Second session, "Strange Tale of the Island Astray"

Under the brave black flag

My dear Frederic,

I do not know if you will receive this missive, nor whether any of my previous correspondence has reached you in your current location. I can but hope that the spirits and fates will consent to your receipt of this in the fullness of time.

It has been some time since I last wrote, because that deranged dunderhead, the inflammatory Captain Jia Yu and his porcine lieutenant have had the perfidy to deny me the use of quill and paper for the duration of my apprehension aboard their fleet. Fortunately, an astute and gregarious young man who goes by the unlikely name of Edward Pierre Ottoman Roundheels the Fourth has taken pity on this hard-used and unjustly imprisoned voyager.

I hope that this communique finds you fit, flourishing, and in altogether agreeable circumstances. I have not the slightest doubt that Samuel is conscientiously attending to the well-being of my ship and my crew. Aided, I am equally certain, in no small part by your own stout-hearted and able assistance. There is nothing I hold more dear than the well-being of my ship and crew. It is testatment to my admiration for the aptitude and prudence of both the worthy Mr Axe and yourself that I have entrusted them into your safe-keeping during this time of tribulation.

Rest assured that I am adequately cared for and am both hale and hearty. A situation which has become more agreeable since being liberated from my recent incarceration. I have been confined under far worse conditions. If had not been for the beastly lack of appropriate entertainment and the abominable personal hygeine my principle guardian, I may well have found the conditions more than bearable.

My most recent escape strategem having come to ought, I was contemplating my next undertaking. My captors chose to assault some unfortunate ship, abundantly loaded with merchandise. Even in my brig, three decks below topside, I could hear the wretched cries for mercy from the terrorized passengers of their prey. I was engaged in another attempt to effect my own release, when I heard renewed sounds of battle as some new arrivals fired shots across my captor's bow.

The battle had hardly been joined when a most extraordinary development arrived within the confines of my own imprisonment. A man, who by his features I would guess to be a native of Northern India, crashed through the deck above me. He was dressed in black silk trousers, shirt, and workboots. Yet he had plummeted through--nay pierced--the top deck and the two deckings between myself and the sky without incurring visible lacerations or fractures. When I say that he pierced the decks, I mean to say that he perforated and punctured through all three thick wooden layers in a single plunge.

As if that singular feat were not miraculous enough, his feet, upon striking the floor of my cage, threatened to continue his careening descent. The wood groaned, and fearsome cracks formed in the planking. The mere chance collision of one of his toes with the iron bars of my enclosure during his dive cleft the iron in no less than three places.

As my eyes took in the situation, and I recognized that it was a man which had caused this destruction and not a star fallen from the heavens, I was even more astonished that he seemed wholly unharmed by his venture. He dusted himself off, apologized if his arrival had discommoded me in any way, pushed the now-broken gate open, and strode away.

I followed him, expressing my gratitude at being liberated. He suggested that I abandon ship while it was still possible. I explained that, alas, my effects which were of more sentimental than monetary value, but which I was loathe to abandon, were being held in the captain's cabin and that I was determined to retrieve them before I made good my exit.

We were not able to continue that conversation at that precise occasion, because members of the crew had discovered this human cannonball, and appeared intent upon depriving him of both life and limb. We were thus embroiled in the fracas.

It was a magnificent battle! I have seldom seen such an astounding display of the art of personal combat. Together we were unstoppable. With a few unworthy exceptions, our opponents fought bravely, but their tenacity was in vain. I was able to obtain a serviceable weapon early in the fray. We waded in unflinchingly.

When we reached the gun deck, he had the extremely clever, though highly perilous idea to commandeer one of the loaded cannons, withdrawing it fully into the boat, aiming along the fire line, and then igniting the fuse! The explosion was tremendous, but unequivocally halted any further gunnery activity for the rest of our engagement.

Things were a bit riskier topside. When one is at a numerical disadvantage to one's opponents, the confined quarters and impaired visibilitiy of the enclosed lower decks can be leveraged to one's advantage. The visibility and free movement available in the open air diminishes one's assets and requires a change in tactics. Even so, we were doing adequately, although for a few moments our movements were circumscribed to an inferior strategic position and a considerable tilting of the disparity in numbers against our favour.

I lost count of how many times we each saved the other from what may well have been a mortal blow before we were able to make a break for it and improve our field of fire. I had just dispatched the odious second mate, only to find a rather disconcerting number of muskets aimed in my direction.

I took shelter behind an iron chest which was conveniently left on deck, kicking the lid up to increase the area of cover when an astounding concussion shock the entire ship. St. Elmo's fire outlined the chest, scorching the deck within a hair's breadth of my location.
I saw my new ally high up in the air, and feared that a mine had exploded under his feat and hurled him to his death. I was perturbed because in all the tumult I had not yet had the chance to ask his name, and now I beheld the very likely prospect of never having an opportunity to properly express my gratitude.

I was astounded to see the deck littered with the bodies of all the men we had just been fighting moments before, as if all had been felled by the hand of some vicious god.

My ally landed squarely on his feet upon the deck, cracking the planks once more. He cast his gaze in my direction and said something. Though is lips moved, I could not hear him because of the tremendous ringing in my ears. He motioned toward the rail, urging me to abandon ship once more. I shook my head, pointed toward the cabin, and charged.

Throughout our battle the ship had been jolted at irregular intervals by small explosions, while the smell of smoke became stronger by the moment. My new friend's ingenious use of the cannon had probably ignited more than one cache of powder. And the flames were undoubtably proceeding toward the magazine.

I reclaimed my effects in short order. Then, armed with my own sword, I returned to the deck, which I now found engulfed in nearly impenetrable smoke, broken by the occasional spout of flame. The ringing in my ears was descreasing sufficiently that I could hear the sounds of more fighting happening near the aft hatch. Whatever had incapacitated our opponents on deck must have had a diminished effect upon the crewmen still below. Trying to abandon ship, they had encountered my terribly mysterious benefactor.

I called out several times, hoping my new friend would follow the sound of my voice as I made my way as quickly as I could to the poop deck, where I knew that Jia Yu was found of storing his cunning yet foolhardy rocket contraptions. As I hoped, several more than one of his flying contrivances was present in the storeroom. I dragged two of them onto the deck, and tried to explain how they work to my new-found friend as I was strapping myself into one of them.

I muttered a prayer to any god that might care to help, and ignited the infernal mechanism.

It lofted me high into the air. I was quite happy to be away from the ship, as several more external explosions were racking its frames.

Unfortunately at that moment I realized that I had neglected to plan for a most important component of my escape.

I didn't know with any certainty how to steer one of this blazing kites, nor how the deranged dunderhead managed to alight unbroken at the end of a flight.

However, I am nothing if not willing to learn as I go, and so I grasped the portions of the rigging which looked as if they might form some sort of rudder controls, and took a crack at it. I found I was able to change the direction in rough fashion, and with a few more experimental maneuvers, aimed myself at one of the ships which appeared to be coming to our rescue.

As I approached the deck, I couldn't help but comprehend the barrel of a rather ungainly rifle was aimed in my direction. More astonishing even than the stupendous size of the firearm was the contrasted petiteness of the rather attractive young woman who was pointing it at me in a rather threatening mannner.

I called out for sanctuary, trying to explain that I was a prisoner, and not a member of the pirate crew. I do not know if she believed me, because I became rather distracted through to wrestle my incindeary steed into a soft landing rather than a catastrophic collision.

I survived the landing somehow. The kite did not. I was pleased to see that my ally, having taken possession of the other kite, was always winging his way toward safety on the very same ship where I now lay, trying to catch my breath. I was a bit envious of the more agile and nimble manner of his landing. But before I could ask any questions I found myself surround by even more small women equipped with monumentally large firearms. And intent, it seems, upon shooting me without so much as an order to surrender.

I explained, once more that I had been a prisoner and had saved the life of the other man, who was being greeted quite warmly.

They took me prisoner. The one woman, whose temper was least agreeable, would not even let me tell her my name before I was bound and carted away to be searched and disarmed.

I did not protest over much as I was stunned by two incalculably coincidents. Two men took me into custody. One was unmistakeably a close relative of none other than Captain Tiberius. So alike in visage and physique is he, at in only slightly dimmer light I would have undoubtably mistaken him for Tiberius himself. This man must be twenty years younger, and as he answered to the name of Frazer, which I know to be the true surname of our worthy competitor, and I also know that Tiberius has never married, I inferred that he was a relative from the legitimate side of the family.

The other man was even more astonishing.

He was you.

I do not mean to say that he reminded me of you, that he features bore a familial resemblance, or that his voice and yours were somewhat alike. What I mean is that he is identical to you in every way that I could observe. Except, of course, that he was wearing the uniform of the British Navy, with the stripes of a lieutenant upon his sleeve.

If I had not moments before had the mind-boggling confrontation with a near twin of Tiberius, I am certain I would have found this lieutenant indistinguishable from you, and leaped to the conclusion that you had infiltrated this crew as part of some scheme of Sam's.

True be told, that is what I hoped when I first saw you. Him.

I tried to evoke some sign of recognition. If it was you, I did not wish to abrogate your masquerade, yet I have been so long confined to the company of unfriendly faces, that the possibility that at long last I was reunited with one of my own circle, aroused unreasoned hope in my breast. And thus I offered trifling banter, nothing elaborate, a mere jest or whimsy.

He fixed me with an expression which chilled me to the bone. There have been times that my sometimes misguided jocularity has caused you to look at me with acrimony, chagrin, even occasional peevishness. But never, no matter how my schemes have vexed, my tomfoolery has exasperated, nor my tempers infuriated, never have you looked upon me with disdain.

Other than that cold expression in his eyes, I still cannot tell that he is not you. A dispicable portion of my soul fears that he is you, and that through combination of my long absence and the ordeals which your current endeavor may be visiting upon you has engendered exactly that sense of abhorrence and contempt which I endured today.

I could not live if one I have loved like a brother and have tutored like a son felt such rancor toward me. So I refuse to believe that he is you.

So I compose this letter, as I have composed many since we last parted company, and I give it to the sea, as I have all the others, with the abiding hope that it will find its way to you. I pray, also, that you, Samuel, and all our comrades survive unscathed, and that we will soon be reunited.

I have traded one imprisonment for another, for the ship I am now on, a yacht called Selene, is owned by an agent of the crown. While most of the crew are civilians, there are both officers of the Royal Navy and of the London Police. It travels in the company of a converted frigate posing as the yacht Foxglove. Betwixt overheard converstations, scant admissions, and deductions from their interrogations, I conclude they have been dispatched to these waters to assist the navy's campaign against all buccaneers and smugglers.

Another of my new captor is a British Lady with the unlikely name Cowperthwaite. She also appears to be the daughter of another old acquaintance, Rip Chigwidgeon. You are far to young to have ever met the demolisher, but Samuel will remember him. The companions of this Lady seem to share Rip's talent for mayhem. Besides the oddly durable man, their number includes a nephew of Quaid O'Flaherty, who appears at least as formidable as is Uncle, at least two witches, the aforementioned officers and constabulary, and more persons skilled in the handling of monstrous firearms than I have ever encountered.

The Lady has conceded that their principle purpose here is to recover a single missing naval vessel, the sloop Arabis most lately under the command of the pervicacious Lt Pellew. As you presciently insisted, he has refused to abandon his pursuit of the Isle of Souls. It now appears Pellew may have traversed the portal. At first blush this may seem a most infelicitous development.

It therefore transpires that their objective neatly coincides with my current intentions, as they are also intent upon the abolition of Wu Chang's infernal fleet. Having observed the terrible desolation they wrought upon a larger force, I anticipate success against Wu Chang may be attainable.

We have therefore undertaken an agreement of mutual assistance. It is my hope that we can swiftly bring this enterprise to a conclusion which is favorable to ourselves and my new found allies. My absence from the company of you and our fine companions keenly bruises my heart. I long to return to my beloved ship, the camaraderie of my esteemed crew, and the noble brotherhood of my most trusted officer (which would be Samuel and your good self, of course).

May a favourable wind always accompany you, and if the fates cannot smile upon us, may they at least grant us leave to seize our own fortune from opportunity. Until we are reunited, my gracious friend, I remain faithfully yours,

W.S.

Proceed to A bit unpredictable

Return to the Others Index

Return to Main Menu