Fuck this inn, fuck the Crimson Talons, fuck this city and fuck your fake marriage. You've had enough of all of it.

You walk up to Zal and look into her eyes then you put your arms around her before kissing her deeply. She holds you tightly until you finish and slowly pull away.

"It was fun, but I think it's time for a change of scenery. Goodbye Zal, and good luck." You say and walk away.

Zalmora doesn't try to stop you, she probably knew this was a possibility.

You gather a few belonging, some money and leave the inn. You figure Zal can fill everyone in on the changes she intends to make. You can't imagine how much she's going to have to deal with, but you know Zal's got a strong will and mind, so you're sure that she'll succeed or at least come out ahead.

You make your way out of Klyton wondering where to travel. Holgard comes to mind, but there's always some sort of rebellion or power struggle going on there. You'd rather not have to deal with being in the middle of that mess. The Delantium Kingdom is at war with some other nation, so you'd rather avoid the possibility of suddenly getting press ganged or conscripted into military service.

The only other place that comes to mind is Hessla which for one thing is a whole lot closer, but it also still has a reputation of being a haven for thieves, pirates, and other criminal types.

Seems like you'd fit in real well.

You first think about taking a carriage there to save yourself a walk, but then you figure you'd rather save the money. It'll be good to for you to get some regular exercise for a change as well. For several years you feel like you've just been slowly letting yourself go to pot while you were running the Crimson Talons from the inn.

With a new goal in mind, a check on your rations, your flintlock pistol and a couple daggers along with your sword, you set off.

The trip to Hessla is surprisingly uneventful. You half figured you'd at least run into a few idiots trying to rob you on the road, but other than travellers, and a few merchants, you don't encounter anyone else on it.

When you finally get to Hessla, its actually a little nicer looking than you thought it was going to look. You expected it to be filled with run down homes with unsavory types located on every corner. If anything, the town has locations that are fancier looking than some of the better parts of Klyton.

After spending a few days in Hessla you also learn that this place really isn't as disorderly as it's reputation would imply. Granted it's far from being as repressive as Klyton, but there actually is a "force" that makes sure it isn't a free for all. The Hessla Headsmen report directly to the governor who apparently is an ex-pirate that controls everything in town.

If anything the crime is less than one might think mainly because most are pirates and pillaging other places rather than here. You are surprisingly finding the place a bit easy on the pick pocket and theft front, of course a lot of folks are either half drunk or plain drunk most of the time. Also most folks don't seem to own that many personal belongings. You guess with most making their living at sea, they keep essentials on their ships, spend it all on booze and whores or otherwise live a very basic life, so despite you finding the town a bit easy pickings, you aren't getting rich doing it. Shops however are very well protected by the Headsmen since you guess Governor Tolen has a slice of all the businesses here.

Fights are pretty common, though they aren't necessarily always to the death like you'd expect. Just a lot of disagreement and drinking make for a rowdy town. So far you've avoided pissing anyone off and kept a low profile. You aren't sure if you're actually going to stay here long or not, but so far it's better than Klyton.

Well at least you THINK you were maintaining a low profile...

"Hey you with the hood." A voice says.

You turn around a see a scruffy man wearing a rag on his head, shabby clothing and a few tattoos on his arms. A cutlass hangs by his side. He looks appropriately piratey.

"What?" You ask.
"Just wondering if you really think you're going to be getting away with pilfering things forever in this town." He says.
"If I was doing such a thing, I'm not sure why it would matter to you."
"It doesn't, but if someone like me noticed you were doing it, I'm sure others have too. Now I know this place has a certain reputation, but punishment for thievery in this town is pretty damn severe. We might mostly be cutthroats and vagabonds here, but we don't shit where we eat. We all have to live here with a certain measure of trust. If we don't, well the whole place goes to shit now doesn't it?"

Interesting culture here. Almost reminds you of the set up you unofficially had back in your home town where they barely tolerated your thievery as long as you kept it to outsiders.

"Hmm, you seem very helpful towards a stranger. Makes me wonder if you don't have an angle." You say.
"Well, not much of one I suppose. I'm currently trying to find new recruits for my captain. Not much luck so far though. You wouldn't be interested would you?"
"I'm afraid I've never been at sea, so I don't think I'd make much of a sailor."
"Everyone's gotta start somewhere, besides we're not really being picky right now. Had a big loss recently and we need all the help we can get."
"What would I be doing exactly?"
"Helping around the ship obviously and the usual pillaging of coastal villages or ships. You do have some fighting skills and would have no problem with something like that I assume."
"Well, I'm not a stranger to combat and I'm not going to say that I haven't done some pretty immoral things, but I'm not raping anyone."
"Hey, that's your right. It's not a qualification for the job. More for someone else as they say."
"Hmm, I dunno. I still think my background isn't going to mesh well. I'm not really a slash and burn type. I'm more of a pick a lock and sneak out in the middle of the night kind of guy."
"Well, we could have use for that too. I remember once we raided a town that actually had a very tough safe that none of us knew how to crack. We couldn't even blow it open until we hauled one of the cannons off the ship and dragged it to the location. By the time we did get it open, the valuable contents inside were destroyed and the town had called for help from a more militaristic city that sent a strong force that chased us back to the ship. Could have all been avoided with someone like you aboard."
"Maybe. Not sure if I like the idea of taking orders though. I was already part of an organization like that once. Eventually I even ran it, but ultimately I left it because I found I preferred working on my own without a bunch of people around."
"Well, I suppose I can't convince you if your mind is already made up. Still, if for some reason you do change your mind, just head to a ship called the Steadfast. It's not the biggest ship in the harbor, but like it's name, it always gets to where it has to go and back."

With those last words, the man takes his leave and you're pondering this new possibility.

You have to admit part of you is curious what it would be like since you've never ever considered being a pirate. Might be an interesting change of pace.

Still, along with all the other concerns you have. The guy trying to recruit you didn't exactly spin this in the best of light and most of the crew are apparently dead so what the hell is the captain like if he's getting everyone killed?

You be a pirate

Why not, it isn't like you got anything else important going on.

The man who was recruiting is still visible, so you hurry your pace to catch up to him. You say you'll join and he is glad you changed your mind. He mentions his name is Scully and leads you to the Steadfast.

When Scully said the Steadfast wasn't the biggest ship in the harbor, he wasn't kidding. Not that it's a rowboat and it definitely needs a crew to sail it, but compared to some of the others you've seen, you can tell you're not exactly going to be sailing with anyone of great infamy. You imagine that's why Scully said they mostly raid small coastal villages.

Other than being a smaller ship, it doesn't look like it's falling apart so it's at least in good shape. Feels weird just being on it though you don't feel sick. Hopefully you won't when it's actually sailing.

You meet a few other milling crew members, but they don't say much to you other than some grunts. One of them mentions where the sleeping quarters are and says don't worry about which hammock to take because most of them are no longer in use anyway.

"Scully mentioned something about a lot of the crew getting killed, what happened exactly?" You ask.
"Mermaids." He mutters, but doesn't elaborate and just tells you he's got work to do.

You don't know anything about mermaids other than a few tales you've heard. You would ask one of the other crew members, but they don't seem all that talkative to the likes of you.

A few hours pass as you wander the ship a bit and generally stand around doing nothing. You sort of thought someone would order you to do some work or earn your keep, but that hasn't happened yet. You almost feel like you're a passenger rather than a proper crew member. Not that you're complaining.

You eventually see Scully again who says the Captain wants to meet you. So you head back above deck where you meet the captain who doesn't look like you thought.

He's practically an old man who is having a hard time walking with a cane. He's dressed better than everyone else on the ship, but that isn't saying much since even his fancy overcoat has patches sewn on it.

He introduces himself as Captain Rifiv and says he hopes you prove to be a better crewman than the lot that got themselves killed recently. Especially since you're apparently the ONLY person Scully was able to recruit!

"What exactly happened anyway?" You ask.
"Mermaids or sirens. I dunno, whatever those underwater singing fish bitches are called. We were far to the southwest and coming back from a relatively successful haul. Everything was going well, and then someone said their heard singing. I instantly knew what the hell it was and told everyone to start shoving wax in their ears and don't look over the sides of the ship because those scaly sluts got a way of hypnotizing most men and making them do their bidding."
"Sounds like logical precautions."
"You'd think so, except some of my genius crew thought they'd be heroes or something and they started looking over the side and firing their pistol into the water. Yeah, they saw one of those bitches, fell in love and before I know it, they're not only removing the wax from their ears, but they start attacking others and removing their wax or outright killing them. After it was all said and done, half of the crew was dead. Now I gotta recruit all over again and stick to places that have virtually no resistance until strength is built back up. You know what kind of places those are? Places that are poor as shit!"

Captain Rifiv at this point starts ranting in general as he goes back to his quarters. Meanwhile a few of the crew roll their eyes and mutter to themselves.

"You'll have to excuse the captain, he just really hates set backs. It's really not as bad as all that, we'll hit a few easy targets and in time things will start picking up again." Scully says in a positive tone.
"Are we going to have to worry about mermaids?" You ask.
"Oh no, we're going to be sticking to more familiar northern waters for awhile. Those lovely creatures won't be a problem where we're going."

Scully seems to be a bit lost in thought when he mentions the mermaids. Looks like they really had an effect on him, but he doesn't seem shaken by the experience. The opposite actually, like he vaguely seems disappointed that you probably won't be encountering them on this trip.

Well given what the captain said happened, you at least HOPE you won't be encountering them.

You time passes...

Year 31

If you ever get back to Hessla, you swear to the gods that you're leaving and never setting foot on a ship again.

When you left a year ago, you figured it would be a couple months maybe. You didn't know how far away all these places you're raiding were going to be.

These raids are practically slaughters and you're not particularly getting any thrill out of doing them especially since there's barely been any loot to be had. Last raids you did go on we're more about scavenging the town's fruit supplies and medicine rather than valuables.

Maybe you'd get more out of these raids if you were of the rapey nature, but curse your parents for raising you to at least adhere to some sort of moral standard. Though some of them seem content on buggering each other. (And no matter how long you've been at sea, you can honestly say there's nothing that would even make you THINK about sticking it to any of this loathsome lot you're with!)

You also had problems with not just a major storm, but a few larger ships that apparently thought it would be fun to open fire on you for the shits and giggles. Doesn't help that the navigator got killed during that exchange and you got severely off course while attempting to outrun the superior ships.

Not to mention repairs on the open sea with only half the crew also take a long damn time. On the plus side, you've learned your way around a ship a lot more, though you fully intend on never using this knowledge again if you can help it.

And at least you haven't encountered any mermaids you guess.

As you lean against the ship's railing look out at the setting sun, you try to keep your own sanity by thinking of happier times with your sister or Zalmora. You hope either of them are doing a hell of a lot better than you are right now because this is without a doubt the WORST idea you ever had.

Right along the idea where you left the fucking inn because you didn't want to settle down and live like some regular jerk off. Would it really have been so terrible? It couldn't have been worse than THIS.

"You're right, it couldn't be worse than this. Come back, I forgive you." You suddenly hear a voice say that sounds exactly like Zalmora.

You look around and then hear it again.

"Come back to me my love." The voice says in more melodic tone.

Your head starts to feel odd and you begin to hear faint little song. You can't even make it out, it's just an ongoing tone seeping into your skull...

Without thinking you look at the waters below and see a couple of splashes and a glimpse of a large fishtail.

"Regina! I knew you'd come back to me! I'm coming darling!" You suddenly hear a voice shout which fortunately breaks your concentration.

You look over to your left and see Scully jump over the side of the ship. This is soon followed by the Captain coming out of his quarters.

"FISH BITCHES! WAX! WAX! WAX! DON'T LOOK AT THE WATER!" He shouts nearly falling over in the process.

Fortunately, Captain Rifiv was so paranoid about them from last encounter that he made everyone carry some with them at all time.

Scully was either wrong about mermaids not being in northern waters or you're more off course than you thought. Either way it doesn't matter because you're being assaulted by them and you're shoving wax in your ears.

The wax doesn't quite drown out the song completely, but it's helping enough that you at least don't feel like you're falling under some sort of enchantment now.

Captain Rifiv is using a telescope to look past the nearby mermaid infested waters in the hopes of finding some sort of land. Meanwhile most of the crew is busily filling their own ears with wax.

Unfortunately most doesn't mean all...

Even with wax in your ears you can still hear the nearby gunshot of an enchanted crew member shooting one of his fellows.

"WEAK MINDED FOOLS!" You can hear Rifiv's muffled shouts.

Doesn't take long before there is chaos on the ship and you're also fighting off your fellow enchanted crew mates. Well "fellow" might be too strong of a word since you didn't even like most of them.

You then hear a loud explosion coming from below, the entire boat rocks and you fall to the deck. You aren't sure what happened, but it can't be good because the smell of smoke is very prominent and while you aren't entirely sure yet, but you think the boat might be starting to sink.

As you attempt to get up, Captain Rifiv is doing his best to hobble over in your direction.

"One of those charmed fools just lit a fucking powder keg below deck! This ship is going down! Come on, help me to the emergency rowboat! I saw a patch of land to the north!" Rifiv shouts before he stumbles to the floor of the ship.

He's having a hard time getting up, and you see yet another charmed crewman walking over to finish him off.

You look over to the emergency rowboat and you realize you could probably get to it a lot quicker by yourself.

You run to the lifeboat

This is everyman for himself time, besides you didn't particularly like the old bastard anymore than you liked your other crewmates.

You run over to the rowboat, get in and deploy it. It drops a lot faster than you intended and you land hard, but there is no damage and all you get is a little wet from the splash back.

As you row away from the burning, sinking, and sometimes still exploding ship, you can still hear the mermaid song and it feels like it's getting through now. You can't think of anything else to do, so you start shouting nonsense at the top of your lungs.

"CABBAGES, PANTIES, IT'S NOT GOT A NOSE, AND I'LL SMASH YOUR FACE!"

This seems to work somewhat, but you start to run into trouble when you see a green hand grab the side of the boat.

And then several more on both sides. You really begin to panic when you start to have a hard time moving the oars. The mermaids are determined to stop you.

You close your eyes and draw your sword, shouting and hacking wildly.

"Get away! Get away! Back!" You shout, but you're not really having an effect. The mermaids are easily avoiding your blind attacks and with all your wild swings you don't have the best balance.

Doesn't take long before a few of the mermaids closest to your side of the boat grab you and pull. This action combined with the mermaids on the other side pushing the boat, you fall overboard into the water.

Despite now losing your sword and being in the water, you still refuse to give up, you continue to keep your eyes closed and struggle against the mermaids pulling you down. It is at this point you begin to hear their laughing in your head.

Somehow you actually manage to get your head above water and you open your eyes just long enough to see the faintest sign of land in the distance.

The scent of brine and fish fill your nose as you feel a mermaid latch on to your back as you try to swim away. You can do nothing as you feel scaly fingers start to dig out the wax you stuffed in your ears. This is followed by a lick and a nibble on those same ears.

Your arms are feeling like anchors, but you continue to swim with a fish bitch on your back. Your head is filled with a haunting chorus that you're desperately trying to drown out with nonsensical shouting.

Quite frankly you're doing better than most men would be able to in your position, but unfortunately you're only human and the mermaids are relentless.

"Join us...under the sea...everything's better with us under the sea..."

The melodic voices continue to pierce your brain and then you feel the weirdest pleasurable sensation below.

One of the mermaids has started to undo your trousers and taken the worm in her mouth as it were.

How you're even getting turned on by this in this scenario is either a testament to the oral skills of mermaids or you had some unknown twisted desires.

Whatever the reason, the mermaids are winning this one. You can't fight an underwater blowjob along with everything else.

Even you know it's over when another mermaid appears right in front of you and you lock eyes directly with her. (Right after you stare at her green scaly tits for a split second of course)

Her facial features are partially fishy in nature, but humanoid enough looking that you fall under the unnatural spell. Now instead of just smelling fish and brine, you taste it as well as she embraces you with a kiss.

With one mermaid on your back nibbling your ear, another one swallowing your cock, and the third planting a kiss on your lips, you just let go and cease swimming. The mermaids do the rest by pulling you down.

Water fills your lungs, you struggle to breathe, death soon comes and so do you as the "hooked" mermaid at least has the decency to finish you off before everything goes black.

Your life was ended by mermaids.