Voyage of the Horizon Seeker

[Jenara]

"You are opposites, we are women, you are men." Locky shrugs, totally unsure what is going on.

[Breila]

Babushka smiles up at Jerrard when he places his arm around her.

She draws Locky close, explaining "In some ways men and women are opposite, but we are all people, with similar joys and worries." She yawns. "It has been a long evening, I will turn in" She leaves to give Dekker and the other animals a last pat before going to sleep.

[Jenara]

"Can I come too?" The Kender asks with a bounce, staying close to her friend, "Want to share?" She asks with an innocent, childlike grin.

[Jerrard]

"Yes rest, I need to visit my books." Jerrard comments as he reaches into his pack, producing his spellbook, returning to the deck he sits out of the way, studying the words before him. His eyes darting up on occasion to watch the women if they are still dancing.

[JadedDM]

The party gets some rest during the night. The second and third day at sea pass uneventfully. The wind no longer favors the ship, causing them to slow down considerably.

Malika spends most of this time wandering around aimlessly, complaining about how bored she is. There is very little to do on the ship other than sit around, watching the crew work or just looking at the horizon.

Ulster, Thuskar, and Temeral pitch in where they can, but as none of them know anything about sailing, all they can really do is some heavy lifting or basic manual labor. Even then, the crew doesn't ask for their help much, as they tend to get in the way more than anything else.

In addition, Ulster goes out of his way to avoid Imani whenever possible--an exceedingly difficult task as the ship isn't that big. Whenever forced to interact with her, he mostly just stutters frantically, then excuses himself, claiming he has 'something important to do.'

Imani and Babushka participate in the daily combat drills, which allows them to get a better idea of what the crew is capable of. This information is relayed to Jerrard, who does his best to come up with some kind of plan--but he is largely distracted by Malika, as he insists on never allowing her out of his sight at any time when at all possible.

It is now the morning of the fourth day at sea. Breakfast has already been served--more dry rations, another orange, and some stale tasting water. During the meal, the captain announces that usually the Dimernesti appear by now. The crew should be on alert, although the captain hopes they won't show at all.

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It is now Fierswelt 06, 375 AC at Fourth Watch (10:00 AM).

(OOC: The red 'x' is where they departed, and the purple 'x' is where they are heading. Each green 'dot' is where they stopped for each night.

For the sake of pacing, we can discuss any plans or strategies in the OOC thread, and just assume that the party has gone over them with the crew, if anyone comes up with anything.)

[Jenara]

Locky divides her time between watching from the side of the ship, and asking Mailka to teach her some dances.

[Breila]

"Captain, could I have a word with you, please?" Babushka asks. "What is the Dimernesti's usual style of attack?"

[JadedDM]

The captain seems pensive. "Keep an eye out for any seals!" he calls to the lookout. Turning to Babushka, he says, "They usually find a way to stop us first. Sometimes they conjure up some kind of seaweed, other times they've somehow magically made our anchor drop on its own. Once we've halted, they then start boarding, usually from every direction. At that point, their leader tells us to cooperate or they'll use magic against us. At least two of them can do so, one a wizard and the other a cleric. We've seen firsthand their power, so it's no bluff. They usually take anywhere between a half and two thirds of our cargo, then return to the sea."

[HorizonsDream]

"Why are we on the look out for seals?" Imani asks curiously. Much like Ulster, she has pretty much tried to avoid him as well. The more she thinks about what she did, the more she feels embarrassingly stupid about it. At this point though, she is looking over the railing of the ship into the water just for the sake of doing something.

[Breila]

Babushka frowns. "Do they use boats, or do they swim to approach? Stupid question really, when they take cargo, they must have boats! Sorry. Have you tried raining fire on their boats? To take out at least a few of them?" She looks up into the captain's face.

[JadedDM]

The captain looks between Imani and Babuhska. "Err...you are not really familiar with the Dimernesti, I take it? They are shoal elves that live in the sea itself, like fish. They can change their shape into seals...or otters...one of those, I can never keep them separate in my head. In any case, they have no boats as the sea itself is their home. And we cannot attack them, because of their magic. Their casters have numerous spells that disable large numbers of my crew easily. Spells of sleep and paralyzation, for instance. We've tried before, believe me. That is why it was decided the only way we could win is if we had magic of our own. Hence your wizard friend."

[xelphyn]

"Things are finally getting interesting." Temeral says
(Does he know anything about the Dimernesti?)

[JadedDM]

(OOC: Unlikely, as he's not particularly educated and under normal circumstances, they tend to remain hidden from the outside world.)

[Breila]

"No, I have indeed never heard of the Divanesti before" Babushka admits. "Do you have an idea what they do with the cargo they take from you? Do they take just anything or only things that can be useful below the sea? What kind of weapons do they use on those who have not been taken down by magic?"

[JadedDM]

The captain shakes his head. "I've no idea what they do with the cargo or why they even need it. It is strange, actually. The Dimernesti are considered isolationist. They rarely come up to the surface or have any dealings with ships, good or ill. This is unusual behavior for them. What's even stranger is what they take. They are mostly interested in money and valuables--things of value that one would think would have no worth to a race of people that live in the sea. Precious art, jewelry, steel coins, and so on. They also take a decent amount of our food, although they always have left enough for us to live off of until we reach our destination. As for weapons, they usually have spears, short swords, and tridents. They have some kind of strange armor that looks like light chain, but allows them to swim about without difficulty. I've no idea what it is made of."