Polli begins with a quick casting of haste on all, then gives Tessa some quick advise. "It is big, hit it and don't get hit"
"FINALLY" Tess declares, throwing her hands up in the air. "It's about time we get to stab something!"
Tessa dances in place, hopping back and forth on the balls of her feet with her blade in her hand while her crew gets ready. "Right. I'm all over this."
"Time to show you what The Siren is made of, big boy!" she shouts as she dashes forward, pumping her legs and running headlong into the giant thing to stab it.
Polli gives some much needed advice to her captain and enchants everyone with a spell of speed. Tessa moves forward and stabs at the huge creature.
The giant itself doesn't seem to care much for Tessa's needling and growls at her. The hand not holding a huge gaff, reaches out to touch her, but she easily parries his sausage-like finger. He snarls, even more perturbed than before.
Val scowls when the giant stops climbing to attack Tessa. ”New plan, Marisan,” she calls out as she steps onto the ships rail and quickly studies the large foe, ”get in front of it and keep it from getting onboard!”
With that she flips down onto the dock and tumbles behind the giant, then stabs it in the back.
"Marsh giant!" Harmony calls, but has no information to impart thereafter. Luckily this is a combat test so all she has to do is tell some jokes and try not to vomit all the bloody rum.
It turns out that a lot of rum on a hot day is not the combination for accurate throwing, but luckily - thanks for her work with Polli - that doesn't matter any more!
So caught up in the fight, she forgets the basic need for information. "Avoid letting it touch you, it has magic of its own."
"Kick it, Mari!" Tessa shouts as she continues to dodge and strike.
Marisan rushes forward, stabbing the giant with Zul!
The Sirens take to battle like a storm, Polli's mind commentates blades, words, and... lightning of course she smiles, weaving her hands together and speaking words of arcane lore before two stunningly bright balls of swirling electricity come forth and shoot toward the lumbering giant.
On phone so limited posting but Donomsail will cast Hold Person to try and stop the giant from moving. DC is 16 and I think it is a will save.
Marisan strides forward and stabs at the giant with her coral trident. Valeria drops down to the dock and sticks its thigh with one of her shortswords. Donomsail attempts to freeze the creature in place, but the beast doesn't even seem to notice the effect. Captain Violet flings her newly enchanted harpoon at the giant, but can't seem to decide which of the two giants she's seeing she should target and ultimately selects the wrong one.
Round 2
Captain Tessa stabs at the creature again and shouts more instructions at Marisan. Her elucidating words, however, are not needed as, with a ponderous groan, the creature tumbles back to fall still on the dock.
Combat Ends!
The onlookers are silent for a heartbeat or two before breaking out in boisterous cheering. It seems that you've passed the third test.
Tsodok approaches you all after you lower the gangplank and step back down to the dock. "Congratulations," he says with a smile. "No hard feelings, eh? You're good sorts I see."
The half-orc turns to the crowd and proclaims the officers of the Siren to indeed be deserving of becoming Free Pirates of the Shackles. The crowd cheers even louder. He then announces that the Hurricane King, Kerdak Bonefist himself, will grant the officers of the ship their letter of marque this very evening. This announcement receives significantly less applause, suggesting that the current Hurricane King may not be as popular as many outsiders believe.
Tsodok presses through the crowding well-wishers to exit the scene quickly and quietly. The crowd itself pushes forward, many sailors eager to make a good impression on the newly anointed Free Captains. The fact that they're all attractive women doesn't have anything to do with it at all. Amid the congratulations, numerous sailors question whether the Siren will be racing in the Free Captains' Regatta.
Once the crowd disperses, leaving the disposal of the dead marsh giant to the crew of the Siren, Ambrose explains about the Regatta. It's an annual race in which independent Free Captains can win fame and fortune, as well as lordship of an island and a seat on the Pirate Council. In every Shackles port there's much excited gossip and betting on which ships are likely favorites. For the first time in years, the field is wide open, as the infamous pirate lord called the Master of the Gales is judging the race instead of participating. The Regatta is certainly the swiftest way to power and influence in the Shackles, though it is far from the easiest or safest route.
Arriving at the Hurricane King's fortress, Fort Hazard, you find the revelry is already in full swing: tables are laden with roast meat and flagons of ale, mead, and rum, and loud, drunken buccaneers swagger and stagger around the main hall.
Hurricane King Kerdak Bonefist presides over the revelry from his gold-chased, teakwood throne. A blustery man with long black hair and beard, Bonefist looks more pirate than king, forgoing his crown and royal regalia for the long coat and tricorne hat of a sea captain. A tankard of rum rarely leaves his hand, but his most noteworthy features are his magic pistol and his skeletal right hand, the source of his sobriquet. Already well into his cups, the Hurricane King blearily stares down at you as you're brought forth for introductions.
Bonefist repeatedly roars for silence, only to be ignored, so he finally resorts to firing his pistol into the air to establish a deathly silence after its thunderous echo fades. He glares fiercely about the hall until, with an apparent change of mood, he smiles and speaks in a calm voice. "This fresh catch of scallywags want to add their fine ship to our brethren o’ the sea," he says, erratically waving his still smoking pistol toward you. "But before I award their letter of marque and make them Free Captains right and true, I say we hear from them." Bonefist turns his dark gaze upon you. "What say you tell us all a tale or two of how you came by the plunder in your hold?" The inebriated pirates draw closer to hear you speak.
"Hmm... that was quick. Six seconds to defeat a giant." Polli smiles, proud of everyone, very proud. Turning about, her eyes gleaming at Dony, and she captures her cheeks in her hands and gives her quite a lovely kiss, before they are swamped.
Listening to the half orc say bygones...
"Well, I guess I was wrong about him." Polli mutters.
Polli isn't supposed to speak at these things, but they are crowding her and she's had enough it that. "Stand BACK you inebriate sacks." she shouts in a Polli fury, jolting the air with wind and lightining. In the resulting silence, she'll glare at any and all that are not theirs "We've fought and killed everything that the seas and man have thrown at us. So you lot will sit your asses down and f~%*ing listen to our Captain Vi, or so help me I will..." she stops, realizing she might be going a bit too far, and takes a deep breath. "Just sit..." she says through gritted teeth.
Harmony may be drunk, but she'd have to be an idiot to believe that Tsadok means what he says about bygones. Once he's gone she turns to the officers. "We did good. Damn good. Captain Steele, if you'd care to evaluate some of the new recruits? We can take four dozen." She turns and heads into the cabin. "I'm going to be sick..."
-------------------------
Luckily, after throwing up, eating and drinking copious amounts of water Harmony feels largely recovered and is more than happy to stand up and regale this motley band with tales of the Siren's prowess. She takes a few moments to cast a preparatory spell as Polli ensures that she has quiet, and then leans over to borrow Dony's ring.
Polli, I'd like some sound effects if you don't mind. I'll cue you in.
With that she leaps onto the table, bows to the Hurricane King and then turns round dramatically.
"It was a stormy night after three long weeks at sea. Pickings had been scarce and the Siren was running fair under a stiff breeze, headed north west." Wind please Polli With her own magic Harmony conjures the sound of waves, setting the scene. "Then dark clouds gathered, moving against the wind." A pause to allow these sailors to appreciate the sheer unnaturalness of it all. "And out of the gloom we say a mast. A whaling ship! But even as Captain Steele set course to follow, the ship disappeared! We pursued and then, the look-out called Ship, hard to starboard!" Her own magic gives her voice the echoing quality of a cry from the masthead.
"It was the whaler!" Harmony whispered, as the pirates leaned in instinctively. "It had covered ten leagues of more in the blink of an eye and as the storm clouds hid the sun" I'll need you in a moment Polli. A bell please, nice and slow "We heard it across the water, the sound that sent so many good ships to their watery grave... the bell of Whalebone Pilk!"
Right on cue a bell tolls, slow and deep.
*Bong* *Bong* *BOng* *BONg* *BONG*
As Harmony tells her tale, Marisan stands at the front of the table. She bows to the Hurricane King and begins to move along with the story, her graceful spins and leaps accentuating the action. She leans on one foot as the ship turns hard to starboard, the somersaults in the air when it rights itself again. She feigns shock as Whalebone Pilk appears, then her face turns stern as she drops onto her combat dance, ready to shadow fight!
The tolling of the bell is accompanied by raucous laughter. "You was scared by a bell?" someone offers up in a snide voice. "I bet if I beats a drum you all'll piss yerselves!"
More snide comments follow, interrupting Harmony's narrative.
Polli's frown becomes an EPIC frown, one usually reserved for the stealing of her underwear.
"Do without me for a moment, Harmony" she whispers through the ring and moves through the crowd to the Piss commenter. While she wants to bring the heavens down aon the ass, she doesn't (to not distract from Harmony's story). Instead the short sylph stands in front of him, looking up with her furious storm brewing blue eyes.
"You were there, at the fight with the giant, where we butchered it in seconds, where I seared its flesh with the very lightning from the skies, right?" she doesn't care what his answer is, if he wasn't he gets the idea. She rises to her tiptoes and leans forward as if to tell him a secret.
"One More F%##ing Word from that canker sore of a mouth of yours and I swear to I'll do the same to your testicles, and FRY your tiny little balls into charred even more pathetic sacks than they already are, making scream like a tiny baby for the rest of your horrid life. DO I MAKE MYSELF CLEAR!"
The man's sneer, which was clearly present as Polli approached him, has seemingly decided to take a vacation to better parts, leaving only a shocked and fearful face behind. He closes his mouth and gives the sylph a quick and silent nod.
"Get the drumsticks out of your arse first and then we'll see!" Harmony responds, whiplash quick, to chortles all round.
Tessa turns to the heckler and glares at them. "If you don't shut that f&#&ing trap of yours, I'm going to come over there and shatter your nose into so many f#*~ing pieces that you'll be pissing tiny pieces of them out for the rest of your worthless, miserable life."
Tessa flinches at him to make him jump after her speech.
And jump he does. In fact, he doesn't sit back down and makes his way out of the feasting hall.
Tessa turns back to Harmony with a polite smile and a nod of her head. She gestures with her hand for her to continue.
Polli glares at the man for a long moment, then nods, and turns back to hear the rest of their tale. A quirk of a smile on her lips the entire trip back to Dony's side.
"But we turned to meet Whalebone and his ship head on!" Harmony declares, instantly back into the swing of the story. "We came in fast and the ships shook with the impact." Boom, crash the sounds ring out across the room. "Captain Steele and three other officers leapt for the quarterdeck while we fought off Pilk's undead crew, the scourge of the Steaming Sea. Our crew fought valiantly as we fought Pilk, and drove him back across his own quarterdeck. Three times he was struck by a fatal blow, and three times he rose again from the deck and fought on. But he reckoned without the eagle eyes of our Master Gunner. She saw, even through the battle, that Pilk feared for his bell and every time he fell, he rose again at its call. So she loaded a balista while Captain Steele and our mighty first mate," She indicates Marisan as the mwangi woman demonstrates her fearsome roundhouse kick. "threw Whalebone down on final time and then, with deadly aim she fired!"
Harmony lets the silence hang for a second followed by a whoosh and a thunderous clang. "The bell was cracked in two. Pilk cried out, trying to shield the source of his unlife with his own body, but Captain Steele dodged him and split the bell in twain!"
Harmony thrusts her harpoon aloft. "This is Whalebone's weapon, no more. Now it is carried by a Captain of the Siren!"
Marisan rolls, flips, and shadow boxes across the room, finishing with a flourish and a bow.
"And all Ah did was learn tha Ah canna breathe below the water, leastways not less'n ye be helpin' me." Donomsail whispers in Polli's ear, at the same time her hand moves into Polli's waistcoat, fingers moving across her breast. "Did Ah ever properly thank ye fer that? If'n Ah did Ah know Ah haven't showed proper gratitude fer the pretty ring. What say ye'n' me leave this place mebbe Ah kin leave a mark o' me own on ye."
Nuzzling against the tiefling, Polli sighs "No, love, not at the moment, too much potential of it all going to shit, with vats of blood pouring down from the rafters." she turns to the cleric and smiles, bright blue eyes sparkling "But later, I am yours to do with as you will. Promise."
In spite of the rude interruption, Harmony finishes her tale to cheers and applause. As the response begins to die down Bonefist shouts out to the crowd. "Now who here believes these ladies should join our ranks?" There's a large response of 'Aye's and even a few comments that include offers best left unclarified. When that's finished, he scours the crowd with a cold glare. "And who here feels that they don't belong?" he asks. The second question is not without responses. Although they seem to make an effort not to be seen and the level is no where near the acceptance cheers.
"Then it's decided!" The Hurricane King calls out. "Congratulations on being accepted as Free Captains of the Shackles," he says and passes out your letters of marque.
Lawful letters of marque are issued to specific ships, not individuals, but in the Shackles, they are granted to a specific captain and his or her officers. A Shackles letter of marque accords its bearer the authority to seize or destroy cargo, incarcerate or slay crew and passengers, and sink or capture ships from other nations, mercantile or otherwise. Within the territorial bounds of the Shackles, these manifold privileges also apply against any ships or captains who haven’t sworn loyalty to a known Free Captain or who doesn’t carry their own letter of marque (though bearing a letter of marque is no guarantee of safety from other pirates, who frequently strike first and ask questions later).
Possession of a Shackles letter of marque is a crime in most civilized nations and regularly carries a penalty of death by hanging. As a result, a Shackles letter of marque is protected by a secret page spell, enabling its bearer to speak a secret command word to alter the text to something more innocuous, such as a cargo manifest, nautical chart, or page from a ship’s log.
It’s common knowledge within the Shackles who has been granted letters of marque, and most Free Captains keep accounts of which ships and captains have them, making it extraordinarily difficult to forge these documents or steal them to perpetrate a deception.
A Shackles letter of marque radiates faint transmutation magic.
~~~~~
The celebration in the feasting hall continues on well into the early morning. Many of the well-wishers make an offer to the ladies to buy them all the rounds of drinks that they'd like tomorrow evening in a local popular establishment with the imaginative name of the 'Riptide Alehouse'. Until then, food and drink here aplenty.
The story finished, the letter issues, so the sylph turns to her tiefling, "Do you wish to join the... whatever drinking, singing, fist fighting mess this is likely to become, or do you wish-" her words are lost to soft warm lips, and the two go find a room.
Quickly.
Marisan happily accepts the invitation to the alehouse.
Val congratulates her captains on the accomplishment and then begins circulating through the crowd. She enjoys the food and drink and studies the people around her, observing their tells and how they sell their lies. She also searches for any suitable conquests for the evening, for any twins, and for her new white-haired friend.
Valeria doesn't find anyone at the fortress feasting hall from the Siren's crew other than her fellow officers.
There are many Free Captains present that eye her bountiful ... personalities ... with a hungry gaze. If she's looking for a partner to bring back to her quarters on the Siren she won't have any difficulty.
No sign of any twins, or anyone that reminds her of them.
As far as Meiying goes, she's most likely either enjoying the night life of Port Peril or she's back at the crews quarters on the Siren.
I should head back to the Siren and see if I can talk to Meiying... of course, there’s no guarantee she’ll be there, and she joined the crew, so I’ll have plenty of time to find out who she really is... in the meantime, I haven’t gotten any in a while, and there’s plenty of willing volunteers here that I can get some information out of...
Val chooses the best looking of the free captains who have expressed interest in her and inquiries if they’d like to head somewhere more private. Once in a quieter environment, she uses the question game to learn something about the other captain and whatever gossip they find most interesting before ‘scratching her itch’.
Harmony is too seasoned a performer to pass up a chance to spread the Siren's legend still further, although she does her best not to drink anything with much alcohol in it - she's still not entirely recovered from the card game under the hot sun.
"You coming Lacey?" She asks quietly, in a brief moment of peace before departing.
"I wouldn't miss it for the world!" she says eagerly, taking up her co-captain's arm by hooking it in her own. "Let's go have some fun, shall we?"
Tessa celebrates with everything that she has. Drinking, dancing, singing, drinking, yelling, arm wrestling, punching, drinking, flipping and shouting while balancing on top of a chair on top of a counter with three mugs in her right hand while balancing a fourth on her chin.
It's oddly reminiscent of how they first met, before being kidnapped to serve Captain Harrigan but Harmony ends up sitting on a bar stool laughing and trying to ensure that Tessa doesn't kill herself, or someone else, in the process...
- Day 98
The evening/early morning at the fortress passes without incident and after another day spent arranging replacement crew and selling cargo, the ladies gather at the Riptide Alehouse to partake of the festivities (and offered drinks).
The Riptide is a boisterous and rowdy establishment, full of pirates and freebooters of all stripes, though most of the activity seems friendly enough.
*
Harmony taps Tessa significantly on the arm and then heads towards Caulky Tarroon.
"I believe its traditional for the girls to be watching their drinks in places like this." She says, leaning casually on the bar next to the girl. "It's an interesting recruitment method, but I've always thought just asking would work out just as well for a pretty girl like you."
Harmony notices that as she sees Caulky, Caulky sees her. The girl turns away and begins moving through the crowd towards the stairs leading up. As Harmony begins moving to follow, a man steps in front of her.
"Good Evening, Captain Violet," he says with a smile. "My name is Captain Pierce Jerrel, and I would be honored if you would allow me to buy you and your fellow officers a drink this evening."
Pierce is a dashing young man with a handsome, square-jawed face and finely muscled frame. He has short, tousled blond hair and a short beard of a slightly darker hue. He wears an unadorned black patch over his left eye and dresses in a loose, flowing shirt and high boots. His self-assured manner and easy smile radiate self-confidence.
"My pleasure Captain Jerrel." Harmony replies, "If you will excuse me for a moment though. I saw someone spiking drinks."
Assuming that he gives her a moment, Harmony steps over to speak to the sailors whose drinks have been tampered with and orders them new ones on her purse. Then, with her conscience appeased, she returns to the handsome Captain Jerrel.
"A pleasure to meet you Captain. Your genorosity will be much appreciated by my officers."
She continues to make polite small talk until the Captain comes to the point he undoubtedly has.
As Harmony steps around to the sailors with tampered drinks, one of them also seems to notice.
"Someone's been f@!#ing with my ale!" she snarls and empties the contents of her mug over her shoulder ... and onto the back of the man sitting behind her.
"Hey! Watch where you're dumping!" he shouts out and takes a swing at her. She ducks nimbly and his fist connects with the man standing next to her. He responds with a swinging mug and the fracas is on!
Tessa always has Harmony's back.
She let's Vi converse with Jerrel, watching the brawl unfold all around them. She grins widely and says "Yes! Finally!" and cracks her neck, ready to leap into the fight.
Combat Begins!
Round 1
Tessa sees Caulky getting away and knows that Harmony would want her to stop her, she gets busy with it. "I'm going to get Caulky." she says, hopping up on top of the table next to her.
With the height advantage, she looks out across the room and spots Caulky fleeing to the west. She looks around and decides to make her way to the bar counter, leaping once more over the top of peoples heads.
Tessa successfully makes it to the top of the bar with a few daring leaps, dodging thrown chairs and swinging fists.
Harmony can see Caulky push past sailors as she makes her ways up the stairs.