[Blood0Dimmed Tides] Chapter 5A -Around the Fire

[captmadjaq]

Port Royale is a ghost town. With their essence disturbed the mortals died, their bodies unable to keep together dissolved back into the streams of essence swirling over Creation.


On the ship you discover one of the dingies is gone with no sign of Thaddeus Finn in sight, but he did leave you a note. Written on the side of the wall in the mess hall, scrawled in blood and squid ink reads: "Clapping Dragons Rock."


Clapping Dragons Rock is no mystery, it's just a gargantuan rocky land mark jutting out of the ocean. It's a mountain of coral split in the middle and is brimming with caves which house who knows what. When the ocean's water slap against the walls of the mountain the sound travels throughout the caves, its echo resembling the sound of a full audience clapping. With hard tides and a turbulent wind it's also dangerous to navigate making it the perfect setting for more than a few sailor/pirate tales. Because of its size and labyrinth like cave network it's rumored to be the burial place of more than a dozen treasures -squared. The problem being, that no sailor pirate or otherwise plotting a course there returned in her mortal body.


(Speaking about non-mortal bodies...)


From the destruction in the city, Pearl wraps her body in the fire and smoke and steps out of invisibility. She's much older now, at least by ten years. Raising her arms high above her head, she stretches and smiles before leaning into Xandra silently, listening.

 

[xarvh]

Ignoring the death and devastation wrought to the town, Cinder smiles with her usual arrogance.


- Bwahahah. That was glorious! Droves of them killed like cattle.


They will infest Creation no more!


Oh man, we have something big here... I'll die a glorious death, and bring thousands of them with me!


Actually....


Rei!


I still have my mind on that lens of that friend of yours.


Would you mind coming with me to get it?

 

[Thief of Words]

Hunger was exhausted, and swaying visibly as she made her way to the others. "Look...are there any animals or...dunno livestock or anythin' on this Island? Cause all the meat I can smell from here's burnt to the Abyss and back." She gave Cinder an approving smile. "Mmmhm...or you could stay alive and just help me ensure they're exterminated to the last Lintha."`


Sitting down next to a guttering tenement fire, too tired to notice the stench of burnt flesh, Hunger shivered a bit.

 

[xarvh]

Cinder looks at Hunger, rather surprised but approving.


- Uh, yeah, whatever eliminates them bastards.

 

[Feantari]

"Sure Cinder, but maybe we should try to see if there are injured first. Also, that weapon, whatever it was, shouldn't fall into the hands of people who would misuse it. I'm going to go check it out."

 

[Arynne]

Splash!


A large turbot flies out of the water beside the pier and lands in front of Hunger. A moment later, Dorissa herself follows, in human form now, her worn clothing dripping with sea water.

 

[Sherwood]

Xandra's attention is on the figure of Pearl now forming up in front of her. She hesatantly reaches her hands out to hold her, and once she has the other woman in her arms, she holds her tight, tears running down her face. "I had thought I'd never get to see you again in this life." After a while holding her close, Xandra releases her and holds her at arms length. "You look good at this age. I like it." She then turns her attention to the hot-headded Dragon Blood. "Cindy, instead of raving at how wonderful it was to kill Lintha, you might want to remember the lives of the innocents of this town that were lost when the warstrider lost its head! You need to get your priorities straight!"

 

[xarvh]

Rei


- Well, I am more preoccupied by the fact that the Lintha had a royal warstrider that could pilot itself.

Spoiler

Is it correct to assume that the weapon was destroyed when the strider blew up?


Was the weapon itself that blew the strider?


Is the head available for inspection?


I expect that the weapon either killed either spared, with no middle ground, but I'm rolling Int+Lore to see if Cinder knows more.


EDIT: Until the very last die, Cindy was going to tell you that the weapon was made of ice-cream, Yay!

 

[Thief of Words]

At seeing the fish, the shark woman immediately tore it apart, bones and all, swallowing it down greedily. Her namesake sated for now, Hunger looked between those present. She had to laugh at Xandra's comment. "You didn't see 'er in this life. She's a ghost." She trailed off a moment, her head visibly nodding forward, only for her to startle herself back to wakefulness. "Depths, I could fix that, if ya wanted." Giving a yawn, she wandered over to Dorissa, giving her a smile and wrapping her in a sudden hug. "Thanks f'r the fish, Blackfish." She giggled, finding the sentence inexplicably hilarious. After a few moments she turned back to Xandra. "She's got her priorities straight, Xand'r...people die. Period. Everyone does eventually. An' innocents?" Hunger giggled to herself again. "Look aroun' ya. We're in a pirate port. Any innocents what found themselves here, they wouldn't stay that way long." She shrugged. "An' if the people here dyin' bothers ya that much, well, all the more reason to exterminate the Lintha." She shook her head. "Kill all o' the demon buggerers, an' they can't do shit like this anymore. Not that it'd keep someone else from doin' things like it, but what do y'expect with the world endin' and whatnot."

 

[xarvh]

Condy looks at Hunger, without distracting herself too much from her thoughts


- I killed the Lintha girl in front of Xandra's eyes like, the day before yesterday.


...


Also, we are in a pirate city.


Trust that not even the cockroaches are innocent here.

 

[Thief of Words]

Hunger yawned, taking a seat next to Dorissa before murmuring sleepily. "Well y'didn't do too good a job. She's still around."

 

[Sherwood]

Xandra grinds her teeth at the reminder of Pearl's death, and how casually Cindy banters the fact that she killed her. If she doesn't shut the hell up, I'll ring the bell for round two of our fight and see how things come out! She lets out a deep sigh and decides to try and change the subject. "Pearl, what do you know about that bizarre tattoo that was on your back?"

 

[xarvh]

Cinder pulls teeth, this time betraying discomfort.


- It seems that the kid was no friend of the Lintha.


I hope she understands I could not allow that blood to live.


I am not proud of it.

Spoiler

Wasn't intended as taunt to Xandra, but hey, that's what I get for writing ambiguously.


Also, I'm tired to have her being a stuck up fundamentalist, so I'm having Cinder grow up a little.


But just a little.

 

[Arynne]

Dorissa looks from one to the other, frowning. She has the look of a stout village fisherwoman, with her worn hands and battered clothing, but when she speaks, it is with the accents of an educated woman, slightly flavored by the North.


“Would anyone mind telling me exactly what this is all about, now?â€

 

[Thief of Words]

Hunger shrugged. "Sparky there killed the dead woman. Because she was a Lintha. Xand'r there apparently has poor sense or poor taste, cause she was datin' a Lintha. That or she has a thing for tattoos, since that was the second 'r third thing she asked about."

Spoiler

Hunger, meanwhile, is a bit too exhausted atm to think terribly diplomatically

 

[Feantari]

Rei frowns at the situation in general, but addresses Dorissa warmly, "It seems an ancient weapon of some kind was dredged up from the depths. Once it got it's feet so to speak it went straight for the only survivor of its initial discovery, Captain Thaddeus Finn. I'm not really sure about the details of who dredged it up and why, but I do know that the ones that found it all killed themselves rather than let the discovery get out, except for Finn of course."


Moving away Rei tries to get away from the overwhelming pressures to shout down at people who could kill her and goes to examine the remains of the warstrider.

 

[Thief of Words]

Hunger blinked sleepily. "I don't get it." She pointed at Rei. "What's eatin' at you, Green?"

 

[Feantari]

Rei waves a hand dismissively at the question and continues moving off to examine the warstrider.

 

[Thief of Words]

Tilting her head curiously, she nudged Dorissa gently in the side. "Do you know what's botherin' her?"

 

[xarvh]

- Well, Ember is still on the ship, I told her to come back when they arrive somewhere.


We'll find him.

 

[Arynne]

“I don’t understand any of this,†Dorissa objects. “She killed someone you cared for, and you’re not trying to take her head off in return? And you just walked up to a stranger and killed her…and you expect her ghost to be all right with that? Nobody here is making any sense.â€


To Hunger, she says, “Not a clue. But given the abovementioned details, I can see why she’d feel more comfortable at a safe distance, don’tyou?â€

 

[Thief of Words]

Hunger nodded, shrugging as she sniffed at Dorissa. "Don't s'pose you have any more of those fish on ya, do ya?" She grinned hopefully.

 

[xarvh]

Cinder consider Dorissa.


- She tried to take my head off, but got burned.


I guess I got lucky...


Anyway, she was down and I spared her life, so we're even. Sorta.


Really.


Join the Freak Party.


You will have a lot of fun.


There is more than some snark in her voice.

 

[Sherwood]

Xandra pulls back from her embrace with Pearl. "It seems that I must give our newcommers some background. It will help to fill in the gaps about what is going on here." She motions towards the ghost. "This is Pearl. When we first met, she was alive and looked quite a bit younger. We became . . . close friends. Then, there was the encounter with Cindy and Rei where Pearl was killed because she looked like a Lintha. After she died, a strange tattoo on her back could be seen. It requires a special lens to be able to read it. The map shows a location out at sea. What is at this location, we don't know, but it is something that the Lintha want, so we want to keep them from it. The three of us were going to take this ship out with a crew on her to investigate when the war machine waltzed out of the water followed by the ships. So, we are now faced with some questions, such as, what was this warstrider after? What is at the location on the map? What connection do the Lintha have to all of this?" She pauses in her story. "So, there is some of what has gone on before. Now we have the added questions of, what brings the two of you out here?"

 

[Thief of Words]

Hunger yawns, her knees pulled up under her chin as she tried not to fall asleep. Looking up blearily, she tilted her head in bemusement. "The tides, what else?"