Reckonings: Umberlee's Belly

[DeepShadow of FoS]

This continues the Umberlee's Belly thread from the original Reckonings board.

[DeepShadow of FoS]

Anders and Sariel

Anders sighs, stands and stretches, shaking his arms and legs to restore circulation.

"We should be able to slip those into my haversack. I already loaded up all the scrolls and those books that belonged to Arcadius, but the rest will have to wait for another trip. I barely managed to get these here before my levitating sphere wore out. My griffon can't fly as fast as the raven, so I'll have to ride you*. Cal will be here in a few minutes with a report of how foggy it gets here at night, and then we can head back."

* He's apparently taken it as a given that Sariel has come to bring him back to the Bane.

[Nathan of the FoS]

Sariel and Anders head on home

Sariel groans inwardly at the thought of flying back to the Bane with a rider, but, after all, that's what he came for. It's been a long day, he thinks to himself. It seems like it's been months since we came to this place, and we haven't even been here twenty-four hours.

"All right," he says, making an effort at cheer--or at least nonchalance. "We'll wait for Cal, then."

[DeepShadow of FoS]

Cortez aboard the Pirate's Bane
Day 5, 5:35 PM

[OOC: Okay, the sideline with Ciera and Ashkar's taking forever, but I want to move Cortez and Peregrine forward in the passage of time. I promised that Ciera would return safely and soon, and I feel pretty secure in holding to that promise. We'll temporarily avoid the exact circumstances of her return--such as whether the Mallochio has lit up like a roman candle--and allow a report that comes through scrying to Cortez. It will give everyone plenty to talk and plan about, while leaving room for Ashkar and Ciera in their sideline.]

Sariel has barely flown out of sight when Ciera's eye appears hovering around Cortez.

"Dragonsl--Cortez," she begins, her voice strangely formal as she corrects herself, "I have much to share, but there's something you need to know before anything else."

"Do you recall what I said before about emotions here? It's more true than I ever imagined. A wrathful heart can lay curses with a word, when the forces of this world pay heed. The Sea Witch laid such a curse on you, for upsetting some delicate balance of this sailor's hell and stealing her daughter's heart. This curse hastens diseases on your ships, but from her thoughts I plucked the key to avoiding it: the curse only applies to your ships! If you were to sell them to someone, and transfer full command, the spread of disease will halt.

"I must warn you, sophistry is impossible; if you were to return the price of the ships, issue orders from your own mouth, or anything else that would void the change, the curse will return. As if that weren't hard enough, avoiding or even lifting the curse probably won't cure the crew, but will only slow the progression of whatever else they catch. This brings me to why I haven't returned yet: our enemies exposed me to an extremely virulent fever in the hopes I would bring it back, but I'll be fine until I set foot on your ship. If we're careful and act quickly it needn't ever come to that.

"Believe me, Cortez, I know what I'm asking. If you need time to put everything in order, perhaps we can make do for now with some kind of quarantine measures for tonight. At any rate, we've got to take some precautions before I return, because the Sea Dragon is the master of this realm, and I'll be damned if I'll be his cuckoo's egg to destroy us all!"

[DeepShadow of FoS]

Sariel and Anders make it to the Bane around 6:10. Hopefully by then Ciera will have returned, or at least she'll be in a position to join everyone as they share and compare notes. Sariel's best contribution to that meeting (around 6:30) will probably be the books. If you want any help on what the books might be/contain, let me know.

[DeepShadow of FoS]

Ashkar, Ciera and Sven aboard the Mallochio
Day 5, 5:10 PM

[Nothing from Ashkar, so I'll move things a little further along via Ciera. Don't worry, Ash, you'll have plenty of chances to act, too.]

A frantic pounding on the door awoke the Sea Dragon out of his horror. He motions to Harrin--still possessing one of the sahuagin--who opens the door a crack. The Sea Gypsy on the other side recoils in horror from the hideous grin.

"Spit it out!" the Sea Dragon snarls. "Ya know this'd better be good!"

"P-prisoners," the man stammers, "r-rescued by a ghost...the Witch Below!"

The Sea Dragon dashes across the room and flings the door wide, bowling Harrin out of the way as he berates the retreating guard.

"Back to yer post, coward! If'n I's your your cap'n, I'd keelhaul ya till--"

The Sea Dragon stops as he sees the other guards in the stairwell staring past him. Their captain lies thrashing on the ground in her disarray, and this hated slimerake giving orders to them and the legion...forcing them to humiliate a child....

"Whatcha gawkin' at!?" the Sea Dragon snarls. "Winds change, beg changin with 'em! Back to yer posts!"

The guards refuse to move, their ambivalence quickly giving way to thoughts of mutiny. The Sea Dragon takes a step into the stairwell--

--and screams. A trail of liquid shadow flashes around the pirate king's legs and feet, dripping fangs leaving tiny punctures in every bit of soft flesh they find. The bites are small, but seem imbued with arcane power*, and the Sea Dragon drops to the ground and rolls around to clutch fruitlessly at the air. Another flurry of bites** strike home on the pirate king's hands and arms as he gropes for the source of his agony.

In the instant the unseen assailant is gone, the Sea Dragon rises unsteadily, dread and panic in his haunted eyes as he looks around him wordlessly.

* readied action; surprise round plus two more attacks before Sea Dragon's initiative. Can't beat his Fort save with her poison, but all three attacks have quickened touch of idiocy from Ciera. The Sea Dragon's mental damage by his initiative is (5+1+2=)8 Int, (3+6+4=)13 Wis, (4+3+1=)8 Cha; he is reduced to using 3rd level spells.

** normal attack plus AoO for unarmed strike. Only one had touch of idiocy, for a total of 12 Int, 19 Wis, 11 Cha. Now the Sea Dragon cannot cast spells, and isn't very with it in any other sense of the word, either. This leaves Nephys a move action in round two, with which the snake can retreat into the hall. Nephys remains 90% concealed in the shadows of the stairwell.

Nephys and the Sea Dragon shared a 15 initiative, but Nephys' readied action gives her first strike. Ashkar rolled a 5 on his initiative, so he might be able to stop the last flurry of bites if he wants to. OTOH, there's no shortage of excuses he can offer for why he wasn't able to stop the snake: shadow concealment made it effectively invisible in the darkened stairwell, and most basic attack spells would have hurt the Sea Dragon, too. If Ashkar wants to defend the Sea Dragon, I'll leave the second round of damage soft for now.

[Ultramyth]

Ashkar Aun's Reaction

Ashkar merely goes through the motions. He snickers just a little, watching the Sea Dragon, before making a token effort at trying to intervene*.

*He just deliberately fails an attempt to counter the final attack, (roll 17 +13 bluff skill) +30 Bluff to make a decent false attempt

Ashkar then turns his concern inwards (fighting fully defensively) and looks about him suspiciously for signs of the concealed assailant**

** 6+14=20 spot check

[MatthiasStormcrow]

Cortez aboard the Pirate's Bane

Cortez attempts to stammer a baffled reply to Ciera's scrying sensor, but after getting out only, "Stole her---what? Wait, ships, sell my ships? I--you--errrgh." He just shakes his head and sighs. After a few deep breaths he looks up at the scrying sensor again. "Very well. I'll take care of it. Make your way back here as soon as you can, I'll work something out by then. Just in case, let me know when you're close - I should still be able to cure your disease.* But I'll sell the ships. Just...need to find a buyer." He breaks off, looking thoughtful.

He quickly makes his way over to the signalman. "I want all the captains in my quarters, right away!" he declares.


A few minutes later, the four tired and haggard-looking captains are gathered in Cortez's quarters. Cortez notes that skinny Celtan Tarr is looking pale and coughing a bit, and Tomar Wolffe, though looking as healthy as ever, is chewing on pepperweed like a regular. Shadross ducks in last, and at a glance at Cortez's expression he shuts the door behind him.

"So, what's the plan, Captain?" asks Wolffe. Cortez doesn't respond immediately. Instead he looks over at Shadross.

"Shadross...how much cash have you got on you?"

"Say what?" Shadross looks thoroughly confused by Cortez's interest in money - Cortez, who half the time seems unaware that money even exists. "Err...none. It was all in my pack. The Sahuagin have got it now, thanks to Harrin."

"Hmm. How much d'you reckon these ships are worth?" Cortez directs the question at all the captains - who all look equally startled and concerned.

"The blazes do we need that much gold for, Captain? Some mighty expensive cure for these plagues?" Wolffe interrupts.

Cortez shakes his head. "We don't need the gold, we need to sell the blasted ships. I talked to Ciera...and I've been cursed by that blasted Sea Witch. Cursed so that anyone who sets foot on one of my ships gets sicker much faster than they ought to. Speeds up the diseases and the like. So, to be rid of the curse, I need to sell 'em and hand over command."

"Hand over command?!!?" Wolffe's attempt at outrage fails to conceal how upset he is at the notion. The question just hangs in the air for a moment, until Cortez clears his throat.

"Why not sell 'em for a pittance, then?" offers Tarr, digging in his beltpouch. "I'll pay you this for my Brinewine" he says, tossing a handful of silver and gold onto the table. With a mischevious sideways glance at Wolffe, he digs out another handful of gold. "And I'll pay you this if you give me command over the Serpent..."

"Like hell!" roars Wolffe, but everyone chuckles, and the mood of the room lightens a bit.

"I don't know," says Cortez. "Ciera warned me that the curse wouldn't be easily fooled. And y'know I'd hate to take your money and for it not to work..." he offers with a grin at Celtan.

"What about them fellows, Nightwalkers, like your new man Angus?" asks Wolffe. "What if we sold 'em to Angus for as much pepperweed as we could ever need?"

Cortez takes a deep breath. "That brings up the other bit of bad news. Pepperweed's no pure thing, either. Y'get addicted to it right quick, and you'll go to any lengths to get another dose of the stuff after a while. Seems the Nightwalkers make a good business gettin' folks addicted and then sellin' the weed to 'em when they can't do without it. So, I'd rather we not take any more of that weed on than we need. No doubt we've already got some men addicted, and we'll have to deal with that. Though when we're out of this sea, I expect they'll have no choice to get over their addiction, after all, I've never seen the stuff anywhere but here."

Wolffe stops in mid-chew and the root drops out of his mouth. "Slap me for a fool. I shoulda seen it. And me, thinkin' there's honest, decent men anywhere in this muck, shoulda guessed there was somethin' in it for them."

Cortez holds up a hand to stop Wolffe. "Now, hold on then. Angus came clean to me about the whole thing, that's how I found out about it. Everyone in this muck falls on hard times, and they do hard things to stay alive. Doesn't mean they're evil men, or that they can't try to be better. You boys know how I am about that."

Celtan nods. "Righto. So is there any good news to be had?"

"Actually, there is a bit. Ciera's alive and on her way back here. And what's more, she knows who it is who's been sending all these sahuagin and ghouls and the like at us - and better still, she knows where he is."

Shadross, silent up until now, suddenly speaks up. "Sell 'em to Moriarun. Or whoever that fellow is who Arcadius put in charge of the Rogue's Wake. I can tell 'em how to get into Arcadius' smuggler's hold, at least so long as he hasn't changed the password for it in a while. He'll have loot in there enough to buy all four ships and and a small city too, if I know anything at all."

"That's it! That's good." Cortez nods. "Well, that'll have to be it then. I'll tell Moriarun next time he contacts me. Well, fellas, now you know all I do. Go get some rest. And tell your crews to keep off the pepperweed as much as they can. Point out to 'em that a real tough fellow doesn't need the stuff, and they should be saving it for anyone who's worse of than they are."**



[OOC: * It's true. Cortez has been holding his last Remove Disease of the week in reserve ever since people started getting sick, just for her. As it turns out, it's actually a good thing she disappeared so quickly after the fight with the ghouls, or he would've used it on her then.

**Cortez is hoping that by making it into a macho/competitive thing amongst the crew to see how long they can go without pepperweed, it'll at least slow down the rate at which people get addicted, and possibly keep the tougher folks from getting addicted at all.]

[DeepShadow of FoS]

I'm catching up today, but until I do, I don't see why Cortez and Peregrine can't contact each other through Moriarun. Let's put Moriarun's next contact with Cortez at 6:20. While Moriarun is technically captain of the Rogue's Wake, he'd defer to Peregrine on such a large expenditure of their resources. Also, perhaps he heard enough of Peregrine's and Arcadius's conversation about curses to hope Peregrine can offer an alternative.

[DeepShadow of FoS]

Ciera, Ashkar and Sven aboard the Mallochio
Day 5, 5:10 PM

[Ashkar's Spot check did not negate Nephys' concealment, but he saw enough signs of her passage to know that she was fleeing.]

Still possessing the sahuagin, Harrin's white eyes dart back and forth from the chest of newly-restored treasure in its claws to the stricken form of its master, until the better part of valor persuades him to flee up the stairs and overboard with the box. The Sea Gypsies that parted to allow the creature to pass now return to harass the Sea Dragon.

"Thought us your dogs at heel, Salt-Biter?"

"--call Legion into our midst--"

"--break children for sport!"

"--better on the table than at it betimes!"

The Sea Dragon blinks and stares, slurring something incomprehensible. After a moment's hesitation, a burly bald one inches forward toward the hated slimerake. A slap earns gasps and wondering praise from onlookers; the second earns him infamy and cheers.

"Whazzis?" he muses to no one. "Blast 'im for a halfwit, finally caught hisself the evil eye!"

The bald man's impromptu followers pass the news up and down the crowding stairwell behind him as he turns to Ashkar and the remaining sahuagin.

"After your brother-mate, sea devil! You know we've no truck with your kind here! As for you, wizard*, stay or go, but nose out!"

++++++++++++++++++++++++++

What Ciera took for Sven's haggard sobs into his gag become teary-eyed laughter as she cuts him free.

"They--t-tied you up!" he gasps between spasms of laughter.

Ciera smiles wryly. "The dragon's egg all over again, eh, old friend?" she whispers.

Sven nods and stifles his laughter for the moment. Ciera concentrates to change the voice of her invisible pseudo-rescuer.

"Both free now, but where's the host who would strip a child naked to cover her old bones?" the old woman cackles from the center of the storeroom. "Is my sister delayed so long?"

Pretending to overhear the words filtering down from the upper room where Y'Gina lies twitching, the "invisible rescuer" expresses her dissatisfaction.

"Ah, he brutalizes old women as well as children? I ought not to punish the dog for the commands of its master...but then why is this wretch a guest here among so many able bodies? Children and crones he may cow, but surely he cannot stand against so many!"

The suggestion passes clearly to the frightened Sea Gypsies: they must take the Sea Dragon prisoner** or face the wrath of "the Witch Below."***

* It's well known that Ashkar is a wizard, but not that he's a vampire.

** If left unchecked, the Sea Gypsies take Draga prisoner. Without his spells and lacking a great deal of his common sense, Draga will reveal his wereshark nature to fight them off, and he'll probably bite and even kill a few of them, but this will only make them more determined to capture and/or kill him.

*** Ciera's fake rescuer has been mistaken for the Witch Below, a common Saragossan bogeyman.

[DeepShadow of FoS]

[OOC: Do we need anything before we have the conversation between Cortez and Peregrine? What do we need/want in order to get that moving?]

[Nathan of the FoS]

[OOC: Do we need anything before we have the conversation between Cortez and Peregrine? What do we need/want in order to get that moving?]

Cortez and Peregrine have no way to communicate directly at present, and Peregrine (at least) would be extremely reluctant to undergo negotiations on such an important point, with someone he's never met, through a third party (Moriarun). So we're waiting for a better communications option to come--maybe when Ciera returns, or possibly tomorrow when Peregrine re-selects his spells.

[Ultramyth]

Ashkar aboard the Mallochio
Ashkar is distracted by the cat sniffing around Y'gina's hair, and as it runs off through the crowd, he moves his hands about and mutters an incantation under his breath. In an instant, his entire body is desolving into a gaseous vapor that quickly follows the cat.

[DeepShadow of FoS]

Ciera finishes on the Mallochio
Day 5, 5:10-5:35 PM

Sea Gypsies pour into their mistress's chambers to follow through on Ciera's orders, but the small room is already quite cramped, and the Sea Dragon has rallied enough of his wits to be ready for them. A dozen abortive invocations--each one more jumbled than the last--have only stoked his impotent frustration, so that when the half-dozen Sea Gypsies bowl him off his feet, they suddenly find themselves battling for their lives with a creature of superhuman power.

His attackers had prepared to sticks or rags to stifle his prayers, but scores of daggerlike teeth and an enlarged maw snap them as toothpicks, or swallow rag and arm alike with hardly an eyeblink. A brawler used to having ears or hair as a handhold is abruptly disappointed, and his look of horror as he's flung free of the melee is enough to kill the cheers of onlookers.

Something is terribly wrong.

Screams and spraying blood set those in the stairwell to panicked flight, but they are checked by those behind, who only cease clamoring for a view once Y'Gina's hardwood desk splinters both doors from their hinges as it hits broadside in midair and crashes to the floor. The few who venture a backward glance into Y'Gina's inner sanctum see that it has quickly become a charnel house, with a creature of nightmare standing tall in the carnage.

The few who flee downstairs try to stop her, but Ciera's telekinetic force shoves them gently but firmly aside as she ascends with Sven hanging behind. Her imaginary rescuer continues to mutter about the failings of her hosts and how she'll have to handle this herself, until when everyone is out of earshot Ciera points her borrowed dagger at the creature and immobilizes it.*

"Avast, cowards!" the phantom voice screams to the Sea Gypsies. "A care for your captain and your wounded! Come see what rot you've taken on!"

After repeated cajolings, a few of the terrified crew reeemerge, but only after the Sea Dragon has resumed human form. Of the six who charged, two are found clinging to life and are removed to the custody of the crew's chirurgeon, while the rest of the corpses are piled on boards and hauled up to the main deck. With barely any encouragement from Ciera's disembodied voice, the Sea Dragon is stripped, bound and gagged in the same manner that Ciera was, pending the recovery of Y'Gina for a final decision. Retrieval of her ioun stone elicits a hideous gasping sound from the Sea Dragon; Ciera replaces the stone quickly with a mental note, and hits the Sea Dragon with a weakening ray to keep him from bursting his bonds after the paralysis wears off.**

Not ready to press for the return of her dress from Y'Gina, Ciera accepts the rough garments they offer her, along with the tooled leather belt she borrowed from Kinketsu. Only after Sven has dressed and returned to her--still giggling a little--does a gnawing suspicion strike Ciera.

"Tystnad!" she hushes him in irritation--though whether at his giggling or the frightening thought she can't tell.

He tries to stifle himself, but to his confusion--and Ciera's growing horror--spasms of laughter emerge despite his best efforts. Sven sees the look in her eyes and his own fear begins to emerge, bringing sobs that turn into wracking, painful laughter, and then hideous shrieks. Ciera curses under her breath, berating herself for not seeing it before--had she missed the symptoms on the Pirate's Bane? No, she would have recognized cackle fever; he must have contracted it here...but none of the Sea Gypsies had it, and it didn't have time to take hold naturally. What's more, Sven remains remarkably lucid....

In an instant, Ciera narrows the few options to an inescapable conclusion: she's been had. While she had hoped to teach the parable of the dragon's egg to her enemies, they were teaching the rest of the parable to her. The Sea Dragon must have brought forth the disease in Sven and then quickly restored his mind so as to hide the evidence until it was too late. And it is too late: having been exposed to the insidious disease, she can't return to the Pirate's Bane--nor allow Sven to do so--without crippling the minds of every man aboard.

Screaming in rage and frustration, Ciera barely resists going back to the Sea Dragon and showing him what it really means to break someone. Bile rises in her throat as she ponders her limited options, all of which come rely on the courage and resourcefulness of one man. Pacing the foggy deck with Sven at her side, Ciera waves a scrying field into existence and concentrates.

"Dragonsl--Cortez," she begins, realizing how much respect she has to even ask this of him, "I have much to share, but first...do you recall what I said before about emotions here?"

Ciera feels better after talking to Cortez, but she regrets that his thoughtful preparations aren't enough for for both her and Sven.

"The disease is in Sven, Cortez," she starts slowly, "It...they must have expected someone to rescue him...it's carried on the breath. Unless you can heal two, we'll still need some kind of quarantine until the sales are complete. I can lift curses with a spell, but I don't think that will help much, if at all: Y'Gina's thoughts included some gloating over the superiority of 'wrath-speech' over mere arcane curses. She expected us to be bitterly disappointed with that route, and never expected us to try a more clever method."

Ciera waits while Cortez summons his captains for a discussion, and follows the conversation as best she can from Cortez's side.

"I'm not familiar with maritime trade, captain," she adds as the conversation lulls. "If the owner and captain must be the same, I probably shouldn't contribute, otherwise find a suitable captain, have Kinketsu show you everything we have that is comparable in price,*** and pick anything you have a genuine interest in. Even selling one of the ships will make a suitable place for us to land, and save your healing a little longer."

"I'm about ready to depart, but first, Cortez, I'd like your thoughts on something. The Sea Dragon's a prisoner of the Sea Gypsies, who've seen enough of his cruelty to want him dead or worse. Y'Gina, too, ought to be tired of being a dog at heel, but as she's had another fit, we'll have to wait to see. If we act now, I might be able to skip the whole issue and deliver him straight to the Bane and a proper brig.**** Are you up for it?"

* silenced, stilled, quickened hold person, cast twice because Draga saved the first time.

** silenced, stilled, quickened ray of enfeeblement

*** standard price for a warship is 25,000gp. Here's a list of equipment that is available for trade from Ciera and Kinketsu:

Ring of Elemental Command (Air) (200 000gp)
Ring of Elemental Command (Earth) (200 000gp)
Wand of Levitate (4 500gp)
Wand of Dimensional Anchor (21 000gp)
Amulet of Natural Armor +5 (50 000gp)
Folding Boat (7 200gp)
Boots of Levitation (7 500gp)
Bracers of Armor +8 (64 000gp)
10x10 ft Carpet of Flying (60 000gp)
Cloak of Epic Charisma +8 (640 000gp)
Cube of Force (62 000gp)
Hand of Glory (8 000gp)
Instant Fortress (55 000gp)
Ioun Stones
Clear Spindle (4 000gp)
Lavender and Green Elipsoid (40 000gp)
Orb of Storms (48 000gp)
Ring Gates (40 000gp)
Bracers of Armor +8 (64 000gp)
Cloak of Resistance +5 (25 000gp)
Eyes of the Eagle (2 500gp)
Gauntlet of Rust (11 500gp)
2 Iron Bands of Binding (52 000gp)
Periapt of Wisdom +6 (36 000gp)
Robe of Eyes (120 000gp)
Quarterstaff +4, Defending, Ghost Touch, Ki Focus (98 600gp)
Ring of Freedom of Movement (40 000gp)

**** Ray of enfeeblement will last about half an hour, and touch of idiocy will last about 270 minutes. At the slightest provocation, Ciera will hit him with more, stopping just short of killing him. She has a mode of transportation that can carry three riders in a pinch--or, in this case, two riders, one human-sized freight.

[Nathan of the FoS]

**** Ray of enfeeblement will last about half an hour, and touch of idiocy will last about 270 minutes. At the slightest provocation, Ciera will hit him with more, stopping just short of killing him. She has a mode of transportation that can carry three riders in a pinch--or, in this case, two riders, one human-sized freight.

Can she kill him with either of them? I was under the impression that only Con damage could kill (setting aside special exceptions like the Str damage of shadows).