Elendor
The Pretender Chronicles: An Interesting Voyage Home
Captain Azradi sails Ceredir north to the Poros so that the Master Scout can go home, and the voyage gets interesting along the way, courtesy of Basmah (temped by Hugh)
Sort Date: no date set
Location: At sea
Game Date: March 19 3047
IC Time: Morning
Description:
The Variyah
The smell of oil mixes with the salty sea air on this fine vessel. The deck is polished, the ship immaculately kept with all lines and sails in order.
The Variyah's silent crew tends to the ship in an orderly, professional manner, whether in times of peace or under duress.
Two hatches in the center of the ship lead belowdecks, with stairs leading to the raised fore and aft decks.
[+TIME] Middle-earth time is:
Nighttime on Monday, Day 19 of March.
Execute the +TIMEFRAME command for year information.
Real time is: 14:13:37 MDT on Thu Jun 18 2009.
[Yildirim(#24191)]
Thick, slow clouds hang low, the sea's scent heavy in the air, as they darken dawn in Umbar to a dull grey morn. Few in the city have started their day, but the docks are alive with activity, preparing ships for the day's work.
Strolling to the gangplank, side by side, comes the pair of Yildirim, dressed the same as ever these days, as for war, and Umbar's ally from Gondor, Ceredir.
"What are your plans for your return? Do you still have a wife?"
The question hits a sore spot with the northern man--even in the dull dawn light, it's easy to see that Ceredir frowns. "I still have a wife. And I still leave my wife behind me here, though it is not what I wished for." He turns to Yildirim. "You'll watch her for me? Make sure she is safe?"
[Yildirim(#24191)]
Some surprise is evident on Yildirim's face at this request, "I did not know she was in the city." He looks to the sky, pausing in the thought, "Or perhaps I did. But certainly I had forgotten. She is well thus far then?"
He pauses at the gangplank, "Permission to board!" he shouts to the ship's deck.
[Azradi(#20135)]
The Variyah's deck is awash with activity. A full crew prepares the ship for sail. Upon the quarter deck, Azradi stands, resting her hands upon the railing. She is not dressed for war - but rather in her typical ship-board attire: a loose tunic of red, close fitting cropped breeches of dark brown and black boots.
She gazes down at the gangplank and main deck, her grey eyes finding the young Corsair and Gondorian. "Permission granted," she calls out.
[Yildirim(#24191)]
As he waits for Ceredir's answer, Yildirim motions for him to cross first.
"Nella is still in Farside. She is learning Haradric she is learning to use a scimitar." Ceredir pauses, stopping to look up to Azradi as Yildirim's request is made and the answer given.
"She wishes to be a Corsair in some ways. And she wishes to come home to Gondor, too." He frowns, then walks up the gangplank and onto the ship.
"Morning, Captain."
[Azradi(#20135)]
As soon as the two men have boarded the ship, sailors move past them to pull up the gangplank. "Cast off," Azradi orders her First Mate and then to Yildirim and Ceredir, she says: "Come up to the quarterdeck."
Orders are shouted and repeated about the ship in Haradaic. The ship is unmoored from the dock and slowly, two large oar boats begin to pull her free of her slip and out into the harbor where she can catch the wind.
[Yildirim(#24191)]
With brief longing glance towards shore, Yildirim adjusts the fittings on his jerkin, "I will be sure to check on her when I return. Do you think there is any chance of her being untrue? Should I have an eye kept on her?" He asks, his words coming faster as he checks his belt and blade.
"Being untrue?" Ceredir is already up on the quarterdeck when he turns, mouth dropping open at this question. "I can assure you, Yildirim, that women of Gondor are not untrue to their wives. Nor are the men! No matter how things are here," he says, brows furrowing together in anger.
Or is that doubt that now colors the Master Scout's face.
[Azradi(#20135)]
Laughter greets Ceredir's words. Shaking her head, Azradi interjects: "I cannot believe that. Or are you stonelanders named so because you are made of stone? A woman or man whose needs are not taken care of will stray - why should they not?"
"However, I would not worry about your wife. No man of Harad would want her - not enough fire."
[Yildirim(#24191)]
Yildirim stops, holding Ceredir back, "So, your women marry women? Wait. You are a man, yes?" Yildirim asks, now very very confused.
"I..women do not cheat on their husbands," Ceredir says, coloring under both Yildirim's confusion and Azradi's words. "My wife is content. I just wish..." He shakes his head. "Never mind. How long a voyage do we expect, Captain?"
[Barjad(#29188)] The sailors go about the duties they have performed so many times before with ease and poise. One, a young woman whose dark braid is pulled into a tight knot at the nape of her neck, looks up from where she is coiling one of the last of the mooring ropes, and calls out to Yildirim lightly, in her native tongue, "Maybe you should check. Though we'll all see soon enough whether he can piss over the side."
[<#24191>] Yildirim replies quickly, "" He smiles and looks back to the group, 'I did not check our course for the day, thus can be no help on that question.'
[Azradi(#20135)]
Slowly the oar boats pull the Variyah from her slip. Once free, they detach from her prow and veer away. Her sails are unfurled and she shudders like a content wife as the wind takes her.
Azradi eyes shift to her new foremast and remain there as she answers the Gondorian. "I will bring you as far up the Poros as I can - though it will be far west of the crossing. Two days."
She grins as her crew-woman's words reach her ears. "You have two days to find out, Basmah. Perhaps we will find out just how faithful these Gondorians really are."
"Two days, yes," Ceredir nods, watching with interest at the workings of the crew as they head the ship out. "The Poros is the only way? But I suppose my coming from the south will raise the least suspicion. I amy work it out with Lord Gildring that he called me to his estates once more and that the last I saw of Amrundirn, we had separated long before the ford."
The Stonelander seems a bit puzzled by Azradi's sudden grin, and his eyes automatically seek out the crew member she speaks to--but he shrugs, looking instead about the ship once more.
[Barjad(#29188)] The young woman's features take on a mischievious look as she answers Yildirim with a smile of her own. "All right, then." She scrambles up and moves lightly across the deck to the others. "Do I get danger money for this, Fleet Master? After all, who knows where he's been."
Looking the puzzled Ceredir up and down, she tugs her shirt-laces a little looser, then, taking a deep breath, leans forward and attempts to place a kiss upon his lips while his attention is turned.
[Azradi(#20135)]
Azradi, along with all her officers on the quarter deck, roar with laughter when Basmah attempts to kiss the Gondorian. Breathless, the Corsair Captain replies in the Southron tongue: "If you can lure him into your bed, I will buy you a case of the finest rum to be found in Umbar!"
"What? What are you doing?!" Ceredir yelps, pushing the woman away abruptly and without any hesitation. He opens his mouth to protest further, but seeing the laughter that Basmah's attempted kiss has drawn, he abruptly shuts it.
Ceredir does not share in the joke, though--indeed, he is angry as he snaps some words rapidly to Azradi in a melodic language. " "Is this the respect I get for swearing my life to your brother? To be treated like the plaything of some whore? Is this how I can expect my wife to be treated? My wife, who has placed herself in your brother's trust and care?"
[Barjad(#29188)] At Ceredir's push, the corsair-girl skips out of the way as agile as any monkey. "You forget how?" she queries the man in Common, grinning, then reports back to the waiting Haradrim, "Definitely a woman. Or else he's been gelded."
The fact that her actions have produced an angry stream of unintelligible speech from the foreigner only widen her grin further.
[Azradi(#20135)]
Azradi's eyes glitter - with steel, not humor. She fixes her gaze on the Gondorian. Her reply is in Westron and tinged with anger. "Watch your tongue, man. Do not place your rigid Northern standards on our people. Basmah is a Corsair - the most esteemed of people in our city. She is no whore. She may choose or reject which lovers she wants. You may accept her or deny her as you wish. The same is with your wife. We will protect her from harm, but not from her life."
"You Stonelanders are incapable of understanding freedom, it appears."
Behind her, The Corsair Captain's officers laugh - though it appears to be at Basmah's words in their own language.
Anger is mirrored for a moment in Ceredir's eyes, too, but it is soon replaced with surprise as Azradi speaks. The man colors, his cheeks flushing red, and he stumbles over his words, which are in Sindarin again. "Freedom?" He stares at Azradi, then at Basmah, astonished, then at the Fleet Master again. " You mean...there is no shame? For women? I mean in Gondor, men can...you know....but women..especially women of high standing. What if they get with child from such a union?! What if Nella.." As Ceredir says his wife's name, he seems suddenly very worried.
[Barjad(#29188)] Basmah, blithely unaware of the drift of the conversation, regards the flushing Ceredir with interest. "I do not see a man turn red as a ripe fruit before. Does all of you go that colour?" Then she leans forward in an attempt to pat the man's hand, the motion also showing to advantage her feminine bosom, sweat-spangled from her recent work. "You do not worry. I like it." The words are accompanied by a dazzling smile.
[Azradi(#20135)]
Azradi's anger appears to abate and once more she chooses to respond in Westron rather than the Stonelander's melodic language. "Women are as free as men. That does not mean that our marriages are not true nor that there is no shame in hurting one you love. But it is there where the source of disapproval lies - at deceiving a loved one, not in the action itself."
She shrugs, and adds: "Bastards are complicated. If a woman cherishes her marriage, she will not risk one - the same with a man. But our society does not castigate the offender for it. As for noblewomen, we are not unmindful of the duties of lineage and bastards are not welcome - especially after marriage. But they are often tolerated before marriage, though even that varies from family to family."
She offers Basmah a bemused smile.
"Then...what is this woman trying to prove, if that be the case?" Ceredir says in Westron. Despite himself, his eyes are drawn to Basmah's cleavage, though that only renews his blush, as does her question. Distracted this way, he doesn't try to stop her from patting his hand, either.
"I am married, and happily so," he tells both Azradi and Basmah, taking both in with one glance. "I cannot say what game you play now, but I am not about to deceive my wife."
[<#29188>] Basmah's smile widens a little at Ceredir's reaction. 'I like you, Gondor-man. So I make you an offer. That is all.' She gives Ceredir an almost pitying look, before glancing to Azradi with brows raised in question as though to ask what the foreigner talking about?. Then, shrugging, she leans in to murmur something in Ceredir's ear, her breath tickling the man's neck. "Come to my quarters at second watch to remember what a woman is." A moment, no more .. then she steps back, glancing up to the skies as though to check the wind is fair.
[Azradi(#20135)]
"She wants to," Azradi answers, simply - offering Ceredir a strange look for having to ask. She turns to Basmah and shrugs. "He wants to remain faithful to his wife."
"I know _what_ she wants," Ceredir mutters, looking taken aback at whatever the woman has whispered in his ear. "No offense," he replies awkwardly to her, "but no thank you."
Ceredir sighs and rubs at his face with one hand as he turns back to Azradi. "Your brother--he will meet us in Tol Falas soon? And you will look for the ship of Imrakhor Bragollach? I wish I could join you on that. I have a debt to settle with him."
[Azradi(#20135)]
"When he is ready," answers Azradi, "We will send word."
"Now if you will excuse me," she continues, turning away. "I have a ship to sail."
Without waiting for a reply, she turns walks towards the wheel, beckoning her officers to join her.
[Barjad(#29188)] Basmah shrugs philosophically at Ceredir's words - or maybe it's at Azradi's explanation. "He does? Bah, there's a cask of rum says otherwise. Hmm ... give /him/ enough rum and he won't know one woman from the next - if he can keep it up at all." While her head is turned away from Ceredir, she winks. "Maybe you should offer him a drink, Fleet Master," she calls after the retreating woman.
Switching to the Common, she announces for Ceredir's benefit, "I go now - the sails." Drawing back - and won't Ceredir be glad - she skips nimbly away. Talk of noblemen and debts holds no interest for one who lives for the moment. Soon her nimble figure can be seen outlined on the rigging.
Ceredir looks entirely too relieved as Basmah skips away, and with a nod to the Fleet Master, he turns and moves to the rail of the quarterdeck, watching the ship's progress. Every now and then, though, his eyes wander to the rigging and one particular Corsair there.
OOC: An OOC roll of a dice determined that Azradi owes Basmah a case of rum!
The Variyah
The smell of oil mixes with the salty sea air on this fine vessel. The deck is polished, the ship immaculately kept with all lines and sails in order.
The Variyah's silent crew tends to the ship in an orderly, professional manner, whether in times of peace or under duress.
Two hatches in the center of the ship lead belowdecks, with stairs leading to the raised fore and aft decks.
[+TIME] Middle-earth time is:
Nighttime on Monday, Day 19 of March.
Execute the +TIMEFRAME command for year information.
Real time is: 14:13:37 MDT on Thu Jun 18 2009.
[Yildirim(#24191)]
Thick, slow clouds hang low, the sea's scent heavy in the air, as they darken dawn in Umbar to a dull grey morn. Few in the city have started their day, but the docks are alive with activity, preparing ships for the day's work.
Strolling to the gangplank, side by side, comes the pair of Yildirim, dressed the same as ever these days, as for war, and Umbar's ally from Gondor, Ceredir.
"What are your plans for your return? Do you still have a wife?"
The question hits a sore spot with the northern man--even in the dull dawn light, it's easy to see that Ceredir frowns. "I still have a wife. And I still leave my wife behind me here, though it is not what I wished for." He turns to Yildirim. "You'll watch her for me? Make sure she is safe?"
[Yildirim(#24191)]
Some surprise is evident on Yildirim's face at this request, "I did not know she was in the city." He looks to the sky, pausing in the thought, "Or perhaps I did. But certainly I had forgotten. She is well thus far then?"
He pauses at the gangplank, "Permission to board!" he shouts to the ship's deck.
[Azradi(#20135)]
The Variyah's deck is awash with activity. A full crew prepares the ship for sail. Upon the quarter deck, Azradi stands, resting her hands upon the railing. She is not dressed for war - but rather in her typical ship-board attire: a loose tunic of red, close fitting cropped breeches of dark brown and black boots.
She gazes down at the gangplank and main deck, her grey eyes finding the young Corsair and Gondorian. "Permission granted," she calls out.
[Yildirim(#24191)]
As he waits for Ceredir's answer, Yildirim motions for him to cross first.
"Nella is still in Farside. She is learning Haradric she is learning to use a scimitar." Ceredir pauses, stopping to look up to Azradi as Yildirim's request is made and the answer given.
"She wishes to be a Corsair in some ways. And she wishes to come home to Gondor, too." He frowns, then walks up the gangplank and onto the ship.
"Morning, Captain."
[Azradi(#20135)]
As soon as the two men have boarded the ship, sailors move past them to pull up the gangplank. "Cast off," Azradi orders her First Mate and then to Yildirim and Ceredir, she says: "Come up to the quarterdeck."
Orders are shouted and repeated about the ship in Haradaic. The ship is unmoored from the dock and slowly, two large oar boats begin to pull her free of her slip and out into the harbor where she can catch the wind.
[Yildirim(#24191)]
With brief longing glance towards shore, Yildirim adjusts the fittings on his jerkin, "I will be sure to check on her when I return. Do you think there is any chance of her being untrue? Should I have an eye kept on her?" He asks, his words coming faster as he checks his belt and blade.
"Being untrue?" Ceredir is already up on the quarterdeck when he turns, mouth dropping open at this question. "I can assure you, Yildirim, that women of Gondor are not untrue to their wives. Nor are the men! No matter how things are here," he says, brows furrowing together in anger.
Or is that doubt that now colors the Master Scout's face.
[Azradi(#20135)]
Laughter greets Ceredir's words. Shaking her head, Azradi interjects: "I cannot believe that. Or are you stonelanders named so because you are made of stone? A woman or man whose needs are not taken care of will stray - why should they not?"
"However, I would not worry about your wife. No man of Harad would want her - not enough fire."
[Yildirim(#24191)]
Yildirim stops, holding Ceredir back, "So, your women marry women? Wait. You are a man, yes?" Yildirim asks, now very very confused.
"I..women do not cheat on their husbands," Ceredir says, coloring under both Yildirim's confusion and Azradi's words. "My wife is content. I just wish..." He shakes his head. "Never mind. How long a voyage do we expect, Captain?"
[Barjad(#29188)] The sailors go about the duties they have performed so many times before with ease and poise. One, a young woman whose dark braid is pulled into a tight knot at the nape of her neck, looks up from where she is coiling one of the last of the mooring ropes, and calls out to Yildirim lightly, in her native tongue, "
[<#24191>] Yildirim replies quickly, "
[Azradi(#20135)]
Slowly the oar boats pull the Variyah from her slip. Once free, they detach from her prow and veer away. Her sails are unfurled and she shudders like a content wife as the wind takes her.
Azradi eyes shift to her new foremast and remain there as she answers the Gondorian. "I will bring you as far up the Poros as I can - though it will be far west of the crossing. Two days."
She grins as her crew-woman's words reach her ears. "
"Two days, yes," Ceredir nods, watching with interest at the workings of the crew as they head the ship out. "The Poros is the only way? But I suppose my coming from the south will raise the least suspicion. I amy work it out with Lord Gildring that he called me to his estates once more and that the last I saw of Amrundirn, we had separated long before the ford."
The Stonelander seems a bit puzzled by Azradi's sudden grin, and his eyes automatically seek out the crew member she speaks to--but he shrugs, looking instead about the ship once more.
[Barjad(#29188)] The young woman's features take on a mischievious look as she answers Yildirim with a smile of her own. "
Looking the puzzled Ceredir up and down, she tugs her shirt-laces a little looser, then, taking a deep breath, leans forward and attempts to place a kiss upon his lips while his attention is turned.
[Azradi(#20135)]
Azradi, along with all her officers on the quarter deck, roar with laughter when Basmah attempts to kiss the Gondorian. Breathless, the Corsair Captain replies in the Southron tongue: "
"What? What are you doing?!" Ceredir yelps, pushing the woman away abruptly and without any hesitation. He opens his mouth to protest further, but seeing the laughter that Basmah's attempted kiss has drawn, he abruptly shuts it.
Ceredir does not share in the joke, though--indeed, he is angry as he snaps some words rapidly to Azradi in a melodic language. "
[Barjad(#29188)] At Ceredir's push, the corsair-girl skips out of the way as agile as any monkey. "You forget how?" she queries the man in Common, grinning, then reports back to the waiting Haradrim, "
The fact that her actions have produced an angry stream of unintelligible speech from the foreigner only widen her grin further.
[Azradi(#20135)]
Azradi's eyes glitter - with steel, not humor. She fixes her gaze on the Gondorian. Her reply is in Westron and tinged with anger. "Watch your tongue, man. Do not place your rigid Northern standards on our people. Basmah is a Corsair - the most esteemed of people in our city. She is no whore. She may choose or reject which lovers she wants. You may accept her or deny her as you wish. The same is with your wife. We will protect her from harm, but not from her life."
"You Stonelanders are incapable of understanding freedom, it appears."
Behind her, The Corsair Captain's officers laugh - though it appears to be at Basmah's words in their own language.
Anger is mirrored for a moment in Ceredir's eyes, too, but it is soon replaced with surprise as Azradi speaks. The man colors, his cheeks flushing red, and he stumbles over his words, which are in Sindarin again. "Freedom?" He stares at Azradi, then at Basmah, astonished, then at the Fleet Master again. "
[Barjad(#29188)] Basmah, blithely unaware of the drift of the conversation, regards the flushing Ceredir with interest. "I do not see a man turn red as a ripe fruit before. Does all of you go that colour?" Then she leans forward in an attempt to pat the man's hand, the motion also showing to advantage her feminine bosom, sweat-spangled from her recent work. "You do not worry. I like it." The words are accompanied by a dazzling smile.
[Azradi(#20135)]
Azradi's anger appears to abate and once more she chooses to respond in Westron rather than the Stonelander's melodic language. "Women are as free as men. That does not mean that our marriages are not true nor that there is no shame in hurting one you love. But it is there where the source of disapproval lies - at deceiving a loved one, not in the action itself."
She shrugs, and adds: "Bastards are complicated. If a woman cherishes her marriage, she will not risk one - the same with a man. But our society does not castigate the offender for it. As for noblewomen, we are not unmindful of the duties of lineage and bastards are not welcome - especially after marriage. But they are often tolerated before marriage, though even that varies from family to family."
She offers Basmah a bemused smile.
"Then...what is this woman trying to prove, if that be the case?" Ceredir says in Westron. Despite himself, his eyes are drawn to Basmah's cleavage, though that only renews his blush, as does her question. Distracted this way, he doesn't try to stop her from patting his hand, either.
"I am married, and happily so," he tells both Azradi and Basmah, taking both in with one glance. "I cannot say what game you play now, but I am not about to deceive my wife."
[<#29188>] Basmah's smile widens a little at Ceredir's reaction. 'I like you, Gondor-man. So I make you an offer. That is all.' She gives Ceredir an almost pitying look, before glancing to Azradi with brows raised in question as though to ask what the foreigner talking about?. Then, shrugging, she leans in to murmur something in Ceredir's ear, her breath tickling the man's neck. "Come to my quarters at second watch to remember what a woman is." A moment, no more .. then she steps back, glancing up to the skies as though to check the wind is fair.
[Azradi(#20135)]
"She wants to," Azradi answers, simply - offering Ceredir a strange look for having to ask. She turns to Basmah and shrugs. "
"I know _what_ she wants," Ceredir mutters, looking taken aback at whatever the woman has whispered in his ear. "No offense," he replies awkwardly to her, "but no thank you."
Ceredir sighs and rubs at his face with one hand as he turns back to Azradi. "Your brother--he will meet us in Tol Falas soon? And you will look for the ship of Imrakhor Bragollach? I wish I could join you on that. I have a debt to settle with him."
[Azradi(#20135)]
"When he is ready," answers Azradi, "We will send word."
"Now if you will excuse me," she continues, turning away. "I have a ship to sail."
Without waiting for a reply, she turns walks towards the wheel, beckoning her officers to join her.
[Barjad(#29188)] Basmah shrugs philosophically at Ceredir's words - or maybe it's at Azradi's explanation. "
Switching to the Common, she announces for Ceredir's benefit, "I go now - the sails." Drawing back - and won't Ceredir be glad - she skips nimbly away. Talk of noblemen and debts holds no interest for one who lives for the moment. Soon her nimble figure can be seen outlined on the rigging.
Ceredir looks entirely too relieved as Basmah skips away, and with a nod to the Fleet Master, he turns and moves to the rail of the quarterdeck, watching the ship's progress. Every now and then, though, his eyes wander to the rigging and one particular Corsair there.
OOC: An OOC roll of a dice determined that Azradi owes Basmah a case of rum!
Players: Yildirim,Basmah,Azradi,Ceredir
