Skyjacks: Episode 2

## Blurb

The crew negotiates with Sonja. They have to smooth over the captain’s romantic transgressions and secure work for themselves all without letting everyone know he’s dead. What they don’t know is that working with Sonja might get them killed too.

## Plot Summary

The episode opens on the deck of the Uhuru. The party escort the captain off the ship to meet with Sonja and her accomplices. Sonja is angry with the Captain, and spits at him, so Gable goes and greets her to diffuse the situation. Sonja is confused to see the captain without his inner circle, and seems intimidated by the possibility that Gable could have killed them. Gable manages to convince her to talk with the crew by offering an apology from the captain.

Sonja leads the party into the Wolf’s Bane tavern to commence negotiations. No one in the tavern cares if people are old enough to drink, and one corner is used as a gaming parlour, where a younger Travis had carved “William was here." They are flying the Wolfstooth flag, which is a white wolf’s tooth on a background of green and gray stripes.

There are people talking and singing in the background, and the party are led to a back room, a tent built onto the back of the tavern which has been expanded over the years using parts from ships. It has some kind of soundproofing.

The captain sits at the head of the table at Dref’s instruction, and Gable sits too, while Dref and Jonnit lurk in the shadows beside the table. The captain beckons Travis forward to begin the negotiation. Sonja questions the fact that the captain’s inner circle isn’t here, specifically inquiring about Vale’s former right hand man, Calavar. Travis tells her that Vale and Calavar parted ways, and in the process accidentally gives her the impression that he is the captain’s lover. Apparently, the captain had not been in the habit of taking male lovers, and Sonja notes that many things have changed. She seems to have pity for Travis.

On Sonja’s demands for Vale’s apology, Dref instructs the captain to hand over one of the letters of apology that Dref had written previously. Dref had written a couple of different letters in case of different scenarios, and the captain manages to hand over the wrong one. The letter Dref intends him to hand over was an apology, but the letter that the captain ends up giving to Sonja was written in case Sonja wanted to rekindle their relationship. This letter does not have an apology, and says that Vale has a wife whom his heart belongs to now, but it does offer Sonja his services.

Sonja isn’t pleased by this, but she accepts the offer of service. She tells them that the trade in the settlement of Wolfstooth is being severely dampened by the presence of ships belonging to the Red Feather Syndicate, and she wants them to rob one of the ships - specifically, the Civility. Captained by Franz Fishhook, the Civility is the subject of many rumours, and Franz Fishhook is known for killing pirate crews and leaving the captains alive. There is also a priest of the Church of the Slain God aboard.

Sonja tells the party that the Civility is starving the region. She says that she met someone passing through on a ship that flew without featherweave who trades in information, and he told her that the Civility was meeting with ironside ships from the Church, and is currently carrying some extremely valuable cargo. She asks the party to board the Civility and steal whatever it is that it's carrying, and says that if they don’t, she will float them. Floating means setting people on a raft and sending them down a river for the Mariner to claim.

Travis agrees that they’ll do it, as long as the Uhuru is repainted and repaired afterwards, and the reward is split between the crew and Wolfstooth. Gable demands to keep anything that is from the Church, in addition to the cargo. Sonja agrees to the terms, and tells them that they have a day before the Civility passes by. The captain and Sonja shake on it.