Right Whales, Wrong Route - Part Two

[rubyrubyruby]

A predatory smile crosses Chase's face, "I'd fake trouble on the Beast, let the rest of the fleet sail on...when the interceptor gets close..." he draws a finger across his throat. "We make an example for the next that tries to give us a problem."

Nadia looks off in in the distance, to where the sound is coming from. "So is this one of the common problems that you keep running into?" She tilts her head slightly and looks over towards Chase. "Do you know who it is?"

In that distance, there's a few sails becoming more visible. One might mistake them for masts, if the ships bearing them was able to sail almost completely submerged. Not completely straight, they tilt backwards on an angle, like a jaunty flag. They carve through the water leaving frothy trails in their wake. Ruby squints, and then goes to steal the spyglass to give it a squint herself. "..." She scowls and sights upon whatever it is coming. "I 'ave no bloody clue what tha is. They're big though...There's more than one. Bloody 'ell they're fast...They're gonna catch tha edge 'o tha fleet or you can call me Rudy."

Chase looks at Ruby, "Ruby." he says with a smirk, "Would you like me to slow them down?" he asks squinting to get as good a look at the oncomming sails as he can.

The Fleet is in a diamond formation, with our ship at the tip of that diamond, leading the other ships. The leftmost corner of the formation is composed of ships that are ring-a-dinga-dinging their bells in a warning, as they're the closest to what is on an intercept course. Given there's almost a hundred boats, the distances can be a bit substantial, relatively speaking."

Nadia looks out to the distance, then glances over towards Chase, then Ruby. "You want to try to talk to them, before doing anything too rash? Or you think they are pirates or something?"

Cela, being a captain's guest who comes and goes, now makes an appearance, padding up from the galley. A frilled silk shawl wraps her shoulders and she blinks away a sleepy look when she takes note of the haze on the horizon to aft, and the air of tension on board, at least from Ruby. She moves that way to catch the discussion in silence a few moments before commenting.

The mysterious guests on the horizon spur all kinds of activity on deck. Anticipating some rapid orders coming, the on-duty crew are moving to their stations. Ruby barks out orders to signalers to get messages to ancillary vessels to maintain course and heading, while the Beast prepares to veer off.
Ruby squints and considers the options and opinions. "Gotta see what it be first. If I fire first I be findin a cold welcome in Ports 'o trade." She grinds her teeth, looking like it's not her first choice.
The rudder is thrown hard, putting the large vessel into a challenging tilt while it begins its swerve. As it curves around, that section of the horizon appears even more hazy. As if trouble was dragging along an airborne phenomena with it which is become more opaque with each passing moment.

"Darlin, rash action is my trade mark..." Chase scratches his chin, "I wonder if the whale is about?" he glances over the side, "wonder if he'd be willing to lend us a bit of a hand..."

Nadia smiles gently as she looks to Chase, "I kind of got that idea. Though such things can cause problems if they are friendly and just came over to talk. Then again, with such a big fleet, they might think these ships are the problem. Not good to have misunderstandings."

Cela takes some involuntary-looking sidesteps and supports herself gingerly on the leafy rail. "A handy whale..?" she announces herself in a quiet marvelling tone as Chase looks to the adjacent waters, then lifts her free hand to wiggle fingers in absent greeting. "Captain Incarnate, is that patch of influence around the oncoming host, could that be the effect of Pattern shifting? I've not seen its working from an outside perspective."

Ruby holds onto the railing when the deck gets rather tippy, trusting her sea legs only so far due to her changing physicality. The deck becomes a bit more manageable as the ship barrels along upon an intercept course of its own. Ahead, the unknown careens without any apparent slowing or diverting. Cela's question has her offering a grunt before intelligent words follow. Because...That weird haze could be a shift of Pattern, though it lacks the rainbow effect of Trumps and some Pattern foo. "I bloody 'ope not. Cause if it is, could be a whole mess 'o ships or ~things~. Minosian sorcery can bring...maybe five. Chantris Storm-ridin is usually singular, an I don't see lightnin or 'ear thunder...This could be somethin new." She looks up and quickly scans the sky for some reason. Another grunt and she regards Nadia and Chase in turn. "I ain't in tha 'abit 'o endangerin people I just met, Truth. But either 'o you willin tah race ahead an take a peek? If you think you swift an brave enough?" Ruby pauses and considers the whale-option. "Let's not involve tha bloody uni-whale if we can 'elp it. Wherever it be, I count its temporary absence a blessin."

"Tis unwise to turn away powerful allies, the beastie likes you." Chase says of the Uniwhale, "I'll see what they are...you might want to beat to quarters Captain, an prime the guns...just in case." Chase breaks into a run heading for the rail then arrows into a dive dissappearing over the bow of the ship.

Nadia doesn't seem overly concerned, perhaps because she knows if anything else she can can likely escape by herself. She watches as Chase suddenly rushes off, and she looks back over to Ruby. "Should I go give him back up?"

"Oh." Cela looks momentarily nonplussed that it might not be Pattern they are witnessing, but she brightens again straight away. "There's always room in this realm of wonders for something new," she beams, adjusting her shawl with a billowing flap after Chase runs by. She gazes after him and gives a gasp of enlightenment. "Ohh, now that I have seen before, but it's not a sight of which I'd expect to tire - a dragon, a whale, a mage of the wind, what allies you have, Captain." Her eyes slip over to Nadia expectantly, the question seeming to promise another wondrous revelation.

Once the white drake is launching himself off, Ruby eyes Chase's departing scaley back with a leaden look. The change of direction of the vessel invites the wind to come in and sweep and play at unbound hair. The ship creaks as it embraces new forces upon it, and it doesn't so much bound as lurch across the waves.
A bristle-beared bosun approaches at Ruby's elbow and inquires, "You gonna trust your life to that rug again, Captain?" To this, Ruby gives a sharp shake of her head and peers over to where it's been handily wrapped around the thick main mast. "Not today. I'll stay aboard ship."
To Nadia, Ruby gives an enthusiastic nod, "If you can, in your fashion. Tha sea is deep an full 'o terrors. Trust your gut if things get prickly."

One of the escort vessels of the fleet, farther back and closer to the potential threat, seems to have got in their heads that they aren't about to keep sailing easy-peasy in formation, and is coming about to sail towards the possible trouble. Sharp eyes will note it's bearing Minosian colours, and might account for its sense of initiative. It ~does~ have people bristling with armaments on the main deck, and gun ports are open, but no barrels protrude.

The ice drakes belly brushes the waves as the wind fills wings. The dragon keeps low for the moment not wanting to spook the Minosians who may not be used to working with dragons. Chase begins to whisper, a string of syllables so profane as to be forgotten as quickly as they are heard, a bitter cold kisses the warm waters, and a fog begins to envelope the white dragon.

Nadia smiles as she looks to Ruby, "Don't worry, I can keep up with dragons. I mentioned that studied them was one of my hobbies before right?" She drops down onto all fours as her arms and legs grow larger, her nails turning into claws as scales spread across her body. A pair of wings stretch out from her back, as she shifts into the form of a blue dragon. Her wings start to flap and she flies up into the air and off she goes off, chasing after the other dragon.

Above the waves: Almost all of the fleet is staying on course, and people on the decks or riggings of the ships are clambering about like maddened insects. Sea gulls hover like gnats around the ships that have the most food or engage in re-provisioning through fishing nets. But right now, they seemed to have gotten a whiff of something that's sending them crying out as shrill as any alarm. Any close to Chase veer away on instinct of course, but there's a general movement of the swarms of flying garbage pickers to the far side of the fleet...as far as they can to the oncoming mystery.

Almost upon the edge of the fleet, the oncoming what-the-heck attains more clarity. At least what's poking up above the waterline. The mast-like objects are fins. Horribly ragged fins that look like they've had something enormous trying to lunch on them. They flap like soggy flags. A large teardrop shape, humpback sized, stays beneath the water, but is propelled at the speed of some unholy torpedo. The tops of the fins snap and flex audibly, the pace of the things a mad dash that will have them bisect the fleet's diamond formation soon.

RPG: Chase declares that he has the Dragon Form (DRG-DF) gift.
RPG: Chase declares that he has the Blood of Mandrake (BLD-MA) gift.
RPG: Chase declares that he has the Strong (PHY-ST) gift.
RPG: Chase declares that he has the Ice Warrior Master (ICE-WM) gift.
RPG: Chase declares that he has the Master Marksman (FGT-MM) gift.
RPG: Chase declares that he has the Battlefield Magic (WAR-BM) gift.

RPG: Nadia declares that she has the Blood of Pathi (BLD-PA) gift.

Cela stares after the dragons for a few distracted moments, before her attention is caught by the Minoan ship breaking formation to stand against the weird windsurfing fleet. "Should I take it you issued no such special order?" she notes to Ruby. She narrowly misses colliding with a couple of deckhands pounding down the deck with tools, and huddles to a relatively clear portion of rail, closely watching the impending confrontation.

RPG: Celaeno declares that she has the Observation (SKL-OB) gift.

Nadia stays up a little higher in the air than the other dragon but follows the same path towards the whale like creatures. She carefully looks them over, though stays back enough not to get caught up in the strange haze.

Ruby lurks over near Cela, and after a mental burp of consideration, offers her the bronze spyglass. "Naw...if I recall its bloody name...Captained by...Steady, I believe. But you know Minosians, we all bloody Kings and our ships are our soverign lands. Some are more fragile or 'eadstrong."

The White Dragon's hissing whispers grown in volume until they roll like peels of thunder, Icy spears form in the Dragons claws amoment, then launch toward the whales growing in size as they contact the water, gains speed as arcane forces speed them toward their marks. Sleet and ice swirl about Chase as he continues to call upon his frigid art.

The Beast was at the head of a diamond formation, but has just peeled away to try and head off the approach of three swimming-way-fast whale creatures with ragged dorsal fins. And perhaps pursued or dragging a strange haze in their wake above the waves. They aren't stopping for anything either, and are just about to try and careen through the middle of the big fleet.

Chase's ice projectiles strike the water, and with enough force to keep going. They strike true against the creatures. One immediately spasms and breaches to do a bizarre bellyflop, spewing blood and guts. The two on either side suffer similar but adjust course into a frantic divergance. No longer clustered, they veer swiftly to either side of the insubordinate Minosian vessel, which then takes pot-shots to lesser effect. One dives deep and the other torpedos onwards amongst the massing vessels of part of the diamond.

"Mm.. and mad for a bit of target-practice after lumping it amongst so many ships of varied stripe," Cela speculates lyrically, looking up to accept the offering of spyglass with an appreciative smile. Another shrug at the shawl to secure it around her arms, then she lifts the glass to one eye and telescopes it to find a point of reference, before sweeping slowly over the action. "The sea fowl have a sense of that smog, Captain.. they want no part of it. Should the fleet not attempt the same evasion as they?" Scanning still, she lingers on the incoming fins. "And quickly.. see, the creatures aim for our heart when normally such hunted things would avoid ships, no?"

The haze is carried along into the fleet in two thick trails, making the air thick and prickly. The distortion provides a funhouse mirror effect. However, it's not as dense or encompassing as it could have been if all three had continued on an unchallenged course.

Nadia decides to the avoid the strange haze and go check what the other whale is doing, and to see if there is other dangers underwater. She shifts back to her human form and dives down into the water. The moment she drops below the surface, her legs merge together, forming her beautiful tail once more.

Chase roars in rage as one of the creatures makes a run at the fleets center, the Ice drake bank wide lining up the beast for an attack run, his claws take on an icy hue, and seem to grow into icy scythes "No you Bloody Don't." he snarls.

Ruby curses very colourfully, the Beast feeling too ponderous compared to smaller sleeker vessels. And certainly less mobile than those airborne. She watches as Captain
Steady's fine frigate unleashes ballista and crossbow. Their speed is such that they inevitably sail directly into the haze and become a twisted mass of madness behind the visible distortion. The dull ~twunk~ and ~fwip~ of armanents is cut off immediately.
Ruby nearly has an aneurysm and brays out in voice to her Quartermaster that carries despite wind and spray, "Disperse everyone! Get tha word out! I don't care 'ow many pigeons or lanterns you burn out! Bog blasted bloody..! Break formation and all ships get clear!"

RPG: Nadia declares that she has the Arcanis Control (ARC-CN) gift.
RPG: Nadia declares that she has the Arcanis Space (ARC-SP) gift.

RPG: Chase challenges a difficulty of 12. Chase chooses Wits and the gifts ANI-MF, BLD-MA, ICE-WM, ICE-WR, PHY-ST, SKL-AR, SKL-HU, and STY-DF. Chase almost succeeds.

Chase folds his wings back diving right at the thing, his mass slamming into the whales with bone shattering force. Chase anchors his rears talons into the monsters flesh and begins ripping into it with fore claws and fangs sending a gout of blood like some horrible spout, Chase realizes too late the caustic nature of the animals blood, his silver/white scales providing little prorection as the blood stats to BURN! The Ice Drake roars in rage and pain continuing to rip at the monster.

Nadia tail flicks as she glides through the water, move towards the whales. She was far more graceful swimming through the sea, and carefully looked over the nearest whale to her. She notices harpoons sticking from it, and begins to chant the language of magic as she focuses on them. Space distorts slightly as her magic shrinks them and shifts their positions to pop them free.

Cela flinches away from Ruby's ear-busting howl, and casts her gaze about to see the reaction ripple through the crew, and then more gradually through the fleet. "Quite the opposite of a whisper," she notes to herself, with a shiver to reorient herself and a quick glance towards the bloody attacks on the whales that split from the pod. She notices that the blue dragon is no longer with the white, and frowns mildly, then lifts the spyglass to try and track the Minoan frigate as it is enveloped and utterly lost.
The whale under Chase's severe attack thrashes madly, making vicious movements in the shape of the letter C. Unable to shake the drake, it convulses and starts to sink and stream blood and guts. It's spines flare and jab erratically. It completely submerges, and the main dorsal fin kinks badly. The cloud of what-the-heck ceases billowing as the whale goes down rather than forward.

Nadia's efforts work well at changing the very reality of the harpoons. The cruel abrasive looking harpoons becomes very diminished in size. A hollow fluting from their hollow construction becomes a whistle in their shrunked state. They fall away like errant matchsticks. The wounds they leave behind look nasty, but at least they're not worried by constant motion through the water. The whale, freed of the harpoons, stops actively swimming and just shudders, letting forward movement bleed away. The haze behind the fin seeps forward, but lessened, and slower.

Ruby's ship heaves hard to skim the edge of the oncoming haze. The other Minosian ship is like a distant memory now, sometimes appearing as a triple-image, sometimes appearing upside down, and...gone. Ruby has no intentions of letting her curiosity steer her own crew into that, and the Beast shadows the upper half of the diamond formation, other ships coming dangerously close to colliding with one another as they attempt to outrun the airborne toxic event. Ruby's voice carries with it the blood heritage of storms, and nags at straggling vessels to bust out the hustle. "Cover your nose 'oles an yaps if it overtakes ya!" Her gums feels like they're bleeding and the pains in her abdomen start to assert themselves, with all that mighty tension. She lowers her voice for her crew, and grips the railing hard enough to splinter it. "If anything comes after us, from tha cloud, lay intah it with whatever you can bring tah bear." In the chaos, she tries to see where Chase and Nadia have gotten to. "We'll use tha storm sails if we 'ave tah."

As the monster sinks Chase tries to leap free, he suceeds in hitting the blood water, again Chase tries to get clear of the blood water, with great effort he manages to get some altitude, he is flying erraticly, nearly slamming into on of the escaping boats.

"Brilliant," Cela murmurs, in reaction to either Ruby's orders to both flee and fire upon incoming whales, or the ghastly mirages of Steady's ship before it vanishes completely, or Chase's careening antics at the edge of the fleet. "Oh look there, Captain. One of the beasts has stopped its charge, how curious!" she calls, pointing, and then passing the spyglass back to Ruby. "And a bit of the gaseous threat lingers with it... if the rest would only lose steam now."

Nadia looks over the whale, and speaks in a soft calming voice that takes almost the tone of a lullaby. "It is okay, please don't go near the ships for now or they might attack you." She hopes it can understand her, but for now she has other things she must do. She looks towards the other whales to see if they are still alive.

With effort Chase makes it back to the Beast coming down hard on the deck, his scales badly marred great sore burned into his thick hide.

Nadia's whale looks content to drift, forward momentum slowing to something like a crawl. It's almost with the fleet, and its spines droop. Whatever esoteric phenomena it produced, ceases as it limps along. It produces no sounds, and neither did either of its cohorts. Even as the other whales are expiring, there is nary a peep or attempt at echo location. Above water, the distortion lingers where it was dragged thick, but due to recent efforts, does not continue. It hangs persistantly as the fleet moves further and further from it.
The two other whales go still, in differing fatal states, and sink rather than float.

"We gonna 'ave tah change course, once everyone is collected again. Let's get us some additional distance, just in case. Dunno which way tha wind will blow out 'ere. We'll try and 'ail Cap'n Steady. 'Opefully 'e battened down tha 'atches. 'Opefully." She sounds dubious as she comments to Cela. "I need tah know what tha 'ell just 'appened, an why."

Chase's dramatic arrival clears a space on the decking. It has Ruby snarling in alarm and then calling for the ship's medic. She blinks, realizing that the best one is the one badly injured. "Bog's blasted...Bring a sawbones from tha chop-shop-ship!"

RPG: Nadia declares that she has the Commands and Terms (ARC-CT) gift.
RPG: Nadia declares that she has the Arcanis Water (ARC-WA) gift.

Nadia sadly doesn't know any healing magic, so there isn't very much she can do for the wounded whales as they sink. Though what she can do, is try to keep them from drowning. She starts to chant in the arcane language of spells, and moves her hands around as she causes the water under the whales to flow upwards at a gentle speed, to help them remain a float.

The whales are risen. If they've got a blow-hole, they're able to feast upon the air as Nadia's magic nudges them to the surface. The harpoon-free whale is alive and drifting, but the other two are beyond help. When pushed to the surface, one is badly dragon-mauled, and the other is a mortally wounded ice-spear pincushion.
Long distance to Celaeno: Ruby will inflict some more involving stuff for Cela next shippy things. Action was easy for a rawwwr time.

Cela looks out to sea with her own eyes and shakes her head as she replies, "Whatever happened to the Minosians, they would appear to be out of hailing range, unless you have established some means of reaching out across shadow to them.." or beyond the veil of the living, she decides not to add. "I would love to be able to interview a whale, but lacking that language, I can only speculate," she admits slowly, "they are the agents of a greater force."

Nadia swims back towards the ship originally came from. She moves towards the surface and glances up to make sure the air is clear before popping her head back out of the water. When she reaches the ship, she will have the water raise up and lift her to the deck.

Cela keeps her distance from the wounded dragon, lingering by the rail to continue to scan the horizon to aft. She is speechless over the sight of the siren being waved aboard, but claps her hands together softly, with a hushed smile. After a little while, she takes her leave and disappears below decks to get back to her writing.

A labourious set of manuevers is on the menu for the fleet now. Ruby grimaces as she thinks over this. She's going to need the big table, charts and head counts. The prospect has her groaning inwardly. She reaches up and rubs at her face with the palm of her hand. Smushing around the corner of her mouth and distorting her words a little more. "I don't gots no Trump for tha ship, but their Cap'n is clever, for a bloke. So its in 'is 'ands now." Blearily, she watches Cela take her leave and tries not to let her imagination run too wild on how this whole cluster-frig will be perceived.
Ruby stalks over towards where Nadia is lifted up and onto the ship once more. "Did you get a good look? Chase got tha worst 'o somethin. Whatever you two did, it spared tha rest 'o us it seems."

Nadia nods her head, "Their bodies were pretty beat up, and they had harpoons in them. It seems likely they were charging towards us out of a frenzy due to the pain. The haze, might be some kind of natural defense? I didn't get a good look at it. Any way, my guess would be that either someone was hunting a group of those creatures, and these three happened to escape and they happened across us by coincidence. Or someone deliberately hurt them and led them in our direction, with the intention of using them as a weapon against the fleet. One of them is hurt but still alive, the other two look in pretty bad condition, so I don't think there is anyway to help them."

Ruby absorbs all of this. Mention of them already being inflicted with harpoons has her glower and reaching up to massage a temple with a thumb. The returning Gulls are all trying to choose a new roost in rigging or mast, adding a rauckous cacaphony to things. Most go to find a ship at the lead to squabble and bray, but enough are circling to make wearing a hat a wise gamble. Ruby scowls and then sighs. "Appreciate your efforts. Gonna try an see if we can get someone tah stop Chase from bleedin over tha deck. If you need food or drink, there be somethin brought up from tha galley." Ruby peers to see if there's any wound on Nadia, from a purely visible observation. "It ain't always like this, Truth. Today was just a bit random, Truth."