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 Posted: Tue Apr 25, 2006 6:43 am
Crappity crap, thought Ennis. That'll mean that Nell's side lost already, or certes she'd have told the people she sent down what we're about.
Jack, addle-tongued as he may have been, was quicker on the draw than Ennis. "Aye, an' the Bombs're what 'ee seeks, m'wager? As I knows a twain of mates what ne'er stood for standin', that'd be 'ee, by yer lights. Yar, tar'n tangle me should me back nae be in it for th' bell a-ringin', aye! I'll nae be a stan'about for then!"
The first privateer down scratched his head. The second shrugged. Neither showed a glimmer of understanding.
"Gerramove on, then!" Ennis snapped after a measured pause. "What's her range?"
Locke and the others were forgotten in the sudden rush to prepare the catapult. Bei slipped away to join Gellen and Sahlana.
-------
Sao watched everyone jump to at Morgan's call. It was no wonder there had been a mutiny - there weren't many of the crew who had any force of will. Sao had been surprised at the number of mutineers the normally wavery Nell had been able to raise.
As everyone dashed to their appointed stations, Krill tossed up her hands and cursed. Sorbet had apparently been beyond her aid, and Garn was now doing the formalities of ensuring that Sorbet was indeed beyond hope. Another casualty in the failed mutiny.
As for Nell herself, she strode up the steps to the foredeck and snatched down the spyglass from where its case hung on a peg. She proceeded to take stock of the Nautica. After a moment, she called in a lackluster voice: "Yellow over black." Which meant that the Nautica offered quarter if the Stonefish would heave to. Otherwise, there would be no quarter given at all.
"We don't have enough fathom for to heave," one of the fence-riders sang out from astern. "We'd have to follow 'em."
His mate smacked the back of his head. "An' we're givin' in, then, on your authority, I suppose?"
Sighing, Sao heaved herself to her feet and stumbled toward the mast for support. She glanced Morganwards. "Permission to use a ship's potion, sir?"
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Posted: Fri Apr 28, 2006 8:46 pm
The room quickly turned into one of mass movement and commotion. Locke stayed as far away as he could, hoping to not attract attention. He concentrated hard on this, and soon found himself reaching for his neck.
"Ouch...", he muttered under his breath, wincing in slight pain. "The poison...will it ever stop affecting me?" He kept his hand on his neck in hopes that the hurt would cease. This sort of thing was not unusual for Locke; ever since his brother accidentally bumped into a jar of Marlboro poison, causing it to fall onto him, an unsuspecting youngster. Despite the healing abilities of his mother, the side effects of the poison could not completely be cured. He still had to deal with repercussions of the pains, and was extra-sensitive to any other poisons he came in contact with.
He did remember, though, an upside to this (if there can be considered one). His skill with poison magic was uncanny. Once when a kid on the island had knocked him down, he had been so angry that he sent him to the medic for weeks with a few nasty spells. This memory brought a slight smile to his face, and also brought him back to reality.
"The ship is about to be overtaken...oh Shiva! I have to do something!"
Recalling the mention of equipment, he ran into the hallway and found Sahlana and a couple others rummaging through a chest of items.
"Ah yes...I should get my equipment, then. I believe my staff is in there, and perhaps I left my book as well." He got into the semi-line and awaited his turn at searching for items.
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Posted: Thu May 04, 2006 6:26 pm
Deck of the Stonefish
Having secured her belongings and seen that her message to the others belowdecks had been received, Sahlana climbed back to the deck and surveyed the situation.
Sometime during the battle onboard the ship had began to list to the left, so now the oncoming ship was clearly visible avast and to starboard. They hadn't veered and were still coming straight on; Sahlana wondered if their veer might be interpreted as getting into position to cannon the ... what did she call it?...the Nautica. Well, from what she heard belowdeck, that was precisely the plan.
Seeing injured, Sahlana approached a woman barking orders to the others. She was waiting for a lull when a privateer asked for permission for a potion.
"Pardon," Sahlana interjected, "but I do have some skill as a healer, if you've need of me."
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Posted: Thu May 11, 2006 11:45 am
Morgan looked up at Sao's request. "Ya, o'course! We'll be needin' ya healed up for long." As she was saying this, Sahlana's voice reached her ears. Turning around, she assessed the young woman quickly. "Yer wif them pirates, aye? Eh, long as you stick to your healin', tha'll be fine. Sao here needs ya the worst, I'ma thinking. Jest watch yerself, I'll be watchin' ye."
With this Morgan started off on her way avast to oversee the preparations, casting a meaningful backwards glance at the healer. She knew Sao could take care of herself, but she was injured, and there was no way Morgan wanted to lose her friend to carelessness.
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Posted: Fri May 12, 2006 3:59 pm
"Morg - ma'am - er, sir," cried out a privateer stumbling up from belowdecks. "Th' pirates have already been into their goods, an' a few of 'em are armin' themselves!"
Disgraced mate Nell smirked toward her new acting captain at that, but kept her mouth shut as Morgan mounted the foredeck.
Bloody wonderful, but nothing to be done about it now so long's they stay decent and don't skewer anyone, Sao thought. Turning to Sahlana, she inclined her head. "I'd be much indebted for some assistance, lass. By the name of? I'm Sao." She gave the (former) captive a quick glance-over - girl didn't look much, but she gave an air of capability nonetheless.
Meanwhile, kneeling amidships over Captain Ayn, Garn furiously searched his memory for what to do in this case. Pulmonary resuscitation? Tracheotomy? Fluid irrigation? Of course, it was academic at this point, as the air loss would have caused brain damage by now. Sure, it was choking instead of wasting disease, but once again, the scourge of the seas had claimed another victim. The captain had apparently half-swallowed a plug of chewing tobacco when she went down for the last time.
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Posted: Sat May 20, 2006 9:47 pm
Sepia hid amongst the rafters in the hold, having doused the lanterns in the area. When the fighting broke out she tried to head for the munitions room to arrange some 'fun' for the crew's quarters later, but abandoned that idea when she recieved a tip that it was occupied from some of the crew's inane blabbering inside - it wouldn't do to be caught preparing a surprise party by some of the guests of honor, and starting the fun early for their sakes would be counterproductive.
To pass the time, she worked on her mask for this little romp - she grabbed packing lichen, some kind of adhesive, an old belt, a burlap sack, and a bottle of deep red loque. She had already cut the general shape out of the burlap, and attached the belt and ltchen to it, and was working on cutting the eyes-holes out with her knife when she heard people rushing to the munitions room.
She figured they weren't planning on doing something stupid like sinking the ship, so it really didn't concern her much; she had no reason to help either side of the mutiny, and as long as they were busy with each other she wouldn't be important enough to bother with. She was, in effect, completely safe and free to do as she pleased - She wagered that she could get away with pissing in the captain's private stocks, if she were so inclined and wasn't concerned that it could be seen as an improvement.
With the tragic death of a pirate's evening of fun she dyed her mask and set it on top of a rafter in a corner of the room to dry (Or at least get as dry as things could on a ship, minding the pun) and began indulging herself by relaxing, content in the knowledge that her work was doing itself for her on the deck.
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Posted: Mon May 22, 2006 7:39 pm
Once it was his turn, Locke reached into the chest and pulled out the small book that was his. He placed it into the pocket of his vest, and went back to the chest to grab his staff. After a quick check to make sure he hadn't left anything else in the stores (he had snagged someone's ether just in case, as well as a handful of antidote leaves, stuffing both into another vest pocket unnoticed), he stepped back from the chest to allow someone else a turn. He felt slightly bad about stealing someone else's stores, but then again, he was amongst pirates. It would not likely be missed, anyways; there were more important things to worry about.
He remembered Sahlana moving toward the ladder to the deck after she grabbed her gear. Locke felt it was best to follow her, since he would rather have a friendly person nearby than be stuck here amongst the pirates, even though they were preoccupied with starting up the cannons. Plus, Locke needed some experience in battle, especially if he wanted to be useful to these privateers. He secretly wished they'd let him stay onboard after they got ride of the pirates; the last thing Locke wanted was to be sent to prison with them.
Locke shuddered and shook off the thought of what they could do to him there, and began walking to the ladder. He said a small prayer of blessing to Shiva as he climbed above deck, taking in the smell of the sea air and the feel of it against his face. He smiled as the tiny bird in his pocket cheeped, and stepped out into the ruckus of battle preparations.
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Posted: Wed May 24, 2006 12:13 pm
The girl returned Sao's nod. "Sahlana," she replied, before gesturing for permission to more closely examine the wounds. Luckily, they didn't appear to be beyond her ability to heal.
She closed her eyes and began to murmur quietly, trying to gather her strength like she had been taught. Sahlana couldn't concentrate well enough with her eyes open, but since closed eyes lent the practice of magic an air of mystique her problems with focusing didn't concern her too much.
Instead, she relied on the tricks she had learned of the trade; they were enough to get by. If you have trouble keeping the image of a white ball in your mind, her tutor had told her more than Sahlana cared to remember, just envision the chandelier in the foyer. And while it felt rather malapropos to be envisioning a chandeleir while on a privateering ship, that didn't seem to affect the spell one way or another. The Cure still went off just fine.
Sahlana had opened her eyes to smile when she was suddenly thrown off her feet as the ship lurched unexpectedly; if she'd had the presence of mind to look, the Bomb flying through the air towards the Nautica would have explained the lurch. As it was, she instead decided to stay down on the deck for a moment and nurse her bruised elbow.
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Posted: Wed May 24, 2006 8:46 pm
Sepia snapped out of her relaxing daydreams of mass murder with a sickening THOOMP and a lurch, putting a hand to the support column she was leaning against to prevent herself from falling. It wasn't so much that the sound or the lurch were either all that sickening, so much as she knew what that sound meant and it was the kind of thing that makes the bottom fall-out of whatever organ seems the most relevent at the time.
Even pirates were smart enough to not play with fire in the powder room, and there were enough stories of angry bombs turning on their 'owner' when there wasn't anything else to destroy. Logically, if they're smart enough to not play around and they let a bomb loose, then either they intend to destroy an anemy ship, or they intend to destroy their enemy's ship;
either they were under attack, or somebody was trying to scuttle the ship.
Of course, being under attack yielded only a few choices and even fewer options. Ok, lets break this down:
I could stay on the ship and either repel or aid the invaders or sabateurs, but like heck I'm going to save a pirate's life without a damn good reason.
Or I could try to steal a landing craft and hope that either we're near shore or that a ship will come along. If we're getting attacked, then we're not in sight of any kind of help either way.
... I suppose it never hurts to hedge my bets.
She swung down from the rafters and started looking around for some way to get outside that didn't take her onto the deck or near a cannon - choice limitations abounded.
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Posted: Wed May 24, 2006 10:42 pm
Sao had been so intent on the relief of the Cure spell that she had missed Morgan's command to fire. She recovered her balance well enough - long years of storm compensation more than readied her for a surprise ballista shot - and extended an arm to help Sahlana up.
"My thanks," Sao said with a wry grin. "I'd offer to check on that arm for you, but I fear we'd be caught in a vicious cycle."
Her grin faltered, however, at the next words spoken on deck, these from Garn the healer:
"Sir? Morgan? ... Regret to inform ye, Cap'n Ayn's done in. Choked, she did."
Silence for a moment on deck. Chuckwilleran removed his bandana from his head in a clumsy show of respect.
Morgan turned on Nell, the spark in her gaze almost nasty enough to ignite the oilcloth of the jib. "An' that's for your little spell, then. So it's a murder trial for yer hide on shore. An while it'll be again' my judgement, I may as testametize t'yer good will in yeildin' if'n ye behave yerself. So have a care f'yer actions from here to then, savvy?"
Nell's reply was a cold stare before she returned to the spyglass. And after a brief moment: "Bomb's blown on enemy deck, sir. A few down."
Sao sighed. "That'll be it, then," she confided to Sahlana. "We're for it now. How're you with that pigsticker there?" She pointed at the dagger Sahlana had requisitioned from belowdecks.
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Posted: Thu May 25, 2006 9:51 am
Sepia caught a glimpse out of a porthole of a ship, and paused in her accelerated combat sneaking (Read: Running like hell because nobody's paying attention) to take a closer look.
Yellow over black, and they're on fire. Must have been hit by that bomb... I wonder...
Sepia rushed off to take a closer look at the powder room - If it launched with a cannon, then she could 'conveniently' set-off a room full of powder to make it look like the mutiny had taken a very, very wrong turn.
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Posted: Sat Jun 03, 2006 2:37 pm
Pirate ship: Nautica -> Cargo Hold
*Enieffac awakes from his uneasy sleep in the cargo hold, having fallen to the rocking floor from his ceiling-mounted hammock. After swearing and complaining about landing on his hammer, he gets up off the dirty floor, rubbing his neck.*
"Damned pirates and their love for forcing engineers to- what the hell is that smell?"
*Enieffac smelled smoke, which was a definite improvement to the average smell of the cargo hold: forgotten rotting food, rats, and one of the ship hands had an annoying habit of collecting the femurs of fallen opponents, and felt the flesh should be cleaned off 'naturally'. So, in essence, the room smelled like death and arse.*
*He opens the door that leads into the main hallway, which surprisingly lacked guards posted right outside. there was smoke coming from some of the closed doors and rooms, with light emanating from the open door frames.*
Okay, this can't be good. There's normally someone out here to tell me my mouth looks 'purdy' and that I'd get back to work if I wanted to keep from having my duties on board expanded.
*Enieffac goes back into the cargo hold and collects his alchemy kit, fastening it to his pants' waist, opposite his hammer. After collecting the last of his possessions, he then walks along the hallway and then opens the door to the deck.*
*The deck of the Nautica was close to chaos, if not far beyond it. There were flames every which way, and there was a hole in the deck above where one of the rooms was located. Enieffac began listening to the random shouts of the crew, and gathered the following: That there was a Bomb attacking the ship, it was fired at the ship by a ship they were going to attack, and the fact that there are apparently no weapons on board that aren't melee, as they're pirates.*
"Oh shitcock."
*Enieffac decides this would be a good time to figure out a way of escaping. the two boats are too far away yet for him to board the attacking ship directly, and he was fairly certain it didn't have any ladder for him to climb up if he decided to try and swim to it. He begins to regret his refusal to take up acrobatics in his childhood.*
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Posted: Sat Jun 03, 2006 8:43 pm
Sahlana responded to Sao's question with a somewhat hesitant smile. "No official training with daggers, if that's what you mean." Then, feeling as if more was needed. "Mostly just a few tricks here and there. I used to watch knife fights as a hobby. But I never took lessons."
Her little monologue immediately made her feel like an idiot. Lessons? Who on a pirate ship has taken bloody lessons in combat? Tritoch's underfeathers, I'm an idiot.
Since she figured that the wisest thing she could do was fall silent and walk away, Sahlana did just that.
Morgan continued to shout orders, hoping to get the ship turned with its cannon toward the Nautica without opening itself up to the larger ship's arms as well as trying to get the crew prepared in the event of a boarding. Luckily for the Stonefish, the deck of the Nautica seemed to have grown somewhat chaotic, and whoever had been manning the wheel was apparently distracted by the Bomb on board the ship.
A Bomb which, Sahlana noted, had certainly grown in size since it had first been launched.
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Posted: Sat Jun 03, 2006 9:03 pm
Someone on the Nautica's deck had the brilliant idea of launching a throwing dagger at the Bomb. Now, the monster in question had been merrily attacking with melee swipes and close-in Fire spells, keeping itself healed while dealing fire damage to its opponents. But its MP was running quite low, and its HP was dangerously short. So it was building up its hatred for its final release. And now some little prig with a yen for ranged combat was trying to axe it before it could break out its big finale.
So what does a monster with a fly speed do when attacked by a knife-thrower? It goes flying at the little dreck. Who immediately, stupidly, responds by urinating in his drawers and fleeing for...
... the rigging.
Whereupon the Bomb, dangerously close to oiled canvas, attacked him. And was attacked in turn. The final straw, as it were... the Bomb, rather than let its final 3 HP be sliced away, decided that even if it couldn't catch all the pirates below it in its blast, it would damn well get this one.
The explosion was just loud enough to be heard as a flat crack in the Stonefish's lower deck. It was deafening on the Nautica. And up went the sails.
-------
Sao's expression came from the "WTF" file; she understood that Sahlana had just cut and run to avoid compounding embarrassment, but hell, Sao was quite capable of a foot sandwich herself, and she had hoped to reassure the mage that everything was all right. She was prepared to follow and reassure her, but then the light show started on the enemy vessel, and she decided that someone had better organize the boarding party.
So Sao started picking former mutineers. Who better to be the first on the receiving end of pirate rapiers? And Nell was the first one she pointed at.
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Posted: Sat Jun 03, 2006 9:40 pm
As she approached the powder room, she heard the people talking inside and stopped before crossing the threshold. flattening herself against the wall, she peeked around the corner to see two pirates going about trying to position another bomb's cage so that they could load it into the ballista.
Damnit, occupied. Not that it matters, since they aren't cannon-launching them anyway...
A sound like a crack of thunder wrapped thick in socks resounded from the open ballista port, and Sepia figured that at this point what she does isn't of much importance, as it sounded like the Nautica had started returning fire. Rule number one was in effect.
Ignoring the pirates, she ran up to the ballista hole and took a look outside. The Nautica wasn't all that close, but the ballista could obviously peg it at this distance so she wasn't concerned about range. Also, it was already on fire, which served her purposes nicely. Turning to the pirates (Who were more than likely a tad surprised by her sudden appearance), she pointed at the second bomb.
"Toss that back in it's cell! They're in chaos already and we don't want it finishing them to go rouge on us."
Doing a sort of kick-vault over a barrel, she grabbed a smallish powderkeg and hauled it over to the ballista.
"We need to buy some time for the crew on deck to pull themselves together"
She hefted it onto the launch runnings, tossed the keg's lid aside and tossed her head towards the nautical
"Aim to peg it off the fore bridge wall on the port side, right into the fire. That'll keep them entertained for a bit."
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