CH. 17: Poison Curse

[spyguy1503]

Gallath follows Sable. What a strange week this was...

[JadedDM]

Jocelyn Blaine (Poison Curse, Captain's Cabin/Sardonx 16th, 12 AM)
Once they reach the captain's cabin, Scourge brings her inside himself, leaving his men behind. He tosses her toward the bed, then closes and locks the door.

The cabin is quite spacious. Unlike Soren's rather small and spartan cabin, Scourge's is the very opposite. Of course, it used to be Ethan's, so Jocelyn has spent a lot of time here. Little has changed, really. The trophies are different, but most of the furniture is the same. To the far end is a slightly raised platform with several windows overlooking the back of the ship. A large desk with a chair sits there, from which the captain can work. When sailors have an audience with him, they stand before this desk. Jocelyn remembers that Ethan would sometimes have her sit in his lap while speaking to his men, because it amused him to see them squirm uncomfortably as they struggled to keep their eyes on the captain instead and not become distracted.

To the left is a dresser for clothes, then the bed (where she spent most of her time as captain's woman), and a small cabinet where Ethan used to keep important keepsakes. To the right is a full length mirror, a smaller desk with a globe on it, a larger cabinet with glass doors for books, and then finally a small nook where there are crates, boxes and other bits of storage.

With the door locked, he walks over to her and looks down at her, his arms crossed. "You know, you're right. I did always want to break you...but Ethan took you in, instead. Guess you thought I wasn't good enough for you, eh?"

Captain's Cabin 01.jpg (61.74 KiB) Viewed 5058 times

Captain's Cabin 02.jpg (67.31 KiB) Viewed 5058 times

Ouragana, Baeros, Gallath and Drav (Poison Curse, Below deck/Sardonx 16th, 12 AM)
Sable leads them down into the belly of the ship. "Knowing the captain, probably a fat merchant ship or maybe a raid on a small, unprotected village. He'll let us know soon enough. He likes to keep things a surprise," she tells Ouragana. She pointedly ignores Baeros' question, only to clear her throat loudly.

She does not take them to the barracks, but rather her own cabin. It's fairly small, and rather cramped with herself, Ouragana, Baeros, Gallath, Drav, Brock and Naishe. Once everyone is inside, she closes the door. "We can talk openly here. I've magically proofed this room against sound, so nobody can listen in, even with their ear to the door. Now then, let's go over the plan. I didn't know the captain had a new target picked out, but that works in our favor. During a battle, nobody will notice if one of the new recruits goes missing. Your mage here will turn someone invisible--preferably someone who can easily pick the captain's cabin lock and get inside. Otherwise, you'll have to steal the key from the captain himself, which won't be easy. But the good news is, he won't be in his cabin during a battle, to be sure. The invisible one and Jocelyn can search the cabin for evidence, if Jocelyn has not already had the opportunity to do so. If you find evidence, bring it to me. If it is strong enough, I can spread it among the crew subtlety, without the captain catching on."

"You mean assuming she isn't already dead by then," Brock says. He didn't look too happy about this plan at all.

"She will be, I assure you," Sable replies. "Unless she tries something stupid, like deliberately provoking him. He'll want to keep her around as a trophy for at least a few days, until he gets tired of her. She's safe until then."

"What if we can't find any evidence?" asks Naishe. She seemed right at home here on a ship of pirates.

"Then we'll have to come up with another plan instead. Either way, it's important that the captain's cabin looks exactly as it did before. Don't make a big mess, or if you do, clean it up after. If the captain returns to his cabin after the fight and discovers a big mess, he'll know something is up and might kill Jocelyn right there just to be safe. Now then...who will be chosen to become invisible tomorrow? And what skills can the rest of you offer to the ship? I can assign you normal jobs and positions for the fight. You'll have to just play along and act the role of pirates unless we need you."

Val and Naras (Undine Community/Sardonx 16th, 8 AM)
Naras begins praying for two hours while Val idly waits by. When the dwarf is finished, an undine comes to visit them. Remaining in the water, she is the same elderly woman that was tied to the altar in the battle. "Ah, I see you are awake," she says in the common tongue. "Allow me to introduce myself. I am Silverfrond, the cheiftainess of this tribe of undine. My children told me of the role you two played in helping us. Surfacers rarely care about our lands and our people unless they profit from it in someway, but I've been told you two were an exception. I thank you in the name of my people. The Ixitxachitl planned to awaken some terrible evil by sacrificing me. I'm told that had the ritual not been interrupted for one minute more, they would have succeeded."

[Nuke]

"I am glad we could help" Val says.

OOC: back to the loot, Val would like the 1000 gp pearl, even contributing coin and/or smaller gems to even it out.

[HorizonsDream]

Jocelyn catches herself from falling by grabbing the bed post, and turns to look at Scourge. "I knew your intentions back then, and I did what I had to do to survive," she explains. "It doesn't make any sense for me to kill the very person protecting me."

[Chris1234]

Naras smiles, "You're welcome. I'm just so glad you're ok. Forgotten me, haven't you? I'm Naras. Remember a young and foolish dwarf coming and helping an injured undine on the beach all those years ago? And then they met and talked and played every summer until one year there were no more visits? Well, its the same dwarf, me, just a bit older and much more foolish." Her eyes watered up with emotion but she refused to acknowledge it.

{OOC: @Val - That's fine, just take the pearl, you've earned it. Just take it off the top and we'll split the balance 5 ways. As I say, Naras has no personal interest in wealth per se (although better equipment is always good) but her temple needs funding to become healthy again.}

[Breila]

Ouragana waits for some lockpick to come forward. She looks around in Sable's cabin, looking for an object that can easily be broken and magically mended several times so she can free spell slots (a glass lantern or other glass object would do fine).

[BishGada]

"I'm a fighter and a tracker." says Baeros. "I think I can do better in the fight keeping our group safe than searching the room. But..." he adds thoughtfully, "If what you search involves bodily odor, my dogs can be of great help, although I'm not sure how much left of it after, how many years? Three that was?"

[JadedDM]

Jocelyn Blaine (Poison Curse, Captain's Cabin/Sardonx 16th, 12 AM)
Scourge grins. "Aye, you did what you had to survive. And I expect you'll do what you need to now, too. Maybe you did or maybe you didn't kill Ethan. But you were the last to see him alive. So if you didn't kill him, who did?"

Ouragana, Baeros, Gallath and Drav (Poison Curse, Below deck/Sardonx 16th, 12 AM)
"It was three years ago, so I doubt any scent would still remain," Sable says. "I'll set you up as a marine to help fighting, but when we aren't in battle, I guess you can swab the decks unless you have any other useful skills."

(OOC: Ouragana could just take off her ring of wizardry, which would cause her extra slots to vanish. Then put the ring back on and the four slots return, but are now empty.)

Val and Naras (Undine Community/Sardonx 16th, 8 AM)
"But how is this possible?" asks Silverfrond. "That was 30 years ago. You've barely aged at all, while I have become an old woman. Surely you must mean that you are the daughter of Naras?"

(OOC: Okay, Val gets the two pearls worth 50 GP and 500 GP. However, even if she gives up all of her other gems and all of her gold and platinum, that still only equals 945 GP, which isn't enough to trade for the sapphire which is worth 1000 GP. I guess you could toss in your masterwork trident to fill that gap, since you never use it anymore. It's worth 315 GP. Does that sound good?)

[Chris1234]

"Oh my dear friend, I thought you knew. My race is long lived. No so long as the elves, by several time that of the average human, if ended by old age rather than misfortune," responds Naras. "Val, Please excuse me, but I need to change language to confirm that I am who I say."

The dwarf shifts to the undine language, "It was you that taught me this tongue and you learned the better part of your Common tongue from me." She goes on to describe some of the games they played in those precious, innocent summers and their girlie talks on who might kiss them and how it might be. "..And then one summer you didn't appear. I looked for you for many summers. What happened?"

[HorizonsDream]

"I don't know. It could have been anyone," Jocelyn says. "Everyone had something to gain by killing Ethan except me."

[BishGada]

"I can train animals, fish, train other fighters and so on, but if I clean the deck next to the captains room I can help Jocelyn if I hear trouble."

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(OOC: I saw I have one WP and one NWP blank. Does it mean I can choose what to fill them? Or does it take time? can WP be the pistols?)

[Breila]

Ouragana listens in, then asks: "So who here can pick a lock and wants me to make them invisible?"

[JadedDM]

Jocelyn Blaine (Poison Curse, Captain's Cabin/Sardonx 16th, 12 AM)
Scourge grabs hold of Jocelyn's wrist, forcing her to her feet. "Then by that logic, you have no reason to try and kill me, either. Right?" He undoes the manacles and lets them drop to the ground at her feet. "Best you remember that. Last time you got thrown overboard and somehow survived. Try it against me, and my crew will make sure that won't happen again."

Ouragana, Baeros, Gallath and Drav (Poison Curse, Below deck/Sardonx 16th, 12 AM)
Sable says, "We don't have any animals on board to train. We don't need fish, we get plenty of food from our victims. As for training fighters...we don't usually give that job to someone on their first day. But hey, if you find you have a taste for pirating and decide to stick around, you never know." She grins. "I can have you swab the deck near the captain's cabin, but if you hear trouble...what are you going to do? Knock down a locked, steel-reinforced door? Just have faith in her. If this thing goes sideways, there's nothing any of us can do for her. She knows the risk, and she agreed to this plan anyway."

(OOC: New proficiencies are learned during the downtime between arcs. And yes, he can learn to use pistols if he can find someone to train him.)

Val and Naras (Undine Community/Sardonx 16th, 8 AM)
"Then it really is you," Silverfrond responds. "I had no idea surfacers aged differently. But I also remember you telling me that the orcs and dwarves were enemies, and yet here you are with one. I suppose things are complicated up there, like down here. As for what happened to me...I simply grew up. I mated, I had children...I became chieftainess of my tribe. I am an old woman now. Such is the way of things, I suppose."

[HorizonsDream]

Jocelyn looks up at Scourge, and shakes her head. "I'm a priestess of Octhanus now. I'm not killing anyone," she says. "I'm pretty much at your mercy now anyway. What's your plan now that you have me?"

[BishGada]

"I can use my exceptional strength helping repairing stuff on the ship too. Keeping Faith is her job, I prefer making sure things happen in the right way instead of hoping they will." Baeros grunts.

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(OOC: Does "I prefer making sure things happen in the right way instead of hoping they will" meets follower of CRIZZA?)