Shorlixa/WPSessionTen
And here be Session Ten for this crew of pirates.
Session Ten
The Solars are racing down the crystal stream on the Squall, with most of the crew hard at work at rowing below deck (with the Blood Apes cranking away). After the little brush with the strange creature, the mortal crew are all glad to be below deck, rowing away. Only Gyar remains above deck with the Solars, ready to relay orders to the rest of the crew as required. So far, the Squall has managed to stay ahead of the creeping murkiness while the Solars stay alert for further intrusions from the murkiness. In fact, they're making excellent progress along the crystal stream, despite the growing speed of the murkiness behind them. Unfortunately, as they sail along, they see what looks like tentacles blocking the way ahead. A closer look reveals that the tentacles are actually serpent heads and they look ready to take a chunk out of the Squall.
The serpents lash out with hungry jaws, biting viciously at everyone above deck. Gyar has wisely fled before the serpents came into range, leaving the Solars to deal with this particular problem.
Big Red begins to move between objects on the deck so as to avoid a much of the beast as he can.
Lady Syn jumps back from the wheel and draws her blade to swat away the fangs of the first serpent then swings the blade to try to drive the second snake into the deck.
Ryoujal seeing the Serpents rearing up before them, he gets ready for the fight, channelling a bit of essence into his skin to fend off the fangs. Oddly enough, he stands out front and center of the ship shouting, "Come and get me you obscene monsters!" He gets ready to dart underneath one of the heads, hopefully allowing the other to have a hard time chomping down on him.
The serpents whirl around, the first one missing Red while the second takes a small bite out of his flesh. Syn fares worse as her blade is delayed by the first one attacking her, leaving her open to a clean bite from the second serpent. Ryoujal finds that he isn't successful at fending the serpents off at all as both of them take bites out of his flesh.
Ryoujal growls as he is smacked hard by the snakes, instead leaping forward to slash at the last snake that tried to gobble him up.
The serpent treats the attack with the attention it deserves, which is, barely anything as it simply moves out of the way, its jaws still glistening with Ryoujal's blood.
Lady Syn glares at the serpent that bit her. "I've wanted new boots anyways." Her anima flares up as she leaps into the air to decapitate the snake then slide across the deck to keep the course heading.
Big Red pulls away from the serpent that bit him and lets a plasma bolt fly at the creature.
Red inflicts a glancing blow at serpent B while serpent D nearly has its head severed with Syn's assault. They swing around with murderous intent, attempting to bite at them again.
Lady Syn swats a box towards the healthy serpent hoping to deflect it then jumps onto the railing to parry the injured snake while tapping the wheel with a foot.
Big Red tries to keep moving working his way around the deck taking random turns and movements to confuse the beast.
Ryoujal sees that this thing is not going to be an easy fight, he gets ready to take another blow or two, but is ready to grasp the first snake head, spin about it to get in a good position to stab at it.
Ryoujal starts to glow as each serpent tries to tear him apart, but they only seem to bounce off his bronze flesh.
The serpents continue to flail, but this time aren't quite as accurate with their bites. The first one gets lucky enough to grab another sliver of flesh, but the one attacking Ryoujal just bites down on too-hard skin and pulls back with an angry snarl, shaking its head.
Big Red lets his banner losses. An essence tornado sprouts up around him and channels to his repeater. He lets his familiar heated sand blast fly at the one that’s been causing him trouble.
Lady Syn flips from the railing to slash at the injured serpent hoping to finish it off then moves to a close rope to take the fight to another level. Behind her the image of a great shark explodes and seems to be mauling the serpent head.
Red's blast of sand embeds itself deeply into the flesh of the serpent, eliciting another scream. Syn gives a casual slash and succeeds in finally loping the head of the serpent off. That leaves two injured serpents and three uninjured ones. And they're all still ready to bite.
Ryoujal sees that he actually did some damage to the one he's on, instead of dodging effectively, he keeps a hold of his wounded serpent, spinning about try and make him a harder target to bite, while sinking his claws into someplace that looks vital.
Ryoujal digs his claws in so deep, the serpent is unable to fling him off, instead slumping down onto the deck of the ship. At this point, the Solars might note that while the serpents do get injured and die, they don't seem to bleed. But their injuries do show rather prominently, with the serpent Red injured barely hanging on. But these serpents don't seem to mind the deaths, and continue to chomp at their targets.
Lady Syn cuts the rope beside her to shoot upwards to make it easier to bat the snake's bite away. She focuses on calling on her knowledge of the seas to keep her safe.
Big Red charges the beast to provoke a early attack from them and then jumps back at the last minute hopefully avoiding the teeth.
Ryoujal yanks his claws out and hops off of the corpse of the other snake to slide along the deck to stab the beast in the neck next round.
Megumi fades into barely more than a reflection of herself under the weight of the incoming serpents, reappearing on the ropes leading up to the mast moments later.
Ryoujal 's anima flares as he is picked up and tossed about, but doesn't suffer much save for some confusion.
The serpents bite at Megumi but only manage to chomp down on wispy shadows. The next two serpents continue to pair up on Red and one succeeds in getting yet another bite in. Now both serpents have gotten a bite from him. The serpent on Syn follows her up, teeth gnashing away and just manages to grab a bite at her leg. Ryoujal's serpent bites down as hard as it can, but still can't manage to bite past his very hard skin, so it settles for shaking its head angrily and spitting him back on the deck.
Megumi twirls a pair of freshly-manifested arrows out of thin air and locks them in the bowstring, pulling back and letting go of the sheer essence. Each spirals at one of her attackers, gaining a vaguely serpentine aura all their own as they spin. A brief but deadly dance takes place here, as the arrows try to get a taste of yummy snakemeat
Megumi, having been observing Malfean butterflies, finally gets down to business when two brand new serpents decide to take a bite at her. She in turn shoots off two arrows at them, succeeding in wounding both very severely. Another two shots like that and the serpents are dead for sure.
Ryoujal lands hard on the deck after being tossed about in the snake’s mouth only to immediately spring to his feet and dive for the snake's underbelly with both blades.
The serpent twists around in the murky depths of murkiness and completely avoids the attack that Ryoujal is attempting.
Big Red wheels back from the biting serpents letting his blood get sucked into the vortex of his essence sand. He takes and levels his gun at his injured snake friend and lets him have a taste of plasma he hopes for the last time.
Lady Syn releases her grip on the rope and grasps her blade with both hands hoping to let gravity drive her through the snake as it attacks once more. Around her, the great shark explodes to life and seems ready to devour the snake like it was a worm.
Red and Syn both finish off a serpent each, although Red simply manages to deal a final blow while Syn spectacularly dives down from above to cut the serpent into two. The remaining serpents all focus on their targets, biting away eagerly, despite the fact their comrades have fallen.
The serpents once more get a mouthful of shadows attempting to eat Megumi, while Ryoujal's opponent misses him completely. But Red's serpent is more than happy, managing yet another tasty bite on the Solar, swallowing his flesh contentedly.
Megumi opts to be less fancy and more pragmatic this time, taking a few more steps up the rigging away from the pursuing snakes. She does offer them some food, though. Essence arrows. Right to their fangy little mouths.
Big Red reels back showing obvious signs of pain and tiredness
The first serpent is barely hanging to what passes for life in this Wyld region, while the second one falls dead from a well placed arrow. And Megumi isn't even hurt.
Ryoujal cursing to himself, he hops up on the railing to give him a little more elevation to deliver a powerful punch at the snake's throat.
The serpent stares stupidly at Ryoujal as he punches it. He seems to manage to make it sway a bit, before it shakes off whatever dizziness and gets ready to try and chomp down on the Solar again.
Big Red focuses his strength and uses his Desert Wind again sapping what’s left of his essence to send the tunnel of sand at his foe
Lady Syn flips over to the wheel and does another quick adjustment then looks around the battlefield and spies the uninjured serpents. Ryou looks like he's handling himself but Red looks injured decently. Syn grabs a rope and swings in and tries to cut into the snake.
With Red and Syn tag-teaming the same serpent, they quickly dice it up and it falls to the deck of the ship, while the remainder of the serpent sinks back into the murkiness. With just two serpents left, they wisely decide to withdraw. After all, one is just barely hanging on to life, while the other just can't seem to bite Ryoujal properly. Leaving the Solars on deck with various serpent heads around them. Looking back, they'll also see that the encroaching murkiness has been speeding towards them, and they'll need to sail faster now that they've managed to pass the serpent blockade.
Lady Syn turns and looks at the retreating serpents and gives a cocky little sword twirl. then rushes to the wheel once she sees the creeping darkness returning.
Ryoujal continues to breathe hard at the whole battle, but eventually sheathes his blades. "Well I'm glad we..." Then sees something sneaking up upon them, he asks, "Should I get below and start rowing?"
Big Red starts reloading as he leans against the first near by object bleeding all over it
Megumi looks back. "Couldn't hurt."
Ryoujal says, "Aye capt'n!"
Ryoujal runs downstairs to help row with the rest of the mortals.
Lady Syn says, "When this calms down, we need to skin these snakes and tan them. They seem fashionable."
Syn manages the Squall well and soon manages to move ahead of the murkiness again. But once more, there seems to be something else up ahead. Slowing just a bit, they have enough time to realise that there are hundreds of coloured bubbles up ahead. The bubbles seem to come in all colours and sizes and they're really not quite sure what effect they might have.
Megumi snerks. "As you wish." She trots along the deck, searching her thoughts for some means of speeding the ship up.
Lady Syn says, "There have been more rips from fangs or acid burns to my outfits since this quest started then in the last month." Looks at the bubbles. "So what do you think these do?""
Megumi shrugs. "Bubble lottery? Hard to say."
You paged Lady Syn with 'For some reason, this thought bubble pops into her head. She's certain that the colours of the bubbles refer to different effects, while the size of the bubble would indicate the size of the effect.'
Lady Syn looks thoughtful for a bit and studies the colors of the closest small bubbles.
Big Red looks on at the bubbles as well waiting for something to happen
The bubbles continue to drift closer to them as they sail onwards. Of the closest and small bubbles, they are red, blue and yellow. But there are other, bigger bubbles of other colours as well.
Lady Syn reachs out and pops the small red bubble.
The bubble pops silently, and there's a brief spurt of fire that burns her finger, before it flickers out of existence.
Lady Syn pulls her hand back with a yelp then tries to focus on trying to figure what the colors might mean. Red was fire and red dragonbloods are fire. So green might be poison or healing. But yellow is a wild card.
Ryoujal says, "HOLD UP GUYS!!!!!"
The Squall stops just before the mass of coloured bubbles, which continue to drift around in mid-air. It doesn't seem possible to just sail right through without hitting any of them. Unless they pop several of the bubbles first.
Big Red looks on "Wonder what the possibility of a mass explosion is if we strike enough of them?"
Megumi pats her side, and a hole of energy appears next to it, a few arrow-fletchings sticking out. She starts drawing and firing on the bubbles.
Lady Syn pokes the yellow one with the tip of her straight sword.
As Megumi fires on the bubbles, the Solars note how the arrows seem to pass through the bubbles without popping them. Syn's sword even passes right through the yellow bubble. It seems like the bubbles only pop when touched by flesh.
Megumi ponders that. "Ok. Everybody above deck, and then we sail through."
Lady Syn sighs and pokes the yellow bubble with her finger.
As Syn prods the bubbles, it pops silently as well, and she feels a small trill of essence run up her finger.
Lady Syn says, "The yellow ones are safe for us."
Lady Syn pokes the blue one.
This time, she gets another trill up her finger, but not the pleasant kind. More like a little zap of lightning.
Ryoujal pops his head up from below, "Say what's going on up here? Did the murk stop chasing us?"
Lady Syn says, "Fire, energy, lightning. Red, yellow, blue. Do we try a green next?"
Megumi nods. "Could be healing. Or poison."
Several more bubbles of varying colours and sizes drift by. By observation, they realise that there are 10 different coloured bubbles.
Big Red says as he bleeds all over "If there healing I could use a touch or two of them"
Lady Syn says, "Trying to figure that out. Its not like I know this stuff."
Ryoujal says, "There's healing?"
Lady Syn says, "Yellow gives energy back."
The colours of Red, Blue, Black, Green and White appear to be the most common ones and are spread rather evenly throughout the field, and come in the most varied sizes as well. Brown, Pink, Yellow, Orange and Purple all appear to be rarer, but their sizes also vary greatly.
You paged Big Red with 'Red also notices that Purple bubbles seem to come in one size only and appear to be the rarest of them all. It could mean something. Also, he notices a route that would pass more through the brown, pink, yellow and orange bubbles as opposed to the other colours, if they're willing to risk it.'
Megumi shrugs. "Orange?"
Big Red studies what he sees "There seems to be a big enough route for the ship that goes through the brown, pink, yellow and orange bubbles.
Lady Syn says, "Lets see what the brown, pink and orange do first." Pokes a pink one. "Here is to luck."
You paged Lady Syn with 'She sees weird lights flash before her eyes before the bubble finishes popping and nothing else appears to have happened.'
Lady Syn says, "Well that was weird."
Lady Syn looks at Meg. "You want to try the orange one, captain? I can give the brown a shot."
Megumi shrugs. "Ok."
Megumi reaches for the orange.
Lady Syn pokes the brown one.
When Megumi touches the orange one, she feels a warmness suffuse her entire body, but nothing else appears to happen. The bubble pops silently. When Syn pokes the brown one, something that looks vaguely like a rodent, but with too many snouts and claws drops onto the deck. It chitters and attempts to bite Syn.
Lady Syn jumps back and tries to whip snap it over the side of the deck. "Son of a---" Megumi frowns. "That's interesting," she ponders, oblivious to the comedy that is about to unfold behind her.
Ryoujal says, "Heh, I guess you should have expected that sort of thing in the Wyld. Though I don't know what the big deal is, it's just.... OH MY GOD IT'S COMING AT ME!"
Ryoujal retreats below decks once again.
Big Red stares more then a little shocked at Ryoujal's reaction
Lady Syn says, "Giant chicken."
With a neat flick of her whip, she tosses the rodent-like creature off the ship where it sinks into the murkiness, still chittering angrily.
Lady Syn says, "So anyone want to experiment with black, green, white or purple ones?"
Ryoujal pokes his head back up only a little bit, "Did you kill it?"
Big Red says, "I am curious about the purple since they seem so rare"
Lady Syn says, "I knocked it over deck, you giant sissy."
Lady Syn says, "Go for it, Red."
Big Red shrugs "Why not?" he pokes the purple one near by
The effect on Red is rather drastic as a purple light suffuses his entire body. As they watch, his wounds close up and heal and he seems altogether much better off than he was before.
Ryoujal says, "I'm not a sissy! It's just my face was on the same level as it's muzzle. If I was on deck, I would just step on it and be done with it."
Lady Syn stares at Red then looks to see if they can navigate towards any more purple. Big Red looks around at himself "Wow. I feel great. That was something I need really badly."
Ryoujal says, "Ooh, I need to find one of those...."
Now that they're really looking, they realise that Purple bubbles are really rare. And they're always surrounded by large bubbles of various other colours. It would be rather tricky to attempt it.
And so the Solars ponder the field of bubbles and wonder how best to use it to their advantage.
