"Didn't I tell ya I ain't cut out fer swabbin'? Wait, I didn't.
I ain't cut out fer swabbin'."
"Clearly."
|
"If you are done discussing irrelevant matters, I would like to get at least one task in this room done correctly for a change." All this babbling. No wonder why this place is a mess. DO they EVER work? The undine starts searching the room for the rats. If they are big enough to take a man's hand, they may pose a genuine threat. Well, merely a human's hand. Still, they may be dangerous.
Draxxie drops into the disgusting muck-water, and just has time to step aside before the undine follows her down. As she sends her dancing lights into the corners, Carlos makes ready to follow his fellows into the bilges.
However, the moment Draxxie's lights touch the corners of the room, the sudden light sends almost a dozen rats scurrying toward the middle of the bilges to escape it.
Of those dozen, six of them are absolutely massive. Jack wasn't exaggerating, they really are nearly the size of dogs. With chittering shrieks, they lunge out of the piles of filth to attack the party.
Two of the rats rush in and bite at Draxxie and Oduim. #3 is overeager as it launches at Oduim, ending up clamping its teeth on nothing. #2 is more successful, however, and tears a chunk out of Draxxie's calf. In the light of her dancing lights, Draxxie sees just how filthy the huge rodent's nasty yellow-toothed mouth actually is. That can not be sanitary...
This here be a dire rat, also known as Rodents of Unusual Size. Despite having a nasty bite compared to their smaller cousins, dire rats are relatively harmless to the average adventurer in ones and twos. When they attack in packs of half a dozen or more, however, they can be quite dangerous. Most dangerous about them, of course, is the fact that they live in and eat refuse. They are notorious carriers of the disease known as filth fever.
[color=green]ROUND 1
Characters in BOLD may act.
Rat 3 (0 dmg)
Rat 2 (0 dmg)
Oduim (10/10 hp)
Draxxie (3/10 hp)
Rat 1 (0 dmg)
Rat 5 (0 dmg)
Rat 4 (0 dmg)
Rat 6 (0 dmg)
Asami (11/13 hp)
Carlosss (9/9 hp, Mage Armor)
[/color]
”Bloody hell! I think those ARE dogs! Maybe wolves even. Never seen one honestly, but damn.”
"I swear these f$&&ers weren't here yesterday! Gaah!"
Draxxie gets bit, and doesn't like it.
"Rodents of Unusual Size. Thin 'em out quick an' the rest'll scurry off."
"This place is too small for the pike, but I gotta patch this wound first anyways. S%##, water's too thick."
If frustration, Draxxie lashes out with her pike. But she's concentrating mainly on defending herself. Another bite could be fatal.
She slips her buckler around her arm.
Oduim lands a solid jab with his shortspear, puncturing a nasty hole in the rat's side, but it doesn't drop.
Draxxie has less luck; startled by the power of the dire rat's bite, her pike swings high over the rat's head.
Four of the rats move in and attack, huge oversized front teeth snapping at shins and the occasional hand that comes down too far, but for the most part they are wildly unsuccessful. However, one manages to dig its teeth into Asami's foot, tearing through her flesh and missing taking off a toe to match her hand by mere inches .
[color=green]ROUND 2
Characters in BOLD may act.
Rat 3 (3 dmg)
Rat 2 (0 dmg)
Oduim (10/10 hp)
Draxxie (3/10 hp)
Rat 1 (0 dmg)
Rat 5 (0 dmg)
Rat 4 (0 dmg)
Rat 6 (0 dmg)
Asami (9/13 hp)
Carlosss (9/9 hp, Mage Armor)
[/color]
Asami grits her teeth and tries to use the rat’s chomp as a way to stomp down against the hinge of its jaw!
failing that, she at least gets her foot free in the process and lashes out with the opposite leg!
He hisses as the vermin surround them, debating whether to move and blast or just blast one. Mind made up the Vishkanya carefully tries to knock out one of the rats nearest him to make some space.
"Beat 'em down I guess. Just remember, it's them or us. Focus on any that are injured."
for (Sickens for 1 Round if hits)
Asami misses with the stomp, but manages to punt the dire rat in the throat, snapping its head back and sending it flying against the wall, where it hits with a gross, but oddly satisfying, wet thump. It slides down the wall, leaving a smear of dark blood to mix with... whatever that weird brownish-green stuff is that's growing right there.
Carlos slides down the ladder and reaches out to touch one of the rats, but isn't able to get his digits in close enough without them getting snapped off by those nasty teeth.
#'s 2 and 3 both try to take a bite out of crime and end up gulping bilgewater instead. They don't seem to mind too much.
[color=green]ROUND 2
Characters in BOLD may act.
Rat 3 (3 dmg)
Rat 2 (0 dmg)
Oduim (10/10 hp)
Draxxie (3/10 hp)
Rat 1 (0 dmg)
Rat 5 (0 dmg)
Rat 4 (0 dmg)
Rat 6 (9 dmg, dead)
Asami (9/13 hp)
Carlosss (9/9 hp, Mage Armor)
[/color]
"That's my one," she says as the rat she kicked either dies or becomes unable to move and then falls into the water and begins drowning. "Step to it."
”Uh… I may not be as fancy as you all, but I can still count. Six of them and four of us doesn’t add up if we do one each. Just saying.”
"More for me, then," she shrugs.
With the rats all in close quarters, Draxxie drops her boarding pike and pulls her cutlass.
"One fer me, Fox!" Draxxie grins as her counter-manoeuvre succeeds.
Carlosss shakes his head and grumbles, "Pirate won't shut her yap for three seconds since day one, constantly singing and stirring s$**. We actually get into the deep end though and not a single note of encouragement. I see who's side she's on and it ain't mine."
"I heard that, Snake! Ya got a request, let's hear it!" Draxxie hollers over to Carlosss.
"Hey, I know:
Oh, I wish I was a silly, slippery snake
Oh, I wish I was a silly, slippery snake
Oh, I'd slither 'cross the floor
And I'd slip under the door
Oh I wish I was a silly, slippery snake"
Oh, I wish I was a silly, slippery snake
Oh, I wish I was a silly, slippery snake
Oh, I'd slither 'cross the floor
And I'd slip under the door
Oh I wish I was a silly, slippery snake"
Draxxie kills with her cutlass, then slays with her saucy jab at the sorcerer. At least the sorcerer is physically intact; the dire rat's head plops into the filthy water and floats away from the splashing action of the battle.
Oduim finally finishes what he started in round 1, running his shortspear all the way through the massive rat's abdomen. When he pulls it out, the barbed tip brings with it several strands of innards that don't just fall off no matter how many times the druid shakes the thing.
Despite there being no magic in her song, Draxxie's lyrics seem to fire up the vishkanya because he deftly dodges two rat bites in a row with no small amount of flourish, glistening like a rain-slicked marble statue in the dancing lights. No one should look that good covered in slime-water.
[color=green]ROUND 2
Characters in BOLD may act.
Rat 3 (6 dmg, dead)
Rat 2 (0 dmg)
Oduim (10/10 hp)
Draxxie (3/10 hp)
Rat 1 (9 dmg, dead)
Rat 5 (0 dmg)
Rat 4 (0 dmg)
Rat 6 (9 dmg, dead)
Asami (9/13 hp)
Carlosss (9/9 hp, Mage Armor)
[/color]
Asami grins. "Fine, do your math. You'll still need at least one to keep up," she says, plunging a hand into the water next to her...
...and, after a terrible, wet crunching sound, coming back with a rat's head.
"Two."
Carlosss seems caught up in the song, not noticing that it might be an insult or just not giving a f$$@. He hums along and then belts out, "SLIPPERY SNAKE STABS THE F@!~IN RAAAAAT!"
He pulls out a wickedly curved dagger and wraps his long tongue around it. Slowly disengaging his tongue from the blade with a long *SLUUUURPPPPP*, he leaves a nice coating of his own slime. Then with a quick motion he slashes down at the rats.
for
"That... that's some tongue ya got there. Um. Snake."
Draxxie licks her lips without thinking.
Asami doesn't quite pull the head all the way off, but the rat's neck does resemble a fleshy accordion. You're pretty sure it's done with the whole breathing thing.
Carlosss isn't terribly strong, so there's not a lot of power behind his strike. However, the poison immediately begins running its course in the little pest, and its limbs seem to lock up slightly, making its movements a little clumsier.
With only two rats left, #2 snaps hungrily at Draxxie once again, tearing a gash on her inner thigh that just barely misses nicking an artery but still bleeds like crazy . The skald is starting to feel woozy...
[color=green]ROUND 3
Characters in BOLD may act.
Rat 3 (6 dmg, dead)
Rat 2 (0 dmg)
Oduim (10/10 hp)
Draxxie (0/10 hp, disabled)
Rat 1 (9 dmg, dead)
Rat 5 (11 dmg, dead)
Rat 4 (1 dmg, Poisoned [1 Dex dmg])
Rat 6 (9 dmg, dead)
Asami (9/13 hp)
Carlosss (9/9 hp, Mage Armor)
[/color]
"Aaargghh!!" Draxxie screams as the rat tears at her leg. "This f+@*er's gonna eat me! Get it off! Kill the f&~%er!"
Draxxie pulls back towards Asami, happy to cede the contest to the brawler if only she'll stop the rats from biting her limbs off.
Draxxie's eyes go wide as Oduim suddenly announces himself.
Weird. Hardly says a word for days then declares he's the 'surging storm'! Whatever that means.
"Um. Thanks. Storm."
Draxxie takes a deep breath and calls upon her magic to put herself back together.
Draxxie's pretty sure there's something lodged in that last wound. It's probably fine. Just need to rinse it. And hey! There's water right at your feet!
Rat #2 snaps at Oduim as the druid's attempt at acrobatics is stymied by the slick, gooey water, but the splashing refuse causes the rat to miss its mark. Oduim then bellows his challenge at the beastie and buries his shortspear down between its ribs from above. As he pulls his spear free, he realizes the creature's not actually dead--but he did rupture something important, and the thing wavers on its little rat feet as dark fluid spills across the surface of the murky bilgewater.
The familiar itch of rapidly healing wounds pours down Draxxie's legs as the missing chunks of flesh re-stitch. Even Draxxie's back, still tender from the whippings the other day, suddenly feels better.
Rat #4 seems to have zero concept of how bad a situation it's in, because it keeps biting at Carlos's feet and calves, but the walking sex snake two-steps right out of the way. Its movements are becoming even more stiff and sluggish as the vishkanya's venom begins to seize its joints.
[color=green]ROUND 3
Characters in BOLD may act.
Rat 3 (6 dmg, dead)
Rat 2 (6 dmg, disabled)
Oduim (10/10 hp)
Draxxie (9/10 hp)
Rat 1 (9 dmg, dead)
Rat 5 (11 dmg, dead)
Rat 4 (1 dmg, Poisoned [2 Dex dmg])
Rat 6 (9 dmg, dead)
Asami (9/13 hp)
Carlosss (9/9 hp, Mage Armor)
[/color]
Carlosss does a little backpedal and then spin, ending with another jab at the rat.
for
"This doesn't seem so hard, they can't even hit us."
Glancing back at the group he adds, "Well... hit me."
"Hey, we don't all have magic pants!"
I can do better than wearin' a barrel fer armour though, surely.
Carlosss finally finds his grin as he smiles back, "Usually all I hear is about the magic inside my pants, not the pants themselves."
Asami stoops down once more, trying to grab the rat before settling for a hard stomp instead.
Carlosss slices the rat across its side, making it skitter sideways out of the grasp of Asami quite by accident, but it can't recover before she brings her huge foot down on its head. She smashes down, driving the dire rat's head underwater. Nobody hears the crunch when its brain exits its skull via its ears, eye sockets, and mouth, but there is an unsettling pile of bubbles that come up, and Asami can definitely feel the effect through her foot.
The last rat decides this is all a big ol' nope and tries to duck past the giant monsters flanking it, but fails hard. It goes careening through the water to try and disappear behind some nearby boxes.
COMBAT OVER!
The waters slowly return to a steady, waving ripple from the violent sloshing of combat. You notice there are an awful lot of boxes down here, most of them broken and/or so waterlogged they're warped into bizarre shapes, but a couple of them look like they might be inteact...
"What's the count, Fox? I got two!"
Draxxie pokes around a bit with her pike after cleaning and sheathing her cutlass.
"I have no f#&!ing idea how these giant rats got here. Is there a hole in the hull? I reckon Plugg or Scourge must o' put 'em here. Very tempted to sneak a peek in Plugg's quarters."
"Three for me, two for you, one for Fish, none for Snake... unless he's trying to dehydrate you, Shark," she smirks.
There's a loud splashing sound as she pulls herself out of the water and up onto the ladder. If there's an ambush waiting for them at the top... well, she's tougher than the rest of them.
She'd worry she's just being paranoid, but so far she's only ever regretted letting her guard down, not putting it up.
The snake sensuously walks around the bilge area. Something has to look good down here and it might as well be he.
He pokes around at a few boxes before pulling out his vermin stuffing sack and collecting the rat bodies, "This haul of giant rats should be enough to keep trouble off our back topsides."
"You culled one in two hits," Asami corrects. "Hardly the same thing."
|
|
He points to the dead one where he was, "One." and then to the one in front of him that nearly killed Draxxie, "Two."
He then looks around the hold. "Besides, weren't supposed to clear this area? You were down here for two days. Did you just sleep off your rum all day? Perhaps if you completed all your tasks with the same fervor and aggression you fight with, our trip down here wouldn't have been needed." He points the but of his spear at Draxxie, "You almost got that one killed, and Jack lost a hand. Sounds like your count was almost much higher. Maybe you should stop keeping score and start carrying your own weight for a change."
Asami shrugs. ”First time down here, actually. I’ve been up in the rigging most days.”
Draxxie turns up a surprising number of items among the refuse upon a thorough inspection:
- a suit of leather armor
- three heavy maces
- a buckler
- a masterwork handaxe
- a vial of holy water
- a tanglefoot bag
- various coins totaling 21 gp and 12 sp
Asami raises an eyebrow.
"This is hardly a cargo hold," she points out. "Surprisingly useful stuff down here."
Carlosss, "I'm pretty sure this isn't a cargo hold."
He waves at the two feet of water on the floor and the manacles on the wall, "Unless the cargo needs to be wet or chained up... aww f+++, I hope they don't deal in slaves."
He sighs, "But we should keep this stuff, we earned it just risking our asses down here. Maybe sell some of it and split the profits."
"Unless the profits are getting whipped. It's on the ship, it belongs to the captain-- or at least, I'd be surprised if the captain doesn't see it that way."
"Bring it up anyway. They give us guff about it, we can say it seemed better than letting it rust and rot down here."
"Hey, Storm guy, I ain't lettin' ya tally the gold. Cuz I got that second rat, see. Ya just stunned it, that don't count. Don' worry tho', we're sharin'. Cuz I do appreciate your steppin' in when I nearly got eaten there."
Draxxie turns to Asami and adds quietly "Fish can't tell the difference between a shark an' a fox either." She grins.
"We follow Grok's advice. Anything we got down here, we bought off her with winnings from gamblin'. She ain't gonna say different."
"So who want's this stuff? Axe looks pretty sweet."
Asami grabs the handaxe and her share of the coin without really letting there be a debate over it, and slips the former into her belt.
"Works for me."