Island Investigation

[Avianmosquito]

"Yeah, uh-huh.", she says, not buying it for a second. Asta starts up the plank while waving for everyone to follow. Asta leads you to the captain's cabin and opens the door. "Go on inside, the captain wanted to speak with you. I believe it's about the pecking order.". She steps back, pulling Thimba aside and letting the two of you walk right in. She starts talking to him, quietly, and it doesn't seem to be hostile.

Inside the cabin sits a gruff-looking dwarf with piercing blue eyes and a bushy white beard. He's tall and thin for a dwarf, a solid 4' 5" and 170lbs, but that's still 13 inches shorter and 30lbs heavier than his female subordinate. He's wearing a light green robe that seems water-resistant is clearly covering a byrnie, likely to slow corrosion. He has a sword, a dagger and a revolver on him, and in front of him sits a very large bottle of rum, likely 2/5ths, shot glasses arranged for both of you and one for himself, already poured. "Come in, sit down. Each of you have a drink, and listen to me very carefully.".

[WindStruck]

This whole thing looked real serious now. Seemed Asta completely knew she was lying about Thimba as well. Was she already in trouble for this?

She sits down quickly, her tiny stature only faring slightly better for furniture sized for dwarves, quietly murmuring a "Yessir.." Kiwi jumps up and lays in her lap, staring down the captain like a new competitor.

Fiona doesn't touch a shot glass just yet.

[Kish]

Risa sits down, takes one of the glasses but doesn't drink from it, and looks at the dwarf expectantly.

[Avianmosquito]

Calder takes his shot, glaring at both of you. "Alright, the first thing you need to understand is that I am the captain. This is my ship. If you don't want to follow my rules, you can get off and I don't care if there's land in sight when you do.". His glare is pretty strong. "You are my passengers, so I don't expect you to work, but I do expect you to follow orders and stay out of the crew's way. And if we come under attack, I expect you to pull up your panties and get out there. And that's important, because heading the way we are, we WILL be attacked at least once. Maybe by some halflings who found out how the civilized folks treat the slaves they sold them; maybe by some lizard savages who think our metal fish is an affront to their religion; maybe it'll even be by some sahuagin, because not all of them are so fond of Mr. Uzun's little trading scheme. Whatever it is, you drop what you're doing and you get out there right away, got it? If it takes you more than one minute to get into the fight, I'm going to take you by the legs and use your face to mop the bird **** off my deck.". Calder pours himself another shot. "Are we clear?".

[WindStruck]

Fiona nods. "Yes captain. Though I reckon when we actually have to fight, you'll never see me. So be aware of that."

[Kish]

"Of course, Captain," Risa says blandly.

[Avianmosquito]

Calder doesn't smile. "Now listen, little girl. I don't care if you're visible or not, if we get attacked you are fighting. The only one I don't want fighting is your stupid cat, and I want that cat eating a rat within the day. Now all of you, take the damn shots and get out of my office.". He seems genuinely insulted nobody had drank any of the liquor. It is probably a dwarven thing. "We're leaving the dock in three min...", Calder trails off as he notices the ship has already taken off. "I need to fix that clock.".

Asta is waiting outside, with Thimba, Johari and two sailors. They seem to be trying on uniforms.

[Kish]

Risa drinks the liquor and turns to leave the room. She waves to Thimba.

[WindStruck]

"Wha, is that one of your rules??" Fiona asks. "I just had something to drink a little while ago and I don't want to--"

*clinkink*

The cat had made a quick leap to the table and, it appears, intentionally knocked over the shot glass.

Spoiler

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Invokes ability, Lesser Annoyance!

"Kiwi! Oh no, I'm sorry Captain Calder! She doesn't like it when people call her stupid!"

Fiona tries to clean up the mess as quickly as possible using Prestidigitation before the captain tries to rip her or the cat's head off. Meanwhile the cat itself is staring the captain in the eyes, with zero respect for his authority.

[Avianmosquito]

The captain scowls as the mess is cleaned. "Fine. I won't waste any more rum on you. Now get OUT.". He takes another shot for himself and goes back to reading the unfortunately large stack of documents in front of him.

On the outside, it's pretty clear Thimba and Johari are being fitted with uniforms now. Asta turns to speak to you. "Well, good to see you made a better first impression than our last set of passengers. Dick still avoids Calder like the plague. Still, I took your stowaways and they explained to me what was going on. We don't do unpaid passenger jobs, but we could use more crewmen. Thimba will be a boiler-room worker, and the other boxers on the ship will be sure to beat him senseless.". Thimba grins hearing that, relieved that he gets to return to his calling, at least on the side. "Johari will be a cabin girl, and I'm sure our current cabin boy will like her even if she is a quarter of his size.". Johari, meanwhile, seems slightly apprehensive, and voices his concerns. "But... I left my boyfriend back home, I don't know if I'm ready to move on!". This earns her a bemused headrub from Thimba, mussing up her hair.

The ship seems to be slowly crawling its way out of the harbor, right now coming up on a massive screw-propelled ironclad nearly twice her length. Asta's eyes light up as she sees it. "People, I present to you the pride of the UNM fleet, the Colossal. She's a brand new, state of the art ironclad battleship, 300ft long with a displacement of over 9,000 tonnes with five inch thick iron plating. She's packing twelve massive turret-mounted 8-inch long guns and sixteen 68-pound guns on each side. She has yet to serve in battle, but there are only four other ships in her class today, one of which is my homelands' DNS Mjölnir, which is even larger and more powerful. And yet, BOTH of these ships are faster than the Weġfarend, and she was fast for her day.". She sighs a little when the obvious hits. "As strong as our little Weġfarend is, she is only a frigate, and she's pushing 30. Even in the realm of piracy, we couldn't compete any longer. It'll happen to them too, someday, and I don't think it'll take as long for them as it did for us.".

[WindStruck]

Fiona does indeed try to get out of the captain's hair as soon as possible, all but hefing the stubborn cat away and out of the office. She eventually sets her back down on the deck once sure she won't mess with the grumpy dwarf anymore.

"Hey, sorry Asta.." Fiona said morosely. "Well I guess since they told you what was happening, you know why I lied. It's pretty terrible when a guard tries to kill a child on sight..."

Her mood picks up a bit though. "Anyway, I feel kind of responsible for you two, so... if there's anything I can do to help, let me know, alright? I'm sure since I'm not obligated to do any actual work, I'll have plenty of spare time."

She comments on the ship. "Hm. Mr. Uzun sure did seem proud of this boat... but you don't make it sound so great. Is he really sure to think we're all that safe from pirates?"

[Avianmosquito]

Asta chuckles a bit. "Well, Ihsan is right. For what we're doing right now, this ship is overkill. For a security vessel just in general, we're overkill. But as a privateer frigate we're obsolete. And me, I'd hoped to be a privateer since I was a little girl. But Ihsan, he doesn't believe in piracy, and he uses us to protect his cargo ships. And compared to what I used to do, raiding elven naval shipments, supplying slave rebellions, helping locals repel their pointy-eared invaders, this is... Safe. I'm too young for 'safe'. It's boring.". Asta finishes pulling Johari's new outfit on and stands up. "I'm going to go belowdecks. All of you should get comfortable, we'll be travelling for about two weeks". And with that, Asta departs. Johari and Thimba follow, Johari darting off past them to talk to a halfling boy one can only assume is the cabin boy on the ship. He's a couple years older than her, but they seem to be hitting it off. This leaves Risa, Fiona and Kiwi alone.

[Avianmosquito]

The ship moves slowly until it clears the littoral region around Marakiz, making about 6 knots and only slowing down when nearing islands and shallow coastal regions around them, which is a frequent occurrence when passing through the halfling islands. Surprisingly, though, everything seems to go smoothly for quite some time, and in the mean time you gain greater familiarity with the ship.

She's small, that's for certain, only 150ft long and while stout she's not so stout as to make the ship feel much larger. The vessel is constructed almost entirely out of wood, and may at one point have been an all-wooden ship, but today she features 2" iron plating painted with a dull maritime blue-grey. She's not a flashy ship, but dwarves are not flashy people, and her 6 knots cruising speed must be quite a bit slower than her battle speed if she was ever "fast for her day". Asta assures the party she can do 12 knots if she needs to, and while sailing vessels can easily beat that she IS a steam ship and doesn't rely on fickle weather conditions.

The Weġfarend has six main sections: The engine room, the storage rooms, the crew quarters, the passenger's quarters, the captain's quarters and the cannon deck. At the bottom-rear is the engine room, where the boilers are filled with coal and produce the power that turns the ship's propellers, newer technology than the impractical paddle-wheels of the last century but still not especially current. Forward of that is the storage rooms, which store coal, munitions, food and drink, as well as several large crates of potions, which the captain is still scrimping on. Above the engine room the crew quarters, forward of that are the passenger quarters, which are converted from space that once was home to the marines. The expansion of the crew quarters is evident, however, with half of the marine quarters being converted into extra space for the crew, leaving the party in a small region at the front what was supposed to be forty bunks and is now ten larger, more comfortable beds. Surrounding the crew and passenger quarters are the gun deck, separated by a thin wooden wall and connected directly by dumwaiter-style lift shafts and ladders to the storage quarters. Above the crew quarters is the captain's quarters, the front of which is the office where the party met the man.

The top deck, once away from land and birds, is fairly nice and the ocean is at least nicer to look at than the inside of a ship. The smell of the ocean and the constant movement are omnipresent, and at least it beats the smell of burning coal that permeates even the passenger quarters. As passengers, the party is treated to a mead ration on top of a liquor ration and an ale ration, and these, unlike their food, are not adjusted for their size. Care must be taken to avoid building the sort of tolerance one cannot reasonably sustain in ordinary life.

Apparently the ship's crew has a boxing ring, as well. Every night two crew members go up and punch eachother on the deck, and many of them are very good at it. Thimba, as good of a boxer as he is, loses his first fight on the ship in a first round knockout, though perhaps his lack of sea legs may account for that. His second fight goes much better, but even so he is defeated by TKO in the third round. His third fight will likely be on the return trip.

Things continue to go smoothly for eleven days, before the party starts entering sahuagin territory. It's early in the morning, hours before the party is set to awaken, when the party is stirred by an alarm bell and seconds later by the sounding of warhorns in the crew quarters, immediately thereafter in their own quarters. Gunfire follows immediately thereafter. The ship is under attack.

[Kish]

Risa hurries toward the sound of fighting.

[WindStruck]

Fiona wakes, taking some seconds to adjust and realize this was it! This must be what the captain warned them about. His dour threats were nothing in comparison to the realization that anyone could die because of this. Kiwi, Risa, Dikk, Thimba, Johari, Asta... and more.

"Stay here and hide, Kiwi!" she urges her cat, but the feline was already crouching under a bed 20 seconds ago in wait.

Fiona then grabs her bag, turns invisible, and heads for the most direct path outside of the ship. Because the attackers had to have come from some other boat outside or something right..???

[Avianmosquito]

The boat rocks as something big grabs ahold of it. A gigantic suckered tentacle can be seen hanging over the deck as the party reaches the stairs and the cannons discharge on the port side of the ship. The tentacle falls limp onto the deck as a gigantic spray of gore showers onto the deck, signalling the end for whatever that was. The attack does not, however, seem to be over and the sounds of combat continue to rage.

Announced by a glow and the flurry of footsteps, a creature comes running down the stairs, straight at Risa. It's humanoid, standing about six feet tall. It's some kind of glowing fish creature, with bioluminescent patches, finned arms, glowing eyes and an all-too-large toothed mouth. It has a stalk on its head, with a glowing lure on the end. It is completely nude and brandishing a dagger. It has an otherworldly quality to it, like it belongs somewhere else, somewhere far away. Its glow is... Strangely fascinating, but somewhere deep inside you a primal fear is creeping in around the edges, telling you to get away from it, to run away and not look back, and never look upon this creature again.

Spoiler: For Risa

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As far as Risa can tell, this creature is definitely a form of sahuagin, but there's something wrong with it. Sahuagin don't have angler lures, they don't glow and this creature is a hermaphrodite which is definitely not normal for a sahuagin. Its fingers are too long, its mouth is too big, and while sahuagin aren't heavy dresses they generally aren't completely nude. The dagger it is holding is clearly made of obsidian, as well. Given the natural sharpness and brittleness of obsidian, that weapon will be very dangerous despite its small size.

[Kish]

Risa chants and points at the creature; a fiery beam shoots from her finger.

Spoiler

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Scorching Ray: (1d20+5)[9] ranged touch, (1d20+5)[25] critical threat check, (4d6)[17] damage, (4d6)[17] critical damage.

[Avianmosquito]

The creature doesn't even react as the spell is cast, but when the spell hits it burns a pit into the creature's chest and it goes down right away, falling backwards onto the stairs. The creature is still alive, however, and the wound seems to be healing at an alarming rate. The alarmed shout of a second creature signals that company is incoming.

[WindStruck]

"Ah, it's still healing!" Fiona says.

She didn't have a weapon on hand.. well, she really wasn't the type for it. But she had to do something. Maybe tie up the creature? With some rope? There had to be some rope around here, right? This was a boat!

Spoiler

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Where can I get some rope.....
int check for memory: (1d20+4)[15]
spot check: (1d20+8)[24]
search check?: (1d20+6)[14]

[Avianmosquito]

The lack of sails has always meant there's very little rope on the ship, as it's not like there's rigging. There might be some down in storage, but by the time you reached storage and back the wound will have completely healed. There isn't any in view, and a cursory check doesn't reveal any either.

Now, the creature's wound has healed considerably and it seems to be stirring, but still isn't up yet. The opportunity to finish it may have been lost, as now the second one has arrived. This one is carrying a short spear, with two more stowed on its back, and the heads are once more made of obsidian. It seems to be physically stronger than the other one, and a bit heavier.

[Kish]

"Impressive regeneration. Can you do it again?" Risa blasts the regenerating sahaugin-thing.

[Avianmosquito]

It seems the creature has finally died, and its regeneration stops. The second one, however, is still hanging back. It throws a spear at Risa and misses, its spear slamming point-first into the wall opposite and falling to the floor. It takes out another spear, and stays where it is.

[WindStruck]

Fiona incants some arcane syllables, attemping to force the standing fish man into a stupor and do nothing.

Spoiler: rolls?

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So you really don't want rolls here?

Caster check: (1d20+1)[8]

The creature must make a DC 17 will save or be dazed for 1 round.... unless it doesn't happen to fall under the humanoid category, but hopefully this thing is close enough.

Oh, it also is immune if it has 5 HD or more.

[Avianmosquito]

The creature is unaffected by Fiona's spell, and lets out a high-pitched, painfully loud bark that physically shakes the deck and makes Risa's ears ring. The pain lingers, suggesting some actual damage was dealt. A little bit of blood drops from her nose, but only a bit.

[Kish]

Unable to hear, Risa takes a step back and flicks a drop of water toward the mutant sahuagin, which changes in midair to a blade of ice.

Spoiler

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No verbal component for Ice Knife. Ranged attack roll: (1d20+9)[16] Critical threat check: (1d20+9)[27] Overcome spell resistance: (1d20+5)[8] Damage: (2d8)[3] cold damage, plus 2 dexterity damage. Critical damage: (2d8)[6]. If it misses, it does (1d8)[3] cold damage to everyone within a 10 foot radius of where it hits, DC 15 Reflex save for half.

[Avianmosquito]

The blade of ice strikes the creature, dealing no damage but slowing it down a little bit. It seems somewhat resistant to cold. It tries throwing another spear, and once again its aim is horrible and it misses Risa wildly. It draws its last spear, still unable to hit anything to save its life.

[WindStruck]

The creature seemed unaffected by Fiona's spell. Not entirely sure if it just wasn't powerful enough or the creature had a strong will, Fiona tried something else. With another cantrip, she caused a bright burst of light to explode in front of the creatures face.

Then, weary of its sonic attack and the fact that it might have some clue about her presence, she changed position, flying back a bit and to the side.

[Avianmosquito]

The creature squints through the bright light and barks again, shaking the staircase but being too far to have any real effect on Risa or Fiona.

[Kish]

I can hear again. Risa steps back again and gestures, firing three darts of energy at the mutant sahuagin.

[Avianmosquito]

The sahuagin creature takes the missiles with a grasp of its chest and a shake of its head, but it's still stading. It seems hardier than the previous one. It throws its final spear to no ill effect, flying wildly off course yet again. Out of spears, it rushes right in to range with Risa, giving up on ranged attacks entirely.