Trouble in the Deep (sturm) GMed by thetwo

[thetwo]

Re: Trouble in the Deep (sturm) GMed by thetwo

The woman smiled for a moment. "Don't ask me, I wasn't there, but the rumors are all over town. One of the sailors got drunk and thought he saw some imaginary creature right before they started leaking. Probably cut the holes himself, but it's a good story."

The normal scowl came back. "If you don't know what's in these crates, there's no way in hell I'm going to tell you. Keep your nose out of it, that's my advice. And if they think they're going to dry off a bunch of soggy... crates... and pretend they were never wet then they can kiss my ass. No deal."

Back at the docks, her friend among the guards waved as she approached. "The quartermaster says that if you can stop the leak for an hour he'll pay you 20 denarii. Maybe that caravan won't take the cargo, but some of it might not be totally soaked through, we can sell it to someone."

He glanced at the more surly guard, who still wasn't talking to Amber. "Oh, and, uh, Spiritual Powers are still illegal in Badaria. We're going to be here a while, so it'd be best if we didn't break the law. Normal magic is okay, but the other sort is banned." He shifted uncomfortably, then leaned towards Amber and whispered. "I'm, ah, not exactly sure what the difference is. But I doubt anyone can tell while you're underwater. Just be careful."

 

[sturm]

Re: Trouble in the Deep (sturm) GMed by thetwo

Amber bowed her head to the woman taking charge of the caravan. "I see, thank you for the advice. Safe travels and success to you."

Returning to the boat, she decided the leviathan rumor bore investigating. Though it seemed unlikely the boat would have survived an encounter of a leviathan. She was happy to hear that the quartermaster would buy her services. She would be able to settle her debt with the shopkeeper fairly soon it seemed.

When the seaman informed her of the standing prohibition on spirit powers she sighed in exasperation and shook her head. "That is not an issue for me. Still, good thing that their entire country is in ruins and they still see fit to wage war against themselves rather than the invaders. Oh well. I will get to work." She dove into the water, not bothering to remove her dress. She preferred wet clothing anyway.

Once in the water, she deftly swam around the ship, looking for holes that needed sealing. When away from the eyes of the sailors, she would look more closely for signs that might indicate a leviathan attack, and which of the creatures it might have been. Additionally, if there was a hole big enough to look through, she would see if she couldn't get a look at what the cargo might be. But only if there wasn't much risk of being caught, she had no desire to lose her pay over a little curiosity.

Spoiler

Since I don't know which specific spell would freeze water over the hull, I'll just let you decide how much EP is spent. Also, huzzah for NOT pushing the asshole into the water with her spirit powers! Best decision ever!

 

[thetwo]

Re: Trouble in the Deep (sturm) GMed by thetwo

On her initial examination of the vessel, there weren't any obvious holes. There was damage, though. It looked rather as if they had run aground, onto jagged rocks. The damage was spread over the entire bottom of the vessel, chunks torn out of the wood in an odd pattern that looked almost natural. Some of them were deep enough to threaten the seaworthiness of the vessel, but the few places where it looked like something had torn all the way through had already been patched with some combination of sticky resin and wood pulp, from the inside.

It would be the work of fifteen or twenty minutes to go along the entire bottom of the boat, freezing each particularly damaged patch enough to make it stick for a few hours, but it wouldn't be very demanding magically. Most of it would be practically cantrips, with a little more power thrown in here and there to tie everything together.

Spoiler

Between natural regeneration and the use of level 1-2 spells, I'll call it 10 EP to seal the bottom for an hour or two. If there's anything else you want to do while you're in the water, now's the time.

 

[sturm]

Re: Trouble in the Deep (sturm) GMed by thetwo

Looking at damage to the underside of the boat, Amber puzzled over the nature of the damage for a moment before she decided that if, and that was a big if, the boat had been damaged by a leviathan, it was likely Aboshan, the kraken. However, she didn't buy it. The kraken's suckers would likely have destroyed this boat with even a chance blow as the leviathan passed by on its way to some other mischief. Could it instead be the work of the Fomori? Or perhaps something else, maybe one of the larger leviathan's had been resting close to the surface and this boat had been unfortunate enough to run aground on it, but fortunate enough to not piss it off. Regardless, she would have to put her mind to it.

After finishing up, she sized the boat up, considering going under it to shift back to her mermaid form for even a moment or two. But no, that was simply not a risk she could take at this time, especially not in broad daylight. She would simply endure. Swimming back to the beach, she walked up onto the sand and back around to the dock. Finding the friendly guard she said, "It is done. Though I must say, it is unlike damage I have seen before. I wonder what could have caused it. Do any of the other sailors have ideas?" She didn't want to let on that she had heard rumors about the leviathan, wanting to play this close to the chest and just maintain it as idle curiosity for now.

Spoiler

Is there a limit to time spent shapeshifted?

 

[thetwo]

Re: Trouble in the Deep (sturm) GMed by thetwo

The guard blushed slightly after she asked her question, but he answered it willingly enough. "It felt like we ran aground. Only we were in the middle of the open ocean, barely in sight of land. Our lookout... well, he was drunk on duty. Lucky we brought him back to land. It must have been... I don't know, a ship that didn't sink all the way, or something."

He pointed at the other ship. "They came through the same area and also hit something. Could have been pirates trying to cripple honest merchants or something, seeding the ocean with something under the water, and they just didn't do quite enough damage to come in for the kill." The man didn't sound entirely convinced.

He shrugged, and tossed a small leather pouch to Amber. "Anyway, here's the coin I promised you for delivering that message. Come back in an hour and if the water isn't back you'll get what the quartermaster promised."

The pouch turned out to contain 5 denarii. The clothes were probably only worth 1-2 denarii, which left enough for a decent meal or a few mugs of beer.

Spoiler

My impression is that there is not.

 

[sturm]

Re: Trouble in the Deep (sturm) GMed by thetwo

A thoughtful look passed over Amber's face. If both events happened in the same area, it did merit checking out. If she could ascertain what had happened, be it leviathans or not, she could sooner discount this all and be on her way.

"That is most...peculiar... Could you tell me where about this was?" Regardless, she thanked the man and was on her way. She had an hour to kill, so she could get food and pay off her debt. Her first stop was to the shop. Poking inside the door, she looked for the woman who had given her the clothes. "Ma'am? I have the money to pay you back for the clothes now. Thank you for your graciousness."

 

[thetwo]

Re: Trouble in the Deep (sturm) GMed by thetwo

The man thought for a moment. "Not sure exactly where. The night before last, probably about 50 miles North, barely in sight of land." He seemed to catch himself staring at Amber's hips, and the soaking-wet clothing plastered against them, and coughed as he looked away.

A few minutes later she had stopped dripping and entered the shop where she'd gotten her clothes. The woman didn't seem overly enthusiastic about the money, though she did seem surprised to see Amber again. "Oh? Well, leave whatever you think they're worth on the counter. A denarii or two, probably."

This still level Amber with at least 45 minutes to burn before she'd get the rest of her pay. A quick glance showed that the caravan was a plume of dust heading towards the horizon, and most of the activity in the town seemed to have dried up. What was left was congregating at the town's eating and drinking establishments.

 

[sturm]

Re: Trouble in the Deep (sturm) GMed by thetwo

"Of course, my thanks again, ma'am." As she was about to leave, Amber decided to ask the woman on a whim, "You wouldn't happen to know anything about those ships out there, would you?"

If the woman knew nothing, she would simply leave and find a mid-size tavern where she could grab a good meal for her remaining denarii. Maybe if she kept her ears tuned she could pick up some sort of information, some sort of rumor. Some sort of something that could help her.

 

[thetwo]

Re: Trouble in the Deep (sturm) GMed by thetwo

The meal was a dark stew, with some sort of meat that Amber didn't recognize. Not fish, not seafood of any sort. And some sort of vegetable that she didn't exactly recognize either, though considering how thoroughly cooked they were that probably didn't really matter. Still, it was filling, and it gave her an excuse to listen in on some of the conversations around her.

The three men drinking a few seats down at first seemed like harmless drunks, but after a few minutes something about their conversation caught the mermaid's attention.

"I'm telling you, that's what I saw! I was only a little drunk then, I didn't get really plastered until after, for obvious reasons."

"Well, I can see that last bit, at least. But I've never seen a crab bigger then my hand, and never saw a red one what wasn't cooked. And I've seen all kinds of strange monsters."

The third man, older than the other two, looked away disgusted, and took a deep drink from his beer, finishing it. "There's an Island, you see, covered in gold. And I found it. Only, it's also covered in monsters, see. Me and my crew fought off dozens of the things, until only I was left! But it was worth it, for the... enough gold plates to serve a king, diamonds the size of your head!"

"Explain again why you ain't rich, then, kid."

"I've told you a hundred times, I was exhausted after all that killing, and fled back into the sea with only what I could fit in me pockets! And then I had to take my jacket off because I couldn't swim weighed down by all that gold!"

"Yea. And you didn't even manage to stick one little diamond in your pocket? And naturally you've completely forgotten where it was."

"Yea? What about you? Even if he is full of crap, at least he has a good story."

"Ha! I have a better story then you'll ever hear, never told a soul. Swore I'd never tell! But that was decades ago... I might show you young folk a thing or two, tell you about the time I killed a God!" He burped, and looked at his empty mug. "But not without a full mug or two to keep me company."

One of his companions glanced around the room. "Good luck with that! Come on, lets see if we can get in on that dice game..."

The two younger men went and joined a larger group of soldiers around a table, with dice and coins rapidly changing hands, leaving their fellow drunkard alone at the bar. Amber was finished eating, and felt that it had probably been nearly an hour since she'd worked her magic, now.

 

[sturm]

Re: Trouble in the Deep (sturm) GMed by thetwo

Listening in on the conversation, she noted the face of the man, planning on checking with her guard friend to see if he was the lookout. If he was, then he was describing Chisei, the Great Crab. She supposed that could explain it, there was probably some pattern to his chitin armor that could make the marks she had seen. But it was still a pretty big if. And she had never seen a leviathan up close anyway, nor did she particularly want to.

The story of an island of riches didn't interest her. She put no stock in such stories, and she had far more pressing concerns than material wealth now. Like her missing god and the destruction of her entire civilization.

The man with the story of slaying a god piqued her interest, he was older and could prove to be a good source of information, or he could not, but it would only cost her some cheap beer to find out. Unfortunately, she had spent her money, but if he was still here when she returned with her pay, she would see about getting the man some beer.

Since her hour had elapsed, she made her way back to the dock, confident her magic had earned her another 20 denarii.

 

[thetwo]

Re: Trouble in the Deep (sturm) GMed by thetwo

The guard was waiting with a heavier bag of coin, the 20 denarii for her temporary seal. He listened to the description of the man from the bar claiming to have seen a giant crab. "Yea, that sounds like him. Don't pay attention to his stories, he was drunk off his ass. And... I'd stay away from him in general, at the moment. Word is going around that he's officially kicked off the boat for being drunk on duty. He'll never get hired on another boat from here, and some people get a little violent about that sort of thing before they realize they just have to find a new port a ways away. Especially if they're drunk."

 

[sturm]

Re: Trouble in the Deep (sturm) GMed by thetwo

Listening to the guard and accepting the pouch of coin, Amber nodded attentively when the man warned her about the drunk. "I see, I will take care to avoid him. There was one other thing..." She described the older sailor, seeing if this guard knew anything about him before she bade him a good night, letting him know that she would probably be in town for at least another day should they require any more assistance.

That done, she would head back to the bar and see if the old man was there, and if he was she would see about getting him some nice, cheap, beer to loosen his tongue.

 

[thetwo]

Re: Trouble in the Deep (sturm) GMed by thetwo

"I think I've heard of him. Used to be a sailor, but he's been retired for about twenty years now. Never heard anything in particular about him. Nice enough, a bit quiet. Likes listening to outrageous stories."

Back at the tavern things had quieted down. The dice game and players were gone, and most people had finished lunch. A few people were left nursing drinks. Nobody was at the bar. But in the back of the room sitting at a table in the corner, near the fire, was the old man. He was finishing off a plate of stew, and looked up curiously as Amber approached.

 

[sturm]

Re: Trouble in the Deep (sturm) GMed by thetwo

On her way to the old man's table, she tossed two denarii on the bar and picked up to mugs of ale.

Sitting down across from the man, she pushed a mug across to him. "So you killed a god did you?"

 

[thetwo]

Re: Trouble in the Deep (sturm) GMed by thetwo

"Did I say that? Did I also say I swore on pain of death never to tell anyone about all this? Hmmm... but you're a pretty Lass and..." he took a sip of the beer "this isn't the worst beer I've ever had, so maybe I'll tell you.

The Island where this all happened was an unremarkable place. A shelf of rock barely jutting up out of the sea. A few hundred yards across. Hundreds like it in that part of the world. The journey there was bad. A storm rocked the ocean until it felt like I was going up and down mile-high walls half the time. But it was important that no magic was used to reach the place, and that nobody on the boat ever touched the ocean, because we set out to do battle with Elric, God of the Sea, and if he realized that we were on that island and set against us, we would have been dead and buried at the bottom of the sea out before we knew anything was wrong.

I labored on that island, along with my crew, for a year and a day, building everything we might need in the coming fight. When you're facing a god, this is a lot, and if you could see the things we built in such a short time you'd understand that maybe we did stand a chance at succeeding. By the time we were done, not a piece of the island above the storm tide mark remained unfinished rock. Runes and circles wove and churned, until even those uninitiated in the magical arts could feel the very air - though never the water - trying to live.

I wasn't alone in this, no. Mages from across the world had to work together, moving magic that would break most mortal minds to even imagine, all while remaining hidden from a God. That was the most difficult part of the whole thing, making sure that we completed our preparations and plans without giving Elric time to make plans of his own. It got to be so that we didn't dare do the least unnecessary thing by magic for fear that it would spill over into the ocean and make everything we did for naught.

Then came the bait. It was a masterful plan. All sailors have heard of behemoths that stalk the seas, though none I trust has seen one and lived to tell the tale. Enough rumors though, among enough people, and you start to wonder... well, we figured there was one sure way to find out. We built the image of a beast, enormous beyond belief! All tentacles and malevolent eyes, eyes that looked into your soul and found it wanting! And then we added more! Smell like everything that has ever died in the sea! Skin that would tear your arm off to touch it, boiling hot and icy cold! A scream that made any who heard it wish they'd be taken straight to hell rather then risk ever hearing it again! More! We bent the magical auras around it to make it seem real, even to a god! And then we put it in the sea!

I had doubted, at times, if Elric really existed, if he was really a God, and one of the most powerful to walk the face of the earth. I didn't doubt it for long. The rage and fury and raw magic that came surging at our beasts made me fear for my life more than I had even on the boat over or ever since! But we were ready for it. Our illusory leviathan clawed its way onto the island and into the heart of the traps we had woven from the very fabric of reality. And Elric followed."

He paused for a moment, smacking his lips slightly. "Huh, I seem to be out of beer." He looked around at the several people who had been covertly listening in, but his eyes settled on Amber.

 

[sturm]

Re: Trouble in the Deep (sturm) GMed by thetwo

Amber could only listen in shock. Not only was this man claiming to have killed a god...but...Elric? Surely it was lies. It had to be...Why would anyone...

She could only listen as the story continued. If true, it was so much work, so much effort, and so much magic these men and put into...what? Killing themselves? Destroying the world? Why?

When the man smacked his lips and remarked that he was out of beer, Amber pushed her untouched beer across the table without a word.

She had to hear more.

 

[thetwo]

Re: Trouble in the Deep (sturm) GMed by thetwo

The man accepted the beer happily, and started drinking again. "Well, next came the battle. This wasn't any little childrens' game, throwing fire and ice and lightning as mages sometimes do. This was a true battle of raw magic. Elric tore at the fabric of reality around him with enough power to destroy and remake the world. Could have been what he was trying to do, destroy the world and then remake it as it was, but without us.

Nobody can stand up to that. A mortal, even a few of them, against a greater god? Our magic was only a pale shadow of his, cobwebs spun of light trying to hold solid steel. But we'd labored on our trap long and hard, and knew more or less what we were up against. We built a trap that could hold a god, then doubled it and doubled it again. Good thing too. We bent reality in a circle around him with our wards and runes, and a few cobwebs of light applied at just the right place were able to bend his steel into a hoop. We bent reality ourselves, only instead of destroying the world, we turned it inside out around Elric, tearing him from our reality so that no amount of power could free him.

Some measure of his power, unleashed in that battle, stuck to the island, though. Now it's locked in perpetual storm, making the one I braved on my way to the island look like a little squall. None can sail it and survive, even Elric hadn't summoned Eldritch beasts in his last moment to guard him. Of course, with our trap deployed and Elric safely away, we didn't have to sail back, we just used magic."

He emptied his beer for a second time, and leaned back, satisfied. At least a dozen in the tavern had been listening by the end, but with that they all went back to what they were doing. The story had been a good one, but it was over.

"Now there... there's a story worth telling."

 

[sturm]

Re: Trouble in the Deep (sturm) GMed by thetwo

When the tale was done, Amber cocked her head to the side and lightly clapped her hands together.

"My, my, what a tale indeed, one for the ages. Please tell a simple land-dweller such as myself, what would possess a people to seal away a god? I come from a place where the most interesting news before the invasion was that of the size of the litter a sow had, so I can't fathom why someone would do such a thing! Oh and where might one find this island of storms and... you called them Eldritch beasts, yes?"

This couldn't be true...it couldn't...Elric.... She needed her answers fast. Such magic to bind Elric...outside of reality... Amber didn't know what to think. But such magic was far beyond her. A horrible feeling settled in her stomach. She didn't want to believe old fool, but Elric been gone for so long. Could this really be his fate? This was bad. Very, very bad.

Spoiler

So how much can Amber know about the Leviathans? Is the info in the lore considered common knowledge for Merfolk?
On a completely unrelated note: Amber is probably going to have to vacate the bar before she goes HAM all over the place...

 

[thetwo]

Re: Trouble in the Deep (sturm) GMed by thetwo

Spoiler

Tassadar: what's in the lore is common knowledge for merfolk.

"Gods make enemies, Lass, just like anyone else. Elric... a lot of sailors have died screaming to him for help. Some I knew. Some I saw die. One I loved. I didn't ask anyone else's reasons."

The man suddenly looked shifty, scratching at the back of his neck and looking to make sure nobody else was closely listening. They weren't. "Well, I can't go telling people that... it's dangerous, folks would get hurt trying to get there."

 

[sturm]

Re: Trouble in the Deep (sturm) GMed by thetwo

He is not your god, you are not his people, and the ocean is not your domain, human...and Elric still did more for you than you will likely ever know

There was a cold rage beginning to spread in Amber's chest, but she suppressed it. She had to. In these times all Merfolk had to make sacrifices for the good of their people. One of hers would be restraining herself from forcing all of the knowledge of the terrors Elric had held in check, all the good he had done for sailors everywhere, into this pathetic human's head, so that before he died he would know how he had managed to condemn his precious sailors to watery graves in such numbers as had not been seen in generations.

She would maintain her mask because she had to. If she didn't then her people would die. More of them than already had been killed and suffered numerous other horrible fates in the absence of Elric. Right now, there was little more that Amber would like than to hunt down every last person who had done such a thing to her king, to Elric, and make them see the true magnitude of their error, and the lives of their own people they had forfeited. Then and only then, when they were left with nothing but the realization that they were responsible for sealing away the one being that kept the oceans even remotely sail-able, that they were directly responsible for the deaths of countless men, women, children, husbands, wives, lovers, friends, sailors, and shorebound. Then and only then would she allow them to die.

But she had given her word. She had pledged her life to help the Merfolk, and she could not go back on such a pledge. If she had to pretend to be some innocent, curious girl and pander to this man, then so be it. Such was her sacrifice.

"But you're not telling people, you're telling me!" Amber leaned towards the man and said this with a low conspiratorial whisper, stifling a playful giggle. "Besides, I'm not so silly that I'd go out there, it's just something good to know. A place like that, a tale like yours should not be forgotten. It should serve as an inspiration to others. I mean, one of the great purposes of tavern-tales is that they inspire ever greater deeds among the common-folk! Why, I would not be here, countless miles from home, if not for the tale of a man in our local bar about how great things were in a city a mere thirty miles away! Can you even imagine the deeds that will be inspired by your actions? Come now, you simply must tell me! What's more, everyone should know of such a place as this island, a reminder of man's greatest triumph!" Though there was much enthusiasm in her voice, she kept her volume down so as to not attract attention and make the drunk uncomfortable.