Sailing for Adventure on the Deep Blue Sea

The captain he will trim the sails,
Weigh, me boys, to Cuba!
Winging the water over the rails,
Running down to Cuba!
Weigh, me boys, to Cuba!
Running down to Cuba!

You take in a deep breath, the smell of salt and the sea filling your senses. The sounds of your crew singing shanties as you sail across the sea fills your heart with feelings of joy and hope, and the ever-present wind to your back illustrates the path forward that you and your crew are now on. After a few moments to allow everyone to get used to their new roles, mostly the officers, you had given the order to cast off.

Now the lot of you were heading northwest at a steady five knots, The Drowned Pearl cutting through the waves like a sword through an adventurer’s chest. Your helmsman, Edward Balo, had been the only one to take the boost of knowledge from Expertise, and that was at the behest of your other officers. Jonas, Kenway, and Holly all agreed that an experienced Helmsman was the most necessary thing that the ship could use, followed by Sea Artist but only if you had actual maps and the like to use. Seeing as your ship didn’t even have a bloody compass, the lot of you had figured that any more uses of Expertise would best be used after one or two raids. Get a few maps, maybe recruit a few more pirates and get some treasure and then you all would talk about giving more officers some knowledge.

Speaking of your officers… Holly Dukes was quite the surprise. Jonas you knew would be your quartermaster ever since he helped out getting the supplies for The Drowned Pearl organized before you even raised the ship. You knew that at least one or two of your pirates would have the baseline knowledge of sailing a ship, or at least would have the desire to do such. But finding a master gunner, you thought, would end up being held off until after an actual naval battle. Just to see if anyone would display the necessary skills to be a master gunner. After all, the knowledge of guns was something that had been lost to the lot of you considering you had spent the past several decades under the ocean where guns tended not to work.

Then Holly stepped forward and volunteered. She said that she had the knowledge and memories of how to best use the guns of the ship, and said it would be best to have a master gunner in case naval combat came sooner than expected. You… had no real reason to say no, especially if she actually had the knowledge she claimed to have.

“I am starting to rethink joining you…”

You turn and give Anna a soft smile. She had been quite entertained to watch you and your fellow pirates set sail, saying how she had never seen a sailing ship set off before. Then she immediately ran off to the side of the ship after you set sail to go lose her lunch. You couldn’t help but laugh a bit at the thought. She would get her sea legs. It just might take a bit of time.

“Don’t worry. You’ll get used to the movement of the ship.”

“Before or after I die from throwing up?” She groans out, sinking down to the floor in a fetal position.

You laugh and crouch down next to her. “For what it's worth, I didn’t get my sea legs or a strong stomach for almost a week when I first set out from port! And we only had hardtack to eat! Imagine how disgusting that was comin’ back up!”

She gives you a small look of confusion before turning over with a groan. “Look, with all due respect, you telling me how you used to have it bad too doesn’t really make me feel better.”

You shrug. “I was just trying ta help.” You stand back up and look out towards the bowsprit. There isn’t much ahead of your ship, other than the infinite expanse of the sea and the sky above. No land, no other ships, and barely even any clouds.

Well, it was only a matter of time. You weren’t too far from The Galleon’s Graveyard, and adventurers would travel there on foot. You would have to come across a ship sooner or later.

“Hey… quick question for you.” Anna says from her place on the deck.

“Shoot.”

“When I was sucking your cock, the crew was singing a shanty, weren’t they?”

You nod. They were, in fact, singing a shanty as you spoke. You could hear their voices ringing out from the rigging “Old Billy Riley’s master of a drogher! Old Billy Riley, oh. Old Billy Riley!”

“Aye. Not the best singers, I have ta admit. But they have a certain charm.”

“Right. But… what was the song they were singing?”

You think back. To be honest, you were a bit distracted by Anna’s masterful mouthwork at the time, but you can recall a few of the words you overheard. You hum a bar or two and the name comes to your mind. “If I recall, they were singing “So Early in the Morning.” A classic shanty.”

She nods, rolling over to face you. “Yeah. But one of the things they sang… something about a bottle of irish whiskey.”

“Do you want me to ask the lads to sing it instead of “Billy Riley?”

“No no. I was just wondering… What’s Irish?”

You shrug. “Dunno. I just know its a part of the song. I think its a brand of whiskey, but honestly its been years since I touched a bottle.” You smile at her and nudge her playfully with your foot. “Hopefully after our first raid I will get to but an end to my dry spell, eh?”

She chuckles a bit, and then groans as she grabs her stomach. “I… I was just wondering. Do you know about somewhere called Ireland?”

You give her a look of confusion. “No. I would assume that is where the Irish Whiskey is made, but honestly I haven’t heard of it. Probably too high level of an area for a monster like me.”

“Y… yeah.” She looks away from you, and you notice that she looks… confused. Thus making you confused at her confusion. “I was just wondering cause… well…”

“CAPTAIN!” A voice calls out to you from the crows nest. You look up to see Marley Harrington staring back at you.

“What is it, Mr. Harrington?!”

“Cargo ship, dead ahead!”

You turn and, sure as the man said, sitting not more than a mile away from your vessel is a ship that looks to be slow and fat with cargo. In fact, she was moving astoundingly slow, almost akin to a beast limping its last few steps before ****.

As your ship draws nearer you can see the obvious reason as to this apparent slowness. The sails of this cargo ship are torn to shreds, and the hull of her is also quite a bit damaged. Not by cannon fire though, but more like the sea herself reached up and tore chunks from the vessel for daring to anger her.

“Looks like she survived a rough storm lads.” You call out as a grin takes over your features. “That’s just gonna make things easier for us.” You quickly turn back to your crew, who are all drawing and preparing their weapons in anticipation for the coming raid. “Alright lads. No cannon fire needed, as this ship is already on her last legs. Try to keep to minimal bloodshed if we can.”

“Why? They’ll just respawn after a while if we do kill them.” Harold, or as he prefers, One-Eye says, a sadistic smile on his face. “Plus, it’s been far too long since I got ta kill anythin. My blade’s screamin’ ta get drenched in blood.”

“We don’t know that they have a respawner. Plus we need to make sure some of them survive to tell others about us.” You say quickly. “All we need to do is kill enough of them that they are **** to surrender. Any that want to join can be added to the crew, and the rest we send off on some longboats back to shore. We get the loot and more crew, and our name starts to get spread around and increases our fame.”

A few nods go around as they crew seems to understand your point. You can see that One-Eye doesn’t look all too happy about it, but he seems to understand your point. “Look, if we need to get brutal, I’ll ask you to get shit done.” You say, earning a small smile from the sadistic crew member. “But thats when we need to. We need to ensure that our fame increases so we can make this vessel stronger. A better ship means bigger targets, and bigger targets means bigger loot. And we all can agree that loot is better than bloodshed, right?”

THAT manages to get your crew’s attention, quickly earning a chorus of “Aye-ayes” from them as they raise their swords and fists into the air. You give them a quick dismissal with your hand, to which they all begin running to their posts to keep the ship asail. However, as one particular crewmate goes to head to her post below, you place a hand on her shoulder and pull her back.

“Miss Dukes, would you mind escorting our… guest here to my cabin? Ta keep her out of harms way and the like.”

Holly looks down at Anna, who is still looking rather sick, before giving you a small nod. “Aye captain. I can do that.”

You give her a pat on the shoulder, just in time for another one of your crew to run up to you with… something in their hands. You can’t quite tell what, but it looks like blackened cloth.

“Captain! Me an the lads were going through some of the supplies below to see if we had any shot or pistols and we found this! Dunno where it came from but-”

You reach over and unfold the cloth, and on it you can easily tell the distinctive design of a Jolly Roger on it. You give the crewmate a smile and a pat on the shoulder. “Fly the colors then, Mr. Calvo. Lets let them sailors know that their time may be fast approaching.”

Jose Calvo gives you a grin and a salute. “Aye aye, Captain!” He then quickly runs to the rigging, the flag secure under his arm as he climbs his way up like a spider up its web. And in just a few moments, you see the skull and crossed swords flying high from your mizzenmast, the white symbols of piracy stark against the black flag.

You turn back, and already your ship has gotten much closer to the cargo vessel. You are now close enough that you can see the sailors on board pointing to your flag and gasping, all while a rather older looking man stands on the poop deck barking orders to little avail. You draw your sword, the cold steel singing against its sheath and hold it out pointed at the ship.