Exactly what I was going to suggest, thank you Mazatl. Give me a DD: Cha, Svog!
Chaney glances towards shore. Wondering who that signal might have been intended for.
The sailor eyes you suspiciously; you think he almost buys it. Seemingly, he does; he stands aside for you to hurry past. When you do, however, he trips you! You land with a grunt on the steps and he's immediately on your back, wrestling a thick bit of rope around your neck! Take 1d6 damage from the cannonball hitting you in the gut when you're knocked forward. What do you do?
Chaney, you see nothing toward the shoreline but blackness interspersed with dots of light from buildings along the waterfront. As your gaze sweeps back and forth, you see movement in the water just beneath the surface, swimming toward you.
"We are about to have visitors. Or the fish grow big in this harbor. "
Chaney remains seated pointing at the incoming movement with his walking stick.
"Ohhff...This is how...Grrh...you welcome...Ahgg...new guys?" Svog fights the sailor, he will try to hit him with the cannonball.
<--
If Mazatl didn't already have her head bowed down, she would have hung her head. She still sighed. "Right, because this wasn't already going downhill. Are any of you capable fighters in the water, or do you have anything not flashy, Chaney?"
Mazatl was careful not to adjust the elemental's orders as it slowly moved them towards the boat. While she was at it, she looked for lifeboats on the Smiler, or any other sort of boat the folks could use if something went badly for them, but only out of the corner of her eyes, keeping her presence as nonthreatening and low to the ground as possible. She was thankful the thief was already prepared for combat... but was that out of nervousness or duty?
Out on the water, two merfolk heads emerge about 10 feet away from your elemental raft. They regard you curiously, and one of them cocks their head to one side.
Aboard the Monarch, the young sailor is getting the better of Svog, who tries hitting him with an awkward cannonball swing before being wrestled to the ground. The sailor grasps the back of your head and viciously slams your forehead against the corner of one of the stairs, opening a wound just above your right eye that begins to bleed. Take 1d6+2 damage, and the sailor slams the cannonball filled with silver against the stair next to your face. "I don't buy it," he hisses in your ear as he holds you down. "Nobody but a spy would be after these cannonballs - only Vincente is allowed to handle them. I'm taking you to the bosun!" and with that, he yanks you up by the back of your collar and begins trying to heave you up the stairs. What do you do?
Feustus:
Kazuya finally responds as you command him to, lurching forward and slapping the sailor in the face. "Agh!" he cries, his face screwing up in disgust as the dead man wrestles with him. You have a momentary advantage. Glancing around you quickly you see that you're still alone on the main deck, but that won't last for long with the sounds of struggling that the sailor's making. You'll be discovered in moments. What do you do?
"Where's Svog when you need him..? Does anyone know some of their language? At least they aren't attacking us yet... Maybe they aren't enemies? But they came from the ship. Which means that the ship is probably at least aware of them.. ugh..."
Chaney waves pleasantly.
"Greetings. Lovely night tonight."
One of the merfolk - a mermaid with flat, black eyes and a wide smile with long blonde hair - speaks, her voice heavily accented. "Why are you here, two-legs?" she asks, a smile on her face as she swims a little closer. You feel the elemental you're riding on shift a little as she approaches.
There are clouds in the night sky above, but the waxing moon is plainly visible through the clouds and casts a faint illumination on the water.
Well, that was considerably easier than trying to speak sign language. Mazatl learned that Merfolk -could- use their mouths to speak! Mazatl's Assumptions: 0, Chaney: 1.
"It was a lovely night and my deer friend here desired a stroll. Are we disturbing you?"
The mermaid who originally spoke regards Chaney curiously, swimming closer in the water. Her proximity seems to cause the elemental some minor distress, but you hold mostly steady.
The mermaid's penetrating eyes stare up at you, wizard. She smiles, her lips pulling back over her teeth. "We...wish to trade." Her red-haired companion glides around the side of the elemental, her eyes studying each of you in turn before her gaze is drawn up to the secret hiding place where Aifric knocked out the sailor.
Aifric looks wide-eyed at the merfolk. He relaxes when he hears they just want to trade. He lets his mind run wild and tries to imagine what it would be like if the bottom half of his body was always a bonobo and the top half always a man. He wonders, if he concentrated really hard, whether he could transition just half his body and not the other half.
"What was it that you were hoping to gain?" Mazatl tilted her head to the mermaid, still not raising her eyes up to meet the other's.
The blonde mermaid lifts one arm out of the water languidly, stretching her finger upward toward the Smiler, where the unconscious body of the sailor rests. "That one likes the night watch, where nobody can silence his...comments toward us." her face tightens in rage, becomes intensely unsettling. "We, Ultimus' staunch allies, jeered at like human serving wenches."
The blonde exposes her teeth in a smile and speaks slowly. "Give him to us..."
The redhead on the other side of the elemental finishes her sentence. "...and we won't report you to the King..." she says, licking her lips as she eyes Aifric. The mermaids could be considered attractive, perhaps, but the alien and fishlike nature of their faces ruins the effect and makes their lusty ways grotesque to many.
"Where's Svog when you need him..? "
"Vincente needs help, he can't do everything by himself" Svog argues,
2 1s
5 2s (!!)
0 3s
2 4s
1 5
0 6s
Pretty sad luck dude haha. You're getting lots of XP if you survive...
Aifric doesn't like what the mermaids are saying. He slowly starts readying his spear just in case he's going to need it. He hopes the mermaids don't notice him doing so, since he hasn't been part of the conversation.
"I do not speak for all of us, by any means, and while I find it unsavory that anyone would treat another person with Ill will, simply because of what they were born as... least of all after the howl, it is a request I am inclined not to honor. As my friend said, we've no intention to cause undue harm, but neither do we wish to draw the ire of your lord. Perhaps there is something in keeping with all of our desires that could be offered, instead?
edit: Apparently, the dice say we should offer them fish. If not, people. Either way, it's only half-cannibalism. Not even a con roll would have survived that. Maybe fish heads and people legs?
Athena watched the merfolk carefully still afraid of another attack, if the elemental was lost they'd be sitting various animals for any predators.
"What if we offered this?"
Athena held out the green bauble she had stolen a while back.
You defied danger successfully by having your zombie block the sailor, and now the sailor is struggling with your zombie while your zombie tries to eat him. What do you do?
Athena: Give me a Defy Danger: Wisdom roll when you try to give the bauble away. If you succeed you'll be providing an asset to Mazatl's Parley; if not, you could ruin the negotiation. Mazatl's already in trouble due to her failed Spout Lore roll. No pressure. :)
Svog: You struggle, but the sailor is stronger. He hauls you roughly up the stairs of the ship, to the mid-level. You're still below the main deck (where, unbeknownst to you, Feustus is still struggling with the sailor), but you hear the sounds of raucous partying growing ever louder.
With a grunt, the sailor lad throws you against the double doors. The doors are thrown wide open. You see the ship's mess hall before you, where everyone was drinking and eating and singing together. The entire crew of the ship (minus the 3 otherwise accounted for) all turn their suspicious eyes on you, Svog Kos. What do you do?
Finish him!
The sailor wrestles Kazuya off of him and shoves him backward! The zombie tumbles in a heap on the ground, struggling as it rises back to its feet under your dark magic's control.
With a shout, the sailor's cutlass comes flashing at you. You manage to dodge it, avoiding taking damage, but your backpack containing your adventuring gear is slashed open. Two charges' worth of your adventuring gear's equipment tumble out of the ragged cut that the sailor makes.
The sailor lunges for you to grab you by the throat!
What is it to try to shapeshift out of the way. I assume defy danger, but what attribute?
Interesting question! I think the best way to answer is it is to ask: How exactly are you trying to escape? To which I think the answer is: you want to dodge his attack by not being there. I think that points us toward Dexterity, but I'll give you a +1 bonus to the roll for shapeshifting as you escape, since your body shape is changing so rapidly.
You take to the skies, but the sailor isn't done! Snarling, letting his catlike features manifest, the sailor abandons his cutlass and begins to climb the mast using his claws! He's ascending rapidly and seems to want to leap onto you to bring you down. What do you do?
Explain to me how you would see this trick working, and I'll make a ruling. Show me what you got.
I want to play up his anger and frustration. Get to to focus so much on me that he is not thinking about where he is going.
Svog smiles nervously "Hi...why is the party stopping?" Svog asks and starts singing the best bar song he can remember..
I'm so dead...
Feustus: Sounds like taunting, yes? A little waggle to your wingfeathers to enrage the kitty sailor? No need to roll for taunting him. You can just RP that by telling us what you do. He's climbing the mast toward you. Your zombie is attempting to climb the mast after him, but his claws aren't as nimble as the sailor's, who is used to climbing.
The sailor reaches a crossbeam on the mast and crawls out on it in the darkness. He seems to want to leap out at you, but you intelligently stay out of easy leaping range. In order to try and incite him into jumping anyway, that would require next-level taunting, so if you want to go that route I think it would be Defy Danger Charisma.
So, what important thing did I miss when I was engrossed with my taunting?
"'E's a spy! I found him sneaking about in the cargo hold! He had one of THESE in his hands!" the young sailor that has you by the collar Svog holds aloft the silver-laden cannonball with his other hand, grunting a bit at the weight and rapidly lowering it back down to rest on his shoulder again. Some of the sailors become very agitated at the presence of silver, and you see fur springing out on faces everywhere you look. Snarling dogs, hissing cats, menacingly hooked beaks of were-parrots, they're all represented in the sailor crew. The young sailor that apprehended you smirks smugly, then suddenly loses his grip on the cannonball and drops it! The gentle rolling of the ship causes the cannonball to roll in the direction of the crew! There's a sudden panic in which one of the sailors transforms completely to a snake and slithers away, before a heavy boot comes down on the cannonball and stops it.
"Shut your damn mouths, you pack of animals!" the owner of the boot shouts with a voice that thunders off of the ship's hull. You look up at the immensely tall officer, whose face is adorned with a finely groomed mustache and a goatee. His hair is similarly immaculate, and he's wearing an official-looking blue uniform with golden buttons. His lips curl in a smirk of his own as he says, "Remember, you're the Royal's Navy now." sniggering can be heard from all of the sailors, and a few muttered, sarcastic "Long live the King!" from in the back.
"Now...who are you?" the officer looms over you, Svog, his eyes narrowing in focus as he regards you carefully. The young sailor hands off your taken weapons to another sailor off to the side. What do you do?
Feustus: As you're busy doing the cha-cha in the air in front of the sailor, trying to entice him into leaping into danger, you don't notice the slowly growing glimmer of light coming from the crow's nest of the Monarch. The light grows until it fires, shooting a ray of magic that hits you dead-on. Your muscles freeze up, and only your eyes still enjoy freedom of movement - other than that, you are momentarily paralyzed. Unable to continue flapping your wings, you fall to the earth, until the sailor reaches out to grab you. Unable to resist, you are caught in the sailor's grasp until you fall to the deck below. He lifts you to his face to crow in triumph as your zombie gives up trying to climb and moans in the direction of live meat. Take 1d6 from the ray.
"Just a friend, heard the party and wanted to join, I saw that ball and grabbed it, and then found this guy and attacked me, who says I'm a spy? I just wanted to sing and dance, convince the guys to go get some ladies" Svog smiles, he is starting to sweat and he can't think a way to get out of this situation...he doesn't want to feel fear...if he feels fear, things get ugly and he will only look for the red...sweet smell of blood.
If the bauble trade fails.
" Wait, wait. If you want him take him but you should know he is no simple sailor. He is a direct advisor to this so-called king. He has Ultimus's ear and speaks with his voice.
This king, to whom you are so loyal agrees with what his advisor says or he would stop his tongue. Ultimus considers you less than nothing.
I wonder why proud sea-folk would be slaves to such a two leg. You want the man? Then rip the hull of that barge open and let the sea bring him to you.
It might even teach Ultimus not to dishonor the mer-folk if he wishes to sail upon their ocean."
Aifric allows the others to do all the talking while he surveys the situation.
* What is about to happen?
* What should I be on the lookout for?
* What here is not what it appears to be?