"Though, I do remember the last time we walked the streets together..."
Kristin looks at Melthune.
"Right... well then, I'd say we keep our powder dry and our swords sharp," she says with a nod.
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Kristin glances from Zayna to the Osirion priestess who seems to be lingering closer to Johnny. She listens to the priestess views on science over magic and guns over sticking a sword in the belly of an enemy and gives you a glance, rolling her eyes as if to say - Gods damn, someone's full of herself! But she says nothing except to look grab her kit and head to the edge of the ship. "Great! In which case I reckon I'll go with Zayna and this the priestess girl; if the rest of you want to hang back on the ship and not be recognized or do any recon work, you know - whatever suits you, that's all good with me; but I'm good to go," she adds emphatically. She glances at the others. "Anyone feel like coming with us; or are ya'll planning on staying here on the ship, or - I don't know... I'm just curious if you got any plans," she asks.
"I'd prefer to handle the business we traveled so far to accomplish. Did we not come here to deal with a certain idol?" Zayna asks. Kristin rolls her eyes. "Yeah - but we got a whole crew to do that... But tell you what; if you want to go deal with the idol, why don't we go with the priestess to the temple now then instead of cooling our heels here?" She looks over at the folk who hired her and fixes them with a hard stare, then brushes her long dark hair back and ties it into a ponytail. She's currently wearing a long loose robe made of muslin over her gear, and drapes it more comfortably around her to cover her weapons and armor. She pulls her keffiyeh around her neck and face, then covers her head with it so only her eyes are showing. "You're a priestess - you want to take the idol now? If we do it, we can get it done while the rest of them do their thing?" she says. "Look, I been on this ship for nearly two weeks... I'm ready to do something, you know?" she says.
"Well, friends, it seems we've finally arrived. What now?" Kristin draws out her pistol and holds it loosely in her hand, looks up at the sun and squints. "What's next is that we need someone on this ship to make a command decision; toss out some direct statements and lay down bloody marching orders so we know what the hell we're supposed to be doing," she mutters under her breath. Examining the priming on the pistol, she stuffs it back into the holster by her side and looks at Zayna direct. "Look, the way I see things is that these guys will be here all day trying to decide what to do - and there's a good bet that after you ask them they'll end up looking around at everyone else and ask everyone what they want to do, and while the sun is climbing in the sky we'll waste the day in some kind of committee because no one says something like - This is what we're doing, now let's do it!," she adds with a little frustrated shake of her head. "So how about this? Why don't you and me hop a skiff to the main land get into some trouble then meet the gang later this afternoon - say... sundown? - at maybe the docks where the ship will be docked, or something like that?" she says, so desperate for action that she's literally rocking back and forth on the balls of her feet. Johnny looks over at her. "Well, I got to admit - action sounds good. I'm free to order my crew around - not that I would too much; but at this point ya'll got to make up your minds," he says. Kristin glances at him. "Yeah - well, if Zayna wants to go exploring with me, I'm on board." She turns to look at Zayna direct. "Whatta you say, you want to go out and explore? We can be back at sundown if you'd like," she says to the priestess.
As a free action, Taissa calls out to Polux, Hack and the rest on the listing enemy ship, "The ship will go down within 7 minutes at least. Finish the enemy and move back to The Seahawk! Kill the caster officer! Kat, we must be ready to move The Seahawk back as soon as we can, so we aren't dragged down, too!" "Aye!" she calls out in anger at all she sees. For now she raises her pistol, taking a shot at the enemy caster -
Cool! For what it’s worth, I have a “Craft: Carpentry” at a total of 6 (really a +8 with my Masterwork Tool set). I can always lend a hand if anyone needs me to. That said, now that we have a plan it sounds like we're working on the carpentry for the next few days. To get it done properly we need the target number in gold for the Craft DC. At which point we set the DC and determine how long it will take via our roll. If we use accelerated crafting the DC goes up by 10, but we can get it done faster. For now the DC to repair some problems with the ship is only a base of 10 (Typical Item; in this case it's "typical" in that we're working on fixing beams and boards, but there's a lot of them). So if we have a DC of 10 and add +10 for accelerated Crafting we only need a roll of 20. If we get a total of 20 on our roll, that means we repair 200 GP of repairs in one week. So we need to roll more than a 20 by a lot - the more "aid checks" we can get, the faster we get it done. Every successful Aid Check grants a +2 to the roll - the higher the better in this case. Come on, guys, we can totally do this! Who is the person who is rolling the base DC Check so we know who will aid them? I can do it, but it's up to you guys...
"The goblin did say that the priest referred to his book frequently - we should take a look at it, though I am not sure if we will understand the language it is written in - who has it?" - he inquires of his companions. Kristin glances at Polux from the helm. ”Don’t you remember? Ya’ll gave it to Johnny so that he and his priest and that little chickee from Osirion could try to figure out what the writing says as there’s lingo in both Osirion and in the gods-languages; you know, with constellations and other symbols and all that…” she calls out to him.
"I had a bite of trail bread I had in my pack. If you want, I have some below on the table. The honey is there, as well. If they have coffee, ask them to bring some over." After a moment, she remembers her manners, "Please." "Yo - Khal - see if you can't have Ella send over a pot of coffee for me and Tass here," she calls out and the northman grins and waves. She glances back at Taissa, still curious at the choice of leaders at this point. "Polux has proven himself and is cunning in battle." She places the cigarette between her teeth and holds up her hands to show that she is not protesting. "Hey, hey - it don't matter much to me; you guys pay the coin, you guys choose the boss - it's all good to me either way," she says. "Just surprised me is all..." Before either of you could continue, the noise that startled you both has a chance to become more obvious and somewhat more intimidating.
Kristin nods a bit, understanding. "I'm trying to get some breakfast sent over - you want anything?" she says to Taissa. "Say - we're trying to get things started here, but we can' to do that without bloody orders. Who's the captain of this lot?" she asks Taissa as she takes another drag from the smoke. "Our captain is Polux. He is with Hack interrogating the goblin prisoner." Her eyes widen a bit at the words. "Him, captain? Got to admit, I'm a bit surprised... a knifeman as ship's captain... hell, next thing you'll tell me is a barbarian'll be king by his own hand! Ah, but what do I know..." she says, surprised that the ship's acting captain isn't giving any formal orders at this time. But before she can say another word, a sudden movement startles everyone on deck...
Kristin stumbles from her cabin at the sounds of the pup’s howls, holding her hands to her ears. ”Gods damn, what’s wrong with the little guy?” she asks no one in particular, as at this point there is no one around except for Stefan on the deck. She quickly takes out a smoke and lights up, glancing at him thoughtfully, than shrugs. As she takes another pull from the smoke, she glances across to The Seahawk and observes Khal is on morning watch and waves to him and he returns the wave. ”Ahoy, Khal – what’s the plan?” she calls out to him. ”I do not know; Johnny is with the girl priest studying logs; he’s been working with her most of the night… the others sleep. What orders from your captain?” he calls back. Kristin mutters to herself a moment, than calls back. ”You got me – this bunch don’t seem to have a formal captain; I don’t know who leads them, but as soon as I get some bloody orders I’ll pass the word.” She thinks a moment. ”Say – you don’t mind asking the padre for a bit of breakfast? This lot's getting a bit better at sailing but it’s a sure bet that none of them know how to cook yet – and besides, between cold, dried meat and soaked half-rotten grain, we don’t got much on board of note.” Khal rubs his chin. ”I don’t know – your lot seems to dislike him, so he may not want to come aboard – but I can send Ella with a few snacks if you’d like?” She grins. ”Sounds good to me! Well – as soon as I get the word, like I said – I’ll pass it on to ya’ll. Meantime, whenever you’re ready for that food, I’ll take it; hopefully we sail soon, but that’s up to them,” she adds.
As Kristin lounges next to Stefan, he offers his thoughts. "Orders? Well, we definitely need to set up watches, but Hack, Polux and I need rest. Despite the healing, we are each still beat up. In the morning we all need to have a meeting to determine exactly what our next course of action should be." Kristin glances at John, noting that he has lit a smoke and quickly follows suit, glancing at Stefan slyly. ”Don’t worry about all that, tight-pants,” she says with a grin. ”I’ll make sure you get plenty of sack time,” she adds, swatting you once on your backside. As she takes a drag on her smoke, she hears Stefan consider his next option. ” It looks like we will be headed to Korvosa, if so, we need to prepare. They are an officous lot after all." She exhales a long stream from her nostrils as she considers him for a bit. Seeing the look, Taissa decides to tack things back to a more stable course, for now… "How much danger do you think we will find in Korvosa? The last encounter with the goblins, dark priest and worgs saw us scramble to get the upper hand. I do not want to be on the backfoot like that, again." Kristin takes another drag from the smoke, her hand dropping to rest comfortably on the hilt of her sword, studying her for a bit. ”Well, it’s hard to say…” she says slowly. ”It’s a lot more cosmopolitan than Beacon; that’s for damn sure; so there’s kind of a diverse mix.” ”They got a proper standing army there; it’s not huge, but they got roughly 600 musketeers there; modeled after the Cheliax troops. They recruited them hard after the troubles with Riddleport.” "Plus they got about 200 dragoons, too - they're a pretty rough bunch, but they're not often in town; most of them patrol the borders so we probably won't see 'em too much." She takes another tug on the smoke. ”They hired on a lot of privateers; most of the folk there are independent sailors with letters of marquee to attack out of Korvosa, so you’re probably going to see lots of ships bumping hulls with each other.” She frowns a bit. ”That’s dicey – see… a ship’s captain and his crew may be like Johnny over there; a small, tight bunch loyal to each other. They’ll obey the law if they’re noticed by the law, but with some of those lots if you walk down the wrong dark alley – watch out, you know?” She thinks a bit more. ”Plus they got diplomats from Cheliax that come in once in a while, sometimes you get lads from Nirmathas that do bounty-hunter work; trappers, trackers – you know; that sort of thing…” she adds with a shrug. ”Point is – if you’re in the right part of town near the authorities – so long as you don’t piss people off, you should be fine…” She takes another drag of the smoke, pausing to play with Stefan’s hair a bit. ”But… if you go down the wrong alley by yourself… watch your back, you know?” she adds. ”Oh yeah – careful, too – they got some lads that step up from time to time from Nidal – if you see them folk you better not be alone. They keep their identities secret, but that’s only because they like to get nasty, you know?”
"The Grand Mastaba of Korvosa? That seems a slender reed, but you may be unto something. It is a Thassilonian artifact, however, many of the Osirion pyramids date back to Azlanti times as well. What could they possibly want though? And I am sure the Chelish descendants of Korvosa would not be likely to submit easily. Of the three main cities, Korvosa is probably the most structured and cultured and they do not stray far from their Chelish roots." Kristin makes an impressed face with Stefan's lore regarding the history of Korvosa and shrugs a little. "I reckon we got to ask the bigger question: who, or what, prompted the building of those structures? Was it Azlanti folk or something else? And is that "something else" the thing that the folk from Osirion are trying to get at?" As you sit there regarding the information she leans back against you, her head resting on your shoulder and thinks a moment. "Maybe folk from ancient times prompted not only the building of these pyramids, but other things. Maybe for some reason the gods saw fit to destroy them other things with fire and water from the heaven... and now maybe folk are trying to find the remains of the things that the gods tried to destroy?" she says thoughtfully. "Well... I guess maybe we ought to find out..." she adds.
As Kristin listens to Stefan's thoughts on Osirion, she seems to consider the possibility of ancient relics and lost cities lost in the Varisian wastes, and wonders how it could tie to places like Osirion. "Huh! Well, Osirion's got it's fair share of ruins and other hash... don't they got all those really big pyramid buildings lost in the deserts?" she says, mentioning a bit of lore that most of you probably already know simply by rumor. Even so, the conversation with Stefan seems to encourage her thinking a moment. "But I don't know any place in Varisia's that's got them type of buildings in it... but wait," she says thinking suddenly of what Stefan just said "I think I remember something though... That place Korvosa, don't it have some kind of pyramid, too?" she says thoughtfully, racking her brain. "Yeah, I seem to remember some old lore on it... Before the arrival of the Empire of Cheliax, Korvosa was no more than a site sacred to the Shoanti; the protection of the location, as well as the pyramid found there, was of great importance...," she says, nudging Stefan in the ribs eagerly. "Yeah - that's right! There's a ruined pyramid there... and the Osirion folk like those kinds of buildings; enough that their god-kings made 'em to dwell in; and now we got a place in Varisia that's got buildings like Osirion that're connected to Shoanti folk... Come on, now - that can't just be coincidence..." she says emphatically to you all.
"I believe Vale would like to question this one. The priest has his ways and is better than I at such things. We keep the goblin alive and in chains until we decide if he is worth speaking to." Kristin blanches at the suggestion of Vale's "questioning" of another - even the goblin. She knows - or suspects - that the methodology that priests employ to draw information from another could be less than savory... She turns the goblin on his back with her boot and stares at him with a disgusted look. "Better a clean death than that sort of thing..." she mutters, then shrugs. She looks over at Taissa, noting that she has done the majority of talking and seems to have the most idea of what's going on. "So what - you the captain now?" she says with a little smile at Taissa, the clear distinction between captain and pilot is obvious to her, if perhaps not all of the others. "Anyhow, you said something on 'treasure', eh?" she says glancing up at you. "What'd you got?" she asks curiously as The Seahawk moves into hailing distance and Ren calls out to you - "Ahoy..." Kristin glances to The Seahawk - "Ahoy, there Johnny! We got plenty of hash worth sharing with you..." she calls out; not specifying if she is referring to knowledge, loot - or both; then she turns back to you all. "Well - it looks like you're up!"
Kristin hops down from the foredeck and helps you with hauling things aboard. You can see that she has a large flask of something and she passes it to you. It’s heated brandy, and it warms you as you drink it from the chill of the air. ”Wow! I’m glad to see you all made it… what the hell is all this stuff anyhow?” she asks all of you. "Oh yeah - The Seahawk comming up hard..." she says. Daya lands on deck with a graceful motion and screeches her "hello" to Kat. "Hey Daya," Kristin says to Daya with a cheerful voice, happy that everyone is doing well. When she sees the goblin, her hand strays to her rapier. "What's to be done with this one, eh?" she says looking at you all.
”Come on, gods damn it... Those things are just shooting to delay us from whatever it is their friends are planning! We don’t drop ‘em soon, your mates are going to be dead!” she says earnestly.
Kritin looks at you all. ”Well, that’s all we can do for now about healing you… the thing is – now what?” ”We can wait for the others to come back, but I don’t know… it may take too long and I’m not sure how long our mates will live if we don’t help them,” she says with a shake of her head. ”Look – for now I got to stay here and watch the ship. I can’t go off into the woods ‘cause if there’s more folk running around they may try to take the ship.” ”To get between here and there I can row you out and drop you off and bring the boat back here. But if you come out hard and fast to the coast you won’t have any way to get back to the ship. On the other hand, if we leave the ship on the coast an enemy may get it and destroy it or use it.” She shakes her head in frustration. ”Your call on what to do with the boat, I guess,” she says. Then she regards all of you quizzically. ”Did you check the corpses of them you killed? They maybe got gear on them of note – possible clues or something… not to mention the fact that your mates left their weapons fall where they landed on the shore and no one reclaimed them. They may want them back.” ”Anyhow – what’s your plan? I’m going to stay aboard until the others get here – but I reckon we don’t have much time…” she adds thoughtfully.
Kristin turns an awed look at Daya’s attack. ”Gods damn – that’s one kick-ass bird!” she says with appreciation. Kristin hops down from the helm and moves to the gunwale. ”Ahoy – you guys look terrible… you need a medic or something?” she says calling out to them. She turns to Taissa. ”You got any healing stuff on you? I didn’t bring none,” she says. She glances out the shore where the boat is. ”We can’t get to you without the boat, and I don’t know where those goblins took your mates, but we’ll have to hustle if we want to catch them,” she adds.
The anchor is slowly lifted and as you haul it in Kristin looks at the coast, then you. "Gods damn - they'll be slaughtered for sure! Why didn't they run for the boat when they had the chance?" she says, her face lined with tension. Kristin turns and glances at Taissa. "You think your pal Daya can help them out?" she says, adrenaline in her voice...
"Oye - we can't get much closer or this thing might run aground! Take a shot and I'll see if I can drop anchor to get things as close as we can get," she adds.
Kristin looks at Taissa, then turns her gaze to the shore. "Blessed gods above!" she mutters with a hoarse curse. "Gods damn it! And Johnny's nearly an hour off - we'll either be alive or dead by the time he gets here... and that'll happen in the next few minutes..." "It's a pity this vessel has no weapons on board. I have my shortbow and will aid the fight from the ship as best as I can." Kristin's eyes narrow. "Yeah - I wonder what the hell those whores where thinking, sailing without weapons," she mutters in disgust. Her mind suddenly registers your comment about the bow and she shakes her head. "Belay that - help me with the anchor - if we sail a few hundred feet to shore they may be able to get back here... Plus, maybe the site of the ship moving in on them will make those buggers piss their pants and run off..." "But I guess we'll see... Help me with the damn anchor - we got to move in to lend a hand!" she says fiercely rushing to the anchor. [b]"Need a combined Strength rolls of 50 to get it fully out. Just roll a d20 with strength modifier and add them all together. Once they reach 50 the anchor is up and you can move in closer to help.[/ooc]
Kat glances at Taissa’s work with the carpentry tools, suitably impressed with her handling. ”Not bad... not bad at all...” she says with open sincerity. "Do we send further message to Captain John and Ren or wait to see what the others discover?" Kristin glances to the east and studies the water, seeing the ship moving toward them and shrugs. ”I reckon Johnny’s moving as fast as he can… not much more we can do about that. I reckon he should be here in about an hour or so…” Taissa looks at the storm clouds. She can see that the snow is moving hard and fast, but is pushing eeper to the south. It seems that the ships have narrowly passed the worst of the storm as it keeps moving down over the seas.
Kristin grins. ”I don’t know… goblins aren’t very hardy, but they’re dangerous… they have a tendency to swarm… like lice. If there are any of them out there, it could be trouble. They move faster than smaller creatures and they’re damn nasty to fight – if there’s a lot of them.” She turns to Taissa and grins. ”But I doubt that’ll be a problem… I mean, hell – what're the odds that the crew’ll run into a horde of goblins hiding in the trees?” she says with a little chuckle and roll of her eyes at the thought of something so preposterous.
Kristin glances toward the coast, her studying it with a careful examination.
She glances at Daya on the deck and frowns a bit, seeing the bird in the cold air. ”Oye, Tass - take a quick break and go below – there should be a small stove or something forward used to cook the foodstuffs on this tub. Let’s see if we can’t get it lit up with a small fire to warm things up. Hopefully when the others return the ship will be warm enough,” she says. When Taissa returns from that task, if she is willing, Kristin moves to work with Taissa, doing what she can to aid in the damage to the ship. "Do you know the name of the ship we sail on?" Kristin grins a little. ”Aye – they ship’s log calls it The Scorpion,” she says with a dry chuckle. Then, taking out a set of carpentry tools, she begins to work on the beams with a sure and practiced hand which reveals her training.
"What creatures live on this side of the coastline? Will the others be safe out there?" She glances at the coast for a bit, studying it, watching the others a moment. ”It’s hard to say… at this time of year most of the threats should have moved to hole-up somewhere safe and warm. Still, there’re occasional issues that pop up,” she adds, pausing in her work. ”North of Beacon the threats are either rogue humans from the towns of Riddleport or the errant Shoanti barbarian looking to take some easy loot.” ”To the north and east of Beacon there are the broken rocks and mountains… There you’ll see orc tribes hitting the Shoanti folk, and depending on the weather you’ll see sometimes giants come down from the hills – from time to time.” She turns to look at Taissa thoughtfully, pausing in her work a bit. ”Don’t you know that on the southern coasts there are many roving bands of goblin tribes?” she says, glancing at Taissa. ”They normally cling to the swamps which bisect the coast and the lands south of Beacon in general, but they come out to raid once and a while," she adds. ”I don’t know if there’re any tribes here, though… nothing in Johny’s log from last time he passed by; but they pop up like rats, so who knows?” She studies the coast intently for a moment. ”Still, I’m hoping that we can find some human folks in this place… this is a good place for fishing, so if humans live nearby it’s likely they’d make small village maybe up in the forest a bit and send down scouts or skiffs to that bay there… the only problem is that I don’t see no docks or nothing to launch a skiff… but what can be done?” She spits aft then stares at the coast again. ”Right now I’m hoping we can at least find some lads to buy some supplies from, or at least a little game heading down to the waterline… but I don’t know what will happen next,” she adds.
"Dotting" the thread...
"Aye - of course! We have a longboat that'll get you lads ashore. Don't you remember - it was on the ship when you pinched it from those scum? They used it to row to shore and sail up with their chief," Kristin says, clearly well-informed by Johnny.
"You heading ashore, too, then?" she asks Polux curiously.
Kristin nods at Stefan and grins. ”Nice to meet you, Stef!” she says. ”Yeah, I heard that you guys haven’t done much sailing yet; that’s why Johny asked me to pitch in.” ”But don’t stress about it too much. The way I hear tell, you all are in charge; I’m just the pilot. I mean, I’ll get you out of a jam in a storm or something, but when it comes to running the show that’s up to how you guys want to do things.” Kristin turns and watches the others are their work. They seem eager to help, I wonder what makes them tick, though... what kind of people they are... Oh well, I'll find out soon enough, I suppose...
Kristin grins. ”Not really – I mean, I like to sail. I like the adventure; the going from place to place and seeing new things, you know?” ”Land has its appeal, sure – but that’s for later; when I can afford something a little more solid.” ”But there’s nothing like doing some sailing to earn loot easy, you know? A few quick missions and you’ll be able to make really good money fast,” she says with enthusiasm.
"Daya is over 2 summers old. And I'm glad you like her. She will be travelling with me on this sea voyage." Kristin glances at Daya again from the quarterdeck and takes a drag on the cheroot as she edges the wheel a bit to the leeward. ”She’s pretty young, then.” ”But they hit growth spurts from time to time; one minute she’s hoping around the deck of the ship, the next minute she’s big enough for you to be riding on,” she says thoughtfully. She watches the waves for a bit. ”Johnny told me that you guys were looking to make Beacon your home – but he says you didn’t have any ideas on what you’d want to do,” she muses thoughtfully. ”You ever thought of getting your own ship?” ”Not this class of ship, I’m talking about something more like Johny’s ship… a corvette. It’s small, easy to manage for a small crew and they’re fast,” she adds. ”You could use it make runs or do whatever it is you need to do, until you get some real loot. When that happens you can settle yourself proper-like in Beacon.” She takes another drag of the smoke, and turns up the collar of her jacket a bit from the chill sea spray. ”What do you think?” |