"Passengers! Passengers! May I have your attention!" Calls out a lovely halfelven girl waiving her hand in the air.
"I am Yeoman Azuretta and I'll need to see your tickets before I take you down to your berths." She continued.
A big wild haired man emerged from belowdecks. He glanced about the deck with a look of authority.
At the sight of the two guards, he gave a double take.
"HEY! YOU LOT! WHAT'RE YE DOING ABOARD HERE?" He thundered, grabbing a belaying pin from a mast and stumping threateningly towards the guards.
Up the gangplank came striding silently a richly robed... person of some kind. You can't quite tell what kind he is.
"Milord Sephriel!" Gushed Azuretta, dropping you all like hot potatoes as she ran over to fawn all over him.
Lord Sephriel showed two tickets to the Yeoman.
Following Sephriel up the gangplank and aboard the ship came an young looking elf. He has his hands (and even his teeth) full carrying bags, duffels and purses, as well as dragging two large trunks that somehow float through the air.
You guesstimate that this is a servant of some kind to Sephriel as he follows the lord and yeoman below.
You aren't sure what the guards told the big guy, but you could sure hear him.
"YOU WANT TO SEARCH THE SHIP?" He bellowed disbelievingly. "WE'RE MINUTES AWAY FROM CASTING OFF! I AM NOT SPENDING THE NEXT SIX MONTHS CRAMMED IN WITH YOU NITWITS!" He shouted, waiving his belaying pin.
The guards tensed, mulishly standing their ground and their hands inching towards their weapons.
Among the last minute supplies being brought aboard is a whole lot of potatoes, but nothing green like you would expect. Nor spices.
From the dockside came a high querulous voice, and Reijo's heart almost stops as he hears...
"HEY! REIJO BOY! YOU ABOARD THERE?! HEEEEEEE HE HE HE!!"
When you look, you see an older nut brown gap toothed sailor man with an easy grin striding down the docks tapping away with a stick and somehow avoiding the surrounding foot traffic. More noticeable is the fact that he has an eyepatch over BOTH eyes.
The guards attention suddenly turned to the blind sailor on the docks, and they quickly hustle down the gangplank towards him.
You see three colorfully garbed Szcarni folk slipping knives into their hands and sliding through the crowd.
You see a short richly dressed dwarf accompanied by four large... persons (you're not sure of their race, they resemble nothing so much as shaven gorillas.)
You see a woman with murder in her eyes and a frying pan in her hands.
And several others you can't quite see through the crowd.
Nahti looks at the man giving her a strange look. "Urp. Yes, thank you. No used to the food up here in Varisia."
She turns in the other direction, and talks in a low voice to the goblin hiding in her cloak.
"Zakgrob, do you have a ticket?" she asks in a low voice.
Shaedeen creeps up onto the deck when the female voice calls for passengers' tickets. She holds hers in trembling hands, uncertain if her ally has provided her with the real thing or if she's about to be betrayed for the second time in as many days. She arrives on deck in time to witness some of the comings and goings of guards, elves, and other folk.
Sunny slips down one of the sail ropes and bounces up to the partly Elven lass.
"Hey-YA there! M'name be 'Sunny' in'a speakin' of tha' peoples." She exctends a tanned arm towards the girl then blinks and tilts her blond head.
"Wots a 'tick-ette'?" (^_^)
Thurden's eyes shift between the guards and the large man arguing on the deck, the supplies being loaded onto the ship and anyone approaching from the dock. As the guards disembark, the dwarf's eyes take in the flurry of activity moving towards the ship.
'This looks like trouble, maybe helping that fella wasn't such a hot idea' Thurden says under his breath. 'I think it may be best we shove off, the Mermaid looks like it's going to get crowded soon.' He calls out to anyone with any authority.
Zakgrob went still again as others began to 'poke' a bit at Nhati. There was much yelling and he dared to move out from under her cloak, but kept her between him and the guards. It didn't sound like they were after him, but better safe than sorry.
"Yes, Mistress. Me have ticket!" He quickly fumbled around and pulled out a ticket. Then he looked surprised. "Oh! Your ticket too! Right! I have it somewhere...Or me ticket somewhere.." As he spoke, he fumbled around, and bumped her several times as he 'looked for a ticket' and then suddenly produced a second one - hers! It wouldn't fool many if they were watching closely but he didn't care. He proudly held up the two tickets for her with a toothy grin.
He looked around and frowned mightily. The guards had left so he was likely okay. But - who would let a ship sail in such a state?? He trundled over to the big yelling guy after the guards were gone. "Hey. Why you not have someone clean barnacles off ship? Make very slow." He crossed his arms.
When the two guards are accosted by the wild-haired man, the blue-eyed man grins widely in their direction. Now, normally a grin would indicate joy, or happiness. Not so with this one... for his grin sends shivers down the spine of the hardiest of folk. The ruse of nonchalance moments ago now gives way to the visage of a madman about to gleefully murder his prey.
Fortunately, the sound of a familiar voice on shore quickly turns his evil grin to a grimace and a sigh.
"Aye, Blindey!" Reijo calls back to the blind man. "What? Ye come ta bum some more o'me fine tobacco now?"
"Come on then. I got yer ticket." Reijo draws his pipe back out and lights up. Retrieving two tickets from his pocket, he shows them to the yeoman when she comes to collect them.
Recognizing the dwarf who doubted the guard's gambling story, "That bloody gull-terd-fer-brains wishes I were cheatin'. I coulda taken that sore loser with ole' Blindey's patches over both o'me eyes," he grunts, motioning to the blind man.
"Oh bloody hells." And then Reijo seems to spot something. And then, something else. "Son ov'a..." is all he speaks aloud as the gruff sailor finds cover in the form of other passengers between himself and those looking for him.
...
Meanwhile, the man whom Reijo returned his coat to a short while ago seems to be having trouble finding his and his wife's tickets. He swears he had them in his coat pocket...
Thurden quickly digs out his ticket and holds it up while tracking the movements of the strangers approaching the boat.
"Hey-YA there! M'name be 'Sunny' in'a speakin' of tha' peoples." She exctends a tanned arm towards the girl then blinks and tilts her blond head. "Wots a 'tick-ette'?" (^_^)
The girl turned to Sunny with a confused smile.
"Oh, hello! Um, do you want a ticket? We're set to voyage to Sargova. It's thirty crowns, but you need to decide now as we're about to cast off." She said, gesturing towards the ship.
You spot a large hawk looking thing perched up next to the crows nest and looking hungrily down at your familiar.
'I think it may be best we shove off, the Mermaid looks like it's going to get crowded soon.' He calls out to anyone with any authority.
"Keep yer pants on mister!" Roared back the big sailor. "We're about to!"
He trundled over to the big yelling guy after the guards were gone. "Hey..."
Is all Zakgrob is able to get out when the big guy lets out a girly shriek and jumped up on the capstan.
"It's a Goblin! Get it! Get it! Look fer the others! There's always more!" He shrieked out in a panic. "Get the torches! We'll burn 'em out!"
Shaedeen looks at the big tough guy shrieking atop the capstan with confusion. "Wait--I thought you were never supposed to mix goblins and fire...."
"Aye, Blindey!" Reijo calls back to the blind man. "What? Ye come ta bum some more o'me fine tobacco now?"
"Come on then. I got yer ticket."
Too late, Reijo realizes that he had made a mistake when a dozen heads turned in his direction. A dozen hands pointed in his direction.
"THERE HE IS!" Came from a dozen throats.And as Reijo tried to fade back into the passengers behind him, a dozen feet stampeded up the gangplank towards him...
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Bellamy was grinning like a loon. Having attracted Reijo's pusuers, he was leading them towards that fat scow the dwarf came off of when Reijo called out, blowing his plan.
He slapped his forehead and grimaced.
"Some days that boy just ain't the sense the gods gave a hamster..." He muttered.
Zakgrob hopped back away from the man and he almost drew his daggers. For a second it looked like he was going to do something rash, but he made no move forward nor towards weapons. He instead made a loud shocked gasp noise and yelled back at the man! "RACIST!! ME PAYING CUSTOMER!!" He growled angrily and held up the two tickets in his hand. "Don't make me call Mistress over! She get mad, lout! Have your ship banned from port or, or, you throw in jail, or, or somethin' bad!"
The goblin gets a quick stare from Reijo as well. Normally, he'd draw his cutlass on the little creature but, considering his present circumstances, considers the goblin a gift.
"Bloody nice distraction that'll be."
With several coming after him now, the grumpy scoundrel thinks better of heading below deck again.
"Sandwich me from fore an' aft, they will. Be caught in a bloody great white's jaws... so I'd have ta kill 'em all."
Reijo tries to sneak his way further into the crowd. He makes his way to the opposite side of the ship from the gangplank. He'll keep close to the railing, in fact...
Just a forewarning, in case you speed up to where they would catch him!
The girl turned to Sunny with a confused smile.
"Oh, hello! Um, do you want a ticket? We're set to voyage to Sargova. It's thirty crowns, but you need to decide now as we're about to cast off." She said, gesturing towards the ship.
Sunny tilts her head... also seeming non-plussed by something.
"Wots a 'Crown'?" She absently scratches at her blond mop before twisting and wriggling her hand inside the rolled oilskin hanging from her bare, tanned shoudler. To emerge a few moments later holding...
"I gots some shine I din't put in me chest." She proudly holds out a coin that she's produced forwards for inspection.
While the coin is obviously and evidently made of gold, exactly what country or even vintage is obscured by the barnacles and other verdigres that things long left beneath the sea accumulate with time.
Sunny blinks, seeing the state of what she's presented. She draws it back and begins trying to scrape some of the worst stuff off with a thumbnail.
"They gets like this after a while. Peoples jus' go an' drop stuff all over tha' place." She mutters to herself as she works.
(^_^)
'Whether you cheated or not, boy shouldn't play in circles where he can't hold his coin. Gotta know your depth.' Thurden replys to Reijo.
He grunts as the let's out a single rough laugh spots the man next to him.
'Well, I tried. You plucked your own feathers here, friend.' The dwarf shrugs and moves toward the far gunwale to make room for the mob. He eyes the coin in Sunny's hand curiously as he moves past.
'You been diving wrecks, girl?'
Sunny turns and smiles at the small person walking past as they make their comment.
"Yes?" She replies. "There's lots'a things all over tha' place." Sunny presents the shine to Thurden for him to better see the object.
"Lots'a times? There be a big storm an all'a sand gets shifted an' all tha' stuffs peoples gets lost gets uncovered agin." She explains. (^_^)
Nhati looks at the chaos all over the ship, as guards chase a human, people freak out about the goblin.
She decides to keep her mouth shut, when she spots a hawk-like creature high up eyeing the parrot on her shoulder. "Tai," she says quietly. "Be wary of that one. It looks like it wants to eat you."
Tai looks up at the other bird, and makes a quiet squawking noise.
"Exactly," Nhati says.
She turns her ticket over to the man asking for it, and tries to avoid attracting too much attention.
Shaedeen briefly considers if there's any other way she might aid the ne'er-do-well sailor from the guards, but she really doesn't want to bring any attention upon herself, so she just gives the half-elven woman her ticket and minds her own business...for about 10 seconds. Then alarms go off in her head.
"Excuse me," she says, again addressing the acute gobbophobe atop the capstan. "How long did you say this voyage takes?"
"Six months!!??"
Shaedeen's at the top of the gangplank ready to abandon ship when she notices knife-wielding potential Sczarni closing on the ship. She quickly ducks back out of sight, hoping she wasn't spotted. She notices a tall, tanned, naked elf female on deck for the first time.
By the gods! Trapped on a floating asylum for six months!!
Thurden pauses to turn the coin over in his hand, more admiring the healthy growth of sea-crust than the craftsmanship of the coin itself. He smiles, handing the coin back to the elf.
'You better hope the captain takes his payment encrusted in anything but jewels.' The dwarf continues his cross-deck migration.
Sunny returns Thurden's comment with her usual smile. "Oh sparklies? They is oft rilly hard ta' find." She turns back to the lass asking for 'Tick-ettes'.
"Most'a tha times? Ye be findin' sparklies all tangled up like. All encrusted wiff other stuff." Sunny blinks though still looks hopeful,
"So, is this what t'is ye mean when ye sayin 'crowns'?" (^_^)
"I gots some shine I din't put in me chest." She proudly holds out a coin that she's produced forwards for inspection.
While the coin is obviously and evidently made of gold, exactly what country or even vintage is obscured by the barnacles and other verdigres that things long left beneath the sea accumulate with time.
The woman reaches out and takes it.
"Wha... This is an Azlanti Florin! It must be worth a hundred and fifty crowns at least!" She said, wonderingly.She looked back to Sunny.
"Are you sure you don't have anything sma..." She said, then stopped suddenly.
She blinked.
"Why are you naked? And wet?" She asked, her eyes looking at Sunny oddly.
Then she reached out and touched Sunny gently.
"Oh honey, are you in trouble?"
She turns her ticket over to the man asking for it, and tries to avoid attracting too much attention.
Shaedeen briefly considers if there's any other way she might aid the ne'er-do-well sailor from the guards, but she really doesn't want to bring any attention upon herself, so she just gives the half-elven woman her ticket and minds her own business...
The woman who asked for your tickets ducked below with an elf, apparently forgetting to take them.
A crowd of a dozen people rumble up the gangplank.
The Gnome kingpin with the cigar and the slouch hat grits out.
"Reijo. Find him."
"Yeah boss." Said the shaved gorillas before stumping forward into the crowd on deck.
The silk clad knife wielding Sczarni tumble out on deck.
"Reijo! The man that gets him stays alive! Oh, Shadeen too." Bellowed a Szcarni with a ferocious moustache.
"Yeah!" Shouted the others before darting into the crowd.
"Reijo you bastardo! Show yourself, so I can lop it off!" Shout several women at once. "Nobody does that to the Lydia Coven!"
They glare at each other briefly, before stalking into the crowd on deck.
The guards, not entirely foolish, see what is going down and hang back. They blow their signal whistles in an urgent pattern. You hear responding whistles way down the boardwalk.
A man came up the ladderway onto the deck.
"What in the Name of Besmara is going..." He gets out, bewildered, before his is hit in the crotch by a passing Szarni and falls prone, swearing.
Nhati is confronted by a Sczarni who tries to grab her by the arm...
He waives a knife in her face and shouts "Where is Reijo?
'Salt' Leadbeard is confronted by a shaved gorilla who tries to grab him by the arm...
He lifts him easily up to eye height and grunts "Where's Reijo?
Shadeen is confronted by an angry woman with a sizzling fry pan, who tries to grab her by the arm.
She shakes her fry pan in her face and shouts "Where is that basterd Reijo?
Sunny is confronted by a Sczarni who tries to grab her by the arm...
He waives a knife in her face and shouts "Where is Reijo?
One woman shouts "Where are you you basterd! I'll burn this tub to the waterline if I have to!" before throwing a bottle into the air.
Bellamy listened to the whistles, then walked singing a sea shanty along the dock.
"What do we do with a drunken sailor..."
Until he reached the fore mooring line. He proceeded to start casting the line off.
Thurden steps back and prepares to launch and icicle at the man if he attempts to grab him again.
'You'd be wise to keep your mitts to yourself. I ain't Reijo, and I don't know a Reijo'
"Bloody Teets McGee, too?" Reijo grumbles in surprise. Judging by the nickname, he refers to the well-endowed woman, with the frying pan.
Maintaining his cool as best he can, and using the cover of other passengers to his advantage, Reijo slowly climbs over the railing. Grabbing his hand axe, he uses its pick head to climb down the side of the ship. He takes one last and longing look back at the feisty woman one last time before his head ducks beneath the deck. He whispers to himself, "Well werth the trouble, me love."
Now on the side of the ship and slowly making his way down, he mumbles to himself in astonishment, "Musta had me a more splendid ole' time last night than I be recollectin'..."
...and while reminiscing and remembering more of last night, he loses focus and loses his grip on the side of the ship.
"Son ov'a..."
<<< SPLASH!!! >>>
The woman reaches out and takes it.
"Wha... This is an Azlanti Florin! It must be worth a hundred and fifty crowns at least!" She said, wonderingly.
She looked back to Sunny.
"Are you sure you don't have anything sma..." She said, then stopped suddenly.
She blinked.
"Why are you naked? And wet?" She asked, her eyes looking at Sunny oddly.
Then she reached out and touched Sunny gently.
"Oh honey, are you in trouble?"
Sunny beams brightly back at the woman (^_^) but before she can reply she is...
Sunny is confronted by a Sczarni who tries to grab her by the arm...He waives a knife in her face and shouts,
"Where is Reijo?
To whom Sunny turns, blinks in surprise and replies in the same tone she'd presented herself to the Lass gently holding her hand,
"Whut's a Ree-joe?" in complete innocence.
And doesn't hear Reijo's disappearance over the side over the commotion on deck.
Absently wipes drops of water off nose....
*Giggles*
"I is drippy..."
When her arm is seized in a viselike grip, Shaedeen realizes that her attempt to duck out of sight had failed. When she finds herself being threatened by a woman with a sizzling frying pan, she blinks in confusion. Looks rather...*Ahem!*...top-heavy for a cat burglar and member of the Tower Girls. Give her what she wants and you can get out of this without getting yourself burned and disfigured!
"Is he the blue-eyed scoundrel?" Shaedeen asks as meekly as possible. "I last saw him knocking people over belowdecks. Please let go--you're hurting me!"
Zakgrob's mouth dropped open and his eyes bugged out a bit. Gnome?? Elf?? DWARF?!? He wasn't sure if he should be supremely and disgustedly insulted by the sailors and their assumptions, or to burst out laughing at the absurd insanity of their claims! His eyes went wide and he stomped a foot. "FINE! Don't listen to me! Leave the slow-making barnacles on the ship! Let us get disease from lack of balanced meals! See if I care!"
He threw up his hands, still clutching the ticket, and walked away. He saw ruffians accosting several of the other passengers, including the naked elf and the woman who'd let him hide under her cloak. His eyes narrowed and he darted forward as best he could on the messy ship's deck.
Better let her go or you loose fingers!" It wasn't much of a threat but he brandished his little dagger with flair and spun it around a couple of times.
Nhati looks the Sczarni man straight in the eye and says in a level and low voice, "I just boarded the ship. I have no idea who Reijo is. Unhand me now."
Thurden coughs uncomfortably
Smiles brightly at the couple of people that have taken an interest in Sunny's current self. (^_^)
Bellamy continued to walk along dock.
"What do we do with a drunken sailor..."
Until he reached the main mooring line. He proceeded to cast the line off.
There are still two other mooring Lines and two gangplanks.