Post by The Forgotten God on Apr 18, 2015 7:28:25 GMT -5
“You choose this life. To obey my orders, to follow me into whatever hells await us. For gold sellswords are hired, yet to the company we still keep this pledge to each other. That we shall not shed each other’s blood, nor shall we steal from our comrades or deceive them for our purposes.” Uhtred looked up at the man standing on the railing, the rope tied around his neck. “Some have forgotten this since we have left Braavos. This is a reminder for those whose memories are short.” Uhtred grabs the rope alongside his men, and at the count the five haul the rope back. The man is wrenched up, his neck snapping with a loud pop as the body hangs from the mast over the water. Uhtred speaks aside to his crew as he ties the rope off “He will stay there til morning, then cut the line. Steal from your fellows, and you’ll suffer the same fate.” The Captain of the Iron Titans shakes his hands out as he moves to the railing to watch the man’s body swing slightly in the slight wind.
The ship continued as it had before, crewman pausing every few minutes to eye the corpse that now hung from the ship. He had not been a popular man, but he still had had friends that in the crew. They would come for Uhtred, eventually. He was sure of that. In the middle of the battle, in the night, what he had done here would have echoes that could end his life. But it had been right.
A voice spoke up behind him with its usual dry sarcasm “I am sure there will be no trouble from this, yes? The men will be happy, the crews satisfied” Uhtred sighed and turned his back to the waters, crossing his arms in front of his chest as he replied “And we will one day sit in golden palaces, and winter will never come again, and last week was the last storm ever? I have heard this before Giocanda, but you will not change my mind. We will have discipline on these ships, and we will have order, and we will not be some sniveling sellsword company that will turn tail at the first hint of a real fight. Would you rather have that?”
“No, but did we not leave Braavos to escape such punishments?”
“Maybe, but this isn’t a sellsword company, or a single sellsail ship. We will be a fleet, and we will survive because of that.” Uhtred says, actual passion entering his voice “A sellsword fights for himself, any day or night. He’ll stab his best friend, fuck the ugliest whore, all to get that gold and maybe a bit of freedom and pleasure. But on a ship you can’t do that. No man can captain a proper vessel by himself, he needs a crew to survive, and for any one ship to survive in a battle, it needs allies and friends it can work with. This is what we are. Captains will have a voice here, as well as crews, but to be able to be that discipline must be maintained.” Silence hangs over the ship for a second before the Braavosi starts laughing uproariously, holding his stomach like it was fit to burst, and he barely calms down before Uhtred can get his hands around his thin, fragile throat. He dodges to the side and barks out another laugh as the big man tries to catch the lithe waterdancer, a most undignified sight for a captain of a fleet.
“Captain, you are most unseemly when you are trying to kill an old man.” The braavosi says as he spins to the side yet again “and it surprises me that you become such a philosopher yes? Speaking such words as that, you have thought about this much, yet seem to have gotten nowhere. It is much simpler than that, you do not need fancy words or ideas to do what we do. You simply do it.”
Uhtred glowers at the man as he speaks, and cuts him off at the last sentence “You bullshitter. I’ve heard you use that line on a hundred recruits, but it doesn’t serve long-term at all. You never do it when the conflict is nigh, when plans are needed and the fight is going to hell. I’ll stick to my discipline and planning, and you can do whatever.” He stalks back to his cabin and slams the door, as Giocanda laughs again and returns to his ship.
That conversation had been repeated a hundred times over the last decade, the galleon fleet captain and scout constantly bantering back and forth their own operation methodology and tactics. It said something that neither was dead yet, as three duels between the two had resulted in the first three years of their relationship. But after Giocanda’s leg and arm were broken in Tyrosh, they never healed quite correctly and the man lost the skills his life had been built on. The interactions afterword had been muted, but a strong friendship had been born between the two, along with a constant back and forth that irritated most sailors. It was for that friendship that Giocanda had followed Uhtred in the years after, and why he was still with the fleet now.
////////////////////////
The true aftereffects of the hanging hit Uhtred two days later, in the minor clash with the river raiders they had been hired to take down. Unbelivably operating out of rafts, they had managed to actually get a fair amount of success with their unusual piratry. That ended now. The Titans moved in, the war galleys easily crushing the smaller rafts beneath them as nearly all the men on decks using bows or crossbows, rained missile weaponry on the river people. They tried to escape by the land, but Uhtred had planned for that contingency as well. Cavalry appeared, not in good formation but mounted nonetheless, led by Thre Fourte. Where the man had bought the horses the Captain had no idea, but it seemed to be working nonetheless. If a man tried to swim, he would be shot down, if he ran, trampled by the horses. One of the biggest rafts slammed up alongside his ship, and Uhtred took a quick glance over before pulling back swiftly as an arrow scarred the wood under his head. “We got fighters!” he hollered back at his men, before jumping over the side to crash down onto the large wooden platform.
The fight was immediately on, the swarthy men with bows momentarily surprised by the arrival of the large ironborn before six more of his fellows crashed down on the deck. Uhtred sunk his axe into one of the men, laughing as the unarmored man easily fell. But then, a stabbing pain in his left leg dropped him to one knee, and he looked behind himself to see the six who had joined him were Braavosi, Giocanda among them. And converging on him, one currently pulling his blade from Uhtreds leg. Uhtred grunted, then pulled himself up, axe ready. So this is how it would end.
//////////////////////////
“…and so I was thinking, so this is how it would end, then you stabbed two of the bastards and bolts from above took down the other two.” Uhtred laughed “So you were with them, pretending to egg them on to a confrontation? You bastard! You could’ve told me!”
Giocanda shrugged and looked around for the bottle to fill his glass “It is not how it is done, yes? You are, how they say, a most bad actor, and you would have just made a “plan” to deal with them that was needlessly complex. You needed to hang the man, it was necessary. And I had to do this to save you from that necessity, while also keeping the situation small, yes? I had my eye on it”
Uhtred chuckled and filled his glass for him “As long as we got each other’s backs, it’ll turn out won’t it?” Giocanda raises his glass “Seems to work so far.” .
+1 Naval Command
+1 Raiding
+1 Leadership
The ship continued as it had before, crewman pausing every few minutes to eye the corpse that now hung from the ship. He had not been a popular man, but he still had had friends that in the crew. They would come for Uhtred, eventually. He was sure of that. In the middle of the battle, in the night, what he had done here would have echoes that could end his life. But it had been right.
A voice spoke up behind him with its usual dry sarcasm “I am sure there will be no trouble from this, yes? The men will be happy, the crews satisfied” Uhtred sighed and turned his back to the waters, crossing his arms in front of his chest as he replied “And we will one day sit in golden palaces, and winter will never come again, and last week was the last storm ever? I have heard this before Giocanda, but you will not change my mind. We will have discipline on these ships, and we will have order, and we will not be some sniveling sellsword company that will turn tail at the first hint of a real fight. Would you rather have that?”
“No, but did we not leave Braavos to escape such punishments?”
“Maybe, but this isn’t a sellsword company, or a single sellsail ship. We will be a fleet, and we will survive because of that.” Uhtred says, actual passion entering his voice “A sellsword fights for himself, any day or night. He’ll stab his best friend, fuck the ugliest whore, all to get that gold and maybe a bit of freedom and pleasure. But on a ship you can’t do that. No man can captain a proper vessel by himself, he needs a crew to survive, and for any one ship to survive in a battle, it needs allies and friends it can work with. This is what we are. Captains will have a voice here, as well as crews, but to be able to be that discipline must be maintained.” Silence hangs over the ship for a second before the Braavosi starts laughing uproariously, holding his stomach like it was fit to burst, and he barely calms down before Uhtred can get his hands around his thin, fragile throat. He dodges to the side and barks out another laugh as the big man tries to catch the lithe waterdancer, a most undignified sight for a captain of a fleet.
“Captain, you are most unseemly when you are trying to kill an old man.” The braavosi says as he spins to the side yet again “and it surprises me that you become such a philosopher yes? Speaking such words as that, you have thought about this much, yet seem to have gotten nowhere. It is much simpler than that, you do not need fancy words or ideas to do what we do. You simply do it.”
Uhtred glowers at the man as he speaks, and cuts him off at the last sentence “You bullshitter. I’ve heard you use that line on a hundred recruits, but it doesn’t serve long-term at all. You never do it when the conflict is nigh, when plans are needed and the fight is going to hell. I’ll stick to my discipline and planning, and you can do whatever.” He stalks back to his cabin and slams the door, as Giocanda laughs again and returns to his ship.
That conversation had been repeated a hundred times over the last decade, the galleon fleet captain and scout constantly bantering back and forth their own operation methodology and tactics. It said something that neither was dead yet, as three duels between the two had resulted in the first three years of their relationship. But after Giocanda’s leg and arm were broken in Tyrosh, they never healed quite correctly and the man lost the skills his life had been built on. The interactions afterword had been muted, but a strong friendship had been born between the two, along with a constant back and forth that irritated most sailors. It was for that friendship that Giocanda had followed Uhtred in the years after, and why he was still with the fleet now.
////////////////////////
The true aftereffects of the hanging hit Uhtred two days later, in the minor clash with the river raiders they had been hired to take down. Unbelivably operating out of rafts, they had managed to actually get a fair amount of success with their unusual piratry. That ended now. The Titans moved in, the war galleys easily crushing the smaller rafts beneath them as nearly all the men on decks using bows or crossbows, rained missile weaponry on the river people. They tried to escape by the land, but Uhtred had planned for that contingency as well. Cavalry appeared, not in good formation but mounted nonetheless, led by Thre Fourte. Where the man had bought the horses the Captain had no idea, but it seemed to be working nonetheless. If a man tried to swim, he would be shot down, if he ran, trampled by the horses. One of the biggest rafts slammed up alongside his ship, and Uhtred took a quick glance over before pulling back swiftly as an arrow scarred the wood under his head. “We got fighters!” he hollered back at his men, before jumping over the side to crash down onto the large wooden platform.
The fight was immediately on, the swarthy men with bows momentarily surprised by the arrival of the large ironborn before six more of his fellows crashed down on the deck. Uhtred sunk his axe into one of the men, laughing as the unarmored man easily fell. But then, a stabbing pain in his left leg dropped him to one knee, and he looked behind himself to see the six who had joined him were Braavosi, Giocanda among them. And converging on him, one currently pulling his blade from Uhtreds leg. Uhtred grunted, then pulled himself up, axe ready. So this is how it would end.
//////////////////////////
“…and so I was thinking, so this is how it would end, then you stabbed two of the bastards and bolts from above took down the other two.” Uhtred laughed “So you were with them, pretending to egg them on to a confrontation? You bastard! You could’ve told me!”
Giocanda shrugged and looked around for the bottle to fill his glass “It is not how it is done, yes? You are, how they say, a most bad actor, and you would have just made a “plan” to deal with them that was needlessly complex. You needed to hang the man, it was necessary. And I had to do this to save you from that necessity, while also keeping the situation small, yes? I had my eye on it”
Uhtred chuckled and filled his glass for him “As long as we got each other’s backs, it’ll turn out won’t it?” Giocanda raises his glass “Seems to work so far.” .
+1 Naval Command
+1 Raiding
+1 Leadership