[The clouds have started to filter in on the coasts of Malta, but the sky is still blue and the sun is still bright. Ye swabbies have gone down to the docks with one Jake Briggan, captain of the Griffon for ADVENTURE! Of course, adventure always seems to involve missions that lead you to your doom, but what fun would an adventure be without one of those?] [The docks are a bustle of activity, as even tent merchants sell their wares and fish mongers try to...um...monger fish. But all that is possibly lost on you as Jake and Virgil lead you to the ship. Maverick apparently wandered off for supplies and no one's been able to spot him. As for the ship? Well, we'll see it soon enough.] [Session start.] * Shan walks towards the ship behind Jake and Virgil! But not behind the others. * Virgil helps lead the way? Oh well, let's move people! * Nasira walks to the side and a bit behind Shan, openly looking around and grinning. She's happy to be here! * Enzo wanders along, looking around curiously as he goes. * Naiya is walking along. Clink, clink. She's taking in the sights, watching all the people, glancing from person to person to person, both those she's walking with, and those she passes by. * Jake clomps down the pier with his big boots, looking around at the ships. There's many big ones there. Carracks, Caravals. No Galleons docked at this time, but those may come later. * Virgil looks at the ships too. Oooh, ships! * Jake stops and looks behind him. "Huh. Where's the blunt fella with the poncho?" * Enzo shrugs. Hell if I know. Did you want me to babysit him? * Naiya turns her gaze to the ships as they come into view. * Nasira looks to Shan. "Did you? I could've done it, no problem." * Virgil shrugs. "I don't know." Nah. I told him when we'd be casting off. If he can't bring himself to meet punctuality, he ain't one I'd want on me crew. The mercenary? He went out for supplies. He should have been back by now. * Shan shrugs. "His whereabouts aren't really my concern. Perhaps he changed his mind without telling anyone. * Jake turns back around. "Well, if he don't show, we cast off without 'im." We've gotta reach the remains 'fore the Crows do. * Naiya nods in response to Shan. "He may have reneged." * Nasira snickers. "Or been eaten. By wild dogs, even. ... Nah, I don't think Malta's known for its wild dog population." Nah, that's Istin. Istin! Right. Is it Istin? Didn't know they'd have wild dogs... * Jake shrugs. * Enzo shrugs too. "Why not?" * Virgil shrugs. "I always thought Vithril was the place with all the wild dogs." * Naiya narrows her eyes momentarilly. "That's an insult to wild dogs." That it might be if they understood it. [Everyone is lead up the pier to near the end of the docks. There's a couple ships on this end. Some look on the poorer end and a little worse for wear. There's a small brig on the end of the dock being currently patched up by a work crew. It's in better shape than the others at this end of the dock but not the best of ships. At the stern in red lettering and fancy Maltan script is the words "The Griffon".] [Even those who can't read Maltan may assume it's the ship in question by the silver griffon figurehead on the bow. A few men are up on the sails checking the rigging.] * Nasira looks it over and grins. "It floats! Good job, Jake. I knew you had it in you." * Naiya looks the ship over, curiously. It's certainly not going to sink anytime soon. Not if I have anything to say about it. One would hope. * Naiya glances around, casting a final look about for Maverick. [Naiya sees no Maverick] Of course it floats. It's floating, for sure. But how does it sail? * Nasira gives Jake a playful punch to the shoulder, which might be a little more forceful than necessary. She's still grinning. "I didn't say it wouldn't float, did I? Are we going on now?" Fairly well, actually. It's no slouch, if that's what you mean. * Jake puts his hands behind his back in a captain-esque fashion and admires his ship. "It may not seem like much, but she's certainly got a personal charm to her. I couldn't ask for a better ship." Pirate ain't got her yet in these waters though, so that's gotta say something. Aye. * Jake cups his hands over his mouth and yells out to the ship. "Oy! Ye lads! Lower the gangplank! We've got some scallywags comin' aboard!" It's met with shouts of "Aye aye!" from the other end. * Nasira furrows her brow a little. "Scallywag?" She looks at Shan. "Did he just call you a scallywag? Is that a kind of crayfish?" * Naiya waits patiently. She's still looking all over, at all the different ships, the different people. [The plank thunks on the pier and Jake looks rather pleased. Two of the male crew are on each side of it on the top of the ship and grinning from ear to ear. * Enzo leans back on his heels, hands in his pockets, waiting. * Naiya turns her gaze to the plank as it lands, then momentarilly to the two attending it. [They're wearing a bandanna and striped shirts. One of them has a poor set of boots on and the other doesn't even have that. They're both grinning at Naiya. The one with the boots is missing a few teeth.] * Virgil steps aside so other people can walk up first. * Naiya glances at Jack, then shrugs. She pauses at the end of the plank, then smiles at the two sailors. "Thank you for bringing the plank down." She starts walking up. Clink, clink. After you. * Enzo walks up in the order that he was walking with people before. Silly little mannerless cretin! ^-^ He waves a quick thanks to the sailors though. * Nasira looks at Shan for a moment, then nods and heads up the ship, eyeing the bandanna guys. [The one she's eyeing (since she can only do one at a time, harr!) loses the grin momentarily to a look of confusion.] * Nasira smiles when that happens. * Jake walks up the plank and looks at the crew. "Look lively men. Show some respect, you scags!" The crew snaps to attention and gives a salute before returning to their duties. He then turns to the rest of them. "Let me show you to your quarters." * Virgil walks up along with the rest of them. * Naiya lets Jake take the lead. He knows the ship and all. * Shan does as well. She glances around the ship. It's a ship-shape ship? [It is indeed a ship-shape ship.] ( That's good, 'cause if it was a horse-shaped ship, I'd want off. ) * Nasira stretches her arms behind her and follows Jake, looking the crewmembers over. * Naiya is looking everything over, smiling with a big, warm smile. "How long will the trip there take, if I may ask?" [Jake leads you down beneath to the lower deck and down a long hall. One of the doors you pass on the way down is open just a crack. Virgil, Naiya, and Shan catch just a glimpse of what looks to be a couple heavy black suits. There's a bit of a shine where the head would be, as if a reflection of glass.] [The crew glances Nasira's way as she glances at them but try to go about their business.] * Jake speaks as he walks. "The trip shouldn't take more than a few days travel. It's what to do once we get there that's the problem. We know that's where they last travelled but where they went from there is anyone's guess.] * Nasira nods. * Shan nods too. In unison, in fact. Hopefully there will be some clues left behind as to what happened. If we can salvage anything, it'd be a plus. But we're not sure what we're gonna find when we get there. We're hopin' ol' Virg can gleam somethin' from the event. * Naiya dosen't nod. She looks to the floor momentarilly. Any questions before we head off? * Jake stops and turns around to the group. * Nasira grins. "Not from me. I know where to sleep now, thanks to you." * Virgil smirks. "I've already had my questions answered." * Naiya laughs. "Knowing where to sleep..." Is important! Don't try telling me it isn't. Even if it is just a pile of straw on a cold, stone floor. * Nasira winks at Shan. I've a question. * Jake nods and tilts his head to Shan. * Naiya shakes her head. "That's not what I was going to say... Probably dosen't matter, anyways." * Enzo shrugs and shakes his head. "I got nothing." I had made prior arangements with the guild for... alternate sleeping arrangements for myself and my guide. * Segev is now known as Sleepmancer * Jake nods. "We've got some private bunks. They usually are reserved for special guests but.." He eyes Shan and waves his hands defeated. "Alright, alright, I can't go 'gainst the guild, can I?" * Shan smiles nicely and bows. "My thanks." * Nasira snickers. * Naiya just shakes her head, holding back a laugh. [Day two. You're on the open sea! There's a calm cool breeze in the early morning and the sun barely peeks over. There's no land in sight right now, but there's a knock at the door. Enzo and Naiya are stuck in the same room because they didn't think to request better bunks too. Harr. The yell at the door says, "We need some extra hands on deck! Get at 'em!"] [Shan and Nasira got the cushy suites on the main deck. Lucky them. Nice drawn curtains and all. Virgil...well who knows where he slept? But he's up now.] * Naiya sits up, bleary-eyed, yawning. She glances at the armor stowed in a corner, then shakes her head, and stands, stretching. * Virgil adjusts his glasses and looks into the sun. He licks his finger and puts it to the wind, nodding. * Enzo gets up, tosses on his shirt and jacket, and gets at 'em. * Shan comes out on deck, but doesn't go to work. She instead looks off the side of the boat. * Virgil is on the main deck, simply looking at the men work. "Good morning. Hope you slept well?" * Naiya , out of her armor, is wearing a grey and brown Zaxon-ish uniform. She's got a medium build. * Virgil is still wearing the robe/garnment things! Well, at least he changed what was under them. He studies a Maltan book in his hand, which has a few odd papers filling the pages. [The man who called them has black hair tied into a ponytail. He looks relatively young and has dark eyes. He's wearing an open dark green vest over a bare chest and loose pants. He's got a sabre looped in his belt as he looks at all of you. He looks particularly at Naiya and Enzo, since they're the workable unknowns. "Either of you know anything about rigging?" * Naiya nods at the 'slept well' comment. She probably didn't. * Naiya shakes her head. "Not a whole lot, I'm afraid." [The man eyes Naiya critically, then turns to Enzo. "You?"] [Man: "I need one of you to get up in the crow's nest and tell me if you see anything." * Naiya waits a moment to see if Enzo volunteers. * Enzo nods. "Okay." * Enzo goes on up. * Naiya sighs. "I'm afraid I'm better at cleaning or cooking. I don't know much about operations of a ship. I can read a map, but you already have a navigator." * Shan folds her arms behind her back and watches how ship-people do stuff. [The man looks at Naiya. "Hmm, we may ask your help in the galley if you're willing. But you're not necessarily hired that we can order it."] I would like to help, in whatever way I can. It passes the time. * Nasira lounges lazily in her room, cleaning her saif. It's such a pretty saif. [He then goes to watch Enzo climb up who does it with a practiced ease and gets to the top with the crows nest. There's a bronze telescopic spyglass in it. The man calls up to him. "There should be a glass up there. See anything?"] Uhh.... * Enzo looks. [Enzo sees in the spy glass a foam in the water. It's actually on both sides. It's coming closer at relative high speed. Nasira sees it a little less clear, since it's off in the distance, but it's definitely getting closer.] * Enzo calls down. "Something's coming....some sorta weird foam in the water, coming at us pretty quick." [The foam also has a spread to it. It's hard to tell how wide the spread is but it isn't isolated in one spot.] * Nasira looks out the window, spots that, and sheathes her saif, running out with it in hand for a better look. Wierd foam...? [The man raises an eyebrow at Enzo and then calls out. "Captain! Come here quick!"] Yeah. Kinda spread out, coming from both port and starboard. * Shan looks over the side at it. "Hmmm... What do you suppose it is?" * Naiya bows apologetically to the man. "Excuse me. I'll be right back." She runs back to the quarters. * Nasira calls up, "Lookin' at the foam, Enzo? I think it's headng for us." [The man turns towards Nasira. "You see it too, do you?"] * Virgil looks around for the foam. "Foam?" * Enzo waves at Nasira. "Yup, 's what I got." * Nasira nods. She looks off to the other side just to see more. I sure do. * Naiya returns, her sheild, and bag, in tow. She withdraws a spyglass from the bag, and walks over to the edge to look, both normally, and with the spyglass. * Jake comes rushing up to the man's side. "What is it, Alar?" He raises his spy glass in the direction of the foam. "...what the..?" He yells out an order. "Turn about! Load the main cannons!" * Nasira perks. "Oho." She grins. * Shan takes a few steps back. "What is it?" * Jake curses. "Crimsons in these waters? That's unheard of!" * Virgil ducks into the ship, putting the book away and comming out with his staff in hand. Not like he can do anything *with* it. * Naiya frowns, looking at the foam more. Looks like there's a lot of 'em too. Crimsons? What are they? What's going on? Fish. They eat things. Hunt in packs, able to jump water for a bit of time, deadly, you know. * Jake grits his teeth. "Crimson Pirahnas. Nasty little things. They don't usually attack ships though...especially not here. They're not usually around here." I see. * Shan nods. "Yes... Can they get up to the deck?" [As if to answer that, a few of them are hopping out of the water. They're leaping high enough to show that yes, they probably could get on the deck.] * Naiya steps back, and pulls a pistol out of the bag, and checks it over. * Nasira eyes one. "This'll be fun. Never fought fish before." Will we be safe downbelow? [The actual pirahna is about the size of a cat, but a large cat. And it looks ugly and is blood red in color. It's top fin has yellowish spines through it and its tail wriggles through the air. The eyes look straight on the ship as its jaws snap at the air.] * Nasira tucks her sheathed saif into her sash. * Virgil stays close to the cabins at the back and near the middle of the ship. * Shan makes her way towards... behind Nasira. * Naiya steps back, close to the entrance below, in case things get ugly. [Begin combat: Order- Nasira, Fishy pack 1, Virgil, Enzo, Shan, Fishy pack 2, Naiya, Gunners.] [Nasira's turn. They're not quite on deck yet, mind you.] * Nasira hangs back, covering Shan. She draws her saif and gives a shout, air swirling around her as she literally throws it at the pack of fish closer to her. [The blade whirrs through the air as the fish are jumping towards the ship. Three of them are in this pack and two of them jump just over the blade. The third one gets knocked by the blade and misses the ship. It's still swimming through the water, albeit poorly.] [The two that made it on deck flop about for a second. They've got an evil glare to them. One of them flies towards Enzo but dives past. The other is diving straight through the air towards Shan, fangs barred.] * Nasira curses, drawing her knife with her left hand and springing into (further) action, trying to interpose that bit of metal between the Chu-Lin woman and the nasty-looking fish. [Nasira's blade goes a little wide in the drawing. The fish, instead of being blocked by the knife ends up sinking its teeth into Nasira's arm. Blood trickles down where the fish remains clamped, its tailfin wriggling as it holds on with a firm painful grip.] * Nasira curses louder and more fluently, now, in her native tongue. [Luckily Shan is spared. Two fish on deck, one on Nasira's arm. Virgil's turn.] * Virgil stays back and, well, tries to make sure the fish don't come too close. (Total defense) [As Virgil acts like a total coward, Nasira's blade comes whirring back from its flight towards her hand.] [Enzo's turn.] * Nasira snatches it by the hilt with her right hand, which happens to be attached to the unbitten arm. * Enzo looks down, frowns a little, takes something from his belt, then grabs a hold of the rigging and slides down. He's not Captain Cool, but he makes it and dashes towards the non-Nasira deck fishy, slashing at it with something shiny and multi-bladed. [The fish blinks in a fishlike manner and goes flopping back over the deck. Blood trails along the deck as it skids, it's fins flopping a bit to get it back upright but it's not out just yet.] [Shan's turn.] * Shan goes wide-eyed when the pirahna bites Nasira. She moves out from behind her and delivers a palm strike to it, trying to knock it away. [The piranha, somehow, someway, decides to wriggle out of the way and drop off Nasira's arm. It didn't look smart for a fish but the result is Nasira getting smacked by the strike instead. And it stings quite a LOT.] * Nasira grimaces and nearly drops her knife. "Glad you didn't decide to shock me!" [The second pack of fish are still approaching. The foam is bubbling angrier. It's Naiya's turn.] * Shan gasps and bows. "Apologies! That was not my intention!" * Nasira laughs and shakes off some of the blood trailing down her arm, backing to protect Shan again. "Yeah. Who wants to help fish, anyway?" [Meanwhile, the man curses at the scene behind him and draws his sword. "We cannot let any more of them board the ship. Port-side cannons, ready." He thrusts out his sword. "Fire!" The cannons roar as a volley flies through the air.] [Two of the balls miss, but the middle of the volley collide with the fish. One of them seems too wounded to continue swimming and floats belly-up on the surface. The other is taken right out of the water and flies backwards in the distance.] [He grins a little and puts his sword in a guarding position. "Don't let them come aboard, men."] [Naiya looks confused. Top of the round, Nasira's turn.] * Nasira brings her saif down to slice at the fish that bit her as it flops up, following through by spinning and slashing at it with the knife in her other hand. [The fish flops back out of the way out of the path of the sword. It takes a shallow cut with the knife across the belly but it's mostly superficial for now.] [The fish that was knocked in the water gnaws at the side of the deck, trying to bite through the wood. The one that was going for Shan earlier makes another leap for her. The other one recovers from the earlier hit and jumps towards Naiya.] * Shan moves to the side of the diving fish. Uh, and doesn't get hit. [Naiya brings up her shield to block and the fish whams into it. Virgil's turn.] * Virgil looks off to the side of the ship, and back at the fishes, and stays where he is. (End turn) * Shan spins around, and delivers an axe-kick to Mr. Fishy. [That particular fish gets whammed and hits the deck hard. The bad fish that bit Nasira isn't moving any more.] [Enzo's turn.] * Nasira blinks, then grins. "Who's protecting who now?" * Enzo continues after his previous fish, slashing at it again with a shiny blade. [The fish goes flopping back again, bouncing over the deck and over the railing. Before it goes over the railing though, it didn't look like it was moving. At least not of its own will. It flies into the water and lands to float belly up.] Although I appreciate your efforts, I am rather capable of taking care of myself, if I may be so bold as to say. Right! I don't need to worry about you anymore. ... I'm not sure how to take that. [There's another cannon volley but they miss as the fish fly up to the ship. Two of them out of the water. Alar draws his sword quickly and holds it blade out as the fish jumps. The blade cuts the fishes belly as it jumps past and the fish flies a minute before there's a minor explosion. The fish is still up but looks pretty badly wounded.] [Alar: "Look alive, more coming!"] [Nasira's turn.] [Alar yells. "Captain! Get someone to take care of that little one down there before it nibbles a hole."] * Nasira 's eye twinkles. "I'm not sure how you'd take it, either, but I'm glad that's settled." She breaks away from Shan, dashing across deck to one of the fish and using her knife to stab downward, using the crouch she ends in for a sweep with her saif. [The saif whiffs unfortunately, but the piranha ends up skewered on the end of Nasira's knife. It stops wriggling after a while.] [Virgil.] * Nasira steps on the fish, yanking her knife out of it. * Virgil stays where he is, the sour-sport he is. [Enzo!] * Enzo slides over to the remaining decked fish, stabs it with the shiny thing, then throws it overboard, hitting the chewing fish upside the head and hopefully knocking it out. [Both fish collide with each other, snapping their teeth angrily. The one that was overboard does get knocked out good and floats, probably dead. The other isn't quite dead but dives underneath the surface. It doesn't come back up.] * Jake looks down at the pistol he was drawing in the meantime, then up at Enzo. "That works. Good show, lad." There's some general cheering from the crew. * Enzo cleans off what's now visible as one blade of an odd three-bladed contraption on his shirt as he walks over to Nasira. "You okay?" He gestures at her arm. * Enzo kinda shrugs and blushes a little at the cheering. "Thanks, I guess." * Virgil breathes a sigh of relief. "That was very well done! Do you need some help with that, though?" * Nasira watches the last one go under, then gets a look at her ripped and bloodied left arm, then grins a little. "Yeah, I've been through worse. Just gotta get bandaged up. Thanks for asking, kid." * Enzo shrugs. "'S just that if you want, I can help you out with that." Yeah? You a doctor? * Nasira looks over to Shan. "Hey! You fine? None of the fish got ya while I wasn't payin' attention, did they?" Naw, but I got something on this little thing *holds up the tri-bladed swirly thing* that could help you, probably. * Shan nods. "I am fine. Again, I apologize. Allow me to look at your wounds, if you would?" * Jake looks over at where the fish went. "I just don't know why those demon fish would go about attacking ships is all. Lucky there wasn't more of 'em." * Nasira laughs. "Sure. Not gonna turn down an offer ta heal better. Maybe I'll even get off without a scar this time." * Jake then gestures to a random crew person. "Go down to the hold, make sure it didn't bust through." Okay then. * Nasira looks at Jake. "You don't think we'll get more, do you? They were good as a warm up, but if we fight too many, it might get boring." * Shan leads Nasira to some place where she can sit down and inspects the wound. * Virgil walks over to the rest of the group. "That was quite amazing. I'm very impressed. Definetly glad you're on our side." * Enzo walks up to Nasira, flicks out one of his other blades and holds it near Nasira's arm, concentrating. * Nasira holds her arm out, letting them all take a look as they like. She tilts her head as Enzo does that. * Jake grins. "We'll get some scatter shot when we land at Dusien. That'll show 'em." * Virgil raises an eyebrow at Enzo's use of the odd weapon. "Maybe I should just heal her before you accidentally hurt her with that?" With all do respect, I am also highly trained in the medical arts. What's the worst he can do? Amputate? I always wanted a hook for a hand. Saw someone back at Malta with one of those; very snazzy. You can't be serious! [Enzo's blade ends up doing spectacularly nothing.] * Nasira grins. "But I'm always serious!" * Virgil snickers. "Arrr!" * Enzo gets temporarily distracted and grins up at Nasira. "Really? Did he let you touch it?" Nah, I didn't ask. Should I have? Is that a Maltan custom? * Enzo looks down. "Oh. Guess I gotta work on that." He shrugs, folds all the blades up, and tucks it back in his tunic, moving aside for the others. Nah, I just think it'd be awesome. * Virgil looks over at Shan. "Would you like to clean the wound before I heal it over?" * Shan removes some bandages from a pouch she wears at her side. And some long, sharp needles. "I can fix this. Allow me." When I was little one of my mother's customers had one, and he let me play with it while he was, uh, busy. * Nasira blinks. "Needles? Whoa. What's needles got to do with anything? Got thread, too?" * Shan jabs Nasira in a few places and wraps up the wound nicely. "There. Before long, you'll never even know you were injured." * Virgil shrugs. "Something tells me we might need a more immediete solution, though." [Shan ends up doing good work on Nasira. And Virgil complains, but who needs him? He was hiding the whole time.] [Session End.]