The Vow
Day Twenty-Seven, Year Unknown
"I would sooner trust the stout timbers of the Marcella than a city that might be in the keeping of foes, or at the very least hostile to the only guide we have," you reply after a long thoughtful silence. "We aught sail to the Sunset Islands if we are to do so in any place of which we now know and hope we will find there succor from the dangers of the sea as well as some sense of where we have found ourselves."
"And why then should we sail anywhere at all?" Antonio challenges. "We have here food and water to keep us for however many days our learned friend should need to untangle their script an give us a better account of the lands around us."
"While we sit in harbor of a port that has been ragaged not just by the battles of the living but by the curse of the dead." You point to the window towards the south. "There was smoke there and now there is not. Who knows what news they might have borne on wind and tide. We must sail and sail soon least the gold and silver in the hold not weight us down like ballast into the depths."
The captain's expression darkens, but he does not argue further, though his hand is on the rudder and without him you could not sail, neither could the ship defend itself without you or your men, nor make sense of these strange waters without Zaia. The realization seems to sink into your bones and from hence arises a though that would have never crossed your mind a moonturn past.
"Let us swear a vow then before God upon our honor and our hope of Paradise that we shall not merely see the ship to shore, but that we shall watch over the others in these strange lands as brothers, to ward against ill fortune and share the good."
As silence descends upon the cabin you are struck by sudden self consciousness, that you a knight by blood and deed should offer such a thing to a merchant who is only by wit and caution spared the sin of piracy and a scholar of distant land and foreign creed. Then you recall the stern light in Antonio's eyes as the bolt still quivered in the mutineer's back and Zaia running after a dead thing walking that would have set many blooded knights to flight. You might not know every corner of their hearts and every desire they hold, but you trust these man much more than any of those with which you marched to war under the cross.
"I will swear," Zaia says slowly. "A heavy thing this but fit for dark times to light the way
Antonio speaks only a moment later, his voice as firm as ever you had heard it. "I also shall if you will have an oath with such as I Sir Knight." the words which in another might have been self-effacing are more a challenge upon his lips.
"We are all of us snared in the same web of fate whether it be curse or test from on high I cannot say, but I stand by what I have said," you reply feeling more at peace then you had in a long time, long before you set off to the east.
And thus you swear to be true and honorable companions, to give honest counsel to share the spoils of victory and to guard each other from foes for such a time as you are lost in unknown waters and strange lands.
"By Saint Catherine, wise as she was holy, patron of those who would untangle the mysteries of the soul and of the world," Zaia says.
"By Saint George who slew the dragon, may he watch over us in this land of beasts and monsters," Antonio ends his own vow.
Almost you swear by the Archangel Michael who commands the hosts of God, but the oath does not fit in your mind. Once before you had set out as a warrior in the name of God under the command of those who claimed to speak for Him only to find that it was not so. You shall not presume to do so again. Your hope lies instead elsewhere. "By the Archangel Gabriel who speaks the word of the Lord and bears the Good tidings to all the world I so vow."
Arc 1 Complete - Alignment Set to Neutral Good
Triumphs
+Avoided instant mutiny on the ship
+'Tamed' sea cat
+Won the fight against Marco and his mutineers
++Defeated the undead on the island
+Befriended the Inge the Sea Witch
What did your experiences offer you?
[] More skill in peace and war alike (3000 XP -> Level UP)
[] The chance to reflect and change (1500 XP towards next level + the chance to change one of your feats or reassign 2 skill points)
[] How to better train your men to fight not just afoot and ahorse with spear and sword but with a bow also (2000 XP + retraining into archers for 5 of your men at arms)
OOC: The vow is the conclusion of the way you guys acted, which was morally every chance you got, but without being overly concerned about the particulars of ethics, which is the law-chaos axis. Alignment will be something that you can change in the future, but it will not be marked with points at the end of specific votes to avoid the scourge that was people voting for 'the good option'. It will be my judgement as to how (and why) you acted in an arc and whether any sort of change is necessary. You guys are not 'locked into being good' or anything, but you will need more of an impetus to act against established patterns, which is how ASWAH worked only this time with more of a clear cut arc structure so you are not going to change alignment literally between one breath and the next. 
