Stolen Pillager Tall Ship

The stolen tall ship is the expedition's answer to the problem that defined it from the first day: forty million blocks is not walked twice. She was taken from a lightly guarded pirate anchorage — one of the anchorages marked on the cache charts — in the expedition's single offensive operation to date, and she is now hidden in a mangrove inlet under camouflage netting, partway through the refit that will carry the expedition home.

The Taking

The anchorage held three vessels; the tall ship rode furthest from the watch fires. The operation took one moonless night, two boats, and considerably more nerve than the log admits. No alarm was raised. The pirates' banner came down before dawn and went into the artifact catalog, where it remains.

The Vessel

Square-rigged, twin-masted, dark-hulled, and built — the refit has confirmed — better than her keepers deserved. The hull is sound. The expedition's modifications are practical: cargo holds reframed for the artifact crates and supply barrels, a chart room built around the copied cache charts, banner staffs stripped, and a new figurehead carved from frontier spruce. She has not been renamed yet. There is a strong feeling aboard that the right name will matter, and the matter is not being rushed.

Status

Refit estimated at three-quarters complete. Provisioning lists are drafted, the route home is plotted in pencil, and the chart room smells of wax and intention.

Field Notes

In The Forgelands, an empty rack in the Armory's vault wing is dusted weekly against this ship's arrival. She doesn't know it yet, but she's expected.