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Wine, women, and song...; ...not necessarily in that order. [tag! Buddy]
Topic Started: Wed Nov 9, 2016 8:36 pm (385 Views)
Zinnia
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Deep and dark were the waters, even so close to the small port village, yet good waters for fishing they were. The sun had yet to rise despite the distant line of orange upon the horizon, the first touches of the day. Lighting his pipe, the man held his pole between his knees, his back against the wind. He tossed the match over the side of the dinghy with nary a care, not even looking to see where it landed, and took up his pole in his hands. But something caught his eye…no, there was nothing there. He shook his head, his scraggly gray-white beard shaking as he silently dismissed whatever it was there had supposedly been to dismiss. He shifted his weight a little, settling in, and the boat rocked…was it rocking more than it should? No, of course not…that was complete and utter nonsense.

His eyes, though…they darted to the water again. He could have sworn he had just seen something there…the boat rocked once more, nearly toppling him this time. Now he was getting a wee bit nervous. No, it was his old age that was doing it - ghosts from his past, no doubt. He steadfastly focused on his line in the water - and then it tugged hard. He held it, trying to reel it in. A thump from the other end of the dinghy set him off his balance, and he barely held onto his pole. He was on one knee immediately, desperately trying to reel in his line - and then his boat rocked once more. He lost his pole. Scrambling after it, he just caught the end before it was yanked into the water. His aging blue-gray eyes peered into the dark water as his hands held onto the edge.

Finally, the boat capsized at last. He flailed and scrambled for the surface, but he was trapped beneath the boat. He paused for a moment when he saw something materialize out of the darkness: a smooth, gentle-looking face, that of a fair maid, and he became confused. But the last thing he saw wasn’t a face; it was the massive tail slamming into him with all the force of a hurricane, crushing him against the submerged rocks. Blood poured out from his wounds as he was crushed, and soon enough, all his eyes knew was the bleak darkness of eternity. His own line drew him close, bound him to the rock…and upon the surface of the water, his boat mysteriously found itself righted. An oar was launched out of the water and landed within the boat; then another one did.

And then a webbed hand latched onto the side. A second one joined it, and the lovely face belonging to the lovely body of a lovely halfling rose above the edge. The halfling pulled herself into the boat and flopped down, revealing a very long tail slowly receding. The fins slowly shifted into wiggling toes, and then into feet without scales; and the tail slowly lost its scales as well, in favour of the fair flesh of a halfling’s legs and hips. Righting herself, she pulled off the watertight gunny sack from her back and opened it up. Moments later, she had her pants back on and was rowing toward the not-too-distant ship she had set her sights on the previous evening.

The sun had just risen to silhouette the great black ship as she reached it. The odd-looking surface of the ship was surprisingly easy to climb, as barnacles covered the hull nearest the water. Quietly, she found herself humming a tune that soon turned into words as she climbed.

“Her hair, it does in ringlets hang; her eyes as black as sloes; may happiness attend her, where’er she goes…”

It wasn’t very long at all until she reached a port hole. There, she hung perilously as she pulled a small die. She shook it and blew upon it for luck before rolling it across the narrow ledge that was the sill. Cringing, she watched happily as a small explosion blew out the port hole - or, well…blew in, rather. Either way, she deftly caught her die and put it away. Listening for a few moments, she heard nothing at all. Good. Her song resumed, as quiet now as it had been just a moment ago, and she worked her way up so as to squeeze through the hole she’d created.

“My father is a fishmonger,” she continued, changing only a word or three here and there to suit herself, “the truth I now will tell; and in great Stormhold City, in opulence doth dwell…”

And she was in, dropping onto an empty bunk.

“His fortune doth exceed…”

She climbed down the ladder.

“..three hundred thousand barrels old.”

It was of ale she sang now, of course, for there wasn’t a coin to be had in the whole of Mithlonde. And why should there be, when you could trade for everything you needed or wanted? She shook herself a little, spraying water everywhere, and looked about the dark room. There wasn’t a soul within it, so she sloshed on over toward the small chest of drawers nailed firmly to the wall and yanked the top drawer open.

“And he frowns upon his daughter,” her whispered words continued, “’cause she loves a sailor bold.”

There was nothing of value in any of the drawers, she quickly found. Then she searched the wardrobe - again, nothing. She wasn’t surprised, however. This was clearly a crewman’s quarters - so nobody of any importance. Pulling out her ARC, she donned it and tuned it. There were people sleeping about her but not a soul in the corridor. So she stepped into it, cautiously nevertheless, and slipped into the next cabin. She found but a paltry few coppers and a single piece of silver therein, and then she moved on. It was only because the crew were mostly sleeping that she was able to loot a few rooms, filling up her pockets with coins, but she knew things were about to heat up - quickly.

So she headed back to the room from whence she came - only to find a bosun working with some rope. She hastily apologized at once, and the bosun snorted in derision. She managed to convince her that she had the wrong cabin, and she told Zinnia that she might as well make herself useful by fixing her window while she was here. For that, she told her, she would need to climb out of it to see what the other side looked like. The bosun nodded, and she climbed up and out. She squeezed through but saw that her boat had floated away. Well, that was quite all right - except a shark was down there now. She could deal with it - but she didn’t feel like it. So she decided to climb up instead.

She heard orders being shouted and men moving about, and she hung just out of sight until she managed to find her way to where dinghies should have been stored - except that there weren't any there. Odd...so when she heard someone coming, she quickly checked some barrels nearby and found one that was nearly empty. The rest were all full - of saltwater taffy. She climbed inside the nigh-empty one and plopped the lid down; she felt someone pick the barrel up just a few moments later. As she was carried, she popped a strip into her mouth; it wasn't half-bad, actually.

OOC
Edited by Zinnia, Tue Nov 15, 2016 9:38 am.
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Buddy
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Buddy slept soundly without having to worry about keeping his crew entertained on the long voyages or having to fish around for steady work, because everybody on the Western Coast of Taras either wanted Captain Holly's head or his services. With more ships on the sea from Abnathea to Taras and dwindling exodus from Istan, work was in high demand. Imythessian lords and ladies hired out the Sacred Heart crew to intercept some vessels of interest from the new allies from across the waters, and while lacking in funds the Istani emigrants found interesting alternative payment to simple currency, with some even taking enough liking to the ship to stay aboard.

The night crew in watch of the mighty Haunted Ardanian's functions was skeletal, metaphorically and nigh-literally with the recent acceptance of some new sea-longing corpses from a place called Lich Lake. Their duty was merely to maintain the vessel until after the sun had risen and wake the crew proper if there was anything to note on the mirror-like surface of the Moonsea. In truth between the apt name of the ship's eerily haunting nature and the captain's keen sense for the sea, it was more of a quality of life assignment for the standard crew to get some extra winks after a hard day's work. Fortunately no tales of spirits clinging to the ship's hull disturbed the crew's sleep.

Though, not much disturbed the crew, not nearly as much as it did their captain. On such a mighty and sturdy ship it was a faint feeling, but it caused the deep blue eyes of Captain Holly to spring open as his mind ran through what could have sent such a subtle sensation through his vessel. Not a strong wave or wind, not an overt attack, and only a single strike. Somebody was infiltrating the vessel through a porthole into one of the skeleton crew's quarters.

Not Navy, nor pirate, no foolhardy bounty hunter or blonde girls took to such a mixed attempt at stealth, so who would prove to be so ignorant as to invite themselves aboard the Haunted Ardanian? Well, for all of the knowledge Buddy Holly had about the workings of his ship and the sea it sailed, there was no answer to be found by staying in bed, and there was no way he would allow a stranger free reign of his ship. It took the captain but a moment to rise from the bed and to gather his things, barely disturbing the cat asleep at the foot of his bed.

"Captain!" A skeletal deckhand with glowing blue eyes acknowledged Buddy as he came down the steps from the captain's quarters overlooking the deck.

"We've an uninvited guest!" Holly announced, skipping evening pleasantries.

"Captain-- we didn't--" The skeleton stammered.

"You were singin', right?"

"Aye, but. . ."

"Find whoever it is. Port-side, second-berth through a porthole, through your quarters." Captain Holly pointed to the skeleton, though he shared it with some other blaggards with challenges living, "When they're found, you can resume singin'."

"Aye, captain!"

As they hurriedly descended, Buddy's boots fell quiet against the old wooden floor, his eyes shifting through the low-light and his ears searching through the snores and rustling of sleeping crew. The living and undead alike who worked nights were not as quiet, but their noise easy to ignore. Through it, Holly heard singing, but there were no female skeleton crew aboard the ship, no pirates with that sort of voice awake this time-- except for sometimes Buddy himself with the crew managed another one of their pranks, but he was still very much a man and definitely not singing.

As Buddy listened closer he could begin making out words before the voice stopped, "Is that. . .?"




"Bloody 'Byss, didn't think ghosts could do this." The darkly tanned elf wearily noted, responding sluggishly to the popping sound that awoke her from her comforting sleep. She had not been sure what it was that made the sound, but knew that if she were not the first to investigate, then it would only mean more trouble for her when she was actually awake enough to do anything. To see a hole blown where glass once was, the porthole having been hollowed out and left smudged by some unknown force, was quite annoying. Sure, the crew to these quarters might have been undead, but she could hardly imagine they would want an always-open portal to the outside world while they rested in whatever fashion the dead rested once awoken.

There would need to at least be a sheet or something tied over the porthole to give some sort of disconnect from the outside, it might not have been a perfect solution and it would definitely darken the room during the day, but for the skeleton crew that might just prove to be a good thing.

Rope was always needed, so every room and every hall aboard the ship and every nook and cranny had some stashed somewhere, and it only took a moment for the bosun to find this room's stash so she could begin working on the mess scattered all around. Bits of shattered glass made little high-pitched sounds as they scratched at the wood flooring beneath her boots, but none were threatening enough to actually pierce her leather soles.

As she prepared to tackle her unfortunate first morning task-- before even breakfast, damnitall-- an unfamiliar face founds itself in the open doorway. It was a halfling, new crew as far as the bosun knew, so rather than questioning why a newbie was lost on such a large ship, she simply gave a mocking snort towards the new-blood. Well then, no use letting a woken shipmate go to waste. She ordered the halfling to the window, even though there was little that could be done with blown-out glass on a ship strong as steel.

Of course, oddly enough the halfling seemed to want to climb out of the window. The bosun was too tired to question that method, but when the little woman began climbing and up away from the porthole, that was when the wood elf began to grow suspicious.

"Hey, where are you going?" She called out, but there was no reply.

Not even a moment later the captain came up to the door, quickly scanning the quarters before addressing the bosun. "Adannia, were you singing?"

"Singing? I'm barely awake enough to talk." Adannia replied with a yawn.

"Then see a stranger in here?"

"Bloody 'Byss, the halfling's not crew?" Adannia's eyes opened with surprise for a moment before she felt a need to rub the tiredness out of them with one hand while gesturing to the small hole in the ship with the other, "She climbed out and up, through there."

"Great to hear, thanks!"

"Great to. . ." Before she could finish the thought, the captain was gone, "Blood 'byss, captain. Could at least leave someone to help clean up."




"What is this?" The first mate demanded, snapping from his groggy feeling as he took a look at the emptier-than-normal deck at dawn, "Where are the rest of the crew?"

"Below-deck, Mr. Tremaine, along with the captain!"

"What in the abyss is he up to?" Gregor barked, his duties to run to the ship out of battle so that the captain could continue lazing about as much as possible, yet that blonde tactician always seemed to be running about the ship and doing whatever he pleased like he had no worries in the world.

"Hunting a rat that came in through a porthole."

"Just great to a morning start." Gregor cursed before taking a deep breath before he began stomping his way across the deck, his voice becoming loud and proud, "Right then, finish up and head down, be sure to wake the crew as you do! Time with the sun that work begun, and all that! Hurry! Ardanian, you, too! Wake up, wake up!"

The ship groaned to life, carved tentacles stretching away from the hull as the animated wood finished recovering from its last bout with an Abnathean warship, merely slain but not destroyed, but fortunately no ships had chased the pirates after they had won the day and stolen away with some exotic weapons they could turn around in Taras for a modest price.




The crew was beginning to stir and Buddy knew that his first mate would not let them stay sleeping for much longer. That sort of crack-at-dawn mentality was exactly why Holly had Tremaine to do all of the menial commanding he wanted to avoid, that sort of dedication to success and management skill to succeed. With that, Buddy knew that their little trespasser would be forced to slow and hide, the problem with amateurishly waiting until the sun began to rise to rob a mark. With little option left and one way to go, she would find herself faced with a singular option, and that would be to hide before anybody realized she was not part of the crew, and Gregor Tremaine an eagle-eye for such things. The best place to hide would be on the first berth, a small room off to the side used for storage of some supplies.

Buddy ordered some of the skeleton crew that had followed him below-deck to quietly follow him, to keep their weapons sheathed and to pay close attention. He had her, he knew it, it was just a matter of narrowing down the options. It took mere moments for the captain to deduce where a halfling thief would hide, one of the barrels in that room had been running a bit low on taffy as of late and would be far from used for quite some time were the sea willing to spare them undue hardships or hard ships to battle.

Buddy leaned on the lid of the barrel, making sure it was set on tight as he eyed his small team with a coy smile, tapping quietly on its wooden outside so they knew to pick it up and deliver it straight to the brig. No need to spark a fight when they could just toss her behind bars made so tough as to hold down even a spell-slinging ogre.

Once to the brig, the barrel would be unceremoniously tossed within a cell, the gate quickly shut and locked behind it as Buddy leaned against the bars.

"More than a fig for the merchandise and riches on this ship, wee lass." Buddy mocked victoriously, "Care to hazard a guess as to what happens to intruders on a pirate's ship?"
Edited by Buddy, Tue Nov 15, 2016 9:02 am.
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Zinnia
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Bilge rats and their mothers! she cursed in her head. How had he found her so bloody quickly?

It didn’t matter. She had to get out of this barrel. If his brig was anything like her own, she’d be royally screwed once she reached it - and his ship was a lot larger than her own. Fortunately, the problem with most barrels is that older ones tended to develop slight gaps between some of the planks used to construct them. They were large enough to see much through, of course…but they wereenough to let air through - and she just happened to have her dice upon her. She rolled one of them upon her palm now - and quickly dropped it as she covered her ears.

Sure enough, moments later, an explosion blasted the barrel apart in all directions as a tremendous quantity of air was instantaneously released. She dropped to the ground, her hand-shielded ears nevertheless ringing, and the barrel clattered to the deck and rolled away. The top had handed somewhere down at the other end of the hall, while the bottom was completely shattered. Zinnia shook herself and rose, picked up her die, and dropped a small shake-starter she’d picked up from a fellow pirate a few weeks back. The shake-starter exploded, sending a shock of brilliant colours in every direction. The sparks weren’t enough to set anything ablaze, of course, but they’d create just enough of a distraction to roll out of the way.

She was soon standing well apart from the crew, her legs crossed, her arms folded, leaning against the wall. She'd stumbled over there with as much dignity as she could muster - which probably wasn't very much at all - and chewed the saltwater taffy lazily, eyeing the crew of the odd ship. Zinnia tried as best she could to ignore the slowly diminishing ringing in her rabbit-like ears and the sudden soreness all over her body from the pressure, which was making her a wee bit stiff and just shaky enough that a keen eye might notice the subtle tremble. She realized now why the ship had seemed so unusual to her: it was one of those haunted-type ships, the kind with a literal skeleton crew and a captain that probably had no small amount of arcane power at his disposal.

“Well, now,” she inquired in her usual odd accent, sea-tempered but still thick enough to require one’s attention in order to figure out exactly what she was saying, “is that a way ta treat a guest aboard yer dinghy?”

It was clear insult to the huge ship, of course, but the crew was probably more concerned with her presence aboard the ship than her words regarding it. Eyeing the captain in particular, she recognized him by description only. She couldn’t recall his name, but it likely wasn’t important. Wasn’t there a blonde guy known in that Imythessian port off Taras a few leagues? Yeah…guy with a haunted ship, it was said…well, whomever he was, time to take his measure.

“Gotta say, cap’n,” she said to him, “I thou’ ye’d be tall’r.”

OOC
Edited by Zinnia, Tue Nov 15, 2016 10:51 am.
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Buddy
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"CHUMMED WATERS!" Buddy shouted, jumping at the sudden explosion from within the barrel. Whatever that had been, the girl must have been out of her mind to set it off while she was still inside. The wood cracked and splintered from the sudden blast of air, the two skeleton crewmates that had been carrying it did indeed drop the barrel as they, themselves, jumped in response. The lid slammed against the ceiling, the bottom blew out spilling taffy over the floor, and the barrel spun on a couple of times before falling on its side and rolling down the hall.

A moment later the halfling girl within came stumbling out of the barrel with all of the grace of a sailor drunk at the break of dawn, no doubt a side-effect of being at ground zero for her faulty escape plan, before dropping a firework on the floor. The pirates present shielded their eyes, knowing what was coming, and for a split moment Buddy actually wondered how far the intruder would actually get with that distraction, but he was caught somewhere between annoyed and amused to see she had not made it very far. She tried to make a few comments to make herself seem cooler, but there was one distinct problem with her plans so far. . .

She had just woken a floor of sleeping pirates with those explosions.

Up and down the hall tired but lively pirates burst from their rooms, weapons already drawn at the sudden noise that had shook them from soft slumber, expecting that the ship would be under attack with that sort of ruckus.

"What in the bloody 'Byss was-- captain?!" One spouted, quickly laying eyes on a few of the skeleton crew around Buddy and the halfling, trying to figure out what was going on.

"This halfling's boarded my ship without permission and just blown apart one of our taffy barrels-- not to mention that rude awakening for the lot of you." Holly explained as the hall filled, cutting off the little woman's escape routes, "Seems she's got a penchant for explosives. Get her, make sure to grab her arms and legs so she can't play any more of these tricks-- bind them if you've got rope, and make sure to check her thoroughly for any more trinkets. After that, to the brig with her, then get to your day! I'm sure Mr. Tremaine's waiting for you blaggards to get some food and drink in your bellies then straight to work after, and for the love of the sea somebody clean up this mess!"

"Aye, Captain!" Came the resounding reply, an alert chorus of pirate voices with different accents all shrugging off the sleepy feel they had as those closest to the woman would hurry to fulfill their Captain's command, first reaching to restrain the halfling's arms.

"You want a proper welcome, lass? Then my men will show you to your room in the brig!" Buddy laughed, "No need to thank us for the hospitality. Skeleton crew, you're relieved for the day, do as you wish."

OOC
Edited by Buddy, Thu Nov 17, 2016 10:04 am.
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Zinnia
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By the time the captain was finished speaking, Zinnia was already standing as though ready for anything, a huge grin upon her face. She shook off the immediate effects of her explosive escape and then snapped her fingers as the men leapt into action. A pair of stoats suddenly burst from within her vest as she rolled out of the way, clawing and biting at the grasping hands. They weaseled their way out of any swift grips and darted to the floor to pull at pants and nip at heels. Zinnia dropped another firework before she was even upon her feet again, however: a tiny crate that exploded as soon as it hit the deck. Tiny projectiles flew in every direction, exploding in brilliant colours and scorching whatever they touched, though against a hardened sea-crew, the explosions were likely little more than painful annoyances that would slow them down.

She ran and rolled, ducked and slid, dodged and weaved…and it was the stoats that had come with her that gave her an advantage. The crew before her seemed as acrobatic as she was, but with her miniature crew members adding to the ruckus and her own fireworks creating colourful and noisy distractions, she was able to get top-side in no time at all. Then her stoats rejoined her, but she found it difficult to whistle until she realized that she still had the taffy in her mouth. Turning and spitting it at the eye of the nearest sailor, she gave a shrill whistle and dashed off.

The messages that came to her were not at all helpful, for even as they popped up in her mind, the instructions became obsolete. But at least Black-Beak was doing its part, flying high above the range of any weaponry and relaying what it saw upon the deck. Zinnia did get a sense that most of the crew was not topside until she was, though that was only marginally helpful. It was only with her stoats that she was managing to avoid the crew entirely, until at last she found herself upon the rigging of the ship, still grinning gleefully. She slipped a treat apiece to Edmond and Edward in turn before facing the captain of the ship from where she hung, dangling upside-down by her ankles.

“I d’thank y’fer th’adventur’, cap’n!” she cried out, taunting his crew with odd facial expressions. “I’s bored!”

OOC
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More fireworks, more tricks, more unpleasantness. The crew flinched as the fireworks screamed and burned at them, and the two obnoxious weasels-- too bad Zangetsu was asleep back in the Captain's Quarters or else he'd be perfect for handling them-- were weaving their way through the bodies of the men and women of the Sacred Heart crew, doing little things here and there to distract them while avoiding capture.

Buddy was clearly not chasing after her through the halls of the ship, but based on where it seemed she was running, he saw no reason to run after her through such limiting corridors. She was heading for the deck, and there were plenty of ways for him to get up there and cut her off. The blonde pirate sprinted the opposite direction from her, taking one of the alternate routes to reaching the ship's top layer, but before he could reach or stop the halfling she was already climbing up his rigging, staying out of reach and mocking the crew that followed her out.

Yet it was up above that something caught the captain's eye, what looked to be a stranger blackbird flying in the sky. It seemed that she had come equipped with her own group of helpers, and he was sure that it was no simple bird staying that high up and out of the way. It must have been her eyes in the sky, staying just out of reasonable reach of most missiles. Flanking attacks with such a pest would be pointless to attempt above the ship's deck.

"Get below deck!" Buddy hollered to his crew, "I'm already tired of playing this game!"

The crew would only hesitate for a moment to question the order before realizing their captain's simple plan and backtracking below deck. In the sky above dark clouds began to form for a mile out, and on the deck Buddy stood alone, staring up at the little intruder dangling from his rigging from beneath the rim of his hat. Now all he needed to do was wait, and the pest would finally be dealt with. The ship and his clothing could withstand the effects of what was about to come, but he doubted that either her or her pets would fare so well.

Ardanian, don't let her leave. He communicated telepathically with the figurehead of the ship.

When at last the clouds had finished forming, it would begin to rain. Yet this rain was no simple bit of dirty water falling to the Moonsea, but drops of acid to corrode things from the top down. That pesky bird would not be able to simply avoid it, the trespasser would not be able to play with it, and if she tried to swim to escape then the tentacles on the outer hull of the Haunted Ardanian would just grab her and throw her back to the ship. She clearly did not understand the ship she had invaded or its Captain, else she might have stayed below deck to avoid his corrosive wrath.
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Zinnia
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When she heard the storm brewing, she looked up - and immediately issued a shrill, four-not whistle. By the time it was done, she was already flipping over to land on her feet on one of the ropes just below her. The raven wheeled about and dove, quickly disappearing into the water some distance off. Little did the captain of this ship know that she had a ship of her own nearby - that's how she had come to be here in the first place, after all. But by the time it hit the water, Zinnia was already casting a spell of her own that would hopefully dilute the captain’s spell. Her words were lost upon the wind, but their effect was nigh instantaneous: heavy droplets of water began falling, slowly at first but picking up speed, until the sky was completely filled with the downpour. Zinnia pulled her hood up while she was casting this spell, her casting arm looped through the rigging for easy movement without letting her fall, and it was with her free hand that she was raising her hood. She caught a few burning droplets upon her ears, wincing, but most of it was now falling upon her hood.

Now she turned back down toward the captain. He might be able to handle the monsoon, but so could she, and his acid would be diluted with so much other water falling so quickly and so heavily. She smirked through the storm, still clinging to the rigging, and continued making faces at the captain. She’d hoped for a few baubles and a quickly look at this ship to determine whether it was even worth pirating, and she still wasn’t sure whether it actually was or not. But at least she was having an adventure! As for her stoats, they were inside her clothing once more, safe from the acid in mere moments, as well as from the sudden deluge.

OOC
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Buddy
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Clever and quick use with counteracting magic, it was not quite enough to completely dilute the acidic effect of the rain that the Corrosive Captain had summoned, but it did reduce it enough that it would take a while to get through even untreated cloth. For that, the only solution left was to keep her aboard the ship, which the ship itself would be able to handle, and in the meantime Holly could exercise his superior knowledge of his own vessel to outmaneuver her. Below-deck was an entire crew of ready, able, and groggily awake pirates who she would not be able to escape a second time. She could make all the faces that she wanted, but she was trapped, whether she wanted to acknowledge it or not.

"Can you hear me, wee one?!" The Captain hollered through the rain, the wind, and the reacting waters below, "Must have slipped your mind, you don't know who I am! I'm Captain Holly, and this is the Haunted Ardanian! You might not realize it, but you're trapped, lass! Not long are you going to be able to make those faces, because that hood won't last long, even if you've diluted my infamous rain!"

As he hollered at her, he climbed up his own rigging with ease, completely unaffected by the conditions, not even appearing shaken by the circumstances as he had a winning grin plastered on his face, "'Course, you and your critters can get through this alright, you've just gotta go calmly to the brig. I suspect you've some means under normal conditions to get off a boat, but there's nothing normal about trespassing on the Corrosive Captain's ship!"

The Captain was keeping lower than his trespasser on the rigging, ready to intercept her if she tried going down but trying to herd her up to the crow's nest high above.

"So what do you say, lass? I've no problem with you doing this the hard way, just gets me a bit of morning exercise, but I'd much rather the easy way! Bit lazy, y'know?" Holly offered her straight and simply, dangling carefree from his rigging as he stopped to examine where she was moving, to plan around it before moving again.
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Zinnia
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Zinnia stuck out her tongue at the captain and did indeed climb up to the crow’s nest. But she wasn’t done. She knelt and rolled a die, and ice exploded out in all directions as she grinned. The ropes beneath the crow’s nest began to freeze as shards of ice were expelled from the die, along with a sudden gust of frigid wind. The ropes beneath it were caught up in it as well, although light stamp with her foot allowed her to send the die flying back into her hand and shattered the ice below her - sending whomever happened to be on those ropes at the time flying down with them.

Pocketing the die, she watched the result.
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Buddy
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She was herded pretty easily into the crow's nest, a high dive to provide the ship plenty of time to catch her if she tried jumping from up there, and not a lot of room to maneuver if she tried to slip by the Captain going down. Buddy was near the nest when ice cracked like lightning from up above, sending freezing effect to crackle through the wet ropes and on the surface of the mast. It must have been that dice again, and she was rigging it! He was going to have to take that and toss it overboard out of sheer spite for the thing. She was trying to use the icy effect to send him falling to the ground, to shatter the poor ropes that were just barely treated to survive the acid.

"Right, we're definitely going with the hard way!" Holly called up as he leapt from the rigging to the sail, which was fortunately far more resilient for the purposes of the Haunted Ardanian. He was so close to the top that the loss of rigging was more of a nuisance that it was a true hindrance, "Ah, just know lass! The more damage you cause to my ship, the worse it's going to be for you when you're inevitably caught!"

It took him little time to reach the top of the mast, and as he found his footing on the slick lumber with preternatural ease, he drew Seasin from its scabbard and began to approach the crow's nest. "Right then, jump. See what happens. Either that or give be that damned thing you've been using to explosive effect on my ship. A dice, I bet? I've heard tale of 'em. Not a rogue who ain't, I'd imagine."

Were she to remain in the Crow's nest, he would capture her with one of Seasin's slimes, a non-corrosive one for the purpose of capture. If she were to actually dive from that high up, the rigging now gone, then the Haunted Ardanian's enchanted tentacles would capture her and unlike the sleepy pirates or the rigging the tentacles would not be as easily distracted or harmed by her trickery.
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Zinnia
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Zinnia grinned again. So he thought he had her, did he? She dug around in her pockets for a few moments before a look of triumph dawned upon her face, and she snickered as she slipped something into the folds of her attire. There was movement therein, and then…a moment later, something shot out with blinding speed. The little stoat inside her clothing latched onto the frozen ropes with his teeth, gnawed through them in no time at all - and Zinnia held on for dear life as a couple of the ropes broke free. She cried out in jubilation as the exhilaration overtook her, swinging across the ship from one end to the other like a monkey on a vine. The stoat had leapt onto her just in time, and he crawled back inside her garb well before Zinnia let go of the rope.

She landed a bit hard but rolled and was stopped by the side of the ship. There, laughing, she rose quickly to her feet and moved to the door leading to the lower decks. She cast her spell at once, water seeming to emerge from between the planks themselves - and it kept rising. Then, with a couple of quick instructions, her stoats began to gather nearby the severed rope with which to tie the door shut. Finally, she turned to the captain of the ship.

“Oh, cap’n, m’cap’n!” she shouted with a grin. “Ye’ve a choice: chase me’r free yer men a’fore they drown!”

As she spoke, the stoats ran about the ship very quickly so as to tie up any other doors leading below as well. Then they returned to her and became hidden in her clothing once more.

“Now!” she continued. “I’m guessin’ yer ship’s no’ a normal’n. Jus’ don’ seem like it. Got a mighty funny mas’head on ‘er, which makes m’think maybe ye’ve magic in ‘er, am-I-righ’? In which case, it’ll prob’ly try’n stop m’from leavin’. Wellllll….’a’s a real shame fer ye, ‘en, i’n’t?”

And with that, she chuckled and set off the last firework she had on her: a small rocket that flew into the sky and exploded in many brilliant colours that seemed to ignore the heavy rain entirely as they burned. She then climbed up onto the edge of the ship and looked out just as fog slowly started to roll in - fog that was getting thicker by the second…

OOC
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Buddy
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She descended in the sort of recklessly flamboyant manner of which she had been holding constant so far, and one down on the deck she flooded the lower ones and had them sealed. She issued an ultimatum as Buddy followed her downward, his mind aghast at what had just occurred, his head swimming from such a thing happening upon his ship, and for all intents and purposes it seemed as if though this rude intrusion was just about finished. He barely even registered that wasted firework that climbed into the air.

The halfling woman had just made what would ultimately be her final series of mistakes aboard the wrong vessel.

"Ye've really not got the foggiest what ship ye're playin' at, do ye?" Buddy mocked at the unnatural fog, sheathing Seasin without a care left in the world. Without any natural occurrence to bring it about on the Moonsea, without the utterance of an incantation or the time to call it about quietly, there was only one option left that Captain Holly could see as being the reasonable reason for why the fog was suddenly coming about.

A Fogbank Device. All truth, Buddy had once considered such a device when he believed that the Gribbles would be the greatest ship he could ever sail upon, but with the Haunted Ardanian and a bit of magic studied came a whole new host of options for the blonde pirate to consider strategically and just why such a device was more gimmicky to him than it would be useful.

It was not but a moment after he mocked her that a grated hatch in the floor crashed open at the force of muscular green arm, and out with a flurry of orcish profanities did emerge the ship's siege master, Crodo, "No damn rain or pissant waves but I've got water under the [removed]in' doors in my deck! The bloody 'byss is wrong with this cursed waste of-- Captain?"

"Crodo, follow the tentacles with the ropes!" Buddy ordered to the orc without ever breaking his focus off of the intruder.

"Right away, captain!" The orc answered quickly before disappearing below deck once again, leaving Buddy alone with the intruder and her pets.




The sudden massive mess of water had surely taken the Sacred Heart pirates off-guard in such the early hours of the morning, but for them and their days at sea it was little more than a splash to wake them up from their haze of dawn. Gregor did not even need to issue an order for the crew to know how to handle this flooded mess of a situation, for flooding in the decks was all too common for life within this ship.

"What's even the bloody point on a ship this big?" The First Mate spat as the water drained away to the lower levels of the haunted vessel, a few angry hits at the clearly sealed doors. He drew the cutlass from his side and readied to force the blade between the door and its frame and simply cut the rope, but stopped short of meeting the tip to the woodwork when he heard the telltale shouting of an orc whose slumber had been disturbed, "'Bloody 'Byss. Morning crew, tend to breakfast later, for now report to Crodo before he fires you at the next Naval ship!"

Crodo did not even have time to get the proper door to the deck open before crew were piling in and readying their weapons, almost-- but not quite-- enough to elicit an approving nod from the orc. Things were too chaotic for so early in the morning and he simply commanded to them, "Get the grapplers ready!"




"Right then, I'll give ye a single, final chance. If not, then maybe yer crew out there'll prove privvier to the sea than you." Buddy laughed as he waved two fingers forward, gesturing past the halfling. At his silent command, two of the tentacles carved into the side of the Haunted Ardanian pried themselves away from the hull, a haunting sound of groaning lumber piercing the heavy and slightly acidic rainfall,outstretching and proving out above the water and into the fog until they found the ship hiding out there. Shortly after their groaning stopped, the sound of two ballistae firing would take its place, trailed by the whipping of cords, ended by impacting noises and those cords going taught, "Ye're on the Haunted Ardanian, and I am its captain, the Corrossive Captain, Buddy Holly. I won't bore ye with the accounts of what's made me bounty one of the highest on the Moonsea, but they're not unearned. If ye care for yer ship or yer crew, surrender yerself to me brig, otherwise. . ."

Once that ship hidden outside was under capture, he would gesture his fingers down. Truly it was just his own bit of showmanship, purely for the benefit of his audience since the ship was connected to his mind psychically and would follow his orders even without such trivial things. The ship would begin its descend, not to threaten the halfling herself, but to begin dragging her ship closer and then down into the water. The Haunted Ardanian could survive beneath the waves, and even allow its crew to survive with it, but any ships it captured may as well have been sinking beneath the waves.

"Cords too tough to simply cut before they sink, and ye're way out of yer league, wee lass!" Buddy laughed, "Had me crew been awake, ye'd not've made it this far, but I'll commend ye for what ye've accomplished. Quite the morn's exercise!"

Checkmate
Edited by Buddy, Tue Jan 3, 2017 10:08 am.
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Zinnia
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”Too dangerous, sir,” called the scout.

Indeed, it seemed that those tentacles were not something they could contend with. Their captain was on her own.

”Pull back!” called the first mate, and the Waterlogged Weasel did precisely that. The ship was just getting out of range when a massive wall of water hit the stern, however, and they were nearly capsized. ”WHAT IN THE NAME OF---?!”

“UNHOLY MOTHER OF---!”


Every other noise from the throats of the crew was a cry, scream, or shout of dismay and terror as a horror arose from the deep…
Hunger.

It wasn’t so much a thought as it was a feeling, one emphasized by a deep rumbling from within. Its massive yellow eyes were dulled by the dark undersea ripples, casting distorted shadows across it. But above the cold and desolate waves of blue and black, a splash of colour arose: land-borns. It let loose a jet of ink that blackened what was already dark beneath it, the expulsion propelling its gargantuan body upward at an increasingly alarming pace - alarming for the land-borns, of course, not for itself. The splash of colour drew nearer…and another forceful release of ink propelled it across the final distance toward its breakfast. It reached up with twenty arms thrice as thick as a mast, reaching…
Zinnia grinned, laughter dancing in her eyes. He thought he’d won? HA! He hadn’t seen anything yet. So amused by her own cleverness was she as she reached into a pocket for yet another trick that she did not notice the water churning more and more violently. Something long, slimy, and prehensile slid silently out of the water, hiding among the wooden tendrils. Then something else slid out as well…and another…and another…each new actual tentacle bearing several rows of huge suckers, some of which affixed themselves to the shifting wood and some of which affixed themselves to the wood that did not shift.

And then all Abyss broke loose as whatever it was drew everyone’s attention. The sea seemed to explode, a spout rising higher than the ship only momentarily concealing its source: the bulbous head of a creature drawn straight out of Chaonic legend, the ship’s iconic mascot having come to life so forcefully and so quickly that Zinnia jumped in shock - and then promptly lost her balance. She struggled to maintain it, but she was only just starting to flail when a tentacle shot out of the water and wrapped itself around her. She was trapped in place, unable to remove her hands from her pockets, her strength nothing compared to that of the colossal monstrosity as it tightened its grip upon her frail body. She was lifted into the air, getting a bit of a head-rush as she rose nearly a hundred feet in less than two seconds. But whatever air she had in her lungs was quickly turning foul with no means of escape, and no new air could be drawn in. She could feel her body compressing, her muscles and bones being pressed together…

…and above it all was the tremendous thunder of a roar that drowned out all other sound.

Temporarily deaf, unable to move or breathe, Zinnia could only pray to the sea as she felt multiple bones shatter simultaneously. Her vision was growing blurry, all the colours running together as the details faded. Her head, for lack of a better term, was swimming. All she knew was pain. And then, as the tentacles moved to envelop the Haunted Ardanian, the rabbit-eared halfling knew no more…
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Buddy
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Buddy had his eyes set on the damn little woman who reality just seemed to ignore, like some unrealistic existence of a hyper perfection that could accomplish anything she wanted and spat in the face of logic. She blew herself up with nary a trouble. She and her weasels managed to slip by a gang of incredible pirates in a crowded hall. She danced around one of the ship of one of Taras's most infamous and legendary pirates like she had any idea where she was going at any time, but still managed to find ways to escape. No more. She was trapped now, and her ship and crew were unavoidably done for if there was no compliance. There was no way left to escape, no realistic way, no bloody chance that she was going to defy odds, no matter what stupid tricks or toys she had left.

It took perhaps longer than it should have to discern from all of the shouting, the rain, and the chaos. At first he thought the tentacles may have simply been from his own ship, even most kraken not being fool enough to try attacking a ship larger than their tentacles could grab. Then the ship rocked hard, moved violently as the cables from the grappling ballistae were pulled taught and snapped from the extreme stress on them. The tentacles of the Haunted Ardanian lost their grip on the smaller ship, and recoiled at the sudden new arrival. A beast emerged, revealing itself, a whale of a squid beast. It caught Buddy's blue eyes, which widened in surprise and a bit of well-suited terror, but he managed to call out about the noise and the chaos, far too late for the warning to be a help to the halfling, "DIRE KRAKEN!"

There was no time or room to question what was going on. His words carried through the decks below, registering faintly but clearly with the context of what they could see through the portholes and the weapon ports. They recovered as quickly as they could and reloaded the ship's weapons and fired as quickly as they could at the massive target, for all the good that could do. The ship, itself, with its own tentacles, joined in the fray, wooden tentacles reaching out to grab at the monster. Buddy on the deck of the ship fought mostly to keep from sharing in the fate of that damned pest that had been running amok on his vessel, but also to cut his ship free from the grasp of yet another problem plaguing his craft.




"WHAT THE BLOODY ABYSS WAS ALL OF THIS?!" Buddy shouted in the aftermath as the magical clouds cleared the sky, leaving it a bright blue with a burning sun that hung in the sky like nothing was wrong. A tentacle, torn from the body, was draped across the impressive width of the Haunted Ardanian. Blood was splattered across the deck, being swabbed up by deckhands as well as they could. Several of the ship's own tentacles had been destroyed in the battle, but by the mercy of the sea, that normally cruel mistress, not a single Sacred Heart was lost. Buddy had to address at least the management of his crew, to try and find some stability, but all he had were problems with everything that happened. "Some stupid little tart runnin' 'bout on board MY SHIP with the luck of the bloody sea-- no, the bloody GODS, makin' her do and accomplish impossible things along with her two stupid little rabid rats! So damn unrealistic and annoying that I'm half convinced this has been some very BAD DREAM! Stupid enough to actually think half of her plans would actually work, lucky enough that half of them somehow did, AND WITH AN EGO THE SIZE OF THAT DAMN DIRE KRAKEN-- THAT SHOWS UP OUT OF NOWHERE AND-- AND WHAT? IT EATS HER?! TAKES HER? WHAT WAS THAT?! This bloody headache-- the-- the defying of impossible odds, AND A DAMN SQUID COMES OUT OF THE DEEP AND JUST GANKS HER?!

Buddy let out a primal scream, the frustration just too much to handle as he slumped against the tentacle of the dire kraken. It had escaped, retreating when it realized that its supposed prey was too much to be worth the effort. Not nearly as ornery as old Scath was, but still pesky in its own right. Maybe it could go and find a whale to make its breakfast, but at least it was gone.

In the chaos, the Sacred Heart crew lost any track of the other ship that had been out there. No clue of what its name was, who its crew was, or even fully what the deal was with the halfling, but they came to a consensus that it was just not worth bothering to go after some half-wits like those. If they were found bragging, then the crew could gut them appropriately, but that seemed unlikely.

"This makes my head hurt." Buddy muttered dejectedly, removing his hat and rubbing the tips of his fingers against his temples, "Bad morning. . . Bad, bad morning. Alright. . . We'll just try and put this behind us. See what meals can be made from this tentacle, and sail on. Let's head back to the Cove and we'll get the ship nice and spiffy. New tentacles, repair the damages, all that good stuff."

"Aye, captain!" His following in command said without missing a beat, seeing the unusually worn-down look on their captain in the wake of all that had happened. Right now, he just needed them to their jobs to the best of their abilities, and they knew it. No sense in worrying about questions for the time being.

"Right. . ." Buddy sighed, and simply sat on the deck for a moment, letting his arms rest on his legs, "Right, I'm going back to sleep. Start this day again. Maybe it'll be better the second time around."
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