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Amara brings out her holy symbol and says "Grant us healing, Lady Besmara!"
She takes a 5-foot step back to the west to get away from the rat, trying to avoid an attack of opportunity.
"Good job finding the weapons, Vex!" She nods at the other woman.
Cadj steps back, walking on the dead rat, and sends a force missile out of nowhere on a rodent
Seeing the quiet wizard blast away another of the vicious rodents and hearing Amara praising Vex gives Mateo a jolt of adrenaline. Knowing firsthand what the poor woman suffered with the triple-shot of rum, he quietly says, "There's no shame in falling back. I think the tide's turning--the rest of us ought to be able to finish these pests."
"There's no shame in falling back. I think the tide's turning--the rest of us ought to be able to finish these pests."
She shakes her head slowly
"Nuh-uh.... ain't going up there alone... who knows what they might do to me..."
"No, I just meant 'back near Amara,' not up with Scourge and his goons."
By the gods, Mateo thinks to himself, what were these people put through the day I lay senseless?
Cuff lashes out with his brassknuckles seeking to crush another rat, screaming in anger as he does.
The blow connects, crushing the rat and causing blood to splatter everywhere. As his ally is crushed by Cuff, another rat takes the opportunity to jump at the Half-Orcs exposed back.
The blow connects and Cuff cried out in rage and pain, stomping around in anger.
Cadj continues his arcane assault on the rats, enjoying to prove his superiority
"Nice," Mateo mutters under his breath as the wizard puts some more hurt on the persistent rodents. Gritting his teeth, Mateo targets one of the rats tormenting Vex , bringing his new morningstar down hard.
for
The rat dodges out of the way of the blow before launching himself towards Machetes face.
The rat chomps down on air however, as the bite flies wide.
Vex will take the previous advice and try to get out of reach of the rats
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Amara sees the rat on Cuff's back and takes a chance at slashing it with the masterwork dagger.
Seeing Machete and Cadj's feats, Amara shouts "Wow, guys! When this is over, we definitely need to talk."
Amara deals the final blow to a rat, before preparing herself again.
The rats circle once more, one of them slinking in to the space Vex abandoned and biting out at Cadj, the other trying to attack Cuff.
Both rats leap wide, landing and hissing at the invaders.
Mateo shakes his head, trying to get the sweat and grog-induced cobwebs out of his head. His body and brain still seem to be on different pages, but he takes careful aim and tries to mash the rat between himself and Cadj.
for
for
Cadj moves before unleashing another powerful arcane missile on the (hopefully) last rat
As the last rat is blasted off of its feet by a missile of pure force and slumps to the deck, the party breathe a sigh of relief. It looked hairy for awhile, but they had pulled through quite well.
The bilge shows signs of the combat everywhere, from blood pooling in the scummy water, to rat corpses and crates strewn around in a messy heap. From one barrel, you suddenly hear a low hissing chuckle. Through a knot hole in the barrel, you spot an eye staring out at you all.
"What the hell is that??!!" Mateo asks aloud upon hearing the strange, almost sinister chuckle. Raising his new morningstar into striking position, he adds, "Come out now! Slowly...."
Two miniature hands slowly rise out of the barrel. One hand holds only a thumb and an index finger, misshapen into a crude claw. One beady, reptilian eye follows the hands up as a very small, red-orange Kobold peeks over the rim, grinning like an idiot.
"A'llo!" he says with a s#$+-eating grin on his face.
The left side of his face is badly scarred; Sporting an eye patch, a torn lip, and one horn short of a pair.
"I didn't mean no 'arm, mate, was just admoirin' yer, uh- he pauses to snicker "-heeheheh... 'Andiwork!"
His voice is rough, deep for a kobold of his size and filled with a shrill gravel, as his accent oozes out of him "See? I ain't nuthin' ta be scared of! Now why don't we, uh, point that clubbah elsewhere, and make some propah' intra-duct'ns!"
Mateo lowers the head of his weapon. He looks at the creature in the barrel, then to his crewmates, and then back to the kobold.
"Are you guys seeing this, too?" he asks softly. "Or is this a side effect from too much rum last night?"
"I'm Mateo," he tells the barrel-dweller. "And you are...a stowaway?"
The kobold stumbles out of the barrel, losing his footing on a peg-leg, and hitting the deck.
He rights himself quickly and responds nonchalantly, pretending he didn't just s!#! the bed in front of his crew mates.
"Stowaway!? Nar, I'm parta th' crew... sort of." he looks away, his expression momentarily becoming more serious and mutters to himself "Crikey, they pro'lly think I'm dead by now!"
He snaps back to reality, and back into his toothy smile, extending his intact hand to the human in front of him "Name's Guzzuld! Bastardos Guzzuld; dema'litions expe't." that last part elicits a cruel snicker as he goes to shake the man's hand.
Not wanting to be rude, Mateo squats down a bit and shakes Guzzuld's clawed hand.
"How long have you been aboard the Wormwood? And why are you in a barrel...in the bilges...surrounded by hordes of rats?"
Amara sees the last of the rats go down and lets out a little whoop of delight: "Woo! Hooray for us!" She even grins at Cadj. "I loved those missile thingies. Awesome!"
She steps over to the kobold, looks him up and down, and says "Someone shorter than me. Name's Amara. Nice to meet you. I'm a conscript. Priestess of Besmara." She bows and smiles.
"Mateo, Cuff, Cadj, Vex, um, we really need to talk." Amara looks over at Bastardos, wondering whether she should continue, and if he can be trusted.
Hells with it, she mutters to herself.
"Look, someone's got it in for us. I know you might not think we're an us, but they think we are. I think we should band together. If not out of friendship," she looks over at Cadj, "at least out of self-interest."
Amara takes a breath, and looks around the bilge. "If you help me, I'll help you. I can call on Besmara's power--for some reason she picked me--and heal you. I can be tricky. I can look like other people. And I can be very charming. People get dumb when I get charming."
I hope this works.
"What do you need? I need protection. How can I help you?
"Was grabbed there few weeks back by some poirate thugs; ain't really here by choice, mate. 'Bout a week a go, cap'n sent me down here ta the bildges ta deal with the rat problem. I been stuck in 'at barrel since, on accounta' the rats I mean. If you lot never showed up, I'd-a been on the menu by now!"
He nods with a friendly smile at Amara's introduction.
Bastardos' eye greedily focuses on Amara after her speech.
"WELL! I can't protect ya, but I can certainly scratch yer back, iff'n ya catch my meaning!"
"Quartermaster has my alch'my kit under lock'n'key! help me get it back, and I can brew ya potions... poisons... his grin widens with a wild glint in his eye, his claws clicking together to suppresses a diabolical excitement "... explosives?"
He can't help but giggle.
"I guess I'm able to offer you a measure of protection, now that I've got some armor and a real weapon," Mateo tells Amara, though his eyes dart quickly to the frail Vex as well. "If that protecting results in me getting bruised and beat up, I'll expect you to heal me in return for my services."
Mateo's suddenly struck by the similarities--physical and personality-wise--between the Besmaran priestess and his beloved Jetsam back in Port Peril. Amara's like a raw, unpolished version of Jetsam, his mind thinks. Then a dark recess of his brain hisses a warning: Beware.
The young man decides to listen to what these people--now his fellow crewmates--want from or can offer him.
"We might want to do most of our talking later," he adds. "There might be more than just these morningstars stashed away down here...and this is our chance to help ourselves."
I am a spellcaster, and need my spellbook. I guess the quarter master got it too. I can still use these infernal darts, which are accurate and can be deadly..if the target is a rat, or someone weak as a rat. For bigger foes, I'll need other spells. I could use a simple weapon as a dagger, too. I am skillled in the mundane healing arts, but I don't have my healing kit either
I guess one of our first task would be to supply each of us with weapons and armor, for those who are trained in the martial skills. Maybe we could share whatever infos we have about the crewtoo?
"Im just a story teller. I tell stories in inn and such!" still very not completely recovered
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Mateo totally buys into Vex's story. He approaches Cadj and offers his hand in friendship.
"I may be able to help recover your spellbook," he says quietly. "I found a couple sets of lockpicks yesterday. If given the time, I might be able to break into the quartermaster's store and retrieve it."
Grinning, Mateo asks, "Anyone know the penalty for theft aboard this vessel? I'm thinking it can't be worse than the one for killing a crewmate. Come to think of it, are we allowed to bear arms openly, or do we need to hide these morningstars away somewhere safe? Sorry--I was in rough shape my first day aboard this accursed ship and am hazy about most of the rules."
The young man continues to search the bilges for more goodies as he chats to the others.
While the human is busy searching the bilges, Bastardos carefully backs away and drags one of the rats up the ladder.
Machete thoroughly shakes down the hold, while the little Kobold attempts to slip away up above. A number of discarded crates and boxes packed with straw lie in the bilges, among which can be found a suit of leather armor, the three heavy maces Vex already handed out, and 12 sp. In addition a buckler, a masterwork handaxe, a vial of holy water, a tanglefoot bag, two tindertwigs, and 21 gp can be found in the shifting waters of the bilge itself.
Vex sits down as they search the place. Sleep would be good. Yes. Maybe just a quick nap... but no. That would be bad. What if she loses focus? No. She cant be found out.
"Yes. Maybe work together. Birds of a feather and all that."
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Airily, "Oh Vex, you aren't just a storyteller, you're a great storyteller!"
On Mateo's suggestion that they search,
"Oh yeah, I guess we should look around."
Muttering a quick prayer for guidance:
Mateo asks the others to grab up the discovered loot while he starts hauling up oversized rat carcasses by their hairless tails. "We'll probably need these as proof for Scourge, plus...I don't want them showing up in the stew pot tonight. I'll toss 'em overboard once Scourge has gotten a peek at them."
Mateo drags the rat corpses up onto the main deck and piles them for Scourge's inspection.
Bastardos is there to greet Machete with a side-eye glance and a sly grin. He has his pilfered rat slung over his shoulder; it looks like a large, hairy duffel bag relative to the small Kobold's size.
He throws the rat onto the main deck in front of Scourge "G'day masta' Scourge!"
Amara starts gathering up what she can, including a morningstar in her arsenal. Hope I don't hit myself in the head. She gathers up the coins and other items.
"I guess it's back to the grind. See you on deck!" The girl bounces up the ladder.
She follows begrudgingly. Wishing she had that energy. What ever that slosh was she had to drink... not the best of things to try. Maybe tonight will go better
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Cadj follows Amara on the ladder, watching her "bouncing" up close
The moon is full and rising, it seems...
"I killed oll th' rats just as you asked! Aheh, sorry it took a-while!
Bastardos makes a sweeping motion to the rest of the party on deck while addressing Scourge."These fine crew mates agreed ta help me carry e'm up deck, y'see! Aye, they're a foine bunch!"
He turns to look at the group, a sickening grin on his face "Thanks fer all yer help, lads'n'lasses, bot I think I can handle things from e're on!"
Vex was too tired and too sleep deprived to try and contradict the talking lizzard
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Scourge frowns, looking at Bastardos with a long suffering look on his face. "You disappeared like a week ago ya runt. We thought ye were dead, and good riddance to yah!" He growled kicking out with no real malice at the Kobold before sighing. "Ah forget it... Well yeh did yer job, all of yeh it seems. So go talk to Grok, tell er I said yeh can get some of yer items back. Now be off with yeh. And get rid of these bloody things off of my deck. And as yeh had yer mates carry em up here Bastardos, I'll expect yeh to have the deck cleaned before night!"
Bastardos curses under his breath as his scheme backfires.
He approaches the biggest, burliest, dumbest-looking swab in sight - Jaundiced Jape.
"Oi! Jape! Scourge's orders are ta scrub this deck, 'till he can see his face in it! He's givin' me a break, on account of I took car'v'a rats already!"
"And don't bother Scourge with'ss! He's too busy fer yer s@*&, 'swhy he sent me, ay mate!?"
Bastardos approaches the counter for the Quartermaster, doing his best to peer over it.
"GROK! Vision of loveliness! OH! How your tusks capta' the light-a-th' moon!
He lays his hands on the counter, and puts on a more serious expression "Look, Scourge said we can 'ave som'v our 'tings back... Iff'n it weren't so much troubl, I'd like my aelchmy kit back."
Vex slowly makes her way to where Grok should be. Making sure not to stumble or cause trouble on her way there
"Greeting Grok. I was told we can have some of our supplies back. You know, the stuff we had before we were... invited on board. I for one am glad I don't have to do what the kobold has to do... I don't have the energy in me to even climb stairs. Never mind swab the deck..."
She gives a big yawn, and slumps down on what ever was available
"So uhm, would you mind terribly if I can have my things back? MY dice, they have brought me quite some luck in tavern bets. Let's see... oh yes, my scarf! soft and warm. And then well, my armour and my sword. Just in case i have to try and fight off another swarm of rats"
Amara doesn't need much. And that dagger I found is better than the ones I have.
What do I remember about Grok?
"Good day, and blessings to you, Grok! Scourge said we could have four items back--could I have my buckler, studded leather armor, oh and maybe my nice clothes and soap? I wouldn't mind cleaning up a bit."
Looking over and down at the kobold, she adds, "Bastardos here could sure use his alchemy kit back. I bet he can do all sorts of interesting things with potions and such. I'm sure he would share the fun stuff out of gratitude!"
(Prayer for guidance--0th level spell, +1 to skill checks)
Aside to Bastardos: "Remember, you owe me, if this works."
Mateo feels bad for the scrawny kobold having to do the rough manual labor. Still, he's not at his best from last night's triple shot of rum....
He grabs a holystone and sets to work, chatting a bit with the scaly alchemist.
"I'll have no trouble sleeping tonight!" he comments while stretching his tired muscles.
When he gets the opportunity, he makes his first visit to the quartermaster's store.
"Ahoy. The name's Mateo. Master Scourge said I could have four pieces of my old equipment back for helping end the giant rat infestation in the bilges. I'd like my chain shirt, a sap, and both my machetes. I'm training to learn how to use 'em both in tandem--tricky work."
Cadj adresses the half orc very formally
Quartermaster, Master Scourge "kindly" allowed me to get some of my equipment back too. I'll need my spellbooks, both my regular and my travelling one, my healing kit, and my artisans tools, to be as efficient as possible. Beside, I'd like to exchange this ring I found for my weapons: a couple of daggers and some brass knuckles, and anything from my equipment you'd be willing to add, as I evaluate the ring around 15 gold pieces.