BountyOfTheSeas/Session11

BEGIN CHAPTER 11
A long sea voyage ahead of them, the crews and leadership of the Brilliance and the Emancipation settle in for the inevitable daily task of coping with boredom.
Zeleny has used the long voyage as an excuse to spring more weapons drills on the crew. They are taking it in good humor. For the moment.
The pirate ships made a quick detour after fending off the joint attacks of the Guild and the local Wyld Hunt, meeting up with the Starlit Waters mere hours before she pulled in to the now-hostile port of Hoark.
The barbarian ex-slaves have joined the voyage to the north, and many of Irisa's former employees have stayed on as well, both to tend their semi-coherent charges and to aid in the rescue of "Mistress Irisa."
Whatever Irisa did to inspire such loyalty, she must have been an excellent employer.
(Consider the floor open, if anyone wants to chime in.)
(Otherwise, we'll do training montages and gloss over most of the journey.)
<Zeleny> (training montage ahoy, I think)
<Verdant> (All I got is training montage submissions)
(That's cool.)
Verdant joins the crew in sparring matches. At first the crew is unnerved by his presence, but quickly learn that his focus is not on attack, but defense. His speed and fluidity of motion is rapidly improving. Other times he can be found in his room with the door blocked by a crate. Strange lights seep out from underneath the door.
<Zeleny> From sunup to sundown, Zeleny spends his time on deck. The sun burns hot on his back, but he seems not feel it- though he is often in a strange mood, as if lost in thought...or in memory.
<Zeleny> In the vast oceans of the West, there is the sea, the sun, and little else to hold a man's attention.
One afternoon, seemingly like every other, the Sun speaks to Zeleny.
Fire that burns white with purity cuts through his vision, his meager clothing, feeling as though it lances through his very soul.
There are no words that you or I would know as such, but nonetheless, Zeleny and the Sun speak to one another.
The Sun speaks of Destiny, of Greatness, of Honor.
<Zeleny> And Zeleny speaks of Freedom.
Amazingly, the light brightens further still, until Zeleny stands not on the deck of his ship, but on war-torn battlefields of ages past.
He sees the monuments to the Sun, torn down, forgotten, left to rot under the indomitable strain of the infinite Wyld.
He sees friends, lovers, brothers in arms cut down in cruelest treachery, a kingdom of men-become-gods toppled by the pettiest of jealousies and the grandest acts of selflessness.
He sees wonders unceasing, and when it ends, Zeleny the former slave feels reborn, even as he lies face-up on the salt-sprayed deck of the gently-rocking Brilliance. He stares unblinking at the orb of fire above, until his crew shakes him from his reverie.
Zeleny nods to Niehan, and returns to the minuatie of life aboard ship...while not forgetting visions.
(V, I assume the blocking the door thing is still working on the Solar Bolt business, yes?)
Callidora is standing on the rear of the ship, sea water and sweat dripping off her brow
Callidora she sits, catching her breath and holding a sword in her hand.
Callidora dives under the water, goes down 50 feet, shoots back up in the air.
Callidora as she flies through the air, she is surrounded by water droplets from her splash.
Callidora midair, she adopts a stance, concentrating....
Callidora "raaaaaaa!" her blade swishing through the air, she cuts cleanly through all the water droplets.
Callidora having perfected her move, she relaxes, letting herself recline as she falls back towards the water.
Shore and company clap and laugh at Callidora's show-boating.
They know she has been working on her "killer moves" for most of the voyage.
After helping her back aboard via a rope trailing behind the Brilliance, the young girls towel off their friend with congratulations and words of praise.

And towels.

<Callidora> (Callidora doesn't need a rope. By the way, she's quite fond of her little posse and is talking to them, trying to find out if there's anything she can do to help them. Like, you know, steal stuff.)
(STEAL stuff?)
(Fine, sorry, no rope. I still imagine it would be hard to leap 20 feet out of the water fifty times a day, though. While keeping pace with a speeding boat.)
(Anyways.)
A loud knock at the door interrupts one of Verdant's mysterious sessions. "Sir? Everything all right in there?" The voice of an anonymous crew-member. "I thought I smelled burning."
<Verdant> "Yes, I'm fine."
The crewman sounds unconvinced. "Because, uh, the Captain has strict rules about fire onboard, y'know..."
<Zeleny> ("Those are rules for mortals" Verdant sneers, being very OOC)
<Verdant> The sounds of wood scraping across wood is heard, before the door opens. Just inside stands Verdant, radiant with Solar power, glaring at the crewmember. "And I am not so foolish as to start an uncontrolled fire on a ship!"
A young man, leaning on a crutch, gazes wide-eyed into the silent inferno blazing around Verdant Waves.
<Verdant> A lot of the room is pale, as if it had been bleached by the sun's rays.
(Hee hee! Cool!)
"Uh... uh..."
Verdant raises an eyebrow at the man's surprise.
"Sorry, um, sir. I didn't... it's just that, I got yelled at for smoking, by Mr. Niehan, and, um, I didn't want the same, that is..."
<Verdant> "Ah, you're one of the new recruits." Verdant smiles, leaning on the door. "Welcome aboard, Mr...."
"Wing, sir."
<Verdant> "Welcome aboard, Wing. I'm Verdant Waves."
Ater the initial shock, Wing seems surprisingly nonplussed by the Solar's radiance.
"Nice to meet you, sir. We've heard a lot about you."
"They say you're some sort of demon sorceror?" He says this with a slight smile.
<Verdant> "Good things I hope?"
Verdant sighs. "Guess not."
<Verdant> "I certainly haven't worked with demon summoning, for the record."
<Callidora> (too bad too)
<Verdant> (Hey!)
<Verdant> "Though I am a sorcerer. I suspect you've heard what I did at Lao's compound.
"Heard?" He laughs a little. "Man, I was -there!- It was crazy!"
"Hells, you saved my life with that."
Verdant chuckles nervously, one hand rubbing the back of his head. "Ah, glad to be of assistance..."
Verdant glances at the man's crutch for a moment.
<Verdant> "I...In any case, I need to get back to my work. If you'll excuse me..."
Verdant turns and closes the door. Another sound of wood scraping is heard.
<Verdant> Meanwhile, inside his room, Verdant sits on the crate and sighs.
Verdant closes his eyes.
<Verdant> Voice: "What, afraid of what you can't cure?"
Verdant looks up to find a familiar man sitting on his bed. The man's hands are bloody, his eyes full of the self-confidence (arrogance?) of a god made flesh.
<Verdant> "You." The word is more spat than spoken.
<Verdant> Bloody-handed man: "Yes. How long do you think you can last? There are such things as necessary evils. How long until they no longer trouble you? How long until worse things trouble you?" The figure stands, walking towards Verdant.
<Verdant> The man leans into Verdant's face. "How long until you become me?"
Verdant snarls, and drives his fist into the man's head...only to awaken with a start, still sitting on the crate. He places his head in his hands.
<Verdant> "*sigh*...I think I need some real sleep."
The crew and passengers all started to go a little stir-crazy towards the end of the journey.
Crewmen became sullen and quiet.
The few girls, Shore included, had increasingly frequent arguments over nothing.
Even the barbarians, who still couldn't speak any intelligible language, seemed irritable, and more likely to snap at their handlers or one another.
<Callidora> (hey!)
The only people who seemed unaffected were the Solars.
They remained as beacons of light in the midst of the darkness spreading over the mortals' minds.
But, as with so many mortal things, dispositions brightened and tempers dimmed as soon as the ships made landfall on what, according to Monk's best guesses, was at least -a- island near Unoau's Demesne.
The beachfires burned high, there was dancing and singing and general carrying-on; all in all, as the Solars watched from outside the rings of firelight, things seemed to be right with the world.
Callidora was staring intently out at the stars above and the broad dark sea, wondering: If she set out on "foot", could she make it to the local court?
(Mmmm, probably not.)
Verdant stands away from the fires, talking to a small spirit that vanishes shortly thereafter.
Zeleny is spending this last night with his men.
<Zeleny> He wasn't enjoying the thought of entering the Wyld.
<Zeleny> , and he distracts himself with the laughter and good humor of the feast.
(Zeleny? Good humor?)
<Zeleny> He does not participate- he rarely tells ribald jokes, and only very rarely indulges in the pranks that enlivened his youth- but he listens, and smiles, and basks in the glow.
<Zeleny> (yes, good humor dammit!)
(Okay, okay.)
Callidora realizing she was still trapped with the mortals, Callidora scowls briefly before joining the group around the fire.
The next day dawns bright and fresh, as it falls to the Solars to decide their course of action...
Zeleny is staring out at sea. "How far away is this Demense that holds Irisa?"
<Zeleny> "A day's travel? A week's?"
(Find barbarians' homes. Store the ships and mortals someplace safe. Get to Unoau. Beat the holy living hell out of insane immortal. Rescue friend. Then, it's Miller Time!)
<Zeleny> (I thought we'd done 1. already?)
<Zeleny> (or is this island *not* their home? oops.)
(You found an island. There's three, closely clustered together. And even if the barbarians are on this island, you didn't find their village.)
(I'm sorry, I wasn't clear. The partying was just the folks on the boat celebrating landfall.)
Callidora does reconnaissance work.
<Zeleny> (ah..okay!)
Callidora slips up onto the other two islands during the night, takes a brief look around.
(Er, that would still take all night swimming. You sure that's what you want to do?)
<Callidora> (the ST says no, I won't do it =P)
(Hey, knock yourself out. I just figure Calli particularly needs to sleep each night, to regain that 'committed' WP.)
<Callidora> (yeah yeah, Wizard must rest to regain herspells, I'll chill.)
Monk struggles with map, which refuses to be refolded. As all maps do. "I, uh, believe it would be no more than a day's travel from the north-eastern island, sir. But that's based on the Brilliance's sailing speed."
Zeleny nods. "It can be accomplished, then, on a smaller boat." He finds his chief subordinates. "Salas. Niehan. While Verdant and I embark on this...expedition to rescue Irisa, I want the two of you to deliver the barbarians to their home. Monk has some ideas of which island, exactly, they are from; consult him. We will rendeveus here upon fulfilling our seperate missions."
<Zeleny> He hesitates. "If I am delayed...wait for me for a month. Train the new recruits, and make sailors of them as well as you can. If I am delayed longer than a month...do not wait for me."
The two subordinates look somber at their captain's proclamation. "Aye, sir."
Monk quietly tries to explain to the two why they are going to have to sail around each island separately, looking for signs of habitation.
Verdant sighs. "A sound plan captain. Though I for one hope it won't come to that."
Zeleny grimaces. "Yes. That would be unfortunate. Are you prepared?"
Verdant nods. "As prepared as I can get.
<Zeleny> "Then we should leave now. Where is Callidora?"
Callidora the lieutants give each other confused glances
<Callidora> "ahem"
Zeleny turns. "We leave now, if you've no objection."
Callidora is, apparently, standing a few feet behind Zeleny, listening to the conversation
Verdant turns to face Callidora.
Callidora "None at all. I'm anxious to do a little sight seeing."
<Zeleny> "Then we'll take a smallboat. Unless you'd rather swim? I'll row."
Callidora is now known as MeiRen
<MeiRen> (so I can log it here.)
Verdant appears slightly uneasy. "Swim, take the boat, you know it's much of a muchness to me."
Zeleny nods. "I, at least, need the boat," he says drily.
<Verdant> "True enough captain."
<Zeleny> The smallboat has been readied, and stocked with two weeks provisions. Zeleny takes one last look at the faces of those he leaves on the shore- at the outline of the Brilliance against the sky- and, with a grunt, pushes the smallboat into the water. He takes up the oars again, with a grimace that contorts the scars on his face.
<Zeleny> (*into the surf, not into the water)
Shore waves to her friend, her mentor, and her Captain, and offers up a prayer along with the others standing on the beach for their safe journey.
Zeleny raises his hand in a final farewell, and pushes off.
The wards that Verdant (with some assistance from Shore) had prepared ahead of time decorate the sides of the boat, some dangling down to skim the surface of the water.
Verdant waves.
<Zeleny> (is V in hte boat?)
Callidora stands up for a giant two-handed wave, nearly capsizing the entire undertaking.
(Z, need a roll.)
<Zeleny> !ex 6
(Is that Stam + End?)
Zeleny sets off with a heave, muscles straining as he works the oars, and he quickly falls back into the rythm of old...
<Zeleny> (yep)
Zeleny has quit IRC (Connection reset by peer)
Magpie_ (~e000474@61.49.203.24) has joined #exalted1220
<Magpie_> (did I miss anything? Last I got was Z setting of with a heave)
Magpie_ is now known as Zeleny
Verdant and Callidora can't help but admire Zeleny's technique, and his seemingly unflagging stamina. He had rowed for nearly ten hours without stopping.
He took a two minute break to rub his rough hands with some foul-smelling tincture, then grasped the oars once more.
His mighty strokes carried the tiny craft through the calm waters between the three isles, then the deeper blue of the offshore water.
Verdant could tell before the others - they had entered the Wyld.
There was a feeling to the air, the way the waves themselves moved, that lacked the regularity one takes for granted, having lived in stable parts of Creation for one's whole life.
<Verdant> "Here we go captain."
It started as merely a sense of -wrongness-, a feeling that things were not as they should be.
A feeling that, if one were to throw a rock through the air, one's natural ability to predict where it would land would no longer serve, because the rock itself no longer knew where it would land - or if it would land at all.
And this was merely the bordermarches.
"Hey," Callidora piped up from between the waves. "Water feels different all of a sudden."
"Oily, kinda."
"And I haven't seen any fish for a while."
MeiganRen (~MeiganRen@ip68-4-106-49.oc.oc.cox.net) has joined #exalted1220
<Zeleny> "The Wyld." In spite of himself, Zeleny shivers.
MeiganRen is now known as Callidora
<Callidora> (where are we/where am I?)
<Zeleny> !ex 6
6 hours in, they hit the Wyld, although it took Zeleny and Callidora another half an hour to notice for certain.
4 hours of rowing later, Zeleny took his two-minute break.
5 hours later still, and the seas had become noticeably unfriendly.
The water was a dark purple, iridescent where it sloshed up in waves larger than one normally found in the middle of calm seas.
<Verdant> "Hate to impose captain, but from here on out I don't think any of us should be in the water. For what little it's worth."
Callidora Callidora is eyeing Zeleny wearily for any signs of mutation. A small golden circle is still faintly visible from where she activated Integrity Protecting Prana earlier.
<Zeleny> "Come aboard then."
There was a faint keening that seemed to from the waves themselves, whenever they reached the height of the tiny boat's sides.
Zeleny holds out an oar for Verdant to wrap his arms around, and pulls him into the boat.
<Zeleny> "Callidora?" he asks after a beat.
Verdant sits down in the boat, clearly impressed with Zeleny's strength and endurance.
<Callidora> (Wait, we're in the water?)
Water that spilled inside continued to make noise, faintly, whenever it was sloshed around by the boat's motions.
(V and C were swimming along, at times, sure.)
Callidora hops in the boat
<Callidora> (confused, but cool.)
<Zeleny> "How much further in his this place?"
<Zeleny> (*is this)
Without warning, a tremendous fogbank rolls over the Solars, trapped and isolated in their tiny vessel amidst a dispassionate eternity of water.
<Verdant> "I hope we don't have too much farther. I don't like how...unsettling...things are as is." Verdant examines carvings at the boat's rim as he speaks.
Verdant is startled by the sudden change.
Callidora "Probably not too much farther. I suppose if we really want to know we could ask the fog."
Callidora "Hey fog, how much farther?"
A voice, the sound fog would make if it were shouting, at once ear-splitting and more quiet than any mouse: "Welcome to my humble domain, little ones."
<Zeleny> "Ah."
<Verdant> "Not fog...mist."
MIST: "Will you step into my house?"
<Zeleny> "Certainly."
<Zeleny> "Unoau, I presume?"
The boat drifts, gently, through an endless and impenetrable haze. As soon as Zeleny speaks, the bow of the boat taps against something solid.
So thick is the mist, the Solars can only see the dim outline of something solid.
Something like land.
Zeleny stands, leaving his oars lengthwise in the boat, and steps cautiously ashore.
Callidora turns to Verdant, taps her eyes, mimes "keep your eyes open"
Callidora follows Zeleny onto "shore"
Verdant looks at Callidora with one eyebrow raised as she faces him. Perhaps it is a trick of the Wyld, or something else, but there seems to be a dim light behind his eyes...
The 'shore' turns out to be the threshold to a structure of some sort; Zeleny first, then the other Solars behind him, step through a tall doorway carved from a light, metallic-seeming stone.
Inside is slightly less hazy than the exterior, where the boat is still (faintly) visible, bobbing in gentle purple waves against the threshold of the god's lair.
MIST: "Unoau welcomes you."
Callidora bows deeply.
Verdant follows Callidora's lead and bows.
Callidora We are humbled beyond speaking by your grace's willingness
Zeleny nods to the haze. "Do you know why we are here?"
Callidora to put himself through the end of not one, not two, but four Solar guests!
Callidora shoots Zeleny a look
Zeleny looks blandly back at her.
MIST: "May I offer you anything? The mists and fogs bring to me many comforts, of all kinds, which I would share with you."
Verdant seems uneasy.
Callidora "We hope to entertain your grace, and remove all of our selves from your presence before you come to too much trouble."
The voice no longer sounds like the roar of a descending fogbank - inside the 'house' it takes on a gentler quality, but all-pervasive.
Zeleny glances at Callidora, narrow-eyed. He had little use for flowery untruths, but he does not interrupt her.
<Zeleny> Yet.
Callidora "You are very kind - yes, we are honored by your hospitality. We mortals are so little able to fend for ourselves without the help of Gods!"
<Zeleny> With a stir of essence, he attunes himself to truths and falsehoods, for he little trusted gods.
MIST: "Entertain... hmm hmm hmm... yes, you do so already."
Verdant looks a bit uncomfortable at Callidora's last statement.
<Zeleny> "We are here on business," Zeleny breaks in bluntly. "Where is Irisa?"
MIST: "My beloved niece? You have come to "rescue" her, on behalf of her mother, no doubt?"
<Zeleny> "On our own behalf. She is an ally."
Callidora takes a short step away from Zeleny. "It is sad how each of us is so alone in this world. Truly, loneliness is the worst of the many troubles that befall mankind. Yes, I would dearly love the company of Irisia on this occasion. I can't speak for my...traveling companions."
MIST: "Of course. Allow me to bring her to you."
The fogs swirl with motion just out of sight, and Irisa walks forward to greet the three Solars, just as she did on the Starlit Water, so long ago.
Irisa: "Hello, friends. I trust your journey was a pleasant one?"
Callidora "Quie, yes. A very nice location your uncle has here - so close to the courts!"
MIST: "Please: do not speak of the Courts here. Irisa and I have had enough of their endless posturing."
<Zeleny> "I'm sure. Irisa, do you remain here because you wish it?"
Irisa turns to Zeleny, a slightly quizzical look upon her face. "Of course, Captain. Why would I not?"
<Zeleny> "Callidora was convinced you were kidnapped."
<Zeleny> He turns to the address the mist. "Is Irisa here of will unconstrained by essence or threats?" he asks again.
Callidora made a mental note: Zeleny is an uneducated hick.
<Zeleny> (true)
Callidora and Verdant Waves are both momentarily taken aback as they attune to the Essence flows of this place, Callidora intuitively, Verdant via soul and sight.
The madness of the Wyld seems to have pooled into one churning sea of essence, a massive fountain of the stuff of life.
And the Solars stand in the middle of it all.
(Demesne level 3, guys.)
Once his eyes make sense of the chaos around him, though, Verdant turns to Irisa.
She seems to be herself, though a cloud of mist-that-is-not-mist swirls continuously around her head, focused around her eyes, ears, and mouth.
MIST: "Yes, Irisa is my beloved niece."
Callidora looks at Verdant's eyes, dilated, staring at Irisia
MIST: "I have done nothing but care for her since I saved her."
<Zeleny> "Answer my question."
MIST: "This is all that I ask - that I be left to care for my niece, as best I am able, and that she be free to remain with me, as she wishes."
Callidora "All the sun thanks you for your noble service to the sun. But there are grander causes, grander things to be done"  ::nudging Zeleny:: "things that Irisia must be allowed to help with. Please, listen to the words I speak, listen to the words my companion speaks" ::nudge nudge::
<Callidora> (*"All creation", not "all the sun")
<Zeleny> "Do you work essence on Irisa to keep her here?"
<Zeleny> "A yes, or a no, will suffice."
MIST: "You insult me, Chosen of the Unconquered One."
MIST: "In my own house, you insult me."
<Zeleny> "Perhaps. But you dodge the question."
The mist begins to roil.
Irisa intercedes.
Irisa: "Uncle, please! He means no harm, he only cares for my well-being!"
MIST: "Irisa, you know I may not ignore such a grievous insult from one who has crossed the threshold into my home."
Irisa turns, looking desperately to the Solars. "Please, I'll come with you if it is so important. But do not start a quarrel in my uncle's house!"
<Zeleny> "Oh." Zeleny is momentarily taken aback. "It seems I have wronged you, then, Unoau. My apolgies."
Callidora "We do not wish to quarrel! We mean no disrespect! We simply wanted you to come with us for a little while to help us build a settlement on an Island near here."
(Wait, no you don't.)
<Callidora> (Are you implying that Callidora might be lying?)
(It's hard to tell sometimes.)
MIST: "For this insult, little one, and for taking my niece from me, I will exact a price from you."
<Zeleny> (he talking to Cally or Zeleny?)
Verdant tilts his head, looking at Irisa. He speaks in Old Realm. "I hope you, and your uncle, understand that this is hardly a calm situation. We were led to believe you were kidnapped, again, and arrived expecting hostility, not hospitality."
(Z.)
MIST: "The circumstances surrounding your slight do nothing to alleviate it. I do not believe that you will find my task onerous, but it must be completed ere I allow you tear my niece from me."
MIST: "The native mortals on the nearest island to me - have you met them?"
Zeleny 's eyes narrow. "We have."
MIST: "They are plagued by a sept of beastmen. These beastmen demand tribute from the mortals, regular payment in food."
<Verdant> (Uh, *native*? I think you're thinking of the ship's crew Z)
MIST: "The mortals suffer under the yoke of these savage, Wyld-tainted things."
Verdant looks upward at the mist above him. "I take it they are, or at the very least were, among your worshippers?"
<Verdant> (still speaking Old Realm)
MIST (stil speaking in Old Realm and Seatongue at once): "Yes, these mortals are loyal to me, but I am unable to take direct action in their defense."
MIST: "My interests, and yours, are served by the liberation of these men. Will you not do this thing, in exchange for Irisa's cooperation?"
<Zeleny> "We will investigate the matter."
Zeleny 's tone in now polite.
<Zeleny> (*is now polite)
Irisa looks dejected. If she could give her uncle a forlorn hug, it would seem, she would do so.
Zeleny glares briefly at Callidora.
<Zeleny> He'd been right, it seemed- in spite of the Mist's unwillingness to answer questions forthrightly.
MIST: "Go, then. I do not wish to entertain you here, not while such still lies between us. I will help propel your boat through the Untamed, to the island where my worshippers require your aid."
Zeleny bows, turns, and heads back to his boat.
Verdant follows Zeleny, half-lost in thought.
Zeleny has quit IRC (Quit: leafChat IRC client: http://www.leafdigital.com/Software/leafChat/)
Callidora gives Irisia a concerned hug, the follows her comrades
Callidora (~MeiganRen@ip68-4-106-49.oc.oc.cox.net) has left #exalted1220
The tiny craft hurtles back towards the nameless islands, bearing its precious cargo through waters now faintly golden in unconscious imitation of those borne through their waves.
The night weighs heavy on the Solars, and unknown terrors loom ahead - terrors which will be met with the full fury of the burning Sun!
END CHAPTER 11