Reckonings: Umberlee's Belly

[DeepShadow of FoS]

Humming like a million hives of bees, a bolt of white energy slices through the topmast in a cloud of sawdust before slicing downward to do the same to the rear rigging of the ship*. Harrin spasms and twitches behind the top section of the mainmast, now dangling from its own tangle of rigging. The ship's speed ebbs as it moves into the hard turn Shadross has forced upon it. Suddenly the wheel goes slack in the elf's hands: the crew that fled at Shadross's arrival did so at their master's command. They've gone below, cut through the stuffing box and the rudder post to render the wheel useless.

The ship is now heading toward the bow of the Runner.** It slams into the immoveable rod now repositioned by Cortez, and the rod rips through the foreparts of the ship.*** High above in the ether, Harrin breaks his glare off Anders, glances down and shrugs.**** The motion of his shoulders is hardly complete but the entire ship vanishes from the material world. Without warning, Shadross, Sariel and Harrin's own slaves are dumped unceremoniously into the water below, while the ship moves on in the ether, with Anders and Harrin continuing their duel high above it.

Without the ship to cover them, it's easy to see that there are approximately thirty humans who Harrin has just abandoned to the sharks. Up close flying or on Cutter, Cortez will recognize their garish rags as the uniforms of the Sea Gypsies. They've barely hit the water when Invictus hears the sahuagin below and relays a message to Ciera: Cortez, Shadross and Sariel are now in the middle of a feeding frenzy.

[I still need Anders' action at the top of round 6. Anders makes the save vs. gaze attack at his own initiative, but Harrin's normal gaze attack costs Anders another 11 hp and 4 points of Charisma, lowering the psion to 7.

Barring PC involvement, Sea Gypsies will begin vanishing under the slime on round 8.

* Manifester level 14, -6 negative levels, +3 Overchannel + Talented = 11. This means an extra six dice of damage: 11d6-11 points of damage total. It ignores hardness and does 25 points of damage to everything in its path. The rigging takes the damage twice and has 30 hp left; Harrin takes the damage once.

In the future, may I recommend using a chainable energy power instead of energy bolt? Energy bolt can't be chained because it doesn't affect a single target, and the chain power feat allows you to attack other 10'ft sections of the same object as separate targets. For the small cost of expending your psionic focus, that could easily quadruple your damage.

** The ship needed to move 60' for a 45 degree turn, but the ship only moved 40' before the rudder post was cut. A 30 degree turn is the result, and that might be enough to miss the bow of the Runner...in which case it will probably hit the Bane the round after.

*** Without anything else to fall back on, I'm ruling that the immoveable rod is basically a stationary ram, which deals half damage to the front of a ramming-prow ship. Had Harrin not pulled the ship into the ether, the immoveable rod and damaged rigging would have halted the ship long before impact.

**** Don't know if dropping Phantom Shift is an action or not. I'll make it a move-equivalent action, to split the difference. Harrin still uses his gaze attack as his standard action, and with the ship slowed he'll have no problem catching up.]

[MatthiasStormcrow]

OOC: Dismissing a spell is a standard action that doesn't provoke an AoO. Phantom Shift's a Supernatural ability but it makes sense to me that dismissing it would be like dismissing a spell.

Questions: How high up in the air is Harrin, at this point? (Basically, how far away is he, relative to Cortez? Y'know, like maybe charge distance? Move a round, then charge? )

Also, are there sharks immediately present already? Lots? Also, how's the, err, terrain around there - any areas where the muck covering the surface would be thick enough to support people/keep them away from the sharks?

[DeepShadow of FoS]

OOC: Dismissing a spell is a standard action that doesn't provoke an AoO. Phantom Shift's a Supernatural ability but it makes sense to me that dismissing it would be like dismissing a spell.

Sounds fair. I'll have Harrin forgo his gaze attack action, which means Anders doesn't take the damage listed above.

Questions: How high up in the air is Harrin, at this point? (Basically, how far away is he, relative to Cortez? Y'know, like maybe charge distance? Move a round, then charge? )

He's about 40'-50' from Cortez...but he's un-manifested.

Also, are there sharks immediately present already? Lots? Also, how's the, err, terrain around there - any areas where the muck covering the surface would be thick enough to support people/keep them away from the sharks?

The float bridge runs by that area, about 30' from the Sea Gypsies. If that's too far, there are three piles of sea-mire that can each hold about half a dozen people.

[Nathan of the FoS]

OOC: Huh. So Sariel is actually in the water? Or was he still in the air when Harrin made the ship incorporeal again?

Either way, Sariel will grab as many Sea Gypsies as is feasible (two, I suppose) and fly for the Bane. Diving into a feeding frenzy seems like a losing proposition, when ethereal Harrin is even harder to deal with, and grabbing people, although it will not save everyone, is guaranteed to save someone, which is about as much as we can hope for in this situation.

Assuming the Sea Gypsies won't or can't co-operate with being picked up, here's aroll for snatching a couple of them.

EDIT: If the floats are closer (as it seems that they are) Sariel will head there instead. I guess he can get two people every two rounds, once you account for turn-around time...

Dang. That's not many at all.

[MatthiasStormcrow]

Shadross is startled for a moment by the unceremonious dumping into the ocean - with no apparent sign of the ghost ship, he takes a moment to glance around and take in the situation, and seeing the unmoving, dominated crew of Harrin's boat all around him, almost instinctively sees a problem - Sharks! By the time Ciera confirms this, the elf has already slipped below the surface to see for himself.

Cortez is similarly surprised by the ship's total disappearance, and grumbles in frustration. He's looking around for any sign of Harrin when Ciera's warning reaches him - even then, for a moment the full implications don't hit him. He shouts at Cutter to get up onto the bridge, away from the sharks, and isn't until he sees Cutter moving and the Sea Gypsies staying eerily still that the realization hits him. They aren't even going to try and save themselves...and Harrin's going to let them all die. He draws his longsword and points the blade towards the knot of sailors, concentrating.* He feels the sword pulse in his grip and he barely waits for it to have a chance to take effect before he shouts at the sailors, "Get out of the water! GO!"





[OOC: Shadross is going to head below, aided by his Cloak of the Manta Ray, and try and get a better sense of what's going on down there. If he can wound some sharks or Sahuagin to try and turn the feeding frenzy in on itself, he certainly will.

Cortez is going to pull out his Holy Avenger and aim a sword-powered Greater Dispel at the dominated sailors. Here's his roll. (The sword apparently lets him use his full paladin class level, instead of his caster level, making me wonder why I was bothering with Break Enchantment before...I'm glad it worked anyhow or I'd be seriously kicking myself.)]

[Le Noir Faineant]

Above in the sky, Anders has watched with grim delight how his energy bolt affected Harrin.

Now, while suffering under Harrin's attacks for himself, he silently launches another attack, ready to retreat back to his friends again...

Anders has no desire in following the ghost to deep into the mists...

[Launching Daze, [/i]Astral Construct VII[/i] and finally Power Turn, if that's possible.]

[DeepShadow of FoS]

[Daze is a mind-affecting ability and doesn't affect undead, so I'll go with Rafael's second choice of an Astral Construct as Anders' action for round 6. Rafael, I'm assuming the construct is coming from your astral legion psicrown--where else?--but you need to select powers for your creation. Also, directing an astral construct is a free action, so go ahead and give it some orders.

As for Sariel, he was probably using his hovering ability to descend toward the wheel, and therefore would not have fallen. I'll allow him an extra half-move because he wasn't dumped into the water.]

Anders swaps one jeweled headband for another from his pack, and a vortex of foggy proto-matter spews forth from the central stone. Anders blinks at the strange misty nature of the ectoplasm,* but it soon coalesces and shrugs itself into a rough humanoid shape.** Flying ahead of the ship in the ether, Harrin takes a backward glance at the psion, but at this distance the ghost's dark eyes hold no more than a mischievous wink.

Far underwater, the signal overheard by Invictus becomes a hymn to Sekholah, as over a score of sahuagin emerge from their hiding places, their ranks swollen more by dozens of sharks. In the clouds of silt, even the shadow's darkvision offers him no glimpse of the forces he hears massing.***

Cortez is about to draw his sword when he realizes that the Sea Gypsies were merely stunned; Harrin's control could not outlast his obvious attempt to kill them all.**** His cry of warning breaks through what's left of the shock, and Sea Gypsies begin clambering for purchase in the stinking slime. Even as some pull themselves up, others gasp with pain and go rigid, their faces frozen in horror from sea-devil poison before they are plucked beneath the surface like ripe fruit from a heavy branch.

[Shadross in ray form has the same vision problems as Invictus, but because of the hymn he can hear sahuagin coming (Listen check DC 10, don't bother to roll). Remember to include concealment against his attacks.

Sariel can carry two people a round, that's true, but there's an alternative: have Sariel swim on the surface face-down into the water, as another "hummock" for Sea Gypsies to climb on. He can ferry about six people per trip, and take a guard action in case any Sahuagin attack. It puts him at a little more risk, but between that and the other hummocks, all the gypsies will soon be out of the water.

* In Ravenloft, ectoplasm is drawn from the Mists, not from the Astral Plane.
** In the ether, the creature can move at its normal speed in any direction, so I figured there's no need for wings. I'll add them if you want.
*** Vision under the water in Saragoss is generally restricted as if by fog. If the clouds of silt are extra thick, they obscure all vision. Of course, it's also night, so anyone underwater without darkvision is blind anyway.
**** Domination ends if the caster attacks; I'd say this qualifies. Cortez is entitled to another action.

[Nathan of the FoS]

Sariel to the Rescue

OOC: We hope.

IC: Sariel is about to grab hold of the two nearest Sea Gypsies when he catches the eyes of one of their fellows, who strikes out toward him strongly. Can I...? he thinks. In a split second he makes the decision, lowering himself to the water and bellowing "Grab ahold!"

Eager hands grasp at his limbs as he pulls his wings in and uses his tail to propel himself forward, pushing through the muck toward the nearest stable hummock of seaweed. He keeps his face below water to get what warning he can of the approaching sahuagin, although he gets as much information, or more, from his finely-honed blindsense.

OOC: I don't know how long each trip will take, but Sariel will repeat this action as necessary unless/until it becomes suicidal to do so. I'm not quite sure how or if his breath weapons work underwater, and he'll only use them as a last resort in any case. So, as much movement as possible and the guard action will be all he does until the feeding frenzy arrives in earnest.

[DeepShadow of FoS]

Peregrine and Marta on the Rogue's Wake

Peregrine's clumsy overtures at being sympathetic are nevertheless well met by Marta, who seems too distraught to care about his stiffness.

"I want...I need to see them, one last time," she mumbles into his shoulder. She pulls herself away and shakes her head to rally her delusions one last time. "Perhaps Jean-Paul made it back and got them out of the fire, perhaps their wounds weren't fatal..."

She starts gasping for breath and staring at her hands, seeing something that isn't quite there.

"The baby wouldn't stop crying. They were going to find us! I rocked him and whispered and begged and pleaded, but he was crying and crying...and then he wasn't...and they had heard us...and I knew how to save my babies. Marie wouldn't move away from watching the door, so I told Annalise to head below for a book of prayers...and I took the knife. Annalise wasn't supposed to see, but when Marie fell to the floor I heard the screaming, and I turned. She begged and pleaded, but she didn't understand that what they were going to do to my babies! I had to spare them the worst. I-I tipped the bookcase over on her body, and I shook lamp oil all over it, all over her, all over me..."

In Peregrine's mind, the images rise unbidden in his mind, of a noble's yacht, a crazed mother and a begging child. Somewhere in the middle of the story, the bookcase becomes a pyre of bodies, and he himself tosses four-year old Annalise atop it, her body flecked with tiny sores....

Marta's voice goes strangely distant, until she twiches as a final piece falls into place. She looks the Inquisitor up and down with eerie calmness as she reaches the penultimate conclusion.

"I'm not supposed to be here! I was supposed to die, and those things pulled me from the flames and put that ring on me. I killed my babies...and I was supposed to burn with them. You have things of far greater importance, I know, but it needn't take you long. You're here to kill me, Inquisitor."

[Nathan of the FoS]

"I'm not supposed to be here! I was supposed to die, and those things pulled me from the flames and put that ring on me. I killed my babies...and I was supposed to burn with them. You have things of far greater importance, I know, but it needn't take you long. You're here to kill me, Inquisitor."

Peregrine and Marta

"No," Peregrine says, clearing his throat and unclasping his hands, to leave his left arm around Marta's back. "No, I am not. I..."

He pauses, then continues.

"I will...tell you why I am not, and what I think you should do now.

"You may remember that there were rumors of plague...it would be...seven years ago, now. I think that most of the Dementlieuse do not believe the stories that were told of it--they were dismissed as hysterical exaggerations of a relatively minor outbreak of some fairly dangerous disease. Strangely, for almost the only time in my experience, most of the rumors I heard after the fact were true; stripped of names and particulars, but essentially accurate.

"I was in Mordent when the messenger came from Bastion Raines. He had killed two horses and foundered a third coming, and he was half-dead himself from terror and exhaustion. 'Something's coming,' he told me. 'It's like a plague, except they don't die. They rot while they're still alive, but they still live.'

"I rode north with him that afternoon.

"We met with Warden Despain and his men in northern Dementlieu; he was following the plague-sign north. When we met I thought he was probably insane. Every person who turned his face when we approached, every person who seemed even slightly ill, he ordered stripped and examined; and he told me that it was not a plague at all, but a sort of...serial possession by an infernal creature which was manifested as a disease. I thought it was incredible, but Bastion Raines had demanded my assistance, and if he was right...

"The farther we went the more I feared he was. And then we met the first victim.

"I think it might once have been a middle-aged man, although I couldn't swear to it. Despain spotted it hiding in a hovel by the roadside, and rode his horse straight through the door to get at it. I thought it must be Un-Dead, but it was...alive...marbled with eyes and mouths and rot. The human being it had once been might have been dead--I pray Ezra it was--but the disease had filled it up like bronze fills a mold.

"It could still speak, and it cursed us as it died.

"We found others--two or three--and we laid them all to rest...then we came to a little village near the border, where the plague-fiend had spent several days. Every living thing in the village showed the plague-sign.

"Warden Despain and I ordered a bonfire built in the center of the village, and we burned them all. I found a little girl--perhaps the age of your Annalise--hiding behind the woodshed of her home. She was marked; she had the first pustules on her face and arms. She did not even cry out when I picked her up from the saddle by her arm; I think she was too frightened to do so.

"I threw her on the pyre alive."


For a moment the flames seem to flicker again in the Inquisitor's good eye.

"We killed the plague-fiend in Neufectenburg; we formed a mystick cage and forced it to do battle with us, and we destroyed it... Ezra send that it be gone forever. When Despain spoke its name and forced it in the cage it was forced to come to us...it withdrew its essence...the living plague in the bodies of the victims.

"If we had simply rode through they would all have been cured when we forced the plague-fiend into the mystick cage."

[DeepShadow of FoS]

OOC: I don't know if you were planning to end there, but I'll tell you right now that she needs you to spell it out for her. After all, you did say:

"I will...tell you why I am not, and what I think you should do now.

This story is a great place to start, but in her condition she's not going to make all the connections without some help.

If, OTOH, this is as far as Peregrine is capable of stretching his empathy or other people skills, let me know and we'll go with what she can get out of it.

[Nathan of the FoS]

OOC: I don't know if you were planning to end there, but I'll tell you right now that she needs you to spell it out for her. After all, you did say:

"I will...tell you why I am not, and what I think you should do now.

This story is a great place to start, but in her condition she's not going to make all the connections without some help.

If, OTOH, this is as far as Peregrine is capable of stretching his empathy or other people skills, let me know and we'll go with what she can get out of it.

Well, I had written most of Part II--the Explication, and then a relative took over the computer and shut the browser window. More to follow.

[Nathan of the FoS]

Peregrine and Marta

A long silence follows, broken only by Marta's occasional sighs as her sobbing subsides. In stark contrast to her tear-stained face, his own is as blank, and as empty, as the walls of a burned-out building.

At last Peregrine speaks again. "We were afraid that if we left them alive...any of them...the plague would spread. We were wrong. Their blood is on my hands.


"Sometimes, Mme. d'Honaire...Marta...there is no good choice. You could not know that in three years' time the Raveners would be overthrown by our Lady's righteous wrath. Even if you did, should you, could you have subjected your children to three years of such evil? And so you did what you could to preserve your children. There are things worse than death, Marta. You have seen them, you have lived them, you are living them now. Your children will not face those things. You have saved them."

Peregrine stops speaking; Marta is weeping again, her clenched fingers twisting his thick black mantle. But the quality of the tears has changed somewhat; they are more sorrowful and less frantically miserable.

"All men do evil, Marta. The right recompense for those who are willing to repay their evil is not their own deaths, but their own lives. Let your love for your children be seen in your love for the children of others. He who succors the orphan, and blesses the widow's child, that one does rightly before Ezra; in no wise shall he go unrewarded.*"

*from Collected Sermons of Bastion Felix Wachter, volume I

[Le Noir Faineant]

Rafael, I'm assuming the construct is coming from your astral legion psicrown--where else?--but you need to select powers for your creation. Also, directing an astral construct is a free action, so go ahead and give it some orders.

[I understand that I am supposed to select which kind of construct it shall be? -Sorry for the long delay, here I go again!]

[DeepShadow of FoS]

Anders, Sariel, Shadross and Cortez fighting Harrin and the Sahuagin.

[Okay, Anders' construct hares off after Harrin, now lets move things along here. Note that I refer to any sahuagin reduced to 0 hp as "dropped" because they automatically empty their swim bladder and plummet. Confirming whether these are unconscious or dead would probably require swimming down to check.]

Round 8

Shadross hears about the captives and targets their captors first. The concealment underwater is enough to prevent sneak attacks or precise strikes, and ranged or distance attacks could hit the people he's trying to rescue. However, he manages to find (and free) two of them, using his Improved Whirlwind attack to drop all the sahuagin and sharks around them. (2 sea devils dropped, 6 sharks)

Meanwhile, The Sea Gypsies atop Sariel try to paddle him between the hummocks of sea-mire so that he can protect the others, too, and Sariel quickly finds his talents tested in this regard. The sea devils flit below him, apparently unaware that he can sense their every move, until finally they dart forward into his waiting claws. One after another tries to gain purchase in his hide only to be dropped before they can lay a blow (2 sea devils).

Only as he does so does Sariel realize these two (along with many others down below) were part of an ambush. Two sahuagin pop out of the water about sixty feet apart and level crossbows at the dragon. While one boltstrikes home,** the other sniper misfires, and both drop below the surface again (falling as a free action).

Round 9

As the easy targets dwindle, some sahuagin climb up the hummocks for their prey, exposing themselves to the attacks of Cortez (3 sahuagin) as well as Sariel (1) and Shadross (2). By the time Cortez has dropped his third, such attacks have ceased. The remaining sahuagintry to tangleShadross in the net one of their comrades threw over him, but the elf is just too swift to get caught. The sahuagin withdraw, sending a dozen sharks to cover their retreat.

* Sariel takes 18 points of damage and loses 4 Con. He stands to lose 2d6 more Con in a minute if he doesn't get more help.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Meanwhile, an eerie sound rises over the deck of the Demon Cutter, as a score of marines wander up on deck with glassy expressions and an unfamiliar song on their lips:

Shiver my timbers, shiver my soul
Yo, oh heave ho!
T'was a man with a heart as black as coal
Yo, oh heave ho!
He sailed that ship 'cross the ocean blue
The bloodthirsty captain of a cutthroat crew
Its as dark a tale as was ever told
Of the lust for treasure and the love of gold!

Kit looks around at his brother-mates with agonized confusion, finally dashing for the forecastle to sound the alarm. The bell clangs as if to split, but the only marines who reply are already joining the awful song:

Shiver my timbers, shiver my sides
Yo, oh heave ho!
His hunger's as strong as the wind and tides
Yo, oh heave ho!
And his buccaneers drowned their sins in rum
The devils in hell would'a called them scum
Though they begged him sore to leave his chest
He swore he'd take it to his final rest

Could Harrin already have control of the entire crew? It seemed impossible, but no one arrived on deck who wasn't under the pirate wraith's command. Suddenly from the rear of the ship came a gurgling roar, and Kit realized to his mounting horror that the masses of men he was waiting for were not showing up under enemy command...they weren't showing up at all. Harrin must have done something to them, deep in the bowels of the ship, so that they couldn't get on deck in time....

Shiver my timbers, shiver my bones
Yo, oh heave ho!
Some secrets don't sleep with Davy Jones
Yo, oh heave ho!
Now the mainsail's set and the anchors weighed
Theres no turning back from any course thats laid
And when greed and villainy sail the sea
You can bet your boots there'll be treachery

Like the shadow of a mountain stretching out across a valley, water appears over the deck of the Demon Cutter. Though the actual surface remains twenty feet below the upper rail, the fact remains that water is flowing knee-deep over the rails from thin air. The half-orc's beetle black eyes follow it to where it plunges down the stairwells into the mess, hold, binnacle...and barracks. On the lowest parts up the ship, dozens of marines will soon be under ten feet of water! Sloshing over the sterncastle, a marbled sea troll hefts its bulk down the ladder and surveys the scene with an intelligence and glee that belies its kind. Harrin has brought another body for himself, and this time he's in his element.

Shiver my timbers, shiver my sails
Dead men tell no tales!

The singing falls silent, and men stand absently at attention in the knee-deep water as Harrin turns his scrag eyes upon the half-orc first mate. He gives a jaunty salute and assumes a conspiratorial posture.

"So I says to m'self, 'Self, with all these other ships just reeking of might and valor, why's this'n here awash with guilt?'"

Kit only stares uncomprehendingly, watching the casual destruction of his world while part of him screamed that he needed to help the men below.

"Word's come to me how Cortez tried to kill himself with a scuttled ship such as this. But why's Shaddy's ship swamping because of Cortez's shame? Whatever it is, it's something awful, like Shaddy couldn't find a pit deep enough, so's he piles more and more on top of it, fearful someone can smell it rotting deep down there. Whatever it is, he better fess up before this ship founders for good!

[The astral construct was unable to follow Harrin through the ship's ER, so it had to blast a way through the ER version of the hull--it may yet get here shortly. In case you haven't guessed, this is Harrin using his phantom shift ability to take advantage of the Demon Cutter's half-sunken status in the spirit world. The Demon Cutter is already sinking low in the water because of the additional weight. Approximately half of the crew are now--to a greater or lesser degree--trapped underwater. Questions, comments and screams are always welcome.]