One such item is the eye in the crow’s nest of the Demon’s Eye. The players first noticed it when they returned to their ship from the initial exploration of the spider island. It was an eyeball, twice the size of a man’s fist, with a cord of gory tissue trailing behind it, impaled on a sharp spike atop their aft mast. In an uncommon show of consensus, they left it completely alone, and I realize now that I had failed to mention it in the session logs. Also, this session marks the introduction of a 5th player, you can take bets as to whom he is playing.

Session 3:
The striking captain of the Hecate’s Gift levels her slender blade at the boarding sailors.
CAPTAIN: “What are you doing on my ship?”
EDWARD: (Gesturing to the Richesse, which is being plundered) “Well, what are you doing on their ship?”
CAPTAIN: (Arching an eyebrow) “Robbing them…”
EDWARD: “Did they take something of yours?”
CAPTAIN: “I think you are unclear on the process of robbery.”
Albinus contacts the captain with his mind, and finds that she doesn’t seem able to resist. The sailors huddle for a second unsure of what to do exactly.
JIM: “They seem quite handy at piracy, I don’t think we can take ‘em. I think my goal here is some flirting… well, maybe just some sounding out…”
CAPTAIN: (Interrupting) “I said, what are you doing aboard my ship?”
JIM: “Um… nothing at all, I was just wondering to whom we have the pleasure of speaking.”
ETIENNE: “You don’t know me? I am captain Lulaine Etienne of Hecate’s Gift, Mistress of Ile de la Tortue!”
JIM: “I’m Jim.”
ETIENNE: “You’re not Morgan’s men at all, are you?
JIM: “Nah, we took his ship.”
ETIENNE: “He’ll want it back you know… It is only out of respect for him that I don’t sink it right here, begone from my ship!”

Albinus plays up his blindness, and dallies at the side of the boat. Suddenly he can feel Etienne’s gaze upon him as her mental faculty seems to grow in leaps and bounds and she demands
ETIENNE: “Get. Off. My ship!”

Almost as quickly as it had arrived, the Hecate’s Gift disappears into the thickening fog. Rowing away in the longboat the sailors begin a lengthy conversation as to what exactly their goals were and what they will be in the future. All are interested to know why they were kidnapped; Jim and Al are both worried about what actions their curses will punish them for, while Edward and Azaka are much more interested in quick coin and the safety it buys.

JIM: “I will not be party to out-and-out piracy.”
AZAKA: “Very well, we will conduct the piracy, you can watch.”
JIM: “It doesn’t work that way, I say we should take up a life as gentlemen adventurers.”
EDWARD: “How does that work exactly?”
JIM: (Gesturing to his blade and hat) “I’m not sure, but the last time I tried it I ended up a damn sight wealthier than before.”
Eventually it comes down to a vote for captain, Azaka and Edward nominate each other and Jim nominates Al. The argument continues, Azaka changes his vote, and Edward becomes acting captain.
EDWARD: “We’ll need a skilled crew no matter what we end up doing.”
AZAKA: “As long as we don’t take on any Frenchmen.”
EDWARD: “I didn’t know they made skilled Frenchmen.”

In an effort to divine the reason for their capture the sailors further investigate captain Morgan’s correspondence. Azaka repairs the letters with the help of the Loa and the set to reading. Unfortunately the letters all seem to be to and from Morgan and a man in England named Ross Grayson and while they do tell of the goings on of London, they primarily focus on the fancies and foibles of their relatives, Aunts Isidora and Juliette and their uncle Leraje who is awfully concerned with the weather. Convinced the letters are coded but unable to break the cipher the sailors hit their bunks for the night.

They are rudely awakened at dawn by a keening stream of French invective. It seems that the bodies of those slain aboard the Richesse have disappeared. It is then that they notice their mast has seemingly returned to its original dark wooden shape and their deck has patched itself. Emboldened they sail past the Richesse and dock in the Cite de Soliel, the nearly lawless port in Port-au-prince.

…

All but Edward leave the Demon’s Eye in search of a money changer and an able crew. The sailors head South toward Petionville the part of the city controlled by the French West India Company and patronize a well-chosen money changer who reluctantly converts their silver into the myriad currencies of the Caribbean. Now relatively wealthy the head to the post to get the news from England and, finding that England is not currently at war with anyone, track down a forger who agrees to make them a letter of marque. They also purchase a wide variety of new clothing and fraudulent flags before heading to a seedy bar whose signs were in English. It was around then that they realized they had been trailed by a man for some time.

AZAKA: “Why exactly are you following us?”
MAN: (Clasping his hands together as if in prayer) “My apologies I did not mean offense, I was interested in that blind young man.”
AZAKA: “Are you a priest?”
MAN: “Yes, I am, and I am looking for other priests. I had heard that you had seen one. A Spanish monk.”
AZAKA: “Check him for gardening tools.”
They explained to the priest their previous encounter, and he explained that the other priest was of the Carthusian order known for their solitary life and habit of growing all of their own food.
JIM: “So, then what order are you?”
PRIEST: “Inquisitore.”
(All players wince sharply)
AL: “Are you going to have a problem with our ship?”
PRIEST: “Some of my brethren are less lenient than I. A fact for which I have been disciplined.”
AL: “I’ll put it this way, can you suffer a witch to live?”
PRIEST: “No.”
AL: “How are you at ignoring stuff?”

The priest who finally introduces himself as Father Benedicto heads off with Al to return to the ship, stating that in his mission to find the other two priests a few transgressions can be ignored. Upon finally entering the bar itself Jim and Azaka are confronted by another possibly dangerous character, a barrel-chested Turk whom they had last seen aboard the Demon’s Eye with Captain Morgan. Jim handles the potential problem by buying the man a drink. He tells a drunken sob story of his abandonment and vows revenge on Morgan. Azaka drops some coin to spread the word that they are hiring tomorrow and that they will take even those normally eschewed on the seas such as women and escaped slaves. The two sailors and their suddenly sober friend return to the Demon’s Eye.

EDWARD: “So Al, who is this?”
AL: “He’s a priest, Catholic I believe.”
EDWARD: “Spanish?!”
BENEDICTO: “Spanish.”
EDWARD: “What!?”
BENDICTO: “Inquisitore.”
EDWARD: “WHAT!?”

A while later the other three board the ship.

EDWARD: “Wait, I remember you weren’t you one of Morgan’s men?”
TURK: “Yes, I believe the last time I saw you, you were unconscious.”
EDWARD: “AUGGG! Why is everyone SO bad at choosing who to bring on the ship?”
The Turk’s thoughts on Morgan are clarified and an uneasy truce is brokered. He introduces himself as Erol Savas and stows his only possession, a large unmarked cask of alcohol. Albinus meanwhile has ascended the rigging and begun to (finally) examine the large eye impaled on the top mast.
JIM: (To Erol and Benedicto) “And that’s Al, our lookout.”
EROL: “Ah so he uses the eye then.”
AZAKA: “Yes, he does, but we’ve been having some… troubles… recently, how did Morgan use the eye.”
EROL: “Ah, Morgan never used it, he had slaves use it.”
JIM: “Well, you see, Al is blind.”
EROL: “Right.”
Albinus examines the tendril trailing from the eye, it twitches, seemingly reaching for his face.
JIM: “What? I mean he’s naturally blind.”
EROL: “Oh… good call.”
JIM: “Huh?”

Albinus lets go of the tendril. Its whip like end strikes his face, ramming itself through his left eye. Albinus does not hear the gasps from the deck as he is catapulted into a strange viewpoint seemingly above and behind himself seeing with clarity unmatched by human senses. As he watches, the sun and then the moon circle faster and faster in the sky. With a feat of will, he pulls the gory cord from his now empty eye socket and proceeds to fall unconscious.

EROL: (Wincing) “Ooh… first time eh… nasty.”

While the culling of the crew down to about 20 skilled men takes place the next day, Albinus regains consciousness under the ministrations of Benedicto and promptly returns to experimenting with the eye. He tries to focus in on other people, and he finds his perspective zooming toward them. He partially tracks captain Etienne to a cave with statues on the island of Tortuga. He also sees on the horizon a patch of whitish grey light. Concentrating on this, Al finds himself in a netherworld of flat grey space looking over a large island topped with two Ziggurats that look strikingly familiar. Al reaches out, thinking of Jim and feels a turning of his perspective even as he zooms in to see Jim and the rest scaling the pyramid, seemingly older and more confident. Somewhat shaken by the vision, and the crew’s dismissive reaction Al holds off on delving deeper into the scrying power of the eye.

The four original sailors and Erol worked out ostensible positions for themselves, but agreed to share the officer’s share equally between them. Edward stayed captain, Azaka and Erol bcame first and second mates, Jim became the security officer, and blind Al became quartermaster. Twenty skilled men are enough to run the Demon’s Eye for almost two shifts a day, but the sailors want to be ready for anything and Azaka wants to strike a blow at his people’s oppressors, so they decide to take on a crew by liberating a plantation’s slaves and set out to see to find a target.

They chose as their victim a coffee plantation half a day’s hike from the South side of San Domingue. Brazen and confident Azaka strode into the coffee grove at midday and exclaimed
AZAKA: “I am here with a message for you from the Loa!”

While Jim and Edward crossed the distance to the two horse-mounted overseers. Each of them handily accounted for their target with only minor injuries and their ransacking looked almost bloodless until a man with a flintlock musket fired on them from the second story of the plantation manner. Azaka crashed one horse through the front door, while Edward took the other around back. Master rifleman that he was, the third overseer was not able to bring his musket to bear fast enough to stop Jim from running up the lattice on the side of the manner and skewering him. Meanwhile,

AZAKA’S PLAYER: “Where is the landlord.”
GM: “He was walking in from his back porch to see what the commotion was, but upon seeing a well dressed, dreadlocked black man bursting through his front door atop his enforcer’s steed, he and his wife are tear-assing back the other way.
EDWARD’S PLAYER: “I ride them down before they make it to the woods.”
GM: “The plantation owner’s wife is a lithe young thing and is making good progress, the owner himself is a much more spherical gent and you catch him easily.”
EDWARD’S PLAYER: “Can I grasp him by the shoulders and pick him up bodily?”
GM: “With a good Pugilist roll sure.”
EDWARD’S PLAYER : (Succeeds handily) “Alright I throw him at his wife!”
GM: (After a few rolls) “Your landlord bowling is successful, you’ve captured both of them.”

As the dust settles on the ransacked plantation, the three men make the slaves an offer they are unlikely to refuse and begin their hike back down the mountain to the Demon’s Eye. But what has happened to their ship in the mean time?