|
|
Post by rosallora on Feb 15, 2020 22:23:06 GMT -8
Another one of the oarsmen helps Volundr drag the waterlogged men into the longboat, the lordling a mess of skewed limbs. He grasps the handles of his oars again as the man at the helm barks out the orders again, forcing the men to start to row, pushing them closer to the creature even as it dove out of sight. "Be glad you're alive," the first mate says to Lekalis, nodding with approval to Volundr at the act of daring.
There's a splash by the side of the boat, a mess of tentacles sucking onto the wood and a face raising above the surface of the water.
Jonah looks over with alarm. "...Tobin?"
The man-creature looked at them, pausing for a moment, some expression on his face that was nearly inscrutable. It wasn't positive, that's for sure.
Jonah grit his teeth, "You're supposed to be-"
"Job to do." The words issued from a Wrong mouth, the consonants cut on too-sharp teeth, the vowels strained on a tongue that wasn't human anymore. The seaman looked at the landlubbers, and the oars in the water. A tentacle wraps around one of the rails of the longboat, and the eyes with their warped pupils were as determined as the water was cold. "Go in quick."
"PULL!" The man at the front yelled louder, lungs and vocal chords straining as the longboat lurched forward.
Tobin's eyes darted around, then settled behind them, in the direction of the Ursa proper. He looks over his shoulder at the men, brow showing a determined intensity. The water a small distance away from them bubbles and churns white.
Tavi looks at Hugo, pity and confusion in her own eyes. "If you can't fight then you need to get outta the way," she says, stern but not unkind. "Need to take care of this. Lives on the line." She lets go of him and returns to the harpoon launcher, taking the heavy steering mechanism in her hands so she can try to line up the shot. "Where'd the damn thing go?!"
|
|
|
|
Post by EloHim on Feb 16, 2020 11:42:18 GMT -8
[Volundr]
The appearance of a familiar squid monster-man turned the gears in viking's head. The man was seemingly in control, ready and waiting... And the monster was distracted with munching down the fallen.
Why didn't the serpent munched the boat when it had the chance? It was so goddamn close to them... Maybe mother's runes were something more than just good luck charms...
He removes the shield from his back and places it on the boat. In the water it would only serve to drag him down. Then he grabs another rope, lying around tying himself around the waist and coiling the rest of it around his shoulder.
"Oi, squidman! Get me to his eye! The one with a harpoon in it! He won't see us coming!"- the monster was blind on that side, thanks to his first throw, so there is little chance of being noticed. Especially while he was munching down on some sailors.
Then Vol takes in the air and jumps into the water near Tobin. Swimming in cold water was something he was used to ever since he was a kid well into the raiding days. And the water was way colder than that in the North. Even at this time of year.
|
|
|
|
Post by Kidney on Feb 16, 2020 23:09:54 GMT -8
Hugo looked scared, truly, in Tavi's eyes. As she spoke, her words flooded his mind like salty seawater, and as she pushed him aside, nothing seemed real. Nothing seemed real. Nothing was real.
This was a trap, nothing was real.
Nothing.
Nothing.
Nothing.
Nothing.
Nothing.
Hugo sat, cross-legged, on the ship, foam dripping from his mouth. His eyes glazed over, adrift in the astral sea of near unconsciousness, his outfit sweat-pocketed and seemingly grimier by the second. The Serpent would consume them all anyway, so what was the point? What foul invention of God would reject the delicious taste of a man with nothing left to lose? What would a man with nothing left to lose be able to do in straights like these? Nothing. That's what.
|
|
|
|
Post by rosallora on Feb 17, 2020 18:54:13 GMT -8
The monstrosity of a man encircles Volundr with tentacles, bringing him close as he pushes through the water. He moves with greater speed than any mortal man could, the coiling lengths readjusting on Volundr in an attempt to secure him. They lift, and they see the bubbling patch of water grow thicker with foam, the serpent's head and neck bursting forth just moments after. They are face to face with it, mere feet away from its flesh, and the tentacles around Volundr begin to draw back into the water before pushing out, thrusting the man nearly all the way out of the ocean to get him closer.
"Madman," Jonah says, watching the two of them with his eyes wide. "What does he think he's supposed to accomplish, nearly offering him to the monster?" The mate takes the fourth harpoon from its holding and shoves it in Lekalis' soggy hands. "Ready yourself, just a few more strokes before we're in range."
Tavi grunts with effort as she steadies the harpoon launcher, leaving the man to his own mad devices. She readies it, looking at the head of the serpent, the thing having thrust itself from the water, and pulls the immense trigger. The whiplash sends her hitting the rail of the ship, and the great bolt goes wide and disappears into the water, useless. She curses, loud, her fist slamming against the wood as she pushes against fate back to the launcher.
|
|
|
|
Post by EloHim on Feb 17, 2020 19:28:26 GMT -8
[Volundr]
Damn, that squid-man was strong. Blessed by Njordr, no doubt. The sensation of being dragged along in the water is not the nicest of feelings but Volundr just ignored it. He aint gonna be fussy when there is a giant angry serpent so close to him.
As they reach the surface, he gets one of the short-swords out. If he has to climb him, then he will but if he could use squid-man's strength yet again, then...
"Throw me! At his blind eye! Right at him!"- he yells, readying himself. He will need to work fast for this plan to work. But if it works...
[No. Don't think about the end, don't split the reward before the monster is killed. You fucked it up once, but this time if you fail - you're dead.] - he scolds himself. He cannot afford to fail.
|
|
|
|
Post by Bloodtrailkiller on Feb 18, 2020 13:05:20 GMT -8
/Lekalis/
Saltwater stings his eyes as he feels himself pulled by the ocean one way, then the rope the next; in the veritable sways of storm and struggle, he realizes he's been pulled back into the longboat. The hard wood a welcome reprieve from the whipping madness of the tide, though the glimpse of a familiar monstrosity latched to the side steals the Lord's attention.
The world moves too fast as violence passes through his eyes, and Volundr leaps after the vanishing creature as if it were part of some plan.
Shivering and cold, even with hot blood pumping in his veins, he shuts his eyes to steel himself; he'd missed twice, once upon the leap and again in some attempt to strike the serpent... yet he'd managed to survive, somehow someway, by sheer luck perhaps.
The harpoon thrust into his hands is enough to open his tired eyes once again, his hair wet against his face he slips the knife back into his teeth and runs a hand through his hair to clear his vision before assuming to nod and rise again, bracing a foot against the inner curve of the boat, he hugs the stempost to steady himself before backing away and taking aim with one hand outstretched and the other cocked back to launch the harpoon.
It was like hunting whale, he supposed...
|
|
|
|
Post by rosallora on Feb 23, 2020 11:32:53 GMT -8
Volundr is quick on his feet, Tobin's appendages pushing him up to the spear already lodged in the creature's neck. The viking puts his weight upon it, crushing it downwards as he jumps up to the thing's head, able to find purchase on scales and grabbing onto the spines and webbing that crowns from its head. The man's sword, clenched in hand, finds purchase between the scales of its head. The sword is thrust down as another harpoon is shot from the deck of the ship, but it goes wide, splashing into nothing. A spurt of hot blood comes up from the skull of the serpent, and it thrashes, the man barely able to hold onto his position on the beast.
Jonah puts a hand to his head, able to hold onto his hat as the wind buffets the boat. Behind the serpent, the third and final longboat has circled around, three men throwing hooks in unison. Two of them pierce the creature and get pulled taut, the water shifting and boat groaning with the effort. The harpoon Lekalis holds in his hand flies true, another iron length sticking out from the thing's awful neck. Blood oozes down the crannies between scales, muddying the dark water futher. The serpent pulls at the bonds, trying to get away at the repeated attack, but the hooks just dig into its hide deeper.
Up on deck, the Captain approaches Hugo. Her eyes remain on the battle, at the beast beginning to thrash away from the hooks that were pulling it in, on the man on top of the monster, at the boats that surrounded it. She knew it was only a matter of time, now. The woman grabs Hugo and pulls him up, removing the mask and casting it away, it clattering across the deck like a useless toy. "Get to a damned station or I'll THROW you to the PIT!"
|
|
|
|
Post by EloHim on Feb 23, 2020 12:13:44 GMT -8
[Volundr]
A scream of a viking cuts through the crashing of the waves as Volundr is sent into the air by the squid man.
"VALHÖLL!!!" - he screams as the adrenaline surges through the man's veins, his heart beating hard and fast. What he was doing was utter madness...and he loved every second of it.
The plunging of the sword, the sudden shake of the serpent - this was it. This was what he lived for. That was what he would die for if necessary.
"STOP FIDGETING AND LET ME KILL YOU, YA GARGAN FRETR!"-he continues to yell as he hangs from the snake's head.
He grabs the harpoon in the beast's eye. The rope would've been necessary if the serpent was to go underwater...but Volundr wouldn't give it a chance to do so. putting all the force and weight onto the Harpoon he pushes it in...deeper and deeper, past the eye right to the center...To the brain of the beast.
[rolled an 18]
|
|
|
|
Post by Kidney on Feb 24, 2020 23:18:39 GMT -8
Sal held a gaze to him, accusatory, greater in rage than any other gaze Hugo had felt since his arrival in the Hamlet. But, the dread that filled his mind could not be shaken.
A noise came to him, a single note, distance, everpresent, it drowned everything else into the depths of darkness and uncaring void, and Hugo's eyes glazed over in some extraordinary form of spiritual decomposition. He looked through the Captain, "I miss you, Robin." He said, remembering a voice, faint, high like a bell, and forever curious. Beautiful, dutiful, the greatest parts of a union of a clown and a housewife.
"Throw me to The Pit, then. My son lies there too."
|
|
|
|
Post by rosallora on Mar 3, 2020 21:03:23 GMT -8
The captain seizes up the jester as the viking pushed the length of steel further into the beast. There was a cry, both thrashing, and the woman knocks the man overboard, merciless. He'd wasted enough of her time. The crew's time. Damned musicians.
The water splashes white, and red foam splashes about the base of the serpent.
The beast's vision was hazy and viciously unclear. It has no choice but to strike out blindly, its whole form convulsing. Its scales gave way to the wound, and underneath Volundr, everything was red, the moonlight reflecting sanguine shine. It wavers in the air, barely able to keep conscious as Volundr's sword does its work, sliding true to home.
It begins to plummet, the remaining eye rolling back into its skull as the men in the boat begin to pull the ropes tighter, keeping it from sinking too far into the deep.
|
|
|
|
Post by Bloodtrailkiller on Mar 5, 2020 6:38:11 GMT -8
/Lekalis/
The thrill of a slaying was as inevitable as the tide, though the fire in his blood was faded, it burned still even as he'd cast one of many harpoons out towards the serpent. Watching Volundr ride the beast with aught but blade and muscle, the Ex-Lord could almost ignore the deathly deep they all floated upon, and the monster that had sent the man to such a legendary pose.
If bur for a moment, Lekalis felt a spriteful smile curl his lips as he looked on with a glint in his eye.
Though it faded just as quickly as he realized victory wasn't yet in hand, the day wasn't done, and blood might still need to be shed. With a small sniffle, he found his breath again and assumed to join the crew in pulling the ropes; finding a length of rope to hold onto and heave with the measures of the rest of the men...
|
|
|
|
Post by EloHim on Mar 7, 2020 10:08:14 GMT -8
[Volundr]
The thrill, the exhilaration, the blood pumping through his veins. He did it. HE KILLED THIS BEAST.
But now...it was falling into the depths. Thank the gods he didn't tie himself down, else he would go down into the deep with the Serpent. He pushes with his legs away from the beast as he jumps down into the waters. His job was done. He did what the gods willed him to do.
Not as mad as it could’ve been, but… You win some, you lose some.
Viking swims towards the ship. Maybe the squid man will help again, maybe not…
Now all he needed was some warmth, a stiff drink and some rest...Gods know the whole climbing,throwing,swimming and stabbing was taking its toll on his body.
|
|
|
|
Post by Kidney on Mar 8, 2020 22:21:53 GMT -8
The captain seizes up the jester as the viking pushed the length of steel further into the beast. There was a cry, both thrashing, and the woman knocks the man overboard, merciless. He'd wasted enough of her time. The crew's time. Damned musicians.
The slam of face to frothy sea woke Hugo from his state. But it seemed all too late. He screamed into the vacant water, the endless blue deep choking down his cries of terror. His eyes shot open, looking up tpo the surface, flexing and moving like the skin of a great beast. Hugo heard the movement of all things around him, the bottoms of the boats, the oars, the beast to his far left.
His thrashed towards the surface, but found little purchase, remaining fairly six feet down, but not rising or falling, moving some cruel direction leftward. |
|
|
|
Post by rosallora on Mar 14, 2020 6:02:34 GMT -8
The creature was in its final twitches when Volundr hit the water, the man's form slicing through the blue-black. He emerges from a cloud of bubbles and finds the surface of the water, swimming his way back towards Lekalis and Jonah.
Tobin appears quickly, having not left the water. His extra limbs make the work of hauling the viking back into the boat easy, dumping him in, sopping wet, as if he was no more than a sack of grapes.
"Augh," Jonah looks down at the man who tumbles into the prow. "...Well done."
The men across the small stretch of water yell, their hooks leeching red into the sea, dragging the creature closer. It would be terrible, now that the task was done, to lose the quarry to the deep.
The monster of a man disappears below the surface of the water.
Jonah stands, instructing the men to make quick with their hooks and lines. And with the creature still and prone, it's easy enough to start the process of dragging it back to the Ursa. The moon was high, and there was a chill off the ocean that sent a shiver through all, looking at the thing before them, never intended to be tamed nor felled by human hands. And here it was.
Ondeck, Tavi looks wordlessly at her captain. And Faerth has no response for her.
-
Hugo hears... something.
In the depths of the water there was a melody. Some tune unsung by mortal ears, some arpeggio crafted of foam and deep and bubble. His waterlogged clothes pull him down, unmasked; the burn scars long etched on his face are kissed by the saltwater around him. Soothed, maybe, or mockingly pecked upon. The world was different from below, he discovers, when his eyes gazed skywards, and there was a new sky, a silver ceiling, an impenetrable glass casing which he'd never see the other side of again.
And that sound, again. Perhaps it was only the final gasp, seeing each droplet of air forced from his lungs, perhaps that last gasp was the sound - or just the prelude to it. He chokes, he gurgles, and water passes through him like air should, and he plummets, and it is darker, and it is deeper, and it is colder. And the world wasn't quiet, not yet. It was a full orchestral rush, panic in woodwind and doom in drumming heartbeat. Pain wracks him, every nerve ending screaming for the one thing he cannot have, and the sky is a web of white light, and his eyes are wide and uncomprehending. There is nothing left to fill.
And the sound, again. The sound of something dying, the sound taken from him by the water, dispersed into itself, recycled into eddies and crests that he will never live to see. The deep sound of the tide pulls him, he is at once swallowed by the ocean and invaded by it: he is dark water. The moon is a half-disc, trembling and wavering to him like the outstretched fingertips that quake against the sea's pressure.
The sea below is silent.
|
|
|
|
Post by EloHim on Mar 18, 2020 12:04:02 GMT -8
[Volundr]
"Ough...Thanks, squidman. Next pint of whatever - is on me."- he says, getting up and stretching after being dumped back on the boat. He wasn't gonna hurry to do more work. He did his part. Whatever they were gonna say in the tavern or on the ship, whatever the crew's gonna think - Volundr knew.He knew that if not for his and squidman's efforts - that snake would've slipped through their fingers.
He picks up his shield from where he left it, placing it on his back. Now to get the hammer back from Hickory.
"You bet yer salt-ridden breeches it was a good job. That fucker would've thrashed for another hour, or just left you with a large piece of his scaly hide." - he looks to the ship. - "Especially considering how successful the shots from the ship have been." - Harpoon launchers. HA. Funniest jokes in the sea have been said that day. Somebody didn't earn his pay today.
“The squidman. What’s his name?” - he realises that he didn't bother to learn it the first time. Or he simply forgot… no matter.
|
|
