[Arr. Tis a beautiful day for sailing the ocean blue. And after those nasty fishies gnawed on Nasira a little, we find ourselves on relatively safe waters. It's been open sea for a while now, and the crew has calmed from the ordeal. A wind blows and fills the white sails as the crew normally goes about their morning business.] [Session Start.] * Naiya takes a moment to appreciate the nice, blue view, the breeze and the air, hands on the side, leaning forward slightly. ... if she wasn't yawning, that is. * Enzo does ship stuff! Probably rigging-related. * Virgil doesn't! Then again, he's just outside idly watching the wind blow past. * Shan watches people do work. She's supervising. * Nasira is on deck. She's completely healed now that Shan and the others have had a look at her, and now she's up and about, practicing her craft as she whirls with both sword and knife. The crew (hopefully) knows better than to get in the way. * Nasira frowns a little as the boat rocks to one side. She doesn't waver in the least and seems to still be going strong, but she frowns just the same. * Naiya is too busy yawning, and looking outwards from the ship, to notice Nasira. * Enzo takes a second to whistle approvingly at a particularly sharp move. "Nice one, Nasira!" * Enzo waves at her with one hand. * Nasira spins, catching Enzo with her good eye and turning the frown into a grin. "You're pretty sharp yourself, kid." * Enzo grins back. "Thanks!" [Naiya sees a gorgeous blue ocean out there. It seems particularly clear today. The sun is shimmering just off the ripples in the water and the boat is making good speed.] * Nasira slices inward and to one side, slashing her knife behind the saif in a quick move. "Wanna give it a try?" * Enzo gestures at the rigging he's working on. "Love ta, but I got work." He points at his belt, where a tip of the cyclone knife pokes out. "Plus, I play with smaller toys than you do." * Shan comes over to watch. * Nasira laughs, reversing her grip on the saif in an instant and slicing upwards with a trail of molten sparks. "That's the point! I've never fought anyone with those. I'd like ta see how different it is." * Naiya finally seems to tire of the pretty view. She stands straight, stretches, and lets out a final yawn, before turning around to regard the denizens of the ship. * Virgil looks over. "Are you going to spar?" * Enzo shrugs. "Well, sure, I guess, as soon as I finish up." * Nasira grins, her teeth flashing white in the sun. "Maybe." * Segev has joined #Seekers * Virgil smiles. "I hope you don't mind a few spectators then." * Naiya frowns for a moment, before adopting a not-quite-as-worried expression. "Spar? ... have fun, I guess." [Just about then, Alar walks up to your group. He nods to all of you.] * Nasira ducks and spins, her sword extended, and follows this by reversing her grip on her knife and rising. It's rather a reverse of one of the moves she used on the Crimsons. She twirls the knife in her left hand. "Spectators? Hate 'em. And by hate 'em, I mean who's it gonna hurt?" * Alar looks over at Nasira, then up at Enzo. "Why don't you take a break for a bit, boy?" * Enzo looks down. "Huh? Sure, I guess." * Naiya nods at Alar in kind. "Hello." * Enzo slides down the rigging to the deck, walking over to everyone else. * Virgil chuckles. * Nasira smiles at Enzo. Nothing predatory in that smile at all, no sir. "Okay. How do we go about this..." * Enzo shrugs. "I dunno. Never really sparred before." I have. The problem is we're sorta lacking wooden weapons here. * Enzo blinks. "Wooden weapons? For, like...music? Like a drum or something?" * Alar nods back to Naiya. Man of few words, that. It's generally played to first blood, or until one side calls mercy. Mmm... Go ahead, use the real thing. Just don't beat yourselves up too much, otherwise I won't be able to patch you up. * Nasira looks at Alar for a moment, then Enzo. "And if we use steel, I'm not sure about your control." And then she laughs. "Mercy. Okay." * Nasira blinks after a moment. "Drums?" * Enzo shrugs. "I dunno." * Naiya vanishes belowdecks for a minute. Me neither. You're the one who mentioned them. * Enzo shrugs again. "Guess so." * Naiya returns. She's got just her book, and spyglass. The book's open, and she's writing in it as she's walking. * Nasira shakes her head, grinning, and looks around at the amount of space people are giving them. "Might wanna give us a little more room." She takes a few steps back from Enzo, sheathing her weapons and facing him. * Virgil looks over at Naiya. "What are you writing there?" Oh, I almost forgot. Are you a tech? * Naiya points at Nasira and Enzo with the pen. "That." That? * Nasira nods once. "I figured I wasn't gonna use 'em." And then her eye twinkles, and she grins. "Unless you are, too." Umm... I dunno. Do you want to? * Naiya nods. "That." She takes position at a good point to watch from, and starts writing again. * Virgil shrugs and keeps watching. * Nasira shrugs. "Doesn't make much difference to me, Kid." She takes a moment to retest her footing. * Shan appears again, having looked around the ship. Today she's carrying a fan made of feathers and wearing a kind of tall, pope-like hat. * Alar hmms. "I'd have to speak to the captain about this." He bows to Shan. "Good day." * Nasira laughs. "Fine, Alar. Fine! We won't use 'em." You don't need to go askin' permission on our account. Well, it is not so much that as I believe we should be reaching our destination soon. Oh, already? * Virgil looks up into the sky, noting the location of the sun. "Yes, actually." He heads into the map room. * Shan bows back to Alar. "And to you as well." We have been blessed with a strong wind. Usually it would take until late into the evening but... * Nasira sighs. "Damn. Does that mean we have to postpone?" * Enzo shrugs again again. "Guess so." No, no. By all means, have your little spar. It may just be best to keep it less complicated. * Naiya smiles a small smile to herself. She looks up for a moment, then jots down something else. * Nasira nods. She looks to Enzo. "Ready?" Do try not to cause any permanent injury to each other. * Enzo nods. "Sure." * Nasira grins suddenly. "Me? Maim? Never." * Enzo takes out a cyclone knife, flicking out two blades, and a long dagger, slightly curved, vaguely Caladeemish. * Nasira twirls her own dagger, which is definitely Caladeem-made. She lowers her sword to hover point-first, above the ground. * Enzo falls back into a stance, the long dagger guarding the cyclone, which is a sort of reverse of traditional knife-play. ( That is, if anyone there knows what traditional knife-play is s'posed to look like. ) * Alar hmms again. "She has an interesting style, that one." (I do, so that's fair!) * Shan does. A traditional Chu-Lin style knife fight, that is. * Shan has no idea what the crazy foreigners are doing, however. * Virgil walks out from the maphouse with a book in-hand. He's paging through it as he walks back, stumbling a little but regaining his balance. * Nasira doesn't waste any time, grinning as she takes two running steps forward and leaps high into the air, sun at her back. She covers the distance easily and bringing her sword down to slice Enzo as she lands. * Naiya glances at Virgil, specifically at the book, before turning her gaze back to the sparring that's just starting. [Some of the other sailors have stopped working to watch the fight. Faint murmers suggest that there's betting going on.] * Enzo attempts to hop back, not making any moves with his weapons yet. * Enzo gets mostly out of the way, but seems to still have some sleepy feet from being up on the rigging, 'cause he gets a little sliced. He circles around, keeping the pose, still grinning a little. * Nasira grins right back. "First blood, kid." Impressive. No less than I'd expect. * Shan watches the fight and counts to herself the number of ways the two fighters could easily beat each other if they only knew Kung Fu. She's rather eager to spar. * Enzo glances down at the cut. "Yeah, yeah. But we haven't even started yet." I'm not surprised. The Caladeem people are fighters by nature. * Nasira pulls her sword up so it's parallel to Enzo. "We haven't? *You* haven't." And then she slices to the left, across his midsection. Eh. * Enzo skips aside, trying another dodge, but gets cut again. "Aw, man, I liked that shirt." He pauses a little, then tries to dash inside, using the long dagger to guard the sword and the cyclone to try a slice at her. * Nasira steps to one side, keeping her good eye on Enzo and bringing her left hand from behind her back to the cyclone, clanging metal against metal as she blocks. "Better!" she grins, reversing her grip and slicing her saif in toward his side. * Virgil looks to the sky, then snaps the book closed and watches the combatants. * Enzo counters the saif with the long dagger and flicks his hand to the side, twisting her knife between the two blades. [From above there's a call. "Land ho!"] * Enzo is, in other words, blocking the saif with the dagger and trying to disarm her dagger with the cyclone, but it doesn't matter because wow, land. * Nasira lets her dagger go, and it skids across the deck. She jerks her sword down at the sound of that. "But it was just getting good! * Enzo steps back and shrugs. "Well, let's see what we got." * Naiya watches Enzo and Nasira until it's settled that they're done for the moment, then goes to take a look, bringing her spyglass up. * Nasira flicks the blood off her saif, making for more to clean up, and looks at Virgil. "You said you were gonna patch him up?" I could do it easily enough. * Virgil adjusts his glasses. "Yes. You hurt at all either?" He looks at Nasira. * Enzo shrugs. "I'm fine." * Enzo puts the long dagger and cyclone away. * Nasira shakes her head. "Nah." And then she grins. "But he was gonna get me." * Nasira walks past Enzo to retrieve her dagger. * Virgil smiles. "If you're not hurt, I see no reason to patch you up." * Nasira laughs. "I didn't ask you to patch *me* up." By the way, kid. You're pretty good. I just wish you warmed up a little faster. * Enzo shrugs. "What for?" I was talking to Enzo. He said he's fine. * Enzo blinks at Virgil. "I didn't ask you to patch me up either." [Naiya sees a island slowly increasing in size in her spyglass as they approach. The trees bordering it look fairly tropical and a short sheer reef borders the edge of the pier.] * Nasira looks at Enzo, almost incredulously. "For a better fight. How else are you gonna get better?" Constant training and discipline. Well, yeah, but if you don't push yourself, you won't learn what you can do. * Enzo shrugs. "Sorry. Maybe Shan or Naiya will give you a better fight then, if that's what you want." You were both amazing, if you ask me. * Shan coughs. * Enzo laughs a little. "But I didn't even do anything!" * Naiya glances back, and says flatly, "I won't spar." * Nasira shakes her head. "I wasn't insulting you. I was complimenting you. And if you ever want me to help you learn to do better, I'll be happy to do it." Well, I would be willing, but I hardly think that would be a fair fight. * Jake calls out to Alar. "Oy. Take us in, Blackie." He walks over to the rest of them as Alar nods and heads to take over the wheel. * Nasira snickers. "Blackie?" For who's side? * Enzo shrugs and grins. "Maybe sometime. Thanks for the offer, though. And the sparring thing." * Jake grins. "We've all gotta nickname around here. Keeps the crew connected, y'know? Except Bookworm over there. Oh wait, that's a nickname too ain't it?" He grins at Virgil. Don't say thanks unless you mean it. I kinda doubt you do. Bookworm? * Nasira grins back, sheathing her weapons and tucking them into her sash. "But you're welcome anyway." Why wouldn't I mean it? * Naiya smiles at Virgil. "It's a fitting nickname." Because you didn't seem to care one way or the other. Heeey, if Virgil over there's bookworm, what's that make Naiya? * Virgil laughs. "Yeah, bookworm." So from here, we gotta find out what waters that old gal was travelling. All we know is this was the last known port that she visited." Are we looking for some elder woman? I'm afraid I wasn't informed. * Naiya hmms thoughfully, smiling warmly. "What does that make me, then?" * Jake chuckles. "The ship, lass. Sailors always refer to their ships as wimmin." * Naiya glances down at her book, and jots something down on it. She looks back up, the pen hovering over the book, ready to write dwon something. * Virgil nods. He's busy being distracted by his book. Beats me! You always carry around a book- there's a question. If all the ship are women, how do you get more? Not in my country. Why would they do that? * Jake just grins at Nasira. * Nasira grins back. Maybe they're single-gender? * Shan doesn't. Ships are women? This country is screwed up in the head. [The ship slowly approaches the dock. There's a lot of ships in the pier and the outskirts of the fort gates can be seen at the top of a small hill. Most of the ships are from all around but there's only one around that seems seperate from the others. Virgil, Shan, and Nasira actually get a good look at the flag it's flying. They're Vithril colors.] * Shan sees the flag! Not that it matters; she doesn't know who those people are. * Virgil instantly recogonizes the flag. He frowns. "There's bad news." * Nasira catches sight. "Ah, it can't be that bad." Vithril are pretty bad. What's bad news? What is it? * Nasira grins. "The Vithril. Tried to stomp out my people a while back." She stretches. "Destroyed cities, yadda yadda, they mellowed out some since then." * Enzo looks around. "Oh, really? Where?" ... Vithril? ... * Virgil points at the ship. "Yup. You know what I'm talking about, right?" Excuse me. * Nasira points. "Right there." * Naiya claps the spyglass shut, slaps her book closed, and promptly heads belowdecks. * Nasira blinks as Naiya storms off and looks around. "What got into her?" [While you're busy talking, the sailors go about the busy task of mooring the ship.] * Enzo looks. "Oh, I see--huh?" Perhaps she doesn't like them? * Enzo turns to look after Naiya. There aren't many that do. Most Zaxons have a particular distaste for them. I'll admit that I'm not above it either, even after learning about them. I'd guess especially about learning about them, huh? But it doesn't matter. We're in peacetime, and that means Vithril are good tradin'. Mmm... I don't know much about them, personally. * Virgil nods. "Just watch your back still. They may as well take the opportunity against you anyways." Why? * Naiya walks back up... clanking. She's in full armor again, the matching shield held loosely in one hand. Hmmm... Not everyone understands what 'Peacetime' really means, that's why. * Nasira smiles a big smile. "'Cause Zaxon and Vithril don't get along." It'd be kinda dumb to just run up and randomly stab someone though. * Virgil smiles back to Nasira. "There is that." So, really, Bookworm here's just being paranoid. * Nasira idly thwaps Virgil on his back. Hopefully a stiff breeze isn't enough to knock him over. Hopefully. I've got to pick up some lumber to patch up that work that that pirahna did on our hull. It ain't much but if you leave those things unattended, no telling. In the meantime, gather what you can about our ship. * Virgil doesn't get knocked over, fortunately. "Paranoid works." Yeah, sure. I just wanna get off of this thing. * Nasira waits for them to finish docking, then does just that. Land! Yay land! What for? * Shan nods. "Alright." * Enzo was asking Jake, by the way. What for what? Are we switching ships or something? Nah. But we need to figure out what route the other ship took before it sunk. Otherwise we'll never find it. So why do we need to pack up? This was its last stop before it disappeared. There *should* be something here but ya never can tell... Pack up? ...whatever. In all likelihood, we'll be here for a little while. Take your important belongings with you. * Enzo just walks off. Take the time to enjoy the land while we're here. * Naiya heads down to the docks, as well. Clanking. * Shan shrugs and walks off as well. She idly mutters about Nasira leaving her behind. * Virgil walks down to the docks as well, looking around interestedly. * Nasira didn't leave Shan far behind. She's standing at the docks, next to the ship, waiting for the others. * Shan takes her time and makes her wait, then o/~ * Nasira waits! And looks around. * Naiya waits for everyone else who's getting off to get off, looking around. She's particularly keeping an eye out for any Vithril. [The ship sails off without you! Nah. Instead the docks don't have all that many people around it. There's a winding path leading up towards the large city gates.] * Enzo doesn't wait! He wanders around. Up the winding path, supposedly. * Shan turns to Nasira when she gets there. "Where do you suppose we should look first?" * Nasira shrugs. "I'm no detective. I guess, if it docked in a while ago, someone around here might know something." Someone who works here, maybe. They had to have some paperwork- Bartenders know everything. The only question is how much you need to pay them. That works! What about the harbor master? A town this size should have one. That works, too. * Virgil nods. I can search the paperwork if you can find them. [They all come up to the gate. Two guards flank it. Pretty standard issue.] * Nasira smiles at the guards cheerfully. * Naiya salutes at the gaurds, smiling warmly. * Shan bows. * Virgil nods to the guards. May we pass? [One of the guards motions to the other who goes to open the gate. "What's your business in Dusien Reef?"] We seek to investigate a lost ship, under assignment from the Trade Council. It was here last, and we hope to turn up a lead. * Virgil is so not a diplomat. * Nasira idly looks around, staying at Shan's side. * Naiya smiles at the guards oh so nicely. *^__^* [The guards look at each other. Then one of them asks, "The Trade Council eh? Well you might ask around the docks and the pub to see if any remember it. If it's beena while, it may be hard. Ships come and go so often."] [The other guard looks thoughtful. "Is that the ship that--no, it couldn't have been that."] What ship, if I may ask? If you know something, I would be grateful if you would share it with me, even if it is just a guess or a suspicion. The littlest thing may help. [The guard looks at Shan. "I can't remember the name. But they said there was a Trade ship heading for the Veil. First time I've heard of something like that in a long while."] * Shan looks clueless and turns to Nasira. "Veil?" * Virgil rubs the arch of his nose, lifting his glasses. "Great. A wild goose chase." * Nasira rubs at the back of her head and looks to Shan. "It's this really thick mist that surrounds the inner seas." * Virgil looks somewhat surprised at Shan. "Your people did come out of it, after all." You can't go past it. Well, you can, but you don't come back. Or was that the Brine... * Nasira looks briefly confused. "Brine- oh! Yeah." She laughs. "Damn. Okay, still don't wanna sail into it. No clue what the Veil is." You're still right, though. The Veil isn't someplace ships sail through often. Any other information you can give? So... what is it? And is that where we're heading anyway? 'Cause that would just figure. They may have failed to reach there. We still need to find out what route they took. Exactly. And stories tell of sea monsters and an island in the area that nobody's ever reached. Pretty typical of treacherous waters, really. * Naiya blinks. "If they're talking about the same ship." [The guard thinks for a bit. "Well, they said there were stopping off at that island there. But that's just silly. It's just a rumor from what I've heard."] * Nasira thinks about that, then grins at Shan. "What do you think? Rumor island in the middle of whatever this Veil is that we're not supposed to go in. Sounds like fun, right?" Not in particular, but I have a funny feeling that we will be going there anyhow. Of course we will. These things always end up that way. * Naiya nods enthusasitcally. "It does! Who knows what kind of treasure will be found there!" So we'd better get used to the idea! I'm glad you agree with me. Well, that certainly explains it. * Nasira grins. "Yeah. If whoever's running that ship is as crazy as us, it explains a lot." It would be helpful to know a bit more than that, though. I'm going to go ahead, and see what else I can find out. By all means. * Virgil talks to the guard again. "By the way, would you happen to know where the Harbor Master's office is?" * Naiya starts walking ahead. "It would be a good idea for Virgil to check with the Harbor Master. He is the navigator." Hey, Naiya! Shouldn't we arrange a time to, y'know, meet up after this? [The guard gives Virgil directions. Yay for directions.] * Naiya stops, and looks back. "I imagine we'll be done long before the ships repairs are finished. As for a meeting place... the ship sounds good." Yeah, sure. * Virgil thanks the guards and heads to the Harbor Master's office. "Sure, that sounds convenient." * Nasira lets Naiya walk off and looks to Shan. * Naiya walks off, now that Nasira is letting her. Onwards to the bars! Let's see what we can find, I suppose. Lead the way, fearless one. Are you fearless? I don't think we've ever established that. It might be good to check with the harbor master, to see if the ship left a trail, and maybe a manifest... Do you suppose Virgil will think to check that? * Nasira blinks. "The Harbor Master, or what?" Well, I would imagine the Harbor Master would have that information. (Manifest what? :P) We can tail Virgil if you want. (Destiny!) ( De...) (...desk? ) (DESTROY!) * Nasira sighs, almost with disappointment. "But there's probably less fights to pick that way." Oh, are there? We'd better do that, then. * Shan follows Virgil. * Nasira snaps her fingers and follows, biting off a curse in Caladeem. "I *knew* I shouldn'tve said anything." * Nasira doesn't seem particularly put out, though, as she catches up and falls into step to the left and slightly behind Shan. She glances about, taking in the local color. "Not a bad town." [Session End.]