When Greg Gets Home

Greg Davidson (better known as Krusk Bloodfist, the fistfighting pirate and my current D&D character) will have a difficult choice to make when he gets back home. Greg has been a sailor since he was a young man. He got married, but owing to the nature of his job, he spends a lot of time away from home. One day, he came home to find his wife in bed with another man. Greg assumed that the man was raping his wife, so he pulled the man off of her and beat the guy to death while his wife screamed and cried. When the man was dead, Greg's wife locked herself in the house. Deciding that it was best to let things cool down a bit, Greg went to a tavern to have a drink. Unfortunately, someone slipped something into his drink, and he woke up on a pirate ship, shanghaied. Now, he's on his way home, and he needs to figure out what he's going to do when he gets there.

He has several options. The first, and probably best, of which is to go straight to his wife as soon as possible. He needs to talk things over with her, to apologize for being gone so long, and to find out what she wants to happen next. She may or may not want to stay married to him after what happened. She may or may not want him dead. Whatever the case, Greg needs to know.

Another option to turn himself in, give the authorities his side of the story, and put himself in the hands of the courts. This isn't going to happen. It's possible that the man wasn't raping Greg's wife, and Greg's response was (accurately) deemed excessive, and Greg is now wanted for murder. An honorable man might face the charges, and his pending execution, willingly. Greg does not have that much honor. Sure, it's possible that the courts would let him go, since, in his mind, he was just defending his wife, but he's not going to take that chance. Whatever Greg does, he's going to try to keep the authorities out of it.

Of course, one way to avoid the authorities is to stay hidden on the boat. Greg doesn't really need to go ashore for anything (other than a long overdue conversation with his wife), and he doesn't want to risk getting arrested and executed, so his safest option might be to stay on the ship until they leave. This isn't going to happen either. Greg values his life, but he also enjoys a good fight, and he doesn't want to give anyone the impression that he's a coward. (Plus, that would be a terribly boring way to spend a session of D&D.) He'll go ashore. The only real question is where he'll go when he gets there. And, other than to his wife's house, there is really only one other place where he would go.

If Greg goes ashore and doesn't immediately go to his wife, he'll probably go to a tavern. He could, if he's too cowardly to go to his wife, pretend he doesn't have one. He could act like nothing happened and just go along with whatever the rest of the group is doing. If anyone confronts him, he could claim not to know what they're talking about in a "you must be mistaking me for someone else" kind of way. But this isn't going to happen, for two very important reasons. First, it's stupid. Going to a tavern full of seedy criminals when he might have a warrant for his arrest and a bounty on his head is about as suicidal as turning himself in to the authorities. He's not that stupid. Second, he loves his wife.

Whether she cheated on him or not, whether she still loves him or not, Greg still loves his wife, and he needs to go talk with her and see if she still loves him. If his wife still loves him (and he's not currently wanted for murder), Greg might stay home for a while. They'll spend a few weeks living off of the loot he has collected on his involuntary voyage, and most importantly, they'll be together. Alternatively, if she doesn't want him around anymore (and I could hardly blame her for that!), he'll leave her his wedding ring and a sack of gold to take care of herself with, and he'll never bother her again. A tragic ending, but one with some closure.

(Plus, it's one of the few outcomes that will let him continue on this pirate adventure we've been playing so I don't have to make a new character. This outcome can also be achieved by Greg being wanted for murder but managing to evade the authorities long enough to talk with his wife and then leave.)
 
I wonder how Greg's wife will cope with his return. He's been away for about three weeks now, and it'll be another two weeks or so (depending on the wind and the plot) before he can get back, so she'll have had plenty of time to think about what happened and wonder where he's been all this time. But finding out what happened is one of the reasons Greg has to go home. He has to find out whether his wife cheated on him or whether she still loves him or what. He needs answers. He needs to talk with his wife. And he can only do that by going home.