April, Year 1The voyage is relatively peaceful, with little bad weather beyond the occasional heavy shower. The food is bad, but nobody is surprised by it, and to your pleasant surprise you find you don't suffer sea sickness. Several of your band-mates are not so lucky and often find themselves losing their lunches over the side during the first couple of weeks.
You throw yourself wholeheartedly into spear training, drilling constantly on the grounds that you are going to be quite literally risking your life with it in the near future. It amazes you that some of the other recruits do not do the same, even those as green as you - some even slack off during training and get rebukes from Petras for it. Your dedication earns no favour from the drillmaster, but he insults you no more than usual for it.
Unfortunately you strain yourself a little overmuch with the constant drilling and end up pulling several muscles and even stabbing yourself (lightly) in your own leg with the spearhead. The injuries do heal by the end of the voyage, but you are forced to step back on your training regimen and by the end of it you feel only as competent as your fellow green recruits. You get some practice throwing your javelins in, and at the darts board, and drilling in the thick furs does at least get you used to the exhaustion of fighting in such heat.
You divide your time unevenly between socialising with the members of your band and gaming at the galley tables. Your conversations with your band go fairly well, and by the end of the month you at least know the names and a little about some of your band-mates, even if you haven't forged strong friendships. Three are closer to you than the rest; John, an Altan with a fondness of ribald jokes; Karl, a blonde Vvard who stands a good head and a half taller than you; and Brandon, another Altan with a love for singing and a terrible voice. You work up some camaraderie with them, and drill with Karl during your off-time.
You spend much more time at dice and cards and, to your amazement, find you have a knack for it. You start winning a tidy pile before you realise that your successes are not earning you friends, so you find yourself having to play the game more strategically - losing at just the right moments to curry and keep favour. During one particularly long game of Shambles, you end up (despite your own best efforts) singled out against Lieutenant Briggs with nearly all of the table money already in your hands. Winning the pot would clear out the rest and indisputably win the game for you.
With a wink and a smile you put the entire trove in the middle heap, make an outrageous bluff and then demand a show of cards before the lieutenant can possibly fold. When it becomes apparent you had nothing more than a handful of twos, fours and sixes the entire mess bursts into laughter as the lieutenant collects all their winnings. A few even pat you on the back as they leave.
The lieutenant, who sticks behind after the rest disperse, brings you an extra grog ration and even gives you a couple of coins back from his haul. The two of you don't talk about anything in particular, but somehow half an hour of conversation happens. A few days later, rumour floats down to you that Captain Tovey's band got shunted back to the third row from the front. You mutter a brief prayer of thanks and promise yourself to see that Briggs wins more games in future.
You settle into something of a comfortable routine of training, chatting and gambling just in time for it to get broken by the ship's arrival at Dewmark, capital of Dewden. Dewmark is a castle town, a settlement of sprawling streets and houses clustered around the solid stone fortress on the hill and around the oxbow lake upon which castle Dewmark is built. A low stone wall with raised stakes surrounds the town.
Or it would, normally. The town wall is shattered in several places, much of the town is already on fire and you can hear the clang of metal on metal in the twisty streets of Dewmark. Enemy tents ring the town, along with supply wagons and trebuchets still firing at the main keep. Karl looks at the tents, estimates about three thousand men total. John opines that about half that number are either fighting in the streets or gathered up at the fortress walls and trying to scale them. You have no idea how many troops the Duke has left, but you guess most are either pulled into the keep or fighting in the streets.
You are trying to figure out what this will mean for your planned deployment when a jar of flaming pitch strikes the deck not ten feet away from you - you narrowly duck out of the way of the fiery splash, taking a very slight cut across the exposed skin on your cheek from a flying potsherd. Another shard buries itself in John's nose and the grunt reels away from the impact, screaming until Karl wrenches it out and tosses it aside. You and the rest of your band hustle for cover by the poop deck as pitch pots and flaming arrows rain down upon the ship from some unseen source.
You watch in horror as several of the company archers move into position, take aim and fire off about three volleys before a pot smashes right in front of them, killing two outright and leaving the rest to a blazing fate. Sailors scurry about the ship as Captain Bors shouts commands, and you feel a sudden lurch as the ship changes course. You huddle against the wall of the poop deck, praying not to get shot, until the arrows and pots suddenly thin out. You risk a look out from your position and see why.
The ship is headed directly for one of half a dozen slightly smaller ships, crowded with archers and catapults. Men get grappling hooks ready for the ships either side of it, but there's no mistaking - you're headed straight for the target ship. Captain Tovey draws his sword and indicates that the rest of you should ready your spears, but makes no effort to assert formation.
You have moments to prepare yourself. How will you handle the fight to come?
Age: 15
Fur Armour
Basic Iron Spear
6 Wood-Tipped Javelins
Illiterate
Average Persuader
Novice Gambler
Novice Spearman
Novice Armour User
Novice Thrower
Wages: Meagre
Purse: Pocket Change
Pack of Cards, Fair Dice
Debt: Serious (small basic debt, plus serious fine for evading debt collection)
Wanted for Debt Evasion.
Member of the Black Boars.
The Black Boars
Commander Brecht - Seen
Sea Captain Bors - Seen
Galen, Quartermaster - Neutral
Petras, Drillmaster - Hostile
Captain Tovey, your band captain - Distant
Lieutenant Briggs, Tovey's Lieutenant - Amicable
John, your band-mate - Neutral
Karl, your band-mate - Amicable
Brandon, your band-mate - Neutral
Author
Topic: Courtier: A Suggestion Game (Read 12038 times)