"I'm not sure," Feliph answered Eve sleepily, right before the sailor unexpectedly discharged the contents of his stomach. There was no mistaking that sound, and Feliph made a sickened little noise as Hamilton gave another alarmed bark.

Thankfully the other sailors handled it quickly, though. "Thank you," Feliph said to them, kind of uncertainly as to exactly where they were since it was still fairly dark. With that, she turned back to go to sleep, feeling uneasy at first with all the activity, but it seemed to subside quickly. "Okay, go back to sleep Hammy," she said drowsily.

She found herself more awake again when Tath's hands began to roam along her body, though. It was making her feel kind of self-conscious, but it was nice, too. And Tath didn't seem to be aware she was doing it (as far as Feliph could tell, anyways), so she didn't want to wake her up by reacting too strongly. Instead, she squirmed a little in the hammock under Tath's hands and tried to bite down on any giggles or the like.

The captain of the ship entered from his own cabin, looking each of them over to make sure no one had died. "Ah, sorry to interrupt you folks resting... or anything else. Breakfast is ready if anyone is hungry. We could also discuss payment as well as a very special opportunity I think you all shall like." He spoke softly and politely, quite unlike the character he played for the crew. Afterwards walked quietly away to the dinning cabin above deck
This message was last edited by the player at 14:35, Sun 18 Oct 2015.

Eve sighed, knowing that discussing payment would be a short conversation. What little money the group had was barely enough to to barter for one person's passage, not the entire group. She stood once again, fully intending on getting out of the wretched place again. Eve slipped the rain slick on again. She moved across the space to the door. She held her bag close as she stepped on deck and into the rain. She moved to the rail, out of the way of the sailors, and looked out at the storm they had faced all night.

In some way Kerath enjoyed the calm of the ship but he hates the sea. He prefers all his claws on the earth.
This message was last edited by the player at 19:40, Tue 20 Oct 2015.

The leftover crew was struggling to keep the wheel on course. The heavy rain continued on, but the lightning had stopped. The waves were choppy and the winds howled mournfully. The ship's sails had been drawn closed, lest they complete the rest of the journey without the ship, yet the journey seemed to be continuing on oddly expediently, the daunting mountains of Galdcavern were visible against the northern horizon, perhaps another five or six hours away if the pace continues. A sudden water-filled gust swept over the deck, seeming to dare the elven woman to let go for even a second and take a dip in the salty torrent.

Below the rocking continued like a pendulum, taking advantage of every upswing to tilt back the opposite way, as though attempting to gain enough momentum to roll the passengers right out of their hammocks.

Tath's hands continued to wander along Feliph's body in more and more of a risque pattern. The Catfolk's chest began to rumble lightly as she began to purr. Eyes still closed, it would have been easy to mistake her as still sleeping if not for the heavy downpour that began to buffet the ship. Though the hammock easily swayed to hold the two, Tath's eyes opened and she took a deep breath. Exhaling slowly, she deliberately wrapped her arms around Feliph snugly, squeezing affectionately as she mumbled a "G'morning." loud enough for the girl in her arms to hear.

After everything that happened in the past couple of days, from skipping town to roaming a forest teeming with evil creatures to escaping the vendetta a psychotic priest had with an innocent vampire, Tath was content to sleep in as long as possible - preferably until they came ashore, but that was likely a few days away. Not that it wouldn't stop her from trying, if she could.

"You're a wonderful cuddler, you know that?" she yawned out, smirking mischievously. Even though she'd taken to Feliph a little faster than normal playthings, it was no secret the thief liked to enjoy herself - Even if it was shamelessly in the presence of the rest of the party.

Above deck a tiny cloaked figure was standing outside by the mess hall entrance, collecting rain in a large bucket. It was clearly too heavy for her, and at the next torrent she fell and started sliding off along the deck on her back. "Eeek! Help!" She whined miserably, arms flailing about like a panicked turtle.

Eve turned at the sound of the scream. She had been holding tight to the rail being pelted by the rain. Stepping away from the rail and fighting to keep her own footing, Eve made her way to the girl. She felt her hands grip the girl's shirt and pulled her to her feet as Eve also grabbed a rope to steady herself. "Got'cha."

"Oh, thankyouthankyouthankyou Thank you sooo much!" A small voice thanked Eve, barely audible over the roaring waves. Soon several others, including the captain burst out of the eating cabin with urgency suited for a royal guard coming to a regent's side.

"Argh, that be an evil storm..." One of the crew said as they got soaked.

"Come inside, please! It's so dangerous out there. Oh thank goodness you two didn't get washed away..." The captain said with strangely genuine concern in his voice, as he beckoned them to enter the eating hall with the others.

It was pretty embarrassing to be checked on by the captain while Tath's hands were on her, and Feliph was blushing as she answered him with a quiet "Okay, thanks for letting us know, Captain." Better to be embarrassed than to wake Tath up, Feliph thought. Her own enjoyment aside, as a healer she worried about the health and energy of all her new teammates.

Which wasn't to say she wasn't enjoying Tath's hands wandering on her, because she definitely was. Their starting to become more adventurous came as a surprise, though, setting Feliph to blushing again, and now she couldn't help a stifled giggle now and then. Still generously assuming Tath was still asleep, she wondered just what sort of dreams the feline girl was having.

Still blushing, she gave a slightly unsteady smile to Tath when she woke up and unexpectedly hugged her. It deepened when Tath said what a good cuddler she was. Feliph thought that was nice of her to say, and was in fact glad that Tath had enjoyed herself, but she wasn't quite sure how to reply. "Um, thank you... so are you," she said after a moment's delay. "And, good morning, I hope you slept well." She had to speak a little louder than usual to be heard over the torrential downpour. "The captain came by, he said breakfast was ready and he wanted to talk to us. About paying for passage, and also some kind of opportunity."

Eve nodded as she let them usher her into the damp space. Lanterns lit the area with an eery glow around her. She kept an eye on the passenger that she had kept from being washed away. "Be careful on deck, those waves are unforgiving." She whispered to the girl as she kept scanning the crowded room. Eve looked at the captain wondering what had drawn him and half his crew to their aid. She had heard he had left a young man to fall over and washed away.

"Come on over and have a seat at the Captain's table!" The Captain waved and pulled out a seat by his right. "Free meals and drink for the rest of the trip for you and your crew, even the hungry tiger fellow that was skulking around the kitchen yesterday." He smirked and laughed. It was odd for Quicksail to say 'free' without the words 'buy three get one' preceding it. "And what the heck, breakout the jam for our biscuits! Yarr!" This announcement was met with a cheer around the room normally reserved for liqueur or gold.

A few crew members went down to the hold, retrieving some multicolored jars for each table. The spread set out was plentiful, but not exactly luxurious, yet the crew seemed to regard the meal quite highly with the addition of the jars. "You know, these are worth their weight in silver right now." He said, picking up a blood-red jar.

"I'm sure you've heard that Galdcavern is suffering from a particularly bad frost. None of the crops are growing, and all the usual shipping routes have been having problems in every direction. Blizzards, storms, giant spiders, you name it. Right now I have a deal lined up with a connection in the dwarven armies, two jars for a sword, three for a real masterwork warhammer. Tide over the scurvy over there for awhile and in return I get enough arms to take over a small nation... Or at least someone does; I'm just in it for the gold."

He motioned towards the gnomish woman. "Our esteemed Twinklerain over here is the one making it all possible. So are you in?"

Tath was shameles - Either that, or an exhibitionist. Her hands slowed their wandering to envelope Feliph in a tight embrace as she was suddenly hugged, a moment's hesitation marking slight surprise. Feliph would be able to feel Tath nod in response as she leaned in to playfully nip at the newest party member's ear, opting to raise her voice only slightly as she spoke closer to her ear.

"We'll have to continue this some other time - Maybe in an actual bed." She spoke. "In the meantime, let's get ourselves something to fill our bellies, hrm?"

There was no easy way to get oneself out of the upper hammock, especially as entangled as the two of them were. With a sigh and what sounded like a mew of annoyance, Tath tightened her hold on Feliph as she made to roll out of their bed. Normally, her feline instincts would have kicked in, but that would have meant Feliph taking the brunt of the fall. With an "Oof!", Tath landed on her back. Sparing a moment to brush herself off and sneak a not-so-subtle feel as she got to her feet while helping Feliph do the same, her tail swished back and forth as she collected her sword-belt before heading to the kitchen. She did manage to sneak a playful glance at Feliph at the doorway before she continued, however.

Once in the kitchen, Tath licked her lips as she took a seat next Quicksail, eagerly sitting down. Trust wasn't something Tath was big on, but it was telling of this Quicksail fellow's character that she dug in without question. Perhaps they were kindred souls - Coin did make the world go 'round, after all. "Suppose the big question's what you need from us." Tath spoke between mouthfuls of drink and food. "Guardin's one thing, transport's another. 'less you want us to be the ones takin' the goods through the mountains while ya go'n'get more?"

Eve sat down across from the captain with caution. She smile dat his offer and the tale around his acts. She glanced at Taths quick notion to join but other than that remained quiet for the moment. Part of her wondered if there was more to this journey and the rest of her knew there was. Giant spiders were one thing, kill them quickly enough- blizzards were another. She noticed that Feliph was not in sight, nor Hamilton. "Of course a journey like this is not to be accepted in haste. We will need to see who in our band is willing to continue on with this or choose a new direction." She said it softly- more so for Tath I hear than anyone else.

"Ah, well, me crew can do the heavy lifting, that's what I pay them for after all, and we won't be going too far, just through the city up to a mine at the base of the mountain. The problem is, like I said these people are desperate." The captain frowned as his 'piratey' character slowly slipped.

"Demand is good, but desperation will make a good customer turn into a thief, and not the kind that's good for business like you fine folk." He smiled wheedlingly. "I just need a few good hands to keep the shipment safe."

Feliph stifled a surprised little sound when Tath nipped at her ear, instinctively shifting away a little before she realized Tath was just playing. She'd dealt with enough wild animals to have quick reflexes where bites were concerned. She nodded to the comment about getting something to eat, then added another surprised sound when Tath unexpectedly rolled both of them out of bed, landing Feliph on top of her.

She started to move to make sure Tath was okay, but the catgirl was much faster than her, getting up herself and then helping Feliph up in a nice but embarrassing sort of way. Feliph was still blushing a little when they joined the captain. She got out some dried meat for Hamilton as they walked in and gave it to him to chew on, so he wouldn't try to grab any of the food for himself. He was usually pretty well-mannered, but neither of them tended to spend much time in civilization for him to develop good habits.

"Hello, Captain," she said politely as they sat themselves, then she was quiet for a little while as he and Tath spoke. "So we would be guarding these jars of jam?" she finally said. "That seems fair to me." Although if these people were so desperately starving, maybe Feliph could help them a little independently, too. She wasn't sure the captain would appreciate that, though.

Zigor had been standing in the corner, letting the rainwater drip out of his feet. "So are we being paid by head hired, by head taken, or perhaps by jar?" The knight casually made a rather morbid insinuation. He wasn't particularly intrigued by the job, but every debt needed to be repaid in full nonetheless.

"No no, please, please avoid killing anyone. This is all above board." The captain insisted, though he was essentially profiteering on sheer desperation as Feliph surmised. "I'll forgive your debts to this ship of course, room, transport, and meals, plus hmmm, I'm a bit short on coinage due to the bartering nature of this transaction, say 12 silver and three jars of jam each? I know it's not much, but like I said, due to the shortage you aren't likely to find much in the way of produce. You could easily trade them for a good deal of anything you need, or if you're traveling north they should keep you healthy for some time, not much forage up north."

"That's good to hear," Feliph said, mostly on the subject of not being paid by the head. She didn't really care for things like that, and certainly wasn't looking to do it for money. She looked around at the others for confirmation, especially Tath. "So we'll take the job, then?"

Tath offered a smile between mouthfuls at Feliph as she caught her eye, before nodding. Gulping down a mug, she offered a hand to Quicksail. "Seems like we've got a deal. I don't think anyone's against it." She said.

Kerath was searching for some items that could help him in the future, some medicine, food, potions... or any other object.

There was plenty of food on the ship, much of it preserved, such as sausages, hard bread, alcohol, and cheeses. The captain did agree to share his food freely, so he probably wouldn't mind if they took some. He seemed rather protective of the jam though.

As for other supplies, the ship seemed oddly bare for a well known smugglers ship. Just the essentials such as enormous cords of rope, cloth, and barrels of tar. There was also an abundance of oil cloaks to protect against the weather.

Kerath took a little of everything that he could, even the alcohol.

For a moment the windows of the cabin went white, simultaneously the thunder outside cracked with a sea shaking fury. The sound reverberated for several seconds, like the ship was a chord on a harp. It seemed that a rail outside on the deck had been blown off by a strike of lightning. The crackling hot embers along the jagged pillars were immediately doused by the raging sea in a soft hiss.

The storm was definitely getting worse.

The crew muttered and looked worried, breaking the jolly mood of festivity that had taken hold of the room just before. With an omen like that, it was easy to wonder if they would reach the port that just moment ago seemed so close.

Suddenly, the crew above deck all yelled desperately, but another kind roar and a wail drowned out the crowd as a massive wave crashed into the ship. The windows to the cabin immediately shattered, the tables and settings vanished into the sea. The ship was tilting, it was impossible to tell which direction though. There was time enough for one last gulp of air.

Darkness, salt, sea... There was no up nor down, no landmarks, no ship, no sound.

OOC: Please proceed to the Unknown Island thread once you are ready. You may post a reaction here as well if you wish.