Seri remains in the waves next to the Dragon, floating without treading water.  As such, she does not know of the surviving prisoners on deck unless told.

"Cap'n O'Malley.  What I believe my sister refers to by cargo is not goods or treasure.  This is a slaver's ship.  Legati Belua took us captive, expecting to sell our flesh.  From what we understand, this is not the first time he has come to this shore to gather slaves."

Once again, her hands gesture beneath the surface and Minor Illusion still images of the seemingly routine slave exchange at the village appear.

"No man should deprive another of the Wave Father's horizons.  So what I seek is to ensure that any other slaves aboard be freed without question or delay.  If you have taken your own captives from the crew, that is your business, unless you yourself intend to become a slaver."

Seri's aquamarine eyes regard the bold young captain like an uncertain sea.  "This, I at least must know before I sign any Articles or deal further with you.  In truth, I was the Navigator aboard Cap'n Thorne's Horn of Plenty, though he never listened to to my advice, nor told me his true destination.  Whether the vessel would have blundered into Trondro's fury and been wrecked upon a lost island had he listened to me, the Wave Father alone knows."

Seri's Insight plus Guidance (cast earlier) on Cap'n O'Malley's plans with regard to slavery:  9 + 1 = 10 (Passive 16)

 Kairouani nodded at Seris words, " I have no interest in your metals beyond what arms and ships they can buy to aid me in my war."

" If any Islanders are aboard they will be released."

Again, Seri's magical images draw gasps and muttering from the watching crew. O'Malley narrows her eyes, her expression losing its levity.

"Slavers? I suppose I shouldn't be surprised. These imperial types place themselves and their profit above all. In truth I hadn't suspected this ship and this captain to be engaged in the flesh trade. We didn't find any belowdecks, did we Manny?" She asks over her shoulder to her enormous quartermaster.

"No Cap'n," Manny shakes his head. "Only goods and coin." He grins widely and raises his hand, in which is a chunky round gold coin that looks somewhat familiar. "Plenty of coin."  

O'Malley turns back to you. "Looks like you were to be his first on this voyage. The only islanders aboard are those on my crew. Fine sailors and fighters they are, but all here signed the articles freely. We don't press anyone to join us, nor do we profit from the flesh trade. Goods and coin are what we seek, aye. We figure the Verdians have enough, they won't miss a little here and there." A laugh ripples around her crew at this.

"So, what's your deal?" she continues. "A shipwright, cook, and surgeon," indicating William, "and a navigator," indicating Seri, "without a ship. "Between you all, you've killed a Verdian noble, who's father is likely be be pretty annoyed, by the way, and killed or subdued a good part of his crew. You can clearly handle yourselves. I could use a few more good hands, if you fancy a life of freedom and action. A merry life and a short one, eh, crew?" Again, the crew laughs and cheers at this.

"Or, if my offer pleases you not, you're free to go. I have insufficient crew to sail both these ships." She gestures to the single-masted sloop to seaward of The Dragon, on which she and her crew had approached the larger vessel.  "The Mermaid has served us well for the last few moons, but her time is done. Once we're done transferring our supplies, she's going to the bottom. Unless you want her? You're welcome to her. Payment, if you will, for the service you did me in distracting that fop and his croneys."

 Kairouani took in the  captains words, her eyes meeting each of the islander crew in turn to measure the truth of them, " A vessel of my own appeals, what thinks the rest of the crew?"

She turned towards her companions.

" Or would you rather join up?."

Insight- 4

From the waters of the lagoon, Seri inclines her head in respect to  Cap'n O'Malley, relieved that the woman disavows being a slaver.

It seems Trondro favors this one, to command so competent a crew who eagerly and willingly follow her.  Far younger than most captains I have seen...

The sea elf clambers aboard the Dragon, up the net slung over the side along which her companions had ascended.  She grimaces briefly upon spotting the bound captives on deck, presumably the remnants of Belua's crew (and one passenger?).  Not put off by their shackles, rather the opposite - if there remain unrepentant slavers among them, Seri would wish to drown them as well.  Yet they are Cap'n O'Malley's to deal with, so Seri leaves off for now.

"It seems you have set us a fair choice, Cap'n O'Malley, and for that, I thank you, asking only a bit of time so my shipmates and I can choose properly."

Seri looks to her shipmates, speaking after Kairouani.  "Either choice appeals to me, though we know not whether the other ship, the Mermaid, is seaworthy and fit to tread the Wave Father's horizons, nor if we have sufficient numbers to crew her.  Shall we investigate?"

With that, if able, Seri crosses over to the Mermaid and begins to inspect the vessel as quickly but thoroughly as she can, presumably assisting William, with his knowledge as a shipwright, as he does the same.  Seri's invisible Mage Hand checks hard-to-reach areas and lines at a distance.  She also makes note whether there are any remaining provisions and navigation charts, asking Cap'n O'Malley what she would spare for the Mermaid.

As she works, she feels an exhilaration at the new possibilities either course of action opens up.  In her exultation, she gives earnest thanks to Trondro and asks for His Guidance, not for herself, but for William, whose shoulder she briefly touches as she helps him inspect the ship.

(If he wishes, William can make his Investigation of the Mermaid with advantage thanks to Seri's help and 1d4 from Guidance).

Kairouani's Insight check reveals nothing to suggest that the young Azeri captain is lying about slavery or forcing any crew members. However, she does begin to wonder what all these easterners are doing up here in the northern part of the archipelago. Most of the colonisation and settling has been taking place in the south. The northern part is still largely unexplored by these newcomers. Thorne brought you up here on some mad quest for lost treasure, but both the Verdian navy and O'Malley and her crew must be in these parts for their own reasons. If it were just slave labour Belua was after, there's plenty of that to the south. If O'Malley is a pirate looking to prey on merchant ships, there are far richer pickings in the southern channels. It is all a bit odd.

"By all means." O'Malley gestures expansively. "Take a look around. I'm sure I can trust you not to be daft enough to lift anything that doesn't belong to you." She turns to a stout man listening in to the conversation from nearby. He is dressed in a loose shirt open at the chest and topped with a crossbelt, whilst his legs are encased in incongruously fine striped silk trousers tucked into a pair of boots. His fiery red beard appears to give him his name. "Red Pete," calls the captain. "You keep an eye on our guests, will you. Mind they don't come to any harm."

The bearded sailor grins a lopsided grin, exposing several gold teeth. "Aye, Cap'n," he says. "Leave 'em to me."

Kairouani leaves the mystery of O'Malley and others presence this far north lie for the moment.....she doubts those are secrets to be shared.....she does move up enough to give the prisoners a look over to see if any are familiar to her but otherwise leaves them be.

She regards Red Pete with a practiced eye as she waits for Williams proclamation.........

William listened to the words said back and forth between his own motley group and captain O'Malley. Rather uncharacteristically, at least as far as he knew pirates to be, she offered them to take a ship off of her hands. Nobody ever just gave a ship away, let alone pirates who had no other way of obtaining seaworthy vessels other than taking them, so his mind already raced with the possibility of it being a trap. There were numerous reasons he could think of from the top of his head as to why the act of charity. The notion of not having enough crew members was quickly disregarded: there would never be a shortage of people driven to the point of taking up piracy or gangpressed into it. That left a couple of other possibilities. Perhaps the ship was too badly damaged and the cost of repair would be nearly a literal sunken cost. Or perhaps the ship was taken from a prominent enemy and was a literal target floating around in the water.

All in all though, William could not let the opportunity pass to inspect the ship. He gave captain O'Malley his thanks and joined the others aboard The Mermaid. Back in his element William began the routine checks of everything that needed to be in order for a ship to take to the seas.

Investigation with adv and guidance (thanks Seri): 17

With Seri's help, William runs his experienced eye over the Mermaid. She is a modest yet sturdy vessel, built for speed and agility rather than firepower. An Aseri-built merchant vessel of about 40ft in length, her single mast supports a fore-and-aft rig with a large mainsail and a triangular jib, the canvas now bearing a few ragged tears from the recent skirmish. The standing rigging—shrouds and stays—remains intact, though one of the ratlines on the port side has been snapped, swaying loosely in the breeze. The running rigging is in slight disarray, with some lines tangled where hurried hands worked the sheets and halyards during the fight.

The hull shows signs of the Verdians' resistance. A splintered gouge along the starboard bulwark marks where a shot glanced off, and the taffrail at the stern has a jagged break where another round clipped it. The deck, still covered with the sand applied in anticipation of action, is also now scattered with splinters and bits of severed cordage. Along the rail, four six-pounder breech-loading cannon stand ready, their iron muzzles still warm from recent firing. Their simple carriages bear the marks of careful maintenance, though one gun on the larboard side has a fractured quoin, its elevation askew.

Going below, William and Seri find no more than the expected volume of water seeping between the boards. She could do with careening and re-caulking, but there is no fracture or damage to be seen. Seri's Mage Hand seeks into crevices and into the bilge to find unseen damage, but your thorough investigation finds that the keel and the lower hull are sound.

All in all she looks somewhat battered but seaworthy. Her supplies, less the shot for the six pounders, which is of too small a calibre for the Dragon's guns, have been stripped and transferred to the Dragon. A couple of barrels of brackish water and some spoiled food remains. All the good rope and canvas has been taken, as have any charts or tools. O'Malley has moved wholesale to her new ship and is leaving nothing.

Calling over to the young captain, Seri asks if she is willing to spare some provisions to enable the Mermaid to sail again. 

O'Malley breaks off her conversation with her quartermaster and comes to the rail. "What's that? Provisions? Can't spare much. I've got a new ship to maintain and a hungry crew to feed. I'll give you a couple of days' dried food and a bit of powder. You'd do well to get as much fresh food aboard as you can. Maybe you could start with that bird." She looks pointedly at Roger, then up at the Mermaid's rigging. "Aye, and some spare rigging. Not sure I've got enough canvas for you. You'll have to get somewhere soon to refit."

Billy walks the deck, Roger perched contentedly on his shoulder. The big man runs his hand along the rails and looks appraisingly at the rigging. He looks to William as you emerge back from belowdecks into the early afternoon sunshine.

"What's your take, shipmaster? She looks fine enough to me. Fine enough fer a rabble such as we, at least. Generous o' the younger O'Malley to make an offer of it, though we shall have to scrape some supplies together if we're to get beyond the next island. A crew o' eight or nine good hands should be enough, don't you think? Maybe the five o' us plus the three Verdian coves, if they'll come. Those island boys look keen but I don't know if they know their arse from a yardarm, or if they'd want to leave home. Maybe O'Malley'd give us a pick o' the prisoners she's taken."

He turns his attention to Seri. "Navigator. If we're to take the Mermaid, where are we bound? Back to the stinking fleshpots o' the south for intrigue and coin to be made? Follow O'Malley here and see how a real scoundrel operates? Find out more o' the Verdians' business up this way? Did that snivellin' bastard say somethin' about labour for a mine, before you gave him back to the sea?." He extends a long arm in a sweeping gesture as his face lights up into a huge grin. "The horizons are callin' sister. I can feel it in me bones!"

He turns to Kairouani and Thea. "How about you two? Vengeance burns in your breast, island sister. What would you have us do to satisfy it? And you, youngster, is it freedom you crave? Adventure? Well this is it. Sign up with O'Malley, or strike out on our own, one thing I'll guarantee you, you won't get bored!"

" Provisions we can do for ourselves, we know the islands and their hidden bounties and with the Wave Daughter bringing us Trondros blessing we will not lack for fish."

" My heart burns to hunt slavers in their ships and send them into the depths.....but we will need more coin to outfit this ship properly as a hunter......and more hands to take them."

Seri smiles.  "The 'younger O'Malley', Billy?"  Clear as Trondro's great trident in the stars that you know her or her kin.  Perhaps the 'elder O'Malley'...

But her tone turns more pensive as the large grizzled sea dog suggests possible destinations.

"I will not lie, I have no desire to return south.  I... I am not ready to go back.  Back to the Temple.  Though I was already gone too long when I signed on with the Horn O' Plenty and Cap'n Thorne.  Trying to run away, in truth.  To disappear into the horizon.  They do not... they do not see."

She takes a deep breath and looks at her companions.  To her respected elder sister Kairouani, to William from whom she can learn so much, to Thea whose courage in running away from home with such conviction Seri instinctively admires and looks up to.

"The great storm which took that doomed ship tore the scales from my eyes.  The kingdom of Trondro is not to be found within sedate inland halls, however sanctified.  It is out there."  She gestures to the open oceans.  To the horizon.  "I feel it in my soul.  That is where I belong.  I love the gentle people who adopted me, the Olona, with all my heart and always will.  Yet I know I can serve the Wave Father best out there, upon his endless rolling swells."  Coming back to herself from her near rapturous state, Seri hesitates, looking uncertain.

"Like Kairouani, I would love nothing more than to hunt slavers, or perhaps those to whom Belua sold his flesh.  Did the apostate speak of a mine, Billy?  I do not recall.  Perhaps we can ask the three we spared of Belua's crew, or the other survivors currently captive aboard the Dragon.  And it is true I have rituals which can purify sustenance and turn seawater into fresh.  Perhaps the villagers on this island can help provision us as well.  But we scarcely have the strength for naval battle.  I wonder too whether Cap'n O'Malley's prior conquests have earned her infamy and we are painting a target on our backs by sailing the Mermaid.  For that reason and more, I wonder whether our ship may do best to follow hers for a time, if she allows."

As she listens to the others' responses, Seri absently pulls two small lodestones from her waterproof pack and begins humming a haunting tune accompanied by flowing gestures from her hands.  The lines and rigging of the Mermaid within her reach slowly start mending themselves together.

 William ran his fingers over nearly every bit of wood, rope and cloth he could get his hands on. He inspected the ship as much with his hands as he did his fingers. On the whole it was satisfactory, moreso than he would have expected. All in all the Mermaid was seaworthy though she could do with a touch-up. And some supplies. William was confident she could sail with a skeleton crew. Whether that skeleton crew would survive until docking in the next port over was a different question.

'Aye, she has a bit of wear and tear but come next port we can turn this beauty into a worthy ship befitting her name.' William replied to Billy's question. 'We'll literally be running a tight ship with just eight hands but we can manage, methinks. Biggest problem right now is supplies for the journey back to civilisation.'

Ever the practical mind, William already began thinking of exactly what kind of maintenance was necessary, which to prioritise, and which ones he could do himself to cut down on costs. So deep in thought was he that he did not spot Seri's spell already repairing some of the minor damages.

'Battle is something to be avoided at all cost.' William absentmindedly remarked to what Seri brought up. 'And we should change the name and the more notable features. We do not know how, when and where captain O'Malley procured her but sailing with a reported stolen ship is messy business, let alone our lack of man and fire power.'

Billy looks askance at Seri as she comments on his mention of the 'younger O'Malley' but chooses not to respond. Instead he listens to all three speak their minds before responding to William with a grin.

"Aye, shipmaster, I like yer thinkin'! It wouldn't take much to alter her lines and paint her a new name. Not with you, a skilled carpenter and all. We'd have to do away with that figurehead. Too obvious to some eyes, I'm sure. That said, I'd be surprised to see many this far north who might recognise her. I didn't spend two years on my island because the traffic past me cave were too heavy, and ye can lay to that!"

O'Malley interrupts from the rail of the Dragon, looking down on the Mermaid's deck from her slightly higher position. "Ahoy, the Mermaid! We'll be anchoring here for tonight, as the day is getting on and we have some work to do before we get under way. If you want to sign on with me and get rich, speak now and we'll scuttle the Mermaid. If you want to take her and go it alone, feel free. We'll give you what we can spare and no more. And don't try to follow us when we set sail at dawn. You're free to chase your own horizons, but I don't need a consort and I don't intend to slow down for you."

Billy leans in close as you all stand on the deck, speaking too low for O'Malley to hear. "Mr Brackwater here is right. We can't fight this ship with these pea shooters and eight crew. Not against anything of import anyway, though tis true there's more ways to take a ship than guns an' numbers. There ain't many prizes in these waters though. Which makes me suspicious o' young O'Malley's motives. If she's a pirate cap'n, as it seems, why wouldn't she be further south where the fat, rich merchantment ply the waters by the dozen? Any pirate crew'd be bayin' fer a change o' cap'n if she took 'em so far from the obvious loot." He glances at O'Malley and lowers his voice further, to a conspiratorial hiss. "I'd wager me teeth that she never happened on Belua by accident. This was planned, I tell yer. She's got a mission, an' it ain't jus' a'cruisin' for prizes. Now, the question is, do ye want to find out what she's about? Or do we let her fly on her merry way and go a-huntin' for slavers? Which, by all that's fine an' true, is as good a mission as any I ever had."

Billy takes a step back, having said his piece, and looks around the group expectantly.

"Fire Island!" Squawks Roger.

Seri pauses her mending of the Mermaid's damaged lines and rigging to listen closely to the captain's decree.  She prays for Trondro's guidance.

She considers asking O'Malley directly about the conundrum which Billy brings up - why is she so far north?  Thinking better of it, Seri tries a different tack.

"We hear you, Cap'n O'Malley.  Before we make our choice, sign the articles and join you, or sail forth aboard your former vessel, I humbly ask one more boon.  That of knowledge.  All know you overthrew the Dragon.  None find fault in that - if anything, we bless it.  Yet such activity suggests it plausible that you may have made other enemies in the past, and these same enemies may now become ours if the Mermaid sails.  Who are they?"

Seri studies the captain's face, tone and body language during any reaction or response.  Insight plus Guidance:  26 (Natural 20) + 1 = 27

Suddenly Seri realizes that if they do strike out on the Mermaid to free slaves Belua may have taken to some mine, they also need to know its location.

"I also ask leave to briefly and politely question your captives, the surviving former crew and passengers of the Dragon, besides these three with us."

Kairouni was monitoring the conversation around her but as far as she was concerned everything had gone exactly as it should have.....nevertheless she listens for answers to Seris questions even as she contemplates the recarving, renaming and repainting that the Mermaid will need....