Our party are:
- Corwin: a curious fellow and agent of old Bes
- Hector: a former slave with a painted face who wields magic through his poppet
- Montague: a dashing young fellow with a romantic notion of life at sea
- Ole Yardley: a crazed old sailor who looks and smells like he should be dead
- William: a man of means with a taste for the sweet life
Corwin and Montague have most success here, with Billy becoming the crew mate all the others love to mock and Hector earning a wary respect for his mysterious powers. As time wears on the party are assigned every dirty and dangerous deed that needs performing by the crew and it becomes apparent that there’s mutual dislike between the party and the taskmaster duo of Mr Plugg and Master Scourge.
After 19 days at sea sails are spotted on the horizon and the Wormwood begins pursuit. The Captain and his officers come on deck to make plans and Riaris Krine, the ship’s master gunner – who recently taught the party how to board an enemy vessel, assigns them the task of securing the target ship’s wheel and boats in the battle ahead. The party handle themselves commendably during the boarding and their actions earn them acknowledgement from the captain, as well as a generous portion of treasure – including a magical boarding pike.
The crew of the Wormwood celebrate through the night and well into the next day. Captain Harrigan calls the crew to order as he drafts as many of the captured sailors as possible and splits his crew. The new recruits sail with Harrigan to their original destination whilst the old hands take the newly captured Man’s Promise under Mr Plugg to Port Peril in order to sell it.
Plugg is even harsher without Harrigan around and with the abolition of rum rations and entertainment the entire crew, outside of his most loyal supporters, begin to consider mutiny and encourage the party to overthrow Plugg.
The party gather in the galley with their trusted allies, Sandara Quinn and Ambrose Kroop, and discuss their plans to throw off the yoke of oppression once the opportunity arises.
That night a storm wakes the crew in the early hours and all hands are put to keeping the sails, masts and ultimately the Wormwood safe. It’s a long, tiring and perilous night and after a brief lapse the storms intensity grows and simultaneously the party find themselves under attack from strange creatures with a goblinoid torso on octopus limbs.
Easily dispatching their foes the party are able to return focus to the ship as the storm seems to abate. Everyone breathes a sigh of relief before they realise that the storm has tossed them too close to an island shore and the next thing they know the ship has been holed as it crunches onto a reef.
Taking a roll call Mr Plugg is unmoved when two of the crew, Sandara Quinn and Rosie Cusswell, appear to be missing. However it’s much harder for him to ignore that the water barrel was also holed in the collision and the crew are perilously low on supplies. The party are ordered ashore to collect water and supplies whilst the rest of the crew repair the Man’s Promise. If the party haven’t returned by the time the repairs are complete the ship will sail without them. They have 48hours to find water and rescue their crew mates.