
Originally Posted by
GeneralHankerchief
On board the [/I]Maven, the sailor manning the Crow’s Nest called out from his post. “A dinghy, headed our way from Four O’Clock!” he cried. “Only one person inside, I think it’s one of us!”
The captain took out his spyglass and, after looking through it for a second, shouted orders to his crew. “Throw him a rope, lads! Throw him a line! Make sure it’s secure, we don’t want a single piece of treasure going to Davey Jones! Hurry now! Reel him in!”
The process went off without a hitch. Once Reenk Roink climbed aboard, he was greeted by multiple slaps on the back and good-natured ribbing. However, everyone soon fell silent as the captain started questioning him.
“Gibson and Sigurd?”
“Dead.”
“Pity,” said the captain. “Well, let’s see how much ye were able to steal!” Grabbing the large bag of treasure, he carefully dumped it out on the deck, going through it quickly. “340?” he said, and Reenk nodded.
“I’m not pleased, Reenk. Even with the base treasure of gibson and Sigurd and ye, that’s only a 40 gold increase. What were ye doin’ all that time?”
Now, Reenk started to get angry. “What was I doin’? I was surviving, Captain. Gibson and Sigurd both died very early on, leaving me alone. I stayed on board for almost an entire week after me buddies died, Captain. I made a 240 treasure profit all by meself, Captain. Not to speak ill of the dead, but don’t be blamin’ me for their failures and my best efforts to make up for them, Captain.”
“You may be right… but I am still not pleased.”
“Would you like to hear the story of how the Presence won?” Reenk asked, his voice going cold. Without waiting for the captain to reply, he continued. “The sailors on board, the first day after the British killed their original captain, elected a new one. Now, this one went to work right away, trying to organize his crew and his officers. He did a decent job, too, pulling the wool over my eyes more than once. But was that the reason why they won? No, not at all.
“You see,” he continued, “there was one vigilante group outside of the Captain’s control that operated every night. They called themselves the Four Horsemen, after the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. And they killed mostly every night, all the time under no orders to do so. Now, this made the Captain and his officers very angry, because they were supposedly jeopardizing the Captain’s great plan to right the ship. But then, the autopsies on the Four Horsemen’s victims started coming in. First, they killed a Maven; gibson. Then, a British Agent. Then, a night later, they offed the British Special Officer hisself, leaving me pretty much the only saboteur left on board. They even went after *me* one night, and it was only through their captain’s doing that I survived.”
“How interesting,” the captain said.
“Aye, it is,” said Reenk, a cold anger growing in his voice. “The point is, ‘twasn’t the Captain or his officers that saved that ship. It was the *crew*, Captain. The crew took matters into their own hands. The crew saved the ship. Their Captain, while important, was ultimately… expendable.”
“I don’t like where this be going,” the Captain said, finally taking note of Reenk’s voice.
“Aye, well, ye really shouldn’t,” said Reenk, and then in a fluid motion, took out his cutlass and beheaded the Captain.
“Tell me, sailors of the Maven, do ye bless me as yer new Captain? Take note of the treasure I brought back all by meself in the face of difficult odds. Do ye wish for more o’ the same under my lead?”
“AYE!!!” the crew bellowed back in unison.
“All right then, my lads,” Captain Reenk Roink shouted. “Then it’s treasure we seek!” He turned the rudder wildly, and the Maven[I] sailed off into the distance, under new management.
The new Captain of the Maven:
Reenk Roink - 340
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