Player Plot: It's Die Hard on a Ship

[desertbloomed]

Who: Closed to those who (before this posting) signed up for the plot. Feel free to comment to the Job Interview thread even if you haven't!
When: On or around early-mid November.
Where: In the sky! On the Pravoka Interviews take place at Ashelia's apartment in Lavode.
What: It's Die Hard on a ship.
Warnings/Notes: Violence, cussing. Okay, all done! Tag in, y'all! Please reemeber to tag yourselves :) Yippie ki-yay, mofos!

Loading up the ship seems to be going smoothly enough, despite the harried look on Lady-Captain Ashelia’s face. She walks to and fro, Kupozencrantz struggling to stay by her side, as she refers once, twice, three, four, more times to her iMog slate. She makes a call - and after a short discussion, appears to acquiesce. Loading and boarding seems to proceed apace. The crew is signed in, inventory is checked and double checked, and the maiden voyage of the Pravoka under Lady-Captain Ashelia B’nargin Dalmasca is on her way.

The atmosphere on the ship is calm and easygoing; there’s a lot of cargo to guard, but a lot of people to guard it. The meals are generous, just on this side of lavish, the mattresses in the (albeit cramped) bunks are surprisingly soft and fluffy (is that memory foam? Does memory foam exist on Vaikuntha?) and the air circulation would put some spas to shame. It’s a more or less pleasant time. Until it isn’t.



Shortly before midnight, with the crew scattered about the ship, the lights are cut. Radar and monitoring equipment just shuts down. The ship shakes and groans and, depending on where you are, footsteps can be heard. Hushed voices. Then, you smell something. Or do you? Before you can react, everything goes black. Blacker. More black.

When you come to, you have no idea where you are for a good couple minutes. The room spins around you. You try to move, but find you can’t move your arms. They’re tied behind you, or to the arms of another one of your companions, or above you...are you in the brig? No, you realize as you feel yourself sinking into the plush mattress beneath you. Not the brig at all. Regardless, your next course of action is clear: get free, figure out who did this, and make them pay.

Comments

[strawberryredgrave]

"I'd lock into Chemist if I switch to it and Gourmand's not doing anything without a kitchen and prep time. Can cast Haste on someone, though; might not be a bad move for the Ninja."

Because what's wrong with making the S-rank speed class go even faster? Absolutely nothing.

[wheretheresawill]

"I'm in Paladin, so I'm not sure how much use I'll be without my sword and armor," Terra says, stretching his muscles a bit. "But I can still take a hit or two, and I have a little magic."

[littlemhigan]

"So ye reckon I rush the buggers, an' give Cor an' Naomi the chance te get the drop on 'em? It'll keep the rest've ye out of danger until we can see if they've got our slates or not."

Castor nudges the door open a bit as she muses aloud. She keeps low to the floor but peers out best she can to see how far away the speakers are.

[chatwithdeath]

"Sounds like our best option..."

And without knowing what might be ahead of these two 'guarding' them, they'd want to at least have someone at full strength. Until she got her slate back, she couldn't become White Mage and heal... in the faster sense. That, and a Chemist without their bag had no items at all.

As Castor moves to the door, Naomi crawls her way back up and onto the ceiling, her two back legs still moving - spinning and preparing what should be a more secure trap than their ropes.

[desertbloomed]

The guards are five or so feet away from the door. They're sitting on folding chairs, chatting away, and beside the berserker is a small pile of what looks like iMog slates.

aaaand GO

[littlemhigan]

"Alright..."

Castor slinks out the door and beckons the others follow. She's usually not the quietest person, but she takes her time, and measures her steps until she's within striking distance...

And with all the strength in her body, she reaches over and tries to slam the closest guard's head into the nearby wall.

[strawberryredgrave]

The zora nods in agreement to the plan, the near instant shift to Time Mage happening while the others get into position. Castor seems ready and capable enough of handling both guys on her own and Cor will likely be ready for the assist. If Naomi's gonna get her web spinning to secure them, it's best to make sure the guys are taken care of.

Dante's focusing his magic on Cor as a result, the Haste spell helping the ninja do that much more in a short span of time.

[chatwithdeath]

While Castor and Cor actually worked on the first guy, Naomi didn't mind reaching down from the sealing to snatch away the second, working quickly to shut them up before wrapping them up and sticking them to the ceiling before her. If they want to take a moment to interrogate the other guy on the ground.

... but they did say they only needed one.

[desertbloomed]

The ranger's head is slammed into the wall by Castor. He isn't knocked unconscious, but he's definitely stunned, eyes open wide and arms wheeling as he falls to the floor.

The berserker tries to react, but is webbed up deftly by Naomi. He struggles, but is unable to break free.

[littlemhigan]

Castor follows up by grabbing the Ranger before he falls, slamming her forearm against his throat, pinning him against the wall. She wedges a knee between his legs for good measure - just close enough to be threatening.

"I'll give ye a chance te talk," she hisses at him. "What're ye plannin, an' where's our gear?"

[chatwithdeath]

"I recommend answering her. I don't know how much you care about your friend, but my venom acts rather fast..."

Though Naomi's lips are curled to show the fangs in her mouth, the bite wound she'd inflicted on the Beserker during Castor's grapple was much larger on his forearm. It probably hurt like hell, but he'd forget around it once the poisons spread enough.

Probably scream from that too if his mouth wasn't sealed shut.

[wheretheresawill]

Terra lets those with something to say pass him, but otherwise does his best to fill the entire doorway of the original room. No one should be able to get past without dealing with him.

He looks down the hall for reinforcements, partly so he doesn't have to look at what the others are doing. He doesn't like hurting people, especially not in cold blood.

My apologies for the extremely late reply on my end.

[immortalmarshal]

Cor is...well, he's quite impressed with how quickly Castor and Naomi took down the guards all by themselves. Even though it barely shows on his face beyond a mildly satisfied smile that briefly flashed across his face. So, he's stationed himself on a spot above Terra, trying not to get his feet entangled with any leftover webbing.

"It's me," he quietly whispers to the young Paladin. "Don't freak out if you look up. I'm here to back you up." He does, however, keep one eye out on the interrogations, trusting the others to be able to milk what info they need out of the guard(s).

[strawberryredgrave]

Well. Looks like the others have this all covered. The smooth takedown means Dante can join in on looking like the rest of the hired muscle. The best thing about being a Time Mage is having the Prescience to react according to whatever situation is in front of him. Hopefully, these guys will know better than to try anything.

[desertbloomed]

The ranger, struggling for air, still manages a guffaw. "Where do you think your gear is, ye nincompoops?" He looks over at the pile of iMog slates. "Honestly, Heroes of Light? Don't make me laugh." But he continues to, anyway. "What we're plannin'? Honestly...do it even matter?" He gasps for more air and laughs as loudly as he can.

[littlemhigan]

Castor slams the man against the bulkhead again and drives her knee into his groin. "Ye've got balls, sassin' me right now. What. Are ye. Plannin'? Keep quiet an' I'll leave ye te her up there." Castor finishes, nodding up at Naomi.

[chatwithdeath]

And trust Castor, Naomi's not at all pleased with the smartass remark. However, since she has the Berserker and not the Ranger himself, that shifting under her robes and muffled scream in a second reveals the man to have lost a thumb. A leg raises it to her claws and she turns it over.

"Where I've arrived from, it's devour or be devoured. Nothing precisely heroic about it..."

[strawberryredgrave]

"It ain't gonna be pretty, either." Dante chimes in as he picks up his iMog slate and starts handing back everyone else's. "Y'know what spiders do to their prey? I do. See, it's important for Gourmands and Chemists to understand poisons. We can't let any of that get into our food and we gotta know all about them, right? Just in case. And spiders have some pretty crazy ones at their disposal. If you're lucky, you might only get a neurotoxin; that's the kind that leaves you paralyzed from the neck down and forces you to watch as you're all wrapped up in silk that's damn hard to break through without some crazy strength or a blade or something."

"...Or you might get the other kind. That one? That's the one that melts away at your insides so much that they can get sucked out through a straw. And that ain't fast acting, either. Course, that's based on your every day, not human sized spider...so if you don't wanna answer the lady's question, maybe you'll consider mine:

You wanna find out how much all these amazing spider facts scale with size?"

[desertbloomed]

"Ye stupid bint, we planned to kill ya." The ranger turns his head and spits on the floor in derision. "Eventually. What else?"

He looks at the party one by one. "If you think either of us is gonna betray the captain, you got another thing comin'. You won - ye took us by surprise. Now do what you will. Yer threats mean nothin' to a true pirate." He spits once more, for good measure.

[immortalmarshal]

Cor's been listening. And he will admit that he's a little shocked in the horrifying way upon seeing Naomi just bite off someone's thumb. But considering that the ranger's refusing to cough up anything other than planning to kill them all...

"...it's your dinnertime, isn't it...Naomi?" he quips from the shadows above Terra. As much as Cor would rather drag them before a court, he'd rather neutralize this particular threat in the most effective way possible.

[chatwithdeath]

Well, the Ranger had his chance to come clean. If he wanted to continue the pirate's life though, he could perish like oh so many others that were a threat.

"You go on ahead. I can catch up in a moment..." She spoke as her legs spun, teeth having made a second bite on the Berserker when there was no cooperation. Just like Dante said, the Berserker was being thoroughly webbed into a cocoon for her poison to take its course. However, for the other... "For future reference, Dante... I don't always have the patience for my prey to break down."

So if Castor wanted to give her the Ranger... they just escaped a room that she could make use of.

[littlemhigan]

"Tch." There was undoubtedly more information that could be pumped from the guy, but Castor's at the end of her patience. She nods up at Naomi and slams the Ranger's head once more to keep him stunned before stepping back.

"Jes' be quick, aye? I suspect our time's limited. Goes fer the rest've us, too."

She regards the rest of the team then beckons with the universal sign for 'Lets go.'

[desertbloomed]

Just as Castor beckons, the group's iMog slates light up. Looks like they've got mail.

If you're reading this, rendezvous by the bridge. Please hurry.

[strawberryredgrave]

Dante nods at Naomi in response before leaving her to do what she does best. Note to self: spiders are terrifying. Badass, but terrifying.

He doesn't make it too far out of the room before getting that message on his iMog, however, and he shows it to the others around him.

"Might have to emphasize the 'quick' part; looks like we got people waiting for us now."

[littlemhigan]

Castor manages to repress a shudder as she studies her own slate, seeing a message identical to Dante's.

"Seems so. I don't suppose anyone knows the way?"