Mariners of the Red Tornado

[GNUsNotUnix]

Wrick

Wearing a new--and very impressive--cloak, Wrick's time in Zrkra has obviously ended with a purchase or two. Still, Wrick doesn't seem as satisfied as he ought to, recent events still weighing on his mind.

[Toxic Avenger]

Ramose

Ramose waits for the chanting to subside before addressing the rest of the crew. "So, by not speaking, we have spoken, and what we have said is that we shall see this through to the end, and that this is not the time to turn back. Indeed, to do so would mean that our fallen friends and loved ones..." The priest's hand moves to the signet ring which hangs from a string around his neck. "...sacrificed their lives in vain. Once again, we shall have to go unto the darkness, and possibly into fear itself, but we need not be afraid. Why? Because we go with the hope that those we leave behind will not have to do the same..." Ramose raises a hand toward the sun. "...and the knowledge that - just as Ra's light banishes the night each morning - the darkness shall not, and cannot last!" Ramose raises a hand toward the sun as he finishes his speech, then he continues on with a prayer to Ra, asking Him to continue to watch over the ship and her crew, to provide His light to guide the way, and to give the courage needed to endure the coming darkness.

[Fredricus]

Iyapo

Iyapo spent most of his days alone in the crows nest. He only came down to occasionally bless the crew and help with the ship, but otherwise he avoided others.

[Nomad5]

Baka

Baka is impressed by the committment of the crew during Allie's speech. Pride wells up within him to be a member of such an honored time. Quietly he says to himself, "Surely our tale will be sung through the ages." He looks around at his fellow adventurers. "Hopefully not as a tragedy."

When work returns to normal, Baka greets Jondalar as he approaches. "I am honored by this presentation, and I am glad to see that your confidence in me is renewed. If I may ask, who was the previous owner of this fine weapon?"

[BlueWizard]

Merie will listen eagerly to Hioline's lessons. She was a lot more attentive this time on the ship, and even though she could cast fireball, Hioline doubted that Merie'd survive long before this subtle change in personality. You will need everyone focused on the next long leg of the adventure.

As to Ramose inspiring the men, all seem quite happy and inspired when the priest gives his speech, and many want to shake his hand or speak with him after that. Ramose will find his time on the ship constantly busy, as more and more people come to him for help or questions, and sometimes just someone to talk to.

As the next week or two passes you will get to know Zarko the Antarian Prince, and his companions, particularly one that makes everyone a little uncomfortable, even though he is the friend of the heroic Zarko. {OOC- Welcome back, androgial and Baaton. Describe your PC, and give a greeting. Antaria will be long behind you.}

[androgial]

Zarko's disturbing companion is a smaller humanoid, 5 and a half feet tall, 5 foot 8 inches if you measure up to his small redish horns stick out of his black hair, of course youd also have to get past the errieness of his glowing red eyes to do the measurements. he is dressed in studded leather, and from time to time you can catch a glimpse of fur that seems to have been woven to the inside of the armor. A rapier at his side and a composite shortbow at his back are his weapons of choice. you could hazard a guess as to what he does for a living as he is very thin and wiry as well. He doesnt say much until the stares become increasingly more common and the glares as word filters through the ship, Tiefling, a demon blooded. At that point with a sneering chuckle he would say:

"What ya going to do, throw rocks at me like everyone else when i was growin up? Not very nice to throw rocks at someone ya dont even know."

[BlueWizard]

Zarko will do his best to comfort his men and the men of Chigani toward their feelings on Baaton. After a few days everyone will become more relaxed and trusting toward Baaton, even allowing him night watches when it is his turn in the rotation.

[Toxic Avenger]

Ramose

Overhearing Baaton's remark, Ramose approaches him a few moments later. "I don't think you need to worry. No one's going to swim to shore just to find some rocks." The priest says with a somewhat subdued grin. His spirits seem to have lifted a fair bit over the last few days, but he is still not nearly the same as he was before venturing into the Temple of Death.

"But seriously, you shouldn't need to worry. Around here, we judge others by what they do, not how they look. Well, most of us anyway." Offering a handshake, Ramose adds, "I don't believe we've met yet. I'm Ramose...pleased to meet you."

[Leush]

Hioline

Teifling? Interesting. Undoubtedly, if he is indeed loyal as they trust him to be, he will be tempted by Cthulu- a tool we shall be able to use against the fiend. My dear prejudice! How well you have served us in so many cases and how well you will serve me in days to come- be a cautious guide to my actions. To judge by actions! To discard both reason and experience in the face of hope for a happy ending.

No one's going to swim, but some may choose to conjure up the equivalent. "Don't say that Ramose, it implies that we don't care enough. No, to imply that we really care, we would say; ofcourse, we would gladly help you augment your skill in avoiding fast moving objects that would leave a scar." She muses.

[Fredricus]

Iyapo

Iyapo notices the tiefling and kept an eye on him. As he spoke of throwing rocks, Iyapo approached him.

"The fun part of being thrown rocks at is to hear their tales of your deeds. The terror from the deep who drowns sailors, The being with foul language that could start fire or freeze a mans heart. What do they tell about you?"

"It's the fear that is talking. It's up to you to embrace it and become the fear or try to "reedeem" yourself in their eyes and stand up as a hero"

"I'm not comfortable with either one, I take my own path."

"We could throw rocks at each other to feel more like home"

[GNUsNotUnix]

Wrick

Wrick will keep an ear out for any rumors about the crew's newest member, waiting for any report of his actions reflecting his heritage, and seldom will he pass the tiefling without a spell at the front of his mind. Still, his visage betrays no aggression--nor anything else. Wrick completes his duties with as few words as possible, either out of focus or an utter lack thereof.

[BlueWizard]

Time rolls on and the ship becomes a routine of daily chores, for those of you with no ship duties it could be a great time of study or boredom. {OOC- Your choice.} Everyone takes part in night duties, and a schedule is made out by Fulbert and a few of the Antarian crewmen who make a rotation that includes all the heroes of the Temple of Death and Zarko's friends as well.

[Rapscallion]

Jondalar


the Aisimar clad in a brown monk's with a silk cloak will look the tiefling over with his slighly glowing golden eye and extend his hand in greeting.

" I am Jondalar De Silva, Stormlord of Elhonna and first officer on the Red Tornado. good to meet and welcome aboard. We could always use another dexterous hand with the rigging. See Fulbert for any duties you wish to volunteer for.

Alright men back to work, nothing we have seen before or won't see again. If we can have an evil priestess as guest. We can have a tiefling sailor."

Jondalar will move around the Ship checking on various projects with Zhako or Fulbert. he will stop his rounds by the wheel and nod to Wrick. "Nice cloak, Mr Wrick."

[BlueWizard]

An Eerie Morning on-board the Tornado:
Jondalar is the first to awake one morning. No-one is on-deck.

Captain Allie usually has a morning routine and doesn't step on the deck until 7am, but a first officer was usually given a night off {like now since there is enough crew}, for he had to have things ready for the morning at 6am with his morning crew. He will be alone, and he will see sleepy teen, young Ragles, climbing up from the lower hold heading toward the kitchen to help Olmeric cook breakfast.

He has the same surprised look as Jondalar as he notices that no-one is on the deck. It is as if the deck was left unguarded. The command deck even seems in disarray, the sails are slack, and the ship is drifting. Jondalar will have to do a quick reading of the night sky to determine that you are a couple miles off course.

{OOC- This particular evening had no PCs in the watch rotation. Jondalar can quickly wake the others {PC included} with help as the morning crew wakes up, and begins to try and recover the drifting ship.}

[Rapscallion]

Jondalar

Jondalar will cast rope trick to bring up the flagging sails.

"By Elhonna's grace !! Ragles, tie off the main trim. WRICK !! Get up here, we're drifting and I need our last heading.

Baka, Ramrose see if the men are alright. We're we hit by a dweomer ? mind flayers ? FULBERT who was on watch last night ? Are they still here ?

Damn if we can't beat back the Abyss but keep a watch. Noooo."

Jondalar will skulk up and down the down the ship rousing sailors and Pc's alike. Casting mage hand and rope trick to set things right as he passes. If Wrick doesn't beat him to the wheel he'll steady the ship.

[androgial]

Baaton


Baaton hears the kind asamir shouting about something wrong and rushes up onto the deck and then showing his high adroitness, ducks under the boom as it swings by fast on a jib before catching it and trying to put it in the right positions.

[GNUsNotUnix]

Wrick

"What in the nine hells is this? Tackin'? This ain't tackin'! Are we even sailin' against the wind!"

These are the first complete sentences anyone has heard Wrick speak in a while, and they only continue into further fury at the condition of the ship. He takes the helm and starts shouting the names of the derelict crewmen.

[Toxic Avenger]

Ramose

Already awake and in his quarters, preparing to come above deck to greet the rising sun, Ramose rushes up upon hearing the commotion. "We're on it!" He says with a nod at Jondalar, and then he heads back down - with Baka, if he follows suit- to rouse up the rest of the crew, taking a head count as he does so.

[Fredricus]

Iyapo

Iyapo sensing that something isn't right flies out on deck. Seeing only few on deck and those arived with him. He takes flight, his large white dragonlike wings beating steadily as he soars upwards to the crowsnest. He sits perched as a predator ready to strike, his webbed feet holding steady on the edge of the crows nest.

His milky-white eyes glistening in light of the rising sun as he watches over the ship and it's surroundings

[Rapscallion]

Jondalar

"Excelenet Baaton, good work. Mr. Wrick the helm." Jondalar will step aside for his halfing navigator.

"Acknowledged Cleric Ramrose. Let me know when we have a full headcount."

Jondalar will cast detect magic.

[Leush]

Hioline

Whatever demon it is that comes to me from the filth below to break my rest will rue the hour of the day its plan was set in motion. The elf thinks as she sits upright, trying to gather the rest of her thoughts.

At last she emerges onto deck in her old grey robe and without a word begins searching for something. Anything. All the whilst, she thinks, mainly about where they are relative to where they're meant to be, and what places it gets them further from, and what places closer to, yawning all the while.

---------
Searching deck for clues- mainly any debris which may have belonged to the sailors on the night shift/eeeevil monsters.
Geography: 8
Search: 16

[BlueWizard]

Ragles is excited to jump to duties that don't involve skinning potatoes, boiling eggs, or curing beef! The young man leaps into the ropes to help bring the ship about. He is skilled, and has been trained well. You may need him as a sailor with less mouthes to feed.

The rest of the crew comes to Ragles aid and jumps to life, as word spreads of the ship in disarray.

It will be quickly found that 2nd officer Fulbert is no where on the ship, for no-one comes to relieve Wrick until Allie gets there and puts Merie at the helm, so Wrick could have his hands free.

There are 7 missing crewmen including Fulbert once the entire crew is gathered, and ship searched for stowaways. Zarko will become alarmed when he finds that two of his companions were among the missing {Baaton knew the recent crewmen Talmaco and Bowen well}. Also missing were the 2 Krigalan elves {Visso and Ravenpelt}, who often aided with Night Watches. The log book created by Fulbert to record Nightwatch duties was missing. Several on the midnight watch remember the 2 other Antarians missing that also disappeared in the bewitching hours, but a few others should have been on that watch and no-one, as of yet seems to remember who they were. Fulbert would have, he was in charge of organizing this duty.

Hioline's detailed search will show up something VERY obvious once it is looked into. There is blood staining the interior of the crowsnest, as if someone mostly bled to death here. The rest of the ship shows no such trauma other than the lines being cut, and a few sails slashed. The ship repairman, Zhako jumps to his duties, taking a small crew of men {likely Wrick included}, to fix damages, and replace things where needed.

As the investigation goes underway this morning, the crew will get the ship back on track.

[Fredricus]

Iyapo

As Iyapo landed the rim of the crows nest he noticed the pool of blood in it. Slightly confused that there was no body in the crows nest, Iyapo started searching for clues how tha attacker came to the crows nest and how the body was missing. He searched for any signs of climbing and struggle.

Three possibilities remain, sea, air and ship. The attackers must have come from one the three. he thinks

Next he continues to the slashed sails. There must be clues in those sails

Spoiler

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Spot (1d20+9)[19], Search (1d20+1)[8]

[Leush]

Hioline

The elf climbs down unsteadily from the crowsnest and heads below deck. She will quickly return with several vials and climbs unsteadily back towards the crowsnest., whence she will remove some of the blood- whether it is dried or not.
"Iyapo- if you find anything else that may have belonged to to anyone missing or any thing that may have caused it- please pass it on to me- for I know ways of making it talk." She says, looking with uncertainty at the deck far below.

Once back on deck she will approach Ramose. "May I recommend that you ask Ra for scrying today- I do not have enough to locate each of the missing crewmen- which is not to say that locating one would be enough, but it may help find whatever caused them to go away. We must be careful to avoid a repeat of the shape-shifter incident." With that she heads to the captain's door and asks for permission to enter.

If allowed, access, she will use the mirror to scry on Fulbert, if the search turns up nothing, she will shrug her shoulders and go back to sleep.

---------------------
If this is the right blood, (-10) and that Hioline knew most crewmembers realtively well (-5), Fulbert should have a -15 mod to the will save against the scrying spell. if it belongs to someone else, then I need to finish sleeping and prepare more scrying.

[androgial]

Baaton

"jondahlar..errr is that how its pronounced? Never mind ill get it soon enough. Would you care to acompany me."

Baaton conducts a thourough search of the ship(taking 20 for a 32 and searching everything....including peoples private lockers just in case)

[Rapscallion]

Jondalar

Jondalar will regard the Captain as she appears. "Captain, we've lost the nightwatch and the 2nd officer to some threat unknown. My money is on the illithids."
He will turn to his exact polar opposite Baaton.

"You have it almost right but drop the "he" sound, I will gladly acompany you in your rounds, good idea."

As they search the ship Jondalar will use two more detect magics and one more while looking over items.

"So what is it you are looking for Baaton ?"

[androgial]

Baaton

"hehehe when you get thrown in jails as much as me you learn some things. fortunately most guild houses give me a break and dont push my non membership since im almost never allowed to get anywhere near them. Theres always some evidence of every crime and im guessing someone has an item that lets our opponents find us. we shall have to see what turns up."

[BlueWizard]

Hioline will find that Fulbert is no longer on the ship, but sleeps in Davy Jones' Locker. The blood belonged to both Krigalan elves, Visso and Ravenpelt.

Baaton finds a platinum symbol of Anubis, only carried by priests, in one of the men's foot-locker. The Antarian sailor/owner declares an outrage and invasion of privacy! He will claim he got it in a curio shoppe in Watonga. Jondalar will find this man Yerodin and others have their own magic items as well.

Baaton also finds bloody towels stuffed into the loo, young Ragles helped discovered the clogged toilet.

Baaton will discover in the Captain's quarters a magically locked chest, which he cannot get into, he also gets a full ship inventory by late in the evening.

Allie will be planning a service the whole day for all lost sailors, she is deeply sad and withdrawn. Lady Merie will act as pilot to guide ship, as day goes on, and ship is put back on track.

[Leush]

Hioline

"Luitenant Fulbert is dead. I would search for the others, but I believe that their fates were shared- if the illithids were responsible, they would not make such a mess- or more correctly, they would make a mess such, that we would not be here now. If it was a beast from the depths- and there is a beast in the depth that craves our blood, it would not be content with just a few of us- if this is a mystery which we can solve without waiting for it to return, it is one on our ship. There will not be a repeat of the shape shifter incident upon this ship."

The elf sighs, shakes her head and casts another spell. As she lowers her hands from her face, the eyes begin to glow an eerie blue. With these glowing eyes she wonders around the ship, looking briefly into those of each of the other crew members and though there is nothing to see in the empty blue glow of the eyes, they could swear that they search for something... She would also like to glance at any ominous magical items.

------------------
Casting arcane sight:

Spoiler

Show

This spell makes your eyes glow blue and allows you to see magical auras within 120 feet of you. The effect is similar to that of a detect magic spell, but arcane sight does not require concentration and discerns aura location and power more quickly.
You know the location and power of all magical auras within your sight. An aura’s power depends on a spell’s functioning level or an item’s caster level, as noted in the description of the detect magic spell. If the items or creatures bearing the auras are in line of sight, you can make Spellcraft skill checks to determine the school of magic involved in each. (Make one check per aura; DC 15 + spell level, or 15 + one-half caster level for a nonspell effect.)
If you concentrate on a specific creature within 120 feet of you as a standard action, you can determine whether it has any spellcasting or spell-like abilities, whether these are arcane or divine (spell-like abilities register as arcane), and the strength of the most powerful spell or spell-like ability the creature currently has available for use.
Arcane sight can be made permanent with a permanency spell.

Therefore I can determine the presence of and identify the most powerful spell like ability of 96 creatures on board (there are fewer, and therefore I have some time left over for items).
Spellcraft: 1d20+17 (I let you roll BlueW)- BTW my character sheet lies! It is only half updated from lvl 7 so it should be 17 and no sixteen.

[androgial]

Baaton

Baaton leaves the questioning to jondalar and instead takes one of the blank log books and starts filling it in with inventory, its worth, and crew list and assignments to be handed over to the new book keeper that replaces fulbert