The Crew of the Sinking Demon Cutter... and some Uninvited Guests...
Duranc sloshed through the lower deck of the Demon Cutter, his eyes darting back and forth between the torrential stairwell and the battened doors before him. At this rate, there would be barely enough time to free all the marines before the water level rose over their heads. He tried not to imagine all those men swimming against the current to escape, and focused on releasing the storeroom doors. The rising water strained against the doors even after the batten bars and wedges were removed, but he forced a crack apart and set the wedges again for the water to pour inside and reduce the pressure. After a moment a face appeared on the other side, and eager hands helped him open the door a little more.
"Who's there? Duranc, is it, from the Bane? What's going on? Who battened us in? The doors just...closed...all of a sudden. Are we sinking?"
"I'm not sure...the doors all battened, all at the same time, when the water appeared. I'll need your help to free the others before the water gets too high."
With a clatter of boards, a nine-foot tangle of green limbs and grey hair tumbled down the stairs to sprawl motionless in the aisle. Duranc ignored the straining men trying to lever the crack wider and stared as the limp mass drifted by, bleeding and twitching...and groaning. Before those inside could get him to explain, Duranc wrenched the door open by a mighty effort, only to throw himself inside and let the water slam it shut. Moments later, the explanation was unnecessary, as the creature behind him slammed itself into the door with deafening force.
"T-t-troll!" Duranc stammered, as the others set to battening the door from the inside this time. Still speechless, he pantomimed the creature's size and disposition before pausing to retch out of the open porthole.
Introductions passed quickly; Duranc knew Red Skaldos from shore leave and Ghost by reputation, and everyone knew Ratling. The others were Klem Vinders and Dellen Galfrayne--both seasoned marines--and a topsman by the name of Tally "Talisman" Firth. Duranc considered asking what all of them were doing in a storeroom, but then they'd ask again what he was doing off the Bane, so he skipped it. With the pressure building on the door, the troll's attempts to open it grew more frustrated until it gave up and began battering it out of the frame. Even here, the water cushioned the blows, but they could see the door wouldn't take much more.
"What's put the black mark on us!?" Tally demanded.
"All the other doors are battened," Red said with a sigh. "We're the best pickens for the brute until he find his thumbs!"
Just as long cracks began spurting water into the room, another voice in the aisle gave them hope, and the men sent up a cheer.
"Bloody brilliant, breaking into the one room without people for you to eat! After Harrin pays up, I just might keep you as a pet."
Another cheer drowned out by the creature's roar, and the men are about to scream for their captain, when Duranc and Red called for quiet.
"Wait!" they hiss together, holding up their hands. The others fell silent as much from the eerie symmetry of the moment as much as the urgency, and a glimmer of recognition passed between Duranc and Red. As both of their eyes glanced back to the doorway in front of them, they exchanged another look and spoke together again.
"Silence. No matter what happens."
Enrapt by the sheer oddness of the situation, the men and boy followed the sounds outside in silence: the creature's gurgling roar as it dashed back down the aisle, thrashing and splashing as it went; its sputtering and more gurgling as their captain sliced it open mercilessly; the final wet gasps as the creature struggled back down the hall toward their door, Shadross slicing it open every few feet as he followed.
"Oh Harrin!" Shadross called, "Fine job you did keeping track of your pet. Right about the 'not dying,' wrong about the hurting part, the only one hurting here is him! I'd like to just sheathe my sword in his brain, but then we couldn't have our rematch!"
"Y'never answered me!"
The unseen speaker had apparently surprised their captain, because Shadross backed up against their cracked door and swore under his breath. Hands more eager than knowing moved to open the door and save Shadross, but Duranc held up his hand again and Red blinked away tears as he shook his head in silence. The mysterious voice outside sank almost to a whisper, but they could hear it clearly through the battered door as it drew close to their captain.
"Who's lashed to the wheel o'this phantom ship what haunts ya? Speak up, and save yer men from drownin' in the sea of your own guilt!"
Heartbeats pass as the men listen, torn by curiosity and their respect for the intimacy of their captain's secrets. Finally they hear the name, and share a gasp of horror: "C-Cortez!"
"But whys'at fill ya with such dread, Shaddy? As I heard it, Cortez tried to kill hisself, lashed to the wheel of a sinkin' ship, all 'cause a pirate killed his pap, and your kind soul rescued him, e'en after he tried to kill ya in his rage and grief. What secret horror must it hold for ya, that ya spend every day on that sinkin' ship?"
Their captain mumbles something, and the mysterious voice clucks in his ear.
"What was that again?"
"
I was the pirate!" Shadross groans through clenched teeth, swiping and splashing fruitlessly at his foe. "It was my men that plundered that ship! I didn't know it at the time, but he told me how his father died, and I knew!"
Ratling starts to cry out in disbelief, but Ghost clamps a bronzed hand over the boy's mouth. Red's knees fail him and he slumps against the wall to avoid slipping underwater entirely.
"Ah, Shaddy. That must have felt good to say. Makes my want to bare m'soul right back at ya. For starters,
I lied. Confession won't take away this beautiful nightmare you've brought on your men--they're stuck with it until they die, which ought not to be long now. Scut me but that felt good to say! Here's another, while I'm feeling loose in the tongue: I'm going to borrow your flesh now, just like I promised, and now's I know how to play you the better, I think I'll go find that wee lady and scut her but good for what she did to Draga! I daresay I've gone so long without a woman's company, I might make smoke came out of her ears, or yours even! Your a kind soul to share your pleasures with me, now as I always say, don't fight it; the shame is like the pain--you only feel it the first time!"
The brief scuffle outside is mirrored within the tiny room, as the listeners grapple in silence against each other, some desperate to save their hero and the others knowing they can't save him. Finally Shadross stands up, sloshes over to the troll which flinches away, and speaks:
"No eating until I get back, 'pet.' I need 'em alive for my bargain with Cortez!"
[Okay, I'm playing things a little loose here, but I feel pretty safe in my assumptions. Harrin is taking no chances of giving Shadross the swimming advantage: he's flying horizontally overhead--where Shadross can only hit him while standing up--and he's got using readied actions to take cover in the solid bulkheads every time Shadross takes a swing. Even when lower, Harrin is uninhibited by the water because his charisma is high enough to ignore lesser ranks of ethereal resonance. That puts Shadross at a severe disadvantage, because the waist-deep water is not deep enough to swim and use his cloak effectively, but deep enough to give him penalties to attack and halve all his damage. On top of that, the water is deep enough to force Shadross into manta ray form for the fight, giving him additional penalties as his wings slosh uselessly behind him.
All this means that Shadross is set up for a world of hurt, and Harrin's giving it to him. His first attack didn't work, and Shadross closed his eyes, but Harrin simply switched to deliberate distractions.
Shadross's second save failed and he lost another 2 points of Charisma. By my count, that puts him at 1, which IMO is enough to have him nearly hopeless for the interrogation by Harrin. Then comes the final burst of aggression which prompted the next two saves in one round, and
the next round Shadross failed both saves and lost seven points, which should put him at 0 even if my math was severely off. Once Shadross is comatose, Harrin owns him but good.]
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