Adventures of Naletia: Treasure Hunter

“Welcome to the Rotted Den, what can I shiv you for?” The man behind a steel-fortified counter stands with his arms crossed over a thick muscled chest and a heavily furrowed brow. Despite his words, his tone is heavily coated with an acid tongue. I can see grisly hairs popping out from his black vest around his collar. Judging from his severely crooked jaw and missing nostril, I wager this is the man that I’m looking for.

The Rotted Den surely lives up to its namesake. The walls are covered in a thick black mildew and there is fungi sprouting in various places on the floor. Several of the “patrons” in the tavern are missing something, a limb, an eye, a couple fingers or a foot. I imagine one or two of them are missing a brain. It feels similar to walking into a leper colony. In another case I may have said that out loud, but I am here on a different kind of business than stirring up trouble. Besides, I have no desire to wrestle with any of these men, on the floor or in a bed.

“I’m looking for something, actually,” I tell the man behind the counter. Stinkeye looks down at me and snorts a handful of mucus from his nostril. I frown a little and unravel a slip of paper I keep in a small pouch on my hip. The faded writing on the paper depicts a small throne room with several indistinguishable scribbles on it. I know how to read, but not this language. So I need to seek a scholar, but none of them would see a treasure hunter like me and especially not a woman who hasn’t bathed in weeks. “Know anyone who can read this?”

Stinkeye makes a motion with his hand that I pretend I didn’t see. A couple men in a far table stand, their chairs scraping against the wood floor. I listen to their footsteps as they leave the den. One of them has a limp in his gait. A prosthetic leg most likely. The man behind the counter then reaches for my little slip of paper. I snatch a knife from my pocket and slam it down on the table, mere inches from cutting off two of his fingers. Stinkeye gives me the eye, but he gets the message and moves his hand away.

"You're going to want to see Ratty Mitch over in the Mire Warrens," Stinkeye says gruffly. "Come to think of it, he's got a bounty on his head, so you won't be able to go see 'im, Miss Rainier." I hear scraping behind me and the movement of twenty men rising to their feet and pulling out swords and pistols. I glance over my shoulder for a second to look at them all. There's no getting out of this one without a fight. So, carefully, I take the slip of paper and stuff it back into my pouch.

In the blink of an eye and with the quickest draw a man's ever done, I shoot Stinkeye and spin around on my heels to shoot three more men blocking my exit. I run just as the gunfire blasts in the den of iniquity, feeling a bullet graze against my arm and another fly over my head, just past my ear. A cutlass flashes over my eyes and I drop to the ground, sliding past the blade before it severs my head from my body.

I burst out of the tavern and break into a full sprint. The docks of Ordol are dark tonight, but I know these streets better than any of these hogs. Heavy boots make a loud racket against the wood planks, but I don't have to go far or run fast to get away. I see her before anyone else follows me out of the tavern and I'm halfway there before I feel a bullet hit my back. Grinning like a fox I run down the pier and jump, reaching out with an arm to catch onto the bow of my ship.

Several of the shipmates help me back up to the deck and taunt those still on the land. Off in the distance I can hear several men chanting taunts at me and my namesake. When I get back on my feet, I turn around and salute them with my pistol. "That's CAPTAIN Rainier to you sour ingrates!" I shout.

My name is Captain Katherine Rainier. Bounty and treasure hunter extraordinaire. Smuggler and pirate and Queen of every drop of water on this world.

~

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pMhfbLRoGEw

I don't think anything else needs to be said about this RP.

The setting takes place initially at a city port in Sar'tu, which is the main continent we will be dealing with during the majority of the role play. The city is called Sardolya and is one of the stops that Captain Rainier will be taking before she sets off for the Mire Warrens, which is - you guessed it - a mire. We will be just past the spring solstice where the seas are finally calming down in the southern ocean. Captain Rainier will be hiring mercenaries to assist her in her trip through the mire.

You have many choices of approach. You could be one of Rainier's crew members, loyal and trusted. You could be a mercenary, a hired gun ready to get your own cut at possibly the greatest treasure known to man. You could even be one of Rainier's many enemies, sent on a mission to spy on and retrieve the treasure before she can get to it. If you can be creative and think of something else you could be, then go for it. Oh, and try to avoid the "I'm from another world" shit that by now I'm sure everyone knows I hate.

This is a stat play, so use the standard formats. You do not need to fill in your stats, that will all be done for you.

For the record, Rainier will be a melee/ranged mix DPS character. She will be taking her first mate with her for this round (melee dps/psuedo tank). The sorcerer will not be coming along at all.