The Savage Tide III: Tides of Dread [IC]

[Blackhawk101]

A saddened but strangely resolute Hoggie sits cross legged on the sand near the group.

Spoiler: Hoggie>>>Collective

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“The Kopru is a deadly adversary for certain, but I am not willing to let Rhoha’s life be for naught! I do not regret my decision to try to resolve this conflict without violence but we are past that now. If you are willing to fight to avenge our comrade and complete our mission, we must pool all our resources to defeat this foe. What say you?”
”Rusty, can you help me with your healing?”

[lostsole31]

Rusty lays a paw on his master, fully healing Hoggie. When he does it for himself, the results are far less spectacular. Good for Rusty's standard, but not quite enough to heal him to full.

What now?

[digiman619]

Kabsi nods, answering aloud rather than via tepe as he gets to his feet. "We'll need to get together and arm ourselves with stabbing weapons, and the rest of you will need ways to breathe underwater. We'll need a way to surround it and not let it separate us. If we let it get us alone, we're doomed." He looks around. "I had a cestus before that wave dissolved it, so I'll see if we anything that'll work for me before we head back in."

[lostsole31]

Skald shakes his head. "Our priority was to raise the Sea Wyvern, but with our biggest bruiser down .... and the only other one capable of easily dealing with underwater issues .... I think we need to wait for backup. Now, Reggie says the Blue Nixie is expected here tomorrow. I might not be happy with losing a day of work on the Wyvern, but that doesn't even compare to Rhoha's death, or anyone else's, if we are myopic on this."

"Hey," says Reggie, "I'm sorry you all lost the big guy. He was kinda fun, but I also nearly lost my brother from the sounds of things. I'm not an adventurer, but I think we wait for the Nixie .... yeah, that whatever-you-fought (what did you fight, again?) ... they might just let out of here from the sheer volume of bodies."

[digiman619]

Kabsi looks out over the deep. "Damn it all." he curses softly before nodding. It tore him up to surrender a teammate like this, but he saw no other choice. "Very well. I will wait for the Blue Nixie. I need to be alone for a bit; there are prayers that need to be offered" With that, he will tepe Hoggie to request to be dropped from his link, Once he is free of outside influence, he walk about 75 feet or so from the rest of the party, at the ocean's edge, and prayed to Chalchihuitlicue. While she was mostly a goddess of water, childbirth, and healing, water-related deaths were also in her purview. He offered up a prayer to her, asking that the soul of his teammate be treated well by her and that Tlālōcān would welcome him with open doors.

[lostsole31]

Hoggie, what do you do?

[Blackhawk101]

Hoggie drops all psychic links and sits morosely staring at the sand.

[lostsole31]

Okay, at some point someone is going to do something, even if it is set up camp for the night.

So ... ?

[Blackhawk101]

Hoggie will eventually rise and state:
“The time to hesitate is through
No time to wallow in the mire
Try now we can only lose
And our love become a funeral pyre

Come on baby, light my fire
Come on baby, light my fire
Try to set the night on fire, yeah.”
He moves off to begin gathering driftwood on the beach. He will lift large logs into air without touching them and push the down the beach until he has a large collection of wood.

Spoiler: crunch

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use levitate spell spell to lift large logs
use floating disk spell to move smaller branches.
”light my fire” by the Doors.

[lostsole31]

Kabsi, what do you do?

[digiman619]

Kabsi will aid in the set-up; it's something to do with his hands that will keep his mind busy.

[lostsole31]

That evening there is a bugling sound ... not a bugle, but a strange, bugling or trumpeting noise coming from the water.

[lostsole31]

The bugling noise occurs again - definitely biologic in origin, and not an actual musical instrument.

Reggie looks to the party, "You heroes gonna' check on that?"

[Blackhawk101]

Not being able to investigate in the water or see at night, Hoggie will send his mind questing for mental contact.

Spoiler: crunch

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Detect thoughts

“Do you hear what I hear?”

[lostsole31]

Hoggie's spell doesn't detect the thoughts, but the sounds he hears are with the range of his search!

A voice calls out from beyond the surf, similar to the voice from before. "The pinkskin ship is yours, but with a condition. Pinkskins are vengeful predators, and where one of you are, more of you show - always taking. But your large warrior fought with honor when all others ran away. I have placed his body in respectful repose on the deck. I will guard his body from scavengers in a vigil through the night. You shall leave the hulk of the pinkskin ship until the morning. Then, after dawn, you may come to retrieve your fallen and take the ship. If you attempt to take what I give you before then, I will burn the body and the remains of the ship to the waterline. But know that you have been bested by Skephilipika the kopru and his pet, Bloodtooth."

[Blackhawk101]

Hoggie speaks loudly so his voice will carry but with no real emotion.
“He is observing the chaos, taking in the lack of raw humanity
It's as if the entire world's fallen in love with their insanity
Hear the innocent voices scream
As their tormentors laugh through all of it
No forgiveness from all I've seen
The degradation I cannot forget


So sleep soundly in your beds tonight
For judgement falls upon you at first light


I'm the hand of God
I'm the dark messiah
I'm the vengeful one.”

Spoiler: credits

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Disturbed. Vengeful One. 2015.

[digiman619]

Kabsi nods, though he realizes that the kopru cannot see it. Realizing that this is as good an offer as one could hope for at this point, he quickly tries to smooth things over. "Thank you for your generous offer. Never will I forget this day, your martial prowess, or your graciousness in victory. We will bother you no longer."

[lostsole31]

There is no more voice or bugling from the water. Even waiting a few minutes bears out that Skephilipika gave their message and either left right away, or heard Hoggie and Kabsi and responded with nothing. (To be fair, Hoggie spent some time in a creepy song.)

[digiman619]

Kabsi nods to himself. The kopru had said all he intended to say. He turns to the assorted group. "I think we've gotten all we could hope for at this point. It came at a steep price, but we've done what we can for the evening. We should probably set a watch schedule in case something else tries to get us in the middle of the night, but otherwise we should get some rest."

[lostsole31]

Shouting Tree, Tom, and even Reggie and Maje will keep watch while Kabsi and Hoggie - who took the brunt of it this past day - can sleep.

DAY 45


The next morning ... any changes to any setup?

[Blackhawk101]

Hoggie prepares with an extra helping of special “medicine” and makes no attempt to join anyone to his collective.

[digiman619]

Kabsi chose his veils carefully. While his healing was incapable of saving those past death's threshold, there were magicks that can, so he prepared a veil to preserve Kabsi's remains in case they were able to contact his spirit and return him if he so desires. He also focuses power to his head, a horn a light sprouting from it. In theory, if he'd had this bound yesterday, he could have saved Rhoha, but with the Kopru right there, it would only have slightly delayed both their deaths.

Spoiler: OOC

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Trade out Spectacles of the Sheikah for Duxandus' Icy Glare (1 E, bound)
Trade out Hyandil's Flowered Regalia for Sparkling Alicorn (1 E, Bound)
The others remain the same, but currently it's 3 E in the belt, 3 E in the feat and 2E in the hands. (all unbound)

[lostsole31]

Okay, party woke up early and did their morning routine.

Now what?

[Blackhawk101]

Hoggie and Rusty walk up to Skald and point to the boat before speaking, looking a point down and to the left of Skald’s face.
“Fly me to the moon
Let me play among the stars
Let me see what spring is like on
A-Jupiter and Mars
In other words, hold my hand.”

Spoiler: credit

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Frank Sinatra, “Fly me to the moon” 1964

[lostsole31]

Skald tries to parse through what Hoggie said. "I can fly there, but I can't fly you there, if that's what you're asking."

[digiman619]

Kabsi spoke in somber tones. "I will recover him. We will probably have to wait for the Blue Nixie's help to deal with the wreck itself, but I can do that much at least." He then steps into the ocean to start this mournful task.

[lostsole31]

"I'll go with you," says Skald. He'll fly over the surface while Kabsi swims.

They get to the boat, with Skald assisting Kabsi to the deck of the ship.

There, a sail was taken down and draped over the form of a body.

[digiman619]

Kabsi stands over the form of his fallen comrade. He pulls back the sail far enough to reveal the man's face.

[lostsole31]

"I'm sorry, R--" Kabsi begins to say, before stopping himself. There is a body underneath the sail, but the body does not belong to Rhoha. It is a man with a medium tan, dark red hair asymmetrically placed on his head and flopped to the side (probably severe bangs when he is standing), and strange bluish markings about his body and long, thick ears, far less slender but about the right length for what an elf might have. The ties at his collar and his belt is rope. His tunic and breeches are sailcloth hastily stitched together.

While this fellow is a mystery, it seems that to get to Rhoha's body, one will have to go belowdecks.

"He's breathing," observes Skald of the corpse sleeping man.

[digiman619]

Kabsi had his hand raised before, ready to infuse Rhoha's body with positive energy. That was standard operating procedure for healers of his particular branch of study; unlike the divine servants whose god only gives them a limited amount of positive energy each day, his powers worked directly via stimulating the patient's chakra. Its limits were based on how much the patient's chakra network could transfer, so he couldn't "waste" it via trying to heal someone who had already passed. The fact that it also hurt them if they had become undead in the meantime was an additional plus.

But that changed once he saw this new sleeping man. He was a healer first and foremost, and he would see to the patient he had over the one he lost. He removed more of the sail from his prone form, speaking to Skald in the mean time. "Rhoha must be below decks somewhere. Find him, but don't move his body before I can get there." Once the sail was longer hiding the man, Kabsi would then inspect him for any signs of injury.