Drake Sigurdsol
Drake and his men strode confidently down the alleyways until they reached the Ruby Ward. As far as the wards went, this one was the nicest outside of the Palace Ward. The establishments here, while certainly not of the reputable sort, were often grades above those of the lower wards. Indeed, there were a number of fine brothels and taverns to be found throughout the ward. Even the air seemed nicer in this ward, not as tainted by the filth and poverty of those in the lower class wards. This ward at least established a pretense of finery and civility, even if pretense was all that it was.
The sun shining down upon them went unnoticed, accustomed as they were to the far harsher beatings affected upon those at sea by the sun, ocean, and all the other elements whose powers were amplified upon the open seas. While they were moving through the ward, one of the mates mentioned that he had put a special order in with one of the local merchants for absinthe, a rarity even in the city of thieves and vice. Drake clapped the man on the back, causing him to stumble forward as he laughed, "Well why didn't you say so in the first place? Not trying to hold out on your captain are you?" Laughing, the men moved off towards the bazaar to pick up this rare and potent alcohol. They stopped only when a voice called out from one of the brothels.
"Captain Sigurdsol, Why don't you choose the world renowned Carmine Maid for your time on land?" The quartet of pirates stopped and looked at the male prostitute standing in the doorway of the brothel. Still in a good mood from the mention of absinthe, Drake laughed aloud. "You have a right mighty pair of stones boy to be addressing the Lord of Pirates yourself." After a moments thought he continued, "Well I reckon we could do wit a good brothel, but we have important business to attend to first. We will be back in a short while." And with that the pirates went off to attend to the important business of procuring alcohol.
When the pirates entered the bazaar, it was already filled with a pack of customers, merchants, thieves, and others. Some people tried to make room for the pirates to pass, but that wasn't always possible given the crowded conditions. In those instances, Drake roughly pushed aside the sea of city-dwellers, making room for them to pass through unhindered. It took some time, but they finally reached the shop where the crewman had requested the absinthe. One of the crewmen spoke briefly with the merchant who then ducked under his stand for a moment. When he stood back up, he had a large, ornate glass container filled with green liquid. He placed it in a box with a felt indentation, specifically fit for the bottle. It cost quite a pretty penny. As the crewman was paying for it, Drake took some gold from his own purse and chipped in. The merchant raised his eyebrow at this, the captain was known for many things, though generosity when it came to gold was not one of them. Still, the merchant accepted the gold unquestioningly, and the transaction was thus completed. The men turned and left.
Making their way back through the crowd, the crewman who knew the merchant holding the absinthe box, they witnessed the spectacle of the elf-bard chasing a small purse snatch through the crowd. It was truly a humorous sight to behold. Drake observed the quick, agile movements of the child, he would make a fine pirate with the agility he had. Then the child climbed a tree, effectively trapping himself. Looking on impassively, Drake listened to the ensuing confrontation between the female elf and the street urchin. A crowd formed, but it seemed their presence was keeping the elf from taking further action against the little thief. He frowned, it seemed the elf was on the verge of giving up, to an insulting whelp no less. And the crowd just stood by doing nothing. That sent the wrong sort of message, he thought to himself. If petty thieves were just allowed to run amok in broad daylight with no one lifting so much as a finger to stop them...nay, the crowd was actually helping the little brat get away with their seeming judgement of the elf. If such things were just allowed to occur unchecked, well, even cities like this one needed some sort of rules. "Time to send a message." Drake said, mostly to himself. "Open thievery will not go unpunished." The child was still jeering at and mocking the elf lass when Drake removed his hand crossbow from its holster, pointed it at him, and pulled the trigger. The small twang went unheard by the crowd, the bolt unnoticed, at least until it buried itself in the boy's chest. It was then that the crowd fell into a shocked silence. The boy looked down at the bolt in surprise before he fell over, and landed on a lower branch, blood dripping down onto the cobblestones below.
However, the silence lasted only a moment, then an uproar began to swell, outraged that someone could shoot a child, even one that had committed theft right in front of them. The crowed turned about, looking for the one who had committed such a deed, and fell silent again when they saw the Sea Monster himself holding his larger-than-normal hand crossbow. The quartet of pirates moved forward without a word, the crowd parting before them, fear and awe apparent, but mostly fear. The boy was slumped in the tree, blood continuing to fall to the earth. Using his height, Drake reached up and plucked the child unceremoniously from the lower limb. Holding the boy with one hand, he pulled his bolt from the body, before letting it drop to the ground as carelessly as one might discard a piece of refuse. He reloaded the bolt into the crossbow and placed the Drake-sized hand crossbow back in it's holster.
The pouch of coins was sitting in the pool of blood expanding out from under the body. Drake picked up the pouch, opened it, and plucked out four gold coins. He looked at the elf girl, for she was certainly not out of her twenties and said, "For services rendered." Then he closed the pouch and holding it by the top extended it towards the elf, it was hers after all. Blood dripped from the bottom of the bag onto the street. He waited stoically for her to take the pouch.