[LOG] The Wide Sargasso Sea
Summary: Out by Cibola stands a Wide Sargasso Sea and along this sea are fought daily wars of the local lemur people. But the wars, lasting thousands of years, have ended. The war only has all officers and no soldiers and the officers no longer know who is in charge or who is on what side. They're so confused they have held Valentine de'Mandrake and Charles Glanworth for a week and haven't gotten around to eating them...
And Petrus loses another purple cloak.
Liam's small sloop, the Carrot, is not a bad little boat for taking on short jaunts around Amber. It has a strong sail and a strong keel. It's a good little ship if only a few people are coming along. Liam shows off that he actually is of Chantris descent by sailing it up the Cibolan Shadowpath with plans to make a first stop at the first node. While he sails, he tells a story:
"The Cibolan Shadowpath is one long story about King Oberon and his quest to follow a finch to the heart of Cibola. Everything he touched is likely long gone, because these stories were told thousands of years ago when the world was new. And it is, essentially, about a finch. But nevermind the bird. Here's a story:
"Oberon came to search for the capital city of Cibola. When he did search, he was told, "None from outside may enter, save as captives." He would wait until dawn for the ritual war to begin and joined the forces there. By his sheer might he changed the battle and then allowed himself to be taken captive by the other side. In a later cataclysm, the battlefield fell and now there is a wide sargasso sea where Oberon once fought."
And the Carrot sails up into said Wide Sargasso Sea, which is narrow but deep and clear as a bell all the way to the bottom. Seaweed is thick here, thick enough to be a mat to allow crossing from one side of the sea to the other. For the moment, it is very quiet except the calling of parrots and other rare birds.
Celeste is dressed for jungling, well armed, packed, and possessing her doctor's bag. At the tale and frowns, "Oh. Joy. The story is almost as 'wonderful' as the setting is." she mutters dourly.
Erika is dressed for the jungle as well, though she isn't armed with anything but her bag full of goodies. "Why would he want to enter the capital? Does the story say that?" she asks.
"The climax of the story is in the capital," Liam says clearly entertained beyond reason out here in Cibola. "So we must find the capital. And enter the capital. And pierce its heart! Then we will have lived the story of Oberon and the finch."
There's strange rustlings in the trees and tall grasses just up the beach of the sargasso sea.
Petrus rides along in the Carrot, wearing his 'epicry' gear; dark chain shirt, lots of black and bracers, and a purple cape. No gloves today, and his left hand has a slowly healing cut across the palm. If his mood were a color, it's somewhere in the blue-black spectral region.
Petrus is quiet for the first part of the trip, pondering Liam's story. The conversation after the end of the story rouses his interest. "This use to be a battlefield?" he wonders at Liam.
Celeste looks to Petrus and informs him, "For the record, I have evisceration in the pool on how you get injured on this trip." She offers casually with no comment on how ethical it is for a physician to have any part of such a pool.
Bursting out of the treeline comes a strange creature. It looks grey and fuzzy and with a long tail covered in black rings. But it also looks human, too, with two arms and two legs and human features. Very feminine human features. It is only wearing a loincloth, a bit of cloth over its breasts, and an amazing number of beads and feathers. It carries a spear. With its enormous lemur-like eyes it squats on the shore for a moment and then runs out into the water and literally runs /on the water/. Or, to be more precise, the mat of seaweed, so dense it can hold up weight.
Erika frowns at Celeste and shakes her head before she resumes looking around. After a moment she spots the creature and gives a little gasp. "We're not alone," she says, pointing to the beastie.
Petrus smirks toward Celeste, aboard the Sailing Carrot. "It's not as if you've got a particular talent for avoiding cuts and scrapes," he notes. The creature, though, grabs his attention. He rises, and draws a weapon, watching the creature approach. In Thari, he calls toward it: "Yield, Runs-on-Water!"
Celeste notes the creature, "Of course not. Wouldn't be Cibola if there weren't new and interesting creatures to try to make us bleed." she watches and seems disappointed, "Not prey."
Liam yells, "Whatever you do, do not draw a weapon or attack anything out here on the, uh, battlefield!" He waves a hand. "We cannot attack anything in an endless war! It would be bad!" Liam does not expound on what 'bad' means.
Meanwhile, the lemur woman is running to keep up pace with the Carrot which she clearly finds fascinating.
"And what are we supposed to do if /it/ decides to attack /us/? Can we scare it away or something?" Erika asks, frowning as she continues to watch the lemur.
Celeste calls back to Liam, "Don't you worry, sweetness, I'm all done with Bad." She looks to Erika and then hrrms, "Good point." She looks to Petrus, "You reckon I ought to go scaled in the event folks need to hide behind something? It'll take more than spears or arrows to bother me much."
Petrus shrugs at Celeste. "You know, I've seen you take a crossbow bolt. Scales or no scales." Toward Liam: "She's following us."
Petrus doesn't put away the weapon he already drew, but he doesn't strike a menacing pose or anything either, just yet.
Blood-curdling screams from with the forest. The lemur woman looks off in that direction and then scampers to the beach. Two other lemur people, both woman-like, pop up out of the grass. They also stare at the Carrot as it passes.
Liam says in a highly helpful -- or perhaps unhelpful -- way, "We need to figure out what is wrong with the node. And they look like people. Ish. People-ish. Maybe we should engage. With the screams and all that."
Celeste says, "Yes but I don't make good cover this way. The point is to provide cover for folks if need be. Though, that might prompt an attack...so y'all are on a one person at a time using me for a human shield. " She looks to Erika, "Engaging is your gig, I believe?"
Petrus calls forward toward Liam: "If there's a place closer to shore ahead, I'd place a heavy bet on an Ambush. Shore might not be the worst thing. Who knows. Maybe lending a hand'll give us an opportunity to find out what, if anything, is wrong."
Erika glances towards the scream and eases closer to the armed Petrus. "Well that one didn't attack us, so maybe it wasn't its intention..." She glances at Celeste. "Only if engaging means talking and not engaging in battle." Then she loosk back to the lemur people, and she calls out in halting Cibolan, "Hello! We're not here to do battle, we're explorers!"
Celeste nods to Erika, "No engaging in battle." she agrees. She moves to stand beside Erika almost protectively, slate eyes scanning the festering shores attentively.
Liam at this point realizes that his boat is ensnared in the seaweed. He is fighting with the rudder and the sail but the Carrot has slowed to a crawl and is now stuck fast. He says, "The stories say the Sargasso Sea opens at night. We're not going any further forward. We can either go to them or wait for them to take us off the Carrot as prisoners."
The lemur women of Cibola, now three of them on the beach, peer at Erika and chatter among themselves excitedly. One of them hefts a spear. Erika can hear one word that floats back, and it sounds like 'prisoner.'
"Uh oh. Well, it sounds like they're thinking prisoners," Erika says with a grimace.
Petrus calls toward Liam, after Erika completes her sentence: "Is being taken prisoner a good thing?"
Celeste says, "From the story Liam tells that might be a point. Should we give them one and the others remain on the ship as rescue team if need be? Also: who's the lucky volunteer?"
Liam thinks through the legends he read about this place and says, "Well, it does say none may enter except as prisoners. We could rock paper scissors for it?"
Erika looks a little afraid. "I'm not sure I'd be the best choice...Something goes wrong, I'd be a sitting duck until you guys got there."
Celeste says, "I'll go. Y'all might need Erika as translator and we need Liam. I'm just the the arrow fodder."
Celeste offers this casually as if she were offering to do some idle but unsavory chore.
Petrus grunts. "Let's all go," he ventures. "We can take them, if need be," he hazards.
Celeste says, "Take them with our hands tied and our gear taken? No. Let's send one-if it doesn't work maybe then more drastic measures. Liam? What do you think?"
Petrus UNCLASPS his cape, and folds it up, placing it in a compartment he spied earlier on the Carrot that should protect it from harm.
Liam says, "I don't think the Carrot is going anywhere." Liam does something crazy and takes off his shoes and rolls off his pants. He slowly lowers himself over the side of the Carrot and then is standing on the seaweed. It is holding up his weight and he has only sunk in to his knees. "Check this OUT! Awesome! I'm Jesus Christ!"
"Who?" Erika asks Liam, before she leans over the railing to peer down at the seaweed. "I'll do whatever you guys wanna do."
Petrus considers the seaweed, and Liam, then frowns, dissatisfied. He then starts out off the side of the boat and across the stuff at a run, one of his short blades still out, trying to duplicate the lemurperson feat! Can he manage it?
Celeste watches Liam and mutters, "Let's forget I asked him for tactical insight." She looks to Erika, "I think Liam's decided we're all going. Don't worry, they're big eyed and furry, if they get too fiesty I'll eat them. Technically that's an act of predation not of war." she offers in tones which suggests she's being Perfectly Reasonable.
"I doubt they'll see it that way," Erika mumbles before she sighs and climbs off the boat as well.
Celeste follows and makes a face as she sloshes over the seaweed.
RPG: Petrus challenges a difficulty of 8, using his Grace. Petrus almost succeeds.
Liam holds out his hand to Erika to help her off the Carrot and strolls slowly so he doesn't sink or trip up across the seaweed layer on the sea. He peers in the water and says, "Woah, I can see all the way down. The water here is really clear."
Petrus races across the seaweed, looking for a moment like he has the knack for it! But, his foot tangles in something, and he trips spectacularly, falling facefirst into the seaweed. However, he doesn't sink or even get thoroughly soaked. After a moment, he gets on all fours, and then twos, sinking a bit like Liam, and makes his way forward a little more carefully.
Very uncool.
Erika takes Liam's hand, and very carefully does NOT look down. Then she winces a little as she watches Petrus faceplant. "You okay?" she calls out as she starts forward slowly.
Celeste's mood brightens and she moves towards the front hastily but with a good giggle.
Now there are more lemur-women-people on the beach. About a half dozen. They all have spears. They look adorably menacing.
Petrus calls toward the Lemur-people. "You are our prisoners!" in Thari. "Surrender to the Carrot Army!"
Erika mouths, "Carrot Army?" before she shakes her head a little.
Celeste says, "Petrus. Don't make me smack you."
The lemur women seem to understand 'ARMY.' This gets them riled up in a hurry, all pulling their weapons and falling into a highly hostile stance. They are carrying spears which may or may not be tipped with poison. Sure, they look adorable and cuddly but who knows what kind of hurt a group of armed lemur women can whip out. One of them starts jibbering angrily at the group from the Carrot.
You paged Erika with 'The one jibbering is saying in Cibolan: "Put down your weapons and surrender to us now in the names of the Lords of the Thunder Forest! Surrender to us, prisoners!"'.
Celeste looks at them on and admits, "Ok, they're starting to look more like prey." She looks to Erika, "I should mack him and get it over with, shouldn't I?" apparently meaning Petrus. She lifts her hands to show she has them near no weapon in the universal sign of surrender.
Erika watches the lemur women as she begins to translate. "They want us to put down our weapons and surrender to them. In the name of...the Lords of the Storm Forest? No, Thunder Forest." A glance to Celeste. "Don't think it would improve our situation any."
Liam says, "The legend does say something about being taken prisoner... at least we'll learn what is going on."
Petrus listens to the gibbering for a moment, looking toward Erika for a summary, continuing to slog while she translates-ish.
"Hey, at least they think we're warriors now." He raises his weapon high, displaying its shiny technologically superior design! And then sheathes it, before continuing to slog forward.
Celeste looks to Erika, "Of course not, but I'd feel better about it. These days my guilty pleasures are few and far between." a lamenting sigh and eyes a particularly fluffy lemur woman, "Ok. Bringing me along was probably a very bad idea." her hands remain up as she makes it to the shore.
The lemur women wait for the Carrot Army to come and surrender to them. They look like they mean all business. As the group approaches, they start herding the four of them into a small circle, relieving them of weapons and, yes, tying hands behind their backs with bits of twine. Then they herd the group into the forest where comes forth yet another blood-curdling scream.
Erika mutters softly to herself, shaking her head, but she too holds her hands up and continues towards the lemur women. Then she speaks in Cibolan to the women.
From afar, Erika says, "What the screams? What is causing t hem?"
Celeste twitches as her sword is taken but tolerates it. When they seek to tie her hands behind her back she bares her teeth and issues a soft rumble but ultimately permits it.
Petrus complies with the whole arms-tying thing, not looking particularly distressed.
You paged Erika with 'One of the Warrior Women says: "It is the Officers. They are competing for dominance again. They do not know any more who is more Officer than who." She sounds resigned to this odd fact.'.
Liam relinquishes his sword without too much in the way of care and says, "Ooh, kinky," when they tie his hands and force him forward.
Petrus doesn't even look too upset about the loss of his two knives. "Oh dear me. I only have forty more of those," he muses toward teh others.
Erika listens to the response she gets to her Cibolese, then she glances to the others, even as she's tied up. "The screams are some sort of Officers fighting for dominance."
Celeste mutters, "I should have recognized it, sounds a lot like family dinners." she mutters irritably.
The warrior women force the group forward through the forest, careful not to trip on any branches or vines of the jungle. They all walk for a little while through the forest where there comes yet another blood-curdling scream, and then the group bursts into a clearing where there are many, many lemur people. And all of these lemur people are dressed in what one call "Upscale Cibolan." Each one is trying to be more spangly than the last. And failing. And there's confusion and garbage and confusion strewn around the camp.
Off to the side is a cage. The cage has two normal looking people in it in Cibola-spelunking gear.
Valentine says rather irritably, "But if you had to go for verisimilitude, couldn't you have chosen a less flammable artificial fur? It might've made a difference when all those gears started popping!"
Charles looks just as grumpy, from the other corner of the cage. "I told you, normally pneumatics bloody well don't catch fire!"
Celeste looks around and occasionally licks her teeth, "I reckon I could help clear up some of their dominance issues." she musses.
Petrus wonders toward Liam, "So. Obey got captured by teh other side, later?"
Celeste stares, "TINE?"
The lemur officers -- for that is what they are -- start bickering suddenly over who is in charge of the six women warriors who have brought them prisoners. PRISONERS! A great shout and cry arises in the group of officers for lo there are PRISONERS. Well, other than their two other prisoners, but they were going to eat those.
Liam says to Petrus: "I'm not sure. I just know that he got captured. And that is how he was let onto the Path."
Valentine says, "You know, 'normal' is all very well, but under Cibolan conditions with all this mud and friction--" He stops short, and looks across the camp. "Hey, Chaz, would you look at that! Company!" He waves cheerfully over towards Celeste.
Erika cocks her head when she sees the people-type people, then she looks towards her companions with a vaugely surprised look on her face.
Petrus glances at Celeste, then toward the two folks in the cage. "OH! People-persons!" he observes expertly.
Charles says, "Eh wot?" He looks over at the new crop of prisoners. "I'll be buggered with a thrown piston."
Celeste is starting to look like feline being teased by a squirrel on the other side of a closed window but the surprise at seeing Valentine fortunately distracts her, "Valentine? Mr. Glansworth? What the hell are you doing here?"
Liam perks up and says brightly, "Tine!" He says to Erika: "It's Valentine! One of our cousins! A real cousin! All Chantris!"
Celeste says, "And Mandrake."
Erika brightens a little as well, and she looks towards Valentine. "Well this is...unexpected."
The warrior women are commanded by at least four spangly-looking lemurs to Put The Prisoners In Cages, or at least it looks that way from the noises they make and the general gesticulations. But an argument breaks out among the spangly-looking lemurs as to which cage the prisoners are supposed to go into and this devolves into what looks like an argument and then an agreement to Have A Meeting. In Lemur Cibolan. The warrior women look very put-upon and they herd the group into the same cage as Valentine and Charles Glanworth.
Petrus ventures toward the other prisoners, in needlessly complicated Thari that the Lemur-people are unlikely to understand: "You tried to force them to surrender, recognizing your strategic superiority, as well?"
Celeste ducks and wiggles into the catch with Valentine and moves towards him, "Tine, wo de ma!" She looks him over, "I was /wondering/ where the hell you've been."
Valentine explains to Celeste, "I blame the pneumatics! You're not very flammable these days, right?" He glances at Chaz, and adds quickly, "But that's all in the past! What with the damp and such."
Erika looks towards the arguing officers, grimacing a bit, even as she's put in a cage. "Why won't they stop arguing?" she mumbles, shaking her head. Then she looks to Val and Charles. "Have they been arguing like this for long?"
Charles makes a rude gesture towards Valentine, the literal meaning of which could kill fragile grandmothers within a five mile radius. "Please, by the great gears of God, tell me you've got a bloody ship."
Charles says, "Ours caught a little bit of fire."
Liam is herded into the cage and says: "We have a boat. A single masted sloop. According to the stories I heard, it will be released from the sargasso sea when night falls. So we have between now and nightfall to figure out what is wrong with the node. Although I am... uh... sort of... getting an idea."
Celeste smirks, "Yes. There's a ship." She looks around and warns softly as her face breaks into persperation, "Uh. Liam. I forgot to tell you something." she mutters softly in a tone that sounds like a confession. An 'uh-oh' kind of confession, "IF you got an idea I hope it's quick."
Valentine makes a thumb-and-forefinger gesture. "Tiny bit of fire. Though I have to admit, if it weren't for the mechanoferret, the lemur-people might've been a lot more trouble. Liam! Good to see you!"
Erika sighs and shakes her head, then moves to the side of the cage, trying to discreetly wave one of the non-arguing Lemur women over.
Petrus wonders, "Wait, what's the relevant fact you're forgetting?" at Celeste. Toward Liam, he looks curious.
Liam looks a little worried when Celeste says she forgot something. "What is it, Celeste? I hope it isn't your keys. They're probably back in Amber."
Celeste's eyes are rimmed in silver and dart about to the critters, "I don't do well being in cages." she mutters, her frame trembling in what might be legitimate and rather crippling fear, "And by don't do well I mean completely lose it. Complete. Lose. It." her shirt dampens in persperation as she continues to shake, her hands curled into tight fists.
Charles gives Celeste a wary sort of look. "Still have a nip of gin left, if it'll help. Been rationing it, but I reckon you could use it."
"Well," Liam says eyeing the milling groups of lemur people covered in increasingly more Cibolan spangles all seeming to want to have Meetings, and the very few warriors, "I think we know part of what is wrong here. Or I can guess."
Valentine says, "I'm willing to give up any gin claims on my part." He pats Celeste on the shoulder. "We'll be out of here soon enough, no worries. They've been talking about eating us, and /they're/ bound to get hungry at some point, right?"
Erika glances back to the others, then to Liam specifically. "That's why I'm trying to get one of them over here. So I can find out how long they've been arguing," she mumbles.
Petrus ventures at Celeste
One of the non-arguing lemur women come over to Erika and perch in a tree so she can peer at the curious white fleshy person thing without getting ordered around. A ringed tail flips back and forth and back and forth.
Erika begins to speak in Cibolan again, voice quiet for now.
Petrus ventures at Celeste: "Need someone to knock you out?" He looks amused. Watches Erika chatting with the lemur-person.
From afar, Erika says, "How long have your officers been arguing like this? Does it end up hurting your...camp?"
For Valentine's part, the officers do look like they are hungry, and they occasionally lick their lips when they look at the cage, but now the officers and nobles of the lemur people have to figure out who is the least officer among them who can light a pot. And this is keeping Valentine and Charles alive.
The strange lemur woman speaks in strange Cibolan lemur-woman speak to Erika.
Celeste's eyes roll slightly and her nostrils flare as her breath alters to shallow quick rhythm. There's a low bestial growl that so should not be emerging from a lady as she bares teeth in a sneer to Valentine, "Don't /touch/ me!" she begins to strain restlessly against her bonds, "Wrong. All wrong. Fluffy means prey not predator. Why am I in this damned c-..c-...aw, hell."
You paged Erika with 'The woman says, "Officers argue long time. Many many years. The orchards disappear. The fields grow over. The game disappears. Officers run out of drugs for waging war. No drugs and no game, no warriors. Warriors go away. Officers stay behind because they are Officers. They hold many Meetings."'.
Petrus sniffs toward Celeste. "That's just prejudiced."
Charles says, "Er. Might be I should unlock the cage, huh?"
Valentine nods quickly to Charles. "I could see if I can make it as far as that carbine..."
Erika gives the lemur-woman a sympathetic look and says something more to her, before switching to Thari to translate for her fellow prisoners. "She says the officers have been arguing for several years. Long enough for the orchards to disappear. The game is gone, the drugs are gone,a nd so there are no warriors."
From afar, Erika says, "What game is it that you speak of?"
Petrus glances toward Charles and Valentine. "So, you're slated to be in the war tomorrow morning, yeah? They have one ever dawn?" Then glances toward Erika, makes a face. "Good god. Bureaucracy!"
Charles says, "Every dawn? Not bloody likely. All they do is sit here and jabber in their heathen tongue."
Celeste continues to try to break her bonds and to look as if it's taking all her brain power keeping her crazy from boiling over. She seems unlikely to be any help at the moment.
Liam suggests, mildly, "Maybe someone should unlock the door so Celeste can get some air."
Valentine makes urgent motions at the lock to Charles, very carefully Not Touching The Celeste.
You paged Erika with 'The woman says, "Big gazelle. Great herds of them. All gone, now. Pheasant, too. Very good eating for a long time."'.
"Someone get her untied," Charles suggests, and fishes a few small bits of metal from a pocket as he goes to the cage door.
RPG: Charles declares that he has the The Begman Spark (BEG-SP) gift. Use '+gift BEG-SP' to view the gift description.
RPG: Charles used the following +declare targets: Liam
Erika nods to the lemur then looks to Petrus. "Apparently they used to use drugs of some sort and hunt gazelle and pheasant. They're gone, the orchards are gone, the fields are gone. There's just the arguing. I think, maybe, if we can fix that somehow, that that will fix the node."
The lemur woman nods vigorously when she understands the word 'drugs.' She croaks out some word -- the name of a horrible psychedelic substance found only in Cibola and used by the warrior clans. It sounds like she misses baking her brain under the hot skies.
Petrus ventures toward Liam: "Mayhap your forebear wasn't so good at setting up lasting, stable conflicts. This place won't be fixed until they're having their regularly scheduled wars every morning again, yeah?" At Erika: "Well, if the gazelles are gone, and the pheasant are gone, and the orchard are gone, clearly they'll have to fight for other reasons."
Valentine works on delicately undoing Celeste's bonds without sparking any sort of snapping.
Celeste Grinds her teeth and continues to pant shallowly and perspire like crazy, her eyes have lost their whites and her pupils misshape. Still no helpful suggestions from her except for, "Prey?" she grunts. Seems she is at least paying some attention.
Liam worries that Petrus might have an Idea. And it might be a Petrus Idea. "If this is supposed to be an endless war, then they need warriors and they need to fight again. It may be as simple as that."
The lemur officers seem to be having endless arguments. Those who can understand Cibolan, even a bit, catch that the officers do not even know who is on whose side of this endless war, let alone who is in charge and who is not. The stew pot goes endlessly unlit. The lemur warrior women are not helping the officers at all. There are but six of them.
Petrus nods at Liam. "So, they did this prisoner-capturing thing, to prevent exhaustion. But they've gone and established bureaucracy. Too much order and status." He points at someone with a ton of gold and bangles, some of it Foreign To This Place. "That sorta thing. We gotta get these folk back to basics. ANd also keep em fed and drugged out."
There's a click, and Charles steps back from the lock. "Well, we can get out of the cage now. Buggered if I know what do after that, but there you have it."
Celeste's eye ticks, "Lemme out." she rumbles, "I'll shake thinks up." still sounds closer to Crazy than A Plan.
One of the lemur women watches the cage door unhook. She doesn't move to tell the officers or to rehook the door. She starts to chew on something green.
"I'm just the translator and occasional opinion giver. Whatever you guys decide, I'm all for," erika says with a shrug.
Valentine says to Liam in a low voice, "I hope this thing you're doing doesn't require a whole lot of lemur-people left after Celeste starts chewing on them."
Charles says, "Hey now. There's a /lot/ of them, and if you start chewing on 'em, they're going to choose sides right quick."
Charles says, "And it won't be yours, you can count on that."
Liam shouts at Celeste: "Celeste! You cannot kill any of them! Killing them would be bad!"
Valentine asks no one in particular, "I wonder where they put the auto-tethering carbine thing? I still haven't had a chance to tether automatically with it."
Charles says, "With the rest of our kit, likely."
Celeste's muscles seize and there is for a long moment such intense predatory intent and more human indignant rage with those who put her in his horrible cage. More grading of teeth before she closes her eyes tightly, "Fine. How do we fix this? Do we find the drug and bring it in? Do we get them to fight amongst themselves?"
"I think the drug and something for them to hunt would help things," Erika offers.
Petrus looks thoughtful for a bit, finally says: "So, my thinking is, we get these people to play the whole counting-coux thing with visitors like they have been, way back when. Every dawn, a tribe can trade a prisoner for some trinkets made by the other tribe. Visitors accept in trade trinkets each tribe, requiring an even number of Tribe A and Tribe B trinkets to complete a deal, for drugs and food."
The lemur people, even the officers having Meetings, both realize that Celeste is now free and that Celeste looks very scary even though the lemur officers have Six! Lemur! Women! Warriors!
Liam watches the lemur people look nervous. He says to Petrus: "So we need to go out and gather drugs and food and trinkets and other things to bring the warriors back? And some way for the warriors to know that the bounty is good around the wide sargasso sea."
Petrus nods at Liam. "I think that might do it. If travellers can stick to that invariant, they'll guarantee that visitors who get captured get captured twice, rather than..." He glances over at some of the lemur-people, who look a little hungry. "Eaten."
Celeste notes the change in tone even though her eyes are squeezed shut, "Trust Pitello to know how to make war."
Valentine says cheerfully, "It is nice to have areas of expertise and all that."
The lemur officers have now realized that the cage is open and that their prisoners-slash-dinner are now free. This has prompted More Meetings and Arguments in Lemur Cibolan. And some pointing. This alone might start to unite the Officers, if only for a moment.
"Well, whatever we're going to do, I think we better do it soon. No telling how long they're going to argue over what to do about our escape," Erika points out.
Petrus adds, "Alternatively, we could kill the bureaucracy. That might be simpler."
Charles says, "Technically, we haven't escaped. Of course, technically, we're not prisoners either, since we're not locked in. It's complicated."
Celeste finally seems to trust herself enough to emerge from the cage-at least to poke her head out without tearing off to start devouring lemur-people, "I'm top of the goddamn food chain. You have any idea how mortifying to be imprisoned by fluffy bipeds?"
Valentine says, "Aw, c'mon, Celeste. If you're going to be imprisoned by someone, why not by someone cute? It has its perks!"
Charles gives Valentine a look approaching disgust. "They have /tales/, you sick bugger."
When Celeste emerges, the officers erupt in chatter-talk. Even they start picking up any spears they can find and they are clearly ordering the remaining warriors. For those who understand Cibolan, someone has ordered: "GET HER."
"Yes, we know you are," Erika says to Celeste with a sigh. "But still, we should get to doing whatever pretty quick. They've just ordered the warriors to get Celeste."
Valentine claps Charles on the back. "Hang around in Cibola long enough, and you'll soon realize tails are /so/ low on the list of peculiarities you can find in your captors. Remind me to tell you about the Gibbering Spider-Snake-Men of Axlo'tlizan some time."
Petrus calls toward Celeste: "Can you escape to Amber, get drugs and food, and come back with a ship? We'll steal some trinkets, run to the other tribe, get captured, and we can set up our verry first trade." He looks to Liam. Sound reasonable?"
Valentine pauses, and peers at the lemur-people. "'Get her'? That's their plan?"
Celeste blinks at Charles comment and is startle into sudden laughter, "He really is, isn't he? He's my favorite cousin anyway." She notes the tone even if she doesn't understand, "Uh. Aye. The plan is to escape and return with drugs and shinies? Oh, damn. Shinies. I really should not have come." She laments in sincere apology. There
Erika shrugs a little. "That was the order. I just provide translations, not explanations."
Celeste blinks at Charles comment and is startle into sudden laughter, "He really is, isn't he? He's my favorite cousin anyway." She notes the tone even if she doesn't understand, "Uh. Aye. The plan is to escape and return with drugs and shinies? Oh, damn. Shinies. I really should not have come." She laments in sincere apology. There's a pause, "Might want to cover your ears."
Before Liam can answer Petrus, it turns out that 'Get her' is they're plan. They're middle management. They don't do well wiht planning. And now it looks like angry lemur people are about to attack the group to
Petrus corrects, "No, no shinies. Return with drugs and yummies!"
Before Liam can answer Petrus, it turns out that 'Get her' is they're plan. They're middle management. They don't do well with planning. And now it looks like angry lemur people are about to attack the group to 'GET' Celeste.
Charles reaches for his helmet, and pulls what look like two coconut halves down from it to cover his ears.
Charles gives Celeste a thumbs-up.
Petrus sticks fingers in his ears and jumps back into the cage.
Erika claps her hands over her ears and slinks towards the back of the cage.
Liam covers his ears and crouches down. Who knows what Celeste vs. Lemur Men will turn out like!
Celeste inhales deeply and issues a TREMENDOUS roar jamming all her pent up fear, anger, and indignation into a single tremendous sound intended to give those carrying out the orders reason to think twice. Even before the sound fades she's gesturing for the others to make a break for it but she herself does not shift, perhaps mindful on pushing the intimidation attempt too far.
The lemur people all stand there for a moment. Stunned.
Then the lemur people all RUN AWAY.
Valentine makes a break for it! Off towards the place where all his stuff has been stored.
Charles makes a break for it! In the same direction as Valentine.
Liam ventures, ".... perhaps now is a good time to run back to the Carrot?"
"I second that," Erika says with a nod, before she starts to run.
Celeste blinks in surprise as the scatters, "Agreed. I'm /Not/ going back in the cage." she turns and sprints off and grunts to Petrus, "See? Prey." as if he should have known all along.
Petrus makes a break for it, charging after the most gold-laden lemur-person in the camp, aiming to deprive him of a couple of trinkets before rejoining the others at the Carrot.
Valentine slings a satchel over one shoulder, and picks up a sort of crossbow...winch...thing half as long as he's tall. "Don't worry!" he calls. "If you need anything grappled, I'm ready!" He adds in a lower voice, "I'm almost /sure/ this one won't catch on fire."
RPG: Petrus challenges a difficulty of 8, using his Wits and JIN-RS. Petrus succeeds.
Charles grabs a gunbelt, and another crossbowinchpoonthing. "Shut it."
"Not catching on fire is a GOOD thing!" Erika calls out as she keeps booking it for the boat.
Celeste says, "You set my ride home on fire, Tine, So help me..."
Petrus chases down a lemur-person, taking a clever shortcut, then stands in front of him, a glowing symbol on his hand held high over his head. Shadows seem to loom threateningly over the lemur-person, and the lemur-person cowers in terror! He yanks four or five trinkets right off the lemur-person's tail, then bolts, running toward the Carrot, hooting loudly to announce his success to the other lemur-people!
RPG: Petrus declares that he has the First Binding of Sahal (JIN-RS) gift. Use '+gift JIN-RS' to view the gift description.
RPG: Petrus used the following +declare targets: The Wide Sargasso Sea
Liam is running for the boat through the forest as fast as he can.
A few lemur people stop and hoot at Petrus's marvelous success at depriving one high ranking person of their trinkets, and then they are beset upon -- only for a moment -- by other lemur people. Perhaps there is something to this trinket and drug trade.
Valentine decides that maybe if all the reasonable people are running for the boat, he should be going that direction too. "All flammability aside, it /was/ a really good mechanoferret," he says to Charles, and then books it towards the Carrot.
Celeste's long legs church and she nimbly leaps over, under obstacles of the jungle and out into the seaweed. She wobbles and nearly face plants before hopping towards the boat, "I hate cibola /so much/..."
Charles just legs it.
The entire group bursts out of the jungle on to the beach at roughly the same time with a big horde of Lemur Officer People with spears pursuing right behind them and making strange lemur calls! A few darts pass over Erika's head but land harmlessly in the waters of the sea.
"You hate it? Last time I ended up inside a temple making faces on the walls!" Erika calls, before she lets out a squeak of surprise and ducks down, covering her head to protect herself from the darts. Sorta.
Petrus calls toward the others, as he manages to catch up with some of them, and is busy dodging darts. "What's next?"
Celeste points out, "That was you? I wondered." she shakes her head, "The last time I was here I had two tons of limestone fall on me. I never.." She moves to cover Erika, "Move, move, move," using her body to block darts which shoot towards Erika.
Liam says to Petrus as he runs: "We run away! We come back with a plan!" He goes splooshing into the water. The seaweed continues to keep him up.
Darts go phew phew phew.
Charles starts digging through his newly recovered belt. "Ooh," he says, almost childlike. "This should be fun." He takes a small bit of brass and coiled wire, and lobs it back over his shoulder.
Petrus says, "Sounds good! And food and drugs!"
Petrus sploosh, sploosh, sploosh.
RPG: Celeste declares that she has the Body of Stone (DRG-BS) gift. Use '+gift DRG-BS' to view the gift description.
RPG: Celeste declares that she has the Breath of the Dragon (DRG-BD) gift. Use '+gift DRG-BD' to view the gift description.
RPG: Celeste used the following +declare targets: The Wide Sargasso Sea
"I'm moving, I'm moving!" Erika yells as she keeps running. "And yeah, that was me! Stupid book!"
A few seconds after the thingamabob lands, it explodes into a nest of snarled and tangled steel, the tension of the coiled wire causing it to expand into a makeshift barrier.
Several of the lemur officers become trapped in the nest of snarled and tangled steel! Others run around the trapped lemurs and go splooshing into the water after the group from the Carrot plus an added Valentine and Charles!
Valentine shouts merrily, "Run away! Run away!" Whether this is to his companions or the lemurs isn't quite clear.
Celeste follows bringing up the rear, a few darts poking out of her shoulders and back but Celeste pays them no mind as she climbs onto the boat after the others. Upon seeking the warriors following she shifts with bone-crunching speed with a blast of furnace like heat before standing up on her hinds and spreading her wings (mindful of the crew and her companions) to make herself look bigger before issuing another trumpeting ROAR in the universal language of 'get the hell away from my ride home, you freaks'.
Charles hits the deck of the ship just in time to....hit the deck of the ship. Falling right on his arse and staring up at Celeste. "God's cogs..."
The lemur people, standing in the water with their spears, stop, and look deeply uncertain about the nice, edible lady who turns into a lizard.
"I can't run any faster!" Erika mutters as she runs just as fast as she can, then works at scrambling into the boat.
Petrus slogs onto the ship, and takes cover behind the railing. And then he checks his little compartment, where a purple cape is hopefully safe and unharmed...
Petrus calls toward Charles and Valentine: "You two are insane!"
Valentine vaults over the side of the ship onto the deck, and waves to the lemur people. "Better luck next time!" he shouts to them, then grins at Petrus.
Unfortunately, bilge water has seeped into the compartment, rendering Petrus's cloak wet and stinky.
Liam scrambles to take the helm of the Carrot and says: "The Carrot cannot sail until sundown! That's when the seaweed will part!"
It looks like it is still a few minutes until sundown here on the Node.
Celeste 's talons click on the railing as she leans forward and ROARS again with such force her maw opens wide to show of rows of wickedly sharp teeth with spittle dripping from her and the membranes on either side of her maw vibrating. Not only does she look ANGRY. She looks HUNGRY.
Charles gets to his feet, and buckles his gunbelt on. He's reaching for the pistol that makes its home there when he hears Celeste. He decides the gun is not needed.
Erika just cowers down out of the way, so that the fighter type people can do their fighter-type things.
Petrus draws out his purple cape, looking disgusted, and tosses it over the side of the boat, and looks angrily toward the lemur-people. However, unarmed, he probably doesn't look quite as terrifying as he otherwise might. He does, however, show off his hard-won trinkets, dangling from his wrist.
Celeste pauses to look to Charles, "That will only piss me off. IF you're ever attacked by a dragon, think.....bigger." she rumbles helpfully before going back to lifting her spiny crest and trying to look as mean and ill tempered as possible at the lemur people.
Charles says, "Left the steam cannon at home. But I was thinking of them with the fur."
The lemur people are... confused. The strange lizard woman is roaring. Loudly. And she's scary. She's like something you find deeper in the jungle! Much deeper! But the other man has shinies. And then the lemur people start sinking. Then they start scrambling all over the place to, apparently, have more meetings to discover their findings about this whole experience in a series of break out discussions.
Meanwhile, the sun sets.
Valentine points dramatically at the setting sun. "Freedom! ...I mean, unless anyone wanted to go back to camp with the lemur-people or something. You never know."
"Can we go /now/?!" Erika calls out over the roaring.
Petrus looks generally pretty pleased, and waves good-bye to the lemur-people.
The Carrot gradually becomes unstuck from the seaweed as the seaweed sinks into the sea. The sail unfurls and catches the wind and drifts away from the beach with the strange lemur people having meetings.
Celeste ahhhs, "Reckon that could have spared me looking foolish, aye." she admits. She turns her long neck and begins to carefully use her teeth to gently remove the darts sticking in her scales.
Petrus pulls one of the darts from Celeste, perhaps curious about what's on the end of them, and looks back toward the others while he examines the tip. "So, how long were you two over there, Lord Valetine, and Lord Mechanical Genius?"
Erika relaxes once the boat starts moving, but remains sitting where she is, leaning against the rail. "Why can't fixing a shadowpath ever be /happy/?" she mutters.
Celeste says, "Oh. it can. It's especially bad then."
"Because if it was happy," Liam says as he steers the Carrot away from the lemur people, "the nodes wouldn't be broken. So now we need to come back with the gear to start yet another war and keep this one going, too. And drugs!"
Valentine says, "Not too long, Lord Petrus! You'll notice that they hadn't actually eaten us yet."
Petrus blinks at Erika. "Oh, this will be. Unless these lemur-people breed like mad, their historical daily dawn battle probably isn't generally all that fatal."
Erika looks at the dart Petrus grabbed. "Darts, cages and war doesn't sound happy to me."
Liam adds, "And being eaten."
Charles's attention is consumed in a methodical inventory of his pockets - some of the things he comes up with are completely incomprehensible. "Not a Lord," he says. "Couldn't have been more than a week. Still have some gin left, and I can't carry more than a week's worth. Only human, after all."
Celeste lapses into silence and preens quietly, forked tongue working over scale in wet sand paper sounds.
Petrus looks back toward Valentine, grins. "Incidentally." He pats a bottle at his hip, one that has a silver ring embedded in it, and strokes it gently with his finger. The bottle appears to glow, a bit. "Thank you for your help, so long ago, Lord Valentine."
Petrus gives the dart over to Erika, having satisfied himself with his investigation. "Understandable, understandable."
Petrus says to Charles.
Erika takes the dart, looking it over for a moment before she reaches into her bag, taking out an empty bottle, and dropping the dart into it. For later research, probably.
Valentine sweeps a bow to Petrus. "I'm always happy to help! Whether it comes to bits of mystical doodads, or fleeing from lemur-people. You'd be surprised by how often the latter comes up, around here. Or maybe you wouldn't be."
Celeste says, "At least it's not blood priests." she rumbles, "Always some new horror."
Liam calls out to Valentine and Charles: "Am I taking you back to Amber or finding a good place to leave you around here?"
Petrus chuckles toward Valentine. "Something to keep in mind," he allows, and claims a eat on the rail of the Carrot.
"Magical doodads?" Erika asks, instantly intrigued.
Charles says, "Mumbo bloody jumbo. Loads of it around here."
Petrus supplies to Erika: "Lord Valentine is an artificer. His work is quite reliable." Petrus runs his finger along the rim of that bottle at his hip, again, and the glow shuts off.
Valentine grins to Charles. "Wouldn't be half as fun otherwise, would it?" And to Liam, "Just anywhere not immediately infested with lemur-people should be fine, thanks."
Celeste oh's and leans over, lowering her head to rumble something softly to Tine, "Oh, reminds me..."
Liam starts scanning the beach for a lack of lemur people.
Erika glances at the bottle, then back to Valentine, a tinge of respect showing on her face for this stranger-cousin.
Valentine's eyebrows go up at Celeste's whisper, but he nods cheerfully enough.
Celeste resumes preening, all peaceful and complacent now.
Charles leans against a rail, fishing a steel flask out of his jacket and drinking from it. "Luminescence," he scoffs, with the sound of well-worn ribbing in Valentine's direction.
Liam finds an excellent place, eventually, to drop off Valentine and Charles Glanworth.
Petrus looks increasingly attached to his stolen trinkets in the course of the journey.
And Petrus loses another purple cloak.
Liam's small sloop, the Carrot, is not a bad little boat for taking on short jaunts around Amber. It has a strong sail and a strong keel. It's a good little ship if only a few people are coming along. Liam shows off that he actually is of Chantris descent by sailing it up the Cibolan Shadowpath with plans to make a first stop at the first node. While he sails, he tells a story:
"The Cibolan Shadowpath is one long story about King Oberon and his quest to follow a finch to the heart of Cibola. Everything he touched is likely long gone, because these stories were told thousands of years ago when the world was new. And it is, essentially, about a finch. But nevermind the bird. Here's a story:
"Oberon came to search for the capital city of Cibola. When he did search, he was told, "None from outside may enter, save as captives." He would wait until dawn for the ritual war to begin and joined the forces there. By his sheer might he changed the battle and then allowed himself to be taken captive by the other side. In a later cataclysm, the battlefield fell and now there is a wide sargasso sea where Oberon once fought."
And the Carrot sails up into said Wide Sargasso Sea, which is narrow but deep and clear as a bell all the way to the bottom. Seaweed is thick here, thick enough to be a mat to allow crossing from one side of the sea to the other. For the moment, it is very quiet except the calling of parrots and other rare birds.
Celeste is dressed for jungling, well armed, packed, and possessing her doctor's bag. At the tale and frowns, "Oh. Joy. The story is almost as 'wonderful' as the setting is." she mutters dourly.
Erika is dressed for the jungle as well, though she isn't armed with anything but her bag full of goodies. "Why would he want to enter the capital? Does the story say that?" she asks.
"The climax of the story is in the capital," Liam says clearly entertained beyond reason out here in Cibola. "So we must find the capital. And enter the capital. And pierce its heart! Then we will have lived the story of Oberon and the finch."
There's strange rustlings in the trees and tall grasses just up the beach of the sargasso sea.
Petrus rides along in the Carrot, wearing his 'epicry' gear; dark chain shirt, lots of black and bracers, and a purple cape. No gloves today, and his left hand has a slowly healing cut across the palm. If his mood were a color, it's somewhere in the blue-black spectral region.
Petrus is quiet for the first part of the trip, pondering Liam's story. The conversation after the end of the story rouses his interest. "This use to be a battlefield?" he wonders at Liam.
Celeste looks to Petrus and informs him, "For the record, I have evisceration in the pool on how you get injured on this trip." She offers casually with no comment on how ethical it is for a physician to have any part of such a pool.
Bursting out of the treeline comes a strange creature. It looks grey and fuzzy and with a long tail covered in black rings. But it also looks human, too, with two arms and two legs and human features. Very feminine human features. It is only wearing a loincloth, a bit of cloth over its breasts, and an amazing number of beads and feathers. It carries a spear. With its enormous lemur-like eyes it squats on the shore for a moment and then runs out into the water and literally runs /on the water/. Or, to be more precise, the mat of seaweed, so dense it can hold up weight.
Erika frowns at Celeste and shakes her head before she resumes looking around. After a moment she spots the creature and gives a little gasp. "We're not alone," she says, pointing to the beastie.
Petrus smirks toward Celeste, aboard the Sailing Carrot. "It's not as if you've got a particular talent for avoiding cuts and scrapes," he notes. The creature, though, grabs his attention. He rises, and draws a weapon, watching the creature approach. In Thari, he calls toward it: "Yield, Runs-on-Water!"
Celeste notes the creature, "Of course not. Wouldn't be Cibola if there weren't new and interesting creatures to try to make us bleed." she watches and seems disappointed, "Not prey."
Liam yells, "Whatever you do, do not draw a weapon or attack anything out here on the, uh, battlefield!" He waves a hand. "We cannot attack anything in an endless war! It would be bad!" Liam does not expound on what 'bad' means.
Meanwhile, the lemur woman is running to keep up pace with the Carrot which she clearly finds fascinating.
"And what are we supposed to do if /it/ decides to attack /us/? Can we scare it away or something?" Erika asks, frowning as she continues to watch the lemur.
Celeste calls back to Liam, "Don't you worry, sweetness, I'm all done with Bad." She looks to Erika and then hrrms, "Good point." She looks to Petrus, "You reckon I ought to go scaled in the event folks need to hide behind something? It'll take more than spears or arrows to bother me much."
Petrus shrugs at Celeste. "You know, I've seen you take a crossbow bolt. Scales or no scales." Toward Liam: "She's following us."
Petrus doesn't put away the weapon he already drew, but he doesn't strike a menacing pose or anything either, just yet.
Blood-curdling screams from with the forest. The lemur woman looks off in that direction and then scampers to the beach. Two other lemur people, both woman-like, pop up out of the grass. They also stare at the Carrot as it passes.
Liam says in a highly helpful -- or perhaps unhelpful -- way, "We need to figure out what is wrong with the node. And they look like people. Ish. People-ish. Maybe we should engage. With the screams and all that."
Celeste says, "Yes but I don't make good cover this way. The point is to provide cover for folks if need be. Though, that might prompt an attack...so y'all are on a one person at a time using me for a human shield. " She looks to Erika, "Engaging is your gig, I believe?"
Petrus calls forward toward Liam: "If there's a place closer to shore ahead, I'd place a heavy bet on an Ambush. Shore might not be the worst thing. Who knows. Maybe lending a hand'll give us an opportunity to find out what, if anything, is wrong."
Erika glances towards the scream and eases closer to the armed Petrus. "Well that one didn't attack us, so maybe it wasn't its intention..." She glances at Celeste. "Only if engaging means talking and not engaging in battle." Then she loosk back to the lemur people, and she calls out in halting Cibolan, "Hello! We're not here to do battle, we're explorers!"
Celeste nods to Erika, "No engaging in battle." she agrees. She moves to stand beside Erika almost protectively, slate eyes scanning the festering shores attentively.
Liam at this point realizes that his boat is ensnared in the seaweed. He is fighting with the rudder and the sail but the Carrot has slowed to a crawl and is now stuck fast. He says, "The stories say the Sargasso Sea opens at night. We're not going any further forward. We can either go to them or wait for them to take us off the Carrot as prisoners."
The lemur women of Cibola, now three of them on the beach, peer at Erika and chatter among themselves excitedly. One of them hefts a spear. Erika can hear one word that floats back, and it sounds like 'prisoner.'
"Uh oh. Well, it sounds like they're thinking prisoners," Erika says with a grimace.
Petrus calls toward Liam, after Erika completes her sentence: "Is being taken prisoner a good thing?"
Celeste says, "From the story Liam tells that might be a point. Should we give them one and the others remain on the ship as rescue team if need be? Also: who's the lucky volunteer?"
Liam thinks through the legends he read about this place and says, "Well, it does say none may enter except as prisoners. We could rock paper scissors for it?"
Erika looks a little afraid. "I'm not sure I'd be the best choice...Something goes wrong, I'd be a sitting duck until you guys got there."
Celeste says, "I'll go. Y'all might need Erika as translator and we need Liam. I'm just the the arrow fodder."
Celeste offers this casually as if she were offering to do some idle but unsavory chore.
Petrus grunts. "Let's all go," he ventures. "We can take them, if need be," he hazards.
Celeste says, "Take them with our hands tied and our gear taken? No. Let's send one-if it doesn't work maybe then more drastic measures. Liam? What do you think?"
Petrus UNCLASPS his cape, and folds it up, placing it in a compartment he spied earlier on the Carrot that should protect it from harm.
Liam says, "I don't think the Carrot is going anywhere." Liam does something crazy and takes off his shoes and rolls off his pants. He slowly lowers himself over the side of the Carrot and then is standing on the seaweed. It is holding up his weight and he has only sunk in to his knees. "Check this OUT! Awesome! I'm Jesus Christ!"
"Who?" Erika asks Liam, before she leans over the railing to peer down at the seaweed. "I'll do whatever you guys wanna do."
Petrus considers the seaweed, and Liam, then frowns, dissatisfied. He then starts out off the side of the boat and across the stuff at a run, one of his short blades still out, trying to duplicate the lemurperson feat! Can he manage it?
Celeste watches Liam and mutters, "Let's forget I asked him for tactical insight." She looks to Erika, "I think Liam's decided we're all going. Don't worry, they're big eyed and furry, if they get too fiesty I'll eat them. Technically that's an act of predation not of war." she offers in tones which suggests she's being Perfectly Reasonable.
"I doubt they'll see it that way," Erika mumbles before she sighs and climbs off the boat as well.
Celeste follows and makes a face as she sloshes over the seaweed.
RPG: Petrus challenges a difficulty of 8, using his Grace. Petrus almost succeeds.
Liam holds out his hand to Erika to help her off the Carrot and strolls slowly so he doesn't sink or trip up across the seaweed layer on the sea. He peers in the water and says, "Woah, I can see all the way down. The water here is really clear."
Petrus races across the seaweed, looking for a moment like he has the knack for it! But, his foot tangles in something, and he trips spectacularly, falling facefirst into the seaweed. However, he doesn't sink or even get thoroughly soaked. After a moment, he gets on all fours, and then twos, sinking a bit like Liam, and makes his way forward a little more carefully.
Very uncool.
Erika takes Liam's hand, and very carefully does NOT look down. Then she winces a little as she watches Petrus faceplant. "You okay?" she calls out as she starts forward slowly.
Celeste's mood brightens and she moves towards the front hastily but with a good giggle.
Now there are more lemur-women-people on the beach. About a half dozen. They all have spears. They look adorably menacing.
Petrus calls toward the Lemur-people. "You are our prisoners!" in Thari. "Surrender to the Carrot Army!"
Erika mouths, "Carrot Army?" before she shakes her head a little.
Celeste says, "Petrus. Don't make me smack you."
The lemur women seem to understand 'ARMY.' This gets them riled up in a hurry, all pulling their weapons and falling into a highly hostile stance. They are carrying spears which may or may not be tipped with poison. Sure, they look adorable and cuddly but who knows what kind of hurt a group of armed lemur women can whip out. One of them starts jibbering angrily at the group from the Carrot.
You paged Erika with 'The one jibbering is saying in Cibolan: "Put down your weapons and surrender to us now in the names of the Lords of the Thunder Forest! Surrender to us, prisoners!"'.
Celeste looks at them on and admits, "Ok, they're starting to look more like prey." She looks to Erika, "I should mack him and get it over with, shouldn't I?" apparently meaning Petrus. She lifts her hands to show she has them near no weapon in the universal sign of surrender.
Erika watches the lemur women as she begins to translate. "They want us to put down our weapons and surrender to them. In the name of...the Lords of the Storm Forest? No, Thunder Forest." A glance to Celeste. "Don't think it would improve our situation any."
Liam says, "The legend does say something about being taken prisoner... at least we'll learn what is going on."
Petrus listens to the gibbering for a moment, looking toward Erika for a summary, continuing to slog while she translates-ish.
"Hey, at least they think we're warriors now." He raises his weapon high, displaying its shiny technologically superior design! And then sheathes it, before continuing to slog forward.
Celeste looks to Erika, "Of course not, but I'd feel better about it. These days my guilty pleasures are few and far between." a lamenting sigh and eyes a particularly fluffy lemur woman, "Ok. Bringing me along was probably a very bad idea." her hands remain up as she makes it to the shore.
The lemur women wait for the Carrot Army to come and surrender to them. They look like they mean all business. As the group approaches, they start herding the four of them into a small circle, relieving them of weapons and, yes, tying hands behind their backs with bits of twine. Then they herd the group into the forest where comes forth yet another blood-curdling scream.
Erika mutters softly to herself, shaking her head, but she too holds her hands up and continues towards the lemur women. Then she speaks in Cibolan to the women.
From afar, Erika says, "What the screams? What is causing t hem?"
Celeste twitches as her sword is taken but tolerates it. When they seek to tie her hands behind her back she bares her teeth and issues a soft rumble but ultimately permits it.
Petrus complies with the whole arms-tying thing, not looking particularly distressed.
You paged Erika with 'One of the Warrior Women says: "It is the Officers. They are competing for dominance again. They do not know any more who is more Officer than who." She sounds resigned to this odd fact.'.
Liam relinquishes his sword without too much in the way of care and says, "Ooh, kinky," when they tie his hands and force him forward.
Petrus doesn't even look too upset about the loss of his two knives. "Oh dear me. I only have forty more of those," he muses toward teh others.
Erika listens to the response she gets to her Cibolese, then she glances to the others, even as she's tied up. "The screams are some sort of Officers fighting for dominance."
Celeste mutters, "I should have recognized it, sounds a lot like family dinners." she mutters irritably.
The warrior women force the group forward through the forest, careful not to trip on any branches or vines of the jungle. They all walk for a little while through the forest where there comes yet another blood-curdling scream, and then the group bursts into a clearing where there are many, many lemur people. And all of these lemur people are dressed in what one call "Upscale Cibolan." Each one is trying to be more spangly than the last. And failing. And there's confusion and garbage and confusion strewn around the camp.
Off to the side is a cage. The cage has two normal looking people in it in Cibola-spelunking gear.
Valentine says rather irritably, "But if you had to go for verisimilitude, couldn't you have chosen a less flammable artificial fur? It might've made a difference when all those gears started popping!"
Charles looks just as grumpy, from the other corner of the cage. "I told you, normally pneumatics bloody well don't catch fire!"
Celeste looks around and occasionally licks her teeth, "I reckon I could help clear up some of their dominance issues." she musses.
Petrus wonders toward Liam, "So. Obey got captured by teh other side, later?"
Celeste stares, "TINE?"
The lemur officers -- for that is what they are -- start bickering suddenly over who is in charge of the six women warriors who have brought them prisoners. PRISONERS! A great shout and cry arises in the group of officers for lo there are PRISONERS. Well, other than their two other prisoners, but they were going to eat those.
Liam says to Petrus: "I'm not sure. I just know that he got captured. And that is how he was let onto the Path."
Valentine says, "You know, 'normal' is all very well, but under Cibolan conditions with all this mud and friction--" He stops short, and looks across the camp. "Hey, Chaz, would you look at that! Company!" He waves cheerfully over towards Celeste.
Erika cocks her head when she sees the people-type people, then she looks towards her companions with a vaugely surprised look on her face.
Petrus glances at Celeste, then toward the two folks in the cage. "OH! People-persons!" he observes expertly.
Charles says, "Eh wot?" He looks over at the new crop of prisoners. "I'll be buggered with a thrown piston."
Celeste is starting to look like feline being teased by a squirrel on the other side of a closed window but the surprise at seeing Valentine fortunately distracts her, "Valentine? Mr. Glansworth? What the hell are you doing here?"
Liam perks up and says brightly, "Tine!" He says to Erika: "It's Valentine! One of our cousins! A real cousin! All Chantris!"
Celeste says, "And Mandrake."
Erika brightens a little as well, and she looks towards Valentine. "Well this is...unexpected."
The warrior women are commanded by at least four spangly-looking lemurs to Put The Prisoners In Cages, or at least it looks that way from the noises they make and the general gesticulations. But an argument breaks out among the spangly-looking lemurs as to which cage the prisoners are supposed to go into and this devolves into what looks like an argument and then an agreement to Have A Meeting. In Lemur Cibolan. The warrior women look very put-upon and they herd the group into the same cage as Valentine and Charles Glanworth.
Petrus ventures toward the other prisoners, in needlessly complicated Thari that the Lemur-people are unlikely to understand: "You tried to force them to surrender, recognizing your strategic superiority, as well?"
Celeste ducks and wiggles into the catch with Valentine and moves towards him, "Tine, wo de ma!" She looks him over, "I was /wondering/ where the hell you've been."
Valentine explains to Celeste, "I blame the pneumatics! You're not very flammable these days, right?" He glances at Chaz, and adds quickly, "But that's all in the past! What with the damp and such."
Erika looks towards the arguing officers, grimacing a bit, even as she's put in a cage. "Why won't they stop arguing?" she mumbles, shaking her head. Then she looks to Val and Charles. "Have they been arguing like this for long?"
Charles makes a rude gesture towards Valentine, the literal meaning of which could kill fragile grandmothers within a five mile radius. "Please, by the great gears of God, tell me you've got a bloody ship."
Charles says, "Ours caught a little bit of fire."
Liam is herded into the cage and says: "We have a boat. A single masted sloop. According to the stories I heard, it will be released from the sargasso sea when night falls. So we have between now and nightfall to figure out what is wrong with the node. Although I am... uh... sort of... getting an idea."
Celeste smirks, "Yes. There's a ship." She looks around and warns softly as her face breaks into persperation, "Uh. Liam. I forgot to tell you something." she mutters softly in a tone that sounds like a confession. An 'uh-oh' kind of confession, "IF you got an idea I hope it's quick."
Valentine makes a thumb-and-forefinger gesture. "Tiny bit of fire. Though I have to admit, if it weren't for the mechanoferret, the lemur-people might've been a lot more trouble. Liam! Good to see you!"
Erika sighs and shakes her head, then moves to the side of the cage, trying to discreetly wave one of the non-arguing Lemur women over.
Petrus wonders, "Wait, what's the relevant fact you're forgetting?" at Celeste. Toward Liam, he looks curious.
Liam looks a little worried when Celeste says she forgot something. "What is it, Celeste? I hope it isn't your keys. They're probably back in Amber."
Celeste's eyes are rimmed in silver and dart about to the critters, "I don't do well being in cages." she mutters, her frame trembling in what might be legitimate and rather crippling fear, "And by don't do well I mean completely lose it. Complete. Lose. It." her shirt dampens in persperation as she continues to shake, her hands curled into tight fists.
Charles gives Celeste a wary sort of look. "Still have a nip of gin left, if it'll help. Been rationing it, but I reckon you could use it."
"Well," Liam says eyeing the milling groups of lemur people covered in increasingly more Cibolan spangles all seeming to want to have Meetings, and the very few warriors, "I think we know part of what is wrong here. Or I can guess."
Valentine says, "I'm willing to give up any gin claims on my part." He pats Celeste on the shoulder. "We'll be out of here soon enough, no worries. They've been talking about eating us, and /they're/ bound to get hungry at some point, right?"
Erika glances back to the others, then to Liam specifically. "That's why I'm trying to get one of them over here. So I can find out how long they've been arguing," she mumbles.
Petrus ventures at Celeste
One of the non-arguing lemur women come over to Erika and perch in a tree so she can peer at the curious white fleshy person thing without getting ordered around. A ringed tail flips back and forth and back and forth.
Erika begins to speak in Cibolan again, voice quiet for now.
Petrus ventures at Celeste: "Need someone to knock you out?" He looks amused. Watches Erika chatting with the lemur-person.
From afar, Erika says, "How long have your officers been arguing like this? Does it end up hurting your...camp?"
For Valentine's part, the officers do look like they are hungry, and they occasionally lick their lips when they look at the cage, but now the officers and nobles of the lemur people have to figure out who is the least officer among them who can light a pot. And this is keeping Valentine and Charles alive.
The strange lemur woman speaks in strange Cibolan lemur-woman speak to Erika.
Celeste's eyes roll slightly and her nostrils flare as her breath alters to shallow quick rhythm. There's a low bestial growl that so should not be emerging from a lady as she bares teeth in a sneer to Valentine, "Don't /touch/ me!" she begins to strain restlessly against her bonds, "Wrong. All wrong. Fluffy means prey not predator. Why am I in this damned c-..c-...aw, hell."
You paged Erika with 'The woman says, "Officers argue long time. Many many years. The orchards disappear. The fields grow over. The game disappears. Officers run out of drugs for waging war. No drugs and no game, no warriors. Warriors go away. Officers stay behind because they are Officers. They hold many Meetings."'.
Petrus sniffs toward Celeste. "That's just prejudiced."
Charles says, "Er. Might be I should unlock the cage, huh?"
Valentine nods quickly to Charles. "I could see if I can make it as far as that carbine..."
Erika gives the lemur-woman a sympathetic look and says something more to her, before switching to Thari to translate for her fellow prisoners. "She says the officers have been arguing for several years. Long enough for the orchards to disappear. The game is gone, the drugs are gone,a nd so there are no warriors."
From afar, Erika says, "What game is it that you speak of?"
Petrus glances toward Charles and Valentine. "So, you're slated to be in the war tomorrow morning, yeah? They have one ever dawn?" Then glances toward Erika, makes a face. "Good god. Bureaucracy!"
Charles says, "Every dawn? Not bloody likely. All they do is sit here and jabber in their heathen tongue."
Celeste continues to try to break her bonds and to look as if it's taking all her brain power keeping her crazy from boiling over. She seems unlikely to be any help at the moment.
Liam suggests, mildly, "Maybe someone should unlock the door so Celeste can get some air."
Valentine makes urgent motions at the lock to Charles, very carefully Not Touching The Celeste.
You paged Erika with 'The woman says, "Big gazelle. Great herds of them. All gone, now. Pheasant, too. Very good eating for a long time."'.
"Someone get her untied," Charles suggests, and fishes a few small bits of metal from a pocket as he goes to the cage door.
RPG: Charles declares that he has the The Begman Spark (BEG-SP) gift. Use '+gift BEG-SP' to view the gift description.
RPG: Charles used the following +declare targets: Liam
Erika nods to the lemur then looks to Petrus. "Apparently they used to use drugs of some sort and hunt gazelle and pheasant. They're gone, the orchards are gone, the fields are gone. There's just the arguing. I think, maybe, if we can fix that somehow, that that will fix the node."
The lemur woman nods vigorously when she understands the word 'drugs.' She croaks out some word -- the name of a horrible psychedelic substance found only in Cibola and used by the warrior clans. It sounds like she misses baking her brain under the hot skies.
Petrus ventures toward Liam: "Mayhap your forebear wasn't so good at setting up lasting, stable conflicts. This place won't be fixed until they're having their regularly scheduled wars every morning again, yeah?" At Erika: "Well, if the gazelles are gone, and the pheasant are gone, and the orchard are gone, clearly they'll have to fight for other reasons."
Valentine works on delicately undoing Celeste's bonds without sparking any sort of snapping.
Celeste Grinds her teeth and continues to pant shallowly and perspire like crazy, her eyes have lost their whites and her pupils misshape. Still no helpful suggestions from her except for, "Prey?" she grunts. Seems she is at least paying some attention.
Liam worries that Petrus might have an Idea. And it might be a Petrus Idea. "If this is supposed to be an endless war, then they need warriors and they need to fight again. It may be as simple as that."
The lemur officers seem to be having endless arguments. Those who can understand Cibolan, even a bit, catch that the officers do not even know who is on whose side of this endless war, let alone who is in charge and who is not. The stew pot goes endlessly unlit. The lemur warrior women are not helping the officers at all. There are but six of them.
Petrus nods at Liam. "So, they did this prisoner-capturing thing, to prevent exhaustion. But they've gone and established bureaucracy. Too much order and status." He points at someone with a ton of gold and bangles, some of it Foreign To This Place. "That sorta thing. We gotta get these folk back to basics. ANd also keep em fed and drugged out."
There's a click, and Charles steps back from the lock. "Well, we can get out of the cage now. Buggered if I know what do after that, but there you have it."
Celeste's eye ticks, "Lemme out." she rumbles, "I'll shake thinks up." still sounds closer to Crazy than A Plan.
One of the lemur women watches the cage door unhook. She doesn't move to tell the officers or to rehook the door. She starts to chew on something green.
"I'm just the translator and occasional opinion giver. Whatever you guys decide, I'm all for," erika says with a shrug.
Valentine says to Liam in a low voice, "I hope this thing you're doing doesn't require a whole lot of lemur-people left after Celeste starts chewing on them."
Charles says, "Hey now. There's a /lot/ of them, and if you start chewing on 'em, they're going to choose sides right quick."
Charles says, "And it won't be yours, you can count on that."
Liam shouts at Celeste: "Celeste! You cannot kill any of them! Killing them would be bad!"
Valentine asks no one in particular, "I wonder where they put the auto-tethering carbine thing? I still haven't had a chance to tether automatically with it."
Charles says, "With the rest of our kit, likely."
Celeste's muscles seize and there is for a long moment such intense predatory intent and more human indignant rage with those who put her in his horrible cage. More grading of teeth before she closes her eyes tightly, "Fine. How do we fix this? Do we find the drug and bring it in? Do we get them to fight amongst themselves?"
"I think the drug and something for them to hunt would help things," Erika offers.
Petrus looks thoughtful for a bit, finally says: "So, my thinking is, we get these people to play the whole counting-coux thing with visitors like they have been, way back when. Every dawn, a tribe can trade a prisoner for some trinkets made by the other tribe. Visitors accept in trade trinkets each tribe, requiring an even number of Tribe A and Tribe B trinkets to complete a deal, for drugs and food."
The lemur people, even the officers having Meetings, both realize that Celeste is now free and that Celeste looks very scary even though the lemur officers have Six! Lemur! Women! Warriors!
Liam watches the lemur people look nervous. He says to Petrus: "So we need to go out and gather drugs and food and trinkets and other things to bring the warriors back? And some way for the warriors to know that the bounty is good around the wide sargasso sea."
Petrus nods at Liam. "I think that might do it. If travellers can stick to that invariant, they'll guarantee that visitors who get captured get captured twice, rather than..." He glances over at some of the lemur-people, who look a little hungry. "Eaten."
Celeste notes the change in tone even though her eyes are squeezed shut, "Trust Pitello to know how to make war."
Valentine says cheerfully, "It is nice to have areas of expertise and all that."
The lemur officers have now realized that the cage is open and that their prisoners-slash-dinner are now free. This has prompted More Meetings and Arguments in Lemur Cibolan. And some pointing. This alone might start to unite the Officers, if only for a moment.
"Well, whatever we're going to do, I think we better do it soon. No telling how long they're going to argue over what to do about our escape," Erika points out.
Petrus adds, "Alternatively, we could kill the bureaucracy. That might be simpler."
Charles says, "Technically, we haven't escaped. Of course, technically, we're not prisoners either, since we're not locked in. It's complicated."
Celeste finally seems to trust herself enough to emerge from the cage-at least to poke her head out without tearing off to start devouring lemur-people, "I'm top of the goddamn food chain. You have any idea how mortifying to be imprisoned by fluffy bipeds?"
Valentine says, "Aw, c'mon, Celeste. If you're going to be imprisoned by someone, why not by someone cute? It has its perks!"
Charles gives Valentine a look approaching disgust. "They have /tales/, you sick bugger."
When Celeste emerges, the officers erupt in chatter-talk. Even they start picking up any spears they can find and they are clearly ordering the remaining warriors. For those who understand Cibolan, someone has ordered: "GET HER."
"Yes, we know you are," Erika says to Celeste with a sigh. "But still, we should get to doing whatever pretty quick. They've just ordered the warriors to get Celeste."
Valentine claps Charles on the back. "Hang around in Cibola long enough, and you'll soon realize tails are /so/ low on the list of peculiarities you can find in your captors. Remind me to tell you about the Gibbering Spider-Snake-Men of Axlo'tlizan some time."
Petrus calls toward Celeste: "Can you escape to Amber, get drugs and food, and come back with a ship? We'll steal some trinkets, run to the other tribe, get captured, and we can set up our verry first trade." He looks to Liam. Sound reasonable?"
Valentine pauses, and peers at the lemur-people. "'Get her'? That's their plan?"
Celeste blinks at Charles comment and is startle into sudden laughter, "He really is, isn't he? He's my favorite cousin anyway." She notes the tone even if she doesn't understand, "Uh. Aye. The plan is to escape and return with drugs and shinies? Oh, damn. Shinies. I really should not have come." She laments in sincere apology. There
Erika shrugs a little. "That was the order. I just provide translations, not explanations."
Celeste blinks at Charles comment and is startle into sudden laughter, "He really is, isn't he? He's my favorite cousin anyway." She notes the tone even if she doesn't understand, "Uh. Aye. The plan is to escape and return with drugs and shinies? Oh, damn. Shinies. I really should not have come." She laments in sincere apology. There's a pause, "Might want to cover your ears."
Before Liam can answer Petrus, it turns out that 'Get her' is they're plan. They're middle management. They don't do well wiht planning. And now it looks like angry lemur people are about to attack the group to
Petrus corrects, "No, no shinies. Return with drugs and yummies!"
Before Liam can answer Petrus, it turns out that 'Get her' is they're plan. They're middle management. They don't do well with planning. And now it looks like angry lemur people are about to attack the group to 'GET' Celeste.
Charles reaches for his helmet, and pulls what look like two coconut halves down from it to cover his ears.
Charles gives Celeste a thumbs-up.
Petrus sticks fingers in his ears and jumps back into the cage.
Erika claps her hands over her ears and slinks towards the back of the cage.
Liam covers his ears and crouches down. Who knows what Celeste vs. Lemur Men will turn out like!
Celeste inhales deeply and issues a TREMENDOUS roar jamming all her pent up fear, anger, and indignation into a single tremendous sound intended to give those carrying out the orders reason to think twice. Even before the sound fades she's gesturing for the others to make a break for it but she herself does not shift, perhaps mindful on pushing the intimidation attempt too far.
The lemur people all stand there for a moment. Stunned.
Then the lemur people all RUN AWAY.
Valentine makes a break for it! Off towards the place where all his stuff has been stored.
Charles makes a break for it! In the same direction as Valentine.
Liam ventures, ".... perhaps now is a good time to run back to the Carrot?"
"I second that," Erika says with a nod, before she starts to run.
Celeste blinks in surprise as the scatters, "Agreed. I'm /Not/ going back in the cage." she turns and sprints off and grunts to Petrus, "See? Prey." as if he should have known all along.
Petrus makes a break for it, charging after the most gold-laden lemur-person in the camp, aiming to deprive him of a couple of trinkets before rejoining the others at the Carrot.
Valentine slings a satchel over one shoulder, and picks up a sort of crossbow...winch...thing half as long as he's tall. "Don't worry!" he calls. "If you need anything grappled, I'm ready!" He adds in a lower voice, "I'm almost /sure/ this one won't catch on fire."
RPG: Petrus challenges a difficulty of 8, using his Wits and JIN-RS. Petrus succeeds.
Charles grabs a gunbelt, and another crossbowinchpoonthing. "Shut it."
"Not catching on fire is a GOOD thing!" Erika calls out as she keeps booking it for the boat.
Celeste says, "You set my ride home on fire, Tine, So help me..."
Petrus chases down a lemur-person, taking a clever shortcut, then stands in front of him, a glowing symbol on his hand held high over his head. Shadows seem to loom threateningly over the lemur-person, and the lemur-person cowers in terror! He yanks four or five trinkets right off the lemur-person's tail, then bolts, running toward the Carrot, hooting loudly to announce his success to the other lemur-people!
RPG: Petrus declares that he has the First Binding of Sahal (JIN-RS) gift. Use '+gift JIN-RS' to view the gift description.
RPG: Petrus used the following +declare targets: The Wide Sargasso Sea
Liam is running for the boat through the forest as fast as he can.
A few lemur people stop and hoot at Petrus's marvelous success at depriving one high ranking person of their trinkets, and then they are beset upon -- only for a moment -- by other lemur people. Perhaps there is something to this trinket and drug trade.
Valentine decides that maybe if all the reasonable people are running for the boat, he should be going that direction too. "All flammability aside, it /was/ a really good mechanoferret," he says to Charles, and then books it towards the Carrot.
Celeste's long legs church and she nimbly leaps over, under obstacles of the jungle and out into the seaweed. She wobbles and nearly face plants before hopping towards the boat, "I hate cibola /so much/..."
Charles just legs it.
The entire group bursts out of the jungle on to the beach at roughly the same time with a big horde of Lemur Officer People with spears pursuing right behind them and making strange lemur calls! A few darts pass over Erika's head but land harmlessly in the waters of the sea.
"You hate it? Last time I ended up inside a temple making faces on the walls!" Erika calls, before she lets out a squeak of surprise and ducks down, covering her head to protect herself from the darts. Sorta.
Petrus calls toward the others, as he manages to catch up with some of them, and is busy dodging darts. "What's next?"
Celeste points out, "That was you? I wondered." she shakes her head, "The last time I was here I had two tons of limestone fall on me. I never.." She moves to cover Erika, "Move, move, move," using her body to block darts which shoot towards Erika.
Liam says to Petrus as he runs: "We run away! We come back with a plan!" He goes splooshing into the water. The seaweed continues to keep him up.
Darts go phew phew phew.
Charles starts digging through his newly recovered belt. "Ooh," he says, almost childlike. "This should be fun." He takes a small bit of brass and coiled wire, and lobs it back over his shoulder.
Petrus says, "Sounds good! And food and drugs!"
Petrus sploosh, sploosh, sploosh.
RPG: Celeste declares that she has the Body of Stone (DRG-BS) gift. Use '+gift DRG-BS' to view the gift description.
RPG: Celeste declares that she has the Breath of the Dragon (DRG-BD) gift. Use '+gift DRG-BD' to view the gift description.
RPG: Celeste used the following +declare targets: The Wide Sargasso Sea
"I'm moving, I'm moving!" Erika yells as she keeps running. "And yeah, that was me! Stupid book!"
A few seconds after the thingamabob lands, it explodes into a nest of snarled and tangled steel, the tension of the coiled wire causing it to expand into a makeshift barrier.
Several of the lemur officers become trapped in the nest of snarled and tangled steel! Others run around the trapped lemurs and go splooshing into the water after the group from the Carrot plus an added Valentine and Charles!
Valentine shouts merrily, "Run away! Run away!" Whether this is to his companions or the lemurs isn't quite clear.
Celeste follows bringing up the rear, a few darts poking out of her shoulders and back but Celeste pays them no mind as she climbs onto the boat after the others. Upon seeking the warriors following she shifts with bone-crunching speed with a blast of furnace like heat before standing up on her hinds and spreading her wings (mindful of the crew and her companions) to make herself look bigger before issuing another trumpeting ROAR in the universal language of 'get the hell away from my ride home, you freaks'.
Charles hits the deck of the ship just in time to....hit the deck of the ship. Falling right on his arse and staring up at Celeste. "God's cogs..."
The lemur people, standing in the water with their spears, stop, and look deeply uncertain about the nice, edible lady who turns into a lizard.
"I can't run any faster!" Erika mutters as she runs just as fast as she can, then works at scrambling into the boat.
Petrus slogs onto the ship, and takes cover behind the railing. And then he checks his little compartment, where a purple cape is hopefully safe and unharmed...
Petrus calls toward Charles and Valentine: "You two are insane!"
Valentine vaults over the side of the ship onto the deck, and waves to the lemur people. "Better luck next time!" he shouts to them, then grins at Petrus.
Unfortunately, bilge water has seeped into the compartment, rendering Petrus's cloak wet and stinky.
Liam scrambles to take the helm of the Carrot and says: "The Carrot cannot sail until sundown! That's when the seaweed will part!"
It looks like it is still a few minutes until sundown here on the Node.
Celeste 's talons click on the railing as she leans forward and ROARS again with such force her maw opens wide to show of rows of wickedly sharp teeth with spittle dripping from her and the membranes on either side of her maw vibrating. Not only does she look ANGRY. She looks HUNGRY.
Charles gets to his feet, and buckles his gunbelt on. He's reaching for the pistol that makes its home there when he hears Celeste. He decides the gun is not needed.
Erika just cowers down out of the way, so that the fighter type people can do their fighter-type things.
Petrus draws out his purple cape, looking disgusted, and tosses it over the side of the boat, and looks angrily toward the lemur-people. However, unarmed, he probably doesn't look quite as terrifying as he otherwise might. He does, however, show off his hard-won trinkets, dangling from his wrist.
Celeste pauses to look to Charles, "That will only piss me off. IF you're ever attacked by a dragon, think.....bigger." she rumbles helpfully before going back to lifting her spiny crest and trying to look as mean and ill tempered as possible at the lemur people.
Charles says, "Left the steam cannon at home. But I was thinking of them with the fur."
The lemur people are... confused. The strange lizard woman is roaring. Loudly. And she's scary. She's like something you find deeper in the jungle! Much deeper! But the other man has shinies. And then the lemur people start sinking. Then they start scrambling all over the place to, apparently, have more meetings to discover their findings about this whole experience in a series of break out discussions.
Meanwhile, the sun sets.
Valentine points dramatically at the setting sun. "Freedom! ...I mean, unless anyone wanted to go back to camp with the lemur-people or something. You never know."
"Can we go /now/?!" Erika calls out over the roaring.
Petrus looks generally pretty pleased, and waves good-bye to the lemur-people.
The Carrot gradually becomes unstuck from the seaweed as the seaweed sinks into the sea. The sail unfurls and catches the wind and drifts away from the beach with the strange lemur people having meetings.
Celeste ahhhs, "Reckon that could have spared me looking foolish, aye." she admits. She turns her long neck and begins to carefully use her teeth to gently remove the darts sticking in her scales.
Petrus pulls one of the darts from Celeste, perhaps curious about what's on the end of them, and looks back toward the others while he examines the tip. "So, how long were you two over there, Lord Valetine, and Lord Mechanical Genius?"
Erika relaxes once the boat starts moving, but remains sitting where she is, leaning against the rail. "Why can't fixing a shadowpath ever be /happy/?" she mutters.
Celeste says, "Oh. it can. It's especially bad then."
"Because if it was happy," Liam says as he steers the Carrot away from the lemur people, "the nodes wouldn't be broken. So now we need to come back with the gear to start yet another war and keep this one going, too. And drugs!"
Valentine says, "Not too long, Lord Petrus! You'll notice that they hadn't actually eaten us yet."
Petrus blinks at Erika. "Oh, this will be. Unless these lemur-people breed like mad, their historical daily dawn battle probably isn't generally all that fatal."
Erika looks at the dart Petrus grabbed. "Darts, cages and war doesn't sound happy to me."
Liam adds, "And being eaten."
Charles's attention is consumed in a methodical inventory of his pockets - some of the things he comes up with are completely incomprehensible. "Not a Lord," he says. "Couldn't have been more than a week. Still have some gin left, and I can't carry more than a week's worth. Only human, after all."
Celeste lapses into silence and preens quietly, forked tongue working over scale in wet sand paper sounds.
Petrus looks back toward Valentine, grins. "Incidentally." He pats a bottle at his hip, one that has a silver ring embedded in it, and strokes it gently with his finger. The bottle appears to glow, a bit. "Thank you for your help, so long ago, Lord Valentine."
Petrus gives the dart over to Erika, having satisfied himself with his investigation. "Understandable, understandable."
Petrus says to Charles.
Erika takes the dart, looking it over for a moment before she reaches into her bag, taking out an empty bottle, and dropping the dart into it. For later research, probably.
Valentine sweeps a bow to Petrus. "I'm always happy to help! Whether it comes to bits of mystical doodads, or fleeing from lemur-people. You'd be surprised by how often the latter comes up, around here. Or maybe you wouldn't be."
Celeste says, "At least it's not blood priests." she rumbles, "Always some new horror."
Liam calls out to Valentine and Charles: "Am I taking you back to Amber or finding a good place to leave you around here?"
Petrus chuckles toward Valentine. "Something to keep in mind," he allows, and claims a eat on the rail of the Carrot.
"Magical doodads?" Erika asks, instantly intrigued.
Charles says, "Mumbo bloody jumbo. Loads of it around here."
Petrus supplies to Erika: "Lord Valentine is an artificer. His work is quite reliable." Petrus runs his finger along the rim of that bottle at his hip, again, and the glow shuts off.
Valentine grins to Charles. "Wouldn't be half as fun otherwise, would it?" And to Liam, "Just anywhere not immediately infested with lemur-people should be fine, thanks."
Celeste oh's and leans over, lowering her head to rumble something softly to Tine, "Oh, reminds me..."
Liam starts scanning the beach for a lack of lemur people.
Erika glances at the bottle, then back to Valentine, a tinge of respect showing on her face for this stranger-cousin.
Valentine's eyebrows go up at Celeste's whisper, but he nods cheerfully enough.
Celeste resumes preening, all peaceful and complacent now.
Charles leans against a rail, fishing a steel flask out of his jacket and drinking from it. "Luminescence," he scoffs, with the sound of well-worn ribbing in Valentine's direction.
Liam finds an excellent place, eventually, to drop off Valentine and Charles Glanworth.
Petrus looks increasingly attached to his stolen trinkets in the course of the journey.