[It's another fine...err...misty day in the Veil of Mists. Virgil's been spending a lot of time poring through the Diary of Reginald Horn. There's a few other vague passages but none of them come across as particularly helpful. There's varied references to "them" and "it" but no real indication of what they refer to.] [The rest of you are on a ship doing whatever it is you like to do on ships. Enzo's still sleeping off the effects of the sirens...or just sleeping, no one can tell for sure. And you think Naiya's avoiding Nasira for some strange reason. She hasn't been seen in proximity to her for a while. As for Jake and Alar, they're busy taking care of general ship maintenance stuff.] [Session cast off!] * Shan is on the deck supervising. It's what she does best. * Virgil is reading. Big surprise. * Nasira is on the deck. Naiya has been avoiding her, as has a bit of the crew, but she doesn't seem to care. She's near Shan, looking out into the mist with her grin and twinkling eye and sheathed sharp slashy things. [The sea is calm and cool. It's a nice reprieve from the hecticness of the past...day? Few days? It's hard to tell how long you've actually been in these mists. It's starting to weigh on crew morale.] ( Oh no! We better find some enemies and defeat them to boost morale. ) Mist, mist, go away. Come again some other day? Week? Century? Let's go with century. Never can be too sure about these things. ( * Suddenly an enemy general jumps on deck. With a horse.) (Awesome. I jump up and cut him off.) * Alar comes up on deck. He comes to the railing nearby and props his elbows on it, watching the ocean silently brooding. (Brood brood BROOD. Gotta go move laundry.) * Shan does not brood. * Virgil reads. Not broods. * Alar sighs and turns pacing. "This accursed mist...will we ever be free of it? By the bowels..." * Alar heads off. It's so quiet that you can hear his feet clomping on deck. The rest of the crew that's able is busy in the rigging and even they're not making that much noise. * Nasira watches him go. "That left a visible trail of depression." * Virgil looks up from his book, having overheard Nasira. "Huh?" [In the distance, you see Alar walking off to talk with the captain.] A representation of the crew's spirits. It's to be expected. When travelling through perilous, unfamiliar territory, morale will dwindle. * Nasira grins. "Yeah, but they were hired to travel through perilous, unfamiliar territory. I'd hope they could deal with it." [There's something odd about that, in fact. You can actually see Alar talking to the captain. With the mists around, you haven't been able to before. They must be thinner here.] I'm sure they thought they could at the time. Mmmhmmm. * Virgil readreads. Well, looks like we're heading out of those dangerous and turbulant waters everyone's been complaining so much about. Too bad. Except for Naiya, it's been a lot of fun. Mmm... [There's a suddenly thick cloud that passes through. For a few moment, no one can see more than 5 ft in front of them. The ship shakes a little...] * Shan looks up at the cloud. * Virgil looks up, actually noticing. "I got a bad feelin' about this." * Nasira falls easily into a fighting stance, bracing herself and glancing around as one hand flies to her saif. [Once it passes through, the ocean looks clear. Sunrise shines on the sky and on the water. It looks like clear sailing from here. There's a vague wave of cheering as the ship emerges from the mists.] * Nasira smirks, skimming the area with her eye. * Virgil snickers. "Yup. Looks like our trip's gonna be over soon." Aww, no imminent danger lurking beneath the surface, just waiting to meet us? [Captain Jake comes walking up to your group. "By Cor, we did it. And here I thought I'd be searching through the Veil till the day I died." He laughs at his little joke, then looks at Virgil. "Get a bearing on our position, lad?"] * Virgil chuckles and looks up at the sky, then back at the captain. "Yes. Would you like to head to Port Rio or Dusien Reef? We're midway between the two." About. [Jake: "Hmm..."] [Jake turns to the rest of you. "Well, which would you prefer? You're the ones that were hired to retrieve this cargo...although...I'm not sure if we've made much sense out of it.." * Nasira raises an eyebrow, then looks to Shan. * Shan shrugs. "Whichever would be more accomidating. How about Port Rio so we can finish the assignment and get paid, hmm? [Jake snickers. "Thought you'd pick that." He calls out at the top of his lungs. "Alright, ya scurvy sea dogs! Look lively and get on deck! We're setting a course starboard towards Port Rio!" There's a loud chorus of "Aye!" in response. Seems they've gotten their courage back.] * Virgil reads the book s'more. Can't let traveling divert attention... * Nasira nods. "Smooth sailing from here, I guess." She heads down to the lower decks. "Here's hoping I can make some action in port." * Shan fans herself with her fan. "Here's hoping you can't." * Nasira laughs. "You're no fun, boss. No fun at all." And she disappears into the cabins. [You arrive in port around mid-afternoon. Before you know it, you're ready to meet your old friend, Theron Gaulin. Plus you're on dry land! Aren't you happy? For some reason, Enzo and Naiya didn't want to come...imagine that.] * Shan is no fun ;_; * Shan is happy. Dry land! It's so much better than wet land. * Nasira rather likes dry land. She proves this by being one of the first people off the ship! Probably with Shan. * Virgil is one of the later people off the ship, face still stuck in the book. He does manage to get it out when he starts walking around, though. Every once in a while, he glances back at it. * Virgil also has his stick of much walking +10. Mmm, balance. ^_^ [Along the way to the Trader's Guild, Virgil manages not to bump into anyone, amazingly enough. Everyone makes it okay and is greeted by the familiar bobbed- haired, well-dressed servant. "We've been expecting you. Come in." He opens the door and gestures inside.] Thank you. * Virgil walks in after aknowledging the servant's presence. * Shan walks into the guild. * Nasira nods to the servant with a grin as she trails Shan in. [The servant closes the door and leads you into the study where Theron met you before. "He shall be with you shortly."] * Shan nods. [The room looks pretty much as you left it. The cushy seats, the globe, the books along the walls. It's the Virgil Dream Home (TM).] * Virgil starts reading again. And no it isn't. Too much floor space, not enough books. * Shan reads nothing. It's all in some weird language. * Nasira doesn't, either. She idly spins the globe, though. [You aren't kept long waiting. The door opens and Theron comes walking in.] * Theron closes the door behind him, arms behind his back, trying to look professional. But a bit about him does look relieved. * Nasira gives the globe another good spin, nearly sending it off its stand, before giving Theron a cheery Maltan wave. * Shan bows to Theron. * Theron bows back to Shan and makes his way to the desk. "I must say, it's good news to hear that you returned safely. What word on the Iron Maiden?" * Virgil closes the book and waves to Theron. "Good to see you again." She was resting at the bottom of the sea in the Veil. * Nasira rolls her eye. "You say that like the ship's risen from the dead, Virgil." * Theron frowns. "That's dire news...any clues as to the cause?" It sank. If you look at it that way. But, that's what we know. If evil magic is afoot, it could have risen between the time we saw it there and the time we made it back to port. Cause... The sirens is my guess. * Theron looks startled at Virgil. "Sirens? In the Veil?" * Nasira shrugs, completely unconcerned. "Yeah. They got your crew good, too." * Theron sighs and runs his fingers through his balding scalp. "This is proof that we should do more to hire more female crew...it's a shame the old-school sailors will have naught to do with it..." * Virgil chuckles. "Fortunately, Nasira, Shan, and Naiya were there. Also fortunate is I didn't do anything rash while under their spell... just a mindsplitting headache." * Nasira snorts when Virgil mentions Naiya, but she doesn't comment. Yes...where is she anyhow? And the boy...weren't they both with you? Enzo's still sleeping off the effects... or maybe he's just sleeping. I can't ever tell with him. Naiya... after the incident, she's kept to herself most of the time. * Shan nods. Well... * Nasira folds her arms. A flash of anger enters her eye, but it's just a flash, and it's gone just as fast. * Theron thinks for a moment, then reaches into his desk. "Far be it for me to delay this any longer. Was there any salvage from the ship? At all?" * Virgil takes the book and hands it to him. "Just this." * Theron nods and looks at the book, flipping to the first page and raising an eyebrow. "Herein lies the journey of Reginald Horn..."? But...hmm...he was hired on fair recently..." * Shan raises an eyebrow. "How recently?" Within the last month or so...I'd have to look up the records for an exact date... * Theron flips through the book. "Although this diary seems to extend far longer than that..." Who hired him? Where is he now? Wait, you're saying he's not dead? * Theron waves his hand and shakes his head. "No no, you misunderstand..." He was hired onto the Iron Maiden fair recently. So why is this the only reminensce of their cargo...? You can ask Naiya that. She's the one who performed the diving. * Virgil nods. "This is the only thing she brought up. We were under a great amount of pressure durring the dive." If by "pressure" you mean "attacked by a hungry sea monster". I believe that's precisely what he meant, yes. How astute of you to mention. * Theron frowns again. "The Veil is an undocumented and above all dangerous place. That you managed to even recover this..." * Theron takes out a small sack from his desk. It makes a nice sound of settling money as he sets it down. * Theron takes out another and sets it by the first one. 'A bonus...for your trouble. And if you'd like, I'd like to hire you on again some time. But first, I would like an opportunity to peruse the cargo you have returned." * Theron bows his head to Shan. "Miss Dian Biao. I shall be certain to allow you access to our library for your study as well." * Nasira cocks her head, then looks to Shan. Can she even read the stuff in the library? * Shan nods. "Thank you." (Possibly!) Want me to tag along, boss? * Virgil nods and takes up the money. "I'll see this is split appropriately. I wouldn't mind assisting in deciphering the script myself. I've already done a bit of work on it on the way back to port, although much of it doesn't make sense." If you like. Indeed. Well I'm sure you've been on the waves for some time now...take some time to relax..don't overdo it. Sure. I just don't know what I'll do around a bunch of books. [All of the sudden there's a knock on the door. The servant peeks his head in. "Sir. There's another here to see you."] * Theron looks over at the door and waves his hand. "Send them in." [The servant nods and closes the door carefully.] * Enzo enters! I'm sure you can be inventive, Nasira. * Nasira spies Enzo with her little eye and laughs. "Hey, kid! Glad you could make it." * Enzo ducks his head at everyone, waving. "Hi everyone, sorry I'm late." Oh, nice to see you made it Enzo. Sure I can, but then I've got to wonder what kind of condition they want this library to be in. * Nasira grins. You could try reading them. I'm sure there's something there you can read. * Theron blinks at Nasira. "Preferably the condition in which you left it. Is it different in your country?" In my country? I've never seen an honest to goodness library in my life. No reason to go there. No reason? Hmm, how curious. Yeah, I traded paper cuts for giving people different kinds of cuts. * Nasira waves. "Besides, books are for record keeping." They are at that. I can't deny that. And... what's wrong with records? * Theron grins at Nasira. "Speaking of which, I have some book keeping of my own to do...if you'll excuse me.. Nothing, but it's incredibly boring. * Nasira nods to Theron. * Theron bows as he stands, particularly to Shan and Nasira. "My servant will be more than happy to escort you, although I trust you won't need it. Thank you again. And I'll recall you in the future if we require your assistance again." * Theron heads for the door. * Shan shakes her head. She nods to Theron. "Thank you." * Nasira continues once Theron's gone. "If you're the type, more power to you. The world needs record keepers. I'm not one of them." Well, shall we? * Enzo rubs his head. "Not to sound odd, but what's been going on?" Hm? I guess. Oh, we're looking in some books for... something. I'm not sure what. What are we looking for again? * Virgil chuckles. "I thought you knew me better than that. I'll be back at the ship to figure where the wages shall be going..." Oh, we were looking for the werabouts for the Iron Maiden. And we've just gotten paid for services rendered. * Virgil signals to the two bags of money. Oh, well then. Money is good. I guess. You can use it to buy rice. * Nasira nods. "A healthy diet," she says, with a perfectly straight face. Apples are healthy, too! As are bananas. I'm surprised you would recognize which foods are healthy. Interesting conversation. * Nasira snickers. "I got good advice at some point." * Enzo looks at Shan curiously. "Why's that?" * Shan shrugs. Oh. Okay. Irregardless, let's go to that library. Sounds good. * Shan goes! * Virgil shrugs and heads back to a quiet place where he can calculate in peace. * Nasira sidewhispers to Enzo as Shan leads the way, "She's so good with those non-words." * Enzo follows, rubbing his head a little still. "Yeah, I know." Those sirens got ya good. Ufff...sirens? Yeah, chicks with voices that make guys do crazier stuff than they usually do, like challenge me to a fight. I did that? Wait, yeah, I did! Only I thought that was before we got into the Veil. * Nasira laughs. That just means you're crazy. No, you got knocked out in that bird's nest or whatever it's called. Oh! That explains the bump. * Nasira nods sagely. "Yup." One would have to wonder how you managed to do that up there. Yeah, and I'm kinda wondering too. Oh well. [Next time: To the Library! Session end.]