Freeport Campaign

The Four Gulls return Porttown’s missing children and gain a tiny bit of insight about Spike’s mother.

More flavor text to follow…

Spike learns more about his father’s history.

More flavor text to follow…

After several hours of negotiations aboard the Primrose, all of the captains and other surviving officers involved in the day’s battle reached an agreement regarding the status of the various crews and ships gathered on the same featureless spot of ocean. The Montaigne ambassador who had been sailing back from Freeport, along with his retinue, would remain Castillan prisoners of war. All captured officers on both sides would likewise remain prisoners, but captured crewmen stranded by the sinking of their vessels would be returned to their respective nations. The Crimson Fleet officers would remain prisoners of Montaigne, given their action against that nation’s ships, but Crimson Fleet sailors and prisoners would be escorted by the Four Gulls crews to the nearest port and given the choice whether to go ashore or remain in the employ of the Four Gulls captains.

With the negotiations concluded, Richard, Spike, Chow, and Balama pulled the Castille and Montaigne captains aside individually and discreetly to warn them about the Crimson Fleet, whose suspected involvement in sinister and dangerous cult-related schemes posed a direct threat to all of the nations in this region of the world. The captains responded with varying degrees of interest, skepticism, and trepidation, but most agreed to pass the information up the chain of command.

While the Montaigne and Castillan officers and prisoners and boarded their respective vessels, the Four Gulls captains and senior officers began interviewing the Crimson Fleet survivors, looking for potential crewmen or potential adversaries. Many of the crew described themselves as “loyal Garwater men” and opted to be put ashore at the next port, while several others seemed interested in joining up with the Four Gulls enterprise.

This series of interviews yielded a fair amount of information about the Armada’s remote operations. The two ships had split off from a larger task force that had been assigned to canvass this region of the world for new vessels, crew, and supplies and return them to the Armada. These two particular ships had successfully raided three Innismore fishing villages, shanghaied several new crewmen, and made off with holds full of timber, dirt to replenish Armada’s limited gardens, peat, food, and every book to be found in the villages.

Among the group of shanghaied sailors, Spike recognized a very familiar face – his brother, James Marlin, Jr. The older Marlin brother expressed a bit of surprise at the younger brother’s apparent good fortune in having become a captain, while Spike registered almost no surprise to see James mixed up with the Crimson Fleet, and missing an eye to boot. The two retired to Spike’s cabin to discuss the Marlin family’s current situation, which had been tense to the point of violence when Spike had left three years previous.

James reported that after the last fistfight between Spike and their drunken dad, and Spike’s subsequent departure, the old man had sunk even further into the bottle, railing against Spike, the town, Lord Cedrik, and any number of other perceived causes for his miserable lot in life and the family’s diminished (and still diminishing) fortunes. James had followed the old man’s example, and the family fishing boat went out less and less often. The family had sold off most of their possessions except the house by the time the elder Marlin completely gave up fishing about three or four months ago.

More flavor text to follow…

While sailing toward Avalon, the Primrose and the Sea Wind entered a large bank of fog in the cooler northern waters. When they emerged a few hours later, the lookouts on the two ships noted no fewer than nine ships arrayed to the north. It looked like two large Castillan ships were pursuing three smaller Montaigne vessels on an easterly course, while two large Montaigne ships sailed west to intercept. A pair of Crimson Fleet ships entered the fray from the north, and the Four Gulls captains decided to skirt clockwise around the furball.

The Crimson Fleet captains temporarily allied themselves with the outnumbered Castillans, and their combined force immobilized two of the three smaller Montaigne ships in short order. Even so, the Montaigne captains fought back, sending ballista bolts into the Crimson Fleet ships and eventually sinking both of them.

As the larger Montaigne ships approached, the Castillans warned them to back off, signaling that the Montaigne in their ships’ boats were prisoners of war and would be taken aboard the Castillan vessels as such. The massive Montaigne ships pulled alongside the Castillan ships and opened fire, while the Four Gulls crews quietly began assisting the Crimson Fleet survivors floating north of the main fight.

Even more quietly, Richard retired to his cabin. He used his magical bowl to summon a massive water elemental, which he tasked to suspend one of the sinking Crimson Fleet ships right around the layer of the ocean where the sunlight faded enough to obscure the vessel from any potential viewers floating on the surface.

While the Four Gulls/Crimson Fleet rescue operation was still underway, the opposing Castillan and Montaigne naval forces traded fire until Spike signaled an offer for the Four Gulls personnel to act as disinterested third-party hosts and negotiators to bring the situation to as equitable an end as possible. After quick discussions with their respective senior officers, all of the assembled captains agreed and checked their hostilities.