The Frigid Woe (DW) - Act 1

Mance finishes the whale song performance with a sigh of exasperation. His plan had failed and, if anything, had made things worse. Now the only way to get off would be to lift the ship upwards.

He walks dejectedly to the edge of the ship to get a better view of their situation. Trailing in the water are the ropes of the two harpoons that are stuck in the leviathan's body. A crazy idea crosses his mind, Could we steer the creature with these ropes?But before he vocalizes his thoughts, he notices the strange glow within the icy formations along the leviathan's spine. "By the Ice Maiden's Mercy! That's the Woe! The creature is infected by the Frigid Woe! We need to get off this thing immediately before the whole ship is contaminated!!!!"

Mance facepalms in frustration as he realizes all his efforts to calm the beast were for nothing. There was only one option, "Do whatever you can to get the beast to dive!" If the creature submerges back into the water, The Symphony should float up out of the spines ... he hopes.

He kicks open one of the furnaces and starts shoveling hot coals over the edge of the ship onto the leviathan's exposed skin.

In Bonepipe's experience, the best way to make anything go away is to kick it in the bollocks. Quickly lashes a rope around his waist, leaps over the railing and directly onto the giant fish, and starts stomping it repeatedly with his spiked boots!

Teorca realizes his failure to scare off the leviathan and his failure to defend the ship. He winces his eyes as the shame clouds his eyes and he remains there, fighting the urge to give up and just give in; the urge to just swim back to shore, find an abandoned cabin in the woods, and freeze in his guilt for all eternity, where his mistakes and failures won't have the chance to ruin the lives of those around him.

He nearly loses the inner battle before a crotchety old voice pipes up, "What in the goshdarn blazes are you doin, youngin? Now is not the time to be wallowin' like a clean pig!" Teorca lets out a big air bubble and cant help but smile. "I can throw on a cup of hot tea later and you can get all this out... well, actually, you'll have to throw on the tea, I can't do that from my neck of the woods. Now come on, git!"

Teorca opens his eyes and notices that the ship is now a hundred feet away. He speeds back up to it, sinks lower below the surface, then leaps out of the water, transforming mid-air back into an elf and landing back on the deck of the ship soaking wet with red eyes and

He finds Mance and tells them, "Sorry, my last idea didn't work out too well, its will is too strong. Do you guys have any ideas for how to get off the back of this creature? I could transform into the orca again on the deck of the ship. That would give us some more weight to slide off, but might damage the ship."

Bonepipe somersaults and then straightens out, attempting to make as clean a dive as possible. Then he uses the rope to begin hauling himself back on board.

Standing there in front of Mance after just telling him his own new plan, the ship lurches and suddenly the leviathan disappears below the surface. "Oh, nevermind." He looks around the deck of the ship with searching eyes, "Do you know where Bagpipes went?"

Firemaster Byron heaves a sigh of relief as the creature retreats, an exhalation that emerges as a brief puff of smoke. It’s rare that a creature of her size has the opportunity to feel small—she is twice Helga’s height, weighs as much as the boatswain and the quartermaster and one of the midshipmen combined—but having been dwarfed by a very cold fish of all things has put the fear of the gods in her. For now.

Byron lingers a little bit closer to Teo than she normally would; ships usually don’t come with druids but perhaps, she thinks begrudgingly, they should. She’d never say such a thing, though it’s clear on her face at the moment, and without thinking she worries her bangle for a moment.

She turns to Mance.

"Captain," Byron says with a nod, "excellent playing. As usual."

She looks off across the deck, surveying the crew and the party to ensure everyone is doing all right, and her eye alights upon Bonepipe, drenched as he is.

She gestures for him to come stand by the furnaces and dry off.

Bonepipe gratefully stomps over to the furnaces with a big grin on his face for the Firemaster.

"Thanks, luv! About to freeze me bollocks off! Helluva fish, eh?"

Teo notices the more-than-usual friendly demeanor of Bryon towards him, then smiles and nods at her, long enough for her to notice, but just short of making eye contact. Teo recognizes the conflicted feelings he has towards Byron, and, acknowledging that those feelings go both ways, does not further push anything.

"I doubt the fish was from Hell, Bonepipe, but it was magnificent and mighty nonetheless. I will definitely be studying and reflecting on it later on, I have never seen anything like it." He turns to the captain, "What shall we do now, what can I do to help?"

"Wherever it was from I hope we don’t bump into it again."

She shudders—partly a function of the cold, but partly from a shout she’d heard go up among the crew: the Woe was spotted on the great sea-beast’s spine.

"I probably oughta survey for damage," she offers, and stalks off to the deck’s edge, leaving Teo behind.

Mance sighs with relief as well as the leviathan swims off into the distance.

"Thank you Byron, the fires were perfectly stoked! I wouldn't have been able to hit those deep notes otherwise," Mance replied with gratitude.

Seeing the dripping wet Barbarian on deck, Mance eyes widen in horror as a terrible thought occurs to him ...

"HALT! Everyone, get away from Bonepipe! Give him space to stand near a furnace to warm up, but don't go near him."

Looking towards his dear friend with concern and sadness, "That beast had symptoms of the Frigid Woe and you touched it! We must make sure you're not contaminated else it could spread to the whole crew!"

"On the bright side, your heroic acts of bravery and sacrifice have given me the inspiration I needed to complete your concerto! I know exactly how it will go now," he says with a warm smile knowing the glory of being immortalized in music will help Bonepipe deal with the potentially bad news.

"Lower the row boat! We'll tow him behind until we can access if he develops symptoms."

Teo was not on board the ship when the suspicion of the leviathan being infected with the Woe was first made, but suddenly things begin clicking in Teo's mind. The leviathan did give off a strong aura of magical coldness, and its movements seemed slower than one would imagine for such a fearsome beast. Then Teo realizes that he came into direct contact with the leviathan as well. He was shapeshifted at the moment of contact, but Teo is unsure whether or not that affects anything.

Teo immediately takes a step back from everyone and covers his mouth with his soaking-wet shirt. "I also made contact with the levitathen when I was fighting it underwater. I will also go on the row boat."

Teo immediately tries to recall the symptoms and timeline of getting infected with the Woe so that he and Bonepipe might be able to quarantine correctly and efficiently.

Byron swears loudly in Draconic.

"How long you reckon quarantine’ll take, Captain? I’d prefer not to be so many hands short."

She’s playing it cool, but anyone can tell the Firemaster is shaken.

Mance looks to Teo with a nod of thanks and a worried gaze of concern at the uncertainty of the situation, "Thank you for volunteering that Teo, I think it is best for the safety of the rest of the crew. We will try to make it as comfortable as possible for you."Hearing Byron's smoky voice switch to Draconic, usually a curse of some sort, he agrees, "That's a good question, Byron. Do you remember how long between contamination and the first case in your village, Teo?"

"Tow me?!" Bonepipe splutters. " Like a bloomin' invalid! I can bloody swim and tow you lot on this tub behind me!!!"