Freeport Adventures

The on-going adventures of the crew of the Lady's Favour as presented by Dirty Jee-to, quartermaster.

Tuesday, July 06, 2004

Log The First

Yea bastards that be reading this take note! Although piracy be a damn fine profession that allows all men...rather, all beings to show their true self, slavery is a foul and cowardly profession that should be wiped from the face of the sea and those that practice such activities hung from the yardarm and kept alive long enough for the gulls to peck out their eyeballs.

I suppose that I must introduce myself and record me name here so that someone has an idea of what has happened in these days past. Of course this wouldn't have been necessary if those scurvy slavers had recognized the value of a good book and not used it to wipe their brains off of their bottoms.

So this be the logs of the Lady's Favour. And I be Jee-to, true follower of the captain of the seas, Harrimast. Some call me Dirty Jee-to, but as I say, "If Harrimast had meant us to bath, he wouldn't have stir up storms".
Our captain be Mad Armatuil Bonny, the only elf that I even seen with a mean streak wider than the seas themselves. Although he be a pointy ear, the crew are willing to follow him anywhere and the fact that he wields some mean eldrich energies doesn't hurt him none.
The bosun be a mysterious woman who only answers to mistress. She takes a wee bit too much pleasure in disciplining the crew for my tastes. She boasts a wicked scar on her bosom that she is reluctant to talk about. Seems fair. Everyone has some bit of their past that they would prefer to leave behind.
Our Pilot has the bearing of a noble, but if he gets angry it's best to stand back. You can see the wilderness lurking behind his eyes and there are times when he just seems to lose control of his beast. Still, a damn fine man to have on your side in a fight.

The crew be a good lot and hardly any stranger than other crews of these parts.
Boris 'scuppers' cooper is a tough young man who is probably destined to take our the position of quartermaster. Although he is none too good with that two handed blade of his that doesn't stop him from waving it around whenever a fight threatens.

Ub and Nub are brothers from my home village, although they were from the less civilized portions of town. It's a good thing that they are hard workers otherwise the cap't would have marooned them long ago. At least they have stopped using the cannons as cooking pots.

Posey is an effete fop, the kind that generally mince around courtyards and such. Why he's out here with us is beyond anyones knowledge. When he doesn't have his nose buried in some powder or isn't complaining about how dirty everything is he's a passably likable fellow. And never have I seen such skill with a bow or a pistol. There have been a few times when a well placed shot by him have been a great help in getting us out of a tight spot.

Benedict Ourth is possessed by some sort of brain fever. That's the only way to explain his battle lust. I've seen him charge a ship wearing nothing but a hat. Now if we could just curb his enthusiasm for assaulting the vanquished crew he'd be perfect.

Old Man McGinty is the second oldest of the crew. He says that he joined up to get away from his wife's toxic meals.

Yip and Yap are a strange addition to the crew. They are a pair of kobolds of some relation to each other. Originally they were to be sold as a pets in port, but after escaping their ropes 5 times in 3 days and helping out during a period of rough seas they were adopted into the crew. Just don't let them plot your course...they could get lost trying to find their mouths.

Milo 'Coppertop' Tossbottle is our cook and a damn fine one at that. I guess that them little people always have a cheery outlook on life, but this little halfling seems to be able to infect the crew with his. I heard tell that other ships have the crews take turns at cooking. If that be true, then it be yet another reason to stay here.

We do have an oddity on board and he...or it, be our oldest crew member. Reginald Dravonis Eldongo III is technically dead, although he seems damn well behaved for a zombie. We don't know much about him. There are no other Eldongos in Freeport and he doesn't talk too much. He obeys orders reasonably well, although you do have to yell at him a bit more. Still, when the blades start flashing he is a good body to have by your side.

So now that yea have some knowledge of who we be, I should lay down an explanation of why this be the first log. 'Tis not actually the first log, but since I don't feel much like cleaning the slaver crap off of the old logs this will have to be the log from now on.

We had spent too long in port and had gotten a bit soft. But the grog was cold and the ladies warm so no one much minded. But as the coffers grew low we knew that it was time to head out to sea and find us some booty. We had been at sea for over a week when we finally spotted a fat merchant vessel, riding low in the water. The fight, as it were, is barely worth writing about. They surrendered with barely a fight and we looted their vessel in short order. I feel the need to include the fact that we did disable their vessel, but we didn't put them to the sword and they would make port in a few days. We're pirates, not murderers. And the booty was beyond our plans! There be enough to purchase ourselves a privateers "license" and spend many days swimming in grog. We turned towards Freeport with dreams in our head. But this was not meant to be. Only a handful of days had past before we saw a trio of sails on the horizon. The red banners gave them away as slavers of the red wizards. We turned towards them and sounded the battle cry. Although the crew fought well, it was not to be. For we be worth 2 of them scum...too bad that they had three times our numbers. The crew were tied and forced into the bilge. We sailed for the rest of the day and then were unloaded at some slaver camp beneath a keep high atop a cliff. After we had unloaded our recently gotten bootie, we were locked in some flimsy bamboo cages. These scum must have been too confident of themselves, for we smashed our way out of the cages in a heartbeat. They put up some token resistance, but our brave crew were too much for them. Within minutes we had rescued the crew, loaded our ship and were racing across the waves.

In the days that followed, we were able to assess our situation. Although we had lost our booty, we had enough supplies to reach Freeport and most of the crews personal items were found. We had not improved our situation, but at least it was no worse.

Back in Freeport the mood of the city had worsened. Freeport was never a peaceful city, but it usually had a certain calmness to it. As morning rose over the city (and a red sky it was...a bad omen indeed) you could feel the tensions rising. Another boatload of orcs had arrived in town. Someone was importing them as cheap labour and many people were not liking them. They were worse than slaves, since slaves are forced into their situation. The greens had no rights, too much hatred and were readily noticeable.

As the orcs came off the boat, someone in the crowd hurled a stone into the crowd and knocked one of them to their knees. I couldn't stand such cowardice and steeped between the forming mobs. My rousing speech seemed to fall on deaf ears, but at least I made the effort to educate these misinformed masses. Alas, I could not stop the fight, although a few of Harrimasts blessings did keep the damage to a minimum. The city watch arrived within moments and managed to return things to normal.

And during all of the this commotion we were given a strange gift. A gnome came rushing through the crowds and pleaded with the captain to hold a map for him for only an hour. The gnome was in obvious fear of the quartet of heavy sailors that were following him. Captain Bonny agreed to hold the map and the gnome and his followers disappeared during the fight. After the dust had settled it seemed that the map had become 'accidentally' damaged and fallen open in our map room. Why, we had no choice but to gaze upon it's contents. And strange indeed were the contents. The map showed 5 islands, although no coordinates graced their positions. Each island was marked with a symbol (a hook, a bell, a pistol and a spy glass) with the last one being marked as the fabled
island of Yasashad. The fabled island that appears every 150 years; whose beaches are covered in gold; were gems are as common as rocks and all a pirates dreams come true. There was also a reference to the devil's triangle; that terrible area of the sea where a great whirlpool would devour all who enter and nothing, not even wreckage, is ever found.

And one last note was made on the map. A reference to the 'great campaign' and a date...almost 150 years ago to the day.
With a quick hand, the captain copied the map and then we headed off the ship, eager to keep our meeting with the gnome and question him further about this map.

Jee-to, quartermaster, Lady's Favour