Part 2
The day grows hot as the sun rises, but you are kept quite cool by regularly covering yourself in water as you grapple with the various things floating around in the sea. This was not what you had dreamed of when you decided to go to sea to find treasure on the blue waves.
“Oh, I say, jolly good show!” The Marchioness claps from where she has posed at the prow of the boat. “Now, what to do with our new bounty of material? I shall have to give this some thought, at the very least we should be able to make our lives a touch easier. But how shall it be done?”
She tapped a finger against her chin, “The obvious action, of course, is to try and outfit our rowboat with a sail. If we have the supplies for that I suggest we have a go, if not we shall just have to keep trying to find sufficient materials.” She stood, the boat shaking a little at her movement. “A sail will require some fabric, of course, and some rope, and something to tie it all onto, unless of course we go with the ancient method and simply hold a piece of fabric up between us and hope our arms do not tire. I might favour the oars over that, to be quite honest with you, at least with them you may sit down.”
Looking over what you both took out of the sea, her having helped numerous times to stop you toppling back over with the heavy objects you attempted to pull from the waves, she muttered for a while before letting out a cheerful sigh, “Yes I think we should have it all. But I shall need to call on you once more to help me, I can’t do all of this myself.”
If you have: Rope, Sail Fabric, Plank, then continue, if you do not go back and try to find them in the waves through Part 1.
To build the sail each step of the process will require 3 points to complete.
- Tie the plank to the side of the boat, using the bench running across the middle of the boat as a prop and one end of the rope to do so.
- Use the other side of the rope to make a large loop and catch the top of the plank with it.
- Tie one of the oars to the top of the plank, make sure that it is sturdy but able to bend so it will not break if the wind gets particularly strong.
- Tie the corners of the sail fabric to the oar so that it is firmly attached and will not fly away, also tie the bottom of the sail to the plank so it will not flap around and beat you about the head instead of catching the wind in a useful fashion.
- Tie the second oar onto the back of the boat using some of the rope left from when you cut it free from the ship.
“Excellent, now we have a sail and a rudder. Well, of sorts, but it shall be much easier than rowing!” The Marchioness seems particularly delighted. Pulling the aforementioned compass from a pocket she judged the direction of the wind and shifted the oar holding the sail into a better angle. “Well, suppose it is better to know for sure that you are going in the wrong direction than merely wonder, or wander as the case may be.”
This does not sound very promising, but she attempts to calm you after snapping the compass closed and putting it away. “It is the lot of the Pirate, my dear, we cannot be caught by two-thirds of the ships that sail in these waters because by profession we are an anathema to them. It would be easier if we could sail back to whence we came, however, with the wind blowing in the direction it is currently determined to we shall have to make do with attempting to complete our original odyssey. Or at least making it some of the ways and finding a new and comfortable berth to rest our heads. Is that acceptable to you, my dear friend?”
You can’t really disagree. For one thing, she has the compass, for another, she actually knows what direction you should be going in. You lack both the physical materials to make your own way in the world, and the ones that are made up out of more illusory stuff.
So you sit where she tells you and you keep an eye on the plank. It moves with the wind, the gusts force it one way while in the lulls it swings back. It is always moving, the ropes twisting around it but never pulling hard enough to cause the already cracked and damaged wood to splinter further. For now, you are moving, and aside from the odd moment when you have to pull at the sail to move it back into a more prosperous angle, you are free to sit and watch the waves.