Romsca, Waveworm's corsairs, and the battle onboard

[Romsca]

Revive! 

Who thinks they know how the battle even started?

[321tumbler]

Ooo! Ooo! Maybe one of the lizards tried to eat someone so that someone killed him and then everyone started fighting.

[Romsca]

I had a bit of a thought regarding this pivotal part of Pearls of Lutra, and figured I'd start a topic about everyone's favorite gray ferret, the corsair Romsca.

Thank you! Even though this was a while ago...

Most people agree that Romsca is gray: She started out as a competent, villainous corsair, but during the kidnapping of the Abbot (and Viola Bankvole), something came out inside her -- maybe it was her maternal instincts or something, who knows.

I highly doubt she would have "maternal instincts" for an old mouse and an annoying vole that probably wasn't much younger than her.

Regardless of how it happened, she ended up defending her victims, and this served as the catalyst in exacerbating the ongoing feud Waveworm's corsair crew had with their Monitor passengers.

Maybe the Monitors wanted food, and they wanted to eat the abbot, but Romsca wouldn't let them. I don't think it's JUST because she protected him when he first came aboard.

Finally, at some point mid-way through the trip -- probably a few days after Waveworm cleared out of the protagonists' sight

I got the sense that this occurred about a week away from the island, long after the Waveworm cleared out of the protagonists' sight.

-- this escalated into an all-out melee onboard. We don't know who started it;

It was almost definitely Lask.

in any case, it doesn't really matter.

Actually, it does. I don't believe at this point, after being at least somewhat changed by the abbot, she would've outright attacked even Lask.

After some exchange of words, the swords are drawn and all hands on deck are fighting it out with the flesh-eating lizards from the sunny shores of Sampetra.

At the end of the battle, the final surviving combatants are Romsca and Lask Frildur. Though torn apart by the giant Monitor's claws, the veteran seadog still had enough in her to finish the lizard off. It can probably be assumed that it was she that thrust the General's carcass through the door.

True, I agree with you there.

Shortly afterwards, the Abbot comes out, talks to Romsca, and near the end of her life, her hard-boiled exterior fades away with her and she dies a goodbeast.

I got the impression that she had changed before she even fought Lask.

Everyone who's read the story should already know this. What I have to wonder, though, is where Romsca's corsair followers fit into this. They fought and died opposing the Monitors, just like she did, presumably out of loyalty to her as much as fear of the Monitors.

There were roughly 30 corsairs including Romsca (I could explain why I know this in another post), and they could have easily taken nine lizards. Seriously. The lizards were tough, but not THAT tough. I think some could have mutinied and fought against her because they thought the lizard side was going to win.

With that in consideration, do you think it could be argued that these largely-unnamed corsairs rate as being some shade of gray?

Possibly. Romsca had been changed by the abbot, and the other largely-unnamed corsairs would have mostly followed her out of loyalty.  I think the fact that they were loyal is evidence that they were more gray than black

[HeadInAnotherGalaxy]

Aye, zae vot actionz zat zey did might 'ave been more becauze ze captain or leader beazt vanted it done, razer zen zem vantin' tae dae it.

[Shadowed One]

I think the corsairs disliked the monitors, so when the fight started they were happy to fight them.