Player Plot: Recovery of the Mad Archer

[theriflespiral]

Who: Senshi, Natalia, Kaitlyn, Atom, Cid, and Rezo.
Where: The Fallen Island of Aelmsraest, two days' sail south of Elysium
When: One week after the Emperor's formal declaration of war.
What: Recover the surviving crew of the Mad Archer and extract them from the island.

The Mad Archer had vanished during the dispersal of Flotsam, and the first thing that Natalia did, despite her injuries, despite crawling back from what might have been anyone else's grave, was to start looking for it; sail times measured in days meant several weeks without word of her appearance was troubling, even given the traffic interdiction. Word should have gotten around quickly.

What word she did have was even more troubling: The Mad Archer, after the events of the anti-slaver action the month before Bluvink, had joined the fleet proper, and had split off to reduce the number of pursuers on the dispersing fleet.

Draw pursuers, she had. Further inquiries indicated two Air Brigs, the Helmsplitter and the Arbalest, had followed her-- and had yet to report back, either.

Dead reckoning had provided the three's most likely resting place: The fallen island of Aelmsraest.

Natalia had asked high command for permission to get a team together; as she'd already been looking for connections for her delivery service, high command had agreed.

The Elysium Network contingent had shipped out on the sea sloop Humboldt in broad daylight, with carefully-laid stories about needing to look for temporary opportunities and communities now that air traffic was very solidly locked up thanks to those dang Corsairs, and had made rendezvous with the Vault and Flotsam contingent aboard the Milk Run.

All told, the crew numbered some fifteen across the two boats, including those hand-picked for the mission; and the holds are loaded with food, fresh water, and some small amount of ammunition, as much as the ships can stand without getting swamped on the open ocean.

And there's good news: the crews have found the Helmsplitter and the Arbalest, and they are both quite damaged, having run aground on Aelmsraest, and apparently at speed.

The bad news: If you can spot them, they can spot you. They don't appear to have noticed, or turned their castles towards you... Yet.

What do you do?

Comments

[frost_and_shinies]

"... We've got two of the ships found. But not our actual target, yet," Kaitlyn observes. "We could harass the Imps, especially given they're going to notice us eventually, but... Is that an optimal use of time?"

She's considering her options carefully here - and allowing people with more experience to set the actual plan.

[tisfinished]

“In a pinch, we can use that to our advantage. Standard imp orders are to board and impound Corsair ships - and the Milk Run LOOKS like a defenseless cargo trawler,” Senshi points out.

It would be a defenseless cargo hauler, if it weren’t for the deck gun and the dangerous folk in the hold.

[upupatomway]

Atom nods under his hood, dressed warm and plain in hopes of passing as an ordinary halfling merchant aboard an unassuming cargo vessel. "I think Mr. Senshi has a good point about maintaining a cover at first. We should be thoughtful about when to start a confrontation, and if we can, start with a stealth attack. They might also have more information about where the Mad Archer is than we do..."

"Any chance we can eavesdrop for a while?" He glances at Kaitlyn, knowing she's good at stealth, and Natalia in case she had prepared any kind of equipment for such a situation.

[redprayer]

Rezo's not saying much, so far opting to stand by the side of the ship and listen to the conversation and the surrounding sounds of the ocean. The mention of eavesdropping, however, does get him to speak up.

"I can help with that, actually," he says. "I have a crystal ball for such purposes."

[thunderwarden]

So, they had the benefit of appearing harmless, they had the ability to spy without necessarily being seen. Those were both important things to have at their disposal if this minimal crew was going to be successful. He liked the odds stacked against him, kept him young, but he didn't like the idea of risking the rest of them if he could avoid it.

The ships had run aground, but their castles looked functional from this distance.

The Milk Run had a gun, but he didn't like their odds against two functional Imp guns, not without disabling at least one of them.

He glanced to Rezo, though he had the idea the bloke wasn't seeing thing the way they were. "Not a bad idea. Nobody goes in until we know how many are manning those guns, then we take 'em out or over before they've got a chance to blink. I've got something to help with that."

An explosive? Not really, but something pretty shocking. He's not funny, he just thinks he is. He pulled out a cigarillo and lit it, taking a thoughtful pull, looking out from the railing, crouched so as not to be as obvious.

[theriflespiral]

"I have something as well, though it's not as glamorous as a crystal ball." She pulls out... a pen-light? which she then uses a touch of ice on to focus the light-- a clear ice lens forming an exceedingly straight beam. "Let's see..."

She looks down a spyglass, and aims... and aims... and hums...

And the radio receiver underneath the assemblage crackles into not-quite-life.

"-- splitter had the same thought, sir; if we canno-- --lift one with both-- and head Above to return."

Natalia grumbles and starts to try and adjust the microphone with the waves. By the time she does, someone else is speaking. "... ship, precisely, would become... the other?"

"...There's also the matter of water. The springs we found... to drink. if we had cisterns..."

"See to it, then. Delay the ... if you must. I can hardly... myself, after all."

The sound of footsteps, then a door, then more footsteps, and the sounds of a typewriter.

The ice lens warps and then puffs into a hint of snow. Natalia growls faintly, but then her breathing calms. This is more information than they had about the Imperials' plans.

"Well, it's obvious they're having trouble... and that that one is the Arbalest," Natalia says, pointing to one and turning off the static on the radio. "I can try again in a bit, but I still might not have a good idea as to the state of the castles."

If Rezo's been trying during the course of this, it's about now when he stops getting vague images of copper and steel, and accidentally getting the Milk Run's own engine compartment, and instead sees a bright blue cabochon, Ice-aspected, but made to work. Despite handling the power load well, there's several flaws and cracks in the stone that become glaringly obvious when it pulses and the drive starts spinning up...

Then, a sound like ice threatening to crack far deeper and louder than its size would normally indicate, and various and LOUD cussing comes from the compartment, and the engine spins down. Someone with no particular Ether affinity speaks up. "Brackets replaced but the damage has been done, sirs, the stone's like to explode--"

Another engine compartment, but this one, instead of steel, is surrounded by wood, a more familiar sort of engine. The Ether Stone is purple, and flickers with lightning, but even as the drive hums into life, there's a grinding and the engine halts. A woman in an alchemist's protective gear, twin tied up red braids, long, fluffy ears, an Earth affinity, and no hint of other features under a flash mask rises, dusts her hands, and sighs. She shakes her head. "Well. I know what needs to be done," she mutters under her breath, "but..."

Quick to an image of caves, where he can feel the signatures of several raw geodes somewhere in the rock,

And then to bulkheads with rivets popped off and plates away from the bones of a ship, where impressions of heat and hammers ring out--

And a single emerald cabochon, the size of a fist, waiting amidst tools and parts, while someone gently coaxes damaged pieces into life again.

What Rezo makes of all this-- or decides to scry further into-- is up to him.

[frost_and_shinies]

"So, it seems their state is pretty dire," Kaitlyn observed. "Could be exploited in many distinct ways."

"Which route to actually take, though..."

Of course she'd be uncertain. She wasn't used to team operations, still. And even with new ice-Ether tricks to supplement her existing abilities...

[tisfinished]

"This may have just become a rescue mission," Senshi muses. "In the worst case, if they won't take our help as offered, well, they'll be in a poor state to fight back. In the best case, new allies."

He's skeptical that the imps will take the help of 'pirates,' but they'll need to secure the things that need fixing anyway.

[upupatomway]

Atom turns up his hearing and starts a visual scan of the ships below. Between the two, he might at least get a sense of the population of the ships below, unless he's lucky enough to overhear or see signs of something specific. Now, just how stressed are the Imperials below?

[redprayer]

Interesting. They could perhaps use that vulnerability in the Ice stone, and give it that push to a proper explosion. If it's big enough, they could kill or injure a chunk of the Imperials that have already survived the initial crash...

Rezo's thoughts stutter to a halt when Senshi suggests this may turn into a rescue mission.

"-If they're sensible we may at least be able to negotiate a truce," he agrees. "I think it's unlikely we'll be able to manage a stealth approach when we come ashore."

He turns his attention back to his crystal ball, this time probing for the presence of Imperials with strong ether affinities. As far as Rezo is concerned, fellow mages are a bigger threat than common soldiers.

[thunderwarden]

Cid casually puffed on his cigarillo as Natalia cast her light around the ship, keen green eyes flitting to the radio as whatever parlor trick she'd conjured broadcasted the fragmented communications back to them. Senshi was right, they sounded stressed, but any ship that'd just run aground as violently as this one had would likely be in the same situation. Now, it was difficult with his memories of his fair-handed treatment at the expense of their masters to think about offering aid, but it was just as likely a lot of the poor sods left to patch up that particular vessel were indentured as surely as he had been.

"Aye," he nodded in Senshi's direction, agreeing with the man. "A rescue it is, then, but how do we know they're not the 'shoot first, as questions later' types? Any suggestions? I'm not keen on any new holes in me or our only way out of here."

[theriflespiral]

Atom notices a few things immediately:
-- This beach is not a bay. The draft will get shallow well before shore, and it curves away from the direct shoreline.
-- This where the prevailing wind will dump you if you don't turn.
-- There's a long ridge-line that is deceptively low on the horizon thanks to how small Esthere is. It's not hard to calculate that if there is a natural bay, it's on the other side of the island.
-- More than that, the island is large enough to affect the weather; right up to the shoreline is plenty of vegetation, albeit used to the brackish water. As expected, at least here, fresh water's a concern.
-- The ships have popped rivets consistent with a large impact; several of the items that they use to lift off the ground are strewn as debris.
-- Wooden palisades have been set up around the landing point, as has an earthworks not far above the high-tide line. Notably, there's furrows in the sand leading up the beach that are slightly jagged. If this translated to further problems, Atom can't see them past the earthworks without risking flight.

As he tunes in with his hearing, it's difficult to make anything out over the break, at first; the waves are gentle, but not quiet. Then, over the sound of pounding waves and metal, comes:

"Who knows what the damned Corsairs did? All I know is, this island's cursed. We should get off of it soon as possible, so's I say."

"What, so they're uncorking Hell now? Somehow a massive storm's all part of the plan? Come off it."

"They have weather witches now, don't they...?"

There are distant reports of gunfire. The castle of the Arbalest turns and opens one shot, and it rips through the vegetation with an explosive shell. There's a creaking of metal as the superstructure settles back into place.

"Shit! Make our job harder, why don't you!?"

~ ~ ~

Rezo, as you focus in on people with high Ether affinity and capable Ether-users, you come across--
-- A priest in Divine Church uniform, nervously tending to the injured. He's tall, blond, with long hair and... Perhaps has lizardkin in his background? He's got vertical-pupiled eyes in the bright sun. "Here. May the Church preserve you." His affinity is Light.
-- An imperial, rank-and-file, who is currently helping repair a bulkhead. She's not using magic now, and doesn't appear to be contemplating it. Someone with potential, maybe? Electric Affinity.
-- A clearly Planetouched man with a Wind affinity, with faintly green skin and a blank expression, looks over stores and keeps inventory. "-- Quartermaster?" Natalia says, with maybe a little more hope than she feels.
-- One of the Imperials, perhaps a lieutenant? He has black hair, and he's staring at a bandolier of small magical instruments and a book of Divine Church Law. He picks them up and is soon on his way. Someone skilled in magic, or has been on Esthere a long while, might recognize the tools of an exorcist-attorney's craft. Affinity is Dark.
-- There's another priest, on detachment with Imperial Marines, exploring the jungle of the island; it looks like they're all quite spooked. Affinity Fire.
-- A picture of ruby eyes in the darkness. something is on this island. That something is regarding you carefully. Affinity Dark.
-- The voice of the Lord Captain Rezo's able to focus on here matches the one Natalia had picked up on the radio. He's... Very clearly some sort of noble; and is given to pacing and talking to himself when no one's around. "try to one-up me, will he...?" Affinity Water.

And-- lastly--
The harekin engineer from before, now on a wooden deck, talking with a man with brown hair and a familiar sort of scoped rifle, though this one is clearly carefully engraved, unlike Natalia's. Natalia pauses. "I'll confirm-- that's the Archer!"

"It's no good. Until we get out of this sand bar, I can't even hope to clear the screws."

"Mm. We'll have to move her at high tide, if we can..."

"What about the monsters?"

"That's my problem, not yours, Eowyn."

"You say that, but I'm the one powering the magicannon..."

~ ~ ~

"So. Overall," Natalia says. "The Archer has a new carpenter, and the captain's the same, as is the quartermaster. There's at least four Imperial magic users-- both chaplains, the Lord Captain of the Helmsplitter, and-- I didn't recognize those tools, did anyone else?"

As for the detachment in the jungle, she'll hum. "They definitely don't want to be here any longer than they have to."

"So. We have some advantages, and might be able to rescue the crews if asked, but... at least one Lord Captain is eager to prove himself, and the other might be trigger-happy. Though... That's just speculation on my part. I might be wrong."

[frost_and_shinies]

"... In other words, get the captains to go along with a rescue, and the rank and file are unlikely to refuse it, even if they suspect we're Corsair aligned."

Kaitlyn seems more confident with that seed of a plan.

"The problem being, we've got verifiable something on the isle that will almost assuredly want to stop any rescue. So, almost assuredly a fight."

[tisfinished]

"Either get the captains on our side or, if the captains are demonstrably cruel bastards, break out the old piratical tradition of the Sailor's Trial."

Where the liberating pirates hold a court for the rank and file to express grievances with - and execute judgement on, sometimes quite literally - their cruel command.

"Protect them from the thing on the island, get them fresh water and a ticket out. Prepare to fight them and their leadership if need be. Any contingencies I'm missing?" Senshi asks.

[upupatomway]

"Two main things you should all know before we take action," Atom speaks up after listening in on the crew below. His eye scanners start to dim as he raises his head to talk to the others.

"One, the wind is volatile down there- if we lose altitude on this side of the island, we might risk crashing too. Otherwise, it's something to consider however we approach them on the beach."

"And two, the people down below are already paranoid about the Corsairs causing the crashes... Though it sounds like they don't know we're the real deal, they're already paranoid enough to fire on the forest. If you look below, you can see one of the cannons was just fired and wiped out some brush." He points towards the area where the cannon ball had flown. "They're scared of something down there."

[redprayer]

Ruby eyes glinting in the dark.

Rezo goes very still and nearly cuts the clairvoyant feed entirely. Why is that so-? Even after hastily moving onto the next subject, he doesn't pay much mind to anything else he's scrying. When he finishes, he stays quiet. Everyone else is debating plans, but Rezo remains silently hovering over his crystal ball even after he lets it go dark.

(It's nothing. Just some strange, Estherian monster. It doesn't matter that it was looking back at him. He just needs to recompose himself-)

[thunderwarden]

Cid listens to all the information being fed to their little meeting. He likes the idea of liberating those who want to be, but he also knows sometimes it's more complicated than all that. He'd be more than willing to take it to the commanders if they're as charming as the ones he had the misfortune of crossing during his stint with the Empire.

And he notes Atom's confirmation of a threat on the island that the crews are wary of and finishes his cigarillo, tossing the butt to the deck and stomping it out.

"Unorthodox, but hear me out: we eliminate the threat, ingratiate ourselves to the survivors, and see where it gets us."

[theriflespiral]

"That's a possibility. I think it might also be a good idea to rendezvous with the Archer-- just to see who else survived, and what we have to work with." The delivery is ice cold, but internally, Natalia's a little worried.

"If all else has failed, we might be able to power the magicannons between us."

[frost_and_shinies]

"... Seems like the best plan to me. Trying to rondevous with the Archer seems a better start, in part because it may give us a more defensible position to deal with the threat."

[tisfinished]

"A monster hunt makes this easy," Senshi opines. "I like this plan. Let's get our olive branches ready."

Senshi pats the reassuring weight of his axe.

[theriflespiral]

"I'll set to."

Meanwhile...

Captain Clinton kept an eye on the ridge and trees. He could have sworn that the last time he was here, it was safe enough, if not... particularly hospitable, or inhabited. Now there were monsters and worse about, and the sooner they got the Archer off the sand bar, the sooner they could leave this godsforsaken place.

Too many monsters, not enough ammo or supplies. Worse, he wasn't sure how he was going to turn a profit off this trip; joining a Flotsam flotilla while the entire fleet was running around was a way to ensure steady work, but it wasn't exactly conducive to a fat payday. He almost missed boarding airships, now.

He scanned the ruins of the hastily put together fishing village that had been made from the remains of the landing port that had also been here, before everything fell.

Thankfully, after the first night, 'no one goes in the village' had been a rule everyone had followed. But he didn't blame them for being nervous. They couldn't get good intel on the Imperials, and it'd do no good to leave the bay, even if Eowyn cleared the screws--

Movement in the village. Damn it all.

"Looks like they're making another go, lads," he said, with rather more cheer than he felt as he drew steel. He begrudgingly admitted that pirates did not, typically, gel with chaplains of the Divine Church-- a fact which, right now, felt very stupid indeed...

Up in the crows, one of the new kids-- Bosch, wasn't it?-- called out, "SAILS! TWO SHIPS. THEY'RE RUNNING UP COLORS."

Well, that was a good sign, just yet--

"SNIPER!"

The devil!? Surely the Imps weren't that stupid to send skiffs with soldiers on while they had a magicannon ready to blow them out of the water?

Shit, eyes on the corpses-- wait, sniper!? It couldn't be--

The corpse he hadn't been paying attention to took a bullet to center mass and overbalanced briefly as its torso stopped being able to support its weight with muscle alone. He cut it down and shouted to Bosch-- "IDIOT, THAT'S OUR SNIPER!"

~ ~ ~

It took everyone a little under an hours' sailing with good wind to get around the island and into the lea, and the bay there. The island's not continent-sized, but it'd take a good day of walking to get from one side to the other. Good thing you've got ships, right?

Natalia let go of her braced position near the top of the Humboldt's mast and cycled the bolt of her rifle. "Looks like we'll be in the thick as soon as we land," she calls out, as if the reports of gun and cannon didn't do that for her. "Monsters, seems like. Undead."

If asked how she knows this, she'll add, "Because I just shot one and it's not dead."

You're a few seconds away from being able to get out of the ships and stand, if not fully be on dry land. What do you do?

[frost_and_shinies]

Kaitlyn pauses. "We've got two options per person, basically. Get in there and get cutting... Or strike from range."

A statement immediately followed by her running to the mast. "I'll pick tack one."

Then jumping off the ship into the water. She'd mentioned to at least Natalia previously that she had the ability to hold her breath for a significant period of time - and had enhanced swimming.

Still... A bit aggressively-paced, to be sure.

[thunderwarden]

Cid loved when a plan wasn't much of a plan at all. Undead? he hadn't encountered before, but he wagered by the look of them what were staggering about, but also not going down when they should, they were something like Akashic, and he could handle that well enough. Whether they'd been good men or not in a past life, the only thing to be done for them then was being put down, and he could manage that.

He tossed the remains of his cigarillo to the deck, rubbing it out beneath his boot as he drew one of the swords from his belt. He wasn't about to jump into the water and wade in, not yet, but he was ready to vault that rail when the Milk Run got a bit closer.

"Aye, that's one way to go about it. Save some for the rest of us, lass!"

[upupatomway]

"Undead...?" Atom had read a little about this kind of phenomenon in books from the Vault library, but seeing them in person was different. "I'll try to get a count of the monsters and their locations. Logically, they should have a lower body temperature than the rest of us, except maybe Kaitlyn."

He squints slightly as he takes another visual scan, this time with infrared.