Seaside 4: Where Every Week Is Shark Week

[Earl of Purple]

Pirate Ship

Doesn't matter if it takes a while; the zombies have no sense of self-preservation and just stand there, letting the pirates practice their marksmanship with muskets and pistols. The horde doesn't shrink, though. Not much, at least; the gunfire attracts others from deeper in the vessel, and they're standing so close some of the dead zombies can't fall over.

The surgeon's assistant loses his head easily, though the head keeps biting and gnashing at the air, the body falls over and ceases to move. The first casualty moves to get as close to the captain as possible, to grab and bite. And, coincidentally, reduce the efficacy of his sword's length.

Spectacle Sea Cave

Jack blinks as she gets the thought to flash back at the fish. That's... Odd, weird and physically impossible. She nearly turns back, but she doubts the current would let her, at this point. So she carries onwards into the cavern, trying not to step on the mussels or lose her balance- though her balance is more important than the immobile shellfish.

When she reaches the wall with the eyes, she takes her new kris and tries to insert it into one of the pupils. Hopefully it's not electrified, as Jack's understanding of electricity boils down to 'might as well be magic'.

[Deathkeeper]

[Operation Sea Slug]

Once they're safely off the cliff Will hops down, wrenching the imp off of him with his metal arm if it doesn't let go by itself. He grumpily fusses with his shirt.
"Okay. So. We're up here now and there's....nothing much here. So I guess we should just Wait?." he suggests to the group.

[Reinholdt]

[Tropical Island]

Ilpholin shrugs. "The party could have continued forever, I don't care. I chose to leave it to check out a sunken ship while riding a shark." She grins at Anika. Parties aren't any fun if you wait until the very end, when they die sad, slow deaths with only passed out drunks remaining.

"Do you have your own personal vendetta against this cult?" Ilpholin asks as she collects the stuff into the makeshift satchel and steps towards the ocean once more. It seemed like it, but then again, Anika seemed really into punching things in general, so it's kinda hard to tell for sure.

[Shadowcaller]

[Tropical Island]

Anika grins back. "True, that does sound more awesome than most parties I've been to." She admits. "As for the cult, they corrupted my moon wells, or rather my people's moon wells, that somehow ended up in this world. I figured I'd protect since I'm the only one around but the snake cult have been targeting them, using them to make gorgon children. It's really messed up. Figured I at least would learn why they're doing it." Especially considering her sister was one of the leaders of the cult...
Anika starts to carefully gather her clothes, treating them with utter care as she is brushing sand off them while moving towards the ocean as well.

[bc56]

Pirate Ship
The pirate captain is nothing if not a capable swordsman. Maybe not a master, but capable. He steps away from the zombie, giving a thrust toward its midsection as he does so.
The other sailors continue to fire at the zombies. Although they won't run out of bullets for a while, they will eventually, and guess where the main stores of powder and ammunition are? Belowdecks, with the zombies, of course.

[Rebonack]

[Spectacle Sea Cave]

The fish are sad.

Why won't Jack flash back at them?

What's wrong with her?

Everyone down here flashes.

That's just the way things work.

Jack really should flash back at the fish.

But wait, what's this? A knife in an eye? Why, whatever could that do? The knife slides in cleanly and then locks into place. No matter how hard Jack tugs (or the current tugs at her) it won't come loose.

Well.

That wasn't very exciting, now was it?

[Earl of Purple]

Pirate Ship

The zombie is stabbed in the torso, and it attempts to walk forward into the blade and still bite the captain. Stabbing doesn't really work, unless you stab the head. The zombie's not even close to dead.

I don't have numbers on the total number of crew, nor how many have fallen to the plague, so I can't say if there's more zombies than bullets. But a fair few have fallen to the bullets, and the numbers are certainly thinned possibly sufficiently.

Spectacle Sea Cave

The only flashing Jack can do, won't be appreciated by the fish. Maybe the odd fish-man or aquatic mammalian humanoid, but not these fish.

Wait. Yes she can. She flicks her torch on and off again.

If tugging doesn't work, Jack will push. If pushing doesn't work, she'll try twisting it. If twisting doesn't work, she'll try twisting in the other direction. If that doesn't work, she'll push and twist, one direction then the other. If that doesn't work, she's out of ideas for a moment and tries to stay put as she thinks.

[Reinholdt]

[Tropical Island]

Anika grins back. "True, that does sound more awesome than most parties I've been to." She admits. "As for the cult, they corrupted my moon wells, or rather my people's moon wells, that somehow ended up in this world. I figured I'd protect since I'm the only one around but the snake cult have been targeting them, using them to make gorgon children. It's really messed up. Figured I at least would learn why they're doing it." Especially considering her sister was one of the leaders of the cult...
Anika starts to carefully gather her clothes, treating them with utter care as she is brushing sand off them while moving towards the ocean as well.

[Tropical Island]

Ilpholin watches Anika take unusual care of her clothes. How odd. "What's a moon well?" Everything else more or less made sense.

[UncleWolf]

Operation Sea Slug

Titania takes a moment scan around, just to make sure it is safe before firing a cable over their ship. That way the people on board can drag in the line safely instead of her accidentally hitting someone or damaging the ship itself. Once the cable is fired, she opens her duffel and begins pulling out metal plates and bolts a foot long. The large plate is probably going to weigh a couple hundred pounds and has a large loop of metal on the top. "Actually Will, I could use your help." She admits. "Tammy's too." She adds before offering the plates and bolts over with a giant wrench. "Find a spot with firm ground a good fifteen feet or so away from the cliffside and get this anchored in. I'm going to pull the lines taut and give you enough slack to attach it to the anchor. If it isn't done right, we'll lose people and equipment as they come up." She explains.

Should it all be done correctly, those on the ship will be able to climb up easier but they'll still have a short climb of about two meters at the edge of the cliff.

[Rebonack]

[Spectacle Sea Cave]

The fish appear to appreciate Jack's flashing, and continue flashing back at her.

Pushing doesn't work.

Twisting, however, does.

There's a stone on stone sound of grinding, as well as the clicking of some delicate mechanism, as the eye turns. There comes a hiss of air and a crackle of magic as the stone cell peels apart, dumping a thing into the water. Said thing begins to flail violently, lashing about with almost flipper-like wings and stirring up silvery clouds of bubbles with each motion. Large brown eyes stare out at Jack from a mass of limbs and feathers and beaks, all sooty grey and white. Somewhere in the incoherent mass bright orange webbed hands scrabble frantically at the water. The whole thing is slicked as though with quicksilver, air clinging to its feathers.

Jack will find herself suddenly struck by an almost smothering sense of panic as the thing's emotions hit her like tidal wave. Whatever it is, it doesn't like the fact that it's been summoned here, intentionally or not. And it's trying to figure out how to be somewhere else instead. Great bubbles form and unform around it wish such violence that they cavitate, causing flashes of light and thunderous noise. The fish seem to like this, and flash back.

If Jack turns her attention to the hole it fell out of, she'll be able to make out lapping surface tension above, but she'll have to climb through the hole in the stone to reach it.

[Shadowcaller]

[Tropical Island]

"It's a well with magic water in it, very powerful. In the past its energies were used to summon demons so my people makes sure no outsiders come in touch with them." Anika explains. "So, as so some of them ended up here and no one else did. It's up to me to keep people away." Thought that wasn't really what she did with Wenomir...

Operation Sea Slug

They can see that the gnolls have started to fasten the fired cables to the ship and will soon start to transport over some of the equipment.
Meanwhile, the imp giggles and disappears in another puff of smoke, appearing next to Tammy who have leaped off the Bolos. "Aye, aye, captain robot!" She remarks while giving Titania a salute, something which the imp mimics, yet still sticks its tongue out at Titania the moment she looks away.

"Hey! Get to work, you!" Tammy orders the little demon who gives her the finger, yet then still goes to do as its told and runs off to find a good spot to attach the cables. Tammy follows along, nimbly avoiding all the thorns and cliffs in her way. It takes some effort though, it almost looks like the goblin is doing a obstacle course.

They won't find much life here at all, there are some creepy crawlies hiding among the thorns but nothing dangerous, just beetles and centipedes that flee as soon as they're spotted. The largest being on this rock being the lone bird circling above them.

[Earl of Purple]

Spectacle Sea Cave

Jack backs away from the thing of feathers and beaks and limbs, panicking a little as the thing's emotions hit her. She'll try to climb past it whilst avoiding its flailing limbs and cavitating bubbles and go through the hole it doesn't realise it's supposed to guard... Or at least, Jack hopes it doesn't realise it's supposed to guard the hole.

A thought occurs to her and is quickly pushed away, but... Just how is she to get out? The way she came, or will another path open up ahead? Or will she stay down here, stuck and lost forevermore?

[bc56]

Pirate Ship

The ship isn't very large, I'd say the crew is maybe 60 people, and guess 25-35 zombies

The captain draws one of his many daggers with his off hand and tries to stab the still-lunging zombie in the eye. Although he's not sure how to kill them, he is sure that this kills normal people, and that's good enough to try.

[Rebonack]

[Spectacle Sea Cave]

Maybe it wasn't supposed to be guarding the hole at all?

Maybe that's just what it was dumped out of?

Maybe it was someone else, trapped down here until the strange magic of the place warped?

Or... maybe that was her? And time was twisted around until she encountered herself after being stuck down in this hole for uncounted years, slowly warping from exposure to malign magic?

Or maybe it was just a weird monster.

Regardless!

Jack now finds herself in a small soapstone chamber full of eyes. Simple, geometric icons surrounded by flowing shapes that weave back into themselves. She gets the itching feeling that they're watching her. Should she look closer... those flowing shapes are strangely reminiscent of feathers. There's an uncanny sense of, perhaps, opposed forces here. After a fashion. The birds with the eyes and the fish with the spirals... there's a tension. Conflict. The dagger... that dagger is still in her hand. The eyes on the hilt are crossed out. Gouged. A mockery, that's what it is. Defilement. Defiler.

The accusing emotion prods at her like a finger to the chest. Not a defiler? Then plunge that dagger into the heart of darkness. Follow the current. Find its beating heart. How do you know that, Jack? How do you know?

Why, a little bird must have told you.

Or... or she could just gouge out all the eyes. It would be easy. Let the water come flowing up into this last little refuge. Let the water fill her lungs until it wriggles out through her neck. Swim and splash and flash with all the fishes in the deep dark. Forever.

The moon pool shimmers below her as she looks down, now standing in open air again. Or crouching, at least. The roof in here is a bit low. She can breath here, but the air smells musty. Like a nest that needs to be cleaned.

[Deathkeeper]

[Operation Sea Slug]

Will obviously can’t move the hundred-pound plate, but he can take the smaller ones and some bolts.
Will does his best to follow Tammy. Just a year ago or two he would have been good at this, like he was good at getting through crowds. But now he’s out of practice and significantly larger. It isn’t long before he’s been nicked several times.
”Hey uh, Tammy? Maybe I should just toss these to you...” he certainly could throw the supplies better than he could avoid all these brambles...

[Earl of Purple]

Pirate Ship

Yep, that works. The dagger enters the zombie's eye, and the brain beyond. The zombie falls, possibly twisting the knife from the captain's hand. The captain has time to recover it before anything else pops up and attacks.

Meanwhile, if they've got more than twenty shots, the other pirates could probably kill the herd at the hatch the pirates are shooting from.

Spectacle Sea Cave

Jack... Decides not to stab the eyes. They're feathered, that means they're birds, and she's a bird, and she wouldn't like it if somebody went and stabbed her in the eyes. Fish, though? A creepy fish lady tried to eat her earlier, and she's been getting the urge to try bioluminescing at the other fish and that's weird and creepy. She could just leave, that's tempting, but... The current. Fighting the current would be hard, and going with it should be easier than fighting it, especially if there's something at the other end waiting to take advantage of her weakness from fighting through it.

So Jack leaves the room, and heads in the direction the current is pushing her, kris in hand as she's ready to do what the little birdy told her.

[bc56]

Pirate Ship

The pirates had enough ammo, but they're not excellent shots. They could fell maybe half the zombies before they ran out of bullets and powder.
The captain reaches down and pulls the knife out of the corpse, wiping it on the dead sailor's clothes before continuing toward the front of the ship where the zombies are, sword in one hand and dagger in the other.

[Reinholdt]

[Tropical Island]

"That's got to be rough for just one person. It sounds like there's more than one? Even just one would be hard to watch all the time." Anika needs to hire out or start a sentinel group of some kind.

"Maybe you should use up all the power doing useful things so there's no more to utilize. Or just destroy them altogether." Since they can summon demons and all. Best get a head start on that problem and just shut them down hard, Ilpholin figures.

[Rebonack]

[Spectacle Sea Cave]

As Jack slips back into the water the silvery skin tight bubble forms around her again. Now that she's moving with purpose, moving with the current rather than fighting it, making headway is a little easier. But shuffling along through the water, over the slick rocks and sharp muscles and around the giant grasping anemonies that are always reaching for her... That impedes progress. She doesn't make it more than a few meters down the tunnel before she comes upon that awful feathered thing that had been dumped out of the moon pool.

Dead.

In its wild flailings it must have fallen into the brine fissure. Most of its flesh is already wrinkled and ruined, though one pair of wings are still flapping futility above the brine, apparently heedless to the fact that the rest of the creature is dead. As Jack passes the wings regard her, which might seem odd. Wings usually don't regard people, since they lack eyes. But these ones don't appear to have that shortcoming. A pair of disturbingly human-like eyes set into the wrist joint of the wings track Jack's movements, briefly ceases their wild flailing.

And then?

Then a very strange thing will happen.

The wings detach from the dead bird thing with little more than a puff of sooty black feathers to join them, releasing a small crimson cloud from the bird's spine as they break free. Then they'll effortlessly fly through the water and attempt to seamlessly bind onto Jack's back just below her shoulder blades. She's on an errand for the Bird With Unblinking Eyes. And it appears as though the Bird has seen fit to aid her. Should the wings bind to her, they'll irrevocably become part of her. She'll be able to see things through those eyes, secret things. Hidden things. And the occasional revelation that she might otherwise wish NOT to see. What's more, her new auk wings are perfectly shaped for flying underwater and will improve her mobility tremendously. Very useful if another unfriendly fish decides she looks delicious.

Or.

She could reject the gift. Continue on in her own power. The Bird probably wouldn't even notice. Or care, even if it did. She felt its Gaze upon her for a few scant moments, but once she resolved to stab the abyssal heart its Gaze moved on.

Either way, Jack can hear the dull thrum of the water ahead. That pulsing, sucking sound of a drain. Like the beating of a heart. She's getting close to her destination.

[Earl of Purple]

Pirate Ship

The captain runs towards the ten zombies that remain clustered at the hatch! If he's silent, they won't notice his approach and he can start killing before they can react.

There is a slight problem, though. There's another six crew from this deck or below who haven't been accounted for. Possibly including the surgeon; I'm not so cruel as to deprive the vessel of its only medic if bc56 doesn't want me to.

Spectacle Sea Cave

Jack's sad to see the thing die; even if it was horrid and weird, it didn't deserve to be pickled alive. Though maybe it wasn't a surprise, given how many wings it had- must have been pretty hard to steer or control movement with so many. She's startled when the wings look at her, and more surprised when they detach and try to attach themselves to her. She's a little too shocked to resist, and so the wings will be able to push themselves onto her body. They can glide seamlessly through her shirt; it's enchanted to keep shapeshifters decent, so random additional appendages are sort-of expected by the magic. She winces as she feels the new nerves connect up, and gives them an experimental flap before powering through the water, aided by her new wings.

[Shadowcaller]

[Tropical Island]

"What? No way, that energy was used to summon demons into our world once, starting a gigantic demonic invasion. It would be like using demon magic to fight demons. All it can be safely used for is restoring lost energy." Anika explains as she now is fully dressed in her bikini. "But speaking of, there is actually supposed to be a moon well here in Seaside. I had a map of them all but, uh..." She shrugs. "Can't really keep that in a bikini, am I right? I left it back at VIGIL, so I guess we should just check out the temples."

[bc56]

Pirate Ship

It's okay if the surgeon dies, I was intending for all the pirates to die except the captain anyway.

The captain charges the zombies from behind and slashes at the closest one, hoping to behead it before the others notice him.

[Rebonack]

[Spectacle Sea Cave]

The new wings work.

In fact, there's an almost effortlessness to their use. Flying underwater really doesn't feel that different from flying in the air, there's just way more resistance. The eerie eyes set into the wing's wrist joints, eyes Jack is now seeing through, easily pick out dangerous eddies and hostile marine life clinging to the rocks and posing a hazard to Jack. Without having to worry about razor sharp muscles and killer worms and slipping into the brine fissure, Jack reaches her destination in no time.

And that destination is...

Something awful.

It's easy to tell now why the current came in pulsing tugs. Set into the middle of a stone chamber roughly five meters across is a huge heart, for lack of better words. Though instead of raw muscle its bony white plates, purplish connective tissue, and a pair of valves that open and close rhythmically. One on the top sucking in sea water. The other below, regurgitating brine. Vile shapes slither in the brine here, bubbling, popping, shifting things of congealed protoplasm and calcareous hooks. If not for her new wings, it would be difficult to struggle against the current without being sucked into the armored 'heart' of this corrupted place. So... that's the thing she came here for. She'll just have to stab it, right?

Too bad several psudopods covered in wicked barbs and saw-toothed suckers are reaching for her out of the brine, apparently aware of her murderous intent. This time around, the shoggoths are very much real.

[Reinholdt]

[Tropical Island]

"I guess I'm not understanding this moon well energy that well." Or rather, why they haven't destroyed them yet. It sounds even worse now. "Though I can imagine a few ways to make use of that energy boost..." Ilpholin smirks. "Maybe we can run it out with a proper bender later."

Wenomir and Anika's actions make much more sense now.

Ilpholin looks at the map once more and reorients towards the closest temple she thinks is within range and points in that direction. "Alright, that way. After you." Since Anika's her ride.

[Shadowcaller]

[Tropical Island]

"Um.... maybe! They're kinda sacred too. They're sacred for our goddess, see." She shakes her head. "But enough jabbering, let's roll." She takes a step forwards and then quickly starts starts running straight out into the ocean, finally making a dive and disappearing beneath the waves. The fey-shark soon emerging afterwards, grinning at Ilpholin.

[Earl of Purple]

Pirate Ship

The six crew still missing include two powder monkeys, three gunners, and the surgeon. They might be alive and hiding down here, they might be dead and unable to move, they might have been dealt with by another crew who then didn't make it or they may be wandering on a lower deck.

The captain's able to decapitate the first zombie, silently taking it out of the fight. It collapses to the floor, the head still biting, and the others don't notice the fleshy edible man in their midst. He can probably kill two or three more before they realise something's up, turning a horde of nine into a pack of six or seven, and that's far more survivable than a herd of ten.

Spectacle Sea Cave

Wow, this is great! Jack's never felt so free as a human, and she's getting used to the eyes, too. Even if, the fact they can see the danger of the brine-pool raises the uncomfortable notion that the auk-thing knew what it was doing when it blundered in to be pickled alive.

She's got the kris, a shovel, and a knuckleduster, but that's it. Letting those shoggoths get close enough to touch her would be... Less than ideal. She's going to think like a bird, but... She's a little too big to be as agile as she wants. So Jack starts to shrink and puts the shovel into her satchel. Black feathers spring from her arms and back, a beak springs from her jaw and nose and her boots split into a jackdaw's talons. She'll take the kris into her beak if it hasn't shifted with her (and somehow, that wouldn't surprise her) and take advantage of the slight bubble around her keeping her feathers dry as she flies past... Or swims, whatever. Jackdaws aren't the most agile of birds, but they don't really have to be right now. Just more agile than a mass of undifferentiated cells that don't know how biology is supposed to work.

She's not sure what her new wings and eyes will do, though. So she's quite interested in finding out.

[Rebonack]

[Spectacle Sea Cave]

That is certainly a possibility. Of course, that awful thing had way too many wings and arms and eyes and faces and beaks all jumbled up together. He also had those telekinetic abilities going completely haywire. Maybe he overdosed on whatever power has been passed on to Jack. There is, after all, too much of a good thing. Something that can be helpful in moderation can quickly become deadly in large concentrations. Maybe he somehow absorbed way too much 'Birdness' and went kind of crazy?

Or maybe he was just cooped up in that tiny room for way too long and went insane from the isolation.

Either way, he may very well have taken his own life just now.

But that isn't Jack's main concern right now. No, Jack's main concern is not getting phagocytized by a shoggoth. The new limbs shrink along with her, remaining sooty-feathered auk wings properly sized for her present form to allow for flight both above and below water.

Or... no. Not sized properly. Sized relative to an auk. The proportion doesn't change, despite the fact that wings would have to be MASSIVE to hold up a human. Normal auk wings. With eyes in the wrist joints. They shouldn't be sufficient to fly with. But they are. Because she Wills It So. She flies because she is supposed to be able to fly. And that's all there is to it. Now smaller and more agile, Jack will have no trouble maneuvering around the shoggoth and drawing close the beating, armored heart. As near as she is now, she can feel the pulsing tug of the current. Not just water moving, but space itself. The sensation that down is redefined in this place as all directions that point to the heart. More importantly, though, she can see that there are sludgy joints between the bony plates of armor. If she landed on the heart, she could easily ram the golden dagger into it.

[bc56]

Pirate Ship

The captain does exactly that, moving in to attack the remaining zombies, slashing at the nearest ones aggressively, then suddenly turning and running away, hoping to lead the other zombies away from the ladder so the rest of the crew can come down and fight them.

[Earl of Purple]

Pirate Ship

The captain's sword cleaves easily through the dead flesh of another three zombies before the rest of the herd notice and move to attack him. One has had its head sliced in two, another was decapitated, and the third was dispatched by a blow to the spine that has mostly severed the head. They turn and lurch after him, though they aren't too quick and two will remain behind, more interested in the pirates at the top of the ladder. That means there's four zombies chasing the captain, and two waiting for the pirates at the ladder.

Did anyone save a bullet or two?

Spectacle Sea Cave

Jackdaws aren't small birds, but aren't large birds, either. They are the smallest corvids in the UK, after magpies. Auks... Auks come in all shapes and sizes, and it depends on if it's a puffin or a larger variety. Puffin would be too small, at least a little.

That's good, that the heart is its own gravity. Makes landing on it easier. Once she has landed on the heart- without thinking too much about how she managed to fly with two pairs of wings- she'll start to transform back into a human, at least far enough that she can move the kris from her beak to a hand and start stabbing between the plates.

[Rebonack]

[Spectacle Sea Cave]

The result of stabbing that knife into the heart is probably a bit more dramatic than Jack was expecting. The heart wrenches this way and that, making ear-splitting squealing noises as bits of meat and bone ablate away. Light pours from the wound as cracks worm their way across the thing's surface, bleeding still more radiance into the once dimly lit chamber. And then with a sound like contents crashing into each other, the heart bursts into a shower of faintly glittering dust.

Well! That wasn't so bad!

Then comes a pulse that violently accelerates Jack away. Within half a heartbeat, Jack may notice that seawater filling most of the chamber is completely gone and she is instead tumbling through open air. Thankfully her new auk wings should begin flapping almost instinctively, finding purchase in the air in spite of how large and heavy she is right now. Enough so that they SHOULD manage to prevent her from mashing into the stone wall.

She might still bump into it, though.

Which would be uncomfortable.

The brine down in the fissure is completely gone, replace with sea water and wholesome marine life. Normal fish. Normal sea stars. Normal anemones. Normal kelp. The sort one would find in shallow tide pools. The eerie, unnatural corals and sponges that encrust the walls of the cavern, now exposed to the air, quickly shrivel and perish. The shoggoth gives a great wheezing noise as it deflates like a sad balloon, leaving nothing more heap of rank flesh behind. From above comes a low rumble as a chunk of the ceiling caves in, bringing with it a shaft of sunlight and the fresh scent of ocean air. A gull's cry sounds from above as the bird descends onto the dead shoggoth.

If Jack waits around for more than a few minutes, she'll have a front row seat to a flock of gulls pecking at the dead horror while bickering with one another.

Sea water runs down the fissure, pooling at the heap of jumbled stone rubble where the heart once was. The heavy sense of wrongness is gone. Jack no longer feels like she has the weight of an ocean pressing down on her. The malign presence that occupied this place with death and pelagic horrors has vanished away.

It would appear...

It would appear as though Jack is triumphant.

Jack leveled up!
+2 Will
+2 Perception
+2 Realness
-1 Humanity
-1 Jackdawnes


Feat Unlocked!
Touched by Pneuma: Jack is now marked by the power of Pneuma, The Bird of Unblinking Eyes! Reality bends to her Will, providing her a luck bonus to anything she actively and willfully attempts to accomplish. Empyreans, fae, and other marked mortals will recognize her mark and act accordingly.

Feat Unlocked!
Water Wings: Jack's new auk wings allow her to fly both in air and water regardless of form!