Part 2
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Part 2 |
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Below decks, Finbar the ships carpenter, who has been ill and confined to his hammock for a week or so, gets up feeling much better. He emerges onto the deck, and the situation is explained to him. Bert is attempting to find out where they have emerged from the storm. After some work, he thinks they are in the Atlantic, somewhere north-east of the Bahamas. That being so, a course is set to the south-west, where most of the Caribbean islands lie. As we sail on, Finbar checks the repair work that was done, and finds a few things that need to be repaired further. Some spars are replaced from the stock of spare wood. Mr Vaughn orders an extra ration of rum to be issued, which cheers the crew up a bit. The situation is discussed. We wonder if there are any other possible cures to our curse. We conclude that they do not know enough to know, alas. We do wonder whether the Cross of St Benedict is associated with the Benedictine monks. Regardless, we need to know more. After some time sailing, land is sighted. The Black Mamba sails around the coast of this tropical-seeming looking for a harbour to re-supply. From what is seen, Bert determines that this is Long Island. Not the one off New York, but the one in the Bahamas. Phew. After sailing around the coast of Long Island for a while, we come upon the settlement of Jonestown, built around a harbour with sugar plantations visible on the slopes behind it. A church is visible in the town. The Black Mamba sails in and drops anchor. A boat is rowed over to the end of the town jetty. A couple of the locals wander out to meet us. We ask them about getting supplies and about the church. Apparently there is a general store, and the local priest is a Father Rudolph. Mr Vaughn and Finbar go off to the church. Captain Raven and Spike head for the general store. Upon arrival they see it has a fair stock, but nothing special. They do accept the gold we looted from the Spanish ship before we were attacked. The two of them stock up, including timber for repairs. Spike wants some fresh meat, so buys a pig. "Why can't you get a monkey or a parrot like a normal pirate?" someone comments. We arrange for everything to be sent down to the jetty. At the church, Mr Vaughn and Finbar go in. It's small and wooden, with no pews. As they talk about what to do next the priest, attacked by their voices, comes in through a small door at the back. He is a youngish man, in his late twenties. They talk to him about the Cross of St Benedict. Father Rudolph, as an Anglican, claims to know little of such 'papist' matters. However, he does agree to bless the Black Mamba, and accompanies Mr Vaughn and Finbar down to the jetty. While the supplies are loaded onto the Black Mamba, Father Rudolph blesses it from the jetty, not seeming to want to go aboard. We thank him and he wanders off. Wanting to sail on the tide, which is roughly dusk, we have a few hours to wait. We find the local inn, and have a few drinks there until the time is right to return to the ship. While drinking, we discuss what to do next. We think we need to talk to some Catholic priests about this. The best place for this is probably Havana, in Cuba, as it a long-establishes city, at least for these parts. As evening falls, we up anchor and sail away. As it gets dark, Captain Raven checks the ship for any un-natural glow. There does not seem to be any... Setting a course to the south-west again, we sail on. After some time we sight land, a long coast going roughly perpendicular to our course. Bert is sure this is Cuba. Havana being in the west of Cuba, we sail that way along the coast, avoiding the off-shore islands that lie to the north of mainland Cuba. There starts to be a bit of ship traffic, so we think we're getting close to Havana. Not wanting to sail right into possibly-hostile Spanish territory, we look for a secluded location to moor the ship while we go in more discretely. Spike, as lookout, spots an inlet in the mangroves that line the coast here, but it proves to be too shallow. We avoid it, and find a better one, which somewhat hides the ship from view from the sea. We think we are a couple of hours walk from Havana here. We assemble an away team (the PCs and few of the other crew), and disguise ourselves - Captain Raven in particular - as much as we can. One slight problem is that she is the only one of us who speaks much Spanish. She'll just have to translate. Then we have ourselves rowed towards Havana, past the mangrove swamps, to where we can get ashore. We begin to walk to Havana. After a while we stop having to fight our way through forest and come out into fields. Finding a road, we make better time to Havana, which we see before us. There is a large and obvious cathedral in the centre of the city, and other churches dotted about. There is also a large harbour and city walls with guarded gates. However, the gate guards let us into the city with no problems. We head for the cathedral, that probably being the best place for church-related information. On the way we discuss how we're going to do this. Finbar suggests that he pretends that his father, on his deathbed, wanted a prayer to himself said before the Cross of St Benedict. That should let us find out where it is. This seems like a sensible plan, so that's what we'll do. There is a large crowded plaza in front of the cathedral. We make our way across this, and leave some people (the NPCs) outside to keep an eye on things while the rest of us go inside. Inside, the cathedral is large and impressive, with a fair number of people praying or otherwise doing things. A few priests are visible wandering about. Raven and Finbar approach one of them, a youngish man, while the others wander about the cathedral and keep a discrete eye on things. Captain Raven passes on Finbar's story. He listens, but looks a bit suspicious. He asks us more. Then asks us to wait, and goes off. He returns with another, older, priest in more ornate vestments. He seems a little ... vacant. We repeat our story. The older priest seems more willing to listen, and to tell us things, despite the younger one's elbowing him in the ribs from time to time. Eventually the younger priest almost drags him off, but not before the older priest mentions that we should talk to the Benedictines. And that the Cross is due to arrive from Europe soon. At this point we notice a detachment of soldiers coming down the aisle of the cathedral towards us. Whoops. We exit hastily. The soldiers give chase. We flee down some dark and filthy alleyways, and quickly lose them. A more concealing disguise is obtained for Raven, who does rather stick out. She now appears to be a servant woman. We decide we need to know about the Benedictines here. That being so, we find another church, this one a small one down at the docks. We want someone else to interpret for us this time, to help stop connections being drawn between this and what happened at the cathedral, so we go to a local inn and there hire an English-speaking local to interpret for us. He is a harbour boatman named Diego Miguel Montoya, a stocky man in his thirties with very muscular arms. He is quite happy to take our money for translation services. With Diego in tow, we go into the church, tell the priest Finbar's story, and ask him about the Benedictines. He thinks for a bit, and says that as far as he knows there is a Benedictine monastery at Nuevitas, in the east of Cuba, but he does not know of anywhere else. We thank him and go, heading out of the city and back to the ship. Unfortunately, we find that the guards on the gates going out of the city seem to have been increased, and they seem far more alert now. Damn. We turn back into the city. That being so, we go back to the inn and hire Diego again. This time to row us all out of the harbour and back to where the ships boat is drawn up waiting for us. He is happy to do this, and we discretely row out of Havana's harbour and up the coast to where the boats are waiting. What Diego does not know at this point is that we are intending to press-gang him to replace the crew members we lost in battle and in the storm... |