PirateCaptain

The Fool's Wharf, Hammer Harbor, was noisy and smelly. I sat on a barrel and urged the sailors to complete loading the remaining cargo: "Listen up lazybones, show me your moves. There is nothing on this ship that you can afford to compensate for." "All loaded into the stowage as you ordered, my lord. We are ready to sail." The first mate who reported to me was a dwarf with a dirty and messy beard. I wouldn't have been surprised to find a muskox hiding inside. "Then let's hurry up and get going, the sooner you arrive the more you'll get paid." On commission from John's Chamber of Commerce, I was to deliver this shipment to Fallen Harbor. This was not an easy trip. The ship had to pass through the Abyss Sea - where sirens and tentacled monsters were said to be found - and then through the Mountainsea Corridor - where the weather was unpredictable and storms were so raging that a fishing boat or a cargo ship could be buried at any moment. Before setting sail, the first mate threw a gold coin into the sea. He said it was called a tithe, a local custom to pray for a smooth voyage before embarking. I didn't think much of it. It was all superstition and no one was going to take a penny out of my pocket except myself.

A good weather day on the route often comes before a storm. The Mountainsea Corridor, the route beneath, was also known as John Corridor, named after the greatest adventurer in human history and founder of the John's Chamber of Commerce, Mr John Ham. Ever since the Marten Basin was turned into a barren land during the war, the land trade route that could connect the north and south was cut off for centuries. As the spiritual leader of the adventurers, Mr. John Ham blazed a trail that is a lifeline by sea to this day. But John Corridor was also dominated for a while by the monopolistic Erik family - the first humans to master offshore navigation in medieval times, through which they built up a vast fortune. Perhaps their arrogance angered the god of sea and the Erik family's fleet disappeared into the ocean in an unprecedented megastorm. After this, more fleets were given the opportunity to use the route, thus beginning the real age of sailing. Although the Erik family had long been forgotten in the dust of history, there were always rumours and sensational tales that they had been wandering along the route, greedily preying on the ships that passed by. There was only one way to escape their clutches, and that was to throw a gold coin into the sea before setting sail and ask for the God of Sea's blessing, which was the origin of the tithe. In my opinion, these were mere legends to fool children. Even if it were true, what's there to fear from a bunch of dead people?

We met the pirates. The loud bang of the hatch being slammed open interrupted my sound sleep as two large men dragged me out onto the wet deck in the storm. The man in front of me wore a faded leather tricorn hat. His unruffled face was covered with scars from battle, and a distinctively patterned scimitar was at his waist. "This ship is mine." His voice filled my ears with the howling sea breeze and I involuntarily began to back away, "You can choose to walk onto the diving board yourself or be thrown into the sea by me." "Wait... I can pay you, there's no need to be so cruel." I shuddered. "I said the ship is mine." He leaned his face closer, the smell of salty seawater coming off him, "First rule of the Erik family: never bargain." "How is that possible?! The Erik family ...... didn't you guys die centuries ago?!" Erik pulled a shiny gold object from his pocket, and I slowly recalled... It was the gold coin that the first mate had thrown into the sea at Hammer Harbor over forty days ago! "Is that so? You have heard that we are dead?" Erik asked his men back, drawing laughter from the pirates in the crowd. "This is a ship of John's Chamber! Do you know who you're offending?" I yelled helplessly. "John's Chamber of Commerce? A big fish jumped on a fishing boat - so convenient!" The pirates laughed even more as Erik turned, drawing the scimitar from his belt with a seething grin on his face. "Burn this ship to the ground," he was shouting into the gale, which echoed his madness, "and leave no one alive!"