Zoé's Journal #2 - Sessions 8&9

Day 9 - Afternoon
It was supposed to be a quiet day, but I guess you can't help it when a World Government ship comes across the boat you are working on with the intent to do a routine boarding and inspection. Out of fear of my skeletal friends getting discovered and killed by the Marines, I gathered up the Skelly boys and had them climb into my Bag of Bones, even though that would put us down by four able bodies should the ghost of Grinning Jack prove to have survived and try something.

The Captain had us all approach the main deck before the marines boarded us. Whilst we were all briefly spoken to, Captain Saoirse, Perfurar and Morgan, were taken onto the marines' ship to talk to their captain, I think to be interrogated, but I couldn't be sure. However, things worsened when the few marines left on our boat started disappearing one by one. I realised then and there that Grinning Jack, for lack of better phrasing, was still alive. I know i shouldn't have said anything; but despite my friends' opinions regarding the world government, i didn't want Grinning Jack to claim any more lives. The marine i inadvertedly saved made me go down with him on the off chance i was lying about the haunting, but once we saw the dead bodies of his bodies he alerted the rest of the marines who immediately rushed back aboard and held everyone at sword and gunpoint. Shite... why did i have to open my mouth.

luckily for us, the marine captain noticed Clyde still manacled to the upper mast and Clyde, being a sly basterd, claimed he had magic that could help deal with the ghost. I knew he was mostly lying, but i saw a chance to protect the crew and went down with him, as well as a drow marine called Dabuar. As I suspected, as soon as Dabuar questioned Clyde below deck, the fool slipped up and revealed only one spell protected one person for an hour. Trying to salvage this, Clyde implored me to reveal the Skelly boys. At first, being in the presence of a marine and hiding panic, I denied what Clyde was talking about, but soon after, I remembered something. Necromancy wasn't actually illegal in most of the Archipelago, only frowned upon, and since when have i cared how society views the dark arts. We're all in danger damnit, I won't let my friends die or get locked up just because of what a few people say.

Despite Dabuar's moment of panic upon seeing the skelly boys jump out of my bag of bones, the seven of us were able to search the lower decks much faster than we could have accomplished anyway. Despite informing everyone above that we couldn't find anything, I told them we'd keep searching, and the marine's ship should be checked as well, on the off chance the ghost had snuck aboard.

The seven of us kept searching the lower decks, but when we all realised Grinning Jack wasn't likely to be down with us and the crews above weren't going to check up on us for a while, me and Clyde convinced Dabuar to partake in some dice games whilst the skelly boys set up an improtu gambling table. i even gave the troubled marine some of my gold to bet with so he wouldn't feel bad if he lost.

We must have been down there for almost half an hour, and despite Clyde's rather hilarious attempts to intimidate everyone at the table, the six of us actually scored much better than him. The Skelly boys were indeed happy, as it seemed new hats were just right around the corner, given the coin they now had from my payments and their winnings. However, just as we were about to start another round, we heard a commotion upstairs.