[Game Thread] The Tale of the Seabear

[milkshake]

The smell is not something Sleeshi has ever experienced before- at least not with this severity. The forest is a remarkably clean place, and it never varies in its cleanliness.

So, Sleeshi, whose powerful senses react horribly to the vile, oncoming flood, exits the entire below-deck area of the ship as quickly as he can. And Sleeshi can do things excruciatingly quickly. He forgets all about the noise that brought him below deck, and focuses on escape.

Once above deck, Sleeshi steps up next to Artimis, one of the passangers who he hasn't really talked with much, and stands by him. He supports Artimis's complaints with a nod, and adds a fairly useless and obvious comment once he has finished, "There is nothing to eat the rats here."

Although it is obvious, the concept of an unbalanced ecosystem is new to Sleeshi. Fortunately, though, Sleeshi is used to living in the open air, and doesn't spend much time below deck, so he doesn't have much opportunity to be bothered by the rats.

[Embrodak]

El smiles at Sleeshi's comment. "Well, there might be. I heard something in the hold." He looks to Arti, "No.. No rescue mission, but a monster hunt. Or whatever it was that I heard in the hold. I can tell you it sounded much bigger than the rats."

He looks back and forth between the four. "I've recruited these two gentlemen to take a look." he says with a gesture to Riccardo and Hama. "Are you in Arti?" El asks with a sly grin. He looks to Sleeshi "How about you cousin?" El asks making a reference to their shared elvish heritage.

Looking back to Artimis "Oh, and don't worry, we'll give the crew a chance to clean up the bilge first."

He turns and regards the new crew and gives a slight bow. "By the way, my name is Elyan Galatathiel." he says switching flawlessly between the common tongue and his native elvish as he pronounces his name. "Or El if you prefer." El adds.

"I'm a ranger, hunter, woods guide by trade." El says as he rises from his bow.

[Otter Nonsense]

"You are afraid of the sewage?" Riccardo scoffed thickly and raised a thick, mocking eyebrow. He offered no introductions, but he crossed his arms and made it clear that he didn't work in sales.

[milkshake]

It takes Sleeshi a moment to process El's use of the word 'cousin.' But the elf's brain is quick, and he understands soon enough.

"Ah, yes." Sleeshi responds, nodding, "I am a good hunter."

[AlwaysCivilMike]

He was about to remind his dense elven friend that he JUST escaped a near death experience with the sewage wave when El touched on the matter. He scoffed and said "Damn right I won't go until it is cleaned up....and I still might not go at all. I hope you all realize that no matter how good they are at cleaning up the lower decks are going smell like an outhouse for days if not weeks. It making sleeping on the open deck looking inviting I can tell you."

He busied himself with breathing in fresh air as the others talked about who wanted to go on this hunting party. Artimis rolled his eyes at the thought of hunting on a ship full of rats. Finally he said "Are you all THAT bored that you want to see who can find the largest rat? That is all it is you know. That or just some crate that fell over as the hundreds of little grimy rodents ripped into our stored food. From the taste of our meals I say let them have it. They will die of food poisoning within two days." At the look from El he sighed "Fine, we can go hunting but I am NOT going to go far from the stairs. If I start losing my lunch from the smell I want to be able to get topside quick enough."

[Embrodak]

El just looks at Artimis as the man slowly talks himself into going. "There you go Arti"

The elf looks around the deck and notices the one man who was a passenger like the rest of this new motley crew. "We'll give the crew some time to clean the mess up and we'll meet here then and go hunting. I'm going to see if I can recruit one more hunter."

The elf then leaves the group and approaches the man at the far bow of the deck. The elf smiles and gives a nod "Hello there. I was wondering if you would like to join me and the boys on a monster hunt." he says in low voice.

[Colatine]

As El approaches the man at the far end of the deck, he notices that he is whispering to the wrinkled gnome that he saw observing him and Artimis. The Gnome notices him and starts to quickly walk away.The sudden blast of the cannons from the test firing periodically rock the ship.

A sudden hush spreads across the ship. Those on deck immediately notice the darkness spreading. The sun, it is turning dark; an eclipse. The rangers and the druid, attuned with nature, sense a wrongness about it. Within seconds, utter darkness pervades, even those with dark vision cannot see. Chaos ensues as the crew, at first exclaiming to each other, start panicking, screaming and yelling. The deck becomes a sea of chaos, as people start bumping into each other.

"Stay calm and stay where you are men. No need to panic, it's but an eclipse."commands who is presumably Captain Cray.

A sudden blast, presumably from one of the cannons, followed by a loud scream can be heard from below deck.

"Someone needs to go below deck. El, take the others you recruited with you. Everyone else, stay put." says the Captain as the ship starts to rock as if on choppy waters.

There is only one slight problem though, the lack of sight.

OOC Everyone is effectively blind (blinded condition). You can be as creative as you need to move around. You can use any combination of skills applicable to move, including knowledge skills, acrobatics, survival and anything else you can think of. There is a flat DC of 12 for skill use. Or you can use your ingenuity, including getting the crew to help you...

[Doderic]

Clunk. Groan. Thud. "Who's there?" Tap, tap, tap. "Gnome is that you?" Slap! "No, elf? What'd you say about monsters? I'll go with you I guess, but we have to be careful, there's something evil on this ship."

[AlwaysCivilMike]

He was just about to launch into another rant on El when someone....turned the lights out! It was as odd as anything he had ever seen or felt before. "Well, this is interesting" he said to nobody in particular. Already he could hear people yelling and crying out. At hearing that El was being ordered downstairs Art rolled his eyes...of course this was wasted as nobody could see his annoyance in the darkness...but it made him feel better. Dropping to his knees he slowly crawled to the railing. Once finding it he said "This darkness won't last long. Should we wait?"

[milkshake]

Sleeshi feels like he should know when a solar eclipse should occur. And feels that this is certainly not a usual solar eclipse.

"Interesting, maybe," says Sleeshi to El, abrupty, "But not good for us."

Sleeshi gives his whip an involuntary twitch. A Tweephsh would have recognized the twitch as a signal for caution, but Sleeshi is already a long way from the Tweephsh. The twitch serves a second purpose. It reminds Sleeshi of his surroundings through what it touches, and through the sound it produces when it hits something.

"Waiting, yes," Sleeshi adds, "We should not go down to danger in darkness."

[AlwaysCivilMike]

As if shocked at his own words he said "Then again, if we can't see then neither can whatever is down there." Finally sense came to him "However, I REFUSE to go and crawl in that filth. I am not some gutter....OR ship rat. So if you all want to go downstairs you are MORE than welcome. I think I will stand right HERE against the railing until the lights go back on." He emphasized the point by crossing his arms across his chest....an act that nobody could see of course.

[GrimDarkOtter]

Hama is initially shocked by the darkness, breathing hard and almost falling over from surprise. He can still sense the wind and waves around them, and the dead-yet-living wood of the ship, but this darkness covered all, even when he attempted to summon a light. "Wait, wait wait," he says, his voice cracking, "You heard that scream, somebody's hurt down there! We have to go help. Or I will if you won't." Feeling his way along the deck, Hama tries to use his ears to get to the center of the ship and find the route belowdecks.

OOC Perception check to get belowdecks: Roll of 16

[Colatine]

The scream from below deck continued. "MY AAARM" screamed whoever it was.

"Hold to men. We can't do much about what's going on below deck right now. We need to keep her steady." ordered the reassuring voice of Cap'n Cray, in case any of the crew should rush off. The ship continued to navigate the choppy waters well.

"Tap, tap, tap." slience. "Tap, tap tap." The sound appeared to come from the direction of the mast.

[milkshake]

An arm changed everything. Whatever was happening, it was not good for someone's arm. It was clearly, also, then, quite bad for whomever's arm it was. And Sleeshi knew that whatever was bad for anyone, was bad for him as well.

Sleeshi was about to dart below deck, hoping he could find his way through feel, when he heard an order from Captain Cray. Sleeshi hoped the order wasn't intended for him, because now he had made up his mind that he was going to try to save whoever's arm was in trouble below.

Sleeshi cracked his long whip about once to remember where on the ship he was standing. Spinning his whip in a wide circle around him, then, the impulsive elf dived below deck toward the screaming, relying upon his memory of the ship's layout, and hoping that his whip will make contact with any obstacles before Sleeshi himself does.

[Embrodak]

El stands still reaching out to support this James fellow, but he remains quiet as he listens to the sounds of the crew. "This is an unnatural light, I can't see a thing with my elven vision. Does anyone have a light before we go down there." the elf calmly says.

"And Arti, you are more than welcome to stay by the railing, though the most heavily armed are heading below deck."