The Spanish flagship leads west beneath Ballantyne colors, her two sloops following in disciplined wake. The newly commissioned warship remains at Tortuga’s yard, its keel awaiting completion.
Mateo Vargas stands at the helm among the Spanish sailors, while the Quartermaster keeps the sealed ransom bond and fleet accounts secured beneath the quarterdeck. A captured officer remains under guard nearby.
Mateo Vargas
The wind favors the western course, Captain. With this tide, we should reach Cinderwater before the next watch changes.
Behind him, the Quartermaster checks each seal against his ledger, then stores the ransom payment apart from prize silver. The fleet’s accounts remain clean as the open sea gives way to darker shoals.
Captured Officer 1
When the western inlet appears, I can identify the split black rock, the sunken spar, and the white scar in the shoal. Beyond them lies the passage to Puerto de las Sombras.
A low, broken line rises through the haze ahead. Mateo eases the flagship toward it, and the guarded officer watches the coastline closely, waiting to learn whether these are the first marks of Cinderwater.
✓ Quest Accepted
Secure the fleet's passage into Cinderwater
“I have the guarded officer identify each Cinderwater mark from the deck.”
SUCCESS (Legendary Intrigue, rolled -3)
Redmane brings the guarded officer onto the quarterdeck beneath the inspection writ. The sealed channel confirmation lies open, while the wanted poster’s exposed likeness briefly draws wary glances from the Spanish sailors.
Captured Officer 1
There, to larboard: the split black rock. Beyond it, the sunken spar marks the tide’s safe turn, and that white scar in the western shoal opens Cinderwater.
The Quartermaster compares each landmark with the sealed record, while Mateo holds the helm steady. Redmane’s Silver Tongue makes the request sound like lawful navigation, not an extraction of secret knowledge.
Captured Officer 1
Keep that heading. The black rock must remain to starboard afterward; the spar lies low, but its broken mast catches the afternoon light.
Inspiring Presence steadies the deck as every sailor hears the marks repeated. The officer points out each feature in sequence, and the Quartermaster records the bearings beside the already sealed confirmation.
Captured Officer 1
You have the passage now. But with the whole deck hearing it, my house will claim stronger proof of life and stricter ransom terms.
The cost settles plainly: the route is secured, but the officer’s leverage rises before the watching crew. Mateo turns the flagship toward the confirmed marks, and Cinderwater lies ahead.
“I steer through Cinderwater under the confirmed marks”
SUCCESS (Legendary Seamanship, rolled +3)
Redmane takes the helm and steers through Cinderwater beneath the confirmed marks. The split black rock falls astern, the sunken spar slides safely abeam, and the white scar opens the passage ahead.
Captured Officer 1
Hold her there. The channel deepens beyond the scar, and the western current will carry you cleanly into the harbor.
The sealed channel confirmation lies beside the quarterdeck compass, its bearings matching the shore exactly. Redmane reads the water as a tactical chart, choosing the current’s lift rather than fighting it.
A gust snatches the wanted poster from her coat and flashes her likeness toward the Spanish sailors. She pins it down without surrendering the helm, and the flagship answers her correction cleanly.
Mateo Vargas
The shoal is clear, Captain. Your heading gives us the safest water and leaves the harbor mouth behind our stern.
Quartermaster
The bearings agree with the sealed confirmation. I will enter this passage as a verified approach in the fleet account.
The flagship clears Cinderwater and reaches a concealed inner anchorage, sheltered from the open sea. From its quiet water, Redmane can observe Puerto de las Sombras before bringing the sloops inside.
Quest Complete
Secure the fleet's passage into Cinderwater
Skill Upgrade: Diplomacy Great→Superb
“Is Puerto de las Sombras defended by a hostile fleet?”
YES, AND MORE (Likely, rolled 1)
Beyond the concealed anchorage, Puerto de las Sombras reveals a hostile fleet: three armed galleons lie across the harbor mouth, their gunports open and colors flying above watchful decks.
Captured Officer 1
The harbor is defended, Captain. Those ships answer to the governor, and their guns command every ordinary approach.
The officer’s certainty spreads across the quarterdeck. Spanish sailors lower their voices, while Mateo studies the anchored fleet and the narrow shoreline beyond it.
Mateo Vargas
They have not seen us. Their attention faces seaward, and the eastern inlet lies screened by mangroves and morning haze.
The Quartermaster checks the confirmed channel marks against the shoreline. Beyond the hostile fleet, a second, uncharted inlet opens behind the mangroves, wide enough for the flagship at high tide.
Captured Officer 1
That inlet leads behind the governor’s storehouses. The fleet cannot bring guns to bear there, and its watch rarely turns inland.
Puerto de las Sombras is defended by a hostile fleet, but its hidden eastern inlet offers a concealed approach behind the harbor guns. The prize lies within reach, if Redmane can exploit the opening.
“I order the fleet hoist captured Spanish colors and steer into the eastern inlet.”
SUCCESS (Legendary Seamanship, rolled +2)
Captured Spanish colors rise above the flagship and sloops. A gust tears the wanted poster loose, but Redmane pins it beneath the compass while the fleet turns toward the mangrove-screened inlet.
She reads the harbor’s formation through the signal book, matching hostile gun positions with the eastern channel. The fleet’s false colors and altered course leave the three galleons watching empty water.
Mateo Vargas
The inlet is clear. I will signal the sloops to follow in our wake and keep their guns masked by the mangroves.
Redmane holds the flagship on the tide’s lift, using the shoals and anchored galleons as a tactical screen. One by one, the sloops slip after her beneath Spanish colors.
Quartermaster
The channel marks agree with the confirmed approach. I will enter the eastern inlet as the fleet’s concealed harbor access.
The flagship clears the mangroves and enters the eastern inlet at high tide, followed by both sloops. The hostile fleet remains beyond the screen, unaware of the Ballantyne command behind its storehouses.
Captured Officer 1
You have reached the harbor’s blind side. The storehouses lie ahead, and their guns cannot bear upon this water.
✓ Quest Accepted
Reach the governor's storehouses
“I advance toward the governor's storehouses under cover of the mangroves.”
SUCCESS (Legendary Seamanship, rolled -2)
Redmane advances the flagship through the mangroves, keeping its hull in the tide’s narrow lift. The command ledger’s soundings turn the concealed channel into a disciplined course.
Mateo Vargas
The storehouse pilings are ahead, Captain. I will bring the sloops in close and keep the galleons blind beyond the leaves.
Reads Naval Tactics guides her around a submerged root and a mudbank, placing the flagship’s broadside behind the storehouses. The sloops follow without a scrape.
A sudden gust tears the wanted poster from beneath the compass and snaps it across the wheel. Redmane catches it, but the lurch drives her shoulder hard into the rail.
Quartermaster
The stores are directly ahead. All three vessels have reached the blind water, and the channel remains deep beneath us.
Redmane steadies the helm despite the bruising impact. The flagship noses alongside the governor’s storehouses, with both sloops secured behind it and the mangroves masking every mast from the hostile fleet.
Quest Complete
Reach the governor's storehouses