Forums » Fantasy Roleplay » Promises of gold, bad luck and more gold (1x1)

"Just don' tell 'em anythin'. Fer as far as anyone knows 'n cares, ya didn' even get close to the cap'n's quarters. Should a mutiny happen, though, just try 'n hide somewhere. These things get rowdy." The captain laughed before Norin closed the door.

And just as the door closes, a voice spoke."Oh, so that's the gist of it, huh?" From behind a stack of crates came Ambras."This whole rumor started because no one dared ask where Bender was? Do people find Norin and Hooke really that frightening? Idiots." The Drow spoke as he leaned against the crates."So Bender wants a mutiny, huh? He might be getting more than he bargained for."

Stevie grinned. "Will do! I'll try to be sneaky getting out," she said. With that, she thought of what this mutiny may contain and slipped out. She jumped, visibly startled, when Ambras spoke. Her gasp had faded into short, shallow breaths and she forced herself to calm down. "Dammit, Drow, you scared me!" she whispered.

She glanced around to make sure no one was near and approached Ambras. "Don't say anythin' though, okay? C'mon, let's go eat. You probably eavesdropped that whole time anyway."

Whether the Drow came with her or not, she began her journey down to the tables where she'd find a seat and hopefully get to eat. She was hungry, especially after being accidentally frightened.

Ambras seemed amused by her fright."Lass, if you didn't want me to eavesdrop, you shouldn't be telling me your plans. If I were Rat, I'd be telling everyone on the ship of what Bender wants, and bloody hell, he'll get more than he bargained for if I did."

The Drow did follow her down, but he quickly grabbed a bowl of pork and went away again. No one seemed to have missed Stevie at the table, well, except for Bugface of course.

The next few days would be quite stressful. There were whispers everywhere on deck, but nothing seemed to lead out to any open revolt. Could Ambras have told, perhaps? Whatever the case, a week later, during breakfast, a sudden sound of the violin was heard.

When everyone looked, they could see Bender Of Iron Will, sitting on the top of the stairs, fiddling away with his newly attached arm. The melody he played was a cheerful one, and everyone in the room either cheered, spontaneously sang along to the tune or stared at Bender with disbelief."Next time ya salty dogs think yer captain's dead, just go 'n ask. Bunch 'o idiots." He murmured as he searched his way to Stevie."Lass, I need yer help."

Stevie simply grinned that nervous grin, knowing full and well that Ambras was right. Rat would've told the world. She was glad he simply wanted to know for himself and decided to keep it to himself. She liked him for how introverted he seemed to be when it comes to things like that.

Stevie would've sat with Bugface and made up some excuse about how her stomach was hurting her and she had to sit on a toilet for a while. It was a believable excuse at least, albeit a bit gross.

Despite falling into this routine very well, Stevie was not a morning person, especially on a ship (that was mainly because the rocking made her want to go back to sleep even more than she would on land). The violin did rouse her a little bit, and she looked up to see Bender playing a violin. Truth be told, it was reassuring that the crew went about business as usual despite Bender supposedly being dead. If something were to happen to him, the group wouldn't likely screw each other over. Or, well, she hoped. Maybe Ambras did tell them that he was still alive, but spoke nothing of the whole mutiny bit? She didn't know.

When the old man approached her, she looked around momentarily, glancing at the individuals she knew were likely more qualified to help, but soon returned her gaze on him. "What's wrong? What do you need? Should we relocate or...?" Didn't know if he wanted to just blab about whatever it was at the table.

"Just come along, lass." Bender spoke before her rambling would go on."Yer not in trouble, if that's what yer worried 'bout."

The captain led Stevie back to his quarters. The hairs of his freshly shaven face were still scattered over a nearby chest. Real clean, Bender. The important part was on his study, though. It was impossible to think this map was once parted in different fragments.

The magic clay had taken a 3D shape of a globe-formed object. There were strange marks and shapes covering the brown mess. Yet once Bender came close to it, the marks started to shine blue."I don' get it. I simply don' get it. I like ta think o' meself as a smart fella. But not even Norin, Hooke 'r Fantasm know what this is. Can ya poke 'round on it a lil'? Maybe yer lucky."

Should Stevie touch the globe, it would change shape entirely into something different. It would look like a cactus with thick spikes. Upon touching it again, it would change again, in the shape of a triangle. At this point, she would hear a voice she hasn't heard for a while now.

"These fools have no idea how these ancient maps work. Try removing a piece, Stevie. The top bit and the bottom bit, perhaps. It should be obvious then."

Yeah, concern she did something wrong was evident, but she'd still listen if that was the case. It didn't seem to be so, though, as he reassured her of such. Following him into his quarters, she took note of the shavings and rolled her eyes. She couldn't say much about it though - she was quite the stinky one before she followed Bender around. In the Inns and such she allowed herself to bathe, but being some little street rat, she didn't get that chance too often.

Now she laid her eyes upon the map, which she never imagined would look the way it did.

Each time she'd touch it, she was greeted with a new reaction. It was magic? Although she disliked magic (or rather, didn't trust it), this was pretty entertaining! She cut her poking and prodding around short when she heard Sar's voice. Instinctively, she pat the area where she kept the gem and glanced at the map once more. She almost spoke aloud to it, almost asked, "Are you sure?" But kept it in her head.

She took off the top part, soon followed by the bottom, holding both pieces within her hands. At first, she gawked at those fragments before finally turning her attention back to the globe.

Stevie felt bad she almost forgot Sar was still with her. She didn't know she could stay sentient this long! She thought she'd sleep, basically.

"Please, do not question me, friend. I'm not speaking to you to feed you false truths. I'm glad to speak at all. It took me longer than I thought to channel the soul from my body all the way back to this crystal. Not to worry, though. I won't plague you like a voice in your head. I will simply offer advise when needed." Sar spoke in a gentle voice.

Upon the removal of the top and bottom bits, the map seemed to twist inside-out. Upon this, the map shows an island with a large lonely peak, surrounded by thick jungle. They clay also showed figures and huts. The figures even seemed to move. As the map expanded more, it cut the mountain in half, as well as showing nearby lands. Inside it look like little clay pebbles filled the mountain, but with a little imagination, this was gold.

Bender looked amazed."Lass! Ya did it! I knew bringin' ya along was a good idea! I know these isles! Ya just got each 'n everyone o' us rich!" He laughed as he grabbed the Halfling in his mechanical arm and gave her a quick hug. How unlike him!

Quickly after releasing her, he went back down to the mess hall and shouted so loud Stevie could hear it top deck."Get yer breakfast in golden cups, lads 'n lasses! We've got our location! Get off o' er lazy arses 'n get movin'! We got us some gold to reap!!"

Never before did a crew in the history of sailing worked so hard on an empty stumach.

Stevie smiled when she heard Sar's voice again, this time responding to her own mental question. You can still talk if you get bored. I know it's you and it isn't like yer tellin' me to do dangerous things like jump off a cliff or anythin' Stevie thought.

The Halfling felt bad for taking the credit, but she was trying to keep Sar a secret. Still, her eyes were fixated on that map as it moved. "Wow!" she chirped, reaching for the map to touch but deciding not to. Her gawking was cut short when she found herself above the ship's floor and tucked between that metal arm and his torso. She would have hugged back had she expected the hug!

When released, she took a moment to gather herself before watching Bender leave to yell at the rest. She should probably run off, too, now that she thought about it. Suddenly, the excitement caught up with her. They knew where treasure was! Treasure that'd make them all absolutely rich!

Lots of shinies and gold things and sparkles and -- Oh, the Halfling could faint. Shiny and sparkly were some of her favorite qualities about anything.

"Oh, such a sweet child. I will be too busy reviving myself to be bored. Don't worry about me. Worry more over the earthly possessions you're about to acquire."

The rest of the days, the crew worked tirelessly to get to this mysterious jungle island. It was obvious the pirates were getting giddy as they even avoided merchant ships who'm were so easy to plunder. Once they had their prize, there'd be no more need for plundering. They'd all go on an early retirement!

The trip took long, though. Very long. Almost a month to be exact. And in that month tensions got high. People started distrusting each other over who'm would get the largest share. No matter how much Bender assured them if everyone did their part, everyone would get a fair share, recruits and experienced pirates alike were getting distrusting towards one another. It got so bad that Bender actually wanted Stevie, along with Norin, Fantasm and Hooke to stay in his quarters during the night. Some sailors actually died on certain days.

Of course, when a sailor died, that was when Bender had the most fun finding out who was the murderer, just to torture the crook publicly. Flaying a man alive, keelhauling and burning alive were punishments for murder, and they helped keep the peace. Only the most depraved would continue on killing, but eventually they got caught as well. Surprisingly, Rat wasn't one of the murderers. In fact, he was the one who told Bender who the possible murderers were. And because of that, Rat was from now on known as the Whisperer. Finally he had a new name.

After that month, though, they reached the island. The lonely peak was proof of this."We're here!" Ambras cried out from the crow's nest."Land ahoy, Cap'n! Land ahoy!"

Although Stevie expected it to take some time, she didn't know how long it would take. On one hand, she was hoping to be there in about a week, but on the other, she was worried it'd take several months! Then again, Bender seemed to know where the island in question was, so maybe that time would be cut short?

The murders disheartened the Halfling quite a bit. When the culprits were found, she'd never watch their punishments. Although she was beginning to feel like they were appropriate, she just had a weak stomach and felt cruel watching them. Her mind was just being conditioned to be alright with all this, so it would take some time.

Staying in the Captain's Quarters wasn't nearly as nice as she thought it to be, but only because of the circumstances that brought her there.

Eventually, she wouldn't have to worry about it. Ambras' long-awaited words rang through the air and she immediately fled to the side of the ship, climbing atop a crate and peering over the edge.

There it was, approaching steadily.

Bender looked as relieved as Stevie did when he heard those sweet sweet words."Hooke, get us in close! I'll take a bunch o' folks with me with the right attitude fer possibly lethal explorin'." Bender spoke to the Orc, who nodded and bellowed commands for the sails to be completely open.

Soon the ship would be as close as possible to the beach. In the meantime, every sailor would be on the deck, waiting for Bender to pick them on this expedition for glory. No doubt most of them had no idea what perils might await them. Bender took this in account as he looked at his crew.

"Most o' ya salty dogs will just be picked fer makin' camp. Could be we're goin' ta be 'ere a while. The rest o' ya who don' get picked, don't ya worry. I still need me crew ta get me riches back home, so ye'll get a fair share. Considerin' yer not takin' away me ship."

Bender picked a few of the new sailors for camp duty. Then came the ones who'd actually go on an expedition."Next o' ya lot're the ones who're lucky 'nough that I trust well 'nough ta die fer me in the jungle. Miranda. Jack. Hooke. Ambras. Lil' Timmy. Bugface. Solst. Fantasm & Whisperer. Ye'll be part o' me explorin' crew. Norin, Red, I need ya both ta keep the peace 'round these others. I'd like me ship intact fer the trip home."

Those picked nodded and made their way for the boats. Just about as it would seem Bender didn't pick Stevie to come along, he whistled loudly."Stevie, grab a cannister 'r somethin'. Yer commin' along, whether ya want ta or ya don'." The old man laughed as if picking her last was a hilarious joke.

Soon the many rowing boats would reach the beach, and the camp crew was working tirelessly. Bender had the map written on a piece of parchment, since clay was hard to carry around. The entire crew stayed close to Bender. He was the man with the map, after all.

Stevie stood there hoping she'd get picked. She didn't want to die, but she also didn't want to just stay here and not get to explore the jungle with the rest of them. Even Whisperer got picked! She frowned when she was not mentioned, and even looked down, disappointed. SADNESS CAKE.

Just as she was about to turn on her heel and retreat somewhere to work on something, she heard that whistle followed by her name. Perking up, she heard what he said, and instantly flew to grab what he wanted and ran after him, giddy as could be. She knew her presence may potentially be mocked, seeing as though she had little to offer, but at least now she had a gun! Surprisingly, the Halfling was pretty prepared. A dagger on one hip, gun on the other along with its components, and a drive that could keep her going for weeks.

"I thought you weren't gonna call for me. You did that on purpose, didn't ya?" she asked when she got close.

Bender chuckled a bit."I sure did, lass. Been far too long since I scared the livin' hell outta ya." He grinned as he threaded through the sand, drawing his sword."Well, no use 'n waitin' 'round 'ere. Let's get lookin'. Maybe we'll find the entrance o' the bloody mountain today." Ambras found that kind of hopeful talk amusing."Right, and our treasure will be carried to the ship on the back of flying piggies who wish us to name our firstborn children after them." Bender frowned at that, but went along with it."Well, them bloody pigs 'r too late fer that, then."

Soon the group found themselves cutting through thick foliage. The thick shrubbery, exotic trees and vines seemed endless, and although it was still daylight, not a ray of sunshine made it to the ground. No way this would become a session of skipping through the fields all together. (Now picture a bunch of pirates skipping through a field of flowers with this music)

After a while, though, the group would get to a clearing. A little sunlight came through the trees and flowers even grew here. It was a nice change of pace. That was, until the nearby shrubs started moving and shaking.

The pirates clutched their weapons, expecting a wild animal to come out. Even Bender pulled Stevie behind him. But what came out was something strange.

It was a small, black colored fuzzy creature. Rather eerie looking, though. Its head was huge and oval shaped. It was about the size of Stevie and wore a torn leather skin. The truly frightening part of it were those three red eyes on its head. No nose, no mouth, nothing. Just those three piercing eyes and one long tube shaped ear hung from the side of its face. In its hands was a primitive spear.

The pirates were clearly confused on how to feel about this thing. It looked a bit cute if you'd ignore those eyes and claws. But the thing just stared at the people."err... Cap'n... ya think it's friendly?" Ambras asked him. And when he did, the beast did reveal it had a mouth. A gigantic gaping maul filled with razor sharp teeth. The screech it produced was like nothing out of this world. It was truly horrifying. During that screech, a spear flew from somewhere and hit Solst right in the shoulder, causing him to fall back and scream out."Gyaaa! Blasted things! I will stab your soulless eyes out and feed them to your mother!" The Lizard cried out in Elven."Clearly not!" Bender yelled as he pulled out his gun to fire at the little thing.

But then more of them appeared from the bushes. All in different colors, and some were even as tall as a short human. The fight was on.

(Oh my god, that's wonderful... )

Stevie smiled and shrugged her shoulders. True, it's been a while, but at least he was quick to turn that around. It wasn't like he ran with it or anything! The Halfling continued to follow him, keeping moderately quiet while Ambras and Bender spoke between each other. She might've made some smalltalk with Bugface or one of the others she knew, but other than that, there was nothing serious she had to say.

When they arrived at the clearing and the strange creature emerged, Stevie just sort of stared. It was small like her, which was reassuring, but based on the way it dressed and the spear it held, it was intelligent enough and could be a threat. She wouldn't act unless it did.

Annnd it did. Cheesus Crust that thing was scary!

She didn't want to use her knife, considering their weapons had reach, so she set to work on using the gun given to her. Stevie took advantage of being behind Bender, so she turned to keep her back to his (well, the back of his legs) and tried to handle things on that side.

And things were going so well, too! She glanced toward Solst and frowned. "Are you okay?!" she called to him in the same language. Likely over the months, she'd gotten better at it.

Bender shot his gun at one of the creatures, who seemed to drop dead easy enough. But for each one the crew killed, two more seemed to appear from the bushes. Spears flew everywhere, and at least two of them got deflected by Bender's arm."We're sittin' ducks out 'ere! Fantasm! Do somethin' 'bout this!"

The Elf had been chanting this whole time, making different hand gestures with each word. His eyes were closed, and luckily none of the spears seemed to hit him. The pirates were somewhat drawing the attention away from Fantasm by shooting these creatures in the face or cutting at them with their blades.

Some were not so lucky during this fight. Lil' Timmy, a rather bald Dwarf had not paid attention, and as soon as he turned around, he got pounced by one of the fuzzballs, who in turn immediately took a chomp at his throat. His struggle didn't take long.

Solst attempted to pull the spear out of his shoulder."Filthy cretins! I'll make them pay!" He cried out as he pulled the spear out of him."They will beg for mercy, they wi-" And then one of the creatures was on top of Solst. A big one with shaggy white fur nipped at the Lizard's throat as Solst desperately tried to push him away.

The same thing happened to Bender, having his back turned, a smaller creature pounced onto his back, biting in back of Bender's neck as it managed to get the old man on the floor.

Stevie didn't mind being ignored by Solst - his words were proof enough that he was alright. It was a horrific battle, though, and these things no doubt fought dirty. She would have ran over to Solst and helped had Bender, who stood so close to her, received the same treatment. Of course, the Halfling wouldn't shoot the creature while it was so close to Bender's head, but she would tackle the thing once the old man was grounded.

She muttered an apology to Bender in case she hurt him by throwing her weight on the creature, but other than that and some grunts and groans, the tiny Halfling kept relatively quiet. She was anxious and worried, definitely wasn't the fighting type, but she hoped she'd be able to hit its head a few times with the butt of her gun. She was trying so hard to bludgeon it! Poor thing. While she was throwing blows, she looked over to Bender for a second, too concerned not to distract herself with him. "You okay, Bender?!" she yelped. She hoped he'd help Solst if so. Or that someone would.... No more deaths! She didn't want any more deaths.

Solst was fine, actually. Shocked that these creatures had so much bravado to crawl onto him, a full fledged clan member of the Lizardfolk! He was about to show why his kind were known as Firescales. He looked as if he was about to scream, but instead of noise, fire came from his mouth. A heated stream of hot death right in the fuzzballs' face. The creature didn't even have time to scream bloody murder. It was scorched and dropped dead to the floor. The fire was hot enough to melt the eyeballs out of a skull, and that was exactly what happened. The thing's face had melted right off.

Stevie's tackle was successful. The creature spazzmed out as it quickly got back up, ready to claw at Stevie. But Bender came to her aid before the thing even got close to her. He kicked the creature back with his foot, crawled back up and pierced his blade through its head."Thanks, lass. I knew ya'd have me back."

The fight was ending. From the bushes nearby came more of those things, though. But they weren't hostile. Judging from their screeches, one could figure out they were panicking as they were literally covered in spiders. Similarly like a certain Orc back in that stronghold. From the bushes walked Bugface with a seemingly endless stream of spiders coming from the holes in her skin.

Ambras showed what he was capable of as well. He was an agile Drow, using trees to get air and during a jump he'd throw tiny daggers and kunai at the fuzzy bastards. He even managed to crawl up one of the trees and hang a thing by throwing one of his kunai over a branch and sliding back down once he hit a three eyed monster. It hung in the middle of the battlefield like a morbid pinata.

And then finally, Fantasm was done chanting. Electricity seemed to surround the Elf as he fired bolts everywhere like a true warrior. The surviving fuzzballs ran away in fear, and Bender collapsed to the ground, holding his hand on his neck that had been bitten open. Everyone else seemed to have some sort of wounds as well, with the exception of Ambras and Fantasm.

Firebreath! Awesome! Stevie was highly impressed, but had very little time to show that. Thankfully, Bender came to her rescue before things got bad.

When the fight concluded and the rest ran away (the Halfling couldn't help but to laugh at the others when they became covered in spiders), Stevie observed the rest of the group. She was lucky. She didn't get hurt at all! That might've been different if Bender wasn't so timely, but still, she was fine. It was sort of strange to her how one person could be without a scratch, and another could be dead. It was a strange thought, but she wished there was a way to divvy up the pain and wounds evenly so everyone could be alive.

After that odd thought, she approached the old man and canted her head a little. "You gonna be alright? It get ya good?" she questioned quietly. "...We gonna be able to continue?" She was worried there were more of them, which she didn't doubt at all.

Bender managed to regain his posture."I'll be fine, lass. The bloody thing was just painful, is all." He looked to the remainder of his crew and couldn't help but shake his head.

"Looks like Lil' Timmy ain't getting his share." Ambras stated dryly."Poor bugger." Bender replied as he looked ahead."I highly doubt this was a simple huntin' party. If ya ask me, their village's close. Now I don' know 'bout you guys, but I don' want to wait until those bastards come back to raid our camp. I say we take 'em out now!" He ordered as he reloaded his gun.

Hooke smirked."Good ol' vermin disposal, eh? They only got to us because they surprised us. But now it's our turn. We saw what they're capable of. So we won't underestimate them this time. I'm with you." The pirates exchanged looks. Clearly they did not want another encounter with those creatures. But they knew as well as Bender they couldn't sit idly by and wait around.

The group continued on, and they soon saw Bender was right. But this was not a small village. It was huge!

In a valley that stretched up to the foot of the mountain, there were hovels made out of stone and had tribal markings on them. But that was not the strange part. It was the gigantic stone temple at the foot of the mountain. It looked like a religious building, but behind it was a gigantic cave: an entrance within the mountain.

But downstairs were more of the creatures, big and small alike. They were on edge as large groups of them scattered everywhere. Luckily Bender and the group were hidden within the flora."Fantasm. Teleport back to the ship. Tell 'em to take everyone 'n every cannon along as quick as possible. These're too many fer just us. We need every. single. person. Understood? I don' care one bit the ship's abandoned! Crew 'n cannons! Be quick about it. We'll wait 'ere."

Fantasm nodded."I'll be swift as the wind." And in the blink of an eye, the mage was gone. Now all the group could do was wait, observe and pray to whatever deity they believed in they wouldn't be spotted before Fantasm's return.

BLOODY THING INDEED. HAR HAR SEE WHAT I DID THERE? I really suck. Anyway! Stevie just stared at Lil' Timmy's body and made a note to do something with it on their way back. Bury it? Take it on the ship for a decidedly much better funeral? She didn't know how Pirates dealt with the dead they cared for. Not really.

She followed, soon discovering that the village was tremendous in size. Hope began to dwindle into nothing as she imagined fighting an entire city of sorts of these things. The crew was only so many... could they really take them all on? Even with all of them together?

The Halfling sat down in the grass, peering through the brush at the mountain in the distance. "I wonder if we're close?" she muttered to herself.

Stevie looked back up. "We gonna die here?" The question was asked almost as casually as someone would ask another if they'd want a particular dish for dinner.