Thread F - Crossfire

[Author]

After the next day spent enjoying the sun, the time stasis is activated, forcing the crew to stay indoors. Kai goes over the destination: the ship is heading east, between the wolven lands to the north and the continent of frozen tundra to the south. Or it will, the Wolven lands were a ways to the east yet. But the next week of transit flew by in a couple days as the crew grew accustom to each other.

In addition, Roger explained that he would keep a lookout while the stasis was up, what with his connection to the ship. If need be, there was a ship wide alarm, and if it went off the crew was to assemble in the meeting room beneath the workshop.

One foggy morning, it did.

[Marceline Mori]

When the piercing cry of the alarm split the air, Marcy was in the middle of creating a new song. She had started playing her guitar a lot more in the recent days; and getting interrupted by that noise was the last thing she wanted.
"Shit."
Her quicksilver armor flies on, providing protection beneath what was otherwise a set of stylistically ripped clothing. She takes a quick moment to tie her hair up in a pony tail (though try as she might, her bangs refuse to comply) before sprinting to the meeting room.

[Aurora the Dragon]

Aurora was sitting, reading one of her favorite adventure books when the alarm rang. Knowing that it something must be going wrong, she grabbed her battle gear, mostly just her spellbook and a few enchanted items, and ran to the meeting room. She was finally to the point of being able to run competently after practicing for several days during the voyage. When she arrived in the meeting room, she looked perhaps a bit too excited, as per usual. "What's wrong?"

[Luc Weiyn]

"Gah."
Luc is in the tavern practicing his pool shots when the alarm goes off, causing the cue ball to veer well off its intended course and knock in the eight ball into the corner pocket. He frowns, realizing his game is finished two ways over, and sets his stick on the table before briskly walking to the meeting room.

[Author]

Everyone assembles, and Roger walks in from the stairs above. "You guys are going to want to see this," he says, then opens the door to the outside and leads the crew to the front of the ship. Through the fog the crew can see an Astorian cruiser firing upon a number of much smaller boats.
"So what I suggest," Roger says, "Is that we wait to see who wins, then kill them and take ALL the spoils!"

"You're not a Pirate anymore," Kai reminds him, slightly exasperated.

"Fuck!!" Roger yells, throwing his arms into the air. "You're no fun."

[Marceline Mori]

Marcy cracks a smile a Rogers comment.
"But Kai, think of the booty! I'm sure there are a ton of nubile young Wolven that would love to throw themselves at a conquering pirate. And, you know, treasure."
Her face turns towards Roger with a questioning gaze.
"Any idea on who the smaller ships are?"

[Author]

"The barbarians from the tundra, " Troy says, "some kind of white tiger race I've not heard of elsewhere. I've not heard them to attack such a large target... Though I suppose the wolven don't tell us what happens in their waters."

[Marceline Mori]

"Huh..." Marcy crosses her arms and leans against the side of the ship. She tilts her head in silent thought.
Have I? I don't think so...
"Never fucked a tiger before."
Then, Marcy turns to the camera and looks the viewers dead in the eye. "I wonder if they are grrrrrrreeeat!"

[Aurora the Dragon]

Aurora quietly bites down a comment about how it seems Marcy wants to fuck everything but the one she loves. "We should help the ship getting attacked! We'll swoop in like heroes and save the day! And, I'll finally be able to get outside and spread my wings. It's been horrible being stuck in this ship for the past few days. Well, being cooped up was horrible, everything else was great, but still."

[Author]

"Whyyyyyyy is this our problem??" Roger asks. Troy just turns and blankly stares at him. "Oh come on, they aren't defenseless! We don't even know if they're losing, OR who the bad guys are for sure! What if you pick the wrong side and lose piety? Hm? What then?"

Troy turns back and looks at the battle. "Somehow, I doubt the Wolven are attacking the tigerfolk... Wolven have a navy and patrol the sea, the... No it doesn't make any sense, they're more than half way across the sea, I didn't even know they could... These little boats certainly didn't get this far on their own."

[Author]

"Ah but it seems the REAL factor," Kai says, "Is Marcy and I's competing sexual interests!"

"Kai this is serious."
"So am I! Okay not really"

"As much as I would love to not get involved," Cedric says, "I wouldn't be surprised if the barbarians attack us if they win... And the wolven might attack us for territorial reasons also, but if we help their code of honor will demand the thank us."

[Aurora the Dragon]

"Cedric makes an excellent point. If we help those wolves, they might be honor bound to not be horrible to us. They might even thank us! But even better, we could be the heroes who swoop in when all hope is lost and save the day!"

[Marceline Mori]

Marcy shrugs, and starts to flex the fingers in her right arm. Blood weeps out of the gauntlet and twists in her hand, forming into different shapes all reminiscint of weapons.
"I wouldn't mind a bit of a tussle. And who knows..."
She smiles, her fangs extending outwards as she stares hungrily across the waters.
"Might get a good drink."
The blood in her right hand settles, turning into a floating raser sharp disk with four spikes sticking out. The blood spins around her right arm, and she tries to focus her sight on the nearest ship relying on her vampiric powers to surpass the limits of her mortal body.

((Vampiric Eyes
You can see in the dark, and suffer no penalties to Perception checks in darkness.
You take no penalties to your Perception checks from weather or atmospheric conditions such as smoke, fog, rain, etc. You can also clearly see small objects and fine details up to a mile away.))

[Author]

Marcy looks out at the ships. The tigers are huge, brawny and white of fur. Their boats are akin to small Viking ships, and they make difficult targets for the Wolven cannons. Their archers were having better luck hitting the warriors, but several of them seemed to mostly shrug off anything that didn't pierce a vital organ. Off in the distance, from the direction of the tigers was a larger ship, which seemed to be of Wolven make.

Ships that got close to the cruiser threw up grappling hooks to board the boat, but it seemed there weren't many upon it yet. Then Marcy's eyes settled on something curious. One of the small boats - slightly larger than the others - had a tiger standing at the front of the ship. Instead of the piecemeal scraps of armor the others were wearing, he had a tattered robe. More curiously, his fur was orange.

[Marceline Mori]

"We've got a bunch of beef cake tiger Vikings and one guy who seems to be a caster, or cleric of sorts. He's got orange fur, and along with the fact he's different and has a slightly larger boat means I'd bet my ass he's the leader."
Marcy puts a bit more blood into her charkram and sharpens the edges, waiting for a good chance to chuck it at a tiger.
"They are trying to board the Wolven ship, but keep missing with some of the grappling hooks. If we don't intervene soon then they will board."
There's a quite pause from Marcy, then she says a bit more softly
"If that happens, the Wolven ship will probably be lost. I can promise that. Anyone mind if I take a shot? I want to try and distract one of the boats."

[Author]

"I'll be in range in a minute," Kalia says. She's standing crouched on the edge of the ship's rail, looking out at the battle.

"Wait... Orange fur?" Troy stares at Marcy, then whispers, "That's... Just a rumor..."

"If we're going to start taking pot-shots set them, I say we coordinate fire."

"Alright, fine, I'll assemble my archers."

[Aurora the Dragon]

"Luc and I both have inherent water sorcery abilities. Maybe if we flew over there and pooled our talents, we could create some waves big enough to sink the smaller ships, or at least buffet them considerably."

[Marceline Mori]

Marcy's right arm rears back as she prepares to throw the blood disk. It hovers, spinning at an impressive rate right by her face and she locks her eyes onto the nearest target. The gauntlet on her arm begins to glow a deep red, and the charkram starts to twist slightly, growing small dark thrones across its surface.
"Just say the word and I'll let this sucker go. I'm already within' range."

[Luc Weiyn]

"Mmm... if we did pool our sorceries together, we should approach from underwater, not above..."
Luc hums in thought for a moment, walking closer to the edge of the ship and placing his hands on the rail. In reality, their approach was only the second thing on his mind; while the choice of ally seems obvious at a glance, he didn't particularly like getting into fights. He closes his eyes and takes a deep breath, seeking a second opinion out in the waters...

---

Spiritual
You can sense and communicate with Primal Spirits nearby. They don’t speak a language, responding only with emotion. By having this connection, not only will they listen, but you can sense their response.

[Author]

Luc reaches his sense out to the ocean spirits. What he gets is the sense that they're all... shying away from something. [Roll Empathy]

[Author]

Luc realizes that the ocean spirits are reacting to the presence of another, somewhere just above the water. It's not a water spirit either. And what's more, while most spirits are like intertwined shards of souls, this one is different. It's more individualized, like Loire. And larger.
Much larger.

[Luc Weiyn]

"...huh. That's different," Luc mumbles to himself, brow furrowing. Seems their leader was packing someone serious.
"I don't like this. The orange one over there, he's... got a powerful friend with him. And said friend is spooking the locals."
Normally, Luc preferred to let things run their course and stay out of danger. There were predators and prey, and that was the way of things. But despite the myriad of bad vibes from the orange tiger, something nips at the bat's mind, insisting that avoiding this fight would be negligence...

[Author]

"My god it's true," Troy breathes, "but they're supposed to be village elders, caretakers, hearth-heaters..."

[Marceline Mori]

Keeping her focus on the whirling blood disk right by her face, Marcy looks at the others out of the corner of her eye and quickly shoots out a question.
"Whatever this guy is, he's not. Explain."

[Author]

"Each clan supposedly has an ancient fire spirit, entrusted to a family line daughter to daughter... they're the village caretakers, in a land of ice a fire spirit isn't seen as a weapon so much as a source of life. But apparently someone got other ideas"

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