Chapter 1 - Adrift

Griselda

At Raphaella's comment, Griselda clamped her mouth shut again, blushing at the reprimand. It was true that she had few memories and little experience and should have let others speak first.

With the boat already in excellent shape, there was little for Griselda to do. So she found a seat as out of the way as could be managed on a small boat and kept an eye out to sea. She knew little of navigation but like all sailors she did know that seagulls clustered round coastlines, so she kept an eye open for birds, hoping that this would give a clue as the right direction for land.

She heard Tempests words, and the words of the other sailors, defiant and angry. But Griselda felt empty inside. She had lost her only home, had in fact just been kicked out of it like an unwanted piece of driftwood. Finding it again would mean confronting those who had discarded her, and maybe killing those she once considered as close to family as she remembered having.

She would go wherever the others went, because she had nowhere else to go, but her heart was as low as it had been since that first night of her arrival.

The Eye of Abendego is south-east of your position, the mass of clouds from that permanent hurricane only just visible on the horizon. As the initial shock of the situation wanes and thoughts turn to survival, some details and memories come to your attentions:

Griselda
Griselda is reluctant to speak after her rebuke but nonetheless feels it is too important, and flushing a little says aloud

'I.. three days ago we passed an island if you remember. Some people wanted to stop for a little shore leave but the captain said we didn't have the time. We know where that was, and it was only three days away. It was inhabited too, so we wouldn't be stranded.'

Griselda fell silent again as she looked at everyone except Raphaella.

Brenden Morri

He gives Raphaela a sideways glance, gritting his teeth as he set the oar aside and began to check their bearings. He was willing to let attitude slide for a time since everyone was a bit worked up. He continues his song, something about two lusty wenches and an ale cart, but his attention is on the sky.

"If I'm reading this right..." Brenden's eyes follow the horizon, as they had been for near on ten minutes now. "...we're deeply far from where we ought to be. If we fight the current we're going to wear ourselves out. Rowing east will get us to land but we'll starve long before we ever reach it." He seems confused as he says it, scanning the horizon north. "It doesn't seem like Rytur was doing us any favors. A slit throat would have been quicker and we'd all suffer less."

Griselda's comment brings him out of that line of reasoning, however. In truth he hadn't paid a great deal of attention to their travels over the last few days. He'd been working on something, all ink stains and crumpled parchment. Now that tale was lost on the Sea Breeze...which was all the more reason he had to get back there. "Did we? Well, that sounds like the perfect destination. You know, compared to painful death and all. Good recalling, that."

At that he pauses, leaning slowly forward as a frown cuts across his lips. "Do you feel that? Like when you've done something bad and you know someone's gonna find out? Something is..." His words drift off as he begins to look in each direction, an edginess creeping into his mood.

Dice Roll: 1d20+10
d20 Results: 17 (Total = 27)

Perform

Dice Roll: 1d20+10
d20 Results: 1 (Total = 11)

Perform

Tempest Stormborn

Tempest's eyes narrowed again the haughty pose of their employer as she sardonically mocked her words having spat venom towards poor Griselda. She had little to do with the uptight woman since she boarded the Breeze and this was further proof of why.

The corners of her mouth twitched as the unbidden thought came to her of how to increase their rations further. A little shove...knock on the head with and oar...she doubted the rest of the crew would object much. Tempest was by no means a cruel or vindictive woman but she almost felt that for Raphaela she could make an exception. She was not so angry for herself but the woman's attitude to Griselda was uncalled for.

Perhaps Mistress Raphaela, if you have little constructive to say yourself you'd told your tongue. Griselda knows more than you think, if she says this work is not hers and beyond that of a deck hand she's right. She is also right that that ****** must have been hiring in his own crew with the intention to take over the ship. And it is blooming odd that he wanted our ship and no other. she said keeping an even tone of calm whist her eyes raged with building storms.

The island, aye, Rytur damn him, he took me aside, told me I needed to learn navigation. Got the Captain to help teach me. Blast him to the depths, he knew he would dump us here back then! her stomach flipped at the thought, the betrayal seeming twice and worse in this light of remembrance and yet twice as puzzling. Why go to all this trouble to help them. We plotted a course from our position here abouts, just off the coast of a large, inhabited island, to the mainland. If I remember correctly we'd need to pass though a small grouping of islands called the Three Sisters. As we plotted the course we had to navigate around them by turning due east instead of maintaining a east-northeast course. I damn sure the Sea Breeze turned due east after casting us off adrift here. That's were he's heading...its got to be.

Rollo

Rollo out of force of habit

Acrobatics DC10:
Dice Roll: 1d20+6
d20 Results: 7 (Total = 13)

leaned over the edge to scoop some krill out of the water: "A little extra food couldn't hurt...The sea breeze stirred this up, leaving a trail of sorts. We're a month of rowing from the mainland, and two weeks from nearest shore by my reckoning. Might be those islands were closer, but it sounds like they're in the opposite direction from the Sea Breeze's course. Survival does trump pursuit, I'd say." He said nothing to Raphaela, given the tongue lashing she'd already received. At least he knew which of them he could consider unnecessary ballast should it come to that...

Raphaela

Raphaela sat, sneering into the distance, in silence when Tempest rounded on her. Towards the end though, her sneer turned frown as she took her eyes off the horizon to look at Tempest, smiling again at seeing the anger in the woman's eyes. No good would come with arguing with a hot-head like that one... or any of them for that matter. They were all together, she was apart. And the boat was cramped and food scarce. And she was apart. Raphaela made her own

Dice Roll: 1d20+6
d20 Results: 3 (Total = 9)

pass at the krill, imitating Rollo... and getting the same results. Hmph "Survival indeed." She echoed Rollo mockingly and regretting it as the words came out. Not wanting those words to hang in the air, she posed a question to no one particular. "Tha Three Sisters, would they be closa to us than tha island we already past? Are dere no other islands in this area?... Any at all?" Raphaela said adding emphasis, hoping they won't neglect a possibility offhand. She thought she remember seeing more islands on a chart before leaving home, islands that weren't on most maps for some reason... they were queer. Had they been near the Sister's?

Griselda
Griselda listened and privately thought that the more she heard, the stranger all this sounded. It sounded like something big that had been well planned and executed over a long time. Probably organised before Rytur even joined the crew. After all he was fairly new, and Mosir had been there three months or so if she recalled.

She did not speak this out loud, but when Raphaela started to mock Rollo for failing to catch krill without a net, something had to be done to boost morale a little.

Griselda was not normal. In fact she was a freak, and not just because she had no memories. Like her lack of memories she had tried to hide her other oddities from others. It had started when she was looking for a vise to clamp two planks of wood together some years ago. She had been unable to find one, and then suddenly she found one behind her where she was sure she had already looked. This happened many times and with different tools, until one day one of the tools she had found simply dissapeared before her very eyes. She blinked, and it was back again. This was not the only strange thing she had found about herself, but it was something that did matter now.

Turning her back on the others for a moment, Griselda's eyes flashed white for an instant and suddenly a fishing net fine enough to catch Krill was in her hands. Like anything she made that way it would only last an hour, but she could make it again whenever it was needed. Hopefully no one had noticed.

Turning, she passed the net to Rollo.

'I found this at the bottom of the boat Rollo. That should help with the Krill.'

With the net the krill are easily harvested, for now the food stores need not be touched. Water is another matter. As the day wears on the sun rises high and beats down on the longboat. With no shade, no reprieve, the heat borders on the unbearable. Brenden's songs provide a much-needed boost, lifting the spirit and allowing each to stave off the effects... for now. With the nearest known shore at least two weeks of hard rowing back the way you came, and the mainland a month in the opposite direction a decision should be made. A month east to the mainland, two weeks west to the island, or north and east to the islands Tempest mentioned, an unknown distance in a vague direction?

Tempest Stormborn
She shook her head of the question from Raphaela, All the islands I saw on the chart were the sisters and the one we past, that's not to say there could not be others not charted. she mused in passing.

Brenden's song brought a brief smile to her face as did the sight of the net. Griselda had a funny knack for finding just what she needed when she did. Tempest was glad that at a time like this her 'knack' had not failed her. Don't suppose you got a line and hook there too? she asked with a smile, if they had such they could leave the lines trailing whilst they rowed she thought wishfully.

She trailed her hand in the water a moment looking about thoughtfully. She closed her eyes and turned her head slightly, noting the feel of the breeze on her skin as a soft caress which caused the corners of her lips to curl. I'd say from the current and wind we're likely been pushed northish at the moment. she said as she opened her storm green eyes tucking a stray strand of dark hair behind her ear.