Shanks the Nanja,
the Mirrored Sea,
Aboard the SS Ladyslipper

@JBRam2002@Lauder

Screaming.

All Shiki could hear is screaming. The screaming of the dozens, no, hundreds of the lives he's sent to Hell. The lives he's taken for coin, and for his Brimstone Mistress. The screams were all in some sort of sick unison, their echoing agony amplified within his mind. It grated at the assassin's very sanity, threatening to consume it.

Shiki shook his head, grunting, and trying to get a better sense of his current situation. He put away his shuriken before calling out towards his allies as well as to the inscrutable being within the storm of ice.

"If the Drakes dare board,
I will come forth to slay them,
with my cursed blade!"

The vampire called, speaking in a peculiar matter, as always. He always paused between phrases, sometimes fragmenting his sentences, and speaking in some sort of pattern. Some suggest this comes from his strange, dark pact. Others believe that everyone from the Far East speaks in such a matter. Whatever the case may be, Shiki proceeded onward.

The assassin braved through the storm of ice as he made his way to the other side of the deck, where the sinister Drakes had been this entire time. He wasn't sure what they were doing out there, aside from contributing as much as he was. When Shiki got there, he took a peek at them, only to find them babbling like idiots. Shiki took this to his advantage, making himself look less conspicuous to them by crouching behind the railing, his cloak shifting colors again in a similar matter earlier, to further keep him out of sight.

The assassin hovered his hand over the sinister blade sheathed at his hip, readying to strike the moment they spring up. The blade was said to be cursed, delivering incurable wounds that sting like poison. A true weapon meant for a man of his profession. While doing this, Shivs said some quick mantras quietly to himself, clearing his mind of the madness that just earlier afflicted him.

The fish rained, many bounced harmlessly off of Garnesh, until a massive one netted the head of the dragonborn downwards into the railing. It had hurt and he swore that he could have heard some cracking in his skull, not particularly the pleasant kind either. Then a splitting howl filled the air and the barbarian only grit his teeth as he turned to view the trapped wolf. A ceasefire had been called by the short one. A damned ceasefire was the last thing that Garnesh truly wanted, only wanting to do battle and show his superiority over these pathetic creatures.

He took out his great axe, turning back to the serpents. ”Uvelucal,” Garnesh hissed in dragonic, the axe began dully glowing as acidic droplets began to form on the edge of the great axe. The dragonborn readied himself for whatever the drakes wanted to do, ready to strike should they dare to attack. ”Just give me the word, captain, then I shall kill the drakes with ease,” the dragonborn commented to the woman next to him, a snarl forming on his face.

As captain of my ship, I always gave leeway to my crew to make decisions as they saw fit in battle. That is why the cry of ceasefire was not one that angered or annoyed me beyond the inability to show my prowess in battle. Much of the crew felt the same, and it seemed as though the thuellai had calmed its howling for the moment. The rough seas, however, were a force of nature rather than controlled by an individual, and a wave crashed over the side of the gunwales, splashing three of us with the icy salt brine. Perhaps the rage of the wolf might have made the waves thrash our ship harder, as this splash felt merely like that of a carriage passing by on a wintry road.

>All within 10 ft of the south edge of the ship must make CON saves. @Cu Chulainn, @Lauder, @JBRam2002 are affected.

>Jill succeeds with 18, as do Garnesh with 19 and Shivs with 22, taking no damage.

@Zverda is up next.

((DM Note: Ghosting @Zverda))

With Nemiea muttering to herself in the crow's nest and the rest of us waiting with baited breath, the theullai glared at us. It turned its great wintry head towards Eliza and snarled, but there was little else it could do while trapped in her prison, and it knew as much.

"I know when I have been outsmarted," the theullai spoke up, anger sounding on its voice. The sound was airy and distant, even though the elemental wolf was mere feet from them. "But I have no reason to trust those the Sky Sea. Release me, and we shall see."

Jill turned to Eliza. "Do it. If he makes a foul move, we will all blast him. I believe he knows better than to attack us at this point." She pointed her gun towards the theullai and pulled back the hammer. "We are just defending ourselves," she called out. "Don't make us defend ourselves further."

Mentioned: @Ms Ravenwinter
Next: @Hekazu

Dyn glared intently at the frozen wolf with his main eye, but the others did turn around to try and keep him informed of all that was going on. A few of the crew members played around in the rigging, hopping into the crow's nest with only incoherent babbling following. Ugh, get a room, we are in the middle of a battle here. Other things he noted were Shivs promising to handle the drakes if his magic failed, which it naturally would not do, given it was his, and Koan taking the control of the ship. Hopefully she knew what she was doing, in addition to sounding confident about it.

But the most important thing he had to remark was the negotiation between the wolf, the gnome wizard Eliza and by extension the captain who gave her the okay to lower the barrier around the creature. Dyn's mouth curled from his usual sneer to a wicked smile as he recognised how the wolf conceded to being outsmarted, although the anger in its voice made Dyn quite distrusting towards it, especially since it had said "we shall see". Not a good sign. As much as he would have liked to hold a spell ready to throw at the wolf, he could not do so without interrupting the tentacles he had sent out earlier, so he simply remained on his place, staring.


@JBRam2002 - Next!

Cease fire! Cease fire!

Given the window of opportunity, the drow clutched the stiff spokes and mustered a tide of vigor against the spouting watery introitus before the SS Lady Slipper. While spindling the felloe's priapisms, the ship’s pulleys heaved and panted with excruciating oily friction, not yielding yet to the potency of the multiple waves of the orgasmic sea upon its hull. Finally, with more than enough girth and time, the watercraft eventually pursued the plotted peronei curve, thrusting away from the portal that pled to envelop our captain's wooden vessel.

It seemed her friends would live to cackle another day. But hey, why wait, if you can laugh now.

After the Ninja and the Saber completed their uncouth mutterings, the clown welled up a desire to chat with the howling monster. It appeared Koan finally stood erect at the helm of her destiny, on a ship with no land in sight, affronted now by Drakes and a Theullai. The cauterized geisha always longed for this kind of adventure, frequently gazing into the setting horizon with religious daydreams of fervor atop the Mizzen. But she whispered and wished more for the normalcy of a worn, average life.

Like tears lost in rain.

Strolling ever gradually before the wintry wolf, her body morphed and altered the surrounding scenery to mesh with each spoken sentence as she battered words along the wind, contemplating the exotic existence of a wintry canine condemned to keep watch over a mystical gate.

“Esquire Wolf, have you ever sailed completely across an ocean and set paws on land? I want that one more time before I pass. I want to be at the Border Kingdoms. To feel the gallops of Calishite geldings surging past me along the fields of Shaar. To swill candied feasts and fire wine in the Old Empires, at kings’ tables within enemy camps. To stand on the summits of Shao in southern Ku-tar and smoke ghost pipes while waiting for the rising dawn to unleash another age’s worth of searing light. To enjoy one more night of lutes and flutes at the bar of the Cork and Bottle.”

Each step and statement fleshed out a still image and a new donned disguise to portray every fleeting moment.

“To venture to Chult’s coastline. Walk on the outer wall of Mystra’s greatest temple. Climb Blackstaff’s tower. Ride the Wyrm River. Stare at the frescoes of Vulpomyscan, Tsaparang and Merlan. To sit in Kelemvor’s garden and read one more good tombstone.”

She halted as the deck ran out of real estate, as she returned to her familiar jester corpus.

“I yearn the warmth of a virgin man in a crisp set of sheets.”

The clown stereotypically licked her lips in front of her glacial audience.

“Most of all, I want to sleep. To dream when I was a girl. Give me that. Grant us all that. Just one more time. Because even if you destroy the last of me, know that it will never be the best of me.”

She clicked her heels. A confetti of smog silently, but non-lethally, bellowed out of the strange bard's sharky behind, quickly enrapturing her with murky miasma and violent vapor, obscuring the spinning wheel and the adjacent bewildered gnome.


@JBRam2002

Reemes heard the command and groaned with the idea of not fighting anymore. Oh well, there would be more violence for sure in the near future. With a look of complete disgust he stuffed his pistol back into the holster and hauled himself back to a righted position and looked into the nest at his side. His pistol was still on the floor of the look-out and at the feet of the, thankfully, no longer babbling sorceress. Reemes belt over the edge of the crow's nest and picked up his weapon before just tipping himself all the way into the nest and laying on the floor of the pitching roost. He tucked his legs in to fit more comfortably in the small area and cradeled his pistol, starting to reload it.

"I ask ye fer one good fight an' I get half drowned, frozen't'm bones and don't even getta kill nuttin?" he asked the open air. He looked up from his reloading and locked his gaze on the woman standing over him, "Th'sea, y'see?" he said, as if to clairify his ranting, "She loves me, y'ken it? She does. She's a proper cunt though, aye. She likes t'give me lil' gifts that'r most pain than pleasure, y'ken? She loves me, and I her. She's a 'orrible bitch though, she is, the worst of'em all." he gave Nemea a mad man's gin and started to laugh, "Iss'why I love'er s'damned much! Perfect fer me she is!" with that said he lost himself in howling laughter and started to kick the side of the crow's nest in a fevered fit of glee.

His glee suddenly stopped when he heard the voice of the jester lifting to him as she waxed on about the glories of life, like that screaming bitch was going to be able to bury a ship with the Sea's Favorite Boy on board. Reemes looked back to the cat-lady and clciked his tongue, "I think iss'time t'make an appearance. Th'ole bitch'll need t'see t'one tha'shot'em up." With that he stood quickly and started down the rigging at a break neck pace, sliding to the deck with a loud thock!

Calico Reemes landed with bent knees and pulled out his half loaded pistol and returned to loading it as he swaggered up next to the jester Koan. "Lovely words, lass." he said with a nod to her and then looked at the massive wolf. "You'ain't s'bad up close. Almost cute, idn't'ee?"

The ceasefire washed over the situation, bring an uneasy peace with it as both sides seemed to just stare each other down. It seemed that no matter what the fight would start up again and Garnesh wanted to be ready for just the occasion. The dragonborn eyed the three beings, the wolf and the two drakes, keeping his axe ready to strike should they even remotely try anything suspicious. The barbarian would not allow them to kill any of his allies, he would be sure of that. Then, a thought occurred to him as he looked over his enemies. “Can I have my javelins back?,” he questioned, seeing as how his weapons protruded from the hide of the beasts.

For him, it was a legitimate question as he simply did not wish to lose what were clearly his and not theirs. He had ignored what the jester had done, being used to her abilities and the likes. Though, Garnesh still did listen, though one line about feeling virgin men did catch his attention with a more than confused look. The barbarian shook off the confusion and refocused on the task at hand, needing to get his javelins back and he knew of one way to get them back, killing the beasts. Granted, it was break the ceasefire, but he wanted what was his back since they were his and he like his stuff because they reminded him of himself.

The barbarian’s ego was showing.

While the great Dyn'yer'zhead had a multitude of words for the wolf creature, most of them would sound like gibberish to those around, and when it came to those who understood... well, let's say that the saying "swore like a sailor" would probably need to change in severity since Dyn's words, if spoken, would move the average up by about four magnitudes. The reason he held back was unusual for a Beholder, but it was due to the fact he didn't want to make Jill angry at him by thoroughly blundering all attempts at diplomacy the crew could muster up.

Koan was up to her usual shenanigans, prancing about the deck with illusions flaring all around her. While many would consider it to be a pretty show, it hurt Dyn's eyes and the words, in his opinion, were needlessly on the begging side of things. It was like the wolf had any sort of leverage here. As she finally finished a Fog Cloud enveloped her, conjuring a small gurgle that could by some be interpreted as laughter from Dyn's spherical body. After being so apologetic she even finishes off by vanishing? An act as honed as one would expect from her.

Now the words of Reemes were on the better side of things, especially his closing words reflecting Dyn's own opinion on the situation: The wolf was the one on the losing side here and it deserved to be taunted a little. The Beholder mouth curled into a smirk, but once he heard the words of the dragonborn, he rolled a fifth of a rotation backwards so that his mouth now pointed more towards the sky and burst into full on laughter. And while the last thing mentioned might have been a tension relieving and even a fun little addition from anyone else, believe me a laughing Beholder is the stuff of nightmares.

To wholly understand just how unsettling the sound of it is, one needs to understand that Dyn was a speaker of Deep Speech, a language of eldritch sounds that could be described best as 'wet' and 'distressed', adjectives that have no business describing sound. It was as if the voice itself was scared of it being spoken in such a distorted manner. And when even rational speech was terrible like that, there were no words for describing just how horrible the laugh was.

Hesitation suddenly struck Eliza. She was equal parts shocked that she managed to get through to what seemed like a raging, caged animal and dumbstruck at the prospect of continuing this diplomacy successfully. Her attempt at negotiation was a hasty and impulsive one, and yet it worked. From there, however, Eliza was lost. But to her luck and immense relief, the kindly jester of the crew stepped in to make matters lighter. With a riveting speech no less. One that urged Eliza to rush for her notebook and hurriedly scrawl the words down on the nearest bookmarked sheet. She nearly had it all down before she quickly understood the sensation of one's spectacles fogging over their vision.

Blindly, she walked forward along the ship's railing, arm extended and waving side to side. This was something most of the crew would soon see, because as suddenly as the fog appeared, it was swept away by the ferocious winds of the sea. It was at this point that the gnome found herself face to face, so to speak, with the supple rear end that projected the obscuring cloud, her extended hand a mere inch from accidentally groping Koan's backside. The arm shot to her side, Eliza's posture rigid, as her choked up throat garbled up a blurted, "Hi."

With her face firmly painted a bright shade of pink at this point, Eliza pressed on past the woman to be more or less at the Theullai's nose. Stowing her mark-addled notebook into her Haversack, Eliza pawed up at the top edge of the railing. With some struggling, she managed to shimmy her petite figure over the side of the ship, parking herself on the edge with her legs dangling overboard. She hadn't a care of falling, as she knew very well that if her grip failed her then she'd have no issue reappearing on deck only a little soggier than before.

From this vantage, more or less at eye level to the wolf, Eliza addressed her would-be prisoner. "Now, don't be mean or I'll have to stuff you into another one of these," she bade warning before a mere flick of the wrist dispelled the ethereal cage around the Theullai. "And to the business at hand..."

"What's it like up there in the Water Plane? Who or what charged you with guarding this Gate? Do you know why this Gate stands here? Are the drakes your friends? Do you like petting?"

As the transparent sphere around the wolf was dispelled, the relieved look on its visage was evident to all of us. The coral drakes nearly lashed out, but a snarl from the Theullai was enough to stay their blows. The drakes laid their ears back... or I assume those were their ears, and slinked away, leaving the ship and returning to the gate.

The Theullai's attention returned to the tiny and potentially tasty morsel of a gnome, bringing its jaw down to her level. One of the wolf's teeth were as tall as she was, and his breath was worse than the stench of Dyn's breath after curry day, and more frigid than a snowstorm in the Fridge. His voice sounded like a cross between a howling wind and the crunch under your boots on freshly-fallen snow.

“Thy words bore me, Daughter of Man,” the wolf retorts in Koan’s direction. “And shouldst thee desire thine weapons retrieved, Dragonspawn, I suggest thou dive into the water and find those that sailed past in thine haste. But...”

The Theullai’s attention once more returned to Eliza, and his eyes lowered to be at her level. “Thou intriguest me, Gem-Soul. I shall answer thine myriad questions. In the Plane of Water, it is wet. I have charged myself with guarding the Gate, as the last Steward was slain previously. The drakes are more enslaved allies than friends, and I enjoy petting, but thou wouldst find the experience would leave thee without the use of thine hand. However, the most important of thy questions takes longer to answer.”

The wolf glanced towards the Gate, then back to the ship. “Dwellers of the Sky-Sea, as thou hast proven thine strength and kindness, I beseech thy assistance in this matter. Thy world and mine have become intertwined beyond their natural boundaries. The fate of both of our worlds hang in the balance. I had misjudged thee as mere pirates worthy of naught but destruction. Prove to me thou art worthy of salvation!”

Eliza felt like leaning on the edge of her seat as the Theullai answered her questions, but quickly found that precarious and instead kept to nodding after each reply. Her eyes remained intensely focused on those of her newfound company. Though, it wasn't a look of cautious distrust, rather of complete fascination. It was no small wonder that an elemental being was speaking to her. Even giving her information!

The wolf stopped a moment after their proclamation, and Eliza looked to be in the midst of recollection. She visibly scanned the possibilities within her memories before a look of astonishment struck her face. "Oh, I think I have just the idea!" The shimmering staff interwoven with the arcane fabric of the Weave lifted within her hand. She paused a moment before beginning her incantation. "Now, stay calm. This'll look a little scary but it'll do you no harm. Promise." She waited to see a look of acknowledgement from the Theullai, some sign of trust, before moving on with her spell. Fingertips swooped and swished through the air and intricate patterns as her gem-tipped staff glowed a dull orange hue. "For a shield that crackles, I wield mystic frackles," she muttered coolly under her breath.

With a sudden spark of energy inside of her arcane focus, thin, yellow flames sprung into existence around her. They crawled up and danced along her body, never breaching an inch further than her skin. The energy within was faint, more akin to a hearthfire than an arcane inferno. The presence of it was warm, rather than scalding. She reached her hand out slowly toward the Theullai with an even warmer smile on her face. "What's your name?"

Waving her sleeves, the wispy brume dispelled via zephyrs provided by the chilled heavens above and the frigid waters below. Once wind and arms exiled the smelly haze, a ghost pirate loading a firearm hooked into her peripheral vision, with a prompt, terrified scream to boot. Her voice seemed to carry over the gales and squalls flapping the masts, which froze the gnome in place along the railing, before her nose planted haphazardly into Koan’s gluteal cleft. A forward jump saved her from imminent comedy.

“You scared me, Reemes! Gosh! Especially with all that heat you’re packing.”

Inquiries and a stream of consciousness soon followed from the tinkerer as she scribbled excitedly into her trifling of a notebook.

And, so many questions…

“Looks like she has it...” The wintry monstrosity flared its nostrils. “Er, I mean, him. Sorry, Mr. Ice Wolfie!” She squinted her left eye to the short wizard, hoping the gesture would smooth over her blatant awkwardness. The jester sustained the side conversation with a whisper and more winking, “Under control. Phew! He is awfully cute, Reemes! Almost too adorable! Do you think we can keep him?”

The rest of the crew seemed, at best, distracted. Garnesh possessed other concerns, namely his lost weapons, whilst the Beholder guffawed dissonant chuckles, able to raise a haiku-rapping vampire from the dead.

A proclamation quickly interrupted any before they could interject.

“… Prove to me thou art worthy of salvation!” The Theullai spake.

In response, the tiny mage soon urbanized a walking, talking miniature kiln, full with afterglow. Eliza, then, did the unimaginable.

She petted the beast. Wowzers!

The clown thought it best to cheerlead from the sidelines, whereupon two dancing will-o’-wisps of light occupied each hand like pom poms. The half-drow knew that intelligent peeps could get nervous at times. Maybe, this cheer would help ameliorate the negotiations.

The harlequin squawked her chant, loud and proud.

Eliza was always the smartest one of us when it came to magic, and I wonder to this day why she decided to touch the elemental being made of complete ice. But touch it she did. A moment before her hand reached out, the warming light of her spell faded, replaced by a cool blue chill. Eliza saw this, gritted her teeth, and reached forward anyways, her hand reaching out to gently caress the wispy snowflake-like fur of the elemental wolf.

>Eliza takes 34 cold damage. Her hand is frozen in an outstretched posture. You are vulnerable to fire damage and cannot use the hand for Somatic components or to wield anything until the hand thaws.

"Eliza!" Jill cried out, rushing forward and pulling her back from the theullai.

"My name is Bledig, Keeper of the Gate and Watcher of the Waters," the theullai responded, seemingly unflinching at the pain it inflicted. "I did warn thee that contact would be a poor choice. I believe thine affliction will wear off in time, but most who do as thou hast did not survive long enough. Now, wilt thou assist me?"

Dyn grit his teeth as was typical of him when there was nothing to do. Eliza, Koan and Jill were busy talking at this creature with words and not really getting much done. The creature was released from its invisible containment and they had a chat, they being the mentioned members of the crew and the wolf thing. Eventually this exchange seemed to near its end as the gnome reached forward with the encouragement of the shapechanger and... well, it ended about as well as one might have thought. The frost that was enough to freeze their ship cared little of her little Fire Shield and froze the gnome's arm solid. Well, to be fair the wolf had warned her, but Dyn still felt a sting of anger in him as the creature bellowed more about wanting their help.

"Right, right, let me introduce myself to you as well, Bleeding!" Dyn bellowed, not even bothering to attempt pronouncing the name of the creature correctly. "My name is Dyn'yer'zhead and I am most appalled by your gall to threaten us with death, only to demand our help mere moments after. Not to mention you have failed to share what you need the help with. And know this, I will not be roped to any contract with the other side hiding the obligations of it, no way. Bark up the details or consider your request dismissed!" Dyn was amazed with his ability to keep things mostly professional.

The Beholder slowly floated towards his injured crewmate and laid his many eyes on the frostbite. "You are no use to us with a hand like that. Get yourself to the caboose to warm up", he instructed the other wizard. The fact his voice lacked any hint of sympathy was nothing new. Turning to the wolf again, Dyn bared his teeth but said not a word to accompany it. Maybe, just maybe, the wolf would bother giving them the details they'd need for the decision.

Reemes finished loading his weapon with a wide and shark-like grin on his face from the startlement of the jester and the nose full of arse the little micro-mage got. Reemes snorted and threw his back joining Dyn's chorus of horrible laughter. He stopped quickly when Koan started to move away and the wolf agreed to let the gnome pet him. Well, that was a rather unexpected turn of events. However, as Reemes stuffed his pistol back into the holster at his hip, he knew it would be a terrible idea to touch something like that. It was common sense really. The thing was practically made of the shrill voice of a mother-in-law who lived in your guest room, proper freezing. He opened his mouth as she started to cast her spell, thinking of warning the little wizard, but, then thought better of it. Or, perhaps he thought worse of it.

As she finished her spell Reemes stepped over to the jester doing the strangest ritual he had ever seen and chanting some kind of madness that even he was a little wary of. He nearly stopped moving towards the second maddest person on the boat before he remembered that he was on the top of that list, and, worst she could do was say something almost as crazy as something he might say. So, he continued to her and leaned in as Eliza reached out for the wolf. "A ducett says 'er arm turns icy'n'solid like Northern berg." as soon as he offered this bet to Koan though his suspicion was proved perfectly correct. He snapped his fingers in irritation as the saner members of the crew moved to help, "Awwe!" Reemes grumbled, "N'shake on it s'don't count. I ain't a cheater'o'me own crew, see?" he said with a disappointed glance over at Koan.

He darted his eyes back to the scene by the wolf though as the great big bollock of a pirate started to talk to the frosty dog. The nasty piece of work that floated about the ship had some good points. Reemes hated doing things without details, the devil was in those, y'ken? Yes, y'ken it very well. Was all happy and fun talk until you really knew what you were doing. Then it was all lies and guns. He didn't mind a bit of lies and guns but he liked to know if that was going to happen before others did. Best to be the one resorting to violence than the victim of someone quicker. Reemes dark eyes suddenly danced with ideas and plans, never a good sign. He turned to Koan beside him and gave her a quick, "Right back kullie," he said with a glint of terrible in the whites of his eyes and a smile like the Devil with a married woman on his arm, "Gotta query'm'own t'pose our frosty guest. Keep th'unholy chant y'got goin' fer me."

" 'ail! Y'fuckin''orrible bastard you." Calico said as he swaggered over to the flank of the beholder, giving the floating wizard and nod of respect, "Dyn'ere 'as'a good set'o'questions fer ya. Though, Ole Calico Reemes 'ere 'as a request fer s'm payment up front." Reemes took just a second to think just how incredible he was at diplomatic arts before he asked for his up front payment, "I thinks y'owes us an apology, y'ken it? Yes, y'ken well I think. Not jus't'm'scroons 'ere but t'm'wet an' drowny bitch 'neath th'ship. Y'made 'er proper upset, ken it? She nearly tried t'drown even me. This 'ole Gate business 'as made 'er proper mad, see? She needs an apology from y'ilk. Only fair." he crossed his arms over his chest and looked around nodding at all of his companions, "Yeah, right? I'm right on it 'ere, yeah?" he asked and nodded his own confirmation while mouthing what appeared to be agreement from himself. He turned his face back to the wolf and waited for details and the requested apology.

“Eliza!”

The half-elf’s delightful, jiggling orbs of joy dissolved, as the outstretched appendage of the Lore master became an icicle despite their captain’s loud admonition during the cheerleader’s psalm. After a scream, Dyn’yer’zhead and Calico followed suit, demanding answers and an apology.

But.

All the drow could focus on was to provide relief to her vertically challenged amiga. Pondering a solution to the wizard’s frozen dilemma, she instinctively generated a mischievous sneer while slender hands buffed against each other briskly. Comic relief was almost always the answer when someone was suffering from a rough wind in their sails.

Gently pulling Jill away from her target, the fool proclaimed. “Eureka! Excuse me, boss, but I believe I’ve got an idea.” Waving her limbs in a synchronized, but opposing counter-current fashion, over her wrist, similar to the motion involved in beating upon bongo drums, Abbercroft’s right upper extremity soon riddled itself with Matryoshka hearts, circumscribed coeurs of vivid colors. The wild sorcerer ended with a hand waxing rapidly up and down, in the air, as if skywriting an invisible telegram. As the airbrushing ceased, the clown’s name, portrayed in rainbow stripes, engraved into a question-mark spiral over the makeshift orthopedic cast.

A glaring stare from about four feet high flashed disapproval.

“Ooh. Ooh. Can I try again? Please?”

Quickly, gaudy irezumi waded around the elbow, shoulder and wrist of the pediatric-sized magician, until the fervent tattoos aborted their swimming currents and settled into their wavy molds.

“Fishies better, right?”

The marine sling soon disappeared only to reveal a bright, orange pigmentation pervading the iced skin's undertone. “No?” Frustrated with the series of haphazard events, the short prodigy sidestepped out of the 15 foot cube, delineating the insane illusions, all the while, the wintry wolf gawked with jaded attention, stifled with glimpses of curiosity. However, her little friend’s boots did not remain close, but marched off, with an inadvertent heil boom arm, carving a swastika of sadness into the clown’s crowded soul. The mage’s stink eye, whilst she paraded away, only egged the one-woman circus act to retaliate and continue, endeavoring to amuse her tiny compadré, before any possible depression could curdle.

The show must go on.

“Okay, okay. Let me start over.”

Poof. A one piece?

“Um. How unfitting. That didn't count.”

More finger waving produced the harlequin with a cigarette in a fluffy fur coat. She took a drag and belched nothing, but cold breath. Aiming for under the stiff auburn body part, the scarred comic then flicked her cancer stick, which subsequently crackled into a miniature inferno under the hinged stalactite, thawing rapidly some of the pronated ice.

Yelping, the maimed tinkerer steamed a beeline towards Koan. Reflexively, the wombless woman countered, furnishing a halt with both gloves.

“Stop! In the name of fun!”

Shocking to the whacky warlock, she did. Magically. Taking full advantage of her paralysis, the crazed bard concentrated and blew a kiss, rearranging the stationary gnomish silhouette into that of a snowman, with her carrot arm for a nose, a matching scarf, a stovepipe hat, and two wooden branches projecting from the flanks of its buttoned midline, hoisting marshmallows.

“Now, we’re in the mood. We'll get you back to clapping in no time but this may hurt a little.”

Before another bonfire could manifest, three flashes of spotlight and their thunderous applause finally concluded the mayhem, as lightning bolts rained upon Garnesh, Shiki and the Theullai.

"Oops."


@Big Dread@Hekazu@JBRam2002@Ms Ravenwinter@Lauder@Cu Chulainn@Zverda

Dyn could not follow Koan's shenanigans at all. Nothing she was doing was making any sense, everything only served to make the situation worse. Whatever she was aiming for, the Beholder knew nothing good would come out of this. First she performed some shenanigans on the gnome's arm, looked like harmless illusions which he could somewhat tolerate, but by the time it came to freezing the fellow Wizard on the spot and using fire on her frozen arm, Dyn (and let me tell you, this term is only used figuratively on this occasion, no matter how fitting it might seem to be literal) exploded with anger, dashing right into Koan's face.

"You cease this tomfoolery right here and now, imbecile!" Dyn bellowed, turning momentarily to call upon his magic which freed Eliza from her paralysed state. "It does not take the Intelligence gathered in several centuries to be able to tell that fire and ice don't mix together! Or are you willingly trying to get one of us out of the picture when there is a giant ice wolf that just a few seconds ago was still barking orders at us?! Because if so, you are even dumber than your shenanigans just made you look!"

The Bladesinger pulled back a single centimetre, glaring into the eyes of the jester with all of his. It was very uncharacteristic of him to devote all of his eyes on a single purpose, so if she had followed the habits of her fellow crewmate she would know that she had royally pissed off the Beholder. One of his tentacles tapped the half-drow on the throat to accentuate each of his next few words: "Think. Before. You. Act."

Dyn understood that there was nothing Koan could do about her wild magic in itself, but she could have contained even that by not casting all those highly unnecessary spells there either. Given one of the lightning bolts had struck Ble-whatever, she could well have ruined everything the others were trying to build up here. At times, he was unsure why they kept this wild card around. But it was what Jill wanted and she was one of the few, if not the only one Dyn did not really feel like arguing with.



@Ms Ravenwinter - Dispel Magic
@Gordian Nought - Angry Beholder in the face
@JBRam2002 - Because things, especially the magic part

A bolt of lightning shot through the great ice wolf, and it yelped, more of shock than pain as the lightning did little to harm him. "Stow thy jester, or at least keep her magic in check! Thy mastery of sorcery leaves much to be desired!" Bledig looked back between the beholder and the possessed sailor, its ears laid back in annoyance as it picked up where it had been interrupted. "Thy speech holds aloft the care and dignity of a banquet for krill, Children of the Deep," he responded, looking first at Dyn, then to Reemes. "However, it doth behoove us all to acquiesce to thine request, to the extent of which I doth... ken."

The great frosted wolf drifted forward, coming to rest on the ship's deck itself. Where its feet touched our boat, ice sprang from its wintry pads, spreading forth as if to create a frozen carpet for it to advance upon. Bledig held himself with a strong air of self-importance like a noblewoman in a commoner's market. It glared down at us, dwarfing all of us in size. I considered casting an Enlarge spell on our barbarian, but the Circle of Power taxing my concentration was a much more effective defensive measure. For now.

Bledig laid his head down on the deck of the ship, seemingly appearing tired. "For years, I have been the Gate's Steward. I won the honor in a duel with the previous Steward, whom I defeated. And for years, none have dared challenge me. Until now. A marid, unhappy with my decisions yet too cowardly to act on it, cast some wild wish upon the gate, conjoining our worlds in mortal peril. I cannot confront the marid, as he has hidden himself deep within the waters, and my duties restrict me to remain nearby the Gate. Wouldst thou find him snd bring him to whatever form of justice thou seest fit?"