A thread of blood trickles out as Jim shish kebabs a shark brain.
Mantabbets notes Jim's superb strike and sets his skate wings to propel himself downwards towards the shark-abob. Squinting eye he attempts to ram the stabbed shark and force it towards the ocean floor...
Bullrush?:
For his part, Kaul merely takes a swing at the nearest shark with his mechnanikaul arm;
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Even against the stunned shark, the Dibbs-ray doesn't have the momentum to move it and bounces off the large, toothy fish. Meanwhile, down in the hull Kaul clobbers the other shark hard enough to jiggle its cartilage. It turns on Kaul to feed on the hand that bit it. Teeth sink bicep tearing flesh and leaving a plume of blood in the water.
The other shark is still recovering. The armada of man-eaters idling around the wreck continue their circling not attracted to the struggle or traces of blood yet.
Garn! Wish I could fight like that! Corliss thinks as Jim neatly dispatches one of the sharks quick as you please. Garn! Wish I could swim like these lads, too!
The priest does the best he can, swimming at his slow, steady pace in the direction of Kaul, wincing and then grinning when he witnesses Dibbets bounce off the dying shark.
Kaul swims down fast as a shark through a breech in the hull forcing his enemies to come at him singly. The first shark snaps at him tearing at chain mail and leaving a mark.
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Jim twists in the water and executes a duplicate of the lethal thrust that took down the first shark. "That's two. Kaul, hurry up and finish yours off, hey?"
It turns on Kaul to feed on the hand that bit it.
Bloodied but unbowed, the thug mugs a mako grin at Jim's swordsmanship and attempts to replicate with some claw-work of his own;
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Rubbing his bruised skate-nostril Mantabbets scowls... or as close as his freakishly deformed visage can muster... and drifts back from the melee to leave it to Jimmer... Kaul's seemingly having fun by waving his arms b'for his face.
Corliss continues his dive downward after the others admiring how Jim makes short work of the stunned shark by puncturing its primitive brain. Inside the wreck, Kaul is thrown off balance by the bite and misses his retaliatory swing. The inadvertent dodge fools the shark which chomps brine rather than meat this time. The Dibbaray circles, keeping an eye on the nearby sharks that lurk around the wreck, but the spilled blood doesn't seem to have piqued their interest yet.
Corliss continues to swim downward. After seeing Jim's second piece of swordplay, he's glad he signed on as a healer and not as an added blade.
A flash of toothy maw focusses the thug, and he swings his mechanikaul claw again, seeking to bludgeon the shark before it inevitably chomps him again;
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Kaul recovers and grabs the shark's head in the giant claw to crush it. The claw closes crumpling the head and the dead shark twitches as it rolls belly up. Outside the shattered ship, Corliss continues kicking to speed his descent to reach Jim and the sleek, skatey Dibbets near the pair of buoyancy-neutral floating dead blue sharks.
Jim heads down along the exposed flank of the wreck, looking for openings big enough to haul crates out of.
Jim sees through the resettling haze of sediment that aside from the narrow rupture in the bow that Kaul entered, the entire bottom of the ship has been blasted out of the stern leaving a gaping hole.
Seeing the matter passed for the moment, Mantabbets follows Jimmer down, circling round to the other side of the vessel to check for anything of interest.
Jim leads the way into the blasted bottom of the wreck with the hauling net attached to a line that trails up to the Black Dragon. He is followed by the manta-melded Dibbets and Corliss who finally sinks to the bottom and bounds after. Kaul weaves through the wreckage to join them at the stern. The sharks outside swim in their unending circle perhaps put off by the silt hovering about the recent wreck.
Inside, it is murky and shattered boards and beams crowd the collapsed space. It might take a bit to locate and dig out the smuggled goods sought.
"Eyes open, mates." The Taldan pokes around a bit in the murk, wary of ambush predators.
Lucky Jim quickly spots a glint of bright metal in the murk. Sure enough there is a shattered crate full of breastplates and helms. Next to it is an intact crate marked for swords.
"Corliss, can you magic that broken crate back together? Meanwhile, let's be getting the weaponry back to the ship."
Kaul flashes a grin;
"Hur.. Arms an' armour are all very well an' nice lads... Reckon we should be diggin' a little for summit o' our own? We's doing the risk work fer them topside... Reckon's we're due the re-ward like..."
The thug ignores the crates for the time being, searching deeper for something more shiney;
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Kaul scratches around with the claw while Jim and Corliss work, but the freebooter finds nothing except splinters and muck.
Corliss considers Jim's question for a moment (his slightly scrambled brain not quite sure which cantrips he prepared earlier in the day) and then shakes his head. "Not 'til tomorrow, I'm afraid." Not wanting to seem useless to his new mates, the priest quickly adds, "I could scan yon wreck fer magical emanations, though."
Corliss turns his magic gaze upon the mounds of shattered wood and does sense magic... On watch, Mantabbets sees that the shiver of sharks have finally noticed their unmoving brethren and circle near. There is a dash and then a feeding frenzy shadows the sunken ship.
Corliss flashes his mates the universal sign for magical loot (a thumbs-up accompanied by a big, stupid grin) and points toward the emanation, swimming slowly in that direction while maintaining his concentration on the spell.
Corliss leads those interested in a little treasure hunt among the blasted wood and muck. Kaul becomes a slight bit less speedy as the shark tattoo stops glowing and he has to rely on his own hard earned ease in the water. Among the wreckage a few more dented breastplates and helms of the water repelling metal and some bent blades. finally in a box of underwater crossbows and bolts, Corliss detects two cases of magical crossbow bolts.
Kaul continues to maintain an awkward stroke, with one metal arm out ballasting the other;
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Despite moving more slowly, Kaul easily cuts through the water with a couple kicks and uses his claw to extract the two cases of magic bolts.
"These be decent bolts--got a moderate aura to 'em," Corliss reports. "Other than that...I ain't got a clue 'bout what's so special about 'em."
Kaul mugs a grin as he bobs with his catch;
"'Ave a proper gander at 'em topside mate... We done 'ere lads or lookin' fer bleached bones still?"
"Let's get the armor and weapons up. Watch for sea devils and pale gnomes while we're about it, hey?"
Of even more immediate concern than Whitecoat and his sahuagin allies is the storm of sharks hovering over the wreck in a feeding frenzy. Sharp teeth flash like lightning among the dark mass of darting feeders in the blood frenzy around the dead sharks.
"On second thought, let's wait for that to run its course, hey?"
Kaul casts a baleful stare toward the snapping frenzy;
"Hur... We could learn a few things from them sharkies. Bite first an' don't stop til there ain't but scraps left!"
With no immediate need to return to the surface thanks to Dibbets' water breathing magic, the crew either poke around a bit more or watch the ferocious storm of fin and tooth above with a mix of trepidation and awe. Nothing more is uncovered in the wreckage and eventually the dead sharks have all disappeared other than a crimson haze that tints the sundrenched waters. The feeding sharks move on to other sharky matters and Jim tugs on the line for the ship to pull up net with crates of salvaged arms and armor.
"I don't think we should stay here too much longer--the sea devils will likely attack the ship tonight, so we should be well rested when they arrive. Wouldn't want them to think we weren't good hosts, hey?"
Manta-bbets nods at Jimmer's sage words and agrees with his thoughts on timing "Best we shore up gainst their ways aboard as well eh?"
Ready to prepare for their gambit, the crew depart the sunken wreck and swim upward to the silvery surface. Kaul and Corliss trail behind the caustically enhanced, but eventually all reach the Black Dragon as the haul is headed up and over the side. A rope ladder is lowered over for them and the swimmers are welcomed back aboard.
Once he's topside, Corliss returns the shark-tooth amulet the captain lent him. Not sure what Dingus and his snake are capable of, the priest places the crate of crossbow bolts nearby and says, "Magical" before walking away to a safe distance.
Captain Drake puts the talisman tooth back around his neck and comments that he wasn't sure it was working given how long the crew was down.
The Mediogalti Fer-de-lance pokes its head out of the neck of Dingus' Kimono to follow Corliss with unblinking, hooded eyes. Dingus just mumbles some arcane phrase and squints at the cases. After a moment, he just shrugs and agrees that they are magical. The creepy sorcerer isn't really all that well studied either.
"Had to wait out a feeding frenzy. Cap'n, I'm thinking that with the gear aboard we've made ourselves a target. Think Dragon can hold against attacks from beneath?"
Drake smiles assuredly, "She'll be fine against any regular attacks to her hull, Jim. The darkwood that gives Black Dragon her hue would even give Kaul's ax a time to breach her."
At the mention of his precious hatchet, Kaul seeks out the crewman charged with keeping the weapon safe in his stead.
The brute passes the swab a gold coin in exchange for the weapon;
"Hur. Generous with axe an' generous with tha coin... That's Ol' Kauly fer ye."
The crewmate chuckles with Kaul though there a tinge of nervousness and perhaps he looks a little relieved to be rid of the ominous ax.
Zossrov steps up to have a gander at the mysterious magical bolts. "Magical? You can't get any more specific?" he queries skeptically in his Kelish inflected accent. "More than one way to figure that then..." The bronze half-elf borrows a crossbow, loads it, and shoving aside a stray dreadlock fires it into the foremast. The bolt sticks, the head encased in ice and a halo of frost surrounding the wood around it. "Frost bolt it seems."
Corliss frowns slightly, a bit put out by the waste of a perfectly good (if unidentified) magical crossbow bolt. Pulling it out of the wood, he comments under his breath, "Good thing it weren't one o' them fiery bolts o' mastburnin', eh?"
Zossrov notes Corliss' muttering with an unfriendly smile that reveals a row of jagged shark-like teeth. It seems that Captain Drake is more of Corliss' mind though. "Eh, Zossrov, I'd rather not see unknown magical weapons discharged into the ship in the future. The Dragon is a powerful tough ship, but magic isn't something to be chancing with."
The gunner gives the Captain a 'Yessir' and goes off to inspect the cannons.
Drake turns back to the crw. "So it appears we have the bait. What is the plan?"
Kaul grins at the potential bloodshed;
"Hur... Easy. We've chummed the waters... Bait the deck with a skeleton crew o' a watch (that be us). You lot wait in the wings an' when the sharkers come you'll know the trap be sprung by their screams! Hur!"
Sharing Kaul's thoughts if not the exceptional optimism Dibbs adds more grimly "Aye, its fer waitin fer em tae come... then comes tha screamin an bloodlettin. Best we spike tha ports an shore up whereever tha bastards can get through. We wants em comin topside an down, nei hull ward and side like"
Kaul nods in agreement at Dibbs' words;
"Fish folk out'o water. Fillet 'em good... Hur... Wonder iffen we can eat 'em?"