Jack bulls through the chow line, reluctantly choosing the ale, and clearly subscribing to the "eat everything in front of you, and quickly" school of thought. "Whoa there," he says loudly to the first mate as he passes. "I say, you're looking very pale, what what?" he observes. "Eat something that disagreed with you, eh?" he guffaws, and good-naturedly slaps the man on the shoulder.
Now where had the others got off to? he wondered as he made his way to a seat. The spartan conditions on the ship made him think pleasantly of his years away at school, and he had begun to think of his fellow travelers as sort of bunk-mates. The burly half-orc ranger, the willowy elf wizard, the voluptuous Varisian Shelynite (or something, he wasn't quite sure what she did), and the dwarf woman who seemed like a Mwangi native. He craned his neck to see if they were still waiting to receive their meals and waved them over.
Now, now, Jack... I don't think the food here ever agrees with anyone.
The recognizable voice comes from behind the gunslinger. The towering green figure doesn't really have a smile on his face, but this could be recognized as his attempt of humor. In truth, he was the least social person to be around; yet, in times like these, people might not have much of a choice. He takes a good drink of his mug before speaking again.
What do you think? Kovack doesn't even show for dinner anymore. Eh... I guess I just want to get to my destination at this point and feel some earth under my feet.
The ranger's greatsword was tied to his back and clearly showing signs of being well worn. Agatsu was a guide on the jungles, but probably had to use other skills to be able to stay alive.
Saaz eagerly stands in line come meal time, rocking on her feet in anticipation. The blandness of the meals did nothing to blunt her appreciation for something new. And also food.
She wore a mix of red leathers and robes that complimented and showed off just the right bits of her Qadiran skin and curves, while contrasting with her vibrant long red hair. Not being surrounded by assassins for the moment, she hoped, she went for a top that emphasized her bust with the cleavage showing. Granted their wasn't quite anywhere on this ship to sneak off to for fun, but it was amusing to her to see whose glances she could catch.
When the curvy human waves her over she happily saunters over after getting her food. "How's the day and winds treatin ya, my joyous friend?" she asks as she bites off a chunk of her dinner roll.
Ambriel arrives late to dinner, which she tends to do. Even though she is at the back of the line of people, she is hard to miss. While rather tall compared to the (mostly) humans around her, she lacks their solidness. The two features combined make her look childlike and fragile. But her face is only vaguely youngish, certainly not childish and still developing, but also not set and fleshy like an adult human's.
Her black hair is nearly waist length and kept in a pair of braids, a style she has taken up since being on the ship to deal with the constant winds. Her skin is quite light by contrast, and shows little apparent capacity to tan in the sun.
Those who are more familiar with elves would find none of this remarkable. But her clothing is odd for the ship as well. While she does have some practical travel clothing; trousers, shirts, and so forth, she doesn't seem to have much of that sort of thing. The same small number of items seem to get recycled over and over quickly. Most of her wardrobe seems to consist of fancy dresses. Not formal items, but the sort of thing a woman with some means might wear for an evening at the theater.
Ambriel wears one starting at dinner for the evening, and it can take her a few days before she wears the same dress again. This evening she also has a leather satchel, which she uses as a sort of portable office, with her.
She joins the others at the table when Jack hails her over, but aside from brief greeting when she sits down, Ambriel doesn't participate much in the conversation. She picks at her food a little, and sips on the ale she chose some. Mostly though she works. With a map of Garund's western coast laid out, she takes numbers out of a couple of old books and copies them into a third book that everyone knows by now is her journal.
Occasionally she responds to the conversation around her with an "Uh huh" or an "Mmm" if needed, but she doesn't look up. Ambriel isn't standoffish or awkward. When she is engaged she's quite pleasant and sociable. But she is often distracted, doing or thinking about things other than what is is directly in front of her.
”Whatcha mappin out?” Saaz asks after finishing her meal rather quickly and needing something else to occupy her attention, and finding the quiet elf and her map and handwriting pleasant to watch.
"Land ho, and all that, indeed yes! Indubidable!" says Jack, clapping Agatsu on the shoulder. He is also kitted out with all of his belongings like a true adventurer-- he thinks of himself as "always ready for action!" as he has often said. He wears his musket strapped to his back, and the bench-style seating means that he does not look especially uncomfortable.
He thinks for a moment after Saaz asks her question, and replies, "They blow, Ms. Saaz, they blow!" He chuckles and makes room for her to sit next to him, if she should be so inclined, with only a brief downward look and a blush.
When Ambriel joins them, he looks her over with an admiring expression. "I must say, you look rather dashing as always, Ms. Ambriel!" he says loudly. "That looks much like the map I brought from Andoran, good quality, eh? Capital! Capital!"
With a grin Saaz happily scoots closer to the loud human. ”So, and please do your best to not answer with a spirited catchphrase as cute as they are, what brings you aboard the ship, wandering or traveling?” she asks Jack.
Jack happily talks about himself, though he is at least aware when everyone else has been silent for a while. "Adventure! I plan to take the Mwangi Expanse by storm! I shall see the wonders of the wild jungle and claim a few trophies before we are done." Once he grinds to a halt his face twists in puzzlement and curiosity. "What about you? I am having trouble picturing you bringing down the great creatures that are said to populate the land to which we are headed. Are you in trade? Eh? What?"
”Demon hunting!” Saaz brightly answers. ”What kind of trophies are you after?”
I'm a guide, trapper and hunter. - replied the ranger - And looking for coins. Can't think of a better jungle to get me those...
The young follower of Shelyn was there too, she has boarded on Varisia and has been on the ship for some time by now, as such she has became acustomed to the crew and the other passengers, she was in no rush to arrive to their destination but days has been rather boring lately, not that she craves from action.
She was wearing a simple yet modest blue dress that reach her knees, a rather unconfortable attire for her who prefers something more functional that allows her to train with her glaive or do some excersices, nevertheless her rather good looking body has catch the attention of more than one of the crew's members, thing that she doesn't really mind.
The Oracle has just finished her meal and while it's hardly the best she has eat these days she can't bring herself to complain, and is giving a small prayer to Shelyn.
"Praise Shelyn my friends, today will be another beautiful day if we wish it to be!" Exclaimed Erinnelle and then looks at her fellows adventurers.
"You guys seems as energetic as always, perhaps a little eager to reach our destination" Commends the Human as she smiles and approach them to join the conversation, after all she is undeniably an adventurer too.
Ambriel looks up at Saaz for an instant but goes back to the project she’s working on while answering the dwarf.
”I’m calculating estimates for travel times to the known observatories and orreries in the Sodden Lands.”
Ambriel indicates the two thin books she’s taking figures from. ”These are expeditionary journals I’ve found.” Removed from the library where I worked. Severance pay…
”Entries in them log daily distances traveled and terrain, jungle, swamp, river, and so forth. I’m deriving an average travel speed for each type of terrain. With those averages I can estimate how long it will take to reach various locations using possible routes by looking at how much of the distance is comprised of differing terrains.”
”My aim is to plan for the expedition that combines the fastest travel time with the most promising destination.”
Ambriel responds to Jack’s compliments with an absent ”um hum” without pausing her project.
In fact, Ambriel is becoming worried. When she left Magnimar she was more focused on the leaving than the arriving elsewhere. It’s turned out travel is quite expensive, more so than she had expected. Where she had originally anticipated launching an expedition in the fabled sense, she now wonders if she can manage a quick jaunt to anywhere useful. She’d have to get by with a guide, a porter or maybe two, and a couple of sellswords for security. As she's learned more from new arrivals on the ship, and her information on the region becomes more reliable and up to date, even such a small crew hired for a couple of weeks is starting to seem very optimistic to Ambriel. She’s never been particularly good with money.
”The Eternal Rose, such a wonderful goddess,” Saaz happily responds to Errinelle.
”Observatories and sorties? Oh! You wanna look at stars and other planets? That’s what those do, right?” she thinks aloud after Ambriel responds to her inquiry, before getting a thoughtful look. ”Wait, the Sodden Lands, aren’t they close to the Eye? Would any of those places even be useable for what you’re after?”
An explanation for Saaz would take enough time that Ambriel stops and looks up to talk directly to her.
"Yes, very close to the Eye of Abendego. I don't expect travel there will be easy, which is why I'm taking this extra care with planning. You're right I expect, it's not likely any of the equipment, delicate stuff for the most part, would still be in working order. I am looking for written records of the Lirgeni astronomers' observations and discoveries. Research notes, reports, journals, those sorts of things."
"Lirgen was home to the greatest astronomers and diviners of the last age. The Eye came upon Lirgen so suddenly and completely that little of what they knew ever came out of the land when it was devastated. There may be great, important things to be found tucked away there in forgotten places."
”Ah, so salvaging knowledge and history from the storm.” Saaz thinks aloud. ”I wish you luck and safety in your noble quest.” she says with a smile to the elf.
"Salvage knowledge, huh? That's a noble goal indeed, I wish you only the best in your endeavor" Comments Erinnelle about the wizard's explaination, she sees Ambriel has a very wise person whose knowledge and dedication must be respected so she pays close attention to her words even if she can't grasp the finer details.
"By the way Jack... Alton didn't look very well, is something wrong?" Asked the oracle, as far as she can tell Jack was the leader type of person, if something is amiss he is likely to know what it is.
Jack listens to Ambriel's description of her endeavors with distracted politeness. His smile looks rather fixed while he eats, but he doesn't interrupt.
"The first mate, yes! Poor chap looks dead on his feet. It seems to me the captain of this boat has been too busy with other things to attend to matters and his second has been picking up the slack. Could do with a nice long rest, I'd say!" He looks around. "Back home in Andoran we'd organize a bit of a whip-round, get some folks to cover for him. We aren't doing anything essential, eh? Let's help the man out, what do you say?"
Without concentrated opposition from his colleagues, Jack shouts to Alton and waves him over. "I say, Mr. Alton! Could we have a word?" He smiles placatingly around the table while they wait for the man to join them. "There must be ways we can pitch in, what?"
”Oh he’s attending to matters all right. Leana’s if you know what I mean and you know you do.” Saaz chimes in with a sing-song voice.
When Jack calls Alton she turns and waves excitedly at him.
Agatsu reclines in silence, watching the loud Jack approach Alton. He doesn't really makes many movements, waiting with a bit of mistrust as he finishes his meal.