Seaside

[TeChameleon]

[Under the Sea]

Eddie stood next to Frigate for a moment. He was wearing his chain-mail shorts out of some vague sense of propriety and appropriateness, but that was about it, and he was going to have to give them a thorough cleaning later to prevent corrosion.

He watched the dim shapes of the fish-people for a moment, evaluating the weapons. A quick check through the magical spectrum, then he asked Frigate "Do you recognize these organics?"

If neither his magical sight nor Frigate turned up anything too interesting, he was simply going to walk forwards and start trying to find the specific container they were there to find. He honestly didn't care what the fishfolk did with the other containers, and if they didn't bug him, he wasn't going to bug them.

[Earl of Purple]

Under the Sea

The materials of Frigate's body were chosen for their resistance to corrosion, so whilst he'll clean himself afterwards there's nothing he needs be immediately concerned about.

"Nay, best I be able t'do is rule out others. They be not tritons, those fish-people resemble whales or dolphins." Which aren't fish, and neither are tritons. But Frigate's a simple man, with a more militaristic education than an accurate one. "They got legs, so neither be they merpeople. I see no sharks, which do be rulin' out sahuagin, too. That staff... I hear kuo-toa be usin' weapons like that, but I be ne'er encounterin' such lubbers afore." Frigate's pronunciation of 'kuo-toa' is horrible, though as they prefer to dwell in subterranean waters it's unusual to see them in the open.

There is magic around. Their leader seems to be a priest, with divine energies running through their body, and their mancatcher is also enchanted, as are some trinkets and adornments they wear. None of the others carry visible weapons, nor do they seem to have any mystic ability. Amongst the containers, there's some more magic. Three of the containers contain magical items, so they can probably be disregarded as their target- they're after an antique stone sarcophagus, which to their employer's knowledge is not magic.

[quillpleasant]

Broken Island

Mostly frozen and focusing all his attention on escaping, Nathair is complete unprepared to deal with what comes next. As the water surrounds the frozen pieces, the oil not trapped in ice begins to dethaw- before the crackling dragon's breath comes surging through it.

The one saving grace is that ice, unlike water, is not a good conductor of electricity. The nanobots trapped in ice, although a little stunned, are largely unharmed. But for the rest of him, the sudden current has a swift and sudden reaction, the nanobots short circuiting and going haywire. The oil melts into nanobot sand, and, unable to hold itself together in such small quantities, is quickly carried away as the pillar of water falls once more.

How could he have let this happen? The answer is obvious: it was just a fluke, a lucky break on her part. He had been ambushed, in an environment that played into the dragon's abilities, and he had underestimated her strategic capabilities. But even so, she still couldn't kill him. No, this is only a minor setback. In a few minutes, he'll be free of this ice, and then he'll slowly skeletonize her, and-

Wait, no! She's flying away! Nathair rages against the ice, but he's sluggish after the shock, and without any help from the nanobots that weren't caught, it'll a little while to free himself. By that time, she'll be long gone.

A cold bitter hatred engulf Nathair as he realizes, once again, that he's failed.

[Shadowcaller]

Broken Island

Mostly frozen and focusing all his attention on escaping, Nathair is complete unprepared to deal with what comes next. As the water surrounds the frozen pieces, the oil not trapped in ice begins to dethaw- before the crackling dragon's breath comes surging through it.

The one saving grace is that ice, unlike water, is not a good conductor of electricity. The nanobots trapped in ice, although a little stunned, are largely unharmed. But for the rest of him, the sudden current has a swift and sudden reaction, the nanobots short circuiting and going haywire. The oil melts into nanobot sand, and, unable to hold itself together in such small quantities, is quickly carried away as the pillar of water falls once more.

How could he have let this happen? The answer is obvious: it was just a fluke, a lucky break on her part. He had been ambushed, in an environment that played into the dragon's abilities, and he had underestimated her strategic capabilities. But even so, she still couldn't kill him. No, this is only a minor setback. In a few minutes, he'll be free of this ice, and then he'll slowly skeletonize her, and-

Wait, no! She's flying away! Nathair rages against the ice, but he's sluggish after the shock, and without any help from the nanobots that weren't caught, it'll a little while to free himself. By that time, she'll be long gone.

A cold bitter hatred engulf Nathair as he realizes, once again, that he's failed.

Broken Island

Megeshi is going to linger for a few moments.
Since she felt more satisfied than she could properly convey in words as she saw his body melt. If he had been capable of feeling pain or screaming she would have wanted to record it and if she had capable of smiling she would have been beaming.

But a recording might be a bit too much and all she was capable of was a toothy grin.
Still, she was enjoying just imagining his suffering.

It was ironic, in her most rage-fueled moments she would have given anything to see this but it was only when she had let go of the rage she had been capable of doing it. Still felt amazing though even if she was pretty sure the thief was still alive in there.

Unsure if she could actually finish him off, and considering all his power, she was just gonna pretend to think she killed him so she could leave without feeling as if she ran away. As it turned out, she would need to do a lot more research on him, especially that strange oil that he manifested. Since it was also the perfect excuse to hang around Utayo more...

[TeChameleon]

[Under the Sea]

Eddie nodded to Frigate, filing the information away for later. He gestured to the left.

"If you want to start at that end, I can do the other, and we can meet in the middle, unless one of us finds it first? If these kuo-toa..." he mimicked Frigate's mispronunciation as best he could- "... decide they want to attack us, we can deal with them, otherwise let's just get on with the job. And if they decide that we're salvage too, I'm going to punch them in the head."

He pointed to the three containers that had magical items in them. "We can probably rule out that one, that one and that one. There's magic in them, which means it's not what we want, although we might want to check the exterior markings just in case something got packed in the wrong bin..."

Then he gave Frigate a head tilt, his eyes blazing pure white and casting beams of light like the headlights of the idiot tailgating you with their purple LED high-beams on. "You don't seem to be burning mana down here. Or you're regenerating it at the same speed you burn it. I can see why you'd like these underwater salvage jobs, if that were the case. Any idea why it's happening?"

[Earl of Purple]

Under the Sea

There's a rumbling crash as the kuo-toa manage to knock the shipping container into the gorge, and then most of the fish-people get to work at trying to tip and shove the next one along to send it deeper. Their leader, however, hops off the pinnacle of rock and half-swims half-jumps over, waving the mancatcher at Frigate and Eddie. It also clicks and whistles, trying to communicate in its native language, which isn't being translated, as it points and motions to try and drive them off.

"Methinks they want us gone. An' perhaps what we be wantin' be in th' one they knocked down, an' there mebbe others they've already taken." So the sarcophagus' presence in one of these containers is not guaranteed, even if they manage to stake a claim to them. Possibly just by ignoring the kuo-toa whip.

"An' nay, got no idea. Didn't even realise it be happenin'. I like undersea missions it be peaceful, usually. But I be needin' you, me sense o' direction's terrible." Which is why Eddie was given the compass and maps. Frigate can navigate using the stars and a sextant, but this deep the stars aren't visible and a sextant is useless.

[TeChameleon]

[Under the Sea]

"I'm connected to the Earth's geo-managesic field, so my sense of direction's pretty good." Eddie said. "So we should be all right on that front, hopefully. As to these fishy-types, not sure what to do about them- best option is just to start checking containers for now."

He waved off the Dagon-cultist fishman, or whatever it was, irritably. "Yeh, yeh. We get what we came for, and we'll be out of your hair. Relax."

He glanced back and forth, and an idea struck him. "Hang on, this might work." he called to Frigate.

Moving faster than what he hoped the kua-toa would be able to react to, he popped the closest container open with a grinding wrench. Ignoring the sudden rush of bubbles as the trapped air explodes forth, he glanced inside. Seeing no sarcophagus, he shoved the doors closed again and tossed it over the edge one-handed, in the general direction of where the fishpeople had tumbled the container they had been working on.

If Frigate looked closely at the ground where Eddie had been standing when he lifted the container, he might note that the rock now had a shallow depression in it that hadn't been there before, almost as if the weight of Eddie holding the container had been distributed over several metres, rather than just at the small golem's feet.

Eddie, meanwhile, had moved to the next container, repeating the process- open, bubbles, look around, close and toss. If the fishfolk were even moderately intelligent, they should realize that the two constructs had a singular goal in mind, and were interested in nothing else. If they wanted to start a fight over the unknown objective, that was pretty much on them.

[Morty]

[Hiep's Cove]

Hiep's deer Nhay makes his way through a sparse tropical woodland in the direction of the sea coast. He is once again carrying Verity in addition to his usual rider. Verity might notice that something is very strange about this place. It's suffused with resonance that tries to make people lose their way and turn around, forgetting the trip. Hiep would have mentioned that it's a natural phenomenon that she reinforced with a prophecy... whatever that means.

[Earl of Purple]

Under The Sea

No air bubbles when the container is opened; if they were water tight, they'd float instead of sinking. There is a load of brightly-coloured rubber ducks, however, which burst out and drift upwards as the container is opened. Most are still inside when Eddie shuts the door, so the kuo-toa get to keep them, whatever they might want them for. (If they even want them, and aren't interested purely in the metal of the container.)

The priest is buffeted by Eddie's wake, and doesn't react in time to stop the golem, but is now focused on him rather than Frigate, who is much slower. He works on opening the furthest container and shoving it into the gorge. What the priest is doing is clicking and whistling, sending the other kuo-toa into the gorge and calling for others to come out instead. Five kuo-toa swim up and out, these ones armed. They've all got a wooden shield, but the weapons differ. One has an aluminium pole with a sharpened tip, two have sharpened metal scraps bound to hafts as crude axes, one has a disc-mace with a head of oceanic jasper, and the last has a bronze shortsword. They're letting the constructs get on with things; they aren't hostile, but instead warily looking around and mostly up.

[Halae]

[Hiep's Cove]

Verity has been quiet, taking in the sounds and smells of their environment as she rides behind on Nhay, her arms tucked around Hiep's waist. As they're passing through it, she comments to Hiep, "This is the softest ward I've ever felt. It's almost like it's not even there, woven into the background of the world. How does one make something like this?"

There's a surprising amount of interest there.

[Morty]

[Hiep's Cove]

"Would you believe it took a lot of paperwork?" Hiep shakes her head. Riding this way with Verity is quite pleasant, once she got used to it. "When I found this place, it was a naturally-occurring place that clouded people's senses. There used to be a lot of shipwrecks here. So I filed for a prophecy to be made that says no one will ever find it. So it's not really a ward, as such. Just fate saying what should happen."

[Halae]

[Hiep's Cove]

Hiep will be able to feel the intensity of Verity's concentration on that statement even from behind, considering it, feeling through it. Hiep will likely recognize it as the way some scholars and sages get when they're presented with a new and fascinating piece of information.

But the necromancer restrains herself with a groan, "... I'll be asking about that later. For now, are we almost there? Nhay is pleasant, but my ass is starting to hurt."

[TeChameleon]

[Under the Sea]

Eddie was working quickly, but he wasn't rushing. Open, check, close, toss. He was staying aware of the kua-toa, but he wasn't paying close enough attention to notice that they were glancing upwards. A thought hit him.

"Take note of the markings on the crates you check." he called to Frigate. "Or else make your own mark on them. If what we seek isn't in the crates up here, we'll need to check the ones that the fishfolk have already tipped over the edge."

Eddie's mark was obvious- he wasn't being particularly gentle when he opened the containers, and there were Eddie-sized finger gouges in, and occasionally right through, the doors of the containers. He continued to work, confident that he could handle anything that the kua-toa could do to him.

Whether rightly or wrongly remained to be seen.

[Earl of Purple]

Under the Sea

Frigate was already doing that, as it happens. The kuo-toa also remain nonhostile, at least not to Eddie and Frigate. They're most of the way through- a pair of cars resting on their roofs, a vast array of personal electronics, cut marble countertops, bicycles and a single crate of Russian nesting dolls are what Eddie's opened, as well as the ducks- when something else emerges from the gloom.

Three sharks swim into view, a different type of aquatic humanoid clinging to their sides. These fish-people have blue-grey hides matching their sharks, and mouths full of sharp and vicious-looking teeth. There's five in total; a large four-armed specimen wielding a large enchanted bone club studded with shark teeth has one shark to itself, whilst the other two sharks bring in a pair of such people, one each armed with a shark-tooth-tipped spear and the other with a bone club. The kuo-toa with the mancatcher starts the battle, a gesture sending a bolt of blue light- like bioluminescence- streaking across into the four-armed sahuagin. It looks to hurt, and now the sahuagin baron is glowing. He snaps his jaws and gestures with his club, the others diving down to attack the kuo-toa.

One of the sahuagin ignores the fish-people, instead sweeping in towards Eddie with their long spear, jabbing at what should be Eddie's kidneys.

[Morty]

[Hiep's Cove]

Luckily enough, Nhay has just got past the treeline and emerged on a sandy beach. Verity can't see it, but she will probably notice that the sound and smell of the sea are both closer.

"Yep, here we are. My humble abode isn't far from here."

[TeChameleon]

[Under the Sea]

Eddie had gotten into the zone with his checking, and barely had time to register the new fish people when the sahuagin struck with enough force to shatter its spear, catching Eddie mid-stride and knocking him off-balance.

Unfortunately, that and slightly annoying Eddie was all that the attack accomplished, and Eddie turned the stumble into a spinning grab of the ruined spear-haft that the sea devil still held. If the grab connected, Eddie would slam the spear lengthwise into the sahuagin's midsection and hurl the sharkman spinning uncontrollably away, leaving it more than a hundred metres away, and likely more than a little disoriented.

And then, one way or the other, the little golem would fall on his butt.

[Halae]

[Hiep's Cove]

"Good to hear it," Verity says, her tone a little strained. She never learned to ride, and being bareback isn't helping matters. Once they pull to a stop, she'll slide off of Nhay's side and stumble briefly, her legs still feeling like they're rocking a bit.

[Morty]

[Hiep's Cove]

Hiep gets off Nhay herself and puts her hand on Verity's shoulder to keep her steady.

"How much space do you need for your plan? We can either head to my house or stay on the shore."

[Earl of Purple]

Under the Sea

The sahuagin gets very dizzy very quickly, and struggles to re-orientate itself once it has finished spinning, way over there. Elsewhere, the kuo-toa don't seem to be doing too well; one is dead, and being used as chew toy for a shark, whilst another is trying to fend off two sahuagin. One of the shark-people is unarmed however, their shark-tooth club stuck harmlessly to the kuo-toa's shield, but their snapping jaws are a major distraction. One of the sahuagin is not moving, the whip's pincer staff clamped over a limb. The whip is throwing glowing orbs at the four-armed baron, who is still sat upon his shark, currently observing rather than attacking.

One of the sharks is also dead, a massive crossbow bolt loded in its skull. Frigate has discarded the arbalest that launched the bolt and is fighting a sahuagin. The sea-devil appears to have tried biting Frigate's hand, so Frigate is gripping its lower jaw and slamming the side of its head into the nearest container.

[TeChameleon]

[Under the Sea]

"I take it that a peaceful solution is either improbable or undesireable?" Eddie called to Frigate over the slamming noises. He busied himself briefly at the corners of the container he had just checked, crushing them into smooth roundness at one end and pinching them into crude fins on the other.

As he hoisted it experimentally, he called to Frigate again. "So any idea who the shark-thingummies are? We had ocean-dwellers on my world, but they tended more towards the 'mermaid' end of things than 'fish with legs' like these boys."

He bounced the shaped container on one hand, eliciting cracking and groaning noises from the rocks he stood on, then hurled it at the four-armed baron like a missile, accelerating it to hundreds of kilometres per hour in an instant. If it connected, the baron would find himself kilometres away under a dozen tonnes of metal, assuming he wasn't just jellied instantly by the impact.

[Earl of Purple]

Under the Sea

"Sahuagin, they be. Nasty pisces o' work. Blood's in th' water, now, they won't quit till they be sated or dead. Survivors be undesirable fer th' other guys, more'll come back fer a proper feedin' frenzy." Frigate lets go of the sahuagin he'd been pounding, which drifts limply away, to pick his arbalest back up to reload it.

The baron manages to dodge Eddie's impromptu missile, the shark proving swifter than the un-hydrodynamic ribbed steel container. Both zip in the turbulent wake of the launched container, getting closer to Eddie. The shark will swim past as the baron grabs with two arms to try and yank Eddie up from the sea floor by his arm.

[TeChameleon]

[Under the Sea]

"Ah. Fun." Eddie responded flatly to the news of the potential feeding frenzy. Then something hit him. "Wait, nasty pisces of work? Okay, points for cleverness on that one."

Further banter is interrupted by incoming shark. Eddie has just enough time to brace himself a bit so that he doesn't get knocked off-balance again. Unfortunately for the baron, Eddie is not only rather heavier than he looks, he's also attached to the rocks by the geomanagesic force like an iron filing to a magnet. All this adds up to Eddie functionally weighing more than ten times what an organic being of his size would, with around three hundred and fifty kilos of force being needed to wrench him loose even if he were completely unprepared.

With all that in addition to him being braced, well...

The baron is either going to break both his arms, or he's going to find himself flat on his back behind a small, irritated golem who will promptly crush his skull, depending on how strong the baron's thighs are for clinging to the shark.

[Earl of Purple]

Under the Sea

"Thank 'ee. I bin sat on it fer too long." Frigate's reloaded his arbalest and aims it at the shark devouring the dead kuo-toa, the bolt whizzing through the water and lodging itself in the hungry fish's eye.

The baron has four arms total, and was using the arms on one side to try and hoist Eddie up whilst the others gripped a harness on the shark. He's pulled off his mount, rather surprised at how heavy Eddie turns out to be, but recovers quickly and uses the water to ensure he's not flat on his back- he's propelled a few steps away by an easy kick as he pulls the shark-tooth macuahuitl from his harness and swings it at the stone golem. The weapon is enchanted to have increased cutting power and to move easily through the water, and despite the materials- wood and tooth- it could easily cut through most metal armour.

[Halae]

[Hiep's Cove]

Hiep gets off Nhay herself and puts her hand on Verity's shoulder to keep her steady.

"How much space do you need for your plan? We can either head to my house or stay on the shore."

[Hiep's Cove]

That gets a smile out of Verity, "Plan's already in motion. I just need a comfortable space where I won't fall over if I can't keep myself standing."

[TeChameleon]

[Under the Sea]

Sadly for the sahuagin baron, Eddie is significantly tougher than any metal armour that the little golem has ever encountered, to a degree that it actually caused him problems semi-regularly when his armour was utterly destroyed and he was left naked and embarrassed, or the armour was simply pancaked against him and he was left picking bits of flattened metal out of his every crevice.

As a result, Eddie ignored the swing and stepped into it, bringing his fist up and into a straight, fast jab towards the baron's face, with enough power behind it that it wouldn't even slow down passing through the sahuagin's cartilaginous skull. And if the baron managed to adjust his swing enough to still hit Eddie after the little golem had stepped in close, it... honestly wasn't very likely to do much, if anything.

[Earl of Purple]

Under The Sea

The macuihuitl's teeth scratch against Eddie's body, some coming loose or getting damaged (which is not a super big deal; they're made to be replaced and the enchantment is actually bound to the wooden haft and core of the weapon), and drops it as the sahuagin gets a fist through its face, drifting away slowly. The baron's mount turns and, smelling blood in the water, opens wide and takes a bite out of its former rider.

Elsewhere, Frigate has come to the aid of the last kuo-toa warrior standing, brass cutlass shearing easily through water, sahuagin, and spear alike, as the kuo-toa dispatches their other assailant using their aluminium axe. The whip has a sahuagin paralysed in the grip of their pincer-staff, and has killed another using divine magic.

[Morty]

[Hiep's Cove]

"That's a little enigmatic. But it looks like my house will be best, then. You can lean against the wall. Come, I'll lead you there."

Hiep will keep her hand on Verity's shoulder as she leads her across the warm sand.

[Halae]

[Hiep's Cove]

Verity leans into Hiep as they move, carefully matching the Sidereal's steps as they go and simply enjoying the warmth between them. It's comfortable and companionable.

Once they're inside and, presumably, Hiep has led Verity to somewhere she can sit, Verity intends to draw forth an orb, about the size of a golf ball, from her pocket, "So, this took quite a bit of work. Getting the proper wards in place to prevent the world from interacting with it was a damned trial, but I'm reasonably sure it works now. This crystal holds my memory of seeing your soul, in all its glory. And I'd like to share the beauty of that with you."

[TeChameleon]

[Under the Sea]

Eddie reached out to snag the feeding shark by the tail. If the grab connects, he will simply whip it over his head in an arc to slam against the seafloor with enough force to kill it instantly. Even if the thing wasn't a trained warmount, he figured that it would probably be poor manners to leave a blood-crazed carnivore loose next to a civilian workcrew. If not, a loose stone from the seabed hurled with bullet force would probably do the same job.

Once the shark was dispatched, Eddie would head back to the containers and resume his searching, calling over to Frigate "So how densely populated is the seabed around here? Are there wild areas, or is it mostly claimed by some undersea kingdom or empire or whatever?" A thoughtful tilt of his head. "And are there deep sea eldritch horrors and such? I know that at least on my home plane, even the most viciously barbaric of the deep ocean tribes didn't venture too deep."

[Earl of Purple]

Under the Sea

The shark is grabbed and smashed against the seafloor. The final kuo-toa warrior swims back into the sea-chasm, returning with more unarmed fish-people, which begin by grabbing the sharks and the dead to take them back into the rift.

"Here? I did think there be nothin' here, it be bouncin' back quicker'n I thought. Th' sahuagin be nomads, an' I guess th' rift saved yon kuo-toa when th' lighthouse walked through five years back. Other areas vary, dependin' on what's what. Th' lighthouse were built atop a massive crab, a mile wide an' three-quarters long. Locals thought it were an island till it got up an' headed deeper." The crab didn't mean to cause havoc and mayhem, just retreat from where it was filter-feeding on the waves and head to the Heart of the Sea for its reproductive migration. Zee's intervention means there's a lot of large crabs around now; the lighthouse crab bumped into her on its way deeper, and she tweaked its genetics to provide a 'father' for the crab's eggs, since the lighthouse crab is nearly the last of its kind.