The dwarf shakes her head, at Jones' comment.
"I do not captain another man's ship."
Clearly she means for it to be hers now, not later.
The dwarf ponders for a moment more, her face unreadable... then nods. A moment later, she's climbing up out of the skiff onto the Lionfish, making it look simple, despite her lame leg.
The rest of the day is spent learning how to sail a ship... Well, more how to take commands on what to do... but the target of those commands is to move the ship.
Smulwarts never says much, by way of idle conversation, but when she needs something done, you hear about it... quickly. She spends the next hour examining the ship, top to bottom, ignoring any and all entreaties until she is done.
The site of Mumbuckle causes her to frown.
"Toss him in the harbor." She says... not a request.
The little grippli's eyes go wide at her words, and he starts pleading for his life once more, though she's already gone back to her inspection.
The rest of the day is spent learning the workings of a sailing vessel. She takes all of you around the deck, pointing out different stations and naming them. She then shows you the most basic of operations. After that, she has each of you run a series of drills, trying to determine who has more aptitude for what tasks... whereupon you are each assigned a station, an shown the basics of it.
She does not look particularly enthused with your progress by the end of the day, but seems to think it will be enough to make the half day journey to Viper Cove... though refuses to set sail until first light, not wanting to risk how you'd do come nightfall.
And as the sun starts to light the predawn sky the next morning, the Lionfish weighs anchor, and heads out into the Varisian Gulf... on it's original course, but under new management.
There is a lot of confusion, an entire crew of 'greenhorns' clearly evident, as the Captain has repeat instructions often, and progresses slowly.... but the ship makes its way out through the Arch, and proceeds south along the coast. Though she keeps her heading farther out to sea, not wanting to risk her fledgling crew in waters closer to shore.
Smulwarts shakes her head. "At sea, you're lookin' at ship lines and colors, not crew."
"You see faces, it's too late."
"He's under her banner. Screw us all given the chance. Don't want him on my boat."
Manning a sailing vessel seems a lot more complicated then you'd hoped when finally at sea, and what you do matters. Captain Gultrock is all business, calling instructions to her untrained crew well ahead of time, and making sure to point and repeat herself often.
At one point, someone pulls the wrong belaying in from the wrong hole, and the entire forward sail collapses to the deck. The ship nearly flounders, only some deft reactions from the Captain to compensate keep nothing unfortunate from happening. She takes it in stride however, clearly aware of the limitations of her crew, and after a delay, you manage to get the sails back up and the ship moving again.
By mid afternoon, you've managed to get into a rhythm, each of you getting the hang of the specific range of tasks you were assigned at least well enough you don't think you're in too much danger of messing it up. Your pace is slow though, and the Captain doesn't even try to get to the meeting point at sea, ensuring you've no chance of getting their at the current pace. Instead she aims for the backup meeting place.
Eventually, you spot the island on the horizon, the Captain pointing it out as your destination. Viper Cove.
Things get a little tense again, as the activities to take a ship in to dock are completely different from the ones you'd been working all day. Still, by now you at least manage not to crash it into the cliffs... and you already figured out how to lower the sails quickly... though Smulwarts insists you do it properly this time. The only landing point on the rocky islet that is Viper Cove seems to be through a cavern entrance, on the seaward side of the island, that leads to a shallow cove concealed within the rocky cliffs of the island itself. You can easily see why Alejia chose it as her base.
As the ship slowly coasts to a stop in the cavern, you see the walls of the cavern are lined intermittently with torch-adorned sconces, and another ship is already moored on the northeastern side of the embankment. You see the name, Topaz Titan emblazoned across its hull in orange letters that shine brilliantly even in the limited light. Clearly the dwarf was right to head straight here.
You see no signs of guards or other people in the cavern, though two large cave exits head out from the dock into the cliffs.
As you pull the Lionfish into the dock as quietly as you can, securing it beside the Topaz Titan, you see several hastily-sealed cans of paint, a wood rasp, and sandpaper, barely visible on the ship's deck.
There are boxes, crates, and barrels of cargo lines up along the northern wall of the cavern. It looks like they have already unloaded the Topaz Titan's cargo for its transfer to the Lionfish.
Masym will see many tracks, as there was apparently a lot of activity recently, most likely from unloading the Topaz Titan. The tracks go in to both tunnels, though the narrower eastern tunnel has has a few tracks not made by a humanoid. Something with four legs.
Masym drinks down the invisibility potion you acquired when you captured the Lionfish, and then leads the way as he, Jones, and Wei Tchak make their way quietly down the wider passage heading north. Malusha, Nella, and Phoebee wait anxiously back by the dock.
The scouting party doesn't have to go far, the northern tunnel quickly narrows and goes for about fifteen feet, before opening up into a large cavern.
Masym easily makes his way in, none of the inhabitants aware of his presence. He finds himself in a large natural cavern with several stone columns and small holes high up on the ceiling, open to the sky. Light flickers in from the holes in the ceiling, and from the water out in the main cavern where the others await, providing more then adequate natural light.
Three sets of wooden stocks hang from the far northern wall, pitons chaining the devices to the rock. All three of the stocks have someone chained in them, one of them an older tian man. There are also three other people. Two of them look your typical thuggish pirate-types... one standing idly near the cave entrance, leaning on a pillar, the other on the west side of the cavern near a tunnel heading back to the south. The last person is an attractive dark-haired vudrani woman dressed in sailor gear, standing by the tian prisoner. It looks like she is busy interrogating him.
Jones, coming up behind Masym, comes to a silent stop, at signs of the nearby pirate, the man completely unaware of his presence. Unfortunately, Wei Tchak's attempt at a silent entry does not go nearly so well, his foot accidentally kicking a misplaced piece of cargo that got dropped in the tunnel. As it goes skittering across the floor, both the men look up and over towards the entrance. The vudrani woman does not seem to notice at all.
"They finally get here?" The one by the far wall asks with an impatient growl. "Typical, after the work's already been done."
The other man laughs, as he takes a step to look down the tunnel, expecting to see the rest of their crew...
But instead he finds himself staring straight at Jones and Tchak, neither with anywhere to hide.
"What the..." He exclaims, startled...
He then starts fumbling for a weapon as he shouts: "Intruders!"
And with that, the jig, as they say, is up!
- Surprise Round --------
Masym (invisible) <----------- We are here!
As the inhabitants of the cavern start to react to strangers invading their space, Masym takes a moment to study the vudrani woman... Alejia, based on her description.
The farther sailor hurries forward, pulling out a crossbow, which he fires past his companion down the hallway. The bolt doesn't even make the entrance, shattering on the nearby rocks as the man that fired it curses his poor aim.
"Release the hounds!" The other pirate yells at him, as he finally gets his cutlass clear of his belt. "I'll hold 'em!"
As he steps forward, not realizing someone is already past his position, he tries to stab Jones... but the archer's armor is more then enough to deflect the rushed swing.
The first man curses, as he turns to head back the way he came, towards a lever on the wall by the other tunnel.
The Pathfinders back by the boats hear the yelling coming from the tunnel that the scouts started down, so they know that they have been discovered, the backside of both Wei Tchak and Jones still in view!
- Round 1 --------
pink, yellow
Jones, Masym, Phoebee, Nella, Malusha <--------- We are here!
Alejia
Wei Tchak
Everyone but Tchak is up!
|
Jones acrobatics back out from in front of the sailor towards the stairs.
He yells at the clerics and the bard, "Nella, Pheobee, Malusha; get between Wei Tchak and myself. I think he's calling to send the animals from the stairs down at us. He's trying to bottleneck us. I can hold them off from this end."
Not seeing any other immediate threat, Jones will loose an arrow at Pink.
As the two guards react to spotting intruders, the Pathfinders react quickly!
Masym uses his invisibility to come up under the guard moving towards the lever's guard, thrusting his sword into the man's back. He lets out a startled cry of pain and alarm, staggering forward a couple of steps, before turning on the new threat!
Jones tries to dodge backwards, out of the tunnel, but can't quite get past Wei Tchak easily, still recovery from his misstep. The pirate tries to thrust his cutlass into Jones as the archer moves away, but it only deflects harmlessly off his armor. In return, Jones fires an arrow back at him, that passes Tchak's head by inches, before sinking deeply into the pirate's chest.
The warning now out, those in the back react too. Malusha follows Jones' command, moving between him and Tchak, then summons a spiritual scimitar to harry the pirate turning to fend of Masym... though the weapon fails to connect. Phoebee starts up an inspiring tune, and Nella moves in beside her, pulling out her trusty wand and sending a blessing over all her companions.
Alejia reacts to the intrusion with a string of colorful curses.
"Who the hell are you people?" She growls, as she pulls out a cutlass, and turns towards the nearby Tian captive.
"Belay that." She adds, menace in her voice. "I don't care who you bastards are... but if you don't back off now, I'll be opening this one's neck from ear to ear!"
She moves right in beside the man, wrapping one arm around him, and holding the sharp end of her sword tight against his throat.
You hear the loud sounds of more then one something, growling and howling down the side corridors, though whatever they are, they don't seem to be getting any closer.
- Round 1 --------
pink (-15), yellow (-11)
Jones, Masym, Phoebee, Nella, Malusha
Alejia
Wei Tchak <--------- We are here!
Tchak is up!
|
"Nella, I'll try to clear the way for you, but you've got to get close enough to heal that captive if she cuts him."
Tchak steps up and tries to remove the man blocking his way...
Tchak tries to move the man blocking his way, keepings his blade lowered. "Alright... you want us to back off... but I'm no negotiator... I'll leave that to others who are better at it... I'm only good at negotiating with my blade. I'll stand down while you listen to our true speakers. Fair enough?"
He stands ready to attack if anything goes south from this point...
The pirate next to Tchak punches him in the beak, when the tengu tries to bully him out of the way .
"Ya! Back off bird!" He growls as he brings his cutlass back up, ready to continue to fight if the Pathfinders don't do as his boss said.
The second man does the same, pointing his cutlass at Masym, clearly wanting nothing more then to cut him with it.
pink (-15), yellow (-11)
Jones, Masym, Phoebee, Nella, Malusha
Alejia
Wei Tchak (6 nl)
Rest of the party is up!
|
|
Nella freezes in place and narrows her own eyes at Alejia and her captive. "Alright, fine. Maybe we can still come to some sort of agreement where no one else has to get hurt," she responds slowly. "As for who we are...consider us just one of several different parties that don't quite appreciate your activities around Riddleport lately. But like I said, we try to be reasonable and it'd help us to do that if we had some idea of why you've been attacking ships and taking hostages. Care to share? I'm all ears," she says, quite sincere.
"Silly wench, whatever makes you think I'm interested in parlay? And now you've shown yer hand." Alejia laughs, not a friendly sound. "I suppose Tammerhawk sent you? No matter. I'll see him buried before I'm done."
She unhooks the stocks from the hook on the wall, leaving the older tian man locked in them, helpless to do anything. Now that you have a good view of him, you can see he is gagged and his legs are hobbled. His face is swollen, bruises already forming. One eye is swollen almost shut, the other wide with fear. She pushes him in front of her, never removing the cutlass at his throat... and you see a small trickle of blood for her efforts. She starts to idle sideways using him as a shield.
"Now all of ya. " Alejia almost shouts the last, before sending a quiet command to her men, who slowly move back towards her, weapons still ready.
"Alas, we are clearly outnumbered," She continues. "And I am not one to throw myself on my own sword. So here is how this will go. I am going to march the old man here over to my ship. Then me and my crew are going to board and leave you, and him," She smacks the prisoner across the head. "To this place."
"He had nothin' useful left to say anyway." She adds with a frown.
"You try anything..." She warns, with a glare. "His head comes off. If I can't cut my losses, I'll cut something else instead."
Both her men fall back to her position, and they start slowly moving towards the tunnel as a group, as Alejia holds the man fast in front of her.
But you're pretty sure her only goal at the moment is to get away. She does not seem to care about her prisoner in any way, beyond that.
You don't think she'd risk her escape at this point.