Obsidian Ocean

[The_Unknownbone]

Obsidian Ocean

https://oi1094.photobucket.com/albums/i445/Chirp85/apps.13096.14279781431548780.7045cc94-952c-459a-9e88-20af9cda5cfe_1.jpg

You awaken from a brief, fitful slumber to the same sights and sounds that have been your constant companion since you were purchased and brought onto this ship almost three weeks ago. The cold damp smell of rotting wood and the clink clink clink of heavy chains swaying. Opening your eyes you are greeted by the dark hold of an old, creaking ship, and the huddled bodies of your fellow slaves around you. The hold is illuminated by a single filthy oil lamp guttering low on a table outside the heavy iron gate that seals your cell off from the rest of the hold. The floor of the hold is covered by a half inch of cold, brackish water. After three weeks of sitting in water you are sure you must have mold growing in uncomfortable places, and the skin on your bare feet is shriveled and numb. Your clothes are worn and tattered, covered in filth both foreign and your own, and your wrists and ankles are shackled together with black iron chains.

You haven't seen your captors in two days. Not since they last graced you with their presence to throw stale bread into the water on the floor and to drag off a homely young human girl you knew as Marina. She has not returned and you suspect she never will. All you know is that the ship is crewed almost entirely by kobolds, gray skinned and covered in tiny horns. You’ve seen the quarter master only once, when you were brought on board, a large, black scaled lizard folk male with one eye. You’ve never seen the captain or the first mate, but from what little you have managed to figure out from the kobold’s yapping, you know they are treasure hunters who purchased you and your fellow slaves as labor for their latest hunt.

Besides yourself and the other slaves who were brought on board with you, there are four others chained and shivering in the ship's hold. Two are small, frog-like amphibian females of a race you don’t recognize. They are slender, with smooth, bright green skin with blue markings and jewel bright red eyes. They resemble tree frogs and are clearly not native to the Underdark. One of the other slaves is a scrawny creature that can only be described as some sort of goblin-bat hybrid. Mottled brown skin covered in course black hair cover an emaciated body. The creature is male, and his shackles run through iron rings that have been pierced into his wings and locked to the floor. The last slave in the cell is a massive ogre. The big, brutish creature fills nearly a quarter of the cell on his own, and has clearly not been a slave long given the iron corded muscle visible beneath his dark brown skin. His chains look thicker and heavier than your own.

The ship groans as it rocks in the water, and the muffled sound of kobold yapping on the deck above make you wonder if the ship might be nearing it’s destination. You likely ave only a few minutes before the kobolds appear to retrieve you for whatever purpose the captain has planned.

https://i.pinimg.com/originals/1e/66/54/1e6654aa0cc47e498cddb76ffff2bbf5.jpg
http://srd.dndtools.org/srd/resource/images/races/racesMm3Nycter.jpg
https://i.pinimg.com/564x/b8/d4/55/b8d455e37350aa9393e83416382dd224.jpg

[Reynard]

"We're stopping, I think." Tavryn spoke into the cell, his voice quiet and weak. Perhaps the others had already realised, particularly Beed, but saying it helped the young priest feel like he had a handle on the situation.

He was sitting on his knees, slumped against the gate and watching the sputtering lamp through the bars, purely because it was one of the only things he could see. Scuffs and bruises covered a lot of his body, though he only knew about those through the sharp stabs and dull throbbing whenever he bumped or brushed them against something, which was almost all of the time.
Not much was left of his old clothes; the slavers had ripped off anything that looked remotely religious the moment they had discovered his god-given magic. After beating him senseless for casting a simple Light cantrip, of course.

He'd taken other beatings since then, usually for trying to help another slave after their own beatings. They were good people in here with him. More than half had helped him as well, acting as his eyes when their captors had left them in the dark.

Using the bars of the gate, and with what meager strength he had left, Tavryn struggled to his feet. His mind kept turning to escape attempts, but there had never been a good moment. Maybe today. Mystra, guide my mind. And give me a staff.

[Ricedaddy]

Beed was nearly finished with his morning meditation when Tavryn spoke up, having woken from his sleep, if you can call it that, a little while ago. He now sat slightly apart from the huddle of the others. While he chaffed at the discipline of the teaching at the monastery, the self-discipline it shaped inside of him, and the solace it brought, was something he had held fast to in his weeks (months even?) since his enslavement.

A stinging of his wrists and ankles reminded him of another kind of chaffing. Well, not much of a point in chasing a lost cause much longer, he thought. Rising, he began stretching knotted muscles...as much as the chains allowed him. By the gods, what he wouldn't give for a nice inn or even five minutes without these blasted chains.

"I don't know what's worse, Tavryn, the cold and hunger of their negligence at sea, or the exhaustion and whips on land," Beed grumbled, his normally smooth voice raspy in a parched throat. "If only we were stopping at a pub for a drink, my friend. Or they could just toss us a keg in here. We have a motley enough assortment to make the seediest tavern in Sembia proud. Even if half of them never speak."

He didn't know much about the young human, only that he was also raised by a religious order. The slave drivers didn't care for much talking. But when you have nothing even slight connections were worth paying attention to.

[Jaryn]

Gods it's cold in here, thinks Alathiel. He can't say anything, of course, as he is gagged. He tried taking it off once, just to get the foul taste out of his mouth and release his aching jaw. That hadn't gone down particularly well with his owners, and since then he's learned to just leave it in.

Nonetheless, he nods at Tavryn and does his best to smile at the young human. He points at his eyes and then out at the bars of the gate, tilting his head to one side inquisitively as he does so.

[Ramsus]

https://i.pinimg.com/564x/ef/15/16/ef1516731905d586b8410f844304919d.jpg
Trembling Leaf on the Wind (https://www.myth-weavers.com/sheet.html#id=2030282)
Tabaxi Aberrant Mind Sorcerer/Scardey-Cat
AC: 16 HP: 8/8
PP: 13 PIv: 9 PIs: 13
Conditions: --
Concentrating On: --

As the other captives had seen several times before, Trembling Lead of the Wind regained consciousness only to flail around in blind panic and issue forth muffled screams into their gag at finding themselves in water. This time he tried climbing up onto the ogre to get out of it, rather than the very common screaming himself into exhaustion or flailing about until he became deathly still for a while.

[Niobaran]

Raz

Awoken from the flailing cat creature the young woman tries to jump on her feet, but fails. The chains are hindering her, and the lack of food and energy in general, do the rest. "Morning." she mumbles. "Everyone still with us?" Her eyes dart around, well-accustomed to the dark, as if counting. "Good," she assesses, more growling than speaking.

"Did I miss anything?" She asks, yawning and rolling around, trying to stretch different muscles in her body.

https://i.pinimg.com/564x/08/cb/57/08cb578bee3699c421177bc0c0da53e9.jpg (https://i.pinimg.com/564x/08/cb/57/08cb578bee3699c421177bc0c0da53e9.jpg)

[Ricedaddy]

"Tavryn believes we are stopping. I'd agree. Other than that...just more of the same," Beed says.

[Niobaran]

Raz

The woman just stays still for a moment. "Yes, I think you are right." She starts to sound agitated. "If only we knew what they plan, those..." She tries to calm down, lowly humming a melody as she did often in the last weeks.

[Ricedaddy]

"Yes...Well, I was never the best student but if Zivilyn teaches anything it's that knowledge is strength. Since they want to keep us weak I doubt they'll tell us anything. Even if they were scaly little twits. I don't mean it to sound like we'll neven know, it may just call for some cleverness."

Beed looks over to the Tabaxi currently trying to summit the ogre. He didn't know anything about their kind. He hadn't even been aware of their existence until seeing the soaked cat in front of him for the first time on this ship. "There's no avoiding it, you might as well come to peace with the fact that we're on rot bucket of a ship. There's going to be water around you."

[Reynard]

He couldn't see much of the cell they were in, but he knew the voices of his fellow captives well enough.

'The Kobolds are excited, Raz. Something's happening, maybe we've arrived... wherever it was they wanted to be. I'll let you all know if they say anything too threatening.*'

Metal clinked as he shuffled back from the door. If their captors were coming, it was best if he didn't have to move out of their way in a rush. His shackles caught on something, causing him to stumble trip into the wall. '<godsdammit>' Most cursewords he knew were elven, courtesy of his more unofficial teacher. He'd feel embarrassed, if he had the energy. Instead, he decided to stay where he ended up, just for a moment.

__________
((* Tavryn knows Draconic, if that's what the kobolds are speaking.))

[Niobaran]

Raz

The woman leans back. "Those little... Watch out- too late. Sorry." She sounds seriously sympathetic.

Look, friends, whatever they do to us, we can never accept it as our new life. You hear me? Never. No matter how long it takes, we will be free again." Everyone had their straw in such a situation. Hers was this.

[Ramsus]

https://i.pinimg.com/564x/ef/15/16/ef1516731905d586b8410f844304919d.jpg
Trembling Leaf on the Wind (https://www.myth-weavers.com/sheet.html#id=2030282)
Tabaxi Aberrant Mind Sorcerer/Scardey-Cat
AC: 16 HP: 8/8
PP: 13 PIv: 9 PIs: 13
Conditions: --
Concentrating On: --

Leaf vigorously shakes his head in the negative, trying to indicate he'll never be able to "accept" having to being in water. Though his ability to communicate this severely limited by the gag and the probably uncooperative ogre.

[Ricedaddy]

Beed sighs as the tabaxi shakes his head. It's so pointless to fight the unbeatable. All it does is waste the energy needed for the next fight. Guess I can't blame him, though. Not like I'm any happier with all this.

"That's the outlook, Raz. One day, you'll get to punch as many of these kobolds in the face as you'd like. I only ask that you leave some for myself. I'd like to rearrange a few of these ugly faces myself."

[Reynard]

'Give me a staff of good solid wood, and I can help with that.' Tavryn said from his slumped position, with confidence in his voice that surprised even him. 'Not all of Mystra's magic needs her symbol. There's some I can do without, but I need my hands free of these bindings and a weapon in my hand.'

He struggled upright once more, this time his knees shaking a little less. Fear had come and gone days ago, but he was not a fighter. But still, he would fight. 'We'll all get out of this, I swear it.'

[CleverCricket]

Callie sits up with a small groan, having fallen over in her sleep, not even bothering to wipe the wet strands of red hair from her face as she blinks several times and looks around the cell. The weak light from the lantern outside the door is enough to get a general idea of what is going on, and the little halfling sits herself up to lean against the wall, "Wassat?" she mumbles through a big yawn. She had probably slept the best out of everyone. Not that she was particularly comfortable, but she was used to sleeping in the cold and wet when there had been a rain storm in the forest, and it didn't bother her nearly as much as some of the others. The chains though were starting to chaff her skin.

Finally shaking herself fully awake she looks up toward the deck above them when the kobolds were yapping, "Oh dear. I hope we'll at least get some food before whatever it is they want us to do," She looks back to the group and notices the cat person trying to climb the ogre, "Oh, um....I don't think that's the best idea..." she says with a worried expression.

[Jaryn]

Alathiel regards Raz warmly. It's good to know that he's with people that still have some fight left in them.

Across the year he's been a captive it has sometimes felt like touch and go whether he had accepted this as his new life, but they haven't quite managed to extinguish that little spark of resistance. Hearing the talk of the others helps fan it further.

He stands up and joins his fellow slaves, watching the door.

[The_Unknownbone]

The is a low, rumbling growl from the giant ogre, and he grabs the tabaxi trying to scale him by the scruff with one large hand, picking him up and holding him at arms length and several feet off the floor. Dark eyes regard the group and he speaks in a deep voice, ”You all talk too much,” he doesn’t sound particularly angry, but he certainly isn’t happy either.

Just then a group of six kobolds come scrambling down the stairs from above, yapping to each other as they approach the cage. Behind them stalks the lizard folk quartermaster with a heavy morningstar in his claws. One of the kobolds unlocks your cell, and the others flood in, poking at you all with short spears to herd you toward the door. The quartermaster rattles the chain of his weapon and speaks, ”On your feet! Let’s go! Get up on deck!”

Everyone is herded up the stairs and out onto the open deck of the ship where the dank, stale air of the hold is replaced by surprisingly fresh salt air, a cool breeze rustling hair and drying skin as you are lined up along the rail. If it weren’t for the utter blackness of the looming cavern that you know is somewhere beyond your sight overhead and the handful of dim lanterns flickering around the ship, you might be mistaken in believing you were on a surface ocean rather than deep in the Underdark.

Looking around, you can see that the shipo is anchored just off the coast of a small, rocky island. In the dim light of the ship’s lanterns you can’t make out much, other than that the island appears to be very small and devoid of anything living.

Before you can spend more than a minute examining it, a voice draws your attention to a tall figure in a long coat and wide brimmed hat striding down the aft castle steps from the helm, ”Get them in the boats and find me my prize Mister Vlaz,” the man speaks to the quartermaster, ignoring the slaves entirely. He is a regal figure, standing easily over six feet tall, and his pale skin and dark hair suggest he is human. The reply of, ”Aye captain,” tells you exactly who this man is.

Then you are being shoved toward the long boats. There are three of them, and you are divided evenly between them except for the ofre who goes alone with only the quartermaster.

[Ricedaddy]

What could be so special about that tiny spit of dirt? Beed thought before he was yanked off by his chains. While normally he dragged his feet just short of the point he'd feel the whip, he followed a little more quickly today...looking for an opportunity to step on a Kobold's toe and make it look an accident.

Master Vellum at the monastery would chastise him for childish behavior, but Master Vellum had never been enslaved before. Beed found that tiny moments of rebellion helped him wait for the day a true opportunity for escape showed itself.



DM: I'm not sure which you would ask for, deception or sleight of hand, so I'm rolling a straight d20 and listen the bonuses below so you may use which one you deem appropriate.

[roll0]

Deception: +0
Sleight of Hand: +3

[Reynard]

Unless they were just required for a sacrifice... the island was be a chance. They would need their hands unbound to work, so let that happen. They would be alone with the quartermaster and the kobolds, a fight they had a better chance of winning than here on the boat... perhaps they should even find the thing the captain wanted, it might aid them in the escape.

As they jostled him towards the boats, Tavryn drifted towards Beed and Alatheil, in the hopes they would all end up on the same boat. A chance to share his plan in Elven.*
_____________________
((*I don't know if Tavryn knows that Raz can also speak it, so I'm assuming he doesn't or that if he did, he's forgotten.))

[Ramsus]

https://i.pinimg.com/564x/ef/15/16/ef1516731905d586b8410f844304919d.jpg
Trembling Leaf on the Wind (https://www.myth-weavers.com/sheet.html#id=2030282)
Tabaxi Aberrant Mind Sorcerer/Scardey-Cat
AC: 16 HP: 8/8
PP: 13 PIv: 9 PIs: 13
Conditions: --
Concentrating On: --

Leaf was terrified for a moment when the ogre grabbed him, then so thankful he could cry when it held him safely out of the water, and then terrified (though less so) again when the smelly nasty scaley things came back and pointed their weapons around. As they walked, Leaf tried to guide himself over to Raz. And then they were on top of water again and he did his best to just stare up at the ceiling so he could try (and fail) to pretend the water wasn't there.

[Jaryn]

Alathiel stares at the captain for a second, wondering what a human was doing down here alongside kobolds. Then he finds himself being shoved along towards the boats.

As Tavryn drifts towards him, he falls in step with the priest and climbs into the nearest boat.

[Niobaran]

Raz

Defiance dominates her face when they are brought to the mysterious captain. She is not trying to suck up to her captors, even if it may give her advantage. Not yet anyway. Over the last weeks, she had always had her bursts of energy and her phases of exhaustion thereafter. Still, they had not succeeded to break her yet.

The way she is treated makes her angry, and it uses up most of concentration to just not burst again, so that she is not really processing yet what the captain says. She still tries to remember his voice, so that she would recognize him, when the time would come.

When they are brought to the boats, she notices that Leaf seeks out her company, and she gives him a friendly glance in an unobserved moment. He was a mysterious creature, and she had wanted to talk to him for some time now. His gag had everything more difficult though.

Seeing the ogre getting onboard with the quartermaster, there is only one thought in her mind. I hope the ogre lets the boat keel over, and drowns this lizard.