[Last time on Seekers...] [The fight with Vithril boarded ended (well, for most of you) when a group of Lankhor Eels sprung up around your ship. Virgil and Naiya ended up falling on their bottoms. The Vithril crew is scrambling, both to finish the last reminants of the fire and to man the sails and cannons. Out of those that are still onboard your ship, there is Captain Leon, an unconscious Shakra, and an unhappy but yielding Shihra.] [Some of you have actions still to do, so I'll let you do it. Other than that, session start!] * Virgil gets up, keeping his spell charged to blow something up if it needs to be. * Enzo narrows his eyes and climbs up the nearest bit of rigging. He can't be about to try that stupid head-jumping trick again, can he? * Nasira doesn't seem to notice the crazy monstrous eels, as she jumps for the captain, attacking with a single-minded fury. Her saif cuts high, leaving an orange arc towards the captain's shoulder, before she inexplicably behind him and slicing her molten knife for the back of his leg. * Lucas lets the last musketeer alone for now, since the GIANT EELS are a bit more of threat to his and his mens lives, and since one of them was unfortunate enough to be within the sights of his cannon, he fires a round at it. [The captain seems momentarily distracted by the serpent. "Cor's Serpents..." He glances at Nasira in time and narrowly avoids the saif, the knife singing across his leg. "Why you...that's enough. Hold!" He takes a HUGE swing horizontally towards Nasira with the flat of his blade.] * Shan eyes the serpents, as well. "Great. Virgil, get us out of here!" I'm trying! * Virgil is trying to drive the boat away from the serpants! [The eels screech as the cannon ball collides against it. The cannon ball bounces oddly as it hits the scales, but there's enough shattering that it looks like it did hurt it. The eel responds by whipping its tail at the side of the boat, hard.] [The blade connects with Nasira and, uh, I guess she's holding because it sends her slamming against the side of the cabin, knocking her unconscious. Lucky he used the flat of the blade then. Ouch.] Nasira! * Nasira crumples to the ground, bleeding from the head. Her grip on her weapons loosens, and they fall the short distance to the deck, too. [The captain hisses out a breath at that and rubs his hand against the burn, turning towards Shihra. "Retreat to the ship! We've got to get out of here as well." * Enzo looks from the eels to the deck for a second, then, as the captain gives the order to retreat, turns back to the rigging. [Shihra looks at the captain uncertain, but the captain doesn't hesitate and heads back for the ropes. Shihra turns to Shan. "Please. Let me take my brother..." Shan, get over here and steer this thing! I need to call the winds! * Shan looks evenly at Shihra. "Do I have your word that you won't persue us?" [After Shihra speaks, the whole boat rocks with the force of the tail whipping the side of the boat. You hear splintering on the port side (that's left for you landlubbers). Lucas, Virgil, Naiya and Shihra get knocked over from the impact.] * Shan keeps her balance and looks down at Shihra. "Well?" [Shihra frowns. "You have my word." He looks at Shakra. "And his. But the captain...he is of his own mind."] * Enzo hangs on to the riggings, squints down towards the damaged side of the boat, and curses under his breath. * Lucas loses his balance and falls over, fortunately he doesn't drop the expensive cannonball over the side. * Virgil falls on his chest. "Geeze, get moving already! We don't have any time!" * Shan shoves Shakra at him. "Don't worry. I imagine your word is about as good as your ability to negotiate a peaceful resolution, anyway." * Shan hurriedly makes her way over to the wheel and takes it, saying to Virgil, "Check on Nasira. Get her up, if you can." Was about to do that. [The captain stops for a moment and looks at Shihra, ready to join the other side. "Come on!" Shihra looks at Shan for a moment hesitantly and thins his lips before picking up his brother and heading back for the other ship.] [You are now -one crazed captain and 2 psychotic brothers.] * Virgil gets up and taps his staff on the ground as he makes his way over to Nasira, calling on the winds to calm the sea as he does so. His previous spell disipates without ill effect. * Naiya slowly stands up. She looks (ever more) worried. [The winds die down a little bit around the two ships. The eels screech and charge the ships. Fortunately for you, the Vithril ship seems to pose another target.] [Order: Eel A, Enzo, Eel B (V), Eel C, Shan, Eel D, Lucas, Virgil, Naiya.] ( (V) after Eel D. (V) means they're attacking them, not you.) [The wounded Eel spits at the ship. Whoever's steering the boat, give me a ranged defense roll.] [The spittle lands harmlessly in the ocean. There's some hissing where it lands in the water.] [Enzo!] * Enzo takes a deep breath, swings forward a little, and jump/drops himself towards the head of the first serpent, his dagger out. [Enzo manages to land on the head of the serpenty serpent that rears its ugly, uh, head so to speak.] * Lucas watches Enzo take a flying leap, and makes a mental note to make sure that the next ship he books passage on isn't crewed entirely by insane people. (Shan's not insane. She's meglomaniacal. There's a difference.) * Shan glances back. "Enzo! Dammit...." She frowns. "Maybe our best course of action is to kill these before Vithril can finish theirs. Then we can get away while they're occupied." * Enzo hangs on for dear life and yells back, "Does anyone know where the brains are on these things again?" * Enzo stabs at a spot at random with his dagger while waiting for an answer, on principle of "why not?" * Virgil shouts back. "Try the head!" This is the head! Then there! Duh! I dunno, maybe it has some sort of weird sea serpent biology! * Lucas is in too much shock to answer right now. He just watched another person willingly jump off the boat. [Enzo stabs it in the head. There's a small gash, but the scales seem to take most of the damage.] ( Lucas woulda fainted if he'd seen the last time we ran into these things, then. ) [The other eel whacks the rudder, that seems to hold against it better than your ship, though there's still some broken timber on the side. They fire their cannons at the eels but the shots land harmlessly in the water.] (Yes.) [The other eel rears up and busts through the railing, chomping at...Naiya! Defend.] (Is that the one wearing Enzo like a hat?) (No.) I wish I'd brought a rope. Then I could train this and ride it. [Naiya gets her leg grabbed by sharp teeth which crunch the armor and STILL sting. What's worse is now the eel is starting to withdraw and drag Naiya off the boat with it.] [Shan.] * Naiya makes some surprised sound that sounds like a cross between a laugh, a scream,and an eep. It's loud. * Enzo winces. "Come on, some of us are trying to ride an eel here! Someone make her not be eaten by the serpent?" [Ahem. SHAN.] * Shan totally sails. Oh yeah. She's a sailin' machine. [The last eel attacking the Vithril Ship manages to splash the water. Vithra manages to cast a light spell right in front if its eyes and it doesn't look happy at that at all. Lucas's turn.] * Lucas scrambles to his feet and runs below decks, still carrying the 8 pound cannonball in his hand, a moment later he's heard yelling "FIRE YOU SONS OF BITCHES OR WE'RE ALL FISHFOOD!" A moment after that both cannons on that side of the ship open up at the eel dragging Naiya off. [The men jerk at Lucas's yelling and fire! One of the cannon balls hits the serpent in the gut that reels and squirms, but manages to keep hold of Naiya. As such, Naiya probably doesn't appreciate getting whipped around.] [Virgil] * Naiya doesn't appreciate it. She screams again as she's shaken by the leg with the sharp teeth through it. * Virgil concentrates for a moment and calls out. "Healing winds, restore our wounded!" With that, the winds pick up around and rush through his allies, closing their wounds and mending most, if not all, of their injuries. [Whoo, that wind feels good. Nasira feels her consciousness slowly returning to her. The rest of them feel tip top, now.] * Nasira grunts and opens her eye, slowly. She jumps to her feet, snagging her weapons on the way as she bites out a pile of angry curses. [Naiya!] * Naiya focuses enough, with the gun still in hand, to bring it up with both hands and steady herself enough to get a shot in at the nice, friendly sea giant that likes her so much. [Naiya's bullet hits the serpent, bouncing some off the scales. It responds by flinging Naiya away. Acro roll.] [Naiya, as expected, falls like a lump of metal on the deck. It leaves her rather sore.] [Nasira can act after the first serpent.] [The wounded eel lashes at Enzo, trying to snap at him and throw him off. He needs to give a body roll. Sailing (Grip) or Climbing (natural) helps.] * Enzo hangs on for dear life! [Enzo manages to find a foot and hand hold in the scales and holds on for dear life.] [Nasira!] * Nasira wastes no more time, rushing the second eel and making a leap for it. [Nasira lands on the back of the eel as it pulls away from Naiya.] Yay, Nasira! Now we're both eel-riders! * Nasira keeps her balance and dashes up. "Someone's got to," she calls back as she reaches its head. Her grip shifts on both weapons, and they both become alarmingly hot as she slams them, point first, into its skull. [One of the super heated blades cuts through the scales and melts a good way through, the beast screeching in fury. The knife...fails to heat entirely and bounces off the scales hard. Nasira loses her grip and it skitters down the skin of the serpent. Body roll!] [Nasira tries to grab for it but it ends up going into the drink. Plunk.] [Enzo!] * Nasira scowls and grabs for the eel with her now free hand, hanging onto the already sunk in saif. "That was a good knife, too." * Enzo tries to lean forward and slash the serpent across the eyes with his cyclone while digging the dagger under its skin.... [Enzo doesn't really manage to keep his grip while trying to swing forward and ends up reflexively catching himself instead of slashing.] [The other ship fires at their first serpent, managing to hit it with a harpoon. It screeches and slams against the front, knocking the ship off away from your course. They're drifting away. The other eel turns around in the water and tries to slam its tail against the back of your ship. Defense roll.] [The attack smashes against your stern and rudder, snapping a piece off. Sailing rolls are +2 now.] (Boating rolls even.) ( Good grief, does our rudder have a big target sign on it? ) [There's a yell from the other ship. Those people who reflexively turn at shouts like that would see the serpent tossing someone in the air and gulping it whole. It doesn't look all too pleasant.] [Lucas!] * Lucas runs back up to the stern gun, throws the cannonball he was still carrying down it, taps it down, and fires at the eel without an Enzo on its head. "Stay still why don't you?!" [The cannon fires at the serpent and it screeches, leaving Nasira as the hangers on this time. Actually, she might want to get off now, because the serpent is starting to sink into the ocean.] [Virgil!] * Virgil keeps making the winds blow favorably for the ship, and stuff. Eels don't have sails! ( They use motors. ) (Or Water Speed Level 3!) (... I parsed that as mortars and was going to curse them for having better guns. ;p) [The wind blows the ship away! Blow, Virgil, blow!] [Naiya!] * Naiya scampers to her feet, quickly reloading and heading back to what's left of the door to below decks. [Naiya leaves another combat.] [The other eel starts to rear and attack at the loss of it's brethren. Everyone give me an awareness roll, hearing.] [Those that made it hear a low-pitched humming. Kind of like the sound of a whale. The serpent stops attacking and turns and looks towards the sound. Actually those who are keeping an eye on the Vithril ship notice all the serpents still alive doing that.] ...uh oh. * Lucas is way to busy reloading to pay attention to odd noises right now. [The eel starts to drift towards the sound. Uh, taking Enzo with it. Enzo might want to get off now.] Crap! * Enzo puts his stuff away and makes a flying leap back to the ship! * Shan glances back that way. * Shan does so while sailing the ship. * Shan sails the ship. Shan sails the ship. Hi ho the dairy-o, Shan sails the ship. * Nasira yanks her sword out of the serpent's head. "And there's your free surgery for the day," she tells it, giving it a knock on the noggin before taking a couple of steps forward and making a jump for the deck. * Virgil guides the wind, and stuff! (Shan sails the Seekers ship o'er the seven seas. Say that six times fast!) [At the source of the sound, for those who care to look, a long way off in the distance is what looks like a long keeled rowing boat. It seems to be mostly made of reeds.] * Enzo lands rolling and takes a breath before standing up and shaking himself off. "That was...really fun! Except for the life-threatening danger part." * Lucas finishes loading the gun and looks up and blinks at the retreating eels. "And stay away! Augh!" He turns to Enzo. "Does this sort of thing happen often?" * Nasira sails through the air and lands solidly on deck, crouching to touch it with her left hand. She stands, sheathing her saif. * Nasira turns to see the eels and the other ship. Mostly the other ship, really. Only twice so far, but you never know. Anyway, last time we all missed. [The Vithril ship is still heading away from you. Either they were good on their word or they don't want to stick around in case the eels decide to attack again.] * Enzo heads to the railing and looks out to see what all the eels are going towards. * Lucas looks at the eels and then back at Enzo. "A good thing you can swim then." (Eh, they just think we'll kick their asses. LIKE LAST TIME.) I can't. Pretty much. Next time I'll bring a rope. * Lucas gives Nasira another you're-insane-arn't-you boggle and then shakes his head. * Enzo looks exhilarated from the eel riding and is beaming broadly. Eel-riding does a body good! You're all crazy. * Nasira doesn't acknowledge the crazy stares and statements! Instead, she turns and walks for the cabins. "Gonna clean up. Let me know if we're about to sink." Okay! [The 3 girls come up running up from below decks. Marla glares back at Cecilia. "I told you to wait back in the cabin!" Filis rushes up to the side. "What was happening? There was this crash and it suddenly got calm..." * Lucas peers over the stern of the ship and down at the rudder. Hmmm, where to start? How about the beginning? * Enzo gives Nasira a sort of worried look, but continues. "We were attacked by Vithrils with a blood mage captain and then a bunch of sea serpents came up, and then they went away." And I rode one! Nasira did too. * Enzo peers out to sea. " Huh." I didn't know there were any Istinese ships out here. Or boats that used Istinese wood, anyway. * Nasira grins a little. "The jump worked better this time. Oh, they were looking for you, Filis." She nudges Cecilia out of the way with one bloody hand. "And I lost my knife," she comments before going below. * Lucas blinks and looks up. "Where?" * Enzo points. "There, w here all the eels are going." * Shan eyes the ship. "How... strange." [Cecilia watches Nasira go. Marla looks steamed. "I'm *talking* to you!" She ignores her, like good little kids do.] [Filis stares out at the ship. "Istin? Isn't Istin further north?"] Something like that. I wonder what that little boat's doing here? Mmmm. They're not going to be eaten are they? Could have been lost. So I've heard. [The ship starts rowing away. The serpents swim under the water, though the wake of the waves is still following it.] Fishing for eels, I guess. (It's not that little of a boat. It's pretty long, just has no sails.) * Enzo watches a little longer. "I wonder what eel meat tastes like." [Filis takes in a deep breath. "There has been enough excitement on this journey already."] I'd rather not try it. * Enzo shrugs, and since there don't seem to be any other imminent dangers about yet, goes below decks to check on Nasira. * Lucas shrugs. "By itself it's not all that good." That's too bad. [The sound echoes again, though this time from further off. They're near the edge of the storm, so although it's calm around you, visibility lessens near there.] * Lucas looks at the passengers. "I don't suppose any of you happen to be carpenters by any chance? We seem to be in need of one." [Filis shakes her head. Marla's still glaring at Cecilia when she pokes her in the ribs with her elbow and points to Lucas. She turns around and then shakes her head too.] Maybe Virgil can do something about that. I'm not a carpenter. c.c You don't have a spell for this situation? * Enzo pauses before going below. "I can do some woodworking stuff, but probably not on this scale. We're going to have to make a fix the boat stop, I think. All right, then. Where's the nearest port? * Lucas nods. I'd like to get the swivels under the deck guns, I'm afraid we're going to need them before long. (Also, I just remembered.) (We have corpses on deck. XD) (I forgot about those) (Yes you do.) (Psh, like I care. Unless they're tasty!) (Why do you think the serpents were attracted to your ships? :9) * Enzo pauses at the door and tilts his head, thinking. ( Because ships have rudders. ) * Lucas starts the highly dangerous task of *un*loading a cannon. ( It'd be worse if they had udders. Ship-milk! ) Lessee. We're closest to Caladeem from here, but they don't have any real ports that I know of. We might be able to find a town or something nearby, though. Or, if we can hold off another day or two, we can try and get to Rohdan in Zaxon. Can we make it that far on half a rudder? [Filis looks down, thinking for a moment. Marla stares at Lucas. "Waaah, *half* a rudder? Just what were you guys doing up here?" * Enzo taps his fingers on the remnants of the door thoughtfully. "Honestly, considering our averages for getting into trouble, I almost think going to Caladeem might be a better idea...but it's not as much of a sure thing." * Enzo flips a glance at Marla. "I told you. Fighting Vithrils and sea serpents." (No thanks to you, Filis!) * Lucas nods at Filis. "Very large sea serpents. Surly you heard the cannons?" (Marla said that, Enzo, not Filis.) * Shan considers options. [Marla looks sheepish. "I was, uh, too busy arguing with my sister." Filis just stares at Marla like she's grown a second head. Marla blushes and responds defensively. "Well, *you* deal with her then!"] [Cecilia, meanwhile, found some chalk somewhere and is drawing on the deck, humming.] We do have Virgil, but he might get all tired out from pushing a ship all by his lonesome. (Next to a corpse!) (She's drawing an outline! Aww, she's gonna grow up to be on CSI.) (How cute!) ( Just as long as it doesn't stand back up and become a vampire zombie.) (Vampire zombie PIRATE!) Well, if he thinks he can do it let's try to aim for a real port. All right. * Enzo shrugs. "If we don't run into anything else." He looks to Shan for confirmation, then nods. * Enzo, seeing that everything's decided, continues below decks. [Session End!]