They crested another wave while storm clouds brewed behind them, green and black and ugly, promising hellish weather if they caught up with the little boat.
Darren and co had been sailing for two uneventful days. The majority of Darren’s time, outside of helping sail, was spent casting Twist of Fate on every fish that he could spot. Two days of ceaseless grinding had brought the skill up to 22%. Progress would slow down soon enough, but for now, every little bit would help him get home.
They were now also halfway to Isla Cascadura, so Darren knew they were about due for a Random Encounter, but he’d been hoping the storm was the encounter. Turns out it was just the environmental factor.
“Where’s the ship?” Samantha asked from her place at the rudder. She looked every bit the pirate captain as she stood there, stance wide, face calm but eyes sharp, one hand on the rudder.
“Um. Port? That’s left, right?”
“It’s left,” Darren said.
“That’s wot I said,” Wilson said.
“You said it’s left right, which would technically be straight ahead?”
“Shut it!” Samantha said. “Can you make out any details, Wilson?”
“One ship. Single mast? Sailing parallel to us.”
Darren craned his neck to try to catch a glimpse, but they were far enough away that he couldn’t—which was a good thing so far as he was concerned.
“Let me know if they change course,” Samantha said. She adjusted their heading, angling them away from the other ship. “It may just be a merchant, but I’d rather not find out.”
Darren nodded his agreement. He picked his way forward until he stood beside the mast, one arm wrapped around it, ready to summon his swivel gun on its mount.
The minutes crept by as tension on Piece of Ship mounted. The storm continued to hound them. It was picking up speed, and while it was still 50 kilometres behind them, it was now gaining.
Periodically, Wilson would call out the status of the ship. So far, it was maintaining its course and slowly vanishing below the horizon line.
Maybe the points Darren’d put into luck would finally pay off, and it’d just be a merchant after all. It’d be nice if something went his way.
Wilson’s voice came right on cue. “They’re changin’ direction, they’ve seen us!”
Darren let out a sigh while Samantha cursed.
Now the chase began. “Can they catch us, Samantha?” Darren asked.
She seesawed her head. “They’re a single-masted ship, probably a sloop. We have a single short sail. We’re only managing about eight—they can likely coax 12 knots out of her.”
Darren looked over her shoulder at the roiling mass of clouds stretching from horizon to horizon. “Think they’d be scared of getting caught in the storm?”
“We’ve got less chance of surviving that storm if we sail into it than we do a pirate raid.”
“So we keep running and hope they’re piss-poor sailors on a crappy, slow ship?”
“We keep running.”
Darren did some rough math. Even if the ship was four knots faster than them, they were probably about 13 kilometres away, so it could still take another two to three hours for the enemy ship to intercept them.
He looked again at the storm. Somehow, he knew it would catch them about the same time as the other ship did.
So he had about two hours to find a way to keep them all alive. Even if that risked using an exploit, and Themis swinging by again to smite him. Again.
Darren cracked his knuckles. Time to do this. He pulled up his skills, going over them again.
<<<>>>
Shipwright lvl 1 (13% Proficiency)
Description: Blessed with an innate understanding of marine travel, watercraft almost seem to build themselves under your practised hands.
Effect: Knowledge of basic shipbuilding techniques. Faster and easier production time when building watercraft.
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Duration: Passive, constant
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Range: Self
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Cooldown: N/A
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Additional Active Effects:
Increase your Proficiency to advance your knowledge of more complex building techniques and larger watercraft types.
Invest Skill Points in Shipwright to add additional effects.
<<<>>>
Twist of Fate lvl 1 (22% Proficiency)
Description: Take control of time with Twist of Fate. Steal your enemies' time to fuel impossible feats of speed.
Effect 1: Cast Twist of Fate on an enemy to steal 1 second per skill level from them. Enemy is frozen for the duration of the cast, effectively losing a second of their life/perception.
For every second of time you steal from an enemy, you increase the slow effect of Effect 2 by 10%. 10 seconds stolen equals 100% slow (time frozen).
You lose one stack (10%) every minute unless another cast successfully lands on an enemy.
Casts must beat the enemy’s fortitude to be successful.
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Duration: 1 second (base 1 second per skill level)
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Range: 45ft (base 45ft)
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Cooldown: 15 seconds (base 15 seconds)
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Additional Active Effects:
Effect 2: Use stolen time to slow the world around you for 2 seconds per skill level.
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Duration: 2 seconds (base 2 seconds per skill level)
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Range: Self
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Cooldown: Effect 2 is available so long as you have stolen time stored
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Additional Active Effects:
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
Increase your Proficiency to improve ability to bypass resistances.
Invest Skill Points in Twist of Fate to add additional effects and increase the duration of Effect 1 and Effect 2.
<<<>>>
Summoned Swivel Gun lvl 1 (3% Proficiency)
Description: Summon an anti-personnel Swivel Gun that fires either buckshot or solid rounds. Munitions type must be chosen on summon.
Solid Round Damage: 24 (Base 10 + 14 from INT)
Buckshot Damage: 2 (x14)
Durability: 80 (Base 10 + (level x INT modifier))
Effect 1: Swivel Gun fires at a base rate of 1 shot every 2 seconds.
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Duration: 5 minutes (base 5 minutes)
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Range: 300 yards (base 300 yards)
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Cooldown: 15 minutes (base 15 minutes)
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Additional Effects:
Effect 2: Charged Shot. Damage is multiplied every 2 seconds of time spent charging. Charge for a maximum of 6 seconds at level 1. Multiplier starts at 200% and reduces by 5% every two seconds.
+2 seconds of charge time per skill level for a maximum of 14 seconds.
At level 1, Swivel Gun can be fired with a mental command. Movement by mental command is unlocked at level 3.
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Duration: 5 minutes (base 5 minutes)
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Range: 300 yards (base 300 yards)
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Cooldown: 15 minutes (base 15 minutes)
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Additional Effects:
Increase your Proficiency to improve accuracy.
Invest Skill Points in Swivel Gun to add additional effects.
<<<>>>
Supercharged Shot lvl 5 (100% Proficiency)
Description: Through your expert use of cheating, you have unlocked Supercharged Shot on Summoned Swivel Gun.
Effect: Cast Twist of Fate on your Summoned Swivel Gun while Charged Shot is active, and it continues to charge while in slowed time, compounding the charge.
This is a special skill; it is already maximum level and Proficiency.
<<<>>>
If he continued to cast Twist of Fate on fish, he could keep the skill ready to use by the time they drew near their pursuer. If he could get a Supercharged Shot off on the pirate ship, the amount of damage it’d do might be enough to scare them off. Or at least make them wary.
Best case, it might have enough grunt to take out the mast or nail the captain. Making either of those shots in the worsening conditions would be nothing short of a fluke, though.
He could probably catch a fish and throw it in a bucket for reliable casting of Twist of Fate, too. He’d need to see if Samantha had a bucket on her…
But if they were going for mass destruction… looting the cocotribesmen had been relatively lucrative. Wilson had a healthy supply of grenades now. They weren’t the most powerful of explosives, but would be enough to give a ship's rigging and sails a bad day.
If there was a way to take the ship though, give themselves an upgrade… Now that would be ideal.
“Samantha, I need a detailed rundown of all your skills. Wilson, I’ll need yours too.”
Samantha locked eyes with him. “What’re you planning?”
“I don’t know yet, but knowing what we can all do will give me some ideas.”
<<<<>>>>
Samantha Vane has shared her skill list with you.
Accept?
Yes. No.
<<<<>>>>
He selected yes.
<<<<>>>>
Helmsman lvl 3 (100% Proficiency)
Description: Gain a sixth sense of any ship you’re sailing when your hand is at the helm.
Effect: Get detailed information on the ship you’re sailing. All information can be condensed into a customisable HUD.
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Duration: Passive, constant
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Cooldown: N/A
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Additional Effects:
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Ship current and total durability
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Repair suggestions and order of urgency
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This skill is at maximum Proficiency, giving details on every aspect of the ship.
Invest Skill Points in Helmsman to add additional effects.
<<<<>>>>
Master-at-Arms lvl 3 (74% Proficiency)
Description: When activated, Master-at-Arms increases the combat effectiveness of all allied crew.
Effect: +3 to Strength and Constitution (1 point per level to a max of 5).
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Duration: 15 minutes.
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Cooldown: 60 minutes.
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Additional Effects:
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Damage increased by 12% to all weapon types
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+3 to Intelligence and Wisdom (1 point per level to a max of 5)
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Increase your Proficiency to increase weapon damage bonus.
Invest Skill Points in Master-at-Arms to unlock additional effects.
<<<<>>>>
Siren’s Call lvl 4 (68% Proficiency)
Description: Cast Siren on an enemy to lure them away from safety and into the cold embrace of the ocean.
Effect: On a successful cast, a single enemy will be enthralled and immediately walk to the nearest water.
Casts must beat an enemy’s willpower to be successful.
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Duration: 6 seconds
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Range: 100ft
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Cooldown: 20 seconds. Increase spell level for cooldown reduction
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Additional Effects:
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Cause target to attack nearest ally
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Increase your Proficiency to increase success chance.
Invest Skill Points in Siren’s Call to add additional effects.
<<<<>>>>
Wind Caller lvl 5 (97% Proficiency)
Description: Summon a strong, controllable wind to aid you—or frustrate your foes!
Effect: Summon wind in your chosen direction. Wind direction can be gradually changed once skill is cast.
Increased Proficiency improves wind strength and allows you to more swiftly change its direction.
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Duration: 4 hours (1 hour per level to a max of 5 hours)
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Cooldown: 12 hours (Base 24 hours minus 4 hours per additional skill level to a minimum of 8)
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Additional Effects:
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Create a powerful, focused blast of wind capable of damaging sails and rigging and knocking crew overboard.
Wind can be set to blow between two points up to 400ft apart. Range 800ft.
Points can be set to move relative to a target vessel.
Duration reduced to 30 seconds. Cooldown remains the same.
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Create a steady breeze in a locked direction. Breeze follows you, but always blows in the same direction, regardless of where you move.
Duration increased to 8 hours (2 hours per level to a max of 10 hours).
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Increase your Proficiency to increase wind strength and control over it.
Invest Skill Points in Wind Caller to add additional effects.
<<<<>>>>
Darren whistled softly. Fewer skills but all higher level, and reasonable Proficiency in all of them. It made sense; she’d been sailing for decades. She’d been smart to only get four skills and invest heavily.
<<<<>>>>
Wilson Cal Coconut has shared his skill list with you.
Accept?
Yes. No.
<<<<>>>>
He selected yes.
<<<<>>>>
Levitate lvl 2 (13% Proficiency)
Description: Move objects with the power of your mind.
Effect: While concentrating, you may move an object with your mind.
Base skill cannot move “owned” objects.
Base skill cannot move living creatures.
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Range: 75ft
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Weight Limit: 60lbs (base 50lbs, +10lbs from Proficiency)
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Duration: 15 seconds (base 10 seconds, +5 per point in Int above 10. -1 per point below 10)
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Cooldown: 30 seconds
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Additional Effects:
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Move “owned” objects. Objects owned by other people may now be moved—still excludes living creatures
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Increase your Proficiency to increase lifting capacity.
Invest Skill Points in Levitate to unlock additional effects.
<<<<>>>>
A grin etched itself onto his face as he read and reread his companion's skills, a plan swiftly forming. This was going to be fun.
“Alright, guys,” Darren said, “hear me out…”