Mateo continues to dive for the item Bastardos spotted.
Mateo hands Bastardos the item and takes a deep breath, preparing to dive again.
Mateo dives down towards the glinting object, only to find that he does not have the hands with which to retrieve it. The object is actually a small chest, which seems to be bursting its seams with treasure. As the man floats there, eyeing up the treasure with wide eyed amazement, he gets a moments notice before a demonic looking lobster creature bursts from the reef, seeking to crush him with his huge claws.
The Demonic looking creature lashes out at Mateo, seeking to clamp its claws around the mans arm and collar.
The Demonic Lobster managed to get one claw on to the man, crushing and cutting, causing some amount of damage as poison begins to seep in to the wound from the claw.
At the same time, another creature bursts from the reef, circling the boat, waiting for the others above.
for
Mateo manages to keep an even keel in the water as the monster attacks; his spear stab, however, goes awry.
"Im like a fish out of water" she chuckles
"On land. And infront of people, sure. This. Well. This is not my mug of rum so to speak. I have no idea on what i can do to help" she gulps as she looks out onto the water
"Best I could do was get us this boat...."
-Posted with Wayfinder
Cadj will send another force bolt on the lobster, from the boat
Bastardos is going to try and smack the reefclaw with an oar from the boat.
Amara attempts to make the lobster grabbing Mateo flee (should be attacks of opportunity as it goes).
Cleric spell Command, DC 15.
Amara clutches her holy symbol and shouts "FLEE" at the first critter.
"Funny, lobster's usually my favorite food. Not hungry now."
Didn't know you were able to talk to lobsters, Amara. We learn everyday...from our mistakes, obviously.
Didn't know you were able to talk to lobsters, Amara. We learn everyday...from our mistakes, obviously.
"Not much else I can do, Cadj!"
Cadjs bolt boils the water with its passing, slamming in to the Creature and pushing it back, bubbles rushing from the Reefclaw mouth in a stream.
The Reefclaw stares up at Amara momentarily, it's eyes going dull and empty, before Amara feels the foreign will break her own, forcing her out of the lobsters head.
Vex attempts to help but just ends up rocking the boat sharply and roughly, causing it to destabilize and rock back and forth violently.
-Posted with Wayfinder
Amara feels the boat move sharply and actually says "Eeek!" She clutches frantically at the gunwales.
The tiny Kobold uses the oar to stop himself from falling out of the boat, then resumes clutching it and sobbing.
"I DON'T WANNA GET EATEN BY LOBSTERS!!!" His voice squeaking out at a high pitch.
The crew in the boat manage to grab on to the edges, keeping upright just barely, all bar Amara that is who takes a drop in to the deep and comes up splashing and spluttering.
At the sight of the woman landing in the water, one of the Lobsters breaks off and sets upon her, as the other continues to attack Mateo.
Both lobsters manage to get a claw in to their targets, causing some damage and clamping on, holding on tight as poison begins to flow from the cuts.
Once again, Cadj sends an arcane bolt into the creature, choosing to help Amara this time but doing only minor damage
Mateo tries to pull free from the beast's claw but finds it difficult.
Vex will try to help her now wet companion back into the boat, away from the angry crabs
-Posted with Wayfinder
Fortitude save
"Damn lobsters! I am totally going to eat your cousins if I ever get out of this."
Bastardos drops the oar and peeks over the side, taking a shot at the lobster.
He quickly ducks back down to the bottom of the boat, sobbing loudly through snots and tears "OH GODS THEY'RE GONNA BLOODY EAT 'ER, THE POOR WOMAN! AND WE'RE NEXT!!!
Amaras body fights off the poison as she kicked her way free of the Reefclaw. At the same time Bastardos manages to neatly insert a bolt in to the creature, doing a good bit of damage, as Cadj aims his own mystical bolt at the one holding Amara also.
Mateos struggle in the depths continues, till with a flash of Grey, a creature proppels the Lobster away from the man. In between Mateo and the monster now swims a sleek grey bottle nosed dolphin.
Mateo silently gives thanks to the dolphin for its timely rescue. Spear in hand, he considers his next move: Try to deal with the reefclaw that had attacked him or maybe try to finish off the injured one above that had been clawing Amara?
Amara scrambles and flops her way back into the boat, and then tries to figure out what's going on. A dolphin? Did I see a dolphin?
She tries to get her head back in the game and draws one of her daggers.
She tries to calm the kobold
"Easy there, so far we are not doing too badly...."
-Posted with Wayfinder
Hoping that the dolphin stays between him and the other reefclaw, Mateo tries to swim up to the reefclaw that had been attacking Amara, hoping to put the damaged creature out of its misery.
for
Bastardos peeks over the edge of the boat, popping off another bolt at the creatures.
At the sound of a calming voice, he quickly scuttles over to Vex, clamping all four of his limbs around one of her legs like a child "OH! OH SAVE ME, PLEASE!
"Easy there. Its okay. Calm down. At least you can do something, try that again, okay?" but the poor thing seems to be too scared for her to help him focus
-Posted with Wayfinder
Cadj grunts as the boat rocks
Now calm down or I throw you to the reefclaws, Bastardos. If you won't help at least try not to be an hindrance.
When a reefclaw comes into view, Cadj sends another missile into it, aiming if possible at the one pursuing Amara
After returning to the ship, dragging with them crabs, Reefclaw and the small Chest, the gang are greeted by none other than the Captain himself. He is duly impressed with their efforts, even to go so far as to dress down Scourge when he takes umbridge to the scuffed side of the boat, the mark being earned from the troubles of Amara and the water.
The Captain sees fit to award your little gang with two vials of a golden / cloudy liquid, 100 gold sails each and your remaining gear from the initial meeting, bar coin (and of course any incendiaries beyond the contained non-ship-destroying bombs of Bastardos gear). When you reconvene below deck as night time sets over the ship, you manage to crack open the chest. Inside you find a mundane collection of treasure, old coins minted in days gone by, jewels of mixed quality, a fine silver tiara and a jade comb depicting a shark rising from the deep, its eyes burning rubies. All told you reckon the chests contents to be worth around 1,000gp, if sold to the right buyers.
All told, the day had been rather a success. But sadly, such things do not last...
As the day dawns bright and early there is a feel of something wrong in the air. As you make your way up on deck for breakfast you are, as usual, met by a grinning Scourge. He hands out Jobs as usual, sending Vex up the ropes to do rigging work, and Amara to the galley to go help Kroop. Bastardos he sends down below to go hunt rodents and vermin.
He turns to Mateo and Cadj, the last two in line, his smile growing unpleasant. "You will be runnin messages fer the Officers today Master Mage. Go see Peppery, she will have something for you I'm sure." As the others head off on their jobs, he turns to Mateo.
"There is a bit more water in the brig than we be needin, the pumps need to be manned. You and two of the boys will be working them for the day. Leave yer gear in yer locker, it'll be too cramped with all of yeh down there. The boys are waiting so get to it!"
Amara walks in to the Galley to find Kroop, sitting at the table, clear and bright eyed, smiling broadly. "Ah girl, come in and sit down. Have I ever told you about the time I served the Hurricane King himself?"
In the clutter of the room Amara managed to find two dusty vials of a golden potion that shines slightly less than the potions the Captain gifted them.
Amaras eyes gravitate to the wall of the Galley where she finds three harpoons. The most eye catching item however is a grappling hook, attached to 50 feet of demisilk, which appears to repel the dust and dirt.
Bastardos hobbles down to the Hold to begin his hunt for rodents and insects. The Hold is basically empty of people as the Crew is above deck doing there jobs, or asleep in the Crew berths. The only person bar Bastardos in the Hold is Owlbear.
As you hunt and catch the rodents and insects that reside below deck, you stumble upon a crate stuffed away in the back corner. In the crate you find five clay grenadoes, all marked with the alchemical symbol of fire on the front.
As Bastardos searches through the hold, emboldened by his find from the morning, he finds some other interesting items, notably a bright silver ring which seems to have rolled away under a small fall of crates.
Cadj finds Peppery in her study. The woman is sitting at a heavy desk, surrounded by wondorous oddities and stacks of books and parchment. She looks up as Cadj enters and smiles before gesturing towards a seat. "Sit dear, please. I have some notes to be passed to the Carpenters but I am not finished writing them. Please take your ease for a moment!"
As Cadj looks around, his eyes are drawn to a small bound chest on a table in the corner of the room. The chest is partially open, as it is too full, and appears to be filled with gold and jewels, a lot of gold and jewels.
[Hanging on a peg by the door is a weather worn cloak which shines slightly and gives off a slight aura.
As Cadj enters the small area at the front of the Crewberths he is overwhelmed by the smell of pitch and lacquer. The room is possibly the most well organised area on the ship so far, rows of nails, plugs and pins sitting on shelves which sit over well maintained tools and stacks of lumber and rope.
Cadj is greeted by Hably Quarne, the Ships Carpenter, who takes the offered letter mutely before beginning to read. He reads over the sheet a couple of times before snorting and shaking his head, muttering quietly to himself. "Woman wants a bloody domed row boat made so she can sink it?!" He walks away, shaking his head, to write his reply.
Cadj has a moment to look around and finds his eyes drawn to a strange bag of about 6 nails, each of which has the rune for holding etched in to the top.
Scourge walks you down to the Bilges, making sure you leave your things in your bunk, before closing the hatch behind you as you climb down in to the oppressive darkness. You catch sight of two men already there, dressed in leather vests, sweating over the pump in the early morning heat. They nod at you as you enter but return to their work, refusing to talk much.
Mateo notices that the men have left their gear, waterskins and their cloaks, on top of boxes within close reach. His eyes are also drawn to a shimmering patch of light in the depths of the water. On closer inspection, under guise of pulling out an extremely bothersome pile of garbage, Cadj finds a finely wrought cutlass, beginning to rust slightly in the water and covered in grime, but completely usable.
After awhile your hackles begin to rise. The men are tense, you can sense blood in the air and you are 99% sure they mean it to be yours.
The rigging has been twisted about by the winds and turned in to a confusing lot. As you climb up you are greeted by a small Halfling who smiles at you welcomingly. "Ello, miss Vex isn't it? And how are you today?" Ratline grins as he shimmies along a rat line and begins to un-f@$# some of the rigging.
Vex spots Scourge and Plugg arguing on the aft deck but can not quite hear what is going on. From the looks of it, the fight is quite heated and Scourge seems to be losing.
Towards late afternoon, early evening time, Vex spots something interesting and possibly worthwhile, Sails on the Horizon.
Take your time, I'm not in a hurry.
Cadj waits patiently as Peppery finishes to write, studying the place.
That's quite the library you have here. You don't have too much trouble with the salty and wet air, or the occasional rodent?
When the message is ready, Cadj bows slightly, and asks to who it must be delivered, and if an answer is to be expected.
When he arrives in the carpenter's area, Cadj is pleased by the efficient organisation of the small room.
Master Quarne, I have a message for you from Miss Peppery. If you want to send back an answer, I'll wait.
"Morning!" she gives him a big smile
"Very glad you're up here with me, cause i have no idea how to undo this mess, will you be so kind as to help a lady out?"
"The Hurricane King? Sounds amazing. What was he like?" Amara genuinely likes Kroop. She sits down to chat, but looks for an opportunity to avoid the rum. She nurses her drink, and when Kroop is done with his portion, she is quick to offer hers to him. If he asks about her rum, she says she already finished her first, and this is her second.
Praying for Besmara's blessing:
"Hey, if you get a chance, I'd sure like to actually learn how to cook. At the tavern, I never really did much of that." Smiling at Kroop, she adds, "My job was to serve drinks, look pretty, and get tips."
Perception checks:
Bastardos slinks down the stairs to the lower decks. He attempts to catch the bare minimum of vermin but his heart just isn't in it; He's dreading the week of servitude owed to the quartermaster, but snatches up the opportunity to postpone it.
Bored and poking around some of the crates, Bastardos comes across the five greanadoe. He nearly chokes.
"Oh, you beautiful- beeeee--uuutiful lil' eggs'a'deeeestruction~ he chuckles out.
He scoops the grenades up and looks around the hold. Owlbear.
"Loike 'ell Grok's puttin' me ta work... heheheh he mumbles to himself.
Bastardos crosses the hold, approaching Owlbear with a friendly grin. "'Allo, mate! Look, I'd loike ta' apologize 'bout the other noight! Lost my temper on ya, I did, was awful of me!" He extends his hand 'Ow 'bout we make friendly again, eh?"
As morning transitions in to midday, suddenly everything goes to s+&+. Missing a subtle cue passed between the two men, Mateo is blindsided by a stiff right hook as the other man pulls his cutlass free from his gear.
Peppery smiles at the comment and looks up at the man, shaking her head softly. "Thank you for noticing my dear. Yes, I will admit that the constant dampness is a slight problem but..." she waves her hand over the goblet of wine that sits beside her and the liquid changes in color from a deep red to clear as water, "we have our methods of doing the impossible, don't we?" She smiled, her eyes twinkling.
~
"Oh I'll have an answer for the blitherin..." He growled before looking up at Cadj, his fists resting on the table before him. "Woman hears about this mechanisim, looks like a crab of gears and metal, can go underwater on its own, and now she wants me to create a bloody barrel like vehicle with a glass pane window and an indepen'ent air source that will let her conduct under water research. What do I look like, one of them lot from Alkenstar?"
Ratline stares at Vex wide eyed for a second, his eyes dull, his face slack and emotionless. He shakes his head, as if to dispel some magic cloud hanging over him, before he begins to smile, moving over to essentially do the womans job for her. "Of course m'Lady. I will do anything you ask, anything!"
Vex catches the faint sound of an amused feminine chuckle and the tinkling of chains, on the wind, before it disappears, leaving the question as to whether it had ever been there at all.
"Pompus, and scary as hell. But he had a fine taste in wine and loved me sharks fin soup. Ordered it more than once to be taken to him in his manor!" Kroop grinned toothily, taking another swig of ale.
He watched Amara with interest for a moment, his face sobering, his eyes becoming clear and focused. He stood slowly, picking up the glasses of rum and moving towards a bucket in the corner, before dropping them in, along with dishwater from earlier on. That done, he turns to survey the woman.
"Ah lass, I have done yeh wrong. Here Master Scourge gave ya to me to train and I have done nothin of the sort. I feel bad for that. O course I will teach you how to cook, would be my honor, really. Right..." he coughed, moving towards a cupboard and pulling it open, before beginning to root around inside. After a couple of seconds of looking, he returned with a heavy hook and a thick length of what appeared to be heavy duty fishing wire. He busied himself for a few moments, grabbing things, killing a chicken, before turning back to Amara and crossing the gap between them.
He pushed the line in to her hands, letting the hook, now bated with a still bleeding chicken carcass, hang from it gently, careful not to splash her.
"You go up on deck, to the aft top deck and see if you can't scare us up a shark with that. I'll teach you how to make my famous Shark Fin soup. How does that sound?" He smiled at her, before pulling a Harpoon from the wall and stuffing it in to her other hand. "Oh you'll need that too!"
Owlbear shies back from Bastardos, looking at him with mistrust in his eyes, before he spoke, "Owlbear like friends but Owlbear not like tiny lizard man. What tiny lizard man want?"
Bastardos speaks in a softer, friendlier tone, as if coaxing a scared child "What? Lil ol' me?", He chuckles as if they were both in on the same joke, laughing along with Owlbear and nodding his head. "Why, I'm just tryin' ta do me job, mate! Mean ol' mistah Scourge sent me down below ta take care'a' the vermin!"
"Say! Now there's summ' we have in common! Ol' Scourge is awful mean to us both! What else we got in common, hm? I wonder... He looks expectantly at Owlbear, waiting for an answer.
Owlbear relaxes slowly, bit by bit, before he begins to smile and eventually laughs a little. His face takes on a confused expression as Bastardos tries to prompt him in to saying something, "Owlber and Lizard man... both like crabs?" Owlbear asks, holding up a bucket of stinking live crabs.
As Bastardos and Owlbear speak, Bastardos catches sight of a small silver ring lying near by, under a broken crate.
Mateo realizes this isn't just another Scourge-ordered beatdown--these two bastards mean to kill him. He screams for help at the top of his lungs: "Murder! Fire!" in the hopes that someone in the lower hold will hear and help out. Then he swings a fist at the pirate who sucker-punched him.
for
Mateo calls out that he's under attack in the small hope that someone above will hear him and actually give a damn. Then he grabs a cutlass from out of the bilge water and takes a hack at the pirate armed with the cutlass. After taking his slash, Mateo weaves a bit [oo](5-foot step)[/ooc] so his attackers won't be easily able to flank him.
for
Mateo slices the blade across the mans chest, drawing a thick line of blood, causing him to stumble back, clutching his chest. He throws himself at Mateo again however, slicing towards his face. The blade misses once more, but at the same time the unarmed man throws a punishing kick in to Mateo's kidneys.
"Now, loike I said, I was sent down here on account'a killin' these rats! Only thing is though, a YUUUUUGE one-" he stretches out his hands for emphasis "-Went and ran up into the cappn's quarters!
"Now iff'n I don't take care'f it, I'll gett'a lashin' fer sure! But if I go in there, I'll get even worse!" He drags a finger across his neck, with a kkkkhhhtttchhhh
He slumps against the wall next to Owlbear with a heavy sigh "Ain't there any way outta this!?" he fakes an incredibly depressed expression, until switching to his eyes lighting up and a genuine smile shining on his face; "Say! I got an idear!"
He springs back to his feet "I'll set a trap for the rat, roight at the end of the stairs! That way when'e comes out-" he slams his fist into his open palm "BLAMMO!!! The rat'll be dead, an' I won't be in trouble! You can 'elp me, too, friend! All's I needjya ta do is uhhhhh... SUPERVISE!
He gives Owlbear a friendly nudge "You stay an' make sure I does the job, and that I don't slink off into the cappn's quarters! Ye'll be juss' loike my Boss! Whadda ya say, boss-man?
Owlbear brightens instantly and laughs loudly, "Owlbear have best mate!" He listens intently to the smaller man as he shifts and slides and double talks his way towards his dastardly idea. Poor sweet oblivious Owlbear doesn't notice anything is amiss and instantly takes to the plan with gusto.
"Owlbear love traps. And hate rats. Rats nibble Owlbear while he sleeps. Owlbear will supervice!" He stands there, staring intently at the little man as he sets about building his trap.
Cadj conjures a small ball of light
I have no taste for illusions and charms. My magic is more focused on doing the most damage in the shortest time possible. Of course, I have much to learn in the ways of the arcane. We all do, with all due respect. There is always a new spell, a new research, a new theory to learn... and more power to get.
After a few seconds of reflexion, and despite his uneasiness to trust anyone, Cadj says
I have in my spellbook a spell that allow the caster to control the natural winds for a short time. It might be in the best interest of everyone that you are able to cast it-if you don't know it already. You might be able to save our lives if we are pursued, or give us an edge if we are on the hunt of a prey. But I'd like to learn some new tricks too from you... I don't usually share so easily my knowledge. I'm not saying that I'm in a good mood, but I'm willing to cooperate a little if that helps my survival.
This time, Cadj doesn't feel inclined to offer his help and cooperation.