Ugh... 0 for three... Maera pulls her orb back towards her, hoping for a second chance to sweep up the two little sahuagin, and begins a bard song to aid in tackling the big one. She's careful to mind her allies, though, keeping the swirling waters on the fishmen alone.
"Cheers fer tha boost, lass!" Aramis grins, reloading and taking aim at the large one again. She doesn't particularly like shooting past her teammates, but at least the target is big.
The large sahuagin plans to the side just in time as the arrow misses him and he turns to look at it...until the bullet from one of the captsans ripped throug him like a hot knife.
Amos finishes loading just as his captain fires. His own shot quickly follows, but he has to pull it at the last instant to avoid shooting his cremates. The bullet shatters a section of the wooden railing instead.
As the gun goes off the bullet doesn't move down the barrel quite fast enough for the exploding powder and some of the blast feeds back into the chamber. A puff of flame erupts from the wrong end of the gun! Amos shouts in alarm, but the weapon doesn't explode outright, thankfully.
The two smaller fishmen are hit with the orb, but manage to keep from getting carried away by it.
The two smaller fishmen attack in Diabolito's general direction...sort of...The bigger one sees the sharptoothed dwarf and continues it's assult!
As the creature tears into the dwarf, ignoring the sword that can't seem to land, he drops the smaller creature with the force of his weapon causing guttural cheering!
Dwarfie goes down, Party is up!
Amos curses under his breath when his ally collapses. This is one tough fish...
He drops his damaged gun to the deck and draws his still loaded older pistol. He mutters a quick prayer and fires.
The shot tears into the fishman and, blood pours from many wounds, but he still seems to be fighting to stay on his feet.
Seeing her acid miss it's mark, and Diabolito go down, Indrana takes a different tac and sends a volley of arcane force into the big creature.
As Cassius steps over Diabolito's downed form, the dwarf's wounds seem to begin to clot slightly. The swing of the cutlass finally rings true and cuts the creature deep, and just as the sword slides into the wounded creature, two magical bolts slam into it and it's eyes go wide...then empty, and it slumps.
When her ensnared opponents start twitching and thrashing, Maera quickly dismisses the spell in a black mood. She had hoped to take one alive again, if only to see if she could corroborate its testimony. "Seven Hells... Check the others, quickly," she issues orders to Malak and Cog, before joining Doc in seeing to their wounded.
Whenever Diabolito is back with them (either from Doc's infusion or a channel from Sandara), she'll give the dwarf a hearty grin and help him up. "Easy now, we've won the ship... such as it is," she shakes her head, not expecting to find much plunder for their poor Striker's pains. Still, springing the trap was important.
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"Nasty fishmen..." Cassius grunted as he wrenched his blade out of the creature and knelt to help Diabolito, wincing at his own wounds.
Once the dwarf is on his feet again, Cassius will help with looking around carefully, hoping that there was something worth the blood spilled in this mess - other than the chum of course.
There is little that can be done to save the wreckage and anything that was valuable has already been discarded below, into the depths...save for a very fine necklace that the large sahuagin wears.
The necklace is golden coral and a strange silvery metal with blue black whorls trailing through it.
Sighing in relief, Aramis shoulders her musket, kicking the corpses of the sahuagin overboard. "Gettin' real tired a' fish wantin' ta eat us," she mutters, taking stock of her paper cartridges. "This looks nice, though." She pulls the necklace from the giant's neck, inspecting it. "Worth a pretty copper, it is. Looks like yer kinda thing, Mermaid. Could look nice on ye." She tosses it across to Maera.
Rotgut squawks wordlessly in agreement as he alights on the gunslinger's shoulder, tilting his head and eating something from between his claws.
Intrigued by the strange necklace, Indrana examines it closely.
She gives a low whistle as she realizes the likely value of it, "We have a winner here, this necklace alone is worth at least fifteen thousand gold pieces, a superb find."
At Casius question, Indrana casts a quick spell and examines the necklace for magical auras.
Nothing magical about the chain.
Sandara hops aboard the slowly sinking vessel and shakes her head, "What a damned waste...oh well..."
She leans down over Diabolito and smiles, "Come on, ol' Sharptooth, we gotta get you up and back in the fight...."
She gives him a slap to the face and as she does, the healing channels through her hand and she chuckles as he wakes up from the blow of healing. "Wake up and get back to work," she says with a wink.
"Really?" she asks Indrana, regarding the necklace with surprise. "This stuff gets treated like holy relics down below... I suppose collectors will buy anything..." After consideration at Aramis's suggestion, she loops the necklace temporarily around her neck. "Aye, it is a pretty thing. Still, I shan't get too fond of it, not if we can find a buyer. Our baby deserves silk sails," she regards Fury with pride. Maybe next time they're in Senghor; this seems the kind of thing the Pathfinders might like.
With the lack of any prisoners to take, she gives one of the corpses a dispassionate kick, saying, "Now, that we don't have these scaly sods preyin' at our back, I'd say we're good for Bloodcove. As good as we can be, anyway," she amends, remembering how cautious they'll have to be in port.
The dwarf shakes his head and groans. He touches the new armor and grins.
"Well...seems like it worked, at least." Rolling on his side and then accepting the help up, Diabolito looks at the behemoth monstrosity that had fallen on the ground.
Shaking his head, he chuckles. "Well, we seem to have won it today."
Aramis nods at Maera's words. "Aye, lass. Tha' she does." Her usual frown is replaced by a brief, flitting smile, a rare show of genuine joy. "Since we've done all we can 'ere, let's be on our way." With that, she heads back to Fury, taking a moment to clap Diabolito on the shoulder as she goes past. "Good ta have ye back," she winks.
Amos gives the all clear signal and calls a couple salvage teams over to clean the wreck of anything useful for repairs before loosing the hooks and giving Mr. Rain the all clear for departure. he has fallen easily into his role of Master Gunner and has an excellent reputation with the men. He prefers to lead by example and has trained almost all the men on some aspect of their job in combat.
In general, he is a quiet man of simple fare, which stands in start contrast to his weapon of choice. The member of the crew who has heard him talk most is Aramis. He always gets more chatty when working on his beloved guns.
The men and women follow Amos's orders readily, genuinely liking the addition to the crew and the hope that between Aramis and Amos, they will all soon get a chance to play with firearms.
Clearing the ship reveals bloodstains that imply there had been an ambush on this ship as had happened on their own. Only, this time the crew was not so lucky. Nothing else of note can be found, as the sahuagin cleaning the ship pretty well before setting their trap.
After everyone has returned to the ship, Sandara gathers everyone of the officers back together, "Seems we have a repeated problem now. Do we stay our course and head into Bloodcove and then go from there...perhaps see if we can find any rumors about a Sahuagin base of operations?" the redheaded captain says firmly, a look of fury in her eyes. She did not like that they had dealt with the watery creatures twice already.
Having returned to the ship Indrana picks up Maura and carries her to the meeting. As Sandra spells out her suggestions the cat is happily getting her ears scratched and belly rubbed, purring loudly the whole time. Indrana speaks up about the plans, "As much as I would prefer to avoid Bloodcove, I think we need to make port somewhere and it is the closest place."
Aramis leans back in her chair, cleaning her musket as Rotgut perches on her shoulder. "Damned fishmen seem ta 'ave it in fer us. I'm inclined to take tha' kind a' thing personally. We 'ead ta Bloodcove an' see what we can find, then we take tha fight ta them." She grins across the table at Amos. "When we find 'em, bet I can get more of 'em than ye."
A wicked smile spreads across Amos's face. You're on, Captain.
"Aye. A full hold and no shore in sight can make a crew anxious. Best we take care of seein' 'em paid before we ask 'em to follow us on a wild chase."
"I'd say I'd hafta agree with ya. Best to have 'em relaxed than like little angry fish chompin' at our ankles." the dwarf pipes in.
"Besides. We all could use some time to stretch about our land legs and see what else we can get into."
The rest of the day was spent on the seas, before finally arriving in Bloodcove. The docks themselves seem to slide in between the roots of a huge tree and while there are a few businesses on the ground level, most of the city of over five thousand lies in the branches and on the trunks of the giant Mangrove Tree.
Upon arrival, Conchobar nods to Indrana that he has it, as they agreed, and begins to sell the cargo for them.
The city, itself, has a sort of ominous look to it, since it is built into the tree, but it does at least give it a unique appearance. With that in mind, the crew will be in the city for at least one night and part of the next day.
While she manages to keep her expression neutral, the way Maera gingerly adjusts her weapons to make sure they are at the ready, should the worst come to worst, conveys her unease. "Right - we have our orders. Stick together, try not to make waves. I'd suggest we find the market or pub to get the information we want."
Indrana purrs a response, "Much as I would like the chance to have some fun, I agree, we should stick together and be careful here."
Maera tosses her hair with a contemptuous expression, almost bristling at the suggestion that it's bad luck. They've taken prizes with no losses, defended ambushes, sprung traps, and the wind has been good; as albatrosses go, Maera feels like she's been a rather good one. "Fought and won against 'em, more than once. And that's not countin' a Captain as canny as I, who can trick the blighters at their own game. Sounds to me that if you have to work the waves, our ship may just be the safest place to be."
After gathering all the information that she can, she'll confer with the officers regarding their options, or lack thereof. "Be easier followin' breadcrumbs in the surf than tryin' to go off any of this... We know they've out there... I think we keep findin' trouble, eventually, we'll find them. Then, we make them pay. For now, we keep course." She gives a tentative look around, not wanting to stay here longer than necessary nor pay a 'Forgive and Forget' fee. "And hope time will nurse the Aspis of their wounds," she adds quietly.
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"Agreed. No sense in looking for trouble. Where there's sea there's Sahuagin. It is a matter of course." Cassius said nodding to Maera. "We keep sharp and smart and Aspis won't be the wiser. If nothing else we can try and throw the blame on others."
As their stay winds down, Cassius will take the time to chat with any other sailors if they had seen any cylopean ruins on their travels, and where they might be found.
Because of her exotic appearance, and lack of trust in this port due tithe recent raids, Indrana stays with the other officers seeing strength in numbers. As their stay winds down she does track down a herbalist and buys some catnip for Maura. On the way back she looks at the bag and finds the temptation too great to resist, I wonder what all the fuss is about this stuff. She takes a pinch of it and hands the bag to her shipmates, "Just in case." Indrana takea a sniff of the herb and sneezes, she looks perplexed and says, "I don't see the big deal, but Maura wanted some so who am I to refuse."
"So, we what, jus' keep sailin' an' takin' whate'er we find?" Aramis grunts in annoyance. "'Ope we find somethin' ta go by sooner rather 'n later? We gotta make a plan, lass. Damned if I know what, though." She tugs at a lock of black hair, pulling a face and making a note to cut it again. "Well, at any rate, sooner we get back out there, tha better. Already gettin' me shore legs back."
Maera shrugs helplessly. "Sailin' and takin' whatever we find is a fine plan for the common salt and 'tar. No need to burden 'em with specifics." She hesitates slightly. Being patient has generally always worked out well for her, but, the undine is forced to remind herself, not everyone is as long lived as herself. "We'll figure it out once we're back at sea," she adds to try and ease her sister-Captain's mood. "Things make sense there."
Returning to the ship for the meeting on what to do next, Indrana brings Maura with her and spends time stroking the cat's ears. Maura purrs away as the officer's talk, "In lieu of any better idea, simply sailing and looking for plunder is as good a plan as any for now."