"I'm coming Val!" Tessa shouts, dashing off into the fog in search of the half-orc. She moves as quick as she can straight ahead, looking for him. If she finds him, she attacks.
Knowing both Val and Tessa are injured but not knowing just where they are in the fog frustrates Donomsail "Mah main job! How kin Ah keep 'em livin' if'n Ah canna git ta 'em!" But it is a mild complaint as she knows that they are also doing their jobs. Looking at the flying figure she judges the distance between herself and the other. Moving up ten feet she stands tall, locks her eyes on her target and attempts to cast a spell on the witch.
Feeling a bit better, Marisan dashes back into the fog, stabbing at the first foe she comes across.
Vakarla laughs at Donomsail and as if to spite her, she moves closer to Harmony and speaks the words of another spell.
A figure appears near the bard on the rear deck of the ship and she pales as she sees her worst fears made manifest.
Round 4
Hearing Tessa approach, Val quietly steps forward from her hiding spot while the cutthroats turns to look for the oncoming redhead and unleashes a flurry of stabs...
"Moost of your mem are dead!' Polli yells (a little gurgly because of the broken nose) a second before four balls of light fly out of her hand and smash into greenie.
The sight of the figure in the mouldy greatcoat rising from the ocean to embrace her nearly stops Harmony's heart in her chest but she manages to push the fear aside, for now...
Instead she lets out a bloodcurdling scream.
Vakarla claps her hands over her ears to block out Harmony's scream that only she can hear, but it's a little too late. Polli's arcane missiles slam into her just an instant later. Valeria moves stealhily through the fog, catching the last cutthroat completely off-guard and gutting him like a fish.
Marisan hesitates as she looks at the flying caster. "Polli! Can you make me fly?" she asks.
"Fly? no." irritated at herself for having to say no "I agree that would be ideal here and will look into being able to in the next port. I could... teleport you to right next to her, but I don't know if you could get an attack in before we both few into the water."
Donomsail raises her hands into the sky, her fingers spread and crooked, she eyes the flying woman who is mocking them all .
Casting Lightning. DC 17 Reflex Save for 1/2.
or if it is hot/cloudy/windy
As Tessa and Marisan consider strategies to strike at the flying woman, Donomsail puts matters into Gozrah's hands and a bolt of blue lightning strikes down out of the clear summer sky. The woman's limbs snap out as she's enveloped in the divine energy for an instant. That instant passes and the woman drops from the sky to land with a sickening crunch amidst the rough rocks and water.
Combat Ends!
"Nice work Dony!" Tessa calls out before seeking out the injured crew, starting with Marisan. She turns to the brawler to examine her injuries and asks "Mari! Are you okay? I have never seen you run away from someone before."
Polli with only a mildly seeping gut wound remaining as well as her swollen purple nose, starts wincing around looking to see how everyone is. A hard frown on her face from being irritated from pain and nearly seeing several people she cares almost gutted.
"Valeria! Are you alive?!?" she yells into the mists.
Marisan nods, though there are still deep gouges sliced into her body. "I was very badly hurt, but it is not so bad now. Thank you, Donomsail."
"Yes," Val shouts to Polli as she sheathes her swords and grabs the deadman by his shirt, "wounded but alive!"
Dragging the sailor behind her, she walks out of the mist and mutters, "thanks for coming in after me, Cap'n," before dropping the body and walking to the ship's rail. "Someone's gonna have to go in and get her, right? The reef should keep her body and stuff near the surface, but it's gonna be tough not to get cut up on the way..." As she talks, she focuses on the little bit of magic she's learned and looks around to make sure there aren't any other surprises waiting for them. "I don't mind going in, but I could definitely use some healing first..."
Once all their people are accounted for, she'll check on the invaders to see if any of them are alive.
Looking over the aftermath of the battle, Polli finds two of the half-orcs that aren't quite dead ... yet.
Valeria treks down to the rocks to retrieve Vakarla's remains. Both her and her pet monkey are quite dead.
Polli will do what she can to keep them alive until Dony can mass heal all of them.
Before Valeria goes down to the body Donomsail walks over to her and puts a hand on her shoulder, allowing Gozreh's healing energy to pass through her.
"Of course, Val. I will always come for my crew." she says with a smile.
She helps Val retrieve the remains and bring them back up on deck to be searched thoroughly.
Harmony meanwhile hurries down from the wheel and joins Polli, before channeling a little healing energy into each orc.
"Marisan, Tessa, Polli. Take that one to the bow and talk to him there. We'll talk to this one on the quarterdeck and we can match their stories afterwards."
On the quarterdeck, flanked by Donomsail and Val, she squats down behind the bound half-orc. "So, we'd like to ask about a ship you sank. The Lady's Sting. You tell me where it is and you'll make it off this ship alive. Sound like a good deal to you?"
"W-where's Vakarla?" the half-orc asks, looking around nervously.
"Dead." Harmony says, kindly rather than forcefully. "She can't hurt you for talking to us."
"Damn," he says, his shoulders sinking. "I knew that she'd eventually take on something we couldn't handle."
~~~~~
In exchange for the lives of the two survivors, the half-orc, Nuktul, promises to lead you to their lair. It takes a couple of hours to make rudimentary repairs to the Siren and to extricate her from the rocks.
When asked about the Lady's Sting, he directs you to the other side of the shoals where just under the water you can see the wreckage of two different ships - one of which bears the nameplate of the lost Calistrian ship. Nuktul indicates that there's nothing of value left on her.
It's not twenty minutes after that, that the ship is dropping anchor off the shore of a tiny island with a sheltered cove. Hidden from the shoreline, the base is a ramshackle series of thatched huts surrounded by a flimsy wooden palisade.
The wreckers’ base contains cargo and supplies, primarily consisting of leather, spices, timber, and various ships’ equipment . The base also contains three longboats and a crude alchemist’s laboratory in one hut.
Nuktul also points out Vakarla's private hut. Within it, buried under a thin layer of sand beneath her bunk is an unlocked trunk. The unlocked trunk holds a mithral dagger set with aquamarine gemstones , a Shackles ensign, 320 gp in mixed coins, and Vakarla’s spellbook.
mirage arcana
overland flight
wall of force
fear
hallucinatory terrain
phantasmal killer
wall of fire
haste
invisibility sphere
major image
stinking cloud
vampiric touch
water breathing
false life
fog cloud
invisibility
knock
mirror image
rope trick
scorching ray
burning hands
color spray
grease
mage armor
magic missile
ray of enfeeblement
all core cantrips
Also within the trunk is a golden statue of a wasp wrapped in oilcloth.
Polli nods to Harmony. "Marison, would you?" Polli isn't much of a manhandler. Once at the bow, she'll kneel in front of him. "{b]I have words, while my friends have fists and steel. My words tell you that your captain and most of yours are dead. Just you and one other left. We don't care about your death, not one bit, even though you tried to take ours. If you answer, you live, if you don't, you die. Simple. Tell me about the Lady's Sting.[/b]"
A pain in her stomach and the ridiculous purple nose isn't helping her being threatening.
After everyone is back on board and while they are going through her things Donomsail stands nearby and raises her holy symbol to the sky. "Gozreh sorg vir u bondgenote. Bad hulle almal in u genereerde energie."
Val forces a weak smile and thanks Donomsail for the healing.
Once the sailing around and pillaging is completed she asks, ”does anyone know how much the wasp statue might be worth? I might be interested in claiming it if it’s not too pricey, or something the Calistrians are counting on getting back...”
"Isn't the statue what we were sent for?" Polli says offhand as she slowly leafs through the spellbook, eyes glowing in happy academic greed.
Val frowns and blushes a little. ”I’m sorry, that must have been discussed while I was otherwise engaged.”
After spending the rest of the day, transferring the cargo from the Wrecker's lair to the Siren, it's determined to spend the night here and head back to Motaku island and the port of Quent in the morning.
Late that night, Valeria wakens from a dream that she can't remember to realize there's someone in her dark cabin. She also gets the distinct feeling that they moved her blanket.
Val lays as still as she can while she looks around the room, more grateful than usual that she can see in the dark. She also pays attention to how her body feels, curious if anything feels like it has been tucked into her clothes or removed from them.
There is a figure in the room - Meiying. She's slowly and quietly moving away from the hammock and towards the door.
As the white-haired woman reaches out to quietly open the door, Valeria puts her hand out to block the door from opening.
Meiying's shoulders slump. "This isn't what it looks like," she says in a quiet voice. "I had heard that you were injured and I only wished to see that you were well." She turns to look at Valeria, backing up against the wooden door. Her eyes meet the slayers and then drop to the floor.
"And here I thought you had come to finally answer my last note..."
The slayer's words are said teasingly as she looks the white-haired woman over , but they're colored with real curiosity, perhaps even a hint of longing, though its unclear whether its a longing for answers or for something more visceral.
"Well that concludes our business here." Harmony says with a firm nod. She examines the flag and notes the beautiful texture. "This will be worthwhile flying, but I think we need something different. I wonder if we can get someone to improve the appearance without hindering the magic..."
”You can’t have gotten a very good look with my bodice on,” Val answers sympathetically, ”surely you would feel better if you got a better look.” As she speaks she slowly moves one hand to the top clasp and opens it. ”Maybe instead of exchanging notes, this one time, we can exchange something more personal... I’ll let you examine the sites of my wounds until you are fully satisfied that I’m alright, and you trust me to share the secret you’re hiding in your skirt?” As she speaks, she slides her hand down and lets it rest on the second clasp.”[/b]
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Pulling herself away from the book, she then fusses over the ship like a mother hen, an angry mother hen who may never let her chick out of the coop ever again after it was led astray by some thuggish cock.
She stares daggers at Tessa (the thuggish cock) every time she sees her for the next day or ten. Though mostly she is buried in her peapod of a hammock studying every pen stroke of the spellbook.
- Day 126
The later afternoon is hot when you arrive and tie up at the dock. There are some comments and pointed fingers at the damage the Siren is still carrying from her rough grounding on the rocky shoals and the subsequent fireball.
"Right, who wants to go see the Calistrians?" Harmony asks. "Take the statue and the charts, we want as accurate a location for the Briney Banshee as possible. Captain Steele, will you go? I need to stay here and get repairs started. Polli, I assume you'll stay too? I'll need your assistance."
secrets, plural... the tail, or whatever it is, isn't the only secret... and she has been, or at least will be, imagining me naked... that's two things learned...
She pulls back half a step, without breaking eye contact and answers, "If you're here because of 'our relationship' then there's no need for ma'ams and you're free to go whenever you want, although I hope you'll stay and talk to me some more... " She moves her hand from the door and allows it to delicately glide down the other woman's arm and brush against her fingertips as she lowers it. "Donomsail healed me, completely; I'm fine now... Donomsail, my devil-born friend, with her crimson skin and horns, that don't change how I see her at all..."
When Harmony asks who will accompany Captain Steele, Val puts on a stoic, soldierly face and answers, "I can accompany the Cap'n, ma'am." She tries not to think at all about how long that elf could focus on a task, until it was well and truly completed... several times... Somehow she barely realizes they've left until they're halfway to the Temple.
"Yes Captain" Polli replies to Harmony, as normal she gets more respectful with one captain when she is irrationally pissed at the other. She does are least realize it is irrational.
Meiying's pale skin is exposed down to her smallclothes. Her smallclothes that restrain a significant bulge. She pulls the material of the dress farther away to expose her very modest breasts topped with nipples almost the color of her skin. And the smaller breasts below those. And the smaller breasts below those. As if in agitation, a forked tail whips back and forth between her calves.
"Most of the time I can pass for human. But that's only until I get close to someone. Then they find out the truth." She pulls the material of her dress back over herself protectively and looks away and waits.
~~~~~
Tessa and Velaria make their way to the House of Stolen Kisses. When presented with the golden wasp, Dindreann's face lights up with ecstasy. She takes the artifact into her hands reverently and strokes it gently before placing on a shelf in a place of honor. She turns back and takes a reclining seat on one of the soft divans in the candlelit room.
"Now please, tell me of the vengeance that you inflicted on those that thought to rob our mistress," she says, her voice husky as she traces a finger down her chest.