Chumtooth finishes the trophies for himself and Victoriana.
For the gnome, he creates a simple necklace of woven leather with the tip of a giant wasp stinger as a centerpiece.
For himself, he adds the shrunken head of the naga as the centerpiece of his own necklace; flanking it with the rows of devilfish and giant grindylow teeth.
After putting it on, he holds it up for a moment to admire it.
He then heads to the tavern to present the gnome with her trophy.
Chumtooth hands the necklace to Victoriana.
"You have fought and killed the great fl...wasp. Its...sting-ger is your trophy. Wear it so that others can see how strong and fierce you are."
"Eh... 'kay. Thankee."
Chumtooth stands with the other officers of the Kiss of Vengeance arms folded across his chest, and teeth slightly bared; giving his best impression of ferocity and strength. To his mind, only weak and timid sailors would not wish to join their crew.
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Rosie talks up the exploits of the heroes, taking a little liberty, and telling how they rescued herself and Sandara from the clutches of the grindylows. She particularly embellishes Chumtooth's role, with the occasional glance in his direction. With a little help from the others, Rosie manages to recruit three new face to join the crew.
Chumtooth nods with satisfaction as Rosie recounts his exploits.
"All on the sea will know. All who see our ship approach will fill the air with wails of terror!"
He speaks in a strong, intense tone that builds in volume.
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At last the time comes for you to take your leave of Rickety's Squibs, though it is possible that you will meet him again with another vessel for squibbing. As he offered, Captain Pegsworthy is more than honored to smash a bottle of Sargavan red across the keel. "I do christen you, the Kiss of Vengeance!"
As you make preparations to leave, Captain Pegsworthy takes the four of you aside and says, "I don't know what your plans are next, but I'd spend some time getting the feel of your vessel and perhaps doing a little piracy yourselves. And remember, good fortune and sure sail await one what can crack the Tidewater Rock!"
Knowledge (local) .
"The Tidewater Rock?" Dantes furrows his brow as he tries to place the reference. He looks questioningly at Victoriana, hoping she can help fill him in on it.
Vic's eyes go white, once again, as she taps into a hidden store of knowledge.
"What does this mean?" Chumtooth asks, clearly not understanding the man's final statement.
"There's... a story about a place called Tidewater Rock. Sits at a hidden harbor south of Motaku Isle. Anyone who takes the place apparently gets good luck—and supposedly it's a legendary view of the shipping lanes. 'Crackin' the Rock' is what all the best pirates brag about in the right sort a' tavern."
"Is this rock large? Where is it taken? How does this bring luck?" Chumtooth asks, even more confused.
"I'll send Chumtooth and a pickaxe, that rock can't be that hard to crack." Satinder jokingly says to the captain, trying to get some more information out of him.
She will wait till they are back on the ship to do the serious talk about finding a place to settle.
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"Beggin' the captain's pardon," Ambrose Kroop, the cook, says, "But I'm of a mind that Captain Harrigan will by now realize that his ship is missing and won't be any too happy about it. Now, we could go somewhere and lay low, but we'd be better served t'make a name fer ourselves and maybe gain the backing of the pirate council, si... er... ma'am."
"That sounds like a plan, mister Kroop. Now, pray tell, what would be a good plan to receive this backing? Would taking that tower prove to be sufficient?", she calmly asks assuming only her officers are present.
"Building a reputation sounds like a decent plan. Start attacking trading vessels?"
"Huh. I hadn't heard of this Tidewater Rock castle before, but from Victoriana's description, it sounds like that might be a great place to start to cement our reputation. If we can take that castle from whoever, or whatever, holds it, it would be a quick and easy way to bolster our collective reputation."
"So it's an easy target?" Vic asks. "What kind of weapons do we have on our 'new ship' anyway?"
[ooc]As the ship's carpenter, I can craft a heavy catapult in two weeks at sea, given 267 gp of lumber... or build a ballista even quicker and cheaper.[ooc]
"We could have the ship take us close. A few of us can get to shore and spy on it for a while. Perhaps we can see what, if anything, inhabits it. Depending on how approachable it is, we may not have to put the ship itself at risk for this."
"Let us attack ships, take treasure, and become feared," Chumtooth says, nodding at the conviction in his own words.
"Yeah, but... we got a ship. First 'sponsibility is to not lose that. We don't have a very large fighting crew—maybe some 'f our more hardened sailors, like that other short lass on board, have some advice on easy pickin's or work for hire we can take on."
Hmm. I'm terrible at perception, and none of us are amazing at it—we might want to double watches?
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It is shortly after you have departed from Rickety's Squibbs and anchored for the night. At just after eight bells, when the morning watch has come on duty, an alarm is sounded. Rising, you discover that when the watch was changed, the oncoming watchmen were not met by anyone. Upon investigation, they found only a few bloodstains, and no trace of their fellows.
"...VAMPIRES?" Victoriana blurts out at the news, before remembering they don't play nice with water. "No, that's maybe not right, but... something bad's on our ship. Captain, what're your thoughts?"
Chumtooth kneels and looks closely at the bloodstains and the surrounding deck, looking for anything that might be a clue.
"Chumtooth will take tonight's watch. Those who did this will not find Chumtooth easy prey."
His tone is intense, as if greatly offended and near to violence.
"I c'n double that if ya like—it'll give me more time to work on the new catapault, anyhow. But we've gotta make sure the crew don't get too worried."
"Here," Chumtooth says, pointing to a pattern in the blood. "A foot mark with huirapa between the toes..and claws on the toes."
He looks up at the others.
"I do not know what made this."
Knowledge (nature)
Looking at what Chumtooth is pointing out, Dantes shakes his head. "I do not know how you were able to spot that! If I had to guess, I would say it is a sahuagin. We seemed to have anchored in waters they must claim, or at least include as part of their raiding territory."
"An' that's no good. Ya think the scalies might be tailing our boat? I'm guessing they'll eat the rest of the crew if we don't lay a trap like Chumtooth suggests."
"What do suh-wah-geen look like? How do they fight and kill?" Chumtooth asks; Victoriana's comment about them eating the crew piquing his interest.
Vic ponders for a while, then responds. "Fish people. Maybe shark people. They live underwater—legends say in deep, twisted, vast underwater cities—and eat people and merfolk alike. Drag ya underwater if yer an unlucky fisherman or sailor, that sorta thing. Either we've entered their territory—which I ain't sure I heard anything about—or they're followin' our ship and'll likely strike again tonight. Either way, yeah, an ambush's prob'ly our best option, long as we can fight 'em on the deck an' not in the sea."
"They are like Kuru. Kuru beneath the water. The coming battle will them will be interesting."
He ends his remark with a deep, rumbling chuckle as he bears his teeth in a broad, wicked smile.
Dantes slowly repeats what Chumtooth says in his native tongue, noting the repeated use of 'Kuru' in the sentence. His keen mind continues to work out the meaning based on the context as he continues to puzzle out the strange language.
"We would be doing everyone in this area a favor if we dealt with them. But most importantly, they have undermined our crew's faith in us; they must be dealt with harshly to restore that. I think perhaps the few of us in leadership should confront them and keep the majority of the crew just guarding access below deck. Though it may be foolhardy not to use every advantage that we can." With that, he looks to Satinder for a final decision.