Seaside 4: Where Every Week Is Shark Week

[Reinholdt]

[Tropical Island]

"Um.... maybe! They're kinda sacred too. They're sacred for our goddess, see." She shakes her head. "But enough jabbering, let's roll." She takes a step forwards and then quickly starts starts running straight out into the ocean, finally making a dive and disappearing beneath the waves. The fey-shark soon emerging afterwards, grinning at Ilpholin.

[Tropical Island]

Sacred. The reason the magical demon summoning power with no practical purpose you can't get out of a five hour energy drink wasn't being dealt with properly was because the wells were sacred. What a horrible reason. Ilpholin doesn't voice this out loud though. She doubts Anika will understand. Ilpholin just mentally adds the moon wells to the list of things she has to deal with.

The nymph will wade out into the water at the grinning shark. Not usually something you want to wade out to, but Ilpholin can appreciate the powerful aquatic animal knowing it's in charge. Once she's got her mask on, she gets a hold of a fin and clings to the Anark. Shika? Sharka? Anika.

[bc56]

Pirate Ship

Well, crud.
The zombies weren't supposed to split up. The captain runs headlong into the guts of the ship, while the other pirates run and get boat hooks. They intend to force the zombies away from the ladder, so some of their number can climb down to fight. They're running out of ideas, and they're already out of food, water, and bullets.

[Earl of Purple]

Pirate Ship

They didn't so much split up, so much as simply two were too single-mindedly focused on the food they saw to notice the food they didn't.

The two at the ladders are fended away from said ladders, enabling the pirates do descend and deal with them.

The captain has no trouble keeping ahead of the rest of the herd, since they seem to have forgotten how to run. Unfortunately for him, they've also forgotten how to stop, and unless he manages to hide or otherwise break line-of-sight, he'll run out of ship before they get bored with the chase.

Spectacle Sea Cave

Jack's actually lighter than she would be if she were as human as she looks; her bones are hollow, like a bird's.

Jack looks around at the cavern now that it's been revealed, and gulps. She's not sure what eating the horrors will do to the gulls, but doubt it's good. Mind you, whatever's happened to her probably isn't good, either. She's got another pair of wings, ones that don't change when she does, although they don't get in the way of her flight. Which is cool. She'll look around, try to see if this is where the treasure promised on Fortuna's note is. Hopefully the treasure isn't the wings. That would be... A little disappointing. She was expecting at the least a chest of coins or a shipwreck or a pile of gemstones.

[Rebonack]

[Spectacle Sea Cave]

Bah.

Gulls are scavengers. Their gullets can handle just about anything.

They'll be fine.

Probably.

It would appear as though the kris was consumed when the heart was unmade. Which... well. That's a bit of gold down the drain, anyway. Consumed, but for a purpose it would appear. Sitting atop the heap of rubble, adhered to the stones by roots of gold, is a sphere of soap stone with a flat lever sticking out of it, rather reminiscent of a circuit breaker. It bears no spirals to speak of. Only eyes surrounded by feather-like wreathes in the shape of stars. Five pointed. Six. Seven. Before the sigil had given Jack a rather uneasy feeling of being watched. Now it's almost... comforting? The the feeling that she has someone watching out for her.

That's probably something worth checking out, right?

Aside from the shrine atop the already fused heap of stone (not loose rubble, weird) there isn't anything else in the grotto that looks particularly valuable. Just a few gulls, several shelves and nooks that would probably make decent nesting spots, sea weed, rocks, and tide pools. The smell of salt spray is strong in here. Off to one side a little waterfall of fresh water is cascading down onto a large slab-like stone. Where it pools several sea birds are already splashing about to clean the salt off their feathers. Even if treasure is still a bit scarce thus far, the other birds probably appreciate Jack's efforts.

Maybe the real treasure was the birds she met along the way.

[Earl of Purple]

Spectacle Sea Cave

Whilst the kris was awesome, its destruction is worth the death of the heart and the return of normality. Though now there's a lever, and it's just calling out to be pulled. So Jack goes over to it, and tries to see if she can figure out what it does. She's not very mechanically minded, and if it works through electricity or magic there's almost no way she can tell- the 'almost' being her new eyes helping out. Jack doesn't recognise the circuit breaker; she's really bad at modern technology.

Jack does remember there's a load of treasure down in the briny fissure, though. She's not sure if she should get that or pull the lever first. The lever might send her somewhere else, and then she'd never get the treasure. So Jack decides to backtrack a little to the fissure where the was the gold, to gather the chalices and other bits and pieces, so that we she has the gold. She's planning on returning to the lever, though it might not be there when she returns.

[Rebonack]

[Spectacle Sea Cave]

Hopefully the cave won't rudely rearrange itself while Jack is wandering around picking up loot.

Her new eyes will inform her that there's a connection of some kind between the lever and something back up the tunnel she had traversed earlier. Her second sight doesn't tell her what this connection means, or what it does, just that if she Wills to pull it, the effect of her action would reach out to something a decent distance away. That's an interesting thing to learn, as it happens. That her sight can inform her how things are connected, how her Will and her actions connect her to other objects and maybe even other people. That could be a handy trait if she hones it.

Regardless!

Returning to the treasure trove in the fissure isn't difficult.

The abyssal tunnel isn't so abyssal any longer, just a stream of completely wholesome sea water flowing down a crack in the limestone. Already crabs and isopods are nibbling at all the dead things that were previously floating in the brine. Now they're just resting on the sandy bottom waiting to be recycled by marine scavengers. And the gold? Jack will find four more trinkets in all. A chalice, a scepter, a diadem, and a medallion. There are a number of bronze coins as well, but they're all corroded to a bright green by the brine they had been sitting in.

The gold is, of course, unblemished.

[Earl of Purple]

Spectacle Sea Cave

Huh, so pulling the lever will do something elsewhere. Hopefully it doesn't close and lock the door she came in by. That would be bad. Actually, it wouldn't be so bad, since there's an opening here to the surface.

Either way, the trinkets are examined to see if Jack's eyes can figure out anything about them and placed into her satchel where they can transform with the rest of her. Unless she's given warnings by her eyes, she'll slip the medallion and the diadem on to feel pretty. And rich, she feels rich too. She can't wear the sceptre or the chalice, though, and unless the sceptre's magic it's not really designed for hitting people, even if it is derived from the mace, which certainly was designed to hit things.

She'll go off back to the lever and pull it, or press it, or whatever this particular lever needs doing to it to activate.

[Rebonack]

[Spectacle Sea Cave]

The trinkets don't appear to be magical in any fashion. They're just really high quality solid gold objects. Which is to say, they're pretty heavy.

Gold is rather dense, after all.

It's a pleasant walk there and back, and the water is refreshingly cool rather than glacially fringed. So that's certainly a plus. Jack could stroll through the sandy shallows if she wanted. Or swim in the fissure itself. Or just walk along the rocks which now have far fewer razor sharp mussels and barnacles everywhere. As in the cavern, all the unwholesome corals are gone. Instead, light and fresh air is flowing down through the occasional hole in the ceiling. They look like they could have been blow-holes when the cavern was full of sea water. The lack of eerie coral is probably a relief. Something about the light it produced was unsettling.

Unlike those new unblinking eyes on her new wings.

Those are unsettling at all. They're perfectly normal.

Jack will be able to return to the grotto without difficulty, nor will pulling the lever be at all a problem. It clanks down like an audible thunk. She can tell something happened, but it isn't clear what.

Time to backtrack again?

[Earl of Purple]

Spectacle Sea Cave

Oh, man they are heavy. Well, they're in the satchel now and Jack just has to haul it around. Backtracking also happens, at least as far as the tunnel with the gull sounds coming from it. If that's the fish, what's the bird like? She's seen the bird, actually. Got a new pair of wings and eyes from it.

But yes, backtracking.

[Rebonack]

[Spectacle Sea Cave]

Recall that odd slab?

The one sitting upright, ringed in molten gold?

Well, by the time Jack returns to the T in the tunnels, she'll discover that the slab has moved. It's now blocking the other path, the one leading toward the riotous sound of the rookery. And as before, molten gold flows along the rim, sealing it in place. Exactly how molten gold can seal something in place is anyone's guess, but it appears to be working just fine. Water from the abyssal well is still bubbling up out of the pit in the middle of the floor, flowing down the fissure where Jack had just come from. The other head of this subterranean stream burbles along the newly opened path, flowing ankle deep over a bed of smooth, glossy blue stones. Should Jack inspect them more closely, she'll discover that the blue soapstone cobbles all bear the image of the unblinking eye.

Considering everything that's been going on, that shouldn't be too much of a shock.

At the end of the tunnel stands a dais, water cascading down the walls around it. And standing atop the dais is a statue. A strange thing, to be sure. A figure of some kind, though it's exact shape is difficult to discern. It looks to be humanoid, but with all the wings wrapped around itself it's difficult to tell. It's made of the same powder blue stone that decorates the stream, contrasting strongly with the black basalt dais and grey limestone walls. Two wings are furled downward, covering the lower portion of the statue. A second pair furls upward, covering the face, assuming it has one. The third pair of wings are spread wide, their times nearly touching the opposite walls of the grotto, water cascading around them. The wings are full of eyes, around and within. Draped over the body below, visible here and there, is a toga of orachalcum beaten thin and worked until it is rippled like cloth frozen in time. The torso, human, bears four human arms. Two cross over the chest, fingers splayed. A third is held with elbow crooked up, two fingers raised in a sign of blessing. The last is outstretched, palm up, with a shining sigil hovering above the hand. The sigil fills the whole chamber with lambent, iridescent light of a color wholly indescribable.

When Jack looks upon that sigill, she'll realize that all the images she has seen thus far, those rude carvings that looked vaguely like an eye, they were but pale imitations grasping at the glory of what now shines before her in all its subtle and ineffable glory. Jack may find herself struck with such a sense of overwhelming awe that standing may become difficult as emotion wells up inside her. It's like she's opening her eyes for the first time, as if she had never seen before and the first thing to meet her gaze is perfection.

There's an alter in front of the statue. An alter of pure, mirror-sheened orachalcum decorated with trinkets and baubles. Gold and silver and precious stones. No doubt left behind by petitioners who made this pilgrimage before her.

Jack has found the treasure, it would seem.

[UncleWolf]

Operation Sea Slug

Technically, I'm a Colonel. TTN thinks to herself, knowing better than to point it out to the gobliness as it was just a bout of silliness. The moment that the plate is in place and the cable is fastened, the BOLO gives a wave at the ship, signalling that it all seemed clear and that they could all come ashore. "William, do you see any signs of life? New or ancient. Regular patterns in the ground such as square bumps or regular mounds covered by earth and grass."

[Earl of Purple]

Spectacle Sea Cave

Jack's a little glad the other route is blocked. That auk-thing was a little disturbing, in one of the worst possible ways for her.

Jack walks into the chapel area, looking at the statue and totally enraptured. She stumbles a little and flares her wings out to catch her balance, but that idol is truly amazing, and the sign it holds above its hand is... Just, wow. Jack falls to her knees and stares at it with all four of her eyes, for a bit. She's... Not sure how long, honestly, time wasn't a big deal whilst she was so snared. She makes a note not to look at it again, she might stay down here days without realising, if she hasn't already, and she's got a date on Thursday.

She'll look at the altar and its piled treasure, but she's not truly comfortable taking from a deity. When gods get angry, the side-effects can be quite severe, although she has helped this particular entity in some form of struggle- she doesn't really understand what she's been doing or what's going on- so she's going to have a look, see if her new eyes see anything that might be threatening or bad.

[bc56]

Pirate Ship

The first pirate to come down the ladder isn't nearly as good of a swordsman as the captain. He stabs the nearest zombie, but he aims for the heart, not yet knowing that they can only be killed by headshots.
The captain keeps running, which is definitely a problem, but he is running to the ladder he came down on, which should allow him an escape route.

[Rebonack]

[Spectacle Sea Cave]

Nothing seems to be overtly threatening. Nor does anything in here seem to be bad.

Just a fantastic statue and a sigil that pulls at Jack's gaze.

She might notice that the soap stone cobbles that litter the path aren't all inscribed. In fact, most of them aren't. The ones with eyes scratched into them are just common enough to be immediately noticeable.

Maybe...

If Jack didn't want to leave an offering of gold or jewels, she could scratch an eye into one of the blank stones?

It seems like that's what most people who visited here probably did, considering that there isn't a dragon's hoard worth of riches left behind.

Just a modest little trove.

Of course, that modest little trove is probably worth more than Jack has ever seen in her life.

[Shadowcaller]

[Tropical Island]

And off they go! The fey-shark quickly propelling itself away from the island with a few powerful thrusts with its fins.
Some time later they start approaching a larger island. From traveling near the seas surface Ilpholin can see a large temple that has been build upon the tall hill dominating the island. However, it does not look like this temple has been used in some time. Parts of it has collapsed and she can't see any signs of habitation.

However, she can also see a small settlement on the island close to the actual beach. There are people there, particularly alert people in fact as some of them points at the approaching shark fin.
They don't appear armed, dressed in little more than out washed old clothes, likely making them fishermen of some sort. They are acting afraid though, which is probably a reasonable reaction when a huge monstrous shark is swimming right towards your settlement.

Operation Sea Slug

"Toss them to the imp! He can take it!" Tammy claims
"ygoneboi!" The imp chatters in Will's direction, already giving him the finger. "ymum!"
Tammy giggles. "He's such a cutie, isn't he?"

Now they can see that the gnolls themselves are scrambling to take the next tour down to the island.
However, as for traces of life, all he can see is insects and-

Wait, is that scorch marks?

Further down, near the cliff edge is a large rock that looks partly melted and a lot of the thorns have been burned away by something Will might recognize as laser.
Something definitely went down near the beach on the opposite end of the beach (from where they landed).

[Earl of Purple]

Spectacle Sea Cave

That's a good idea, actually. Leaving a mark on the cobbles. Jack's going to bend down and try to carve something with her magic shovel. She's not an expert stone-carver, and the shovel likely isn't the best thing to use, but she didn't bring a chisel or a hammer with her, for some reason.

It's a big pile of treasure, certainly, but Jack doesn't want to piss off a god, and she's already got some gold. Though... She has helped the god, and bears its blessing in the shape of these new wings... Maybe the god won't mind if she takes just one thing. She'll take a small thing, something that doesn't actually look too valuable, because she doesn't want to take much and be seen as greedy. But this is an exceptional circumstance; she wouldn't usually take something from an altar.

[Rebonack]

[Spectacle Sea Cave]

Carving the soap stone proves to be exceedingly easy. The stuff is so soft that it could probably be scratched with a finger nail. Most any sort of metal can shape it easily. That's probably why it's so handy for carving. It takes a little effort, but before long Jack has a little blue-green stone with a rough approximation of an eye carved into it. She's free to toss it into the water with the others.

There!

She may find herself feeling a little better now, but that isn't any weird feelings coming from the statue or the Form it holds. Just good old fashioned relief.

But then...

Just look at all that treasure.

Just sitting there.

No one could possibly be offended if she took just one little gemstone from the alter, right? No one would notice, surely.

One quick grab later, Jack has a bubbly looking, polished, opaque blue stone the color of the open sky in her hand. A piece of turquoise.

...
....
.....

Nothing happens.

No angry voice from the heavens.

No unrelenting smite of divine power.

No overwhelming emotions of displeasure.

The only thing that might condemn Jack here would be her own conscience. And we all know how corvids are about snatching baubles.

[Earl of Purple]

Pirate Ship

The pirate who stabbed the zombie will get a surprise when the zombie keeps walking forward onto the blade, gnashing its teeth and reaching out to grab him.

The captain can probably make it to the ladder and most of the way up before the rest of the herd arrives and snarls and moans up at him. Hopefully the pirate who stabbed the zombie didn't scream, or else the herd will turn around and head back down the ship.

Spectacle Sea Cave

She won't toss the stone, as it happens. She'll place it gently into the water, eye-side up.

Jack has acquired one lump of turquoise! Wow, it's such a great colour. She'll head back the way she came, ready to leave- pretty sure that's everything explored down here.

[bc56]

Pirate Ship

The unfortunate pirate screams as the zombie grabs onto him.
The pirate captain curses when the herd of zombies turn around and charges after them, hoping to distract them from their new quarry.

[Earl of Purple]

Pirate Ship

The unfortunate pirate is going to find the zombie he was fighting, and the other, trying to bite him and start to eat his flesh. That would be a bad thing, as it would enable the whole charade to repeat itself in a few hours.

Unfortunately for the captain, the unfortunate pirate is, at this point, slightly closer, and the fact they can see other zombies over there motivates them far more than just the captain's screaming. They like clumping up into large hordes, even if this horde has a grand total of six zombies in it.

[Rebonack]

[Spectacle Sea Cave]

Jack will be able to depart without difficulty.

Before long she's standing at the entrance to the cave just behind the waterfall, beyond it roars the sea, crashing around the base of the two huge sea stacks. Birds call to one another, flitting through the sky and diving into the waves. Small succulents grow in the rocks and crevices, and somewhere high above a pair of pigeons roost.

The sun is warm and inviting.

The wind offers its soft caress.

All in all, she has escaped from her adventure unharmed. She acquired a nice oil skin, several golden trinkets including the key to the locus. She found a magical shovel/multi tool which will likely come in quite handy in general. And she acquired a new pair of wings and eyes that have filled her with a sense of great determination. Her Will can bend the world to suit her, if she learns how to apply it. She can see so much more than she ever had before. The connections between things. The ways of will and perception and how they push and pull upon the cosmos. She can see wonderful things, but also patches of sickness.

Places where reality has been corroded. Places where unreality eats at the foundation like termites. Little fae sprites inhabiting pools and stones and trees. Somewhere atop the cliff a goblin is diligently sharpening a cruel, crude blade. Other, stranger things crawling up through the cracks in the world. The sovereignty that dwells in Jack now is repulsed by them, by these blasphamies that ought not be It might resonate with her own recent experiences with the fae, how they twist words around to take. To take and unravel what has needed so much energy and time and design and attention to weave together.

It would appear Jack may have acquired an instinctual dislike and distrust of fae. But at the same time, she is now too real for them to unwind her. Her Will is a bulwark against their capricious games.

[bc56]

Pirate Ship

The captain stops his pursuit and instead begins searching the hold for the missing crew members. They've got to be here somewhere, and any that are alive need to get out, fast.

The information sailor, meanwhile, is devoured, his screams slowly dying down as the zombies finish him off.

[Reinholdt]

[Tropical Island]

And off they go! The fey-shark quickly propelling itself away from the island with a few powerful thrusts with its fins.
Some time later they start approaching a larger island. From traveling near the seas surface Ilpholin can see a large temple that has been build upon the tall hill dominating the island. However, it does not look like this temple has been used in some time. Parts of it has collapsed and she can't see any signs of habitation.

However, she can also see a small settlement on the island close to the actual beach. There are people there, particularly alert people in fact as some of them points at the approaching shark fin.
They don't appear armed, dressed in little more than out washed old clothes, likely making them fishermen of some sort. They are acting afraid though, which is probably a reasonable reaction when a huge monstrous shark is swimming right towards your settlement.

[Tropical Island]

Ilpholin's not wholly surprised as to the temple's appearance. That ship looked ancient enough. It's entirely possible everything related was just as old and just as sunk.

The settlement should theoretically be safe from monstrous sharks, while on land. Unless there happens to be a tornado nearby. Then no one's safe. Still, they can be scared if they want to. Ilpholin's not going to go out of her way to assure the unarmed peasants while they approach. Maybe after Anika leaps them out onto the beach or however she wants to approach this. She might not be able to pull that same maneuver she did at the party with Ilpholin hanging on.

[Earl of Purple]

Pirate Ship

The unfortunate sailor will join the herd! Eventually. He needs to die first, and the zombies are far more interested in feasting upon his flesh than killing him. So when he does come back, he's not going to be particularly mobile.

But that does mean they're distracted for the Captain to search! He'll find the gunners first, assisted by one of the powder-monkeys they built a barricade to keep the zombies out... Only one of them was bit and turned, and now they're all dead, trapped behind a barricade of boxes, barrels and cannonballs, with a cannon loaded with grapeshot and ready to fire pointed at the captain. Good thing that none of the gunners are able to fire it, since they're all dead. One has a dagger in their chest, and one of the gunners, the oldest and longest serving, lies on the floor unable to move as his flesh has been stripped from most of his body.

In addition, the galley's door is closed, which is unusual, and there's no smell of smoke either, suggesting the galley fires have been doused by somebody expecting trouble.

Spectacle Sea Cove

Jack leaves the cave and will fly to the top of the cliff, taking advantage of her new wings to carry her new oilskin pack and all her loot, which is not enchanted to transform with her. (Her transformation is a super-natural ability, rather than a magical one; a small distinction, but one that prevents her from targeting anything except her.)

As she flies up, she glares at the goblin, wondering if there's a way she can knock it into the ocean before it can cause any havoc.

[Rebonack]

[Spectacle Sea Cove]

The goblin in question is seated under a small tree, between a pair of gnobby looking rocks. Jack had probably flown right past him without noticing the first time around, no doubt the goblin applying a bit of allure to alter how others perceive it. What's that hideous little humanoid doing there? Oh, it isn't even worth recording in short term memory? Ah well then, no reason to pay attention to it. Jack's new eyes, however, are able to carve straight through the fae duplicity. It's a hideous little thing, to be sure. Not a very big goblin, it couldn't be more than two feet tall. It's recognizably human shaped, though distorted and malformed.

Clad in what looks to be a pilfered smock and little else, it's busy grinding a length of scrap steel likely filched from the ruined remains of a ship. The end of the metal shard is wrapped tight in strips of cloth to prevent the fae from touching steel. Steel isn't nearly as repellent to fae as wrought iron is, but its touch still isn't something they relish. The unbound end is being scraped against a quartzite cobble to render it sharp and lethal.

Knowing goblins, it probably means to stick someone with it.

If elfs are all the depravity and nastiness of human civilization given form, goblins are all the depravity and nastiness of human brutishness given form. They can create things, but only things meant to maim and kill.

The world wouldn't shed a tear if there were one less goblin in it.

But what to do? The goblin is much smaller than Jack, and it hasn't spotted her. Its weapon is pretty short compared to her shovel. She could probably swoop down there and brain it before it even realizes what happened.

[Earl of Purple]

Spectacle Sea Cove

That's exactly what Jack's planning on doing. Down she goes, aiming to land behind the goblin and smash him in the head with her shovel before he can react. That's the best way to deal with things like this, in her mind.

Jack's not usually so violent for no reason, and she'd be surprised with herself if she thought about it.

[Deathkeeper]

[Operation Sea Slug]

Will tosses the imp the stuff and goes back to TTN, not dignifying the imp with an answer.
"Bad news, Titania. We got some sort of energy weapon goin' on. Melted rock. Rock doesn't melt from natural stuff without some obvious stuff going on. So someone must have been here with weapons." Will hasn't been around enough lasers to recognize the damage from one. But he does know that rock is hard to melt.

[bc56]

Pirate Ship

The captain cautiously opens the galley. If there's a few zombies in there, he doesn't want to be overrun instantly.

[Rebonack]

[Spectacle Sea Cove]

Jack catches the goblin flat footed with a sneak attack!

Has she been taking levels in rogue?

Probably not, but that smack to the head with a steel weapon is enough to do the nasty little thing in. There's a sickening snap as the goblin starts slumping forward, but no body hits the ground. Rather, the glamour that holds the snotling's body together comes unwound, leaving a heap of sea weed, rotting fish, driftwood, and a multitude of sea lice sitting in front of Jack.

That...

Might make her feel a little better about it.

It wasn't a real person she just killed.

It was an imaginary one. No more of a concern that forgetting someone from a dream.

Fae aren't really people, after all. They're figments and masks. Dreams and nightmares that have crept into reality.

[Earl of Purple]

Pirate Ship

As the door opens, a shot is fired. The surgeon is within, a tourniquet tight about their arm to stem the bleeding from a bite on their forearm whilst he's just fired his pistol at the opening door. The surgeon's alive! That's great. He just fired a pistol at the Captain! That's not so great. Good thing the surgeon's pistol is smoothbore and therefore quite inaccurate, and also held by a man who isn't employed for his ability to use a firearm properly, least of all with his off-hand. The range is quite short, but honestly? The surgeon couldn't hit the broad side of a barn.

The shot has attracted the herd's attention, and it's headed this way... Not that the surgeon's aware, he's mostly shut in the galley.

Spectacle Sea Cave

Were I to make Jack a DnD character, rogue would fit best, though I'm not sure how her race would work in DnD.

Jack smiles at the sight of the destroyed goblin's glamourless gubbins, and takes off again, headed back to Inside. She probably won't swoop down and smash any more goblins, though. It's just that that one was offending her with its proximity to the temple dedicated to their opposite... Though Jack doesn't recognise things in quite that manner.