The First Raid

Give me a gal can dance Fandango,
Weigh, me boys, to Cuba!
Round as a melon and sweet as a mango,
Running down to Cuba!
Weigh, me boys, to Cuba!
Running down to Cuba!

(TW: This chapter does allude to some acts of **** as well as showing the aftermath of said ****. Reminder: Pirates were not nice people.)

They won’t go down without a fight, that much is obvious.

You watch as your ship pulls alongside them, and the anchor is lowered, that there are several men aboard drawing blades and preparing to fight. Your own men and women are certainly giving it their all in terms of ferocity and aggression, with several of them hanging onto the rigging while holding their knives and swords out and taunting the other sailors. And clearly it worked on a few, as you can see some of them have not drawn a weapon and merely look afraid and nervous. However, a good 15 or so have drawn blades, along with the captain who you noticed barking orders earlier.

‘Captain versus captain then.’ You think to yourself as the ship pulls closer. You point your blade at the armed sailors, and with as much growl and sadism in your voice as you can manage, you yell to your crew “MAKE EM INTA FISH FOOD LADS!”

You can hear one pirate, probably One-Eye, give a cackle at that before suddenly your own crew is swinging on ropes over to the opposite ship. Well, some of them are. Others are merely jumping from rigging to rigging while a few on deck have lowered some planks with nails on them to go between the ships. Quickly you take inspiration from your crew, running towards the railing of your ship and, with a quick jump, finding yourself on the deck of the other cargo ship.

The moment your feet touch the deck, however, a pop-up appears in the side of your vision. Thankfully it doesn’t take up your entire field of view, but you do give it a quick once over before dismissing it.

Ship Raid: The Blue Heron
Goals:
Kill 10 Crewmembers (0/10)
Subdue/Kill the Captain (0/1)
Bonus:
Find the hidden treasure (0/1)

Alright. So not killing people wasn’t an option. That's fine. As One-eye mentioned, they probably would respawn on the ship if they had a respawner. If not, they would probably just respawn at the nearest city or wherever. Point was, they had treasure and you wanted it. They weren’t going to give it up, so it was your job to make them give it up.

Really, it was more their fault than yours.

Quickly you move forward, your blade meeting one of the sailor’s blades as the two of you begin to clash. He pushes you back, swinging his blade for your side which you narrowly deflect with your own blade. A slash of his is met with a parry of your own, his blade biting instead into the wood of the ship rather than the softness of your undead flesh. You take the opportunity to slash at him, your blade rendering him into a small pile of loot and XP as his body vanishes.

1/10

2/10

You step over his remains, though they do gravitate to you and into your inventory, and push forward, aiming to find the captain wherever he is.

3/10

-1 Crewmate

Damn. One of your own fell. Sure they would respawn, but still.

4/10

You sidestep around Gina Valdez, one of your crew with a rather shapely rear, who is currently holding back a sword with her two knives. She gives you a nod and gestures towards some nearby stairs before pushing the sailor back away from her. “Go after him, captain! We got this lazy lot!”

You give her a nod, taking a small moment to appreciate the tight leather pants hugging her ass, before charging forward and up the stairs. You had a job to do. Booty could be admired later.

-1 Crewmate

Well the lot of you were rusty at the whole fighting thing. This was more of a… training raid than anything else.

5/10

Just as you make it up the last stair, a sword quickly swipes your neck. You don’t have enough time to bring up your blade to meet it, and instinctively you shift into your spectral form as the blade passes harmlessly through you.

Thankfully the tattered sails above shield you enough from the sun that you don’t take damage from you quick shift. Even so, you return to physical form as fast as you can and bring you blade up ready to fight.

6/10

“Damned pirates. Since when have you lot gotten so bold to attack a ship in Navy waters?” The captain asks, his own sword pulled up to meet yours. He is an older looking fellow, with gray peppering his black hair and a bit of a portly size to show that he isn’t exactly the one who does the work on this ship. However, you really can’t judge him on age alone as if you count how long you have been dead for, you were probably much, much MUCH older than him.

You swing your sword at him, to which he matches your swing with a quick parry. “I asked you a question, pirate scum!”

“Oh I heard you. I just thought an old codger like you would prefer us whippersnappers to keep silent.”

“You insolent little-” He slashes again at you, your own sword meeting his. Then another hit and another parry. And another, and another. Each time your swords sing as they hit one another, the clangs of steel drowning out the screams of the battle below

7/10

-1 Crew Member

He gives a growl and attempts to stab you through the heart, hoping to bring this battle to a quick and satisfying end so he could lead his crew to victory.

But you had an advantage over the old coot. You were fast. You were deadly.

You were already dead.

You quickly shift back into your spectral form, ignoring the burning sensation brought about from the sun as you shift right through him. Or rather, he shifts through you as he stumbles forward and his blade is left stuck in the wood of his own vessel. Quickly you shift back to normal, having lost quite a bit of health from that but now in a much more advantageous position. Quickly you slam your blade down against him, but rather than the cold bite of the steel of your sword you hit the back of his head hard with the pummel of the blade, causing him to slump down as he is knocked out.

1/1 Captain Subdued

8/10

You smirk and rush back down the stairs, eager to help your crew out. Just as you manage to do so, you are **** to duck as a sailor is thrown off of the ship and into the waters below. You turn to look at the perpetrator, only to see Salty Pete smiling at you.

“Just feeding th’ snappers, sir.”

You can hear the screams of a man in the waters below, and a cold satisfaction fills you. After this battle, the sailors on board are going to know not to mess with your crew.

9/10

10/10

As the final kill is made by one of your crew, the members of the enemy vessel seem to realize their situation is hopeless and quickly raise their arms in surrender. You feel a laugh of satisfaction bubble its way out of you as your men quickly round up the surrendered sailors, letting you take in all those that had fought against you and failed. They were comprised mostly of humans and some more elf-y looking people, though they were more than likely half-elves as elves rarely worked such menial stations under the command of a human.

At least as far as your undead mind could recall.

You look over to one of your pirates, Marley Harringon. “Are these all the members of the crew?”

He shakes his head no. “There were some goblins below deck tha’ some of the crews went to get. They should be coming up-”

At that, another member of your crew starts walking up from below decks with quite the precession following her. About a dozen goblins, a few humans, and a very old looking… bird folk of some kind. Honestly you didn’t recognize it on sight, so for all you knew it was some new adventurer race from the far north.

However the bird was not the most interesting thing about the group. No, that honor belonged to the goblins. Now, you had seen a great many goblins in your day from all parts of the world. Sure, some of them were adventures that came down to visit the graveyard and kill you, but you could recall days of sailing where you visited ports all over the world. And one of the more interesting things about going to these ports was seeing all the variations of goblins that existed, from the more greenskin feral kinds over in the hilly areas near Fairweather Bay to the more hard skinned ones that lived in actual mountains where dragons dwell.

But these gobbos… these were the ones from the islands of Kamora. Meaning they were jungle goblins, otherwise referred to as monkey goblins. Just as smart as their brethren, but they gave up some of the hardiness of a goblin for prehensile tails and foot hands making them pros and climbing up trees or vines or the riggings of a vessel. Their bodies were covered in white fur, with blue skin peeking out from the fur.

These particular goblins were dressed like sailors, with tattered shirts and loose pants as well as some of them having bandannas and the like. One particular one had a brown hat that had a stitched X on it. It looked to be the hat of a jungle explorer, and perhaps before it was owned by this goblin, it was.

You walk over to the assembled crew with a smile on your face and your sword ready to strike in your hand. You give them a mock bow, and begin to speak. “Greetings. I am Captain Avery Matthews of the Drowned Pearl, and these fine men and women of fortune are my crew.” You gesture to your fellow drowned, who all give some rather toothy and menacing grins. “We happened to have been gifted by the gods a chance to sail again, and you lucky lot happened to be the first participants in our rise to the top of the world of piracy. Lucky you!” Your crew sarcastically claps, at least the ones who aren’t holding the soldiers at sword-point.

“Thank you, thank you. Now, onto business, shall we?” You smile and walk around the group of sailors, taking note that the captain has finally woken up from his little knock out after your fight. “See, I was notified that you lot have some sort of a secret treasure on board and-”

“You ain’t gettin it.” The captain growls out, causing you to pause your speech and look over to him. “What, you think some flashy sword play and catching us with our pants down is gonna make you a fuckin pirate?”

You smile at the captain, and slowly lean down to look him in the eye. “You know, you have a point there captain…?”

“Captain Hornby.” he says with a huff.

“Right. Captain Hornby. You do have a point. See, I know that one thing pirates cultivated on the seas was an aura of fear. A sense that fighting back against us could be one of the worst mistakes you could ever make. Sure, **** is a deterrent in that regard, but all of have died and I can tell you it’s not the worst thing in the world.” A small chuckle goes across your shipmates as you say that. “But you know what's worse than dying, my dear Captain Hornby?”

He looks at you defiantly for a moment, but then something seems to pass across his face as he realizes he might have just put himself in a terrible situation. “W… what?”

“Wishing that you could die.” You snap your fingers. “One-Eye? Show him what I mean.”

“With pleasure sir.” One-Eye says, walking past you with a rather sharp knife in one hand, and what looks to be a length of rope or wire in the other. You watch as One-Eye grabs the captain by the collar and drags him away from the crew, but still keeps him within earshot so they can hear everything he is about to do.

You choose to ignore whatever that is, especially as the first scream is preceded by a sickening sound of flesh being ripped apart. Instead you divert your attention to the rest of the sailors, all of which are looking a little pale after hearing what is happening to the captain. “Now see, if we all just listened and worked together, maybe this wouldn’t have happened.” You give a dramatic sigh and shake your head. However, you do note that one particular group among the sailors doesn’t seem as disgusted and perturbed, that being the goblins.

“You lads don’t seem particularly caring of what's happening to your captain.” You say to them, specifically looking at the leader-looking goblin wearing the hat. “Not a fan of your boss?”

“He deserves what’s coming to him, the badalhoco.” The goblin says, having a rather thick accent that you cannot quite place, though you know its not from any of the empires you knew in life. “The vagabundo treated me and my people as harshly as he could, knowing he had no one to stop him. This is just a turnabout.”

You give the goblin a small smile. “Oh really? Well if you are interested… I am always looking for new members to join my crew.” You get down onto one knee to be eye level with the goblin. “What did you say your name was?”

The goblin returns your smile and takes off his hat, giving you a small bow as he does so. “My name, pirata, is Santos Jose de Juan Maria y Ourodente. But you can call me Goldtooth.” He puts the hat back on, and you swear you can hear the sounds of guitars playing in your head as he does so. “I would be interested in joining your crew, but I would prefer to ensure that minha familia would be treated well on your ship. At least better than the treatment here.”

“Oh you don’t gotta worry ‘bout that.” a voice chimes in over your shoulder. You look and see the face of one of your crew members, Jamison Bellamy, grinning at you and the goblin. “I was there when the captain started decidin’ the rules. He cares about us and wants us ta be treated fair on the crew. You boys would be joining the best ship on the seven seas.”

“Ah, you have proper rules for your crew members?” Goldtooth asks. “And what rules would those be?”

While One-Eye continues to give the captain the roughest treatment he can, you go over the basics of the codes with Goldtooth and the other goblins, earning many approving head nods as you continue to talk and explain the rules of the ship. As you finish going over the final rule, you feel a hand on your shoulder. Turning you see it is One-Eye, covered in blood with a wicked grin on his face.

“Done playing with my toy, captain. Care to give him a final goodbye before we toss him to the snappers?”

You give him a nod and stand up, although upon looking over at the captain part of you wants to retch in disgust. You knew that there were some pretty messed up things that one could do before causing a respawn on people, but One-Eye clearly knew what he was doing and how far the limits could be pushed.Captain Hornby was missing several fingers, an eye, teeth, and even an ear as well as being covered in scars and his own blood. The crew was trying to advert their gaze from what remained of their captain, though you could see a few of them had already lost their lunch from what your crewmate had done.

You swallow down the rising bile in your throat and put on a confident aura as you walk over to the captain. “I hope you won’t forget this, my friend. You see, this is what happens when we don’t play nice with the pirates. This is what happens when we make things difficult and make it dangerous for us all to fight.” You reach down and lightly push on Hornby’s chin, forcing him to look up at you through blood-soaked eyes. “This is what happens when you stand in my crew’s way.” You pull your hand back and gesture to a couple of your crewmates. “Toss him to the fish.”

You turn to look back at the captured crew just as you hear the splash and the muffled screams of a man get quickly cut off by the frenzy of fish. “Now. I hope we all learned a valuable lesson today in what is smart to do and what is not smart to do when dealing with pirates. So I will ask one time before I give Harold some extra work to do.” Your smile from your face vanishes as you place your hand on the pommel of your sword. “Where. Is. Your. Secret. Treasure?!”

Everyone remains silent for a moment before one of the smaller men speaks up. “Its… Its down below. Hidden behind some barrels.”

You look at the elf who spoke up, who despite the race being known for being tall and graceful, this one appears to be rather short and more on the wiry side. “And you would be?”

“Jackson Poll. First mate. Captain Hornby only told me where the treasure was hidden in case I needed to retrieve it or hide it.” He says, his voice wavering in fear.

“Well, makes sense why the rest of you didn’t talk.” You say, relaxing your posture. You then gesture to two crew members, Catharine and Kenway. “You two. Take Jackson below and get me the treasure. You six,” you gesture at another group of crewmates, “go down below and get me every spare supply this ship has got and any bit of cargo we can take. I want to start profiting on these raids.”

As the crew members leave to go do their assigned tasks, you take one final look at the captured crew members. “Well, now that we have that grisly business out of the way, let me make an offer to you all.” You take a few steps around the group, your hand still resting on the pommel of your sword while you wax poetic. “You saw what I and my crew can do. You saw how quickly we took your ship and took you all captive. You saw how brutal we can be, and how you would be wise to never be our enemy. But let me make you an even better offer.” You gesture to your ship and the few crew members still on board on it. “I am always looking to swell my ranks with new recruits. Some new gentlemen and ladies of fortune who want to sail the seas and live a life of adventure, glory, and treasure. A life that does not bow to kings or lords or even adventurers, but a life that is decided by us for us. I am willing to make this offer to all of you, to come join my crew.”