Waves Breaking, Chapter Two
Taken Aboard
A man with a grim face brought Harrow below deck and showed him his ‘quarters’, a piece of cloth tied at each end that he’d sleep in each night, like every other crew member. He found his dirk and rapier there as well.
“That’s an interesting dagger,” the man said. “You Ironsworn?” He asked.
Harrow shrugged. “Maybe I was, at one time.”
“Don’t let the captain find out. He’ll make you swear an Iron Vow and then you’ll be stuck here.”
Harrow put out his hand for the man to shake. “Name’s Harrow, as much as I know. What’s yours?”
The man shook Harrow’s hand with his right, and Harrow noticed for the first time, the man was missing his left hand. “Kaito Bane, but most call me Sharkslayer.”
“Is that how you…?” Harrow asked, looking at Kaito’s missing hand.
“Damn right. It got my hand but I stabbed it between the eyes and killed it.”
“You’re a good man to know, then,” Harrow said. “I appreciate your help.”1
“It don’t come free, unfortunately,” Kaito said. “You’re going to need my help around here, but I’m going to need you to do something for me.”
“What’s that?”
“I don’t get along with everyone and I want you to watch my back. Some aren’t going to like you, either, new and all.
“So we watch each other’s back,” Harrow said.
“You get it, now swear on your iron blade,” Kaito said.
Harrow drew the dirk from its sheath. Long and sharp, a well-made blade. He held the blade in front of his face. This felt familiar. “On this blade, I swear to protect you, Kaito Bane.”2
Protect you from what? What am I getting myself into?
“I accept,” Kaito said and grinned, showing a smile with missing teeth. “Welcome aboard The Swiftsure.”
New here? Read this.
With food, water and sleep, Harrow slowly felt like a person again. He worked with the crew and maintained the ship as best he could. He was no expert shipwright, but he knew enough to get by.
Hammond had sent almost half his crew to Harrow’s ship and it followed in the wake of The Swiftsure. Hammond seemed pleased with the acquisition.
Harrow noticed dark looks sent his way but tried his best to ignore them and keep to his own. He didn’t need trouble.
At night, he dreamt of cold depths, dark shapes in the deep, and heard the breaking of wood.
Kaito told him Hammond was chasing an enemy ship, members of the Sacred Harbingers, a religious organization that dominated these waters.
Harrow kept waiting for memories to return. Just his name, even. He lay awake at night, trying to force himself to remember, to think. He woke each morning after troubling, vague dreams, but no memories.
One night, Harrow came across a couple sailors accosting Kaito in the hold and remembered his Vow.
“Hey, what’s going on over here?” he asked, moving closer.
Three men faced Kaito, hands on hilts and angry faces. One turned to Harrow. “None of your business, new blood. Take a walk.”
Harrow put his own hands on his weapons. “No, I don’t think I will.” He started at them, calmly. “Leave him be.”3
The men looked at each other for a moment. The one who spoke spat on the floor and walked away, his two buddies following him.
Kaito waited for them to be out of sight before letting out a breath and releasing his grip on his revolver. “Thank you for that.”4
“You can thank me by telling me what their problem is with you,” Harrow said.
Kaito glanced around, making sure they were alone, and whispered. “There’s factions on the ship. Some of us want things done a different way. That’s all I’ll say for now.” He walked by and then stopped, glancing back. “You show me I can trust you, you’ll know more.”
“Ship sighted!” The call came from the crow’s nest.
Hammond was at the railing, spyglass over his eye. “That’s them, alright.” He shut it with a snap and growled out orders. “Close in and engage, get the cannons ready! We’ll hit them with both ships!”
The crew went to work, running about the ship as Captain Hammond yelled orders.
A fog drifted in, dense and difficult to parse, blocking view of the enemy ship.
“Curse this fog!” Hammond yelled.
Minutes passed with eyes watching every angle, wondering if the ship had fled or was somewhere lurking.
“There!” One of the crew shouted, pointing, a dark shape emerging from the fog nearby.
It had a large imposing figurehead of a cloaked man spouting from the prow and lanterns hung from the sides of the ship.
The flag it flew was blood-red, with a white, foreboding skeleton on it.
“Bring ‘er around!” Hammond yelled. “Fire the cannons!”
The ships engaged, firing cannons at each other. Booms echoed. Wood splintered. Men yelled and ran, this way and that.
Harrow huddled behind some barrels, his hands shaking. This too, felt familiar. The crack of wood as cannonball struck the hull. The scream of men in pain when they were struck. He closed his eyes, shaking his head and murmuring to himself.
“Close in! Close in! Board them!” Hammond yelled.
Harrow felt himself pulled up. “Get up and at ‘em,” Kaito said, snarling. “Or you’ll lose all respect ye’ve gained so far.” He pushed Harrow towards the railing.
The ships were alongside, grappling hooks set and pulled tight.
Hammond had a blade out, pointing to the enemy, yelling at his men to board.
Harrow joined the throngs, running across, leaping to the deck of the other ship and drawing his blades. Gunfire cracked, men screamed, blades rang off each other, blood splattered.
This too, felt familiar. Harrow found himself squaring off against one of the enemies, another sailor wielding a scimitar, with an eye patch and a gruesome smile. 5
Harrow exchanged blows, the blades clanging off each other, with Harrow clearly gaining the upper hand, putting the sailor back.
Harrow felt a surge of adrenaline. He liked this. This felt good. He grinned and attacked.6
He knocked the opponent’s blade away before thrusting with his dirk, catching the sailor in the gut.
The sailor backed away, clutching his stomach and falling to one knee.
Harrow was ready to press his advantage when he was slammed into by another body, enemy or ally, he didn’t know. He was thrown forward to the deck, his weapons dropped.
His opponent came forward, bring his blade up. Harrow pushed himself up and tackled the sailor.7
Harrow took the man to the wood and started punching, fist slamming into the man’s face.8
The man stopped moving.
Harrow grabbed the man’s sword and stood, ready to continue. He saw another enemy and charged, his blood pumping.9 In flash, he’d disarmed the man and run him through, sticking the blade in deep. The man fell and Harrow took a couple deep breaths, looking around.
The Sacred Harbringers were dropping their weapons and surrendering.
Corpses lay over the deck, shot or stabbed, blood pooling beneath.
All he could smell was gun smoke.
It was all too familiar, a dream made real.
Or a nightmare.
The Harbinger’s ship was looted and then burned, with the Harbingers who’d surrendered left on board.
Harrow noticed his fellow crew member’s faces, looking at the Captain. No love or respect in those eyes.
Harrow found Kaito after the battle, down in the hold drinking a bottle.
“Quite a battle, ey? You held up pretty well out there. Have a drink,” Kaito said.
Harrow took a swig from the bottle, burning his throat, then took another. “This ain’t going to last and you know it,” Harrow said, handing the bottle back.
Kaito didn’t seem surprised by the words. He didn’t respond but took another drink.
Harrow crouched down by him, lowering his voice. “There’s going to be a mutiny, ain’t there?”
“There’s factions ‘ere, alright?” Kaito said. “Most of the crew agree, Hammond needs to go. We were told we’d find riches in these waters, in colonizing these lands, in killing those religious nuts, but truth is we’re outclassed. The Harbingers are dominant in these waters and they fight like mad. We got lucky today, but the crew want done with Hammond. What we can’t agree on is who replaces him.”
“That’s why some want you dead?”
Kaito shrugged. “Hammond’s time will soon be over and someone else wants to step up. Bill, goes by ‘Timbers’, thinks it’s his time and he’s got a good portion of the crew on his side. He’s a cruel man, rules by fear and intimidation. He thinks I’m in the way, because some want me to be captain.”
“You don’t want to be captain?”
Kaito spat on the floor. “Hell no! I don’t need that responsibility.”
“What is it you do want?” Harrow asked.
Kaito took a long drink and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand before answering. “I want to serve a captain whose worth a damn. One who isn’t fighting some stupid war of colonization and also isn’t a spiritual psycho.”
Harrow grabbed the bottle out of Kaito’s hand and took another drink. After a moment, he spoke. “I’ve been a captain.”
Kaito looked at him. “You remember?”
Harrow shrugged. “I know I’ve been one. I know what to do…but I don’t remember my ship or my crew. It’s all lost to the waves. I don’t know if it’s ever coming back.” He handed the bottle back and walked away.
Hammond kept most of the loot taken in his office, claiming he needed to bring it back to the Supremacy and that all crew members would be compensated after.
The crew didn’t like that.
Something was going to happen soon.
Kaito pulled him out of bed one night and they spoke in the cargo hold.
“You could be captain,” Kaito said.
“I don’t even remember who I am,” Harrow snapped back.
“You can’t be any worse than Bill or Hammond,” Kaito said.
“You don’t know that. I woke up with no crew and no ship. How good of a captain can I be?”
“Better than the alternative. If I support you, some will follow.”
Harrow shook his head but didn’t answer. He walked away.
“You don’t have long to decide,” Kaito called after him.
The weather was fair, sun shining but the wind was low.
They approached a small island, an arid waste of rolling dunes.
There was a seaside camp, cook fires and tents, a dozen or so people moving about.
There was another island in sight, in the distance.
As the ship approached the island, the wind died down. The sound of the waves disappeared. There was an eerie dead calm as the ship listed about.
Captain Hammond stood at the railing, using his spyglass to check out the camp and island, unaware of Bill ‘Timbers’ coming up behind him, revolver in hand.
Hammond turned to find the barrel of the gun pointed at his face. He sputtered, indignant.
“You are relieved of your command!” Bill growled.
“This is preposterous! You will do your duty to the Supremacy or you will be hanged in accordance to the laws!”
Bill fired.
Hammond rocked backward into and over the railing, his corpse falling into the sea.
Bill drew his sword and raised it in the air, turning to face the rest of the crew. “I’m the captain now!” Some of the crew cheered while others looked at each other.
Kaito looked at Harrow.
Do I even want to be captain?
Harrow hesitated.
“Not so fast, Bill,” Kaito called out, emerging from the crowd. “Even pirates have a code. You don’t kill a man without giving him a chance to defend himself.”
“Fuck your code,” Bill said, pointing blade in Kaito’s direction. “I’m taking command. If anyone doesn’t like it…” He nodded his head behind him at the railing. “They can join Hammond.”
“It doesn’t have to be like this,” Harrow said, pushing forward, hands raised. “There’s two ships. We split up. Those who follow you stay with you. Those who don’t want to take the other ship. We go out separate ways. Nobody needs to die.”
Bill chuckled. “And who’s going to take command of that ship? You? A no name with no memory?”
“It doesn’t matter,” Harrow said. “Let those who want to leave, go.”10
“Fine,” Bill said. “You can leave…as long as Kaito stays.”
At this point, crew members started to shift to one side or the other, supporting Bill or staying with Kaito, and drawing their weapons.
More moved to Bill’s side.
“No,” Harrow said, drawing his dirk and rapier. “But nobody else needs to die this day. I challenge you, Bill, to a duel.”
Bill smirked, handing off his revolver and drawing a dagger in his left hand.
The crew moved to form an open circle in the center of the ship, Bill and Harrow at opposite ends.
End Chapter Two
Things are really getting going now! I did want to say that most everything is generated using Sundered Isles Oracles, but I’m not including the dice rolling and results mechanically because it just doesn’t feel necessary. I want to keep the fiction and narrative distinct from the mechanics which is why I’m using Footnotes as a tool.
I do want to apologize for the inconsistent posting. Work has been extremely stressful and exhausting lately. No post next week as I am going away on a school field trip to DC which will be equal parts fun and exhausting.
I hope you are enjoying the story! Let me know what you think in the comments.
My playing and writing will always be available for free, but if you enjoy what I write and would be willing, please consider upgrading to a paid subscription which allows you to vote on the tools/games I play. If that’s too much commitment, you can also just buy me a coffee.
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Check out the Table of Contents for previous games I’ve played as well as other stuff I’ve written.
Make a Connection + Heart = 5 vs (10,2) → Weak Hit. Rank: Troublesome. Role: Deckhand. Complication. Character Goal: Action+Theme → Defend Honor
Swear an Iron Vow + Iron + Connection = 5 vs 4,5 → Weak Hit. +1 momentum. More questions than answers. Vow rank: Troublesome
Compel + Iron = 9 vs 1,7 → Strong Hit.
Mark Progress on Vow: Protect Kaito. (3/10) Mark Progress on Connection: Kaito (3/10)
Enter The Fray + Iron = 8 vs 8,4 → Weak Hit. Choose ‘I am in control’. Objective: Defeat this sailor. Rank: Troublesome (0/10)
Strike + Iron + Cutthroat = 6 vs 9,5 → Weak Hit. Mark Progress Twice but in a bad spot. (Progress: 6/10)
React Under Fire + Iron = 8 vs 7,3 → Weak Hit. Succeed, in control. +1 momentum.
Take Decisive Action: Progress: 6 vs 2,3 → Strong Hit. Prevail. Take +1 momentum
Battle + Iron: 7 vs 2,2 → Strong Hit + Match. Triggers Jinx. Clears Impact. Mark tick on Bonds legacy track. Achieve objective unconditionally. +2 momentum.
Compel + Heart: 4 vs 6,9 → Miss.
Another good chapter. Looking forward to more.
Hey,
I really enjoy this new story and am excited about reading how it continues. Using footnotes for the mechanical aspects fits this quite well and it is nice to have a continuous fictional flow.
How do you like the Oracles so far?
I play Star Forged with a friend of mine and we decided to use the Sundred Isles Oracles in our game for an expedition on a planet and for now they seem really nice and fitting.
Have fun on your field trip.