Is that all of them, Kelly? If so, we should make our way back to the Wormwood Holgur says the name of the ship as if he had a bad taste in his mouth and pauses for a moment. Is everyone fit to swim back?
Wait a minute. There might be swag down there from folk who got killed by the reefclaws. If you can all spare a minute I can take a look before we return.
Balsooma grins broadly at Holgur's statement. "Spoken like a true pirate," he laughs, and swims over to grab one of the buckets to tow back to the ship.
"Sandara," he says, turning to the pirate. "I owe you my life, it seems. For a moment there I thought the sea would claim me. I owe you one. A big one, at that." He places a hand to his chest, palm spread across the tattoo there. "I swear by Besmara's salty bones that I'll repay you one day."
With a jerk Ciera's eyes open and she gasps as the healing energies flow into her body. Choking and spluttering she gives a great heave and vomits the water from her stomach. With a groan she sinks back against Kelly until, finally she settles herself.
"Thank you," she says "I felt the bugger grab me but, I can't remember anything after that. Are they dead?"
Since everyone seems to be all right, all things considered, Holgur takes a deep breath and dives down as far as he can. He swims about in the area that he thinks the reeflcaws came from and checks for anything of value. If he sees anything small he will scoop it up and return to the surface. If it looks too large he will mentally note the position and return with help.
Since nothing seemed to present itself he breaks the surface and says to his friends One more dive!
Kelly thinks back to his last few dives, did he see anything down there? He will do his best to guide Holgur to any areas that seemed promising.
After only a brief investigation of the deeper crevasses of the reef, it is pretty easy to see that there is nothing to be found. With the reef's location out in the deep and just under the surface, it's safe to assume there isn't much traffic for them to have accrued anything from.
After a slower swim back to the ship than the one away from it, due to injured crew and full pots, you all manage to make it up the rope ladder thrown over the side. A fair amount of the crew, even the ones that obviously don't like you, are happy to see the pots stuffed with crab and other edibles. The air about the ship is a lot lighter around late meal time. Ambrose, with Balsooma's help, boils up all the crab and concocts an amazing seasoned lemon juice to top it.
With spirits high, Captain Harrigan makes an announcement from the poop deck halfway through the meal, "Well, this is an impressive meal, and the reefclaw was a nice addition. Grok, after the meal, give the crew that caught this bounty back all their own stuff. I'm feeling generous." Grok nods in acknowledgement, responding with nothing more than an 'Aye'.
Balsooma - having finished helping Ambrose with the meal - collects his portion and rum ration, and heads to the rail to watch the setting sun. He idly tips the rum over the side - an all too practiced motion by now.
As he does, he offers a silent prayer of thanks to Besmara, for keeping him alive this day. That done, he turns back to the ship, seeking out the surly-looking Crimson "Cog" Cogward. Finding him, he starts to boast about the events of the day, describing in gruesome detail the hard-fought battle with the Reefclaws. Remembering the man's apparent love of violence, Balsooma weighs heavily on the gore, almost playing out the battle blow for bloody blow, and showing off any lingering remnants of injury that Sandara's channeling had failed to scour away.
After spending a little bit more time chatting with the man, he'll then head for his hammock to get some more much-needed rest.
Their return is to the ship is much warmer than Kelly would ever have expected. The reception actually brings a small smile to Kelly's face as he is reminded of times on ships past, when life wasn't quite so...regimented. After getting his food and drink, Kelly takes to socializing and storytelling. As part of the gustro of his story, he downs his rum in one quick motion.
Kelly spends the remainder of the night smiling and chatting plesantly, spend as much time as possible in Sandara's company, his proximity in inverse proportion to his level of intoxication.
At the conclusion of the night, Kelly will make sure his gear is stowed and secured before turning in.
The captain's generosity surprises Holgur. Nothing he had heard about the man would have lead him to expect something like that and it leaves him more suspicious than anything else. But for now he is glad to have all of his gear back and for the chance to dine on some reefclaw. The fact that it tried to dine on him only hours before makes it all the sweeter.
As he eats he regales anyone who listen with a theatrical version of the fight with tonight's dinner. He plays up any act of heroism that he performed or witnessed by the others and the rest he makes up whole-cloth. Strangely, this is enjoyable to him and even more so with the rum added to the meal and he drinks more than he is accustomed to normally.
It seems that the reefclaw poison is still in Holgur's system and that it does not mix well with alcohol. Rather than stay up into the small hours Holgur heads to sleep.
Nursing her bruised and sore arm, Ciera smiles at the warm reception that they all receive from the crew, grateful for even getting back to the ship in one piece.
As the food arrives she finds herself voraciously hungry and wolfs down the meal in moments. Glancing up from her empty plate, she's surprised to find herself perched next to Slippery Syl Lonegan. Thinking to make the best of the short thawing of relations she leans over. "Good food eh? That story he's tellin mostly aint true y'know. Ceptin that bit where I ripped the buggers arm off n' used it as a dagger anyhow."
Evening action: Influence NPC (act nice)..
Rum action: Drink normally
Balsooma manages to push enough of the story to Cog's liking, and in the end he gets minor, yet still positive feedback from the man. "Eh, maybe you guys ain't half bad. Sounds like you could really keep up in a brawl." his normally surly sneer your way, seems to almost vanish.
Holgur finds himself discussing the events of the day with Maheem, the big Rahadoumi he met early on in the voyage. The man's scowl only deepens as Holgur talks, before he spits at his feet, walks away with grumbling. There was no indication of what went sour, just that the big man seemed irritated by him.
Kelly whiles away his time trying to be near Sandara, but she keeps moving from group to group, and only stops until he starts getting too close. One time she even suggests, "Why don't you go see if you can warm up to any of the other crew. You guys are starting to get noticed, and that can be either a good thing or bad thing."
During all the festivities, Cieran decides to try and buddy up to a poor choice. Syl, her wide eyes still framed by a light bruising from Cieran's blow to her nose, stares at the slight man in a cross between shock and confusion. Her expression turns to a psychotic glare, who knows where it would have led if Aretta hadn't walked over to lead Syl away, whispering as she goes "Not here. We'll get our chance, I'm certain of it."
The next couple days end up being nothing special. Wake, eat, work, Bloody Hour, eat, rum, and finally time to 'relax' with song and games.
The pain of the stripes and the efforts against the reefclaws fade into memory Holgur settles into the monotony of the daily routine.
Profession (Sailor)
Whenever he sees Plugg or Scourge walking about the deck he wishes for something big and fatal to drop on their heads. It would need to be something that could hit both of them at once or a bucket full of smaller items that would make for a rain of death. Once his reverie passes he tries to note any pattern that either of the two keep.
Perception
Balsooma tries to settle back into the routine for the next couple of days, but it all goes awry. On the first day, he gets distracted swapping stories with Grok, and manages to turn that night's meal into a flaming, charred muck, which proves about as palatable as the timbers of the Wurmwood itself.
Thoroughly lashed, he makes up for it the next day by solely concentrating on the meal at hand. However, when it comes to that evening, he is caught tipping his rum over the side, his explanation for which is: "it tastes worse than my cooking."
Day 1 Str: (working diligently)
Day 2 Str: (working diligently)
Rum Actions: Drinking normally both days.
Evening actions:
Day 1: (Entertain crew) - Perform, dance:
Day 2: (influence NPC- Jack Scrimshaw) - Bluff:
Tired after the incident with the Reefclaws, Ciera slowly settles back into her normal routine, working hard to avoid the lash, and joining the crew at meal times. On the first night she loosens her muscles by launching into a slow and controlled performance, whilst on the second (following a tiring day of work), she finds herself once again, near Jack Scrimshaw. Swallowing her rum ration she glances up and, flashing a small smile, begins to chat about the ship.
Bueller....Bueller....
The next day Kelly wakes, back to the routine. The normal day to day work seems dull compared to the events of the previous day. He takes advantage of the temporary fame earned the day before to become familiar with more of the crew. He speaks with Tilly Bracket to find out her story.
The dullness of the routine gets the better of him, Kelly finds himself spinning too long a yarn and gets very far on his work. He burns himself out to try and catch up, but to no avail. Come bloody hour he finds himself the subject of attention.
Beaten and exhausted from the day before, Kelly starts anew the following day. This day when he comes across Badger, the Half-elf, he begins to berate the cruelty of the officers and tries to gauge her reactions.
That night, Kelly feels the need to drink deeply from his cup.
He finds himself near Crimson "Cog" Cogward that evening. He tries his had at bringing him into their "circle" of friends.
[dice=Influence NPC:"Cog"]1d20 + 2=[/dice]
Kelly's language isn't very persuasive, and Cog seems non-committal.
The first day back in the regular routine has mixed results for the group. Cieran and Holgur handle their jobs admirably, Cieran following up the evening with a dance routine that barely even gets a second glance from anyone. Balsooma and Kelly, however, manage to just barely function, and see a beating for their efforts. Balsooma spent most of his time shooting the bull with Grok, and got nothing but stripes and a good look at her stores for it. Kelly was so busy exercising his jaw, and not his arms, that he at least made a good pal out of Tilly Bracket, a tough joker who likes her rum, before he received his lashes.
The next day the two that got whipped locked it up and managed to get all their work done. Since, they did so well the two of them focused on using their growing noteriety aboard ship to test the waters of more of the crew's reactions to them. Balsooma started by giving Rosie a hard time about their arm-wrestling, and swearing to her that anytime she wants a rematch, she might as well just hand over her money and walk away to avoid embarrassment. Kelly tries to get to know "Badger", an older woman with grey hair shaved into stripes, but knowing the poor work he did the day before she kept ignoring him so he would keep focused on task.
That night Cieran finally managed to get to a spot where Jack didn't avoid him, and after he got the young man to open up about the ship, they found they got along pretty well as youth aboard the vessel. Kelly, after seeing the effect Balsooma had on getting "Cog"'s attention, decides to try and engage the man further. However, he's just not having it, and berates Kelly for being so weak and scrawny. Balsooma works on, once again, preaching the word of Besmara to one of the sailors that has gone mostly unnoticed by the group up until now. He ends up directing his sermon in the direction of Tam "Narwhal" Tate, a large-nosed ugly dwarf, the gruff man agrees begrudgingly knowing the type of power the goddess holds over his kind of life.
Holgur, watching both Plugg and Scourge from up in the rigging, doesn't see much of a pattern between the two men. As Bosun and First-Mate, they tend to be barking orders at different people, at different times, with no rough schedule as they deal with whatever chaos the sea introduces at any given moment. He does notice, however, that most of the folk that don't seem to care for your group seem to be a little more pally with the two bastards. Fipps, Aretta, Syl, and Jape being the obvious ones, but here and there Shivikah, Maheem, Tam and Conchobar may engage them on more amicable terms than the rest of you receive.
Holgur works diligently in order to indulge himself in thoughts of getting off the Wormwood. The fact that Plugg and Scourge do not have a predictable pattern disappoints him. He loses himself in his work and barely notices when the day's work is completed.
Profession (Sailor)
After dinner Holgur drinks his rum slowly but finishes it. Initially he was going to dump it but Balsooma's mishap in the kitchen makes leaves him wanted numbed taste buds. Argh, gotta talk to the big fellow about this. Maybe we can scrum up another fishing trip.
When Holgur sees the halfling Ratline he strikes up a conversation with him about how far he thinks the ship will make it in the next few days. "Some of the other riggers do piss-poor work and we are losing sail for it. Every time we drift at a knot or so, it's cause of them" he says between sips.
Diplomacy
Nighttime Action:
Holgur decides to sneak about to see what he can find out what the other crew are discussing on the forecastle. If anyone is doing anything sneaky he would like to know.
Stealth
The rum has Holgur a bit off balance and he finds it hard to synchronize his steps with the pitch of the ship. During one misstep he is forced to steady himself against a rail and his foot falls heavily upon the deck. Naturally, this happens in a moment of otherwise dead silence.
Holgur attempts to chat up Ratline, but the rat-faced halfling just stares at him and nods. He doesn't respond, and his blank stare is a little unnerving, but it doesn't look like he is ready to talk to any of you yet. He seems slightly... mousy.
Deciding to push the limits of the evening, Holgur tries creeping around the ship at night. He doesn't get too far before he missteps and sets his heart to racing about being caught. He doesn't get much further around the ship before he decides to play it safe and call it a night instead.
As a new day dawns, all appears to be going as normal. That is, until work calls, when each of you are picked out for training. Joining you at the training is the other four newest members Sandara, Rosie, Crimson "Cog", and Conchobar. Everyone else is told to hop to their assigned tasks, and that they better work hard since they would be down eight crew for the day. Those of you pulled out are directed to go see Riaris Krine, the Wormwood's master gunner.
You've seen her about the ship before, but only in the company of the Captain, hollering at Grok about some supplies, or her gunner's mate Kipper. Her skin is darkened from countless days on deck under the sun, and her nose looks like it's been broken on many more than one occasion. Most notably is the heavy thunk as she walks, from her wooden peg leg. She thunks up and down the row of you, looking you up and down, and as soon as she speaks she makes Rosie Cusswell sound like a nun.
"Listen the f%~+ up you piece of s&*# f@%%ing pukes! I f*!#ing don't give two g%@ d%+n s+~~s what you think you know! I was doing it before you f&*~ing clawed your dumb asses out of your mother's filthy c&#&s! What we're f~!&ing doing today, is getting you f!&+ing retards to scrabble your limp dicks up the side of a barnacle f+#+ed ship, so I can see which dumb s!@%s can board a mother f&*+ing ship! We're f&~~ing pirates for Besmara's sake, and if you f%++ing t%!*s can't get your heads out of your fat asses long enough to cross a f@&~ing line, then you aint worth a s*@% to us! You g%# d@+ned cock f@%~s get that?"
She proceeds to split you all into two groups, one group are boarders, the other are repellers. Once she splits you up, she takes the first four out into the jolly boat on the starboard side, after having explained to those left on deck what they are to do.
Team one, taken out first, consists of Holgur, Kelly, Sandara, and Rosie. The other four, Balsooma, Ciera, Cog, and Conchobar, are left on deck to defend. The boat is rowed forty feet away and the instructions are given.
Con Check
Holgur responds slowly to any stimulus since getting out of his hammock. As Krine rails at him he wishes that he were truly boarding an enemy ship. Then, at least, he might receive the sweet release of death and not have the echoes of her peg leg sounding in his head.
He drags his ass, head and shoulders slumped, and is the last one into the boat. Despite his condition he takes the oars and rows steadily, if slowly out to position and then takes a grappling hook in hand. He weighs the hook and examines the rope that attaches to it then begins to spin it for momentum then lets it fly in a straight line toward the ship's rail. Fervently he hopes that Krine will not have noticed that his eyes were closed when he threw it.
Attack
Holgur barely waits for the hook to find purchase before he drops into a seated position and grabs the rope at his feet. He had already tied a loose knot in the rope and now he simply loops it through a hook on the side of the jolly boat. Once that is done he pulls and calls for the others to lend their limbs as well.
Climb
The first few moments go easily but then Holgur tries to pause against the side of the ship and his foot slips out from under him. His grip on the rope fails him and he plunges into the water.
[ooc]There is no doubt that the die roller hates Holgur.
Both Rosie and Sandara take up their grapples, and sling them at the side of the ship. They both just manage to get it to hook the side and hold on. They then tie it off and prepare to climb.
Round 2:
Rosie hops onto the rope, and scurries like a squirrel up the rope at an amazing rate. Sandara, however, can't seem to get a get angle, and can't seem to get any further up the rope.
Kelly Grabs the hook and rope assigned him, and gives it a hard throw.
The hook slams into the side of the ship bouncing off harmlessly, clearly annoyed with the task, Kelly pulls the rope back in, resetting to try again.
Holgur mutters something dark to himself as he climbs back into the boat and attempts to redeem himself by climbing the rope of his hook.
Climb
He climbs mechanically without putting any thought into his effort. All the while expects to catch a face-full of rotten vegetables. It would not surprise him if Balsooma picked out especially fetid waste just for that purpose.
Kelly lets out a bit of slack on the rope this time, swinging the hook about a bit to get a feel for the weight of it. He pulls back and lets the hook fly.
The hook flies high this time, but on the pull back, the hook finds purchase on the rail. He then ties of the line and prepares to start his clamber to the ship.
Conchobar takes delight in having the opportunity to hurl refuse at Holgur. "Ere eez some slop for yew to roll een Peeg." He calls as he hurls rotten food at the man, but is unable to hit him with any of it.
Crimson "Cog", instead goes against orders just to throw at the one he wants to target. Ignoring the instructions, he lobs refuse at Kelly, who just manages to duck aside in confusion at being a target.
Balsooma picks a mold-ridden apple - all slime and fur - and hurls it at the foul-mouthed halfling, wiping his hand on the rail afterwards.
all slime and fur
Ciera delicately picks up a half-rotted melon, its round form soft to the touch and almost oozing out its slimy contents. Following Balsooma's lead she carefully targets Rosie, making sure not to get too much of the foul-smelling fruit on herself.
The melon impacts against the halfling's head, exploding its rotten filth into her eyes and mouth. Disgusted by the foul slop Rosie loses her grip on the line, the small figure slips and then falls backward in a slow-motion drop into the sea below.
"Take that ye foul-talking bag o' fish guts." yells out Ciera, clearly enjoying himself. "Ye'll have t' do better n' that!"
Balsooma launches his foul object at the small, tough halfling, and just misses her as she gently swings out of the way. However, she loses control of the swing, and Ciera is easily able to peg her. She tries to maintain her grip, but the rotten juice of the melon causes her to lose her grip and drop with a splash into the water below.
Rosie flounders in the water, trying to hurry back to the boat, but gets herself turned around. Once she goes under, she struggle to right herself and make it back to the surface. Sandara, however, continues to go absolutely nowhere up the rope, struggling to find purchase to climb up the incline, upside-down.
Climb 1
Lack of sleep is weighing Holgur down and he makes only slow progress up the rope. Thankfully, the missiles aimed at him are not arrows.
Climb 2
With a heave and a sigh, Kelly starts his climb up the rope.
His initial pulls up the rope are good, nice a steady.
Having gotten the feeling for the rope, Kelly looks like he actually might know what he is doing.
Conchobar is excited to see Holgur still on the rope as a target, but not making so much progress. "Aree peeg, why are zo eager to geet to ze slop up here on deck? I will zend zome yuir way." he lobs more over the rail, but due to having to reach over it, his throw is as far off as his first one.
Crimson "Cog" still throws stuff at Kelly, this time at least it isn't against the rules. He is so eager that he overextends and ends up slipping on some of the spill from the refuse buckets. He catches the rail before he goes over the edge, but his fury is evident at this point. His face grows a bright red.
Balsooma's latest missile slips from his hand as he raises it to throw, splattering across the deck in a puddle of goop.
Ciera picks up a rotten apple, its flesh soft and falling apart in her hands. Leaning over the rail she peers down to see who's nearest to the rail. Seeing Holgur, she yells out to attract his attention... Hey, Holgur. Do you like apples?
With Holgur in the lead and taking most of the heat, although none of the shots hit, the others have a little more leeway to make some progress.
Rosie finally manages to get her head above water, and makes a steady pace back towards the rowboat, about halfway between it and where she fell in. Sandara is completely flustered and now swearing profusely at the rope, and her inability to make any progress. There are a few times her language even gets a nod of respect from the Master Gunner Krine.
Ciera picks up a rotten apple, its flesh soft and falling apart in her hands. Leaning over the rail she peers down to see who's nearest to the rail. Seeing Holgur, she yells out to attract his attention... Hey, Holgur. Do you like apples?
1d20+4-4
1d20+5-4
Hope you shag better than you throw, else you'll never get it in!
Climb
Having not gotten knocked down yet, Kelly resumes trying to pull himself along the rope.
This portion of the rope seems to have a bit more friction, and Kelly doesn't seem to be able to pull himself along quite at easily. He grunts and puts some extra muscle into it.
He just manages to pull himself up the rope another few arm lengths.
Climb
Holgur briefly pauses to talk trash back at Cieran, and struggles to regain his momentum, resulting in him merely swaying on the line.
After a slow measured progress, Kelly manages to make his way further up toward the rail, matching Holgur in distance. The two of them are neck in neck on their way.
Some things don't really change though, as Conchobar and Cog keep to their respective targets. The foppish gnome has become disinterested as the bigger man gets closer, losing a little of his gumption as his shots come nowhere close. Cog, though, still furious over his almost fall from last throw, picks up one of the bilge buckets and empties it at Kelly. Being hit by the foul waters was bad, but at least he kept his grip, despite how much he may want to take a dip at the moment.
Balsooma reaches into one of the slop buckets to haul out an even messier projectile. As he pulls his hand back to hurl it, the stench is enough to make him gag, causing his throw to hit the railing and splatter himself with rotten-smelling debris.
Ciera picks up another handful of foul sloop and takes aim at Holgur. Just as she does so, however, his words ring out and Ciera turns a pale and then blushes a deep red. Recovering herself she once again launches a missile at the big man.
{b]PPPFFFFTTTTHHHHH![/b] Holgur loudly blows a raspberry at Ciera but then remembers that they are hurling slop from the buckets and he quickly pulls his tongue back it. He makes makes steady progress up the rope and redoubles his efforts.
Climb 1
Climb 2