Suny points to the drake statue. "Is wood? It floats!" She declares. "We put it in'a river an' I can jus' tow it back ta' town, hey?" She grins at her cleverest plan. (^_^)
"Whaddya say, mates," the angry sailor cheers up slightly. "Ar masthead be done right on time, aft'r all."
In a more serious tone, "We bes not tell th'Cap'n now, eh? Our secrets be ours, an' she be thinkin' we be somethin' special fer getting a fine masthead so soon." He seems intent on making sure he sees everyone nod in agreement before continuing.
He gives Suny a curious glance with her suggestion. Looking back at the unseaworthy carving, "Uh... no, Saucy. That ain't gonna werk."
Then he exerts some muscle just to try to get a feel for just how heavy it is, to see if the crew might be able to work together to carry it back to the ship... or if something more would be required.
Suny looks very puzzled at Reijo with hands on her hips and head askance.
"Why in't it gon'a work? Is wood. Wood floats. Is all down stream from here." She watches the fellow strain against the carving's bulk.
"Ye want ta' carry it all-a way back ta' town?" She asks sounding quite incredulous.
"Wheeel dogies! That be some good thinkin' Suny! We better check its wood that CAN float first..." Cackled No-Eyes.
After an experimental shove or two, Reijo guesses the statue is somewhere between 100 and 150 pounds. The bigger problem than its sheer weight is its bulk--there's no easy way to carry the thing. And while it is the kind of wood that might float, its shape isn't particularly conducive to such a plan.
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Reijo's eyes light up. Pulling a jug of rum from his pack, he takes a swig and pats Suny on the back. Hard.
"But'cha ain't be too far off, ye saucy lass." The sailor heads out of the cavern with gusto, "Well don't be standin' round wit'yer roosters in yer hands! Help me finds some wood an' vines fer buildin' a raft!"
Once out and in the hot woods, he looks to find any down trees and strong vines that could easily and quickly be used to construct a crude but effective raft to carry the headmast on down the river. He uses his boarding axe to cut the logs he finds to the right size, and ties them together with the vines.
Ol' Salty is willing to assist Reijo in his endevor. More with the tying than the actual logging.
Reijo's eyes light up. Pulling a jug of rum from his pack, he takes a swig and pats Suny on the back. Hard.
"But'cha ain't be too far off, ye saucy lass." The sailor heads out of the cavern with gusto, "Well don't be standin' round wit'yer roosters in yer hands! Help me finds some wood an' vines fer buildin' a raft!"
Suny frowns a little "M'name be 'Suny'.. not 'Saucy'. They's different soundin' all t'gether...Totally different peoples..." Though quickly she is bouncing around helping with the building and the tying.
"I dun't think any of tha' wood abouts tha' place be right fer whut t'is we're doin'...."
There's crude, and then there's Reijo's hasty, greed-fueled craftsmanship.
It takes a bit of time, but the amalgam of twigs, palms, and small and/or fallen logs knotted together with Ol' Salty's expertise and Suny's tried-and-true drakeknot manages to stay floating in the river. (Salty laments the necessity to retie all of Suny's knots. Apparently the tried-and-true drakeknot isn't so good for raft building.)
The floating disaster rides low--very low--in the water when the drake sculpture is heaved onto it, but it somehow stays up there. Now it was just a matter of getting it down the river without everything ending up at the bottom of it.
Suny eagerly helps out manning(Elfing?) the poles as the group moves the raft down stream. (^_^)
Nhati does her best both to help Suny navigate the raft, and to ignore her familiar making fun of her.
Reijo as well mans the raft with a pole of his own. The way the sunlight glints on Reijo's teeth as he smiles a crooked smile only emphasizes his avaricious nature... it's as if he's forgotten all about the drakes.
Piling everyone onto the raft is a precarious task. It's hardly large enough to hold the sculpture, let alone six fully geared adventurers. The raft takes on more water than any watercraft probably should, but its makeshift nature meant that all the water flowed in and through.
It also meant that everyone riding the thing was going to be getting quite damp on this trip.
Fortunately, with enough seafaring knowledge to sail a true three-masted man-o-war between you, getting the raft to the coastline was a cinch. It picks up enough speed, finally, that you might even make it back to Lilywhite before sundown. This was significantly easier than trekking into the jungle in the first place!
Or, it would have been, if you weren't headed straight for a small school of oversized piranhas leaping from the water ahead. Already they looked to have pulled some poor creature from the river's banks and are tearing it to pieces... and the raft is headed straight for them!
(O_o)
(O_o)
I don't think we can go around! We're in a river
Nhati will try to help Suny navigate the raft to avoid the Piranhas.
If that doesn't work, and it looks like we're going to be overwhelmed with Piranhas, she will...
Dire Piranhas!
"Bloody fishies..." Reijo helps guide the raft away from the man-eating fish...
Vik will also attempt to help guide the raft away from the dire piranhas.
If it looks like they will get too close to them, she'll draw her pistol, and shoot at the closest one.
Through luck, skill, or some combination thereof, the makeshift raft and its frantic sailors manage to shift far enough to the left side of the river to avoid the feeding frenzy. As the oversized fish chew through the creature--a lizard that could have rivaled the drakes in size--you breathe a sigh of relief at having avoided the fish.
The rest of the journey westward is 'smooth' sailing. As the jungle thins and the sea comes at last into view, the final leg of the journey is a simple trip down the coastline to Lilywhite. Lugging the statue along the sandy shores would certainly be a much shorter trip than the one through the jungle, but you could always test the true seaworthiness of the raft...
Suny offers advice on how they might make up a sled and drag the thing across the beach sands... before getting distracted by the shells scattered along the beach shore....
Without any apparent attention paid to her name preference, "Aye, Saucy, but methinks it best we floats it close along the shore."
Since the motley crew is traversing the coastline now, Reijo figures they may as well keep the raft in the water, but keep it close to the sandy beach. This way, one or two could reduce the raft's burden by walking the rest of the way, yet they remain close, perhaps they can walk maybe ten or fifteen feet away along the beach.
Happily skips along the sand. Occasionally splashing along in the surf line. (^_^)
Nhati agrees with Reijo's plan. "We should be able to keep it under control, and we won't all have to be on it. A good idea."
She will offer to help guide the raft, but will defer the spot to somebody stronger if somebody else is ready to do it.
Her parrot familiar Tai circles overhead keeping an eye on things.
"Hmm well that works fer me."
And with that, Ol' Salty gets off the raft. Lil' Fisher however sits on top of the drake, gleefully looking out at the horizon.
The going along the shores is a bit slower than it was on the river--the pounding the waves counteracting the significantly lighter load on the makeshift watercraft. Still, in no time at all the high cliffs of Lilywhite come into view in the distance and within the hour the soft sands give way to rocky shoals beneath looming, salty cliffs.
Finally, after hours of jungle excursion, you find yourselves once more on the docks of Lilywhite. This time, however, you have quite the prize in hand. Night approaches as the sun dips towards the horizon. There's perhaps a few good hours of light left in the day.
Reijo starts looking around for Iulia, leaving his mates with the masthead...
Once the big thing is settled away Suny gives a jaunty wave to ever one before skipping off and once again bouncing into town to see all there is to see about the place. (^_^)
It doesn't take long to locate Iulia, as she hasn't really gone all that far. Despite having three crates of something-or-other piled up next to her. She has her feet kicked up onto one of them as she leans back on another, using a coil of heavy ship's rope as a backrest. A tin cup rests in her hand. She spots Reijo coming and simply glares at him, taking a slow sip from the red liquid in her cup.
"Took ya long enough, lubber. Still ain't see'n no masthead. Or'e rest'a ya. So really 'bout what I was 'spectin'."
Reijo glares right back at her. "Well if'n ye ain't be gettin' off yer bloody arse an' usin' yer bloody legs, ye can be seein' fer yerself the bloody masthead me gots." The gruff sailor motions for Iulia to follow him.
The quartermaster narrows her eyes at Reijo's commentary, but sets her drink down and starts after him. A few steps behind him, she abruptly stops. "Sec." Iulia returns to her cup, grabs it, and drains it before tossing it onto the pile of crates. "Better. Lets be goin' then."
Nhati will stay with the masthead and help the others navigate it towards where they were going to deliver it to Iulia.
"At some point, we should talk to Taryn about having driven off the drakes. We did all of that to convince him to supply wood to Hartha to make a new masthead, and we may no longer need any of that, but we should probably still report back and let 'em know what happened."
"Probly for the best, we might even get a reward-like" Says Ol' Salty, who wanders along the shore seemingly at peace.
"Our next task's gonna be haulin this beasty up...
Nhati, you wouldn't happen t'have a spell that could help us? I ain't got anything for liften heavy objects-like."
No-Eyes can use 'Animate Rope' to help get it up.
On his return to his mates with the quartermaster, Reijo opens his eyes widely and shakes his head very slightly to Ol' Salty and Nhati, cuing them to stop talking about that subject. As he slaps the top of the statue, he says to Iulia, "Aye, Loosey Goosey, 'ere ye goes. As promised."
Iulia grumbles at the mention of financial expenditure, but she's sort of been grumbling the whole way. Hard to tell if it really bothered her more than walking halfway across Lilywhite's docks to see a masthead that should have been brought to her and not the other way around.
She eyeballs the statue, then the cheap raft it came in on. Slowly an eyebrow raises. "Look nice'a 'nuf, but more fer sittin' on a table 'en a ship. It's gotta be more, uh-" She gestures strangely with her hands, indicating the typical angle at which a bowsprit juts out from the ship. "Angle-like. Yer gonna fix that, right? Hope ya didn't waste all that gold on somethin' we can't e'en use right proper."
Suny bounces out of the crowds mingling about on the docks and eyes their prize and Iulia's assessment of it.
"Oh aye!" Suny replies, "We can jus' be, y'know, addin' weight ta' here an' shavin' off some there..."
"A new lick o' paint..." (^_^)
Nhati says," We should talk to Hartha about that; he, with perhaps some supplies from Taryn, should be able to take care of it in no time. "
Iulia does not look particularly enthused. She shakes her head at Suny, as though at a child's youthful ignorance. "Ask a lubber for a masthead, 'ey giv'a statcha." She waves her hand in the air, now decidedly unimpressed. "Whate'er, ain't no skin off'a me bones. Gots a few days, anyhows. 'Ust gives me time ta give yer another job and watch as ye screw'er up." She grins, but it's not the friendly kind of grin. You suspect whatever job she has in mind is not going to be good. More importantly, you suspect it's going to have very little to do with chasing after Redclaw's legendary treasure. Was the labor of a ship's gofer really the price of fortune? "No matter, s'can wait. Ye take that to Harfa, I'll be taking tha launch back ta the Magpie Princess. Be at the docks bright and early again, lubbers and fogies." Iulia chuckles quietly to herself, apparently amused at her own words. She turns and starts back towards her pile of crates.
Suny tilts her head and puts her hands on her hips.
"Why dun't no one be likin' me ideas?" She wonders, though her tone of voice shows more puzzlement than anger or being perturbed. Just as quickly Suny straightens and bounces over to help move the new wooden thing off to where ever it is that it's got to be delivered to next. (^_^)
"I liked ye ideas, Suny, they just weren't the bes' for this situation, ya see?"
"Well, let's go on getting this thing over to the dwarf."
Vik grumbles, wishing she hadn't been reduced to menial labor.
"I'll be a captain, again, that I'm sure of."
"O'course it be needin' a proper mountin'!" Reijo barks at Iulia.
The 30ish-year-old sailor, at sea since he was ten, really doesn't appreciate being called a lubber. His eyes and tone seethe with only partially suppressed rage at Iulia, "I been at sea since ye was a wee lil' lass. Ye may be quar'rmas'r by name, but not by sperience, ya see. So, ye best SHUT YER TRAP."
With that, he strides off with his mates to the sleepy tombstone carver's place again...
"I liked ye ideas, Suny, they just weren't the bes' for this situation, ya see?"
Suny *Squee's* And hugs her supporting friend. (^_^)
Then happily skips about and tries to help.
Iulia glances back over her shoulder, raising an eyebrow at Reijo's words. "Ain't no old'r 'n me, and yer tha new blood." She heads off, not waiting for anyone else to chime in from the peanut gallery.
Leaving in a huff, Reijo makes his way back up to Lilywhite proper and over to Hartha's Headstones. Once again the place looks practically dead: no lights, no signs of activity, hardly anything has even moved since you were last here. After a knock on the door, it takes nearly a minute for it to open. Hartha looks no less wakeful than she did this morning.
"Wha? Oh, you bunch. Clear everything with Taryn? If so, I suppose I could get to work on your masthead... tomorrow, obviously."
Ol' Salty watches the scene with a hand over the side of his face. He gives a long sigh before turning his focus to getting the statue all the way up to Hartha. As Reijo runs off, he thinks Well, there goes our muscle. Eh... I 'ope he gets somethin with wheels.
In the meantime he takes a seat in the sand and lets Lil' Fisher curl up in his lap.