s broad and muscular build.

You continue to let your gaze wander across your crew, drinking in all the sights and differences of each member. A redheaded woman with breasts that could sink a battleship, a wiry thin lad that looked like he could hide between the knots of the rigging, a short haired woman who could easily be mistaken for a boy with a scar across her left cheek, an older man with graying hair and a beard-

Suddenly the stomping of boots on the spar jostles you out of your thoughts, the final pirates having climbed down from the rigging to join the rest of you. “Alright, that looks to be all of us.” Jonas said, turning to face you. “So, what did ya call us for, cap’in?”

“Well, it’s getting time for us to be proper pirates and raid a ship. Get some treasure in our coffers and some blood on our swords.” You see several smiles go across the crowd, with a few members of your crew drawing their weapons or cracking their knuckles. “However,… Before we can get to any of that we need to get something taken care of. You see, we currently don’t have a functioning spawner here on board.”

A worried hush falls over your crew, with the various pirates looking at each other with almost a scared energy. “No spawner?” one of the pirates, the female redhead, chimes in. “Then what? Are we just gonna respawn in the graveyard?”

“That or the wilderness.” Pete says gruffly. “Either way, we would have a helluva lot of trouble finding the ship again.”

“Thankfully, that won’t be a problem for long.” You say before holding the paper out to your crew. “In order to activate the spawner here on the ship, we need to write up codes for us to follow and sign onto. If we do that, I think that our spawner should be activated, and we can start our raids.”

“What do you mean by ‘we’?” Another pirate, this one bald with an eyepatch, asks. “You th’ captain. Ain’t it your job ta make th’ rules?”

“I want these rules to be fair to both me as a captain and you all as a crew.” You respond. “Plus, we are going to need more pirates eventually. Two dozen drowned are great as a pirate crew, but if we want to take on some of the big targets out there, like frigates or fleets or even some adventurer towns, we are going to need to recruit more pirates. And if we need recruits, we need to make sure that the rules put in place are fair to everyone that we recruit.”

A murmur of agreement passes over the crowd before you continue. “So, with that out of the way, I would like to propose the first rule. If you like my suggestion, you can second it and then we will have a vote on if it should be a rule or not. I think that our first rule is that no one, no matter where they come from, deserves an honest chance to be on our crew.”

“Anyone, cap’in?” Louis asks. “Even folks like… her?” He points to Anna, who raises an eyebrow at being pointed out, but doesn’t seem too surprised.

You look to her, and she looks back at you. You take a deep breath and give a slow nod. “Yes, Louis. Even adventures.”

“No way.” The eyepatch pirate says. “We can’t trust no adventurers on th’ crew. They only kill monsters like us, we ain’t lettin’ any of em join.”

“What was your name again?” You ask.

“Harold “One-Eye” Scias.” he says, crossing his arms over his chest.

“Well, Mr. Scias, let me ask you. Let’s suppose you, for some reason, felt the call to go adventuring like our dear Anna here.” She waves and gives a bit of a sarcastic smile. “Now I don’t know why but let’s just pretend you want to spend your days diving into dungeons, claiming loot, and killing monsters. Let me ask you, would you be able to?”

“No. I’m a monster, and monsters can’t be adventurers.” he said quickly.

“Right but suppose you could be. Suppose that the gods gave you a special ability to take on adventurer levels and stuff. Would you be able to be an adventurer?”

“Well…” Harold things for a moment before shaking his head. “No. Adventurers have to go into towns and th’ like. If I went into a town, I’d be killed on sight.”

“Right. So, you want to be like the adventurers.” You say with a smug grin. “You want to just give a blanket statement that no matter what an individual adventurer might want, all adventurers are evil, and we should never give them a chance. Just like adventurers think all monsters are evil and they should never give us a chance.”

Harold lets out a small sigh of frustration and rubs the back of his neck. “But… we can’t trust that an adventurer really wants ta’ join us. It might be a trick.”

“It might be. But if it is, there are 25 people on this deck who will all make sure that adventurer’s trick doesn’t last for very long.” You say, your hand resting on the pommel of your sword. “But if we automatically say no to every adventurer who wants ta’ join us… then how can we claim to be any better than those who kill us on sight? No. The call to the sea goes out to all people, and we shouldn’t deny them if the call comes to them. Anyone second my proposition?”

“I do.” Jonas says. “You make a good point. Plus, adventurers are strong. We would be idiots for denying that kind of power on the crew.”

“Right then. All in favor?” You ask, and watch as several hands go into the air. “Anna, mind taking a quick count as the neutral party in all this?”

She shrugs and nods, quickly looking across the assembled pirates. “Counting you, Avery, that’s… 21 in favor.”

“And all opposed?” You ask, and astonishingly no hands go up. “So, 21 in favor, none opposed and 4 undecided?”

“Captain, for those of us that are undecided…” Harold says, having been one of the four. “Can we add something to th’ rule? If the crew doesn’t trust the person joining, we vote on letting them join. If 2/3s of us don’t agree, then they can’t join. Just to make sure things are kept fair.”

“I’m fine with that. How about you crew?” A wave of nods and affirmative noises goes across the crowd. “If that’s the case, then the rule passes.” You raise the feather pen to the paper and the moment the tip touches it, you watch as a rule writes itself upon the parchment.

We All Answer the Sea’s Call
No one of any creed, species, gender, or sordid past is to be turned away if they seek to become a part of the crew. If **** disdain is said towards their intentions of joining, a vote shall be held to which 2/3rds must agree to their joining.

“Alright then! So, what other rules do we have in mind?”

The voting on rules went on for most of the day after that, with several different rules coming from every member of the crew. Some were not passed, such as a rule about no gambling on board and a rule about killing those who don’t join the pirate crew. However, a total of ten rules did make it through, with a few surprises thrown in. For example, after the previously mentioned killing rule was denied a pirate by the name of Kenway Smokey suggested that they, as a crew, should respect the act of parley. After all, they wanted to show the world that they were more than just monsters mindlessly killing folk. They could be civil. Plus, parley would need to be respected if they were to safely meet with other pirates across the seas.

Another surprise was the final rule, suggested by a beauty on board by the name of Holly “Cannon” Dukes. She, and the other women on board, proposed the tenth rule of no ****. She said that stealing was fine. **** was fine. But **** was something you never got over, never fully healed from. That she, if given the choice, would rather go on her own rather than spend a day with a person who thought **** to be an acceptable action.

After some more discussion, the rule passed with no dissenting voices. So, the rule passed as your tenth and final code, and after a quick check downstairs, your suspicions were confirmed. The sanctifying of pirate codes by everyone signing the paper activated the spawner, and there was no doubt in your mind that it was locked onto the 25 men and women that signed and agreed to the codes. Hopefully any other buccaneers you encountered on the water would agree and sign as well, thus increasing your crew's strength and number. You take another readthrough of the rules, committing them all to memory as well as the many names at the bottom.

The Pirate Codes of The Drowned Pearl
To all those who fly under her flag and call her hull home, they shall abide by these rules less they be deemed unworthy of being called her crew.
Article 1: We All Answer the Sea’s Call
No one of any creed, species, gender, or sordid past is to be turned away if they seek to become a part of the crew. If **** disdain is said towards their intentions of joining, a vote shall be held to which 2/3rds must agree to their joining.
Article 2: All Crewmembers Get a Say
Every crew member shall have an equal vote in affairs of the moment. They shall have equal title to fresh provisions or strong liquors at any time seized, and shall use them at pleasure unless a scarcity makes it necessary for the common good that a retrenchment may be voted.
Article 3: A Pirate’s Goods are Theirs Alone
Every crew member shall be allotted their fair share of spoils as long as they respect the share of the ships. However, if they defraud the company to the value of even one silver in plate, jewels, or money, they shall be marooned and cut off from spawning. If any crew member robs another, they shall have their nose and ears slit, and be put ashore where they shall be sure to meet hardships.
Article 4: Be Ready for a Fight
Every crew member shall keep their pieces, cutlass and pistols, at all times clean and ready for action.
Article 5: Stand Together
They that shall desert the ship or their quarters in time of battle shall be punished by marooning and removal from spawning.
Article 6: Pay to Those Who Work
Upon securing loot and treasure, 1/3rd is to be set aside for the ship. Then the rest shall be doled out amongst the crew in accordance with their office. The Captain and Quartermaster shall each receive two shares of the prize, the Master Gunner, Boatswain, and Sailing Master each shall receive one and a half shares, all other officers one and one quarter, and the crew of fortune one share each.
Article 7: Parley is to be Respected
If an enemy is to call parley, their request is to be respected.
Article 8: Don’t Dispute on the Seas
If two or more crewmates find they have disagreement with one another, and the only way to settle said feud is to come to blows, they shall not fight while out at sea. Instead, they are to settle their dispute ashore with whatever means they decide is best.
Article 9: Desertion Ashore is no Crime
If a crew member has decided their tenure as a member of the crew has come to an end and they wish to depart, they shall be allowed to take any personal belongings as well as their pay and go on their own way. Upon failing to return to the ship, they shall be struck from the codes and spawning banned.
Article 10: **** Is Intolerable
If at any time you meet with a prudent partner, that crew member offers to meddle with them, without their consent, shall suffer **** and exile.
To those who break the rules and betray the code, may H’tes damn their souls to oblivion. But to those who wish to sail for freedom and plunder, may wind fill their sails and gold fill their coffers.
So, say we, the crew of The Drowned Pearl.
Captain Avery Matthews
Quartermaster: Jonas Rattler, Master Gunner: Holly Dukes, Sea Artist: Kenway Smokey, Helmsman: Edward Balo
Finn Vayne, Patterson Churchill, Harold Scias, Marley Harrington, Susanna Godwin, Catharine Granger, Nicholas Cantrell, Gina Valdez, Reyes Cabanas, Jose Calvo, Elis Day, Ewein Davis, Lyn Edris, Alun Edris, Louis Fay, Robert Abel, Jamison Bellamy, William Hughes, Salty Pete

“I honestly can’t believe rule six.” Anna says, leaning against the doorframe to the spawner room. You were still admiring the codes when she had walked over, having spent the entire voting time either watching or counting votes.

“What's so hard to believe about it?”

“Well… I just didn’t think monsters would care about getting paid.” She says, leaning a bit forward to look at the parchment. “What exactly do you need money for?”

You shrug. “There are probably pirate friendly ports out there that the crew will want to spend money at, plus they seem to enjoy the individuality that their names have granted them.” You look at her, then the codes, and then give a soft sigh. “Plus, if I am honest, there is a sense of fairness in the idea of paying them. After all, had luck turned out any differently and it was one of them who found the pearl, I would be in their position. And I would want to be fairly compensated for putting my life and livelihood on the line for a captain.”

“Sure, you’re not just doing this to inspire loyalty?” She says with a small smirk.

You give her a hearty laugh. “Well, that too. Payment tends to make people more open to whatever it is you’re doing. Plus, it will be very easy to convince other pirates to join up if we are offering pay. Not to mention it was a bit easier to get a few of the crew to offer themselves as officers to help me run the ship.”

You put a hand on her shoulder and gesture towards the door. “Now c’mon. We’re about to set sail and I want to be there when we officially cast off.”

She gives you a smile and holds onto your arm.