The Unknown: A Game of Fear, Ignorance, and Adventure

[MeatSpace]

"But, my past experience with elves aside, who's strong enough to shatter a skull like that? Hell, the most I could probably do is give it a nice crack, but shattering it like that takes some muscles. Or some kind of magic."

"I guess that rules you out as a suspect doesn't it." Garrill seemed to simply appear beside Kirk, the smoldering cigar burning a hole in the air in front of his face. "Don't count elves out just yet. It's far to early to be ruling people out based on race." Garrill looked down to Kirk, "I don't think this was done by anyone's bare hands. This was surely the work of weapons. I've seen people scalped like this before. Can't say why he took the guys brain out..." He paused, sending a thin plume of smoke through his teeth. The thick vapor hung in the air for a moment before rising away.

"My name is Garrill. You're Kirk correct? We need to talk."

 

[Octorok]

Spoiler: OOC

Good crikey alive... My computer decided to keel over and die a week ago, and so I have missed out on quite a bit. I'll edit in a nice, gigantic piece of writing later on.

 

[Kaboose the Moose]

Raven paused for a minute as he stared at the painted elf right in the eye. Reeko seemed to have a genuine look of honesty on his face as he knelt and grabbed Raven's hand;

"I would like for you to be my wife, good sir."

Raven burst out laughing as he pulled Ricko back to his feet. "I am pleased at the dishonor your haven't brought upon the seagulls by asking for my feet in marriage!. Alas, I must accept for I am betrothed to a troll as it is, I cannot melt such an oath to an elf, even if it is to a handsome lady like yourself". Raven patted Reeko on the head half in amusement and half in disbelief at the situation he had found himself to be in. It was definitely a first for the human.

"Your powers of observation is clearly beyond belief elf master, I see it has dulled your hands in a tingly fashion!." he continued with a smile. "The fallacy remains however, as Master Alexis pointed out that you have not made the matter any clearer than it was 10 minutes ago. Still, I suppose you were summing up the fact that it is quite possible for anyone of us to have committed this crime, though I wouldn't exempt your friends from the list of suspects quite so soon. At least, not until the real murderer is found. It is a bit disturbing considering murder is not a common trait that can be found on the resume of an everyday adventurer and yet, we seem to be on a ship full of adventurers."

He paused to look at Grummond and then back at Reeko.

"Well, we seem to be taking the river entry to Tyb. Perhaps on land, we will find some space to reflect on what happened here."

 

[Khedive Rex]

Spoiler: Sorry for my absence

I've been obscenely busy of late. Anyway, I'm back now and once again in a position where I can write semi-constantly so feel free to interact with Tiber.

Tiber stood in his room. His fists were balled and he was bouncing up and down repeating a silent montra, "You can to it. You can do it. No one will notice."

He was sweating little rivers that ran down his face and dripped to the wooden floor beneath him. He was somewhat pale for a man of his species. "You can do it. You can do it. No one will notice."

His suit was imaculate. A passersby might have guessed it was polished but a trained eye knew it was merely obsessively cared for and of the highest quality to begin with. All of his pins were polished, however. "You can do it. You can do it. No one will notice."

He bounced in tiny hops designed to bust his self-confidence. They weren't working. And it was because everytime he landed he was reminded of what he was missing. There was no solid clap when he hit the ground. There was nothing sturdy to support him. He wasn't wearing any shoes.

"You can do it. You can do it. No one will - AW FUCK! Who steals another person's shoelaces? And all of them? Really?! ... I'm going to be a laughing stock."

Tiber collected himself and decided there wasn't any point hiding in his room for the rest of the voyage. Perhaps if he ventured out he could find the (undoubtedly) painted elf who thought it would be funny to render his shoes unwearable. He grasp the doorknob in his hand and breathed in deeply. "Confidence. Just look confident and no one will notice anything."

He was outside now and walking with a powerful authoritative gait. He ascended the stairs to the deck and was quite surprised to see everyone in such a tight circle. There was Reeko being corrected by Raven. Off to the side Ticky was standing by himself. Deslock was toward the middle. They all seemed to be surrounded by something.

Tiber was getting ready to walk a wide circle around them, when he smelled something quite unussual. Blood.

He walked carefully over to the crowd and indicated that it should part. He got close enough to see the poor boy, dead on the ground, throat sliced open and head cracked like an egg. He was lying in a pile of his own blood and it occurred to Tiber just how unfortunate he was to be without shoes on this day.

He backed up a few paces, wiiped the sweat from his brow and asked deslocke "Who was this man? Why was he killed?" Deslocke shook in annoyance.

 

[BoVinE]

"I guess that rules you out as a suspect doesn't it... My name is Garrill. You're Kirk correct? We need to talk."

"Well Garrill, it sure don't make a convincing argument against me. Now for you... I'll talk, but you better not be wasting my time." Kirk snuck a glance at the body, and left the deck with Garrill.
He better not try anything either...

 

[Zemalac]

"Who was this man? Why was he killed?"

"Aaaand there's another one," Deslock muttered. Louder, he said, "This unfortunate soul is Feron, the man who was on watch last night. As for the why, if we knew that we wouldn't just be standing around here annoying each other." He put on his best pointed glare, an effort that was wasted on the pale-faced elf.

________________________________________​

'S always th' fools what come dis way, yeah? Dey dunno 'bout the dangers, or dey just don' care.

I says to dem, "You know where dis be, yeah? Dis be th' Ferios you goin' on."

Dey say, "Yeah, we know. We good. We can take it."

Or dey say, "So?" Dey dunno what I'm sayin'. Dey don' listen when th' watermen tell 'em, an' so dey dunno up from down.

Fools. Dis be th' Ferios. Dis be my river.

________________________________________​

The sailors weren't really paying attention to the shoreline. Feron's death and the difficulties inherent in navigating the river were providing suitable distractions. The Expedition wasn't much help at keeping lookout: caught up in their own dramas, they were as oblivious as the sailors.

________________________________________​

Th' boys tell me the Cepolada be comin' up river. Dat's surprising. I know th' capt'n, by rep if nothin' else, an' th' Grummond be as good a waterman as dey come. He know 'bout da Ferios, and he know dis be my river. He smart for an orc--hell, he smart for anyone. Dunno why he comin' here now.

Th' boys got th' ship in they sights. Dey waitin' for th' word.

I gotta ponder dis one for a bit. 'S Grummond, see? Somethin' odd.

Ah, what th' hell. Not gonna find out what up by sittin' on my ass.

Th' word be given, an' th' boys are off.

________________________________________​

In the end, it was Grummond who saw the pirates first. A combination of wariness, anger and a growing sense of unease led to him standing at the rail glowering at everything in his vision, which suddenly included a grappling hook describing a neat arc over the rail. The captain peered down and saw a scruffy man in ragged leather staring back up at him, a crossbow bent and pointing up.

Grummond pulled his head back just in time to avoid the flayer bolt that flashed past his heat, trailing a thin line of smoke. It exploded far above the deck, clawing at the air with iron shrapnel.

"PIRATES!" Grummond roared, spinning and drawing a wickedly-sharp sword that looked more like a short cleaver than a fighting blade. One chop later and the rope of the grappling hook was falling back towards the water. More rose from below to take its place.

From a host of tiny boats, vaguely-shaped and dark against the water, came the pirates of the Ferios river.

I have returned from my Fourth of July weekend with sunburn and the first players-vs-environment combat.

This is a Minor Combat. Meaning that there is no chance that the Expedition will lose this fight, unless you all act with awe-inspiring stupidity and sink your own ship or something. You are allowed to narrate this combat with minimal input from the GM. If you do something that is obviously out of your abilities I will step in with a giant VETO stamp and an alternate narration, most likely involving you tripping and smacking your face. If you do something that is stretching your abilities, but is at the same time incredibly awesome, that is allowed. I'm not expecting I'll have to veto anything, but you ought to know that it's a possibility (only if you act far less intelligently than you have been, though).

To make things more interesting, this is also another Secret Action Round. You may make any secret action that it would be possible to do during the confusion of the pirate attack. So no extensive, lengthy actions, but if you want to stab someone and pretend the pirates did it you can try that.

The deadline for the secret action round is Thursday afternoon.

Also, on an entirely different subject that I forgot to mention earlier: if there are private conversations going on between characters (your characters talking over PM, that sort of thing) please forward the conversation to me (just add my name to the list of recipients). It's kind of annoying, but it's the only way that I can send information to eavesdroppers without it being very obvious that there are eavesdroppers ("Say, I need to know what you guys have said because someone is listening in that you didn't know about").

That's all for now. In the meantime: violence.

 

[Flying-Emu]

Spoiler: Reserved.

Writing up a post. Just wanted to reserve my place.

 

[Dastardos]

"Wait? The elf broke into your room? I'm not surprised, those fuckers are always destroying everything. If that little shit is robbing people, whats stopping him from murdering people?"

Mark stood their, glaring at the man, waiting for him to say something or respond.

He didn't.

Irritated Mark stormed over there and tapped the man on the shoulder. "Listen you painted elf fuck! When I addressee you, you damn well better take your hand off of your shriveled balls and answer me! Now what the hell are you doing robbing people?"

"PIRATES!"

Turning Mark looked down the river at the approaching ship. Spitting on the ground Mark turned back to the elf. "We'll continue this conversation later you murdering thief."

Storming through the ship, Mark ran to his room and rummaged through his belongings. Grabbing his flintlock pistol and his blade, Mark sprinted back towards the deck. By the time he made it back, he was drenched in sweat and panting loudly, fresh out of breath. The ship had gotten closer, almost to him. Pulling the pistol, he fired towards the ship, and started screaming like a deranged lunatic, and then went about reloading.

Spoiler: The Painted Elf

Shapsters is who I'm referring to if it wasn't clear.

Spoiler: Emu

Go to hell, I posted first!
<3

 

[Flying-Emu]

"Pirates!"

Tickyvanillius sat dumbfounded as Grummond sliced free the first grapple. Combat, and they'd yet to even reach Tyb. The elderly... not-so-gentleman blindly fired at the opposing ship; the bullet likely did nothing but scratch the lacquer of the enemy vessel. "Waste of resources, that." Ticky thought.

Ticky took a deep breath and moved into action.

Scurrying beneath the screaming old fart, Ticky crossed the deck to the newly-sliced grappling hook and yanked it from its wooden prison. He stumbled backwards as a blade swept before his eyes and, gripping the grappling hook, shoved his palm into his attacker's face blindly. The man, his face torn and bloodied by the hook, reeled overboard.

His breath coming in short gasps, Ticky rushed away, stumbling over his own feet and the already blood-slickened deck. He collapsed against the cabin, next to a coil of rope. He paused and glanced at all the Expedition members engaged in combat.

Inspiration struck.

Ticky grabbed a length of the rope, tying it around the base of the grappling hook securely before slicing off the rope about twelve feet along. Hefting the claw, Ticky glanced around the battle before wrapping the rope around his small fist repeatedly and stepping in, swinging the grappling hook in small, quick circles. Finding a target, Ticky threw the improvised claw and struck a man full in the back before yanking it back, sending the man sprawling to the floor with a cry of pain.

The man growled and stood, charging at Ticky. The gnome blinked. "I should have thought this out a bit more." With a grunt, the man tore Ticky to the ground, an evil grin on his grease-streaked face.

"How about you hit me with that again, midget!"

Ticky gulped as the man raised his blade. Raising his voice to a shrill whistle, Ticky screamed "Help!!"

 

[Dastardos]

"Help!!"

Still panting, the scream tore through Mark's ears.

Better not be a damned elf screaming.

Turning Mark saw the gnome on the ground with a pirate above him. Not having a hatred for gnomes, Mark sprinted over there to the man. Positoning himself right behind the pirate, Mark drew his blade and shoved it through the man's back.

The blade shot out his gut, piercing through the skin, and hung right above the gnome's head. Blood trickled and dripped onto his head. Screaming, Mark twisted the blade a little before ripping it out.

As the blade left his body, the man started to collapse. Turning Mark muttered to himself, "Another job well done" without realizing the body collapsed onto the gnome and was smothering him.

 

[Zemalac]

There seems to be a bit of confusion here...another ship was mentioned. There is no other ship. The Cepolada is currently travelling along the Ferios river, where pirates like to lurk so they can swoop out and attack cargo ships on the Merchant's Water. To attack you're ship they've sent out a lot of small boats from the banks of the river, since you're kind of sailing right through their lair. They don't have one big ship approaching.

I guess I should have made that clearer--when you think of pirates, you usually think of one big galleon, not dozens of smaller boats.

Note to self: use cliches with greater care.

 

[Saskwach]

Spoiler: Pirate Nomenclature

Say "river pirates" and people should get the gist. Everyone knows river pirates are more ramshackle operations. Or maybe that's just me...

 

[Khedive Rex]

Somewhere on the edge of the boat Grummond was screaming and hacking at the boarding men with his uniquely Orcish sword. Tiber heard it and made a mental note from behind the cover of an open door. He pulled his pistol from it's home on his calf and dived to a safe reconnaisance the moment he heard "PIRATES!!!" break the silence. it was instinct almost. Before you can confront danger you have to seperate yourself from it.

Tiber peaked his head from behind the door and saw a scruffy looking man triumphantly swinging his sword over his head. Tiber shot him in the knee and with a surprised murmer the pirate tumbled overboard.

"Not well trained." Tiber thought to himself. "Low-risk"

He stayed crouched but made his way to the railings of the ship. Looking over the edge another knave was in the midst of ascending a grapple. He labored intensly to get to the top and barely seemed to notice Tiber. Tiber noticed him however, and most especially the odd lump the jutted out of his coat pocket. He had a weight of some kind in there.

Tiber took a guess and shot at the pirate's pocket. He was quite satified to see a little stream of brown liquid stain the pirates clothes and the rope he held. The invader was less enthused, his secret stash of rum having been shot through.

Tiber put another bullet through the flask with no effect. He aimed a little more carefully.

Silently, almost anti-climacticly, the spark from the bullet ignited the fumes from the alcohol and et the poor pirate ablaze. He dropped from his rope, more important business at hand, and proceeded to plummet to the boat below him. Tiber didn't get to see the last results of his labor as, at that moment, a shrill shout of "HELP!" pierced the fight.

Tiber turned to the source of the noise and saw Ticky pinned beneath a burly pirate holding a blunt and ill-cared for knife at the ready. Ticky squirmed but the man was much larger and the blade was coming down.

The old man came from nowhere and beheaded the pirate. With a nod and the words "job well done" he wandered off, entirely oblivious to the fact that the now beheaded pirate was crushing Ticky. Tiber made a mental note, "Ruthless, but not very thorough."

Tiber jogged over and kicked the corpse off the gnome. He nodded cordially, "A little help from one professional to another." Behind him a pirate engulfed entirely in flame stormed on deck and proceeded to roll on the ground.

 

[Flying-Emu]

Ticky gulped as a blade swept inches from his face, dripping in blood and stomach fluids before pulling away. The body slumped atop Ticky, crushing his breath as the man walked away.

"Another job well done"

Ticky made a mental note to have a chat with the man about the delicate anatomy of his kind.

Darkness started to edge in the corners of his sight as the man crushed his lungs. Before long, the man was hefted off of Ticky and he was pulled to his feet. Shielding his eyes against the sun, Ticky saw the Ice Elf --Tiber, his name was-- standing over him, a pistol in his hand.

Brushing his clothes of the grime of the deck floor, Ticky retrieved his improvised hook and said "Well. I don't know how I can thank you right now, but at least allow me to watch your back. It's the least I can do at this point." He smiled a bit, twirling the hook in tight circles.

"An ally. Valuable."

 

[MasterSqueak]

Marneus heard the fighting up above, and rushed onto the deck with his sword drawn.

"For the Emperor!"

Ramming his shoulder into a pirate and sending him overboard, he swung and cleaved a second one in two. Spinning around, he ran a pirate through. He noticed Mark fighting off a pair of pirates, and made his way to him while parrying the blades sent his way.

Reaching Mark, he shoved his blade through the spine of a pirate, surprising his partner long enough for Mark to slash his throat out.

"Where did this scum come from?"

Before Mark could reply Marneus turned and blocked a slash aimed at his head, and brought a downward swing onto the pirates head.

 

[Caimekaze]

Keil emerged from the hold of the ship, rapier in hand.

Pirates!? Oh great. Time to put into practice all my pra- DUCK!
He narrowly avoided a pirate's slash, staggering backwards as he did so. He was off balance; as a fencer, it was possibly the worst situation to be in.

The pirate continued his advance, laughing uproariously as he advanced on the distressed boy. "Well 'ello there, pretty! Think tha' little needle'll help you? Le' me show you a good time, missy, it won' hurt... Much!" With his self-believed witticism, the pirate resumed his uproarious laughter.

Try as he might, Keil couldn't land any successful hits in his panicked retreat. The most he could do was hold him off a little, distract him. But the stern was nearing and he wouldn't be able to keep running away once he reached it. In his unprepared state, he wouldn't be able to win the fight either, so he began to worry.

That was when his foot slipped on some water and he fell backwards.

The pirate saw his chance and lunged onto the helpless boy, grabbing his sword arm and pinning it and covering his mouth, while leaning in close to the terrified teen's face. "Now now, lassy, there's no need for tha'! I just want you to know how much I... like you. Now quit yer squirmin', or I'll just have to rough up yer pretty face a little, an' wouldn' tha' be a waste?"

By this point Keil was really panicking, screaming as loud as he could through the pirate's hand as he pushed at him with his free hand.

"Now tell me missy, why do you hide yer pretty face behind that patch? I wanna see i', it'll make this tha' much more fun. As he moved his hand to hook his thumb under the strap of the patch, Keil's panicked movements suddenly halted, as his face became calm.
"Tha's much better missy, don' panic. Now, lessee that fa- Don't close your eye! Open it!"
His coarse, dirty thumb pried the still boy's eye open. The pirate recoiled from what he saw. "Wha' is this!? It's... pur-OOHWURGH-"

The pirate slumped over sideways, a crimson trickle emerging from his mouth. Keil shoved the corpse off his body, removing his dagger from the pirate's side as he did so.

Grabbing his patch, he moved up to the far stern for a respite from the melee and an opportunity to retie it. Then, rapier in hand, he approached the corpse that had previously inflicted such terror in him and planted a nice, firm kick in its side.

"Missy!? You need to get your eyes checked. On second thought, never mind."

His closure granted, Keil strode into the melee, this time prepared for battle.

Spoiler: OOC

I'm not entirely happy how that turned out, but it's probably the best I'll do for now. I need to work on my imagery.

 

[Dragonrabbit]

Raven burst out laughing as he pulled Reeko back to his feet. "I am pleased at the dishonor your haven't brought upon the seagulls by asking for my feet in marriage!. Alas, I must accept for I am betrothed to a troll as it is, I cannot melt such an oath to an elf, even if it is to a handsome lady like yourself."

Reeko wiped away a nonexistent tear, "It breaks my heart you know, not just that you're engaged, but that you're trying so hard to imitate our lovely little Painted Elf culture. But, know this good sir that if at any point in time your wife to be dies or leaves you, I'll be there... probably pulling a bloody knife out of her back."

Suddenly, in the distance, shouts of pirates rang out, and the sound of grappling hooks on wood quickly followed. "I dare say Raven, I believe we have some uninvited guests. As such, I must lend my hand to the good fight!" Reeko turned around and ran towards the port side of the ship right above a grappling hook. He jabbed his right hand into his pocket and pulled out a small dagger. A quick glance over the side of the boat revealed several pirates climbing the rope, he smiled and waited. Several seconds later the first pirate arrived, another second later Reeko's dagger was lodged deep in the pirate's chest. "Mind the knife good sir."

 

[Kaboose the Moose]

"Pirates!" the alarm rang suddenly from Grummond.

"Oh brilliant!, can this day get any better?. Now this is a bad omen if I ever saw one!" Raven spat as he spoke.

"Given our present circumstance I think we should part ways to take care of this vermin" he nodded a "goodbye and good luck" nod at Reeko before making his way to the port side of the ship. Out of the corner of his eye he saw the painted elf make short work of his aggressors with a dagger. "Not bad, not bad at all!" he commented observing Reeko.

His attention was soon turned aside however as grappling hooks suddenly erupted from below shooting skywards and landing with heavy 'thuds' all around Raven. Faceless figures from tiny boats tugged at the ropes as the hooks found a firm hold against the wooden railing of the ship. Voices and chants drew nearer by the second as feet began climbing the hull of the Cepolada. Raven pulled out his sword and waited.

As the first set of pirates peeked their heads over the railing he charged at them knocking them back one by one into the churning waters below, in doing so he also systematical hacked at the ropes attached to the grappling hooks. Despite the blunt blade, his sword cut through the ropes like a hot knife through butter.

"One..two..three..four...five.." he counted as he slashed the ropes free from the ship. The pirates, no less than eight each to a rope fell straight into the waters of the Ferios uttering screams and curses as they disappeared beneath the waves. Satisfied, Raven turned to to scan the deck to see if anyone needed any assistance, but as he turned he found himself face to face with three pirates, all armed with pistols and cutlasses aimed menacingly at his throat.

"Woah now lads!" he began backing away slowly, "Can't we just talk about this..you know, in a gentlemanly fashion?"

 

[Octorok]

As Gris gently rested his head in his cabin, aware that he had missed a considerable chunk of action while he was... indisposed, he found himself indignantly awoken by a cry of, "Pirates!".

"Oh sod it." Thought Gris to himself. Why should he go and fight? He was no combatant. He enjoyed fencing, but there were rules against brutal pain and dismemberment in fencing. Deciding that the best course of action would be to form a hasty retreat beneath his bunk, he heard a stampede outside his door. Startled, he tripped towards the door just in time to see it smashed open, and two pairs of roughly worn boots stride toward him, as murderously as boots can be.

He reached for his sword blindly, but felt nothing except the leg of a small stool. That would have to do. From his position on the floor he had an easy shot, and broke the stool on the shins of the pirate on the left. This seemed to do little but anger him, and he hopped about, cursing and rubbing his shin. While this little scene had been going on, Gris had drawn himself up to his full height, and grasped the shoulders of the injured pirate, and shoved him violently back into the corridor. He stumbled with the motion of the ship, and disappeared out of sight. With the odds more even for the time being he lunged at the second pirate, in a movement born of fear and adrenaline. Together they wrestled on the floor, and the pirate was able to reach for a small dagger in his boot, and lashed out at Gris. He missed clumsily, and caught the hilt of the blade on his tunic, and was struggling wildly to get it off.

From there it was an easy job to rise, and get the sword from his bedside. Leaving the fool on the ground trying to disentangle himself from his weapon, he rushed out the door, and looked up the empty corridor. He walked quickly round, and up to the deck. As he approached the sunlight, his original foe popped up from the shadows, and grinned stupidly.

"I hate clichéd pirates" thought Gris, and kicked the man in his throbbing shins. Again he collapsed in a howling heap, and started for the door, too late to catch the disappearing figure of the orc.

 

[Shapsters]

Derlan was about to tell Mark off when he heard the call,

"PIRATES"

Derlan turned to see multiple grappling hooks hanging from the ship, he ran over to one and kicked the man off. He pulled the hook up and calmly turned around, he was met by the face of a pirate.

"Jesus!" he yelled as he dodged an attack by the pirate, rolling away he began swinging the grappling hook. He released the hook right into the face of the pirate, he howled in pain.

"Stay of our ship ya son of a *****!" he yelled as he pulled the hook back, he noticed Keil being attacked by a pirate, "Hold on kid I-"

He noticed a shiny sword on the ground and slowly walked toward it instead of helping Keil,

"Oh, what a nice-" Derlan shook his head and slapped himself, "Snap out of it Derlan, your friend is in... sure is a nice sword."