[b]Starting Date and Time:[/b] Saffra 15th, 301DM

[b]Starting Location:[/b] Azure Strand

[b]CS URLs:[/b] tbd

The breeze was cool and damp but growing warmer, a memory of winter and a promise of spring, esecially as the early morning sun continued to climb. Already well into the working hours of the day, the sound of hundreds of feet and hooves clattering to and fro on the worn wooden docks of Azure Strand. 

Quartermasters and boatswains called out orders and instructions to busy dockworkers and sailors who sweated as they heaved and carried heavy cargo up  and down the bouncing gangplanks. Merchants looked over their shipments with care, their assistants trailing along behind them with manifests and ledgers clutched tightly in their hands. 

Absent from view were the Ebon Knights. Even at the best of times the supervision of the docks was minimal, but with the burgeoning dissent in the small city the knights were keeping closer to their barracks and traveling in larger groups.

But amid the bustle of dockhands and deckhands and milling livestock and fisherman flirting with salty wenches under the glaring eyes of their wives, the[i] Azure Rising[/i] rocked gently in the greenish water, her blue sails slowly unfurling to be stretched tight to the spars in readiness for her maiden voyage. She was beautiful. A pinnacle of craftsmanship and skill. She wasn't the only ship in the harbour, nor was she the largest, perhaps not even the swiftest. But from the most aged and leathery crab-catcher to the youngest cabin boy scurrying across the slippery and barncacle-encrusted w[color=39b54a][/color]arf, all eyes came to rest on the galleon, full of pride and wonderment.

The [i]Azure Rising's[/i] Quartermaster positioned himself at the foot of the gangplank, dutifully jotting down the names of the last of the crew arriving for duty, as well as the few but important passangers who would be joining them onboard. At 7 feet tall, [url=https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/4/43/Dx0805ex_Darfellan.jpg]Darshane Kinakai[/url] the darfellan towered over most of the rest of the crew, his dark black and pristine white skin noticeable in spite of the fairly plain dark sleeveless tunic he wore. As he scribbled down the name, which may or may not have been genuine, of a short but agile-looking apeling and watched the furred creature bound up to the main deck, her turned to he next person in line and asked with a deep and authoritative voice. [b][color=0072bc]"Ho' there, and who be you?"[/color][/b]

The deck of the virgin ship was just as busy as the docks below. The crew hastened to stow all her cargo down in the hold, pushing past the slower-moving passengers with apologetically brief attempts to be polite. 

As the mountain of cargo on the docks shrank and the ship sank slightly in the briney water, a [url=http://i110.photobucket.com/albums/n116/Drache04/abf8045869fd02bd1406aa81e5ee644d_zpslfc5hiw1.jpg]square-jawed blonde human[/url] lounged lazily on a pile of crates, his clear blue eyes watching one of several ship's cats beginning their work stalking for rats in the shadows. His white linen shirt fluttered in the wind and the long straight scabbard hanging down by his left thigh clattered gently as he stood up and leaned over the railing to see how many were left to board.

There weren't many, and soon the ship would be under way. The thrill of anticipation was thick in the air.