Shorlixa/WPSessionEleven
And here be Session Eleven for this crew of pirates.
Session Eleven
The Solars are currently contemplating the field of bubbles and have been doing some experimentation. So far, they've been popping the small to medium-size bubbles, but those are now becoming rarer. The bubbles they pop from now will have a much greater effect. The murkiness is also speeding along behind them, so they must make a decision soon.
Big Red points again to the path that looks large enough for the ship. "Seems to me that all we have to worry about that way is the brown bubbles."
Ryoujal says, "Um, I think maybe me and the boys should start rowing again..."
Lady Syn says, "All right. Lets take it slowly."
Megumi is fairly healthy. "Well, whatever. I've had a good life." She reaches forward to touch a brown bubble.
Ryoujal goes below and starts to lead the men in a steady and fast row.
Megumi sighs. "We have to get out of here." She turns and nods at Red. "Navigate as best you can."
Big Red goes to the front of the ship and starts yelling directions to the helm
Megumi passes on further direction. "The purple bubbles are fine to touch. Yellow, Pink and Orange appear harmless, but you as the crew may wish to avoid them, since we're not completely certain. Avoid all other colors."
Ryoujal pokes a purple bubble as soon as he can.
Megumi climbs the rigging and starts pointing out suspect bubbles from a position of security - she has no special desire to touch bubbles right now, even if they're beneficial.
Ryoujal sees a purple bubble and tries to avoid any red or blue ones in it's path, using his oar to try and clear as much of a path to it as possible before touching it.
Big Red stands at the front of the ship calling directions to the helm and trying to avoid all bubbles as he needs no benefits.
Lady Syn focuses on keeping the ship on course and lets the others play with the bubbles, she's done enough experimentation on them.
As they start sailing through the bubble field, they'll see how the bubbles float through objects in their way. Since the bubbles come in all sizes and float at all heights, from the highest vantage point to the lowest vantage point, they all come in contact with the bubbles. As a matter of fact, the only one who actually manages to avoid every single bubble is Syn.
Red tries hard to avoid strange bubbles but unfortunately that means he stumbles into bubbles which he is either uncertain of, or know are not very good to touch. So as he twists and turns, he pops three bubbles at the same time. A pink one, a brown one and a blue one. Megumi jumps around the rigging to attempt not to touch a single bubble, but flying around the rigging, she is not quite successful in not brushing against bubbles. She ends up with a green bubble, a white bubble, a black bubble, a brown bubble and a yellow bubble. Ryoujal is even worse. In his clumsy efforts to get to the purple bubble, his large bulk is ill-suited to avoid the other bubbles. He pops two brown ones, a pink one, a yellow one, a black one, an orange one, a red one and a blue one. From below deck, it's clear from the cries of the men that they haven't been successful in avoiding the bubbles either.
When Megumi pops the green bubble, a shower of flowers fall to the ground. They appear harmless and very pretty.
You paged Big Red with 'He sees some weird lights when the pink bubble pops, but that quickly passes. It's the lightning that really smarts. What the purple bubble helped to recover, the blue bubble zaps away with a concentrated burst of lightning that threads through his entire body, bringing him terrible agony.'
You paged Megumi with 'When the brushes against the black bubble, the shoulder which touched it immediately goes numb before spreading through her arm. It feels like poison. She has to act quickly to stop the spread of it through her body.'
You paged Ryoujal with 'Ryoujal smarts slightly from the fire and lightning but that's not what that's catching most of his attention. Pretty lights flare in his vision and he feels very relaxed and doesn't really feel like doing anything. He would just like to keep feeling happy.'
In the meantime, there are four rodent-beasts that drop onto the deck of the ship, and they're a lot bigger than the one Syn tossed overboard the other time. Red is completely covered in lightning energy and looks very badly off. Megumi seems to be favouring one arm. Ryoujal just has a smile on his face despite the fact flames and lightning danced over his body.
Big Red body shakes and he drops to one knee
And the one purple bubble continues to float in the air, much more reachable now that Ryoujal has conveniently popped many of the bubbles near it. Someone may choose to utilise this wonderful bubble. Below the deck, there's the sound of fighting and some shouts of pain and surprise. The crew probably didn't avoid the bubbles that well either.
Lady Syn sighs and looks at the whip for a second then draws her sword. She gives it a cocky twirl and looks at the vermin. "Off the deck, little beasties. I don't have time to teach you how to swab it properly." She ready to make a move if any of them make a violent move.
Megumi dismisses her armor - it doesn't appear to be helping - and yanks at her belt. She wraps her legs around the rigging to stay secure while pulling the belt free of her waist. Using her one good hand, she wraps the belt about the shoulder of her other arm and begins tightening down. Gods, this sucks.
Megumi continues yanking at the belt and trying to stop the POISON, IT BURNS!!!
Lady Syn decides not to wait for the rats to make a move and spins into the first one aiming for a quick kill and scare.
Megumi tightens the belt around her arm and it seems like the poison's progress has stopped. Her arm will be effectively useless for now though until she can do something about it. Syn leaps right into the fray and cuts at the nearest rodent-beast, her blade sliding into its flesh and pulling out smoothly. The creature screams while the others chitter angrily. The injured one proceeds to jump at Syn while the others each attack one of the Solars.
Big Red moves with unreal speed for someone in his much pain and in a flash is standing next to the rat that attacks at him
Lady Syn brings her blade back around to let the rat chew on it instead of her.
Megumi drops toward the deck, spinning as she falls, and bounces toward the other side of the deck. "Can't use my arm! Bow's no good, bow's no good!"
Lady Syn says, "Get below deck. I can handle these thing."
Megumi picks up one of the flamepieces of the deck, which fell from her belt when she so thoughtlessly yanked it free to slow the poison. She skips along the deck away from the rats, muttering ouchy comments about her arm and the poison and the belt and the lack of bow. "Hope the fall didn't dump the charge. Stupid rats. Stupid poison. STUPID WYLD!!!" She twists, cocks, and discharges, before scrabbling away some more and up onto a piece of railing.
Megumi shouts and swears and in the end the flamepiece does manage to fire, only it doesn't actually manage to hit. She's probably lucky she didn't set the ship aflame. Incidentally, one of the rodents hit another brown bubble, so there's a fifth rodent on deck.
Another one seems to be standing very still after hitting a black bubble. A third one just caused another shower of flowers. They're really pretty.
Lady Syn looks at the rats and decides she needs to end this quickly. She spins around and gives a slash at the rat she parried then flips over to the one pestering Megumi giving it a stab then sliding to the one pestering Red and giving it a slash past and finally swatting the one molesting Ryou away from him.
And more shouts come from below deck, tugging at the heartstrings of those who are conscious and compassionate.
Syn manages to further injure the one who attacked her and kills the one attacking Megumi. Unfortunately, it was also the one who popped the black bubble and it doesn't squeal as it dies. Then she gives Red's enemy a good slice and finishes by swatting at the one on Ryoujal. This really gets their attention.
Lady Syn looks at the remaining rats and does a bring it wave.
Big Red ignores the fight up stairs and rushes to the hold with all due speed
You paged Big Red with 'Below the deck, Red can see a rather bad situation. They've managed to get three rodent beasts all on their own. Some of the crew lie on the ground while others are busy fighting against the rodent beasts. They survive because they have apparently figured out that orange bubbles heal them, as Red soon witnesses one of the crew touch an orange bubble. Unfortunately, there aren't that many orange bubbles left and the rodent beasts are still going strong.'
The rodent-beasts converge on Syn, very unhappy at all of their respective wounds. The newly arrived rodent-beast, however, decides to go for a tastier looking meal that is Megumi.
Lady Syn spins her blade looking to swat the rats into each others path or at the least away from her flesh.
Megumi dances out of the way and starts heading for the stairs down.
You paged Big Red with 'Red would love to leap into the fray, but he has to watch them fight a bit longer. As he watches, the crew succeeds in bringing one of the rodent-beasts down, but two of the crew are felled by further attacks and are dragged to safety. Red can intervene now.'
The rats converge on Syn but she holds them off without too much difficulty, and the one rodent-beast which gets through only succeeds in leaving a bite mark on the armour. The one attacking Megumi misses completely and she manages to duck below deck.
Big Red pages: Red runs straight to the nearest rat throwing himself between it and a crew member. Puts his gun to the rats face and starts shooting.
At which point, Ryoujal wakes up from his very relaxed state to new levels of pain. He has a new bite mark on his body.
You paged Megumi with 'When Megumi goes below deck, she sees most of her crew that still stands fighting against two rodent-beasts. A third lies dead on the ground. Red is currently fighting with a rodent-beast as well, standing in front of the rest of the crew despite his severe injuries.'
You paged (Big Red, Megumi) with 'Big Red fires his gun right in the rodent-beast's face and succeeds in blowing it right off. At which point Megumi leaps into the fray as well to face the last rodent-beast, presuming no more unfortunate bubble popping.'
Ryoujal coming out of his stupor, he sees the rat things scuttling about the deck and moan, "Geez, what did I miss?" He then notices his bites and says, "Quite a bit apparently... Alright you bastards, now it's my turn to take a chunk out of you!" He says rushing forward, to sweep up a rat in one of each of his claws.
You paged (Big Red, Megumi) with 'Quite unfortunately though, the remaining rodent-beast bumps into an orange bubble and succeeds in healing its injuries. It'll probably be a bit tougher to kill in that case.'
From afar, to (Big Red, Shorlixa): Megumi twists and grabs her other flamepiece, which she presumably grabbed on her way down, and aims at the remaining rat. "Stop eating my boys." Click. Pull. BOOM!
The closest two rodent-beasts die when Ryoujal takes his well-deserved chunk. Leaving just two behind for Syn to deal with.
You paged (Megumi, Big Red) with 'Megumi enters the fray with a brilliant stream of flame that sets the rodent-beast on fire. It actually does scream and looks rather murderously at Megumi. Then it leaps at her to bite her to death.'
Lady Syn looks at the last two rats and starts to calmly walk past them like they aren't worth her time. Suddenly she flicks her daiklaive into each as if its an after thought.
From afar, to (Big Red, Shorlixa): Megumi dives over the railing, tossing her flamepiece aside behind her at the rat as she descends. She begins to reach for her sword - she was terrible with it - while she hits the rolling deck below.
With that, the rodent-beasts lie dead on the deck. They should probably think about cleaning the place up, what with all the serpent heads still lying on deck too. The bubbles continue to drift, but they're much easier to avoid with the large spaces in between.
You paged (Megumi, Big Red) with 'The rodent-beast bites on empty air and it's time for Red to do something about it.'
Big Red pages: Red dives at the beast over some of the crew and lets a shot off
You paged (Megumi, Big Red) with 'And with his shot and the aid of the remaining crew, they finish off the rodent-beast and it falls to the ground. The battle is over, though the crew are definitely worse for wear.'
Lady Syn looks to make sure there is someone on deck to grab the wheel and motions for them to do so before heading below deck to make sure the rats aren't there too. Not so much for the sake of the crew as things that bleed and die are far easier to deal with then smoke things or bubbles or island of illusions.
Ryoujal says, "Go down stairs to check on the crew, I'll keep us on course."
Lady Syn finds the closest helmsman that isn't horribly injured. "Fight rats or sail the ship?"
Megumi looks about the wreckage below decks. "Rodents of Unusual Size? I don't think they exist," she comments drily, before turning to tend to some of her more injured crew, to the extent that her meagre medicinal skills allow.
Three more rodent-beasts lie dead below decks and now it's a matter of picking up the pieces. Megumi does her best in helping, and so does Wei. Big Red holsters his weapon and starts to see what he can do for the crew
You paged Lady Syn with 'And Syn suddenly gets the strangest feeling that she should really help the crew and actually knows how to do so.'
Big Red icon goes off with those motes just spent
Lady Syn grumbles but helps despite not knowing why or what.
Together, the Solars work to help the injured crew. Some of them have been poisoned like Megumi and are completely paralysed or partially paralysed. Some of them simply sit and stare blankly into space with a smile on their face. Others were actually wounded. There are also plenty of flowers around. They're very pretty.
Big Red picks up one of the pretty flowers and gives it a smell
Megumi examines a flower, hoping it's maybe medicinal?
"Be careful with the flowers!" Wei shouts when he sees what Red is doing. "Some of them would make great medicine while others are poisonous or dangerous."
Big Red shrugs and puts it in his mouth and starts chewing.
You paged Ryoujal with 'With all the battle, they somehow have managed to pass through the bubble field without any further incident. Ryoujal can touch the purple bubble that he was reaching for earlier though. Then he sails along, and just manages to keep ahead of the murkiness. For now.'
Wei is looking at Red with horror. "And don't eat them! I just said I could use them for medicines! And with Orillian gone, I actually need them!"
Big Red gives Wei a smile "Sorry. Just curious."
Ryoujal pages: Continues on course, looking down every once in a while to see if there's someone still moving on deck and listening for any signs of the others coming up some time soon.
As they look around them, they realise that the bubbles have stopped floating through the ship. They must have passed the bubble field. Maybe they should have used it a bit more, but regardless, they're sailing once more. Incidentally, Syn is actually helping with the wounded and being helpful in helping the wounded.
Lady Syn is being helpful but not kind.
In the end, everyone has been tended to. About half the crew won't be able to do much, suffering from paralysis, or smiling or just too wounded. The other half can continue rowing despite minor injuries. Wei is kept very busy since most patients would prefer to wait for him rather than be tended by Syn. It's actually creepy to be tended by Syn.
You paged Ryoujal with 'While he sails along and successfully manages to keep on course, he notes something else up ahead on the crystal stream. As the Squall moves further along, he realises that it's a set of gates and it's blocking their way completely.'
To be fair Syn's creeping out herself too.
Big Red says, "Starting to think we are going to sail this gods forsaken ocean forever."
Ryoujal yells from up top, "Hey guys, we're coming upon a big set of doors!"
Lady Syn rushes from the bedsides to the deck happy to find a distraction that lets her feel like herself.
Big Red heads up stairs leaving the wounded to Wei
Megumi heads up and looks at these..."doors"
As the Solars head upstairs, the Squall is sailing closer to a truly immense set of gates. There are intricate patterns carved into the metal of the gates, and the metal is unlike any they have seen before, the colours shifting and reflecting the light in unusual ways. As they approach, the gates seem to tremble before various things that look like eyes open on the surface of the gate.
Ryoujal waves as the others come on deck, "Does anybody know how to slow down those demons? Because if we can't we're going to hit that thing
Megumi eyes the eyes and clucks her tongue. "...Huh. No going back. No stopping. Anybody got any ideas how to get through?" She starts looking for a bow, in case she needs to, say, shoot the thing in the eyes.
Ryoujal says, "Go talk to the gate? Maybe it's smart and let us in?"
Ryoujal says, "Though I guess that doesn't sound all that smart from it's point..."
Megumi shrugs. "Depends on what it..er...wants."
Megumi glances at Red and Syn. "Any other ideas?"
Lady Syn tries to think as she moves to the wheel.
Big Red says, "Depends on what this thing is. I think the talking to it is our best choice"
And a voice booms when the ship nears close enough. "Adventurers! You have done well to travel this far! Three trials now await you before you may pass into the hallowed halls. Three questions I shall ask you and if you answer rightly, you will have passed the first trial and I shall open for you."
Megumi coughs. "Apparently it was a good idea."
Big Red gives the captain a smile
Megumi turns to the...voice. "Ok. Shoot."
Lady Syn says, "Oh, come on. Can you cut us a break? We lost one of our number already, our crew is pretty beat up, and we're pretty injured."
"A dog runs into the woods. How far can a dog run into the woods?"
Lady Syn says, "Until its running out of the woods."
You say, "Correct." The voice booms. The metal shimmers and seems to grow slightly translucent. "Second question.""
Ryoujal says, "Smart Syn!"
Lady Syn twitches.
Lady Syn says, "Not to interrupt but you wouldn't happen to have an answer sheet to these would you?"
The voice answers Syn with one word. "No." Then it pauses to wait if they're going to say anything else.
Lady Syn says, "So we just have to take your word they're right?"
Ryoujal looks behind them to see how close the murk is.
"You imply I would cheat. But the answer makes sense to you as well, for you were the one who gave it. I give no question that the adventurer may not answer."
You paged Ryoujal with 'The murkiness is coming fast. He guesses they still have maybe ten minutes before it reaches the ship.'
Lady Syn says, "I'd say misremember after all you chose these how long ago? And there is answer that one knows and lucky guess. But go on."
Ryoujal says, "The crud is getting closer...."
Six glasses appear in front of them, the first three filled with crystal liquid, the next three empty. "Move one glass such that empty and full glasses alternate."
Megumi picks up the middle glass from the first row and dumps it in the middle glass in the back, then sets it back down in its proper place.
"Correct." The voice booms and the metal becomes even more translucent. From there, they can see that there is another set of gates ahead.
Ryoujal says, "Alright, almost there!"
The glasses vanish. "Last question. If you divide thirty by a half and add ten, what is the answer?"
Ryoujal thinks for a few seconds then says, "70?"
"Correct. You pass the first trial." The gates vanish completely and the Squall can sail through unhindered. And now they have only two more trials to go before they reach...some place.
