Charlotte looks around carefully, grabbing an old piece of driftwood from the bottom of the bilge and setting it alight with a simple Light orison.
"Mr. Magpie? I heard you might be around here? Hello?" Charlotte calls out gently, careful not to be heard by other shipmates.
Sis? You see anything?
You feel a faint ripple in the water behind you and little splashing footsteps. "He's here, big sis, I can feel him. Look." You can feel your little sister point up at the ceiling.
Charlotte approaches slowly, her feet sloshing through the bilge water. "Sorry I couldn't be of help; this isn't a happy ship on the sea, but you probably know that even better than I do."
Janus sighs and gives Skrimshaw a look of pity. "You still don't understand my friend. I am here because this is what I am meant to do, spread the teachings, find the true believers. It is easy to say you believe in a thing when it is the accepted practice, but when it goes against everything people expect of you, when it is so taboo as to bring instant aggression, that is when you find your faith."
Seeing the bonds, Iggy will approach closer and try to remember some appropriate hand motions, since he's below the water, to give some peace to the creature.
Variziel starts for a moment and then turns with a small grin. "Ah, Sandara! I was just writing down some of what's happened to me so far, since I left home. I promised someone I'd keep track of my journey and try to send letters. Although I don't know when I'll get a chance to send anything..." The half-elf frowns and looks down at the ring on his finger for a moment. "Ah well. How are things aboard the ship? Anything of interest happen while we were hunting?"
As you approach the ghost, it looks at your mark and thrashes around, apparently frightened by it.
"Oh, that sounds interesting! Are ye some kind o' writer in addition to bein' a charmer? She smiles and chuckles after she speaks. Upon hearing your questions, she takes a moment to think, "Hmmm... I heard somebody say that they saw ye vanish last night: turned into golden sand and then POOF, gone! But that's crazy talk, eh?"
Charlotte gives Magpie a kind smile as he mentions his daughter, not at all bothered by his ghostly touch, having had more than a few brushes with the ghostly word in her life. "I appreciate the warning, old man. I'll make sure to be on my guard about that Scourge. Is there quelquechose I owe you one for this. Is there something I can do to help?"
The half-elf smiles and shakes his head. Not much of one, I fear, although I try. Never thought of myself as a charmer, either, though." He closes the book and slips it into his bag, trying to hide a small frown as Sandara brings up the disappearance. "Aye, that's just nonsense. I was drinking with Sylus and the night became a bit of a blur. I woke up in a room further belowdecks, I don't think I could even find my way back if I tried." Variziel gives what he hopes is a sheepish grin, hoping the woman won't press any questions.
"Thank you for the warnings, Magpie. You keep an eye on the goings-on, if you can. There might not be much I can do to help, but I can at least promise you a little bit of revenge," Charlotte smirks.
Iggy just motions to show no weapons in his hands, as he looks about for the anchor and tries to get assistance from the ghost.
Temerith will go below decks and see what the "cat" dragged in...
I'm ready for my closeup mr demille...
"Hmmm... something to think about, yes?" Jack begins digging into his arm with a small, dull blade, only marginally paying attention to your words. "Shadows... bloody shadows in the dark... howls of the Prince in Chains..."
"Ye be hidin' something Variziel? Yer lookin' aweful shifty!"
The chain lies on the silt, attached to nothing. Perhaps it was attached to the chest you all found earlier? In any case, the rusted chain appears to be severable by a well-placed strike.
"Revenge is all I ask for, girl. Seek out your fellows and tell them what I have spoken. Mayhaps as one ye all can do what individually ye cannot. Promise me somethin' though... if ye cannot get vengeance, get as far away from this cursed ship as ye can. I'd rather not see ye suffer aboard this vessel. It earns its name... it's poison, pure and simple, poison for the heart and soul. Look at all the crew to see the truth. Even the greatest of men and women have been worn down or turned into heartless killers by Harrigan and his cronies."
Behind the door, a woman stands over a set of alchemical tools and equipment that contains various colored reagents. In the alembic, a thick and syrupy liquid eerily reminiscent of blood boils, releasing a noxious stench into the air. The woman, a pretty young thing of about twenty years, pours a few chemicals in the other equipment, which snake through glass tubes and reach the red liquid. Without warning, the liquid flashes a fiery orange, illuminating her delicately featured face and her brown eyes. The liquid then seems to... transmute into a crystalline red dust that glitters in the light of the room's whale oil lanterns. She runs fingers through her jaw-length golden hair and smiles with full lips dyed a brilliant shade of purple. "Success! It seems your blood acts as an arcane latticework of sort, trapping the extraplanar energies of your bloodline. Adding in several ingredients, which I won't bore you with the name of, I can condense your blood and the extraplanar energies within it to make a potent dust that could be used in conjuring creatures from the Lower Planes and binding them to do as I command! Truly this is a discovery worth putting down in the history books! Those fool Cyphermages in Riddleport will regret not accepting me once they hear of this! Why, I could be one of the preeminent... wait, am I boring you?"
"We'll make you proud, old man," Charlotte grins, before turning to leave the bilge. "And, again, thanks for your help."
Reclining in a chair, watching her work, Scoundrel grins at her as if she read his mind but decides to humor her anyway, his quite litterally devilish good looks hopefully adding to his charm, "Why no my dear, do carry on. I was curious though, do you know of any way to perhaps make my bloodline more "pure" as it were? Oh and I can expect some kind of payment for this?"
Iggy grins, motioning in the direction of the chain holding the spirit to its place. Taking a moment to surface, he gets more air and then comes down again, using his weapon to try and break the chain, knowing it shouldn't take much at all. Still, he chooses to take his time, knowing that it's more important to take apart the chain than to show off.
As his mark flares and the spirit is released, he gives it a proper salute as his Mark flares brightly.
Can you take 10 on a sunder check? Cause I mean if you fail couldnt something bad happen? (Thus if something bad happens if you fail, I thought you couldn't take ten then?)
Variziel looks at Sandara for another second, then his shoulders drop a little. "Alright, look," he says, dropping his voice. "I was honest when I said I wasn't sure what happened last night, but I woke up... Well, maybe I can show you a little later on. But I have something special now, and I'd rather the crew didn't know about it--especially Plugg, Scourge, and Harrigan. Right now I'm helping some friends with something, but maybe a little later I can show you what I mean."
As you begin descending the ladder to the bilge, you hear talking. Thinking nothing more of it you head finish heading down. Upon reaching the bilge, you are greeted with a strange sight: Charlotte is talking to a mangled ghost that looks like Magpie. He looks at you, points on of his rotting, waterlogged fingers at you and rasps out, "Ye there, mage who channels lost souls, come here for a moment."
"Pure? Pure on which side, I wonder? Pure Human or pure beast of Hell? Is one really any more part of your nature than the other?" After hearing you ask for payment, she turns quickly to you, resting her chin on a her right hand as if in thought, "Payment? What sort of payment? The captain authorized me to perform this research... is that not enough?"
You bash the rusted chain and it snaps. The water around you grows cold and clammy as the spectral figure floats up and moves toward you. It tilts it's head, observing you, before turning and floating eerily through the water towards some unknown destination. You feel your mark grow warm for a moment and you feel a sense of accomplishment.
"Now ye've got my interest piqued, Variziel! And don't ye worry, most o' this crew are vipers I wouldn't trust with a pair of stolen skivvies, so they won't hear a word from me! So, when are ye going to show me?" Sandara's eyes gleam with excitement.
Glancing around for a moment, Variziel leans over to whisper in Sandara's ear. "Well, the others and I found something... special, out hunting. We're going to try and sneak it down in a little bit; they're collecting it now. If you want to help get it down there, I can show you once we've taken care of it."
Temerith gazes upon the wretched spirit and snorts...
Ghost you are nothing, the Ocean only takes Souls it deems worthy, Begone to the boneyard.
"Leave the dead man haunting his dignity, won't you?" Charlotte chides Temerith. "The man just wants the revenge he deserves. Who are you to speak for whom the ocean takes or leaves? I don't see you listening to the words on the waves, or reading the writings of the foam."
His own weakness was his damnation, some are simply not fit for life. I speak not for the Ocean but for the Ocean's Lost, of all the spirits you may encounter among the Lost you will never find one as weak as this ghost.
Charlotte's eyes go wide as Temerith speaks his words, and she snaps before even the ghost has a chance to respond, raising a hand so as to slap him, only barely stopping herself. "Sans respect! Corniaud! Malotru! That's no way to speak of the deceased! Show some respect to your fellow man!"
Somewhat annoyed at his meaning not being immediately understood, Soundrel sighs."I mean I would like to become more in tune with my demonic side, to become a half fiend quite frankly instead of a mere tiefling. And no, it is not enough. This research benefits you. Not myself as of yet which is why I agreed to it. At the very least I'd like some coin or extra supplies."
Fellow man... My dear I went past those limits long ago-
Suddenly Temerith's eyes close and the baleful, blue eye glows upon his forehead, it moves taking in Charlotte briefly and then focuses upon the ghost... A terrible, deep voice booms from Temerith's throat one that should not belong to such a small "man"...
I roto i te ra o te kingitanga Cyclopi e tou wairua, ka whakaaro i raro i te rawakore tino o pononga, Puta atu i tenei ao.
In the days of the Cyclopi dominion your spirit would be considered below the most wretched of slaves, begone from this world.
Intimidate
Iggy just smiles and rubs the mark before pushing the coral into the bag and "bottling" up some of the coral's strange liquid. He slowly surfaces, trying to make sure as to who might be watching before looking for a way back onto the ship.
Some times the Masters wisdom is too much for a persons mind to take."His will be done." Janus will wander off towards the rest of the crew.
Magpie's ghost bears an angry look on his face, his torn features scowling at Temerith, "Ye fool of a man, I had a gift for ye, knowledge to be used. But if ye spurn me even 'fore I grant it, maybe ye should be taught a lesson!"[/ooc] Magpie's ghost surges at Temerith, passing through him and turning his skin a pale white, frost appearing on his clothes. The water surrounding his feet has turned to ice. In the bilge, you hear a cackling, rasping chuckle, followed by Magpie's voice, [b]"Now then, mage, ye were saying?"
[ooc]Variziel, "Oh that sounds right cloak and dagger-ish... I like it!"
Her hyper-intelligent brain just registering the fact that you were referring to personal payment, she blabbers out, "Oh, yes, yes, of course! Tell Grok I sent you to collect the Numinous Apparatus I finished a few weeks back. You can keep it as payment. I'd say it's worth a few drams of blood. Now, let me test this admixture... the planar inversion methods may indeed be able to purify the blood of its transplanar fixation, causing one or the other half of the blood to fully manifest its traits and cause the other half to go dormant. Make one part of the blood stronger, as it were." She returns to moving like a blur, working with various apparatuses, scribbling frenziedly on a sheet of paper, and half-muttering to herself.
Hank heads quickly back on deck and below, to his chest in which he stores the sack of coral and his water skin for future needs, locking it shut before he tries to find his fellow Besmaran practitioner.
Charlotte is taken aback when Magpie attacks Temerith, realizing fully well that if the spirit slays the sorcerer in anger, she would likely be the one taking the blame.
"You should listen to what he has to say, Rhuun. I've dealt with ghosts before: They don't show up without a reason, and you never know how useful the information they have for you might be. I know you don't trust me, but take my word for it: It could save your life."
It certainly saved mine.
Magpie's voice echoes in the hold, though he is nowhere to be seen, "Aye mage, ye'd do well to listen to the lass!"