The First Boarding

The Sea Witch shudders as the grappling hooks bite into the Spanish merchant vessel’s hull, the two ships groaning like wounded beasts. Liam shoves a cutlass into your hands—"Stay behind me, and move when I move!"—before charging across the makeshift bridge of planks and rope. The air reeks of salt, smoke, and the metallic tang of blood.

You follow, boots slipping on blood-slick wood. The Spanish crew fights desperately, but the pirates swarm like rats, their laughter sharp with violence. Liam dispatches a sailor with a brutal swipe, then yanks you aside as a musket ball splinters the deck where you stood. "Eyes open, Ronan!" he barks. "Cut their lines if they try to repel us!"

Your hands work fast, severing ropes that would’ve toppled boarding pirates into the sea. A wounded Spaniard collapses near you, clutching a gut wound. Instinct takes over—you roll him onto his side, applying pressure with a torn strip of sailcloth. Liam watches, then tosses you a flask of rum. "For the pain," he grunts. "Keep him alive if you can. Harkin pays extra for ransoms."

The battle rages, but around you, a strange rhythm forms: Liam’s blade carves space, and your knots and quick hands secure it. A pirate falls with a broken leg; you splint it with a belaying pin and his own belt. Another gasps through a punctured lung—you tilt his head to keep his airway clear.

By the time the Spanish captain surrenders, the deck is a butcher’s yard. Liam claps your shoulder, his grin bloody. "Surgeon’s hands and a fighter’s nerve. You’re worth your share today."

But your eyes catch movement belowdecks—shackled figures in the shadows. The enslaved Africans from the Spanish hold stare back, their silence louder than the cannonfire.

Choices:

1. Demand the enslaved be freed as part of the plunder (Charisma DC 14 — risk angering Harkin but gain Maroon favor)
2. Stay silent but slip them your dagger when no one’s looking (Dexterity DC 12 — a quiet act of defiance)
3. Ask Liam what happens to prisoners like them (Wisdom DC 10 — gauge the crew’s stance)
4. Focus on looting the captain’s quarters for medical supplies (Intelligence DC 8 — secure resources for future wounds)