She nodded reassuringly to Cirok, made an "ok" sign, understanding that at least he could see his surroundings. Deaf or no.  Berta was meanwhile assisting Viktor, which was good.  She wasn't sure if anybody else was strong enough to.

Her attention shifted back toward the moppett, and the other two.  She cringed at the wail, well tired of the sundry abrasive sounds of this place, then moved a bit closer to where they were, wondering what was going on - what the moppett was doing.

Was it possible the mouthless creature communicated through touch, somehow?

The figure grasps hold of Angroboda's hand in much the same fashion as it did with Rael. [Secret to Angrboda: "You they are drawn to. It is safe beyond the portal."] It looks expectantly between the two of them as if waiting for some sort of answer or reaction. After a few seconds it releases it's grip on the two and quickly scampers over to, and up, a stack of nearby boxes.

Angrboda just stares blankly at the creature for a second, "Drawn to?  You think?" she grumbles as she heads through the opening signaling the others to follow.

"We are real..." Rael echoes as he watch the thing sits on the boxes "Our own ship was damage and we came here looking for aid..." he explain further taking a step or two toward the thing "Please, help us repair our ship and get out of here... and fight the spirit horrors."

"The drink probably insulated him from the worst of it," Berta says disgustedly as she struggles to pull the big Pan Tangian to his feet.  "Lean on me," she tells him.

Looking up the warrior woman sees Angrboda heading through the opening. "Forward, Viktor ... you can do it," turning her head, she waves away any assistance as she tries to propel her charge through the opening.

Follow them?Only getting bits and pieces of what is being said...points towards Angrboda and leans against Berta as he tries to walk towards the group...

She waited until Berta and Viktor were some distance ahead, not wanting to be too close, just in case Berta lost her grip, and he toppled backward.

While waiting, she listened to Rael Gol's words, realizing he was making an entreaty to the being.  She had brief thought, that maybe, just maybe, the moppetts could be the ones to help her find her way back to her own world.

But she put that aside, for now; it was a self centered thought, and there were greater things at stake, at the moment.

She turned and followed the others through the opening.

"Tripwire," Berta calls back a curt warning to those following, reminding them of the line that runs beneath the surface.  Despite her words she is most solicitous of poor Viktor, bearing his weight as best she can as she tries to guide him forwards. "We're doing well," she assures him.

Taking care to avoid the area indicated by Berta you are all able to make it into the room full of organic ropes. The room, unlike the cargo hold, is illuminated by the pale blue light found at the rear of the ship. Once the last person enters the rear compartment the fleshy valve slides ship. You catch a glimpse of another scampering feral "muppet" fleeing from a behind a stand of boxes near the door deeper into the room. You are away of the presence of several others in the room as you catch glimpses and hints of their location as they scamper around just outside of your torches light.

There is an almost imperceptible pressure in your head similar to that of a weather front. Several voices, all in chorus, echo in your head. "Cueleven sent you to us. He says you are not the Kia. Why have you come? They will now not let us leave. You have doomed us all."

As your eyes adjust to the surroundings and flicker lights of the lightning bolt spiders you are able to make out a few ramshackle tents, places to prepare food, and what would be a latrine off away from the "camp". Above you hanging in place by hundreds of fleshy ropes and cables is the large carapace covered globe. The globe is easily 20'(6m) across at the widest point. The fleshy ropes anchor themselves at kinks in the chitin that extend about a handspan up the tendrils. The lighting spiders are seen moving rapidly up and down the length of each of the fleshy tendrils at the same speed as a lightning strike. The area here is considerably warmer than anywhere else on the ship though not to uncomfortable.

[Private to Angrboda: 09:03, Today: Secret Roll: The Grey Lords, on behalf of Angrboda, rolled 8 using 1d100.  Million Spheres tn 20. - pass
You have heard of the Kia. They are a vampiric energy demon that live off of the life force of others. They are clouds of pure energy that can not be hurt by normal means. Magic was the only known defense and offense against these creatures.

09:07, Today: Secret Roll: The Grey Lords, on behalf of Angrboda, rolled 4 using 1d100.  YK tn 15. - pass
The breed was used in antiquity to create vampiric weaponry by a group of assassins. That group was rumored to have been killed off long ago by a rival faction taking the secret of summoning these demons with them.]

Then come with us and leave this place...we need parts from your ship...speaks loudly after hearing the voices in his head...stops leaning against Berta and whispers thank you to her...

Now that they were inside a warmer place or at least a drier place. Rael could relax a little, he heard the muppets and while they may be feral or mad they were talking and not attacking which was good.

The others could handle the talking he figured while he had a look at Viktor. "Come here and kneel down so I can check your face." he said and motioned to Viktor with his hands.

If the brute of a Pang Tangian would comply he would check the man ears and eyes and any other source of injury and administer whatever medicine he had.

Hearing some of Rael's words figures he would probably want to look him over so he stumbles over to him and kneels down almost losing his balance and grabbing his ears again...

Rael shoos Viktor hands away "Don't be a big baby and let me examine your ears." Even on his knees Rael had to stand on the tip of his toes to be able to look at the man ears.

He twists his nose "Next time you dip into water make sure to take with you soap as well. Demon just love the smell of filth and are repelled by the smell of soap."

"Well, I was originally here to take a part of your dying ship.  Then I ran into your computer and it told me I needed to kill the poor creature that you have built your ship out of." Angrboda explains, "Now I suppose I am here to rescue you people also.  How is it that you came across these Kia spirits?  What do you have in those crates out there?  We can kill them but they are immune to normal weapons."

Cirok was the last through the valve-like door and started a bit when it closed behind him without prompting.  After satisfying himself there was no evil intent in the action, he turned to take in the strange room in which some of the moppets had made their home.  The brilliant whiteness of the lightning spiders that wicked along the fleshy ropes splayed out across the room's ceiling contrasted against the soft blue illumination of the room.  The spots before his eyes were growing fewer in number and apparently his hearing had improved as well, for he heard the unified voice the same as the others.

While he puzzled out the message in his head, deciding who Cueleven and the Kia were, Rael began tending Viktor and Angrboda began negotiating with, well, the voices?  He wasn't sure if she was addressing a community or a single moppet with her words.  Thinking that was more up his alley than fighting green goat spectres, Cirok crossed over to where the Melnibonean stood and prepared to join in the conversation, strange as it was.

For the moment though, he waited to see if one or more of the creatures answered the sorceress's questions.

The slight pressure returns as the chorus of voices once again slips into your head. "We were a scientific arendee vessel. We were in slipspace when they attacked. The computer is the O'Sidata. She is already dying. She is in great pain. We can not repair her. The crates contain specimens from worlds we have visited. We gather things to learn other ways to think. What do you need? What piece are you after?"

Rael begins to inspect the damage done to Viktor. It appears as if his senses were overloaded and need time to readjust. However, given the dim lighting you are certain that you do not want him swinging his axe any time soon.

You see one of the figures barely step out from behind one of the barricades and places several small silver rectangle pouches on the ground. "Please stay where you are. Eat and rest." At that the figure scampers back into the maze of boxes and other debris.

Berta releases Viktor to Rael's care, watching as the big Pan Tangian kneels, ready to steady him if needs be ... or grab his hands should he persist in making things difficult for his physician.

As she waits, grateful for the warmth in this chamber which serves to ward off some of the chill of the cold waters and her damp clothing, the warrior-woman listens warily to the discourse between the creatures and her companions.

"The ghosts are the Kia," she mutters to herself as she tries to follow the words in her head."The ship is O'Sidata ?"

"Cueleven ..." she shakes her head, stymied at this last as she tracks the movements of the creature who appears to be offering them food.

"Will he live ?" she asks Rael absently, patting Viktor on his shoulder, still watching as the creature returns to its nest.

"Yes..." Rael grumbles to Berta "He is too thick and drunk to know better..." he fondly slap the Pan Tangian side with affection.

Viktor was a brute and a terror when he was swinging his axe, not really the kind of person Rael ever thought to be friends with but oddly enough he was truly and deeply fond of the man.

He pulls some powder and mix them with some water into a paste "Your senses are overloaded, you need proper rest and no loud noises. So no axe swinging or crossbow shooting until I clear you. Rub this on your ears and eyes, it would make you drowsy but it will also numb your senses somewhat. Don't swallow this as it would turn you blind and deaf."

He turns to the muppet collective "I am a physician and an apothecary, if your ship is alive and sick perhaps I could help this O'Sidata?"

He glance around "Maybe one of the thing you collected? but please tell us what are the thing on the bridge and how have the goat spirit the ahm Kia came to your vessel."

Unlike Angrboda, Rael was not so sure they could kill the things, not easily and not without a great price.

He poked at the pouches inspecting their inside to determine if they are safe to consume.

Did you say don't eat the powder? hearing some what better rubs the ointment on his ears and eyes and crawls to a corner to rest on and passes out for a bit....

Thinking he had some grasp on what they were being told, Cirok speaks up this time.  "We are searching for something called an 'Entropy Configuration'.  Ours is damaged and we need a replacement.  I believe we have found it to the aft of the ship, near the bridge, but removing it has proven difficult."

"Would you be able to help with that?"

"We would need magic weapons, or possibly law enhanced weapons, I don't know much about things like that." Angrboda explains, "Maybe something that shoots out lightning or acid or fire." she finishes a bit weary and slumps down to sit on a crate.

With Viktor cared for and sleeping it off, Berta's mind wanders back to something the creature said a moment ago ...

"They have specimens in those crates !" the warrior woman looks angry. "Mirath's cold hands !" she swears.  "Then that ghost healed itself by stealing the lifeforce of whatever unfortunate was sealed in the vessel it breached ?!!"

"Weapons, aye !" Berta agrees most vehemently with Angrboda.  "Esyld thought that silver might be harmful to the ghosts," she looks to the sailor for confirmation.

All this new craziness aside, she was wholly grateful to at last be out of the water, and in a dry, warmer, clime.

The moppett's mode of communication was a little disconcerting --  but more or less confirmed what she'd guessed when the creature had taken Rael's and Angrboda's hands.  Realizing the bluish light was again present, she wondered whether it was good manners to stand there with a burning brand, clutched in hand. Yet she was reluctant to extinguish it, as they had now lit both those she'd carried.   She searched briefly for some soft ground in which to plant it, next to nothing that was flammable, if it could be found.

At the moppett's proclamation that they had doomed them, her lips parted slightly in shock, unsure what to say or think.   That would be terrible, if true --  yet there was no way to undo anything done.  She glanced at the 'spiders' of light, that darted up and down the odd tendrils, somewhat unnerved, but also consoled the moppetts seemed unconcerned by them.

She also looked briefly toward Rael and Viktor, as the former tended the latter. First aid skills were something she'd endeavored to learn more of, after being out on her own, in situations where dueling was no longer merely exercise and art. Rael seemed to know what he was doing --  she would have liked to have watched, in order to learn something, under other circumstance. She stifled brief laugh at the comment of demons' aversion to soap.  But her attention was yanked to other things.

She did not understand some of the terms the others made mention of ---   and was disconcerted when Angrboda claimed that they could slay the goat-heads --  or the "Kia" as they were apparently known.   "Kia" -- an almost pretty sounding word to describe such fiends. Her blade had been only barely effective --  she did not understand what Angrboda's claim was founded on, thought it a truly bad idea to mislead the moppetts on that matter.

Once the creature spoke within their heads again, she understand little of what it meant. Only that this vessel was apparently living, even possessed a name, and was mortally injured. She glanced again toward Viktor and Rael, noting the comradery between the two, who could not be more different in their aspects, and finding that bit of humanity comforting, amidst so much that was so alien.   She wondered if Rael's skills really could be successful, on a living ship.    That would be a song for the taverns, should it prove true!

Cirok then joined the conversation, speaking of an 'Antropi Kahnfig - yur -- a - '  something or other, that she could hardly say, let alone grasp.   Did he understand these things, too?

As Berta exclaimed her guess about the crates, though, that she did understand.   And again made the triangle of Law, both for the idea that living things might be packed into crates, and that the grisly specter had been feeding on one. Her lips faintly curled in revulsion, it took her a moment to realize that Berta had addressed her:

"It is possible," she replied.  "I had been told there was silver in the blade's alloy.   And that its smith had an interest in the makings of the people called the Vadhagh. Are there really living things within those crates?" she had to inquire.

"Why would you take them from their home, and imprison them like that, if it's so?"

It was imprudent to ask, she realized, as soon as it was out. Given the situation they were in, and that they needed these beings' aid...
This message was last edited by the player at 20:07, Sun 07 Feb 2016.

At Esyld's question Angrboda tilts her head quizzically and looks at the lady, "Why to study them of course.  Why else would you collect things?" she shakes her head a bit, wondering how humans ever managed to build anything.  "So do you know of anything you collected that was considered magic by the people who had it.  I realize that your species probably does not believe in magic given your," she looks around at the ship curiously, "Penchant for Law but perhaps some of the people you ran into were not quite as Lawful?" she says, trying to hide her disdain when she speaks of Law, while noting what it did to this plane.

OOC:  Angrboda is assuming this is what happens when law takes over a plane based on the fact that she cannot use her spells.  lol

Opened the next thread.

Few of you still have chances to improve you skills during "recess"