The episode began on a large pirate vessel crewed by grizzled sailors. We saw a woman striding down the deck in a captain's coat almost made more of stitching than leather from years of combat. She called for her crew to prepare to make port, then turned off camera to address a deckhand. "You there! Stormheart, was it?" We saw Constance, slightly younger, approach captain Wake. "I have a feeling about you, Constance. You're not going to be a simple deck monkey for long. You stick with me, and we'll see you finding knew adventures — away from the empire." Our view shifted around the two revealing the slapdash city of Sanctuary spread out across a small floating island, and as the ship faded Lord Austenwald's Revenge could be seen sailing toward the city in the present day. Albert and Constance resolved to find more crew for their ship, and set off for The Cheerful Nimbus, a rowdy pub where Constance used to do business. At the pub, they met two of Constance's old friends: the half-orc bartender Lawrence and the earth genasi information-broker Jurakkis. After some catching up, Jurakkis writes up a list of people available to crew our heroes' ship, and mentions two individuals who could prove useful in the fight against the empire. Before heading out, Constance checked in on her safehouse hidden in the back of the pub leading to another flashback. Walls covered in information about Molakai Kent with Constance writing further notes. A knock at the hidden door and it slid open as captain Wake entered the room. "I thought I'd find you here." she said, "I'm concerned, Constance. I know better than to question your dedication as my quartermaster but.... Some things run deeper than loyalty. Vengeance is one of those things." Constance looked up for a moment before returning to her work. "He will pay, but it won't be at the cost of your crew. Plus, you know me, I'll just get him by pure chance one lucky day in the street." The captain laughed. "Well, I have a present for you if you're trying to find you. Got word there's an artifact was taken off an imperial captain. Spyglass that lets you track people." Albert and Constance left to interview the first possible Troublemaker (NPCs that can join them as members of the party): Liifeau Yarut, an armored automaton that appeared mysteriously on the docks of Sanctuary and who was waiting for a ship. Liifeau had clearly seen battle, his chassis scarred and pitted as if from haphazard reforging. The two approached him and attempted to recruit him to their crew, but he rebutted by stating that he was seeking justice. At this, Constance stepped forward and told him a story of her past: We see Constance's old ship, The Leviathan's Descent engaged in ship-to-ship combat at the edge of a stormfront. Black smoke erupts from the two ships as they fire on each other and captain Wake bellows "All hands! All hands! Where's my quartermaster?" We hear a bestial screech and our camera turns to reveal Constance with a glowing runed sword riding on the back of a painted wyvern, and the two dive down toward the Arcane below, purple tendrils of raw energy reaching up toward them. Captain Wake rushes to the bulwark and shouts after them "Take out their captain!" They swoop up to the deck of the merchant ship brimming with mercenaries, Constance leaping to the boards swinging her crackling blade in a wide arc. The air warps as space is manipulated, and the mercenaries around her are thrown back. She cuts her way through the crew as she makes her way to the helm before a sound like a thunderclap tears through the air and a flaming cannonball flies past. The massive cloud forming the backdrop of our shot boils away as Molakai's flagship, the ISS Guillotine, emerges with Kent standing at the prow. Constance takes the helm and turns the ship hard to port, the whole structure groaning under the strain. The Leviathan's Descent turns from combat, captain Wake calling to Constance across the distance, but she stays her course. She charges forward and leaps from the deck before the merchant ship shatters against the iron sides of the Guillotine. Constance squares off against the imperial marines arrayed before her when Molakai cries out "No! She's mine." The two face each other for a moment, weapons drawn. "It didn't have to end this way, Constance. You made a choice!" Without response, Constance strikes out at him and the two engage in rapid combat. They trade blows, neither gaining an advantage for several minutes until Molakai disengages and the two stand there panting. The Leviathan's Descent has come near again and captain Wake urges Constance to return, calling "this is not your time, Stormheart!" Constance grudgingly backs away, another arcing slash to hold off the marines as she jumps over the side. Molakai surges forward "You're not getting away this time!" He wrests a rifle from one of the soldiers and time slows as he fires. We see Constance falling serenely through the air, then we see her wyvern plummet lifeless past her. The calm is broken as she hits deck hard. Muffled in the background we hear captain Wake calling for retreat, but above the huddled form of Constance we see Molakai standing once more at the front of the Guillotine. "I'll always find you, Constance! There's nowhere you can hide, nowhere you can run!" Liifeau, moved by Constance's quest for vengeance, agreed to join the crew pledging that he would help them bring justice to Hersagul. The second recruit, Zaiir: an air genasi tracker and Traveler , was significantly easier to convince. They agreed to sign on to the crew when they were told that Albert and Constance would be fighting the Empire directly. The ship crewed and stocked, our heroes returned to the Cheerful Nimbus to track down information about Albert's missing spyglass in addition to where they would profit the most from piracy. Jurakkis, piss drunk, slurred his way through telling them about Pirate's Channel, the space between No-Man's Land and the Wildlands, and that Albert's spyglass was in the possession of an old friend from his days in training: Lieutenant Smithers. Smithers, it turned out, was overseeing military operations in Dun-Simmic under the command of Imperial Governer Clementine Darrowshire. This information in hand, Constance returned to the ship to make ready their departure, and Albert passed a letter off to a Traveler to deliver. Our intrepid protagonists trawled the skyways of Pirate's Channel for a month before finding a suitable mark, but were victorious in the ensuing battle, and set sail for Mara-Dun with the newly acquired ship. The final scene of the episode saw a Traveler walking into an imperial barracks. "Captain Vessinger?" the Traveler called out. We saw a young woman look up from the table where she was relaxing and set down her cards. "Here," she replied, and the Traveler walked up to her. "Letter for you," he said. "From Sanctuary."
