Decadents and Dropouts IC

Gryph

The invasion was one that left a bad taste in his mouth and he was on his feet in an instant, remembering to hold on to Phyliss to prevent her from crashing to the deck, his eyes snapped open and his hand raised, a ball of fire flaring up as he commanded it from the energies that dwelled inside of him. His voice was low, like a hissing serpent,

"You are not my better and what you have just did proves just that. You invade my mind like it is your playing field and if you try anything more you will find just how warm hell can be you tentacled fiend."

The rage was held barely in check, one step in the wrong direction and all around them could burn in flames. Gryph's eyes didn't move from the illithid and the ball of fire grew in intensity, going from orange to white.

"My questions was to draw out the truth, you wish to come here cloaked in magic with intentions unbeknown to anybody but yourself. So please before you start placing pretty pictures in my head make sure that I want to see what you have to show."

The thought of bathing the illithid in fire crossed Gryph's mind for a split moment, but instead he snuffed the flame, drawing the energy back into himself.

"Just leave me be for your own sake mindflayer, I will listen to you when I am feeling better."

He gently placed Phyliss down and sat down again.

"If you thought I didn't trust you from the start, just watch out for your own safety, one slight headache and you will be the middle point of a furnace that would make the sun look like a candle."

Trunfor Blackheart

Trunfor had been reading through several books, mainly dealing with the Lower Planes, until he, for the first time ever, grew bored with reading. Setting the book down, Trunfor leaned back and sighed. He began activating some spells that would better fortify his mind, as well as putting up some protective wards.

Trunfor would have to keep an eye on the mindflayer and, should he try to break into Trunfor's mind again, he'd attack. A mental attack was what the mindflayer was doing, just as damaging as a physical attack.

Phyliss Ovida

The grogon dropped on all fours by reflex, although she had no reason to be afraid, her two shields would protect her against dangerous physical injuries., and she doubted that anyone would launch a psychic attack against her. Nevertheless, she kept down for the moment and tried to make out what was going on. It finally escalated after all, her hopes to control the situation shattered. The worst thing was that she stood between them. Gryph was not only a friend but protected her several times without thinking about himself, but Ma'ant had helped her to escape and so saved her life as well. She could not harm either of them. But she knew that no more words of her would reach the half-dragon in behalf of Ma'ant. But he sure wasn't behind all reason...
"You will set the ship on fire." she said, hoping that this would impress him more then asking to spare the mindflayer.

Gryph

He looked at Phyliss and sighed,

"Gorgons can swim like fish, humans can swim, dwarfs can swim, fiends most probably flies away. Half-dragons..."

He chuckled,

"We sink like rocks and no amount of training can let us swim. But I will be damned sure that he will be dead before the ship can even burn enough to go down and I will die with him, knowing that he will not invade any minds anymore."

He shrugged,

"But I am calm now, just no more tricks from his side or I will do as I said and burn him to oblivion."

Ma'ant'Zek'Ur

"Listen to the gorgon, Gryph.", spoke the aberration,"Do not take me for defenseless, half-blood. Should you do, however, pursue such a imaginationless line-of-thought, I would gladly show how formidable I can be."

Ma'ant had settled himself into a defensive position, his long, thin, gloved fingers ready to counterspell anything that Gryph could try to throw him. Of course, one never won a fight by defending alone, and he was ready to intrude the half-dragon's mind once again - in order to debilitate it instead of showing his thrall's thoughts.

Gryph

He looked at the illithid, his eyes narrowing,

"I am seated and relaxed, you are looking like a fool standing in a battle stance. I said talk to me later, when I am feeling better or did your head not come equipped with ears to match that smart brain of yours?"

Sure it was a back handed compliment, but right now any compliment was better than none.

Phyliss Ovida

Phyliss got up. If the others would regard her as captain, she could not act like a frightened chick, and she wasn't even frightened - at least not for herself. But she didn't want to get her friends harmed in a senseless battle, and she didn't want to loose the ship and all the wonderful things on board.
She stood upright, calm and gracefully, and this time she had her voice perfect under control.
"You will better relax. Ma'ant. I know what I owe you, and I am really sorry if anyone here did insult you. I am responsible for all my friends and my crew. I welcome you as a friend, but I don't accept any fighting on board. That goes for everyone here."

Gryph

He smiled briefly,

"Yes boss, no fighting...got it."

He turned his gaze to the Thralls and refused to look at Ma'ant or even think anything, his mind blank, like a calm meditation.

Relic

The argument had heated up again, but for now Relic didn't interfere. Gryph could handle at least a few moments of Ma'ant's probing if it turned dangerous, and Ma'ant had a few weaknesses she could always exploit in a dire circumstance. As did most of those onboard. But as Phyliss regained some control over the situation, Relic returned her focus to the corner in the river up ahead.

There was a spark of light, and it barely caught her eye before they widened and she stood up quick fast. Looking down at those on the deck, she pointed to the front of the cog, where another ship was approaching.

"Incoming!" she shouted loudly, so that everybody on the upper and even the lower decks could hear.

Colin had already began to scamper down from the crowsnest as a fireball impacted the main sail. The cog creaked as the flames quickly engulfed the material, snapping the ropes that held it in place. Soon shreds of burning sail fell to the deck. Relic looked down, before another fireball landed at the base of the mast. The flames licking up with fierce fury. This was not just normal fire, something propelled it, gave it enough life to react harsher than it should.

The ship up ahead was getting closer to the merchant vessel now, beginning to broadside it.

"Prepare for boarding..." she muttered, seeing no obvious way down the mast now that the ropes and ladder were ashes. Quickly she took the few steps needed to walk out along the partially burning sail support before diving overboard and into the waters between the merchant vessel and the cog.

She was a decent swimmer, and as the water engulfed her, she fought the current and swum under the surface before grasping one of the tie ropes that trailed in the water behind Ma'ant's vessel.


Mercenaries - Blood Rules

Word had travelled quickly between port towns, carrier birds had brought news of the fires and the deaths at the docks. And of the cog that was heading towards the ocean, following the current. And of the slowly increasing bounty on the heads of many who sailed with the Gorgon. Zahn had earned himself one for avoiding capture, and Gryph was wanted for setting fire to many of the smaller boats that had been tied to the docks.

The Blood Rules group sailed a small ship, carrying several well tested mages and mostly black powder cannons. Which as the cog's mast was hit, opened fire at the merchant vessels waterline, which blocked the cog from view.

Nevermind...

Phyliss Ovida

Phyliss knew that even a direct hit would not harm her, at first. Her shields against phyiscal impact and fire and the other against magic attacks with physical consequences were durable, but had their limits. If stressed to much by many hits, they would fail. Still, she could always jump into the water or get to the land and melt with the ground. But they were messing up her ship! And her friends were in danger, especially Tronfur. If all atack against her would hit himn instead, as he had said, she wondered if he would survive a hit by a fireball of that size. So she got down and picked up the first crossbow.
"Colin, get me the other crossbow and keep loading while I fire!"
She was quite certain that each shot of her would be a kill, if they had no special magic armor.
"Skandölf, Z, just put out the fire! The others will fight!"

Gryph

He came to his feet, noticing that the fire was not a normal fire, but then again, he was not normal as well. Reaching out he pointed at the flames on deck and with the other hand pointed at the intruders. Arrows shaped out of flames flew at the ship, only to impact against a wall of magic, his attention was drawn to the mages and he looked over at Ma'ant,

"Hey how about that, some food for thought right there on that ship."

He laughed and lowered his hands as the arrows kept flying at the intruders, impacting against the magic shield, but still kept them at bay as the fires started to grow smaller, their energies starting to wan. Gryph stared at the mages and sucked on his fangs, let them try another fire attack, they would deeply regret it. It also became obvious that they needed the mages out of the way to get to the crew. Without thinking, Gryph charged at the vessel, it was larger than their cog and would be a great trade. He jumped onto the merchant vessel and just as the attackers opened fire, he dove. For a second he could feel magic brush against him, but they were not aware of him being half-dragon and their spells didn't influence him. He collided with the side, using his claws he dug into the wood and climbed out over the railing. The first strike from a short sword bounced from his armor and the wielder soon found himself without a weapon with claws digging into his brain.

Gryph eyed the mages, hoping that Trunfor could help, because alone he was not much of a match for them together. He cut down the crew members that got in his way as he slowly made his way towards the mages.

Trunfor Blackheart

Trunfor heard the sounds of battle and got up. Heading to the top deck, he saw another boat attacking. "And this is why a bigger ship is necessary." He mentally accessed his spells, unsheathed his longsword, and boarded the enemy.

One of the crew tried to stop him, but Trunfor hit him on the head with the handle of his sword. A crossbow blot flew towards him him and, raising his hand in the air, the blot turned around, and flew back at the shooter.

Standing still, Trunfor focused on the spellcasters and pointed at them. Suddenly a ring of fire, about 10 ft in diameter, erupted to life around the spellcasters. The fires were 7 feet high and the heat was intense.

Ma'ant'Zek'Ur

The Dragon-blooded really had some sense of humour, after all. Ma'ant quickly arose to the challenge, as his combat stepping suddenly turned from ridiculous to useful, giving him precious moments to fight off those sudden foes.

<'Not my boat, you rascals.'>

Was a mental distress he sent through the minds of all present, a psichic cry strong enough to be heard even by the most well mind-protected creature. And the illithid doubted that any of those pirates would have cared enough to protect their minds. Taking upon his hands to conjurate some of his most used spells, he watched the powerful flamecasting of Tronfur. However, Ma'ant was an Illusionist, not a mere combat-caster.

His thralls were already acting on his bidding, taking upon spears and javelins to harpoon the agressors. Casting a Levitation spell upon himself, he was wise enought to cast Invisibility as well, in order to not call upon the eye of one of those mages. Quickly walking over the air, Ma'ant sped up towards his vessel, taking upon his halberd and aiming for the casters.

A delicious meal indeed.

Gryph

The ring that surrounded the mages did disrupt their spell casting long enough for Gryph to reach them, he stepped through the fire, his magic alive to keep his clothing and hair from burning, the metal of his armor became hot, but his thick skin protected him from harm. One mage turned to him and he skewered him through the stomach with the sword, he grinned at the shocked mage,

"Nope, I'm keeping you alive for somebody else, but you will not cast a thing with your guts cut open."

Another mage raised a hand and Gryph noticed that the color glowing around his other hand was the same as the shield. He swung his sword, lobbing off the mage's hand and for good measure drove the blade into his guts as well. The protective shield fell and suddenly the crew started to go down as Phyliss' crossbow bolts started to find their marks. The remaining three mages turned to face Gryph as he towered over them, the ring of fire preventing any help for them to arrive and the heat forcing them to use their magic to protect themselves.

"What are you?"

It was the older of the three mages, Gryph grinned,

"You should know by now mage, I'm a half breed."

Moments later the mages were on the ground writhing in pain along with their brothers, Gryph could not see the mindflayer, but he could smell him.

"Well then mindflayer, dinner is served,"

He turned and stepped through the ring of fire to join the battle on deck.

Phyliss Ovida

Phyliss aimed well and hit the first mage between his eyes, but the bolt was stopped by a magic shield. She cursed as Colin wasn't here with the second crossbow that was kept underdeck. Meanwhile one of the warriors who was ready to enter her cog caught her eye, and stiffened immediately, turning grey. Before she could look for the next victim for petrification, Colin arrived with the second crossbow and picked up the empty one to reload. Phyliss kept firing as fast as the dwarf could reload. Some of the targets were protected by magic shields, but not all of them. She was good enough to hit below helmets or unprotected bodyparts. Meanwhile Z and Skandölf were fighting the fire.

Relic

The deck of the aggressors boat had quickly become slick with puddles of crimson, and it moved along the smooth surface to the stairs. Dripping down each one slowly, before reaching the bottom. The occasional sound of fighting could still be heard on the under-deck.

Relic had made quick work of one attacker that had caught her climbing on board the merchant vessel, and his body now floated down the river, a slash mark across his throat and a deep puncture wound up into his ribcage. She had only just missed the full force of his blade during his initial attack, and used the second of him trying to pull his sword from the railing she had ducked over to her advantage. She still sported a small cut across her forehead though, and blood seeped down her temple gently. Nothing to worry about.

Her quick glances across the upper deck of the boat had shown that the fight was well and truly one sided, with her 'friends' gaining the most ground. So, like the thief and assassin she was, she had intercepted three men moving up the stairs to reinforce their comrades. Her main goal was the under-decks, to see what loot there was to be found.

With a foot to the face, the first man fell back into the other two and all three collapsed at the bottom of the stairs. And with quick movements she found the soft and fatal spots on each one of them, sinking a dagger in deep before ripping it out to cause a more open wound.

The temple, the exposed side of the neck, and the comfortable place between the breasts to let a dagger momentarily rest. Of course, for the larger man that ran at her with sword raised she found two other spots for her daggers to drink from.

Driving at his feet she sliced the back of his ankles, before jumping up behind him and kicking him in the back. Forcing him to his knees so she could make full use of his throat. But she was denied much time to watch him gurgle on the ground before four more men charged in. Most had been doing other duties, like washing clothing or cooking meals. And it was only the cook that held a weapon.

Each was disposed of before the last body fell up on deck. And it was only the occasional cabin boy or servant that she found huddled among the small rooms or cargo nets. Crouching down in front of a boy dressed mostly in hand mended rags, she looked over him for weapons but could sense and see none.

"Show me to your Masters Cabin...and to his treasures."

The boy didn't seem to want to move, but as Relic moved back to give him room, he slowly uncurled himself and led her through the bodies that littered the floor to the Captains Cabin. But he didn't dare enter.

"He's still in there...he didn't come out during the fight."

Spinning her daggers in hand, Relic pondered on this for a moment before sending the boy away. "Go up on deck, you will not be harmed." And as the boy, feet bathed in blood, ran up the stairs she sent knowledge of his innocence to Ma'ant.

<The boy is not to be harmed...he has been most helpful.>

Taking a vial from her pouch, she opened the door just enough to toss it through before a gunshot punched a hole in the door just beside her shoulder. But soon the room was filled with the sound of coughing, and sure enough a man burst out past her at full speed. Eyes burning red, tears gushing down his cheeks, hands flailing to find safe passage down the hallway. But he quickly found his foot stopped by dead bodies and fell among them.

"Captain of this vessel?" Relic asked, but immediately moved to the side as he fired his pistol at her voice. Instead it smashed a bottle of drink on his desk, as she smoke dissipated quickly. With a quick jump, she pinned his shooting hand to the deck with one foot, and his other shoulder to the ground with her other knee. Crouching over the blind man, she ran her hand through his jacket and helped reduce the weight on him by taking his coins. A large pouch it was too.

With a harsh hit, she knocked him out, before rolling him over and restraining him. The others might want to talk to him later. For now...his cabin was her point of interest once again. Taking his revolvers, she removed his belt as well. Donning them herself, and entered his room. Closing the door behind her.

Quickly she produced several items of value.

Phyliss Ovida

Phyliss was impressed how soon they got that vessel under control. She shouldn't had been surprised by Gryph, as she had seen him on poor Marcus estate. Even without his fierce firemagic, he replaced an army alone. She had been worried after he had been wounded by Haerdon, but there was no reason. Haerdon had just been an outstanding warrior. A shame. But she had to admit she underestimated Tronfur. She had already learned that he was a capable magician, and she realized what a horrifying look he would be for humans, slashing his way through them with a longsword. The mindflayer wasn't to be seen, but she doubted that he wasn't busy. Relic had dissapeared under deck, but she doubted that she was in big trouble. Phyliss had petrified two more men who had tried to get on deck, and spiked others with crossbow-bolts. There was no doubt that the attackers still alive were doomed.

Trunfor Blackheart

Once Trunfor had decided that the situation was secure, he walked back to Phyliss's ship and headed down below-deck, where he had originally been before all of this irritating nonsense had started.

Opening up his spellbook, Trunfor began to clear his mind. Finding peace and comfort had been hard recently. A calm and comfortable environment, with no interruptions, was essential to spellcasters.

Phyliss Ovida

The crew had managed to put the fire out, she would inspect the damage later. There was no more fighting on deck, and the sounds from below had stopped. Phyliss entered the enemy vessel. She was curious of the strange weapons; there had been no firearms in the countries she had fleed from, but she realized that this were not magic, as she first suspected, by an unknown kind of machinery handled by mercenaries, not magicians. She picked up some goldpieces from the dead on deck. She feeled that she had a right to do this, and she could use some spare money anytime, because she could not always ask the others to pay for her. Relic would have picked the money up without any remorse, if she hadn't went below deck before the fight was over. The drow probably suspected the bigger loot down there, and was probably right. Gryph was unharmed, as expected, Tronfur as well and already back on their own boat, but Ma'ant and Relic were not to be seen. The gorgon climbed down below deck to see for herself.

Gryph

Without their mages, the fight did not last much longer, between Trunfor and himself the rest of the crew went down like wheat under a scythe. After everything started to calm down, Gryph went through the soldiers, but none of them wielded a big enough weapon for him to use, at least he had a dagger/short sword of excellent quality and this he kept. Of course axes was to be expected and he took one of the biggest ones, then something caught his eye, there was damage to Ma'ant's vessel, seems like on stray shot from a cannon had hit it just above the water line. Grunting his annoyance at the unfortunate event, he started to search the bodies for anything else that could be useful, he would help the mindflayer with his boat soon enough.

Ma'ant'Zek'Ur

Simply disgusting.

Gryph had butchered most of the spellcasters quickly. Too quickly - he was diving back to the deck just as the Illithid reached the wizards while trying to control his thralls like a puppeteer, careful not to allow many of them to fall in combat - after all, they were expensive to maintain.

<Acknowledged, Relic. You sound like if I was to devour him. Why don't you ask the half-blood of the same?>

But even though he did not liked the last remark of the half-dragon, he knew already that declining it would be... criminous. Sending his thralls to work upon the hole that could spell the end of his vessel and his precious cargo, Ma'ant unmade the invisibily spell that held him beyond vision, and slowly glided above the frightened mages. Mangled. Far too much for him to need his halberd.

Pulling upon the terrified man that seemed to be the older of these wizards, and invaded their minds. Strong willed were them, but their mind defenses had been all but shaterred by Gryph's actions over their frail bodies. Casting images of hopelessness into their minds, there was little resistance that the horrified creatures could put up against his dread visage, his mental rape casting them into madness.

His tentacles wrapped around the man's head while kindly taking his hood away. As if into a delicate, exotic ritual, Ma'ant's tentacles slid down the man's face, grabbing against his head with ease, holding against his head tight - as his teeth worked quickly to bore into his skull.

"Doom comes."

A single cry of both pain and nameless terror echoed above the silent vessels as Ma'ant suckled and devoured the poor creature's brain. Too mangled to become a thrall. Too savoury to become one.

Discarding the carcass away with disregard, he moved towards the next one.

Gryph

The cry drew his attention and he turned to look at the mindflayer at work, he grinned. At least they got what they deserved and he probably saved his own skull for now. He turned back to the task of looting the bodies, stripping them down and tossing the bodies aside, to be sorted out later.

Ma'ant'Zek'Ur

Turning purposefully in order to meet Gryph's gaze, and show him his grisly work, Ma'ant'Zek'Ur's facial expression was something one could only describe as a grin, if a illithid could grin. Raising tall above the boat, he nodded towards the half-dragon, before running through the carcasses' bodies, taking whatever magical ingredients they had - and with an expression of delight, he had found a wand between the older man's robes. Useful. Perhaps he should offer it back to Gryph, or even Tronfur in order to avoid his bad graces.

Phyliss Ovida

Phyliss moved down on deck where she found a man lying on the floor. It was the captain, no doubt, as she could see from his outfit. He was not dead, maybe she would question him later. Phyliss moved silently to the cabin and saw Relic in there searching the room, just how she expected. The gorgon bowed down to the captain and started to examine the strange object in his hand, that reminded of a pipe, but was a weapon of some kind.

Trunfor Blackheart

Trunfor sighed as he turned a page in his book. Glancing at the Wall of Force spell, Trunfor began to wonder where he could find some more spells that he could copy down into his spellbooks. He had three spellbooks, all of which were nearly full. Buying another would be costly, but worth it in the long run. Using other wizard's spellbooks wasn't always the best decision, due to the unpredictability and difficulty of deciphering the runes.