Goals, methods, and personnel

Well, I will start with my last point first, actually. It was suggested that we hire some Marines to man our ship. I don't have a problem with this per se, it just begs a few questions. The problem, of course, is that our command staff is going to be equal in size to the crew even if we hire on a full complement. We have six "officers" and two (three?) crew right now, we can hire four more crew maximum (or three if we keep the new mage).

Should we hire all 4 as Marines? I'm not sure if marines cost more to hire than regular sailors, or if they are harder to find. Baltimus makes it a certainty we can hire enough crew to fill our empty slots, but what kind of crew may be hazier. If I had my druthers I would hire a Grael sailor as a stevedore (no more worries about transferring cargo!), which would also give us a good fighter and harpooner in case we meet with something large and hungry.

If marines are about the same cost as a sailor, and have the same skill in boating, there's no reason to not hire them. Presuming we find a grael to hire on as a stevedore, we have three crew slots left. Perhaps we can find a half-ugak looking for work...after fighting Red Men in the Savage Lands I have great respect for their hand to hand abilities, and one would make a fine boarding repellant. As for the rest, I'd suggest leaning towards Masaquani from the old Ograpog nation...that way they would be likely to share our minor goal of bringing down the Keiran Emperor (should this come out in the course of things). Although, if by some bizarre chance of fate we have the opportunity to hire an Atani who knows how to sail, I say we take it. I still feel that a flyer could give us certain advantages in some situations. However, I doubt we'd chance upon one.

Now, on to Goals. What are we trying to do? Stop the flooding is an obvious one. All the money and trade goods in the world won't matter when the whole world is under water (CLEARLY the Kehana are in on this with the Sea Hags...they are the only race besides the Kraken who have nothing to fear from a drowned world, and the Kraken have proven they are against the Hags). Delphino and I would like to defeat the Hags, ultimately. To this end, I think we may need to go back to the Savage Lands. If it is true that the Hags are witches who use the same dark magic as the Red Men, we may be able to learn a weakness or counter to them from the likes of the shaman we killed.

Which leads to Methods. How do we do this? An expedition to the savage lands will be very dangerous, and will require a large, well-armed, and well-provisioned force more than likely. So we need lots of money and a bigger ship. Which I hope is what we are trying to do right now. Trading and privateering are excellent ways to achieve what we want...we can build up cash, reputations, and buy or commandeer a much bigger boat eventually (well, perhaps we will have to do that in steps). Also, a larger and sturdier boat is apparently needed to navigate the Teeth if we are going to go find this Tressa the Red. So I think we have made a good start of things.

Here's my outline, feel free to add, subtract, or append:

1) Trade up to a bigger boat as soon as possible.
2) Build up cash reserves, trading and privateering as we travel in pursuit of any secondary missions we may take on.
3) Build up contacts in various ports and help the rebels in Kiera, which will hopefully give us extra resources and even a recruitment pool later on.
4) Trade up to a bigger boat again/Find this Tressa if we determine (s)he can help us stop the flooding.
5) Pursue L'Ollonaise? If the sword really can help...
6) BIGGER BOAT, MORE CREW/HIRELINGS: Become a force to be reckoned with.
7) Go to the Savage Lands, capture some shamen, and learn their secrets.
8) Inform the remaining Kraken, and kick the Sea Hags lousy asses!
9) Round up all the Kehana and stake them down in the hot sun for a few weeks.