He took a deep breath, closed his eyes, and complied. It was a long night, but by the end of it the worst of his wounds were treated and covered with makeshift bandages, and they had the beginnings of a plan.
Hours turned into days, days turned into weeks, weeks turned into months. After two months at sea, Robert's beard and hair had grown long and unruly, and he'd lost a fair bit of weight - some from sickness, but mostly from poor nutrition. The worst of his sickness passed in the first two weeks, and he was able to regain enough of his strength. A month in he dared to strike the dwarf in response to his taunts and was promptly dragged out and beaten for it, then thrown back into the bilges an hour later...but that dwarf did not return, replaced by someone else, a she-dwarf this time, with a - however marginally - less cruel disposition. They forced him to work, and on his days out, he returned armed with more knowledge than before, sharing with Kor his observations regarding the numbers and strength of the crew, a few looks at their spark-wands, and the Tempest-Runner themselves, who now sported an eyepatch. Whatever passed for medicine on board this ship had been unable to save the eye. Slowly too he picked up bits of the language, and understood that they were attempting to groom him to pass as a better slave when arriving at port. He played along.
For Kor's part, he played the part of a motionless wreck of structural value but little more. Though pirates coming down to check on the bilges occasionally spared him a second glance, thinking for a moment he might be in a different position than yesterday, over and over they managed to convince themselves it was a trick of the light.
Finally, sixty-three days into the harrow, the ship dropped anchor at its destination, the Port of Crying Coves. The pirates returned to the bilges this time in greater numbers than usual, and seemingly trusted in their training thus far to bind Robert's wrists only with rope. For Kor's part, they brought a large fishing net and attempted to throw it over his wreck, with intent to drag the 'scrapheap' up to the deck.
Edit History
He took a deep breath, closed his eyes, and complied. It was a long night, but by the end of it the worst of his wounds were treated and covered with makeshift bandages, and they had the beginnings of a plan.
Hours turned into days, days turned into weeks, weeks turned into months. After two months at sea, Robert's beard and hair had grown long and unruly, and he'd lost a fair bit of weight - some from sickness, but mostly from poor nutrition. The worst of his sickness passed in the first two weeks, and he was able to regain enough of his strength. A month in he dared to strike the dwarf in response to his taunts and was promptly dragged out and beaten for it, then thrown back into the bilges an hour later...but that dwarf did not return, replaced by someone else, a she-dwarf this time, with a - however marginally - less cruel disposition. They forced him to work, and on his days out, he returned armed with more knowledge than before, sharing with Kor his observations regarding the numbers and strength of the crew, a few looks at their spark-wands, and the Tempest-Runner themselves, who now sported an eyepatch. Whatever passed for medicine on board this ship had been unable to save the eye. Slowly too he picked up bits of the language, and understood that they were attempting to groom him to pass as a better slave when arriving at port. He played along.
For Kor's part, he played the part of a motionless wreck of structural value but little more. Though pirates coming down to check on the bilges occasionally spared him a second glance, thinking for a moment he might be in a different position than yesterday, over and over they managed to convince themselves it was a trick of the light.
Finally, sixty-three days into the harrow, the ship dropped anchor at its destination, the Port of Crying Coves. The pirates returned to the bilges this time in greater numbers than usual, and seemingly trusted in their training thus far to bind Robert's wrists only with rope. For Kor's part, they brought a large burlap sack and attempted to throw it over his wreck, with intent to drag the 'scrapheap' up to the deck.