The ship was called Storm Breaker. It sat low in the water, it's hull heavy with iron and steel reinforcement. Her captain was want to say that she could withstand any gale, not be hindered by any sea swell due to her weight and solid engineering. She was the pride of the East Selden Trading Company.
You sit chained to three other companions, each two of you rowing one of the massive iron clad oars that propels the Storm Breaker to her destination. You are a slave, captured years ago as a prisoner of war or a criminal, or perhaps just an unlucky native of the lands the ESTC has occupied with their paramilitary mercenary forces.
The ESTC is a charter company created by various merchant guilds within Selden, and it's goal is to control the archipelagos that exist south and east of the Selden continent. These island chains, many of them of volcanic birth, are rich in minerals and other exports such as spices, fruits, and textiles. They are also rich in natives easily exploited and enslaved.
You and your companions are unique on the Storm Breaker. While most of the other slaves around you are generally of simple birth, a dearth of farmers and simple craftsman, you and your companions are experienced in battle and arms. Perhaps this is why you have been chained together inside the hull of this ship for the past two years, only seeing the sun through cracks in the ships upper deck, and never knowing anything of the islands you visit except the faint hint of a spiced breeze.
The chains themselves are inlaid with an anti-magic field, giving you or your companions no chance of glamouring your way free. And so you find yourselves, chained and forgotten, when the storm that breaks the Storm Breaker swells across the sea.
