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R.I.P. neildarkstar. Haven will miss you dearly.
| Gremlaith Ulfricsdottar and the Lay of the Black Mask | |
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| Topic Started: Nov 17 2017, 12:03 AM (623 Views) | |
| Kane | Apr 3 2018, 08:09 AM Post #121 |
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Overlord
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Huh, a bony captain....wonder what happened there... |
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| Serethil | Apr 3 2018, 09:33 AM Post #122 |
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Et'Ada
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You'll eventually get to find out! |
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| Serethil | Apr 10 2018, 08:36 PM Post #123 |
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Et'Ada
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Chapter 19: How odd.... Before heading off to do that though, I pawed through the bones, shuddering. There was nothing there - except a strange necklace, with a pendant. Touching it made my shudders worse, but I put it inside a pouch anyway. Once under the leather, it stopped bothering me, for which I was very thankful. So I started with the cook. She was snoring. I woke her by the simple expedient of saying quietly “Cookie. The Cap’n is nothing but bones now. Wake up and talk to me. But mind - I’ve a weapon....” The woman snuffled her way out of sleep, and opening her eyes saw my daggers await. While her breath came short, she said equably enough “So - th’ ol’ bastid be done final?” Hmm. “Yes. Bones rattling on the floor.” “An’ did ye take th’ amulet of’n ‘is bones?” Ah. “Yes. I can show you....” “Nah thin. Don’ touch th’ thing. Don’ put it on! If’n ye was t’ do it, ye’d be jus’ like ‘im - gone t’ bones at all hours. Cursed thing....” Well. “So. What’s the crew out doing on the ice? And when will they be back? What about the one keeping watch for’ard?” She stood up and wandered around the room, wearing what was probably her sleeping gear: linens about as old as the ones I wore myself for sleeping. Finally, her somber voice offered “Wull, Cap’n says one on ‘is bones be on island north - far north. An’ th’ crew be tol’ off t’ go fin’ it fer ‘im. Him as is keepin’ watch - ‘e be th’ mate. I git ‘im down here, n’ ye kin ‘splain ta ‘im.” And before I could remonstrate with her, she was out the door and gone. She moved a lot faster than I expected - so I didn’t even try to follow. What I did was grab up a truncheon off the cook’s table, and set up behind where the door would open. Some while later, the door creaked. Cookie stumped into the room followed by the mate. She looked around, a bit puzzled. The mate began to shout imprecations at her. I settled that by laying the truncheon against his skull, just lightly. Still he was out pretty solid. “Sorry. Didn’t sound like he was wanting to be reasonable.” “Aye. He be one fer that.” She went back to her bed, and I settled to wait for the mate to come to, all the while thinking about all the ways this could go SO wrong.... And just as the mate began to stir, it occurred to me that Talos was mightily absent. Edited by Serethil, Apr 10 2018, 08:58 PM.
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| neildarkstar | Apr 11 2018, 05:32 PM Post #124 |
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Overlord
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:thumb: |
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| Serethil | Apr 11 2018, 06:02 PM Post #125 |
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Et'Ada
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Thank you neil! |
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| Areial | Apr 12 2018, 07:29 AM Post #126 |
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Et'Ada
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Nice read... absence makes the heart grow fonder? or he's letting her deal with it alone... |
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| Serethil | Apr 12 2018, 09:13 AM Post #127 |
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Et'Ada
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Thank you Sis! I think Grem feels that Talos has had enough of her not being a goody-two-shoes.... |
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| Serethil | Apr 12 2018, 08:05 PM Post #128 |
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Et'Ada
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Chapter 20: You couldn’t just be reasonable, could you? Of course not. Here’s how it went down. The mate began to rustle around, obviously waking up from the tap I’d given him. Before he came all the way to, I grabbed some leather strips out of my pouch, and tied them tight around his wrists behind his back. Then I sat back and waited some more. Eventually, the mate tried to sit up, and groggy, found it wasn’t possible with his wrists tied. He glared in my direction, then at the cook, now snoring in her bed. “So. Who be ye and - why ye tied me?” At least he was making sense - about all I could hope for considering. “I am - retribution, I suppose.” I winced internally - that sort of florid rhetoric was first, foreign to me; and second, unlikely in the extreme to impress the mate or anyone else. However, he surprised me. “Eh then. The gods be against us?” I shot him a look which I hoped he took as “retributive” rather than startled. “It is not up to me to say. I say only that I am here to - retrieve the prisoners in the lowest hold. And that in order to accomplish that, I have ‘killed’ the cursed Captain of this ship. I would.... prefer.... to not kill anyone else.” He looked up, startled. It was there in his eyes - he wanted to believe the Captain was truly dead. “How did ye....?” I gave him the truth. “I hid in the cabin, and when the bones turned their back to where I was hidden, I shot him from behind. The bones.... lost their ability to ‘be’ a coherent whole, and rattled around the floor - like nothing but bones.” He - expanded. “Ah! Then I be captain! This be my ship - cut me loose, so I can call the crew back.” “Ah. No. It’s MY ship now. I killed that cursed captain. You have two choices: answer to me as Captain, or take your chances on the ice.” He struggled to his feet, somehow snapping the ties on his wrists, and grinning ugly at me, snarled “I don’ think so. Yer just a little girl. I’ll lay you out like you did me, n’ then I’ll chain you up in m’ cabin - ta use fer fun....” He leered obscenely. “I don’t think so. You may think you’re in command here, but I know better.” At that he rushed me. Sighing, I brought the truncheon up and around from where it had been waiting behind my back, hitting him again solidly. The sound of his skull disintegrating turned my stomach. Damn. Just be reasonable. Please. Talos laughed in my mind. Well, at least one thing was back to normal. |
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| Areial | Apr 12 2018, 08:19 PM Post #129 |
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Et'Ada
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<snicker> you'd think he would have been smarter than that.. but .. No.. good read~ |
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| Serethil | Apr 12 2018, 08:21 PM Post #130 |
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Et'Ada
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Thank you Sis! Yeah, that played out in my dreams this morning. What you didn't get was the smell.... Um. Yup. My dreams come complete with the smell of someone who hasn't washed since he or she was birthed.... |
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| Areial | Apr 12 2018, 08:33 PM Post #131 |
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Et'Ada
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:X |
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| Serethil | Apr 12 2018, 08:36 PM Post #132 |
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Et'Ada
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Oh, at least DOUBLE that. *gag* |
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| Lapuaboy | Apr 12 2018, 08:47 PM Post #133 |
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Thane
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Grem has a tough go of it, doesn't she? Good stuff :thumb: |
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| Serethil | Apr 12 2018, 08:53 PM Post #134 |
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Et'Ada
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Thanks Lap! Actually - Gren is tougher than she thinks. It's going to be a revelation eventually. |
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| neildarkstar | Apr 12 2018, 11:58 PM Post #135 |
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Overlord
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Bustin' heads, Oh yeah... :) |
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| Serethil | Apr 13 2018, 12:24 AM Post #136 |
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Et'Ada
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Yup. Thanks neil! |
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| Serethil | Apr 15 2018, 08:56 PM Post #137 |
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Et'Ada
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[As an aside.... when we spent a month in Germany and Switzerland during the time my second granddaughter was born, I had an extreme "opportunity" to - have to hopefully try to close my nose to the smell of humans (mostly men) who hadn't ever heard of deodorant - or baths. Now.... clean sweat isn't a problem. However, the effluvium of people who'd apparently never washed in weeks or months or years, combined with cigarette leftovers, along with - almost anything else you can think of that a human body can.... exude as odors.... Well. I had a hard time NOT vomiting on a regular basis. The only saving grace? It was January, in one of the hardest winters for years. If it had been July.....] Chapter 21: Well then. I’m in command of a ship.... ....which I have no idea how to sail, much less “captain”. However - I’m nothing if not - obnoxious not to mention resourceful, flexible, and - um - “in your face”. Or theirs, as it turned out. Eventually, the crew, ragging on each other since as far as they knew it wouldn’t be - safe or politic - to curse the mate... or the captain, straggled back to the Mask. They grumbled their way up the plank, then down to the mess. Cookie dished up a meal, forbearing (under threat *sigh*) to mention that both the captain and mate were dead. And after the meal (which it seemed from various mutters I overheard was much better than they’d had in a very long time), Cookie (under my orders) passed out a large tot of brandy to each sailor. It was raw stuff - I wouldn’t drink it unless I was tied down naked and spreadeagled while it was forced down my gullet! - but these people had been out on the ice for a while, and they gulped it down as if it was water. I gave it half an hour, and made sure Cookie was out with more than her fair share of raw brandy.. As they all started nodding a bit, I stepped out onto a platform I’d made, so that I was quite a bit above the tables, and standing in the light of the big overhead chandelier, all candles alight - which probably hadn’t happened in.... forever. I needed every bit of leverage and advantage though.... The crew stared up at me, mostly stuporous. A couple of the burlier men were less so, probably because the brandy didn’t hit them as hard, or hadn’t yet anyway. Staring down at them, I said quietly “I’m your new captain. I killed the bones, and the mate. So I’ve the post, as I’ve taken it by right of force.” I’d spent some time thinking that over - it probably wouldn’t work, but - well, it was as good a ploy as any at that point. Interestingly enough, no one said a word. They all simply stared up at me. Strange. The next thing was even stranger. “I be second mate. So - ye’ve taken th’ ship. This be meanin’ ye’ll be jus’ sendin’ we’uns out on reg’lar snatches?” Ugh. That was a facer. I temporized. “For now. At a later time, things may change. So, you all need to say aye or nay - with me or not. Second, you’ll keep the tally.” I hoped he could keep track.... Well, if he couldn’t, he at least cheated in my favor. So, I was now the ship’s captain. So I waved the crew off to quarters, and proceeded to hide myself deep in the bottom hold, with the captives - though they, being all asleep after the first decent meal in who knew how long, had no idea I’d rejoined them. Tomorrow.... I’d have to figure out how to get the crew to do what I wanted done without giving information I didn’t want them to have. For instance.... that I had no clue how to sail a ship, or navigate the Ghost Sea.... |
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| neildarkstar | Apr 15 2018, 09:37 PM Post #138 |
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Overlord
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Lessee, navigation is simple. According to Captain Ron "Just head off in the general direction of where you want to go, and if you get lost, pull in somewhere and ask directions!" Simple, eh? :) :thumb: |
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| Serethil | Apr 15 2018, 09:43 PM Post #139 |
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Et'Ada
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ROFL neil! Yeah right.... I kind of doubt Grem has even that much clue.... Thanks! |
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| Areial | Apr 16 2018, 12:12 AM Post #140 |
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Et'Ada
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Lovely read!! Some times you just have to fake it.. and never let the men know.... <tongue in cheek> |
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