#1
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Chapter 0: Jules' Passion
However tomorrow the ship is being moved, and you have no clue where too. This will be your only chance to free these animals before they get sold off to pampered nobles, who'll keep them in tiny cages and poke them for fun. You deeply suspect that more than a few are actually destined for the coliseum's Dragon Challenges, where experienced pit fighters face against rare and dangerous beasts. Under cover of darkness you sneak down to the docks, and begin to move along them looking for the ship. It's not long before you spot the pier you're looking for, and the dark floating shape at the end of it. There's a single light moving about on deck, no doubt held by one of the smugglers. The pier is roughly sixty feet long, and has a multitude of coils of ropes, boxes and other objects that you could easily sneak up the boat with, and under the cover of darkness you'd be invisible to all but the most vigilant sentry. There's a ramp leading up to the boat from the end of the pier, but this looks to be watched over by the patrolling guard, however perhaps there are other points of entry you could try? Last edited by Avelestar; Dec 14th, 2009 at 07:25 AM. |
#2
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Jules studies the pier for a moment, stroking the snake in his arms. After this moment of thought, he sets the viper on the ground, Jules decides to check out the other side of the boat, his body slipping into the water easily. Moving at half pace, Jules tries to move quietly around the boat, keeping low in the water. He leaves his quarterstaff on the dock, but takes his sickle and shield, praying he wont need them.
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#3
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Jules slips quietly into the water, having left both his viper Regda and quarterstaff hidden behind some crates on the docks. The water barely ripples as the druid swims, and it's not long before he's come to the boat. Slowly he swims around it, and on the side opposite to the docks he finds a loose coil of rope, knocked over the side by some careless sailor. Though the sides of the boat are slightly wet, the rope has a number of knots in it, making the climb up the sides much easier. You can't help but think it's your lucky day, the rope used to save men overboard has been left dangling over the edge just for you. Above you spot the soft glow of the patrolling guard and his lantern, and it's just coming around to your side of the boat now....luckily he doesn't see or hear you and continues to move on.
Last edited by Avelestar; Dec 16th, 2009 at 12:27 AM. |
#4
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Grabbing firmly onto the rope, Jules quickly scrambles up, still trying to avoid making TOO much sound. As he approaches the top, he quickly peeks his head over to see what is on the main deck. He carefully studies the environment before finally pulling himself up and over onto the deck.
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#5
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Sea Rat that he is, Jules deftly clambers up the rope and slips onto the deck. To his left he can hear heavy footsteps, and notices the sentry is up on the stern of the boat, slowly making his way around to the other side of the ship, and the set of steps to return to the deck again. At current he can't see you, and hasn't heard you, but when he comes back down to the deck his lantern will show you very clearly.
Last edited by Avelestar; Dec 16th, 2009 at 08:27 PM. |
#6
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Glancing around deck, his eyes catch on the stern ladder- obviously the animals would be in the hold. Sparing a final look towards the guard, he moves quickly across the deck, trying to get down out of eyesight as fast as possible.
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#7
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Jules slips down the ladder by the mast, his feet touching the floor just moments before he sees the soft glow of the lantern return. Pressing himself flat against the mast below decks, Jules isn't seen by the sentry overhead, but he does hear voices in the room behind him. They're not too loud, but you can make out words that point towards a card game, it's likely they're being quite to avoid waking the animals. The door to this room is wide open, and lit spills out from it.
Infront of the mast you see 15x10ft area completely stacked full of cages, most are smaller and looking closer you're relieved to find that for the most part the occupants are birds, or partially aquatic animals. This is going to make your job far easier, you needn't worry about trying to get them offboard, as they'll likely fly away once released. Most the smuggled animals are asleep, but you spot a pair of red eyes piercing through the darkness, watching your every move. At the moment you're too far away to make out the owner of these eyes, but the moonlight entering through the portholes let you make your way around below decks without any problems. Last edited by Avelestar; Dec 17th, 2009 at 02:01 AM. |
#8
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Jules slowly approaches the cages, taking his time, and walks up to the first smaller cage and attempts to open it, checking whether its locked or not.
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#9
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The cage unlatches easily, and a single shocker lizard looks at you nervously. Small sparks fly from its tail to the tips of its ears and you take a step back to give it some room. Taking the opening, the little lizard darts out of the cage, through your legs and clambers up the ladder and off into the night. Now closer to the cages, you see about five more shocker lizards, all stored in wooden cages and kept separate, lest they work together and kill someone. At least twenty birds...and one far larger cage, almost human sized. It's from these the red eyes still peer forth, a soft growl emnating from within.
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#10
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Jules starts with the rest of the shocker lizards, then moves to the birds, saving whatever is in that cage for last. At last, when he finally has freed all the other animals, he leans forward and takes a good look at the cage, trying to make out what exactly is responsible for the glowing red eyes. As he approaches the cage, he murmurs under his breath "And what do we have here?"
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#11
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Some of the birds make quite a bit of noise, squawking madly or happily as they are freed. They're also not so silent when they move, and soon the flapping wings can be heard echoing through the hull and probably over the deck as they fly off into the night. "What in the hells?!" comes the voice from on top the deck, followed by a shriek and a large thump of someone collapsing to the floor. Looks like the shocker lizards stopped for a little bit of payback.
However the pair below decks also hear all this commotion, and burst through the door. They shout a curse at you, and draw their swords. "Looks like we're too late to round up the animals, but boss is gonna want your hide anyway." The growling from the last cage turns to an almighty screaming roar when the two smugglers burst into the room, and a giant monitor lizard crashes into the bars of the cage, clawing madly through them to try and reach these men. Jules appears to have been forgotten completely, and the beast is desperately straining to reach the smugglers. |
#12
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Jules simply grins and throws open the door to the cage, part of him worried if the lizard will turn on him, the other part happily eager to let it go. After throwing open the cage, Jules takes another five foot step back and casts a quick spell, mist engulfing the room and eliminating visibility. He carefully works towards his next goal, knowing the guards should have more to worry about than him, and hopes there are stairs behind the door to the aft hold.
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#13
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Jules opens the cage, and the monitor lizard springs forth charging straight towards the sentries. As an added precaution Jules calls down a thick mist to cover the room, completely filling the hull due to the limited space it's in. His vision is quickly obscured, but the monitor lizard has no such problems. The creature hunts by scent, and it knows the smell of two men in particular very well. Through the fog you can hear a piercing scream, as well as alot of cursing.
You guess that one of the sentries has gone down, and the other is currently trying to defend himself against the enraged beast. Whilst this is all occurring, Jules slips away to the door he saw earlier, but finds it locked. The only way out is now to get past a rather pissed off lizard. Last edited by Avelestar; Dec 18th, 2009 at 01:11 AM. |
#14
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Cursing his own foolishness, he stumbles back over towards where he believes the monitor lizard to be, taking his time and being careful, and he cant help but giggle a bit at the whole situation. Once hes back where (he thinks) the monitor lizard is, he looks through his bloody mist to try and make out whats going on.
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#15
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As he moves back through the mist, Jules hears another sickening crunch and a gurgled cry of pain. Another body slumps to the floor, and you hear the monitor lizard hissing softly, and padding around. It appears to have moved on a little way, but the druid is having trouble seeing more than 5ft in front of his face. Cautiously Jules tries to move back to the ladder and make his escape, but as he rounds the corner of the cages he comes face to face with the monitor lizard. Blood is splashed all over its scaly hide, and drips from sharp teeth and claws. It's hisses softly, favouring its left side to protect a large cut down one flank. The beast hasn't immediately launched an attack on you, but is instead regarding you cautiously, trying to determine if you are an enemy or not...regardless its wounded, in a strange place and a little bit pissed off.
Last edited by Avelestar; Dec 18th, 2009 at 06:44 AM. |
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