Grain Mother Patil was, technically not a captain.  her ventures made her a sea-baron.  It wasn't a title formally recognized in Kumlar or Khune for that matter.  But it was the civilian equivalent of an Admiral.  She commanded more than one ship.  She was a Baron.

The captain of the Hundri Konmara was a dark-skinned man who's chest was almost as broad as his torso was long.  He had tribal scarring all up and down the left side of his face, and only half a thumb on his right hand.  One eye was white through and through, but his crew was trained as efficiently as any military ship.  If not better.

Hatal captained the ship through force of presence, it seemed.  It was a note of pride on Huarta's part that Hatal's crew had remained largely unchanged over the course of the last four seasons.

The Hundari Konmara was a speedy ship.  It had a narrow beam--just under twenty-feet across--and a length half again longer that most Khundari cargo ships.  Ninety feet from stern to bow wasn't huge, but her dimensions were a new development that had illicited murmurs of respect from the the shipwrights of Cyren.

The Hundari Konmara had both a fore and stern castle, useful for shelter as well as defense, should it be needed. It was a surprisingly stable ship, but Huarta had Hatal hug the coastline to stolgard.  There were omens of ill-weather on the horizon, and she didn't want to take chances with her cargo.

So, the ship is half-way between a Cog and a Sohar... basically giving a speedy craft that can carry a lot of goods with a comparatively smaller crew.  It'[s a technological advancement on Khune's part.  And it's costly as hell!  Huarta is a Sea-baron.

As a bit of irony, a goodly portion of the cargo making it's way to Stoltgard were the goods that Arui, herself, had accompanied from the plains of Aren.
This message was last edited by the player at 10:02, Fri 06 Nov 2020.

"There are no idle hands on a Khundari ship."

The Clan Matriarch of House Patil had warned them each in thickly accented common as they had boarded the vessel that morning, and indeed it appeared that she was deadly serious about it.  All were grilled about their applicable skills by a pinch faced Khundari woman wearing a cloak that looked to have been cut from the same cloth of the vessel's triangular sails, a midnight blue worn by about a third of the crew.  She appeared to be the Quartermaster, and once they had been assessed and questioned, they were assigned rolls and chores.  It was heavily implied without ever being explicitly stated that any who didn't pitch in would find themselves pitched overboard.  Even the Oathsworn appeared to not be immune to this fundamental rule, though in most other respects both the Captain and the Matriarch appeared to defer to her.  She had been assigned early to the fore castle, where she had promptly begun cutting into her thumb with a small knife and using the blood to inscribe some sort of Ritual into the prow.  Whatever it was, it was a great work, taking several hours to complete.
This message was last edited by the player at 02:27, Sat 07 Nov 2020.

Cara was not a Storm Mother, and while there wasn't a Khundari in the world who hadn't spent at least some time on a ship, the intricate spellwork that went into Stormquelling and Windsinging was not her forte.  Still, she was Oathsworn, and magic was her responsibility. She caught the Captain's eyes, and when he noticed her she called out.

"Captain Hatal, I'll need the bane.

Without hesitating or asking for clarification he reached into his shirt and pulled out a coinpurse on a leather thong, walking over to join her. Reaching inside, he deftly pulled out a gray feather with a white and black tip and handed it to her.  She nodded her thanks and pricked her thumb with the knife, dipping the feather into the welling blood and using it to begin painting one of the few runes she knew onto the side of the masthead.  It wasn't much, just something to take some of the force out of any bow breaking waves that they might be unfortunate enough to encounter if they somehow drew the ire of the Mother of Storms.  They weren't going close to the maelstrom, and should not draw the Trifold Goddesses' eye, but it was what she knew.

Oathsworn Hannas would have had stern words for her, had she been there.
This message was last edited by the player at 05:32, Sun 08 Nov 2020.

Classically-trained and bearing the twinned duties of cloak and fist, Nathan had not expected to work his passage. Indeed, he had brought will him several scrolls to study, though they lay forlorn by his bunk as he himself swayed into the wave's trough from his position in the crow's nest. His eyes remained on the horizon, taking in the smudge of the storm as he considered a little ritual to predict its course

Arui approached the ship with a sense of wonder tempered with uncertainty.  She'd never seen a vessel so large. The ship rocked on the waves as she climbed the gangplank which made her uneasy despite her usual surefootedness.

She was soon confronted by a sour faced woman who bluntly interrogated her about her skills on a ship.  When she told the woman that she'd never been on a ship, she was curtly directed to a mop and bucket and told to swab the deck.

As she worked she thought about her horse, Ninlil, and how they rode along the countryside on her last day in the city.  She asked that Tabeta ride her beyond the walls regularly.  She felt a ride in the country would be good for them both. No-one should be cooped up in the city all the time.

Cara finished her work, and went to join the Horsewoman.  She was clearly comfortable on the ship, and did not struggle to find things to do.  There was always work on a vessel, for one who knew where to look. For now, said work involved checking a coil of rope for frays, and then working to mend it. She mostly kept her head down, but eventually she raised her gaze and caught Arui's with her own wolfish stare.

"Guardian Arui."

She always used to woman's full title, it seemed. She kept her voice low, the sound not carrying far over the crash of the waves and the rush of the wind.

"Is magic uncommon, among your people?  I'm not shy to admitting to not knowing shit about the Arens. The Kumlar in general value such things properly, but neither the swordsman nor the thief they had me working with before knew a lick of it."

When Arui stopped, she noticed the uncomfortable shifting of the deck. She continued to mop as they talked; the movement helped distract her from the rocking ship. she thought a moment befor speaking, "hm, among the Tarenti, our magic comes from the spirits of the world.  Since the spirits are everywhere, I suppose magic is everywhere.  It's true that only a few can commune directly with the spirits, usually only one per village, but we all deal with the spirits in our way.  I am no wise woman, but even I can see the moods of the spirits in the world around me, in the calls of the birds, or the movement of the antelope.  We accept their gifts and thank them." she looked up from her work, and met Cara's gaze, "does that help?"

"It does."

Cara's amber eyes flashed, and for a moment her normally already predatory gaze captured raw hunger.  Ambition perhaps, or something deeper?  She did not say. Then her gaze narrowed, her usual glare returning.

"Do the spirits of the wind heed your call, or do you listen to their song? It has been an embarrassingly long time since I've needed to put my skills to the test in this way."

She nodded at the blood glyph she had inscribed into the masthead.

"We would have to be terribly foolish to draw the eye of the Unnamed Mother this far from Khune, but storms are still storms."

"I mostly try to listen."  Pointing to the bird skull on her headband she said, "my tribe is the Chetan, named for the hawk, who is our totem.  He is friends with the wind.  Hopefully, he will look favorably on us in our travels, but I've often noticed that the wind is fickle with his favor."

That elicited a grim smile from the Khundari Oathsworn.

"That he is."

She put a bit of inflection on the pronoun, though the meaning of it was foreign to Arui.

"So if all of your people are horsemen and horsewomen, what is your roll in Tarenti? A hunter? A warrior?  Is there a title I should call you other than Guardian Arui?"

She seemed to care a great deal for the formalities.

"If we are to be working together in this, I will need to know where your strengths and talents lie.  And what about him?"

She tilted her chin up to where Nathan was up in the crows nest.

"I know you haven't been working with him long, but what is it that he does?"

Atop the crow's nest, the unknowing objection of Cara's question let the wind ruffle his hair as his eyes troubled scanned the horizon

She was late to the party, but it had taken her Lilith a lot to be even temporarily released from her vows to the Ember Blades.

Lilith did her research before making her way on-board, so she at least looked the part of a sailor.   She had spent a little bit of time on-board.   One could hardly grow up on Sachs Isl without learning some sea-lore and skills.   But it had been a good ten years since she'd put any of it to use.

When Mistress Patil had her questioned, she admited that she'd crewed in teh distant past, but it piqued Patil's interest more that she'd some knowledge of physics and anatomy.  She wasn't a proper surgeon, but she was better than the ship had on-board at the moment.   With luck, it wouldn't be necessary--<I>probably</U> wouldn't be necessary for a three or four day trip.

She had experience with Kumlaren, even the blue cloaks, and a little with the Khune.  though not much outside of sailing cultures.  Cara frightened her.   The Tarenti was complete unknown.  Lilith had only heard of them, never actually met one that she'd known of.  Truth was, outside of CYren and Druvir, she hadn't traveled much and the excitement of being able to push past her previous boundaries got to her.

Lilith stowed her own belongings quickly and presented herself to the First Mate for assignment to duties.   Mending nets wasn't glorious work, but it was honest and it kept the fingers nimble while allowing free discussion...