<Dry Iceㅤ
Alright, this is a two parter maybe, the reason I put that I didn’t like what I was gonna do(if you remember that) is because this isn’t the main series of Artemis Morgan, although that may be a half-truth. Anyways, onto the story
Thorin’s Refuge gave me insights I needed. I set sail to Whitesummit to perhaps make a deal. Nothing on the way, just the morning fog and a slight chill as we sailed to the Assassin’s home base.
At Whitesummit, we went around to the eastern face of the island and docked at Blackwater Grotto, the bandits giving us sideway glances as we went. We requested an audience with the Architect. Two acolytes blocked our paths, but were persuaded by steel and fists. In the Syndicate’s HQ, we spoke to Merlot and made a deal.
It was tense, assassin’s cornered us and blocked the doors. I only had my Quartermaster and two deckhands with me for protection. The deal was that he’d gather up 10 pirate ships and attack Silverhold in exchange for 10,000 galleons, 40 crates of cargo, 2 of my crew, and an assassination. The deal was sealed with a security payment of 1,000 galleons.
While the Syndicate was gathering the pirates, I decided to get on with the assassination. The target was a deserter who had left the Syndicate a few weeks back. We had three leads on his location: Wind-Row Island, Sailor’s Lodge, and Redwake. Since it was a large area, I decided to send out two small teams of 4 to Sailor’s Lodge and Redwake. The rest of us swept the ocean in the center of the triangle created by the leads before moving to Wind-Row. Nothing came up from the waters, nor from the Sailor’s Lodge team, so they were picked up. We docked at the north of Wind-Row and started searching. The Wolf bandits managed to cripple one of our crew and knocked out another, but posed little threat overall. We interrogated one of them and they said “I ain’t no sheep”. A little magma smoking turned the other Wolf we captured more talkative. He said the deserter came a few days ago and then sailed north. We knocked him out and left him nice and cozy on the outskirts of his camp.
We went north to Redwake to rendezvous with the team there. We saw a sleek sailboat easily moving at 20 knots, dodged a whirlpool, and saw one of the pirates going to Whitesummit. We met the Redwake team at the Southern Jaw’s southern border, and they told us they were chasing the deserter. The sailboat we saw was the deserter.
We sailed south, now at full strength. The sailboat had docked at Limestone Key, and we bombarded it before docking ourselves. The deserter’s crew was fodder save from his Quarter master, but a distraction from my deckhands allowed me to blast him into a palm tree. The deserter himself was the real threat. He managed to kill two of my crew along with incapacitating one of my deckhands. I threw magma at his feet, slowing him down enough for my Quartermaster to shoot him. I finished him out with his own trident, took his Syndicate amulet as proof of kill, and went back to Whitesummit.
At Blackwater Grotto, the docking space was significantly reduced. Turns out the Syndicate messengers Merlot sent out had misread the note and recruited an extra 5 pirates. Merlot didn’t seem annoyed by this, in fact he seemed glad. I paid him an extra 500 galleons and 2 more cargo crates. He said he would actually refund me 1,000 galleons since he made a realization. He said that this would be beneficial for him and the rest of the Syndicate, since it would allow a larger range of operations.
After the negotiations were done with the pirate captains, he decided to make an announcement to the bandits, pirates, and other residents of Blackwater Grotto. He announced “Tomorrow, we destroy the Grand Navy! Tomorrow, we free the Bronze Sea!” Everyone cheered and started preparing, mounting cargo, cleaning guns, polishing blades. Free food was handed out, celebrations began. It didn’t sit right with me, something was off. Anyways, I let my crew rest. Tomorrow would decide the fate of the Bronze Sea, perhaps even the War Seas.
(ooc) Update in 30 minutes for me, second part maybe coming later today, maybe even another Steel Anchor issue. Thanks for your support on this series, hope you enjoyed this series, and hope you’ll enjoy the finale.