On Stranger Tides

Kevin have been studing the maps as much as he was allowed. But that would only pass some of the time, as not all are keen to share their maps.
This morning Kevin and a crewman are having some fun. Just a friendly brawl among men who like to spare with each other.

He ducks! He rolls! He takes one to the face! And laugh
Good one!

After three weeks, Alin has learned how to deal with seasickness, but just. They tend to stay close to the rails with a large mug of water infused with herbs recommended by the ships surgeon. Many sleepless nights were spent above deck attempting to hide this malady from the others, but eventually Alin gave that up as there was no way to keep such a secret. In truth, it must have been obvious to everyone on the ship in the first day or two.

During the trip, Alin spent time with each party member making them comfortable with the establishment of a mental connection, so that they could communicate with Alin when separated, or privately when together and dealing with others not in the the group.

Alin also spent time with Seraphina, brushing up on her particular "dialect" of thieves’ cant. After three weeks, the two often would converse at the dinner table privately via small hand gestures and peculiar phasing in seemingly normal conversation. Seraphina became quite good at trying to make Alin laugh out loud randomly in the middle of conversations. Alin considers the two to be friends by now and makes no effort to hide that they are jealous of her ability to cast mage hand and prestidigitation.

This fine morning, Alin leans on the forecastle stairs (still noticeably close to the port rail) and just laughs at Kevin getting smacked in the face. Maybe we should take old Jolly on our excursion instead of you Kevin, he’s twice your age and can still get one in on you!

This time at sea has been AMAZING, Mama! The people I've met and the stories they've told me! And the night sky! In Sharn, I've never seen the stars or breathed the fresh sea air. And as grateful as I am for these adventures, it also reminds me of how much I MISS home. How dearly I love my library, and how much I miss our cozy home. I am both thrilled and counting down the days until I return.

Seraphina is about to sign her letter when a sailor bumps into her. Oh gosh, is that Kevin rough housing with the crew again?

She cracks her knuckles and rolls up her sleeves, diving into the fray, quoting her best pirate accents in a comically deep voice!

"Avast ye sea dogs! And who will challenge me? The Scourge of the Thunder Sea!"

She's laughing a hooting all the way! But she doesn't go easy on the boys by a long shot.

Ghillie Dhu mostly ignored the scrapping behind him as he stood at the bow and looked ahead to where Xen'drik lay just over the horizon. Was that Seraphina getting in on the roughhousing? It's all fun and games until someone loses an eye but there's no healer nearby. He'd wait until someone begged him to mend a broken arm or bitten off ear.

As was his custom, the druid wore his forest camouflage over leather armour studded with bits of bone and stone.

"One never knows when pirates will show," he'd explained a few times at the beginning of their voyage regarding his armour but he also felt more comfortable cloaked in leaf and leather.

Perhaps he would shed everything and sun himself on the deck again later. The crew seemed either fascinated or repulsed, and both reactions made him chuckle as he soaked up the increasing warmth as the ship moved further south. For now, he watched the waves and wondered what awaited them in the peninsula of Skyfall.

After a few punches back and forth, the sailor goes down with a punch in the face delivered by Kevin. There is an equal amount of cheers and boos from the crowd as coins and various other things change hands in response to the result of the fight.
Among the cheers and boos, there are taunts levied from several parties, including Alin, your companion on this trek.
The burst of a loud, yet soothing voice carries over, challenging the crowd to a match, when all of a sudden, out of nowhere, a halfling sneaks in between Kevin and his recent victim and says in a high-pitched, but piercingly clear voice: "GET BACK TA WORK, YA SEA BITCHES! SWAB THE DECK, ER I'LL FEED YA TO THE SAHUAGIN O' THE THUNDER SEA!"



She looks to Kevin: "YOU! STOP DISTRACTIN' MY MEN!"

She cracks her neck, and then huffs away, griping to some invisible or imaginary friend.

"Whoops.."

The Scourge of the Thunder Sea quickly tries to make herself scarce, lest she face the wrath of the Halfling taskmaster. She's half convinced the rumours of her having a clawfoot below decks that she feed a steady diet disobedient sailors.

She tries to catch Alin's eye, and signals to him in thrives cant: "TROUBLE?" It's what she signed to him when she wanted to practice her skills. Maybe they could sneak a couple of potatoes out of the galley, or race up the riggings to the crow's nest? Alin was so fun to hang out with, and she had learned a lot from him. She had never met someone so swift!

With a practiced flick of thumb to middle finger, Alin responds "No danger but alert" in cant.

As the sailors scramble back to their posts, Alin strides from the forecastle to their companions. "I think the captain is ready to be rid of us, she doesn’t appreciate a little distraction from routine like some of us do. Efficient I suppose, but as boring as Aureon as they say."

With an amused smile on his face, Ghillie joined the others.

"At least nothing was broken or bitten off this time," he said, adding more quietly, "but I've noticed that the ship is ever so slightly off course. No more than five degrees but that's huge when you're sailing a long way."

This time... but this ship has seen some trouble. Kevin adds to Ghillie.

Of course? The halfling could be trying to go around the trouble, but nevertheless, I'll gear up.

Kevin goes to collect his winnings, coins he properly loses again in dices later.

Most of the stories about the Thunder Sea that Seraphina had read were about romantic pirates evading brutal Sahuagin marauders. But she didn't really think they were true ... right? Nonetheless, she decided to follow Kevin's lead and suit up for trouble.

With the fun being clamped down on, she decides to get ahead of boredom and find something useful to learn.

"Ghillie, how are you calculating the ship's course? Do you have navigator's instruments hidden on your person or something? Or is this some magic talent you know?"

"I suppose it's a bit like how birds know which way to go when they're traveling across continents. Can't explain it any better than that, lass."

Alin looks forward over the port rail, looking for signs of land and testing that the wind is not blowing back onto deck from this position.

As you all regroup, the true captain of the ship comes over, Viktor Solokova, a half-elf swashbuckler type. He is a handsome, strapping man in his mid-20s, and he has a look of vision and purpose, and the same air about him as you interacted with him in times past.

"Don't mind my first mate. She can be a bitch sometimes. Here, come away from the edges of the ship, and [BLeueowow] get something to eat down below deck. Y'all don't need to work on this particular vessel."

I feel better already. But yes, a bit to eat would be a good idear. But perhaps not what you had. It doesn't seem to agree with you

Alin quickly turns away from the captain.

"Is everything alright, captain? I have some experience with things that didn't agree with me."

"What? Oh," he wipes his chin and mouth with a handkerchief and says, "Oh, I’m fine. Thank you.

"Now head down to chow."

Just as you are about to head below deck, the sailor in the crow’s nest yells, "LAND, HO!" She points forward towards a medium-sized island with some strange cliffs in the distance (based on tour current heading, it seems that you would crash into the cliffs if you stayed on this course for another 5 minutes at this speed).

Captain Viktor walks to the edge of the ship, looks through his spy glass, and says, "STAY THE COURSE!"

He taps the side of the ship using his ring in a rhythmical way, and a symbol starts to glow blue on his bicep, under his light white shirt, and the hull of the ship starts to open up, and unfold outward. Inside these strange flaps that are shifting out of the ship, several sahuagin and hooked onto the wood, and manage to maneuver and flip onto the top part of these strange flaps and start to make their way to the deck.