Tesaa takes her pot and jumps off the ship into the cool water below. She shakes her head and yells "Whoo! That's chilly. Alright, let's get this done with before some creature doesn't want us swimming around its home turf."
She swims to the reef, diving down with her pot and takes her time collecting four crabs easily.
Marisan dives into the water right behind Tessa. She gives the redhead a playful splash. "Race you to the reef!"
She swims with powerful, confident strokes, then dives down to grab the crabs with little issue.
Tessa shakes her head "Haven't seen your boots, sorry. Wait. did you get them out of the barrel? After I saw you swimming I stuck them in there."
"Oh! You are so ON!" she says diving and kicking as fast as she can to beat Marisan there.
"Go get crabs... wonders of wonders, another great use of resources." Polli strips down to her lighter undergarments, then jumps over the side, floating down slowly instead of a swooshing Splosh. She swims like a frog over to the reef, slow but steady.
As they hover over the reef, Polli starts droning on about "Did you know decapod crustaceans contain a significant amount of a certain mineral that can be used as an aphrodisiac in male reproductive drive?" using her knowledge of their hiding places she locates a good spot where they might be hiding and dives under with relative ease.
Tessa looks over at the elf that swims like a frog "Oh yes. It's common knowledge that for every crab innards that your consume, your likelihood of attracting sexual attention doubles." She tries to keep a straight face, but has to dive under the water to avoid laughing loudly.
While under there, she can't help but notice Polli in her undergarments. She swims over to the sylph and pulls her lower garments down, tugging them off and swimming away quickly.
Polli screeches, grabbing away under the water, and dropping the crab bucket, then dives under and swims as froggiedly fast after the berry as she can.
Tessa surfaces laughing loudly. She swims away from Polly quickly, circling around and around her as she tries to catch up to the swashbuckler. She shouts out between laughter, "Polli! Don't forget your bucket!"
Laughing and laughing.
Popping back from under the water she starts slinging curses about the other woman's EVERYTHING, then says f&%@ it and casts a sleep sleep on the daft wench.
With Polli's delicates tucked into her waistband, she swims around the sylph shouting "C'mon Polli! Don't you want yo-". She was thoroughly enjoying teasing the creature when she becomes incredibly sleepy. She stops swimming and starts sinking instead, dropping under the surface of the water, sinking.
Azadi shakes his head and disappears beneath the waves. He misses Polli’s attempt to stop her tormentor before he surfaces with her pot.
”Here’s your pot, Polli,” he says extending it to the sylph, ”what did Tessa do... where is Tessa?
Without waiting for a reply a dives under again and surfaces with Tessa’s unconscious body.
As soon as her berries eyes roll back in her head, Polli thinks oh s~%%, and swims as fast as she can to save the berry. She didn't want to kill her... well not much at least.
Azadi surfaces with Tessa gagging and choking, floundering about like a sylph named Polli in the water. After a few seconds of assistance from Azadi, Tessa resumes treading water and glares at Polli. "DID YOU-" she pauses, spitting out more water from her mouth. "DID YOU JUST CAST A SPELL ON ME TO MAKE ME DROWN!?" she shouts as she swims towards the sylph angrily, quickly gaining on her.
"YES, you Tiny Toed HAG! except not meaning the drowning part of course. GIVE ME BACK MY UNDERWEAR!" Polli yells back!
Azadi stays in between the two women. ”Whoa, nobody drowned... everybody calm down for a second!”
Tessa screams "I ALMOST DID!" before turning to Polli and pointing at her. "Why your little-elf-wanna-be-genie" as she gets tangled up in Azadi's blocking attempts, trying to push past him and gain on Polli. "You just come a little closer, why don't you. I'm going to stick a crab in your damned underwear so maybe they can bite some sense into you!" she continues arm fighting with Azadi.
"THAT..." Polli yells, but then stops as if slapped. "That is strangely medical.." she shakes her head "Fine berry-brian, keep my undergarments, but I've had enough of your constant abusive prattle for one day. Stay on your side of the ocean and I'll do the same on mine."
"Thank you for the bucket, Azadi." then she swims away.
As the argument devolves over stolen undergarments, Donomsail notices something coming up from beyond the reefs and calls out.
Three creatures that look like a cross between a lobster and an eel are closing on you all. And they look hungry.
Combat Begins!
Round 1
”Tessa,” Azadi protests as the redhead futilely splashes to try to get around him, ”I’m right here and I’m not going to let you drown plus she already said she didn’t mean for you to drown... that’s practically an apology... please just give her the underwear back.”
Tessa "YEAH?" she offers in retaliation, trying to come up with something witty. "Yeah. FINE!" she says, turning away and diving under the water and seeing some big eel lobsters headed their way. She surfaces quickly and shouts "EEL LOBSTERS ARE COMING! On your guard!"
At Tessa crying warning, she turns to see them... "oh s&~~... they're you nit! Everyone, watch their claws, they are covered in a fungal substance that is poisonous to most creatures, like us. Once dead, they behave like poultry when their heads get cut off: flaying around like mad men."
"Fantastic! Must have been sylph pheromones that attracted them! Group together! Don't get caught alone! Everyone to the worst swimmer, I mean the pheremones!" she shouts, looking at Polli.
Polli ignores Tessa, watching the reefclaws closing in on them, calculating the distance, and mumbling to herself, before remembering "When they are closer I'll cast a spell on them. Stay out of the way between me and them..." she says with more than a little worry in her voice, as the one who will be in front when it goes off.
"Alright, Can you hold it until I attack them? I'm going to try to stab them when they get close! Marisan, can you move to the side to circle behind them when they get closer?"
She does what Polli says, waiting for the right time to strike. Tessa is ready to burst out of the water and stabbity one one through it's face.
"Tessa, they'll move like crabs, side to side, even when swimming, once I cast they'll come after me more than likely, so strike them then." she gulps.
As the creatures get within range, Polli waves her hands and an arc of vivid colors washes over the beasts. To a one, they each fall limp within the water.
Combat Ends!
Once Polli disables them, Tessa swims up to each and sticks her rapier through their faces, ending them before they can become a threat. She sticks around a little too long to the kills however, clearly not paying attention to Polli's warning as heir body starts spasming and lashing her with their pointy parts. She screams out as her splashes in the water all around her. "Oh for f$!*'s sake! It's dead and still attacking me!"
After they are dead-dead, she sticks her blade back through their bodies and starts to swim back towards the ship, needing help from an ally to help pull her along, trailing blood the whole way.
”Well done, Polli,” Azadi calls out as Tessa begins dispatching the creatures. When he sees how violent they thrash at death he swims over to check on her. ”Tessa, are you alright? That didn’t look like any chicken I’ve ever seen...”
While he talks he begins to gather up the mostly still reefclaws to take back to the ship.
Tessa grimaces in pain, but nods "I'll be alright as soon as Donomsail can patch me up. My whole left side is prickled and it stings like a m~#@@&&~@~@% in this water!"
"Here. Can you take them, it's hurting too damn much and I need to get back aboard." she groans, passing her rapier hilt over to Azadi. She looks sternly at him "Do NOT lose that weapon, it is a family heirloom. Please. Thank you."
”I appreciate your trust,” Azadi answers with an earnest smile, ”but that fungus might be making your brain tingle too...”
”Let’s slip this rapier into its Scabbard,” he offers swimming up very close to her and sheathing her blade on her hip, ”then I’ll take your pot, which will be worse to swim with, and we’ll give Polli back her bloomers... there now it should be an easy swim.”
Turning to Marisan he asks, ”do you mind swimming with her back to the boat? I’ll get these last two pots and help Polli back?”
Marisan laughs at Tessa's antics. Her mirth disappears when the reefclaws show up, but the others deal with them swiftly. Tessa is injured though, and she nods at Azadi's suggestion. "Come along, Tessa. Let us get you back to safety." She helps the swashbuckler along back to the Wormwood.
Mildly flummoxed Harmony coughs and pretends to be busy as Sandara walks away. She can't help but follow the other woman with her eyes however.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Harmony has been ensconced in the galley most of the morning with Ambrose, working hard on a strange kind of spicy sauce that Ambrose says the captain expects when he eats crabs. It's spicy enough to bring a tear to Harmony's eyes...
When the rest of the group returns with filled crab pots and a torrent of angry looks Harmony meets them to collect the pots, looks between everyone and sighs.
"We're all going to talk later." She says firmly. "Some of us need to have a discussion about friends and how to treat them." For some reason she looks mostly at Tessa and Polli as she says this...
Tessa doesn't complain when Azadi puts Wayfinder away on her hip. She let's Marisan help her back to the boat where she waits, sitting on deck with her feet hanging over until Azadi and Polli return with the pots and reefclaws. As Polli approaches, Tessa dives back into the water, her wounds screaming at her again.
She swins up to Polli and pulls her underwear out of her waistband, handing them to her. "I was just trying to have some fun, sorry if I offended you. Please don't try to drown me again."
After returning the clothing, she helps carry a pot up on deck and seeks out Donomsail to help cure her injuries, but not before she shows it off to at least a half-dozen crew. "You should have seen the size of them bursting out of the water.", "Ferocious f&@*ers!" and "Even though I killed one before it even got close, it was Polli's magic that saved the day. Don't ever f+!% with her if you want to wakeup to see the sun the next day!"
Before she can find the tiefling, she nods to Harmony's scolding. She puts her arm around the Sylph's neck and says "Everything is fine. It was my fault Vi, I deserved what I got in kind. Turn about is fair play."
Polli cannot help but feel that Tessa embodies the sea itself at times, one moment a sunny day of smiling comradery, the next a hurricane of screaming humiliation.
Faced with Vi's judgment, she stands straight "friends?. I think there might be a miscomprehension---" but she stops and reconsiders. Turning to Tessa "I lost my temper and didn't think which is a truly horrible crime. I am sorry for almost drowning you."
Azadi watches the exchange between Tessa and Polli in slack-jawed amazement. ”Vi...” he stammers, ”how did you do that, and how do we get you out of the kitchen so you can do it more often?”
There's minor cheering as the group returns to the ship as part of the conflict was witnessed by some of the crew. And when the bodies of the reefclaws are drawn up on deck, 'Fishguts' crows in half-drunken delight.
"The cap'n'll love this, 'e will," he proclaims as he directs Harmony to assist him getting all the largess below to prepare it for dinner.
With as much crab that was brought back, along with the reefclaws, the crew is quite pleased to also be receiving crab stem for dinner.
Part way through the meal, Mister Plugg approaches Polli and hands her a ceramic vial. "Compliments o' the captain," he says with a sneer, poorly disguised as a smile.
After roll-call, it's announced to you by Master Scourge that your group is excused from normal duties today, as you'll be being trained in boarding actions.
Your instructor is Riaris Krine, the ship's Master Gunner. Krine’s skin is darkened from countless days on deck under the sun, and her nose has the appearance of having been broken several times over. One of her legs has been replaced with a wooden peg leg, the result of a wayward catapult shot that took off her leg below the knee.
"Alright, ya worthless maggots!" she shouts out at you. "Yer gonna learn how ta get aboard a ship that don't want ya!" she shouts at you. You get the impression that she doesn't speak at any other volume.
You realize that the ship's jolly boat has been launched and bobs in the water down below the railing.
"We're gonna start with you and you!" Krine shouts out, pointing at Polli and Tessa. "Down to the jolly! Yer gonna grapple and climb up t' the ship!"
Once Polli and Tessa have followed Krine down to the boat, she rows it forty feet out from the Wyrmwood.
As the first two students ready their equipment, they realize that there are four other crew members at the rail with various items in their hands.
"Yeah, it's not too often that you'll be allowed the luxury of climbin' up unopposed. So they're playing the enemy!" Krine informs you. You can see that the 'enemy' is armed with empty bottles, rotting vegetables, and other garbage.
Tessa looks over at Polli and laughs. "Promise I'll let you keep your knickers on this time, alright?" She sheds her armor to stay light for the exercise and then descends to the jolly.
As Krine rows them out, Tessa stands and looks down at Polli and asks "Are you ready? Let me know if you need my help, okay?"
Picking up the grappling hook, she twirls it around and around above her head before letting it sail through the air, setting perfectly aboard the Wyrmwood. "Boom!" she announces with pride evident. "First try!"
She starts to shimmy across the rope, but looks back to check on Polli. As she does so, she loses her grip and nearly falls off the rope. She focuses again and starts to move forward successfully before once more turning back to check on Polli, this time dodging an object that is thrown at her and losing her grip altogether. She starts to fall but manages to grab the rope with her fingerips and barely hang on.
She swings in place before throwing her legs up over the rope and focuses on the task at hand. "F+%# it! Enough of this"" she grunts. With focus and determination and her legs hooked over the rope, she decides she's going go move as quickly as she can.
Getting up on ship, she stands on the railing and throws her hands into the air and shouts "WHOOOHOO!! YEAH!" before hopping down to check on Polli.
Azadi watches the exchange between Tessa and Polli in slack-jawed amazement. ”Vi...” he stammers, ”how did you do that, and how do we get you out of the kitchen so you can do it more often?”
"Magic." Harmony replies, straight-faced, before picking up two buckets and making her careful way down to the galley.
That evening Harmony reserves an extra bowl of crab stew and sits next to Narwahl Tate, offering him the bowl after his own is empty.
"Have you been at sea long?" She asks cheerfully. "I think I'm finally getting a bit better on ship, not puking all the time and stuff but you seemed fine, even in the storm. Got any tips for a landlubber like me?"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
As Tessa sets off across the rope Harmony winces in anticipation of what is to come and starts trying to think of how she can make it easier when her own turn inevitably comes.
"this is insane... couldn't I just fire FIRE at the other ship... wouldn't that be a better use of my time, yes, of course, it would, but who actually makes sense on this horrid ship... " the sylph mutters pulling off her boots, and looping them in her belt. She concentrates on her magic, incantation and fingertips, then her hands and feet alter into webbed monkey bits.
"Humiliating" she mutters one more time then crosses the quickly and without incident. Joining the strawberry on the other ship, she straightens out her clothes as she says quietly, "I am concerned about our dear tieflings ability to cross. Is there anything you can think of... " she hesistates, considers making a comment about thinking being unlikely but decides she should at least TRY to not be an ass. Sighing she continues "to distract the instructor or help Donomsail cross?"
Tessa thinks about Polli's request "I can certainly cause a distraction, but that won't help her cross. If I distract them, can you do something to help her?"
Polli shakes her head, clearly annoyed with herself that she can't. "This spell..." she holds up her webbed monkey hand all fanned out "... only works on me" she thinks "Could they tie a rope around her waist and swing her... no that make no sense, the instructor is not the only one watching us." she sighs frustrated and at a loss.
"Well... They never said they couldn't tie a rope around their waist for climbing either. I don't think it's against the rules to be smart, is it?"
"Good point... maybe Marisan will be paired with her, that would be fortuitous." she looks back across the ship, waiting to see what might happen, ready to yell out suggestions when it is time "Also..." she says offhand, still looking across "good throw with the hook."
Tessa always appreciates a compliment. She beams with pride, "Why thank you Polli. I have to admit I was worried that you weren't going to be able to make it across the rope. Whatever you did to climb like that, well, that was amazing. Consider me impressed, little one."
"I wouldn't have, make it across I mean" the smaller woman admits "if I hadn't the forethought to prepare a spell to make it possible." she'll pull her glasses off and clean them, "There is always the possibility our friend over there had the same thought from her god. We'll see here in a minute I'm afraid."
"Have you been at sea long?" She asks cheerfully. "I think I'm finally getting a bit better on ship, not puking all the time and stuff but you seemed fine, even in the storm. Got any tips for a landlubber like me?"
Tam give an evil chuckle. "Tips? I'll give ya a tip. Don't piss off 'em what holds a cat-o'-nine-tails o'er yer balls," the dwarf says with a laugh. "'ow's that fer a tip?"
~~~~~
In spite of being pelted with a rotten cabbage and a couple of empty bottles, Tessa manages to make it to the top of the grapple line.
After casting her spell, Polli scrambles up the rope with confidence - ignoring the bits and pieces of detritus being flung at her.[/ooc]
Once both Tessa and Polli reach the deck, Krine yells out to the ship, "Green Hair! Big T!#!! Your next! Get out here!"
Harmony, seeing that the whole situation is guarenteed to end badly for her on the way up, decided to make the way down as painless as possible. With a jaunty grin and a "Pray for me boys!" she grabs a short piece of rope, tosses it over the grappling line and jumps from the side of the ship. The rush as she slides down towards the jolly boat is intense and her landing with a hefty *thud*, doesn't diminish the excitement at all.
"I'm sorry, I'm going to be horrible at this." She offers the master gunner - most of the officers have been unresponsive to friendly overtures, but there's no harm in trying. "I'm probably the second to last person you want trying to board an enemy ship..."
She waits for Azadi and is quite content to allow him the gentlemanly priviledge of throwing the grappling. Then she starts to climb...
Despite retaining her extra piece of rope as a climbing aid, she makes it about two feet from the edge of the boat before looking back. This is a terrible mistake as she hangs for a moment, turns slightly green, and goes straight into the water!
Azadi dives off the edge of the Wyrmwood and swims to the dingy in about the same amount of time it takes his comrade to slide down the ropes. When he emerges from the water some of the sea stays with him- not the normal wetness of just having swam, but a shroud of water that moves with him and seems almost to react to the movements of others nearby.
”Oh, uh, sure” he answers when Vi offers him the ‘honor’ of throwing the grapple.
Once the hook is set he gestures towards the rope and says, ”ladies first.” When Vi begins trying to climb he tries to explain the correct technique, and point out where to grab, but to no avail as she goes into the sea immediately, and repeatedly.
As soon as Harmony's head clears the water after her unintended dunking, Krine is yelling at her to get back in the boat and try again. The woman notes that Azadi seems to be waiting for the girl.
"What are you waiting for?! This ain't no team sport! Haul your ass up that rope!"
Azadi climbs the rope slowly and carefully. He's pelting with a few pieces of debris, but it doesn't affect his concentration and soon he stands on the deck.
As Harmony pulls her soaked self back into the jolly boat to make another attempt, Krine points at those on the ship. "Marisan!" she shouts. "Get down here! You're next!"
Azadi frowns at not being allowed to help others but shimmies across the rope. Once aboard the Wyrmwood, he loiters on the deck, near the railing, in case anyone needs to be rescued.