RPS: Nine Lives and Counting...

“Bottoms up lads, it will be one of the few times you’ll be able to drink this much without paying!” Hannah said, setting the tray full of mugs down in the center of the table.

“Thanks Hannah!” Jacques said, snatching one of the mugs up before another of the crew could. She smiled and nodded to them before moving back to the bar to return the tray and fetch a few more mugs for the rest of the crew.

Usually the Golden Dubloon was packed with patrons, and if it wasn’t, her boss was always lurking around somewhere, but tonight Hannah had been the only one left to tend to it, so it was a rare opportunity for Garin to talk his way into letting them use it for a celebration that night. He had a way of doing that with her…

Hannah blushed and shook her head a little, filling up the new tray and taking it to the table whilst singing a small tune to herself.

“I’m somewhat ill and bothered,
That is really quite alarming,
I have two lads pursuing me,
And each of them is charming.

One is dark and poor,
One fair with lots of money,
I don’t know which one to choose,
The flower, or the honey.”

“Anyone I know of?” Garin asked, quirking an eyebrow at her as he took a mug from the tray. Hannah winked at him.

“Maybe so, and maybe not,” she joked, turning to take the empty tray back to the bar, but Garin took her by the arm and pulled her into his lap. “Hey!” she laughed.

“Relax love, you won’t get scolded this night.” Garin said with a return wink.

“Oi, if you two are going to get all lovey-dovey, mind taking back to your cabin?” Sea Cat asked over the edge of her mug.

Hannah pouted at her, snatching Garin’s mug from him carefully and intercepting his first swig before handing it back to him. “You’re just jealous!” she said in a false, mocking tone.

“Of Garin? Don’t be silly.”

“Oi!” Garin snapped as he took back his mug, and the crew laughed, with Jacques nearly falling out of his chair.

Late into the evening went the talk, jokes, even a few songs, so much so that it didn’t take the crew long to work their collective way through several bottles from behind the bar. Hannah was beginning to worry that there would be so many gone that her boss would actually notice, and if not him, then one of the other barmaids would.

“Last call, lads,” she said, setting down an empty mug of her own.

“Stingy!” Sea Cat hollered at her from across the table. Jacques laughed.

“The hell you talkin’ about, Cat? Don’t pretend that you’re not startin’ to feel it!” he asked.

“About time, too.” Garin looked into his half empty mug. “I think this last batch was the hardest hitter…”

“Mm-hm…” Sea Cat stuck her finger into her mug and swirled it around in the grog. “…Odd, really… For it to hit this hard…”

“Ooh…” Hannah rubbed her head and leaned against Garin from her chair. He leaned back a bit to give her more shoulder to lay her head on, feeling his own head spin.

“You alright, love?”

“Yes… Just feel… sleepy…”

Garin blinked away his own sudden grogginess, glancing at Jacques, whose head was suddenly drifting down to the wooden table, eyes finding Garin with a haziness that went beyond your average drunkenness.

“What was… in that grog…?” Jacques managed to mumble before a yawn escaped him. Garin looked back down at his mug before letting it fall from his hands as his eyelids drifted shut, again and again.

It was only as he drifted off into forced unconsciousness, that he realized that they had all been drugged.
~~~
Hours past. It was nearly morning by the time his senses returned to him and the crew. Jacques was the first to come out of it completely, and he looked around the room, helping Talak up off the ground before turning to Garin, who was slumped in his chair like the night before.

“Garin, wake up!” he said, missing his friend’s shoulder for a moment as the left-over fuzziness blurred his senses. Garin groaned and pulled his head back, looking around the tavern for his bearings before his eyes landed on his friend and began to regain focus.

Feeling an absence to his shoulder caused his heart to race, and he turned quickly, sighing in relief when he found that Hannah had only slumped down to the floor and now lay curled beneath the table. He dipped down and gently pulled her out as she began to stir, rubbing her head and glancing at a mug that had been left on the table.

“That was no ordinary sudden stupor,” she said.

“We were drugged,” Jacques confirmed.

“But why and by whom?” Garin asked, letting Hannah sit on the edge of the table before quickly searching his pockets. His weapons, money, everything was still there, and seeing Jacques do likewise confirmed that he hadn’t been robbed either.

“Nothing missing,” Hannah said, searching herself briefly while glancing around at the crew, who also checked their pockets. After a second glance, her eyes widened and she stood from the table. “Wait, where’s Sea Cat?” she asked.

All heads turned to the chair she had last been seen in, finding it empty, and lopsided against the table, as though it had been pushed aside. Her mug lay a few feet away from the table, contents spilled onto the floor, but clearly enough to show that she had to have consumed enough of it to be as unconscious as the rest of them had been during the night.

Jacques looked at Garin. “You… don’t think…?”

“I do think.” Garin said, glancing over to the tavern door, which was open ajar, and nodded. “But sitting around here won’t do us any good. Everyone on your feet and look around! There’s bound to be some sort of clue…”
~~~
Even after the drug had done its work, she could feel the slightest sensation of being carried on someone’s shoulder out of the tavern and into the cold air of night… for how long, she wasn’t sure, and to where, she had no idea. In her state, there was little going through her mind until her eyes finally opened and she found herself in an unfamiliar bunk, and heard voices close by. Her arms felt like lead, but she managed to creep one up her side and feel around her sash belt for any of her weapons, but to no avail. She cursed, verbally and then mentally as her voice caught the attention of whoever was in the room with her…