The most wanted ship on the Brass Sea has a hold full of stolen music boxes and a navy officer in the brig.
The Gilded Magpie is the fastest, loudest and least successful pirate ship on the Brass Sea, and it has just robbed the wrong treasure ship. The cargo is two hundred clockwork music boxes, one of which plays a tune that opens the vault of the Admiralty. Every navy, rival captain and bounty hunter on the water now wants the Magpie sunk, and the only person aboard who knows which box is which is the navy officer chained in the hold. The captain, the quartermaster, the runaway noble and the cook must decide whether to sell the secret, use it, or throw it overboard.
5 roles. You take one; your friends take the rest, and the narrator plays any left over. Anyone can bring a character of their own into a role instead.
A pirate captain with a magnificent reputation, a modest record and a plan for absolutely everything except what happens next.
The quartermaster who actually runs the ship, keeps the books and talks the crew out of mutiny about once a month.
A navy lieutenant taken prisoner off the treasure ship, who knows the secret everyone wants and is too stubborn to be ransomed.
A duke's third son who stowed away on a pirate ship to escape an arranged marriage and has made himself extremely unwelcome.
A former palace chef who ended up cooking for pirates after an incident with a sultan's peacock.