"No, it's not. Looks more like this captain is of the less honorable kind. Let's leave, he will not pay."
"You're going nowhere." The captain orders, lashing out at Locke with his whip.
"You put down all the stuff from the boatswain and empty your pockets, so I can check that you didn't steal from my ship."
Persephone walks around the table and touches the captain with her death touch.
The captain shouts angrily as horrid wounds open on his body. I'll feed you to the fish!"[/b] he threatens and draws his cutlass.
Locke casts a spell that covers the captain in a spray of colors.
Faerveren likes this situation way better, where Persephone offers a flank.
Persephone touches the man again with death.
Plugg drops everything in hand and stares blankly. He is an easy target for all the attacks.
As Touches are easy, Persephone keeps doing that.
Glad that the guy has no weapon in hand, Faerveren keeps stabbing.
As the effect of color spray is very limited on the captain and he already tries to evade the attacks again, Locke shoots some magic missiles.
"Gav, come here!" Plugg shouts. He tries to disarm Faerveren with his whip, pulling the rapier out of her hands.
Locke changes to shooting acid drops.
Faerveren draws a dagger and stabs at the soon to be dead man. But in her hurry she misses.
Persephone keeps grabbing at the man to make him suffer.
With a last outcry the captain goes down. Lying on the ground he keeps bleeding. His body covered with stabs from Faerveren, but also horrible wounds that opened when Persephone infused him with negative energy.
Gav comes into the captains room. As he sees what's going on his jaw drops and his eyes widen.
Faerveren picks up her rapier to be ready for the next round of combat.
"That happens to people who try to betray us." Persephone states.
In a calm sing-song tone she continues "Take a close look. I made it swift for this one, and my companions helped with their weapons and magic. But I don't need to be close. And I don't need help. I only need to know your face and your name Gav. And you will die a slow and painful death. These ugly wounds will open up all over your body over a week and finally you'll bleed out."
"You have never seen us. Best, you leave the ship, before anyone comes back and asks questions you don't want to tell the answers to. Because I'll know if YOU try to betray us."
Mouth open and eyes wide Gav nods and retreats into the short corridor. Once out of sight you hear him running.
"It might have been a bad mistake to tell you my real name."
Faerveren shudders at Persephone's calm and nonchalant threat of horrible death at her hands.
"Let's move that klutz down to the boatswain to make it look like they killed each other." She grabs the body at the feet. "It's a shame we need to leave their weapons."
"But the other valuables we can take, right?" Locke inquires, looking around for interesting things.
"Sure." Persephone pats the captain down and removes everything that will not be missed immediately. Then she carries the corpse down to the bilges, where she throws both bodies in.
On the way back she grabs the bucket and the brush Gav used and cleans the floor in the captains room to hide the traces of the fight.
Once done, she suggests "Let's leave and hope no one noticed us."
Going unnoticed is almost impossible at daytime at the docks, but no one of the ship's crew is around and the others don't care. The group splits and walks on different ways back to The Pig's Whistle where they meet again.
Persephone takes a detour to her home and fetches two bottles of wine.
At The Pig's Whistle she hands Isabella one of the bottles. "Hello. Here, have your bottle back."
To Faerveren and Locke she suggests "Shall we do a debriefing upstairs?"
"We'll for sure won't do it here." Faerveren replies and gets up and upstairs.
Persephone opens the second bottle of wine and puts it on the table. "So we have shown, that jumping into a fight fails, again. And we showed that we struggle to bring down two guys even sequentially. Again."
"Your support was really helping and it was not as close as last time, but I was really hoping for something more. There is no way we can take on four of their guys."
"I count today as a big win. We won two fights, and a big a-hole got his grin wiped off his face."
She pours some wine to toast. "Also we made a fair cut."
"It could have gone better, but we also could get better equipment. And we could prepare better for a fight we plan." Faerveren comments taking a glass wine.
"But overall you're too much into killing. Why not investigate first? If you don't want to fight four, find out where you have only two and no one to come to their aid."
"Or steal the wine they want to deliver out of the storage without any fight. My talents are wasted on your approach and I'm not into getting filleted."
She takes a sip of the wine. "And what was that with you casting green droplets that didn't hit? Wanted to prolong your fun?"
"Hey, I didn't miss!" Locke objects.
"I guess our beauty here went all in on the fight. And now she has nothing left but drops of - what is it? - that don't help much in a real fight."
"Not really strong, no weapon, no armor, I guess Inkskin is at our mercy now." Persephone gets up to cross the short distance to Locke.
Locke backs away from Persephone "Hey what's up with you. I thought we are a team!?!"
"As I thought." Persephone states and sits back down. "And that's the reason you don't wipe the grin off those bullies faces on your own. You don't have what it takes to stand through the fight."
"I agree, that we should try Faerveren's approach. It might suit us better."
Faerveren tenses as Persephone gets up. As she sits down again she voices in relief "Damn, you're creepy." and takes a swig of the wine to wash the shock down.
"You're a mean b*!&%!" Locke complains from her cowering position on the bed.
"You thought I'm all sweet?" she asks Faerveren with a smile.
Turning back to Locke she tells "I'm realistic. We were lucky today. That captain was sure he could take us. And if he had managed to get Faerveren he probably would."
"You're great at what you do, but with your overexcited attitude you only get yourself killed. Or us."
"That magic missiles were really impressive. Every shot a hit. And that colors were nice too, only too short in effect!"
"Usually the effects are more spectacular and last longer. At least on minions." Locke tells. She also relaxes and takes a normal sitting position again.
"How about we call it a day and go to bed early? I guess darkness is a boon for Faerveren's plan and you used all your magic and I also used the majority of mine."
"I can offer you a bed in my house, then we could start at my place very early in the morning."
"Not so fast. What is it you did to the captain? You just touched him and his skin burst like a saussage!" Isabella insists to know "Where do you get your powers from?"
Persephone shrugs "I don't know."
"It is some force that doesn't reveal itself. From what I get it could be death itself. And with death at hand I can cause those wounds."
"I guess you can do without a first hand experience?" Persephone jokes. "And your magic? I see you bring no book and no holy symbol either."
"I guess my magic is inherited. It just comes to me without books and stuff."
"My questions are answered. We can call it a day."
"Are you staying at her house too?" Locke asks Faerveren.
"Yes. It's for free and it's not bad. Better than here, even though it looks a bit depressing without the paintings and furniture."
"And Persephone doesn't bite. At least as long as you don't show fear."
"As long as you don't steal from what little silverware I have left, you'll be fine." Persephone reassures Locke.
"I can at least take a look."
Persephone leads the way. She leaves the bottle of wine, as she has enough of that at home. Also she had enough wine for one day. She is already a bit dizzy.
At her home she gives Locke a tour. "Here is the foyer, there is the dining and reception room, this to the right was the exhibition room of my father's shop."
"Here is the kitchen, now the most important room in the house. This door leads into the back yard. Next to the kitchen is my room and upstairs are the master bed room and two more bed rooms."
The floor plan and the rooms show, that this building is a representative and upper class town house. But the lacking state of repair and the lack of furniture contradicts that.
"Wow!" Locke comments.
After the short walk to the kitchen she asks "Isn't that usually the maid's room?" about the room Persephone introduces as hers.