[LOG] Tomb of Honor Part 1
In which Sir Taran Solaris, Pascal Solaris, Liam Chantris, Melina Solaris and the eponymous Dirk follows up on tales of the Tomb of Honor in the cool submerged waters in North Eastern Lyonesse. They find the tomb but before they can answer, they are tasked with a test to prove their worth.
Taran smiles at the open affection, and finds a place near the bow to watch their course.
The Artemis glides to a small nondescript cove off the northeastern coast of one of the forgotten islands of Lyonesse which was once an actual land before Lyonesse sunk beneath the waves. The sun is up and the sea here is a deep blue, belying how deep it is at this location. There is no beach -- sheer rock rises out of the waves and all signs of civilization that may have once been here is gone. The maps and the books seems to point that this is the place, but there is no sign that this is the place -- no overt markings, nothing to bely the presence of the Tomb of Honor.
Liam is peering over the side when the Artemis weighs anchor here. He says, "If I remember correctly, the Tomb is going to be down there." Liam points to the ocean. "Hopefully it isn't so deep under the waves that we cannot see."
Taran nods. "I do not think we have lanterns that can be carried below, no."
Pascal steps away from the anchor, starting to disrobe as he approaches. "Mm. We'll manage, somehow," he says. "And, well, your glow should be helpful? We'll at least have a full moon."
Dirk looks down into the water, "Would now be a good time to say I can't swim?"
Melina blinks at her intended "you can't what? you grew up on an /island??
"True," Liam says. "I should give off enough light in the darkness that we can all see. It won't be fantastic light, but it should be suitable."
Taran gives Dirk an odd look. "Now, one might best approach that fact by regarding tonight as an excellent opportunity to learn. I need your sword, Dirk. What lies beneath will likely not be friendly."
Dirk looks down and chuckles "Nah I am just joking. I can swim just fine." He keeps drinking the rum.
Liam begins pulling off his clothes to reveal the skin tight surf suit on underneath. He came prepared. He says, "You don't need to swim, Dirk. You just need to eat a fish egg. Although how long it lasts is a question."
Pascal finishes stripping down to his own pair of swim trunks before picking up his quarterstaff again. "It should be quite tasty. Keep telling yourself that lie."
Dirk shrugs and strips down to dark purple trunks with glow in the dark planets on them. "Okay."
Taran simply removes his boots and tunic, leaving him clad in light trousers. And weaponry. "We should have enough eggs. I devoutly hope."
Melina disappears momentarily into the cabin and comes back in a red two piece dirk might recognize
Dirk smiles and focuses on Melina now.
Liam pulls out the bag of fish eggs. He opens it on the small table up on deck and the little round balls of gloop glisten horribly in the sunlight. "One each. Try not to think about it too much."
Dirk takes the first one and stares at it. "bottoms up?" He puts it in his mouth and makes it disappear down his throat fast.
Pascal walks over to the table to pick one up. He looks at it a moment, pinches his nose, and declares, "Bon appetit," before popping it into his mouth. As he swallows, his skin takes on a sickly pallor, and he looks as though he's going to wretch.
Liam looks at his egg for a moment, wondering if this really was his best and wisest plan, before he holds his breath, pops it into his mouth, and, with a force of will to not gag, swallows the thing. Then he just says, "Ugh."
Taran also picks one up. He regards it for a moment or two, stonefaced, and then swallows it in one gulp. His mouth twists as it goes down, and...that's definitely not the usual shade for his skin. "I do believe, Dirk, the kind man would pass the rum about now..."
Dirk nods "But I am not the kindest of men?" He laughs and hands the bottle around after taking a huge swig.
Melina fose follows suit after dirk and her look pretty much matches pascal's "nature is telling me I should not done this"
"Nature is usually wise, but screw it tonight," Pascal says as he makes his way to the side of the ship. "Let's go?"
Liam gets up on the railing of the Artemis and says, "Pas, make sure there's a ladder so we can climb back up." And then he dives off the side in a smooth swan dive and disappears beneath the waves with hardly any splash.
Dirk just says "Yippie kai yea!" and jumps over board in a cannon ball pose.
Taran takes a firm swig of the rum, as if it were the Pinkstuff of Amber. The shade of blue in his skin deepens, but - tightlipped - he helps lay out the ship's ladder before diving in.
Melina follows remarking after Dirk "sometimes he's a bit strange" and dives beneath the waves
Pascal works with Taran to drop the ladder over the edge, securing it, before murmuring, "The cats will keep the ship safe," and jumping in, looking half-frozen already. There are no cats.
The water is shockingly cool here. Schools of fish swim in lazy circles and then disperse in a hurry as sudden human forms invade their space. The world under here is much different than the world above the waves. Seaweed grows off the tops of the crumbled forms of great rambling ruins. Big blocks lay here on what is now white sand while fish dart in and around the fallen pillars. Liam gives off a faint bluish moonlight: enough to see by and even fight by but not enough to read any novels. In the gloom of the sea is an intact structure -- a great pair of doors before a large structure.
Dirk looks at himself and starts to sing "So long and thanks for all the fish, so long so long so long so long so long and thanks for all the fish." He heads down towards the doors. He goes first since he is impulsive like that.
Taran studies before approaching. "...We seem to have been guided well," he says slowly. "The Tomb of Honor. Be careful; those interred here were the greatest kings and heroes of Lyonesse. That they rest under the waves...may not sit well with them now."
Melina looks down at her hands as she swims after Dirk toward the doorway "Blue...yellow...red"
Pascal looks after the people dashing straight to the doors, then shakes his head, following them down. He stops some distance away, holding up his hand.
Liam stops as Pascal holds his hand and raises his eyebrows in a 'what's up?' sort of gesture.
Dirk looks back "Taran you might want to brush the catfish off your head. Its going meow rather loudly and I can't hear you." He continues singing about the fish. "Sur le pont d'avignon l'on y danse. Les poissions font comme ca et puis encore comme ca."
Taran abandons speech in favor of the signals of Army scouts. "Stay together. Danger here." He swims closer to Liam, one hand on the hilt of his sword. To defent, or just because Liam is the handy light source - who can say?"
Pascal holds his hands out before him, lolling his head to the side, and makes a groan, zombie style, before tilting his head to the side, inquisitively.
Dirk puts himself between Melina and the doors. He chuckles and waves Melina off for a moment.
Liam nods toward the doors in a 'it's what we are here for' gesture.
Melina peers at pascal rather annoyed and follows after dirk nontheless
Dirk swims right up and knocks on the door.
Taran frowns - at Dirk, at a rebellious stomach. At something else. Slowly - so that the others can keep up - he swims over to Dirk, and the doors, and tugs on them, to tug them open.
As everyone swims toward the big doors, more forms resolve into focus through the gloom of the sea. At first, these look like statues standing by the doors but on approach, it is clearer that they are not statues at all but men -- men who have been down here beneath the waves standing sentry so long they have become part of the landscape, complete with seaweed growing off the rusted remains of their armor and fish living in their hair.
As Taran tugs on the doors, the men turn to Taran and their spears come down. They are not violent. They are merely stoic. None shall approach the doors.
Dirk looks at the spears. "Does Lyonesse have sparrows?"
Liam reaches out to grab Pascal's arm when the men move to block the door, and swims back away from the guardians.
Melina stops and oddly enough drops a curtsey in front of the zombie sentries as if this will somehow help
Dirk has the sense of a mayfly cause he looks at the men and says "What do I need to do to get inside? Oh by the way I think I am going to barf pink jelly fish on you."
Pascal swims back with Liam easily enough, reaching up to smack something away from the other man's shoulders. A nod toward Melina and Taran, eyes on Liam inquisitively.
Taran studies the armor of the rotted guards. Facing them, he says in old Lyonne - as best one can, underwater - "I am called by one within. I must pass."
One of the undead guards intones, and his voice is clear even underwater: "None may pass without proving one's worth."
Dirk looks back to Taran. "what's he saying?"
Melina nods and doesn't seem put off at all and says in kind "as it should be?"
"Prove your worth," is Pascal's best attempt here. "I'd stay back."
Taran nods as if expecting this. Swallowing - and from the expression, it's probably bile - he says, levelly, "Give to me your test. I must pass into the Tomb."
Dirk is fairly close and has joined the church of "WTF>"
"You must recover the Crown of King Amfortas," the undead knight intones in his undeathly voice that, somehow, carries through the water. "It was taken from the tomb by the Things Beneath the Waves. Return the Crown and you will be found Worthy."
Melina frown having sobered just a bit, she shakes her head back and forth and says in plain tongue "why must people take what does not belong to them
Dirk responds right after barfing a little. "Oh the pink Jellyfish have gone to float away." He turns to Melina. "Cause everyone wants what they aint got."
Taran regards the undead guards thoughtfully. "Tell me what you know of this theft, ye who stand watch. How they got past you, and stole what was not theirs to take. What direction they went in. All that you may tell me. I will use this to track these thieves down."
The undead guard does not blink at Taran for long ago the fish ate his eyelids. He stares and then intones in his undead, unearthly tones: "The Dark Ones came, the Dark Ones Beneath the Waves. They stole the Crown from us and stole away into their dark empty pirate shipwreck where they worship it. Bandits all. They must be destroyed and the Crown returned to the Tomb."
Taran raises his fist over his heart, saying, "It shall be recovered." He then turns to translate this for Dirk.
Dirk nods "Do you need a pirate to catch a pirate?"
Melina frowns something catching her short "Destroyed?" Damn, there's that killing thing again
Liam says, "Do we have a sea map of this area back on the Artemis?" Or at least he tries to. It comes out more "gluub glubglub glllluuuub glubbity glub" but he at least gestures meaningfully back at the Artemis. Maybe Chantris blood translates crazy.
Taran smiles and indicates the dark waters around them. "Where shall we look for this wreck?" he asks. "Let us hunt these dark bandits down, yes? A deed of itself worthy of a bard's praise."
Liam gestures around incomprehensibly, and mostly gestures toward the Artemis.
Melina asks "how long?"
Dirk says, "I think Liam is saying that he needs to go back to the ship for more drugs."
Taran nods, and waves the others to follow him as he swims upward, for the surface.
Melina follows
Dirk looks like he's dancing as he swims up along side Melina.
Liam follows Taran up to the surface and breaks the surface with a gasp. He pulls real air into his lungs.
Taran gulps air, but the gulping is more reminiscent of a man trying not to throw up. "These eggs are *vile*...and now we must find this wreck."
"Maps," Liam says as he gasps for air. "Does Pascal have survey maps of the area on the Artemis?"
Dirk pops up for air. "You should puke your jelly fish and get it over with. Save the jellyfish let them be free."
RPG: Dirk accepts a Trump call.
Dirk is in a trump call?
Melina follows the other to the surface "I think s o but these waters aren't travelled much from what I understand. Darling don't say puke unless you want some on you
Dirk is distracted and barely remembering to tread water.
Taran nods. "I think so. He has done quite a lot of sailing in these waters."
Dirk is treading water and says "What happened Mae?"
Melina blinks at Dirk "oh hell,what's wrong/'
Liam swims toward the Artemis. Then he stops and says over his shoulder to Taran, "Maybe we can find the shipwreck on the maps instead of swimming around fruitlessly. We have more, uh, fish eggs, if we need them. I know, lovely thought."
Dirk shakes his head. "No, I am just treading water and stuff. Its all good." He sighs "What can I do you for?"
Dirk smiles "And? I am glad you are glad that Mellie and I are working out."
Taran takes a deep breath and swims for the ladder. "I trust to my chosen guide, Liam. You have done excellently. I hope to provide you with many good songs to sing for all this trouble."
Liam climbs up the ladder and gets on the deck of the Artemis. He offers his hand to pull Taran up after him. "I hope we can find the shipwreck quickly."
Taran climbs up...and once up, walks in a slow, dignified manner to the other side of the ship, and is very loudly sick. Over the side.
Liam is then also loudly sick over the side. So much for breathing underwater for now. He's going to need to take down another fish egg. Dammit.
Dirk says, "wow ok"
Taran seems content to lie flat on his back on the deck, once the toad eggs are out of his system. "Maps. Perhaps see if a few of the Knights might want to join in this glorious adventure. Then back down. Yes."
Dirk eventually climbs aboard and looks for the rum.
Liam sits down on the deck cross-legged next to Taran. "We have plenty of fish eggs. Horrible, yes. Effective, yeah. But now it means, what, recovering a treasure from a shipwreck."
Taran nods. "The crown of King Amfortas. The guards say it was stolen by 'dark ones', by the sound of it undead pirates."
Liam says, "Going to need some underwater firepower if you're going to wrest a crown from undead pirates, Taran."
Taran watches the swaying stars overhead. "Such as...?"
Liam pauses while he thinks about this and then says: "Hell if I know. But we can find the shipwreck on the maps."
Taran smiles, breathing deep as the nausea passes. "Aye. For firepower...all I have is my sword. Pascal's staff. Whatever you and Dirk can bring to bear. I shall hope Bercilack or Michael are interested in the call to glory though. To retrieve and restore the crown of a king is no small thing."
"And return it to the Tomb where it can once again be lost by time," Liam says. "But it's a chance to be worthy as a Knight."
Taran smiles. "When there is again a King in Monsalvat, they will be called to retrieve the Crown from Amfortas, I think. Until the new King, though, the Crown belongs with Amfortas."
"Who is buried in the Tomb of Honor and guarded by those guys at the door," Liam says.
Taran nods. "So the next King will have to prove himself worthy. It seems a reasonable arrangement to me?"
Liam asks, "But what if you are the next King?"
Taran just gives Liam a very blank stare. "...It would have to be some quite unequivocal Choosing by the greater Powers of Lyonesse for that to happen without Sir Harold and several of the nobles of Monsalvat challenging my legitimacy," he says. "I was loved there once. Perhaps still. But it is quite certainly the sort of welcome that can be worn out. The shade of the King gave no sign that such was to be my fate. Indeed, the signs thus far I have read as an exile from that land, to seek that which is lost."
Taran smiles at the open affection, and finds a place near the bow to watch their course.
The Artemis glides to a small nondescript cove off the northeastern coast of one of the forgotten islands of Lyonesse which was once an actual land before Lyonesse sunk beneath the waves. The sun is up and the sea here is a deep blue, belying how deep it is at this location. There is no beach -- sheer rock rises out of the waves and all signs of civilization that may have once been here is gone. The maps and the books seems to point that this is the place, but there is no sign that this is the place -- no overt markings, nothing to bely the presence of the Tomb of Honor.
Liam is peering over the side when the Artemis weighs anchor here. He says, "If I remember correctly, the Tomb is going to be down there." Liam points to the ocean. "Hopefully it isn't so deep under the waves that we cannot see."
Taran nods. "I do not think we have lanterns that can be carried below, no."
Pascal steps away from the anchor, starting to disrobe as he approaches. "Mm. We'll manage, somehow," he says. "And, well, your glow should be helpful? We'll at least have a full moon."
Dirk looks down into the water, "Would now be a good time to say I can't swim?"
Melina blinks at her intended "you can't what? you grew up on an /island??
"True," Liam says. "I should give off enough light in the darkness that we can all see. It won't be fantastic light, but it should be suitable."
Taran gives Dirk an odd look. "Now, one might best approach that fact by regarding tonight as an excellent opportunity to learn. I need your sword, Dirk. What lies beneath will likely not be friendly."
Dirk looks down and chuckles "Nah I am just joking. I can swim just fine." He keeps drinking the rum.
Liam begins pulling off his clothes to reveal the skin tight surf suit on underneath. He came prepared. He says, "You don't need to swim, Dirk. You just need to eat a fish egg. Although how long it lasts is a question."
Pascal finishes stripping down to his own pair of swim trunks before picking up his quarterstaff again. "It should be quite tasty. Keep telling yourself that lie."
Dirk shrugs and strips down to dark purple trunks with glow in the dark planets on them. "Okay."
Taran simply removes his boots and tunic, leaving him clad in light trousers. And weaponry. "We should have enough eggs. I devoutly hope."
Melina disappears momentarily into the cabin and comes back in a red two piece dirk might recognize
Dirk smiles and focuses on Melina now.
Liam pulls out the bag of fish eggs. He opens it on the small table up on deck and the little round balls of gloop glisten horribly in the sunlight. "One each. Try not to think about it too much."
Dirk takes the first one and stares at it. "bottoms up?" He puts it in his mouth and makes it disappear down his throat fast.
Pascal walks over to the table to pick one up. He looks at it a moment, pinches his nose, and declares, "Bon appetit," before popping it into his mouth. As he swallows, his skin takes on a sickly pallor, and he looks as though he's going to wretch.
Liam looks at his egg for a moment, wondering if this really was his best and wisest plan, before he holds his breath, pops it into his mouth, and, with a force of will to not gag, swallows the thing. Then he just says, "Ugh."
Taran also picks one up. He regards it for a moment or two, stonefaced, and then swallows it in one gulp. His mouth twists as it goes down, and...that's definitely not the usual shade for his skin. "I do believe, Dirk, the kind man would pass the rum about now..."
Dirk nods "But I am not the kindest of men?" He laughs and hands the bottle around after taking a huge swig.
Melina fose follows suit after dirk and her look pretty much matches pascal's "nature is telling me I should not done this"
"Nature is usually wise, but screw it tonight," Pascal says as he makes his way to the side of the ship. "Let's go?"
Liam gets up on the railing of the Artemis and says, "Pas, make sure there's a ladder so we can climb back up." And then he dives off the side in a smooth swan dive and disappears beneath the waves with hardly any splash.
Dirk just says "Yippie kai yea!" and jumps over board in a cannon ball pose.
Taran takes a firm swig of the rum, as if it were the Pinkstuff of Amber. The shade of blue in his skin deepens, but - tightlipped - he helps lay out the ship's ladder before diving in.
Melina follows remarking after Dirk "sometimes he's a bit strange" and dives beneath the waves
Pascal works with Taran to drop the ladder over the edge, securing it, before murmuring, "The cats will keep the ship safe," and jumping in, looking half-frozen already. There are no cats.
The water is shockingly cool here. Schools of fish swim in lazy circles and then disperse in a hurry as sudden human forms invade their space. The world under here is much different than the world above the waves. Seaweed grows off the tops of the crumbled forms of great rambling ruins. Big blocks lay here on what is now white sand while fish dart in and around the fallen pillars. Liam gives off a faint bluish moonlight: enough to see by and even fight by but not enough to read any novels. In the gloom of the sea is an intact structure -- a great pair of doors before a large structure.
Dirk looks at himself and starts to sing "So long and thanks for all the fish, so long so long so long so long so long and thanks for all the fish." He heads down towards the doors. He goes first since he is impulsive like that.
Taran studies before approaching. "...We seem to have been guided well," he says slowly. "The Tomb of Honor. Be careful; those interred here were the greatest kings and heroes of Lyonesse. That they rest under the waves...may not sit well with them now."
Melina looks down at her hands as she swims after Dirk toward the doorway "Blue...yellow...red"
Pascal looks after the people dashing straight to the doors, then shakes his head, following them down. He stops some distance away, holding up his hand.
Liam stops as Pascal holds his hand and raises his eyebrows in a 'what's up?' sort of gesture.
Dirk looks back "Taran you might want to brush the catfish off your head. Its going meow rather loudly and I can't hear you." He continues singing about the fish. "Sur le pont d'avignon l'on y danse. Les poissions font comme ca et puis encore comme ca."
Taran abandons speech in favor of the signals of Army scouts. "Stay together. Danger here." He swims closer to Liam, one hand on the hilt of his sword. To defent, or just because Liam is the handy light source - who can say?"
Pascal holds his hands out before him, lolling his head to the side, and makes a groan, zombie style, before tilting his head to the side, inquisitively.
Dirk puts himself between Melina and the doors. He chuckles and waves Melina off for a moment.
Liam nods toward the doors in a 'it's what we are here for' gesture.
Melina peers at pascal rather annoyed and follows after dirk nontheless
Dirk swims right up and knocks on the door.
Taran frowns - at Dirk, at a rebellious stomach. At something else. Slowly - so that the others can keep up - he swims over to Dirk, and the doors, and tugs on them, to tug them open.
As everyone swims toward the big doors, more forms resolve into focus through the gloom of the sea. At first, these look like statues standing by the doors but on approach, it is clearer that they are not statues at all but men -- men who have been down here beneath the waves standing sentry so long they have become part of the landscape, complete with seaweed growing off the rusted remains of their armor and fish living in their hair.
As Taran tugs on the doors, the men turn to Taran and their spears come down. They are not violent. They are merely stoic. None shall approach the doors.
Dirk looks at the spears. "Does Lyonesse have sparrows?"
Liam reaches out to grab Pascal's arm when the men move to block the door, and swims back away from the guardians.
Melina stops and oddly enough drops a curtsey in front of the zombie sentries as if this will somehow help
Dirk has the sense of a mayfly cause he looks at the men and says "What do I need to do to get inside? Oh by the way I think I am going to barf pink jelly fish on you."
Pascal swims back with Liam easily enough, reaching up to smack something away from the other man's shoulders. A nod toward Melina and Taran, eyes on Liam inquisitively.
Taran studies the armor of the rotted guards. Facing them, he says in old Lyonne - as best one can, underwater - "I am called by one within. I must pass."
One of the undead guards intones, and his voice is clear even underwater: "None may pass without proving one's worth."
Dirk looks back to Taran. "what's he saying?"
Melina nods and doesn't seem put off at all and says in kind "as it should be?"
"Prove your worth," is Pascal's best attempt here. "I'd stay back."
Taran nods as if expecting this. Swallowing - and from the expression, it's probably bile - he says, levelly, "Give to me your test. I must pass into the Tomb."
Dirk is fairly close and has joined the church of "WTF>"
"You must recover the Crown of King Amfortas," the undead knight intones in his undeathly voice that, somehow, carries through the water. "It was taken from the tomb by the Things Beneath the Waves. Return the Crown and you will be found Worthy."
Melina frown having sobered just a bit, she shakes her head back and forth and says in plain tongue "why must people take what does not belong to them
Dirk responds right after barfing a little. "Oh the pink Jellyfish have gone to float away." He turns to Melina. "Cause everyone wants what they aint got."
Taran regards the undead guards thoughtfully. "Tell me what you know of this theft, ye who stand watch. How they got past you, and stole what was not theirs to take. What direction they went in. All that you may tell me. I will use this to track these thieves down."
The undead guard does not blink at Taran for long ago the fish ate his eyelids. He stares and then intones in his undead, unearthly tones: "The Dark Ones came, the Dark Ones Beneath the Waves. They stole the Crown from us and stole away into their dark empty pirate shipwreck where they worship it. Bandits all. They must be destroyed and the Crown returned to the Tomb."
Taran raises his fist over his heart, saying, "It shall be recovered." He then turns to translate this for Dirk.
Dirk nods "Do you need a pirate to catch a pirate?"
Melina frowns something catching her short "Destroyed?" Damn, there's that killing thing again
Liam says, "Do we have a sea map of this area back on the Artemis?" Or at least he tries to. It comes out more "gluub glubglub glllluuuub glubbity glub" but he at least gestures meaningfully back at the Artemis. Maybe Chantris blood translates crazy.
Taran smiles and indicates the dark waters around them. "Where shall we look for this wreck?" he asks. "Let us hunt these dark bandits down, yes? A deed of itself worthy of a bard's praise."
Liam gestures around incomprehensibly, and mostly gestures toward the Artemis.
Melina asks "how long?"
Dirk says, "I think Liam is saying that he needs to go back to the ship for more drugs."
Taran nods, and waves the others to follow him as he swims upward, for the surface.
Melina follows
Dirk looks like he's dancing as he swims up along side Melina.
Liam follows Taran up to the surface and breaks the surface with a gasp. He pulls real air into his lungs.
Taran gulps air, but the gulping is more reminiscent of a man trying not to throw up. "These eggs are *vile*...and now we must find this wreck."
"Maps," Liam says as he gasps for air. "Does Pascal have survey maps of the area on the Artemis?"
Dirk pops up for air. "You should puke your jelly fish and get it over with. Save the jellyfish let them be free."
RPG: Dirk accepts a Trump call.
Dirk is in a trump call?
Melina follows the other to the surface "I think s o but these waters aren't travelled much from what I understand. Darling don't say puke unless you want some on you
Dirk is distracted and barely remembering to tread water.
Taran nods. "I think so. He has done quite a lot of sailing in these waters."
Dirk is treading water and says "What happened Mae?"
Melina blinks at Dirk "oh hell,what's wrong/'
Liam swims toward the Artemis. Then he stops and says over his shoulder to Taran, "Maybe we can find the shipwreck on the maps instead of swimming around fruitlessly. We have more, uh, fish eggs, if we need them. I know, lovely thought."
Dirk shakes his head. "No, I am just treading water and stuff. Its all good." He sighs "What can I do you for?"
Dirk smiles "And? I am glad you are glad that Mellie and I are working out."
Taran takes a deep breath and swims for the ladder. "I trust to my chosen guide, Liam. You have done excellently. I hope to provide you with many good songs to sing for all this trouble."
Liam climbs up the ladder and gets on the deck of the Artemis. He offers his hand to pull Taran up after him. "I hope we can find the shipwreck quickly."
Taran climbs up...and once up, walks in a slow, dignified manner to the other side of the ship, and is very loudly sick. Over the side.
Liam is then also loudly sick over the side. So much for breathing underwater for now. He's going to need to take down another fish egg. Dammit.
Dirk says, "wow ok"
Taran seems content to lie flat on his back on the deck, once the toad eggs are out of his system. "Maps. Perhaps see if a few of the Knights might want to join in this glorious adventure. Then back down. Yes."
Dirk eventually climbs aboard and looks for the rum.
Liam sits down on the deck cross-legged next to Taran. "We have plenty of fish eggs. Horrible, yes. Effective, yeah. But now it means, what, recovering a treasure from a shipwreck."
Taran nods. "The crown of King Amfortas. The guards say it was stolen by 'dark ones', by the sound of it undead pirates."
Liam says, "Going to need some underwater firepower if you're going to wrest a crown from undead pirates, Taran."
Taran watches the swaying stars overhead. "Such as...?"
Liam pauses while he thinks about this and then says: "Hell if I know. But we can find the shipwreck on the maps."
Taran smiles, breathing deep as the nausea passes. "Aye. For firepower...all I have is my sword. Pascal's staff. Whatever you and Dirk can bring to bear. I shall hope Bercilack or Michael are interested in the call to glory though. To retrieve and restore the crown of a king is no small thing."
"And return it to the Tomb where it can once again be lost by time," Liam says. "But it's a chance to be worthy as a Knight."
Taran smiles. "When there is again a King in Monsalvat, they will be called to retrieve the Crown from Amfortas, I think. Until the new King, though, the Crown belongs with Amfortas."
"Who is buried in the Tomb of Honor and guarded by those guys at the door," Liam says.
Taran nods. "So the next King will have to prove himself worthy. It seems a reasonable arrangement to me?"
Liam asks, "But what if you are the next King?"
Taran just gives Liam a very blank stare. "...It would have to be some quite unequivocal Choosing by the greater Powers of Lyonesse for that to happen without Sir Harold and several of the nobles of Monsalvat challenging my legitimacy," he says. "I was loved there once. Perhaps still. But it is quite certainly the sort of welcome that can be worn out. The shade of the King gave no sign that such was to be my fate. Indeed, the signs thus far I have read as an exile from that land, to seek that which is lost."