[IC] Slave ship wrecked

[Hundsgugel]

Szandor looked up towards the stormragged clouds. 'Well thats what you get for beeing a humanist on a bloody slaveboat!', he thought to himself.
Short after this heathen storm had hit the Eel and ripped her sails to shreds, he decided sailor or not he wouldn't let those poor slave bastards drown in the ship's hull. Szandor took one of the boarding axes and snuck down the sterns' storage area to break the chain locks and relase those poor souls.
Sadly good intentions didn't save Szandor as Ulric caught him and brought him before the captain. The bastards even took the time to let him walk the plank in this bloody hellstorm.
Szandor looked around. Well he was on dry land now, the gods know how. Only the unnatural bend of his right arm worried him. 'Probably broken', he thought but his senses where numbed by the hypothermia. He pulled himself on shaky legs.
"Better find some high ground", he whispered to himself, "if those bastards find me again I will have to perform a hangman's jig between the leaves of the next tree I reckon."
Slowly he climbed a small cliff and moved into the jungle. Almost mad with thirst Szandor aimlessly stumbled onward. But then he heard voices in a strange dialect. Those wheren't kingsmen, those where slaves or natives! Allies! Probably only a couple of feet away!
"Wait!", Szandor cried out and fell onto his knees.

[Kelewen]

While she didn't have the same urge to go punch the elder that Oliver did, Brinley felt a similar sense of despair. Fleeing the slave ship had been nothing but a futile gesture that would earn her nothing but perhaps a lashing. She clasped her hands together to keep them from shaking.

But then... "Ships traveling away?" she repeated, almost in disbelief. Dare she hope again? "Which way does the river flow?" she asked, then realizing the "game", added: "... so that we may avoid it."

"Wait!" The cry rang out from not far away... just outside the ring of huts in the foliage.

"It's them!" Brinley cried in dismay, not realizing it was the sailor that had broken them free. "Run!"

[Oliver]

A small boy of no older than seven had followed the group through the jungle. He was no slave, but a cabin boy from aboard the ship. Why he'd chosen to desert was a mystery, but it likely had to do with the constant harrowing abuse faced by the younger crew members. The fair-faced boy tucked a lock of brown hair behind his ear, his hat cocked to the left. He hadn't made his presence known just yet, following the group until they came to what seemed to be a group of natives to wherever they'd come across. He listened silently as they talked, standing a few yards away from the group of slaves.

upload jpg

[DriveEMOut]

Oliver stopped resisting the albino's grip and sighed, getting up. He found a patch of dirt, and starting writing with his stick. 'Captors kill us? Or beating? Scared.' He drew a little frowny face by the last word, and looked at the others. He wrote one final word. 'End?' He had to write it small to fit it, so it looked strange, but it was easy to understand.

[Hundsgugel]

Szandor forced himself back on his feet and stumbled on towards the noise and the light. And then he stood in the middle of a small village surrounded by natives with spears. He suddenly remembered that he still wore his torn sailor's uniform. "No! Please!", he screamed hoarsley raising his left arm while his right dangled lifeless by his side. Panic striken Szandor looked around and recognised a small group of slaves accompanied by one of the cabin boys from the ship standing in the entrance of a big hut. "You please, I can help you.", he said more silent.
Szandor bowed his head as the pain caught up with him and saw his reflection in a puddle. His blond hair was blood encrustet and his thin muscular body was tattered and torn showing hundreds of small wounds and scratches. His pale face was a crass contrast to his steel blue eyes. 'I must look like death to them', he thought to himself.

[Oliver]

The little cabin boy turned around as he heard a yell, only to see a bloodied man wearing the same sailor's uniform he wore himself. His big blue eyes widened in surprise. The slaves likely didn't know he'd followed them yet. Would it be worth it to give himself away to save this injured man? They'd likely heard him too...
The boy, Toby, decided against answering the man, ducking into the trees to avoid being seen by any of the slaves. All that was visible of him was his tiny, frail shadow up against the dead tree behind him.

[Kelewen]

When the others didn't run, Brinley paused long enough to realize the man was the very same one that broken their chains just hours before. She hadn't recognized him immediately as it had been fairly dark in the hull of the ship, plus he had been in significantly better shape earlier.

"Oh! Sir," she said. The 'sir' felt awkward, but she didn't know how else to address him. She stepped forward, "I thought for sure when Ulric caught you that... that he would kill you for helping us. We owe you a great debt."

When she glanced down she saw Oliver scratching in the dirt and looked closer at his message. "Not if we can get to those ships," she said determinedly.

[DriveEMOut]

Oliver smiled and gave a thumbs-up. Seeing the man who had freed them, he hugged him, ignoring the blood. His eyes lit up, and he started writing again. After a while, what was the final product said this. 'Come with us? Nice sailor! :) Need help? How bad are wounds?' He pointed at it urgently, wanting to know the situation here.

[Marcus XVI]

Well that had gone damn magnificently! Just damn magnificently. Well, working with slavers always had it's own little troubles, but usually you didn't need to worry about shipwrecks... Not unless you happen to be ON the DAMN ship when a damn storm hits. The tall man quivered from head to toe with barely restrained anger while adjusting a dwarven made monocle over his left eye. Even his very well waxed mustache quivered with rage. He had been assured that nothing would go wrong. NOTHING. WOULD. GO. WRONG.

The fellow was of noble birth, though a noble still he was now in his mid 40's - he was a duke to be exact, Duke Alexander Blackwood to be even more exact and boy he was furious. He'd get the slaves back even if he'd have to cripple most of them to do it. At this point his anger had really put him to the point that just bringing the slaves back - be they alive or dead - was the only thing in his mind.

Across his back was a long barreled musket, finest dwarven craftsmanship money could buy - and boy did he have money to spend after the... unfortunate fishing accident his father had ended up in. One of the slower and stupider sailors had already met one of his sidearms - an equally well made dwarven blunderbuss pistol. Ofcourse the Duke had immediately made sure the fellow would get a proper burial... In an unmarked grave in the middle of nowhere, but a burial at least. Meticulously the tall nobleman reloaded the pistol and returned it to the holster hanging from his belt opposite of a saber. "No Duke Blackwood, nothing will go wrong." His fingers twitched slightly as he motioned the ten men of his personal guard in their dark green and gray uniforms, who still were in fighting condition to follow him while the rest would guard the ship. "Ulric and his damn bunch of missfits has a healthy headstart on us. Better catch up to him." He glanced over his shoulder at one of the men who were not in condition to fight, but was at least helping the others stay alive. "Tell the captain that I will have words with him after this whole thing is said and done." The duke and his small - though unnervingly well armed - group began following the trail of both the slaves and Ulric's group. It had to be at least said that though Alexander Blackwood was feeling older by the day he still had all the youthful energy of a man 20 years younger - not to mention he was still an expert tracker.

[Hundsgugel]

Szandor was startled by the clear voice of the girl and looked her in the eyes.

@Kelewen "They certainly tried to kill me. Only the gods know why they haven't succeed. But you don't need to thank me sweetheart, I did it for myself. Wasn't a proper slaver to begin with. Just wanted to sail home."

He forced his face to a smile but in his current condition it rather looked like him baring his teeth. Then the young boy in the group ran forward and hugged Szandor hightening the pain for a second. Szandor looked at what the boy was scribbeling on the ground.

@DriveEmOut "I think my arm is broken boy. But nothing a proper splint and some rum will heal with time I reckon. And I still got a fine working pair of legs. Won't do us much good for getting of this bloody island though. Would need some finns for that."

After this quick discourse his throat felt like sandpaper. He looked to the natives still surounding him. "Can I bother any of you fine gentleman for a cup of water?", he asked.

[xChrome]

The natives stared at the man as he looked at them, they couldn't understand a word he said. Snake vaguely understood what he said, but he held his spear tightly with distrust, he wasn't sure whether this bloodied man can be trusted. He looked to Gregor and Willow, waiting for their answer as he believed them to be the wiser of the bunch.

The elder heard the commotion going on outside his house and stormed out the door. "Did I not make myself clear that all of you are to leave this instant!? But instead you brought another man here, a bloody sailor no less! If he could track you, I'm sure the other slavers aren't too far behind." The elder stared at the man furiously. "Leave now, or I will be forced to present all of you to the slavers in a rope.", said the elder without the guilt he felt before.

Then the elder spoke in the natives' tongue, "Ready the men, we're expecting visitors."

[Nikki Moonlight]

@xChrome@Hundsgugel@DriveEMOut@Kelewen@Gentlemanvaultboy

Willow said, "We're grateful you helped us escape, but we all need to go now!" She began walking toward the river. "Hurry now!" she called.

[Gentlemanvaultboy]

"Yep." Gregor said, "Can't even stop to eat. Snake!" He called over to their guide. "Where is that river we should so desperately avoid?" He put his arms out and waved them in the fluid motions of a babbling brook, the pointed at Water Snake, then pointed at the jungle. "No time to lose now. Ulric even now must be hot on our trail.

---

"I'll be damned if that's not a human face." Dinah said looking down at the perfect imprint of Brinly's face from where she'd fallen in the mud. "It's weird. Perfect. Look at that. That!" She said, pointing to the eyes and lips of the person. "I swear you can read the fear. This is frikin' art's what this is. This belongs in a museum."

"Either a' you recognize this one?" she asked. "She one of the special stock or what?"

[Oliver]

Toby followed the group, the small boy moving quickly and quietly so as not to be spotted. He didn't think the slaves would be too keen on him following along. After all, whatever they were doing, having a child along would probably make it harder. That is, it would seem like that to someone who didn't know Toby. The tiny child used to be a pickpocket in the streets before he got arrested and forced into work aboard the ships. He's survived a good year on his own.
Toby was hoping the slaves would be able to lead him back to proper civilization, whether they wanted to or not. He doubted they wanted to stay in the jungle forever.

[Kelewen]

Ulric narrowed his eyes, picturing each of the four escaped slaves. He'd been involved in collecting many of them in the first place. He was fairly certain the face print wasn't of the albino girl, so it must be the other. "This one was rather unremarkable," he commented as he examined the ground a few moments longer, noting by the tracks in the soft earth how the others had turned and come back to aid this girl.

"A man, perhaps her uncle, sold her to the captain in Port Harwick." Had it not been for the fact that they didn't normally collect slaves from the area in and around Port Harwick, Ulric might not even have remembered the girl. The local lord there employed a strong home guard that served as a deterrent for the snatch and grab tactics. "A drunkard paying off a gambling debt, if I remember rightly," he shook his head with disdain for such an individual.

"You captured one of the others we hunt, didn't you?" he asked Dinah as they continued down the trail that lead to the swampy lowland.

---

Anxious to not anger the village elder further, Brinley hurried after Willow, not even waiting to hear the answer about which direction to the river. The albino girl seemed to be certain of the direction to head and even if it wasn't right, they could always correct it once they were out of range of the natives and the threat of being handed back to Ulric in ropes.

[xChrome]

Snake understood Gregor's motions, he quickly led the slaves to the river and pointed at which direction to go. "We keep going, until find boat" he said, he wasn't looking forward to tying up his new found companions.

Meanwhile, about a dozen or so village men were armed and ready. They were large and muscular and had signs that they had seen previous combat. "Some of you go ahead and scout for the slavers, remain hidden in the trees. The rest standby but stay at ease, we do not want to appear to be a threat to our visitors." commanded the elder. "Everyone else, go about your business, it will all be over soon."

[Hundsgugel]

After the elder had talked to the other villagers in a language Szandor didn't understand, the natives moved back from him and where busying themselfes with other tasks.

Szandor took the mute boy in front of him by the hand
@DriveEmOut "We should follow your friends", he said to him and hurried to catch up to the rest of the group.

He reached them as they ran besides a riverbank the young native pointed downwards and said something about a boat. Szandors heart skipped a beat. Was there really a boat somewhere? Was there the posibility to get of this island? Szandor tried to remember the sea chart the ship's navigator always had laid out on deck while calculating their route. He was almost certain that there where at least 4 or 5 islands within a days sail but the intense pain of his right arm made it extremely hard to concentrate.

[Nikki Moonlight]

@Kelewen

John followed Ulric and he whistled a soft tune. He saw some tracks that led further inland. "Sir, found something!"

@xChrome

Willow gently took Water Snake's hand. Her touch was gentle yet firm. "Thank you so much." she smiled softly and then let go of him, her normally snow white cheeks light pink now. She began to walk where the river flowed.

[DriveEMOut]

Oliver looked at the man holding his hand and grinned, but took his hand out from his. He scratched in the mud his name again, and pulled on the man's sleeve. He pointed at the name, and then at him. He watched the others, and started to write. 'Water lizards in river. Eat us?' @Hundsgugel

[Gentlemanvaultboy]

"They're pussy cats so long as you don't get too close to the water." Gregor said, bringing up the rear of the group. "Shovkingly lazy creature, except when they're suddenly not. They're not goning to run us down." He looked down at his feet. "Probably better not to walk near the bank in any case. Footprints and some such."

---

"The boy." Dinah said. "No clue why anyone'd want him. Waste a' my skills. Didn't even have ta' use the hook."