Staff of the Octopus

You need to hear more you say? I understand. Most of you probably think you are not worthy enough for our group. After all, we are an experienced group of cutthroats and pirates and survival in our crew requires a certain set of skill, but don’t worry, you learn them if you live long enough, and if you don’t…well then it won’t really bother you, will it? You either adapt, or you die, our cap’n surrounds himself with only the best. That’s something I would call his greatest strength. Most goblin leaders are paranoid and usually only surround themselves with bootlickers and cowards who are weaker and less ambitious than them and tries to keep them in check by fear and force, our cap’n is different. He doesn’t have these delusions of grandeur, he knows that without his crew and companions he is but a goblin, an exceptional and mighty goblin no doubt, but still only one goblin. You’ve already heard of some of his ship officers, Boblin the Spy-Master, the ogre lieutenant, the kobold boom-master called…well The Boom-Master. But the most important one of the lot is and was the captain’s right hand goblin. Called by many names: the Stormcaller, the Tidebringer, the Squid-warder and the Magnificent Gobbo. He was a…shaman? Well I don’t really know what he was, I’ve heard that some mercenaries called him something like…Hyd..Hadro…Hydra-Mancer (I’ve never seen him conjure a Hydra or anything, so I don’t know where that came from, but anyway…), what I know is that he was really good with water. I don’t know how, but winds were always in our favour and the most dire storms seemed to go around us while he was on board, I would even dare say he was almost as essential to the crew as our captain was (His absence is probably the reason things aren’t going that well these days). Now I believe like any other goblin that there is a grain of lie in any truth, and I didn’t believe those tales about powerful wizirds or whatnot capable of lifting mountains and summoning rains of fire, but I believe my own eyes and it was with them that I saw what this goblin was capable of. So let me tell you of the Clash of Fire and Water as our crew’s half-orc poet later named it. ‘Twas some time ago and I was just new recruit on the Flotsam, as it was named after the daring commandeer. The day that is happened on seemed simple enough. We were cruising around the Southeren Strait, plundering any trading ships within sight and avoiding patrols. We didn’t really have any large haul for quite some time, with a decent halfling merchant brig carrying carrots and turnips being the biggest. We were yearning for something valuable, some nice unprotected cog carrying jewellery or gold. To our fortune (or misfortune, considering further events) that’s exactly what appeared on the horizon. A large cog, with a single mast and a single brightly red sail. Joyful commotion started on The Flotsam as we started to make our way towards that seemingly merchant ship. As we approached we realized two things, it was better defended than most other merchant ships, and it looked even more valuable than we initially thought. The wood it was made from looked exotic and dark, and many parts of the ship were gilded. “This seems too good to be true” I said to myself at the time and before I realized it I noticed the Magnificent Gobbo was standing next to me looking at the merchant ship with brooding face. “I have a bad feeling about this” he says to me and he starts caressing the slimy tentacled creature on his staff. He whispered something to the creature and it jumped from the staff into the water. I stared flabbergasted and speechless at the creature as it started making its way towards the vessel. The ship was about a thousand feet away when the creature returned and jumped back onto the shaman’s staff. The shaman leaned towards it, and an expression of shock came onto his face. He quickly ran towards the cap’n and started shouting “Turn it around! Turn it Around!” “Why, it looks like we will finally have some fat loot again.” Answered the Cap’n to the joy of most of the crew. “It’s a Zhaarhasian ship cap’n.” says the shaman. “And what does that mean?” retorted the captain. “Demons cap’n…demons and magic.” Cap’n stood there for not knowing whether to turn the ship or not. As fate would have, he didn’t have to make that decision, because soon after, a small ball of fire appeared in the corner of my eye. I only managed to yell “GET DOWN!” before the ship’s wheel exploded in a burst of fire and force. Some crewmembers were thrown overboard, some burned, and some became a pile of ash. Captain managed to dodge in time to come out of it unharmed, but as he got back to his feet, he saw a thing he didn’t expect. The enemy vessel was now approaching us.

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