Derrick was suffering from too much heat just as Woodrat had been.

Ever since Jack had showed up, Ozzy hadn't had trouble with his own heat, and he'd kept a close eye on Woodrat.

Having enough food had solved a lot of the problem.

Food turned into fuel, and then fuel and heat made smoke.

As long as you had food to eat and a way to burn smoke, a man could regulate his furnace even with the over-abundance of heat coming from the eruption.

Derrick told him that they had escaped with a barrel of dried fish and the contents of the late captain’s wine rack.

The wine had been drunk that first night, and the fish lasted several days.

Derrick and one other man were good enough with making chain that they could fish and bring in additional food, but the smoke had become scarce of regular fish.

When they ran out of food, keeping their heat down had become harder.

So had rowing.

None of them was a wood wright, nor knew how to light even a small sail.

The men willing to sail with Tommy weren't the best seaman on the ship.

Derrick had been dragged along because he'd just begun to learn navigation.

But without charts it was an impossible task.

Ozzy gave him a berry to eat and then did his version of the Heimlich maneuver.

Derrick belched out flame and smoke, bringing down his heat.

Ozzy got him a plate of sausages and made him eat.

"We have plenty of food.

Regulate your heat by making smoke.

If you fill up on smoke, then get to work and use it up.

It's hot out here, as I'm sure you noticed.

Heat will kill you sure as no heat will." The boy nodded and a little later got to work making chain, a job he was slow at, but his links were far better than what Ozzy had been making until recently.Ozzy had debated on his Mate's specialty, but in the end, Chainwork had made more sense than Quartermaster.

As soon as he'd made the decision, chain had been easier to weave.

He had a much better sense of the structure and how much smoke to use to give each link the strength it needed.

His kraken weave was tight, winding nine strands around the copper chain in the middle.

Woodrat would find the lengths that they needed for the next sail and lay them out.

Ozzy would spend hours creating a tight, black cable around the copper and then Mariah would run the cable from the top of the mast down to the hull.Chainwork wasn't something to be hurried.

Woodrat had Ozzy work at steady pace.

The captain was busy replacing the damaged poop deck, and then for good measure, he dropped the floor of Ozzy's cabin down by another foot to give him some more headroom.

It was a tricky bit of woodworking, and required adding supports in the hold and rebuilding the floor, but Woodrat had done this job for decades.

The captain didn't want a repeat of his first mate's little tantrum after he bumped his head.

Especially not once they were away at sea.

He kept a close eye on Ozzy.

He could tell when his mate started getting frustrated late in the day.

A quest could do that to a man, when it kept poking at him.

Luckily, Woodrat could see the signs and send him out to hit something.

"Take a break, Mr.

Ozzy.

Go destroy something and work on that quest of yours.

That's an order."Ozzy stood up and stretched.

He felt an itch to get into a fight and a slow anger was burning inside of him.

He grabbed a few sausages and hopped over the side of the ship.

"Be back in a while.

Think I'll go visit that three master, bring back another couple ballistae." Woodrat watched him walk away, knowing that the three master probably wouldn't be there if he were to wander by the next day.Ozzy had little to fear from the charred at this point.

He and Woodrat had explored most of the ships in this area, drawing out any of the doomed sailors still on the nearby derelicts.

He was more worried about a large creature like the kraken that might be hiding in one, so he stayed to the open areas of burnt seaweed, giving himself some space to run if he needed it.

There was nothing at all around him, and he was keeping a close eye on all the rotting hulks, so he was extremely surprised when he heard a small sound and then something clamped hard and painfully onto his left calf.Cursing he looked down and saw a large lizard with a head like an alligator chewing on him.

The critter had clamped its jaws around him leg and was chewing hard, trying to bite off part of him! The creature’s tail was broader at the end, and its legs ended in webbed feet.

Starving Stone hide Croc has bit you for 150 points of damage.

Your tough hull mitigates 90 points of damage.

Smoke: 5300/5770