The Labyrinthine Shoal: Infiltrator Information.

[powersthatbe]

WHAT HAS JUST HAPPENED:
Three different ships, sailing out of different ports, all trying to avoid elements of the Paramoese Navy, have been seeking the uncharted waters of the reef-wracked Labrynthine Shoals. But as they approached, riding fast ahead of the edge of a storm, they were approached by mermaids, and offered guidance through to an island at the center of the Shoals, in exchange for their escort, and portage to the interior of the island. before they could discuss the offer in detail, a storm hit, carrying them closer together, until they were able to anchor just past the edge of the shoals. A fourth ship was not so lucky, and shattered on the rocks, scattering sailors across the waves… and now, in the choppy seas in the wake of the storm, they’re left with little time to fish survivors from the water and make a decision, before the Navy sweeps down on all of them.

Damsel Captain: Zwei/Echo
Your Past:
You were raised in the renegade refuge of Blackbanner Port, and saw your first naval action as a teenager - when the Paramoese Navy blockaded the port, you and a crew of other wharf rats sailed a burning powder barge into the middle of their line, and dove to safety before its hold caught and exploded. The Damsel was salvaged from that battle, a fleet tender, and you worked to arm and restore her for years before she was seaworthy again - and she’s been your home since. No-one has ever taught you the least thing about rules or restraint, and so your crew exists in a kind of managed anarchy, free and free-spirited.
Your Ship:
The Damsel is a reliable craft, but not exactly powerful. Your main advantages are maneuverability and stealth - with your sails rigged as you are, the ship often sails at a slant, deck tilted, but that keeps you hidden over the horizon that much longer. Your guns are meant to disable other vessels, not destroy them, but that means a navy ship like the Harbinger outguns you in a broadside.
The Others:
The captain of the Harbinger pursued you for years before his exile, and the bounty on your head is high enough that you still have reason to wonder if he could buy his way home by bringing you in. And you’ve sunk enough Paramoese vessels to give his whole crew reason to hold a grudge. As for the Panlong, fully half the merchant ships you have captured hailed from En Zhenming, so your reputation there is scarcely better. Mermaids, furthermore, are terrifying creatures, bewitching cannibals… but your ship’s charts and navigation have never been the best, and if you can keep them from devouring you, following them may be your best hope of evading the navy… or all that keeps the Harbinger from turning on you.


Harbinger Captain: Adachi
Your Past:
For years you served the Duke of Paramo as a privateer captain, raiding the nation’s enemies, before your successes threatened to make you a folk hero, more popular than the Duke, and he revoked your contract and branded you and your loyal, disciplined crew as outlaws. Since that happened, over a year ago, you’ve had to become outlaws in truth, plying your skills less discriminately. Stooping to true piracy doesn’t sit well with you, but for the sake of your survival, you’ll do what you must, until you find something worth fighting for again...
Your Ship:
Of the ships sailing into the Shoals, yours is the best-armed. Your carronades are short-range guns, but more powerful; and your chase-guns have a longer range than anyone elses. You’re faster and less maneuverable than the Damsel; slower but nimbler than the Panlong. Of course, even the Harbinger couldn’t stand up to a vessel like the Lictor, the one pursuing you, not without considerably more guns than you have.
The Others:
The Damsel’s captain was always a particular nemesis of yours, and she preyed on Paraomese & En Zhenming ships alike, so she’s earned little love or trust with either of your vessels. And while you’ve never before seen the Panlong, ships from that part of the world have little reason to trust crimson sails. As for the mermaids, your instincts say this is a trick, a trap, that they’re luring you the way sirens do… but then, why not simply set their sirens on you? For too long, your only safe harbors have been ports you could fool into thinking you’re a navy vessel, and a new island to anchor at would be an astonishing stroke of luck… if you feel you can take the risk.

Harbinger Spy: Lucina
You are the Harbinger’s Third Lieutenant, commander of the night’s watch onboard… and left in command in the dark with nothing but time to think, you’ve decided that you want to go home, to see the cliffs of Paramo once again. Leaving clandestine messages in port after port, you finally managed to contact the captain of the Lictor, who has promised you a full pardon - you already have the papers - and a captain’s commission in the fleet if you deliver the Harbinger to him. The stress has been wearing on you, the fear of capture, the guilt… but you’ve been making your reports, all the same. Your salt-gift is navigation, and one of its uses is that when you throw a message in a bottle overboard, it always goes just where you intend it to. But now, between watchful mermaids and two other ships, you need a new plan.

It’s possible that the Lictor would be just as satisfied with one of the other ships here… but in order to have a chance to take them, you’ll need to convince the captain to trust them long enough that you can get on board one.


Harbinger Stowaway: Anduin
A young boy of a comfortable colonial family, it wasn’t until you nearly drowned in a boating accident that you discovered another side to life… your Salt Gift manifested in the accident, and it’s plagued your life since. At a touch, you can confuse someone, as if they’d been out in the sun too long… or that’s how it began. A little disorientation and nausea isn’t much, and you wouldn’t be the first who could deliver sunstroke at a touch… but then, your gift began manifesting without your control. Not all the time, but too often for comfort. And it grew stronger - now, you can wipe memories away with the brush of a finger, longer the more you focus, and every time you use your gift it seems to grow further out of your control…

Landsmen rarely show such talents. While only one in a dozen sailors has a salt gift, almost everyone with a salt gifty becomes a sailor… so there was no-one in your home port who could tell you how or if your gift could be controlled, and your family would never have allowed you to leave for such a disreputable life. You had no choice but to sneak aboard the next naval vessel that docked in port…

And it wasn’t until you were a day out of port (almost a week ago now) that you discovered that, despite the red sails, you’d boarded a pirate ship...


Panlong Captain: Robb
Your Past:
En Zhenming is an empire where knowledge can be dangerous. An explorer and cartographer, you had cause to wonder how Paramoese ships could navigate your homeland’s shores so well. When your investigation uncovered signs that someone in the Emperor’s Court was passing on that information, trying to hold together the Empire by creating an external threat, a common foreign enemy, you were exiled, along with a crowd of other political dissidents, like your marine captain, a monk of a forbidden religious sect. Together, you’ve used your knowledge to travel far and stay safe, but it looks like the time for that safety is at an end… you are not nearly as used to combat as these other captains, but they do not know that, so intrigue is your only hope.
Your Ship:
The Panlong is meant to be light and quick, not to fight. In a broadside, you cannot match the other vessels - but in close, your light deck guns can devastate another ships crew, and your marines, trained as they are in martial arts, are far more capable in boarding actions than the others.
The Others:
To your mind, there is little difference between a pirate and a vessel of the Paramoese navy - both these vessels prey on ships from En Zhenming, and neither is likely to care that you are as unwelcome there as they are. Yet, their cannon are heavier and longer-ranged than yours...sticking close to them might help keep you safe from larger vessels, if they can be trusted. Of mermaids, you know nothing… which means that you probably trust them far more than the Paramoese sailors, full of superstitions, do.

Panlong Marine: Hei
You are among the last heirs to the traditions of the Banyan Temple, a sect of mystics and martial artists whose philosophies lead them to quietly oppose the Zhenming Emperors - and so the Emperors arranged for first bandits, then government forces, to sack and burn the temple and scatter the surviving monks as political refugees. Your people became masters of disguise and stealth, as well as meditation, athleticism, and combat, and it is the sacred duty of each survivor to spread both your martial traditions and your philosophical ones - not to submit to the strong or to fight them directly, but to draw strength from them and into yourself; to connect to all things, envelop all things, and emerge more powerful after making them part of yourself

Maybe you are more powerful as a pirate than you were before, and maybe not. But your marines are only a small force of students practicing the Way of the Banyan, and you have not had the kinds of success you wish, the kinds that would satisfy your masters. And here, you and the others you see around you are confronted by all manner of stronger and threatening foes....


Thalassian Leader: Yua
You are a noble warrior, a protector of the people. You would have been content to serve the Dread Empress, if she had lived up to your standards… but choosing to infect her own people with a disease, just to make deadlier weapons of them, isn’t protection. Rebellion was an unexpected choice for you, but you’ve made the best of it - which means breaking out the others who were to be infected and fleeing, making sure any Stricken stay downcurrent of the rest of you, for the disease is carried in water that washes over the gills, perhaps in shed scales, so contact with either the infected or the water they have passed through must be limited. Rumors of the Shoal drew you here, though none of you could keep legs long enough to cross the final land barrier, into the waters where you can be safe… that’s where the humans come in. Careless, thoughtless barbarians, humans have no civilization, no honor, and so cannot be trusted. But between the reefs and the oncoming kraken, you have very little choice… you’ll do whatever you have to to protect your people.


Thalassian Siren: Cass
You have never been good with boundaries. Your song is powerful, so that you can enchant almost anyone to do as you like - and you have never seen a reason not to. No malice motivates you, simply a desire for independence and for knowledge, but you are, certainly, self-centered, though not selfish… you have never felt a duty to Thalassia. When the Dread Empress sought to make some of her dangerous warriors and enchanters Stricken to make them more dangerous, you had no second thoughts about deserting. But you feel no more loyalty to the rebels - you travel with them because it was convenient, the best opportunity you had at the time… and you’ll continue taking what you want, and doing the best for yourself you can.


Thalassian Stricken: Ibuki
You’ve always been disciplined and capable, and you just want to do your part…

All the Stricken swimming with your school are supposed to stay with one another, safely away from the healthy, and supposed to keep calm, avoiding things that might drive them to greater hunger… things like combat. But you’re a warrior, and you’ve always been proud of your control and discipline. What made you rebel was how helpless you felt when the Empress had you caged and infected… and you don’t want to be helpless again, don’t want to be separate, or surrender control to anyone… so when you broke free and joined the Rebels, you just… didn’t tell them, that you knew you’d been infected already. You can handle it on your own, and still be useful to them in the process - a trusted warrior, someone strong and respected, not pitied or shut away. you’ll be careful. you won’t infect anyone, you won’t eat anyone… but you won’t tell anyone, either. It’s all going to be fine. Really.