Boatswain Pele Giggs

Pele Giggs / Xiq
Boatswain
Alien

Carousin': 3
Plunderin': 5
Swashbucklin': 3
Wenchin': 1

Background

Raise a glass, me jolly lads, to the greatest crew what sailed the Seven Seas! Led by Captain "Red" Ned Morris, th' rouges and scallywags manning the Jolly Rancher are the finest, the fiercest, and the most shipshape crew in all of creation. Yer exploits are known th' world over, bringing the crew fame an' enough gold to keep you well for a bunch of scurvy seahands. And now you're nearly at th' end of your quest for the Blood Jewel, ye can feel it! Worth thousands of dubloons, ye think it would keep the crew for at least ten years. In celebration of yer continued good fortune, Capt'n Morris has declared tonight a revel, an' while work t' find the Jewel is welcome, this is a night for rum and tobacco. The Capt'n has left the plannin' to his First Mate Nathaniel Teach for the night. So here's t' the Jolly Rancher and her crew; any landlubber or bilge rat what doesn't give you quarter will end up prayin' they be given th' chance t' walk the plank rather than cross ye!

. . . all right, that's enough. Whew! If you can keep that up, no one will be the wiser.

Your name is Xiq, and you want to go home.

By human standards, you are an alien. Specifically, you are an engineer in the Ka'tar rebellion, earning you endless gratitude from your compatriots as they struggle against the Xanthus expansionists in the Grand Wars. You have created things sentients have only dreamt of, have helped maintain the tenuous freedom of your people . . .

. . . and now you're the boatswain on a ridiculously primitive vessel aboard waves of dihydrogen hydroxide on an inconsequential planet and you Can't. Get. Home.

It wasn't your fault. It was a Xanthus spy, sent in to sabotage your personal ship before your transport flight between cells on far-flung planets. He was good, you'll give him that. He was smart enough not to touch the ship itself, instead installing some sort of program that changed the trajectory by subtle degrees each second after the first hour of flight. It was an overnight trip, and you hoped to save time by traveling on autopilot. By the time you woke up, you had crashed into an unfamiliar body of water. If you ever get your ship working again, this will be the last time you ever fly autopilot.

You spent some time camouflaging your ship and and observing the people of Earth, and found that on superficial levels humans and Kat'ar are not so different. This made it easier to blend in and, once you were able to drag and hide your ship off the coastline and fine tune your biotranslator, engaged in reconnaissance with the earthlings.

Your single biggest disappointment in Earth is that their technology is so underdeveloped. They certainly have nothing even remotely like Kat'ar interstellar travel, nor the technological maturation to repair your ship. Thankfully, most of the repairs your ship would need can be managed on your own with some time. The only sticking point is your cracked power crystal. It powers the hyperengine; without it you may be well and truly stuck.

To find out if there was any hope of at least jury-rigging something to take the place of the crystal, you took on the role of a naval officer a number of Earth yearcycles ago, meeting Captain "Red" Ned Morris around the docks and finding out more about intraplanetary piracy. Thinking this the best way to come across unique items, you signed on with the Jolly Rancher as his boatswain.

Since then, things have gone well. The proud words your captain uses to fire up your crew aren't far from the truth. The crew is first rate, and they live and eat well because of it. The ship is in tip-top shape. Your hearties get along as well as any pirate crew, and work as smartly as a well-oiled machine. Other crews you've run across have either given you quarter or been no real trouble, increasing your bounty and occasionally your crew through recruit.

Your single biggest titanium lining about Earth is that primitive technology means that there is room for improvement. Captain Morris has given you free rein to tinker with the ship, and you've made some fairly subtle enhancements to it that allow the Jolly Rancher to travel just a tick or two faster than any ship currently available on Earth. What's more, it needs your fairly regular care to work at all, making you more or less indispensable.

You have noticed in your time here that you're missing an energy focuser for your genetic sensor. You would need something clear and faceted of a fairly high purity, like a quartz or diamond. You went wandering through the ship's stock last night to see if you could find anything of use. You didn't, though something you thought was a gemstone caught your eye in an open barrel. It ended up being a pearl pendant instead. The pendant will not suit your purpose in part or whole, but perhaps you can find a way to put it to use in finding something appropriate.

And then there's the matter of the Blood Jewel. Worth thousands of dubloons to the proper buyer, the gold it would garner could secure the crew's future for a decade or put you up for life. But that's not your reason for wanting it. Rumor has it that the Blood Jewel is no jewel at all, but a source of power currently unheard of on planet Earth. If this were the case, getting your hands on it and attuning it might allow it to serve as a reasonable power source for your ship. You could go home! The crew's navigations have led you here, to this cove. It may simply be a matter of searching. If it does turn out to be a power source, you hope to keep it for yourself. And if that means making it more obvious that you're an alien, you'll do it, though that would obviously blow your cover, including to any other alien race who might have joined the ship provided they have heard of the Kat'ar.

But tonight is a night of carousing, a hard-earned reward for your work. As is the Captain's right, he has chosen to spend the night enjoying himself rather than keeping the crew in order, handing over that task to his First Mate, Nathaniel Teach. This doesn't mean that he won't make the final decisions on any important matters, of course, especially about the Blood Jewel. For now, however, we eat, we drink and make merry! Three cheers for the Jolly Rancher and her crew!

Who You Know

• Sam Bellamy - In her own world.
• Edward Blackfellow, Second Mate - A man who's been a leader. Something about him makes you nervous.
• Calico - The ship's (supposedly talking) cat. The captain found her soon after his encounter with the Sky Devil.
• Grace Duguay, Helmsman - Cheerful and friendly.
• Flintlock Jack, Master Gunner - An intense man who seems to care about honor.
• Stede Hawthorne, Quartermaster - A steady, reliable human.
• Kate Highwater, Sailing Master - Charming but hard to read. She does not understand as much as you.
• Thomas Kidd, Cook - A great cook, and a warm and chatty guy.
• Siofra O'Malley, Cooper - A freespirited woman.
• Lady Charlotte Marlow - A well-to-woman who's taken to piracy.
• Tully Morgan, Lookout - A woman who stands up tall.
• "Red" Ned Morris, Captain - A charismatic, able captain.
• Mary Rackham, Carpenter - A bit of an unknown.
• Bloody Christian Read, Surgeon - He seems to enjoy carousing for a doctor.
• Nathaniel Teach, First Mate - A smart, learned man. Still, not as smart as you.

Abilities

• Crack Linguist - Your time working with different peoples and their languages has given you experience making educated guesses about symbology. You may bring any item with symbology or written language on it and obtain some degree of information on what it means.
• Sense Genetics - You may use your biotechnology to determine certain subtle differences of genetic or biological representation. Simulate this by pointing your finger at the object of your investigation; you may be subtle about this. See a GM to use. This ability cannot be used without a clear, faceted, high-quality gem or something similar.
• Tinker - With some time and relatively uninterrupted effort, you can make small changes to the engineering of the ship. See a GM to use.

Items

• Pendant - A pearl pendant in the shape of a wedge with a symbol inscribed.