Double Dragon?

Druidman thought back to the passage he and Seraphim had seen in the captain's log, filling in what he could:

Quote (Logbook)

Date: 19/08/11

"We came across something rather unsettling today. We had just come out of another skirmish with the Hunters today; we sunk them as per the usual, but while we salvaged them for goods Van got a very mysterious book. I say mysterious because it was blank on the inside, but when you write in it then it would write something back.

Either way, Van spends all day with the book, writing in it and delighting when it wrote back. Granted, sometimes it would write something a bit blunt, or just downright creepy, but he loved it anyway. But we started to worry when he didn't show up in the mess hall. We assumed he was still just writing away, but when he hadn't gone to his bunk for the night we searched the ship for him.

We found him in the brig, in the cell. He ///////hut himself in when he wanted ///////. He was dead, with the book laying beside him.

He had certainly figured out quite a bit from this room. Now he knew where the book had come from, though how it had come to be sitting in the middle of the Beach Net was still beyond him. Some of the ship's log was still lost to him, as well. He wasn't sure if it was important or not to his situation, but it wouldn't hurt to figure it out.

Clearly, however, Druidman held not only an immensely powerful artifact, but quite possibly an evil aligned one as well, judging from the corpse of Mr. Van. He gathered up the book once more, and snapped it shut. "Just what secrets are there to this book, dude?" he said mostly to himself.

"Seraphdude." Druidman said louder. "I don't think that there is much else to learn here. Do you want to stick around a bit, or try to get this boat a-moving man?"

Seraphim glanced at the book. He ground his teeth.

"Right. Let's see if we can't repair that hole I made, and see if we can elevate what dropped back in. Do you think you could repair the rot?"

"I'm not sure." Druidman admitted. "I could probably jerryrig some of it with vines and the like, but without access to a lot of new lumber, I doubt that I can keep all of the weight supported, man." he said, strumming his fingers on his cheek. "I guess I could try to channel some natural magic through the entire ship, but that may take a lot out of me, dude."

Seraphim muttered.

"Anything I can do to help?"

Druidman thought for a moment. "Actually, yeah, dude!" he exclaimed getting an idea. And so he ran back up to the main deck, towards the helm, half dragging Seraphim behind him. "Listen, I'm gonna try to do a reverse of one my my spells, to try and channel my own life force into that of the ship." he said, "Your job is to keep doing that healing stuff on me so I don't die, man." he said.

He drew out his scimitar and sunk it about half an inch into the softened wood. As he channeled the light magic through his body, vines started to wreath downwards from him, bonding with the deck, spreading all over the ship's hull. He sure hoped that this would work, he'd never tried to do this life force transfer in reverse, before.

Druidman's eyes began to glow a soft pink color.

"INVERTED SANCTIFIED RECOVERY FORCE!!!" he bellowed.

Seraphim complied, focusing his regenerative energies on Druidman.

As Druidman quite literally pours his heart and soul into the ship, with Seraphim keeping him from falling to his own magics, the ship started to noticably change. The spongy wood that they were standing started ejecting what looked like filthy water, becoming sturdier as the seconds rolled by.

Nothing happened to the rusty metal, or the vague scent of decay, but the ship's condition definitely seemed a bit more stable, as did the general area around them. The sea's iron-grey surface looked somewhat clearer, and the fog the ship was perpetually trapped in got a bit lighter.

Something had definitely been triggered when Druidman had used the magic. Question was: how far had the improvised sacrifice gone?

Seraphim continues healing Druidman, and looks around for anything that's gone on acutely.

Druidman slouched, and panted. He was in a cold, clammy, sweat. "Hurrg." he gasped. "That took a lot out of me, man."

He looked around, and turned to Seraphim, "So, uh, you think you could move and or steer this thing?"

"Sure, there's the riggings and the crow's nest and the poop deck." Seraphim exclaimed knowledgeably. The navi was obviously not the authority to come to on this particular issue. Perhaps if the ship had an engine or something, but not if it was a sailing ship, Erin supposed.

"Well, wind blows into sail, boat moves, right?"

Druidman's eyes were blank and empty. He had apparently forgotten that Seraphim was a moron.

"Uh, well, I'm pretty sure that there is more to it than that, man." he said. "I mean, I think that you need to turn the sails into the wind and mess with a rudder or something, otherwise who knows where the hell we'd end up, dude."

Druidman shrugged. "Making a wind blow is kid stuff for me, I just don't want to get even more lost than we already are, dude."

(Moronic and not knowing something you'd usually not need are two differing things xD)

"Well, if we go along as if it were an airship--" Seraphim muttered, as he began to head to the top deck.

((True, but pretending to know something you don't is fairly moronic. :'D))

More cold, unfiltered dread filled Druidman. "Uh, airship?" he said nervously. He didn't like where Seraphim was heading. "Er, don't those need huge motors and engines and propellers and stuff, dude? Because I don't know squat about gnarly newfangled stuff like that, man."

For a while, the only thing breaking the eerie silence was Druidman and Seraphim's animated chatting, and even that stopped after a while, leaving nothing but the wind's dragging at the ship's sails and the familiar creaking of the ship. But then, suddenly:

"Pheeeeeeeeeeew...."

"KASPLOOSH."

A whooshing sound, followed by a tremendous, explosive splash shattered the silence completely. It didn't sound that close, but still not all that far away. What could it have been?

Well versed in most explosives sounds, Seraphim didn't know. Then he realized, it could very well be a cannonball.

"Heads up!" He shouted to his ally, starting to climb the rigging to the crow's nest.

"If you're playing lookout, I'm SO grabbing the wheel, man!" Druidman called happily, running up to the helm.

Druidman takes the wheel and Seraphim perches in the crow's nest, both ready for anything. For a few more seconds, everything is silent, but as expected, the now-familiar "Pheeeeeeeeeew... KASPLOOSH," sounds off. This time they could actually see a splash; a tremendous column of water that was really way too close to the ship for it's own good.

Something else could faintly be heard - and seen too. A large dark blotch on the edge of the fog was starting to become apparent, and the chorus of groans and creaks this ship gave off seemingly intensified? Or were there more of them now, from some outside source?

Seraphim stared hard into the distance, trying to figure out what that blotch was. He reached into his inventory and removed an impromptu spyglass (more like a magnifying glass) and tried to stare at whatever that thing was.

Druidman slammed his hand down on the handles of the wheel, sending it spinning wildly, turning the ship into the direction the fire was coming from.

As Druidman pushes down the wheel, the ship slowly starts a starboard turn, drifting around in a wide arc. It would take a while to be facing the anomaly, but it didn't take nearly as long for Seraphim to figure out what it was, even with his magnifying glass.

The blotch on the horizon gradually wavered, and broke as a ship broke through into the cloud of fog. Unlike the old, torn, battered appearance of this ship, the other one looked newer, and definitely quite a bit bigger. Two rows of cannons protruded from the sides of the ships, as well as what appeared to be two bow-hunters high above. Most importantly, unlike the ship that Seraphim and Druidman were positioned on, several figures were definitely present on the opposing ship's deck. The name "Stormchaser" was proudly emblazoned on the milk-white sails, which had gone slack in these waters.

The twin bow-hunter cannons suddenly spat cannonballs at the open ship; one went wide, but the second one slammed into the side of the ship, breaking something if the sounds coming from below was any reference. They were under attack. As if that weren't enough to worry about, the sick, tired feeling from the noxious gases left behind came back to both Navis.

Stormchaser: 5000

Old Ship: 500
Druidman: 250
Seraphim: 200

Terrain: 50% Normal (Deck), 50% Sea (Ocean)

Special:

Cold Water: Sea Terrain has Stun properties (chill factor)

On Deck: If knocked off a ship, must use two actions to climb back on board

Cannons!: Any Gun-type, Bomb-type, and exceptions with "Bomb" in their names can be loaded into the cannons and fired for additional damage (normal damage + STAB boost if any x 1.5)


-ENEMY VESSEL SIGHTED AT 3 O-CLOCK!-
-PREPARE FOR SEA COMBAT-