Pirate Ship Mafia III - information and summary thread

[GeneralHankerchief]

Note: This thread is to only be used by the game host (GeneralHankerchief) to lodge the game rules and notable posts.

Happy International Talk Like a Pirate Day, everyone! After a three year wait, Pirate Ship Mafia III is finally here! Let's get right to it.

Nassau, three years earlier:

Two figures met on a small hilltop that marked the highest point on the island. A rough wooden cross, about a foot high, was stuck into the ground.

"It's been a while," said the first figure, moving to shake the second figure's hand. "How be life treatin' ye?"

"They killed my consort," the second figure, the Frenchman, said, motioning to the cross on the ground. "Right near the start. We didn't have enough time to do anything. I loved her, I truly did."

"Ah, I be sorry about that, matey."

"I'm sure it will pass," the Frenchman said. "Maybe you'll have to tell me one of your stories to cheer me up, but some other time. How about you? How fares business?"

The first figure sighed. "Business be tough. We mortal folk can't just go raidin' some Treasure Fleet every time we feel like it. The navies be crackin' down everywhere, you know that."

"So then, you should be happy that I have a contract for you, yes?" The Frenchman leaned in closer. "This wouldn't be an attack against any colonial power, so there will be little risk of a ship of the line coming in and leveling its guns at your boat. What do you say, are the men of the Maven up for it?"

The Captain of the Maven paused. "What be the target?"

"I'm done playing around," the Frenchman said. "I want the Presence."

--------------

May 23, 1723
Aboard the Presence

Nassau had traditionally been the Presence’s home base, but it did have a few other places it was allowed to dock. New Tortuga was one of these. Built only a couple of years before, due largely thanks to the small uptick in piracy (of which the Presence and its exploits played a good part), the island settlement off the northern coast of Hispaniola quickly became home to all sorts of folk of less-than-upstanding persuasion. The settlement grew, more money was poured into it, and soon New Tortuga became a bustling pirate haven.

The problem with boomtowns, of course, is that they inevitably went bust.

Such was to be the fate of New Tortuga. On one fine late spring’s day in 1723, the usual merriment and mayhem was interrupted by a couple of sailors racing from building to building, all shouting the same piece of news: “The French Navy is on its way! The French Navy is on its way! La Royale is coming!”

Of course it would come to this. Everyone knew that the French would not be happy with pirates encroaching on their territory, especially not with the period of relative peace that Europe was currently enjoying. It was only a matter of time before they came in and reasserted their authority, much as they did with the original Tortuga after 1684. With this knowledge of the inevitable finally occurring, the exodus from New Tortuga back to the ships was uneventful, almost orderly.

At least, it was until two sailors of the Presence looked at each other, with greed in their eyes. While everyone else was filing down, they entered the backroom of the tavern they had been drinking at to take possession of all its gold. Word got passed to the other crew members, and the looting was officially on.

Eventually the other inhabitants of the town realized what was happening, and what had been an uneventful departure descended into the customary chaos of a pirate raid. As the sun started to descend, the mayhem increased. The sound of gunshots and broken windows became more and more commonplace. The town’s pigs were set loose, squealing and running every which way, having absolutely no idea what was happening. Anne the tavern wench walked right up and knifed two pirates to death just so she could take one of their nice-looking hats for herself.

By nightfall, no crew could chance staying in the town any longer, and so they cast off regardless of current circumstance. Every crew’s haul had been tremendous, but the Presence, having a time advantage over everyone else, made out particularly well. Celebrating on the ship late into the night, it took them a while to realize what had gone wrong.

“Waitaminute,” one of them said, “where’s the Captain?”

“Oh hellfire, he was still looting Bertha’s place when I got back on!”

“And you were the last one on board before we cast off, right?”

“...we left our Captain behind!”

This realization put everyone in a sour mood and shortly thereafter they went to bed. They would elect a new Captain in the morning, but until then they would ponder how out-of-control the circumstances had gotten that they accidentally left their Captain to be taken in by the authorities.

One person, though, was happier than ever. The Frenchman smiled to himself. The chaos of the raid, brought about by his well-paid accomplices who delivered the initial message of the Navy coming in, had worked splendidly to get him on board. Phase One of his long-awaited plan was complete.

Pirate Ship Mafia III

Overview:
Pirate Ship Mafia III is a mafia game in the mold of its predecessors and the Capo di Tutti Capi series in that it gives each player a lot of freedom to do whatever they want at night. Its original aim was to rebalance some of Capo's imperfections to keep things more fun for everybody, in addition to adding some new elements that add a new element to the game: treasure (now its aim is to correct my own hosting errors from previous games ). Maintaining a perfect balance between team cooperation and individual competition will be the key to obtaining victory.

Setting:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

The North Atlantic Ocean, spring of 1723.

It’s a bit past the Golden Age of Piracy, when buccaneers ruled the seas and king’s ransoms of gold were looted and spent in a matter of weeks, but the window of opportunity for those who sail under no colors but their own is still open. In the real world, the final clamp was probably brought down on the pirates in 1718 when the new Governor of Nassau ended the island’s status as a pirate haven, but the men of the Presence’s actions over the first two games have bought the pirates a little bit more time in this universe. That said, the twilight of the pirates is rapidly approaching.

Basic Rules:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

At the start of the game, you will randomly be PM’d a role and its description. Once all roles are sent out, the game will begin. Pirate Ship Mafia will begin with a day phase, taking place immediately after the death of the original Captain as per the above story. Instead of voting to lynch someone on Day 1, the only decision made will be who will be the new Captain. Upon conclusion of that phase, the Captain will appoint his two Officers (see below) and Night 1 will begin. In every night phase, players will PM me their night orders which may vary. Starting Day 2, players will vote to lynch and, if applicable, commit mutiny. This night/day pattern will continue until the game concludes.

Night actions:
Players may do a variety of things at night, depending on their roles. There is always the option to rest up, but treasure is awarded for those who take a more active role at night. Many of the actions must be coordinated with other players in order to be successfully executed, similar to Capo.

For the standard able seaman of the Presence (this game’s version of the townie), the following actions may be performed at night:

Sleep (no treasure awarded)
Kill an individual (treasure awarded) – must form a group of at least 4 to kill any individual
Protect an individual (treasure awarded) – must form a group of at least 3 to protect any individual
Abandon ship - Depart the Presence with all the treasure you have collected, a useful option if you think you're about to die or you think your team is going to lose and want to improve your own victory standing. Note: this option not available to some players.
Steal treasure - You can use this option to make up some financial ground by eschewing group activities for a night in order to directly take money from a crew member.
Guard your treasure stash - This feature allows the paranoid to counteract the above action, at the expense of doing anything else for the night.
Guard someone else’s treasure stash - New for Pirate Ship Mafia III, if you have more important places to be at night, you can assign someone to guard your stash for you. Make sure this person is trustworthy though - should they choose to steal from you, they can take a massive amount of your gold! Stacking of treasure guards is not permitted - i.e. you’re only allowed to have one person guard your gold.

Other roles may do more or complete the same tasks with less people. You may only perform ONE action per night, unless otherwise noted in your role PM.

When actively performing at night, in your orders PM you must send me the exact specifics: What you are doing, the name of every person who is doing it with you, and who you are doing it to. If there is miscommunication and the orders do not match up, they will not be executed. Not only will this deprive you of treasure, but it may also put you at risk of public exposure or dying! Beware!

Example orders PM:

GH – night 3 orders

GeneralHankerchief, Sasaki Kojiro, Kommodus, and Kagemusha will kill Seamus Fermanagh.

At the end of every night I will send feedback PMs detailing how successful you were at night. If the group failed, I will not reveal what exactly what went wrong. I will also let you know your current treasure count at the end of every night.

PMs and orders:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

It is in your best interests to PM me every night with your orders. Active participation not only helps your team out, it also helps you individually. Not to mention the fact that it makes for a more exciting game! You will get two types of PMs from me: Role PM and feedback.

The Presence Able Seaman (townie) PM will be posted in the signup thread directly following this post, and will also be posted in the summary thread once the game begins.

In addition, at any time, you may PM me with your Will. Wills, to be explained more later, dictate who some of your treasure goes to should you die.

Voting:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Voting is your primary action in the day phases. Every day, aside from Day 1, you will be voting to lynch the person you think is guilty. Voting will be done in the usual style, like so:

Vote: GeneralHankerchief

Should you wish to change your vote, please do the following IN A NEW POST:

Unvote: GeneralHankerchief
Vote: Beskar

To those players originally from another forum, I do not accept a simple bolding of a name as a valid vote. Please put the (un)Vote: _______ tag beforehand. Thank you.

You may also Vote: Abstain should you have no preference as to who is lynched. You may also vote “No Lynch”. All votes must be bolded and votes may not be edited. Should you edit your vote and not change it in a new post, you are faced with a loss of treasure and potentially, removal from play. The person with the most votes at the end of the day phase is lynched. Should there be a tie, the Captain and his two Officers will vote to determine who is lynched. Should there still be a tie (say, if there are three players with the most votes and each Officer votes somebody different), the Captain’s vote takes priority.

There will be at least one occasion in which you will vote to elect a Captain. The format for choosing a Captain is as follows:

Elect: GeneralHankerchief

Unelect: GeneralHankerchief
Elect: Beskar

In addition, at any point in the day phase you may vote to mutiny. You may do this by adding in a Vote: Mutiny in with your normal vote. If over 50% of living players vote to mutiny, the Captain is lynched along with whoever has the most votes, and instead of proceeding to night, a new Captain selection process follows. If the vote is tied, the status quo remains.

Should you decide you don’t want to mutiny, you may simply write in Unvote: Mutiny at any time in the day phase. There are no official consequences for participating in a failed mutiny, but the Captain will almost surely remember those who were not loyal to him. A successful mutiny results in large amounts of treasure gained for all those who voted for the mutiny.

The Factions:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

As per the opening story, there is a two-way fight for control of the Presence going on. However, there may be additional threats lurking on board, waiting for their chance to strike...

The crew of the Presence: The main faction of Pirate Ship Mafia. Having just escaped New Tortuga with the collective wealth of nearly the entire town in tow, they are on their way back to Nassau to spend their riches as irresponsibly as they possibly can. However, never before have the men of the Presence had such a successful raid without experiencing severe consequences on the voyage home. Most sailors are predicting further consequences this time around and are preparing for the worst. In addition, even the small fortunes that all of the pirates have collected may not be enough for some sailors, who will be looking to increase their own treasure counts at the expense of others aboard...

The Frenchman and his agents (starts with 3 players): After being a shadowy third-party in the first two Pirate Ship Mafia games, the Frenchman finally steps into the light and becomes the main threat to the town in this edition. The Presence was originally his and he will stop at nothing to get it back. He’s hired out two experienced and capable sailors from the Maven (with their Captain’s blessing, naturally) to assist him in this endeavor. The Frenchman and agents can work to determine which members of the crew are susceptible to joining his side, and eventually, make them such an offer. Upon a successful conversion (which is entirely out of the player’s hands), new recruits will for all intents and purposes have joined the Frenchman’s side. Agents can, of course, kill as well. Their ultimate goal is the elimination or subordination of every loyal Presence crewman on board. The Frenchman must also personally survive.

Once you are dead:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Standard stuff here. If there are any questions, PM me.

The dead may post, but not vote/select nor carry out any night actions. Dead players may not reveal their roles publicly or privately and may not reveal their faction or role particulars either. Dead players may not quote from a PM unless that PM has been posted in the public thread by a living player. Dead players may not reveal, recount or allude to their previous night actions (or results thereof in the case of investigations) publicly or privately – even to confirm a previously made public or private reveal. Remember, even if dead not all of your treasure goes away – pirates do have *some* honor. Your participation must be circumspect, but your continued participation IS encouraged.

No screenshots may be used, from or to anyone, for ANY purpose – this includes during PMs. Feel free to quote from my Role PM’s to you or to fabricate as you see fit. Chatlog conversations may be referenced/quoted, but may not be copied via screenshot. Note: it can be difficult to maintain role secrecy during chat conversations.

"Suicide" will not be allowed in this game (it is possible to create an unplayable game with nothing but suicide pact challenges going on. This is not the intended mode of play for this game).
Players who must remove themselves from play for schedule reasons should send me a PM. I will then write them out of play.

Clarity to balance the ambiguity:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Again, if you played the previous Pirate Ship Mafias or Capo-like games, nothing new here.

Upon death, the captain will launch a full investigation of that individual to try to determine the reason they were killed. Though slow (results reported on the 3rd morning after death), their then-current role will be revealed. Unfortunately, the specific actions of that individual -- what they did with their role -- will remain a mystery (until the post-game!).

The Roles:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Crew of the Presence:

Able Seaman
The standard Townie of Pirate Ship Mafia. Able Seamen have no special powers but may form groups of 4 and 3 to kill or protect a target, respectively, in addition to trying to steal or protect treasure. Their goals are to rid of the Presence of its many threats and get more treasure than anybody else (pirates are a very competitive bunch, you see). Some Able Seamen may be susceptible to conversion to the Frenchman’s side, however, they will not know how susceptible they are.

Elected/Appointed Roles:

Neither the Captain nor his Officers can switch sides for as long as they hold their offices.

Captain
The Captain is elected by the crew on Day 1 and will remain Captain unless he is removed by a mutiny. This is a position of extreme power in that the Captain gets a set salary of treasure every turn he is Captain without having to actively do anything. Most importantly, the Captain gets to appoint his two Officers, the First Mate and Quartermaster, who, if loyal, can represent the greatest threat to the enemies of the Presence. The Captain cannot be killed at night but may take part in nighttime activities. The Captain has no vote unless there is a tie (see above), however, activity treasure is still given to him for posting in the day phase.

First Mate
The Captain names his First Mate to me privately before the Day 1 voting phase is over when it appears that he has a legitimate chance of becoming Captain. The First Mate can be replaced at will at anytime either by PM (preferred) or posting in the thread. Changes in officer position will take effect at the end of the phase, day or night. The First Mate is the Captain’s right-hand man on the ship and may individually kill one person or investigate two persons per night. Attempts on his life at night have a 50% chance of failure, regardless of numbers used against him. The First Mate also collects a salary for his efforts.

Quartermaster
The Captain names his Quartermaster to me privately before the Day 1 voting phase is over when it appears that he has a legitimate chance of becoming Captain. The Quartermaster can be replaced at will at anytime either by PM (preferred) or posting in the thread. Changes in officer position will take effect at the end of the phase, day or night. The Quartermaster is in charge of discipline on the ship and may individually protect or block one person from committing an action per night. Attempts on his life at night have a 50% chance of failure, regardless of numbers used against him. The Quartermaster also collects a salary for his efforts.

Frenchman faction:

The Frenchman (1)
*The* villain of the Pirate Ship Mafia series, though he would categorize himself as its tragic hero. Regardless, this time there is no ambiguity to his side: He is the enemy of all loyal crewman aboard the Presence and he is out for blood. The Frenchman’s exact powers will remain a mystery but I have designed him to be the most dangerous “Godfather” role out of the three games in this series.

Frenchman Agent (2)
Capable sailors hired from the Maven, the Frenchman Agents were assigned a clear duty by their Captain: Help the Frenchman gain the Presence back by whatever means necessary. They are all too happy to fulfill this task and get a huge share of the loot (plus a hefty reward from the Frenchman). Their powers include but are not limited to killing (obviously), working to see if any sailors aboard can be converted, and being able to work with loyal sailors in order to increase subversion.

Frenchman Convert
Individuals who have accepted offers to switch sides become Frenchman Converts, who immediately obtain the same powers as Frenchman Agents.

Secret role(s):

Well, you'll just have to wait and see.

Treasure and Wills:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Treasure
The primary standout feature of Pirate Ship Mafia, the pursuit of treasure will significantly motivate you and guide your actions. Everyone starts out with 100 treasure and can accumulate more through various means. For the most part, the more treasure you have at the end of the game, the better off you’ll be. Treasure is disclosed privately to each individual at the beginning of every day phase.

The list of actions you can take and the amount of treasure accumulated for each is below:

100: Base amount
10: For each person you recruit to play Pirate Ship Mafia
3: For each round in which you lodge a legitimate vote (for Captain, you get the three if you make a post in the day phase)
1-5: ***New for Pirate Ship Mafia III*** A small amount of gold, awarded entirely at my discretion, for good pirate-y behavior that amuses me. Actions taken in previous games that would have merited this award include fabricating an entirely fake “treasure map” and selling it off to unsuspecting sailors and putting out a bounty on someone at night just because they annoyed you in the Captain election. A rough, but by no means complete definition would be actions which serve the roleplaying atmosphere I am trying to convey that do not necessarily advance your win condition.
2: For each round in which you submit a night order, whether it is successful or not (can even be simply “sleep”)
10: Amount awarded for successfully killing an individual with the minimum group size of 4.
8: Amount awarded for successfully killing an individual with anything larger than the minimum group size.
10: Amount awarded for successfully protecting an individual (even if he wasn't attacked) with the minimum group size of 3.
7: Amount awarded for successfully protecting an individual (even if he wasn't attacked) with anything larger than the minimum group size.
5-20: Amount awarded for successfully stealing someone else's gold.
Hidden, but large: Amount awarded for stealing someone’s gold who specifically trusted you to guard their stash.
15: Captain's nightly salary
12: Nightly salary of First Mate/Quartermaster (kill/protection awards do not apply)
Mutiny: Every mutineer gets 10 gold; captain’s entire gold supply is then divided evenly among mutineers.

Furthermore, you are allowed to transfer small amounts of treasure between crew members. The caveats to this are that is a maximum 10 treasure per person per day, the transfer must be for services rendered, and the services must be publicly available (in other words, no breaking the game by pooling all of your gold into one source). All transactions must be confirmed to me via PM by both parties.

Finally, at any point in the game you may receive a special "random event" PM from me giving you a one-time choice between two options, usually involving treasure. The exact specifics of this will be detailed in the PM.

Wills
Players may privately message me at any time, saying, in the event of their death, who their treasure goes to. Players may not donate more than 50 of their treasure total – the remainder stays to their name (the only exception to this is if the Captain dies in a mutiny, in which case he loses all of his treasure to the mutineers). Players may divide up their 50 to multiple persons if they wish or choose not to have a Will at all. A Will may be changed at any time and must be sent to me (or updated) at least 3 hours prior to the individual’s death to be considered valid.

Legalese regarding wills:
A player is considered “dead” at the exact minute I first post his death in a public thread, either the main game thread or the game’s story/reference thread.

For example, let’s say Player X’s original will was as follows:

Give GeneralHankerchief all 50 of my treasure.

...but then at 13:00 he changed it to:

Give Beskar all 50 of my treasure; GeneralHankerchief has been written out of my will.

Let’s say that I first posted Player X’s death at 15:59 that day. If this was the case, GeneralHankerchief would get the 50 treasure. If I waited one minute later and posted the death at 16:00, 3 hours would have passed and Beskar would have gotten the treasure.

A final note from the host:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Unlike Pirate Ship Mafia II, which at the time I swore up and down was perfectly balanced and that I had accounted for every possible exploitation of the game’s features (and look where that got me ) I am less certain about this game’s overall balance. That said, I am confident that, were I to run this game 100 times assuming players going in have the same level of knowledge each time, there would be a reasonable variance in results.

Overall, while the focus should definitely still be on doing your very best in order to fulfill your victory conditions, it is far more important that you all have fun, enjoy yourselves, and take advantage of the opportunity to act like pirates. Thanks for playing!

Signing up:
As I said, I'm looking for 25 players at minimum to start, though I would much prefer if we got in the range of 30-35. The previous two games were really fun experiences for both me and the players involved, and it was largely due to their enthusiasm and persistence in nagging me that this game is even happening. What are you waiting for? Go out and get that 10 treasure per person recruitment bonus!!! (each player recruited must explicitly post here or PM me saying they were recruited for the bonus to kick in)

Signed up (28):
BSmith
Visorslash
Zack
Xiahou
Kagemusha
landlubber
Askthepizzaguy
spaceman98
Ituralde
El Barto
Choxorn
seireikhaan
Montmorency
autolycus
Gaius Scribonius Curio
Csargo
Ishmael
Lissa
NotJimRV
Double A
Andres
Ice
Golden1Knight
johnhughthom
Ironside
TheFlax
TFT
Sprig

[GeneralHankerchief]

Townie PM:

Your role is:

Able Seaman (townie)

““This is definitely a pirate adventure. Pirates pillage. Pirates steal. Pirates take advantage.”
~ Rupert Boneham

Set sail! After a chaotic retreat from New Tortuga, you and the rest of the men aboard the Presence have found yourself with a massive haul of treasure (and without a Captain, but we won’t go there). However, there are enough old salts aboard to know that this large of a bounty never comes without any complications. If things stay true to form, these complications will most likely come in the form of the Frenchman, who’s been after the Presence for years. He is as wily as a fox and will never stop trying to get his ship back so long as he is alive. You’re going to have to be ready for anything and work together if you want to make it to Nassau to spend your loot… but you also see no harm in increasing your own share, either. You weren’t expecting a moral dilemma when you joined this particular crew, were you?

Your goals: You have two main goals, each of which is equally important.

First of all, you want to eliminate every last threat on board the Presence. Naturally, this threat comes mainly in the shape of the Frenchman but there could be other enemies looming…

Secondly, you want to acquire as much gold for yourself as possible. While there will most likely be a winning faction on Pirate Ship Mafia, in essence there can only be one *true* winner, and that’s whoever has the most gold. However, you will also score well if you survive and stay on board period, accumulate a lot of treasure before dying, or abandon ship with a lot of treasure and the Presence crew ends up losing.

You will not score so well if you die early on, abandon ship with little treasure, or abandon ship and later witness the Presence crew win.

If there is a Presence victory, the game will end the first night after all outside threats have been eliminated.

Powers: Each night, you may perform one of the following actions:
- Sleep. This means you will do nothing for the night. However, still sending in the order will net you a small gain in treasure.
- Protect a target with a group of at least three people, including yourself. The chances for a successful protection increase with numbers. All orders must match for a successful protection. You will be awarded the full amount of treasure if the target is still alive at the end of the night, even if he or she is not attacked.
- Kill a target with a group of at least four people, including yourself. The chances for a successful kill increase with numbers. All orders must match for a successful kill.
- Individually steal gold from a target of your choice. You will receive anywhere from 5-20 gold, unless your target is guarding his or her gold.
- Choose to guard your (or someone else’s, see below) stash of gold. Should anyone try to steal from gold the nights you are guarding, they will be unsuccessful and you will have a good chance of knowing who stole from you.
- New for Pirate Ship Mafia III: As a supplementary action, you may designate someone else to guard your gold for you (if you are guarding someone else’s stash it is still the only thing you are allowed to do at night). However, be careful with whom you trust: Anyone you designate to guard your gold will instead have the opportunity to steal from you instead and take a large amount of gold from your own stash. Only one person is allowed to guard an individual stash of gold.
- If offered an event by me, you may choose to take part in that event as opposed to your normal night actions. Further details will follow in my “event” PM.
- Abandon Ship: Leave the Presence with all of your treasure. Abandoning ship means you depart the game permanently, so choose wisely when you do this.

In addition, you may perform the following actions during the day:
- Vote to determine who will walk the plank.
- Vote for a new Captain on Day 1 and whenever else it is necessary.
- In addition to this, you may also try to remove the Captain by voting for a mutiny. The proper way to do this in the thread is Vote: Mutiny. If 50% or more of living players vote for a mutiny, the Captain is removed from his position and executed along with whoever has the most votes. You automatically gain 10 treasure for a successful mutiny, plus the Captain’s entire stash of gold is evenly divided up among mutineers. In addition, only those who mutinied will be eligible to select the next Captain.

At any time, you may privately send me a Will detailing who your treasure goes to in the event of your death. You will automatically lose 50 treasure upon dying, but you can dictate who that treasure goes to, if anybody. Wills will only be considered valid if they are sent to me/updated at least three hours prior to your death.

Furthermore, you are allowed to transfer small amounts of treasure between crew members. The caveats to this are that is a maximum 10 treasure per person per day, the transfer must be for services rendered, and the services must be publicly available (in other words, no breaking the game by pooling all of your gold into one source). All transactions must be confirmed to me via PM by both parties.

Finally… good luck!

[GeneralHankerchief]

Post 1 of main thread.

Night 0

Nobody got much sleep the night of the flight from New Tortuga. There was too much on everyone's mind - how could they have left the Captain behind? Look at all the treasure they had procured! Could *I* possibly be the next Captain of the Presence? Pirates alone with their thoughts was an unusual circumstance, and as a result the following morning the crew were actually eager to get to work for once, to put those meddlesome thoughts out of mind.

Of course, this naturally meant that the daily tasks of swabbing the decks, etc. were accomplished in record time, and by that afternoon, there was nothing left to do but elect the Captain - the person who would take the crewmen home. There was a bit of trepidation about this, for some of the more grizzled sailors remembered that the last two times that the Presence had come back with a huge haul, the return voyage to Nassau was always fraught with peril. Most notably, the Frenchman, who had sworn to regain command of the ship by whatever means necessary, had been quiet these past few years. Chances were high that he might be on board once again, ready to strike.

The new Captain would have to be in possession of all his wits and cunning in order to be able to counteract this and any other threat that might arise. At the same time, the Captain of the Presence also received the single highest share of treasure on both the similar occasions: the sacking of Charleston, and the attack on the Spanish Treasure Fleet. The crewman were in full recognition of the fact that they might very well be electing someone higher riches than anyone had dreamed of when they initially signed on to the crew.

After roughly thirty minutes of pretty much everyone milling around, not sure what to do, a senior crewman, a really old salt, finally got fed up with it all and addressed everyone aboard.

"Right ye scurvy scoundrels, ye all know where and why we're here - to make as much loot as we possibly can before Satan claims our souls for good!" There was some goodhearted cheering at this statement. "Before that happens, though, we need to rid ourselves of that loot so that the devil can't claim any for hisself! Now, ye all know what be at stake here should we not make it home in one piece. So let's ensure that we keep this ship in good order and elect ourselves a Captain!" General cheering commenced.

Even though the crew of the Presence were pirates, they were also good at their jobs. They knew that a Captain and his appointed officers would be most effective at ridding the ship of any threats aboard - but at the same time, they were still pirates. 100 gold was good, aye, but you know what was even better than that? *More* than 100 gold! Hopefully the Captain and his officers would... reward... them all for being active in their efforts to rid the ship of no-gooders in the evenings. After all, what was the point otherwise?

With these thoughts in mind, the voting process begun. The Captain would receive a salary of 15 treasure per night no matter his activities. He would have no vote in any daily proceedings that may arise, but did have a say in tiebreaking procedures along with his two appointed officers. Were there any deadlocks to be resolved in the tiebreaking, the Captain would have final say on the matter. Lastly, the Captain would have all to himself a swanky room in the officer's cabin of the ship, meaning that pretty much all night attacks against him would be futile (though he could go out and do activities himself). Of course, removing him during the day would be another matter, thanks to the ever-present threat of mutiny...

Everyone decided not to ruminate on that particular point for now though. They had a Captain to elect, and further riches awaited!

OOC: It is now Day 1. As stated above, you will not be voting someone to walk the plank, you are electing a Captain. The proper format for doing this is as follows:

As stated above, you will not be voting someone to walk the plank, you are electing a Captain. The proper format for doing this is as follows:

Elect: GeneralHankerchief

Vote changes are made like so:

Unelect: GeneralHankerchief
Elect: Beskar

You will be rewarded 3 pieces of treasure for lodging a legal vote.

Voting will last until 22:00 US Eastern Time on Friday, September 25th. Not all phases will be this long - I suggest you use the time to get any night actions sorted out!



~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Souls aboard: (28)
Andres
Askthepizzaguy
autolycus
BSmith
Choxorn
Csargo
Double A
El Barto
Gaius Scribonius Curio
Golden1Knight
Ice
Ironside
Ishmael
Ituralde
johnhughthom
Kagemusha
landlubber
Lissa
Montmorency
NotJimRV
seireikhaan
spaceman98
Sprig
TFT
TheFlax
Visorslash
Xiahou
Zack

[GeneralHankerchief]

Post 106 of main thread.

Day 1

Unlike the previous two occasions where the Presence had elected a new Captain immediately after scoring a big haul, there were no real, true speeches promising lots of gold for everyone and a safe voyage home by prospective candidates for the captaincy. Perhaps it was that, after all these years, the crew had become jaded to that sort of high-minded rhetoric. Perhaps they all knew the stakes and thus no speeches were needed. Or perhaps - and possibly the most likely explanation - they had simply shifted their priorities, and now valued gold above all else.

As the day went on, voting coalesced around three candidates, and then eventually two: NotJimRV and Kagemusha. Kagemusha, perhaps attempting to tap into what he believed to be the prevailing motivator among the rest of the crew, promised riches and booty aplenty to those who voted for him, including shares out of his own stash simply for ensuring his election that day.

"How much be ye willing to part with?" asked one sailor, eager for specifics.

"One piece of treasure for each person who votes for me," Kage replied. "All for nothing except writin' down me name on that piece of parchment. Easiest money you'll ever make, mateys!"

"One piece of treasure?" There was general grumbling about this. "Why, that be the worst 'bribe' I've ever seen! Those miserly, stick-up-the-rear Brits are more generous when returning favors than that!"

They now turned to the other potential candidate, NotJimRV. "Kage be offering a measly one piece of treasure for each of us that vote him. Can ye match or top that?" NotJim immediately took the occasion to launch into a long and impassioned speech about how there would be no bribery aboard *his* ship and that he would do things right and honorable and focus on eliminating any and all threats aboard and that this was clearly the sensible path to take because there was certainly no point in acquiring all this treasure if you weren't around to spend it and his first priority would be getting everyone home safe.

Naturally, all of the eager crewmen groaned. Kage's one-gold bribe aside, it looks like they were going to have to earn their money the hard way.

At the end of the day, Kagemusha won the closely-contested race by a mere one vote. Briefly acknowledging NotJim in the spirit of competition, he took to address the rest of the crew. "Right then laddies, I think ye for yer faith and trust in my abilities. Under my captaincy I pledge to work me hardest to ensure that the gold continues to flow fast and free towards all of us!" General cheering at this last remark. There was a pause. "Oh, and obviously, uh, hunt down and kill any who would seek to do us harm from within too." Somewhat muted cheering at this one. Obviously the crew had their own priorities.

"Who be assisting ye in this endeavor?" somebody called out.

"Right!" Kage said. "Henceforth, to aid me in my efforts of... fair... distribution, I hereby appoint Andres as me First Mate and Double A as the Quartermaster." Both men walked up alongside Kage, looking pretty pleased with themselves that they were able to get in on the Kage-for-Captain bandwagon early. "Now then, final orders of business. If ye have night duties, see they're performed as usual! Otherwise, below decks with ye. We all have work to do tomorrow!"

And so the men of the Presence retired for the night, at least temporarily. They would shortly find out exactly who was threatening the ship this time around.

Day 1 tally:

Kagemusha: 12 (Double A, Andres, Kagemusha, BSmith, spaceman98, Csargo, seireikhaan, Ituralde, Choxorn, Ironside, Flax, autolycus)
NotJimRV: 11 (NotJimRV, Ishmael, Visorslash, Montmorency, Lissa, johnhughthom, Golden1Knight, Gaius Scribonius Curio, Zack, landlubber, El Barto)
Andres: 1 (Xiahou)
seireikhaan: 1 (Sprig)
Xiahou: 1 (Askthepizzaguy)

Didn't vote: 2 (Ice, TFT)

It is now Night 1. Please send in your orders. Night 1 will conclude on Sunday, September 27th, at 20:00 US Eastern Time. Note: Not all night phases will be this long! In the future it would be wise to have all night activities planned out and organized ahead of time to ensure successful execution of orders.



~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Souls aboard: (28)
Andres
Askthepizzaguy
autolycus
BSmith
Choxorn
Csargo
Double A
El Barto
Gaius Scribonius Curio
Golden1Knight
Ice
Ironside
Ishmael
Ituralde
johnhughthom
Kagemusha
landlubber
Lissa
Montmorency
NotJimRV
seireikhaan
spaceman98
Sprig
TFT
TheFlax
Visorslash
Xiahou
Zack

[GeneralHankerchief]

Post 165 of main thread.

Night 1

As the Presence sailed northward to its destination in Nassau, very few of its crewmen slept. Some of them worked, completing their assigned nightly tasks. Some of them lay awake in their bunks, ruminating on the past two days and what was in their future. And some of them emerged from below decks, cutlasses in their hands and murder on their minds.


spaceman98 was their target. The three crewmen that had strategized about ending him beforehand had decided that the direct approach would be best for this. After all, as far as the crew was aware, there were no identified threats aboard the Presence. Oh sure, certainly there was that persistent rumor about the Frenchman finally returning to reclaim his ship, but they had been living under that specter for the past three years. No, there was no reason for anybody to suspect foul play.

And so they charged in, cutlasses out, screaming bloody murder. spaceman turned around, looking shocked. As the three had expected, he had been caught completely by surprise.

But then one of them tripped over a loose board, crashing down to the ground hard. One of his compatriots instinctively stopped to check on him, leaving only one man to take on spaceman. These were odds he could deal with. Finally getting his own cutlass out, spaceman dueled his lone assassin while said assassin was screaming for the other two to get back up and join him.

"I think he's got a concussion," the one who had gone down to help said. "Couldn't tell how many fingers I was holding up, didn't know where he was. Probably safest if he sit this one out, matey. I should bring him back below deck, make sure he be gettin' some rest."

"WHAT IN BLAZES BE A 'CONCUSSION'??!?!" shouted the lone attacker, completely furious at this turn of events. "Of course he didn't know where he was, he hit the bad grog from Itchy Lou's stash hard not 30 minutes ago! And of course he didn't know he many fingers ye were holdin' up, ye've got a bleedin' hook for a hand!"

The concussed sailor's helper took umbrage at this. "Well excuse me for not wantin' to follow proper safety protocol! Wouldn't be seemly to put men in danger so early on in the voyage home!" The two sailors started screaming at each other about proper concussion protocol and "overall misplacement of priorities", completely forgetting about spaceman, who slipped off quietly, not quite believing his luck.


TFT, one of the two crewmen who had not voted in the election for Captain that day, was resting peacefully in his bed. A relatively new signing aboard the Presence, he did not share the concern that many other sailors had that there was imminent danger ahead. Perhaps this was because TFT did not have much time to socialize with the crew, perhaps it was because he had not yet experienced a journey home after a big haul firsthand, but overall TFT felt that there were nothing but good times ahead.

The Golden Age of Piracy may have all but ended, but you could have fooled TFT. He was aboard the legendary Presence, the ship that had now pulled off three gigantic heists in six years and had gotten off pretty much scot-free. New Tortuga was founded because of the uptick in piracy that the Presence had almost singlehandedly brought back to the region. All the major navies in the area wanted nothing more than to capture the ship and bring its crew to justice, but there seemed to be a mystique around it, that nothing could go wrong for the ship or its sailors.

This would prove to be a colossal mistake on TFT's part. As he was lost in his own thoughts, he did not hear the footsteps of four sailors sneaking up to his bunk. One of them, coming in first, smothered him with a pillow to muffle any noises TFT might make in resistance. The other three then proceeded to stab him mercilessly - and quietly - until he bled out from his wounds.


Three sailors were chasing Askthepizzaguy around the ship, and ATPG had no such reservations about their intentions. He was running for his life. In a confined space like the Presence was, there was really no such thing as being able to run out of sight, but he had at very least managed to avoid being cornered... at least so far.

He knew it was only a matter of time though; his heavy breathing was proof enough of that. It wasn't looking good for him overall, because despite his running out of breath he still had far too much adrenaline pumping through his system to be able to formulate a rational plan to get out of this. And so ATPG continued running around, gradually losing more and more wind, still pursued, because this was all that his body was capable of doing. Eventually the adrenaline rush subsided and rational thought once again resumed, but at his point ATPG was too tired to be able to do much.

In the end, fate prevailed where his own condition and adrenaline could not. ATPG, still running, tripped over a familiar-looking loose board and went tumbling down in a heap. Before he could even process this, his three pursuers tripped as well, one over the board, two over *him*. The end result was a big pile of all four crewmen involved in the chase, all helplessly tangled together.

ATPG started punching and kicking, biting whatever he could, in an attempt to start a general fight amongst everybody involved. This plan was an instant success, and while ATPG's attackers were now all blindly doing everything they could to pummel each other, ATPG crawled out of the pile and went back below decks. He would live to fight another day.


The morning, Captain Kagemusha awoke to the sound of several people pounding at his cabin door - frantically so, by the sound of it. He sighed. This was the bad part of the Captaincy, he surmised.

"All right, all right, what be yer issue?" he got out, before he was accosted by seemingly half the ship demanding justice.

Stealing!
Attempted murder!
More stealing!
Unjust lockup!
Another attempted murder!
Even more stealing!
"Captain, we be havin' a corpse over here." That one was his First Mate, reporting on TFT's demise.

"Quiet, quiet, QUIIIIIIIII-ET!" Kage roared. Finally there was silence.

"Now then, obviously this past night wasn't exactly as peaceful and restful as I asked for. We be havin' as many crimes and complaints aboard as Bessie's Brothel has girls with the pox, and obviously we can't be havin' any such thing if we want to get home from Nassau safely. It be as I feared: that blasted Frenchman has finally made it back aboard and he be doing what he does best."

"Trying and failing to get the Captaincy?"

"No! Well, maybe, too early to tell. I meant to say sowing discontent and mayhem among us upstandin' crewmen! So it leaves me no choice but to institute the same policy we had in the past when this situation has arisen: Every day, for as long there is crime at night, we shall vote for one person who we think is responsible to walk the plank. By the time we make it home, there may be fewer of us, but we all be safer and richer than ever before."

There wasn't that much of a reaction to this. The veteran sailors of the Presence surely knew it was coming. And so the rest of the crew, following Kage's lead, began the process of voting for the day.

OOC: It is now Day 2. Voting will last until Tuesday, September 29th, at 13:00 US Eastern Time.



Feedback PMs are incoming, please alert me if there are any errors. I will post in the thread once I have sent them all out.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Attacked: spaceman98 (n1), Askthepizzaguy (n1)

Killed: TFT (n1)

Souls aboard: (27)
Andres
Askthepizzaguy
autolycus
BSmith
Choxorn
Csargo
Double A
El Barto
Gaius Scribonius Curio
Golden1Knight
Ice
Ironside
Ishmael
Ituralde
johnhughthom
Kagemusha
landlubber
Lissa
Montmorency
NotJimRV
seireikhaan
spaceman98
Sprig
TheFlax
Visorslash
Xiahou
Zack

[GeneralHankerchief]

Post 437 of main thread.

Day 2

The tale of Kagemusha, "The Fearsome Finn" as he was sometimes known, was an interesting one. Born in a fishing village on the coast of the Gulf of Finland, a little southwest of Helsinki, Kage felt a natural affinity towards the sea from a very early age. He liked nothing more than going to the docks and gazing out the horizon, wondering what lay beyond. When he was of an age to do so, he signed up for whatever ship crew he could, quickly becoming adept at a number of sailing tasks and features.

When Russia invaded and occupied Swedish Finland in the isoviha as part of the Great Northern War, Kage, seeing the oppression and atrocities that his countrymen were experiencing, decided to strike back the only way he knew how: he took to piracy, quickly acquiring a crew and doing his very best to plunder and disrupt Russian trade interests in that area. He acquired his nickname during this period, a direct result of him singlehandedly storming a small Russian fort along the coast, blowing it up, and taking the time to arrange the ashes into the pattern of a nude woman and rude insults directed at the occupiers afterwards.

Eventually, the situation in Finland became too dangerous and untenable for him to stay, and if Kage was being honest, he had had enough tragedy in his life. So, bidding goodbye to his crewmates, he set forth to the New World, where slates were wiped clean and opportunity was limitless. It took him nearly a year, but eventually Kage arrived in the Lesser Antilles. His skillset being what it was, he quickly joined up on a crew of a merchantman shipping goods back and forth from minor islands to the port of Barbados, but this proved to be unsatisfying. After all, engaging in partisan warfare and piracy to protect your homeland was slightly more than just one step up from being a boring trader. And so, for the second time in his life, Kage turned pirate.

Sadly, Kage was about fifty years too late - the Presence's exploits aside, piracy was clearly on the downswing in the New World as navies cracked down. His new ship's Captain was brave, but not much else, and the crew was quickly hunted down and defeated in battle by the Spanish Guardacosta. The crewmen who didn't die were left to rot in a Havana prison, awaiting execution.

Kage was going to have none of that - the devil, after all, would have an eternity to deal with him, but he wasn't ready to meet him yet. That night, as he was being delivered last rites, Kage subdued his priest, stole his clothes, and escaped, getting out of what what was previously considered to be an impregnable fortress. After robbing a villa on the outskirts of the city, Kage decided to head north, to join a pirate crew that had a track record of success. And so, Kage made his way to Nassau and joined the Presence.

The rest was history. He acquitted himself well, made friends among the crew, and took his share in the Presence's many adventures. Finally, during the retreat from New Tortuga, Kage saw his chance: the previous Captain had been left behind in the flight! Kage saw his opportunity to attain the pinnacle of pirate-dom. He would become Captain of the single most successful ship left!

It was to last all of one day. The election was extremely closely contested, and those who did not vote for Kage made it clear that they were displeased by this turn of events. Kage, the old survivor, who pretty much only had to rely on his skills at war and combat up to this point so far, now found himself in an unfamiliar position: he had to use diplomacy.

In the end, it was simply too late to teach an old dog new tricks. The loudest sailors banged the drum of mutiny early, they started politicking and making promises to get more people on board, and pretty soon more than three quarters of the entire crew was out for their newly-elected Captain's blood, apparently dissatisfied with his performance over a span of less than 24 hours to the point where they were going to commit the single-worst and dishonorable of all piratical actions, damning all of their souls to the deepest and coldest layer of Hell.

Some of the mutineers were more apologetic than others, clearly just in it for their own share of Kage's treasure. Kage gave his blessing to others, notably when Quartermaster Double A, looking conflicted, joined the vote. At the end of the day, Kage was at peace with the result. His final thoughts as he was being slashed mercilessly and unceremoniously dumped into the ocean were of large-breasted women, beer, and home.


This vacancy in the Captaincy left some administrative duties to be taken care of. Some of the initial mutineers looked more and more aghast as the day went on and more and more people piled on the bandwagon, meaning that their share of Kage's loot would be less and less.

"Right lads," said one of the mutineers, after having emerged from the cabin with a moderately-sized bag, "It looks like Kage's share of the treasure comes out to 108 gold. Now, what was the final count for mutiny again?"

"Twenty-one sailors out of twenty-eight souls aboard, meaning that each of us gets... 5 gold apiece. It not be a perfect division, so the first three to vote for the mutiny get the leftover pieces. In this case, this be Zack, Visorslash, and Lissa."

Everybody groaned. After all the effort and heartache that had been expended over the past several hours, this was the fruits of their labor? A mere five gold, six for three of them? Some were starting to wonder if this is worth it.

"Anyway, might as well resolve this sooner rather than later. The Presence needs a new Captain, so let's make it happen before we go to sleep tonight! The six sailors who not be supportin' this mutiny can't vote in this, but should we mutineers want them to take the tiller, that be fine."

"Wait!" one of them said. "What about Andres?" In the confusion of the mutiny, he had received the most votes for execution that day.

"Ah, right... well, no sense in further killin' in case we really want to, I guess. Let's decide his fate at the same time we're voting!" Everybody nodded at this, new scraps of parchment were brought out, and the second election for Captain of the Presence in as many days begun.

OOC: We are still in Day 2. Only those listed under voting for Mutiny are allowed to participate in this election. They will be deciding two things:

First of all, the new Captain. The voting procedure is the same as it was the previous day:

Elect: GeneralHankerchief

Unelect: GeneralHankerchief
Elect: Beskar

Furthermore, the mutineers will also be deciding Andres's fate. You have two choices here:

Vote: Kill
or
Vote: Spare

No treasure will be awarded for taking part in this vote, it is purely an administrative one.

Day 2 tally:
Andres: 8 (Montmorency, Sprig, spaceman98, El Barto, Lissa, Ishmael, Choxorn, Golden1Knight)
landlubber: 6 (Xiahou, seireikhaan, Gaius Scribonius Curio, johnhughthom, Ituralde, Andres)
Ironside: 4 (Askthepizaguy, Visorslash*, BSmith, TheFlax)
Zack: 2 (autolycus, Ironside)
autolycus: 2 (Zack, landlubber)
El Barto: 1 (Double A*)
Lissa: 1 (NotJimRV)

Abstained: 1 (Kagemusha)
Didn't vote: 2 (Csargo, Ice)

Mutiny: 21 (Zack, Visorslash, Lissa, Ishmael, Montmorency, landlubber, TheFlax, Sprig, NotJimRV, Choxorn, autolycus, BSmith, spaceman98, El Barto, Xiahou, Double A, Ituralde, seireikhaan, Ironside, Gaius Scribonius Curio, Golden1Knight)
Not eligible to vote in this election: 5 (johnhughthom, Askthepizzaguy, Ice, Csargo, Andres)

Voting will last until Wednesday, September 30th, at 14:00 US Eastern Time.

[GeneralHankerchief]

Post 502 of main thread.

Day 2a

It had been an extremely strange 24 hours for Double A. Having first been appointed to the rank of Quartermaster the previous evening, he had spent the night witnessing an argument several people unhappy with the outcome of the Captain election and Kagemusha himself. Some of the more vocal parties in the argument had insinuated mutiny should Kage not lead to their satisfaction, and an official mutiny was thus instigated early on the next day.

Almost instantly the other two officers in Double A's regime - Kage and Andres - came under heavy fire. The mutiny started out strong, stalled in the afternoon, and then surged to become an inevitably by the end of the day. Andres, meanwhile, was not spared. Despite the mutiny currently brewing, there was still a regularly-scheduled execution to be carried out, and the First Mate looked like the obvious target. As a full three quarters of the crew of the Presence descended upon their Captain and cut him to pieces, Andres could only watch in horror. He knew he was next.

Despite this, Double A somehow came out of the mutiny not just as the only officer seemingly unblemished, but also as the leading candidate for the next Captain! As the votes started rolling in, he couldn't help himself from laughing at the ridiculousness of it all. Truly, pirates were the most fickle of creatures.

A moderate challenge from Curio as the "outsider" candidate proved little competition. Double A, disgraced ex-Quartermaster as of merely a few hours before, was swept into office as Captain with a huge margin of victory under his belt. He noted with some pleasure that Andres had survived his execution vote - apparently, the mutineers' bloodlust had been sated for the time being.

"I, uh..." Still not quite believing the situation he was in, Double A wasn't quite sure where to begin. "I, uh... thanks? I guess?" Some of the crew shifted around uncomfortably. This was it?

"Anyways, yeah, I promise to be a good Captain who be listenin' to and respectin' the opinions of his crew and all that, and makin' sure we be gettin' the most out of our haul from New Tortuga. Any questions, or if anybody needs to see me tonight, ye know where to find me."

"Captain, who be your officers?" The tension in the air was palpable. Surely he wouldn't pick Andres, would he?

"Ah, right. That. I hereby name NotJimRV as me First Mate and Visorslash as Quartermaster. Any other questions? Right, try not to kill each other tonight and see you all in the morning." And with that, Double A and his new officers retired for the evening.

Day 2a tally:
Captain election:
Double A: 14 (Double A, TheFlax, landlubber, Visorslash, Zack, autolycus, Choxorn, Ishmael, NotJimRV, seireikhaan, BSmith, Lissa, Golden1Knight)
Gaius Scribonius Curio: 3 (Gaius Scribonius Curio, Ironside, El Barto)
BSmith: 1 (Sprig)
Andres: 1 (Xiahou)

Spare Andres: 13 (Golden1Knight, Gaius Scribonius Curio, Ituralde, Double A, TheFlax, Ironside, landlubber, El Barto, Zack, autolycus, Xiahou, seireikhaan, BSmith)
Kill Andres: 7 (Visorslash, Sprig, Choxorn, Ishmael, spaceman98, Lissa, NotJimRV)

OOC: It is now Night 2. Please send in your orders. Night 2 will conclude on Thursday, October 1st, at 22:00 US Eastern Time.



~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Attacked: spaceman98 (n1), Askthepizzaguy (n1)

Killed: TFT (n1)

Mutinied: Kagemusha (d2)

Souls aboard: (26)
Andres
Askthepizzaguy
autolycus
BSmith
Choxorn
Csargo
Double A
El Barto
Gaius Scribonius Curio
Golden1Knight
Ice
Ironside
Ishmael
Ituralde
johnhughthom
landlubber
Lissa
Montmorency
NotJimRV
seireikhaan
spaceman98
Sprig
TheFlax
Visorslash
Xiahou
Zack

[GeneralHankerchief]

Post 551 of main thread.

Night 2

The Presence's northward journey continued, though this time the stars were not out, playing havoc with the navigators. In addition, the wind was starting to pick up uncomfortably. Conditions were clearly starting to get worse, but it was nothing out of the ordinary... yet.


seireikhaan had the unenviable task of Crow's Nest duty that night. As long as it wasn't raining, the job was bearable, but the cloud cover meant that he wasn't able to look at the stars, which was his usual activity whenever he drew the duty. Instead, he now actually had to focus on - ugh - his job.

khaan looked all around, searching for any sign of activity on the Atlantic. This could have been land (though he doubted he could see it anyway), possibly random debris floating around in the sea, or sailors who had accidentally gone overboard and needed help. However, the thing that khaan was most on the lookout for was ships. Being a pirate vessel in 1723 necessitated constant watch for naval activity. Doubly so if you were the most infamous pirate ship in this part of the world. Triplicate if you were coming off a hasty flight fresh off sacking a city with La Royale in known pursuit.

And so, khaan continued to look fore and aft, port and starboard, doing his duty by covering all directions. However, in all his viewing, he never once looked down. This proved to be a fatal mistake on his part.

Somebody had scaled the main mast from below and joined him in the Crow's Nest. khaan, befuddled, was just about to ask if his relief had come early when the sailor, looking particularly angry, grabbed him and physically threw him out of the Nest.

Screaming, khaan had managed to somehow grab onto a piece of rigging, which saved him from an immediate death. Instead of crashing to the ground in free fall, he instead landed very awkwardly. Immediately he tried to run for it, but was set upon by four sailors who did not let him get back up. Not even bothering to draw their cutlasses, the four of them - soon joined by the fifth who had originally scaled the mast - mercilessly pummeled khaan to death. After they threw his corpse overboard, they went back below deck, pleased with their work, the one who had originally scaled the mast with hat in hand.


For a while now, Csargo had been known as the most skilled gunner on the Presence. Nobody could quite handle a cannon like him, and he had proven it to great effect over the course of many adventures. Over the past year, the practice of gunnery had become something of an obsession to Csargo. He had recently taken to telling his fellow crewmen that his life's ambition was to fire the shot that sunk ships on all seven seas.

The three men who attacked him - some of whom looked confused as to the exact makeup of their squad - probably should have kept this in mind when they approached him. As he came into sight, there was a deafening *BANG!* and, an instant later, the unmistakable whistling sound of a heavy object passing very closely overhead at a very fast speed. Csargo was ready for them.

"I already be havin' me next shot loaded," he yelled, supremely confident, "and this one won't be a warning shot! What'll it be, mateys, retreat, or play dice that my cannonball doesn't take *your* head off and just one of yer fellows instead?"

Csargo's attackers stopped dead, briefly looking at each other. Luckily for them, they quickly achieved consensus: This wasn't worth dying for. Cursing, they retreated back below decks, leaving Csargo to smirk and resume practicing his gunnery.


For most of the night, Ironside had been making his preparations. An old salt like him always knew which way the wind was blowing, and he didn't like the directional change he was seeing. Not with the mutiny the previous day and several insinuations the mutineers had made about what the crew of the Presence was to do next. He had acquired a good haul, made the most of his time aboard, and survived the tumultuous first days and night aboard. Any longer than that and he would seriously be pushing his luck.

"Right... gold, personal effects, cutlass, change o' clothes... I think that be everything!" he muttered to himself. "It's been fun, Presence, but I think it be time for us to part ways. I not be particularly fancying me -" he stopped midsentence - "oh, come on! I was so close!"

Four sailors, cutlasses out, had approached him, their intention quite clearly read on their faces.

"Aha! Tryin' to bail with the goods, eh? What's the matter Ironside, it get too hot for ye Frenchies?"

Ironside sighed. He wasn't particularly scared, just tired. "Alright lads, ye caught me. Look, if it's all the same to ye, I'd much rather live through this. Ye clearly want me off the ship, right?" They nodded. "Well, ye be in luck - that's what I was plannin' to do anyway. Now, what be the going rate for killings again? 10 pieces of treasure per?" That sounded right. "What say I just give each of ye that rate from me own personal stash and then we part ways. Would that be a fair accord?"

The four attackers briefly lowered their cutlasses in a quick conference with each other. In the meantime, Ironside, clearly not caring for the answer, continued to make his preparations. After a minute, one of them spoke to him.

"Alright, it be agreed. 10 gold a head, and be quick about it!" Ironside nodded, paid each man his fee, and lowered his dinghy into the Atlantic, himself and his significantly smaller sack of treasure inside. Not sparing a single look back at the Presence, he paddled off to parts unknown, hoping he had made the right decision.


The next morning, Captain Double A, appearing to almost dead what was waiting for him, gathered the crew to make his announcement. "Well mateys, we lost two more overnight. I can't be findin' no trace of either seireikhaan or Ironside, though judging by the missing dinghy I be guessin' one or both of 'em decided they had enough.

"Cap'n, I can report that only Ironside left, some of us was tryin' to kill him as it happened."

Double A goggled. "And why were ye trying to kill him? And why'd you openly admit that???"

The other sailor shrugged. "I don't know, gold I guess? Oh, and he might have been French too. Yeah, that."

Double A sighed. "Fine. Let's assume we've got one murder and one abandoning. Clearly there still be crime aboard. Therefore, the system remains in place. Get voting!"

OOC: It is now Day 3. Voting will last until Saturday, October 3rd, at 14:00 US Eastern Time.



Feedback PMs are incoming.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Attacked: spaceman98 (n1), Askthepizzaguy (n1), Csargo (n2)

Killed: TFT (n1), seireikhaan (n2)

Mutinied: Kagemusha (d2)

Abandoned Ship: Ironside (n2)

Souls aboard: (24)
Andres
Askthepizzaguy
autolycus
BSmith
Choxorn
Csargo
Double A
El Barto
Gaius Scribonius Curio
Golden1Knight
Ice
Ishmael
Ituralde
johnhughthom
landlubber
Lissa
Montmorency
NotJimRV
spaceman98
Sprig
TheFlax
Visorslash
Xiahou
Zack

[GeneralHankerchief]

As the voting continues, weather conditions get progressively worse throughout the day.

[GeneralHankerchief]

Post 872 of main thread.

Day 3

Captain Double A had spent most of the day in his cabin, going over figures and trying to get some work done. Very early on, though, he realized that he wasn't going to get much done as there was an almost rhythmic sound coming from the main deck of the Presence. He tried to ignore it as much as possible, but it just wasn't going to work - that sound only varied in volume, and even then it never got softer, only louder.

After some time of this (conveniently right around sunset), Double A finally had enough, emerging from his quarters to figure out what on earth this rhythmic racket could be.

"No I don't!"
"Yes you do!"
"No I don't!"
"Yes you do!"
"No I don't!"
"Yes you do!"
"No I don't!"
"Yes you do!"
"No I don't!"
"Yes you do!"
"No I don't!"
"Yes you do!"
"No I don't!"
"Yes you do!"

"I absolutely do not have 200 gold!" Xiahou shouted. "If this be the figure you're staking yer life and honor on then we have our Frenchie right here, boys! I'm telling you all now that if 200 is the figure you stick by then it's incorrect and we need to throw him off this boat!"

"Why are you being so obstinate about this?!" Visorslash, the Quartermaster, shouted back. "I threw you in the brig last night! I got an accurate count of yer loot! This be what I *do* as Quartermaster! When Captain Double A was Quartermaster and he threw *me* in the brig the other night, *he* got an accurate count of my loot! Why wouldn't I be as correct? What could ye possibly be hiding? Why on earth are ye lying? I know for a fact that you have 200 gold!!!"

"No I don't!"
"Yes you do!"
"No I don't!"
"Yes you do!"
"No I don't!"
"Yes you do!"
"No I don't!"
"Yes you do!"
"No I don't!"
"Yes you do!"
"No I don't!"
"Yes you do!"
"No I don't!"
"Yes you do!"
"No I don't!"
"Yes you do!"
"No I don't!"
"Yes you do!"
"No I don't!"
"Yes you do!"
"No I don't!"
"Yes you do!"
"No I don't!"
"Yes you do!"
"No I don't!"
"Yes you do!"
"No I don't!"
"Yes you do!"
"No I don't!"
"Yes you do!"
"No I don't!"
"Yes you do!"
"No I don't!"
"Yes you do!"
"No I don't!"
"Yes you do!"

"ENOUGH!!!" Double A finally roared, everyone on the Presence finally quieting down. "Blasted ovens o' Hell this be annoying! Is this the only line o' conversation that's happened all day?" Everyone looked around uneasily, then at the ground. Yes, pretty much, was the consensus. "Well, I'm glad we all felt nice and productive then. Now, Visor, you accuse Xiahou of lying about his gold total, correct?"

"Aye."

"Let me just first sort this out from your side. What is the exact amount of gold you attribute to Xiahou's name?"

"199," the Quartermaster replied. "I rounded up."

"Right," Double A said, moving onto Xiahou. "Now, Xiahou, do ye confirm or deny the fact that you have 199 gold to your name?"

"I said that Visorslash was wrong when he accused me of having 200 gold. This time, however, his count be accurate."

Double A couldn't believe what he was hearing. "Wait, so, all this because you idiots were one gold off?"

"Yup!"

A loud groan emitted from pretty much everyone on board. This couldn't be happening. "You have got to be kidding me," Double A muttered. "Right, I guess that's cleared up then. Resume voting, lads." They did, but nobody's heart seemed to be in it. It appeared that the wind was taken out of everyone's sails from the previous argument, and at the end of the day, Xiahou still had the most votes.

"Right then, let's get this over with," Double A said. "Xiahou, ye be found guilty of either being the Frenchman tryin' to take control of our good ship Presence, or aidin' and abettin' his efforts. Any last words?"

"Visor was still technically wrooooooooooonnnng" - *splash*

That was the end of that. Double A was about to say some final words, but was interrupted by a loud peal of thunder emitting from overhead. Tonight was going to be ominous indeed.

Day 3 tally:
Xiahou: 5 (spaceman98, Zack, Lissa, Choxorn, NotJimRV)
Andres: 2 (Montmorency, El Barto)
Montmorency: 2 (Andres, Xiahou)
Sprig: 2 (Askthepizzaguy, landlubber*)
TheFlax: 1 (Gaius Scribonius Curio)
Lissa: 1 (Ituralde)
landlubber: 1 (autolycus)
Choxorn: 1 (Csargo)

Abstained: 2 (Double A, Ishmael)
Posted but didn't vote: 5 (Visorslash, BSmith, Golden1Knight, johnhughthom, Sprig)**
Didn't vote: 2 (TheFlax, Ice)

* landlubber's original vote was on Csargo but forgot to unvote, but due to a tally error he was under the assumption that he didn't vote at all. Seeing as this didn't affect the lynch I allowed it.
** In the future you must actually have your vote on a target (even Abstain) to get gold. I will allow it this time but not anymore.

OOC:

Event 1: The Hurricane

The Presence is set to sail through the heart of a very nasty storm this night phase. All groups of minimum size (including mafia kill groups) have a 25% chance of failure. All groups of a size greater than minimum have a 1/6 chance of failure. Individual actions are not affected.

It is now Night 3. Please send in your orders. Night 3 will conclude on Sunday, October 4th, at 20:00 US Eastern Time.



~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Attacked: spaceman98 (n1), Askthepizzaguy (n1), Csargo (n2)

Killed: TFT (n1), seireikhaan (n2)

Mutinied: Kagemusha (d2)

Abandoned Ship: Ironside (n2)

Walked the plank: Xiahou (d3)

Souls aboard: (23)
Andres
Askthepizzaguy
autolycus
BSmith
Choxorn
Csargo
Double A
El Barto
Gaius Scribonius Curio
Golden1Knight
Ice
Ishmael
Ituralde
johnhughthom
landlubber
Lissa
Montmorency
NotJimRV
spaceman98
Sprig
TheFlax
Visorslash
Zack

[GeneralHankerchief]

Post 889 of main thread.

Night 3

Nobody was going to get any sleep that night. The Presence was continuing north... theoretically, anyway... but in reality it would be tossed around like a ragdoll for the entire night as it sailed directly into the teeth of a major storm system. It would take all of the crew's might, skill, guile, and effort to get them through the night alive - and that was before you accounted for the foul play that continued to work aboard.


"Ack!" Ice got sprayed with a big wave for what seemed like the millionth time in five minutes. By this point in the storm his clothes were well on their way to chemically fusing with his skin, but that didn't stop him. His job was to help keep the Presence upright, and by god, he would see it done. As the ship scaled over another massive wave, Ice braced for impact. It came... but not from the direction in which he was anticipating. He took a huge splash of water directly in the back.

Turning around, looking wildly, Ice tried to find the source of this new blast of water. The rain was coming in sideways from all directions, but it wasn't nearly enough in one direction to account for that. Finally, Ice found the source: a number of sailors, one of them with a recently-emptied but now rapidly filling bucket.

"What-" *CLANG* The one holding the bucket whacked it over Ice's head, sending him sprawling to the floor. He scrambled, trying to get up, but the deck was so wet that it took him three tries to do so. When he finally did, he took his cutlass out and charged at the only person he could see, but got about a half a step before he slipped and fell right back down.

Ice could now hear laughter over the near-constant thunder of the storm. If these were to be his final moments, they certainly weren't turning out well. He had imagined a glorious death in battle in a boarding action of the Spanish Treasure Fleet... or maybe his heart finally giving out after a marathon session of rum and whores back in Nassau... or, more likely, a long rope and a short drop at the gallows of a more respectable port... but not this. Not while getting humiliated by people on the very same ship as him.

Using his cutlass for balance he tried to get up once again but had it kicked out from under him, sending him back to the deck for a third time. This time, he would stay down, as he started to get slashed repeatedly. The slippery deck combined with his rapidly-failing energy from the wounds ensured that this was to be Ice's final resting place. As the rain quickly washed away his blood, Ice's final thought was that he had no idea who killed him, or how many people were in on the act.


Back below decks, Andres was lovingly cradling his sack of treasure. Sure, he along with everyone else had been assigned a duty on the ship that night, but there was no sense in actually completing it. Not in this nightmare of a storm, not with all discipline breaking down on the Presence anyway. No, Andres would instead be spending his evening dry(-ish), cradling his truest of all loves: gold.

This relatively quiet part of the cabin, combined with the fact that Andres wasn't making much noise (aside from occasionally softly cooing to his bag), meant that he was easily able to hear the footsteps advancing in his direction. Without even hesitating, Andres picked his bag up, swinging it in the direction of his attackers. The "ow!" sound plus the satisfying feeling of the bag hitting weight made Andres knew he connected, and he took the time to sprint above decks, into the storm, in an attempt to lose his attackers.

As soon as he emerged, he slipped, much like Ice did earlier in the night. Panicking, Andres's first instinct was to grab his bag, and in an attempt to use it to right himself he inadvertently swung it and made another hit with somebody coming up from below decks. "Ow! Dammit! Stop hitting me with that!"

"You be tryin' to kill me!" Andres shouted in reply. "Sorry if me manners ain't exactly upper crust British Navy in this situation!" Over the sound of the thunder Andres could hear cutlasses being drawn, but he wasn't precisely sure of how many. Thinking fast, Andres scrambled to his feet and, seeing how his attackers were still coming up from below decks, made sure he had solid footing and pushed the lead pursuer back down with all his might. An extremely loud series of crashes and curses told him that he had bought himself even more time.

It was time to ensure his safety once and for all. Andres next made his way to the anchor, cutting the rope with his own cutlass, and dragging it back to the stairs. Without waiting to see what the situation was, he heaved it down, where the crashing and cursing became even louder. Surely they wouldn't try to come up *again*, not after that.

Andres sat and continued to cradle his bag of treasure, albeit this time in the storm. He was not disturbed for the rest of the night.


"YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!" Askthepizzaguy was startled as he heard the whooshing sound of swinging from a rope, directly in his direction. On instinct, he ducked just in time, as the man on the rope swung his cutlass in the exact spot where ATPG's next used to be an instant before. Unperturbed, the attacker somehow smoothly dismounted and turned to face ATPG. A duel in the rain was on.

The two men's cutlasses out, they didn't factor in the additional hazards posed by the hurricane at all when fighting. This was for survival - everything was already at stake. Ignoring the slippery deck, and slashing rain, and gale-force wind, and unstable waves, and lightning forking all around them, each man went for the killing blow. It was a duel in silence, for while there were the usual grunting noises and sounds of metal clashing against metal, all of it was swallowed up in the storm. Nobody else on the Presence was around: It was just the two of them fighting for their lives, with only a very angry Mother Nature as witness.

After a while, ATPG realized that the fight wasn't going well. The swordsman he was facing wasn't particularly skilled, but ATPG had expended too much early on trying to get a quick victory, whereas his attacker had conserved more of his strength. The result was now a rapidly-winding ATPG forced on the defensive, his margin for error growing thinner and thinner. He couldn't see much of his attacker beyond the outline, so he had no idea how he was reacting to this, but ATPG was certain the man was almost smiling at the thought of being near completion of his task.

Then, however, the ship crested a massive swell. Both men paused for balance, but ATPG was able to recover a little quicker and used the time to seize a rope. He started climbing, and his attacker followed. The two of them barely had any sort of grip on the wet, slippery, ropes but both men knew their business and continued to climb the rigging, occasionally pausing to slash at each other, unsuccessfully.

Finally, ATPG saw his destination in sight: The Crow's Nest. Making a leap of faith, he was barely able to make it and hauled himself in. Once again, however, his attacker was right behind, and the two of them were again dueling on even footing, but this time in a far more confined space. At the very top of the Presence, very almost no room to maneuver whatsoever, in the heart of a hurricane, Askthepizzaguy was fighting for his life - and he was losing.

He figured he had minutes - if not seconds - left before his attacker finally landed a killing blow. So ATPG decided to strike out blindly, leaving himself completely exposed if his attack didn't connect. Luckily for him, it did, striking the attacker's arm. Crying out in pain, the attacker dropped his cutlass over the edge. There would be no retrieving it now.

An immense blast of lightning finally illuminated the attacker's face for ATPG to see before the attacker dove out of sight for the rigging to get back down. It was black out again just as quickly as it had been light, but there was no mistaking the man's face. Sprig had just tried to murder Askthepizzaguy.


The night went on, the Presence continued its journey, and there were no other public incidents to speak of. After what had been the longest 10 hours in everyone's life, the clouds broke enough for them to see the sunrise. They were out of the storm.

"Of course," said Captain Double A, "Our newest storm be what will happen to us all if we don't find and kill that thrice-cursed Frenchman! Get voting ye scurvy bunch o' barnacles!!!"

OOC: It is now Day 4. Voting will last until Tuesday, October 6th, at 10:00 US Eastern Time.



I'm going to start sending out feedback PMs in about 10 minutes - thank you for your patience.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Attacked: spaceman98 (n1), Askthepizzaguy (n1), Csargo (n2), Andres (n3), Askthepizzaguy (n3)

Killed: TFT (n1), seireikhaan (n2), Ice (n3)

Mutinied: Kagemusha (d2)

Abandoned Ship: Ironside (n2)

Walked the plank: Xiahou (d3)

Souls aboard: (22)
Andres
Askthepizzaguy
autolycus
BSmith
Choxorn
Csargo
Double A
El Barto
Gaius Scribonius Curio
Golden1Knight
Ishmael
Ituralde
johnhughthom
landlubber
Lissa
Montmorency
NotJimRV
spaceman98
Sprig
TheFlax
Visorslash
Zack

[GeneralHankerchief]

Post 1036 of main thread.

Day 4

Even though many of the crewmen of the Presence seemed tired out after the previous day's arguments and then the massive storm that evening, it seemed as if today's arguments re-invigorated them. There was a general consensus that this discussion was good and piratical, what with Sprig's blatant murder attempt on Askthepizzaguy being mentioned and then summarily dismissed as irrelevant, gold changing hands for the amusing purpose of having one person vote for themselves, and then, the main focus of the day, the accusations being centered around spaceman98 and Lissa.

"I be tellin' ye," Lissa protested for seemingly the millionth time. "I tried to kill him the first night, but couldn't! Somebody stopped me!?"

"You were thrown in the brig?"

"No, somebody just stopped me!"

"That's it? Ye weren't offered a strong swig o' rum and then passed out? Weren't distracted by any figure callin' hisself Sexy Jeff? Weren't knocked upside the head with a heavy object?"

"Nay! Somebody just stopped me!"

Everybody moaned. "Well, that be anticlimactic. Also, I'm not sure if I be buyin' it, since apparently this strangest of actions only be happenin' to you."

"Oh come on!" Lissa protested. This was the most unfair thing ever. Her protests were in vain, though, as more and more people joined in on the chorus against her. Among these voices was spaceman himself, who had received a ton of votes earlier in the day but now, with the outcome in doubt, apparently grew enough confidence to make his voice heard. "Yeah!" he said. "Lissa's totally suspicious! And, uh, I'm not at all! Vote for her, laddies, she's got that French stink all over her!"

"That be grog and the sea, same as the rest of us," said another sailor, "not perfume. An' what are ye doing, anyway? She may have been blocked, but she was tryin' to kill *you* by all accounts that night. Actin' on insider information, eh?"

"Are you seriously suggesting that my wanting to live is now a trait of the Frenchman and his hirelings, and just them?"

"Uh..." the other sailor paused for a minute. ".............yes?"

"I hate everything," spaceman said. He didn't utter another word for the rest of the day, not even when he was ordered to walk the plank.

After that was over, Captain Double A took to address the crew. "Right laddies, that's another one down. Startin' tomorrow morning, I'll be startin' to have results on those who we've already lost. That'll be sure to aid our continuin' investigation, but let's also hope that there be no further cause for investigatin' in the first place. See you all in the morning."

Day 4 tally:
spaceman98: 9 (Askthepizzaguy, Visorslash, Montmorency, Gaius Scribonius Curio, johnhughthom, Lissa, autolycus, Ishmael, NotJimRV)
Lissa: 8 (Ituralde, BSmith, Zack, Choxorn, Golden1Knight, Csargo, spaceman98, Sprig)
Sprig: 1 (landlubber)
Visorslash: 1 (Andres)
El Barto: 1 (El Barto)
Askthepizzaguy: 1 (TheFlax)

Abstained: 1 (Double A)
Didn't vote: none!

It is now Night 4. Please send in your orders. Night 4 will conclude on Wednesday, October 7th, at 16:00 US Eastern Time.



~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Attacked: spaceman98 (n1), Askthepizzaguy (n1, n3), Csargo (n2), Andres (n3)

Killed: TFT (n1), seireikhaan (n2), Ice (n3)

Mutinied: Kagemusha (d2)

Abandoned Ship: Ironside (n2)

Walked the plank: Xiahou (d3), spaceman98 (d4)

Souls aboard: (21)
Andres
Askthepizzaguy
autolycus
BSmith
Choxorn
Csargo
Double A
El Barto
Gaius Scribonius Curio
Golden1Knight
Ishmael
Ituralde
johnhughthom
landlubber
Lissa
Montmorency
NotJimRV
Sprig
TheFlax
Visorslash
Zack

[GeneralHankerchief]

Post 1073 of main thread.

Night 4

As the Presence continued its northward sail to Nassau, some sailors were more optimistic than others about the course it was taking. It was as they all feared: the ship was tearing itself apart from within.


landlubber knew it was time to get off this boat. When one of the other crewmen, an influential one at that, makes an open declaration about his intent of killing you and actively recruits volunteers to aid him in this cause, it's usually time to abandon ship. It may have been a bluff, but landlubber didn't think so. In any case, he certainly wasn't about to find out.

The question was, how to play this? He had two choices: Fast, or sneaky. Being sneaky might give him a little more breathing room, but then again it could also cost him valuable time when trying to escape if people *were* coming for him. On the other hand, going fast would get him to safety sooner, but it also might force his attackers' hands... assuming they ever came in the first place.

What to do, what to do? Landlubber started sweating bullets, acquiring a large case of tunnel vision in the process. His entire world now boiled down to himself and his bag of worldly possessions, most notably his share of the loot from New Tortuga. Had lubber been slightly more aware, he may have realized that there were a few conspicuous absences from the crew quarters below deck.

It was time - there was no more sense in sweating and pulling it off. He'd had a fun ride, but now it was time to extend his lifespan. lubber grabbed his bag, and bolted upstairs. He chose "fast" over "sneaky", barreling through all obstacles without so much as a "sorry!" spared for people he ran into. He headed straight for the lifeboats (already with one absence)... and ran straight into an obstacle that didn't budge.

Five sailors, cutlasses out, greeted him with bared teeth, blocking his path to freedom. "A bit o' advice, lubber," one of them said, "ye may thought it was foolish of us to announce our intent in killin' you, but 'twas twicesame on your part to announce *your* intent in leavin' tonight. All we had to do was set up shop early and wait for you to come to us."

lubber desperately tried to run around them and reach the lifeboat, but he never made it. His final moments consisted of him bleeding out on the decks of the Presence, the ship he had been so desperate to leave. Perhaps death would offer more freedom - he would find out very shortly indeed.


Back below decks, Lissa was taking her impending demise with far more stoicism. "I've been waiting fer ya for a while now," she said, at present it not being certain if she was specifically addressing any one of the five sailors surrounding her bunk. "Ever since the second day, really. I got put in a bad position and ye never quite trusted me afterwards."

One of the sailors surrounding her responded. "This be odd. You're not putting up much more o' a fight? Not denying yer Frenchness or business with the Maven? Not runnin' for it like Ironside did a couple nights back or I suspect landlubber be doin' right now? Not beggin' fer protection from the officers or anyone else?"

"What be the point?" said Lissa. "Will anything I honestly say convince you to lay off and let me live?"

The reply was instant. The five sailors surrounding her all grumbled negatively.

"Well then, no sense in losing any more sleep over it than has already been done. Just know two things: One, I'd prefer it be quick. Two, I know all yer faces and will be haunting the lot o' ye for the rest of yer miserable kelp-stained lives, be they twelve hours longer or thrice as many years. Begone, I say, and after I be done with ye in life, then may Satan follow my example for eternity."

"LISSA, NO!" shouted another voice, desperately trying to reach her and save her in time. But it was too late. Undeterred by the curse she had just laid down on them, the sailors finished their job, ignoring the efforts of the newcomer to try to stop it. Afterwards, they retired to their bunks to contemplate the exact meaning of "eternity".


The next morning, Captain Double A gathered the remaining crewmen around his cabin, a grim expression on his face. "Right then, the news," he said. It looks like the number o' kills be increasing. We had two bodies overnight, landlubber and Lissa. Damn you all, we're supposed to be makin' progress, not doublin' the nightly body count!"

"Oh, look at our fearless leader, speaking about progress!" another sailor called back. "You be supposed to takin' charge and stopping this! Where be the long-promised postmortems anyway!" General murmurs of agreement followed this.

"As a matter of fact, I have the first batch right here," Double A said, "but it not be lookin' so good. TFT, seireikhaan, Kagemusha, and Ironside were loyal crewmen all and we be the worse off without them. Anyways, why am I still talking??! Get votin', ye rusty scuppers, and let's find that Frenchman!"

OOC:

First off, TFT's identity should have been revealed on D4 and not today, apologies for the confusion/delay. We should be up to speed with the post-death reveals now.

It is now Day 5. Voting will last until Thursday, October 8th, at 23:59 US Eastern Time.



Feedback PMs will go out shortly.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Attacked: spaceman98 (n1), Askthepizzaguy (n1, n3), Csargo (n2), Andres (n3)

Killed: TFT (n1), seireikhaan (n2), Ice (n3), landlubber (n4), Lissa (n4)

Mutinied: Kagemusha (d2)

Abandoned Ship: Ironside (n2)

Walked the plank: Xiahou (d3), spaceman98 (d4)

Souls aboard: (19)
Andres
Askthepizzaguy
autolycus
BSmith
Choxorn
Csargo
Double A
El Barto
Gaius Scribonius Curio
Golden1Knight
Ishmael
Ituralde
johnhughthom
Montmorency
NotJimRV
Sprig
TheFlax
Visorslash
Zack

[GeneralHankerchief]

Effective immediately, dcmort93 has replaced NotJimRV.

[GeneralHankerchief]

Post 1337 of main thread.

Day 5

Tensions were running high aboard the Presence, with the familiar tone of distrust against the officer corps being taken. The Quartermaster was coming under increasing fire, the Captain was being questioned about his effectiveness, and the First Mate looked like an entirely different person than he did yesterday! Nonetheless, the general discontent never morphed into a mutiny, and eventually the voting went in different directions.

Lots of different directions.

Perhaps as a result of the sentiment toward the officer corps, nobody quite had enough pull to lead the crewmen in one direction or the other. At one point in the day, a full half the sailors aboard had somebody writing their name down - or an approximation of such - to face the plank. As this was not particularly an appealing situation for anyone aboard, it was only a matter of time before somebody took action to rectify the situation. This person ended up being Ishmael. Currently in the lead with three votes, Ishmael stepped forward and addressed the full crew.

"All right laddies, it be obvious to me that there be no consensus aboard. Seeing as I be the leadin' candidate, allow me to offer such: Anyone who votes for TheFlax gets a share out o' me big pile of gold!" This was enough to cause a commotion. Instantly all eyes turned towards TheFlax, looking for his response.

TheFlax looked unimpressed. "A paltry sum," he said. "This be the goin' rate for votes nowadays?"

"Aye!" somebody shouted out. That was El Barto, of course.

Flax was done, saying no more on the matter. Visorslash, however, was not. Convinced - or at least, appearing that way - of Ishmael's guilt, he offered to match Ishmael's price should any sailors place their vote on him instead, with the added unspoken benefit of being in the Quartermaster's favor as a result. El Barto, for his part, looked like all his dreams came true at once.

From there it was off to the races, with the votes quickly coalescing around Ishmael and TheFlax, with El Barto in particular running back and forth between the two, looking happier and happier with each new exchange. Meanwhile, both lynch candidates were seriously starting to sweat.

Finally, Captain Double A stood up, ready to call an end to proceedings. El Barto and Ishmael were currently deep in discussion.

"Right then, by my count it be 5-4 in favor of-"

"STOP!" El Barto cried out. Everybody looked at him quizzically.

"I be changin' my vote!" he said.

"Barto, you've already changed yer vote four times in the past hour or two!"

"Well I be changin' it a fifth time! I switch from Ishmael to TheFlax!"

Instant bedlam. Double A sighed in exasperation. Visorslash started cursing up a storm. Ishmael breathed a huge sigh of relief. TheFlax paled. El Barto looked pleased with his handiwork. The rest of the sailors just stared in shock, wondering what on earth had just happened.

"Right then, Flax, to the plank with ye," Double A said. TheFlax automatically complied, still trying to process what had just happened. "Any last words?"

"Shoulda tried negotiatin', laddie!" That was El Barto. "Ain't nothin' that a good bit o' business can't solve!"

"Yes. Business," TheFlax said absentmindedly, almost to himself, and was summarily booted off the Presence.

Day 5 tally:
TheFlax: 5 (Ishmael, autolycus, Zack, Choxorn, El Barto)
Ishmael: 4 (Gaius Scribonius Curio, Visorslash, TheFlax, dcmort93)
Golden1Knight: 2 (Ituralde, Andres)
johnhughthom: 2 (BSmith, Montmorency)
Zack: 1 (Askthepizzaguy)
Gaius Scribonius Curio: 1 (Sprig)

Abstained: 3 (Double A, Csargo, Golden1Knight)
Didn't vote: 1 (johnhughthom)

It is now Night 5. Please send in your orders. Night 5 will conclude on Saturday, October 10th, at 10:00 US Eastern Time.



~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Attacked: spaceman98 (n1), Askthepizzaguy (n1, n3), Csargo (n2), Andres (n3)

Killed: TFT (n1), seireikhaan (n2), Ice (n3), landlubber (n4), Lissa (n4)

Mutinied: Kagemusha (d2)

Abandoned Ship: Ironside (n2)

Walked the plank: Xiahou (d3), spaceman98 (d4), TheFlax (d5)

Souls aboard: (18)
Andres
Askthepizzaguy
autolycus
BSmith
Choxorn
Csargo
dcmort93
Double A
El Barto
Gaius Scribonius Curio
Golden1Knight
Ishmael
Ituralde
johnhughthom
Montmorency
Sprig
Visorslash
Zack

[GeneralHankerchief]

Post 1358 of main thread.

Night 5

Even aboard a pirate ship, there was always some semblance of order, of structure. Anarchy and ineffectiveness went hand-in-hand, after all, and the Presence had been anything but ineffective over the years. As the ship continued its journey towards Nassau, however, and the number of sailors decreased, there was definitely a notable breakdown in order. Nobody knew who to trust and everyone was out for themselves.


The fight was two-on-two: johnhughthom and a lone guardian angel against an equal amount of attackers clearly focused on just john. He wasn't sure of his ally's effectiveness, having already accidentally dropped his cutlass a few times during the fight, but the amount and quality of insults hurled in the attackers' direction was certainly appreciated nonetheless.

"Ohhh, is that the best ye've got?" the protector shouted out after one particularly questionable attack that john easily parried. "I've heard tales of a man who fancies such a move. He lives in the city and goes to the theater and spends time with soft boys though! Haw haw haw!"

After several minutes of this, the attackers started to get incensed, getting ever-sloppier with their attacks, which in turn caused the protector to get even louder and more vicious with his insults, causing a recurring feedback loop. By the end of it, the attackers were little more than cavemen, inarticulately grunting and swinging their cutlasses wildly at anything that remotely resembled their target. John eventually and mercifully ended the engagement by whacking the two of them upside the head with a large block of wood. Nodding to his protector, the two of them went their separate ways.


Gaius Scribonius Curio and three fellow crewmen were above decks, having a drinking contest. It had been almost a week since they had done this, and, well, that was just an unacceptably long time between drinking contests. Clearly this situation had to be rectified immediately. And so they broke into the Presence's kitchens, snatched a large amount of rum, and raced above decks to let the contest begin.

"Nassau?" Curio began. "Nassau's taverns ain't worth the piss I spray them with every time visit 'em! Nay, mateys, the best drinking establishments be located in Cork, back in the Old World. All the fine quality of Dublin's beers plus the added bonus that ye be drinking with dockworkers and their ilk!"

"Cork, the best?" another said. "That rum already be gettin' to ye! I be old enough to remember this one lovely establishment in Port Royal, before the earthquake threw it back in the sea. Ah, granted, the ale wasn't the best, but the clientele couldn't be beaten! I swear, that was the only place where everybody knew me name..."

"You just be sayin' that because that place had the only wench in this part o' the world that actually gave you attention!" said a third. "Nay, the best drink I've ever had was in the Spice Islands. Me ship back at the time - this was before I'd turned pirate - was runnin' through as part of a usual trade route, when we ran aground on an island I'd never seen before and that wasn't on our maps. I went out to look for a water source with a couple other crewmen, but we got separated due to the thick jungle. I called for 'em and tried to retrace me steps but there was just no sign of 'em. So I was startin' to think that this might be it, see? After a couple o' hours of walking around without any real destination in mind, I finally stumble across it - it be a full native village, untouched by the trade! I might have been the first outsider to actually see it! I go in expectin' the worst, but the natives were very friendly and nice to me - maybe because they all knew I could take on any three o' them in a fight! So the chief has me in his hut, and his daughter comes up to me, lookin' all sweet and pure and innocent fer the world. Without saying a word, she offers me a cup o' this magnificent brew -"

"Stop right there," said the second sailor. "I call shenanigans! Ye turned pirate what, fifteen years ago? This places ye at around age 13 when it happened! Nay, I don't buy it."

"Alright alright, I mighta put a bit o' embellishment on a detail or two," the third admitted. "Say, what about ye? Where be the best place to have a drink?"

Everybody turned to the fourth sailor, who suddenly looked nervous. "Well," he started, looking sheepish, "I've always enjoyed a glass of sangria on a hot summer's day in Barcelona..."

"SANGRIA??!?!" And then an argument erupted about proper piratical liquor and behavior, it eventually getting so intense and heated that the three sailors completely forgot that they were supposed to kill Curio, who had a very enjoyable and peaceful night indeed.


autolycus sniffed the air around him. In times like this, somebody might say they were able to detect the stench of death, or the winds of change, or something equally foreboding and poetic, but autolycus was just a regular pirate and had no such literary tendencies. He could smell the salt of the ocean. He could smell the tang of the Presence. These things hadn't changed much ever since they set sail from New Tortuga. He could smell the grog on the hot breath of two figures edging closer to him...

Wait, this was new. Turning around, acting purely on instinct, he cried out in shock and swung his cutlass wildly. To everyone involved's surprise, he connected, making a wide slash that caught both would-be attackers in the gut. Each immediately doubled over in pain. The wound wasn't particularly deep and they'd live, but they were in no condition to fight that night, leaving autolycus to make a clean getaway.

He would spend the rest of the night with a bottle of smelling salts close at hand, determined to stay awake in case anyone else tried anything.


There were worse things than death. Ishmael knew this, believed this, had this instilled in his mind from a very young age. Despite this, death, specifically rapidly-approaching death, had a particular way of making people forget about things worse than it in the heat of the moment. Now was such a time for Ishmael, who saw two sailors advancing on his position with purpose.

"Not today, boys!" he called out. "I not be survivin' the lynch yesterday to have it end like this!"

The two men didn't respond, instead closing the distance and drawing their cutlasses. Ishmael responded in kind, and the fight was on. Iron clashed against iron, grunts of effort and pain grew louder, and the Presence rang with the sounds of the clash. The two attackers had the numbers, but Ishmael was a wily enough swordsmen to always ensure that he had room to maneuver. Indeed, the attackers were never able to fully corner their target, leaving them more and more frustrated.

As the duel went on and Ishmael escaped certain death for yet another time, one of the attackers threw his cutlass to the ground in anger, clearly not thinking. This was Ishmael's chance. As the attacker went down to pick it up, Ishmael parried a blow from the other attacker, moved into position, and kicked the man picking up his cutlass hard, in the face.

It was a perfect connection. Ishmael kicked him so hard that he actually sent him in the air, flying, only to land spread-eagled on his back a second later, out cold. Ishmael, cursing in pain and realizing the fact that kicking something that hard inevitably hurt *you* too, limped back below decks as the other attacker went to check on his buddy.


That morning, Captain Double A gathered the crew together to address them. "Right lads," he began, "I got good news and bad news. The good news is that there were no deaths today!" The crew actually managed to look disappointed and angry at this, causing Double A to pause for a second out of uncertainty. "Anyway, the bad news is that there were four separate attacks tonight, which means that there were no kills due to incompetence and not peacefulness aboard the ship! Seriously mateys, we need to get ourselves together if we want to make it alive to Nassau to spend our haul!!"

"Yeah yeah," a sailor called out, "we've all heard this speech before. Get to the good stuff! Did we bag any Frenchies?"

"Ah, right," Double A said. "Nay, not on Night or Day 3 at any rate. Xiahou and Ice were both loyal crewmen. Let's hope we have more luck today. Get votin, ye bloomin' bags o' barracuda bait!"

OOC: It is now Day 6. Voting will last until Sunday, October 11th, at 17:00 US Eastern Time.



I will try to have all feedback PMs before I have to go out. If you don't get yours in the next 20-25 minutes or so, expect them in 8 hours.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Attacked: spaceman98 (n1), Askthepizzaguy (n1, n3), Csargo (n2), Andres (n3), johnhughthom (n5), Gaius Scribonius Curio (n5), autolycus (n5), Ishmael (n5)

Killed: TFT (n1), seireikhaan (n2), Ice (n3), landlubber (n4), Lissa (n4)

Mutinied: Kagemusha (d2)

Abandoned Ship: Ironside (n2)

Walked the plank: Xiahou (d3), spaceman98 (d4), TheFlax (d5)

Souls aboard: (18)
Andres
Askthepizzaguy
autolycus
BSmith
Choxorn
Csargo
dcmort93
Double A
El Barto
Gaius Scribonius Curio
Golden1Knight
Ishmael
Ituralde
johnhughthom
Montmorency
Sprig
Visorslash
Zack

[GeneralHankerchief]

Post 1560 of main thread.

Day 6

This, by all accounts, was the day that Ishmael was supposed to die. He had survived a trip overboard the previous day by the skin of his teeth. He had fended off an attack at night. The Quartermaster - easily the most vocal person aboard the Presence - was gunning for his head. In no way, shape, or form, was Ishmael to see another sunrise.

And yet...

As the day progressed, a growing discontent amongst the remaining sailors emerged. Where was the Captain? What had he been doing at night? Why was the Quartermaster speaking for him? Where was the supposedly rock-solid evidence that the ship's officers were loyal to the Presence? Where was the evidence that Ishmael was with the Frenchman? What on earth was with that plan designed to infiltrate into the French circle of trust? And why wasn't anybody offering gold for services (that last one in particular concerned El Barto)?

And so, on the sixth day, a funny thing happened aboard the Presence. Ishmael lived, again. Not through some last-minute bartering, as he did the previous day. Instead, he lived because the crewmen by all accounts had turned on their officers. Fed up with the perceived lack of transparency, disenchanted with the strategy pursued, the crewmen hadn't been riled up enough for a second mutiny - yet. They did, however, repudiate the choice of Ishmael as a lynch in favor of someone who nobody seemed to know what he was doing at night: johnhughthom.

"Be ye serious?" the veteran sailor called out. "But what about - oh, hellfire, what be the point?" john had been around ships long enough to know that once the crew had made up its mind, there was no changing it.

"Better save me breath for the swim ahead," he muttered to himself, and then, not waiting to be escorted off the plank, took a running start and dove off into the Atlantic below.

Day 6 tally:
johnhughthom: 8 (BSmith, Montmorency, El Barto, Golden1Knight, autolycus, Ishmael, Zack, Visorslash)
Ishmael: 6 (Askthepizzaguy, dcmort93, Ituralde, Choxorn, Gaius Scribonius Curio, Csargo)
Golden1Knight: 1 (Andres)

Mutiny: 1 (Csar)
Didn't vote: 3 (Double A, johnhughthom, Sprig)

It is now Night 6. Please send in your orders. Night 6 will conclude on Tuesday, October 13th, at 01:00 US Eastern Time.



~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Attacked: spaceman98 (n1), Askthepizzaguy (n1, n3), Csargo (n2), Andres (n3), johnhughthom (n5), Gaius Scribonius Curio (n5), autolycus (n5), Ishmael (n5)

Killed: TFT (n1), seireikhaan (n2), Ice (n3), landlubber (n4), Lissa (n4)

Mutinied: Kagemusha (d2)

Abandoned Ship: Ironside (n2)

Walked the plank: Xiahou (d3), spaceman98 (d4), TheFlax (d5), johnhughthom (d6)

Souls aboard: (17)
Andres
Askthepizzaguy
autolycus
BSmith
Choxorn
Csargo
dcmort93
Double A
El Barto
Gaius Scribonius Curio
Golden1Knight
Ishmael
Ituralde
Montmorency
Sprig
Visorslash
Zack

[GeneralHankerchief]

Post 1600 of main thread.

Night 6

Death was the watchword aboard the Presence on this night as it continued its northward sail to Nassau. Unfortunately for many of the enterprising sailors aboard looking to increase their share of the treasure, it was concentrated around one individual in particular.


Was the individual in question going to be Andres? Two crewmen certainly hoped so. Andres had survived a lot in the week since New Tortuga - a mutiny in which he was the First Mate and forcibly got removed, a vote amongst the mutineers solely to determine his fate, a couple of determined lynch efforts on his behalf, a hurricane, and an attempt on his life during said hurricane. In no way, shape, or form should Andres have been alive. This would be rectified tonight.

The two men looking to kill him approached his bunk below decks - and they were in luck! Andres was sound asleep, dead to the world, the blankets pulled over his entire body, including his face. They smirked, shaking their heads. Surely someone who had had so many brushes with death over the past week would have been more paranoid. Perhaps he would learn this lesson in the next life.

They raised their cutlasses, moved them into position over the sleeping figure, and stabbed them downward... but there were no cries of pain. Only a dull *fwuff* and surprisingly little resistance on the downward stab. This was odd. After a few more stabs and similar effects, the two sailors pulled the blanket off Andres - only to find pillows. Apparently Andres had been properly paranoid after all.


Was the individual in question going to be Ishmael? Ishmael certainly knew that some amount of crewmen wished for nothing more than his death. He had now thought he was dead meat three times over: Once on Day 5 when some last-second bartering had saved his hide, once the following night when he had fended off two attackers, and once the day after when he survived his second straight close vote. Ishmael did the math, and analyzed the patterns. He figured there was a good chance of him being in mortal danger tonight as well.

The four figures approaching him seemed to confirm this. Ishmael knew that now was not the time for guile or trickery. He would have to fight his way out of this. He drew his cutlass and assumed a fighting stance, ready to take his attackers head on...


Was the individual in question going to be Choxorn? Not if he had anything to say about it. After six nights aboard the Presence, Choxorn had seen enough. He had tried his hand at the pirate thing, doing whatever possible to increase his stash. He had seen his share of blood, and determined that it wasn't going to stop anytime soon. The officers looked entrenched, so there was no possibility of a mutiny, but by Choxorn's reckoning that also meant no possibility of the crew sailing into Nassau in one piece.

No, Choxorn was done with it all. It was a gamble, but no larger than some he had already taken. And, if the remainder of the voyage played out the way Choxorn thought it was going to play out, it was a pretty safe bet indeed. Standing on the starboard side of the ship, Choxorn paused for a moment to take in the cloudless night sky and the stars, embracing the moment. These were his last moments aboard the Presence, after all, and he wanted them to be a happy memory.

The moment over, he climbed aboard and took possession of one of the ship's remaining dinghies. Choxorn sailed off into the night, with his entire bag of treasure, towards parts unknown.


Was the individual in question either of the two men who had been sitting at the aft of the ship and chatting idly for the past hour or so? No, they were undisturbed, thus allowing their conversation to go in a number of directions. They talked about the ship, their piratical careers, their lives, their loves, the homes they abandoned to go pirate, and the things that really mattered to them.

As the conversation went on, the subjects grew deeper. They two men got into the subjects that was truly important to them, and one started going on about what he fought for and why he was doing what he was. Peppered with an accent far more refined than the typical brogue usually associated with pirates, one that suggested nobility, and combined with the passion of his cause, the first man spun a worthy argument indeed. By the end of the conversation, the second man became convinced that he was joining a worthy cause indeed. No longer loyal to the crew of the Presence, he set about on his new mission.


Ishmael had been fighting his attackers to a standstill for some time now, but all were tiring. The attackers, frustrated that four of them weren't able to finished one lone pirate off, had quickly grown more desperate in their attacks, which tired them out easily and swung the advantage slightly in Ishmael's favor. Despite this, though, he was still one facing off against four.

He was looking for something to even the odds, anything, no matter how dirty the trick. After all, pirates never played fair. After sidestepping a sure death blow, Ishmael started hacking at ropes at random in the hopes that enough stuff would come loose to even the odds.

Somehow, this was a success! A large block of wood attached to the mast came loose and swung heavily in the direction of the battle. Ishmael, seeing it coming, ducked. The other four did not. After a loud CRACK and then four smaller *thud*s, Ishmael, not believing his luck, slinked back below decks.


Was the individual in question Gaius Scribonius Curio? A lone guardian angel certainly hoped not, as he had been watching over him in the brig all night. They heard the tromping become louder and louder, and nodded to each other. It was time to get ready.

"Open up!" said the tromper. "It be time for yer date with Davey Jones, Curio!"

"Not a chance," said Curio, drawing his cutlass and kicking open the brig door off its hinges. His guardian joined, and it was two-on-one. The attacker, expecting the numerical advantage and not the other way around, put up a fight for a while, but soon realized that these odds were not what he had bargained for, and retreated upon the first opportunity that presented itself.

"Right," Curio said to his protector, nodding, "what be next? I'd rather not stay in this brig all night to die."

"Then you can die right outside it instead!" This was a new voice, laced with purpose and confidence. Its owner stepped out of the shadows and charged straight for Curio, cutlass raised. Curio was barely able to parry in time, and the new fight was on. Once again, it was two-on-one in favor of Curio, but this attacker was not so easily dissuaded. He expertly kept Curio's protector out of the fight, essentially nullifying his contribution to the battle and making it a true duel.

After several minutes of this and the protector getting more and more frustrated, Curio had seen enough. "Run, get help! I'll hold him off!" The protector looked to protest for a moment, but seeing how ineffective he had been, grudgingly obliged and took off. Curio, for his part, now that he didn't have to worry about the safety of anyone else, fought with more vigor and purpose of his own.

The battle raged outside the brig for an unknown amount of minutes. The distortion of time was truly in effect, as Curio believed he had been fighting for hours, waiting for help to come, when in reality it had only been minutes. He had been managing to hold his own for at least a little while, but the surge of adrenaline he received was quickly evaporating and the attacker's superior skill was winning the day.

"C'mon, just parry the next blow," Curio muttered to himself, following his own instructions. "Okay, now the next one." Another parry. "Now this one." Parry. "Now the next one." And so it went.

He got focused so heavily on just parrying the next blow that he (and his attacker) was completely unprepared for what happened next. As the attacker prepared for another blow, Curio stopped in his tracks and dropped his weapon. A second later, he fell to his knees, and then onto the ground proper, gurgling blood. A red-tipped harpoon emerged from his chest.

"Sorry," the owner of the harpoon said afterwards. "Heard someone come wakin' me up at night screamin' about trouble in the brig. Had to see for meself."

"Hey, he's dead, that's all I wanted to do in the first place."

The two men walked off, going their separate ways, one of them with a fancy cutlass in hand.


That morning, Double A gathered the remaining crew, some of whom looked particularly displeased about the size of their loot relative to what it had been the night before. "I have bad news, mateys. We lost another dinghy! It be seemin' that someone else went and abandoned ship over the night."

"Cap'n, there also be another death aboard!"

"Blasted barnacles, that too? All the more reason to get voting, then!"

"What about the investigations?"

"Ah, right," Double A said. "Let me see. Good news and bad news on that front. The bad news be that landlubber and Lissa were loyal crewmen who did not seek us harm. The good news be that spaceman was a dirty bleedin' sailor aboard the Maven in the pay of the Frenchman! We got one, lads! Let's keep at it and bag the rest o' his men!"

OOC: It is now Day 7. Voting will last until Tuesday, October 14th, at Noon US Eastern Time.



Feedback PMs will go out shortly. Need a break from writing first.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Attacked: spaceman98 (n1), Askthepizzaguy (n1, n3), Csargo (n2), Andres (n3, n6), johnhughthom (n5), Gaius Scribonius Curio (n5, n6), autolycus (n5), Ishmael (n5, n6)

Killed: TFT (n1), seireikhaan (n2), Ice (n3), landlubber (n4), Lissa (n4), Gaius Scribonius Curio (n6)

Mutinied: Kagemusha (d2)

Abandoned Ship: Ironside (n2), Choxorn (n6)

Walked the plank: Xiahou (d3), spaceman98 (d4), TheFlax (d5), johnhughthom (d6)

Souls aboard: (15)
Andres
Askthepizzaguy
autolycus
BSmith
Csargo
dcmort93
Double A
El Barto
Golden1Knight
Ishmael
Ituralde
Montmorency
Sprig
Visorslash
Zack

[GeneralHankerchief]

Post 1839 of main thread.

Day 7

It had been a week since the retreat from New Tortuga, and order aboard the Presence was dangerously close to breaking down. Trust in the administration was breaking down and a minor attempt at mutiny was formed, despite the Quartermaster's insistence that he had led the charge on spaceman98, a revealed Maven crewman. People were flinging accusations at each other back and forth, openly calling for each other's death, and reveling in the fact that they had managed to steal so much treasure from others aboard. Not necessarily in that order. Further compounding matters was the fact that Captain Double A once again spent the entire day shut up in his quarters.

However, there was one outstanding issue that brought most of the crewmen together: The fact that Ishmael needed to die, immediately. He had somehow survived two previous votes by the skin of his teeth, not to mention determined attacks on him the previous two nights. The common joke was that everyone had agreed he had been in the pay of the Frenchman - or perhaps the Frenchman himself - for a while, but everybody had always just assumed that he'd be taken care of so they moved onto other issues.

Not today. Not anymore. Today, the crewmen were out for blood. And thus, not even bothering to take a formal vote, not even bothering to wait for Double A to emerge to add some formality to the proceedings, a full two thirds of the living crew of the Presence drew their cutlasses and advanced as one towards their target. If carefully refined democracy governed by rules wasn't enough to get him off the ship, if daggers in the night weren't enough to get him off, then they would revert to that most primal of instincts: bloodlust.

Ishmael drew his own cutlass to defend himself, but it was of no use. He was barely able to defend himself against four people trying to kill him; trying to do the same against ten would be impossible. The first hit was scored against his free arm - annoying, but not too bad. The next nicked his left leg. A third cut his cheek, the fourth was a major hit that slashed his chest. And so on. As the injuries began to accumulate, Ishmael was less able to fight back effectively.

It was probably for the best that he finally fell off the ship, bleeding from several wounds, seconds before somebody had wheeled a cannon up and blasted it directly at where he used to be, instead sending a good chunk of wood into the Atlantic after him. For better or for worse, Ishmael was now off the Presence.

Day 7 tally:
Ishmael: 10 (Visorslash, Ituralde, dcmort93, Sprig, Montmorency, BSmith, Askthepizzaguy, Golden1Knight, El Barto, Andres)
BSmith: 1 (Csargo)
Askthepizzaguy: 1 (Zack)
Visorslash: 1 (Ishmael)

Mutiny: 4 (Sprig, Zack, Csargo, Ishmael)

Didn't vote: 2 (Double A, autolycus)

OOC:

Myrddraal is in the process of replacing Sprig. I'm bringing Myrddraal up to speed, but for now if you have plans to contact Sprig, please loop Myrddraal in as well. I hope to make this transition final by the end of the night phase.

It is now Night 7. Please send in your orders. Night 7 will conclude on Thursday, October 15th, at 18:00 US Eastern Time.



~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Attacked: spaceman98 (n1), Askthepizzaguy (n1, n3), Csargo (n2), Andres (n3, n6), johnhughthom (n5), Gaius Scribonius Curio (n5, n6), autolycus (n5), Ishmael (n5, n6)

Killed: TFT (n1), seireikhaan (n2), Ice (n3), landlubber (n4), Lissa (n4), Gaius Scribonius Curio (n6)

Mutinied: Kagemusha (d2)

Abandoned Ship: Ironside (n2), Choxorn (n6)

Walked the plank: Xiahou (d3), spaceman98 (d4), TheFlax (d5), johnhughthom (d6), Ishmael (d7)

Souls aboard: (14)
Andres
Askthepizzaguy
autolycus
BSmith
Csargo
dcmort93
Double A
El Barto
Golden1Knight
Ituralde
Montmorency
Sprig
Visorslash
Zack

[GeneralHankerchief]

Post 1882 of main thread.

Night 7

He had been fairly quiet at the start of the voyage, keeping his head down and mostly blending in ("his head be all the way up in Norway," one crewman had said), but everybody knew that it was only a matter of time before he resumed his usual boisterousness. And so, on the seventh night of the Presence's sail to Nassau, it was clear that the attention would be focused on him at last. Tonight would be Askthepizzaguy's reckoning.

Part of him saw it coming, of course. He had had conversations with the leadership over the past few days, annoyed just the right amount of people - both publicly during the day and privately at night. He had made enemies. And on a ship like the Presence, with its rapidly-decreasing crew and few opportunities for escape, people with enemies didn't survive very long.

So it was no surprise at all to Askthepizzaguy that two sailors came upon him with their cutlasses drawn, ready for battle. Pizza, awake and alert, had made preparations of his own.

"Arr, insert witticism here!" he cried out, facing his attackers.

"General statement of intent to actively seek your death!" one of them called back.

"Acknowledgement of such and expression of desire to commence with combat action!" Pizza replied, and the fight was on. The three men whirled around each other, trading blows and verbal barbs both, for several minutes, making their way around different parts of the ship as they gained and lost momentum. Pizza, for all of his casualness and preparations, at some point realized that he was outnumbered and clearly on the defensive. As such he stopped speaking in tropes, and, gritting his remaining not-particularly-hygienic teeth, focused all of his energy on trying to find and exploit any advantage.

"Where be they, I shelled out enough of me bounty for 'em..." he muttered to himself, throwing himself to the ground to avoid a cutlass sweep that would have taken off his head had he remained upright. Using his new lower position, he tried to trip his attackers, but they were wary about this move and successfully countered it, leaving Pizza in even more danger than before.

Now the attackers started kicking, taking advantage of Pizza being on the ground. With even more attacks to defend against, Pizza found himself ineffective at stopping anything, and pretty soon he was flat on his back, wounded in multiple places, and his own cutlass kicked harmlessly away. It was to be the end, then.

"ARRRRRR!" No it wasn't! Finally, they had arrived, three men armed to the teeth and charging straight for Pizza's two attackers. Not bothering to exhibit any fancy tactics whatsoever, the new arrivals simply used momentum as their main force in separating the two attackers from Pizza. It worked, one man diving off to the side and the other being thrown in the air for several feat before crashing to the surface in a heap, out cold and no longer a threat to anyone. Pizza, safe for the time being, tipped his cap to his saviors, though he was sure to mention that he had everything under control and that the situation wasn't as bad as it looked.


Several hours later, after the excitement had died down, Askthepizzaguy was ready to make his true move. He had made sure to time this for very late on in the night, when the general mayhem aboard the Presence had subsided and he was ensured a quiet and undisturbed area in which to operate. He made his way above decks, cutlass drawn, looking this way and that... and proceeded towards the ship's remaining dinghies, aiming to commandeer one for himself. The attack earlier in the night had only served to confirm Pizza's suspicions: It was time to abandon ship.

Interrupting his progress roughly every two seconds to check around for further attackers, Pizza made slow work, but finally prepared his dinghy. Checking around one last time, taking the sights in, he mused that at least he had survived without incurring the ire of the Captain. Such men had been known to shoot people in the face, a fate that Pizza was glad to avoid.

After lowering the dinghy down into the water, Pizza finally climbed over the side of the ship and stepped in, for the first time actually looking at what was inside the dinghy. He jumped about three feet in the air and almost fell out of the boat when I saw El Barto in there beside him.

"You... what... when... HOW??!?!" he sputtered.

"I be here literally the entire time," Barto said, looking amused. "If ye be focused on yer actual work and not checkin' every which way for ghosts ye mighta seen me. Do appreciate you doin' all the legwork to get this boat down in the ocean, though." He tipped his cap at Pizza for that.

"But why you? Weren't ye to stay and sell yer vote even more times gettin' richer and richer?"

"A relative o' mine runs a bank in Nassau," Barto replied, "and he imparted some wisdom to me a while back. 'Buy low, sell high,' said he, and I be thinkin' the time has come to sell."

"Fair enough," Pizza said.

"Aye, so I thought. Now, about that outstandin' payment o' gold you owe me..."

Pizza gulped. It was going to be a very awkward boat ride, but at least neither of them were trying to kill each other. For now, anyway.


The next morning, Captain Double A, flanked by his officers - dcmort93 and a very angry-looking Visorslash - gathered the remaining crew. "Right lads," he started, "I be the bearer o' truly catastrophic news this morn. WE BE LOSIN' ANOTHER DINGHY OVERNIGHT! Such wanton thievery has to be stopped fer the good o' all of us! These things cost money to replace, you know! It's not like we can just magically summon more o' these dinghies! Nay, we be havin' to pay for the wood! And it has to be the right kind o' wood, none of that rubbish that doesn't do to well o'er water, or in salt, or is flimsy! And then it has to be shaped, and polished, and shipped to Nassau! And the labor, gah! Always with the labor fees, they be spiralin' out of control..."

As Double A continued his tirade about the cost of replacing so many dinghies, Visorslash assumed charge of the proceedings. "Right, casualty reports," he said, still glowering. "Only one today, but it's an odd one. TheFlax wasn't French, or in his pay, but he wasn't Presence either. It appears that he was a representative of the Dutch West India Company, aboard on semi-official business. No idea what that was about, but I guess it be their problem now. Anyway, you all know what to do, so let's get it done!"

OOC: It is now Day 8. Voting will last until Friday, October 16th, at 23:59 US Eastern Time.



Feedback PMs will go out shortly.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Attacked: spaceman98 (n1), Askthepizzaguy (n1, n3, n7), Csargo (n2), Andres (n3, n6), johnhughthom (n5), Gaius Scribonius Curio (n5, n6), autolycus (n5), Ishmael (n5, n6)

Killed: TFT (n1), seireikhaan (n2), Ice (n3), landlubber (n4), Lissa (n4), Gaius Scribonius Curio (n6)

Mutinied: Kagemusha (d2)

Abandoned Ship: Ironside (n2), Choxorn (n6), Askthepizzaguy (n7), El Barto (n7)

Walked the plank: Xiahou (d3), spaceman98 (d4), TheFlax (d5), johnhughthom (d6), Ishmael (d7)

Souls aboard: (12)
Andres
autolycus
BSmith
Csargo
dcmort93
Double A
Golden1Knight
Ituralde
Montmorency
Myrddraal
Visorslash
Zack

[GeneralHankerchief]

Due to Double A's resignation as Captain, you must elect a new Captain in addition to the usual voting duties.

Example:
Elect: GH
Vote: Beskar

Continue onwards, mateys!

[GeneralHankerchief]

Post 2068 of main thread.

Day 8

Anger at the continued situation and the perceived lack of progress aboard the Presence quickly turned to shock when Double A announced early on in the day that he was stepping down as Captain, effective immediately. The hopeful saw this as a chance to insert more active leadership aboard. The opportunistic saw this as a chance to increase their gold stashes a bit by gaining the position for themselves. The cynical were disappointed that Double A deprived them of a chance to mutiny and take his gold. Nonetheless, the voting went on, this time complicated by a new election for the Captaincy - the third in a week.

The election, unlike the previous ones, was not determined by who was going to be the most effective leader, or who handed out the most gold in bribes. Instead, it was determined by the person that the crew believed was least likely to be the Frenchman or in his pay. After some discussion and a minor challenge by BSmith, this person was determined to be Montmorency.

"Right then," said Montmorency, addressing the crew at sunset when his ascendancy had been confirmed. "We're going to be doing things a little differently aboard this time. I have, in my hands, a thoroughly crafted, 487-step plan entitled OPERATION BLENHEIM that, assuming proper implementation, is guaranteed to rid this good ship of all French influence once and for all! Now, let me carefully explain how this plan is to work. We are currently on step 6(f), which means that you, autolycus, are to take three steps to your left, while simultaneously Myrddraal is to take the helm in order to ensure that we stay on course. Now, as per Guideline R7, I need to be repeatedly jumping up and down while reading this next section..."

And Monty droned on and on, dcmort93 and Visorslash, who would be keeping their previous positions as First Mate and Quartermaster, respectively, took control of the proceedings, most notably reading the votes for execution. These had been splashed in a few different directions, most notably Golden1Knight and a very brief effort to take out Andres right before sunset, but at the end of the count Ituralde was in the clear lead.

"Oh come on!!!" Ituralde protested, upon hearing this. "I be giving a full account o' me actions time and time again! This is how I be repaid? First thrown in the brig, denied me treasure, and now being thrown off the ship? This be how you treat yer crewmen?"

"You can always appeal to the new Captain, if ye want," dcmort said, a smirk on his face. Ituralde looked up with the intent to do so, but Monty was now explaining the new dietary patterns the crew needed to follow if they were to stop the Frenchman. No luck there.

"Okay, now then, Step 23(j) requires Golden1Knight to close your eyes, turn around, walk four paces in a 45-degree angle to the left of his about-face, and then take his cutlass out and execute a wide diagonal slashing motion- Golden1Knight? Are you even paying attention? This is important!"

"Oh, uh, sorry boss. What be my instructions again?"

Sighing, Monty told him, and everybody watched as Golden closed his eyes, made an about-face, walked four paces in a 45-degree angle to the left of said turnaround, took his cutlass out, and executed a wide diagonal slashing motion... which caught Ituralde perfectly in the chest and had him staggering back in pain.

"What... but..." he murmured, and then toppled over the side of the ship from loss of blood. Everyone "ooh"ed and "ahh"d and starting applauding. Maybe this plan of Montmorency's would work out, after all.

Day 8 tally:
Ituralde: 6 (Montmorency, dcmort93, Golden1Knight, autolycus, BSmith, Visorslash)
Golden1Knight: 3 (Myrddraal, Csargo, Andres)
Csargo: 1 (Ituralde)
Double A: 1 (Double A)
Andres: 1 (Zack)

Captain election:
Montmorency: 6 (Visorslash, dcmort93, BSmith, Montmorency, Myrddraal, Golden1Knight)
BSmith: 3 (autolycus, Ituralde, Zack)
dcmort93: 1 (Double A)
Csargo: 1 (Csargo)
Andres: 1 (Andres)

It is now Night 8. Please send in your orders. Night 8 will conclude on Sunday, October 18th, at 11:00 US Eastern Time.



~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Attacked: spaceman98 (n1), Askthepizzaguy (n1, n3, n7), Csargo (n2), Andres (n3, n6), johnhughthom (n5), Gaius Scribonius Curio (n5, n6), autolycus (n5), Ishmael (n5, n6)

Killed: TFT (n1), seireikhaan (n2), Ice (n3), landlubber (n4), Lissa (n4), Gaius Scribonius Curio (n6)

Mutinied: Kagemusha (d2)

Abandoned Ship: Ironside (n2), Choxorn (n6), Askthepizzaguy (n7), El Barto (n7)

Walked the plank: Xiahou (d3), spaceman98 (d4), TheFlax (d5), johnhughthom (d6), Ishmael (d7), Ituralde (d8)

Souls aboard: (11)
Andres
autolycus
BSmith
Csargo
dcmort93
Double A
Golden1Knight
Montmorency
Myrddraal
Visorslash
Zack

[GeneralHankerchief]

Post 2089 of main thread.

Night 8

It was a cloudless night and the full moon was out, its reflection sparkling on the Atlantic's surface. The night promised madness and mayhem, and the remaining crew of the Presence certainly delivered.


Andres advanced forward, his steps uncertain. He had been perfectly content with robbing his way to success (with the occasional treasure protection, naturally) and helping his friends out of jams. That was what he had been doing, and that was what he was good at. Why change what worked? But earlier in the night he had received a direct order from his Captain as part of Operation Blenheim to go killing, and, well, it was crunch time. There weren't that many places left to hide, so Andres sucked it up and figured he'd do his duty. The fact that he had been thrown in the brig was only a minor inconvenience for an accomplished criminal like himself.

There was only one problem: Where was everybody? Andres was a pirate, but he wasn't talented enough to murder one of his own without backup. In addition, his target, Golden1Knight, was also missing. Andres had checked below decks, walked across the ship on multiple occasions, climbed the mast, even peered into the officers' cabin. No sign of anyone.

Stopping at the starboard side of the ship, right around the dinghies that so many people had commandeered for their own uses, Andres paused to consider his next move when he saw it: Three figures, cutlasses drawn, advancing towards him. The one off to the side, looking slightly confused at the makeup of the group, was his "quarry", Golden1Knight.

"Hellfire, I be betrayed!" Andres shouted, cursing Montmorency and his plan. "Right lads," he said, now trying to talk his way out of this before resorting to violence, "let's be reasonable about this. It be fairly obvious that the Captain just set me up. Is this a man whose orders ye want to faithfully follow? Truly? If he did this to one o' his loyal crewmen, where does it stop, says I? Who's to say that you won't be his next target? Lads? Lads? Oh, fine." Clearly seeing that his talk had no effect, Andres sighed and drew his own weapon. The battle was on.

*CRASH*

Five seconds later, the battle was off, as two separate people had barreled into the four fighters, leaving them all collapsed in a heap.

"Oh come on, just let us by!" the lead figure pleaded, looking absolutely terrified. "All we want to be doin' is using one of them dinghies! Then we'll be out of yer way forever!"

"autolycus? Csargo? Waitaminute, shouldn't the two of ye be attackin' Andres with us?" Zack, another one of the attackers said. The third, Myrddraal, nodded his head in agreement.

"Ah, about that," auto said. "Ordinarily I'd be happy to, ye know that, but when ye have a great fire-breathin' woman claiming something about lost property and swearing eternal vengeance and deaths so painful that no other human in history has even dreamed to conceive of them, I be takin' a rain check! Some other time, lads. Help us get this dinghy lowered!" He and Csargo frantically started to pull on the ropes, leaving the four original fighters to stand there, dumbfounded.

"You're not getting off that easy!" a feminine voice called out, a second later launching a harpoon from her location. Luckily for autolycus, the distance was long enough where he had the time to take his cutlass out and parry it, but BSmith, the figure in question, closed the distance fast. "I want my hat back!" she called out, drawing a familiar-looking fancy cutlass and swinging it at auto with fury.

"That be what this is about??!?" auto said, barely able to parry BSmith's blows. "I give it to ye and we be square?? Take the bloody thing, then!"

"There will be no negotiation!" BSmith yelled, only amping up the pressure further. "All of the New World shall know of me and tremble with fear at my actions!"

There were now seven people around the dinghies in total. Csargo was still preparing one for his and auto's escape, but was struggling to do so with the lack of a partner. BSmith, of course, was looking like a force of nature with her fancy cutlass, it taking autolycus every ounce of his effort just to stay alive. Finally, there were the four original attackers: Zack, Myrddraal, Golden1Knight, and Andres, just standing around openmouthed at this display. Eventually, this commotion brought the three officers to the scene: Visorslash, dcmort93, and Captain Montmorency.

"What in the name of Morgan and Drake is the meaning of this??!?!" Monty said, but everybody ignored him. "Andres, how did you escape the brig?" Everyone ignored that, too. "Dammit, pay attention to me!" Nobody did. "This is not part of the plan at all! You're ruining everything!!"

"*I'm* not, *he* is!" BSmith snarled, clearly indicating autolycus. "He must pay for his insolence! He has to!" At the same time, Csargo desperately tried to signal autolycus's attention, saying that the dinghy was finally ready.

"It is?" auto said, taking his attention off BSmith for a brief moment to see Csargo's work. This was all the time BSmith needed, as she wound up for a finishing strike. "Thank the Lord, not a moment too s-" SLICE! Where autolycus's head had been an instant ago, there was now a brief flash of silver and then a fountain of red. BSmith's fancy cutlass had managed to decapitate autolycus with a single stroke. His head landed and, lips still moving, rolled around until it eventually fell overboard into the dinghy.

"Everybody stop!" Monty called out, but he was once again ignored by everybody screaming in shock. None of these were louder than Csargo's, who had a significant amount of despair mixed in with his.

"Oh come on!" he cried. "What am I supposed to do now??!?"

"Silence yourself and listen!" Monty said, "Just follow my plan and all will be well!"

"Not that, you fool" Csargo wasn't having any of it. "I turned my back on the crew! First Ishmael promised me the moon and wove me sweet tales of justice, but he died. Then autolycus said not to worry, the Captain of the Maven had planned for this, but now *he* died! I stole from BSmith too, got a pair of boots out of it, so I imagine she's after me next! I've been trying to kill myself for the past week, with protection works that I know would fail, but Ishmael and autolycus talked me out of that now, and they're gone! I'm done, I'm just done!" And before anybody could stop him, Csargo drew his own cutlass, slit his throat, and purposely fell overboard into the ocean.

Pandemonium. Everybody started screaming and running around at once. People were shouting that the threat was over, people were moaning over Csargo's fate, people were yelling at BSmith at the top of their lungs if she really was a woman. Monty, getting progressively more agitated, called for silence several times, but continued to be ignored. Finally, incensed, he pulled out a blunderbuss.

"I WILL HAVE ORDER!" This quieted a few people down, but his next move got everybody to shut up. He raised the blunderbuss, aimed it, and fired a shot directly into Andres's face. He was dead before he hit the floor.

"I regret the need to do that," Monty calmly said, clearly not regretting anything about what he did, "but you people seriously need to listen to me. Now, let's look at this logically. autolycus is dead, thanks to BSmith. Clearly his death affected Csargo, who unfortunately - or perhaps very fortunately - killed himself immediately thereafter. Now, right before he did so, he started babbling on about how Ishmael promised him this and that and said everything would be better. We know that spaceman98 was in the Frenchman's pay, meaning that at most, there were three French-aligned sailors aboard. It stands to reason that their leader was Ishmael and autolycus was the other original agent, them having recruited Csargo to the cause at some point during the voyage home. I think we're finally safe, lads."

"Waitaminute," somebody said, trying to process all of this information. "Everyone's up here anyway! If the French were thinking, they could have just activated a grenade and blown us all to hell at any point in the last ten minutes and slipped off! Clearly, nobody's done that! Who's left to be unaccounted for, anyway?"

Everybody looked around. Double A, of course, was still below decks, snoring incredibly loudly. He had missed the entire thing.

"It doesn't matter," said Montmorency. "Look, the sun is coming up and Nassau is in sight. We're finally home, boys."

Day broke over the Presence. For the first time in over a week, all was quiet.

OOC: I couldn't think of a better way for Pirate Ship Mafia III to end: with a ridiculous amount of violence that probably could have been avoided. Thanks for playing, everyone! I'll get started on the postgame stuff later today.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Attacked: spaceman98 (n1), Askthepizzaguy (n1, n3, n7), Csargo (n2), Andres (n3, n6), johnhughthom (n5), Gaius Scribonius Curio (n5, n6), autolycus (n5), Ishmael (n5, n6), Andres (n8)

Killed: TFT (n1), seireikhaan (n2), Ice (n3), landlubber (n4), Lissa (n4), Gaius Scribonius Curio (n6), autolycus (Frenchman agent/Maven saboteur) (n8), Andres (n8)

Mutinied: Kagemusha (d2)

Committed suicide: Csargo (Frenchman/Maven Convert) (n8)

Abandoned Ship: Ironside (n2), Choxorn (n6), Askthepizzaguy (n7), El Barto (n7)

Walked the plank: Xiahou (d3), spaceman98 (Frenchman agent) (d4), TheFlax (Dutch Trader) (d5), johnhughthom (d6), Ishmael (The Frenchman) (d7), Ituralde (d8)

Survived: (8)
BSmith - Anne the Tavern Wench
dcmort93
Double A
Golden1Knight
Montmorency
Myrddraal
Visorslash
Zack

[GeneralHankerchief]

Post 2149 of main thread.

Epilogue

Yet Another Fine Morning in Nassau

Eight of them stepped off the Presence that morning, still looking a bit dazed at the turn of events that had taken them there, but overall they had varying looks of contentment on their faces. After all, despite their individual journeys to get there, each of them had two immutable things in common: One, that they were alive, and two, that they were rich. They looked to take advantage of both of these new facts of life in Nassau immediately.


Myrddraal, with 175 treasure to his name, made sure to set up camp in a bar far from the main district of town. The reason for this was that he had fabricated an entire backstory aboard the Presence about him being a well-known mercenary who required payment before he killed anyone at night. The rest of the crewmen had bought this and thus paid up pretty much every night aboard, giving him a sizeable total that would have been even larger had more of his murders gone through successfully.

While Myrddraal may not have had any mercenary talents whatsoever, one of the talents he *did* have was a sense of when to get out while he still could. He knew on the final day that the fabrication had been close to falling apart. He knew that greater scrutiny fell upon him, that his story would not hold up to it and the rest of the crew would assume the worst. He knew that it was time to bid his crewmates farewell. A very brief farewell, at that.

So Myrddraal sat in a relatively empty bar, sipping on his ale and ruminating over the events that had transpired for the past week-plus with a smile on his face in spite of everything. Yes, the crew would have figured out by now that he wasn't actually a mercenary. But really, who cared? He had enough treasure now to hire *real* mercenaries if anybody came after him. Life was good.


Closer to the center of town, in the main tavern, several of the crewmen gathered there to make their merriment, including Golden1Knight and Zack. The two had been allies for a short while, killing together on more than one occasion and Zack dissuading other groups from going after Golden at night, but like all things on the Presence, their alliance was fleeting, taking different approaches to finding the Frenchman during the day. However, gold and rum served to reignite all friendships, and soon the two of them were drinking and laughing again like nothing had happened. Double A would have joined in, but he was once again napping, having emptied out his entire sack of gold and used it as a very rough bed. Double A hadn't been the most active of Captains, but his steady leadership and refusal to change course in the heat of the moment certainly served the Presence well in the end, as even further chaos might have turned the tide in the Frenchman's favor. In his mind, Double A completely deserved the rest he was getting... his lavishly-displayed rest.

Elsewhere in the same same bar was Anne the Tavern Wench, BSmith, for once taking part in the festivities instead of seeing that they didn't get too rowdy. Anne, seizing an opportunity when she saw it back in New Tortuga, had made the most of her time aboard. And while she didn't quite succeed in her goal of becoming the most famous pirate in this part of the world, she certainly made a name for herself among the rest of the crewmen with her skills with a harpoon, fancy cutlass, and general proclivity to kill just for clothes. She would be treated with respect in certain circles from now on, and that, at least, was a start.

BSmith sat, drank, laughed, drank some more, and splashed ale (only the cheap kind, obviously) in the faces of anyone who tried to hit on her for the entire night, secure in her superiority. The Presence had been full of danger, but it was also a great start to her new life of adventuring.


The Officer's Club had always been the swankiest tavern in Nassau, the one bastion of Old World rationality and class superiority in the pirate haven. Reserved for the various captains and their lieutenants that called Nassau their main port-of-call, it provided a refuge for those who needed to step outside the boisterousness and raucous behavior of the main taverns and think. It was no surprise, then, to find Montmorency and dcmort93 make their way there at some point in the day after they got the initial partying vibe out of their systems.

At first, Monty wasn't sure if he was going to be allowed in. He was Captain upon the Presence's docking, yes, but he had also been somewhat poor. Being stolen from on multiple nights on board (including a staggering 33 gold on Night 6), not being entirely successful in his group killings, and spending lots of money in bribes in order to make his beloved Operation Blenheim go off without a hitch, Monty's gold had hovered around its starting total only one day before. But then, he struck some luck at last on the final day. First, he got elected Captain, with all of the salary benefits it provided. Secondly, he ended up being the sole benefactor of Csargo's will, receiving a cool 50 gold just because BSmith had chopped autolycus's head off with that fancy cutlass. As a result, Monty was sitting on a far more respectable 174 gold at the start of the day, definitely enough to enjoy the full benefits of the Officer's Club for quite some time.

dcmort, having been First Mate for a week, was much richer, but he didn't rub it in much. They were both in too contemplative of moods anyway. It had been a hectic ride for dcmort - a closely-contested Captaincy election, the mutiny which put him in as First Mate, trying to do good at night by figuring out who was French, trying to balance it with placating the town with his scans, a mild identity crisis in which he felt like he switched personalities about halfway through the voyage - yes, dcmort had had a heck of a trip, indeed. And now, as he returned the suggestive smiles of two buxom wenches, he figured he was going to have a heck of a night.


Elsewhere in the North Atlantic...


Ironside had found land fairly quickly, a deserted, medium-sized island that was clearly around the southernmost part of the Bahamas. At first, he was going to use it strictly as a resupply point before he continued his journey to civilization. But the more time he spent on that island, the more he realized two things. First, he really did not feel like rowing that cursed dinghy any further, especially not the night after that hurricane. Secondly, this island was actually not bad. Sure, it was deserted, but it had protection from the elements, a good source of fish nearby, and fertile farmland.

With time, this island could become a self-sustaining habitat for Ironside. The fish would sustain him until his first supply of crops were ready. In the meantime, the solitude would be good for him - he could reflect on his actions, and the fact that sometimes there were more important things than gold.


Choxorn, meanwhile, had found a good wind and followed it... and eventually found himself right back in New Tortuga, where the adventure of theirs had started. Cautiously making his way into the town and looking around, he find it to be more or less the same as it had been, although certainly a bit quieter than usual. Eventually Choxorn worked up the nerve to visit the tavern (alas, a certain favorite tavern wench of his wasn't working there when he walked in) and asked for some information.

"Ah yeah, the French scare about a week or two back?" the bartender said. "Aye, that was a bit o' a weird one, but all fer nothin' really. The bit of news that got all them pirates scurrying around and taking our stuff turned out to be a complete fake - there wasn't no French navy in sight. Methinks somebody used it as a big diversion or cover fer somethin' else, certainly someone more crafty than me anyway. Can't imagine what for, though. Anyways, we be takin' it in stride and spreadin' the world that New Tortuga still be open for business! We'll recover, laddie, don't you worry about that."

Choxorn nodded his thanks and stepped outside to take this news in. The French attack on New Tortuga a fabrication? Cover for something else? What on earth was going on around here?

The world was a weird and complicated place, he decided, and then went back inside to partake in the activity that usually made everything simpler for him. He ordered a drink.


After some hard rowing, Askthepizzaguy and El Barto reached Nassau about 15 hours after the Presence did, truly an accomplishment considering they had abandoned ship more than 24 hours before docking and only were in a dinghy as opposed to a sloop or any sort of real ship. It was the dead of night, but this had never stopped the people of Nassau from getting their party on in the past, and judging by the sounds emanating from the main district of the town, it wasn't stopping them tonight, either. They looked at each other and grinned.

"Party be windin' down, boys," said a dockworker who passed them by. "All the taverns in the area just ran completely out o' everything. Most of the revelers be nursin' what's left and then nodding off."

"Ah, hellfire!" Pizza said, clearly annoyed. "We up and missed the party! I told you you should have taken more turns rowing, ye had me totally exhausted by the end! Why'd I have to do most of the rowing, anyway?"

"Because, my lad," said El Barto, "I have more gold than ye! Money talks, aye? Ye should have learned that from me if nothing else. Anyways, no matter. My cousin's got a bank around here but I wanna keep you sober for another idea o' mine. It's guaranteed to make us even richer than me cousin and more popular with the locals. All we need is a bit o' capital investment, supplied mostly by you of course."

"What be this idea of yours?"

"Simple: A casino!"

A casino! In a pirate haven like Nassau, that would work almost too well. Pizza was instantly enamored. "I'm in," he said.

"Great! I'll be the owner an' big idea man, and ye can be the manager overseeing the mundane day-to-day affairs!"

"Waitaminute, why do you get to have the cool title while you leave me to be stuck with all the grunt work?" They paused for a bit, admiring the inanity of the question, before Pizza supplied the answer to his own question. "Because you have more gold than me, right."


Visorslash had eventually left all the taverns - including the Officer's Club - behind, saying his goodbyes and taking in the sights of the town, passing Pizza and El Barto by and nodding his greeting. His eight days and nights aboard the Presence had certainly been eventful, and he appreciated the need for solitude. It was fair to see that Visor had gotten the full Presence experience - having engineered a mutiny, becoming Quartermaster, working hard to find the Frenchman, having a bounty openly placed on his head, getting in an hours-long argument about the semantics of rounding, experiencing the joy of finding out that one of his targets was indeed working for the Frenchman, and now feeling utter relief that it was finally over, that they were all safe.

Visor had definitely made some enemies aboard, but a lot of them were dead. And he had made some friends too, especially the kind that left him money in their wills. Despite being stolen from on multiple occasions, these wills had left him the leader in terms of treasure among the survivors, to a cool total of 336.

He would spend it, obviously, but eventually. For now, this evening, he was content to walk around and take it all in. It was 1723 and piracy was clearly on the downswing, but for at least one night it remained alive and well. Regardless of the Presence's fate, that alone was cause for celebration. With this fact in mind, Visor walked back into the tavern, loudly greeted everyone hello, and called for a round of ale on him.





Coda



Ishmael, the Frenchman, was in parts unknown, starving, dehydrated, and bleeding from multiple wounds. The number of slashes he had taken meant that his initial dip in the Atlantic after being tossed overboard was extraordinarily painful, but even that had numbed over the next several days. He vaguely remembered a cannon going off an instant he went over, depositing a large chunk of wood into the ocean next to him. Ishmael had been clinging to this piece for dear life for several days now.

Floating in the ocean, too weak to attempt to paddle or steer to any particular destination, gave Ishmael quite a lot of time to think. This entire adventure had started eight years ago, shortly after Louis XIV died, when it became clear that life at Versailles would no longer be the same. Seeking fulfillment from other sources, the Frenchman acquired a brand new ship, the Presence, and sailed it to the New World to experience life on the frontier.

The times he had on the voyage over as well as the first year in the Americas were nothing short of amazing. Many of the Frenchman's greatest memories were formed on that boat. From experiencing sunrise in the Crow's Nest the morning after a bad storm, from feeling the spray of the sea on him after the ship was rocked by a wave, to sailing out into the unknown on *his* ship with the possibilities stretched out on the horizon before him, the Frenchman felt that he was truly making the most of all that life had to offer.

And then, it ended. He made port in some town he couldn't quite remember now, possibly Nassau itself, and went down to one of the local taverns. He got caught up in a game of chance, got drunker than he was expecting, and lost a wager he wasn't willing to part with: the Presence itself. Just like that, the good times were over. Keeping those good memories in mind were what sustained him for the next year, as he formulated a plan to get his beloved ship back. In 1717, he snuck aboard in the aftermath of the ship's sack of Charleston and made a play for the Captaincy. He failed, but he would make two important connections during that voyage. The first was the man who would eventually become the Captain of the Maven, a competing pirate ship whose crew was always up for sticking it to their more famous brethren. The second was the love of his life.

The Frenchman and his consort spent the next three years in bliss, married in all but name, as they taught each other the ways of the world. These were the happiest years of his life, with memories that even now worked to take his current pains away, but something was missing. It wasn't quite perfect yet. The two of them had a built a life for themselves, but they both agreed that the only way to make it better is if they sailed the world together on the Presence. Never settling for "great" when "perfect" was in sight, the Frenchman once again worked to smuggle himself on board, this time with his consort.

In 1720 he did so in the confusion of the attack on the Spanish Treasure Fleet. They were both capable fighters and cunning planners, ready to take on all comers... but on the second night, his consort died. It wasn't an ultimate sacrifice for the cause, it wasn't a final act of defiance before the inevitable, it was just a random killing from the ship's First Mate at the time. He didn't even get to say goodbye. The Frenchman got his revenge, but emotionally spent, his heart wasn't in the takeover. His better half had departed him, and though he tried to reclaim the ship, he fell short once again, ultimately paraded around by the current Captain as his ultimate act of triumph.

Grief led to anger. Anger led to a plan. He tracked down his old friend, the Captain of the Maven, and sought out his help. He hired out two of the Maven's best crewmen and waited for the time to be right. He had always wanted his ship back, but this time it was personal.

But for a third and final time, things didn't go to plan. He had survived for far longer than he had any right to, continuing to display a trait he had shown on the previous two occasions he had tried to reclaim the ship, but eventually even he had to succumb to the inevitable. And thus the events on the seventh day happened, leading to his current situation.

Still... it had been a good life. It hadn't been as long as he had liked, but it had definitely been full. Better this than some of his peers in the Old World, getting fat off the taxes of their subjects and endlessly scheming against each other. He had learned, he had loved, and he had lived.

And now he could feel the darkness about to overtake him. Sparing one last glance down at the chunk of wood that was holding him up, he murmured the softest of gasps. Staring back at him was something that had not caught his eye until now: A minor piece of vandalism, carved into the wood: a love declaration between the Frenchman and his consort, dated 1720, the first night they were aboard the Presence together in his second attempt to retake the ship, the last night before she died. How fitting.

Clinging to the two great loves of his life, the Frenchman passed into the great beyond.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The victorious crewmen:
Visorslash - 336 (first place)
Double A - 248
dcmort93 - 229
Zack - 199
Golden1Knight - 186
Myrddraal - 175
Montmorency - 174
Xiahou - 152
Ituralde - 149
Andres - 142
Gaius Scribonius Curio - 137
johnhughthom - 102
seireikhaan - 101
landlubber - 98
Lissa - 83
Ice - 62
TFT - 30
Kagemusha - 0

Would have scored higher, if not for those meddling thieves:
BSmith - 163

Abandoned ship, for better or for worse:
El Barto - 218
Askthepizzaguy - 198
Choxorn - 160
Ironside - 96

Would have made it off alive, if not for those meddling clothes:
autolycus - 337
Csargo - 134

Died in the line of duty:
spaceman98 - 93

Absent from next year's AGM of shareholders:
TheFlax - 79

Adieu, mon amour:
Ishmael - 76