Captain Vallo: A Pirate Life... not for Him [Chronicles of a Thousands Fists]

cyl

cyl

Creepy smile
18th of Resplendent Fire, a hot sweaty summer night, spent trying to tell people your legacy as a pirate, failing in making them remember you, and drinking to ease the pain.


As soon as your bladder is full, you get out to breath some fresh air and pour out some more water in the sea from the terrace of the Drunken Turtle, a tavern built on piles on the Red Tree Island, a famous den for pirates to hire... and exotic drugs.


As soon as you find an isolated corner to mind your business, a parchment scroll in a small wooden box materializes in front of you... orders from above... they always know how to send these at the most appropriate times don't they ?!


You take the scroll and open it, it says:


To: Vallo


From:


Mission Profile:


You are to find the source of the massacre which took place this evening at the Third Wave School. A significant amount of untimely deaths were suddenly registered in the Loom.


Estimated probability of hidden Lunar presence:


53.8%.


Estimated probability of hidden demonic presence:


46.4%.


Estimated probability of Fair Folk presence: 23.7%.


The Third Wave was a famous Boat Dojo who uses to sail near the Saphire Archipelgo, no more than a day by boat. The Fisherman even took you there once to see how his training was infinitely superior to theirs.
 
"Its Cap.. arrh they'll never learn in any case."


He shakes, repositions, places the scroll into his teeth and then ties his troos back up. He then takes it back out of his mouth cursing quietly as he wipes his spittle off the letter slightly smudging some of the words.


"Well m'hearty looks like we got ourselves another job, well buck yar gussets up and gurdle your loins we better be making an adventure out of this here boring missive. Journeys across the oceons of creation, in a ship made out of matchsticks. Or ... "


Vallo stops midsentance as his meanderings bring him to the small docks of Red Tree Island. He nods to other people walking up and down the docks, sticks his hands in his pockets and starts to whistle quietly, carrying on down the docks until he comes to a fishing skiff tied up. A skiff he thinks would get him to Third Wave. He continues whistling as he cuts the ropes tying the skiff to the docks and pushes it away from the docks before hopping in and starting to sailing off, hoping against hope someone would give chase.
 
People come and go on the docks but everyone has been drinking more than their share.


Various chants are coming from the nearby inns and bars... apparently someone has captured a big ransom and is spending it all.


***


roll wits+larceny
 
------------------


01-22 13:30:07 Catain vallo rolls 5 dice to wits+larceny 2 successes


5,3,1,8,9
 
You are able to steal the boat without any problem, people come and by and almost laugh at a fisherman so drunk he's sailing his ship in the middle of the night. No one seems to be bothered by such an usual behavior... actually, they're the drunken ones...


The night sea is calm and there is a fresh wind you can exploit to gain some times.


You need to be fast... people died there, but if the ship has sunk, or if scavengers have sailed from the island to loot it, it will be harder to investigate the scene.


***


a little Wits + Sail. You probably won't sleep tonight.
 
"Arr this be a fearfully bad ship, but needs must."


He skillfully tacs out of the harbour and catches the eastly blowing wind to spur him on towards the Third Wave School. He reaches down into his shirt and pulls out another bottle of rum, Taking the cork out with his teeth he spits it over the side before settling back down onto the nets holding the rudder he starts to sing to himself.


"Yo ho, yo ho, a pirate's life for me


We pillage, we plunder, we rifle and loot


Drink up me hearties, yo ho


We kidnap and ravage and don't give a hoot


Drink up me hearties, yo ho


Yo ho, yo ho, a pirate's life for me


We extort, we pilfer, we filch and sack


Drink up me hearties, yo ho


Maraud and embezzle and even high-jack


Drink up me hearties yo ho


Yo ho, yo ho, a pirate's life for me


We kindle and char, inflame and ignite


Drink up me hearties, yo ho


We burn up the city, we're really a fright


Drink up me hearties, yo ho


We're rascals, scoundrels, villains, and knaves


Drink up me hearties, yo ho


We're devils and black sheep, really bad eggs


Drink up me hearties, yo ho


Yo ho, yo ho, a pirate's life for me


We're beggars and blighters and ne'er do-well cads


Drink up me hearties, yo ho


Aye, but we're loved by our mommies and dads


Drink up me hearties, yo ho"


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


01-24 07:26:42 nobble - vallo rolls 9 dice to wits+sail 4 successes 3,10,10,5,6, 2,5,5,6
 
Sailing with the favors of the night, you arrive at dawn at the Saphire Archipelgo, famous for its turquoise waters palm wine and precious volcanic crystals.


From a distance you can see the Third Wave, a massive boat, probably the largest you've ever seen.


She is slowly drifting away quietly, no sign of activity, no smoke, no traces of fighting on the hull, no bodies flowing to the sea, no sharks circling around the blood... if a slaughter took place here last night, it certainly was an unusual one.
 
Vallo shakes himself from his slight doze as he sees the Third Wave ahead.


"Well well here we are, what's occuring lads."


He steers the skiff towards the large ship, snatching the docking rope off the skiff he clambers up the skiff's mast and from there to the side of the Third Wave to tie off his skiff. He then turns to look over the deck of the large ship.
 
The deck is full of dead bodies. You can count at least 30 of them, and soon the horrifying truth is revealed when you investigate the whole boat... everybody's dead here.


But something is strange... no one could have killed over a hundred martial artists that easily without leaving any survivor behind !


***


roll Perception+Investigation


then


Intelligence + Martial Arts (suxx will be capped by the first roll).
 
"Well this is a pretty pickle aint it m'hearties. Some scurvy infested swab or swabbies been and done these pirates."


Captain Vallo gingerly steps over the bodies looking around for any hints as to who, what and how they all died.


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


01-29 11:11:46 nobble Vallo rolls 3 dice to perc+inv 1 success 2,6,9


01-29 11:12:24 nobble Vallo rolls 6 dice to int+MA 2 successes 5,4,9,8,4, 1


so if the first capps the second thats 1 success
 
There is something really strange about the way the bodies have felled and the blood around them... but you cannot put your finger on it. It seems they were all pierced by a weapon and died of the blood loss.


However when you finally find the corpse of Master Zhiao, The Hunter of Waves, the captain of the Third Wave, you see a large black silk ribbon attached to his right wrist.


Could be a payback of a rival dojo, but the Third Wave has no known ennemy and there is not a body that doesn't wear the light blue and creamy white colors of the Dojo.


You also note the master scrolls and paintings are missing or have been burned.
 
"Arrghh it be the Black Ribbon!!"


Vallo strikes a dramatic pose over the body of Master Zhiao, before shaking his head slightly and kneeling down beside him to examine the wounds on the Masters body, their positions whether there are wounds on the Master's arms indicating if he tried to defend himself. He then examines the black ribbon to see if there is any identifying markings on the ribbon, or if he remembers the Master wearing it when he last visited. After this search he looks back over the deck in an attempt to see if there are pools of blood with no bodies by them, drag marks in the blood, or even foot prints.
 
The black ribbon doesn't bear any markings, its silk is not of the finest either, it will be extremely hard to trace it, and the way it was attached to the Master's wrist was clearly a signature from its murderer... still doesn't explain why or how the other students were killed.


***


Roll int+lore and per+investigation (independant rolls)
 
---------


01-30 14:44:48 Captain vallo rolls 5 dice to int+lore 2 successes 2,7,3,7,5


01-30 14:45:44 Captain vallo rolls 3 dice to per+invest 1 success 5,3,8
 
You know nothing of a Black Ribbon thing, though the "Black Bandana" vaguely rings a bell, you have heard this name before, during your training in heaven...


No traces can be found of footprints or missing bodies. Everyone on the boat has been killed quick and clean, with the same method, and all died of their bloodloss.


What a slaughter, only a handful of exalt or an extremely powerful being could have done this, but who, and above all why ???
 
"Well here's a puzzle wrapped in a riddle. The Black Bandana, Black Bandana.... Black..... Bandana... now friends, you are wondering why such a name is so familar well there is quite a tale to tell about it. The Black Bandana was a scurlious swab that would pawn your teeth after he pulled them one by one out of your mouth...... No the Black Bandana was a group of scury cut throats who sailed the seas round skullstone skuttling all and sundry.... then again the Black Bandana was a secret society who goals were the otherthrowing of the Pirate King and the asension of the evil..."


Vallo continues prevaricating as he paces the deck, thinknig up more and more posibilities for what the Black Bandana could possibly be. He continues on until he slips on one of the pools of blood and nearly falls.


"Aye lads, terrible fate for you my friends, but we can not be served by you jolly lads coming back as hungry ghosts or evil nasty walking dead."
 
"Well it looks like its down to me lads and lasses, and know this I'll not rest until I finds out which swabs did this act, but to stop you all coming back because both you and I don't want that maties. Lets be finding you a nice place, with a nice bay and a small hill over looking the sea so you'll be able to see the sea and the breakers. So maties lets go a looking. Hoist the mainsail... "


With that Vallo starts to busy himself around the ship before spinning the wheel to take the ship to the nearest isle with a decent burial site for these people.
 
The nearest island is Beluva, one of the smallest islands of the Sapphire Archipelgo a few natives leaves there, praying to their local gods and living in harmony with the sea and the land.


The ship is rather hard to sail for only one man.


***


Wits+Sail my dear ! :)
 
"Well it be a tricky task that Captain Vallo has set himself."


Vallo continues to talk to himself and the dead around him, as he trims the sails, pulls ropes, and ever so slowly pilots the ship towards Beluva.


"But he doesn't shirk from a task because it is differcult. He is Captain Vallo, creation famous Pirate of Pirates, someone who has stared into the very jaws of death and laughed. Ha ha ha."


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


02-02 05:50:46 nobble Vallo rolls 7 dice to wits+sail 5 successes 2,1,3,9,7, 10,8
 
With both brio and maestria, the witful Captain Vallo avoids the sandbanks and cliffs and finally reaches the coast of Beluva, setting down the ship on one of its white sand beach and turquoise waters in a sound of old cracking wood.


Red and yellow crabs are already gathering around the ship, probably thinking this is a ghost ship, looking to feed on the dead bodies.


No one comes near the ship, but you can see from a distance children hiding near the palm trees and tropical plants.


This will be a good burial site, but you'll need some help to get all the bodies burned and bury the ashes.
 
"Here we are friends, we'll have you buried good and proper soon enough."


With that he leaps from the side of the ship to the sand below. Waving and smiling at the children he slowly makes his way over towards them.
 
All the kids runs in the tropical bushes when they see you approaching, except for the bravest ones.


A teenager, beautiful boy, with long silken black hair, brown skin and green eyes, wearing white red and blue ritual paintings and wearing nothing but a leather short steps out and comes toward you:


"Good day old man, 's dat yo ship here ? why'd yo bring dis one all by yo'self here ? Have da sirens made yo loose yo mind ? no one will help yo drag dis one away in da watah..." he starts laughing and the other kids too.
 
"Hello my bonny lad, no its not my ship, but there in lies the story."


He leans in towards the teenagers a conspiritory fashion winking.


"A tale of evil on the high seas and murder most foul, gather round lads and lasses and hear the frightful Tale of the Third Wave"


He widens his eyes and looks afraid for a moment, before gesturing them all closer.


"T'was a dark night, a night so dark you couldney see yur own hand in front of your face. A night so dark as dark as the neverborn's souls, a night that evil happens. It was this night that your good friend, Captain Vallo."


He taps his chest at the mention of his name.


"Were availing himself of that fine establishment the Drunken Turtle on Red Tree Island chatting joking and entertaining the folks there, I was, when suddenly I 'ad a feeling, a feeling in my gut that makes it go all iggerly squiggerly, and that iggerly squiggerly feeling can but means one thing evil is happening someplace near. So I's think to me self 'Vallo time you were lookin out for this evil', cos my jolly lads and lasses, that me to a T. Fighting evil and looking out for it, and thats the truth. Anyway back to the tale. So I be thinking with that iggerly squiggerly feeling in me guts, what can be happening. It can't be kind Master Zhiao, The Hunter of Waves, the captain of the Third Wave and his jolly band of sailors. No please let it be anything but that. So I hops into the nearest boat, a little worse for wear don't you know."


He quickly mimics himself being drunk staggering about a bit, before dramatically turning back to face the children.


"But I'm Captain Vallo, sailor of Sailors, its in me blood. So I's tack and sail that little boat as fast as the wind would carry me, hoping against hope that Is would ney be too late, but darkness had decended on the seas, and that jolly band of sailors and kind Master Zhiao, The Hunter of Waves, the captain of the Third Wave, were no more. Terror upon terror, evil upon evil, that happy bunch of lads and lasses brought low by ner'do'wells. All that is left of them is there worldly husks, their bodies left for you and me to take care of. But know this lads and lasses and sleep well in your beds, for Captain Vallo is on the job, and he don't rest till the evil that done this is brought low."


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


02-03 03:43:21 nobble Vallo rolls 7 dice to cha+perf 3 successes 5,6,8,4,10, 3,6


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


"So that be the end of me tale, but the beginning of another happy lads and lasses, but for this tale to work proper like I think I'll be needing to 'ave a chat like with your folks."


He stands straight dusts himself off and throws the surrounding children a dazzling smile.
 
------------


doh i knew there was a skill i forgot to get.....


02-04 03:13:58 nobble Vallo rolls 3 dice to perc+aw 3 successes


7,7,9
 
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