"Could be," sniffs Asami. "Problem is, the crew hates him. Don't think Harrigan's much-loved, either, but Plugg isn't nearly as imposing."
Sandara rubs her arm nervously, glancing around to make sure nobody's listening in. "Listen, I know you don't think much of Plugg, but I saw him in action. When Jakes Magpie got caught out for stealing, he put up a helluva fight. It was Plugg who took him down, and it was like spearing fish in a barrel. He didn't even break a sweat. Jakes wasn't a small guy, either." She sighs and rubs the bridge of her nose. "I'm not saying you shouldn't take him down. In fact, at this point, I think you're gonna have to. If Draxxie and I are right and he's headed off-course, that means he means to take this ship for his own and you three are at the top of his s!!~-list. But even outnumbered, he could be dangerous."
She pauses, as if unsure she should continue, but finally adds, "You know, Fishguts has been around a long time. He probably knows Plugg better than anyone on this ship besides Scourge. Might not hurt to get his opinion on the matter. Not to mention he's been at sea longer than some of us have been alive."
She rubs Asami's back. "I'm going to bed. The weather like it is, tomorrow's gonna be ugly. If you want my two copper, I say wait until after the storm. We'll be busy enough trying to keep this tub afloat without adding in killing each other on top of that. But whatever you decide, I'm with you all the way down. Just let me know what the plan is."
She kisses Asami's cheek and slips off to her hammock.
Asami looks to Oduim expectantly.
Only one of the Rahadoumi will even look at Oduim, and he can barely do so as he shovels food into his mouth. "I-I got nothing to say to you," he mumbles, leaving his plate behind as he backs away. "D-don't want any trouble. Just leave me be..." He can't really run among all these hammocks, footlockers, and bodies, but he does walk at quite a brisk pace to get away from the conversation.
Nearby, Fipps waves a rope bash in Oduim's direction. "Oi, fish-man! You keep harrassin' yer fellow crew, an' Scourge'll have ye on tha mainmast wit' tha' cat! Now piss off an' git ta sleep!"
Both he and Oduim are fully aware there's no rule about "harassing" the crew. He's clearly just flexing his newfound power. Then again, Scourge is a giant douche canoe, so he might well follow through with his crony's threat just to have an excuse to maim someone.
Asami shrugs. "Works for me." She's hesitant to make any further plans without hearing from the guy with the most experience first.
The bell rings frantically for all hands on deck, yanking the crew out of sleep. The Man's Promise rocks violently back and forth, throwing a couple of people out of their hammocks.
As people scramble up the stairs to the main deck, water spills down the stairs at an alarming rate. It appears the storm worsened overnight, and now the ship is in the thick of it.
The ship rocks from a sudden wave crashing into the port side, sending several people sprawling before the Man's Promise can right herself. Plugg and Scourge are already on deck, soaked to the bone and shouting orders to be heard over the thunderous crash of waves and the booming crash of the actual thunder. The hour is interminable, because the skies are black clouds of doom in all directions, all vision beyond a few hundred yards blocked by nearly solid sheets of driving rain.
Plugg points to the mainsail, which is violently flapping in the wind. "Get up there and get that thing cinched up! We lose the mainsail and we're dead in the water!"
----
Far from sneering this time, Scourge looks frantic. "You, Shivikah, and Fipps get down ta tha bilges an' pump as if yer life depends on it, coz it does! Go!!"
----
"Awright," Scourge snaps, jabbing a grimy finger in her face. (How are his fingers still so dirty when he's constantly getting doused in water??) "Lessee if ye got any real skills, girly! Get on them ropes! Make sure we don' lose control o' tha masts!"
----
Scourge takes the cook and his mate aside. "Ferget tha meal plan, boyos! Fishguts, yer on bilges wit' tha others! Fishboy, yer on rope repair! We lose them lines, we lose everythin'!" He shoves the two in opposite directions, giving a rope bash for extra incentive.
----
|
Not wanting to risk giving any of the new 'officers' an excuse to abuse their power, the undine waits until the morning to seek Ambrose's council.
He makes certain they are alone in the galley. "Looks like the day's gonna be a long one, so I know we don't have lots of time fer this. Not sure if you've noticed, but Plugg's either lost or he's making his play. This tub ain't on course no more. Didn't take him long ta get a taste. He's seein' himself as a captain of his own boat now, not The Wormwood's first mate anymore. I figure the storm comin' today ain't nuthin' compared ta whatever he's got planned. As I'm on his list, I'd appreciate any advice ya got."
The early bedtime was at least beneficial for one thing, Estelle woke up before the yell and was able to refresh her daily spell. Which immediately pays off as she stays nice and dry while everyone around her is immediately drenched .
She bolts around, trying to recall exactly how to manage her task.
Boy howdy it sure f&$%ing woulda been easier to do this if I hadn't been wasted on s+&! tasks up to this point and actually had some recent experience. But as they say, once you've been roped up, you never want anything else again.
Wait, that's not right. I do recall that saying, but I think it is in reference to something... else. Anyway, how the hell do his hands get that dirty? I've killed zombies with cleaner nails than that!
Asami is one of the ones tossed from their hammocks; she wakes up with a falling sensation, and only half-catches herself with a splash.
She slept with her hair still tied back, and doesn't regret it for an instant as she pushes herself up from the wet floor. When Plugg tells her to head to the mainsail, she doesn't even slow down; she already knows where she's needed.
It'd be a fun time to pick a fight, and she knows it, but embedding a few of Plugg's teeth into the deck won't do her much good if it means letting the ship go down.
F~$&in' bilges! Draxxie thinks. I could do any job on the ship, includin' Cap'n. F%+~in' Plugg. F@#&in' Scourge.
Draxxie goes below. Not even Fipps' presence keeps her from using her magic to gain whatever small advantage she can in keeping the water level manageable. "You wanna drown in s~#$ down here Fipps you go right ahead an' complain, but ye're in here jus' th' same as me an' Shivikah."
"Besmara's t++!! This is f~%+in' ridiculous! We need more hands!"
The rocking of the ship and the driving rain make gripping the sailcloth exceedingly difficult. At one point, the sail flies out of Asami's hands and the mast tilts violently with a particularly large wave. Asami doesn't quite have the footing to duck the beam flying at her, and takes a hit full to the chest, sending her flying. Her fall is thankfully arrested by the netting below her, and after a few moments of scrabbling, she manages to get back on the mainsail and get it lashed down. She takes the hit in stride and, despite the bruises across her chest, doesn't even feel tired by the time day turns to night.
----
Fipps glares daggers at Draxxie but says nothing about her spellcasting. Unfortunately, her efforts with the prestidigitation spell are a small boon to her crewmates but not to herself. She can't seem to get a firm grip on the bilge pumps, and the rocking of the Man's Promise keeps knocking her off her feet as detritus in the bilge water smashes into her. Fipps begins cursing loudly and even Shivikah looks irritated, but Fishguts just grabs the skald by the arm, hoists her up to her feet, and helps her back onto the pump handle.
----
Knotwork might not be Estelle's forte, but she's still pretty damn good at it. She did grow up mostly on a ship, after all. She works tirelessly through the hammering downpour and the thunderous clamor. She's a little winded by the time her shift is up, but she stands strong on her own two legs -- well, she stands as best she can when the ship keeps going damn near sideways!
----
Fishguts cuts Oduim off mid-sentence. "Later, lad! We're in tha s%*&! Time enough fer chit-chat after we get through this, eh?" He claps the young druid on the shoulder and rushes back down the stairs toward the bilges.
For his part, Oduim repairs the Hells outta some rope. He even saves Conchobar's life at one point; the gnome is pulling on a line to fasten one of the mizzen sails when the rope snaps, sending the sail beam flying and propelling the fop against the rail, about to topple ass over teakettle into the drink, but Oduim whips out the rope he's currently working on and Conchobar grabs it instinctively. With a tired but grateful salute, the gnome scrambles back up the mizzenmast to continue his work, throwing down the torn rope for Oduim to add to the growing pile of fraying and tearing lines.
----
Plugg and Scourge pull three people off duty at a time to down some water and a ship's biscuit before reassigning them for the evening shift. The storm hasn't let up yet and shows no signs of stopping anytime soon. It looks like this one might go until morning at least!
----
The brawler is sent right back to the mainmast after her brief meal with Jape and Rosie, and the storm hasn't lost any of its momentum. In the brief flashes of lightning, the silhouette of a coastline can be seen off the starboard bow. It's not terribly close at the moment, but if the ship goes too far starboard in this mess it could spell doom. Below, the tiny figure of Plugg struggles to force the wheel to port; at least he seems to have spotted the same thing.
----
After learning about her struggles in the bilges, Scourge shakes his head in disgust and points at Oduim. "We're losin' lines! Go help fishboy repair 'em!" He pulls Sandara and Jape off their tasks to go help in the bilges instead.
----
They say no good deed goes unpunished. Because she made quick work of prepping knots and ropes, she has run out of them by the time she gets a painfully short break for water and a ship's biscuit before Scourge sends her to go help Draxxie and Oduim repair broken and fraying lines. Even with two oather people, the work seems endless -- this storm is tearing at the very seems of the Man's Promise.
----
After his ship's biscuit and a few chugs of water, Scourge sends Oduim right back to mending the constantly-breaking lines. If he can't keep up with the work, they could lose one or more sails. And if that happens, the ship is dead in the water until they can be repaired.
----
"Who could be thirsty at a time like this?" Asami shouts to Rosie, getting a nice swig of rainwater just by opening her mouth.
The tack has never been softer. Almost too soft, but it helps get it down fast so she can get back to keeping the boat from capsizing.
[oof]
Estelle nods along as she expertly pulls the frayed ends apart and faster than a flash, weaves them back together with a replacement strand for strength. She looks over at the Undine and is happy to see her sign language training is paying off, or he’s just also really good at fixing rope.
Her spell keeps the water off her and more importantly, from soaking her eyelashes. Which allows her to see how bad a shape they really are in.
Godsdammit, not another shipwreck! Steer you fool!
She begins mentally preparing herself for another dunk into the ocean, if the ship sinks.
Stay near Odium, if I can. He is probably the best swimmer.
This task is so much second nature, she has time to look around, frowning as Asami is overpowered by the main sail again. Strength has no comparison to technique.
Outta the damn bilges at last! Draxxie takes some pleasure in being reassigned, though she's careful not to show it to Scourge.
"Ya know" Draxxie comments to Oduim as they work "this wouldn't be half as hard if these pirates jus' had us do a lil' magic on the ropes each day." Though managin' a ten minute incantation in weather like this jus' ain't happenin'.
A particularly hard wave of rain smashes against Asami's face as she struggles to tie down the topsail, causing her to flinch. Her footing isn't quite as steady as she thought it was, and slips out from under her. Before she knows it, she's tumbling tail over teakettle off the mast beam.
Asami manages to hit the mainmast beam just below her, thankfully falling straight down while the ship was in the middle of one of its insane tilts so she didn't slip and fall into nothingness. It knocks the wind out of her for a moment but she manages to grip tight until she can suck in a breath.
The whole ordeal should leave her feeling utterly winded, yet somehow she feels more invigorated, as if there is some ancestral kinship with the storm raging around her. Perhaps the spirit of this storm is the very same that swallowed her ancestor into its depths. Ridiculous, probably, but one can't help but wonder...
----
It turns out opening her mouth to complain was a terrible idea, because as soon as the words are out of her mouth, a wave crashes over the side and fills it with seawater that she accidentally begins to breathe in. After a five-minute coughing fit while struggling to not topple over as the Man's Promise tilts at increasingly alarming angles, she finds herself feeling exhausted and unable to work her fingers properly as the seawater begins to chill her.
----
Well, the undine guy is definitely pulling his weight, but the other one seems to have been completely winded by the water in her lungs and is basically useless. Thankfully she and Oduim seem to be picking up the slack, and thanks to her spell, the witch manages to stave off the dangers of being continually soaked.
----
The druid struggles to maintain balance as the Man's Promise sways drunkenly on the massive waves while performing fine manipulation with his fingers. The struggle eventually leaves him weary as his eyesight blurs and his fingers begin to numb from repetition. He wipes his eyes furiously and focuses again. After several hours, he has somehow managed to keep up with his task despite nearly passing out several times from exhaustion.
----
The storm continues to rage deep into the darkest hours of the night, and despite being a deft hand at the wheel, Plugg struggles to keep the ship from steadily creeping ever closer to the dark band of shoreline off the starboard. But the ship hasn't crashed yet, and so the crew continues to battle the raging torrents of rain, the pealing cracks of lightning that could choose any moment to strike the masts, and the dangerous tilt of the Man's Promise as she sways now not from side to side, but up and down as she attempts to ride the massive waves down so as not to capsize.
As all this is going on, a bellow cries out from the crow's nest. Conchobar hollers to be heard over the storm.
Looking up, the party sees six creatures slithering up over the rail around the ship. Plugg bellows at them, [bigger]"You four, take care of it! Everyone else, no matter what, stay on your posts!! Otherwise we lose the gods-damned ship!!"[bigger]
It hardly seems fair that it's up to the four of you to deal with this, but unfortunately he does have a point. Hells, if the party can't deal with this threat quick enough to get back on their tasks, they may lose the ship anyway!
The strange, goblin-like fiends are little more than three feet tall, but instead of legs, they have a writhing mass of tentacles on which they propel themselves forward, spears in hand and scrambling in multiple directions in an attempt to harry the crew.
[color=green]ROUND 1
Characters in BOLD may act.
Draxxie (18/18 hp, fatigued)
Creature 1 (0 dmg)
Creature 2 (0 dmg)
Asami (18/22 hp)
Creature 3 (0 dmg)
Creature 4 (0 dmg)
Creature 5 (0 dmg)
Creature 6 (0 dmg)
Oduim (23/23 hp, fatigued)
Estelle (17/17 hp)
[/color]
This creature is a grindylow, strange goblinoids who dwell in coastal caverns. They have the upper body of a goblin with the lower body of a squid or octopus. They are opportunistic fiends and will often capture humanoids alive to take back to their lairs to use as cattle of a sort, slaughtering them when they become hungry.
Grindylow are exceptionally stealthy and enjoy ambush attacks. Thankfully a boatful of pirates made a true ambush impossible, but their sudden appearance is somewhat unusual, considering how outnumbered they are. Perhaps these ones think the busy crew make for easy targets amid the storm; in that sense, they're not entirely wrong.
Those tentacles aren't just for locomotion. Though they cannot attack, the tentacles constantly writhe and lash out, potentially tripping foes with little effort on the grindylow's part.
[ooc]In game terms, the tentacles allow grindylow to make a Trip attempt on their turn as a swift action with a racial bonus. Unlike normal Trip rules, the grindylow cannot be tripped in turn if it fails the check by 10 or more.
Draxxie looks around for room to manoeuvre her preferred weapon, the boarding pike - but finds that the deck is already swarming with tentacled monsters.
she shouts over the storm. "Little bastards must be hungry! Kill' em all!"
Despite her fatigue, Draxxie starts up a fightin' song.
"From the deep there's a terror rising
A great beast with eyes like crimson fire
Leviathan returns to devour the world
Set a course, the time for slaughter
To the heart of the raging oceans blue
This time the beast will meet its doom
Eternal doom!"
#1 slithers up the stairs to the foredeck, where Maheem is hauling on a thick rope. The grindylow's tentacles whip out from underneath it to trip up the big man, who falls flat on his back. The rope flies off, sending a beam slowly spinning out overhead. The little fiend stabs down at him with its spear, but Maheem manages to roll out of the way. "Get this thing off me!" he cries as he tries to secure the rope once more from on his back.
#2, hearing Draxxie sing, decides she's as good a target as any. Its tentacles whip out at her feet and the skald finds the world tilting wildly out of control as she lands hard on her back, knocking the wind out of her. It stuns her just long enough for the grindylow to jab her in the gut with its spear.
[color=green]ROUND 1
Characters in BOLD may act.
Draxxie (13/20 hp, fatigued, prone, Raging Song, Inspired Rage)
Creature 1 (0 dmg)
Creature 2 (0 dmg)
Asami (18/22 hp)
Creature 3 (0 dmg)
Creature 4 (0 dmg)
Creature 5 (0 dmg)
Creature 6 (0 dmg)
Oduim (23/23 hp, fatigued)
Estelle (17/17 hp)
[/color]
Asami growls; she feels... invigorated. Whether it's the storm, Draxxie's song, or the promise of a fight, she feels stronger than usual.
"KUSOOOOOOOOOOOOO
Asami begins scrabbling down the mainmast, but the ship suddenly rockets up a cresting wave and the brawler finds herself perpendicular to the mast, throwing her entirely off-balance and plummeting. For one horrible moment, it looks like she's going to fall behind the ship into the deadly churning ocean, but at the last second the Man's Promise begins to right itself and she slams hard into the deck. Yet somehow, with all that bad luck, the brawler tumbles forward and springs up, landing on her feet. HOW THAT HAPPENED is anybody's guess.
#3 slithers up to Oduim and its tentacles whip his ankles, dropping him to the ground, then easily spearing him in his upper shoulder. #4, seeing an easy target, also wriggles up to him and stabs down, but this time the druid is ready for it and rolls away at the last second, narrowly avoiding a spear-tip in the neck.
Estelle finds herself quickly surrounded as first #5 slides into her area and sends her toppling to the deck, following it with a wicked spear wound to the leg. #6 flanks her and joins in on the stabbing fun, adding another puncture wound in her side.
Things are already looking dire for the pirates...
[color=green]ROUND 1
Characters in BOLD may act.
Draxxie (13/20 hp, fatigued, prone, Raging Song, Inspired Rage)
Creature 1 (0 dmg)
Creature 2 (0 dmg)
Asami (8/22 hp)
Creature 3 (0 dmg)
Creature 4 (0 dmg)
Creature 5 (0 dmg)
Creature 6 (0 dmg)
Oduim (19/23 hp, fatigued, prone)
Estelle (8/17 hp, prone)
[/color]
Asami, knocked right off her ass and onto her feet, shrugs at the good fortune and flexes her toes against the deck.
Suddenly flat on her back and stabbed twice, Estelle curls up into a ball and prays the enemies forget about her.
NO NO NO NO!
MOVE YOU LITTLE PISSANT, DEATH AWAITS IF YOU DO NOTHING!
THIS ISN'T WHY I CHOSE YOU, NOW HEAL YOUR DAMN WOUNDS AND GET UP!!!
Her chest burns. Maybe from the stab wounds. Maybe from something else. But she gasps a breath of air and things seem clearer.
What am I doing? I can’t have an attack now, people need me! They need me to help them!!! Alright, first let’s get these wounds taken care of, then try to stand. Or is that what these f#~*ers want? Well, when have I done what others want…
Shut up memories. I’m a new person now. The old me is gone.
She spins onto her knees and twists up off the ground.
As Oduim rises, the two grindylow take advantage to stab down at him, but only one hits. The spearhead disappears into the flesh of Oduim's leg. He then stands up and shoves his own spear into the eye socket of one of the grindylow. It clutches feebly at the wooden haft sticking through its skull before going limp. The druid needs to give the spear two good, hard shakes to get the corpse to slide off.
Estelle pours healing magic into her wounds, then tries to stand without getting stabbed. While she fails to avoid leaving an opening, the ship tilts suddenly. It's not enough to topple the grindylow, but it is enough to send its spear stabbing wildly into open air instead of Estelle's ribs.
[color=green]ROUND 1
Characters in BOLD may act.
Draxxie (13/20 hp, fatigued, prone, Raging Song, Inspired Rage)
Creature 1 (0 dmg)
Creature 2 (0 dmg)
Asami (8/22 hp, Inspired Rage)
Creature 3 (0 dmg)
Creature 4 (14 dmg, dead)
Creature 5 (0 dmg)
Creature 6 (0 dmg)
Oduim (12/23 hp, fatigued, Inspired Rage)
Estelle (16/17 hp)
[/color]
At least the little f#*!ers aren't hard to kill Draxxie thinks hopefully as she continues her fightin' song...
"Legends spoke of the ancient monster
From a time beyond the dawn of time
In a pit of primordial ooze
Many years we have been kept waiting
But tonight that squid will surely die
Revenge is a dish best served fried
Deep fried"
In a tight spot, Draxxie tries some trickery.
The rocking of the ship is too much, and Draxxie's magic dies on her lips.
Draxxie lashes out in anger at the goblin-squid above her...
Mah HP remaing: 5
Draxxie attempts to cast her spell but the ship suddenly rocks hard forward as it crests a wave and tilts down it, throwing her off enough to stumble on the arcane words. The thin tendrils of half-weaved magic dribble away and dissipate.
Undaunted, the skald continues her ferocious ballad and swipes at the grindylow from the ground. Her cutlass hacks through several tentacles, spewing dark green blood across the deck. The grindylow collapses, screaming in agony before shuddering and slipping into unconsciousness and dying from shock. Her immediate vicinity freed of danger , Draxxie stands shakily to her feet.
#1 continues to stab at Maheem gleefully, burying its spear in his ribs but narrowly missing his lungs. He cries out in agony and almost loses the rope in his hands. The beam it's attached to jerks slightly, and Conchobar, who was on it trying to fasten the sail, wobbles and cries out, nearly plummeting but catching himself on the beam. He's not terribly high up, but with the ship angled as it is, he could easily fall into the drink.
From the helm, Plugg bellows, "Get that beast off him or we could lose the mizzenmast, you fools!"
It's hard to see because of the railing on the foredeck and the driving rain, but it looks like Maheem is incredibly badly injured. Another stab from the grindylow could kill him.
Of course, Maheem is loyal to Plugg. The "captain" would lose one of his toadies, but he would also probably enact swift vengeance for letting him die. Also, you are running a skeleton crew in the middle of a powerful storm. Every hand lost edges the Man's Promise closer to destruction...
But dang, wouldn't it be nice to outnumber Plugg and his cronies a little more??
[color=green]ROUND 2
Characters in BOLD may act.
Draxxie (13/20 hp, fatigued, Raging Song, Inspired Rage)
Creature 1 (0 dmg)
Creature 2 (7 dmg, dead)
Asami (8/22 hp, Inspired Rage)
Creature 3 (0 dmg)
Creature 4 (14 dmg, dead)
Creature 5 (0 dmg)
Creature 6 (0 dmg)
Oduim (12/23 hp, fatigued, Inspired Rage)
Estelle (16/17 hp)
[/color]
Asami frowns. It's too far--she can't be the one to reach the grindylow on the far side of the ship fast enough. The spear is already rearing back again...
But she can free someone else up to do it.
She hustles forth, leaves the deck, and lets gravity carry her the last step as she lines up her foot:
She lands across two piles of bloody grindylow, pointing further down the bow to direct her allies at Maheem.
There are few things in life that sapient creatures enjoy less than a foot to the face at high velocity. This is the errant thought that drifts through #5's head right before a rather large foot connects with its skull. Momentum carries the two about three feet before the ship smashes against the valley between waves and jerks upright into a more or less flat position, essentially squeezing the grindylow's head between the high-impact foot on one side and the deck on the other.
That is a very dead grindylow.
#3, annoyed that Oduim regained his footing, tries to trip him again, but this time the druid is onto its tricks and hops over the sweeping tentacles, then easily bats aside its clumsy spear follow-up.
#6 scuttles up to stand over its compatriot's gooey corpse and snaps its tentacles at Asami. The brawler is in a much sturdier stance now -- but she wasn't expecting an attack from the tentacles. She slides her leg back and out of the way of the snapping appendage, only to realize a split second too late that it was a ruse. Two more tentacles wrap around her now less-stable front leg and yank sideways, sending the brawler sprawling to the ground. Fortunately she rolls out of the way just as the follow-up spear attack buries itself in the deck where her head just was. The grindylow yanks the spear back out and waves it overhead menacingly.
[color=green]ROUND 2/3
Characters in BOLD may act.
Draxxie (13/20 hp, fatigued, Raging Song, Inspired Rage)
Creature 1 (0 dmg)
Creature 2 (7 dmg, dead)
Asami (8/22 hp, prone, Inspired Rage)
Creature 3 (0 dmg)
Creature 4 (14 dmg, dead)
Creature 5 (11 dmg, dead)
Creature 6 (0 dmg)
Oduim (12/23 hp, fatigued, Inspired Rage)
Estelle (16/17 hp)
[/color]
Asami grunts as her back hits the deck; she's already feeling plenty bruised from her (admittedly impressive) fall, and even if a drop against the wood doesn't damage her further, well, goddamn it smarts.
Estelle reaches out and grabs Odium's shoulder. Vines erupt from her hand and quickly bind up his wounds.
With his attention briefly looking her way, she quickly makes a thumb's up fist with her right hand and slaps her left hand, palm up and underneath before lifting both hands upwards. Then points to Maheem.
If he has been paying attention in his lessons, he should recognize the sign as 'help'.
Then she takes a deep breath, points to herself and holds both hands near her face with the index and thumb making an 'o' shape, then snaps them to the side, jerking her eyes to follow her hands.
There ain't no way in hell he'll get that one, but maybe next time I do something stupid he will recognize it.
And then the fun begins. She turns her back to the beast behind her and darts forward, feinting her hands threateningly at the tentacle critter next to Odium. Then a quick turn to the side and away, now heading pell-mell towards Maheem.
Grindylow are not known for their keen tactical minds, and happily stab out at the witch as she rushes past. Both spears dig into her flesh, leaving a pair of horrible gaping wounds -- one in her thigh, and the other in the small of her back, narrowly missing her spinal column.
[color=green]ROUND 2/3
Characters in BOLD may act.
Draxxie (13/20 hp, fatigued, Raging Song, Inspired Rage)
Creature 1 (0 dmg)
Creature 2 (7 dmg, dead)
Asami (8/22 hp, prone, Inspired Rage)
Creature 3 (0 dmg)
Creature 4 (14 dmg, dead)
Creature 5 (11 dmg, dead)
Creature 6 (0 dmg)
Oduim (18/23 hp, fatigued, Inspired Rage)
Estelle (5/17 hp)
[/color]
Estelle grimaces at the first stab, she was prepared for it. But the second, she was pretty damn sure it wouldn't get her. That was a pretty quick turn and burn!
A yelp of pain is released, definitely telling all that her vocal chords still work. As to why she doesn't speak? Who knows. Maybe try hurting her more? I'm sure that will help.
The young human clutches at her injuries as she gasps for a decent breath. The fight is far from over.
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Oduim hustles up the stairs to the foredeck, careful of the tilting ship angle, and jams his spear deep into the neck of the grindylow haranguing Maheem.
The grindylow tries to scream in pain, but finds its esophagus blocked by the haft of a spear impaled straight through it. The druid kicks the twitching corpse off his weapon and it flops to the deck, shuddering and convulsing in its death throes as it feebly grasps at the holes on either side of its neck where great arterial spurts of forest green blood pump all over the deck, only to be immediately washed away by the crashing waves spilling over the lip of the bow.
Maheem, desperately grasping the rope leading to the rigging while simultaneously clutching his bleeding side, nods gratefully to Oduim.
[color=green]ROUND 3
Characters in BOLD may act.
Draxxie (13/20 hp, fatigued, Raging Song, Inspired Rage)
Creature 1 (7 dmg, dead)
Creature 2 (7 dmg, dead)
Asami (8/22 hp, prone, Inspired Rage)
Creature 3 (0 dmg)
Creature 4 (14 dmg, dead)
Creature 5 (11 dmg, dead)
Creature 6 (0 dmg)
Oduim (18/23 hp, fatigued, Inspired Rage)
Estelle (5/17 hp)
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Asami rolls up onto her feet once more, rolling out her gore-covered arm.
In the dark, lashing storm, there's no denying that Asami is a demon. Her eyes glow with a sickly yellow light, and even the rain can't clean her of all the greenish blood she's now steeped in.
"Bad luck," she snorts, and her less-messy hand jabs forward with a deadly snap.
Draxxie nods to Asami, grins a wicked grin, and with her war-song still belting out she steps up to hack at the last goblin-squid...
"Deathsworn, Oathbound
On a quest for vengeful slaughter
We sail to the halls of doom
With the black flag raised in the sky
Deathsworn, Oathbound
Besmara be our Mistress
We sail to the halls of doom
With the black flag raised in the sky"
The heel of Asami's palm connects with the grindylow's face with lethal force, collapsing its nose inward so hard that bone shards embed into the creature's brain. It is not enough to immediately kill it, but it sends the creature into a spastic fit, which a roundhouse to the temple quickly ends.
Draxxie's cutlass whiffs as the last grindylow ducks the blow, but rather than being bolstered, the fiend sees its five dead companions and nopes back to the ocean.
Just as the party is ready to celebrate, a faint noise can be heard over the crashing waves and the thundering clouds: a voice, trying its hardest to be heard.
"...ef..."
"...eef..."
The whole world freezes in place but the crew keeps moving. Each of you feels yourself slam against something hard before the world goes black.
----
You awaken to the first cracks of dawn peeking through grim black clouds overhead. As best you can tell from how long the storm had gone, you were out for no more than an hour. Rosie and Cog are moving to each crewmate, slapping them awake or using smelling salts. The storm has abated, but the Man's Promise is unnaturally still amidst the lapping ocean waves. Off the starboard rail, an island can be seen less than a mile away.
"Welcome back," Cog says with a grim amusement. "We're proper f~~&ed."
"All hands!" bellows the familiar voice of Plugg. "Roll call!"
As the crew lines up, heads are counted. After a few minutes, Plugg and Scourge exchange a look, and Plugg's jaw clenches.
"Here's the situation," he says. "We're aground on a reef. We're holed in the main hold, starboard side. That means the water barrels were tumbled about. We haven't got enough water, and the hole needs repairing. Half the crew will work on the hole, and half will man the bilges to keep us from sinking." His jaw clenches again as he considers his next words.
"We lost two crew in the storm. Whether they're overboard or taken by more of those grindylow, who can say. Either way, Quinn and Samms are gone. But we've got no time to mourn the dead. We need to fix the ship. But more importantly, we need fresh water or we won't survive long enough to make it to our destination. There's just enough water left for three days. Someone needs to head to that island and find us drinkable water."
Without hesitation, he points at the party. "You four. Gather your things, then take the ship's boat and the two empty barrels and find us drinkable water. Don't come back until it's done. In three days, we leave with or without you, so you better make sure you're back with that water."
Despite how he more or less glossed over it, the sentence hits like a ton of bricks: Sandara and Barefoot Samms... dead?
Asami groans as she pushes herself up, snorting away the vile scent of the salts and coughing.
She rises and scans the horizon instinctively. No enemy ships, no boarders, no...
Where is she?
"We have so many crew that we can spare our only healer?" snorts Asami indignantly. "Estelle, Draxxie, we'll help you set up the boat. You two row, Oduim and I will swim beneath and see if we can find any sign of Samms and Quinn. They're probably gone, but if we can find 'em, Plugg'll be happy to have the hands to fix the hold."
She turns a challenging eye toward Plugg.
"If it's agreeable to the First Mate, of course. Shouldn't slow us down more than a few minutes."
Draxxie wakes with a start. Daylight? Where? Oh s~@~. We've run aground. She takes stock. Her wound is sore, but won't be fatal. I'll patch that up first chance I've got. Unless Sandara's about. Where'd she get to in the storm?
Roll-call.
"Samms and Quinn?" Quinn? Oh f@#$. Besmara, why'd ya take the good ones? That coulda been Scourge, or Plugg!
Draxxie glances over at Fox, but the she-demon looks all business. "No grave but the sea..."
No time to think about what's passed, or what might be, Draxxie nods in assent to her orders. Estelle? Oh, that's New Girl. Right. "Come on. Maybe I can help with your wounds." Draxxie gets to work.
Estelle wakes in a fog. Not a literal fog, but everything seems fuzzy. She spends a few moments focusing on her hand in front of her face, it comes into clear definition.
She is rewarded with a splitting headache. Feeling a large painful knot covered in bloody hair on the back of her skull, she grimaces and tries to focus on the situation.
No rocking, but still on wood and that sounds like the captain talking.
She squints and looks around, seeing an island in the near distance.
S%%*, run aground probably.
Glancing up, Odium is offering her a hand up to stand. She takes it. He leads her to the boat and she half heartedly holds one side of the boat rope to help lower it.
Going on a ride… gods this hurts. I can’t focus on anything well. Just follow your friend, hopefully that is where you need to go.
Later, as the skiff pulls away from boat she pulls out her tablet and scrawls a note on it to… some woman who is pulling the oars.
Head Injury. Sorry, will be better soon.
Hopefully this is just like the coconut tree fall. A couple hours and it will go away.
"I can help you with that, Estelle. But I'm going to put some distance between us and the Man's Promise first. Ya got some catchin' up t' do, New Girl."
"First thing we gotta do when we get t' that island is find a safe place t' rest. All of us are hurtin.'"
She wipes off the board and writes a series of questions over the next few minutes, OK, why are we headed to the island? What happened with the ship and crew? Is it just us two going to the island? Also, I should be able to take a shift on the oars soon, my mind is clearing.
By Besmara this is gonna be hard work. Draxxie grits her teeth and puts her back into rowing, studying the strange woman opposite as she answers the written questions.
"Fox and Fish - ah, that's Asami and Oduim - want to take a little look underwater in case they can find Sandara and Barefoot. I ain't gonna row too quick so's they c'n find us easy enough an' they're joinin' our little water-finding expedition. Plugg's orders. We lost too much fresh water when the Promise got holed on the reef.
Right. Now yer hist'ry lesson. Yer man Plugg, an 'is lackey Scourge, are two o' the worse sons o' b&~%+es ya could ever meet. An' I was born on a pirate ship, I met some evil bastards afore. See, me, Fish, Fox an' Snake - he's dead, an' I'll get t' that - we was all press-ganged a couple o' weeks afore we took the Promise. Plugg an' Scourge thought it'd be fun t' send their cronies t' beat th' s%#~ outta us on our first mornin' aboard th' Wormwood. We defended ourselves - at least, me an' Fox did - an' th' two o' us ended up gettin' lashed by Scourge fer our trouble. Harrigan's got no talent fer keepin' order, he's jus' a violent thug, so when Fipps blabbed that I used magic Harrigan 'ad everyone flogged. Only me an' Fox bore the brunt o' the scourge.
Them's bad news. Wormwood goes through crew right quick, an' that's down to Harrigan, Plugg an' Scourge. Harrigan threw good pig meat overboard when we met the Promise, expressly t' draw sharks, an' it was sharks what done fer Snake I reckon.
Can't see it bein' any better wi' Plugg as Cap'n.
An now I reckon yer caught up, Estelle. I'm Draxxie, by the way. Can't remember if I told ya before."
Near the starboard side, towards the bow, there is a dried slime trail indicative of multiple grindylow. Strangely, this is not the area where the grindylow who attacked you came aboard. Either after the crash, or before the fight when everyone was preoccupied not getting smashed to pieces by the storm, another group of grindylow snuck aboard. Perhaps these were stealthier than their kin. Certainly they had an excellent distraction to sneak aboard.
Most distressing, however, is that lying in the trails of drying grindylow slime is a very familiar holy symbol of Besmara. This definitely belongs to Sandara. While it doesn't prove that she was kidnapped by the grindylow, it certainly seems that way, since there's one set of trails leading onto the deck, and one set of trails leading off it again, in a sort of rough "V" shape.
Asami directs Oduim's attention toward the slime trail and the holy symbol (which she frowns at and pockets).
"Underwater tracking: harder?" she grunts, fairly certain of the answer.
Estelle writes one last note, HI Draxxie! I'm Estelle. It is nice to meet you. I can help with the water thing, but only about 10-20 gallons a day. I don't know if that is enough and I can't get any until tomorrow. Do we have barrels to store the water we find?"
"Them two empty barrels there, Estelle." Draxxie gestures to the barrels that Plugg ordered loaded on the jolly boat. "I'm sure Plugg'll be pleased t' hear ya can conjure fresh water up. I know a few magic tricks m'self but that ain't one o' them. Mind, half the crew'd assume it's poison, the dumb f*&!ers."