The Sea of Starry Night II [IC]

[The_King_of_Durf]

Darius

"I'm still waiting for you to answer my question, orc."

[bhdrake]

Lumpy

The orc's voice is contemptuous, "I don't owe ya an answer ta anything, coward. I got all the reason I need without sharing it with ya. If yer too busy indulging yerself in yer tragic past ta find one'a yer own? I'll buy ya a nice shiny dagger when we get ta Telflamm."

Lumpy's nostrils flare beneath his shattered nose, " 'Til then, lily-liver? Plenty'a us are perfectly fine with living, so don't screw it up."

[The_King_of_Durf]

Darius

"You think I'm being self-indulgent? Who was the little man who lost their precious Shredder or whatever the hell you named that flail, and wouldn't take another weapon because you had to use mine?

Did I once say that I would hold back from fighting, or hold back anything for that matter? There's nothing that gives you even half the right to call me a coward.

If you think I'm not game for a fight, then try me."

A little manic gleam flashes past Darius' eyes as he smiles.

I told you...

[Elmorwen]

Sheyra

"Everyone just shut up. We're too close to getting out of here to start killing each other now," Sheyra says, looking very annoyed.

[Erikkin]

Fizahn:

"Yeah, she's right, you should stop bickering." Fizahn looks at the people arguing clearly confused as to how it started. Giving up, he draws a long breath and looks at Callos. "Sethra is a millenia old evil necromancer. He was best friends with Sarloc, a fellow mage, but snapped and vowed to hunt down Sarloc and all his descendants after Sarloc married the girl he liked. Sethra killed Sarloc's wife, but Sarloc hunted him down and confronted him in the crypt of some snake creature that Sethra was using as a base. Sarlock and his companions ensued in a great battle against Sethra. Once they finally defeated Sethra's body, only Sarloc remained. Sethra's mind fled into a fire opal and he proceeded to try and take over Sarloc. Sarloc realized what was happening and killed himself. Somehow, the crypt was sealed and remained undisturbed for hundreds of years, until a group of foolish adventurers decided to explore it for profit. Sethra possessed the ranger Graevic and fled, leaving the group baffled. He decided to resume his hunt for Sarloc's heirs. The group remained utterly confused until an ingenious gnome found the ranger's badger animal companion and spoke with it. The extraordinary gnome was able to determine the starting points of their search. Later, they found Graevic unpossessed and a map to some keep. They followed the directions on the map and fought their way through the keep. In a room on the lower levels, they fought and destroyed a great demon but the keep started collapsing, so they had to flee through a portal." Fizahn pauses and repeats any parts he is asked to until everyone understands who Sethra is. If asked about any part that includes him, he throws in some more good adjectives.

[The_King_of_Durf]

Darius

As Sheyra and Fizhan begin to try and calm him and Lumpy down he grins, twirling his sword in a little circle through the air, and turns to listen.

[bhdrake]

Lumpy

Lumpy seems perfectly content to ignore the other's attempt to break up the argument, "Oh, good one, pointing that out. everyone's got a rough patch, but if ya ain't noticed, I'm here now, and ya got yer sword back. I've already moved on, and found a new, perfectly valid reason fer it."

He snorts belligerently, "Ya wanna fight? Fine, if ya think ya've got the courage ta cut down an orc with no weapons, come with it then. But make no mistake, ain't many on this boat who'll think higher of ya fer it, and least of all me, coward."

[Muzzleflash]

Djital

Sagging his head, he covers his forehead with a hand. "Good god, enough! Darius, he's right. Most people in this boat have put a great deal of effort into staying alive, and talking about how you plan on killing yourself is a sure way to tick them off. It comes off very badly. Personally, I think you need to look a little harder at your situation and what your brother would want you to do. Take me, now. Here I am, practically naked, nearly unarmed, down in the dark with no idea when it is or where we are. This isn't fun for me, y'know? But I'm gonna get out of this hole, alive, and so can you. That's my purpose- living to see another day. How many people can claim the story we will have, traversing the underdark and the sunless seas? Ordinary men, petty men, or men who genuinely don't have a purpose, they don't pull things like that off, and I think when you're out, you'll see yourself differently."

He looks over at the half orc and shrugs.
"Lumpy, don't keep going with him. We all have to listen to it and it'll make everyone crazy. He'll get better as time goes- no use forcing him through it. Deny that part of him that wants a fight the option, and it'll wither away."

[The_King_of_Durf]

Lumpy

"You won't be thinking anything when I'm through with you... dead men don't think." he says, continuing to twirl his sword with a grin.

Heheheh...

[Muzzleflash]

Djital

"Hey, ferryman. I'll trade you these fine pants in exchange for you giving this guy a mind-wedgie."

[bhdrake]

Lumpy

Lumpy bares his fangs in an amused smirk, just watching Darius as if urging for him to get on with it. Regardless, after a short while he returns to his silent sigil of the others and the sea around them, well aware he's the only one left who can see in the dark.

[The_King_of_Durf]

Darius

Darius chuckles. He too is waiting for Lumpy to make the first move, but it appears that neither the archer or the half-orc will yet.

He sits back to watch the waves, waiting patiently.

[Erikkin]

Fizahn:

Fizahn looks at Lumpy and Darius angrily when he is interrupted. Reaching into his pack, he pulls out a gold coin and starts flipping it. "I suppose you don't really want to hear about Sethra then. I guess you can ask Linda about it if you want to. I'll only say one more thing, then you all can just ignore the gnome if you want to." Fizahn looks at Darius and tosses his coin to him. "There are two purposes in life, Darius. The first is to be used by a god in the cosmic war where they're all jockeying for power over their rivals and using clueless individuals to advance their power over the other gods. Examples: Lissa, Trinark, any paladin or cleric. The other purpose is to gather enough of those-" Fizahn motions to the gold coin that he tossed Darius. "- and use them to change the world in your favor and immortalize yourself in lore. Very few nobles and kings do this, they love their money too much to get rid of it, but the one's that do invest time in changing things are remembered forever! People with no purpose are forgotten practically before they die, so I suggest you choose one of those." Having said his piece, Fizahn goes and lies down as far away from the argument as possible, while staying a greater distance away from the ferryman.

[The_King_of_Durf]

Darius

Darius, catches the coin with a grin and flips it over in his hand.

"Eh, Sethra can go get eaten by a kobold for all I care... and that's a nice way of looking at things."

Darius sighs contently and rests hid head against a boat wall.

[Elmorwen]

Sheyra

Sheyra groans at the bickering adventurers again. "The first one who starts fighting here is getting a fist in their face," she says, "And yes, I know it's sort of funny using violence to deter violence."

[King_of_GRiffins]

Elthan II

How long is it that I've been with these people? Three, four days? I think five if I count the first day. Five days of my life... All five. They have years behind to reflect upon, and all I have is five days with loonies who keep reflecting on thier past.

"*Sigh*"

What are those guys arguing about now?

[The_King_of_Durf]

Darius

"Funny, Sheyra? That's simply life."

[Dr._Bob]

The illithid ignores the squabbling, and eventually the party falls into a sullen silence.

For many hours, the ferry moves quietly through the water, keeping the cliffs off to starboard.

A faint light appears in the distance. The longboat makes a small course adjustment and heads toward the light source. After another half hour, it becomes clear that the ferry is approaching another dock. A purplish glow emanates from a lantern dangling from a weathered post.

Six silhouetted figures rise to their feet as the ferry approaches. One figure remains crouched on the stone dock. A glint of light reflects off of a chain leading from the crouching figure's neck to the hand of one of the standing figures.

[The_King_of_Durf]

Darius

"I'm hopin we're here and this isn't some sort of pit stop. I'm also hoping that thing on the chain is a dog... but I'm assuming I'm wrong in both aspects..."

[Dr._Bob]

As the longboat nears the dock, it becomes obvious that the standing humanoids are drow warriors. The crouching, chained figure appears to be a human or half-elf.

As the boat glides closer, the illithid moves toward the bow and tosses a rope toward the waiting drow ...

Two of the warriors catch it and begin pulling. All six of the warriors are clad in glistening, black chainmail and pointed helms, with stylized spider detailing. Their rapiers are sheathed, and their crossbows are slung over their backs, but their light gray and purple eyes are hard, and several of the drow bear scars marking them as veteran soldiers.

The crouching humanoid is female. Filthy, matted hair obscures her face, and she is dressed in little more than rags. Her bare feet are cut and bleeding, and she shivers convulsively. One of the drow tugs on the chain attached to a collar around her neck, pulling her to her feet.

[Muzzleflash]

Djital

Shrinking back into the concealing shadows of the longboat, he observes the Drow warriors on the dock and abandons any hope of using the darkness for cover, his darker eye shining in the gloom with a distinctly predatory glint. "Oh yes. I even have a clever post-kill witticism thought up," he whispers to the others near him.

[The_King_of_Durf]

Darius

"I'm not sure that guy..."

Darius points to the mind flayer.

"Will be too happy with your post-kill witticism, or even your kill for that matter Djital. I think fighting on this boat probably won't happen....

If it does, this is gonna be one helluva fight, if it doesn't... well this is gonna be one helluva awkward trip."

"I'm gonna need my bow back. he whispers with a sigh.

Darius smartly swivels around in his seat to look at the drow. "Well howdy fellas! You speaky Common? Yes? No?"

Darius points to himself "Me Darius!

[Muzzleflash]

Djital

He tilts his head over to Darius, whispering very quietly. "Nah nah nah.. probably not on his boat. That'd be rude." With a conspiratorial nod, he sits up and addresses the first Drow soldier to board with undercommon and a smile, halting the pronunciation just enough that they won't be able to tell if any mis-used words were deliberate or the result of unfamiliarity with the language.

"Pleasure to eat you."

[Zeal]

Hajih, Human Ranger

Turning to the group, Hajih addresses the passengers in a low voice "Someone mentioned drow warriors? Looks like something was listening, we can free that slave and get our stuff back from the..." he pauses to spit on the ground "...Mind Flayer."

[Erikkin]

Fizahn:

"If the mind flayer has any business sense, he'll kick us off the boat and let us kill the drow. If we give him all six of their brains, he might give us our stuff back. I'm sure he'd prefer the six drow brains to the one brain they're going to give him from their slave. He might even loan Darius back his bow if he thinks it will get him more brains. He doesn't care about the drow or us. He just cares about getting brains and he'd get more if we killed the drow." Fizahn whispers this to the rest of his group while looking suspiciously at the mind flayer. His hand goes to his dagger as the boat nears the dock.

[Callos_DeTerran]

Callos

"Drow? Why drow? Why can't it be something completely utterly harmless like bunnies or a sparrow? Stinkin drow."

The necromancer mumbled this to himself even as he stood and brushed the dirt off of his purple robes and shuffled to where Djital and Darius were standing at the side of the boat. Oh, no. They wouldn't really taunt the dark elves would they? I mean I intend on at least trying to rescue the woman but would rather get the first strike in.

"'ello my good drow!"

[Dr._Bob]

The mind flayer's thoughts enter your minds like a stone breaking a pane of glass. There will be NO fighting among my passengers! The ferry and the docks are neutral ground.

The illithid replies to Fizahn specifically. If all I wanted were brains, yours and your companions would have been forfeited the moment we met. I am a businessman, the ferry is my business, and I have a reputation to maintain. So once again let me be clear: there will be NO fighting.

[hr]
The drow soldiers ignore your taunts and greetings. Wordlessly, they board the longboat, taking seats on the other side of the mast from you. One hands the chained captive over to the mind flayer, whose tentacles twitch with anticipated pleasure.

As the woman realizes what is about to happen, she moans with fear and her knees buckle. She collapses onto the deck sobbing, "Please! No! Please, not like this! Anything but this!"

She turns her face towards your party. She has startlingly blue eyes and would probably have been considered pretty except that fear has twisted her features into a mask of horror. "Please help me! Please help me!"

[Muzzleflash]

Djital

Speaking to no one in particular, "Of course not on or around the boat. That would break the contract that keeps varied groups of people from killing each other or fearing harm from the ferryman. I respect that, and naturally, we can use this as an exercise to control our baser natures, and refrain from violence while in the company of fellow sentient, law-respecting, edible beings."

He sighs, and turns toward the party, noticeably agitated by the cries of the captive."Are we going to buy her or what? These pants will probably do it, because they are the most valuable object to the party. If you don't believe me, think about how much you'd rather that I kept them on."

[Erikkin]

Fizahn:

Fizahn listens to Djital and his eyes widen in horror. "NONONO! The drow are very intent on sacrificing her! And I'm sure the mind flayer would rather not get cheated out of a fresh disgusting brain!" And I might have to break the mind flayer's rule if you took them off!

[The_King_of_Durf]

Darius

"Ya know, rescuing her might be a pretty good idea... I bet she'd look pretty good if we just cleaned her up a little."

Darius lets out something thats sounds like a half-chuckle, half-sigh and leans back to watch the show.

"Sorry ma'am, but that'd be putting my own ass on the line... This is gonna be nasty."