Culverts and Conscripts

Drifting helplessly in the damp haze just outside Oakhaven harbor, The Drunken Pelican remained firmly snagged on Farmer Gilly's floating trap. While the crew bickers softly over whether a disgruntled lobster constitutes a bonafide marine monster, the muffled rhythmic clank of tax-guard chainmail draws dangerously close through the grey mist. As Captain Bramblefoot's crew attempts to quietly untangle themselves from the wooden slats, the steady metallic clink of oars and patrols approaches from the direction of the town docks.

Master Portly's dispatched tax-cutter slices through the coastal fog toward them, its heavily armored guards shouting commands for the tangled sloop to halt. The rhythmic thud of ash oars cuts through the quiet waters of Oakhaven harbor as Tax-Guard Captain Vane stands tall at the bow of the port cutter, brandishing an official parchment warrant while squinting through the thick fog at Captain Bramblefoot's stationary vessel.

With Farmer Gilly standing on the bow of The Drunken Pelican directing operations with frantic whispered oaths, Quartermaster Pip struggles desperately to hoist the snagged anchor free from the submerged wooden slats. Just as the heavy iron finally breaks loose with a loud, echoey wooden splintering snap, the tax-cutter's prow brushes heavily against the sloop's salt-stained hull.

Realizing the tax-cutter is closing in fast and that their temporary freedom is about to evaporate into three months of hard labor at the debtor's posts, Farmer Gilly frantically points toward a dark, weed-choked stone opening half-hidden by the tide. Urging the bewildered pirates to abandon the open deck, he leads the charge into a subterranean escape, plunging straight into the old drainage culverts beneath Oakhaven's outer marshes and leaving Master Portly's finest staring into an empty, drifting hull.