A few hours into the day's work, the gnome Giffer barrels up on the top deck, her single remaining eye wide and her face ashen, looking more bedraggled than usual. She takes a moment, catching her breath and nursing her leg, before limping over to Plugg. She animatedly informs him of something, showing him her leg, leading to him boxing her ear and dragging her over to Ramada.
"Oi, fish face! Tend to this one. You! You! You! You! And you!" He points at Jacques, Jacquelyn, Aamu, Lily, and Izkaen. "Giffer here says something up and attacked her in the bilges. Get down there and don't come back till you show me a carcass or few."
RAMADA
The gnome, hiding her missing eye with a stained velvet and leather patch, limps after Ramada should the doctor lead her below decks to treat her. A nasty looking wound oozes blood from between her fingers and the sketchy rag she's using to staunch the bleeding.
BILGES
Lily had been in the bilges before, and she can lead her four crewmates into its lightless depths. Giffer had closed and relocked the hatch into the bilges, but Plugg had taken the key from her and given it to Jacquelyn on their way down.
Aamu stops whistling, comes over and nods begrudgingly at Plugg's orders. The day was pretty good so far. Well, here goes nothing. He puts his ear to the hatch.
"Something is sloshing around, it seems."
As he lays eyes on the injured gnome, Izkaen's brows furrow and he takes a half step forward to attempt to help, but swiftly thinks better of it, allowing the doctor to handle her. However, Plugg's orders, annoyingly arrogant though they may be, did give him a chance to get closer to the injured woman. Ah, Plugg, ever the paragon of compassion. He muses, reflecting on the mate's earlier behavior.
The orders give him momentary pause. Something took a piece out of her? What could it be? Can't be anything too big, if it's belowdecks and we're not sinking... "Aye." He answers Plugg, stretching his neck and limbs. At least I'm not as exhausted as I was yesterday.
Izkaen looks around the bilges as Lily brings them there, his monochromatic eyes sweeping subtly over the area. "Lovely place." He says dryly, his hands flexing idly as he prepares to draw his blades.
Aamu's words bring a frown to his face. "I hear nothing, but I trust your senses." He says in a low voice. "I suspect that whatever attacked her was not, itself, overly large. However, if there's a large enough hole, something small and vicious might've slipped through. Otherwise, it's some sort of stowaway creature that we've brought from Port Peril."
The undine's head cocks to the side as she listens, and nods. "I hear it too. I'm not the most adept at combat, but I can see if I can find where it came in from while those with weapons kill it? I'll throw a spell or two your way to help if I can." She holds the key up. "Shall I open it up?"
Jacques draws his rapier confidently. "Whatever it is, it is not long for this world. We will drive it off or skewer it for supper."
Lily climbs down to the bilges first saying, "Daylight's burnin'. Let's get this over with."
BILGES
Opening the hatch, the five of you peer into the darkness below. Those without low light or darkvision are going to need a lantern or other source of light to see down there. Lily is accustomed to the dark, her orcish heritage aiding her sight.
Any sloshing or rustling ceases as the hatch opens, the natural rocking of the ship covering any signs of movement with its own disturbing ripples. The way down the steep stairs into the bilge seems clear otherwise, with drops of blood glinting in whatever source of light is provided.
Jacques squints into the darkness. "Jacquelyn, do you have a means of magically producing a flame?"
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Jaquelyn nods, and quickly casts her spell. A flame appears in her open hand, shining like a torch into the depths of the bilge.
Ramada's brow raises in interest as Plugg shoves the injured gnome in his direction, setting aside the rope he was working on as he ushers the gnome belowdecks to be treated. After a quick stop to his bunk to fetch his tools, he opens his little black bag, donning a pair of cloth gloves before fishing in its depths for a needle and some thread. Threading the needle with skill born of experience if not particular finesse, he holds it over a candle flame for a moment to heat it before turning to his new patient, unwrapping the blood-soaked rag to get a closer look at her injury, and clean it if possible before he goes to work.
Furrowing his brow, he shakes his head. "I'm afraid I've... hmm... not seen this wound's like - not recently, in any case. Quite the nasty... hmm... gash - what did you say attacked you?" Fishing in the bag again, he pulls out an old rag. "You can tell me in a... hmm... moment - while I understand biting this may be uncomfortable, the... hmm... alternative, to bite your tongue, is much worse, of this I assure you."
With the patient prepared as best he can manage, the doctor goes to work...
After a brief but painful few moments, he cuts the needle free from his stitches, nodding approvingly. "And there we are. I'd advise getting into any... hmm... races for a few weeks, but you should be fine to walk, even climb the... hmm... rigging if your duties require it. A Sincomakti surgeon's work is made to... hmm... last." His webbed hand pats the one-eyed gnome awkwardly on the shoulder in the eerie alchemist's closest approximation of a bedside manner. "Now, if in the next week or so you feel any... hmm... coldness, swelling, any... what is the Taldane? Fire of the head - if you feel any of that, talk to me during the supper hour. I have medicines that might help." Turning away, he begins to pack his physician's bag again, removing his now blood-soaked gloves and stowing his tools in the bag. "Yours is not the... hmm... worst injury I have seen in these years since I left Ustalav. On the Vigilant, I saw a man's arm torn from his body by a tentacled beast from the depths. A more complex surgery than this at the... hmm... best of times, and we were in the middle of a raging... hmm... storm besides. I saved his... hmm... life, but not the arm - though it did prove useful in my experiments."
Aamu nod to Jaquelyn approvingly. "Nice trick, that. Let's get going, I suppose." The vanara seems rather calm. If he is nervous, he does not show it. With the agility of someone who spent his entire life moving up and down trees, he lowers himself into the dark hatch with the distinct sound of his feet splashing as he lands. He smells at the air.
"Now, I don't know much about this, but should there be so much water here?"
Contrary to many people’s assumptions Lily could not see in the dark like her parents or even her twin brother, her eyes were completely human and so were terrible compared to many other humanoids. ”Thank ye Jackie.”
She had waded in the dirty water in the bilges not long ago, had even emptied them. She explained, ”All the water that spills above deck drains here. Catches all sorts of nasty stuff. You get posted here, you get a bucket and empty it. Important work, too full we sink, but everyone hates it fer good reason.”
She drew her mace, ready for whatever thing got trapped in here.
Coming down the ladder, careful to keep her flaming palm away from the wood, Jaquelyn pauses on the last step before the foul water, grimacing. "I'm going to feel sick for hours after this..."
Taking a breath, she takes the last step, splashing her bare feet into the bilgewater. "Let's just find this thing, kill it, and make sure no more can get in so we can get out of here."
Jacques nods with satisfaction and follows Jacquelyn down the ladder, wrinkling his nose at the powerful smell. "Thank you, madame," he says as he looks around.
RAMADA
"I ... I don't know what it was." The gnome did not shrink away from the deep one, but she did not seem to warm up to him either. "I cannot see as well in the dark as Jape or the Narwhal, but it was small enough to hide beneath the water till I was practically on top of it." Wincing a bit as the needle first bit into her ruined calf, she relaxed a bit.
When Ramada was finished, she tested his diagnosis, her taut weathered face smiling just a bit. "That'll make Plugg less likely to box me for missing work, at least. Appreciate it, Doc."
BILGES
Following the druid's flame, the five of you enter the bilges. The smell is rank, as Lily was accustomed. As the first four of you splash into the dank waters, a horrid high pitched squeaking pierces your ears as a swarm of large vermin breach the waters to attack.
misses Aamu; misses Jacquelyn but aids flank and takes 2 points of damage; crits on Jacques and deals 8 points of damage; and Lily is bitten by and takes 3 points of damage. Everyone bitten needs to make a DC 11 Fort save to avoid a disease.
Aamu instinctively raises his foot as the critter attempts to take a bite out of one of his calves. "Well, no time like the present, I guess. No -stomping- time like the present, that is!"
Jacques furiously shouts at the swarming rats, and bites off a shriek when one of them tears into his leg. "Ce putain de vermine!" he swears, and lunges at it with his rapier.
Pain coursed through Lily as the rats ripped her flesh away. Channeling the dark spirit that possessed her she cried out in the dimly list chamber in a strange voice, "Let perdition take the unclean! Bathe them in the fire of perdition!" Dark flame engulfed her mace as she spoke her prayer to the King of Hell.
Lily thought nothing of biting through a diseased rat drenched in bilge water and even less of the one she crushed with a mace lit with malevolent hellfire.
Jaquelyn winces as the fangs sink into her. Resiting the urge to slap the rat with fire, she instead darts up against the wall, and shouts a spell at the rat next to her.
Izkaen's blades leap into his hands and he strikes swiftly at the closest rat, Aamu's insightful advice guiding his blade.
With silent grace, the elf samurai steps over the bleeding vermin, ready to take the attack to his next victim.
Yellow dodged Jacques' rapier due to the standing water providing concealment, but Lily and Izkaen removed Yellow, White, and Gray from the fight. The remaining three take bites at the legs of Lily and the two Jacs. However, no longer surprised the three bites miss their targets.
Jacques stabs again at the next closest rat.
Izkaen slips easily through the waters, slashing the rat threatening Jacquelyn with both weapons, though between the dark and the wet, he doesn't manage to land either attack. "Damn." His breath hisses through his teeth.
Lily struggles against the slippery rat near her as it ducks and weaves in the water. Her hellfire dies out leaving only Jackie's flame burning.
Stepping away from the rat next to her, Jaquelyn turns her attention to the other rats. She casts Flare onto the rat attacking Jacques.
Providing an example, Aamu raises his foot and stomps in the direction of the nearest rodent.
The rat is dazzled by Jacquelyn's spell. Aamu's foot strikes his target, but the others miss theirs. The rats continue their assault but they fair no better than the pest control crew. Cyan must have inhaled some of the brackish water as it thrashes and hacks uncontrollably
Lily smashes the plucky rat who gave her so much trouble earlier. She wonders if it's the same rat that eluded her so easily yesterday.
Izkaen takes advantage of Aamu's attack by unleashing a series of slashes of his own, cutting deep into the rat with his katana, even as he's not quite able to land any strikes with his off-hand blade.
With a quick backstep, he turns to stand at Lily's side to join her in combat against the remaining rats.
Jacques angrily gnashes his teeth and mutters what sound like incantations under his breath while he tries again to stab a rat.
Jacquelyn strides through the bilgewater, bringing the fire closer to the rat, as she waits for the melee members of the party to end the fight
The remaining rat, despite the odds and its own endazzlement goes for Jacques' leg once more, fangs sinking into his flesh.
Izkaen swiftly strides forwards, slicing down on the rat harassing the human man. Absently, he notes the other man's mutters. Spells? He's hiding secrets from us... and from the officers. The former is, of course, much more concerning than the latter. With a whirling display of swift steel, he lands a strike on the rat with his off-hand weapon, though the water throws his longer blade slightly off.
Jacques glares at the rat, willing himself to ignore the pain of the bites on his leg. He stabs forward with his rapier.
"Apologies, let me just..." Aamu will walk around the group, joining the procession that sees to rid this boat of vermin both small and large. He attempts to smash his heel into the creature.
Lily flails about wildly growing more frustrated at the remaining rat.