[As One River to Another] The Wages of Thalassophobia

[Vivian Shiryu]

Vivian let a slow breath as the sea monster was put to sleep, letting her and Lovalus relax their grip on the creature. It let out one final rattle and threw something up before falling asleep, and all three of the specialists brought aboard Ilaren's ship had the same idea. Normally, she would be celebrating the victory, but the merger with Lovalus had an affect on her personality, giving her some of the lake spirit's general calm. Plus, she still had work to do, there would be time to celebrate when the mission was actually complete. Genna used her powers to try and bring the horn that the creature had spat up to them, and if she wasn't able to bring it all the way onto the ship, Vivian would use her powers to catch the horn and finish bringing it aboard.

However the horn got on board the ship, she encased in a bubble of water and looked to the regular knights on board. "Get a box or something for that. We'll want to present it to Lady Ilaren to see if she can identify what it is." she said, her tone calm. Once one was retrieved, she lowered the bubble into the container and had them close it before she let the bubble disperse. That finished, there was the matter of the Melrathi ships and the creature itself. Vivian considered Doran's questions for a few moments as Genna called out to the Melrathi ships. She was sober enough, and not inclined to drink at the moment, that she couldn't use the sound based powers of Palenon, but she still had control of the water around them.

"Take us out a bit from shore once Gennadiya lands." she ordered the helmsman. Once Genna was back on board and they were a bit out from the shore, Vivian and Lovalus pulled the Veshla they had created towards the water barrier around the Rharnian ship. The Veshla merged with the sphere, so that it was surrounding the Rharning ship, declaring Lovalus's allegiance with Rharne as clear as could be done without words. The Veshla also brought the creature and with it, and Vivian reached a hand towards it, the Brightgleam water that made her armor flowing off of her and washing over the creature to close the most severe wounds. If need be, they could always kill it later, if it were still a threat without the horn. Both Lovalus and Vivian, however, shared a distaste for callously and cold-bloodedly killing the creature in its sleep, especially if the horn it had coughed up had been controlling it somehow.

"Now we wait to see what the Melrathi do. Everyone keep on your stations." she ordered her troops, her tone still even and calm.

[Pig Boy]

Chester appeared from behind Tristan's leg, emerging from the beneath for long enough to see that the Big Noise and the thing that had made it appeared to be snoozing. He looked around, and questioned Tristan, "Well, that's settled? Good thing I'm here too, because I can help you contact them, indeed." So saying, Chester squeezed his eyes shut, and tried to bridge a telepathic connection between Tristan and the Melrathi commanders or captain, whoever was left to communicate with them.

Meanwhile, Gennadiya used her inner voice to communicate their intentions toward them, that they were indeed peaceful and wished to confer with the Melrathi. This seemed to have the desired effect, as many of the Melrathi at their battle stations stood down when they saw the threat had passed, and that the Rharneans weren't holding them as a hostile power in foreign waters.

Vivian was successful in moving the horn onto a box, using the bubble around the horn to trammel it off from whatever harm it was capable of inflicting, if any. The box was fetched, and the horn placed inside, and sealed, water tight. Then they made their motions, running the ship off away from the shore as Gennadiya returned to the ship, from her floating escapade. The beast was still floating, prone, and injured but not dead seemingly, as its limbs flailed listlessly but softly against the currents. Vivian's healing waters seemed to stablize its condition, anyway, but it was not yet waking.

As the telepathic connection was forged with the captain of the other ship, Tristan would hear his voice, as an answer to Gennadiya's promise of a peaceful meeting. "Thank the spirits. Is that Duke Venora?" The unknown voice of a Melrathi captain voiced into Tristan's mind. "Nevermind how I know of you, you're quite famous though, and made a splash while you were in Melrath... Anyway, please don't harm the collosal squid, but we shall tend to its wounds and hurts as we confer."

So saying, and it being settled that there were not hostile intentions between the Rharneans and Melrathi here, the ships made for neutral waters, and stood hull to hull eventually.

The Melrathi Captain nodded in greeting to Tristan, Vivian, and Gennadiya as well as the rest of the crew. "Allow me to explain?"

Provided they did, he would go on, "That squid belongs to us. It is one of the creatures that the Mervarians command with our power of seasinging. However, it was hijacked by some form of vile vegetation. We don't know from whence the seedling came, but it threatened Melrath some seasons back before the Induk intervened and exiled it from our shores. Unfortunately, the thorn of that vile plant lodged itself well into the mouth of the squid, hijacking it. From what we know of our contacts in Quacia, this was some form of Creepborne creature, although we do not know how it survived the long journey through salt-water. According to them, salt-water is deadly to the creep. But perhaps it was sustained by its residence within the creature?"

"Did you find anything inside the squid?" Renfry squinted, "One of our spotters thought they saw it eject something from its maw, at the last moment..."

[Tristan Venora]

Tristan was a bit suspicious of the strange horn, to be honest, but he trusted Gennadiya and Vivian, so he didn’t intervene when they decided to bring it aboard and show it to Ilaren. He even risked a brief glance at the thing himself (From a safe distance, of course!) to see if it looked familiar. He didn’t know much about animals, but he was familiar with all kinds of alchemical reagents and plants (Although he wasn’t sure if this was one!).

In any case, Tristan’s attention was soon diverted from the horn when Chester appeared behind his leg. “We made the monster fall asleep. We are safe now”, he told the diri, in case he was still a bit unsure. Those weren’t empty words. He truly believed that the worst was over and that they were safe now – unless that horn somehow managed to cause harm from inside a sealed box. How powerful was that horn?

“You are amazing”, he told Chester in an honest tone of voice when the diri attempted to contact the Melrathi commander. He hadn’t been sure if his friend could contact someone that was so far away, but of course he could. Chester was the best diri in all of Idalos!

In spite of the fact that something might still go wrong (even though the worst seemed to be over now), Tristan smiled. A moment later, he focused and put on an utterly serious expression again though as he tried to decide what he should say to the commander.

Fortunately, it seemed as if the man recognized him which made things considerably easier.

“Yes, it’s me, Tristan Venora. I’m glad that I was able to reach you. I was worried about you. We won’t harm the squid. One of my companions is in fact tending to its wounds as we speak”, he said, referring to what Vivian was doing. He hadn’t been sure about saving the squid at first, but now he was glad that Vivian had done what she had done.

When the Melrathi Captain asked for permission to explain, he inclined his head because he was most interested in hearing what had happened. It came as no small relief that the squid belonged to the Mervarians. When Renfry told them that it had been hijacked by some form of vile vegetation, the expression on Tristan’s face darkened though.

“The Creep”, he remarked and added, “I was in Melrath during the events in question. I talked to one of the Tunawa that warned us about the Sleeping Heart. Being inside the squid may very well have protected the Creep”, he mused before he abruptly glanced at the box that Vivian had put the horn into and furrowed his brow.

“The squid ejected some sort of horn. Two of my companions put it into a sealed box. Is this the thorn of the vile plant you mentioned?” he asked and raised an eyebrow.

“What shall we do with it?” he wanted to know. Vivian wanted Ilaren to identify the horn, but if it was part of the Creep, there was no need to do so anymore. It had already been identified. “Do you think it should be destroyed or kept alive and be studied further in order to hopefully keep the Creep from ever becoming a threat again?” he asked and continued, because it absolutely needed to be said in his opinion – the thing was very, very dangerous,

“If it’s capable of hijacking a creature, it might very well be capable of also hijacking a person and taking control of them, and we don't know how much or how little it takes for it to do so. I don’t even want to think of the kind of damage it could cause in such a case. For all we know, it may already have done so. Burning it would be the best and safest option in my opinion.”

He was even less interested in keeping the horn (or thorn?) after hearing Renfry’s story, but he wouldn’t make a decision without hearing what the others thought. As he waited for the others to speak (or do something else), he kept his eyes open and watched his surroundings. Things finally seemed to have calmed down. What if the Creep suddenly jumped into one of them though?

What if it had already done so?

What if there were already a lot of people and creatures all over Idalos that spread the Creep and carried a little piece of Creep inside of them?

[Gennadiya Lyosha]

The Lyosrian woman was grateful for the rope that allowed her to pull her self back to the ship. It appeared things had settled down and the sea creature was at rest, at least for the time being, in addition it appeared that the Melrathie ships weren’t about to attack them. The young woman didn’t expect that this next part would be easy, she was after all from Lysoria and she had seen how often negotiations between her home and neighboring cities had turned into a fight. The young lady wasn’t overly familiar with Melrath but from hints and rumors she hadn’t gotten the impression there were overly welcoming.

Either way she didn’t let that stop her. As she came back to the deck of the boat she deactivated her ability so that she could walk on the rolling surface better. Genna was always a bit surprised by how much maneuvering it took to get a ship into the correct place. The horn had been retrieved and had been carefully sealing into a box. That would have to be looked into but they would have to make sure it was under controlled situations. Genna wondered if Tristan’s weed killed would have any affect on that horn, or thorn thing. It would certainly be worth the effort to find out.

Genna took a moment to collect herself, flying/floating in the air above a flailing sea monster, and a rather violent looking ocean wasn’t something you casually dismissed. Though at the time Genna was able to focus on what had to be done, now that it was over the price for such courage had to be paid. Unlike others though she focused on just letting herself be for a moment until her feet were stable once again. She had to be ready.

She was ready when the Melrathi ship came along side their own. The platinum blond healer stood listening and watching. She listened to the explanations about where the creature had come from but kept her expression neutral. The Melrathi asked about horn thingy which she couldn’t blame them. She listened as Tristan talked, and then spoke. “Commander Vivian will have the ultimate say in this, but Tristan, I think we should try applying the potion you worked up earlier and see how it affects the horn.” She looked at the Melrathie, “Good Sirs I think we can agree that finding a way to kill this creep once and for all would benefit all of us.” She smiled at them. “We also need to make sure that your squid will be healed up and safe to go soon.” As she spoke to them she studied each of them with the intent gaze of a medic trying to see if there was something wrong with those she was talking to. She hoped that everything was above board, but she had been surprised to often to take things completely at face value. So the Melrathie crew got visual check up, as well as a quick look with healer’s gaze. Unbeknownst to her she to wondered as Tristan if there were others affected.

[Vivian Shiryu]

Vivian let Genna, and Tristan when he brought up what his Diri could do, initiate communication with the Melrathi ships. Once peaceful intentions all around were established, she ordered the ship to stand down from any active offensive positions for the time being. Once the ships were hull to hull, she merged the defensive bubbles that both ships were under so that they wouldn't have to talk through a wall of water, then nodded when the Melrathi asked to explain what had happened from their end. The creature being a squid didn't mean much to Vivian, but Lovalus confirmed that such things were naturally occurring creatures, and so they had some of their brightgleam water continue to run over the creature, specifically working to treat the worst of its wounds. "The waters I'm controlling will help heal it. I can't do anything for any internal damage until it wakes up, however. Drinking the water helps, but with it being asleep, that's a massive choking hazard." she said, her tone calm. Lovalus informed her that squids didn't breath like that, but that that her concern was still reasonably well founded. Vivian, not particularly interested in the habits of sea creatures, didn't feel inclined to pursue that any further.

When Tristan revealed that they had the horn the squid had vomited up, Vivian briefly gave him a look that indicated she wouldn't have wanted him to be so free with that information. Not she actually minded telling the Melrathi, and indeed would have done so herself, but while she did like Tristan, he was not a member of Rharne's military. What they did and didn't have wasn't, in her view, his information to divulge at will. She did, however agree with him about the safety concern the horn represented. "It's sealed right now, and unless Lady Ilaren or Lovalus can render it fully inert for study, I intend to burn it as soon as it's back on shore, where a sudden flare up won't risk burning our ship." she said, her tone calm. When Genna brought up Tristan's plant killer, she nodded at the healer. "We'll try that too. For some enemies, there's no such thing as overkill." she said, the memory of the fight with Rhaum springing to mind.

She did, after that, turn to the Melrathi captain. "Do you or your crew require any medical attention or emergency supplies?" she asked, slipping to a more congenial tone. She doubted she'd have to explain to the Melrathi commander that she didn't particularly want Melrathi ships just hanging about in Rharnian territory, but she also wasn't going to be rude about the matter. She wasn't trained to spot brainwashing or creep infection, but she did watch as best she could for hostile intention. Until someone proved bad, however, she didn't intend to treat them as such, and if these people needed help that they could give, then it would help improve relations between Melrath and Rharne, which was a good thing all it's own.

[Pig Boy]

The Melrathi captain replied to Tristan, "Well, as for the thing you found, possession is nine tenths of the law. And you won it fair and square. What you do with it, is your business. We'll be taking our critter back to Melrathi waters, when it's done healing. Perhaps after we've had time to meet with Ilaren. Supposing such a meeting could be arranged."

Gennadiya checked up on the Melrathi crewmen when the ships came together in peace, and when the ship came alongside their own she ascertained the relative good health of those on board. There was nothing unusual about most of them, whatever race they happened to be. None of them appeared to have a soul-destroying parasite infecting their bodies, at any rate. Except perhaps the mages among them. But there were none evident in their ship's crew.

Ilaren was back in a lightning flash as she arrived at the ship that Vivian, Tristan, and Gennadiya were on. She looked apologetically at those assembled, and then more sternly to Vivian informed her of the situation. "Valtharn made a play on the Stormwastes Prison. I had to intercede. Although it's privately owned, we'd be fools to let it run without a person on the inside, informing us. So it was, when I knew she was in danger, I had to break off for the prison." Ilaren smirked, "Thankfully Valtharn is far from her full strength as yet, and she was not as formidable as rumors would lead one to believe. Not without the use of a blade, anyway."

Dusting her hands off, she looked to the Melrathi, and curiously toward the castket where the horn was held. "What is that?"

When they explained the story of how the monster had regurgitated a plant-like horn or oversized thorn, Ilaren squirked a brow. "That's... quite the story. I wouldn't believe it if it didn't come from such reliable sources."

"The question remains..." She said, after sharing a glance with the Melrathi captain, then facing toward Vivian, as the commander of the vessel and thus the governor of the artifact's fate, "What do you think we should do with it? Keep it in a secure container, study it, or dispose of it?"

"If what you tell me about the Creep is true, it's doubtful that destroying this one little bit of it would eradicate it everywhere forever. But if we could find our people to study it?"

[Pig Boy]

Review

Wow, you all did fantastically here. I gave a little more xp here than the other threads, as you only got the one after the sign-up.

You all worked as one and a great team, and I really am impressed by your ability to negotiate the curveballs I tossed at you. Great job! You're all amazing.

Tristan Venora

Feedback

Tristan is becoming quite the problem solver. He really showed his ability to stay cool and think of solutions to out of control problems, and of course his history with this particular creature and the Melrathi helped carry the day to an extent. It was fortunate he was here! Have some stuff.

Rewards

• Renown: 20
• XP: 20

Knowledges

• Tactics: x3
• Seafaring: x10

Loot

• PSF one new communication based power for your Diri Chester.
  Uf'rek has been suitably impressed by everyone's canniness at sea in this adventure. As such he has extended a favor to Tristan, whenever he wishes to use invoke it.
  Zanik is impressed by the strength of Tristan's resolve even in a situation he's not entirely equipped to deal with. He's granted him the next three powers in his mark.

Gennadiya Lyosha

Rewards

• Renown: 20
• XP: 20

Rewards

• Adunih Faction Points: 4

Knowledges

• Medicine: x3
• Seafaring: x10

Loot

• Gennadiya earns the next 3 powers in Ymiden's mark for helping Vivian to protect and revive the poor possessed kraken.
  Uf'rek has been suitably impressed by everyone's canniness at sea in this adventure. As such he has extended a favor to Gennadiya, whenever she wishes to use invoke it.

Vivian Shiryu

Rewards

• Renown: 20
• XP: 20

Knowledges

• Tactics: Don't fire right away if better opportunities are about to be present.
• Tactics: Keep your soldiers from jumping the gun.
• Tactics: x1
• Seafaring: x10

Loot

• Ilaren drops all pretenses and decides that she wishes for Vivian to join the ranks of her Champions. Vivian has long served Rharne more than almost anyone, and thus has been granted the first two Champion powers.
  Uf'rek has been suitably impressed by everyone's canniness at sea in this adventure. As such he has extended a favor to Vivian, whenever she wishes to use invoke it.

Praetorum

Rewards

• Renown: 15
• XP: 15

Consequences

• Ilaren sent Praetorum away, but not without the promise that she'd try to find help for his little radiation problem. Plot-hook if you want when you return