<span class="bbc_u">Myra</span><br/><br/><em>Check success!</em><br/><br/><strong>"As long as you do your job, you can do what you want after."</strong>Despite being drunk to the point of swaying in place, he wielded his knives with surprising skill. As he became engrossed in his work he began to resemble the useless drunk a little less and a man more suited to a fancy restaurant kitchen than a pirate ship's galley a little more. He grunted approval at Myra's efforts.<br/><br/>When they finished and produced a mouthwatering cauldron of steaming hot fish stew that smelled better than anything Myra had in days, Kroop stared silently at their handiwork for a long moment. Suddenly he grabbed her arm just before they carried it out. He glanced around as though worried that the walls had ears, and murmured in a low voice.<br/><br/><strong>“It’s poison, this ship, but don’t let anyone hear you say it aloud. The hull listens, see, and the cap’n hears it all. Poison the Wormwood is, though, rotten to the core. You’ll not meet a more nasty, sour piece of work than Cap’n Harrigan in all your days at sea, and his crew’s the same, ’specially the first mate, Mr. Plugg. Vicious little sod, he is. He’d take his own mother’s liver to the butcher to make pies with, he would. But they leave me alone, mostly. They know I can’t ’arm ’em.”</strong><br/><br/>He took a deep swig, and by the time he lowered his bottle he was drunk old Fishguts once more.<br/><br/><hr/><br/><span class="bbc_u">Jing</span><br/><br/><em>Check success!</em><br/><br/>Jing pulled his weight but didn't stand out, and the other riggers accepted him into their midst easily enough. He found himself next to "Barefoot" Samms Toppin, a shoeless former fisherwoman from the Sodden Lands. She had some words of wisdom for a new recruit like him.<br/><br/><strong>"You'll likely not cross paths with the cap'n, but if you do, never talk t' 'im or even look at 'im too long. Now Scourge and Plugg, you'll run into e'eryday. If Scourge is a bastard, then Plugg is his ma and pa. One piece of advice - do as he says."</strong>She paused to spit into the waves below.<strong>"Now Plugg, first mate though he's barely been on board a year! The apple of the cap'n's eye, that one. Harrigan treats 'im like a son—but not a legit'm't one, of course."</strong><br/><br/><hr/><br/>The ship's bell rang to announce dusk. With the sun low on the horizon the sails had been reefed in and the<em>Wormwood</em>would lie at anchor until dawn. "Bloody hour" was the excited whisper that ran through the crew, as though anticipating the day's entertainment. The ship's crew gathered on the main deck once more, while Captain Harrigan stood on the poop deck overlooking them, accompanied by Mr. Plugg, Master Scourge, and an unfortunate pirate tied up to one end of a long line that slung below the ship and came up on the other side, held by Plugg. The captain looked on while letting his first mate do the talking.<br/><br/><strong>"Jakes Magpie, we find you guilty of stealing from the quartermaster. For your crime you are hereby sentenced to keelhauling!"</strong><br/><br/>Scourge threw the unfortunate Magpie overboard and Plugg began pulling on the line with sadistic relish. Obviously the poor pirate couldn't be seen as he was dragged under the ship's keel. It was over a minute before the soggy, shredded body was pulled up the other side of the ship, cut to ribbons having been dragged against the barnacles covering the bottom of the ship's hull and drowned to boot, good for nothing more than being thrown overboard one last time to feed the sharks. Which was exactly its fate, after the ship's surgeon performed the formality of ascertaining the death.<br/><br/>The gruesome punishment apparently hurt the crew's appetite none as dinner was served and they fell on fish stew and hardtack with gusto. But Myra and Jing weren't even able to take their meal in peace as none other than Master Scourge himself! He had hungry eyes of a different sort on Myra, not even acknowledging Jing's own presence.<br/><br/><strong>"That body of ye's wasted on the cook. I can show ye a good time, even make yer life easier..."</strong>Unbidden he reached towards her chest to cop a feel...