The elf who you took the earring from gave a very pained scream as he fell over bleeding. You didn't take much that it would warrant such loud shouting, but it was sudden and painful nonetheless. The other elves were shocked as they also witness you eating just a bit of the elf skin. Whatever snide comments they might've had was silenced upon this display, and even your men looked a bit uncomfortable, however they kept their weapons trained on the elves. Your men took the gold earrings off the elves with far less force as well as searched them. Only one had a bronze key with them, and with a firm question from Hector, the elf informed the group that the key was indeed to one of the metal chests, but only one of them. The other key was with the captain, who the wasn't among the group. Sure enough none of these elves looked particularly higher ranking than the other, though it doesn't help that it doesn't appear as though they were in uniform either.

Each of the elves had a bit of deadman's gold, a gold earring worth up to 25 GP each. They were of fancy elven design, making such a tiny piece of jewelry worth so much. It'll also ensure that these elves are given some proper burial should they die at sea, or at least did. If nothing else it showed that they knew people willing to pay a decent ransom for them. "Anything else captain? Usual rations of the bread bucket?" The bread bucket referred to the ship's prisoner plate, which was a small wooden bucket that would be filled with some relatively clean water and the older bread bits the other crewmen haven't eaten yet or only partially eaten. Usually this was saved to make a gruel, but it also doubled as prisoner food.