ITT: We Are All Pirates' Revenge

Sven's attention is briefly yanked to the ship in front of them. The crew members over there are quite loud, which is normal for ships that come over here, and are shouting war cries, which isn't.

...actually, hold that thought.

Choosing to put the conversation with Duane on hold for a moment, and heads to the ship's bow.^* That's front of the ship, for those of you not fluent in naval lingo. He scans what little of the deck he can see from there, and tries to pick out any specific words amid the various war cries.

Melvin watches the Sharkazil sleeping. He scowls at first, but he can't help but smile a bit, although he tries his hardest not to let it show.

Melvin scowls at the Sharkazil again, then looks away from it, calling out to the crew "ALRIGHT, THEN! Are we ready to cast off?"

Gabrielle, still holding a pineapple, pops up from behind the mess of crates and gives Melvin a thumbs-up.

Ready if anyone else is. (Ira says.) We need to get out of here before Cleo and her posse comes back, anyway...

Duane calls out, Ready up here!

"Ready whenever, Captain", Nephenee called out in response.

Nearby, a lizard reaches the dock after several minutes of running from his pursuers and stops to catch his breath. He looks around.

Oh, damn it... he thinks. It's a dead end.

Panting, he quickly hides behind a crate close to the nearest ship and looks back toward the direction he came from for a moment. What now? There was nowhere else to run, and they would be here in just a few moments...

"Duane, have you read the Egg piece yet? Or found someone who can? We'd better read it quick, because with Cleo here, we need to make a quick getaway."

Melvin slightly frowns when he says that last part.

Parada, also snacking on a pineapple, pops up from... somewhere... and nods. She'd never actually had these weird fruits before, but now that she'd tried one she had to say it was pretty tasty.

Well, get it over to me. Where’d you guys put it?

Who was the last person to have it? (Ira asks, looking around at everyone.)

(Cleo's scout has assumed the form of a starfish and climbed onto the outside starboard side of Melvin's ship. She's quiet enough that nobody will probably notice or see her there (and even if they did, would they really suspect that a starfish stuck to the outside of their ship is eavesdropping on them?). She tries to listen in on the ongoing conversation and hears them talking about the egg shard that they have. So they did find the egg shard that was here? Well, that's one piece she, Cleo, and the others aren't going to get. She just hopes that one of these crew members isn't Ira in disguise or something like that like she's suspecting.)

(And it sounds like they're trying to get a reading on where the next piece is. Well, the least she can do is listen in and report its location back to Cleo once she gets back so they can go after it themselves.)

Ezekiel's ears prick when Melvin sounds off for the ship to set sail and, alarmingly, wondering of the whereabouts as to the Egg Shard. Off in an even more obscure corner of the ship than before, he'd wrapped the Shard in his vest, hoping to spirit it off with himself once his tenure with this crew was over.

"Shit." In his impatience, he'd neglected to consider that the others in the crew wouldn't be so keen to part with a Shard so early on. The deal he'd made as to his reparations only really existed in his head after all, and frankly, it'd be best if he kept it that way.

He whips his vest up to unfurl it and catching the Shard as it falls. Walking out of the shadows, he sees Melvin and moves surreptitiously behind the giant rat, tapping him on the arm to get his attention.

Edited by BlackMageAnolis on Mar 2nd 2019 at 5:03:33 AM

Melvin turns around to see Zeke holding the Egg piece.

"Oh, you've got it."

"...Oh, you've got it. Well, thanks for looking after it. You'd better take it to Duane now, right?"

"Right, to Duane." Walking around Melvin, Ezekiel hops above deck and makes his way over to the more diminutive of the two rats.

"Your cousin said to get this to you," he says, holding the Shard out for Duane to grab.

Duane takes the shard from Ezekiel, and examines this.

Uh huh... oooh, Interesting! You can tell this isn’t a native speaker. He made it rhyme in English, but didn’t bother in Peperit itself. I’d suspect Pollock himself did this. It reads...

You found a piece in dark caves,

And set feet upon what is right,

Your next is in the town Aetate,

And you then follow the light.

...Simplistic, right? Definitely a non-native speaker. Then again maybe something’s getting lost in my translation, I dunno.

Town of Aetate, huh? Not a name I know. (Ira remarks.) And when we get there we have to "follow the light"...anyone know what the significance of that might be?

Duane shrugs. Who knows? Maybe Aetate is some Peperit word I can’t translate, and some clue we’re missing out on. Doesn’t look super Peperit though... either way, the light remark does intrigue me... maybe we’ll have to go to some church to find it.

Kauri returns to the top deck with a little more spring in his step. He seems chipper about his newly acquired skill thanks to Mr. Tom.

As Melvin calls for the ship to prepare to sail, Tom is notably not present. Indeed, he's still belowdeck at the weapons hold examining the broken gun. The firing mechanism itself is a bit too complicated for Tom's experience, but he's recognized that something seems to be missing, since the trigger had no resistance to it. Furthermore, the striking mechanism seems to be lacking the titular flint of the weapon. Additionally, the barrel is broken at a point, but that should be easy enough to fix given its simple construction.

Satisfied with his analysis, Tom starts to put the weapon back together, not wanting to lose any of the fiddly pieces as the ship rocks.

Maybe so... (Ira says to Duane. He thinks for a bit.) Could also mean a literal light, too, like a big light of some sort?

("Aetate...a light...there's a lighthouse there, isn't there?" The scout thinks. She doesn't dare speak up, though, for obvious reasons.)

Duane stretches in thought. Well, if anyone knows where Aetate is, let’s hit the sea. We don’t want Captain Cleo finding us here, now do we?

Korvales' Ship

Korvales, Omievus, and Dirus enter the room that's a level belowdecks and to the front of the ship, having already sent some of their crew to shore to get into position for the siege.

Korvales:   Alright, Ervik, what's the surprise you called us here for?   

A short creature with creepy long fingers with sharp long claws and a long pointy nose looked at Korvales and grinned, the red triangle-shaped lens on the goggles he's wearing seeming to glisten. His skin was tanned and wore a dark brown vest with dark green shorts. The dwarf-gremlin hybrid went up to the massive object that's covered by a trap that takes up most of the space in the room and unveils it, revealing an intimidating metallic weapon that looks like a fusion between a crossbow, a cannon, and a gun, with a magazine on top that looks like it can hold quite a few shots. The muzzle of the weapon is shaped like the head of some sea monster from long ago.

Ervik:   Meet my newest invention. I call it the Devastator!   

Korvales takes a good long look at it, noting the layout of the room.

Korvales:   I see it can go through the ceiling. Was wondering what that hatch you put on the deck of the ship was for. So, what kind of firepower are we dealing with?   

Ervik gladly tells them. When he's finished, they look at him in stunned silence, mouths agape for a moment before regaining their composure.

Dirus:   Oh Great Wolf Zanthar!   

Korvales:   My god Ervik, you're crazy!   

He then chuckles.

   But I like that about you. So, what's the ammo?   

Ervik:   A mix of high-grade explosives and some magical materials I took from Omievus' room and experimented with. Could make it more powerful, but didn't as I knew that's against your rules.   

Omievus:   Hey! Ask for my permission next time, some of that stuff can only be readily found on the magic black market, and they don't come cheap either!   

Korvales then smiles as he thinks of the possible uses.

   Well anyways, I like what I see, so we'll use it at the end of the siege. Just one shot would be enough. Already had the resources to complete the siege, but this... now this is a statement-maker!   

They all share an a evil laugh.

   Anways ervik, it's time for you to play your favorite duty again!   

Grinning, Ervik follows Korvales as they all exit the room.

Edited by TheGamechanger on Mar 4th 2019 at 4:30:56 AM

Oh yeah, absolutely! (Ira says, looking toward shore for a moment. A bit anxious for them to get going, he looks around for who has the map.) Who has a map to this place?

(If the scout currently had eyes, they would be as wide as saucers. How do they know who Cleo is? Are they talking about the same Cleo as her superior and friend? The person up there did proceed it with a "Captain"...but...how many people are on the run from someone named Cleo besides Ira? She certainly doesn't know of anyone else.)

(She remains stuck to the side of the ship for now, hoping for more confirmation that they are indeed talking about the "right" Cleo.)

Check Captain's Quarters. We probably have a quality map there, Duane gestures to the quarters with his head.

Edited by TacoBadger on Mar 4th 2019 at 4:03:32 AM