Scrounge

Captain Antharend sniffed the wind as it blew from the island to his ship, the Wavekicker. The scent of greenery whispered to his nostrils even as his eyes drank in the glimpses of tall, narrow-trunked trees. A smile attempted to turn up the corners of his mouth. Finally, a chance to eat something more than hardtack and seaweed.   "Smakus!" he rumbled, and the Wavekicker's third mate flinched to attention.   "Aye, cap'n?" The younger Bremaur answered as he hurriedly turned away from watching the lookout up in the crow's nest.   "Grab the seed pouch and a fist of 'maur in a long boat. Scrounge us some real food."   Smakus whirled back to the crew and bellowed, " Darmel's swabbies! Drop the long boat, we're going ashore!"   Four Bremaur polishing the baling pins stuffed their rags and polish into the nearest barrel. Sharing grins, they had a boat lowered over the side and ready to go before Smakus joined them, buckling on a belt of many pouches. Grabbing a rope, he swung down to the boat, landing at the rudder. With a merry shout of "Scrounge Party!", the four other Bremaur rowed hard towards the island.

  Fresh food out at sea is rare and precious. The Basquay Sea is filled with small, uncharted islands. Some are nothing more than barren rock peaking out of the water on a calm day, while some team with plant life. Even more have animals that are too grumpy to share.   Those in need of fresh fruits and vegetables while out at sea will explore these tiny islands. The captain will often keep notes within the ship's log of all the good-producing islands their ship has found, but will not share such notes on any chart. One reason is that such islands are precious and can often mean the difference between a healthy crew and mutiny. Being precious, the crew will not simply strip the island of everything. Instead, they follow the rules of Scrounge. Even pirates follow these rules.   The first act of Scrounge is to go ashore to look for any and all food plants, including trees. Foods are gathered, if found, but a third of them are left untouched. They will also clear away non-food plants to plant seeds so that the next time they happen by, there will be plenty more things to harvest. Any island with growing plants but not having anything they can harvest for food will have patches cleared and planted with whatever seeds the ship has.   It is a common occurrance for a ship to find another ship's planted and ready to harvest little isle. Harvesting all but a third of a crop still holds. After all, the next that might need this island again in the future could be them.