The Windward Isles - Game Thread

Kairouni Athletics- 6

Kairouni is in pain and her wounds ache but that does not stop her from rowing...even if not overly effectively...

Seri is in her element, swimming alongside the canoe (30' swim speed plus water-breathing) and casting Shape Water to ease herself and the vessel along with friendly currents. Almost exultant, she reaches out for Trondro's' guidance and looks up at the stars to get her bearings and keep a steady course.

Seri's Survival (plus Guidance if she has time):  24 + 3 = 27 (or 24 if without Guidance).

[Tooltip Not Found] check: 3 (I dumped strength, so don't expect me to be good at this. I'm good at all the other skills, just not this one)

Thea tries to push through. She's hot, sweaty, tired, and all she really wants is to sleep in a real bed. Even though she left her noble life behind, she still aches for its creature comforts. No she thinks to herself I can't show weakness in front of them, especially Billy and William. I am a strong, independent woman. I can do this! 

With that, she begins to row harder.

OOC: That's my athletics check at the top of my post, I just messed up the tooltip accidentaly.

As Thea pushes herself harder, she finds the rythm of the strokes at least somewhat, and her pride grows. At least she isn't doing as bad as Kai is. Someone needs to get her to a doctor.

William silently put in the work on moving the canoe forward. He occasionally glanced at Kairouani. She was straining herself on top of being wounded. Were it not for her pride and the cramped space of the canoe William would move to treat and bandage her wounds.

'Kairaouni.' He said. He did not elaborate further: his glance at the gashes in her flesh and his tone of voice carried the implied request.

Athletics check: 21

Kairouni met Williams eye and mostly feathered her paddle, though she still rowed she did not pull against the resistance of the water, lessening the bleeding and muscle-strain, her eyes flicked across to the other canoe to see if any were watching before she decided her next move....

Billy's extended incarceration on his island does not seem to have had much adverse effect on his strength. With Thea and William both pulling the paddles through the water with powerful strokes, Billy is balancing them out on the opposite side with his long limbs. He does not seem to have noticed Kairouani behind him struggling to apply much pressure. The other canoe is ahead, its wake sparkling in the moonlight. The occupants are bent to their work, all in perfect unison. Their backs are to you in your canoe. The only one who is paying attention in your direction is Smiler, who turns occasionally to check the distance between the two vessels. Seeing that you are keeping up, he turns back to his work, content. It is hard to see his expression over the distance between you, but it seems the wide grin for which you have all mentally named him is not present. His anxiety over leaving Maheri behind was plain to see before you left the beach.

The clear night enables Seri to estimate your position roughly in relation to waters with which she is more familiar. The stars seem to suddenly make sense, to draw her a picture. It is the same picture that she is used to, but offset. She would have to use her navigational instruments to determine how far north and east you are from where you originally set out on the Horn of Plenty, but this sudden clarity brings her some peace.

As the night progresses, Thea gets used to the patterin of rowing. Move, pull, move. Over and over. Her thoughts drift elsewhere. A sample would include: I'm going to get so drunk when I get back to civilisation. Wait... and she remembers the bottle of rum in her pack. She pulls it out, and downs the last little bit, wiping her lips with a contented sigh as the familiar burn of the liquid runs down her throat. She looks over at the other party members.

Now, a sober Thea would probably have guessed the mood, but despite all her boasts, she actually has a very low alchohol tolerance. Combined with the fact she is a small person, makes it so that the gets intoxicated easily. She is only slightly buzzed, but it's just enough to ignore this silent and unspoken social que "So..." she says to William, beginning to row again "What's the first thing you're going to do when you get back to..." Home isn't the right word, and civilization sounds too stuff. She instead lands on.. "A town?"

William pondered Thea's question for a moment before answering.

'A wash and some fresh clothes are on the top of the list.' He replied. 'Followed by hearing about how much of captain Thorne's last voyage reached shore. After that, who knows?'

He looked at the other people in the boats. 'Reckon I might go looking for a new crew to join. Or...' He tallied everything and everyone in the boats in his mind. 'We've got the beginnings of a crew here ourselves. We could strike out on our own with a small ship and-'

He shelved the idea to the back of his mind and picked up the pace with his oar. 'But probably a stiff drink first and a soft bed second in between all of that. How about you?' He said.

"I am going to get so intoxicated I expect you all will have to drag me back to the ship." She realizes what she says and hastily continues "If we do get a ship of our own, of course. I do like that idea though."

"After I get drunker than an alcoholic in a rum cellar, I'll probably take a nice long bath. Like, an hour or two. That'll feel nice. Then, I'll go to bed, wake up and continue living my life."

"Do you really think we'd all stick together after this? I mean, I think it would be nice, considering all we've been through, but Seri has to go back to her temple eventually, and Kai...well, I don't really know what Kai will do"

Her companions words pass over her like sea foam rolling above a dolphin's back.  Seri is at peace, gliding through the water, until...

"B-back to the temple??"  At Thea's mention of this, for the first time since the shipwreck, Seri seems truly uncertain of herself.  An anxious adolescent.

"No, I-... Please let me stay with you."

Thea looks surprised at Seri's not wanting to go back to her temple. For all her pratting on about how bad her home life was, Thea secretly wishes she could have a stable life where she didn't need to worry how she was going to eat that week. She thought that Seri would enjoy the safety, but then again. 

what if she's like I was before I left home? she thinks What if she feels trapped by the temple? I mean, I don't blame her. I always found organized religion stuffy and boring...right, gotta stay on track. she pauses, thinking long and hard about what this means If she feels trapped like I did, what better way to fix that than help her break free of the temple! Yes, that's what I'll do. I'll help her loosen up and convince her to...to...something! I don't know what, but I know I CAN help her.

Thea looks down at Seri's lithe from as it glides through the water, and replies "Of course you can stay with us. We can sail around, having adventures! Maybe hunt some slavers too! Right, William?"

Kairouni begins to slump and almost loses grip on her paddle....she hears Theas words and Seris and smiles at the thought of hunting slavers....she notes Seri's desire not to return to her place but knows that the whims and decisions of the Wise are not for her to question......

Her head begins to drop with fatigue and blood loss....

William pondered the possibilities. He had been part of one crew or another for as long as he had been out on the seas but to strike out on his own, be his own mind. He had to admit: the sound of it did ring pleasant to his ears.

'It's a bit presumptuous to say,' he began, 'but we could certainly look into the possibility. Would mean getting a ship first: that's paramount. I don't think we'll be able to get a big or good one or-'

William stopped mid-sentence. Kairouani was pale in the face and her head dropped. He pulled in the oar and moved over best he could in the cramped canoe. 'How far are we from land, Seri?' He yelled at the sea elf as he examined Kai and applied bandages where needed.

Seri looks almost absurdly grateful when Thea responds that she can stay with them.

The blasphemous, yet self-evident thought advances to the forefront of her mind.  Trondro is HERE in the waves and horizon, not within the temple walls.

She loses track of some of the intervening conversation but does note William's concerned look at Kairouani, who seems to be faltering.

"Elder Sister," she murmurs and prays briefly for Trondro's guidance to help her heal the Igneri huntress without drawing notice.

Seri's Stealth plus Guidance:  22 + 1 = 23

The sea elf emerges in the water on the opposite side of the canoe, concealed from Smiler and the islanders on the other boat.  Touching Kairouani's skin lightly with her outstretched hand, Seri submerges just beneath the waves to call quietly on the sea's restorative waters to heal her companion.

Cure Wounds:  Kairouani heals 5 (min) hp.  (Because Seri is attempting to hide the casting, perhaps the spell is not quite as effective as usual).

Only then does she remember that William had asked her a question.  She attempts to answer him as best she can as to how far their destination likely is.  Or for that matter, how far the nearest land is.  If she does not know, she asks Smiler in the other canoe, without providing a reason for her question.

(Hoping Seri's strong Survival check above still holds and she can navigate using the stars above, though slightly shifted).

Kairouni bolsters greatly, looking down with a slight smile to Seris face at water level, her wounds have not closed but they no longer bleed freely and her muscles do not ache as much...she redoubles her efforts at rowing with a grin.

Despite knowing it is the best for Kairouani, William could not help but feel a twinge of envy when he saw her wounds magically stop bleeding despite his best, in the current situation, efforts. Still, the wounds might have stopped bleeding but they were still exposed so he dutifully wrapped them up with bandages. An infection or splashes of seawater on an open wound should be avoided at all cost until Kairouani had proper time to heal.

The woman, having found her strength again, grabbed her oar and began rowing. After one final cursory look-over William moved back to his spot and took up his oar as well. Can't have the girls do all the work. He thought to himself with a wry smile.

Although Seri is able to ascertain from the stars that your position is now several miles north and east from where the Horn of Plenty wrecked, and you are still heading almost due north, you have no way to know where the nearest land is. 

The sea elf surges through the water like the aquatic native she is, with a sinuous power that doesn't match her slight frame. Smiler gives a start as she appears suddenly below the gunwale of his boat. His head swivels back and forth a few times as he mentally calculates the distance between the canoes and how fast Seri must have swum to catch up. 

"Sister!" he says, his eyebrows making a valiant attempt to meet his hairline. "You... how...? Trondo has surely blessed you. You swim like a Sabatra." His comparison is to the sleek, sharp-nosed fish known for being the fastest swimmer in Trondo's great domain.

Listening to your question, he replies, "By dawn we will be home." He looks worried again. "I cannot say what reception we will receive. Maheri has supporters there. It may be as your long friend spoke. Without his presence they may not have the courage to act. We must seek Trondro's guidance."

This is the most you have heard Smiler talk since you met him by the river in the jungle. Perhaps it is Maheri's absence that has freed his tongue, or maybe it is the anxiety causing the words to tumble out. He looks at the rhythmically shifting backs of the young men paddling the canoe, and then turns back to Seri, talking in a low voice. "I worry for these boys. They are known to be Maheri's, so the village may turn against them. Yet they have forsaken him, so Maheri's other supporters may also turn against them."

Back in the other canoe, Billy turns his head slightly as he continues with his long, fluid strokes. The familiar grin is present on his face. "I'll gladly join you in a drink, miss. You're a rum bunch, no mistake. I can't fault your spunk though. I've seen grizzled sailors less tough than you lot. I have a feeling that, between us, we could acquire a ship with a bit of guile and nerve, what do you say?"

Kairouani continued paddling, she made eye contact with each of her companions acknowledging their support and assistance......she should be worried about what the future may bring but for now she was happy and at peace....

Seri blushes despite herself at Smiler's comparison of her to one of the noblest aquatic denizens.  The distant memory, long-suppressed comes unbidden.  From a time years before she awoke beached upon the shore of the outermost Olona island like sea foam on a spring tide's ebb.

I swam with the Sabatra once.  More than one.  Below the waves. We had a different name for them.  The elven name, more a poetic phrase, for the magnificent fish glimmers in her fragmented memory.  There were more than one of us too, back then.  Us sea elves.  My mother and father, they...

Shaking herself from her reverie, Seri attempts to consider Smiler's concerns.  She is aware of how young she is, not in the turning of the seasons, for she has always aged more slowly than others, but in maturity.  Not even an adult yet, truly.  She had been so focused on ending Maheri's wrongdoing, slavery being an affront to Trondro's open horizons, that she had not considered what would be next for Smiler and his companions.

"I... yes, we shall seek Trondro's wisdom.  I know not the ways of your tribe, Elder Brother. It troubles me how Maheri has driven such a rift between them.  I have no doubt that my shipmates will defend themselves and... whether or not Trondro wills it, they may take it upon themselves to seize one of the ships of the eastern slave-traders who Maheri dealt with, for they too, though they do not knowingly follow Trondro, still abhor slavery as I do."

An idea comes upon her.  An emotional impulse.  Seri wonders if she is just giving in to a childish flight of fancy, and whether she should consult with the others first.  Nevertheless, she plows ahead before she can second guess herself.

"The young men.  The rowers who have left Maheri.  If neither faction in your tribe will accept them, not those who back Maheri, nor those who oppose him.  Perhaps they could... come with us if we are able to seize a ship of our own?  To sail far upon Trondro's waters with as our shipmates.  To see the wider world.  I have been blessed to experience such freedom of the horizons upon more than one ship.  Perhaps they too might like the chance..."