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The pair had managed to board the Cryelaneia with their makeshift disguises in the nick of time. With Kaitlyn disguised as a noblewoman demanding passage and Alyssa passed off as her maid, they had managed to fast talk their way into being taken as passengers on the merchant liner and had spent the last three months and four days without suffering the consequences for their hasty retreat from the thieves guild that they had joined. Though they had narrowly avoided capture on more than one occasion while avoiding the men Mercer and his allies had sent out looking for them on their harrowing escape from Heloras, they had traded their exhilarating journey for the relative boredom of life on a ship in travel and the cold dread of how they'd deal with the fact that they didn't have the other half of the hundred denarii that they'd promised the captain upon boarding the ship.
Captain Dallius, the owner and chief officer of the vessel, was a human with light brown hair and similar eyes the showed just the barest hints of red flecks, suggesting to the perceptive su-ku-ta a bit of inhuman heritage somewhere in his family history. He had been a nice enough sort, and despite having been hesitant to take them on at first had been mostly polite to them so far. His vessel, the Cryelaneia, was supposedly named for the elvish phrase for winter breeze, and neither of them spoke enough of the dying language to ascertain whether or not that was true. Most waterborne vessels these days were merchant craft, fat hulled heavy ships that carried quantities of cargo too large for the faster but much lighter airships to even contain, much less achieve lift with. Airship rides had become significantly more popular despite how noisy they ended to be due to their novelty and speed, but it still wasn't unheard of for merchant craft to take passengers, and luckily the vessel they'd stumbled upon to ferry them out of Anudor had already had one of their spare cabins filled.
While normally the small cubies like the ones that Kaitlyn and Alyssa had stayed in for the past three months were reserved for the ship's minor officers, two of them on this particular vessel had been rented out instead, one of them to the disguised pair and the other to, ironically, another nobleman. Boasting pointed ears, blue eyes, long blond hair, and a fairly dashing figure, the man had professed himself the son of a minor duke from Crolia out on a year long journey in which he searched for "inspiration." The name he'd given had been Alaldin Aramil, though given that the first name had been the name of a legendary thief from Anudorian legend and the second had been the name of a hero from a Crolian legend that the pair had only distantly recalled it cast his story in somewhat dubious terms. Their fellow passenger had been quite nice to them, however, and whether he was really a nobleman or not he'd been nothing but nice. A fluent linguist, an alleged writer of both prose and poetry, and even a singer, the handsome man had proven himself quite charming over the course of their time spent in relative confinement with him, and while he hadn't made any overt advances he had made what could be construed as attempts at courting a more intimate relationship not only with Kaitlyn in her guise, but with Alyssa when she hadn't been in the presence of her supposed mistress. Nothing had yet come of them, however, and he had always passed them off more as simple pleasantries rather than efforts to get into their pants.
Other than the captain and their fellow passenger, the crew numbered some fifteen or so men, the two sisters being the only women on the ship. The vessel's wizard, a dour figure dressed in the traditional twisting rainbow colored robes of desert magi, was also by far the most inhuman su-ku-ta that either of them had ever seen, his legs reversed and his body covered in thick black hair. Called simply Urin, the panther-faced man had spoken only a few growled words to the two of them over the three months they'd been around him, but while the ship's magus had proven himself quite capable of commanding both water and wind, he hadn't apparently pierced Kaitlyn's illusion disguise. The first officer, a very handsome man named Gavin Jens of local Anudorian stock, had been probably the most problematic for the pair, but not because he was suspicious of them or impolite. Quite the contrary, he'd been incredibly gracious to them, especially seeing as they'd taken his room and left him sleeping in the general quarters. That had actually been part of the problem.
The ship's first mate had been kind in a friendly manner, and at least to Alyssa had made his interest plain without being intrusive. He was also handsome in a much rougher sense than the nobleman passenger, his body well toned and showing rippling muscle as he moved around the ship, usually sans a shirt so that his dark skinned body was on proud display. His physique, kindness, and general directness left him as an alluring subject in a much more rough and tumble sort of way that the two might be used to. What was more, there was something simply more primal and alluring about the man that they hadn't figured out until Kaitlyn had had to take a meal while he was in the galley and she had suddenly went into heat. A few minutes of his presence had left her barely able to keep herself from throwing herself onto him, and only a quick retreat to their room had saved her the embarrassment that that would cause. When her head had cleared, she had been able to remember the scent wafting off of him that had drawn her so strongly, the virility that the muscular deckhand exuded so strong that it spoke to their innate desire to breed on a level that might subsume their cognitive functions entirely if they weren't careful.
The last major officer was the one with whom they had had the least dealings, one named Jace. A Badarian by heritage, he spoke slowly and in a thick accent, and his speech was always dotted with curse words in varying languages. Equally impressive physically as Gavin, the second mate was much less kindly to them, though the brunt of his rudeness was usually directed towards Alaldin for taking his private room rather than the two of them.
The rest of the crew were a mixture of Anudorians and su-ku-ta, all men and cut along the same general lines as Jace and Gavin even if none matched the two officers evenly in terms of physique. They had more or less been polite to the pair, and largely had left them to their own devices, at least until an unfortunate day in which both had been in heat and their cries had carried through the thin inner walls of the ship. They had had to endure some fairly well veiled teasing from that point on, though nothing too terribly suggestive or prying, and they got the distinct impression that the captain had ordered them to leave the pair alone about it.
The vessel had traveled across the Jeweled sea, visiting some of the larger islands and trading with their inhabitants, but its ultimate destination was Crolia. Mercer's contacts hopefully wouldn't follow them that far, and there they could find a city large enough to ply their talents in order to make a new start. The journey itself hadn't been unpleasant, the air warm and the weather mostly nice up until that point, with only mild squalls worrying their journey. There had only been two troublesome encounters along the way, both out at sea and with other vessels. The first had been only a case of late identification, another merchant ship going in the opposite direction coming dangerously close and not hoisting its colors until it was fairly close by, though the vessel had sailed past with only a brief exchange of greetings. The second had been more tense, with Gavin grimly telling them to wait belowdecks while they readied the ships guns to face an airship that was floating towards them. It had passed without ever identifying itself, but if it had been a pirate vessel it had seen their cannons poised and opted not to test their luck against the bulkier vessel.
Now, however, as they passed the halfway point of their winding journey and took the only section of their trip that took them over the open ocean, they were approaching a storm that threatened to be much larger than the rest. It was about mid day when the dark clouds appeared up ahead, gathering on the horizon and advancing steadily towards them. The ship was moving at a steady clip by that point, the majority of the crew on deck and working at their various tasks. They had a steady supply of clean water courtesy of the ship's made, and Kaitlyn and Alyssa had just finished a shower in the curtained off area which had been designated for such and gotten dressed again. Neither of them had been in heat for a couple of days, though only about a week prior they'd gone through a few days in which they'd traded off who was in heat repeatedly.
Gavin and Jace were both nearby, on the main deck of the ship, while Urin was up in the crow's nest working the winds and captain Dallius stood on the upper deck of the ship holding the wheel. It was warm and sunny now, and a pleasant breeze kept the deck's temperature at a balmy level despite the constant sunlight. "Lookin' like we're in for a rough night," Gavin remarked from only a few feet off, leaning over the railing to gaze up ahead towards the oncoming storm. "Looks like it," Jace drawled in agreement, wearing his trademark dark scowl as if he thought it might frighten off the clouds. He slapped his superior on the shoulder as he passed by, making for the upper deck, and added; "Heh, looks like ye won't get yer beauty sleep tonight Gavin! Gonna be all hands on deck!"
Then he strode off, leaving Gavin to offer his own frown towards the clouds before climbing up to the rigging, heading up towards the nest on the two sailed vessel's primary mast. The two men were moving off, but Kaitlyn and Alyssa could stop either of them to speak if they so chose. Alaldin was on deck was well, toying with a strange little wooden flute he'd bought on one of the islands the vessel had stopped at. He had actually become fairly adept at playing the thing, though he hadn't yet mastered it well enough to produce any but the most basic melodies with it. The storm was still at least a few hours away, but they could opt to seclude themselves to their room before it had a chance to hit them instead, as neither had the skill to assist the crewmen in seeing the ship through the oncoming hazard to any significant degree even if they had wished to.
(To my avid readers who may be confused by various things: This is partially a derp thread because I thought it looked neat and don't expect it to take too long before it hits a bad end for the PCs, and partially a way for me to test various bits of DG4. It includes stuff that will be important in DG4 as it appears to be shaping up now, but doesn't take place in DG4 time directly, instead ending up somewhere in between 3 and 4. That makes it tentatively canon at best, so I might put in things that won't end up happening.)
