Kyne's breath catches in his throat as the Melusina comes to a halt, looming menacingly over them. The elf throws a glance at Ryn, even as he holds Keitos captive. The meaning is clear.

Say something.

Ryn's eyes are fixed on the creature. Between horrified and hopeful she takes a step forward and calls to her.

"Atl'brraarnnaahh " the voice came out a little more fractured that they had expected but all things considered, she is not doing so bad. They don't understand a word that she is saying.  " Atl'brraarnnaahh iiihhh neeeh Rhhyeennnbrreeeh " 

The creature turns the head towards her, very slowly. Ryn gasps when the black eyes fix on her. 

"Atl'brraarnnaahh hheeebrriiith, bhiillthre... " 

Suddenly the melusina moves her arm and a tentacle made of water comes down from the limit of the bubble and hits Ryn, sending her flying away towards the opposite side of the cargo hold. Surprised, she gasps and tries to stand. 

The melusina turns her attention back to the Captain and Kyne. She hisses and let herself coming down into the air filled cargo hold. She keeps herself near the water, floating in mid air as she was floating in the water, but when she cames out of the water, a profound transformation takes place. 

In the blink of an eye, as if the horrid form is left behind and she cames out of a crisalid, there is a beatiful woman floating over them. Long, black hair, frame her esculpted body of dark, onsidian skin. Her deep green eyes fixed on Kyne. Her melodic voice calls for him. No doubt why the Captain fell over her charm. 

" Long has my heart had asked for this. Now you bring it to me. Give him to me elf... you want to give him to me... " 

The sheer force of the melusina's presence washes over Kyne, smashing his lesser will aside like a slice of lemon wrapped round a large gold brick.

"...yes... ...of course..." he responds breathily, as though locked in some kind of trance. "Anything you desire..."

Grasping Keitos by the collar, Kyne takes the captain and begins to march him towards the stunning woman.

"Oh Kyne, try to hold your mind better. Hey! Get out of his head!"

Seb'riel slams her staff into the ground, her eyes turn white as she channels its power. She mumbles, words of power, raising the volume to a high pitched wail. She turns the staff, stirring the weave to her will. Despite being underwater, clouds form at the top of the hold, there is a crack and rumble as the cloud opens and throws balls of hail down forcefully at the woman and blocking Kyne from bringing the captain forwards. 

     Hurosk dives to the corner of the cargo hold as a spheres of ice rain down near the entrance. "Well, I guess we're done talkin' here," he says coming up out of his roll with an arrow already nocked in his newly acquired longbow. He releases the missile and it sinks in deep between two ribs - or at least where the hunter hopes the ribs to be in this monster. He smiles as she shrieks in pain and quickly fires off another shot which lodges into her shoulder. "I didn't think you were being serious about giving up the captain?!" he shouts to Kyne.

Seb quickly follows up her icy storm with an assault on the mind of the creature. She closes her eyes, searching for the strings of the weave threading into the creature's brain, tugging sharply she feels the creature wrestle back, struggling free of her grip. Gritting her teeth in frustration she backs up, looking through her head for a more potent option.

"Stop!" Kyne shouts out at his friends, clearly in distress about them hurting the beautiful melusina. A breath of wind swirls instinctively about the elf's feet and slowly he rides into the air between the monster and her attackers, holding out one hand in each direction.

The beautiful woman looks at Hurosk with an imnense pain adn sadness in her astonishing eyes.

"Why...." she cries to him "why do you do this to me? I only wish to be your friend as Kyne is... can't you see I am defenless? That it's me who has been wronged? Help me I implore you..." 

For a moment, the half-orc feels so fill of guilty and sadness for his sudden attack that he starts to lower his bow, but then a part of his mind remember the mounstrosity that she really is and, shaking his head, he yells

"Get.... out... of... my... head!!!" 

The melusina shrieks and tries to retreat into the water again but Ryn jumps towards her, a jump that should be impossible, and grabs her, impeding her movement. The melusina screams and from the tip of her nails grows some claws and she carves deep wounds into her former sister's back, but Ryn endures. Crying, she calls for her in her strange tongue, but her pleas fall into deafen eyes. 

They both struggle mid-air for a few seconds and the melusina finally pushes Ryn away using her both legs. Ryn hits the wooden wall of the hull, and the creature falls from the air into the farther corner of the hull. 

Lyreis runs towards Ryn, to help her stand, his deadly double scimitar ready in his hand.

Captain Keitos stands and looks at her. He walks towards her, trying not to slip in the ice and hail that remains from Seb's spell. He doesn't grabs his weapon, still, he opens his arms wide and says with a tender voice.

"Atlanna... my dear, my love... forgive me. I was wrong. I never wanted to cause you pain... please... forgive me. Forgive them..." 

She hisses at him at first, but he takes another bold step. She recoils, crunching as a cornered cat, her eyes two bright coals admist her polished black skin. The claws screetch against the wood. 

Moltaris doesn't know if the words of the captain are reaching her or she is just getting ready to attack him. 

"Let the elf go, you *****," Moltaris snarls as she steps forward and releases a blast of radiant energy from the sigil on her shield that crackles into the melusina.

"No" yells Ryn when the radiant ray of magic coming from Moltaris hits the melusina and sends her on her back. Burned, and seriously wounded, the creature is incapable of keeping her appearance, and what stands again, slowly, is the mounstruosity that the saw floating above their heads before. 

If the captain's words were reaching her, that moment has passed for she jumps forwards, screaming, her claws extended, all her pain and grief focused in a long screech, she tires to tear apart the heart of the man that broke hers. 

The captain yells when the claws tear  his flesh and the blood drops from his wounds but Hurosk hasn't stopped his movement yet and another arrow pierces the melusina's chest, deeply into his heart. 

The creature recoils in pain, drops to the ground, reverting to her original form, a beautiful sea creature. 

Ryn runs towards her and holds her close to her, crying. Captain Keitos crawls over too. 

A dying Atlanna whispers to her sister.

" I.. am sorry sis... I didn't... I couldn't...  " she coughs " ... recognize you.. but.. but you have come... " 

"Shhh it's ok Atlanna... it's ok... " 

Captain Keitos takes her hand

"I am sorry my love I.. I was a fool I.." 

Atlanna puts a finger on his mouth

"Shhh... You are a fool but I... I... I loved you..." 

Atlanna eyes closes and she dies on her sister arms. 

Seb'riel claps her hands once, loudly. Not reading the room at all she speaks, "Well that was... interesting. Now, how do we get out of here?"

Kyne's face pales as he slowly drifts back to the wooden floor of the ship's hold. Slowly, he steps closer to where Ryn sits with Atlanna in her arms, and kneels besides the mermaid.

"I'm sorry," he tells her quietly. "I wish this could have ended differently. I wouldn't wish such loss on anyone."

     Hurosk grins as his shot finds its mark in the creature's chest and she hits the ground with a thud. He hangs in the corner to allow the others as much space as possible in the confined cargo hold. He leans against the wall with the top of his bow resting on the toe of his boot. He watches Ryn, hoping she won't lash out against him in her grief. 

Moltaris walks up and kneels on the other side of Ryn. While Kyne talks to the forlorn mercreature, the kalashtar cleric pulls out a small knife and cuts off a lock of Atlanna's hair.

Ryn cries softly for ra few minutes while the party ponders their options. When they start to talk about how to come back to the surface Ryn finally leaves her dead sister head and walks towards them to the other side of the cargo hold.

"I... I want to thank  you. I thouhgt it could have been possible to save her, to bring her back, but she.. " she shivers from all the emotions "... she... she attacked me... I... " she closes her eyes and tries to recompose herself. " In any case I think I know how my sister brought us here, I could try to do the same now that she has no control over the waters around us. Unless.. Un less you had any better idea... " 

Kyne rises and returns Ryn a solemn nod of affirmation.

     Hurosk straightens up and clears his throat. "Umm... Yeah, I know I got nothing that can bring us back to the top," he says scratching the back of his head. He casually wanders over to the body to get a closer look at the now-beautiful looking woman. He's glad that he was able to provide some measure of relief from the hideous monster that she had become. 

"I have no ideas that don't involve getting us rather wet, and maybe drowning on the way. So if you can raise us up that would probably be much better." Seb'riel nods.

Ryn nods and takes a few steps back, just under the apertur of the cargo hold. She extends her arms and jumps and she transforms into a creature similar to the melusina, but instead of a horrifying visage she is beautiful and full of grace. She flies up and go out to the water, swimming with grace and dissapearing from the sigth of the party. 

Then they all can hear a beautiful voice singing outside. Its a sad, melancholic melody, but it's beautiful and they feel how sadness fill their hearts. 

Suddenly they feel a rumble and the entire ship starts to shake. The feel how the ship starts to go up, instead of the violent, fast sinking they suffered before it is now a gentle lifting until the ship breaks the surface and refloats. 

They walk up to the deck again and it's relieving to feel the air again. 

The sun is rising and the thick fog seems to have dissappear. The sea is calm and the cold morning breeze makes them shiver. The ship then starts a slow turning and the water guids them back towards their own ship. 

After half an hour of travesy Ryn emerges again from the water, her red, beautiful wings and powerful tail shimmering with water as if it was covered by small pearls. 

She lands on the deck, turning again into the attractive young woman she is and speaks to them. 

"We are close to the rest. I am afraid that my sister had enlisted some other creatures and oredered them to attack your ship and friends. They have survived, but there are some casualities and the ship is beyond saving. We will be there in time don't you worry."

With that the ship gains speed and they soon see the Old Star heavily damaged. One of its mast lay broken over one side and the sail is on the water. The ship is heavily scored to that side and is clearly sinking. Many men are already in the water, hanging to pieces of wood but most of the crew, Mathilda included, are still on the ship. You can see that there are men wounded. 

The cook, the half-orc Kruosk, is apparently making a good job keeping the crew for falling in total chaos. The first officer, the man named Senth, is lying on the deck, dead or uncousncious. 

Floating near the doomed ship there are some bodies. Some of the saliros but most of them belongs to a race none of them had seen before. Some kind of gortesque humanoids with fish features. 

It seems that the Old Star's crew had sell their lives and ship at a high price.

Kyne grimaces at the sight. It had been their intent to protect the ship, not to leave it to such a fate.

"Come on," he grunts at the captain, dragging him up to the bow to wave to those aboard the star and show them that the elf and his friends have at least succeeded in saving the crew's leader.