It's a dark and stormy night.

The Pride & Joy has been at sea for two days now, having left for Maelstrom with her passengers and begun the return leg of her six day voyage a few nights back. As the winter sun vanished beyond the horizon ahead of them, Captain Aengar - a tall, frightfully gaunt Thraxian with lank black hair, leathery skin and the social skills of a rabid shark - informed his passengers that they should arrive back at Arx by the morning.

The journey so far has been almost disappointingly mundane. The Pride & Joy is a three-decked hulk, fat-bellied and sluggish with her bottom deck sitting entirely below the waterline. There's not much to explore, and the passengers have been given the run of the cargo vessel - a top deck with a cabin in the aftcastle for the Captain, a mid deck with their cramped cabins and an open area that serves as the dormitory, dining and recreation room for the crew of about thirty, and the dark, damp hold below, currenly loaded with crates of iron ore from Maelstrom's mines.

Despite the helmsman's alleged best efforts, in the days since they left the Thraxian fortress-city, the Pride & Joy has been caught up with by a storm - almost /intercepted/ by it, if one were inclined to believe such a thing possible. It hasn't gotten overly violent as of yet, but the black waters surrounding the ship are choppy and rough, like a bully gently shoving its victim and showing that it /could/ get worse if the mood took it. Thunder rumbles occasionally over the ever-creaking groans of the ship's hull, and the rain has been relentless since the sun went down. Nevertheless, the passengers have likely tried to sleep through it, with varying levels of success.

Zoey spends most of the voyage in whatever quarters she has been given, reading one book and writing in another. Occasionally she will go up on deck and socialize with her companions on board, but once the storm starts she stays away from the danger.

Issue number one, Porter spends much of the trip explaining to Esme that she can't use his cabin for her spare clothes. She has a dresser in hers, damnit. Also, does she have his jacket? Because he realizes the other jacket that he thought was his jacket is really someone else's jacket and life just got a lot colder? No? It'll probably be fine. As for why he's here and what else he's been doing, he picked up on this little trip back at Port and leaped at the opportunity do something less than mundane! Though this has been fairly mundane. That's okay, he's spent the idle hours working with the ship's crew, bothering the captain, bothering the first mate and playing his guitar at dinner. Productive.

Ulfric has spent the voyage helping the crew as they see fit while spending any down time exploring the ship. Being a skeptic man he isnt going to believe the ship is haunted until he sees any ghost for himself.

Disappointingly mundane? Ha! Not if you ask Revell. As soon as she can sort-of walk on her leg again, and she gets wind of a potentially haunted ship, she is off without a moment's hesitation!

Sure, she may not have seen any ghosts yet, but it /is/ her first time actually travelling by boat, and she endeavours to make the absolute most out of it. She spends most of her time bothering the crew with countless questions about absolutely everything, from the names of knots and how to do them, to 'why is there water in the lower decks?', to 'what do you mean, I can't go up into the Crow's Nest during a storm?'.

She has talked a little to the other would-be ghost hunters on the ship, however, being of common birth, each conversation she starts with any one of the members of the Peerage usually results in a whole load of flustered 'I'm sorry's, awkward curtsies and moments of just being too starstruck to converse like a normal human being.

Issue number one, Esme tries to look adorable to get her way with Porter. That failed. Which led to issue number two, looking over the railing in armor - this led most likely to Porter dragging her back on ship JUST before she went over. There was no Look Porter we're flying moment or anything like that. More like you crazy thrax swear word woman comments. Much less Titanic, more reality. Then she too has been bothering the crew, erm helping the crew. It has been a lot of 'whatcha doing' and 'oooh can you show me how to do that' and a few 'can I go in the crows nest? How about now? Now? Now? Porter saids.'

Bothered is the right word for it - the Captain has been an awful conversationalist throughout the journey, giving one-word answers to open questions from Porter and largely keeping to himself. In fact, this goes for the crew as a whole - even during social meals, they seem to only mutter to each other, showing virtually no interest in talking to their passengers. Card games happen in silence, punctuated by grunts or nods rather than words.

Ulfric's offers to help are politely, then impolitely turned down, though several sailors /do/ seem perturbed as Esme leans over the railing and are hot on Porter's heels to escort her back to safety. Similarly, Revell's questions are answered with guttural monosyllabic responses, and once they realise that she /isn't/ a member of the Peerage, they start bluntly telling her to piss off.

Overall, the surly crew don't seem to mind letting the passengers explore the ship, but they seem thoroughly uninterested in interacting with them, encouraging them to go to sleep once the storm rolls in. They are explicitly not allowed on deck, due to "safety precautions," according to the Captain.

Zoey is thankfully left to her own devices, as the only one who /doesn't/ get underfoot.

Zoey checked luck at difficulty 1, rolling 31 higher.

Revell checked luck at difficulty 1, rolling 21 higher.

Ulfric checked luck at difficulty 1, rolling 9 higher.

Esme checked mana at difficulty 1, rolling 19 higher.

Porter checked perception + survival at difficulty 15, rolling 9 lower.


The ship groans and creaks throughout the night. Some might find the constant lurching nauseating, but for others it might lull them to sleep. Either way, Esme, Ulfric, Revell and Zoey eventually do fall into slumber, though not everyone sleeps soundly. After a perturbing dream, Zoey wakes with a start in her cabin.

Below decks in the hold, Porter is alone, as far as he's aware. The bottom few inches of the hull are perpetually damp with brackish water, and a couple of lanterns hanging from the ceiling through dancing shadows across the hull walls. Curiously, there's an absence of what one would expect to find down here in the belly of the beast - the Kennex Lord has been down here a while, and hasn't seen a single rat.

Zoey awakens with a start and a cry, drenched with cold sweat. She sits up in her bed, dressed in her white silk chemise and rubs her face. "Oh, gods..."

Safety precautions? "But I've been sailing since I was a kid? I have my own ship?" Porter seems doubly confused by this insistence that he should stay below decks for his personal safety. He's not good at plenty of stuff, but he's absolutely been on a ship during a storm before. Not only does he want to go up there, he's fairly anxious that he's not being allowed to do so. And go back to sleep?! Mutter. He doesn't bother trying and instead, putters around the lower decks. Almost like a ghost himself. A big hulking, grouchy ghost. He putters all the way down into the hold, where he starts walking around in the brakish water (he brough his boots at least). "Huh. It's quiet." The absence of rats are noted. Which makes him disquieted, so he turns around and goes back up. Maybe he WILL sleep after all. Or find four other awake people.

Revell has mastered the art of sleeping in unfavourable conditions as one would expect of someone as low-born as herself, but the lurching of a ship is an entirely new experience for the flower girl. It's an on and off affair, falling asleep only to wake with a start when her body is sure she's about to fall out of the hammock she's in. This happens several times before she eventually gives up and gets up to wander around the hull. She's been told enough time already to 'piss off', so when she spots Porter, she decides to try her luck with a member of the Peerage after all and heads over with a tired smile on her face. "Couldn't sleep either?"

Ulfric lays in his hammock, in a sort of half sleep. As a sailor the the rocking storm doesn't bother him but he's become restless from the lack of activity.

Esme has a wonderful dream that is not related to this. It keeps her asleep. She's lulled by rocking one way. Rocking the other way. Then she has a dream of playfully riding horse back. It's glorious really. Until the horse stops abruptly and she's on the ground. A low groan comes from Esme as she wakes on the floor of her cabin. Bright green eyes peer around. It occurs that she has fallen out of bed from teh rocking. So after a quick look around to make sure no one can see it, she moves out to the hall. It might have been Zoey's cry that leads her to that direction. Her hair is a mess. It's all that wild red hair ala Anna from Frozen sleeping. Not a sexy look.

It takes Zoey a moment to catcher her breath, and she examines herself in a mirror as whatever she dreamed begins to fade. She pulls on her cloak and her slippers, searching for a familiar warmth that is lacking in her strange bed, before finding her feet and heading into the hall.


The hall outside the cabins is cramped, with a low ceiling. The cabins are at the stern of the vessel, clustered around the steps that lead to the top deck and the closed hatch to the elements. Along its wide length are numerous other hammocks, tables, seats and so on, with another staircase at the bow of the ship leading down to the hold. The only lighting is a few crazily swinging lanterns hanging from the ceiling, aside from the occasional flash of lightning through the portholes on either side of the ship.

It doesn't look like any of the sailors on the mid deck are awake, though many of the hammocks are clearly occupied.

Shaking any residual moisture off his boots, Porter's attention is caught by Revell. He might not know her all that well, but she's /not/ one of the crewmembers and so therefore, much better company just by that alone. "Nah. I'd rather be doing something and I don't like being told I can't. So I've just..." he gestures around the ship. "Been pacing. Can't sleep either?" When Zoey calls out from her cabin, his shoulders hunch up. "Who was that?"

"Still not used to the rocking. Sometimes, it's comforting, other times, I fear for my life. It's weird," Revell admits and looks like she's about to say more when Zoey's scream causes her attention to snap in the direction of the sound. She furrows her eyebrows in mild concern, casts one last glance at Porter and his equipment, then gestures for /him/ to go first. No shame in having a meat shield, nope.

Ulfric snaps awake at the scream and draws his attention towards the sound. In a hurry he falls out his hammock and heads to the cabins, with his hand on his sword, unsure of what he will find.

Esme shakes her hair out to try to get it back in some semblance of order. As she moves towards Zoey's room and catches up with Porter and Revell. She looks between them and lofts her brows a bit. "Hmm.. couldn't sleep?" There's a bit of a tease in her eyes before she looks towards Zoey's door. "So was that Zoey screaming or was that Porter finding a mouse again?"

"It was me." Zoey stands in the doorway, covered by her underdress and her fur cloak and cradling her head in one hand. "I had a nightmare."

"Rats, there's no rats," Porter says to Esme. Which may or may not mean anything to her, but will probably mean something to Ulfric if he passes within hearing distance. When Revell gestures for him to go first, he just goes along with it, stepping forward and striding along until he can find the door to the cabin of the only person now out in the hallway. Then Zoey is there. "Oh." He frowns. Well, he's glad she's not being murdered. That's good.

"No rats? Isn't that supposed to be a bit odd for a ship? I'm pretty sure I see at least twenty every time I visit my patrons boa-- ship." Revell hums thoughtfully, flashes Esme a brief smile, then heads towards the cabins with the rest.

A nightmare?" Revell's eyes practically sparkle with excitement at the mere notion of it. What a lovely, caring individual she is. Realising she's perhaps being a bit crass, she clears her throat and meekly adds a; "sorry," though she continues to regard Zoey expectantly.

Esme cants her head at Porter. "So is that just a saying? Running like rats on a sinking ship?" Then a pause as she looks at her feet. "Are we sinking? Would we know if we were sinking?" She looks up at Porter for a few moments and then nods towards Revell. Her smile is still in place as her eyes round back towards Zoey. "Oh dear. Those are the worst. Do you want to talk about it?"

"I was tied up, and falling," says Zoey. "I fell into the sea, and I couldn't breathe. Something hit me, and I was dragged. Gods, it hurt so much..."

Ulfric says, "No rats?" Ulfric says loudly to announce his presence to the gathered crowd, with a rather confused face asks Porter "How could their be no rats on a ship this size?"

Zoey checked perception + investigation at difficulty 20, rolling 37 higher.

Revell checked perception + investigation at difficulty 20, rolling 31 higher.

Porter checked perception + sailing at difficulty 20, rolling 11 higher.

Esme checked perception + survival at difficulty 20, rolling 20 higher.

Ulfric checked perception + sailing at difficulty 20, rolling 4 higher.

"I don't think that the ship is sinking," Porter says, running his hand over his beard. Though how sure is Porter REALLY? "No rats," he confirms and shrugs his shoulders. "Or if there are rats, they're doing a really great job of hiding from me. Which I suppose is possible. I didn't start yanking the cargo hold apart," he admits. With a bit of a frown, he eases down to where he'd be able to access the top deck of the ship. Lurking. Possibly trying to pick up any chatter from the sailor's above to see if he can learn what they're doing. What's going on.

The party all hear something below, over the ship's laboured groans and the storm's relentless battering. The sound of wood scraping against wood, as if something heavy is being shifted. This seems odd for several reasons - firstly, the storm's nowhere near rough enough to push around the crates, and perhaps moreover - Porter was alone down there in the hold before, and nobody appears to have gone down since.

It's eerily quiet above - yes, voices do carry down occasionally, as do the sounds of stomping boots on the ceiling, but there's little of the usual call and response one would expect from a ship pushing through a storm. It's also noteworthy that the adventurers haven't heard a single song since coming aboard, despite shanties being one of the main ways of passing the time when at sea.

Revell offers Ulfric a small smile and a curtsy when he joins the group, but her attention quickly goes back to Zoey. "Does it still hurt?" Revell asks, her eyebrows furrowing in mild concern. "There was this whole /thing/ about dreams back in my village, you'know. Maybe what you saw means some--"

Revell never finishes her point, because whatever she just heard coming from below steals her attention away.

"It did at first, but it faded," Zoey answers Revell. At the unnatural wood-on-wood shifting she asks, "What was that?"

Esme looks at her feet and then looks towards Porter. She's not overly worried yet as he hasn't said no one was down there. "You know, they aren't being too kind to that cargo." Then her eyes light up. "Porter..." She has that familiar tone of 'we are sooo getting in trouble'. ".. can we go see the cargo? I mean, I'm sure they will let such a strong, strapping, sailor as yourself down there."

"This crew is an overly somber bunch. They need a pint of ale. They need to share a bottle of vodka, /something/." The quiet seems to be really getting to Porter, who is actually being quiet /himself/ for once. It's rubbing off! He's infected! The lack of banter to be picked up on causes him to grit his teeth. The sound below deck earns a lofted eyebrow. "Thanks, I hate whatever that is already." Then Esme is saying something to him and he relays, "Oh, I went down there. I didn't see anyone." He glances back up at the ceiling overhead, "I say we go back down!" Uh.

Ulfric returns Revells smile. Like the rest of the group his attention turns towards the sounds below deck, he looks at Esme "No one down there? Well that sure does sound interesting!" and with that he starts towards the lower decks.

"Maybe that's the problem with this ship. It's not actually haunted, they're just out of booze. Something, something, booze preventing mutiny, something." Revell lets out a short, nervous laugh at that. Porter mentioning he didn't see anyone causes the girl to head towards the stairs down. "Only way to find out if uh-- the strong, strapping sailor is just half-blind is to go check, right?" Before anyone can answer she's already halfway there.

If it's a ghost, she doesn't wanna miss it. It's probably just a sneaky crewmember though. Surely.

It's the rats. Esme does make a slight step towards Porter to offer a low comment to him. Then she smiles at Zoey. "Shall we go check? It doesn't appear that we will be sleeping any longer." Her eyes study the woman with a bit of concern before she will move towards the lower deck too.

"I'd rather not go to that dream again, if I can avoid it," Zoey answers with a nod.

The hold is again, poorly lit and cramped, the bottom of the ship waterlogged with a few inches of brackish water. As they go below, the party would remember how heavily the vessel sat in the water when her cargo was loaded - the hold is completely below the waterline, which lessens the sound of the storm outside but adds all kinds of other unsettling sounds. The thin wall of timber separating them from watery oblivion groans and protests as waves knock against her, occasionally sounding on the verge of breaking to anyone not used to sailing.

At a glance, nothing looks amiss - the crates are stacked in no particular arrangement or order - but in the middle, near the bow of the ship, one five foot wide crate has clearly been shoved to the side slightly. It's definitely moved since Porter was last down here, at least, and if it's filled with iron ore as the rest of the ship's cargo is, it must weigh an immense amount.

Ulfric goes to inspect the strange crate "Who could have moved this?" Ulfric asks with great confusion "These crates are full of ore, aye?"

There's a few muttered words to Esme before he steps down below with everyone else. "This one moved," Porter says of the one crate. He glances over his shoulder to Ulfric, "I don't think the ship's been tossing that much to move something like this." He's not bothered by the sounds the ship is making. But he approaches it, eyeballing it. "They're supposed to be, yeah. Unless this one isn't."

There is a moment when Zoey looses focus, staring into the middle distance, and when she snaps back with a gasp she reaches out a hand to grab Porter like a lifeline.

Revell gives the hull of the ship a nervous side-eye, evidently /not/ used to the myriad of sounds it's making and she keeps expecting something to have cracked each time she looks over. Deciding that getting scared of 'a little water' is stupid, she decides to wander over to the crate in question. "This one?" She asks, knowing the answer already, then bends down to give it a push.

Well, she tries, anyway. She's not comfortable breaking into other peoples stuff, apparently.

Revell checked strength + athletics at difficulty 50, rolling 39 lower.

The crate does not move.

Esme is quiet for once as she nods to Porter's look. Her eyes slide over towards the others. She gives a lift of her brow as Revell tries to push it. She will walk over to her. "Do you want this moved? I can attempt to help." Then she looks at the others in confusion. "Why are we moving it? Also, should we be this far under the water line?"

Porter is watching Revell try to push the crate, for everything else that's going on, this seems to bring him great amusement. When Zoey reaches out for him, he grabs a hold of her instinctively and ducks down to get a good look at her. "Are you alright?"

Zoey shakes her head, heart racing as she tries once more to get her breath under control. "Not dreams, visions," she says. "I was being keelhauled."

Ulfric watches Revell attempt failed attempt to move the crate, with raised curiosity gives it a small push with one hand to confirm its weight and not a lack of strength.

For what Revell lacks in strength, she makes up for in enthusiasm! There's heaving, heels digging into the floorboards and panting when she finally gives up. She smiles sheepishly up at Esme. "Well, I felt pretty bad going 'lets open it!' when it's not mine to open, so I wanted to see if it was, I dunno, lighter than the other ones? I think it'd take at least four me's to make it budge, though, so either a very large guy moved it, or Porter's mistaken." Her eyes light up. "Or ghosts did it."

Whatever excitement she felt is dampened somewhat when she overhears some of Zoey's words.

It's totally a lack of strength. Well, maybe. Revell's got twigs for arms. A gust of wind could make them snap, honestly.

"That doesn't sound optimistic," Porter mutters when Zoey answers him. "Stay near me." He watches the attempts to push the crate around, "Why don't we see what's inside of it? It's probably just more ore, but." If they're going to be nosy, they might as well be ALL THE WAY nosy. "I'm sure there's something around here we can use to pry the top of the crate off."

Revell mutters, "Must be nice ... nobility, you get to ... ... stuff and you're ... ... gonna get ... for it."

Revell checked perception + occult at difficulty 25, rolling 27 higher. Revell rolled a critical!

Porter checked perception + survival at difficulty 25, rolling 18 lower.

Ulfric checked perception + survival at difficulty 25, rolling 2 lower.

Zoey checked perception + occult at difficulty 25, rolling 8 higher.

Esme checked perception + occult at difficulty 25, rolling 22 higher.

Esme wrinkles her nose towards Porter's decision. "I'm not sure about just breaking into it." However she offers to Porter. "You get blamed for this." She moves over towards Zoey and tries to be calm, as if that will help the woman. "We'll make sure that doesn't happen to you. We'll make them take Porter first. I can be pretty convincing when I want to be."

Ulfric moves away from the crate, his face showing great concern. With the pull of his sword he shout loudly "Be you crew or stowaway, show yourself now!" He head goes on a swivel looking at the dancing shadows of the poorly lit room.

"I think... It already happened," Zoey says uncertainly. She hesitates before releasing Porter's arm and stays close as he told her to. She takes Esme's hand now though, for her own comfort.

If there's a noise in a creepy hold but nobody hears it, does it make a sound? Apparently not. The women in the party are perhaps understandably distracted, as they notice a change has come over the belly of the Pride & Joy. It's subtle at first, but once it's noticed it can't be unseen - the shadows are not moving in time with the lanterns. As the two lamps swing crazily in time with the rocking hull of the ship, the shadows they throw around the room seem.. de-synchronised, as if cast by other light sources or by lanterns swinging to a different pattern. This would be obvious if pointed out to the men of the party.

"That's okay, people blame me for a lot of stuff." Porter doesn't seem too worried about getting in trouble. "I'll say I thought it was infested with rats." He gives the room a quick scan and ends up opting to grab the crowbar from by the stairs. He's totally going to try and open this thing. He does not notice any wall shadows, because he's nice and oblivious like that.

Revell steps away from the crate, happy to let Porter do the honours of cracking it open and taking all the blame for it as well. Then, something in the corner of her eye catches her attention and her lips form a tight line. She breaks away from the group and wanders over to a nearby pile of crates, just underneath one of the lanterns and.. looks like she's trying to /catch/ the light with her hand and peer at the shadows it may create.

Esme pauses as the shadows move and her smile fades a bit. Then she looks around as if she's trying to figure out if there are any really large smiles anywhere within them. Her eyes slide over the others and then back around. It might not just be Zoey who is holding hands for comfort now. "Well.. this may change things slightly."

"Porter," says Zoey, squeezing Esme's hand tighter. "The shadows are wrong..."

Porter does indeed get the crate levered open and, to his relief or disappointment, finds it home to apparently nothing but lumps of unrefined iron.

From above, a muffled shout of 'BRACE!' can be heard. A second later, what must be a massive wave hits the Pride & Joy side-on, and for one terrifying moment it feels like the floor is about to become the wall as the ship lists crazily to one side. Those with poor footing might lose it, but fortunately the ship stabilises a moment later.

Then, as if the storm had waited for calm to return before striking again, there is a flash of lightning from the stairway and an immediate deafening CRACK of thunder, directly above. The lightning flash shines through the gaps in the ceiling, and - for a moment - illuminates an altogether different scene.

The crates are gone. Instead, a crowd of some fifty to sixty people stand huddled together in the hold of the vessel, dressed in rags or simple tribal clothing. Their hands are roped together, forming one long chain, and their gazes are cast downward. As soon as the flash is over the sight is gone, but the ghastly after-image remains seared into the retinas of those who saw it.

If anyone is still paying attention to the crate, they would see that it has been shoved further to the side of the ship by the wave (presumably), clearing an empty space in the middle of the hold.

Ulfric walks past the crate further down and points his sword towards the far end of the ship. "Show your face or I will not hesitate to cut you down!" Ulfric shouts to the seemingly nothing. He looks back at his companions "We aren't alon- " Ulfrics words are stopped by the sudden impact as he loses his footing for a moment. With another look he sees that his suspicions were right.

"How can shadows be wrong?" Oh, Porter. You glorious idiot. He stops messing around with the crate long enough to turn and try to see what Zoey is pointing out. "Oh, no. Nope. I don't like it." Then he pulls on the crowbar again and spies, a bunch of ore. "Okay, so it's just full of iron. That's relief--" At which point the ship is being knocked around by the wave, he loses his footing and finds himself on his ass on the damp floor. "Fuck," he mutters and scrabbles to his feet, just in time for the lightening show. He freezes in place, eyes wide. "What the fuck."

Up close, one of the restrained prisoners would have made eye contact with Ulfric in the flash - a tattooed face, head shaven, the apparition looks directly into the man's eyes, expression imploring. And then, like the rest of the image, it's gone.

Revell lets out a high-pitched and undignified squeal rivalled only by actual, real life pigs as the sudden lurch of the ship causes her feet to slip and fall face-first into the water on the floor. In any other situation, it may have looked hilarious.

She braces her hands against the floor, pushes head out of the water just in time to see-- well, she isn't entirely sure /what/ she sees, and then it's gone. Probably just hit her head, but then Porter cussing. ".. Wait, you saw that too?"

There is a strangled cry from Zoey after the apparition disappears, and she crumples to her knees on the floor. "Dear gods," she says before covering her mouth with both hands. "This ship, it was used for capturing thralls. They tortured them, broke their spirits, made slaves of them."

Esme is really good at keeping her feet beneath her... ON LAND. This is not land. So when the ground shifts, Esme does to. She goes down on her shapely rear, tries to get up and then goes face forward as the boat keels again. A muttered noise as she tosses her wet, auburn hair from her face and goes back on her rear. Then there are ghosts. Then what Zoey is saying. "I'm done with boat trips. First spirits. Now ghosts. Then shadows." SHe doesn't mean a word of being done. However, there is something about her that just looks heavy at this news. Like her actual heart hurts for them.

Ulfric puts his sword away and walks to the entrance of the haul. Looking slightly shell shocked he lets them all know "Ghosts are real, I owe my mate a beer." Ulfric looks to everyone, hoping someone knows how to continue because he is lost

"That's great. We should have gone to the great Northern ice-skating competition instead," Porter mutters as he gets unsteadily to his feet. He can hear what Zoey is saying and he brushes the nasty floor gunk off on his pants while he listens. "That was this captain?" he asks, sounding distasteful of the entire thing, bordering on outright disgust as he eyeballs that now more open space in the hold.

Revell staggers to her feet and runs both her hands through her drenched locks to get them out of her face. She looks surprisingly undisturbed by the ghosts-- well, no, she certainly looks queasy, and she's several shades paler than she was a moment ago, but there's an odd gleam of keen excitement in her big brown eyes. Fear, adrenaline and excitement tends to go hand in hand as far as she's concerned.

She glances at Zoey, giving the woman a small nod. "I'm curious too. Don't the stories say that ghosts like, hang around because of unfinished business or something. Maybe they're still mad at the good ol' Captain."

Zoey checked intellect + occult at difficulty 20, rolling 27 higher.

Zoey would recall that Revell's suggestions are more or less accurate - certainly most ghost stories go that ghosts linger after death if they either had something unfinished that held them back from heading to the Wheel, or if they died particularly traumatically to the extent that their spirits were too fractured to reincarnate. Often both.

The shadows flicker and dance again, spreading out now from a new source - one coming apparently from the stairs, though a glance shows nothing there. Nevertheless, it's as if a lantern is being carried down the stairs, and two pairs of footsteps can be heard, muffled and discordant.

'That the one?'Says an echo of a gruff voice, simultaneously coming from everywhere and nowhere in the hold. It sounds impossibly distant, yet spoken at a normal volume, slightly muffled as if heard underwater.

'Aye. C'mere, Shav. Hear you've been having a little sermon down here.'

'Nothin' to say now, eh?' Leers the first voice. With the new invisible light source now in the middle of the cabin, the silhouettes of the prisoners are visible against the walls, including one that stands slightly taller than the others. 'Ain't that cute. C'mon. His Highness wants a word.'

And then, the light fades and the shadows start behaving properly.

Zoey checked perception + investigation at difficulty 20, rolling 22 higher.

Ulfric checked perception + survival at difficulty 20, rolling 5 higher.

Revell checked perception + investigation at difficulty 15, rolling 46 higher.

Esme checked perception + survival at difficulty 20, rolling 31 higher.

For those who pass, several muffled thuds can be heard. They're coming from directly below Porter and Revell's feet, in the empty space where the crate had stood, and the water they're standing in ripples slightly with each one. They start slow, then get increasingly rapid and loud - and then fade again, becoming infrequent, and finally stopping.

Porter checked perception + survival at difficulty 15, rolling 24 higher.

"No, nope." Porter says as more spooky things continue to happen around him. He can't hit any of these spectres, in theory, and the fact that they're phasing in and out of reality (seemingly), is something of a concern to him. He looks down below his feet and watches the ripples, his face in a blank mask. Then he kicks the heel of his boot against the wood that's there.

"Unfinished business or they suffered a horribly traumatic death," Zoey answers Revell. "Could be the former, but I'm guessing the latter." She looks to the thumping. "What..."

Revell may be excited to experience ghostly things, sure, but when they start happening right under her feet and muffled voices start to fill the hull. "Nope. Nope, nope, nope, nope." The flower girl rapidly starts backstepping /away/ from the thumping until her back bumps against a stack of crates and prevents her from going any further. Her gaze locks onto Zoey, chest rising and falling at a rapid pace. "Okay so, unfinished business. Then we gotta-- gotta figure out if they're vengeful, yeah? And then--" Honestly, she's probably just spouting ideas from some book or another she read at some point or another. Likely fiction.

Esme takes a breath. "Can we take a moment to reflect on the preaching that they were said to be doing?" So says the Devotion. Her eyes slide around the area and for a brief moment, the green of her eyes seem a bit brighter in the lights. "They were obviously mistreated but.. have we considered the leftovers of blood magic?" Her eyes move to the floor and then to Zoey. The look is to see if the woman is okay. Then to Porter and Ulfric. "How.. strong are these floors?" Revell is given a smile as her eyes slide back to the steps.

The thudding has stopped. Possibly because Porter kicked the floor. Whatever was making the sound has obviously definitely been cowed. For now, the hold seems.. normal.

"Not all shavs practice blood magic," says Zoey, regaining her composure enough to stand. "But we need to talk to the Captain, regardless."

Ulfric scratches his head, clearly thinking about what is happening. He looks to Zoey "I'm out of my depth here, I don't know about ghosts are magic but it seems you do so I say we follow your lead."

".. You know who might have answers? The Captain - I'm with Lady Zoey on this one." Revell says hopefully and takes her eyes away from the now-sorta-normal floor. "Might be nice chatting to something human for a bit, too."

Porter kicks the floor, the floor stops making thudding noise. "Okay." He may or may not have been responsible for that. He's not really sure. "I don't know," he answers Esme and crouches down, feeling the floor by his feet. The floor covered in several inches of water. "And I don't know anything about blood magic and I don't want to know anything about blood magic." And he's probably not going to find anything down there, but he gives it the old college try anyway. "Sure, we can do that." He'll stop fishing around in the water, promise.

Esme nods her head. "I wasn't actually talking about the shavs in this one. Not all thralls were.." She smiles and lets the thought go. Her eyes slide towards the others as she moves in to follow them.

Porter was DEFINITELY going to stop messing with the floor. "No- wait." His eyes focus on something, "I thought that I saw air bubbles and--" he cocks his head, as if listening to something. "Did anyone else hear screaming?"

Ulfric shakes his head "Did this sound like ghost screams or screams of top deck?" he asks Porter.

"Screaming..?" Revell pauses halfway to the stairs and glances over her shoulder at Porter.

"No, screaming /under/ the deck. Under the wood." Porter starts searching again, but Ulfric's mention of ghost screams has him pausing. His expression falls, upset. "Maybe it's just ghost screams. It cut off so abruptly."

Zoey looks at Porter. "Could this ship have a false bottom? Some kind of smugglers' compartment?"

Revell knits her eyebrows and walks back to Porter, eyes locked on the floorboards. "You know ships, yeah? What's under here? If we, say, had a little peek.. would we sink the entire ship or?"

Ulfric says, "I doubt that theres a secret compartment." Ufric states, and then waves his hands to indicate the room. "I think Revells right, we'd just sink the ship."

"Maybe, it's possible. I don't think-- I don't think anyone is down there now, anyway." Porter shakes his head quickly and shifts back to his feet, looking uncomfortable. "Lets go find the captain."

"I'll go make myself decent and meet you up there," says Zoey. "Bad enough the rest of you have seen me in my bedclothes." With that she returns to her cabin to change into her sharkskin leathers.

Revell gives the floorboards a quick, probing poke with her toes, then decides to follow the rest of the group up the stairs - no way she's staying alone in a creepy haunted cargo hold. When Zoey mentions her clothes, she looks down at her own drenched and entirely /not/ presentable state, shrugs, and decides she's fine as she is.

The journey through the mid deck doesn't take long, the sleeping sailors in their hammocks not seeming to have stirred even with the massive wave and directly-overhead thunderclap. As the group make their way to the stern of the vessel where the cabins and stairs to the top deck are, however, they hear voices again, disembodied once more. Further to that, the occasional crack of lightning creates more after-images as it flashes through the portholes or cracks in the ceiling - two burly sailors half walk, half drag a prisoner ahead of the party, toward the stairs.

'You need to learn your place, y'know,' one grunts to the prisoner. 'Thralls ain't supposed to have hope, and having some shaman preach about balance ain't helpful. You're meant to be /docile/.'

'Not such a bad life once you get used to it anyway,' the other replies, spitting on the floor. 'Jus' say you're sorry to his Highness, an' I'm sure he'll put you back below 'til we get to port.'

The prisoner does not reply, but in one brief flash of lightning looks over his shoulder as they reach the stairs. His gaze rests on the party and he motions for them to follow, before fading once more into nonexistence.

For better or worse, Porter does not start ripping the bottom of the ship up to find out if there's a secret compartment. He leaves it behind with one regretful look over his shoulder. He makes sure that Esme comes along too and doesn't drift off completely. Moving through the ship, he sends a side glance to the sailors in their hammocks. But he keeps coming forward, stopping alone when another ghostly vision shows itself to the party. His face pales when the prisoner motions for them to follow. "Ah, fuck it." Apparently he's going to follow the ghost person.

Ulfric gives a shrug of indifference to Zoeys wardrobe concerns. Making his way through the ship he takes a step towards Porter "So what's the plan? I don't know how we should handle the captain." Ulfric pauses as a new vision appears. "I'm think swords, we meet the Captain with swords."

Zoey, for lack of better ideas or anyone to stop her, follows the prisoner, or at least her best estimation of where he was going. Her leathers went on fairly quick, so it with virtually no delay she caught up with the rest of the party.

Revell casts a few curious looks at the still-sleeping sailors, wondering how the heck they could manage in this weather, and if they were drunk then she wants some of whatever they're having. Turning her attention forward once more, her eyes briefly meet with that of the prisoner-after-image-ghost-person, and the hairs on the back of her neck stand on end.

"We talk first, ask a few questions, and if it turns out he's the problem then-- I don't know." She smiles sheepishly at Ulfric. "But -hand on swords-, definitely."

"I'd like to talk first before we go to swords. He's got an entire crew we might end up having to deal with," Porter replies to Ulfric. "That said, I have my axe with me."

Esme has let Porter shuffle her around because they are best friends or something. She listens to the talk around her. "I always believe it better to use words before swords." So says the woman with a sword constantly at her side.

Ulfric lets a disappointed sigh "So be it, we go with words."

The group equip themselves with swords, axes and other negotiation aids, taking the time to pull on their armour or at least clothes other than their bedwear as they see fit. In an order of their choosing, they ascend the stairs to the hatch, and push it up and open.

The person going first gets an immediate face full of water, the storm raging above. It's very much caught up with them, and the rain flies almost horizontally, rolling black waves the height of the ship buffeting the Pride & Joy from every direction. Her pitching deck is treacherously slippery, lit only by a few lanterns built into the railings and the almost frequent flashes of forked lightning.

There are hardly any crew around, bizarrely. To the stern of the ship is the raised aftcastle and the door to the Captain's cabin, atop which sits the ship's wheel and the two lifeboats. The silhouettes of two sailors can be seen manning said wheel, although if they notice the adventurers they don't comment or head to intercept them. Other than that, a few can be seen clinging to the rigging above, but that appears to be it.

As another crash of lightning flashes down, reaching the water off to the ship's starboard side in an explosion of light and sound, those looking at the deck would see another apparition of the prisoner and his guards, heading toward the bow. Once again, the prisoner seems to see the party and motion with his head for them to follow, though this is in the opposite direction to the Captain's cabin.

Porter will go up first, because it is Porter's luck in life to get blasted in the face with water. "Great, thanks." Then he's up on the deck in the storm. The choice of following the ghost to the front of the ship and going to the captain's cabin is quite the dilemma. "I bet the ghost would have liked sea shanties..." he mutters to himself and shouts over the storm, "I'm going that way. If you go to the cabin, I'll catch up!"

Revell is most certainly /not/ going first /anywhere/, so Porter can have that face full of water as far as she's concerned. She raises both her arms up to cover her face, though it does little to stop the onslaught of rain from whipping against it. If she wasn't already drenched, she sure would be now.

Noting that the ghostly figure is going the opposite way to where they'd planned to go, Revell bites down on her lower lip, conflicted.

She could talk well, if she /wanted/ to.. but.. "No way you're chatting to a ghost on your own. I'm coming with you! Captain already hates my guts, anyway."

Ulfric enters the raging storm after Porter, smiling at a situation he is so familiar with minus the ghosts. Seeing the ghost lead them away from the captains cabin Ulfric turns to Zoey "Ghost or Captain, your call." He shouts over the storm

Esme wrinkles up her nose in feline displeasure at the water to her face. "Uggggh. This is why I ride horses." Because horse snot is better or something. She has really well placed feet for all of this as she moves to follow the ghost. There wasn't really another option to her. Team ghost. The mystery machine is on the case! If only they had scooby snacks.

Porter checked dexterity + sailing at difficulty 15, rolling 37 higher.

Revell checked dexterity + sailing at difficulty 15, rolling 1 lower.

Zoey checked dexterity + sailing at difficulty 15, rolling 5 higher.

Esme checked dexterity + sailing at difficulty 15, rolling 15 higher.

Ulfric checked dexterity + sailing at difficulty 15, rolling 19 higher.

The storm howls hungrily as fresh meat staggers onto its plate. Poor Revell very nearly goes overboard as a wave crashes broadside into the ship, sweeping her off her feet - she would have been nothing but a memory had Porter not got a tight grip on her hand.

Ahead of them, the apparition flickers in and out of existence as the storm illuminates them - the history being portrayed seems to have been from a calmer time, as their hair and clothes blow in a wind blowing in a different direction to the one assailing the adventurers, and they don't seem to be having quite such an ordeal of heading to the bow of the ship.

As they reach it, the scene dissolves and reforms, the image now more steady and stable, rendered in real-time rather than just in flashes. The prisoner is held with his hands and feet tied, a long rope running from his hands and dangling over the rail on one side of the ship, coming up on the other side to meet his feet. Aside from the two sailors, there is one other person present - the Captain, though he looks younger and healthier. He's also not dressed in the worn and faded stormcoat he wears in the present day - instead, he's dressed in the height of Thraxian wealth, albeit in a style older than any of the adventurers' memories. He stands with his arms folded and a cold sneer on his lips.

'Bend the knee, Shav. Bend it or I will break it. I do not need some insolent whelp keeping spirits high among the livestock.'

The prisoner says nothing, but glances at the party briefly. The Captain glares and motions to one of his sailors, who steps round to deliver a vicious punch to the man's stomach.

'I said, /kneel./ When a Prince gives you an order, whelp, you follow it. Bend the knee.'

The prisoner coughs and splutters, but holds his tongue. He once again glances at the party, and the Captain - or Prince - follows their gaze, but looks straight through the adventurers. Eventually, he sighs in disgust.

'Nevermind. Keelhaul it. If it won't learn its place, it can teach others theirs in another way.'

There is a flash of lightning and the image fades, for the moment.

Revell checked intellect + etiquette at difficulty 25, rolling 5 higher.

Ulfric checked intellect + etiquette at difficulty 25, rolling 8 higher. Ulfric rolled a critical!

Zoey checked intellect + etiquette at difficulty 25, rolling 1 higher.

Esme checked intellect + etiquette at difficulty 25, rolling 9 higher.

For those that passed, Captain Aengar is a nobody. Common enough name. /Prince Aengar Thrax/, however, was a member of the House some two or three hundred years ago. Apparently he was lost at sea, his ship disappearing with all hands. He wasn't mourned much - when even other traditionalist Thraxians think you're a bit mean, that's saying something.

Porter moves across the deck of the ship pretty well, even in the storm and even with a face full of water already. He wipes it from his eyes, slicking his hair back with a rake of his fingers. When that wave crashes broadside into the ship, he lashes out to get a hold of Revell and hold tight to her hand. When the vision plays out in front of them, his expression draws into one of deep unhappiness and he cringes when the order to keelhaul the prisoner is given. "Gods, why does he look so familiar?" Because he's the captain- gdi, Porter. Anyway he /definitely/ know the name Anger Thrax.

Ulfric watches the vision and every bit of it boils his blood, for any who could see his face threw the storm they would see a man with murder planned. He promptly turns and makes a direct path towards the captains cabin, hand gripping his still sheathed sword.

Revell sees her life flash before her eyes when she suddenly can't feel her feet touch the deck any more, but fortunately a kind and observant, but most importantly -quick- soul grab her hand and her overly shaky feet find ground once more. From then onwards, she is latched onto poor Porter's arm like a particularly stubborn limpet. Hopefully he's not going to need it for anything soon.

From the safety of someone who knows their way around a ship in a storm, she watches the scene play out in front of the group with keen interest. She's starting to get used to seeing things, and at this point, she's managed to rationalize what's happening as 'it's a play, but cooler'.

"I-- Isn't he like..? Ugh, what's his face." Her eyes widen somewhat. "But that was -years- ago, like, many, many years. And he-- no way."

Apparently she's not the only one it twigs for, either, and she gives Porters arm a rather desperate tug in an attempt to have him follow Ulfric.

Esme watches Revell and actual rolls her eyes, but hey the storm covers that. Then there is the playing out of the ghost 'story' before her. She stops. It's a freezing of her watching that play out slowly and then she turns to watch Ulfric. She's not quick to turn and follow just this moment. Her head cants to the side as she looks around the area. She will follow the direction that the others decide to go.

When it finishes playing out (for now?) Porter twists to see Ulfric striding off across the ship to the captain's cabin. "Oh, fuck this entire ship," he mutters to himself. But Revell is probably close enough that she can hear that happen. She's tugging on his arm and he nods just once, making his way after the other man, careful to keep both himself and his new particularly stubborn limpet friend from washing overboard.

"The Captain is an unnatural being," Zoey says firmly after the spectral scene plays out before them. "He must be destroyed, and his ship as well as soon as we can safely leave it."

Ulfric reaching the Captains Quarters draws his sword and enters. Ready to strike without word or warning.

Ulfric wields Valardin Steel Dragon Longsword.

=The group turn as one as the apparition ends, heading carefully back across the deck toward the presumably somehow centuries-old Prince's cabin. As they go, however, there is a simultaneous flash of light and deafening boom, as a fork of lightning hits the mainmast of the ship.

Time seems to.. pause. Everything is blindingly white, looking in any direction is akin to staring directly into the sun, as all five adventurers hear a man's words in their ears, whispered and laced with contempt.

'Lie resting but never sleep.
Lie dead but never wake.
Make port but never shore.
We sail this ship together.'

And then the burning afterimage fades, time resuming as debris from the shattered crow's nest rains to the deck below. The deck of the ship is unchanged, for the most part - but it's now significantly more populated. Spectral images of sailors are everywhere, some two dozen of them. Some stand in the rigging, others lurk atop the aftcastle or at the rails, gripping knifes, boarding axes or cutlasses. The few corporeal sailors present seem unperturbed by their presence, the two at the wheel grinning grimly as it appears that the game is up.

In the Captain's cabin, Aengar sits behind his desk, his hands steepled. "You were supposed to stay in your cabin," he says with a sneer to Ulfric as the man steps in, brandishing his sword.

"Okay, well, I DIDN'T VOLUNTEER TO SAIL WITH YOU FOREVER," Porter suddenly shouts loudly. And now see him revert to his more natural volume, which is fairly ridiculous. "Damnit. Sorry." That's to Revell, he shakes his arm loose and pulls the axe free from his back. Then he steps into the cabin after Ulfric, because why not at this point.

Zoey wields Dawn's Light, an alaricite bow.

Esme wields Kindness, a diamondplate longsword.

Ulfric charges the captain, swinging to take the bastards head.

Oh Spirits. Oh Gods almighty. Oh fuck. Oh shit. All things that are rushing through Revell's mind if her absolutely petrified expression is anything to go by. Suddenly, there's people, ghosts, /whatever/ all around them and people are pulling out their small armouries.

Porter, her meat shield, even shakes himself free of her! She actually whimpers, but manages to somehow compose herself enough to follow the two men into the Captain's Cabin while shaking hands drag her own weapon from its sheath. A pretty rigging knife, more so than a real, proper weapon, but she can still stab with it, right? Maybe?

Revell wields a steel rigging knife, set with a single blue garnet.

This is going to go poorly, but that was a given. Ghost pirates basically tried to kidnap them. Ulfric charges for the captain immediately and Porter takes his swing at the next closest enemy, not companion, enemy! And aims to take them out of the fight swiftly, hopefully. Maybe.

This is going to go poorly, but that was a given. Ghost pirates basically tried to kidnap them. Ulfric charges for the captain immediately and Porter has his axe loose, but he doesn't try to swing at anyone else inside the cabin just yet, because it's just all friends otherwise. And it's bad to hit your friends with an axe (edited).

Zoey checked intellect + occult at difficulty 20, rolling 25 higher.

=As a good rule of thumb, if a ghost can hurt you, you can hurt it. Alaricite won't permanently destroy one any more than anything else, but it's plenty good for banishing them, if only temporarily.

Zoey gets her bow off her back and follows Porter's lead.

Esme will move into the cabin with everyone else. Seems to be the place.

Ulfric checked dexterity + medium wpn at difficulty 40, rolling 8 higher.

=The Captain growls as the party pile into his cabin. 'You were supposed to wait,' he repeats, getting to his feet and pushing back his chair in an abrupt movement. His cutlass screeches out of its scabbard in time to deflect the decapitating blow of Ulfric's blade, though it does bite into the man's arm. He staggers with a hiss, but when Ulfric withdraws his weapon there's no blood. 'You would have been given the choice to kneel, and there'd be no need for me to /damage my prizes./'

With terrifying speed, he lunges with the cutlass, attempting to slice Ulfric open from collar to navel in a vicious uppercut. He then snaps his gaze to Porter, narrows his eyes, and kicks his desk hard, sending it flying at the man with more speed and force than any human has any right to.

Outside, the ghosts swarm in toward Zoey, reckless of their own safety. The door creates a bottleneck, but axes, blades and clubs rain down as three get within range, trying to put the archer out of action before that alaricite bow can administer judgement.

Zoey checked dexterity + dodge at difficulty 35, rolling 11 lower.

Ulfric checked dexterity + dodge at difficulty 40, rolling 18 lower.

Porter checked dexterity + dodge at difficulty 30, rolling 7 higher.

The blade bites deep, its rusted and pitted edge apparently doing nothing to reduce the cutlass's cutting ability. 68 inflicted and Ulfric is harmed for serious damage.

A club lands a dazing blow, opening the victim up for a thrust from a knife. 51 inflicted and Zoey is harmed for moderate damage.

It turns out that Porter has /some/ dexterity in that big frame of his, because he just narrowly avoids getting out of the way of the desk being shoved at him. The Kennex takes this move as an act of war and pushes forward in the cabin to swing his axe at the captain.

As soon as Revell is inside the cabin, she slides into the far corner and lowers herself down to a semi-squat in an attempt to make herself as small and invisible as possible. Please no slicing and dicing in her direction, please no stray desks coming her way.

Revell checked dexterity + stealth at difficulty 30, rolling 21 higher.

Ulfric laughs loudly with sheer thrill, barely fazed by the blow he tool. Seeing Porter go for a swing Ulfric side steps to flank the cusred captain and goes a downward angler swing, looking to give no mean of escape.

The blinding rain means Zoey has almost no warning before a club finds her and knocks her to the deck. She finds her feet again quickly though and nocks an arrow to return the favor at the next who would dare to get close.

Porter checked dexterity + huge wpn at difficulty 40, rolling 3 higher.

Ulfric checked dexterity + medium wpn at difficulty 40, rolling 7 higher.

Esme glances towards Revel but not to reveal her. She shifts her stance to get between her and the captain if possible. She watches as the men swing on the captain and then to try and see what is going on with Zoey. However, she doesn't get in the way of the men swinging. Yet. Right now, she's trying to stay between Revell and the business end of something.

Zoey checked dexterity + archery at difficulty 30, rolling 29 higher.

'You /dogs/,' the Captain snarls, flicking Ulfric's blood from the tip of his cutlass. He goes to decapitate the man, but is forced to abandon the attack as Porter's whirling axe almost cuts him in half. Instead, the cursed Thraxian is slammed in the shoulder, staggering back as the sound of a bone going /crunch/ echoes around the cabin. Ulfric's follow-up downward hack bites deep into his collarbone, and he brings a hand up to wrench the blade out of himself, pushing it aside in fury. He's injured, but by any reasonable measure he should be /dead,/ several times over. 'I am giving you a chance to serve on my crew. Sailors would have sold their mothers for such an honour in my day!' With a roar, he goes to plunge his cutlass into Porter's gut, intending to twist it savagely and spill the man's entrails on the cabin floor.

Outside, Zoey's arrow punches straight through the ghost at point blank range, embedding in the mast behind it. It may not have stuck in the incorporeal creature, but the apparition appears to feel it well enough, screeching and clutching at its face as it flashes out of existence. The other two ghosts have another go, however, and three of their comrades surge past her, one even passing /through/ the Kennex in a decidedly unpleasant sensation akin to plunging one's face into ice water. Inside the cabin, they search for targets and decide to try to mob Esme, one trying to throw a glowing net over her as the other two jab with a knife and a boat hook.

Zoey checked dexterity + dodge at difficulty 30, rolling 1 lower.

Porter checked dexterity + dodge at difficulty 40, rolling 2 lower.

Esme checked dexterity + dodge at difficulty 35, rolling 13 higher.

The cutlass jabs out, biting at Porter's abdomen. 32 inflicted and Porter is unharmed.

The ghosts flail wildly, the club again attempting to daze Zoey so the knife can come in and slash her open. 31 inflicted and Zoey is unharmed.

A complicated expression falls on Revell's features when she notices Esme, or rather, notices that the woman puts herself in between her and potential danger. This makes staying hidden incredibly difficult - not because the Rose is making it so in a practical sense, but because now there are /feelings/ involved.

The flowergirl glances between the three new ghostly figures inside the Cabin, and she /knows/ it's only a matter of time before the room is so cramped she'll be noticed no matter what she does. So, perhaps foolishly, she decides to go on the offensive.

Staying close to the wall, she circles around Esme and attempts to get within striking distance of the hook-wielding ghost before getting noticed.

The club falls on her again, and while Zoey is unable to dodge it completely it does little more than scrape down her armor. She nocks another arrow. "Hurry!" she yells to the cabin. "I can't hold them off forever!"

The ghost captain is having a bad day. Meanwhile, the people behind them are getting mobbed by ghosts with nets. "Oh, for fucks sake." Porter does not avoiding stabbed with the cutlass, not exactly. It strikes him but, due to armoring and timing, well. It's going to leave a nasty bruise still. It's not an inelegant escape. Ulfric has this captain thing under control, right? Right. He turns back to help Esme with WHATEVER crazy is happening there.

Revell checked dexterity + stealth at difficulty 30, rolling 8 lower.

Revell checked dexterity + small wpn at difficulty 30, rolling 16 lower.

Esme finally balances her sword as she offers, "Stay.." She was going to tell Revell to stay down in case the sword goes through the ghost before her. Then she notes the woman is moving, hopefully in a stealthy fashion. She will attempt to swing on one close to where Revell is going to be to protect her. Oddly though, Esme lowers her helm a bit. It's not a feel of protection so much as hiding her face from the ghosts.

Porter checked dexterity + huge wpn at difficulty 30, rolling 26 higher.

Ulfric howls as his blade connects. As the Captain pushes his blade to away and attack Porter, Ulfric uses the momentum and spin around and hit the monsters other side. Using both hands and all his strength he swings at the abdomen, aiming to hack him in two.

Esme checked dexterity + medium wpn at difficulty 30, rolling 14 higher.

Ulfric checked dexterity + medium wpn at difficulty 40, rolling 9 higher.

Zoey checked dexterity + archery at difficulty 30, rolling 24 higher.

Another of Zoey's assailants vanishes in a burst of light as an arrow spears through its chest, though more are eager to take its place. Two more step in to have a go, one trying to toss a net over the archer and drag her into the open so they don't have to queue and wait their turn, while the other two add their own vicious attacks in the process.

Inside, the ghost that had been going for Esme turns as Revell lunges at its back. Its spectral eyes widen and it screams a wordless battlecry, going to cave her skull in with the hook - and then bursts in a flash of lightning as Esme kills it with Kindness.

Porter's axe goes up and down in a buisiness-like chop, slicing another spectre into nonexistence as it embeds in the floor with a hollwow thunk.

The Captain's hip /cracks/ and the monster drops to one knee as the sheer bludgeoning force of Ulfric's blow lands. 'I AM PRINCE AENGAR THRAX,' he screams, leaping to his feet crookedly and trying to grab at Ulfric's face with his free hand. If successful, the bony fingers grip tight and bodily throw the man at the window to the stern of the ship.

'YOU WILL SHOW ME RESPECT!' The Captain screams as he attempts this.

Zoey checked dexterity + dodge at difficulty 35, rolling 11 higher.

Ulfric checked dexterity + dodge at difficulty 40, rolling 20 lower.

Esme checked dexterity + dodge at difficulty 30, rolling 22 higher.

"ZOEY. I'M COMING." Like, right after he slices this spectre into nothing! Ka-blam. "This is less bloody than my fights usually are! I think--" Is there blood? He's not sure, he doesn't stop to look. He pushes out the door of the cabin to re-enforce his sister-in-law before she can be dragged away. He has a brother at home who would /not/ like that. Not at all.

Porter checked dexterity + huge wpn at difficulty 30, rolling 22 higher.

The glass - at least it's hopefully the grass and not the warrior - CRACKS as Ulfric is bodily grabbed and thrown at it like a sack of potatoes. 50 inflicted and Ulfric is harmed for minor damage.

Revell's eyes widen with horror when she's not only spotted, but her attack misses and the ghost is about to cut her up with a hook. That would not be a pretty way to go, not at all. Involuntarily, she squeezes her eyes shut and just.. awaits her fate.

Nothing happens.

Hesitantly, she opens one eye, then the other. Two ghosts less in the room, and she's unharmed. There's a bashful smile thrown at Esme before the flowergirl slides right back towards the corner furthest from the action. Back into the shadows with her, where she belongs.

Luck is on Zoey's side when she needs it, and she tumbles away from the net being cast in her direction. "It's because they're ghosts! They don't have blood!" she yells back as she nocks a third arrow.

Ulfric picks himself up and with a guttural scream charges the Captain, posed to go for a decapitating swing. Ulfric is out for blood... Ulfric is out to kill.

Revell checked dexterity + stealth at difficulty 30, rolling 0 higher.

Esme watches Revell scurry as she also sees that Ulfric gets back up. So she spins around and swings her sword at the other ghost within the cabin. "It's a good thing I haven't sworn my fealty to Thrax." She offeres towards the screaming captain.

Ulfric checked dexterity + medium wpn at difficulty 40, rolling 157 higher. Ulfric rolled a critical!

Zoey checked dexterity + archery at difficulty 30, rolling 22 higher.

Esme checked dexterity + medium wpn at difficulty 30, rolling 21 higher.

Esme is overheard praising Ulfric: 157 higher success ---- That deserves praise and respect

Some fisherman is going to be delighted in about a hundred years or so when he dredges up the alaricite arrowhead that flies overboard, banishing the net-wielding undead in the process. Another ghost that had been planning on gutting Zoey follows the arrow with its sightless gaze, looking back to the cabin just as Porter barrels out of it, axe splitting it into two bursts of light in a two-handed uppercut.

Esme's blade sweeps gracefully through the air, plunging through where the last cabin-dwelling ghost's heart would be if it were corporeal, dispatching it swiftly.

The Captain, meanwhile, advances toward Ulfric, bringing his cutlass up for a deathblow, but the warrior surges to his feet. The first blow beats the cutlass aside, the second bites into the Captain's neck, digging in and slamming the monster against the wall. 'I AM AENGAR THRAX!' It roars madly, leathery face screwed up in insensate rage as it tries to stand unsteadily. 'PRINCE AENGAR THR--'

The third hacking blow finally takes the bastard's head off, silencing him abruptly. All around the ship, the remaining ghosts wail and writhe as Aengar's body drops convulsing to the cabin floor, his head rolling like a ball as the ship rocks side to side.

"Great! Lets fight ghosts all the time! It's better for the wash!" Porter calls out to Zoey as he swings his axe. This is really /not/ something they should do all the time. But now that he's got his blood pumping, he seems to be kind of enjoying this near death situation. As the ghosts seem to be temporarily stunned, he dedicates himself to knock back as many of them as he can that are within range. Before they maybe wake up and start trying to throw nets on them and gut them with hooks again. All really not something Porter wants to have happen to him.

Zoey takes advantage of their distraction to rapidly fire off more arrows. Knock, loose, repeat until none remain to threaten them. This is of course skipping those targeted by others. There will be time to roll her eyes at Porter later.

Esme will check on Revell but then she is out the door to help Porter and Zoey take out the ghosts. She moves through those she can as easily and quickly as she can. Though, she almost seems to pray a bit as she does. As if praying for them to find peace.

Ulfric lets out several heavy breaths and takes a moment to watch the captains head roll. Looking up so see that more undead still shamble he does what he does best. Ulfric raises he sword, screams a war cry, and charge face first into battle.

Things are looking up! With the Cabin quickly becoming a 'safe space', what, with the last ghost destroyed by Esme and the Captain decapitated by Ulfric, Revell no longer sees a need to hide in the corner. She quickly waves the Rose off, reassuring her that she is /fine/, and it's actually the truth for once.

Then, alone, she allows her morbid curiosity free rein and wanders over to pick up the head of the supposedly dead-dead captain.

It doesn't take long to mop up the last few ghosts. The aftershock of their linchpin being destroyed easily lasts long enough for each one to be banished, though whether they're permanently destroyed remains unknown. In the purge of the undead, something rather unsettling becomes apparent - the crew are all dead like their captain, to a man. The two who had been manning the wheel had dropped like puppets with their strings cut when the Captain fell, and every other sailor - men the adventurers had spoken to, even if only briefly - lies cold and dead in their hammocks. Inspection of their bodies, as with the Captain's reveal leathery, aged skin stretched taught over atrophied muscles and ancient bones, with not a drop of blood and barely any tissue to any of them. Whatever had kept them animate seems to be defeated however, at least for the moment.

Revell's trophy from the Captain stares sightlessly up at her, and on close inspection it becomes apparent that the eyes are glass. The whole head and the rest of the Captain's body are a grotesque simulacrum of life, aged beyond function and yet, somehow, still animate up until a few minutes ago.

With no-one at the helm, the ship would likely be in peril, but the storm seems to stop chasing the Pride & Joy with the Captain's death. Between them, the sailors would be able to guide the ship out of her clutches and into calmer waters without too much difficulty.

Revell checked dexterity + legerdemain at difficulty 15, rolling 12 higher.

The party complete the journey back to Arx in good time. Bemused port officials are told politely or impolitely not to ask questions as the cargo of ore is unloaded and moved to the warehouses in the dockyards for later distribution, and those that want to then sail the Pride & Joy back out into the bay. They spread the oil reserved for the ship's lanterns around her hull and set her aflame, rowing back to the harbour and leaving the Pride & Joy to collapse in on herself.

Within a day, the body of Prince Aengar Thrax is put to flame as well, reunited with its head. A Godsworn may be invited to preside over this grim affair, or not, as the group prefers. They then decide to go have a good drink.