Peppery eventually comes down and waves her hand creating another gust of wind that propels the ship along the water with great speed. It crosses the hundreds of yards to the Wormwood in a flash once Peppery is onboard and soon the rowboat is hooked up to the main ship and the crew on deck begin hauling the boat and its cargo of valuables onboard.

The other crews are there, apparently the sinking ship was the last one to be picked up. Rosie's group appear to have come back entirely unscathed but the third group is very badly injured. Crimson Cog has a huge gash across his face that is puckered up in an awful manner, Rinaldo has his arm in a splint and Kaye Haduk appears to be missing. One can only wonder what happened and what foul fate befell her.

In her place is a cage on deck with what appears to be an injured Tengu inside. The pirates are jeering and jabbing at the bird-man with poles and shouting curses at him. For his part he is slapping the poles back and returning insult for insult.

As the boat becomes level with the deck Captain Harrigan, Plugg, and Scourge come over. They look over the haul and Harrigan gaves a satisified shrug.

"Hmmmm....mediocre, I suppose."

He picks up the metal bracelet, turning it over and then with a shrug tosses it back into the pile.

"At least you all returned I suppose. OH...what's this?"

He points towards the strange armor and weapons the party recovered from the orc shaman. He raises an eyebrow at Peppery who gives him a single nod and Harrigan grows a smile on his face.

"Magic then? I think this might be the most profitable return of the bunch. The others just found supplies...and prisoners."

He turns and casts a baleful glare towards the tengu captive.

"That bloody bird cost us a fortune. Peppery, I'll need your help devising a suitable execution. It's a bird, right? How about roasting it over a spit?"

Peppery rarely speaks outside of important situations and she doesn't seem particularly interested with engaging with the captain.

"I used a lot of spells rescuing them. I'll be resting in my quarters."

Without another word she heads down below deck.

Zug Zug throws the shaman's mangled and deformed head at the Captain's feet with an underhanded pitch. "Zug Zug smashes! No stupid cooking! Zug Zug not cooks foods! Cook foods is...is puny wimp job on boat!" He flexed both biceps and bounced his pecks. Zug Zug no good cook. Capn makes Zug Zug best job?" The big orc asked in his best 'can't speak' tone with a mean face.

Harrigan doesn't seem particularly fazed by Peppery's response. When Zug Zug makes his comment Harrigan just looks quizzically at Plugg and Scourge who alternate between looking professional for Harrigan and glaring at Zug Zug.

Plugg is the first on to step up.

"We'll get him situated, sir. Go on."
This message was last edited by the player at 22:08, Tue 15 June 2021.

"Right then. Plugg, Scourge, get this all to Cut-Throat for the ledgers. And add tell her to add their names to the divide. Maybe they've got a bit of pirate's blood in them yet."

With that Harrigan heads back towards the tengu cage to take up his turn poking and prodding and making promises of cruel and painful death to the prisoner.

As soon as the Captain is out of earshot Scourge and Plugg look at each other and start snickering.

"Oh we'll get them sorted alright."

From the way the two start chuckling it is clear that whatever "joke" is going through their minds does not favor the returning group. Even Sandara and Rosie cast looks at one another with raised eyebrows.

As Scourge and Plugg start gathering up the booty their hands make a lot of suspicious movements towards lose piles of coins and trinkets and then towards one of their many pockets.

As they were hauled back aboard the Wormwood, Pearl looked around at the others who had been sent out.  Seemed the others had some battles as well.  She would make note of the more injured and would speak to them later on in the day.

When Captain Harrigan came over and was at first disappointed with their loot, his toned changed when he saw the armor and shield from the shaman they killed.  She gave a little chuckle as Zug Zug spoke.  His words weren't always the most coherent.  Something she thought she might help him with at some point.

Pearl made note of the thieving that Mr. Plugg and Scourge had done.  She disliked the both of them but then again she admired their resourcefulness as well.  They were pirates afterall.

Xao pulls a throwing knife and casually flips it over and over. "Careful there boys. Sticky fingers have a way of getting clipped. I know what we brought back and if it doesn't get split equally... well, we all know its the gents who divided it that go overboard." She says with a smile and another knife toss.

Vander said nothing, seething inwardly about the pirates. The treatment of the bird man seemed just icing on the dung cake that was Vander's current existence. Maybe if he freed the creature it could tell some other navy of the location of the pirates? That also seemed unlikely. Plus he knew nothing about locks, so he would need the key. Or maybe get Pearl's help.

Rate merely spits expressively and waits to see if there's any response to Xao Fang's challenge.

The fiery redhead of an elf simply growled low, but said nothing as she watched the cackling pair. She wanted to feed Scourge to Drakar like there was no tomorrow.

Scourge and Plugg look at one another and frown. They give slight nods back and forth and then Plugg marches back across the deck pointing a finger at Xao's face.

"You forget your place, girlie. I say you're memory ain't what you think it is and you should know we don't take kindly to liars."

He spoke with an iron undercurrent of authority. He had a point that if she levied an accusation against an officer and was unable to prove it...well given what she had seen it was unlikely Harrigan would take kindly to them. Plugg sneered at her, daring her to respond and the whole altercation was starting to draw side glances from the other crew although nobody spoke up.

While Rosie and Sandara stood close at hand they also suddenly found things to do.

Xao has had enough of Plugg. And double so for Scourge. Her feelings for them are clear in her posture and facial expression. She slips the blade back into a sheath on her forearm. "And I say your mother's the liar when she tells you she knows which one sired you." Her fingers extend into wicked looking claws which she clicks in his face. "Now empty your pockets and see if you take after yer ma'am." She snaps a claw in front of his nose one more time. "Bitch"


Edit to add OOC: Using my Focus point to activate Wild Morph to change her hands into claws
This message was last edited by the player at 19:33, Wed 23 June 2021.

Vander stood, but did not move towards Plugg or the druid. What happened next was in the first mate's hands. Granted the smart thing to do was pretend he heard and saw nothing. Shaka depended on him. However, being on this boat with these filthy scum made him sick just by helping them. He was not sure he could sit by and let someone he knew die at their hands.

Screw it. Zug Zug went and slammed his club as hard as he could on whatever was equally hard and loud behind the first mate. He bellowed and roared, ready to rage in an instant and slaughter the piece of shit masquerading as an even bigger piece of shit man.

First mate and Scourge separated, and now all attention (presumably) on them. What would happen next..?

Rafe sighs and slides his shield down his arm. "Maybe we shoulda stayed back there and taken our chances with the ghouls."
This message was last edited by the player at 20:11, Thu 24 June 2021.

Plugg seems to back off for a second but that is just the time he needed to produce a dagger from up his sleeve and shove it into Xao's gut!

Xao takes 8 damage!

While this was unfortunate, it was not a surprise. She hadn't really expected him to back down. She had called him out and this was to be expected. He didn't view her as a threat. So instead of attacking with her obvious claws she dropped and spun with one leg out hoping to trip him and bring him down before the pain hit.


12:55, Today: Xao Fang rolled 15 using 1d20+6 with rolls of 9.  Attack. I do not know what his Ref DC is. If she hits, he take 1d6 and is prone.

"DRAKAR!" It was time to pull out her ace if they were going to have a chance here, and in a flash that young red dragon appeared at her side.

[OOC: 3 actions to summon Drakar.]

It was actually a good thing that Pearl was so close to Xao when Plugg made his move.  She hadn't expected the man to attack her but as he plunged the dagger into her gut it gave Pearl the opportunity she needed.  With his back turned, Pearl stepped up behind him and plunged her rapier into his back, hoping to sever his spin and disable him.

First action is to move behind Plugg
Second is stabbing Plugg in the back
Third is to defend against any incoming attack.
Hit AC27 for 12 damage
06:54, Today: Pearl McCalister rolled 27,6,6 using d20+8,d6+2,d6 with rolls of 19,4,6.

Zug Zug didn't look to see what was going on behind him after he heard Kalia blurt out the dragon's name. Unless he was some kind of badass, Zug Zug assumed Plugg was about to be staring up at the sky on the last ship west.

Instead the huge orc focused on the Scourge. His bitch ass could get it too! "RAIFE!" Zug Zug bellowed out to the allied warrior while simultaneously reaching to snatch Scouge's cutlass from his own belt and level the blade at his throat. "Yield. Now." Zug Zug commanded looking as large, mean, and intimidating as orcishly possible.

"You do anything other than reach for the sky, I swear by my shiny new boots I will end you." Zug Zug added, in the process revealing a much greater comprehension of the common tongue than he'd been letting on.

Rolled a 22 to Demoralize Scourge into punking out like a pussy and not fighting. Not sure what I need to roll to take his sword, if anything. :D

Vander readies his bow, but sends Shaka to bring down the Pirate. If the man does not surrender, he will draw his weapon and send Shaka to attack.

OOC: Waiting for Plugg to act due to Zug Zug's intimidation.

1-Vander marks Plugg with hunt the prey

2-Interact to draw bow.

3-Sends Shaka to attack. She gets two actions, which are move and attack. Shaka will flank via Pearl's position.

11:49, Today: Vander Wargrider rolled 7 using 1d20+6 with rolls of 1.  Shaka attack with flanking.

This message was last edited by the player at 18:53, Fri 02 July 2021.

Rafe's sword flashes in the sunlight as he closes in on Scourge, both hands tightening on the hilt of the sword. He doesn't wait to see how the man reacts to Zug Zug's shout, but brings it around in a sharp arc -- the best thing is to end this fight quickly. But the swing wasn't fast enough; Scourge was able to slip to the side to avoid it, and Rafe had to pull up to keep from burying his point in the deck.



I don't know why I assumed Rafe had a shield in the earlier posts I made. Should have looked closer at the sheet. Oh well.

Action 1: Stride to melee distance with Scourge.
Actions 2-3: Power Attack on Scourge, using bastard sword two-handed for d12.

13:42, Today: Rafe Rookward rolled 12 using 1d20+9 with rolls of 3.  Bastard sword attack.

And that's going to be a miss, even if Zug Zug successfully puts Frightened on Scourge.


This message was lightly edited by the player at 17:45, Fri 02 July 2021.