Shorlixa/WPSessionOne
And here be Session One for this crew of pirates.
Session One
It's another wonderful day on the Western seas. There's not a cloud in the sky with the sun shining down brightly upon the vast ocean and a nice steady wind for the ship. In other words, pirate weather. That's usually bad news for most ships, but not this particular ship, since after all, it is a pirate ship. And Megumi is a pirate, and a rather famous one at that. The Hurricane is making good time with the steady winds.
Lady Syn stands at the wheel smirking since she knows the captain's preferred pirate weather and this isn't it.
Ryoujal stands upon the bow of the ship, looking out for anything of particular interest since he can't fit in the crow's nest, but mostly working on his tan it would seem.
Megumi stands by the bow railing, near the bow ornament, looking out over the seas before her. It's...manageable, but she clearly is a little perturbed by the lack of cloud cover. And how did we abandon this cover, she asks herself?
Orillian is fiddling about on deck, checking the rigging for the umpteenth time. He seems a bit bored.
Orillian grumbles. "Sun blast it, wit weather like this we'll never break anything for me to fix."
Then this wonderful day has a severe interruption. The ship suddenly stops dead in the water, not moving an inch in any direction. The winds still blow into the sails and the weather doesn't appear to have changed, but the ship has certainly stopped moving.
Megumi frowns. "Have we run aground?" She starts checking over the side.
Ryoujal catches himself almost falling over the railing to look down at the water to see what is going on, "What was that? I didn't see anything we were coming upon..."
Lady Syn turns the wheel a bit in each direction. "Wyld waters?"
Orillian reaches out to grab a line and steady himself. "Whoa! Maybe I spoke to soon there. Someone get drunk and drop the anchor again?"
Lady Syn says, "Blast it, Orillian. That was only one time."
You paged Megumi with 'She can tell that they didn't accidentally beach themselves. They're supposed to be over deep waters. But she can't tell why they've stopped.'
You paged Orillian with 'As he stares, he seems to see something move underwater, causing ripples.'
You paged Ryoujal with 'The waters appear completely peaceful. The ship must have a problem rather than the sea.'
Orillian grins. "Aye, but it never gets old... ahh. Something in the waters below, cap'n! And it's moving!"
Lady Syn says, "I still won that drinking contest though."
Ryoujal says, "You sure? I was thinking it must have been one of Orillian's modifications..."
Megumi looks overhead. Hmm. Wind. Free flowing water. Ah. That'd explain it. "What can you tell of it?" She begins heading cross-deck toward the cabins. To "don her armor".
Lady Syn says, "Need me to go below captain?"
Orillian lets go of the line and swaggers over to the hatch belowdecks to grab his goremaul from the compartment hidden there. "Hey! The bulbous bow is an advanced hydromantic design!"
Ryoujal grabs his claws, "It still looks ugly as Malfeas..."
As they continue to discuss, the timbers of the ship groan and creak. "There's something in the water Cap'n!" Someone shouts as he looks overboard. Then he screams as he falls overboard. Or rather, is pulled overboard by something that moved too quickly to be seen.
Orillian rolls his eyes. "Well if ye can't appreciate the beauty of a geomantic construct holding the body of a world-god within itself..."
Lady Syn moves over to look over at the beastie. "That’s what we told you about that harlot you picked up at the last port."
Megumi nods to the Lady. "I'll join you in a few moments."
Those looking over the water notice a pool of black spreading out from where the ship rests.
Ryoujal gets up on deck and has his Caste mark start to surge to life as his body is fortified by essence. "Well if it is something nasty, it will be in for quite a surprise." He says as he extends his claws.
Lady Syn jumps over the railing and into the water. About halfway down, with a glint of light, she draws the short thick blade hidden beneath her coat.
Megumi slips inside.
Orillian looks over the side with his hammer held ready, mentally preparing himself for battle.
You paged Lady Syn with 'She sees a pool of inky blackness and a surge of darkness boils towards her.
A long black tentacle snaps up as Orillian looks over and he just batters it back with his hammer before it slips back into the water.
Megumi is taking the time to properly equip herself in her cabin, and so will be making her debut to battle...later.
You paged Lady Syn with 'As she moves underwater, the darkness clears slightly such that she can see that it's a mass of black tentacles. They all reach for her.'
The ship continues to creak and groan, and distantly, something is beginning to snap as well.
Ryoujal says, "Bad noise, that's a bad noise!"
Orillian blinks. "Well I certainly think not!" He shoves the long handle of his goremaul down the back of his coat and then balls his hands into fists, heating his red gloves as they burn with streaks of gold. "Not my damn hull you're cracking, beast!" And he dives into the water.
Megumi looks mildly irritated and fairly worried herself, at the noises, from her place in her cabin.
From afar, Lady Syn swims back and focuses her essence into her blade to bat away the tentacles.
Ryoujal sees about everybody else hop off into the water as well letting out a warbling war cry to slash at anything not glowing on the forehead.
You paged (Lady Syn, Orillian) with 'She manages to bat the tentacles away just as Orillian dives overboard into the water, the water boiling around his gauntlets.'
With all the exalts diving over, the first thing they see is a huge pool of darkness. It's a mass of black. A few moments later, they see that it's a mass of black tentacles reaching out to all of them.
Lady Syn flips her sword around as she floats in the water as if it were air. With a smirk, she flips up and towards the mass of tentacles looking to cut one off. Part of her wonders if it will make a good meal.
Lady Syn nicks a tentacles and it starts bleeding black blood, the liquid spilling into the sea. It stings where it touches her, but luckily, she isn't burned.
Ryoujal sees that there is something rather nasty in the water, and swims down to slash at the tentacles waving about in the water.
Ryoujal slashes at the tentacles and more black blood spews forth, feeling uncomfortable against his skin.
Orillian misses in his clumsy attack and the tentacles reach forward to try and grab at every Solar in the area.
Ryoujal can feel the shock of the tentacles coming his way and tries to get away as fast as he can, but prepares for the worst.
Lady Syn twirls her blade before her as the tentacles approach hoping to catch produce a fan effect to slice them.
Orillian isn't shouting, because he's holding his breath underwater, but if he were shouting he'd be shouting. "C'mon! C'mon you ugly bugger and EAT ME!"
Orillian steels himself for the coming blow, shutting down the heat of his gloves with a thought to make himself a more inviting morsel.
Ryoujal sees the tentacle coming towards him and tries to jab his claws moments before the tentacle wraps about him and fires them off, trying to propel himself away from the beast.
Syn just misses being grappled by the tentacles as the rest swarm forward to grab at Ryoujal and Orillian, wrapping around their bodies. As Orillian wishes it, they'll be glad to eat him as another tentacle surges forward. This one is bigger, and has a mouth full of nasty sharp teeth. Ryoujal gets one too. And the Captain finally goes over after fending off some tentacles that have been poking up towards the ship as well.
Ryoujal burbles out something foreboding.
Orillian has no second thoughts. Maybe not even first ones yet, actually.
Lady Syn flips back to the haul of the ship to use it as a push off then shoots towards the tentacle that has grabbed Ryoujal. She kicks a spin on it to provide a drill effect and places the blade at her front. She starts brightly glowing as she plows into the tentacle.
Black blood gushes forth from the tentacle, but the grip on Ryoujal remains firm. The liquid sweeps over Ryoujal and gives the same stinging sensation.
Orillian struggles mightily out of the grip of the original tentacle, attempting to shove himself into the mouth. "I'll be damned if I let a yozi-damned beastie like this wreck my ship!" he shouts gurglingly into the water.
Ryoujal snarls as he struggles in the beast's grip, to get away from the thing's mouth.
Ryoujal gets rather tightly squeezed. Very tightly squeezed. Maybe so that he can be shoved into the hungry tentacle. Orillian manages not to get squeezed, but since he's looking to get shoved into the hungry tentacle, he gets his wish.
While the tentacles squeeze, Ryoujal strengthens himself and manages not to be squeezed into a jelly. The toothy tentacle chomps down on Orillian but is finding him rather hard to chew. However, Orillian is discovering a different problem. His mundane clothes are getting digested. The saliva of the beast is acidic.
Megumi stretches out one hand toward her other, and the bow within it. Twirling her fingers briefly, a frog-crotch arrow appears within it, drawing back against a string of pure essence. Humming softly in her armor, she releases some essence to guide her path to her foe, and releases the arrow at it's soft (well...one hopes) hide.
The arrow flies straight at the tentacle wrapped around Ryoujal and it spews forth more black liquid.
Lady Syn surveys the scene. Its about time the captain got here. She dives towards the center for a moment then reverses to try to free the giant with a swim by attack.
Syn swims by and delivers the finishing blow. With all the damage already done to it, the tentacle is cut free and spews forth black blood, dousing Ryoujal and Syn in the acid.
Orillian feels the acid burning in and realizes that it's now or never. Struggling against his limited leverage, he reactivates his forge gloves and strikes mercilessly at the exposed inner flesh of the beast, attempting to kick down towards the core of its body with each burning strike.
Lady Syn says, "Well, that stings."
Megumi waits for the ink to dissipate and her people to burst forth from the wreckage. She wonders briefly if the boys are turning blue yet.
More tentacles swim out from the mass, and this time, they're the nasty chomping ones. The thin black ones that grab people wrap around the ship and another unfortunate sailor gets pulled in and chewed down.
Lady Syn says, "I think that was the quartermaster."
Ryoujal blurbs out some thanks to Syn for the aid, and despite getting smacked with the acid from the tentacle. Seeing that the beast is still alive, quickly kicks towards the beast's body, before twisting his body to spin about in a slashing vortex.
Megumi tries to swim free of the exploding tentacles swiftly, ducking and weaving her merry way. Being an archer by stratagem, she can keep further away anyhow.
Orillian does his best to make fried tentacle, and in the meantime, a golden shadow of an enormous clockwork man flares up over the watery battle, mirroring his movements.
Ryoujal seeing that his claws did not get any of the beast, spins and sees the teeth coming towards him. Reaching out, he tries to wrestle the base of the tentacle away from his body.
The chompy tentacles swarm in and take bites out of Syn and Megumi. They get a bigger bite out of Megumi and swallow happily. Ryoujal attempts to claw at the tentacles but misses. The tentacle attempts to bite at Ryoujal but get held off by his claws. In the meantime, the chompy tentacle that got Orillian is giving off a very burnt smell and hanging limply in the water.
Megumi winces under her helmet, watching red water trail by. In addition to the sheer pain and injury...she'd better make sure Orillian survives this, or repairing this armor will be hell.
You paged Orillian with 'He gets even deeper into the little beastie's body as the tentacle continues to swallow him reflexively. He eventually drops into some dark cavern within the beastie, with only his gloves to shed light. But he did drop into a pool of acid, and it stings.
From afar, Orillian looks around, ignoring the feeling of the acid for now. Not that he can actually do much about it anyway. Though he makes a mental note to finish learning the different Charms of Environmental Resistance the old workshop's owner had mentioned in his notes as soon as possible, for now Orillian frantically searches about for something that looks vaguely like a vital organ.
Lady Syn dives into the darkness hoping to get a glimpse of Orillian's anima.
Megumi flicks her fingers and reaches for the bowstring, presenting not one, but TWO Target arrows. She draws back and releases with ferocity, sending them spiraling down at the tentacles attacking her. They both ignite in mid-flight, causing a boiling channel of superheated water and gas follow in their wakes. They appear to intertwine in the essence pattern surrounding them, little essence tentacles of their own interweaving back and forth. Then each plunges at a seperate pair of tentacles, lancing through one and stabbing at the one behind it to pin four tentacles into pairs. Or so the theory goes. And by the Sun, they're *HOT*.
You paged Orillian with 'As he looks around, he spots various moving things that could be important. But what's more interesting is something that's glinting in the pool of acid.'
From afar, Orillian reaches in for the shiny thing, probing with his hammer if need be. Maybe it's some sort of Essence Weapon? Yeah, in his dreams. Still, might be some sort of clue about this strange beast.
As Lady Syn swims around, she finally spots the glimpse of the little clockwork man.
Lady Syn swims towards it.
The big clockwork man has just a bit of his head sticking out from the darkness.
Lady Syn debates rescuing Or and thinks he's OK for the moment. So she twirls around and hits one tentacle as another brushes close to it to dive around and use as cover.
Megumi fires off her arrows and tears into the flesh of the beast, and now, they can hear its voice as the screech rumbles through the water, causing terrible vibrations. In comparison, Lady Syn's attack is a bit of a fly swat. It hurts, but not so much. More tentacles rise up to attack, trying to bat away these annoying creatures.
Ryoujal seeing that Orillian is still down there, remains down for a few more seconds keeping ahold of the one tentalce and using his feet to wrap about it and push himself deeper towards the beast's body, claws first, hoping to at least hit something solid.
You paged Orillian with 'He picks up the thing and notices a mass of metallic wires. The wires are obviously made from magical materials. He can't tell its function from this casual glance though.'
Megumi uses the force of her just-fired shots to rebound away, kicking off against the tentacles trying to grab her and moving further away from the area of engagement. She begins diving, spinning in a graceful arc deeper into the darkened water, where it's harder to see her, and hopefully other Things will be around to block the impending attacks. What she could really use is a nice cave or something.
Lady Syn swims through and around tentacles tapping random ones lightly to make it think there are a mess of people down there.
From afar, Orillian raises an eyebrow at the odd discovery, wraps it around the handle of his hammer (with the gloves in cool mode) for safekeeping, and then hops over to to the nearest apparently-important fleshy bit. He swings his mighty golden hammer twice over his shoulder at the organic mass. "This is for the crewman you killed you creepy sunken bastard!"
Ryoujal knowing that the beast would retaliate, as soon as his claws dig in, he fires the claws, pushing them back, semi-upright, and swims and lashes out with a foot to kick one of the beast's own tentacles in the way.
You paged Orillian with 'As he swings, another crew man pops into the belly, completely chewed up but still recognisable. Nasty and hungry creature.
The tentacles flail around wildly and slap Megumi away. Far far away through the sea. She's going to have to do some heavy swimming to get back. Syn and Ryoujal do much better and avoid the attacks. But at the same time the creature screams again, its screech vibrating through the waters again. And it begins to disengage from the ship, the tentacles quickly drawing back as it prepares to run.
Lady Syn notes the creatures impending retreat and swims through the head of the clockwork man. She focuses on linking its essence with hers and pulls. Orillian appears in her hands as she swims upwards and towards the surface.
Orillian pops up right beside Syn and has to remember not to breath since they're still underwater. On the plus side, there's no more acid to worry about. By now, the creature is swimming away into deeper waters, leaving a trail of black blood. Only a few tentacles remain floating in the water, having been severed. From their vantage point, they notice that the ship has been rather damaged. It's not going to sink immediately, but will require some repairs.
Lady Syn looks to see if Orillian is going to make it to the surface or not.
Megumi notices the damage. Eep. "Not good!" She starts swimming back for the Hurricane, dismissing her bow now that the threat is gone. Eh, no need to kill it. Well, actually, she could think of various good reasons, but for the moment, she was more concerned as to the condition of her ship and its crew.
Ryoujal seeing the monster swim away, he swims up to the surface towards the glowing guy, taking a big breath as he breaks through, "Ah! that was worse than the no-holds bar match with Yevim the Infinite Gropper!"
The crew sees that the threat is gone and cheer, while some lower ladders for the Solars to climb back up. Everyone politely decides not to comment on the glowing people.
Orillian looks quite surprised. And gurgles. And thanks to the acid is rather closer to naked than he was before, apparently.
Lady Syn says, "Nod if you don't need air."
Ryoujal treads water, gesturing for Orillian and Syn to go up the ladder first.
Orillian nods and looks embarrassed.
Megumi swims gracefully back toward the ship, trying not to bleed all over the place on her way. Actually, the bleeding stopped shortly after the wound was struck - exaltation offers such wonderful perks - but she still can't help but feel this could have gone a little better. She takes time to examine the keel before climbing back aboard, allowing her anima to settle a bit as she does.
Lady Syn gives an evil smile. "Good" And tosses him towards the surface while looking to see if any large holes will require Or working underwater or if any cargo was lost.
Luckily for all parties involved, the hull is only cracked, some bits broken, but the crew is already working diligently below deck to patch up all the holes. The ship is still sail-worthy.
Ryoujal climbs up and helps where ever heavy lifting is needed. "So... it seems that fate has put us together for a reason, since we are all..." Looks up to his own Caste mark as best he can.
Megumi climbs up to the deck, water flowing off her armor and down onto the wood beneath. A small fish wobbles out of the rent hole in her armor and flops against the railing before flying free and falling back into sweet, precious water.
Orillian grumbles as he climbs aboardship. Oh well, that was worthy a try. Moving along... "Alrighty then, no looking about at what's glowing and who's covered in acid and what! Bring the wounded on deck and keep 'em nice and clean now! Damage control teams report by station!"
The crew hasten to obey Orillian. He's very convincing when he's glowing. Six crew members are brought to the deck, bearing the marks of acid burns. There are some burns on the ship as well, where the black blood must have spilled. The captain is also given to know that three others were taken by the monster.
Megumi shakes a bit to toss free some more water and begins trudging back to her cabin to change out of her armor. She briefly considers addressing the issue to Orillian, but the ship is more important. ...As well, she's a bit reluctant to show it to him more extensively.
Megumi sighs upon hearing of the casualties. She turns to the bos'un. "Who were they, Gyar?"
Ryoujal notices that he's dripping acid on the deck and does his best to wipe it off without burning a few holes in the ship.
Orillian satisfies himself with a perfunctory glance that the ship isn't falling apart immediately and begins tending to the wounded first, cauterizing and sewing up and hacking off with the best mix of efficiency and compassion he can manage.
Gyar submits his report, as well as giving names for those injured. It's not too bad, but not too great either. But they can still sail. Orillian finds he has to hack off a hand somewhere and more bandaging than sewing since the burns are going to leave nasty scars. Still, they're grateful to be alive.
Megumi nods at the response. "I'll have to notify kin when we return to Storm Isle - those that had kin on the island." She shakes her head and pulls free her helmet for a time, looking over the deck. "Such a waste. Blasted beasty." She turns and slips into her cabin.
Lady Syn finally climbs aboard glowing far less then the others. She shakes around and looks at her shirt with a sigh as the blasted teeth rent most of it away leaving her golden breastplate visible.
Megumi returns, five minutes later, sans armor. She's taken on a fresh pair of breaches to replace the damaged ones - she'd have to give them to the sailmaster (such a wonderful seamster...). She steps over to Orillian. "Take the most injured into my cabin. They can stay there while they recover from their worst injuries."
Ryoujal says a few kind words to the gods of the afterlife and the sea to send those men lost on to their next life as rapidly as possible.
Orillian nods quietly. "Right... it'll probably take a while to get them settled, captain," Orillian says.
Orillian will need a good long while, in fact. About an hour per patient, with rests between doing other things to recover Essence.
Megumi walks over to Lady Syn. "We'd best make best speed away from here ourselves. The men will repair the ship as swiftly at speed as they will dead stopped."
Lady Syn says, "Aye, captain. Nearest port or someplace in particular?"
Megumi says, "We'll need to conduct more thorough repairs. I'd like to go to Storm Isle, but it's some distance. How about the nearest port that isn't likely to open fire."
Orillian spouts off about "Bein' and engineer, not a doctor - oh wait, I am both for ye," and shakes his head as he goes below decks with two badly wounded sailors over his shoulder.
Lady Syn says, "Done. And when Orillian has recovered decently, we both could stand for some medical attentions."
Orillian talks to the unconscious men as he heads down, "Yeah, soon as I get the time I'm building an assistant, and then a few more."
Not much caring about glowing more, Syn takes the wheel and sets course.
Ryoujal says, "Orillian, do you mind if I help you with the injured? I think I could carry them a little more gentle, and I just would like to do something...."
The nearest port would likely be in the Coral Archipelago, and while it's a wild place, their presence will not be commented upon at all.
Megumi nods. "As you were." She begins walking along the deck, past working crewmen. Quietly humming, she slowly begins to sing the dirge-like song loudly enough to be heard. "..And some men have died, and some are alive, and others sail on the sea! With the keys to the cage, and the Devil to pay, we lay to the Fiddler's Green..."
Orillian shrugs as he gets to the door of the captain's cabin. "Well, you could open the door for me, unless you're knowin' some of the arcane healing arts of the Lost Age, then you could probly be a bite more helpful.
Ryoujal opens the door, "Unfortunately no..."
Lady Syn says, "Then bring up the casks or rum and pass drink around"
Ryoujal says, "That I can do!"
The journey is peaceful and thanks to the beautiful breezes, they make excellent time. It'll take a few days to reach port. The men join in song with their captain and sing to their fallen comrades. And drink to them as well. They're generally heartened by the song. Orillian is kept busy the first few hours tending to the wounded, but thankfully, no one succumbs to their injuries.
Megumi continues leading the men in song. "Now all we need is a storm," she mutters under her breath during a chorus as the men all sing.
Ryoujal joins in singing while he holds a keg of rum over his shoulder and pouring drinks for the crewmen.
Orillian tips his now-nonexistent hat to Ryoujal, says "Then what's best left in the past shall stay there," and closes the door to get to work. "The seas be ours and by the powers, where we will, we'll roam..." he hums as he goes about healing the men of their injuries, then finally goes topside.
Orillian says, "Aye, now miracles I can give ye captain, but the ways of the storms will take a little work. I've got me hands full with sails and stitches. Speaking of which, the officers..." he looks around at his fellow Solars."
Megumi leans over to Orillian. "What about the officers, Mr Orillian?"
Lady Syn says, "A bit bloodied. Give me about a week and I'll be fine unless you know of a quicker fix."
Orillian looks aver the captain not-particularly-covertly. "Not that I mean to besmirch your perfect form, captain, but ye look a wee bit cut up. And the lady helmsman."
Lady Syn looks at the cut on her arm. "I've suffered worse. Lived to remember the tale." Takes a drink of rum. "But by all means, if you wish to inspect our bodies, take your time."
Megumi says, "I see." She reaches a finger out half-way to touch his sleeve, and then pulls it back. "And I suppose you're proposing to tend to our fair flesh?"
Megumi smirks
Orillian backs off a bit and bows. "Well as ship's sawbones 'tis my duty to tend to the crew, all of them." He's trying to come off as a suave lecher but not actually doing a very good job of it, beyond looking a bit silly.
Megumi sighs. "Very well, you must do what you must. But you'll not be doing it before the men." She saunters off toward the cabins aft of the helm.
Orillian unwraps the strange fragment of wired cloth from around his hammer after a long, exhausting session of healing up the captain and navigator. "In the belly of the beast, I found this," he reports, looking it over now that he has the idle time.
Lady Syn can tell it's an artifact. Megumi can tell it's a broken artifact that serves no aggressive function. Ryoujal can tell it's a broken artifact that serves no aggressive function but could be put back together to form something. Orillian can tell it's a broken artifact that can be put back together and will form a clockwork contraption that seems to function as a holographic projector of some kind.
Orillian grins. "Aha! A holoprojector. Aye, this be quite a prize from the belly of the beast..."
Lady Syn says, "A what?"
Megumi looks at Orillian. "How quickly do you think you might repair it? And how readily could we lay hands on the parts to do so?"
Ryoujal says, "Not entirely sure, but I know that this piece looks like it goes here...."
Orillian rattles off, "When I fix it, it'll be able to make things appear that aren't realay hey hey! Be keepin' your fingers away from where they don't belong now."
Lady Syn says, "Really? Maybe it was a sunken castle that got eaten and that was all that didn't get digested?"
Megumi says, "And the parts you'll need?"
Orillian ponders. "Mostly I'll just be needin' a rest first."
Megumi nods. "Very well. Take a few hours. Sleep, if you can. The repairs to the ship should proceed apace anyway, so we can afford to let you."
Lady Syn says, "Captain, do you think the crew will be wanting an explanation of events and what not?"
Orillian nods and totters off to his quarters for a bit of rest.
Ryoujal says, "To be honest... I would like to know too. Would like some more specifics on what I, we are..."
Megumi shrugs. "We fought a big beasty. Said beasty was dangerous, but vulnerable to barbecuing. Hmm, I wonder what barbecued Dire Squid tastes like..." She settles back to ponder the ramifications of that for a time.
The hours pass peacefully and the sun has set before Orillian decides to wake up again. The moon is bright and the stars are shining and luckily for them, no one seems inclined to attack the ship right now.
Lady Syn says, "If you'd have asked, I could have gotten a tentacle chunk." She turns to shrug at Ryo. "Don't look to me for answers. All I've had were lynchings."
Ryoujal says, "It sort of tastes like clam that has been out to jerk for a day or two..."
Megumi waves her hand a bit. "No sense in getting our heads buried too deep in queries existential. A good breeze and a firm helm is all I need to guide my course." She turns and saunters away, then looks up and begins climbing the rigging to examine the sails a bit.
Orillian wanders in on them still conversing just as Megumi leaves. "Oh by the Unconquered Sun's left buttock! I'm an engineer, not a schoolmarm! Or maybe I'm a sawbones? Anyway, what we be, gentlemen and ladyfriends... or the captain could leave and end the conversation, aye, bollocks." He takes the mangled holoprojector out to look over again. "Be dears ye two and make sure the crew be goin' belowdecks to a one, aye?" he asks as he heads up after her.
Orillian says, "Then come up to the fo'castle!"
Ryoujal says, "I wish that my experiences were much better... But yea, let's go 'tuck the men in' for the night."
Orillian heads up to the captain while the others herd the crew belowdeck. "Now, cap'n, I know that you're not particularly... big on discussing the whys and hows of all this, but it's starting to strain credulity, especially what with the other two still being... confused, and all."
Megumi sighs, leaning over the railing to watch the surf below. "You may's well tell them what you like, insofar as the Essence is concerned. I'll thank you to be discreet about my own nature, to whatever extent it may vary from theirs."
Orillian crosses his arms. "With all due respect, cap'n, I think ye know full well just how little that... "variance" is. Unless you've been quite the deceiver."
Megumi rolls her eyes. "A girl has to keep her secrets." She leaps up onto the railing and begins walking along it, balanced as she approaches the bow ornament. "Tell them what you like then."
Orillian bows. "As you command, cap'n," he announces and heads toward the forecastle where he intends to undertake the ritual to repair the artifact.
Megumi turns to look at Orillian as she rests an arm on the ornament. She blows a piece of hair out of her face. "I'm wasted on exposition."
Megumi leans back against the ornament and watches quietly, arms crossed, one leg lifted up against the other knee.
Ryoujal sits close and tries to help out by being the best clamp he can be.
Lady Syn hangs back and shakes her head wondering how long until Or hammers Ryo across the deck.
Orillian smirks. "Aye, that be true, cap'n. We'll be seein', then." He sets down the tattered old artifact on the deck and sits cross-legged behind it, awaiting the arrival of the others. As they appear, he begins chanting a strange song that begins with 'Pure has become impure, Impure has now become pure...' Golden essence begins to swirl around him, forming into a vague, fuzzy image of his anima-man working a forge, and finally the essence takes up the damaged artifact and swirls it down into its lap, whole. "Ahh. Right then," he says, snapping out of the spellcasting.
Light and essence gathers around the artifact as Orillian's spell pulls the clockwork device back together. The metallic wires slip back into their proper positions and twine around to form a truly odd device while everything continues to click into place. Finally, they get what looks like a cube made from various pieces of the magical materials. The pieces look movable as well and there's a circular hole on one side of the cube that looks in on a small, spinning crystal.
Lady Syn says, "Oh. That looks prettier then the sphere."
Orillian examines the finished cube curiously. "Well then. That raises some questions, aye?" He begins to examine the clockwork for traces of an activating switch or the like, though he raises an eyebrow in Syn's direction. "Seen something like this before, have ye? Where, then?"
Lady Syn gets a slightly nervous look on her face. "Something like that. Touch activated. And where is this girl's secret."
Orillian smirks. "I see. And you, master Ryoujal. Seen strange things too since your change, haven't ye?"
Ryoujal says, "Stranger, but not by much. More likely strange things happening to me."
Megumi smirks.
Ryoujal says, "Maybe if you get all the Orihalcum slides on one side, something might happen?"
As he works on the cube, certain pieces shift under his touch and click into place. He feels the essence drawn from him and a soft light shines from the hole in the cube to reveal a hologram of a ship. It's a beautiful ship of obvious First Age design with its organic hull and Orichalcum designs. The focus then zooms out to reveal the ship in a small dock and zooms out further to show a small island as seen from the sky and finally zooms further out to reveal a strange map of islands and oceans. The picture holds for several moments before vanishing.
Lady Syn says, "Now that is a ship."
Megumi memorizes the features of the map as best she can, comparing it in her mind to maps she knows. Hopefully Syn, too, is paying attention. "A ship. A very, very GOOD ship. That's interesting," she muses.
Ryoujal lets out a long whistle. Now that is odd, but in the good way.
Lady Syn tries to think if any of the islands look familer to maps she's known.
Orillian raises an eyebrow and reviews the schematics in his memory. The twilight caste mark now shines clearly on his brow, as having spent all his personal essence on the spell, the mosts to activate the projector came from his personal store.
Syn and Orillian both guess that it's somewhere in the West given the huge mass of water around the islands that appeared, but the islands are in strange places and don't match any map that they know of. Megumi only knows it's in the West. Ryoujal can't even tell where it is.
Orillian smirks. "Now, me hearties...
Lady Syn says, "Repairs and to the west."
Ryoujal says, "For salvage!"
Orillian says, "Well I was going to say 'The question you're all asking is, what is that, and what are we?' but yes, if ye _really_ wish to address the practical concerns first..."
Lady Syn says, "It looks pretty and valuable and further west then I know so that sounds fun to me. As for what we are, alive is good enough for me."
Megumi nods. "Me too. Set a course. Well. As soon as we're in port, find a course from there."
Orillian stands and begins checking down along the rigging, lighting the way with his caste mark, smirking and shaking his head.
It takes several days to travel to the Coral Archipelago but they manage to do so without incident. They encounter a few storms that they navigate through, and have to let a few targets go since they're not in very good shape to do piratey things but otherwise they make it safely. Chilly winds and cold rains are what greet them as they enter the port and the Hurricane (in disguise) manages to finally dock.
