Seaside 3: A load of carp

[Shadowcaller]

Above the Rocks

Faithel nearly tears off her armor and clothes to get into the water. "Sweet light, now I'm truuly blessed..." She remarks as she closes her eyes and sink down into the water, trying to find a good position against the rock. "Now I will never move again. you'll have to fight me to take me out of this pool." She remarks before submerging completely underneath the water.

She comes up a few seconds later, her long blond hair completely drenched and hanging down her face. "Looks like I need a haircut too." She remarks as she pushes it out of her face. "But first, I need to chase down some traitors... eventually. It is on my to-do list."

[Deathkeeper]

Continuity Cruise Lines

Ben hurries out of the room and to where the stairs should be so he can get back to the outside of the ship and around the force-field.
The crab-illusion seemingly dodges all of the pokemon's blows, but a skilled eye might eventually realize that it's simply moving around to simulate dodging, and isn't taking damage because well, it's an illusion.

[Slii Arhem]

Fel follows Adir's gaze and sees the ladies passing out the balloons.

Well, even if it wasn't them, they are passing them out, and as such shouldn't be surprised if they get hit with any......

At which point Fel will lob a balloon in their direction.

[Beachside Party]

Adir gives a positively evil grin. He takes aim and hurls one after Felandria's.

Misha, being the most forward of the balloon girls, will likely be pelted with a pair! Adir filled his up near to bursting, too.

Beachside Party

((Many apologies for not seeing this sooner! Can't believe I didn't notice these posts.))

The balloons let fly at Misha slow to a crawl in mid-air as they get closer and closer, time seeming to slow down... no, it's just them. About five feet from her, they just sort of hover in mid-air as Misha looks up and spies the likely pair who threw them. With a catty grin, she flicks a finger at the pair of balloons and they pop instantly, the water in them soaking the ground from the explosive strain they were put under. An admonishing finger-wag later and the nereid goes back to handing out packets of balloons to any and all, proving ably that she's not above outright cheating to keep herself high and dry.

Those who might recognize her as the person who ended the last beachside party with a miniature tsunami might realize how fruitless a watery assault will be.

[Reinholdt]

Beach Party

If Zhareen isn't supposed to tell him then she probably shouldn't... oh nevermind. She did anyways. "What's special about the staff?" It was probably magic, but maybe it was just an heirloom.

Reinholdt shoots Anchor the briefest of glares he thinks he can get away with in a social situation. "Me?" Get involved with a fortune? That sounds like a terrible, awful, horrendous idea. But they're all looking at him now, clearly expecting him to participate in the festivities or he'll derail everyone's good mood. The whole thing was a trap he walked right into.

"S-sure," the cat says, taking an excessive drink to prevent the tremor that wants to take hold of his body and sticking out his paw to Zhareen.

[Murkus]

[Beachside Party]

"Well," Adir says, just a bit surprised. Of course the balloon-lady is cheating. "Guess we've got a mission, now... though it looks like that works even when she isn't looking. How do you beat that?"

Meanwhile...

"You can't? Why?" Fetty whispers back, making them look for all the world like the cattiest pair at the party. Well, besides Reinholdt and Anchor. The cat possesses more than enough cattiness to win for both of them.

[Morty]

[Beachside Party]

"Well, it's future, right? It wouldn't be future if you could predict it," Fayyaad says. It seems obvious to him. Then he looks towards the water balloon fight, and his gaze lingers on Felandria and Misha. And some parts thereof, especially. "Now those are two people I wouldn't mind getting to know better," he remarks.

[UncleWolf]

Above the Rocks

"Is that why you were on the ship?" Sorrow asks as she leans out of the pool to grab a long and sharp knife. Without needing a mirror, she begins to cut her own hair in some spots to even it out before offering the blade to Faithel. If she accepts it, Sorrow will begin to use some of the soaps and oils upon herself as she awaits the death knight's story.

[Felandria]

[Beachside Party]

"Well," Adir says, just a bit surprised. Of course the balloon-lady is cheating. "Guess we've got a mission, now... though it looks like that works even when she isn't looking. How do you beat that?"

Felandria smiles wickedly.

With help?

Let's find a coconspirator, shall we?

[Shadowcaller]

[Beachside Party]

"Good question! Now, if I start to ramble, please stop me since I tend to do that sometimes. But the story of the staff is really interesting! It was one of a pair, two twin staffs for two twin empresses of the gnoll people. The empress of night and empress of day. The night caller and the day bringer. Now, each staff had the ability to summon and control powerful demons and with that, the empresses could rule unopposed without even needing a army. The only thing that really kept them in check was one another, but as long as they worked together, they didn't even need to appeal to their own people. Now, I'm looking for the day bringer that was destroyed right here at this very beach." Zhareen gestures at the sand underneath them. "See, eventually the two would grow apart as they were played against one another by their nobles, and decided there could only be one. After a long civil war, the empress of day was assassinated when she came ashore here, her staff destroyed and it's pieces collected by the assassins. I believe they missed a few pieces though, which is what I'm looking for here today." She nods.
"Now, the night bringer..." Someone better stop her before she dumps all the unnecessary exposition on the party goers.

Above the Rocks

"To chase traitors? Haardly. We were just traveling to Stormwind when we were caught in a storm which took us... wherever this is. But I could talk all day about what happened. So to make a long story short, a plaague broke out onboard, I was blamed and decided to look myself up in quarantine. But when that didn't help, the captain abandoned the ship, leaving me behind. Officially turning traitor to the crown. So that's the traitor I'm chasing." She accepts the blade but doesn't cut the hair yet, it was still wet after all.

[Darkcomet]

"With all due respect, sir, if someone doesn't do something about them, others will. And we just happen to possess the means to make it terribly easy."

[Bayside Seas]

Cloaked UDN stealth aircraft in concert with satellite observation stalk the air over the seas, not yet aiming to do much of anything, but to observe. The chief objective at this time is to identify the pirate lord of Bayside's flagship, should the goblin still go out to the sea personally, to ascertain if captives are ever taken aboard the ship for later ransom or perhaps recruitment. Which doesn't especially matter to the plan, only that they're taken.

A curious subject of reconnaissance for sure, but depending on the results, it may be very important indeed.

[Shadowcaller]

[Bayside Seas]

Don Juliano rose from his bed just as there was a knock on the door and a grunt. The same routine as yesterday and everyday before that. He let the big brutes inside and they started polishing his shoes, dressing him up in his uniform and serve him breakfast. Others would have argued that ogres hardly were the best servants for such delicate tasks, but Juliano was in the opinion that even ogres could be trained to any number of tasks, not to mention the sense of respect you got from ordering such big creatures around. They hardly even fit inside his room, and it has been made for a human!

Then after getting dressed and eating, his daily routine continued with inspecting the ship and the crew. Old Glory was massive however, especially for his two short feet. Originally made for humans, the whole ship functioned both as a warship and a refueling station for the entire airborne fleet at his command. The crew saluted as he approached with his companion of body guards. Gnolls, humans, goblins, orcs, half-orcs, halflings, merfolk and even a ethereal or two, everyone had their place in Don Juliano's fleet. He was a lot of things, but racist wasn't one of them. In his eyes, every race could earn their keep in his fleet.

As he reached the end of the inspection he climbs up on the figurehead of the ship and gazes upon the rest of the fleet. It was a odd mix of airships functioning as carriers carrying airplanes and ships floating underneath for support. Quite a few of them were antiques by now of course, yet the crew had desperately tried to work in more modern technology, or in some cases, magic into wooden ships, sometimes even with spectacular results. The figurehead of his own ship was an great example of this. "Glory, what's the seas like today?" He asked with a wicked grin.

The golden lady turned to him, yet unlike so many times before, she wasn't smiling. "Rough, sire. I can sense a disturbance in the air. Something is wrong."

Juliano frowned and gazed upon the horizon. What in the world was going on...?

This is the scene that will meet the UDN stealth aircrafts. The bulk of Don Juliano's fleet awaiting at the bay of Bayside, with the goblin himself standing in full uniform at the very figurehead of his massive airship carrier the Old Glory. They can count at least three airships, about sixity airplanes, two old rusty battlecruiser, eight smaller wooden ships that looks to have been "upgraded" out of the wazoo with both technology and magic.

If the scouts have already watched the fleet for a while, they will know that parts of the fleet will be send away for raiding or similar activities. Whenever the airplanes leave, they are followed by at least one of the three airships which functions as carriers for them. There are encrypted radio communication between each ship and airplane in the fleet, but it's encrypted. It wouldn't be too hard to decrypt though if they have an expert.
There are usually two or three smaller raiding parties out at the same time, but at least one airship is always left behind to defend the port. Right now only one is out however, but it looks like another is preparing to leave.
Larger airplanes that are too big for the airships land on the landing strip on the island. There also appear to be a luxurious resort at the other end of the island, a huge jungle between it and the city, yet it has to be associated with the pirates somehow.

There are other ships entering Bayside quite often, for this reason the majority of the pirate fleet isn't actually parked in front of the own, it's actually resting in the bay that the town is named after. Ships come here with cargo and passengers that often go on to sail with the "stormriders". These are hotshot captains that dare to brave the sea of storms to reach Galespire or some crazy treasure hunt in the area.

[Reinholdt]

Beachside Party

Reinholdt absolutely doesn't stop Zhareen. Rather, he starts taking notes. A proper treasure hunter doesn't interrupt someone dispensing valuable information about potential treasures. That's just bad for business!

[Recaiden]

The vixen kit watches the shadow with overwhelming curiosity, still just a little weirded out by a shadow just getting up and walking around of its own volition.

The shadow creeps up to the kit again, not wanting to frighten it away.
And then set a hand on the vixen's shadow (which again, can be felt as a chill and faint pressure)
And if it manages that, to rip the shadow away from its owner, separating the two. Some people, that would hurt, or make them feel faint. Others wouldn't even notice. It's pretty unpredictable.

If Zhareen isn't supposed to tell him then she probably shouldn't... oh nevermind. She did anyways. "What's special about the staff?" It was probably magic, but maybe it was just an heirloom.

Reinholdt shoots Anchor the briefest of glares he thinks he can get away with in a social situation. "Me?" Get involved with a fortune? That sounds like a terrible, awful, horrendous idea. But they're all looking at him now, clearly expecting him to participate in the festivities or he'll derail everyone's good mood. The whole thing was a trap he walked right into.

"S-sure," the cat says, taking an excessive drink to prevent the tremor that wants to take hold of his body and sticking out his paw to Zhareen.

Unnecessary exposition? Not when there are people here who haven't heard it before!
Anchor doesn't go so far as take notes, but she is listening raptly. She has a very good memory.
"Does the Empress of Night still have her staff?"

[Terumitsu]

Beachside Party

Willa smirks.
"What do you think? I've never modeled before." she tells Riss, trying a few poses with her arms behind her head or below her breasts, and others, most of which focus on making her human half look good. She's not particularly sure what to do with her legs.

Riss smiled as she first gave Mimi a little help with her letters, even making her do that infernal 'sounding it out' bit rather than just outright telling the pixie what she wanted to hear. Sometimes the muse wondered wondered just where she was pulling the reserves of patience from when trying to teach such a stubborn person.. And say nothing of her attention span when it came to 'boring' things like this. Oh well, improvement was always welcomed.

"Sorry about the interruption." she said to Willa afterwards. "But I think I've got a pretty good idea on what to do now.. Though maybe relax a bit? You seem.." How to put this... "A little on edge? Stiff, maybe?" she said, having noticed that Willa was perhaps more used to others paying attention mostly to her humanoid half.

Taking the chisel and mallet she had brought for just this reason, she positioned each and swung... ! There was a tinkling sound not quite like that of glass as the block of ice shattered under the first impact. Well... Not exactly 'shattered'... Behind was a scale model of Willa leaning forwards, her arms under her breasts as she wore a sultry smile while her hair partly hid one of her eyes in a decidedly coy fashion. With one hoof up and the rest of her legs planted in a comfortable stance, the sculpture depicted the centauress as if she had just pulled out all the stops when trying to flirt with someone that had caught her eye.

Riss, however, had a stunned expression as this clearly hadn't been what she was expecting. Blinking, she looked from the statue and then slo--w-l-y towards Misha, she found it increasingly difficult to suppress her laughter. So that's what she had been up to earlier! Allowing herself at least a half-minute before letting Willa in on the joke, she made herself calm down enough to say: "So.. While this isn't my work, so to speak, what do you think? I'll pass any compliments along to the 'sculptor.'" she said, nodding towards the Nereid in question. "Though I could probably make another from a block of ice that hasn't seen meddling if you want."

[Fenric]

Every crab Ben passes drops whatever it was doing and starts to follow him. It doesn't take long before he has acquired quite the line of crabs scuttling noisily along behind, each eager to be the one who recovers the crab-gods statue.

The sailor that Kate finds shrugs

Right now, we're just trying to get rid of the things...

His walkie-talkie sqwaks and he listens for a moment

Huh.. they're starting to abandon most of the levels. Looks like they're chasing somebody... a dragon? Weirdness.

[Murkus]

[Beachside - Party!]

Felandria smiles wickedly.

With help?

Let's find a coconspirator, shall we?

"Lead the way!" Adir says, bending forward with his ears flicking. He makes to bound after Felandria in whatever direction she chooses, though he may point something out... "Do you think if we talked to the ladies she came with, they might help us out?"
________________

Meanwhile, Fetty simplifies the matter down to the important bits, as per usual.

"Are you trying to say there's treasure around here?" He asks Zhareen. He isn't quite so diligent as to take notes, but the neon lad is definitely interested.

He's of course distracted at Fayyaad's mention of two ladies in particular. His eyebrows go up. "Ooh, well, there's definitely one kind of treasure." He nudges Fay with his elbow, smirking. "You gonna go chat em' up?"

[Morty]

[Beachside - Party!]

"As a matter of fact, yes," Fayyaad says. "The tall lady, I think. The other one seems to already have company." He leans down to peck Fetty on the cheek. "Don't worry, though, I'll be back."

[Shadowcaller]

[Beachside Party]

"Oh no, she died a long time ago! Her son, the first male emperor, the black wolf, took over after her. He was also the last great gnoll emperor and the last one who carried the staff. It's said that the people hated him and he hated them in turn. That's why he was supposedly buried with the staff at a secret location by the demons he had enslaved. Taking one of the foundations of their empire with him into the grave." Basically, he was a huge douche. "I found the grave myself, but it had already been plundered, the descriptions the locals gave me suggested it was AMEN. Ilpholin most notably, their former leader. The trail turns cold there unfortunately, but I believe the daycaller can still be found, or pieces of it at least. So yes, there is indeed treasure nearby. Whole seaside is filled with ancient treasure just waiting to be found." She nods sagely.

[Deathkeeper]

Continuity Cruise Lines

Ben reaches the side of the deck and holds the statue aloft.
"I return this treasure to you in the sea as an offering of peace, O god of crabs. Take it and return your subjects from whence they came!" Ben declares dramatically, before throwing it as far out to sea as he can.
He's not actually sure if that's how it works but he's sure that'll help somehow.

[Lost_Deep]

Continuity Cruise Lines

"Huh, yeah," Kate mumbles as she heads back for Bella. "Bella! They're chasing Ben around. Watch for him, and drop the shield for him... there he is!"

Bella drops the shield on that part of the deck so that Ben can hurl the statue back into the ocean! From there, Kate and Bella watch to see if there's any reaction.

[Fenric]

And Ben returns the little idol to Takaashigani!

The smaller crabs all dive into the water after it. Most had already been following Ben, so it doesn't actually take long at all before the ship is cleared (at least, as far as living crabs go)

There's a tingling in the air as Ben acquires the favor of the spider-crab god! Yay! He can now influence tides: making them a little higher or lower than they ought to be in a small area.

Within the ship, however, there's a rather grouchy sound

MACHOKE!

[Reinholdt]

Beach Party

"Well I would be delighted to help you look for the staff pieces. A beach scavenger hunt is a perfect thing for a party right?" Can't go wrong looking for buried treasure. Undoubtedly no pirate will be angered by this.

[Felandria]

[Beachside - Party!]



"Lead the way!" Adir says, bending forward with his ears flicking. He makes to bound after Felandria in whatever direction she chooses, though he may point something out... "Do you think if we talked to the ladies she came with, they might help us out?"

Can't hurt to give it a try.

I can be very persuasive.

And Fel will head in their direction, hopefully not alone.

[Murkus]

[Beachside - Party!]

Adir follows! To wherever it is Mimi and Riss are hiding hereabouts. He'll likely try to spy what they're doing (and if they're involved in the waterballoons) before he goes ahead and says hello. Though they may be interrupted by Fayyaad it would seem.
_____________

Fetty puckers his lips and makes a 'mwah' sound at the aforementioned tiefling as he goes. "I wasn't," he adds, waving his fingers. His eyes drift to the remainder of the group. "Alright. Treasure. Let's go! I fancy myself a bit of an adventurer, you know. Should be easy." He tries to looked distinguished and interesting.

[Morty]

[Beachside - Party!]

And so, Felandria will be joined on her way by a lithe, brown-skinned handsome tiefling with short black hair, a pair of short horns on his forehead, red eyes and a tail. He's wearing dark red swimming trunks.

"I see the water balloon battle goes on," he says.

[UncleWolf]

Above the Rocks

"To chase traitors? Haardly. We were just traveling to Stormwind when we were caught in a storm which took us... wherever this is. But I could talk all day about what happened. So to make a long story short, a plaague broke out onboard, I was blamed and decided to look myself up in quarantine. But when that didn't help, the captain abandoned the ship, leaving me behind. Officially turning traitor to the crown. So that's the traitor I'm chasing." She accepts the blade but doesn't cut the hair yet, it was still wet after all.

Above the Rocks

"A sense of dread pushes the bounds of sensible mentalities. It sounds like you were the only one that did not let fear guide you." Sorrow says, offering a tiny bit of comfort with her awkward words. She then begins to lather up, eyes closed as steam continues to rise off of her body. "Rage can do much the same." She admits quietly after a moment. "I fell to bloodlust in battle and refused to listen to my elder Sisters. Because I left the flank open as I charged ahead, they died. When the red haze cleared from my head, I left in shame rather than face the others for punishment. It is I who turned traitor, but I still seek to hunt anything that could cause them harm. That is my sorrow and shame and I know I will never make recompense for it."

[Gullara]

Can't hurt to give it a try.

I can be very persuasive.

And Fel will head in their direction, hopefully not alone.

[Beachside - Party!]

Adir follows! To wherever it is Mimi and Riss are hiding hereabouts. He'll likely try to spy what they're doing (and if they're involved in the waterballoons) before he goes ahead and says hello. Though they may be interrupted by Fayyaad it would seem.

((I don't know if you two want to get locked into my vacation deadtime, but since they were looking for Mimi...))

[Beachside - Party!]

The two come wandering in Mimi's direction after she just got finished painstakingly carving 'MELON CHOPING CONTEST' into a melon slice. She flies with it a little ways up in the air. When she spies Adir she chucks it at his head, shouting, "Melon chopping contest!" That ought to get someone's attention!

[Deathkeeper]

Continuity Cruise Lines

Ben nods, satisfied, and goes to curl up on the nearest bench.
The machoke can deal with it. Its treasure-hunting spree almost sank the ship.

[Lost_Deep]

Continuity Cruise Lines

Kate and Bella both relax. Both go to sit down on benches, too. Both, after using a good amount of magic energy, are tired.

Someone attentive may notice little metallic specks on Kate's face... that's unusual.

[Felandria]

[Beachside - Party!]

And so, Felandria will be joined on her way by a lithe, brown-skinned handsome tiefling with short black hair, a pair of short horns on his forehead, red eyes and a tail. He's wearing dark red swimming trunks.

"I see the water balloon battle goes on," he says.

Yep!

And it's about to go up a notch.

- - - Updated - - -

((I don't know if you two want to get locked into my vacation deadtime, but since they were looking for Mimi...))

[Beachside - Party!]

The two come wandering in Mimi's direction after she just got finished painstakingly carving 'MELON CHOPPING CONTEST' into a melon slice. She flies with it a little ways up in the air. When she spies Adir she chucks it at his head, shouting, "Melon chopping contest!" That ought to get someone's attention!

Felandria sees Mimi throw the melon slice, but she misses when she tries to swat it down.