Ellen hurries down the steps, tails wreathed in lightning!
"Finally, a chance to use some zappies! I guess you could say that I'm, y'know... amped up?"
She hops off the second-to-last stair, spinning in midair and launching a volley of crackling electric orbs off of them!
x2=8
x2=8
Dev tries to get a better shot, slips on the damp deck and his shot goes wide left, disappearing into the waves. Ellen flicks three zaps of lightning at the walrus. The first sparks against the rail but the second connects, dropping the beast.
Or at least it looked like it should, that walrus was pretty roughed up. Adrenaline pumping through the blubbery body, it ferociously stays standing, ready to maul someone!
Until the third blast overloads its already borderline heart, stopping it still. With a wet thump, the pathfinders have removed an apex predator from the area.
___________________________
Ellen flashes Akimi a winning wink as she re-situates her tails behind her, flicking the last crackles of electricity off of them.
"All right, well done, all--even Jacques!"
She taps her chin and looks over at Akimi. "Do you know how to preserve or prepare walrus meat? If not, we can just shove it off into the sea and let the local fish have at it."
Akimi does their best to hide their embarrassment at missing by coughing a lot. "I think I can manage it," they reply gruffly.
With that, they lope up to Jacques. "Took a nasty hit there," they say, digging out a healer's kit from their pack. "Let me take a look."
Though not completely back to perfect health, the hole the walrus' tusk made is no longer making mildly concerning sucking noises and the bleeding has been stanched. "You should be okay now," Akimi says with forced cheer. "Just try not to get stabbed by any more walrus tusks for the foreseeable future, yeah?" They pat him on the shoulder and head to the bow to take a look at what's waiting for them on the shore. Wonder what craziness is waiting for us in that building? they think. Hopefully I make less of an ass out of myself. That was just shameful. You had a clear bead on the jugular! How did you miss??
With a sigh, Akimi slouches down into the galley to grab a few knives and head back up with some salts and spices. "Mind helping me with this fella?" they ask the others. "I want to dress this thing and get some good cuts out of it for later."
Ellen rolls out her shoulders.
”No telling what we’ll find ashore—let’s drop anchor here, get our meat situation figured out, and I’ll talk you lot through docking procedure once we’ve stuffed our larder.”
”Looking forward to trying something new, though. Think you can wal-rustle up a good dinner with that?”
Tossing the anchor over the side of the boat to keep it from wandering into an untimely death only takes about a minute, and from there, she waves Jacques over to the walrus corpse.
"You did an excellent job helping take this down-- now take care, learn from Akimi, and once they've taught you you'll have one more skill to boast about," she grins, hoping he'll take the bait and be a good student-- or, at least, a helper.
She spends the rest of the time maintaining the ship-- it was due for a swab, and the blood might stain if left as-is, and if there was one walrus, someone needed to keep an eye out for any later walruses, and actually there was that one knot that Dev had tied earlier this morning but he might have been distracted with the newbies so it could use a double-checking, and...
Ellen tosses the anchor over and the chain starts going into the water. She looks up at the sail, still completely open and being pushed hard by the wind and reconsiders her other priorities.
Quickly pulling Dev into action, they both spend the next ten minutes securing the ship to actually be anchored.
Meanwhile, Akimi is cleaning out the tusk wound with some cooking brandy, really disgusting stuff for food but it was all they had and it does also work for this. Anyway, after Jacques whimpers in pain they give him a drink to shut him up and start stitching. Wound clean and closed it gets wrapped with a clean-ish cloth and declared adequate.
"Well done, comrades, well done! I have no doubt that the locals will be singing of this valiant deed for many centuries! Not to mention: just think of the delicacies our chef will prepare from this mastodon of the sea! Why, once we get ashore in our new fishing camp, we'll have nothing to do but sit about and taste test the latest delicacies! I'll tell you, after all my many adventures, a fellow could get used to a well-deserved vacation such as we are having. What fun!"
He prattles on like this while Akimi bandages his wounds, seemingly barely noticing that he was even bleeding. The same is not true, however, when the group turns to butchering the walrus carcass; Jacques turns a bit green and announces that he will make sure to drive away any rats to make sure they cannot poach from the larder. He sets to rat-hunting at the far end of the boat from the butchering operation.
Akimi does the thing and does it good! It goes a mite faster thanks to Ellen and Dev's help. About two and a half hours later, they clean up and store the meat, taking care to save the tongue, liver, and thymus (I've never made sweetbreads, that should be fun! I'll have to think up some good garnishes). Once everything is stored and they've cleaned up, they pause to consider Jacques again, watching him dart up and down the deck chasing after loose bilge-rats. Just watching the braggart is exhausting.
Finally Akimi waves him over. "Let me take a look at those bandages. Maybe I can get you a little better situated."
They plop the swashbuckler down on a barrel and loosen the strips of cloth, now soaked through with blood. They gently wipe away the thin layer of gore slicked across the stitches, then applies another healthy dose of herbal salve. A quick redressing and a fresh compress later, and it's like the wound isn't even there.
They pat their fellow kitsune on the shoulder. "Good as new! That went surprisingly well. Most of the people I do that to are, um. Already dead." They pat him once more and wander off to help Dev and Ellen dock the ship.
With two useful helpers and one pain in the rear running around being an annoyance, the first thing Akimi does is tell Jacques to go start clearing out the hold so they can figure out a place to store some of the products. Jacques probably spends most of the time stabbing at shadows, but at least he is out of the way.
The first order of business is positioning to expose the belly. After that it is just a gruesomely insane amount of cutting. The skin is actually easy to manage, but the blubber is so thick and now covered in blood it takes a while. Fortunately, Akimi's technique is safe and they know generally what they are doing. The biggest job the helpers do is hold things in place so nothing shifts.
Eventually the heavy organs are gone and the chef turned butcher collects the couple they want and has them stored in a cool dry place for now. The next part is separating the skin and blubber and meat. Unfortunately, Akimi quickly recognizes that time is not on their side at this point. Too much hot sun to collect everything. But at least half the meat and fat is harvested before the exhausted fox gives it up and starts carrying steaks and ribs and other cuts of meat into the kitchen. Ellen is left with the wonderful prospect of scooping the good fat into pots for rendering. The skin continues to dry while hanging from the mainsail
When Jacques returns to the main deck later he is treated to a big pile of offal, blood, spoiled meat and fat rotting in the hot sun.
Fortunately the group knows not to just throw it all into the water or it will attract sharks. Or do they?
Akimi is terrifyingly cheerful while they work, telling the (perhaps unfortunately) riveting tale of their first hunt as a kit, having to wrestle a rabbit nearly their size to the ground and tear its throat out. It's an oddly dark story from the usually pleasant Akimi, and honestly they can't really say for sure why they decided to tell it. Perhaps all the gore slicking the deck has them feeling nostalgic.
It's been a long time since they ate raw meat, however. Cooked just tastes better.
After all the dressing is done, they leave Ellen and Dev to cleanup while they start rendering the fat and cooking up some of the meat. They boil up a couple potatoes to mash as a side, and after pan-frying a couple decent-sized portions of walrus flank, they season it with a little butter and parsley. A little more butter into the mashed potatoes almost finishes off the dairy product, so they shrug and slide the last hunk into the potatoes with some salt and one wilted chive they were able to pick up for cheap, diced up and fried in the steak fat to give it a little more flavor before getting tossed into the mashed potatoes.
They manage to wrangle four plates up the steadily swaying stairs back on deck so everyone can enjoy some lunch before heading off to unknown dangers. "Bon apetit!" they say as they hand out plates. "That's Galtan, I think. Hong used to say it when he cooked up... well, pretty much anything, now that I think about it." Akimi wonders what the old man is up to these days. They sigh wistfully before digging into the mashed potatoes.
With the walrus chucked overboard ("Sharks? In these waters? Dev, I think maybe you've fin-ally lost it!") and the bloody remains swabbed off (thankfully not too difficult, given the ever-dampened deck and a few hefty buckets of fresh seawater.
With the ship now thoroughly docked, she's happy to follow her nose back to the galley once more.
"This is heavenly," Ellen whispers in awe as she looks at their cook. "If you stick with us, I'll find all the weight I lost when we were eating pickles and tack... and probably some more besides!"
HOMNOMNOMNOMNOMNOMNOM
"Oh damn that's good"
Lunch done and the sharks fed (you see about eight fins in the water shortly after dumping the leftovers) Ellen has Jacques reel in the anchor and she guides the ship up to the dock.
Which has seen better days, but is at least out deep enough for their small sloop to be tied off. They DO see a drydock built on shore, but unfortunately it is a bit full of a mostly disassembled fishing barge. But no need for a drydock when your ship is shipshape!
Exiting the wonderfully stinky ship the group makes it on shore.
"Well, that sure is a place," says Ellen, looking over the area. "Houseabout we check the main building first, and then see what kind of sheds and such we've got to work with?"
Akimi makes a noncommittal sound, stepping slightly forward of the others. They kneel down and pick up a pawful of wet sand, grinding it between the thick pads of their fingers as they scan the area with a curious intensity. "Sorry," they mumble as they stand up. "Abandoned buildings just always give me the heebie-jeebies."
Still, no harm in being cautious.
They pull out their journal, flip to an empty page, and write at the top:
Casefile: Abandoned Fishing Camp
1. Layout?
2. Why abandoned?
3. Find spiders!
4.
Akimi taps their muzzle absently with the pen as they consider what else to add to the list. Deciding that will do for now, they blow on the page a few times before snapping the journal shut and stowing it back in their pack.
Pursue a Lead: You spend 1 minute examining the details of one potential clue, designating the subject related to that clue as the target of your active investigation. This subject is typically a single creature, item, or small location (such as a room or corridor), but the GM might allow a different scope for your investigation. You don’t need to know the identity, purpose, or nature of the subject, but you do need to be aware of its existence. For instance, finding a footprint is enough to investigate the creature that left it, and seeing a hasty sketch of an item or location can be enough to start your investigation of that subject.
Whenever you attempt a Perception or skill check to investigate a designated subject, you gain a +1 circumstance bonus to the check. The exact checks this applies to depend on the actions you use to investigate and are determined by the GM, but checks to investigate are typically Perception checks or skill checks that use Intelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma.
You can maintain two active investigations at a time. If you Pursue another Lead after that, the subject must be different from any of your current investigations (or rather, they must be different as far as you know), and you give up on a current subject of your choice. Once you’ve given up pursuit of a subject, you can’t Pursue that Lead again until after the next time you make your daily preparations.
As Akimi shoves the tome back in their satchel, the bag quivers violently and a light peal like a bell being rung wafts out of its open mouth. A half-second later, a shimmering orb bursts from the opening and floats at eye-level with Akimi. It seems to be made of pure silver, except it's transparent enough to see inside the ball, where stars slowly hang suspended in its depths. It makes another pealing toll, this time with a tone that you can only describe as indignant.
"What?" Akimi snaps. The orb's surface ripples. Akimi rolls their eyes. "Yeah, okay, fine."
Akimi glances sullenly at the others. "Everybody, this is Tama. Tama, this is everybody. Now... go... float over there. Out of the way." The orb makes a sing-song note and floats off to one side, behind and to the right of Akimi.
”I see why you didn’t introduce us sooner,” Ellen says, watching the ball float about. ”We said yesterday that everyone works on a ship, but you didn’t want us to see Tama row.”
Jacques comes up from the hold just in time for the feast, humming a little ditty. "Sacre bleu - the hold, my friends, I'm sure that no one has ever cleared it out like I have - it is a veritable palace now! It is almost a pity to go ashore now, but I suppose duty calls. Though not until after we dine, I'm sure!" With that he sets to work on Akimi's creation, tucking the nearest piece of fabric - which might be someone's shirt - into his neckline for a napkin.
...
Later, a pleasantly stuffed Jacques heads ashore with the rest of the crew. "Fresh walrus, such a delicacy, it reminds me of the time that I wooed the third princess of Jalmeray - have I told you the story? No?!? Well, to be sure, to properly tell it I should begin with my stint in the cavalry during the troubles on the Andoran border..."
Ellen tilts a head at Dev. "You've never seen a star orb before?" she asks.
She doesn't bother asking Jacques. He'll surely have a story about how he, in fact, invented star orbs, or put down a rebellion of them, or...
A cliff rises along the beach’s northern edge. The largest building is a wooden house built on weathered stilts with a porch wrapping around the south and east and doors along the west, east, and south walls. A raised outbuilding to the east shares the main building’s porch, while three smaller outbuildings stand to the west. A drying rack and drying table stand near these western structures. Near the porch sits an old rowboat and weathered oar, pulled high to avoid the tide, and a pile of dirty fishing nets.
Akimi writes a few notes down and starts sketching a general map of the area. They erase it a couple times to get the scale correct and then close up the book. They lean down to grab a handful of sand to test the grit and probably flavor, but before they do they see a bunch of really tiny tracks!
And Akimi quickly recalls these tracks are made by centipedes. Centipedes are poisonous vermin that like piles of decomposing things... like fishing nets... that are VERY CLOSE NEARBY!!!
To punctuate their thoughts, the nets start shifting and several many-legged giant centipedes burst out!
Two of the vermin are quicker than the others and rush up. One biting at Akimi and the other at Ellen.
for
But the weak jaws of the little buggers have a lot of trouble even getting through light armor and clothing. One does manage to scurry up Ellen's leg and torso, clamping down on her exposed neck before falling back to the ground. She feels poison seeping into her body!
Red Centipede
Blue Centipede
Ellen (-4 HP, Poisoned)
Akimi
Jacques
Dev
Green Centipede
Yellow Centipede
Bold are up!
Ellen grimaces and swats at her neck, but she's a little too slow. She decides to get in amongst the pack, all the better to smash her targets:
x2
"Try not to get too tired! Nobody wants to be centipooped!"
"Turns out legs are a 'quality over quantity' thing," grins Ellen, whose calves were looking great before they got soaked in bug bits.
Ewww.
Akimi is far too classy to be checking out Ellen's calves. Also they're face-to-face with a giant bug.
"My first centipede!" they squeal. "Well--my first giant centipede. There was that one back in Kasai. We don't talk about that."
The orb makes a little ringing toot in agreement.
Akimi tries to recall anything they know about giant bugs, then studies the centipede's movements, the placement of the mandibles, and the likely location of the venom sacs. Okay, if I bite along that upper region of the thorax, I should miss the sacs and not get a mouthful of death.
With a decisive nod, the investigator lets out a snarling yip, then snaps their jaws down on the creature.
♦ Recall Knowledge.
♦ Devise a Strategem.
♦ Jaws vs Red (Strategic Strike) = 17
Ellen moves and starts stomping, crunching and squishing gross bugs under her heels. Their tough exoskeleton does NOTHING for them, cracking under the strain. Half the enemies are decimated at the end of her godzilla-like rampage.
Akimi takes their time to calculate a weak point and this time avoids the tusks on their attack (there weren't any tusks...)! Very surprisingly their bite snaps completely through the centipede, tearing it in two parts that fall to the ground. The two halves twitch a few times and then curl up dead. Akimi now knows what uncooked giant centipede guts taste like.
Red Centipede (dead)
Blue Centipede (dead)
Ellen (-4 HP, Poisoned)
Akimi (2 actions remain)
Jacques
Dev
Green Centipede (dead)
Yellow Centipede
Bold are up!
"Blech!" Akimi spits and rubs the bug guts off their tongue with their paws. "I forgot how bad centipedes taste." They do not elaborate, but rather bound off to gleefully murder another the last centipede. They now know just where to bite to do the most damage, so they get to it!
♦ Stride 10ft.
♦
Dev strides up and unceremoniously guts the last centipede. The threat from living creatures is over, but Ellen’s wound still burns.
Jacques can attempt to help treat the poison, then Ellen needs to try to fight it off again
Ellen makes a face, forcing herself to bare the wound rather than scrunch up her neck. "Is it gross? It feels gross," she shudders.
Jacques rushes forward - "Terribly sorry to be late to the battle - glad to see you all dispatched them without much trouble - though that wound looks rather - what is the word? - oh yes, quite gross, I should say. Let me see if I can help you. Before I settled on my destined career of martial fame my family had high hopes of medical glory for me and the doctor's craft did come rather easily to me, if I do say so myself..."
He shrugs rather uselessly at Ellen. "What can I say? Some poisons are too potent for even the most skillful of healers..."
If talking a poison out of a wound worked, Jacques would be an expert. Sadly though it does not. But is Ellen tough enough to just shrug it off anyway?
"Oh my god stop stop stop you're making it worse," snaps Ellen, grunting and rubbing at the spot.
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Dev pulls out a wine flask and washes the wound. "Stop rubbing it. You're just going to make it worse. Just wrap it up and leave it alone." He looks up with a wink, "Well, let's check it for eggs first. You don't want to have hundreds of those things bursting out of you. Besides, you'd make a terrible mother."
Ellen feels pain.
But not from the physical wound.
Akimi watches the interaction between Dev and Ellen uncertainly, but Ellen seems to be okay now, so they step back and take a look around. "Closest door is there," they say, pointing at the northeast corner of the building. "Should we start there?"
Jacques follows, also with blade in hand, and doing a sort of 'en garde' dance as he imagines the foes they may yet face.
Ellen grimaces and mutters something about a catfolk woman she once met as Dev rinses out her wound.
"Fussing over me and dressing my wounds? Aww, Dev, at least one of us will make a decent mom some day," she teases.
Ellen and Dev have a touching moment, bonding over motherhood.
Jacques continues to be Jacques.
Akimi begins investigating the northeast entrance to the main complex. Ellen gets bored and rips the door open.
A battered oak desk stands almost in the center of this dusty, damp room. Behind it, a row of cabinets lines the far wall. The sole window is shuttered, but one of the shutters hangs askew, letting in a stream of light. Several stools stand scattered around the room.
Ellen gets bored and rips the door open.
"What's the worst that can happen?"
A battered oak desk stands almost in the center of this dusty, damp room. Behind it, a row of cabinets lines the far wall. The sole window is shuttered, but one of the shutters hangs askew, letting in a stream of light. Several stools stand scattered around the room.
"Huh. A reading room, maybe? I'd say 'storage,' but the stools imply people used to sit around in here. Unless they were storing the stools."
Jacques will move into the room and begin to search around for anything of interest.