BountyOfTheSeas/Session O03
<onine> Bounty of the Seas - Session o-03
<onine> Presage Delit was a busy man. An important man. He had worked very long and very hard to make his way through the ranks of the Guild to get to where he was. After decades of hard-work, manipulation and backstabbing he enjoyed a certain quality of life that he was loath to give up.
<onine> Decadent parties, drugs, concubines shipped in from all over the lands of creation for him to act out his pleasures with. The finest alcohols that money could buy and a few things it couldn't. And the power... the power was the greatest thing.
<onine> And now it was all falling apart, and Presage Delit was angry, frustrated and more than that - bitter. The chaos that had fallen on Black Flag seemed like an attack made personally against him. His empire of slaving that he ran for the Guild was now being ripped apart at the seams. First his Consortium run auction houses were raided, and now entire districts were falling.
<onine> By day the crews and gangs in control of the districts were warring against eachother to take bites out of newly 'liberated' city-blocks. By night the annexed territories became the home of roving swarms of hungry ghosts that maimed and slaughtered civilians and enforcer alike. Their numbers kept growing, bolstered by their own kills, the murder-rapes and deaths of the gang wars, and of
<onine> course the standard goings-on of Black Flag.
<onine> He was a fat man, a man that had grown in girth from his lifestyle. His red, green and gold robes fit him poorly and the silks were now stained with sweat and grime from his activities. Beads of greasy sweat gleamed on his brow and bald head in the office's torchlight. The thin moustache normally waxed and groomed was unkempt and frayed.
<onine> Its not fair! That was what ran through his head as he bolted through his opulent office, emptying records, books, charts and valuables into a large sack and tossing aside the rest. He emptied draws of knick-nacks, pens, quills, jewels and other items onto his iron-wood desk. His stubby fingers searched ugently through them, tossing what he wanted to keep into the sack.
<onine> A large pile of documents he intended to burn lay in a heap in the middle of the room. A few ghostly voices howled in the distance, chilling him to the bone.
<onine> He tripped over his fur-lined chair and rolled into a heap on the floor, spilling some contents of his sack on the carpet. Presage swore and heaved himself to his feet. He was growing later and later for his boat. He was just getting to the third bookshelf when a voice rang out through the office.
<onine> "Darling Presage!" The woman cooed. "Dont tell me you are leaving so soon?"
<onine> He nearly dropped the sack turning. Striding gracefully through the doorway strode an intoxicatingly beautiful woman clad in black attire, and a sense of sublime majesty haunted the room with her.
<onine> Two hunched figures draped in cloth hobbled either side of her and stood guard at the door.
<onine> "Wh-why Mistress Caress! Wh-a-at a pleasant s-s-surprise!" The merchant stammered like a child caught with his hand in the biscuit jar. "My g-guards didn't inform m-me that you had arrived!"
<onine> "Didn't they?" Caress gasped in mock surprise. "Well, that *is* disappointing for you - but the city is a dangerous place... many people are leaving..."
<onine> Presage stepped pointlessly in front of the sack of his own posessions, the state of the room was enough evidence to implicate him a hundred times over.
<onine> "You weren't...thinking of leaving us..." Caress ran her slender finger across the surface of one of the bookshelves, admiring the lack of dust that marred her fingertip. Her glance at Presage was murderous. "Were you?"
<onine> "N... No no, heavens no!" Presage replied greasilly. "As you said, the city is a dangerous place! I was merely... relocating to a safer locale, yes, a safer locale!"
<onine> Caress smiled. "That pleases me to hear Presage - you've done such good work for us. It would be a shame if that fine business relationship would come to be sullied by... an early vacation."
<onine> "All the ships of slaves of the first and second batch have been sent Mistress Caress, as per your request." Presage moved on to business - where he was more familiar. "The third *will* be on schedule, even with the losses here!"
<onine> "Such terrible losses..." Caress remarked sorrowfully. "Are you aware of the name Enilor?"
<onine> Presage looked sick. "My compeditor?"
<onine> "Really!?" Caress covered her mouth in surprise. "It seems he has an even cheaper source of slaves for us. We may have to go with him from now on. You cannot meet the numbers we require..."
<onine> "V-volume is not an issue - I can match him!" Presage sputtered. "Give me a number!"
<onine> She gave it.
<onine> "Gods! I couldnt make that even with the infrastructure intact! What are you doing?!" Presage balked, going even paler and sweatier.
<onine> "See?" Caress said simply, ignoring his question.
<onine> "You cant supply the volume anymore... and you are now a liability."
<onine> Presage leant against the bookcase weakly. "Wha...?"
<onine> "I am so terribly sorry, Presage. I liked you, you degenerate little man, so pliable. So easy. At least you may rest assured that you have done us - and Creation - a great service." Caress consoled him as terrified tears began to well in his eyes.
<onine> "Are you going to kill me?" He whimpered simply.
<onine> "No." She said, pulling the cloth from the shoulders of two large hungry ghosts, releasing them from her command. "They are."
<onine> Caress closed the doors behind her and waltzed out of Presage's office and onto the street. In the window above a long spatter of crimson drew itself across the glass.
<onine> "Nonononono... death...." Were old Gulltooth's words. "Death 'as come to Black Flag, and 'e wants his pound o' flesh for all the sins! Take it e' will, and no one escapes..."
<onine> They seem to echo in the minds of the Brilliance's crew as they sail the ship back towards the pirate Isle, Black Flag that they had departed with haste only a week ago.
<onine> There is a certain morbid silence in Black Flag's moonlit, the waves are small, little more than a bath-tub's lappings against the hull of the ship. The extensive docks are near barren, few ships are moored to the piers, and there is movement near them, however much less than usual.
<onine> You pass alongside a ship anchored in the bay, a little converted merchantman. You are greeted by fierce yellow eyes glowing from its unlit decks.
<onine> There are still numerous ships in the bay, but only a portion look as if they contain life. They tend to be towards the outskirts of the port. Crews on the decks watch wearilly from the railings, a wary fear in their eyes.
<onine> The city beyond, hugging the curved coastline looks to be in a similar state, half lit, half-unlit. Plumes of smoke from fires in the darkened areas of the township reach skywards, blotting out the stars and casting a unique stink over the water.
<onine> Wood... and met.
<onine> *meat
<Zeleny> "Anchor here," Zeleny calls, as the �Brilliance nears the deck. They needed to stay far enough away from the docks that ghosts couldn't jump onto the �Brilliance's� decks. He stands at the railing, staring out at the charnalhouse city. "I'll swim ashore to take a look." He turns to his men, reading the fear in their eyes. The dim lamplight casts uneven shadows on their faces. "They are only ghosts," he says after a moment.
<onine> As the Brilliance closes on the docks, the western docks - still lit - show signs of living activity. Guards posted around the largest ships in abundance. All around are makeshift barricades manned with spearmen.
<onine> The Eastern docks... the ships are swarmed on by ghosts. Most wander randomly, though some gather in packs and move through the upturned cargo crates, shipping equipment, abandoned stalls, making their way into the inhabited sectors of town.
<onine> The ship begins to slow, and the crew lowers the anchor some distance from land.
<onine> "Crew's touchy sir..." Toad murmers.
* Verdant stands near the railing looking at the horde of ghosts that swarm the eastern docks. "Can't say I blame them," he remarks dryly, holding Glory's Halo tightly in one hand.
<onine> "So..." Niehan grumbles, running his thumb along a curved blade. "What's the plan Cap'n?"
<Zeleny> �"Verdant, Saravasti, and I will go ashore to investigate these creatures.. I want to know just how much they control Black Flags. Hungry ghosts can drag down the fearful and alone by sheer weight of numbers...but they are prey to more organized bands of men."
<onine> "Aye sir." Toad says. "We'll be on full alert here sir."
<Zeleny> He slides Inspiration of Men onto his wrists. "We need to look for Pyhrra. I have...." and here his voice falters. "..suspicions of the source of this plague." Hundreds of slaves, still in their chains. Sleeping in the dark. The thin line of salt. �We left them. �Zeleny flexes Inspiration's golden blades.
* Verdant speaks quietly with Zeleny. "Don't forget it's dark, Zeleny. If either of us flare up we'll be as subtle as a Cynis Calibration party."
<Zeleny> "I hear you." Whether he listened was another matter. "I don't plan to do anything rash." Nothing like assaulting a pirate's haven filled to the brim with ghosts, murderers, and thieves.
<onine> Four of the crew begin to hoist the landing boat over the side, lowering it into the water. The splash as it hits the calm sea is almost criminally loud.
<onine> "Dammit!" The crewman signalling them to stop swears. "I'll bet they heard that splash all over Black Flag!"
<Verdant> "Heard, perhaps. Cared is another matter."
<onine> "Shut up you mugrats!" Toad growls at them.
* Sarasvati calmly looks out over the waters. "Let them come."
<onine> "Sir..." Toad takes Zeleny aside.
<Zeleny> "Yes?"
<onine> "I would never doubt you sir." Toad says with conviction. "But after what happened last time... well its dangerous out there - and now even more so. How long... should we wait?"
<onine> "Before I get the biggest, toughest and angriest sons of bitches in this crew together to come after you." He grins
* Zeleny grins back, clapping him on the shoulder. "Give it til tomorrow, noon. If I'm not back by then, get the hell back to Velence and go on with what we're good at." Zeleny had little expectation of the order being followed, if it came to that; but he had to try. More solemnly, he adds, "Keep a watch for more human predators out here, too. Rats desert a sinking ship, and this is one of the only ships out there."
<Zeleny> That was not overrun by hungry ghosts, of course.
<onine> "Aye sir!" Monk salutes you lazilly. "We'll keep every eye peeled. Good luck out there sir."
<Sarasvati> "Perhaps we will have an easier time than we think. Unless another like I killed appears."
* Zeleny salutes back, and the smallboat rocks slightly in the water as Zeleny jumps into.
* Verdant nods to Monk as he dives into the water with a quiet sploosh.
<onine> Taking the oars you begin to row the boat slowly towards the western docks, those still bathed in the light of the occasional lit lantern and lights from the massive ships still moored there.
<onine> Within about twenty yards An arrow shoots out from a barricade on the docks and splashes into the water a foot from the boat.
<Zeleny> "Hold your arrows!" Zeleny shouts.
<onine> The low wind howls through the dark shadows of the buildings and ships looming above.
<onine> There is a pause of silence.
<onine> Then.
<onine> "Are you ghosts?" A voice pipes up from the barricades.
<Zeleny> "No," Zeleny says with forced patience.
<onine> "Ah... well push off! These docks are Red Marauder territory!" The voice yells back.
* Zeleny shakes his head. "I'll pay a docking fee," Ridiculous thought it was.
<onine> There is the sound of frenzied negotiating between the voice and his compatriots. "It'll cost you!"
<Zeleny> "How much?"
<onine> More hushed conversation. "A silver dinar or a pound of pure salt!"
* Sarasvati mutters. "Yes, we always carry a pound of salt when raiding islands..."
<Zeleny> "Be fair," returns Zeleny mildly. "It �is� an island overrun with hungry ghosts, and we did know that coming in"
<Zeleny> Frustration simmered just under surface, as Zeleny flipped the coin to the archers. It glinted slightly in the faint light of the moon. Trivialities. Greed.
<onine> The man who comes out to fetch the 'booty' is young, not much older than Dell. His unkempt hair is held under a red bandana and his arm has another red cloth tied around it.
<onine> "Heh, thanks guy! Welcome to Black Flag, home of whores, slaves and now hungry native wildlife." He says, helping you tie up to the pier.
* Sarasvati dryly replies, "Yes, surely the new tourist hot-spot of the West."
<Zeleny> "What the hell happened here?" asks Zeleny as he steps onto the dock.
<onine> "Dont really know." The youth shrugs. "'Bout three or four nights ago ghosts started running amok in the central districts, near the Consortium's trading house. Since then they've been quickly infesting the city, taking over ships and all that. Its nuts."
<onine> "There ain't no standing guard here, so its up to the district leaders to take care of things. But mostly they're fighting amongst themselves by day, taking advantage of any weakness while the ghosts roam at night."
<onine> "Then there's...." He looks around as if something unsavoury may hear him and take offense. "The Big'un..."
<Zeleny> "The Big'un?' Zeleny echoes, as he'd been expected to.
<onine> "Sorry guy. I'm not gonna say any more. Word is he comes for ye if you talk about him in an unsavoury light - and thats the only way to do things around here."
<Zeleny> "What is he, a ghost?"
<onine> The kid shrugs. "Dunno. Just know he can pull a man apart awful damn quick y'know."
<Sarasvati> "Then we are very fortunate that we are not all men."
<onine> The kid looks at Zeleny, Verdant and Sarasvati. "Whatever you say."
* Verdant just rolls his eyes at Sarasvati's comment.
* Zeleny frowns. "Your boss involved in the daytime squabbling?"
<onine> "Uh... which one?" The youth scratches the shaggy hair poking out of his bandana.
* Zeleny lifts his brow. "You have more than one?"
<onine> "Yeah. Now. Shekell, Zahz, Daragon, Kurik. They're the main ones. Mostly they seem to be trying to bite the biggest piece of the Marauder's men and ships before scooting."
* Verdant looks at the ships unattended in the dark. "How many of those ships have been...overrun?"
<onine> "Most in the East docks are under ghost 'control'." The youth explains. "Sarakhan battened down the east docks here before he died, so any ships here are safe... for the most part."
* Verdant raises an eyebrow at Zeleny.
* Zeleny narrows his eyes in thought. "I'm sorry to hear of Sarakhan's death," he says after a moment. He claps the boy on the shoulder. "Thank you for the news." He tosses the boy another coin.
<onine> "Heh! Thanks guy. Be careful eh? Beyond Red Marauder districts its mostly chaos, not just the ghosts, but the gangs in charge too. The Guild were putting up a fight against the ghosts for a while... but they've been real quiet lately."
<Sarasvati> "Other gangs?"
<onine> "Too many to name. Street gangs, some criminal organizations. Some pirate crews that have taken up residence. There aren't many that are doing much to stop this chaos." The young man says.
* Zeleny has that quiet, thoughtful look on his face which is often so dangerous. "Perhaps that should change." He nods again, holding up a hand in thanks, and moves up the docks
<onine> "Yeah, take care then!" The youngster says, rejoining his group at the barricade and pocketing the extra silver.
<Zeleny> "I want to see the city," Zeleny tells the others quietly, standing in the shadow of a large stack of crates piled by the docks, part of the barricade which had protected the docks...so far. "You game?"
<onine> The few men continue to watch the dockside, passing mugs of hot tea around, but remaining as vigilent (as pirates get)
* Verdant hefts the wrapped cloth that hides Glory's Halo and nods.
<onine> You pass the barricades on the docks and enter the streets controlled by the Red Marauders. Most wear the red bandana similar to the youth you spoke to minutes ago, but the colour of their armbands changes, indicating which leader they presently follow.
<onine> There are a few howls in the distance, and the occasional sounds of conflict occasionally reach your ears on the wind.
<Zeleny> "Then lets go," Zeleny says, grim. He saves the speeches, as he hears a high, shrill scream end in a wet gurgle somewhere beyond the barricade.
* Sarasvati nods, grasping her spear tight.
<onine> The Red Marauder's district seems relatively well in hand. Pirates patrol or stand in little knots of threes and fours near boathouses and storage buildings. They gather in the few squares about the district.
<onine> On the hills beyond the darkened buildings loom above you, like shadowy creatures. Their empty black windows appear like the gaping, empty eyes of skulls.
<onine> Stray dogs run in little packs, fighting over scraps of meat that look too human to be comforting.
<onine> Mostly you are ignored. People keep their distance. Most cast their eyes frequently to the dark districts between the buildings. Poor, wavey lines of salt mark alleyways. A grim preventative made by those without wisdom.
<onine> In the street between two large apartment blocks is an array of upturned wagons an makeshift barriers from doors torn off homes. It is staffed by a small contingent of archers and men wielding strange bows that stay nocked and loaded.
<onine> A few pikemen and swordsmen are interspaced amongst them. Beyond are numerious lines of salt. This is the threshold.
<onine> A shape emerges from the darkened street beyond, and it is quickly mowed down with arrows.
* Zeleny keeps alert, watching with more interest than he showed as scruffy pirates muttered and cast glances at each other. There was fear here, but more than fear: the huddled anxiety of a man who fears not just the outdoors, but every comrade and every friend. A dead man lies in the street with his throat slit, robbed of his purse. Someone had dragged him a few steps towards the barricade, and given it up.
<Zeleny> A dog scarcely larger than a cat gnaws at his feet, and then runs, whimpering, as it suddenly flares into light and is gone.
* Zeleny walks to the barricade, taking careless note of the factional badges on their sleeves. "Good evening," he says to a bedraggled man with stained sleeves and a split lip. He watches the darkness past the makeshift clutter that makes up the barricade. "Ready?"
<onine> The scruffy captain shrugs at you as you pass. "Dont expect a rescue."
<Verdant> "We don't intend to need one."
<Zeleny> "I don't expect to need one,"
<onine> The captain shrugs. "Whatever. Don't say we didn't warn you."
* Zeleny drops down past the rubble, landing crouched. He waits there for a couple seconds, as if expecting the shadows to come alive and attack him, and then relaxes slightly, moving away to give Verdant and Saravasti space.
<Zeleny> He steps over the salt carefully.
<onine> The streets beyond the salt are empty, the cobblestones are littered with overturned wagons, hay bundles, ripped awnings... and bodies. Everything has a dim cobalt blue cast from the half-moonlight, shadows are the deepest black imaginable
<onine> You pass beyond the watch's lanterns and into the true darkness. It is cold. Even colder than normal in the coming winter. There is sort of a clammy frigid air to the streets. And a sense of violation, as if the very purpose of this place has been perverted by some dark design.
<onine> There is a howl in the distance. It is no wolf. And it is no hound.
<onine> If it were not for the atmosphere of dead chill, the place may almost seem as a quiet village settled down for the night - if one could forget the pirates, thugs, vice and ghosts that raped and plundered the streets of their innocence.
<onine> Your footsteps seem to echo, and screams on the wind seem hauntingly close.
<onine> Conceivably this event would birth a shadowland over time.
<Zeleny> "Verdant..." Zeleny says softly. "It feels cold. There is essence in the design of this city. Warped and blackened by centuries of vice, and now..." In spite of himself, goosebumps rise at the inhuman noises, the intermitment bangs and crashes. "What do you see with your sorcerer's eyes?"
<onine> All about the streets, the essence still flows, yet it is a strange stagnant flow, like a river reaching its end. The bloody brushtrokes of essence flow like sickly swamps of water, pooling about fallen bodies and broken symbols of life.
<onine> Life here has ground to a standstill, and now even the tendrils that the gods of vice so frequently fed upon are gone. Gods of death and massacre have a rich soup upon which to feed...
<Verdant> "Ick. The life here has just been...removed almost. This place was a hive of scum and villainy, of murder and vice...and now even the vice has been taken away."
* Zeleny nods, pacing through the murdered city. "Can you see where life remains?"
* Verdant looks off into the gloom. "Yes. Over there...uh oh."
<Verdant> "There's a large number of hungry ghosts there too...if we don't hurry, there won't be life there either!"
* Zeleny nods. The orichalcum of Inspiration of Men seems to hum on his forearms as he runs, blades extending. He wouldn't be too late to save everyone. He wouldn't.
<Zeleny> He has to step over half-devoured bodies.
<Sarasvati> "Let us hurry, then."
* Verdant wastes no more time with words, and takes off running towards the direction he pointed. The cloth wrapping of Glory's Halo is left flapping in the wind as it wafts towards the ground.
<onine> In the gloomy street ahead you can see the shadowy form of eight hungry ghosts closing around a prone figure in the awning of one of the larger shops. Another pair leap across the rooftops to join the small circle of angry spirits encircling their prey.
<onine> They duck and weave about the overturned wagons nimbly, around them are clustered the fresh bloody bodies of fighting men and women.
<onine> One of the ghosts falls back, screeching as a slender thrown dagger enters its empty eyesocket.
<onine> The blood runs thick and fresh between the cobblestones of the road.
* Sarasvati charges up towards the ghosts, delivering a thrust to the first two she happens to meet.
<onine> The two ghosts dive quickly to the side to avoid the descending coral-encrusted spear, but it shears directly through them easilly.
<onine> Their forms dissipate into grey dust with eerie howls before disappearing altogethere. The other ghosts turn upon their attackers, growling like beasts and gnashing their ghostly teeth.
<onine> The six ghosts remaining on the ground start to slowly circle Sarasvati, forgetting their prey under the shop awning. They glare with a fearless hate. A hate for anything living.
<Verdant> A ghost raises it's claw to strike down one of the beleaguered, bloody combatants. It is interrupted by one of its own kind rudely shoving it aside. Denied for a moment, the creature snarls at the interloper...only to find that its brethren had not shoved, but had been knocked for distance...distance that Verdant crosses at a run and swings Glory's Halo again before moving on to a third...
<Verdant> ...unfortunately, the irritated ghost manages to snag one end of Glory's Halo, to Verdant's surprise and consternation, forcing him to give up his momentum in order to stop and free his weapon. His would be second and third victims growl at him.
<onine> The first smashes into its comrade, dissipating in shards of fabric and dust, the second and third prove quicker studies than the first, duckign and leaping out of the way of Glory's Halo with the unsettling dexterity of leaping frogs.
<onine> One leaps up onto the awning itself, its claws ripping parallel lines into the tan fabric. The man underneath yells in defiance.
<onine> One rolls to the side and spends a moment sprawled on its back before rising to its feet by reversing its joints with sickening crunches.
* Zeleny lunges out of the darkness like a tiger, burying his golden claws in the ghost's thorax as it recovers back from Verdant's assault, ripping it to pieces from the inside out . Zeleny stalks forward, teeth bared, eyes fierce and intent. He places himself between the ghosts and their erstwhile prey, stepping in the little trickle of blood that wound its way to the gutter. He snarls at them, and they snarl back, and then they come.
<Zeleny> He grabs the stout wooden pole that held the awning up, and his essence-charged muscles tear it from the ground with the crack of snapping wood. He shakes it, sending the ghost atop sliding and capering on the billowing canvas, before at last it's tossed to the ground like an errant cat. Zeleny guts it as it lies there, and then whirls to meet a shrieking creature leaping at his back, blades tearing at its throat.
<onine> The blades cut through the ghosts immaterial form, but only seem to rip shredded cloth, the third ghost however is decapitated and turns immediately to smoke and tatters.
<onine> A dagger thrown by the prone man shoots past Zeleny's leg and imbeds itself in an overturned wagon, an inch over the fallen ghost's head. Had it been standing it would have been struck.
* Sarasvati smiles. THESE are the feared ghosts? She takes the trouble to dance in the manner of the Crimson Pentacle speardancers, feinting and playing before skewering the remaining undead.
<onine> Two more ghosts join the immateria, cleanly bisected by the faerie spearwoman's expert strikes
<onine> Only three of the hungry ghosts remain, one lays at Zeleny's feet, the other two climb down the buildings like gangly humanoid spiders, shrieking and laughing hungrilly.
* Verdant looks up, his Essence-sight allowing him to spot the ghosts incoming from above. A twirl of Glory's Halo and Verdant moves to intercept the incoming "reinforcements" before they can engage the bloodied men and women.
<onine> One ghost is quick, its dirty claws intercepting Glory's Halo neatly, showering sparks of gold onto the street and lighting the buildings with strange sudden sunlight for a moment... the other is not so lucky.
<onine> Glory's Halo pins it to the wall with such force that the mortar and stone cracks. It is little more than smoke and ash by the time gravity peels it off the wall and pulls it to the footpath.
* Zeleny skewers the hungry ghost at his feet, lifting it one-handed. He regards it for a moment, lip curling. The creature hisses and tears at him feebly, impaled on the golden blades of the massive slashfist. There's a faint chuckling behind him, and a rustling as the hungry ghost creeps up on him. Zeleny counts silently, 1..2...3..., and then whirls, sending the ghost hanging from Inspiration of Men slamming into the one crawling down the
<onine> The first slams into his compatriot, but has discorporeated itself before its own material weight can come to bear. The climbing ghost pushes the cloud of tattered spiritual matter away and leaps to the ground, salivating profusely.
<onine> Another dagger flies out from the shadows under the awning, spearing the ghost in the chest.
* Zeleny steps deftly out of the way of the dagger, and finishes off the ghost with one swipe of Inspiration.
<onine> The ghost stands there intact for a moment, then fades away, only the two dancing lights that were its savage spiritual eyes remain for longer, floating about before dimming into nothing.
<onine> The streets are deadly quiet, except for the groans of the man under the awning.
<Zeleny> "You have all your limbs?" Zeleny asks, peering into the darkness beneath the slumped canvas. He walks closer, brushing a smashed birdcage hanging from a peg out of the way.
<onine> "Ah..." The man gasps. He looks well equipped and is probably a good swordsman given his blade, a fine slashing sword. He tries to apply pressure to a savage gutwound, but appears nearly in tears from the pain.
<onine> "Are... are you ... our backup?" He hisses.
<Verdant> "Apparently. Let me see that wound."
<Zeleny> "Backup?" Zeleny glances at the others, and thens tears a strip of canvas from the fluttering edge of the awning and gives it to the Verdant. "We heard the fight."
<onine> "Argh!" The swordsman grunts as you examine his wound. It was definitely caused by a ghost, the wound is far too ragged for a blade - even a serrated one.
<onine> You seem to patch him up alright with what you have.
<onine> The man is young, probably in his early twenties. He wears well-kept armour with a silvery blue tint to it, and his clothing is mostly blue and purple with a wave design.
<onine> "Thanks..." He says, looking up at you and trying to move himself into a seated position up against the shop doorway.
<Zeleny> "What are you doing out here in the dark? Is there anyone else?" Zeleny raises his head, looking out on the empty streets.
<onine> "Is anyone else alive?" He asks urgently.
<Zeleny> "No," says Zeleny gently. "You are the last."
<onine> He looks away, even in the sketchy moonlight you can see a few tears well in the young man's eyes. "Dammit..."
* Zeleny gives him a few moments, respecting his grief. Then he asks again in that soft voice, "What was your mission? Why were you out here among the monsters?"
<Zeleny> He had his own guesses as to the gang.
<onine> "My crew and I were on a salting mission. We take them nightly to try and stem the tide." He explains. "There's a few other groups doing it too... but not enough... not enough."
<onine> "We were supposed to scout bodies out so the salting crews can come in and cover the bodies to kill the ghosts. Captain said she'd be sending backup... sounds like they got the same reception we did."
<Zeleny> "Which captain?"
<onine> "Captain Aliset Rho." He answers, frowning in confusion - and bloodloss delerium. "Just who are you three?"
<Zeleny> "I am Zeleny. This is Verdant Waves and Saravasti."
<onine> He shakes Zeleny's hand weakly. "Luccio. Captain of the Minerva. A pleasure, let me assure you."
* Zeleny smiles. "Likewise. Can you stand? We'll take you back to your base."
<onine> "Thank you Zeleny. I'm lucky you all came along." He stands with your help. "Damn... we used to be the best scouts working under Rho... guess my ship and I are done for now."
<onine> He looks over the bodies morosely and covers his eyes. "We...we need to burn the bodies..."
<Zeleny> "I'll take care of it," Zeleny says nodding to Verdant to take charge of preventing Luccio from toppling over. "Go on ahead. It will take but a moment."
<onine> Luccio accepts Verdant's help graciously and walks with him as Zeleny destroys the bodies and sends the spirits of Luccio's brave men and women to the heavens.
<onine> Once he is done he gives some directions. "This way... Captain Rho and her teams of ghosthunters should be only a few districts up."
* Zeleny nods, looking drawn and weary as they walk through street after street of shattered wagons and torn bodies. "Good. There is much to discuss.."
<onine> "Agreed" Luccio says. "We're set to meet at the fountain circle. Should be able to find her there."
<onine> And with the wounded captain's directions the two solars and the fae walk the deadly streets of Black Flag, where ahead there is only death and incredinbly long odds.
