Gaja and Claire's dance prompts cheers from the crew, and there is merriment for the rest of the night, even if the Captain looks pensive. Though he hasn't stopped the attacks, this will at least be a profitable venture, particularly given the current high price of fish at the moment.

The night watch reports an uneventful evening, once the merriment had died down. The ship begins it's final fishing expedition to fill the remainder of its hold. The bosun approaches the captain.

"Crew's working good, Captain. Though the fish just aren't biting as much. Still doing pretty well."

He goes through the ship's hold, removing a few barrels chilled by elemental magic. They made hauling fish far more feasible.

"We won't be needing the excess bait, and we might as well dump the less valuable stuff we set aside."

The fishing continues...

The men continue to pull fish out of the water, at a slow but steady rate. The lesser fish have been dumped, as was some additional unneeded bait in case the trip went a few extra days. That certainly didn't look like it was going to happen given the rate things were going.
This message was last edited by the GM at 23:07, Fri 16 Nov 2018.

"The stars were a nice touch," Gaja offered lazily during a lull in activity the next day. She had barely stopped moving for as long as Claire and Increase had known her, but the tedium of the expedition had reduced her to useless sprawling around the boat. She'd tried her hand at a freeline, but true to her prediction, no one had caught anything until she stepped away from the tackle.

  Reminds me of the story of Haka and the Bears. Only with less arche—" She shifted abruptly and almost fell into the ocean for no clear reason. "Did you feel that?! Something is rocking the boat." A light breeze stirred the water - barely.

  "Something other than the waves and the crew, thank you Giorgio," she replies with an exaggerated sigh. "Something that keeps its own time." But even searching for it, there's nothing. Even Claire's gyroscopes disagree with the Howler.
This message was last edited by the player at 20:27, Fri 16 Nov 2018.

"I thought it might have been a decent addition," said Claire. Then she turned abruptly toward the water. "Not rocking. Something's stilling the boat." She glanced down at the waves, but saw nothing.

"Somehow, I don't think this is a sargasso."

The next few seconds are confusing as the boat rises, slightly, and the water goes looks slightly darker around the boat.


The crew look surprised. One sees what's coming and screams, but it is already too late: the boat is surrounded by rising walls on all sides and lifts off it's keel, raise by water. Though there is no time to observe, the walls are pinkish, smell of amonina and rot, and are ridges with white and yellow. The walls rise above the boat in an instant, and CLOSE,and the world goes dark and the boat FALLS,

The place is dark and there is screaming, and the walls close in overhead. The boat is impossibly falling, and the crew are now weightless and tumbling. The air is filled with choking disgusting vile air. The walls close in and something catches on the master, boat, shoving it further down with pressure, and squeezing. The mast snaps under incredible pressure, and the boat continues to fall. Something closes overhead.

It is almost completely dark other than a slight light coming off Claire, the tiny oil lights suddenly extinguished, and the ship is falling, with freefall pushing eveyone present upwards. Your lungs are filled with choking, unbreathable air that scours your lungs.

As she floated in the air, Claire quickly assessed the odds of crew survival. Without her, they were at approximately 3,720 to one. With her...At least for the moment, she could save them, even if she personally wasn't endangered by any of this. The crisis unlocked a new flexibility in her powers.

Claire's glow grew a bit brighter as she spoke: "I've got this." As her mystic aura covered the ship and everyone in or on it, snatches of organ music could be heard by everyone's ears, and they felt their lungs expel the rank, dead air...and not inhale again. There would be a short period of terror as men thought themselves dead, no doubt, but it was simply their bodies acclimating to not needing oxygen. And when the ship finally hit whatever it was going to hit, they would feel the full impact, but no pain, and no injury. Just a smack against the ground and a transition to zero velocity.

Miracle! For the scene, Claire covers the ship and everyone currently on it (or hovering above the deck in free fall) with her Sky Word immunities. Said immunities include: Need not breathe, falling damage.
This message was last edited by the player at 05:48, Sat 17 Nov 2018.

Increase was calm as the pinkish walls rose from the ocean, encapsulating them before the water beneath them fell away. In fact he was smiling silently to himself inside of the bedlam. He holds on to the ships railing as they begin to tumble, the mast catching and breaking causing them to momentarily cease falling before resuming their plummet.

So it wasn't illusory. That was good to know. As Claire spoke, Increase was relieved to find that he wouldn't die of asphyxiation. With that came a moment to think. They had most likely just been eaten by something of considerable size. The pink walls its mouth and the ridges of white and yellow whatever passed for the beast's teeth. That meant they were likely falling into the beings stomach.

How unpleasant.

Commit Effort for Day to Miracle Disclose the Flaw on what I assume to being the creature that just ate us. Know its current weaknesses and most vulnerable elements
at that time, including any hidden means by which it might be killed or destroyed. Creatures reveal their hit dice and Effort totals.

Everyone falls. The fall is fairly short as things go, but it still might have injured people aboard if not for Claire's intervention (to say nothing of lung damage). The mortals eyes water with the sheer acidic stench of the place - they'd be dying if not for her intervention as well.

However, two people fall on the outside of the boat, and their fate is far less pleasant as they splash around the ship. There is a truly tormented scream from the darkness away from the boat as they splash into the digestive acid.  The hull of the battered boat also begins sizzling.


Light is another concern. Claire's luminescent body gives off a light glow that keeps the ship from being plunged into absolute darkness, but beyond the ship, there is not enough light to see by. One of the men begins screaming. The bosun quiets him with a cuff. Others begin to pray.

"Get to a lamp and light it. Night conditions! Throw a rope if you see a man, but keep one to the rail for yourself."
However, the lamps will not light.  The ship is a mass of terrified faces in the dark. There are odd.. biological sounds coming from around the ship, a mix of odd chittering and what can only be described as horrible 'schplekking' sound.

  "I've never been eaten before," Gaja remarked calmly, as the giant throat rose up around them.  "This might be too big to tame."  And then all was darkness and terror.

  She stayed with the boat on the way down.  At least as long as there was light to see by, she crouched at the edge of the hold, two-pronged spear at the ready.  But shortly before they landed, there was a flash of movement at the edge of Claire's dim glow.  The splashes came almost too fast to count: the boat, the mast, the missing crew; and then too many, too regular, too fast to be debris, like sprinting through puddles.  By the time the burns set in and the screaming began, Gaja was already hooking the first man's oilskin and ducking into a sharp turn.  The return footsteps were slower, inevitably.

  "HELP LIFT!" she shouted as she neared the starboard rail.  She wasn't that strong.

---

Let's have a Dance miracle to emulate Light as Air.  Unfortunately, it doesn't say anything about protection from hazardous surfaces you cross.  She'll probably be injured for this, and I can't imagine there's time for a second rescue, if the first one even survives.
This message was last edited by the player at 19:15, Sat 17 Nov 2018.

"You heard the woman! Go!" The crew began lifting him into the deck with the pole. Mercifully, by the time he was on the deck, he had lost consciousness, as was the fact the man's face could not be easily seen as he was placed on the deck.

"I got one!" Said another crewman as he fished around with a hook. As they began to pull him up. A few more helped. Haul him in. "WHAT IN THE NINE HELLS?!?" The man was covered in a large writhing pile of white flesh that wrapped around it, and began crawling up the bill hook.

Others were already making their way up the side of the ship, clinging with hooklike structures to the outside of the vessel. They seem utterly unaffected by the acid.

[OOC - Medium sized mob, AC 5. You all get a round to act before the mob does, as it has to climb the side of the boat, which is not terribly high, but provides ]

"ARM YOURSELVES!"

Increase bellowed as the digestive creatures rose from the massive creatures stomach acid. He even brandished a hook himself, although he doubted his efforts would be of any great boon. All the same he attempted to exude confidence and resolve and took up a loose fighting stance with the men who had enough presence of mind to not simply fall into a panic.

"We'll fight together!"

He watched as the creatures began to advance over the railings and struck out at them. First with a surge of his divine power, a near invisible wave of power that caused the boat to twist and lash out before settling back into its normal position. Fray Die, 2 HD damage

Then he moved forward, hook in hand, and swung to attack the creatures. His strike was wild and found no purchase in the creatures. All the same he called out to his companions.

"We need to free ourselves from the beast's gullet. Attack the walls, its it only weakness."
This message was last edited by the player at 15:28, Mon 19 Nov 2018.

  Even as a blurry shadow, Gaja's turn away from the gunwale was clear enough confirmation.  She sprang away from where she'd been clinging to pull the fallen sailor back in and landed square on what, gods help us, was probably a giant hookworm.  The momentum sent it rolling, and she made her way across the surface of the bile half-leaping, half-skating on the parasites.  Not that she could see where she was going, but far enough in one direction...

  She reached one of the walls of the beast's stomach shortly and kept going up the side of it.  "Claire!" she shouted, only stopping once she was above the immediate splash line.  She sunk the pitted shaft of her spear into the slick lining at her feet, and it was like opening the door to a burning house—a blast of hot air came howling out around the wood.  It might have been less than a splinter to the giant beast, but the flesh began to tighten and split as it dried out.  "Aim for my voice!"

 "Release us," she whispered privately before darting away from the spot.  She left behind the exact shrieking sound she'd wrung out of her fiddle before last night's revel.  Voice, indeed.

---

Let's focus some fire.  Light as Air is still in operation, and that's a Desert miracle to emulate Sirocco Sword.  I hard miss with a nat 1, but at least I get 1HD out of it.
This message was last edited by the player at 03:31, Sun 18 Nov 2018.

Claire didn't hesitate as Increase shouted instructions, and lifted her arm. An orb of violet light shot out from her palm at the wall of the creature's gullet, and then she turned to fire another one at one of the digestive beasts.

23:54, Today: Claire Durand rolled 2 using 1d8.  Fray at the creatures.
23:54, Today: Claire Durand rolled 5 using 1d10+4.  Damage if I hit.
23:54, Today: Claire Durand rolled 16 using 1d20+5.  Firing at the wall.

1 damage if I hit the wall, and 1 damage fray to the mob.

The attacks on the creature don't seem to have any meaningful effect. If there's anything that occurs because of the attack, you can't see that far given the darkness.

[OOC - Attacks that do 1 damage are utterly ineffective against the protective mucus. You might want to concentrate on defending your crew from the worms that are eating you before you blast your way out.]

The crew quickly grab weapons and lay into the creatures with hook bills, hatchets.. anything handy. The crew may be salty and experienced to the ways of the deep, but they are utterly disorientated, terrified and still recovering, flailing at the unfamiliar foes in the dark.

[OOC- Bad rolls in general. The crew are slightly upgraded peasants due to a few quality individuals in their number.]

More over, their weapons are poorly suited to fighting the worms - most of the fishing weapons are piercing, spear like weapons, and the worms bodies writhe out of the way quickly as they slither up the hull. Once they hit the top, they throw themselves at the crew and attach themselves with a small piercing organ. The air is filled with hissing as the worms drip acid everywhere as they leap, and then the screams begin.

Though they fight without hesitation, leaping at the crew instantly and without fear, they are somewhat stymied by the hull, but the last second leap, sometimes 15 feet as they thrash, catch everyone by utter surprise. The deck is awash in blood in a few seconds. The worms are merciless and swift beyond measure, and within seconds, a good portion of hte crew are horrifically injured, choked by worms around their neck, impaled in the chest, bleeding their guts out onto the floor, and a few are dragged overboard into the acid. The deck is awash with screams, and a few men even simply stop fighting, broken, standing in mute horror as a quarter of the crew are killed in seconds, strangled or peirced by an acid tipped claw.

"KEEP FIGHTING! THEY CAN GET US OUT OF THIS!" Screamed the bosun, swinging his machete, though even he has the shrill sound of desperation in his voice. Of course, even the 'officers' are effected by the attacking worms. The crew continue to fight, if for no other reason then that there is no escape. Most are ineffective however, their weapons poorly suited to this fight. A few though, no doubt the "scrappers" have formed a defensive core.

Gaja, who was near the deck edge pulling men out, is particularly badly assaulted by several worms. Many more worms attack Claire, perhaps attracted to the light she was giving off, but their attacks of strangulation and piercing are not effective against her armoured skin.

[OOC = The Worm's are -2 to attack on the first round, and they can't use blood like water because they are coming over the gunwhale.. not that it mattered, because their dice rolls were <b>COMPLETELY FREAKING INSANE.</b> You are welcome to invoke defensive gifts/miracles to change the results if possible]

19:02, Today: GM rolled 23 using 1d20+4.  Worm Attack Claire.
19:05, Today: GM rolled 10 using 1d8+2.  Damage Claire
0 damage to Claire(she's immune)

19:02, Today: GM rolled 24 using 1d20+4.  Worm attack Scholar.
19:06, Today: GM rolled 3 using 1d8+2.  Damage Scholar.
1 Damage to Scholar

19:01, Today: GM rolled 23 using 1d20+4.  Worm attack Gaja.
19:06, Today: GM rolled 9 using 1d8+2.  Damage Gaja.
2 Damage to Gaja

19:01, Today: GM rolled 19 using 1d20+4.  Worm attack crew.
19:05, Today: GM rolled 8 using 1d8+2.  Damage Crew (Straight).
8 damage to crew. This is enough to force a morale test, but they pass. Another hit like that and the crew will be wiped out to a man, and it will be a very lonely trip back to the mainland, assuming you get out of this.]
This message was last edited by the GM at 03:23, Thu 22 Nov 2018.

  "Shit," Gaja hisses, pausing to tear away the parasites clinging to her legs.  The spear is a complete loss, but her anger doesn't really need a vehicle, just a target.  And there in the middle of the only existing light are a lot of targets.  Some of them even notice when she scalds them.

  "Shit," she hisses again, and starts to cross back toward the boat.  It was darker in here than it should be.  Felt unnatural.

---

1 HD from fray, another 1 HD from the regular attack.
This message was last edited by the player at 20:42, Thu 22 Nov 2018.

In reply to Gaja (msg # 48):

[OOC- They are using blood like water this round, so you can't miss the worms]

Claire realized that the leviathan that had eaten them was currently not the threat, what with the worms climbing over into the ship. So instead, she turned her pink blasters on the worm army, while granting a measure of her courage to the men fighting alongside her. If they died, then they would at least die without fear.

Heart of the Lion extended to all allies as an Instant.
06:03, Today: Claire Durand rolled 8 using 1d8.  Fray.
06:03, Today: Claire Durand rolled 5 using 1d10+4.  Firing on Blood like Water-ing maggots - damage.

3 damage, like a proper war machine.
This message was last edited by the player at 15:05, Thu 22 Nov 2018.

Increase focused on killing his foes rather than thinking too much on the carnage that now surrounded him. The worms were surprisingly adept at killing his men and even he suffered a glancing blow.

Blood began to leak steadily from a wound on his side were the acid coated teeth of one of the worms found purchase. All the same he pressed his attack, another rush of divine power causing the floor boards to twist and snap, piercing and slaying one of the worms. Fray 1 HD damage

He then pushed forward once more with his hook, having adapted his hold on the weapon to be more suited for striking the pliant foes. He came up in long sweeping strikes, trained on the midsections of their bodies. Two more fell to him. 2 HD damage with Hook

The men start emboldened, start hacking at the worms. This time, the worms are right on top of them, and the men are down to stabbing massively with knives and fish hooks. The squeeze box musician simply grabs them and slams them into the deck with a heavily gloved hand and slam them into the deck.

It is a hard, desperate struggled, but the men of this vessel are just the sort of "scrappers" that excel in that sort of fight, and soon the deck is awash of acidic wormgore, and the remaining worms bled gore across the deck (it was a whiteish green colour). It would have stank, but the air was already unbarably rank with fish guts and acid.

"Where's Carsti?" Screamed the Bosun. "Dead sir." The bosun mouthed an expletive, unusual for the normally rather polite captain. "Right. Of course we lost our ship's patchman. Injured, inside, now. Torches. Figure out someone who can treat them."

The injured were dragged to the ship's small crew/officer's quarters. A few of the crew look to Scholar and the others. If they weren't busy running around trying to stay alive, they'd clearly be awed by the way the others had fought. The fact that the only lighting in this place was from a light blue glow coming of Claire didn't aid that impression.

[OOC - Between the injuries done by the PC's and the straight damage done by the crew, and the overwhelm damage they were about to do, that's going to be enough to kill the worms.

Of course, now you gotta deal with the whole "swallowed whole" thing. If you just want to say you keep shooting, we'll do that, and I'll just roll it out myself to figure out how long it takes to save time]
This message was added to by the GM at 13:48, Mon 26 Nov 2018.

  With the immediate threat cleared, Gaja returns to her original plan for escape.  But this time, with less pressure, she has time to put more thought into it.  This time she heads as high up the walls as she can fit, to the muscular ring closing the monster's stomach off.  From where she stands, the ship floats upside-down on the acidic ceiling.  Gaja tries not to think too much about that.

  Instead, she begins scouring away the protective mucous with flying sand and desiccating heat.  The steps and gestures to direct the spirits are difficult on the slippery, spongy surface, but she proves sure-footed enough to manage them.  Even upside-down.  She'd heard stories about the underworld, where everything is topsy-turvy.  This felt like that had sounded.  She wasn't a fan.

---

Yeah, I mean, I'd get creative with miracles, but I'm already committed for 2/day and need to be more careful.  I've given you a fact-backed Wis check if it matters.  If you wanted Int, raise the DC to 11.  If that's not relevant, we can just ignore it, but she should have some idea where the animal's going to be most sensitive and prone to induced vomiting, I figure.  Otherwise, we can just blast our way out.

Claire, meanwhile, returned her attention and several balls of pink light to the weaknesses Increase had pointed out in the creature's walls. She figured that disemboweling the leviathan would be a good way of killing it, and thus making sure that it never harmed any more fishermen.

With Gaja scouring away the protective mucus with gusts of burning wind and coarse sand and Claire laying into the beasts sides with her eldritch powers, Increase turned his attention to his bosun.

"I'll see to the injured. Make sure that we are prepared for a sudden departure."

With that Increase then moved below deck and set about ensuring that the injured did not die. He had simple supplies and an abundance of knowledge. He would see if it served him well.

<Orange>Using Ten Thousand Tools and Omniscient Scholar to assist with this. Succeeded on an Int Check if needed.</Orange.
This message was last edited by the player at 16:37, Mon 26 Nov 2018.

"Lock everything! Strip the mast and dump secondaries. We'll set up the jury rig once were out of here! Two men below decks to pumps and secure the timber against this crap. And someone get some damned sawdust and then swab the the deck!"

The crew began locking away all manner of gear and particualrly any potable water, since they had a feeling a good portion of their stores might be spoiled just by being here. A lot of fish were dumped overboard as well in the service of making the boat lighter. What was left of the primary mast was quickly hauled overboard, and under the decks, two crew immediately grabbed all the spare okum - this vessle was an oddity. Normally, the planks never quite held completely watertight. Ships used a mixture of rope torn apart and tar to seal between the cracks, and then relied on the ship planking getting wet to make the ship water tight.

This vessel though, had no planking, as the thing had been constructed as a whole thing, like a modern hull would be out of steel or fiberglass. This had made it far less suseptable to acid eating away at the ropes and tar that would seal the decks.. however, the ship was still exposed to acid, and the bilge pumps were now being rapidly tested, and carpenters were awaiting the inevitable first breech. Countless fishing equipment, mostly already ruined by the drop, was quickly stored or thrown overboard as well.

Under the decks, Scholar treated the men. The one who had fallen into the acid had died - he'd been killed by the worms in the enusing melee. A few more had been killed instantly. The injuries were mostly from an odd hook like organ at the end of the worms that was driven into their flesh. A few of the men also had acid burns, though only the ones with burns on their face were treated, so they'd be able to breathe. One poor fellow lost an eye.

Meanwhile, Claire and Gaja continued to fire into the dark...

The first few shots do nothing, but by concentrating their shots on one area quickly begin to have an effect.. not that it's visible. However, the "smell" of the place quickly changes, and gets even worse, as the mucus membrane around the area is penetrated and the pulse blasts and cutting sand begin to have an effect, and a burbling sound begins to occur around them, and the acidic goo begins to bubble.

"LOCK DOWN! GET BELOW DECKS!" Cries the bosun, realizing what's coming, and he quickly rushes to his cabin. Most of the crew make their way inside at their captain's urging.

[OOC - It took 5 rounds roughly to inflict enough damage... who's staying up on the deck? Anyone doing anything else to prepare?]
This message was last edited by the GM at 18:22, Wed 28 Nov 2018.

Claire grabbed hold of the mast and prepared herself in case she needed to fly on short notice.