All in all, Judoc was not in a good mood.

He kept returning in his mind to his original voyage to Three Corners just after Christmas.  In that trip, Judoc recalled, his ship had been quite large, with a whole deck and cabin below.  The trip had been efficient, the ship sailing straight as an arrow once it had gone around Min and stopping once every few days for supplies.  Judoc remembered the sail as enormous and triangular, constantly needing of attention of the crew what with trimming and letting out based on the winds and the currents.  The sailors too, had been quite cordial, professional but chatty, always in possession of a good story of a pub, a fight, or a woman, or occasionally all three together.

In retrospect, Judoc is wondering just how much the trip had cost the Templars, for even offering ludicrous amounts to procure his own ship, Judoc was mostly laughed at by those he approached.  No one, he was told, went as far as Azer, though he was told would be possible to purchase a ship and hire a crew if he wanted to go that far himself.  Eventually, Judoc managed to find John Tibbets, who said he was taking his ship, the Silent Watchman, as far as Dekamera, asking nearly price and a half of what Judoc was actually willing to offer for the whole trip, though at this point, Judoc was so disheartened at the prospect of never getting back to Azer that he agreed despite his reservations at the cost.

His second guessing did not nearly stop there.

Before even he had boarded the ship, Judoc began collecting irritations like flies upon a freshly minted shit.  Judoc was surprised first at the relatively small size of the boat, not more than seven or eight paces long, perhaps thirty five feet at best.  When he had first alighted on the ship from the brow, he was further surprised by the four men, chained into their seats by the oarlocks, misery carved into their faces as if by an overzealous chisel.  Even his attempts to secure himself a place below came to naught as Tibbets angrily rebuffed Judoc, informing him that the hold was only for cargo, and that if Judoc wished to keep his belongings there he would have to relinquish them for the trip... Tibbets would store them below.  He would not be allowed to go in or out as he pleased.

As they departed, each and every new realization seemed to fester with the others.  John Tibbets turned out to be a sour shadow of a man, castigating his own crew at their every misstep and threatening his slaves even as they continued quietly at their exhausting task.  Instead of every few days, the ship made landing every night, sometimes at port but most often just on a beach, as if the night time was too dangerous a prospect for any serious sailor.  And finally (and most infuriatingly after having been so late to start his journey to the east) Tibbets seemed to think that the fastest way eastward was constant turns back and forth at interval, such that the ship carved a massive sawtooth pattern through the water.  Normally not one to profess expertise outside of his realm of magery, Judoc never the less had to bite back several impulses to educate the despicable Tibbets on simple geometric theory.

And so, after over a month at sea, the sun and heavy salt air again bearing down oppressively, his bag tied securely against the high inner rail of the ship, Judoc wishes he had held his money just a bit longer to see if something else may have popped up.

"Row you curs!"  Tibbets roars from behind the mainmast, a lash held high in his hand to go with the oppressive gleam in his eye.

Judoc muses that Tibbets seems to be making up for the fact that the large rectangular sail is casting a shadow over the slaves, giving them the briefest respite from the midday sun.

"Prove your worth here or you'll be carted off like chattel when we make Dekamera!"  Tibbets shouts, his devious smile curling upwards as his eyes roam across the four, waiting the strike at the first weakness.

"Sailing rig, two o'clock!"  Reve, one of the crew, calls from above, his voice nearly drowned out by the wind.

Tibbets cups a hand over his eyes, glaring out the right side of the ship before he calls back to Orgon, his man on the rudder.  "Tack left!"

Judoc watches as the ship turns slowly to the left.  He watches the ropes on the sail being tended by the last crewman, Trisso.  He watches the heavy boom from which the sail hangs swinging slowly as the wind crosses from the other direction.  He watches as the tiny speck of white on the horizon shifts from the right forward quarter of the ship to the right rear.  And he watches as the shadow of the sail drifts off towards the left, exposing the rowers again to the full brilliance of the day.

"Row, row or I'll take it out of your hide!"  Tibbets smacks the lash against the mast, resounding a heavy thwack as leather meets wood.

~Does he have to be so loud?  Aiah laments, shaking her head before shoving her beak into her wing, preening out the water and salt that seems to constantly harass her.

OOC:  It is 1130 on the 7th of August, 2005.  Thanks for the patience here, as your thread is not just a new story, but also a new genre, a new setting, new characters, and a completely new set of rules for me it took me some time to think through things.  Your ship is now somewhere in the Mare Medium, you would guess close to the end of your journey (at least the leg to Dekamera), though you aren't entirely sure.  You've been traveling within a few miles of shore the entire time, so can see green hills far off on the left side of the ship.  There are a total of 9 men on the Silent Watchman - Tibbets (the captain), Reve, Orgon, and Trisso (the Crew), the four slaves, and yourself.  The travel has been slower than you hoped, and you are estimating that if you can make good time, you can just make it back for the start of term without resorting to magic.

Let me know if you have any questions.
This message was last edited by the GM at 19:41, Wed 17 Aug 2022.

It had taken a couple of days for Judoc to get his sea legs. At first, the pitch and yaw of the ship had thrown him off balance. Soon, however, he had adapted to the continual rocking of the boat. If only his temper had adjusted so easily.

Judoc hated being on the ship. He had taken an instant dislike to the captain. Tibbets was insufferable and seemed utterly clueless regarding the finer points of navigation. Judoc had paid good money to join this trip, a windfall for Tibbets, and the man couldn't even provide a bunk or space for Judoc's things. The man even kept other men as slaves! Tibbets seemed like the worst kind of captain, and Judoc couldn't help but wonder how far the man's cruelty would be tolerated before the crew snapped.

After his stomach had settled down, Judoc had spent his days reading through the books he had acquired from Haj Umr, first with the astronomy journal and then The Lesser Keys of Solomon and The Many Planes of Hell. He was sure he would run into Agares' fellow conspirators again, and he resolved to learn as much as he could about demonology and battling demons.

Now, as Judoc sits quietly on deck, taking a break from studying and considering whether he should break out some hardtack for lunch, he hears the man in the crow's nest announce another ship. Desperate for a reprieve for his boredom, Judoc turns in the direction Reve had called out and with his right hand, shades his eyes to better see the passing ship.

OOC: Mad props for the "Prufrock" quote. That's one of my favorite poems.

Wanting to turn his attention anywhere to avoid thinking of Tibbets, Judoc cups a hand over his eyes and stares out into the sea, though he finds that the glare of the sun coming up from the water is just as bad as the directly light of the sun from overhead... and much harder to block out.

Still, he can make the ship out, though just barely.  It appears just a bit of white sail on the horizon, not even close enough to break out the hull of the ship from the waterline.  There isn't much detail to make out from this far away, though Judoc thinks he could Haj Umr's mask if he wanted to.  He had not much occasion to now to try the magic he had pilfered from the necromancer, though he knew the mask was imbued with a Far Vision spell which the previous owner had used to survey the night sky.

OOC:  I rolled vs. IQ for you to remember your mask.  Feel free to use it here if you want, just stipulate what level of the spell you want to cast (1 level of the spell is already accounted for with the 2 points of self power in the item).  Otherwise I'll keep fast forwarding.

Retrieving the mask of Haj Umr from his pack, Judoc puts it on to get a better view of the ship. The Templar student had never set out to accumulate magical items, and he finds it amusing that several of the items he has acquired have a necromantic feel to them. if Judoc is not careful, people will start to talk about his unusual accessories.

Concentrating, Judoc draws on the mask's power and draws additional mana to zoom in on the approaching ship.

OOC: Judoc will draw on the mask's 2 points and use his own FP for a level 2 version of Hawk Vision. If allowed, he will take an Aim maneuver to zoom in on the other ship.

Judoc pulls the mask from his things and activates the item, pressing it to his face.  Almost as soon as the mask is in place over his eyes, his breath catches in his throat as he is awestruck by the sudden detail he is able to discern.

What was once a small speck of white upon the horizon now stands clear in his view.  It's a sailing rig clear enough, with two masts and two levels of sails on each of them.  In front, the ship has additional sails, hanging between the forward mast and an outcropping at the front.

A long row of windows along the side make it clear there is at least one level below deck, though there is likely more based on how much of the ship clears the water and in the back the rails of the vessel climb even higher.

It is there on the back where Judoc's gaze remains for several moments, for atop the perch at the back, Judoc sees something which appears a giant crossbow...

Up at the top of the rigging, Judoc sees just the briefest flash of green.  Some flag which dons the top of the mast which Judoc does not recognize immediately.

But just then, the Watchman hit the backside of a swell, lurching in the water and sending sea spray up and over the side and spoiling Judoc's view.

~Why must we take this cursed man-fish?  Aiah laments, thrusting her beak back into her wing and attacking the fresh assault of saltwater with gusto.

OOC:  If you want to try and identify the flag, you can roll vs. either heraldry or seamanship, though both rolls will be penalized at least for range.  General picture of the ship you see below, though don't read into it too much, as this ship has no cannon and you can't see near the fidelity that the picture shows.

Initially, Judoc had been interested in how Hawk Vision could aid in making his fireballs more accurate. The sudden increased clarity reveals an even more powerful use of the spell. What was once a tiny speck on the horizon now is much closer. The other ship is larger, with two masts and at least one lower deck. Judoc wishes he had been able to find a ship like this rather than the pitiful boat he was consigned to.

”That’s a huge crossbow,” he says aloud. ”And what’s that flag? Is it green?” He wonders how long it takes to load it. Was it used as a whaling ship? Judoc has read of whalers with massive harpoons. Perhaps this is one such vessel.

~This is one of the worst ways we could have travelled,~ he sends to Aiah. ~I can’t wait to be done with this. I wish we could have just flown back, but flying tires me out faster than it does you.~

Judoc stares back at the vessel, racking his brain for anywhere he may have seen the green colored flag... though at this range, even with his enhanced vision, it's quite difficult to even see the flag, let alone identify it.  In the end, he gives up the effort as a bad job, able to determine with certainty the green and gold colors, but little else about the ensign.

"Crossbow?"  Tibbets spits, turning his head over his shoulder towards Judoc and greeting his warning with a sneer of distain.  "What are you, stupid?"  Though why the word should be embarrassing to Judoc is not immediately clear, for Tibbets turns his head back towards his crewman rather than explain anything further.

"Orgon!  Set course for the inlet off the port bow!  Trisso, let out everything we've got!  Reve!  Keep your eyes on that ship and let me know when she starts drifting to stern!  And you!..."  Tibbets turns towards the men at the oars, who even yet continue to row with rhythmic beats upon the water.  "Row!  Row like your lives depend on it!  There's only one reason for a ship to have a ballista, and it's to break other ships apart where they float!  That ship's pirates men, mark my words!  And if we want to live, we need to outrun them.  For pirates don't take prisoners!"

OOC:  No success in the seamanship roll.  Let me know if there's any action you want to take, or if you just want to see where things go from here.

Bristling, Judoc glares at Tibbets. What an insufferable cur! There is nothing worse than the arrogance of one who thinks he knows more than anyone else.

Turning back to the sea, Judoc looks with interest at the other vessel. A ballista. Judoc is familiar with the term, having encountered it in a treatise on siege warfare, but he has never seen one in person. The mage has not yet encountered pirates, but he has heard tales of their marauding. Does the empire do nothing to keep pirates in check? Are there no coast guard vessels to harry pirates?

He idly considers flying out and bombarding the pirate ship from above. A few Explosive Fireballs or a Rain of Fire spell should sort them out.

"I could fly over there, you know. Burn their sails to ash. They wouldn't be able to catch us if they have no sails."

OOC: Judoc will continue to watch the ship, but he will not renew the Hawk Vision spell. Right now, he's considering fighting a one-man war against the pirates, but something tells me it won't be quite as easy as that.

"Well then why don't you make yourself useful for once and do it?  Tibbets spits indifferently as he raises his head to check the progress of the sails.  "Or haven't you had enough of standing around and doing nothing?"

Though his attention for Judoc is short lived, for he spots a moment of weakness as one of the men misses a beat with his oar for exhaustion and Tibbets is upon him like a hawk upon a rodent.

"Do you not wish to live!?"  Tibbets fumes, spittle flying from his lips as he presses his face within an inch of the slave's.

"Do you think the pirates will be merciful because you are tired?  I assure you they will not!  Row with your kin, or else I'll be done with the dead weight and throw you into the sea!  Perhaps then you'll see what mercy the pirates will grant!"

"No change captain!"  Reve shouts from the top of the mast.  "Constant bearing, and she looks like she's bearing down!"

"Damnit!"  Tibbets responds, turning his head from the slave and retreating back towards the side where he cups his own hands, glancing at the sail on the horizon, which Judoc admits, seems to have gotten a little bigger.

"She's changed course!"  Tibbets rages.  "They've seen us!  Make for the inlet with all haste men!  We have to get into shallower waters where they can't chase us!"

If Judoc weren't beholden to Tibbets for giving him passage, the mage would be tempted to just let the pirates capture the ship. As it stands, however, Tibbets' fate is tied up in Judoc's own, at least for now. Is it true that pirates leave no prisoners? Why? The young wizard realizes there is much he does not know about this world.

~I'm going to need your help, pretty bird. I'm going to fly to that other boat and burn it,"~ Judoc sends to Aiah. He makes sure he has his powerstone ring. Then, Judoc takes up his staff. "Accipter fuga," he murmurs, and lifts off for the other ship.

OOC: Judoc will take along his staff and powerstone. He will leave the mask, circlet, and amulet in his pack.

Annoyed by Tibbet's nonchalant and ungrateful response, Judoc never the less weighs his options and finds that dealing with the pirate ship is still probably in his best interests.

~Be my guest.  Aiah responds to the thought, allowing the transfer of magical power through her body, though after the moment, she alights down from Judoc's shoulder and onto the wood planks near the prow.

~I'll let you do it on your own.  Aiah continues, shoving her beak into a wing again and ruffling her feathers.  ~With all this salt and spray that's hit us I doubt I'd be able to fly fast or far if you lost hold of me!

The spell is draining, one of the most fatiguing that Judoc has in his arsenal, though the feel of magical flight is second to none.  Judoc leaves the deck of the boat in a blast, rocketing himself up to the height of the mast before he points himself towards the other ship and starts making real progress, his body accelerating to speeds that only Aiah could match and only from a high dive.

"Gods!..."  Reve shouts from the masthead as Judoc departs, though the wind whips at his ears so badly as he speeds away that he cannot hear anything else the sailor may have mentioned.

Judoc heads straight for the ship, tweaking his trajectory slowly as he continues.  Ahead, the double masts grow over the horizon, showing Judoc his first real view of the vessel.  Men swarm over the deck, a dozen or more, some tending sails, though most of them simply lined up at the nearest rail and unmoving.  It becomes clear to Judoc too, that the Balista at the back of the ship is not the only weapon, though it is clearly the largest and the one with the highest perch.  The large balista is perhaps the size of two men or slightly larger, but there are other, smaller crossbows shapes lined up along the rails, four on each side that Judoc counts, each one about the size of a man.

At the last moment, Judoc swerves to put himself in the lead of the ship, giving himself both the best shot at the massive sails as well as minimizing his vulnerability to the crossbows.  To his annoyance, Judoc finds that he must spend more of his precious fatigue to upkeep his flight spell...  He would have to spend the rest of his mana carefully, for despite his ample stores, he would have to leave enough to make the return trip, which would no doubt drain him further.

Holding steady just at the edges of his range, Judoc casts another spell.  This one for a fireball, not much bigger than a walnut though it is crackling with energy.  Judoc concentrates and hurls the thing forward, hearing cries from the ship ahead as it crashes forward through the waves towards the wizard.  As the fireball closes, the ship begins to turn, slowly exposing the port side as it turns away from Judoc.

Judoc curses as he watches his missile err just inches wide, just barely missing the largest sail altogether.  Another fireball springs to his hand, though this time Judoc takes his time, concentrating longer to make sure he cannot miss.

Up on the prow, Judoc spots a shorter man...  or goblin rather, who's shoulders barely break the top of the rail.  The goblin stares at Judoc, his hands held forward in concentration.  He wears a green tabard, emblazoned with gold, which exactly resemble the flag at the top of the mainmast - a golden dragon set upon a green field.

Judoc does not hesitate, but hurls his weapon ahead and this time he knows his fireball will hit.  He watches as it closes... though at the last minute, something like a waterspout bursts from the sea, intercepting the missile and snuffing it out into a blast of steam!

As the side of the ship comes into view, Judoc sees the bulk of the sailors standing at the rail, manning the four weapons at the side, all of which are now pointed at him!

OOC:  A lot to go through in this post.  I tried to go by your intentions to the best of my ability, but obviously you're didn't get everything you hoped for.

Firstly, I'm not sure if you planned on taking Aiah or not, but it's simply not possible given that her wings are filthy from all the sea spray and it just doesn't make any sense that she would be able to hold on to you with you flying at 80mph/40yps.  If you want me to go back and edit you taking an additional FP from her energy reserve I will, though taking all of it will put her at 0 FP which would be dangerous at sea.

Secondly (and probably most importantly) you were far enough from the ship that you had to renew your hawk flight spell before you got into position.  I had you drain the 3 mana from your powerstone to give you a few more options later on.  This would make it clear to you that you would need to renew again to get back to the Watchman if that is your plan in the long run.

I had you stop at max range for your fireball (50 yards) ahead of the ship and aim for one round, which gave you pretty good odds of hitting (given the massive size of the sail), though you just missed.  I figured it wasn't worth your only hero point to correct.

Your second attack was a hit, but was intercepted by a burst of water that came from the sea.

You are now at just over 30 yards (-8 to hit) off the port bow of the ship with four large crossbows trained in your direction.  Let's do about only about 5 seconds worth of action this time.

Hawk Flight 10/60


The Ship's Flag

When Judoc sees the small goblin on the ship’s deck, the mage immediately thinks of Grobbik, his fellow student and a proficient Water College practitioner. Sure enough, a water spout intercepts Judoc’s second fireball, frustrating the young mage’s attempt to burn the ship’s sails. Judoc growls in frustration.

That these pirates have a mage among their number makes them even more dangerous. And that emblem - a gold dragon on a green field. Didn’t pirates normally fly a black flag with a skull? Judoc realizes his plan has probably been foiled here. He had considered casting Rain of Fire and now regrets not attempting it.

Let’s see if you can do that again, Goblin. Summoning more mana from around him, Judoc shapes another fireball to hurl at the closest sail.

OOC: Try one more Explosive Fireball. Draw on Judoc’s Powerstone. Then fly back to the Watchman and report what he’s seen: the smaller crossbows, the goblin mage, and the flag. Then collapse in a heap and try to rest.

Judoc attempts one more time, summoning an explosive fireball to the end of his staff before hurling it again at the ship.

This time, when the mage on the ship casts his own water spell, the plume of water shooting up from the surface is misplaced, and misses Judoc's missile to the side...  Though it appears Judoc's own aim is off as well, and he misses his target, the largest sail of the foremast, both high and to the side.  However, Judoc is elated to see that despite his miss, his ball careens into the highest sail on the mizzenmast, exploding almost instantly into a roiling flame.

But Judoc does not have long to celebrate his victory, for nearly in sequence he sees four massive bolts launched and tracking straight in his direction.  Judoc begins to maneuver himself backwards, though he simply is not quick enough.  One of the bolts (he realizes it's nearly the size of a spear as it comes in close) almost skewers him, forcing him to cast a spell of evasion at the last second that diverts the missile just barely off course.

Judoc watches for a few last seconds, gritting his teeth as he realizes the geyser that had attempted to block his fireball has not fallen back to the sea, but instead is now been redirected as a sheet of water towards the flaming sail, crashing into the damaged canvas and mingling blackened smoke with pure white steam.

There is simply nothing for it.  Judoc flees, not for fear of his life, but rather because he simply knows that he doesn't have enough energy to continue the fight.  He makes it back to the ship and collapses on the brow, having just enough energy to tell the added details of what he has learned.

While Tibbets does not seem impressed, he never the less has his hands full and doesn't any overt comments apart from a few grumbles.

Time passes.  Judoc meditates to the best of his ability as the brow crashes over the swells, occasionally spraying him with brine.

The coast approaches, though the other ship continues to close as well.  But eventually, it becomes clear that the Watchman will hit the coast before being set upon by her adversaries.

"Take in the sails!"  Tibbets shouts, glancing over his shoulder again to see the the pirate brig, now looming large at about a half mile away.  "We'll coast in with the oars!  Set course for that sandbar there!"  Tibbets points to a small gap in the rocky coast where a shallow bank is mingled with a sandy shore.

The strip is narrow, and situated at the bottom of a cliff, such that it becomes a bit of a question as to where they will go once their boat is ashore.  Never the less, Tibbets guides his crew to the bank, and Judoc can feel himself lifted as the bow presses up upon the beach.

"Up and heave her onto the shore!"  Tibbets shouts, unchaining the rowers from their oar stations as the other three crew continue about the odds and ends of caring for the ship.

Judoc too alights upon the beach, watching as the ship out at range turns to make her way parallel to the shoreline.

OOC:  It is 1200 on the 7th of August.  You have recovered some fatigue, which is noted on your character sheet, though obviously Aiah and your powerstone will take more time.  You have the option for the moment of doing anything you deem helpful to the situation.  Essentially, you have time, but there isn't anything clear at the moment that has to be done.

Still smarting in his failure to disable the pirate vessel, Judoc aids the crew as much as he can once he disembarks. He briefly considers using Apportation to help with the boat. However, he decides to save his energy in case he will need to fight off the pirate crew at some point. A pity he has not yet learned Shape Water. Judoc would dearly love to use the goblin wizard's water against the caster.

The battle had been instructive. As surprising as his sudden attack must have been, Judoc realizes he should not underestimate his opponents. Judoc had assumed that the pirates would have not been able to mount a counterattack. However, both the goblin and the crossbows had been potential counters to Judoc's offensive.

However, just because Judoc had been bested in the initial skirmish does not mean that he will be ineffective should they clash with the pirates again. The raiders are now forewarned that a mage is among The Watchman's crew. Judoc no longer possesses the advantage of surprise, but his presence will make the pirates more cautious.

Judoc allows himself a tiny grin at his fireball barrage of the pirate ship. Judoc had overcome Thresher on the arena sands. Then, the young mage had overcome one man. Just now, he had nearly dispatched an entire ship of pirates singlehandedly. Well, with Aiah's help, of course. If it hadn't been for that goblin mage and the pirates' crossbow arsenal, Judoc would have burned their sails and set them adrift at sea.

OOC: Judoc will help as he can in securing the ship. He will also make sure he has his possessions.

It seems curious to Judoc but Tibbets's confidence seems to rebound, as if the whole situation is solved, now that the Watchman is aground.  The man returns to his normal, jovial shittiness, lampooning his crew for their slow actions and congratulating only himself for saving the vessel and all the lives aboard it.

As if an accomplice to this telling of the story, the ship stays in the distance, sailing up and down the cove several times, though maintaining its distance (Judoc is certain that his attack was the main purpose of that added benefit) before turning up the coast and sailing out of sight.

"Idiots!"  Tibbets barks, smiling as the ship works its way behind the Eastern shoreline.  "Think they'll bait us out and scoop us up?  There is no way I'm leaving until the morning!  Let them patrol all night if they wish!"

Judoc grits his teeth slightly at the further delay, though in truth, he's not keen on taking in another fight with the ship either, especially given that he nearly exhausted himself in the earlier battle, and that without having done much damage at all to their adversary...  Though at least next time he would be more prepared...

The afternoon wears on, and Tibbets directs the crew to the small tasks that make up setting their camp each night and Judoc assists as best he can.  Though the beach is small and completely isolated from the cliffs above, there is enough driftwood along the shore to collect for a fire.  They have food and water, though Reve manages to spear a few small crabs to add to the pot.  The boat is tended to and what can be seen of the bottom is cleaned and patched to keep it sailing as quickly as possible when they depart the next morning.

It still wrinkles Judoc's nerves, though by now he has become accustomed to the routine of the slaves getting only a few minutes of freedom to relieve themselves, stretch their limbs, and eat before they are chained back in their seats.  Not for the first time it strikes Judoc that all four of these men appear to be Arabic...  nominally, it's illegal to enslave a Christian...  though Judoc has seen more than one poor criminal in Azer who had been excommunicated to remove that particular burden.  Still, it seems odd to him now that they are traveling so far east...  so far away from any of the muslim lands.

Afternoon gives way to evening, and the tides flee away from the shoreline, revealing several more yards of beach and putting the Watchman completely on dry land.  There is enough time and daylight for a little bit of exploring and a few of the men go off to see if they can find anything of use in the tiny inlet.  Orgon reports a massive crack in the cliff at the end of the cove, one large enough to fit through a man so long as he crouched, though he opts not to explore the cave far, being that he didn't have a light beyond the setting sun to see by.

Evening gives way to night.  The skies redden and go dark, spattered only with a few brushstrokes of clouds that blot out the stars as they roll by.  The ship is not seen again despite the constant watch.

Eventually, the group turns in for the night as the tides turn back towards the shore, thinking that their ordeal is over.

"GODS!"

The cry awakens Judoc who had just managed to fall asleep beset by the heat and humidity of the night, not to mention the various bugs.  He spins up to a stand, sand flying off his weeks old stubble and hair as he searches which way to look.

"The devil himself is coming!"  Trisso shouts, thrusting his finger out towards the water.

There really isn't any need.  As soon as Judoc had opened his bleary eyes he can see what caused the stir...  Two towers of flame that climb up from the waters of the sea like dragon's breath... infernos that don't seem to have any source at all... that seem to be traveling straight towards them...

"It's headed for the Watchman!"  Tibbets screams.  "Set up a barricade!  Get anything in the way.  That's our only way out of here!"

OOC:  It's 0300 on the 8th of August.  The twin blazes appear to about 100 yards out and you really aren't sure what they are apart from a bright red and yellow spot floating on the sea.  The flames are definitely coming towards you however, and quickly based on the apparent arc of the flames and black smoke as it rises up into the night.

Roll vs. HT-5.  If you fail, you suffer 1 FP per point you fail by for a bad night's sleep and early rise.

Judoc is dead tired. The events of the previous day and the ongoing threat of the still-roving pirate ship have done nothing for his peace of mind. The mage has hardly slept at all on the sandy shore. He awakens with bleary eyes and a parched throat.

However, in spite of his fatigue, he is on his feet in an instant due to his excellent reflexes. He takes in the situation at once. ”Not the devil. Magic.” He grits his teeth and digs deep, attempting to push through his weariness to summon what reserves he can to meet the oncoming fiery threat. Try to defeat Judoc with fire? The unmitigated gall.

He swiftly reviews his options. He could make the boat fireproof, but in his weakened state, he knows he does not have the energy to protect the whole boat.

No. He decides to attempt to take control of the situation.

OOC: Wait. When the columns of fire get closer, use Shape Fire to attempt to control them.

Despite his exhaustion, Judoc hurries down to the waterline, brushing sand off his face with the back of his arm.  He knows this is the goblin mage... despite the fact that the flames on the water seemed out of style for a wizard that was trained for water.

As Judoc waits for his moment, Tibbets, Reve, Orgon, and Trisso all fly across the beach, carrying stones, driftwood, and debris, anything large enough to be part of a barrier between the fire and the Watchman.  Judoc watches, the incoming tide lapping up against his shins and rushing in the small spaces between his feet and his sandals.

Slowly, Judoc becomes aware that this is no magical fire...

Instead, the flames climb up from small boats, probably no more than six feet in length.  Unmanned, they never the less steer unerringly straight and inhumanly fast straight for the Watchman.  With the wind in his face, Judoc can suddenly smell the musty stench of burning oil and naphtha.  The new information causes Judoc to begin second guessing his plan to shift the direction of the flames...

Sploosh!  Orgon hurls down a chest-sized stone just next to Judoc, the end of the barrier which is too pitifully small to be of much use.

"Get a grapnel line!"  Tibbets shrieks, his voice breaking into utter hysterics.  "Pull them to the sides, keep them from hitting the Watchman!"

Somewhere behind him, Judoc can hear the other crewhands rusling through the equipment that's been stacked on the beach.

~What in the blazes!  Aiah thinks as she flitters down, her mind groggy with sleep as she flitters on to Judoc's shoulder.  ~What have you done this time?

OOC:  Brutal HT roll, I hadn't meant to severely restrict your options, but this will make things interesting too.  Looking over the Shape Fire spell, it mentions that you can't shape natural flames to places where it can't burn.  I'd say moving it from the small boats to anywhere (considering everything else around it is sea water) probably fits that description.

The boats are about 20 yards away now, each of them supporting at 10 foot column of flame.  Though they don't have sails, they seem to be moving the full speed of a sailing vessel with the wind at its back.  The boats are about 6 feet long and also about 4 yards apart, so if you wanted to cast an area effect spell over both of them, you would need to make it at least area 3 to get them both in the radius.  I'm assuming your plan changes slightly based on the ruling for Shape Fire.  Feel free to make a roll against another spell as you see fit.

Not fire magic, then. Judoc wonders at what steers the rapidly-approaching boats. Another spell from the Water college? A pity that Judoc had spent little time studying water spells. Or perhaps something from Movement? Or Air?

Judoc grimaces at Aiah's sleepy reproach. ~Not me. The goblin mage. Or the pirates.~

Tibbets' actions seem to indicate that he has experienced an attack like this before. Boats bearing down with fire billowing upward create an entirely new picture for Judoc, but perhaps this is a common pirate tactic.

Should Judoc try to extinguish the fires? Or move the boats?

He concentrates, raising his staff before him.

"I've got it!"  Trisso shouts, sprinting to the waterline where he hurls the grapnel at one of the rapidly approaching ships.

Clunk!  The iron hook hits the wood of the boat on the left and grips on as Trisso pulls back on the line.

"Run with it!"  Tibbets shouts, grabbing hold of the rope himself with both hands and sprinting wildly down the beach.  Trisso too runs with the line, and Orgon and Reve rush up also to pull the vessel off course like an inhuman game of tug-of-war.

The grapnel holds, and slowly the nose of the boat begins to turn away from the Watchman...  Though the damn thing still seems to be coming too fast... and too sideways to believe it's propulsion is natural...

Not sure if there is enough time for him to attempt a spell on both targets, Judoc focuses his efforts on the boat on the right.  He holds out his staff, concentrating.  He doubts he will get more than one shot.

The mana surges through his body, causing his knees to buckle slightly as he struggles to stay upright.  But Judoc's spell is successful!  With tremendous effort he halts the boat, not much more than a handful of yards ahead of him.  But even as his spell is complete, Judoc feels the fight of the ship...  it is being pushed unnaturally, fighting against his spell.  Gritting his teeth in concentration, Judoc simply lifts the craft out of the water and he feels a reprieve from the resistance.

To his left, the other burning vessel hits the impromptu barricade nearly sideways, scraping to a halt before it begins a sluggish movement up the shore, toted by the four men and their rope.

At his feet, Judoc feels the water climb, pushing up onto the beach with force.  It isn't a wave...  for the waters of the small inlet are calm, but seems more like the waters of the Mare Medium are fleeing up and onto the sands, rushing upwards and towards the Watchman.

"I've done it!"  Tibbets shouts after a moment of peace, recognizing that the Watchman has not been hit from the attack.  "The wall worked!  Gods, those pirates are relentless!"

OOC:  After thinking on the apportation thing, I think it was definitely doable to push the boat off track, though you were so limited in the time you had, based on how fast the boats were going, that I just had you lift the whole thing out of the water.  As the others managed to pull the other off course as well, it ended up working out for you.

At the moment, you are holding the boat, which is still engulfed in flames, about a foot over the water a dozen feet or so in front of you.  I wasn't sure if you were just going to set it down on the empty beach and let it burn or do something else with it.

Sweat drips down Judoc's face as he holds the small boat up in the air, the fire still billowing. God, he's tired. And that idiot Tibbets is taking all the credit for saving his ship.

But even now, it seems they have more problems coming. "The water is rising!" he calls out. Is this part of the same spell that drove the burning boats toward the Watchman? Or is the goblin casting something else? Judoc finds himself marveling at the other mage's strength and skill.

The Templar student focuses on keeping the boat aloft and attempts to move it to the sand, where he hopes the fire will burn itself out. He could attempt to extinguish the fire with magic, but he is reluctant to channel any more mana unless as a last resort. Already he is close to exhaustion, and they still have the pirates to deal with.

~Aiah, take to the air. What can you see of the pirates?~

OOC: I thought about trying to douse the boat in the water, but that would likely require more energy than Judoc can muster. He will carry the boat to a safe spot on the beach and set it down to allow it to burn itself out.

Judoc heaves the ship from the water with enormous effort, hauling it to the beach several yards away from the Watchman before he lets it crash down to the sands.  The small boat splinters and cracks under its own weight, spilling liquid flames over its sides before it finally comes to a rest, slowly immolating itself into nothingness.

Judoc switches his attention to the ground below him, concerned for a moment about the rising water.  However, when Judoc looks down again whatever surge had come with the boats seems to have passed, leaving only wet sand at Judoc's feet.

Shifting his attention to hopefully the last of his concerns, Judoc sends Aiah to the air, asking her to report on whatever she sees of the pirates.

Down the beach, Tibbets and the others slowly walk back towards the Watchman, having left their rope and grapnel to burn with the other boat, which also sits stranded on the shoreline.

"Keep a keen watch!"  Tibbets says in an undertone, leaning over slightly with his hands on his knees as he tries to swing his head in odd directions as if a hunchback on lookout.  "There's no telling where they will strike next."

"Couldn't have more than that could they?"  Orgon heaves as he walks back up the shoreline.  "How many boats do you think they have to set on fire?  Couldn't be more than that could it?"

~The giant man-fish?  Aiah asks as she swirls above in the darkness.  ~It seems to be well out in the water... an hour man-walk... if you could walk on water I suppose.  Shall I go out to see what they are doing?

OOC:  Sorry for the lag here.  Hopefully I'll be able to keep more consistent for the rest of the week.  Your immediate concerns are settled.  The flaming boats are no longer a danger, the surging water has died out, and there isn't anything else apparent at the moment.  Your estimation based on Aiah's description is that the pirate ship is at least a few miles away.  All of the crew are catching their breath and standing on the shore line.

~No. Please stay near us. Every now and then, fly up to see what you can see.~

Sluggishly, Judoc joins the others as they make their way back to the Watchman. Tired from his spell-casting and the previous night's sleeplessness, he sinks down onto the sands to try to get some rest.

"I don't know how much time they're going to give us. I've asked Aiah to keep watch from above. What do pirates normally do in this kind of situation?"

Judoc wonders why the pirates have not attacked en masse. They seemed intent on destroying their boat. Why not try to capture its cargo instead? Why would the pirates want to strand them on this island? He does have Haj Umr's amulet, but the pirates are too far out to be able to reach them.

OOC: Attempt to rest. Have Aiah check every thirty minutes or so on what the pirates might be doing.

Judoc sinks to the sands, basking in the glow of the burning boat as he ponders aloud what more the pirates have in store.

"Hell if I know."  Orgon responds as he sits down alongside Judoc.  Tibbets continues on his way back up to the Watchman, checking alongside the stern for potential damage from the fire.

"I've never been attacked before."  Orgon continues, wiping beads of sweat from his brow.  "But all the stories I've heard end one of two ways.  Everybody dead and the cargo stole, or else everybody held ransom...  in neither of those cases did pirates ever try and burn up the ship they were trying to rob."

Orgon shakes his head.

"Might have been scared by you I suppose," he offers, leaning back on his hands.  "Or else trying to give you a taste of your own medicine.  I don't think that's in the playbook though."  He gestures with his chin towards the fiery boat a dozen yards away.

"Seems more a weapon of war than one of piracy."

Tibbets moves walking up to the brow of the ship and hopping over the side.

Aiah drops down from the skies, landing on Judoc's shoulder as she nuzzles his head.  ~I will.  Maybe I'll get some sleep first though.  There doesn't seem to be anything about other than a nestful of man-things walking away on the far side of the beach.

"Who did it?"  Tibbets's head peers over the side of the ship, his brows furrowed in anger.  "Who fucking let the slaves out?  And where did you put them?  And why weren't they helping if they weren't chained down?"

Tibbets waits barely a moment for an answer and when one isn't immediately forthcoming, he boils over, slamming his fist down on the rail.

"Who fucking did it!"

Trisso, Orgon, and Reve stare at each other blankly for several moments before Trisso finally answers.  "We was all helping boss.  Ain't no one have time to unchain the slaves.  We was all trying to save the ship!"

OOC:  No rest just yet.  It's 0305 on the 8th of August.

God's bones, but Judoc's tired. He wants nothing more than to sink into the sands and try to get some rest, as sleepless as his night has been so far.

No doubt the pirates were intimidated by Judoc. Attacking the Watchman with fire was a strange ploy, though. They had seen Judoc use flame in his aborted attack on the pirate ship. The goblin mage should have known Judoc was a powerful fire mage and would have tried some other strategy. Or why not leave the Watchman be and search out less dangerous prey?

"A weapon of war? Maybe these pirates are attached to a naval force. Maybe from Cardiel? I don't know enough about the geography in this area. Are there any pirate havens nearby?"

"But if they're some kind of para-military force, we aren't." The thought was absurd. Who would go to war in a tiny boat like this?

"Aiah says she just saw some men walking away down the other side of the beach. Probably the men you chained up just walked off, Tibbets." ~Man-things? How many? Were they the men that were with us before on the boat?~ Judoc feels less than inclined to help Tibbets track down his runaway slaves. He focuses on how they might defend the boat from the pirates. A wall of fire? More fireballs? The water mage's presence makes things tricky.

When Judoc mentions Cardiel, Orgon quickly shakes his head.

"No chance.  Only one place I know of could make ships like that is Araterre.  Supposed to be part of Megalos, but I think it's so far and disparate that there's any number of small estates that could break off and do their own.  I suppose it's possible it could have been made there and sold southward, but I doubt there's many that could pilot such a big thing...  I know I couldn't."

The conversation though, is interrupted by Tibbets's outburst, and Orgon is quickly up on his feet and pushing up to the side of the ship, peering out to see any signs of where the slaves may have gone.

"WALKED OFF?"  Tibbets blubbers, his face inflating like a balloon as he peers over the rail of the ship.  "WALKED OFF?  They was chained to the deck you moron!  Ain't no way for them to walk off without picking up the ship and taking it with them!"

Tibbets face is alive with rage as he continues to font his bellicose words which spew across the beach all in front of him...  Judoc is more focused however on the quieter words which seem to whisper within his own mind.

~Six man things.  Aiah thinks.  ~I think four of them, yes, were on the boat before...  Though she hesitates before she adds, ~Four of them have long hair... your kind all look the same to me.  One of them is definitely not from this ship though.  He is short and has pointy ears.

"You four had better go"  Tibbets rages.  "And get those damn slaves back here if you ever want to see another port!  Use the damn bird!  For all the good it's done to this point, maybe it'll finally prove it's not a waste of my food and the air it's breathing in!"

You insufferable asshole! Judoc seethes within. His face goes dark, and he glares at the ship owner. "We're all in this together, friend. You need me to get out of this mess, and I need you to get back to the Battle College. So don't be such a goddamned ingrate!" Judoc turns his back to the shipowner and starts walking off down the beach, ignoring Tibbets' further outbursts.

Once the four men and one hawk are out of earshot of Tibbets, Judoc relays to the others what Aiah saw. "Six men, not four. And one sounds like their goblin wizard." ~Aiah, the short man. Was he green? What can you see now?~

"My guess is the pirates attacked our boat, maybe as a distraction, maybe to strand us here. Then two snuck down here, probably invisible, and freed the slaves." Apparently the pirates valued the slaves over the value of whatever Tibbets is carrying in his holds. How much is a slave worth? A pound? 10? 20? Judoc finds that he is not sure. Like many citizens of the Empire, Judoc accepts slavery as the status quo. He has not been around slaves much at all, and he vaguely knows that slavery is the result of conquest or a failure to pay debts.

"I'm going to slow you down. I'm winded from a lack of sleep last night and grabbing that boat with my magic. I can still cast my spells, but I won't be able to cast many. Where did Tibbets get his slaves? Do you think they're more valuable than your cargo?"

OOC: Feel free to truncate any of this, depending on Tibbets' reaction. Judoc will allow his anger to show.

Head down the beach in the direction of the escaped slaves. Tell Orgon and the others what Aiah saw. Let them know that Judoc is weakened from spellcasting and his theory that the slaves were freed by the goblin mage.

"Ingrate!"  Tibbets seethes.  "You lot of incompetent, teat-sucking bastards had better...!"  But Judoc and the others had already made good on the command to get moving, and Tibbet's words, for all his fury, begin to fade into the sounds of the wind and the waves breaking on the beach.

~Green?  Aiah asks when Judoc probes for more information.  ~Can you see color in the dark?  I just see six man-thing shapes moving up the beach, same way you are walking now...  I probably shouldn't even be flying, it's lucky there's no clouds out and the moon's fairly high.

In his mind, Judoc can feel Aiah already swirling down towards the beach below.  ~Get ready to catch me if I fall out of the sky!

"Maybe."  Orgon responds as the four make their way up the beach, bringing Judoc's attention to the other three men around him.  "Coulda made their way ashore with the boats, least until they set them on fire.  Then run to the ship and unchain the slaves?  I guess that makes sense."

When Judoc asks about the slaves and the cargo though, no answer is immediately forthcoming.  The three look at each other, with Reve eventually being the one to answer.

"I'm afraid none of us really know the answer to that."  Reve pauses.  "We got hired out of Hyrnan.  From there, we took the Watchman all the way to the mouth of the Makarem, where we dropped off the last crew..."  He looks between the two other men, his voice slightly hesitant.  "Was just a little camp up north of the river... odd with Bannock being there and so close.  Anyway, I'm not sure Orgon had done much of any sailing before he was hired on.  Me and Trisso done some I know.  We all learned a lot on the short trip, but I can't say I know much more about Tibbets than you."

"That small camp was where we picked up the slaves and the cargo.  I'd say all four of the men were from the south, they speak Arabic whenever they do talk to each other.  As for the cargo, I couldn't tell you.  Was all locked up in trunks when we brought it on, though I can say it was heavy."

Reve pauses again, this time lowering his head down slightly and shaking it.  "I bet the slaves aren't cheap, easier to move for sure... but I'd have a hard time thinking that whatever Tibbets is packing in the hold isn't worth more than four rowers."

Trisso grunts in agreement.  "Knowing that lazy ass Tibbets, he wouldn't be shipping anything this far without getting a hefty profit for it.  But you're right, it'd be hard as hell to take anything out of the hold and move it very far, especially if there are only two of 'em.  Much easier to take the four men...  probably went away with 'em without so much as a peep, sure they think anything is better than being on that boat with all the threats shit-head makes to 'em."

Aiah swoops down from the sky, landing on Judoc's shoulder without incident.  The pace the three men make up the beach from there is slow, though none complain about Judoc holding them back.  Indeed, Reve mentions that none of them wish to take on another mage without Judoc there to bolster their own ranks.

After ten minutes of walking, they can see the end of the beach as it is engulfed by the towering cliffs above.  They cannot, however, see any signs of the six men that may have come this way.

"Up there's where the cave was..."  Orgon offers.  "Just off the water and going into the cliff."

OOC:  It is 0315 on the 8th of August.  Lighting penalty now is at about -6 for a clear night sky and a moderately bright moon.

Some of the stuff above Judoc would already know from his month he'd spent on the boat.  It would be fairly clear to Judoc that the four slaves were all Wazifi and Muslim.  As I imagined it, Judoc would have chartered his ride on the boat probably in Craine, then rode down the river to meet the Watchmen in the small camp that Reve is talking about where he met Tibbets and the others.

Lastly, I'm not sure where I got the impression that hawks and falcons could see at night... though I'm sure I looked it up at one point.  Now that I'm searching again, it seems like those birds don't have very good night eye sight at all.  Sorry to step back on capabilities here, but I suppose you at least get the help you've had up to this point.

Judoc ponders what might be in Tibbets' hold. A horde of gold? Spices? Magic-enchanted weapons? Judoc realizes he has no idea what the Watchman's cargo might be. Why had the pirates freed the slaves during the attack on the boat? How had they known there would be slaves on board? Why had the former crew been dropped off and the cargo taken onboard at a small camp, not in a larger port?

Judoc's mind buzzes with questions. There seems to be more than one mystery here. Tibbets' actions could be perfectly above-board, but Judoc wonders if the man is some sort of smuggler. And if the ship's cargo is valuable, why had the pirates attempted to destroy the boat?

~Stick close to me. Sorry for asking you to fly around up there in the dark.~ Aiah's presence is comforting to Judoc. He finds himself in a strange situation in an unknown place, and he is glad his avian companion has his back.

Judoc leans on his staff and looks off toward where Orgon says the cave was. He pitches his voice low. "We don't know how many of them there are. At least two pirates, and they may have freed the slaves." Judoc never thought he would find himself in the position of hunting slaves. The idea is distasteful, as if being asked to drink a cup of sour milk. "I have a few spells I can use for recon, but using even one might tire me out completely. Let's try to get closer."

OOC: Gotcha. I didn't realize hawks couldn't see at night, either. Can they see at all? Several sites I found said hawks are blind at night, but other sites say they can't see very well, but can see better than humans. Definitely no Night Vision, but I wonder if they have Night Blindness. I tried to find something definitive, but I wasn't able to. It's probably a wash. With no moon, Aiah probably couldn't see at all.

Judoc will lead the crew closer to the cave to see what they can see. Stealth mode.

Judoc lowers his voice.  Perhaps it would seem odd that this mage, a man who had no real connection to the Watchman would take control of its three crewman, though the situation didn't seem odd at all to Judoc.  The situation was no more dire that exploring the underground in Perdition, nor was it as dangerous as fighting his way through the Path of the Ancestors.  Judoc simply had more experience with danger and villains, and so it seemed natural to take charge.

Nor does it seem that the three men take any note of the situation.  They simply listen to Judoc and then match his lead as they crouch low and approach upon the sands.

The waves and wind wash across the beach, muffling any noise the four make as they approach.

As the four make their way to the very end of the sands, Judoc sees it.  There is a wide crack at the base of the cliff which widens all the way down into the water.  Even at the base where the opening hits the water, it seems to be not much more than a foot or so across, barely large enough for a small man to make his way through.  Though Orgon echoes his thoughts as he wonders how much larger the cave extends below the waterline.

The tides are up."  Orgon whispers.  "Must be another foot or so under the water...  It wasn't nearly so high when I came to find it earlier.  Much easier to spot."

OOC:  It is 0320 on the 8th of August.  You haven't seen any of the pirates/slaves, though you are also fairly certain none of them could have heard you.  If Aiah was right that they went this direction, there really isn't any other place they could have gone without being seen by you as the beach is narrow enough that you can see all the way to the cliff from the waterline fairly easily.

As for how well she can see, I saw the same gamut of answers you did.  Let's just say they see about as well as people, which makes flying quite dangerous.

Questions keep coming to Judoc. Why had the men entered this crack in the rock? Did they have a boat hidden in here? Were they waiting for the pirates to return? What the hell was Judoc supposed to do if the whole pirate crew ended up here? How was Tibbets going to protect his cargo with just himself remaining behind? Why the hell did Judoc agree to help out a man who was so insufferably awful?

But the young mage keeps his thoughts to himself. "Let's see what we can find out inside." He touches the amulet of Haj Umr briefly. He could send the ivory eye inside to reconnoiter the area, but he needs rest, and he doesn't have the reserves for unnecessary casting.

Should he stand outside the cave and call for the men inside to surrender? How many are inside, and how are they armed? Judoc is reasonably certain the goblin is within. The rival wizard no doubt possesses an adequate magical arsenal, though surely he is no match for Judoc's breadth of knowledge. Judoc thinks again of Grobbik and smiles to himself. The Templar student wouldn't mind having another friend he could trust right about now, particularly one trained at the Battle College.

Uncertain of what he will find, Judoc cautiously approaches the cave entrance.

OOC: Go slowly and quietly. Enter the cave and see what's inside.

Judoc walks forwards into the water, the salty brine swirling around the bottoms of his leathers and between his toes.  His heels slosh on the wet leather of his sandals,  though he is thankful he does not have more robust footwear at the moment, for he knows how badly feet can suffer for long walks against wet leather without drainage.

Judoc makes the cave mouth without incident, crouching low so that he can move his body forward through the entrance.  The shallow waves lap at his knees and the meager light peters out before as he feels the walls expand back outward.  The sandy bottom too, only seems to be receding deeper below the surface.

It's clear the cave expands...  Though for the moment, Judoc simply crouches in the darkness at the entrance, his nose filled with the salty tang of the ocean and the rich scents of wet earth...

OOC:  The cave is very dark (-9 to perception here, likely completely dark any farther in), and at least this first cavern seems to be submerged in seawater.  I wasn't sure if you were planing on taking the others with you, but it didn't seem like that was the intent, so you are alone for the moment, but the others aren't far off and can easily be called to fall in behind you.

~Aiah, wait for me outside. Try to find a tree or something to roost in. Hopefully you can get more rest than I can.~

Judoc frowns into the glom. Mage Light would be very handy here, but if the goblin mage is present, it wouldn't be very helpful to Judoc right now. How many times has he wished he knew a spell not in his grimoire? How many spells do his teachers know? There are always more spells to learn. To know them all is unrealistic (and probably infeasible), but Judoc continues to thirst for more knowledge.

Not willing to risk a light, he reaches out to feel for one side of the cave wall to guide him as he goes further within.

OOC: Try to keep one hand on the wall of the cave and advance further within. How much space is there above water?

~No arguments here!  Aiah croons as Judoc asks her to wait outside, lifting off from his shoulder with a heavy flap.

~I should be able to find an outcrop on the cliff I should think!  Keep me well enough away from the loud one you don't like.

Judoc listens as she rises up into the night, though the noise is quickly indiscernible over the small waves crashing upon the beach outside and the echoing noise of water within.

Slowly, Judoc begins to step around the cave, keeping his hand on the right wall for guidance.  He moves slowly, not just for his tiredness, but also to keep the sound he makes to a minimum...  At one point he stops completely, thinking his movements in the water are giving away his presence, although he quickly realizes that even completely motionless, the sloshing water within the caves laps at the stone walls, resonating hollow splashes that echo around like being within the churn of a full belly.

Slowly, the sandy bottom seems to give way to softer earth, and the floor drops out so that Judoc is standing tall with the water to his hips, to his stomach, to his shoulders, to his neck...  Eventually, rather than be surprised by a sudden swim, Judoc casts a spell of levitation on himself.  Though the spell drains him even further, his breaths now coming in slow, labored gasps, Judoc knows time is not his friend and neither is swimming in some unknown pond in near total darkness.  With the spell active, Judoc begins to simply hover around the edge of the room.  Slowly, the cave wall turns inward and back out, shielding Judoc's view of the dimly lit entryway.

Just as he is about to halt and reassess the situation, Judoc feels the ground again below him which rises quickly so that he is soon standing on damp ground, a gritty sort of mud that cakes at his feet...

Then, above the gurgle of the cave, Judoc hears a loud, hollow splash from the middle of the water!  Not a hard smack like something falling in, but rather the low rumble of water rushing to fill a gap...  Something out there is moving!

OOC:  You are now pretty much in total darkness, though you have a hand on the wall to make sure you know which way it is to get back out.  You still don't see any light, though at least you are now out of the water and onto dry(ish) land.  The others have not followed you, but stayed near the entrance of the cave.

Judoc freezes when he hears the splash. Shit! Is it an animal of some kind? Can it see him? Or is the sound from the pirates, perhaps a boat being launched? Can goblins see in pitch darkness? Judoc tries to remember how good Grobbik's vision is. Grobbik hadn't seemed to need much light at all, but could he see in pitch blackness?

Judoc considers casting Invisibility and then a magical light, but in his weakened state, he risks passing out from the exertion, and his need is not so great that he needs to injure his body to cast.

How high might he rise before he bumps against the ceiling? With one hand still on the cave wall, he slowly rises in the dark. He raises his staff to see if he can feel the ceiling.

OOC: Judoc will rise slowly. He will use his staff to see if he can tell where the ceiling is.

Judoc begins to slowly rise up off the floor of the cave, holding his staff high in one hand and feeling the wall with the other as he slowly lifts himself off the ground.

At first Judoc thinks the ceiling is rather low, for his staff hits hard stone rather quickly, though Judoc realizes only a moment after that the walls are simply angling inward, back towards him as the ceiling rises up...

Without much light to see how high he is going, Judoc simply times himself as he rises...  One second, two, three, four...  He gets up to seven before he is confident that the roof of the cave is fairly flat above him, though by this point he has moved inwards at least a few yards, and is likely back over the water again.

Turning his head, Judoc glances back from whence he came, spotting a wide glimmer of dim reflection upon the churning water, and the outline of the short entryway.

OOC:  You would guess the ceiling of the cave is at least three to four times your height, if not more, though it's hard to be exact when you have so little to go by.  You aren't going exactly straight up, nor would Judoc know that a slow careful move is 1 yard per second...  (I'm assuming you didn't want to rocket straight up at 10 feet/second).

As a sidenote, you can keep the levitation spell on as long as you wish, though it does count as a spell 'on'.

Judoc likes almost nothing about his current situation. Floating through a dark tunnel isn't his idea of a good time on the best of days, and tonight he is close to exhaustion. To make matters worse, the circumstances that led him here are distasteful. The mage has no love for Tibbets, and part of him wishes he had told the man to go find his fucking slaves himself. To make matters worse, something is here in the dark with Judoc, and the Templar student dares not risk a light in case he gives himself away.

So he continues on down the tunnel, his hand still resting against the wall of the cave. Periodically, he looks back toward the tunnel's entrance to gauge his progress.

OOC: Keep going deeper into the cave.

Mistrustful and angry at his current situation, Judoc walks his hand back down the wall, looking to feel himself farther into the cave.  He leans forward just slightly, keeping his eye on the dim reflection on the surface of the water near the entryway.

Slowly, Judoc makes his way all the way down, back until his feet splash into the surface of the water again...

Annoyed that he has now lost the bit of dry land he had found, Judoc backs himself up slowly, his small beacon of light fading away behind a wall of black.

Then, after a few moments, the cave wall turns abruptly.  Judoc turns, switching his left hand to the wall as he again finds the shallows sloping upwards to the soft and fetid ground.  His feet back on the ground again, Judoc slowly begins to walk and the only sounds his ears can hear are the sticky pull of the mud with each step, and the occasional echoing drip of water in the lake behind him.

Ten yards, twenty...  Judoc's heart begins to thud in his chest as the complete blackness surrounds him.  The tunnel widens at one point, and for a moment Judoc thinks he is in a larger cave, though it narrows back again quickly...  Judoc keeps moving on, until he feels the wall turn again, abruptly to the left...

Judoc begins to wonder if he will be able to find his way out again...  Even if he did find a light.

OOC:  Ok, you found a small tunnel and followed it about twenty yards until you feel a turn on the wall.  You are still in total darkness.

Judoc is starting to feel a little silly. Is he on a wild goose chase here? The pirates could be long-gone by now. Is anyone even still in here?

And why is Judoc the one stumbling along in the dark, rather than the crew? Should he turn around now and head back the way he came, if he can even find his way out?

But Judoc wonders where the sailors did go, and why they had made off with the slaves. There seems to be some mystery here. However, he is tired of stumbling around in the dark, and he may be at a crossroad here in the tunnel. Touching the carved eye on his amulet, he makes a subtle gesture with his hand.

OOC: Cast Continual Light, moonlight strength, on the carved eye. Draw from Judoc's powerstone.

Judoc had hoped that he would have seen the pirates by now, or at least that he would have seen some evidence of them.  Torchlight, the smell of smoke, anything.. and the fact that he hadn't makes him feel rather foolish for bumbling about for so long in the dark.

With a small gesture, Judoc summons the warm glow of moonlight to the small carved eye which hangs about his neck, illuminating the small cave around him.

There isn't much to speak of here, apart from the wet and muddy cave floor which has already caked Judoc's sandals and toes.  As he already knew, a passageway opens up behind him, as well as one to the left, and one to the right...  Ahead seems to be a small alcove in the cave, though it doesn't appear to lead to anything in particular.


OOC:  Judoc is coming out of the bottom left passage

The mage considers going back and fetching the ship's crew. As powerful a wizard as Judoc is, even he cannot take on six other people at once, especially if one is a talented mage as Judoc suspects. Too, Judoc is nearly spent, and his body really wants to just take a nap right now.

Shaking off his fatigue, Judoc squats down and examines the mud in the cave. Which way had the pirates and the freed slaves gone? Perhaps he can tell from the mud.

OOC: Take a minute to see if he can work out any tracks in the mud. Check the small alcove for anything interesting. If both ways seem equally likely, use Intuition to pick one path. If one path seems more likely, choose that one.

Judoc stoops down, looking at the thick, wet mud beneath him.  He's no tracker, though to Judoc, the principle of the whole thing can't be that hard.  Footprints stick around...  especially in wet mud.  You didn't have to study for years with elves in the ways of the forrest to figure that out.

But as he lowers his lighted necklace, scanning the room around, he sees the wet earth around him is mostly smooth and undisturbed.  Narrowing his eyes, he shifts the light back behind him, in part simply to prove his theory.  Indeed, in his own path, the prints of his own sandals stick out clearly in the muck, even with the meager lighting he has afforded himself.

Sighing with resignation, Judoc raises himself back up, first checking the small alcove ahead, though getting closer gives him no real other information.  It appears to be just a cave, the walls wet with condensation and the whole room filled with the earthy stink of salty marsh.

Unsure which way is best, Judoc simply chooses the left passage, walking slowly and casting his light ahead so he can see.  The corridor winds for a few feet before the cave opens back up both to the right and left.  Though the right side seems only to lead a few dozen feet on, the left continues onward.

Judoc spends a few moments looking at the the empty space here, though he quickly moves on, finding nothing worth spending his time on.

When he presses onward however, the way opens up again.  To his left, his dim light reflects off lapping tidal waters which wash up and down across the muddy beach.  To his right, another corridor continues, making its way deeper into the caves.

OOC:  Nothing of note in the cave you started in.  Please roll a default vs. tracking.  Also give me a roll vs. perception please.

The deeper Judoc continues into this cave, the less he likes it. What had that sound in the water been? The pirates escaping by boat? A massive alligator? He surmises if the pirates do attempt to escape, perhaps the crew will at least see them. However, the crew will be outnumbered.

The whole idea of keeping a man a slave is distasteful to Judoc. Why not hire someone and pay a fair wage? How do the finances shake out? Judoc is as much an economist as he is a tracker, but surely it's better to hire someone who remains loyal if only for the next pay check.

The young mage is tired and cranky. Why is he stumbling along like this? Why was he so quick to help that insufferable Tibbets? Judoc feels overextended, and he curses this damp cave. He realizes he had not formulated much of a plan. Follow the pirates, subdue them, and return the slaves. Now, he feels like a bat wandering around in the darkness, looking for a meal as he flaps his wings.

He takes a moment to observe the water washing up into the cave. Perhaps there is another boat hidden here that the pirates might use to escape.

OOC: Take a brief look around. Then follow the right corridor deeper into the caves.

Judoc thinks for a moment that in this area of water there may be some boat or other means of escape, though as he bends down to get a better view of the water, he finds evidence of entry instead.  For ahead of him, imprinted on the mud like perfect molds are human footprints, the individual toes clearly visible indents on the wet earth.

Judoc holds up his light, checking for anything else that may be apparent here, though he finds nothing immediate and his heart is beating far too fast for patience.

Quietly, Judoc follows the prints off towards the corridor to the right, which splits off almost immediately in two directions, both routes of which seem to open up into wider rooms beyond.

But Judoc hesitates... he presses himself back up against the wall and puts a hand over his light...  For he smells the faint stench of the black smoke of burnt oil...  and somewhere in the caves, echoing towards him from all directions, Judoc hears the sound of voices.

He peers his head around the corner slowly, dousing his light as much as he is able, and he can just see at the extent of his vision, the sallow glow of torchlight reflecting of the wetted walls of the cavern...

OOC:  Torchlight seems to be coming from off to the left.  You are at the intersection, coming from the bottom of the map.

Finally, some action! His heart beating faster, Judoc does his best to hide the glowing carved ivory eye out of sight. He creeps forward, sticking to the wall as much as possible, and inches forward. he peeks around the corner to see down the right-hand passage first. Perhaps he can hear more of the pirates' plans and sneak back to bring the Watchman's crew back.

OOC: Try to hide the light. Advance slowly and quietly. Keep to the right-hand wall first to look around the corner down the right corridor. If the way is clear, move to the left-hand wall and again sneak along to look around the left corner. Try to see into the room where the torches are.

His heart racing with anticipation, Judoc stuffs his necklace under his leather jerkin, snuffing out the meager light to see by.  Again, the room is plunged into darkness but for the subtle orange glow which reflects off the damp walls here and there.

Checking to make sure there are not others lurking around separate corners, Judoc firsts tests the right corridor, creeping forward several steps to try and see and hear anything that might note of more people ahead.  But after several moments, he gives up on the endeavor, hearing only the continued echoing murmur that seems to come from the same direction as the torchlight.

His hand fixed to the wall, Judoc starts walking, slowly and in near total darkness, doing his utmost to make himself unseeable and silent.

Step at a time, Judoc walks towards the light.  Five steps, ten.  At one point Judoc feels the curvature of the wall swing away from him, off to some other passage, though he knows the way on is straight ahead...  He takes his hand off the wall, his heart thrumming with his fears that he may stumble on some unseen obstacle in the inky black... though after a few silent steps he has made his way to the other side of the hall.

Judoc peers from the shadows for the briefest of moments, and he glimpses five men and a goblin...  Four of them dressed in little more than loincloths, standing alert, one of them holding a torch.  The other two, the man and the goblin, sit against the cave wall, the man holding his wrist, the goblin, wearing the same colorful tabard, sitting in the mud next to him, looking his way.

The last thing that Judoc notices before he ducks himself behind the nearby wall is the shaft of moonlight that is cast down from some glimmer high in the room...

[Language unknown: "Nd ronaos nolifi ne it ithterine ck?"]  The voice is gravelly and low... inhuman, much like Grobbik's voice had been.

He's answered by another voice, this one throaty and slow.  [Language unknown: "E ilbeie.  We te ere actapo...  Unfo adom anyhoutho ic caard ichi.  Voringpro tr etle ilwa at thotinred.  Ill ar ardamendesti ngle herundles k ith lo se ndethiall, mialat ourainall maniveith fiiona eau lopr m u alhi ng ounha roisha unast ain ul day i whpe t."]

[Language unknown: "Et."]  The first voice answers back.  [Language unknown: "Kor thune ek, onewi Atesi comecteau conineounsom.  Urlion wilais Po dinectsti."]

"I do not understand."  A third voice says in low tones, speaking in Arabic.  "Where are they taking us?"

"No need to fear."  The first, gravely voice answers back, speaking in Arabic this time.  "We're not enemies...  Just men who are disgusted at Megalan slave laws...  And Taveon in particular."

"What is Taveon?"  Says another halting voice in Arabic.

"Never mind."  Says the first voice again after a moment of pause, continuing in Arabic.  "Lets just say we can't promise to take you back home, but we'll help you find work to raise money to get back on your own.  You're free.  As soon as we get you out of here anyway."

[Language unknown: "El icore po onsntiure eauin thi vir asurwe rowete!  Werar urfohi oust ntithiere k te atestison stthpame?"]  The second voice says.



OOC:  You are in the bottom right corner of the map, hiding up against the left wall so that you can no longer see in the room.  Lighting penalty in the room is -3.  If you wish to move at all, roll vs. stealth -3.

Ever since finally vanquishing Agares, or at least banishing the demon from Yrth, Judoc has noticed his Arabic comprehension is much better than before. The mage used to catch the language in chunks and phrases, but now he finds himself as comfortable listening to Arabic as he is to Anglish.

He wonders what the silvery glow might be, but he suspects it is a light spell, unless the cave has a crack that opens into the outside enough to let moonlight in.

Had the goblin seen him? Probably not, if he hasn't raised the alarm.

So the pirates - if they are pirates - are not interested in keeping the slaves, but setting them free. Interesting. At least that's the story the goblin has spun, and the slaves are now unbound. Taveon. Who or what is that?

Judoc thinks back to his battle with Thresher on the sands of the arena, of how the criminals and misfits had been offered up for slaughter by the rulers of Azer. Judoc had been careful to stay neutral then, and his feelings here are similar, too. He neither supports nor opposes slavery. Keeping a person a prisoner and forcing them to work seems cruel, but it is merely a reality of society. Without the slaves to row, the crew of the Watchman are probably stranded on this island. Still, now that these slaves are free, Judoc finds it cruel to attempt to enslave them again.

So he waits, listening, to see what else he might learn about these pirates, or slave-freers, or whatever they might be.

OOC: Wait and listen.
This message was last edited by the player at 19:00, Wed 02 Nov 2022.

[Language unknown: "Sasta sepl pa n theeen Arlaise?  Th espoad arenc causma iv u ous?"]  The first voice grunts.

[Language unknown: "Rere."]  The second voice sighs.  [Language unknown: "Ntate artti latat...  Ineratoul, is houastugh day ometedted, lesounlatthe?  Com oneureare aretlitess t ain einiad trort M i ro!"]  His throaty voice seems to become all the more exaggerated and animated.

The first voice laughs.  [Language unknown: "Eitrul t peissspaai ieta es ha heisit Etienne."]

The room drops into silence.  Occasionally, Judoc will hear whispers, Arabic he thinks, though he cannot make out anything intelligible.  He waits, closing his eyes and letting the surrounding mana in the caves replenish him.  He feels a forceful tug towards sleep, though he powers through the urge, touching his fingers and toes to keep himself engaged.

[Language unknown: "Ulstac.  Isni ll menshetha ni iountisom."]  It is the second voice, and Judoc hears a shifting of weight and equipment from the other room.

[Language unknown: "T ektrur, pe i arill rea P ore an o terre."]  The goblin responds back.

[Language unknown: "La in ekteho."]  The second voice says, his voice light.  [Language unknown: "Ti fint ad ear se we eve.  Ount inwi we.  Ic ivit acnius tewa of lat?"]

"Hold the light up."  The goblin says in Arabic with little pause... though there doesn't appear to be any urgency in his tone.

A few moments later, Judoc hears sounds of stone scraping against something...  low pitched...

OOC:  It is 0345 on the 8th of August.  You've recovered 2 FP from your rest/wait, though you are still half move/dodge/ST from your exertions.
This message was last edited by the GM at 17:14, Tue 08 Nov 2022.

The small group sounds like it is about to move out. Up and out of the cave, perhaps? So this entire escapade was just to free these slaves? If Judoc does not act quickly, the Watchman's crew will be marooned here. Part of Judoc tells him he shouldn’t let them escape. However, another part balks at the idea of returning these men to slavery.

If he could take out the enemy mage, then that would slow them down considerably. Judoc considers his options, but other than killing the goblin outright, he comes up empty.

OOC: Cast Levitation again, and begin moving back to where he left the crew. When he is about 50 meters away, take out his glowing eye to help him see the way back.
This message was last edited by the player at 05:25, Tue 08 Nov 2022.

It is astounding to Judoc, that while he has never studied the language, somehow he is able to comprehend everything these men are saying in Arlaise...  It stills seems foreign, but it is somehow completely clear...  as if the words themselves are gibberish, but the whole meaning intuitive.

He shakes his head, knowing that he does not have much time.  With a quick and silent recasting of his Levitation spell, Judoc floats back along the wall in the dark, pulling his lighted eye out from under his shirt once he has turned the corner.

He finds himself back at the muddy beach, the water lapping upon the dirt floor of the cave.

OOC:  I forgot that we never explicitly ended your last levitation spell, though since we sort of implied you were walking before, I'll meet you in the middle and say you recasted without rolling for it or charging you the extra fatigue you wouldn't have used had you simply kept it active.  I also apologize for the "unknown language," which you should have understood the whole time.  I'll try and be better about the details from here on out, although I suppose it happens when I've been so irregular in posting.

let me know which direction you want to use to leave the cave.  The exit to the right of the map here is back along the way you came in, though it's possible that the "beach" (either of the corridors) is back into the lake room where you entered the cave in the first place.

Also, please roll vs. Perception for me.

Judoc knows he does not have much time. By the time he returns to the crew of the Watchman, the slaves and the pirates will probably be gone. Still, he cannot take on all six of them, not in his current condition, anyway.

He briefly considers trying the exit that leads to the beach, but he quickly discards that idea. He left the crew back at the cave he first entered, and he needs to bring them along as quickly as he can.

OOC: Judoc will take the right hand exit and continue to backtrack.

Unwilling to take an unknown route, Judoc retraces his steps, using his lighted eye necklace to fill in the gaps where he had tread in the darkness before.

He remembered well enough the way to the right, the room where he had cast his light spell and stooped to look for tracks in the mud.  Slowly, he hovered his way back through the hallway, noting a small puddle at the far side of the corridor, and the larger 'lake' room where he had entered the caverns from the beach.

Judoc takes a quick moment to take in his surroundings...  The salty brine here churns, as if the small cave opening to the sea magnifies the motion of the waves, casting saltwater up the walls with all the sploosh!es and roiling of an unhappy stomach.

Judoc looks to the left and right and he notes several other passages and nooks that seem to lead out of the main cave.

The way back to the beach however, seems clear enough, as the moonlight still reflects off the surface of the water from an opening across the lake.

Judoc does not hesitate, but hovers his way across, lowering himself down into the water as he must to exit the caverns.

Outside, Judoc sees the three crewmen huddled together several feet from the edge of the cave, weapons drawn and on high alert.

"Thank God it's you!"  Reve sighs as Judoc fully exits the cave, sighing his weapon back down to his side.  "You'd been gone so long we thought you might have been captured or worse!"

OOC:  General map below.  The water is a bit deeper and goes out a bit farther than depicted.  Your path was along the top of the map, turning right to follow the long corridor to the lake room, then directly across, exiting on the bottom left of the map (which has a narrower exit than depicted).

"I found them, but we don't have much time. Follow me back in, and I'll fill you in as we go." Judoc sends out with his mind to where Aiah might be. ~Sorry to wake you, pretty bird, but I need your help. I'm going back into the cave, and I need you to go with me. Judoc waits until he can see Aiah, and then he turns to retrace his steps.

"There are two pirates, a human and a goblin," he tells Reve, Tisso, and Orgon. "The goblin is their mage. They've released the slaves from their bonds. Freeing the four men seems to have been the pirates' main objective."

If only Judoc had thought to bring the Watchman's crew along with him. They would have been outnumbered, but Judoc would have had surprise on his side. Now, for all he knows, the pirates have escaped with the freed slaves.

The slaves bother Judoc. The mage usually looks out for himself and his own best interests, but it seems wrong to him that some men would keep other men as slaves. It's just the way the Megalan Empire is, he supposes, but might other nations have a different point of view? What language had those pirates been speaking? Even though he understood every word, he wasn't sure what language they had been using. It wasn't Anglish, Latin, or Arabic. It was unlikely that they were speaking a racial language, unless the goblins have a language that Judoc doesn't know about. That left Northland, Aralaise, and whatever languages are spoken in Sahud, although there could conceivably be more.

OOC: Wake up Aiah and lead the sailors back into the caves. Maintain <i>Levitation<i>. When we get close to where Judoc thinks the pirates were, go the rest of the way without light, using Stealth.

Wishing to hurry, Judoc beckons the others forward as well as Aiah, assuring them he will explain on the way.  For Aiah's part, the bird does not seem to be too keen on being woken up for the second time this morning.

~What's on fire now?  Aiah harrumphs from the distance, though Judoc can feel her ruffling her mind-feathers as she prepares herself to alight from her perch upon the rocks.  ~Go to sleep!  Wake up!  Go there!  Come here!  Always with the one place or the next!  I hope this excursion is close to over, I need to sleep!

Just too late, Judoc sees the bird coming down fast, too fast, though she rocks her wings back in an attempt to slow as her claws reach out towards his shoulder.  Judoc sucks his teeth as the tiny bird shows him a taste of what a vole might feel, bringing herself to an immediate stop with the grip of her talons.

~Sorry.  Aiah says, and though she toes the line, Judoc can't tell on which side of sincere or flippant the word lands on.  ~I told you I can't see that well in the dark.

Aiah in place, Judoc leads the others back into the cave, explaining as he walks.  The others whisper back various things as they move, talking over each other so it is difficult to hear.

Orgon gloats, "Just two?  We'll have 'em dead to rights, two to one that is!"

While Reve seems more focused on the pirates' objective.  "Freeing them?  What the hell kind of pirates are these, that burn up two small boats just to throw away their spoils?"

"That's a fair point."  Trisso concedes, clutching his long knife ahead of him protectively.  "Most pirate stories I've heard end up with the ship the cargo and the crew all taken and sold, if not dead.  They end up making more slaves, not less."

But the conversation stalls there, for as Judoc pushes his way back into the cave, soaking himself again to the waist in order to duck under the low ceiling, he watches as his light reflects off the surface of the lake, revealing in the sloshing waves for the briefest of moments a girthy, long armed tentacle, which slips under the churn and disappears below the surface.

OOC:  Hard to tell at a single glance, but the tentacle appears to be as thick as your arm.  All four of you are standing in the entryway to the cave, with you levitating up above the water again, and the others just having entered.  It becomes clear as they funnel inward that the lake bottom quickly drops away, forcing them to swim if they want to go across.

"What the hell is that thing?" Judoc has never seen anything like the tentacle that moves in the water. This must have been what he heard as he passed by in the dark before. Some large beast must lurk beneath the waves. He wonders how strong that tentacle might be. It reminds him of illustrations of sea monsters attacking ships, with a sailor in each arm.

"Wait here. I'll see if I can drive it off." Judoc floats forward, staff at the ready.

OOC: Go slowly. Keep an eye on the tentacle.

Surprised by the massive arm, Judoc hovers quickly towards it, casting as he approaches where the thing disappeared under the waves.  Though he seeks to find the arm again under the water, the short, churning waves reflect back his own light making it difficult or impossible to see anything below the surface.

Still, Judoc has little doubt that the thing will be afraid of fire...  He creates a large, self-sustaining flame then uses another spell to spread the fire thin, drawing it out like a torched oil slick across the surface of the waves...

The flames hiss intermittently as peaks of water splash up and mix with the fire, and the ceiling glows with bright orange merriment.

OOC:  Difficult to impossible to tell how successful you are, though you are positive that if the thing has eyes, then it can at least see what you are doing.  You would estimate that the upper left shore is probably about 9 yards from where the men are standing (in the bottom left), most of which would likely need to be swum.

You have 3 spells now active, all of which can be maintained for free.  I used the 2 energy to cast (1 for each spell) from your energy reserve.  Let me know which ones you want to keep active.

Nine yards. Hm. Judoc considers the situation. He does not know what the creature might be capable of, but he imagines that tentacle dragging a man down to the bottom of the pool and drowning him. How many tentacles might be lurking beneath the water?

"The fire should keep the beast at bay," he calls to the others. "Once I create a path, if it seems unwilling to go through the flame, you three can try to swim across. Be wary, though, and be ready to attack it should it not fear the flames."

Concentrating, Judoc attempts to create a lane of open water, with the cave wall on the left hand side and his fire on the right.

OOC: Okay, the plan is to leave a lane of water open for swimming, with a barrier of fire on one side to keep the tentacled thing away. Let's see how this goes.

Thinking to keep whatever it was that lurked beneath the surface to stay well away, Judoc manipulates his flames, stretching them out in a narrow wall of fire that creates a lane for the three men to swim through.

Already waist deep, Orgon dives himself forward first, swinging his arms wide over his head like a windmill as he kicks furiously with his feet.  Waiting only a moment after, Trisso charges ahead as well, his own style more like a frog, with his head popping up out of the water at every breath searching the way ahead as well as for the monster lurking underneath.  Reve seems to be the least confident of the three, taking in several breaths before he jumps forward into the churning brine.

Meanwhile, Judoc hovers above, his eyes peeled for anything moving below the surface.

He sees it almost the same time that Reve reacts.

"Shit!"  Reve shouts, pulling his head out of the water as his feet splash wildly behind him.  "It fucking touched me!  It's here!"

Here indeed.  Judoc sees the thing briefly lurking under the water, submerged completely beneath his wall of fire.  It's definitely large...  The thickest part of the thing's body looking to be about as wide and tall as a barrel chested man.  Arms slither in all directions, a discolored pale white that stands out only near the surface, and disappears all together once the thing goes just a little deeper.  After just a glance, a wave crashes over the thing, snuffing at Judoc's fire with a sizzle and smoke and the monster is suddenly out of sight, disappearing under the water.

OOC:  Sorry, not my best post.  You deserve a map, which unfortunately I can't get at the moment.  I'm definitely distracted.  All three of the men are in the water, with Orgon almost at the dry portion in the northwest portion of the map.  To you (the player at least, if Judoc doesn't know what they are), the monster looks like a massive squid, with the torso part as big as a man, and the legs/arms much longer.

You managed a brief glance at it before the thing dropped out of sight again.  Reve is splashing and swimming wildly to try and get to land.  Despite the way I worded it, you don't get the impression the thing is gone, just moved from where you had a good view of it.

Heart pounding, Judoc looks in amazement at the monster that has appeared. What kind of creature was that? The thing looks like it has about a dozen arms, and Judoc has no doubt that it could wrap half a dozen around a man to drown him.

Gritting his teeth, Judoc moves closer to the beach. It will reflect badly on him if Reve is attacked by whatever monstrosity is lurking beneath the waves, and so he concentrates on yet another spell, this one learned from Finn.

For a moment, Judoc thinks of a spell to hide their presence from the monster, though he realizes quickly that he simply does not have the time for the cast.  Better instead, Judoc thinks, to go with his tried and trusted...  a rain of fireballs as he hovers above the fight.

Acting on the thought, Judoc summons a fireball to his hands, his brain swirling with the mental gymnastics of holding four spells all going simultaneously.  But the strain is bearable, and the small, lime-sized bit of flame flickers in his hands as Reve continues to splash and struggle through the water.

Orgon and Trisso are just pulling themselves out of the water as Reve really begins to panic.

"It's got me!"  Reve calls, though his shout seems muffled by lack of breath.  And indeed, Judoc can see a pale grey arm wrapped in earnest around the sailor's midsection, which trails off into the deep at the center of the room.

Judoc hurls his small ball of flame forward, which crashes into the leathery arm with a hiss, leaving black scorch marks and steam in it's wake!

The arm shudders and stiffens with the blow, though it does not let go of Reve!  Instead, the appendage begins pulling, and Reve begins drifting towards the narrow wall of flames that was supposed to keep the beast away!

OOC:  Map below.  Fireball attack was successful at first opportunity, and looks to have done moderate injury to the beast.

Oddly enough, the beast doesn't seem to be avoiding your flames at all, and it's arm (and Reve) are drifting into it, rather than keeping away.

Let's do 2 seconds, as this fight could rapidly go either way.

Fuck! Judoc launches forward with his staff, hoping to hurt the tentacled thing enough to get it free of Reve. As long as the creature stays submerged, Judoc's fire will do little damage to it. If only Judoc could stun it!

There is one spell in his repertoire that could perhaps dazzle the creature long enough for Reve to break free. "Close your eyes, everyone! I'm going to try to blind it!"

OOC: Move toward beast. Cast Flash.

"Reve!"  Trisso shouts out, stepping back into the waist deep water and grabbing the man's hand with his own as he attempts to haul him into shore.

"You bring him in, I'll slash that damn thing!"  Orgon cheers, drawing his knife out of his belt as he charges back too into the waters.

It does not seem to solve Reve's immediate problems however, for he still continues to splash and struggle in the water near the surface.  Judoc slowly sees the form of the monster's body coming into view just under the water, the pale-white skin and milky eyes approaching Reve as it wraps yet another tendrillous arm around the man's body.

"Micare!"  Judoc shouts after giving his own men fair warning.  Even with his eyes closed, Judoc feels and sees the explosion of light, tinged red by the barrier of his eyelids.

He snaps his eyes open again, but the beast still has Reve by a tight grasp, both of them drifting towards the small wall of flame as their clothes and limbs sizzle as the heat and water mix.

~egads!  Ahia moans as her body swoons with fatigue.  ~It's a good think I have three eyelids!  I might have fallen off otherwise!

OOC:  No significant change to the map, though Orgon and Trisso are charging back in to try and help.  Again, difficult to get an immediate assessment of the spell as your vision is obscured by so much water, though the squid has not immediately let go.

The situation grows worse, and Judoc grits his teeth as all his flashy spellwork seems to be for naught. The aquatic terror seems hellbent on flame-broiling Reve.  The mage floats forward, his staff extended outward like a polearm as if to harpoon the creature.

OOC: Move into range. Use staff as a spear to strike the tentacle holding Reve.

Judoc hovers, his body reeling with dizziness and fatigue, but he cannot let Reve be taken by this monster!  With both hands, he jabs forward with his Staff, and though the blunt end of his weapon scrapes against the edge of the beast's tentacle, the staff slips against the slippery skin without seeming to harm the thing, only splashing at the choppy water with a thin plunk!

Reve shouts and hollers in distress, struggling with everything he is worth as he fights the monster holding him in a death grip.  But his efforts are not enough!  With a last gasping breath he disappears under the surface, buried now under the flames and the water.

Trisso too, seems to be pulled down, his own body lurched forward and his face splashing at the waves as he strains with all his effort to yank Reve back out!

"I've got him!"  Orgon shouts, jumping forward and diving down, knife extended to savage whatever he can see under the water.

The moment seems to stretch on for eternity... but then all at once, Trisso's form begins to stagger back, with Reve coming to the surface with a spluttering cough!

"Get away!"  Orgon yells again as he gets to the surface, sculling backwards as he kicks his legs, his eyes darting ahead too and fro in search of the giant squid.

Judoc too looks long and hard...  But as the three men slowly make their way back to the shore, the only thing that Judoc can see is an expanding black splotch in the water...  Of the squid, he can see nothing.

"I think I kicked it trying to get away."  Reve says in between gasps of air.  "Maybe it's gone?"

OOC:  And the fight ends as quickly as it started!  I wasn't entirely sure what you were going for, but the whole point is moot anyway as you attack missed regardless of what skill you were using.  Amazingly, Reve managed a break free roll with the assistance of Trisso, and the squid hasn't bothered them as they swam quickly back to shore.  Map now same as before.  Let me know if you want to keep going the same way you know, or if you want to try and find a quicker route.  You guys are all now in the top left corner.

You have 3 spells active.  Luckily, neither Trisso nor Reve suffered any fire damage due to the fact that the flames were relatively spread out (and the fact that they were both soaking wet helped).

"Thank God," Judoc says, the color returning to his face. He very nearly led these men to their deaths, at least Trisso and Reve. Judoc is sure his spellcasting made a difference in driving off the aquatic creature, but the Templar student did spend most of the fight reacting rather than being proactive.

God's body, he's tired. Judoc badly needs rest. He knows with only half an hour or so, he'd at least be in fighting shape, but they don't have that kind of time. The pirates may already have escaped. So he gives the sailors a moment to catch their breath while he focuses on the thin sheet of flame, moving his hand as if to shape it into a ball and bringing it closer. Curious. The water looks as though someone had tipped a large inkwell into the bay.

At length, he says, "Everyone ready? Then let's continue on."

OOC: Judoc will keep all three spells on and bring the flame with him. He will Shape the flame into a sphere.

Wait just long enough until the sailors are breathing normally again. Then continue north through the caves.
This message was last edited by the player at 04:15, Sat 10 Dec 2022.

Unsure whether or not the squid is gone, Judoc opts to stay as dry as possible and wind his way around the opposite side of the cavern this time.  He concentrates for a moment to bring the large, crackling ball of magical fire back together and near him, hoping that he will still retain some use for the conjured fire.

Coughing the last of the water from his lungs, Reve is finally set to go, and the four make their way along the beach keeping the walls of the cave on their left hand side.

It takes Judoc a moment, though with the light of his eye in addition to the large ball of flame, he eventually he finds the same spot he had found earlier, where the bootprints of the pirates had massed upon the beach along with the various footprints of the slaves.

Judoc gestures with a hand for the others to follow, keeping slow in hopes that the others will not hear them.

But Judoc's hopes fade as he turns the corner towards the room he had last seen the pirates.  Somewhere far along, he can hear the hurried whispers of the goblin in Arabic.

"Hurry!  Get up the damn rope!  They may be here any moment!"

OOC:  No map this time, sorry if that's a bummer.  The four of you are probably about 20 yards from where you saw the pirates last, though there are a few narrow sections you have to pass through to get there.

Please note that you must concentrate to move the magical fire, so you cannot take it with you as you run, you must concentrate (though you can do that with a step I believe).

Just looking for general intentions, orders, tactics, and how fast you are planning on trying to get there.  Let me know if you have any questions.

Continuing to float through the air, Judoc moves toward the sailors who have absconded with Tibbets' men. Judoc wonders once more why he is helping the repulsive ship captain reclaim his slaves, but the mage knows the crew of the Watchman cannot afford to be stranded on this island.

Judoc communicates telepathically with his familiar.~Stay safe, Aiah.~ With a wave of his hand, he summons a small ball of flame. "The goblin is the most dangerous," he tells the others. "Cover his mouth and bind his hands so he cannot cast magic."

OOC: Judoc will cast Fireball on the tip of his staff. Staff in a two-handed grip. The carved ivory amulet will be out to provide some light.

The four men hurry forward, Judoc leading the way with his lighted eye.

Though he allows his larger and much more cumbersome ball of flames to vanish, Judoc replaces the fire with a much more flexible spell, a little ball of flames not much larger than a clementine that hovers near the end of his staff as Judoc too hovers along down the cave walls.

It is not long before the four are in the cave, and Judoc is watching as the last of the slaves is climbing (or perhaps more accurately being hauled) up a rope and out of the large opening in the ceiling.  The only one left still down in the cave is the goblin, his bright green tabard now splattered and stained with the sticky mud of the caves.

As the light blooms across the room, the Goblin removes his attention from the climbing slave and turns, his hands held upwards, palms extended.

[Language unknown: "Ececpl tin res nc Etienne!"]  The goblin shouts in his gravelly voice.  [Language unknown: "Saes hoan a mi olst!]

"What'd he say?"  Reve asks as he draws his knife.  "Is he giving up?"

"He said your mother was a bad lay."  Orgon spits as he draws his own weapon.  "That and you're swimming back to Dekamera, because the slaves are gone."

OOC:  Judoc has his staff ready in both hands with a 1D fireball ready to be thrown.  The cave is only about 7 yards across, apologies for no hexes on the map.

Not quite in combat yet, though it seems to be quickly approaching.  The rope for the moment has been pulled out of the opening in the ceiling, which is more than large enough for a man to crawl through.

Judoc has two spells active.


This message was last edited by the GM at 13:50, Tue 13 Dec 2022.

Judoc takes in the scene, and frankly, the young mage is puzzled. Is this goblin willing to give his life here? If so, why? Or is the enemy mage so over-confident that he thinks he can take on four men at once, including another mage?

The pirate reminds Judoc so strongly of Grobbik that he almost pauses in his assault. Would he be willing to attack a friend if the two stood on opposite sides? But the other mage looks like he might be about to cast.

"Grab him!" Judoc shouts. "Don't let him cast!" He moves forward through the air and lobs his fireball at the goblin.

OOC: Throw the fireball at the goblin. Begin moving to the hole in the ceiling.

Judoc hurls his ball of flame straight at the goblin, who twists wryly out of the way as the small sphere erupts into a puff of smoke and steam on the wetted back wall of the cave.

He has no time however, to waste on getting the goblin when he has to stop these men from taking their rowers, the only way for him to get home!

Judoc floats upwards, bringing yet another ball of flame to his staff with a whispered word of power.  He watches above as the last of the slaves disappears in the opening, now only a shaft of moonlight is visible, penetrating down from up above.

Below him, Orgon charges the goblin with haste, smashing into the little green man as the pirate pulls out a knife from his belt, both of them groaning at the impact.  It seems the goblin teeters back with the blow, though the shadows below grow larger as Judoc and his light stone rise upwards towards the ceiling.

At his shoulder, Aiah grips her claws tight in nervousness.

OOC:  Three rounds that time.  You have gone up about 4 yards, so that your feet are essentially out of reach for anyone on the ground.  You have another 2 seconds before you make it to the hole in the ceiling.  You have a ready fireball which floats about the end of your staff.

Did you want Aiah to leave you?  I'm not sure if that's what you intended by your "stay safe" comment, either way is probably fine with me/Aiah, but for the moment I have her still on your shoulder.

The situation below seems well under hand, so Judoc continues drifting up through the gloom to the opening above. He would not be surprised if the other pirate were waiting at the top, so he turns his attention to the outside, prepared to lash out should he come under attack.

~If I am ambushed, fly to safety~, he sends to Aiah.

Even though the goblin looks like he will be easily subdued, Judoc knows that fighting a pirate and four freed slaves may be beyond even his own abilities. If he can lower down the rope, though, he and the crew of the Watchman can catch up to the escapees.

As Judoc floats upward, he remembers the sands of Azer and his sparing of the outlaw Thresher. The mage had then refused to act as the headsman and kill a man just because the crowd wanted him to. Yet now here Judoc is, acting as a slave-catcher. The idea discomforts him. In valuing his own needs over the freedom of these escaped men, Judoc is taking sides in a fight that he has little interest in.

But no. Judoc is loyal to himself above all others. Upward he floats.

OOC: Continue floating upwards.

[Language unknown: "En eelaca te ha Sshiwa!"]  The goblin shouts from down below through the sounds of bootsteps racing forward through the mud and ick!

Judoc leans his body into his spell, lifting himself upwards as quickly as he can, the yawning maw in the ceiling approaching quickly.  Judoc girds himself for an ambush, gripping his staff tightly in front of him, watching and waiting for the first stroke to come.

And come it does!  Just as Judoc breaks out into the open skies of the night, he sees the faint reflection of his glowing eye shimmering off of a blade to his right!

[Language unknown: "Atimanughtioure ressomrut!"]  The throaty voice shouts as the blade descends, leaving Judoc with only an instant to parry the blow!

Judoc swipes his staff wildly to get it into position, miraculously knocking the blade wide on instinct alone as he climbs up through the effects of his magic!  But Judoc has only an instant to register the other man to his left, who is growing larger in his peripheral vision by the moment!

"You will not take me back!"  Judoc recognizes the slave's Arabic, though this time he has no time to react, and the body collides into his side, the man's arms wrapping around him like the hungry tentacles of the squid!

~Egads!  Aiah's mind screeches as her body flaps upwards and away, making for some quick and nearby perch.

Below, Judoc hears the metalic Clank! of steel on steel.

But unlike the squid, this man's arms are not equipped for suction, and he seems to be slipping under the burden of his own weight, unable to find a real grip on Judoc's leathers.  Flailing to find some new purchase for his hands, the slave slips down Judoc's leg, his hand finally slipping off of Judoc's boot as the slave tumbles down through the hole in the floor below!

Crash!  Judoc twinges internally as he hears the screams of both the slave and Reve in conjunction with the sound of the body crashing to the mud floor below.

But soon Orgon is screaming too, one of surprise and pain!

"It's so fucking dark!"  Trisso laments from the floor below.

OOC:  Map provided, but nothing fancy.  You were insanely lucky on that last round, making your parry which was heavily penalized for various reasons in conjunction with the slave's all out grapple missing.

The hole into the room below is about 3 hexes wide, encompassing E4, D4, and E5 (your hex, and the two to your SW).  Etienne is the man just in front of you, and appears to be equipped with a short sword.  Two of the three other slaves are on the map as well, apparently waiting for the moment.  The last of the slaves is crouching a decent distance away, and appears to have no interest in being close to the fight... or you.

You still have a ready fireball, and no longer have ridiculous penalties to your defenses (as you can see all your foes and are level with them).

As many combat seconds as you are willing to attempt please, though I'll stop things if something crazy happens.

Shit! With Judoc above, the men below have no light to see by. And from the sounds of it, things are not going well in the darkness below. The goblin must have stabbed Orgon, and the slave who fell probably landed on Reve.

Damn this night! ~Find a tree to hide in, pretty bird!~ The last thing he wants to worry about is his night-blind hawk getting skewered by a lucky strike. With surprise, Judoc realizes that Aiah's well-being is a weakness of his. If anything happened to her, he would be grievously upset, not only because she is so useful, but because he is so fond of her.

Judoc continues to rise through the air. "Give up and you live!" he shouts in Arabic. Switching to Arlaise, he shouts, "Etienne! Let us talk... before we kill... one another! Why do you... steal... these men?" The Arlaise sounds alien in his head, and he realizes that this is the first time he has spoken this language. It is as if he is translating the words in his head directly from Anglish to Arlaise.

OOC: Continue to rise in the air (if possible).

~A tree is right!  Aiah responds to Judoc's thought.  ~Far enough away from here that I won't have to deal with sneak attacks and waking in the night to blazing infernos!

Recognizing that only luck has saved him from a devastating blow, Judoc floats upwards as fast as his spell will allow.  Though he fully expects another swing of the blade and has his staff ready to block, Etienne holds the blow, apparently allowing the standoff to edge to Judoc's advantage as he gains an exclusive height advantage over his foes.

Judoc uses his position first to admonish the slaves, hoping to incur their surrender.  But if that is his intent, the effort does not produce the results he is hoping for.

"You are wrong!"  The Arabic is strained, the voice wrecked with emotion as the slave steps forward and looks up at Judoc, his fist clenched.  "Give up and we die a thousand times over, every day for the rest of our lives!  For what?  Better to fling myself from this rock and have it done with than to resign myself to the life which you seek from me!"

Judoc does not allow the time spent listening to be otherwise wasted.  "Lux!"  He mutters, keeping his voice quiet enough that he hopes the others will not take notice... or at least will not mistake him for casting some spell with nefarious intent.  And in the moment, a small light, like the flame of a candle appears in front of him, which he ushers downwards into the cave to give his men something better to see by.

Unfortunately, his efforts do not appear to be in time.

"Damn you, you filthy green skin!"  Orgon shouts.

"Drop it."  Comes the goblin's voice in Anglish this time.  "All of you drop your weapons or this one gets it."

"Easy goblin."  Trisso says, and though Judoc thinks there is more talking that continues, any conversation below is quickly drowned out by Etienne's response at his offer.

"Steal them?!"  Etienne shouts in Arlaise.  Though the language is new to Judoc, he finds that as the words flow on, he can understand them...  without really knowing how.  It is easy to understand, and it becomes easier as he thinks about it less, though he worries about the frenzied tone that Etienne has struck.

For the man's voice is instantly filled with rage, though Judoc is encouraged to see that at least his short blade droops downwards into a less threatening position.  "From who, you?  Are they yours wizard?!  And where did you get them?  I suppose you bought them, fair and square?"

Judoc thinks to get a word of defense in, though Etienne has worked himself up into a froth and does not give Judoc even a moment to think.

"Bullshit!"  Etienne shrieks, swatting his sword down to his side in emphasis.  "You stole them yourself!  From their homes!  From their families!  Do not attempt your excuses with me!  There are no excuse for Taveon's thugs!"

Bewildered, Judoc again attempts to calm the moment, but Etienne rolls on in fluid and throaty speech without even seeming to take a breath!

"And it is each other you puffed up ass!  Not one another!  Learn to speak Arlaise like a proper man!"

His head whirring trying to keep up, it takes Judoc a moment to realize that he is now being admonished on his Arlaise grammar as well!

OOC:  I got some time in the car ride to throw something together here and I figured I would take the opportunity to move the thread along.

Etienne seems open to parlay or at the least it is clear that he isn't currently attacking.  It is hard to say for sure if he can attack with you being 9 feet above him (you are outside and on relatively flat mountain stone), though he did withhold his next strike when you didn't attack him immediately back.

The standoff is tense, and it sounds as though the goblin has gotten the drop on Tibbets' men. Fucking hell. Judoc figured that three sailors could handle one goblin, wizard or no. Meanwhile, Judoc is left to deal with five men on his own. Well, not counting the one who tumbled down into the cave and the other fellow over there no doubt too frightened to move.

Where did this uneducated buffoon get off on trying to correct a man of letters like Judoc. The nerve! Next, no doubt, Etienne will be trying to educate Judoc on the finer points of potion-brewing!

"I am not... a slaver!" How much truth is there in Etienne's words? More likely, these men had been soldiers captured in battle, or prisoners sold off to pay their debts. Judoc doesn't really care where these men came from or what made them slaves. He is only concerned with getting off this rock and continuing on to Azer.

And Taveon? Who the hell is he? "I know no one... named Taveon," Judoc says, dismissively. "I... hired a boat... to take me to Azer. You pirates are... all the same! You have... kidnapped these men! Are you... going to sell them? Fill... your pockets... with gold?"

Judoc grips his staff tightly. He is exhausted, both mentally and physically. Still, he finds himself moved by the slave's words. "I not wishing you to have a life of death," he says in Arabic. Judoc is called the Merciful, but he knows, deep down, that he simply chooses his own path. there is far more selfishness than mercy in his blood. Judoc the Self-Serving is far more apt.

He continues speaking in Arabic.  "I not wanting to kill. And I not wanting to return you to a life of suffering. What can we do? I want to get home. You want to be free. Are we enemies, or can we work together?"

OOC: Judoc will use Diplomacy to continue talking with the slaves and pirates. He has no love for Tibbets, but he is also suspicious of these pirates and their motives.
This message was last edited by the player at 00:23, Sat 17 Dec 2022.

"Do not play the fool with me Wizard!"  Etienne interrupts Judoc at a shout even before he is finished talking.  "You cannot pretend to know Earl Taveon Magnus of Dekamera, whose flag you proudly fly on your ship..."  Etienne seems primed to continue, but he splutters uncomprehendingly at Judocs next word, as the two talk over each other at increasingly higher octaves.

"Pirates?!"  Etienne rages...  And Judoc begins to wonder if he will ever be able to calm the man from his seeming constant indignity.

"Pirates?  WE ARE THE CREW OF THE SCYLLA OF THE ROYAL FLEET OF DUC REMIS D'ANSONNE!  You are the pirate and slaver, and scourge of these waters!  Or did you forget that it was you who attacked us, who tried to set our ship ablaze for no reason whatsoever!"

Etienne breathes in labored breaths and Judoc's head spins with the accusation.  Was it true?  What had Tibbets hidden from him, hidden from the men?  What was the truth?

Down below, Judoc can faintly hear the goblin still talking in Anglish, his words slow and steady.

"Put down your weapons!  We are no killers, but you are trying my patience!"

OOC:  Sorry if I'm railroading here.  While your conversation with the slave no doubt would lead to an interesting back and forth, it doesn't help me move the game along, so for the time being I'm ignoring it in favor of Etienne's brash retorts.

if you wish to settle things peaceably, roll vs. diplomacy (or another appropriate social skill).  Otherwise, if your intent is to continue combat, give me your overall strategy and I'm probably going to fast forward significantly as your safety is all but guaranteed (though the same cannot be said for the crew).  If you can think of another alternative, feel free to role play it, though be warned that just about anything you try at this point is probably going to be settled with a dice roll as I'm running out of time to draw things out.

Judoc grinds his teeth. He doesn't know either of these names. Taveon? D'Ansonne? "I have... no interest...in your politics," he says dismissively. Privately, though, he wonders which side he may be allied with here. Taveon sounds like a Megalan name, but that doesn't give Judoc much to go on.

He knows that these men are probably from Araterre, from their language and from their duke's name. Isn't Araterre part of the Empire as well? He has been told that these men are pirates, and he knows Tibbets is an asshole, so they can all go burn for all he cares. But that leaves him with the problem of how to get back to Azer.

In Anglish, he calls out to Reve and the others, "Peace! Let's not kill anyone if we can help it!"

To Etienne, Judoc switches to Aralaise. "I have... no proof... of anything... you say. I am Judoc... of Azer... a student of the Templars. I do not know... if that makes us... enemies... but I do not... wish to kill you... nor you... to kill... my crew. I have... no love... for the captain... of my vessel... but I hired him... to take me home. I was told... you and your crew... were pirates... and that you... kill... every crew... you capture. I am willing... to listen."

OOC: Use Diplomacy to try to come to some common ground here.

Although the situation is tense, it slowly becomes clear that none of the combatants wish to fight, apart from perhaps Orgon, whose pride is still smarting from a knife injury inflicted from the goblin while Orgon couldn't so much as see his hand in front of his face...

Still, it doesn't take much convincing to broach a peace.  Everyone separates, sheathes their weapons, and evaluates the damage.  Reve, it seems, is the worst for wear, having suffered cracked ribs and massive bruising when the slave fell on top of him without warning.

Orgon too, has suffered damage, though not so bad that a temporary bandage won't staunch the blood while Judoc collapses in a heap for rest.

The goblin collapses too... It appears he too had exhausted himself through various spell casting throughout the night.

While the two rest the true story begins to unfold, bit by bit.

Everything starts back and the border wars, ended over a decade ago...  Judoc hears of the former Lord Gavin Magnus, Earl of Dekamera, who had sought to profit from the conflict, sending his troops not to the front, but as raiding parties along the Wazifi coastline.  His forces would plunder, stealing all sorts of goods and enslaving whatever peoples they could round up before returning back.

But Lord Gavin's plan went awry when his son and heir Traveon was taken prisoner in one of the raids...  Though the war drew on for several years after, no deal was struck to return Traveon.  In fact, he did not return to his home until well after the war ended, on the occurrence of his father, Lord Gavin's death.

Since his return, Traveon, now Earl in his father's place had restarted the raiding parties, in spite of, and in clear violation of the terms of the peace.  While Araterre was not directly involved, the Duc Remis D'Ansonne had learned of, and taken an interest in the issue, hoping to stem the illegal raids when possible, or else rectify and return the victims.

While Judoc had thought he was preventing war between Araterre and Megalos, he now hears that Araterre, and these men (and goblins) were also trying to prevent war - a resurgence of the border wars between Megalos and Al-Wazif.

Still not entirely convinced, Judoc turns to the crew of the Watchman who can corroborate little of the story, having never been to Dekamera before and indeed having no real experience with the situation beyond their month-long stint with Tibbets.

It is the slaves though, that seal in Judoc's belief in the story.  When asked, they relate their tales of capture some months previous, taken by a small group on the borderlands of Al-Wazif, land previously owned by Megalos.  They had been farming, were captured, and smuggled back across the Makarem before being staged for shipping in the same dubious camp where Judoc had met Tibbets.

As proof to their stories, they show Judoc their arms, which are still bereft of slave tattoos or markings, a detail which somehow Judoc had missed up to this point.

When Etienne and the goblin offer to make good on their word by delivering Judoc to the eastern tracks, he readily agrees, sickened all the more with Tibbets and whatever foul business he is caught up in.  Orgon, Reve, and Trisso all defect as well, stating that the half-pay they were waiting on wasn't worth waiting with Tibbets, especially given they had no more real power to their vessel.

"Not to worry."  The goblin offers as he stands up again once everyone is healed.  "He'll get his.  These caves are used by real pirates, we've been through them once before tracking 'em.  So if he doesn't manage to make his way off quickly... he likely won't make his way off at all."

"Off to the Scylla then?"  Etienne offers in Arlaise as there is a moment in the conversation.  "And let this disaster of a misunderstanding come to an end?"

---

The sun is nearing the horizon as the Scylla finally pulls up anchor.  Judoc stands at the rails, watching the eastern sky warm with colors of light blue, red and orange.  He is just about to go down below, for he has been offered a bed of all things, or in reality, something that more resembles a hammock.  They are shared accommodations amongst the crew, though there will be enough of the men on watch for their departure that Judoc should be able to get several hours of sleep undisturbed.

"I'm glad you turned out not to be on Lord Taveon's side."

Even before Judoc turns to see the face, he knows it is the goblin, for even the voice reminds him of Grobbik.

"I nearly shit my pants when you started throwing those fireballs at the ship.  I've never used my magic in that way before...  Actually, I'm sort of shocked it worked.  I was not looking forward to you coming back down into that cave to finish the fight."

"I'm Darkiiri by the way."  The goblin thrusts out a hand.  "Well met.  And here's to hoping that next time we may be fighting on the same side."

~You can say that again!  Aiah thinks from her perch high on the mizzen mast.  ~Maybe then I'll actually be able to get a normal night's sleep!

OOC:  I made some assumptions based on your decision to revert to diplomacy that this would all be acceptable to you.  It solves all the requirements stated in your private and furthermore leaves Tibbets out to dry (and likely worse).  Feel free to write up a closing post here - or else whatever abuse you wish for me misplaying your character's actions :p.

All's well that ends well," Judoc reflects as he stands at the rails. He is still mentally and physically weary from his missed sleep the night before, the slog through the cave, and the desperate stand-off with Etienne and Darkiiri. Part of him feels that stranding Tibbets back on that island is inhumane, but if it is true that the man is caught up in a slaver ring, Judoc figures being trapped on the island is better than the man deserves. Judoc had been so quick to attack the Scylla, and his attack had been based on lies. This galls Judoc in how easily he had allowed himself to be manipulated. What if Darkiiri had not been present? What if Judoc had been able to cripple the Scylla? Telling himself that he was deceived only took him so far. Judoc knows he is a talented mage, and he grows more powerful every day. He cannot allow himself to be fooled into doing other people's dirty work, whether that person is a position of authority like Graves or a petty thug like Tibbets.

He turns as Darkiiri approaches and gives the goblin a half-hearted smile. "It's a damn good thing you were on this ship," he says in earnest. "I very nearly destroyed all the sails, going off halfcocked like that. And your Water magic is impressive! One of my classmates is also a skilled practitioner of the Water college. A fellow named Grobbik, and a damned good mage."

~You and me both, pretty bird.~ Judoc is relieved that Aiah was not in harm's way this time. He knows that, despite how useful Aiah is, his familiar is a potential weakness. He cares for her welfare, and threatening her is a good way to manipulate Judoc.

Before he turns in for the night, Judoc does a little reading by the light of his shining ivory amulet. Something was tugging at his memory, and he leafs through The Nine Spirits of Hell, wondering what it might be.

He comes to the page that lists the demons. King Bael. Duke Agares. A name catches his eye near the bottom of the list. "Son of a ..." Amon. What Agares had called Tenesworth.