Even though his human rationality is returning to him, Aifric is still in somewhat of a fog from from the effects of the crystal. He grabs wildly to keep from being tossed monkey-style off the ship. The mast would be perfect. Partially blinded, he can't tell if the entire mast survived the crash, but at the very least its stump would steady him.
Athena, you witness the glowing crystal focus flying into the clock tower of the church nearby, right before you land on the church rooftop yourself. Your agile reflexes save you, though you lost one of your throwing daggers from its sheath and you realize you're shifted into were-fox form without thinking.
Aifric, your mind is a painful fog. It's impossible to focus. The hated presence of silver obliterates your mind and places you into full bonobo form. Fortunately, when you are thrown out, your mind clears. You're still in bonobo form until you shift out, but you're on the mast of the ship, which is now wedged against a nearby building partially.
Nearby, the Sailor Captain is freeing himself from Mazatl's hedgerow! You see him staring at the clock tower of the church as he struggles free. What do you do?
In less of a hurry, and substantially less worried about having a wolf get bonobofied, an ape get wolfinated, or herself having to deal with red in tooth and claw, Mazatl instructs her elemental to simply lift Chaney out, while she clambered across its frame to climb out through the hold.
"Thank you," She pants, having pushed her conduit to terrifying limits today. She tries to get a bead on what has happened to the Fox, as she knows where everyone else currently is, considerably less concerned about the captain digging his way out, than ensuring her ally's safety.
Frogfoot, you never answered my questions. Do I have a chance to down a healing potion before all hell breaks loose?
Athena fine with being in her fox form as it makes her a smaller target tried to climb down from the roof of the church looking for her allies and lost dagger.
Feustus: Absolutely, yes, sorry for missing you.
Athena: You shifted to werefox form, not fully into fox.
Chaney, your mind is obliterated by the presence of the Bane nearby. The next thing you remember after touching the focus crystal and blacking out is waking up in the arms of a massive tree-like elemental. It's holding on to you in a firm grip, cradling you like a babe.
Athena: You determine the finer details of your were-form, but yes, in general, your facial features change to be more foxlike, you grow fox fur in greater or lesser amounts nearly everywhere, and you have a tail and fox ears. No actions are impeded by your form, it's just a little weird that you shifted without choosing to shift.
Aifric is in full battle mode until notified otherwise. He shifts into his were form and readies his spear but not his shield. He leaps toward the captain for an attack.
"Stop struggling, or I'll have to add a new layer to your bondage, Cap."
"urk..bleh" Chaney spits a mouth ull of bile as the bane wears off. "And some people think this isn't a curse. Animals."
Thinking. Well green is alive at least.
Looking. I have a decent vantage point here, what do I see? Can I see the others? Do I see any organized response? Let me correct that, there is an uncontrolled fire in a city made of wood, what organized response do I see?
Doing. For a moment a silver crescent moon flickers in the smoke before Chaney's body rebels under the repeated magical abuse.
Doing 2. That was pitiful. What are you a wizard or an apprentice. Get up! Move! Controlling his roiling, and now rather empty stomach, Chaney scrambles down the elemental and heads for the person in charge.
Chaney: Take -1 forward to cast a spell.
Mazatl: as you look down at the captain, you see him transform into full animal mode. As a mastiff, he cloying thorns are still painful, but easier to wiggle out of. He squirms free! With one last glance at the church tower, he makes to flee from you, yipping like a beaten cur.
Chaney: You look outside the wreckage of the Monarch to see fires spreading to multiple buildings in the local area. The church, made of stone, is largely unaffected by the blaze, though the mast of the ship is resting against the tower and appears to have broken some of the masonry up there. You hear shouts and desperate cries for help from the local populace of Magna Gracia. This is a poorer area of the city, so there's little evidence of any of Magna Gracia's official guardsmen, but you see an old pastor run out of the church building in horror. You hear him shouting, "Rouse from your beds! FIRE! FIRE! GET A BUCKET TRAIN MOVING NOW!" Despite his age - he only has a ring of gray hair around his head, and is bald on top - his voice carries over the din and confusion and people are already hastening to listen to a voice of authority in this time of crisis.
Svog Kos: You're thrown clear of the ship's main deck on impact. Luckily, some of the chains you were bound in were still wrapped around you, and you are saved from impact by the chain wrapping around a guardrail on the ship. You're hanging by the chain wrapped around your chest, about 12 feet off the ground.
Feustus: You're in the hold, having downed your healing potion.
Aifric: Roll hack and slash, buddy! I can't react unless you roll or take some action in the fiction. If you land a successful hit you may just prevent this scumbag captain from escaping!
Aifric is in full battle mode until notified otherwise. He shifts into his were form and readies his spear but not his shield. He leaps toward the captain for an attack.
The mastiff-captain turns to run from you, Mazatl...and skids to a sudden stop as he looks up at the very angry were-ape form of Aifric, who had just leaped the entire distance to land in front of him. The dog gives a very human wail of terror, and you see all humanity leave the dog's eyes. Whimpering, the captain succumbs to his bane, terror, and in the confusion your spear strikes true.
Run for the pastor.
once close enough to them not to start a panic if overheard
"There is silver in the hold, a lot of it."
Before the cleric can respond Chaney grabs a bystander...
If the church tower has a bell and it is not currently ringing:
"You, come with me. Get that bell ringing!" Chaney and co. then run inside. The plan is to put the co. on bell rope pulling duty while Chaney takes the stairs to retrieve the focus. Cheney will transform to full wolf if it makes taking the stairs faster. I depends on where the tower stairs fall on the stair:ladder continuum.
Otherwise: "You, bring the guard! Now!"
Chaney then runs for the focus as above.
The overall idea is to divert the clerics attention via the bystander so Chaney can get into the church. Preventing the wholesale disaster of a feral outbreak in the poor densely packed neighborhood is a bonus.
+2 piercing, but I doubt the dog is armored.
Mazatl watched as the monkey leapt in to skewer the captain... she was in the middle of another grasping motion, but held off for now... then Chaney was off and running.
Chaney first:The cleric gapes at you in horror when you approach him and tell him about the silver. "Wha..." he starts, but to his credit, he quickly regains his focus. "EVERYONE AWAY FROM THE SHIP! SILVER! BANES! BANES!" he hollers, waving both arms over his head and gesturing wildly at the crowd of people leaving their homes to investigate the noise. At the mention of silver, the crowd begins to panic, and screaming can be heard as townsfolk succumb to their terror.
Chaney, you grab hold of a lad who couldn't be older than 16. He stares at you in fright as you issue your command, and he's too scared to argue. He follows you into the church, and runs for the bellrope. The bell of the church begins to ring out loudly, clanging its tones throughout the waterfront district. You climb the stairs in a rush to find the focus balanced precariously on a loose masonry stone that was slammed by the ship's mast. Thankfully it's still within reach. This high in the tower, the noise of the bell ringing is uncomfortably loud.
All of you see Chaney taking care of townsfolk before running into the church, transforming into full wolf form as he goes. A few adult men and women approach the wreckage of the ship, staring at it in wonder. "IS ANYONE ALIVE UP THERE?" shouts one of them. Two of them point out Svog Kos, where he's hanging by a chain, saying, "He's still alive! Get him down from there!" and they begin approaching the ship bravely.
Aifric next: Your spear strikes true, spearing the mastiff-captain's thigh. The dog shrieks in pain and rolls onto its back, desperately showing you its belly in submission. Looking into the dog's eyes, you can tell that he's being completely consumed by his bane.
Mazatl: You see the mastiff gaze longingly up at the church tower but you can't tell its significance. Looking at the mastiff-captain, you see that Aifric has him well in hand. You glance around below the wreckage of the ship, seeing the townsfolk running hither and yon below. You also see the bodies of several of the sailors that you were battling before scattered about. Some of them are still unmoving, but you see a small group of them rallying and trying to sneak away into Magna Gracia. They're at Far distance from you.
Athena, you see the same thing Mazatl does, but there's no sign of your knife. It could've been flung anywhere; you'll probably have to replace it. You're able to see Aifric and Mazatl, and Svog Kos, and you see Chaney running into the building you're in. In a moment you see him in the tower behind you, reaching for something and grabbing it. No sign of Feustus from where you are; he's finishing off his healing potion inside the cargo hold, but you don't know that.
Mazatl sighs. There was no way she'd make up that distance... not without being hurled... so she might as well make herself useful, storing the knowledge of their threat in her head for later. She clambers onto the elemental, allowing it to help her and itself down off the ship. She sees that Svog is in good hands, so she does the obviously better thing. "We need to get this fire under control before it breaks out into the city, and onwards into the forest. Let's help out the water chain. Let's see if we can find you a bucket large enough..."
Lose 1 control, as the Elemental brings a (row?)boatload of water to the fireside, to make it easier for others to use their buckets.
Aifric uses his dominant arm to keep the mastiff pinned with his spear. He makes a shushing noise as he looks into the dog's eyes. He turns his body so his other hand is not visible to the dog as he pulls out the dagger he took from the sailor on the Smiley. "It's all right, boy," he says quietly, never breaking eye contact, as he pushes the dagger into the mastiff's throat and up into his brain.
He was a bad man. Too bad the dog had to be put down to keep the bad man from coming back.
Aifric stands up to see what is happening around him. Unless there is something happening immediately near him that needs his spear, he looks to where the captain had been staring.
Does a Discern Realities roll make sense here? Or no?
Mazatl: You stare off after the retreating sailors, your sharp eyes studying them carefully. You notice something strange - they all have conspicuous holes in their ears. Take +1 forward to identify or act against the escaped sailors.
Aifric: You give the sailor captain a quick death, more than what he offered to Svog Kos. As your dagger pierces the dog's brain, the mastiff transforms back into human form, but the deadly wound in his throat remains.
You see a golden medallion hanging around the sailor's neck, revealed when the magic of the were-curse is broken and the sailor transforms fully back to human. Glancing down at it, you see that it has engraved writing on it;
So fill up your glasses for those who were kind
And drink to the girls we leaving behind
We're homeward bound I hear them say
and on the other side,
We're homeward bound with eleven months pay
Our anchor we'll weigh, our sails we will set
The friends we are leaving we'll never forget
You see Athena in were-fox form on the church roof, but you would need a Discern Realities roll for anything more than that.
Chaney: In regard to your comment, it's certainly a different struggle to avoid losing yourself to an herbivore form than it is for a carnivorous form, that's for sure. It's the main reason so many of the Ferals are inherently carnivorous, though not all. Generally, those who lose themselves to their Herbivore forms are those who are so consumed by their emotions - terror, rage - that they cannot return to their original selves.
Reading the medallion makes Aifric a bit sad for some reason. It's not what he imagined a bad guy would wear. He gives a sharp pull, snapping the chain around the captain's neck, and he puts medallion and chain in his pocket. The captain must have stolen the medallion from a sailor who was a good guy, Aifric tells himself. Yeah, that's it.
He wipes the blade clean on the captain's clothes and puts away the knife.
He looks closer at Athena to see if she needs help of any kind.
What here is useful or valuable to me?
Aifric: You spot the cursed thing that scarred your palm, sitting on a piece of masonry in the church tower. Speaking of your hand, the skin of your hand tingles faintly when you grasp the medallion, especially in your palm where you're freshly scarred from the crystal. Somehow, without knowing exactly how you know, you realize that the medallion has a spell cast upon it. Luckily the spell seems to be benign to you.
I go over to the captain's body and "pick his brain." The best way to describe the experience is a guilty pleasure. Something that you enjoy despite your self.
Aifric decides to do something about that crystal before bad guys get it again and use it against his party. He makes his way toward it as quickly as he can safely do so, running and climbing. He will guard it until Chaney can deal with it.
Athena would be focused on regrouping with her allies so would try to turn into a full elf if able and run to the nearest of those she saw hoping to use the panic to avoid detection.
A large jet black mastiff shoulders aside the trap door and bounds onto the roof. The dog's form flows and in seconds Chaney is standing before you.
"Ah, Ms White. Glad to see you have come through the evenings festivities more or less intact."
The dark clad wizard gathers the foci from its precarious position. using his gloved right hand.
"Hate to see this go missing." Chaney wraps a fold of his cloak ofer that arm and bauble shielding them both fron sight.
Surveying the smoke and flames of the nights handiwork the wizard continues speaking.
"Best we become scarce for the moment. There will be questions and blame and reparations that we should best avoid. Someone will have to explain all that silver."
Chaney walks towards the stair.
Feustus: Using your knife you crack open the unfortunate captain's skull. As you work, you note that a growing portion of the Monarch is on fire. Working quickly you pry open a section through which you scoop out his brains. Piece by piece, you shovel the man's brain - still warm, with dark red blood squishing out like too-rare steak - into your mouth, chewing and swallowing with gusto. You'd never tell anyone - or maybe you would - but the brain is delicious. A too-rare delicacy indeed.
Glancing around yourself, you see that you're fortunate enough to be largely shielded from view on the street. The everyday folk of Magna Gracia would probably not understand why you must do what you do.
As you swallow his brain piece by bite-sized piece, knowledge is revealed to you, piece by piece. Chomp, and you receive a memory; King Ultimus standing on the deck of the Monarch while the Monarch is on the open seas. Chew, and you realize the ship was formerly called the Sea Witch before being renamed the Monarch and being repainted. Gulp, and you see a flashback of looking up at Ultimus from a kneeling position as Ultimus lays a sword on your shoulder. Looking past Ultimus in the memory, you see pirates taking out their gold earrings and putting on Royal Navy uniforms. You see the silver being loaded into the Monarch's cargo hold; money changing hands...
Before you even realize it, the man's skull is completely hollowed out. Scraping your little hand-tool around inside, you get only dry scrapings of bone. There's a little gore hanging from your bottom lip, and you got a lot of blood on your hands.
Aifric: You see that the mast is leaning against the church tower where the bell is still ringing. The fastest way to the roof is along that mast, so using your bare bonobo feet for a good grip, you begin running up the mast until you can reach Chaney and Athena on the roof.
Athena: Chaney is quite right, you're not being paid attention to at the moment. If you want, I can keep your 11 for stealth, and make it so that you can follow Chaney and Aifric unnoticed by anyone who may be watching. Or if you'd prefer to retcon your action I'll allow you to "bank" your 11 roll for something else.
Chaney: The crystal feels like an ordinary geode now, and you see that it's Pyrite. You're not a geologist, but you do know that Pyrite grows naturally into perfect geometric shapes, which makes it very valuable for use in magic.
When you head downstairs, Aifric can join you by hopping into the church tower from the mast, as can Athena. You see the young man that you tasked with ringing the church bell still at it, having to use his entire body weight just to move the heavy rope.
Emerging from the church you see that the chaos is spreading, but all of a sudden, the elemental that carried you to safety earlier emerges into the town square. It's carrying two large oak casks that are filled with water, that it throws onto the flames at Mazatl's instruction. Other townsfolk are following behind with much more modestly-sized buckets of water, shouting and trying to douse the flames. The ship is almost engulfed, and you can barely see Feustus up on deck, with flames at his back. Svog Kos, several young men from the town work together and bring you down from the chains you were hanging from.
Mazatl once more thanks the elemental by trickling power into the creature, still riding on its shoulder, to keep the guards aware that the creature is not a threat. So much for no one knowing what she could do.
She gathers up her strength and continues the push to douse the flames with her mighty ally.
I stuff the Ex-monk back in his jar if I have time. Then I assume my bird form and get the heck out of dodge. Assuming that none of my companions are in obvious danger that I do not think that they can get themselves out of.
Aifric does indeed jump from the mast into the church tower. "Did you get it?" he asks Chaney. "That thing is dangerous! Thank you for trying to protect me from it." He holds out his hand to show his new scar. "Maybe that makes up for, you know, out in the water." Aifric averts his eyes and shuffles his feet. "Anyway, no hard feelings?" He looks back at Chaney and moves his extended hand in a gesture that offers to shake hands.
Aifric does indeed jump from the mast into the church tower. "Did you get it?" he asks Chaney.
Chaney removes the foci, still held in his black gloved right hand, from his cloak.
"That thing is dangerous! Thank you for trying to protect me from it." He holds out his hand to show his new scar. "Maybe that makes up for, you know, out in the water." Aifric averts his eyes and shuffles his feet. "Anyway, no hard feelings?" He looks back at Chaney and moves his extended hand in a gesture that offers to shake hands.
Chaney gives the spear-man a raised eyebrow but says nothing. With a flick of his wrist he tosses the foci into the air. The wizards eyes do not leave Aifric's as the pyrite crystal settles calmly in mid air a foot or two behind the wizards right shoulder.
Chaney takes the ape-man's hand in his right even if Aifric was offering a left handed shake. The black wrapped arm, the arm that used to belong to an elven matron, lightly grips Aifric's hand and Chaney watches for a reaction.
"No hard feelings"