[The open sea. The open sky. That's the view on deck of our intrepid swashbuckling crew. Finally on course again, it seems like fairly smooth sailing. The day is slightly overcast at the moment, but for the most part, clear skies and fairly steady waters.] [Shan is driving the boat, as per usual and as is her term. The rest of you are doing what you're doing on deck or coming up above deck. It seems peaceful for the moment.] [Session Ahoy!] * Shan driveses it. * Virgil is in the map room/library, studying the amulet that was obtained earlier. * Nasira is on deck and dueling air. She's probably winning, seeing as she's still breathing! Nasira's kept her Chu-Lin slippers, and the eyepath, and the black hair sectioned in a ponytail, and her earrings, but her clothes are, as stated before, all wrong: the shirt's white and tighter, buttoned up with a high collar (though the last few buttons are undone), the arms are still loose and billowing. * Nasira has a blue vest over that. The pants, also, are fairly loose in Caladeem style (though they're a dark blue). She's kept her sash, though! Another consistency. (Most importantly, there aren't holes in this outfit.) * Enzo is all over the place, making sure the boat's not gonna fall apart. ( Yet. XD) (well, yes.) * Nasira must have kept her weapons, too, or what would she duel the air with. (? even.) * Shan would use her fists. * Enzo would use his knives! * Nasira is neither Shan nor Enzo! Though situation may urge her to use one or the other. * Nasira sweeps low with her leg, then comes up, slicing with the curved edge into the air. This is followed with a turn and diagonal slash, then a horizontal one with the knife in her left hand. Two airy foes down. [There are a couple ships on the horizon. A few are travelling in the opposite direction.] * Shan drives! Not with her feet. * Nasira stalls her practice to look at those ships. [The ships are still too distant to see the colors without a spyglass.] * Nasira shrugs to herself and gets back to exercising. dwwww (... Huh?) (Gah, Sorry) * Shan frowns. The ship is making funny noises. (that's what we call beating one's head into the keyboards) * Shan steers to avoid the ships. She doesn't have a spyglass on hand, or she'd use it. [Shan plots a course away from the ships. You can't be too careful. Pretty soon, they disappear from sight. They're not pursuing, so that's a good sign.] Hey boss, where are we going? * Shan turns her head towards Nasira. "We're heading towards Zaxon." * Nasira turns and kills the invisibile enemy trying to get at her back. Her saif briefly flashes molten red in the sun. "Zaxon. Never been there." [Filis comes on deck and calls out to Shan. "Where do you need me?"] * Shan turns her head towards Filis, now. "I beg your pardon?" [Filis looks a bit sheepish. "Well...I thought once everything was finished, I'd come to help out on deck..."] Get up into the crow's nest. * Shan shrugs. "Listen to Enzo. I need to be on hand for repairs and stuff. Enzo's our go to guy, 'cause he's the one with the clue. [Filis nods and starts making her way, up top.] (No comma) * Enzo makes the rounds of the deck, checking stuff, avoiding Nasira-cutting-range. * Nasira CUTS UP ENZO not really. [Stuff seems to be in order. All the tacking is tack and all the untacking is untacked, the rigging is rigged and the sails are, err, sailing.] ** Nasira slices downwards, ending in a crouch, and springs up with dagger in hand. That'd go straight up someone's chin and into their brain. "I know I tried, but these clothes are still uncomfortable. I shoulda threatened what's his name more." * Virgil steps outside of the room. "Threatened who's name about what?" What's his name about my clothes! * Nasira turns to look at Virgil, gesturing at what she's wearing. "He wouldn't budge any more than this. Said it's 'unladylike' or something. What does he know about ladies? He's probably never been off of that island in his life." [Nasira looks very much like a lady. There may have been some stretches to make it "lady of the night" but still a lady, right? Actually, what she has is fairly sensible, but distinctly not from Caladeem/ (Are you calling me a prostitute? Do I need to be the only one here with one eye?) (Yes. Yes you do.) * Virgil adjusts his glasses. "I can see what you mean. It's too restricting, you mean?" * Nasira nods and looks down, then she says, "Do you think blue looks good on me?" Okay, that was random. (Next you know, she'll be asking "Does this dress make my butt look big?") (But she's not wearing a dress?) (Do these pantaloons then) (Okay then.) (Do these 'trousers') [On the port side of the ship (that's the left side to you landlubbers), there's a faint, but distinct noise over the waves.] [Virgil, Shan, and Enzo hear the flapping of what sounds like wings. Though the sound it makes couldn't be from a bird. It's too loud for that.] * Enzo frowns and goes over to look. "Filis! Can you see anything coming at our portside?" [Filis frowns and turns aside to the left. "I...see something. I can't quite make them out. 3? No, 5. 5 black specks in the air. They're coming towards us." * Nasira looks up and around. "Where's that coming from? Five... winged things?" * Nasira grins. "This could be fun." She rushes to port to take a look. ...Hmm. * Shan frowns. "Sounds like something I've read about." She steers away from the things. Aw, spoil my fun. If those are what I think they are, they'll be anything but fun. How's that again? That's the best part! The best part is they won't be fun? That's what my instinct tells me, and it hasn't gotten me killed yet. [The black specks seem to be growing in size. Once they're visible, they seem to be none too pleasant. The head and neck of their bodies seems like a female with dishevelled hair while their "arms" are the large wings themselves. Their talons look exceptionally sharp. ] * Enzo frowns. "Those're...whatsit...harpsichords, right?" That's a pretty crazy name for a bird lady. [Since Shan steered away from them, you can't make out much more, but they seem to be keeping up with the ship. And actually, following it. Oops.] Something like that. I don't really remember. Boss, they're following us! * Nasira climbs up on the rigging to get a better look. * Nasira did, yes, have the sense to sheathe her weapons first. * Shan frowns. * Enzo frowns. Arm the cannons.... erm, if we have any. [3 of them are all brown in color. 2 of them have black tipped wings. And their mouths seem to be all teeth.] ( Curses, they have a good dental plan ) * Nasira calls down, "Virgil, you're the one with the sorcery! Think you can make the ship go faster?" * Enzo yells down into the rest of the ship. "Possible unpleasant things approaching, things should probably not be on fire!" ... Some days you really are no fun, Kid. Well, if we set things on fire now, we can't set them on fire later. I dunno, sometimes the fire burns twice as bright and half as fast. Hmmm. Really? [Two of the brown ones manage to get within range of the boat. The rest are still approaching. Initiative!] * Nasira nods. "Seen it happen. Little bit of magic helps, though." < ...that sounds like fun! * Enzo goes to check on the deck guns. * Nasira grins. "Sure is. Good luck!" * Virgil nods to Nasira. "I can, but it'll take time." * Nasira stays up on the rigging, watching the harpies near. One hand's on the rope, holding her steady, but the other reaches for her sheathed saif. * Enzo stays at the deck guns for now, aiming at the ones further away. [Order: Nasira, Black-tip 2, Enzo, Black-tip 1, Brown tips, Shan, Virgil.] (Sorry. Filis after Enzo.) * Nasira waits just a moment longer, and then her one good eye glints. "You're a little too close, ugly!" she calls as she draws her saif, wind whirling around her and whipping her ponytail wildly. Her grip stays fast, though, and the saif leaves her hand, spinning in the direction of the nearest harpy. [The saif twirls through the air in a fine spiral but is just a little too low. The harpsicord...err, no, the harpy awks and lifts its talon legs up quickly, then hisses at Nasira.] [Enzo!] * Enzo holds his breath and lets it out slowly, aiming at one of the approaching harpsichords. * Enzo shoots! [Enzo shoots. He scores! The light whomph sound from the gunpowder fills the air as the cannonball sails towards its goal and knocks it down into the water. It's wet and not happy and one of its wings doesn't quite flap right anymore.] * Enzo lets out a relieved breath. [Filis doesn't really have a weapon. She does manage to call out. "I'd watch out for those black-tipped ones. I remember hearing stories somewhere about them but I can't quite recall..."] [The rest of the harpies, meanwhile, are still approaching. The two that have arrived, one goes for the sails (which Shan can steer to try and avoid if she's still at the wheel) while the other dives for Nasira. She made it mad.] (Huh, wonder how I did that.) * Nasira sees the harpy coming, and her curved knife flashes briefly in the sun as she flips it into her hand. [Nasira does manage to see the harpy coming. Her knife flies up and there's a sound of talons scraping metal. In the meantime, Shan steers the boat sharply to avoid the harpy attacking the sails....] [The harpy flaps higher to avoid the crossmast (whatever it's called!) and instead the rigging that Nasira's hanging on tangles. Nasira looses her grip and plummets to the deck below, landing with a loud thump.] Nasira! You're not dead this time, are you? [Shan's turn!] * Nasira falls! She tries to grab at the ropes as she does so, and she fails, slamming ungracefully into the deck, at least one story down. That did not make a pretty sound, but she pushes herself more or less steadily to her feet and calls, "Been through worse!" * Shan curses, but continues to woman the wheel. (holding) Okay, good! [Virgil!] * Virgil starts chanting and concentrating, trying to get the boat to get away from the harpies as he can by causing the windso to be favorable to the boat, and not to the Harpies. (Correct that: she was a good two, three stories up. Same reaction, though, 'cause some people are just that crazy.) [Virgil manages to pick up the wind for the sails and cause the boat to be faster. The wind doesn't seem to change for the harpies though and the ones that are close to it pick up the wind currents just as well. It's only the ones farther away that have a hard time keeping up.] [Naiya comes running up from below decks! Order: Nasira, Black-Tip 1, Enzo, Filis, Black-Tip 2, Naiya, Brownies, Shan, Virgil] [Nasira!] * Nasira rushes backwards, running along the deck to get a better look at the other brown harpy. As she nears the rails, she lets her knife fly, wind picking it up and sending it straight for the bird-woman... [The bird-woman flaps up at the now disarmed Nasira, narrowly avoiding taking a knife on the leg. Unfortunately, the same does not work for the returning saif, which takes a chunk out of her side. She shrieks in pain.] * Nasira catches the saif as it wings its way back to her. "That looks like it hurt," she comments with a grin. "Wanna bet it won't happen again?" [The first of the black tips manages to catch up with the ship. Enzo's turn!] ** Enzo shoots at the other black-tip! [The black-tip, unfortunately, has enough sense to fly away from the cannon ball.] [Filis takes off her shoe and throws it at the harpy attacking the sails. The shoe smacks it on the cheek and it looks up angrily at her. Filis shrinks away with a "great, now what?" expression.] [Meanwhile, the second black-tip makes it within range of the ship. Naiya's turn.] * Naiya gets there, and blinks. "We're under attack?" And heads right back down! * Enzo looks after Naiya and sighs in exasperation. [Naiya...leaves...meanwhile, the angry brownies try to attack Nasira and Filis, narrowly missing by a hair's breadth.] [Shan's turn.] * Shan continues to attempt to steer the ship away from the harpies! It's that or abandon the wheel. (Holding!) [Shan can tie the wheel steady if she needs to, but that wouldn't get it away from the harpies.] * Shan can't do much to them anyhow, unless they feel like coming down to the deck. [Shan manages to pull ahead slightly, catching some more ground. The black-tip who just caught up is falling out of the wind bubble now.] [Virgil.] * Virgil steadies himself, trying to concentrate and access his more precise control of the winds. [Meanwhile, someone else comes up on deck.] [Shan manages to catch a glipse of the girl. Somehow, she seems strangely familiar...] [Enzo manages to catch a pretty butterfly off the starboard bow. Ooo, pretty butterfly.] ( Damn sea butterflies ) ( Better shoot it before it causes a hurricane in Dunlor! ) [Nasira, you're up!] * Nasira looks up and sees the harpy attacking Filis, and she dashes for the rigging again, climbing as quickly as she can to the crow's nest. As she does so, she throws her saif up to the harpy - maybe just to get its attention, but the wind grabs it and it flies up at an impossible angle for the thing. * Enzo shoots at stuff. [Nasira manages to wing the saif up at the harpy. It knocks the harpy off balance and the harpy drops in altitude, screeching at Nasira. The knife, however, manages to glance off the harpy's talon and get knocked off course, instead cutting through one of the ropes holding the rigging. Parts of the sails go slack.] [Enzo, meanwhile, shoots at the black-tip as it gets left behind the ship. It takes a cannonball in the gut. And while it doesn't look like it's dead, it's wounded enough that it can't follow any longer.] *[The one that did manage to catch up, though, digs its talons into the railing to keep hold. It preens its feathers, and then flaps them hard at Enzo, feathers flying towards him, some pinning the deck and some slashing his leg.]] [Session on hold.]