Incubus: Take the drunk man back to the ship

From Create Your Own Story

"C'mon," you say, turning him toward the dock. "I've got a place nearby." He doesn't even resist as you walk him down to the dock, your footsteps loud and hollow on the tarred planks. Cold sees you coming and hurries down the gangplank, helping you guide the staggering man up the narrow walk and onto the ship. You notice a few of the crew watching you as you take the drunk into your cabin.

"Where's my cabin boy?" you ask Cole, and he steps back out on deck, returning in a moment with the young man. "Give me a hand," you tell him, dumping the drunk man onto your bed. He groans and vomits on the floor before passing out. Making a face, you gesture to the reeking puddle. "Clean that up and then strip him down and wash him. Come get me if he wakes up." You start toward the door.

"Who is he, Captain, sir?" the boy asks and you stop, returning to the side of the bed.

"Good question," you say, digging though the pockets of his coat. He has a fat leather money pouch and a fancy lace handkerchief embroidered with the initials S. R.. In his pants pockets you find a few loose coins and a shiny key to a room at the Karel Inn--one of Verix Dae's best--but no identification. You open the money pouch and dump a pile of ilae out on the bed beside him. Your cabin boy gasps.

"He must be a lord," the boy says as you rake your fingers through the platinum coins. There has to be fifty or sixty ilae there--easily three times what your ship is worth. Who the hell is this guy...and what sort of trouble have you gotten yourself into?

"Take care of him," you say and then head out on deck to steer your ship out through the treacherous rocks and reefs guarding the entrance to the harbor. Once in open water, you turn your bow east, to the continent of Korum, the first continent settled by colonists more than 250 years ago. Numerous small towns and villages line its shores, supplied by heavily laden, poorly armed merchant ships ripe for the picking. Usually, the three week journey would put you off in favor of closer destinations, but with a guaranteed source of energy to keep your demon in check, three weeks at sea is nothing.

Finally, you turn the helm over to Cole and return to your cabin. Your cabin boy has cleaned up the vomit, although the room still stinks of sour alcohol and bile, and the drunk's clothes are piled neatly on the floor beside the bed. You stand and watch as the boy gently washes the unconscious young man.

"Did you find anything to tell us who he might be?" you ask. The boy shakes his head.

"No, Captain, sir," he says. "There was nothing else in his pockets, nothing in his boots--Oh, he is wearing a strange ring. I don't know if that means something..." You step over and take the drunk's hand, turning it into the light, and you belly begins to squirm like you've swallowed a nest of eels.

"It's not a strange ring," you say. "It's a signet ring, bearing a family crest. I just hope it isn't his family." You pull the ring off his finger and head back out on deck, up to Cole standing at the wheel. "Tell me this isn't what I think it is," you say, handing him the ring. He takes one glance at it and hands it back to you.

"You better hope he stole that," Cole said and you groan.

"How was I supposed to know he was a member of the Rivellia family?" you ask. "What the hell was he doing down by the harbor?"

"What difference does it make?" Cole said. "You have a potential problem here. If the Rivellias find out that you took him--whoever he is--you will be dead. I suggest we slit his throat and dump him over the side, but I'll support whatever you decide to do, Daelin."

You run your fingers back through your hair and pace from one side of the aft deck to the other. You could kill him and be done with it, but you like to hold murder as a last resort only. You could circle around and wait for the tide to change, and return him to shore, hopefully before anyone notices that he's missing. Or you could continue on to Korum. After all, what are the odds that anyone noticed the kidnapping, and was sober enough to remember what you look like, and managed to get word back to the Rivellias? And even if they did, you're on a ship in the middle of the sea. What can they do to you?


Do you...

Hunger Key: Sated - Awake - Restless - Hungry - Very Hungry - Starving - Critical
Status
Demon Restless
Location The Incubus: Helm
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