A Pirate's Life For Me

A while back, Kaydon had been contracted by one of the leaders of the Fourland Dukedom to help bring down a pirate crew that had been terrorizing the shipping lanes. Things had gone sideways when the Palace Lands had attacked, but with the process of freeing Mac Anu well underway, and with Kaydon's main focus of Shibuya being recovered, he had finally gotten to work on tracking the pirates down.

Passage had been arranged to the island off the west coast of the Dukedom, the ship's captain standing near the gangplank of his ship, talking to Kaydon, "I tell you again, I'm not going to linger around that island any longer than I have to. You'll want to signal for me to return once you have finished your business. Or if you don't I'll assume you're all dead."

The gnoll were fang frowned faintly at that last line, "So little trust in us, Captain? Don't worry, you'll get your signal once we're done, and I expect we'll have plenty of cargo for you to haul back." Kaydon had sent out messages to fellow Adventurers he knew he could trust, since this would be the first time anyone had ventured out to Byalan Island since it had been taken over by the pirates.

    Oh Yay. Pirates. Flashbacks of One Particular Dungeon comes to mind, but thankfully it seems today they won't have to worry about it. Woo. Also on the boat, not far from Kaydon, Arashi is busy keeping an eye on the island that is the group's target. "I don't think I've been on this one.." she muses as she takes a few quick notes for some charting later..

"Trust me, when it's time for a signal, it will be hard to miss." Unlike Kauchemar herself, who as usual seems to be easy to not notice until she's standing there waiting to be noticed as she joins the conversation. Pirates may not be as big of a threat as the Palace Land, but they're still a threat, especially if they start interfering with getting supplies to keep hold of Eas or Shibuya, or the Dukeland navies trying to move into position near Mac Anu. So she's taken the time out of whatever other business she had in the region to make sure her friends make it out of this scrap relatively hale and hearty.

Standing on the dock in his polished plate mail, Curtana might not have seemed the type of person wanting to go searching for pirate treasure. It's the fact that the pirate treasure itself is cursed that certainly drew his attention. He's no cleric or priest of the Goddesses, but the simple knight does happen to have a talent when it comes to light magic. That, and he's already getting a few ideas on what to do with the treasure they do bring back.

Turning his gaze away from the boat, he starts to board the ship over the gangplank, and nods his head to the captain in greeting. "The good captain is just doing what is safe for himself and his ship. Just have a little faith in us, good sir. We'll be fine."

The captain takes a good look at the gathered group, and then heads up the gangplank, issuing orders to his crew to weigh anchor as soon as the adventurers are aboard. Kaydon grins towards Arashi, "That's because it's not on any official lists yet. Call this one an off the books job, to make sure it's doable first."

Once they're all on the ship, Kaydon takes some time to address his fellow adventurers, "So the pirates we're heading off to face have been massing a ton of stolen treasure, which I will warn you now is cursed. I don't know the exact nature of the curse, but I think it might turn you undead. Like that movie. Our objective is to recover as much of the treasure as we can, and return it to Mac Anu's cathedral to be cleansed. Obviously the second part of that is going to prove a bit difficult, so for the moment I have secured a storage location we can use until Mac Anu can be fully liberated."

As they approach the island, the crew prepares a set of long boats for them to take to shore. The island itself actually seems peaceful, quiet. Too quiet, in fact.

The group needs to find the entrance to the pirate's lair, perhaps it is that large, ominous, skull looking cave over there? Nah there's no way it's that easy, right?

"Oooh, cursed treasure. Spooky." Kauchemar refrains from doing the spoopy finger waggles because this is suppose to be a serious mission.

She doesn't need to use a boat, but she takes a ride with the others simply because not using her waterwalking stunt conserves her mana that she is very likely going to need anyways. So for now, she will bide her time. Those that have seen her duel know she's very good at that despite her bombastic attitude. Nope, calm bard right now, waiting until the longboat is upon the beach before stepping off, sand crunching lightly beneath hooves. She looks one way, looks another way. Taps the butt of her staff on the sandy shore. "Yep, it's an island. Pretty obscure, just like you said." Which is about all she has to offer at the moment.

    And off to the boats. And onto shore. Of an island with a giant skull? Seriously? "...Points for originality..." pirates and their skulls. Why can't they be building killer robots instead? Either way, once the boats are on shore, Arashi slips ahead to take a look around. After a bit of rummaging, "... Oh hey.." Then she waves to the others, "I think I found something over here!"

The journey over to the pirate island is a simple journey. It is a little surprising since it's supposed to be a pirate island, but perhaps the pirates are trying to be sneaky. It could be a first, especially since the treasure is supposed to be cursed. That would keep all but the most foolhardy of Adventurers away. "Hopefully we can retrieve enough to make the journey worthwhile. Once it's properly uncursed, it should be easy to put it to good use."

The journey on the island itself doesn't have any strange goingons as well, which is certainly curious. No matter where the Pooka turns his gaze, there doesn't appear to be any obvious signs that the pirates were making this island their base. Maybe they were on the wrong island altogether? But it seems like Arashi might have spotted something. "It's better than just wondering around aimlessly. Lead the way!"

Arashi manages to find a door, surprisingly well hidden behind a false rock wall. Kaydon comes over to take a look, and motions some of the others over as well, "Definitely something here.." He gives the false wall a push, only to find it is actually unlocked? Surprising, but he pushes the door open anyway into the dark cavern of the lair.

It would seem however that a group of pirates were heading to one of their ships for a raid, because there is a fair sized group of undead pirates standing in the cavern as the adventurers open the door and stumble inside.

There is a few moments of pause as both sides stare at each other, neither group really seeming to believe that just happened, but that moment lasts for just a second, before the pirates and their undead hounds rush the adventurers, save for one in the back that looks to be running deeper into the cavern to summon help. The team better take them all down quick.

    Oh. Huh. Cursed pirates. "Hello, there," the warhorse greets during the moment that they're all staring at one another before they come rushing for the party. Starshadow comes around, both blades glowing white before she lashes out at anyone that comes close. Light training vs Undead? Super Effective.

The pirates are just as surprised to see them as they are to find an entrance.

"The sea dogs have actual dogs, go figure." Well, Kauchemar can deal with that. She pulls a chunk of meat she keeps handy for feeding things and throws it, intending for the monsterous hounds to get in a fight over it instead of harassing them.

It doesn't quite work as one dog gulps it down almost whole, and the others turn to glare at the Nightmare wanting their share and pondering what horse meat would actually taste like.

"Doggone it." Kauchemar very quickly sidesteps behind the rest of the group before she can get mobbed. "I'm not a bottomer, no dogpiles!"

As the hidden entryway opens up thanks to Arashi and Kaydon, Curtana readies himself and makes sure that his longsword and shield are ready for what is likely to be a journey through barely lit tunnels and occassionally dealing with a watching pirate. Evildoers like these need to be brought to justice.

But as they step inside and nearly come face to face with a large group of undead pirates, Curtana couldn't help but think back to the movie comment. If this was just like that series, there would be some comedic music playing. When the stunned silence breaks, the Knight is quick to rush to the frontlines, banging his sword onto his shield to draw more attention to himself. "I got you, Kauchemar!" Charging forward with his shield leading the way, Curtana slams into the pack of undead dogs, sending several flying from the impact.

The pirates were not expecting a crack team of Adventurers to walk through their hidden door, so that moment of surprise is enough for the group to engage them. Arashi tears through two right away, and then others that attack are quickly cut down by Starshadow. Kauchemar finds herself a bit overwhelmed, but soon Curtana comes to the rescue, slamming the undead dogs into pixels as they're brought low.

Kaydon himself crosses after to the fleeing pirate, striking them down with his gunblade before they can call for help, and then returns to the rest of the group in order to finish off the last of the pirates. Once the group has been dealt with, Kaydon motions to the direction the pirate had been running off to for help, and begins to head down that way.

The group works their way through lantern and torch lit hallways, until they come across a massive oak doorway, definitely not a natural part of the cave. Checking the door, Kaydon finds it unlocked, and in the back of the room is an old woman, the witch dripping wet and covered in seaweed. She looks up from the potion she had been working at, the vial of sea water and blood held in her hand as she approached the group.

She looks tough, they'll need to strike her down, counter her magic, or just do their best to defend until they can bring her health low. Better be careful of the ocean magics she controls!

That could of gone better. It also could of gone worse, so we'll just take what it is and move on.

Down torchlit passages and behind wood doors, to find... A sea hag? A soothsayer? Someone with divination powers would explain how the Pirates knew where to sail and when to strike. Or maybe she's reading too much into another monster being dropped in their path.

Whatever she is, the seaweedy witch starts calling the powers of the ocean to her aid, sending a minature tidal wave surging across the room.... Which Kauchemar jumps upon, using the ability she had conserved earlier to easily land on the crest and slide down the backside of the rolling current, reversing the waves' roll to follow her away from the party as she does.

The hag may be a Seer but that is one of the last thing's she ever saw coming, and the unpredictablity gives Kauchemar the oppritunity to smack her hard with the horned skull atop her staff.

Oh, hey, sea witch? Sure. When Arashi finds her way into the same room, she figures that maybe her affinity with water will be a bit beneficial for a moment, considering the nature of their magic. "So-"

        She was quite wrong.

Not even a full second after she managed one syllible, Arashi finds herself flung into the cave wall by a potent blast of water from the hag. "Ow..." So much for that. They'll let Kauchemar handle this one as the warhorse regathers her senses from the floor. Ouf.

With the raiding party taken care of in short order, the hedge knight can feel proud that they took care of a future threat. And best of all, the alarm hasn't been raised!

The tunnels are better lit than Curtana had been expecting, and a part of him is disappointed he wouldn't be searching through a pirate's lair with a torch in one hand. But on the positive side, it means that they can clearly see the disgusting state that the sea witch is in when they walk inside her room-...wait, that's not a positive.

Sea water comes to the Witch's call as if it was as simple as breathing, and Arashi receives the brunt of one magical spray of sea foam. Standing his ground in front of Arashi, an incoming sea wave slams into the knight, but it might as well be crashing against the rocks for all the good it does her. Giving a nod towards Arashi, Curtana does his best to hold his ground so Arashi can recover her feet.

The Sea Seer was not expecting to encounter a water mage more powerful than her, so having her tidal wave attack turned around on her catches her off guard. Unfortunately for Arashi and Kaydon they both can't manipulate the water quite as well as Kauchemar does, both of them knocked against the wall by the wave, drenched from head to toe.

Curtana's perfect defense allows them all to get back into the fight, using Kauchemar's distraction from the wave to get in there. The fight rages for a few moments, but the sea seer goes down and dissipates into water and pixels.

With her defeated, the group can return to the main hallways and continue deeper into the cavern. The sound of a raucous crowd can be heard down the tunnel for some time before they reach the bar. Seems that before the pirates were cursed, this was their tavern, and curse or no, they've decided to continue 'living' it up when not out raiding. They'll need to sneak past them, or distract them with more booze and song. Anything to allow the group to get across to the door on the other side of the tavern.

Stupid sea witch. Arashi slowly gets back onto her hooves, thanking Curtana with a nod before dusting herself off and retrieving Starshadow from the floor. "That .. could have went better," she muses before watching Kauchemar do her thing. She is not surprised. "Good, good. Considering our training I'd have been surprised if you couldn't handle that," Arashi points out before moving on with everyone else.

Why does she hear a sea shanty? Oh. .. The undead pirates are still drinking and partying like they weren't cursed. Handy. Since there's a lot, and she isn't about to join Kauchemar in what SHE KNOWS KAU IS ABOUT TO DO, she just vanishes from sight, melding into the shadows, to slip around the large group. At least she'll turn around, somewhere, and watch.

Equine ears perk up at the sound of carousing, and sure enough, they come upon the pirate's drunken off-duty lounge. She holds up a hand to the rest of the group and whispers "Give me one moment~" Before gripping her staff and stepping into the room. Grindcore Staff is held out before her as she's already weaving her bardic magic through it to amplify the shanty and the merrymaking. The entire room gets a bit darker as it's power stretches out shadows, using them like puppets against the wall to act along with the song and get more attention.

o/~ Hold your head up, keep your head up, hold your sword up! Fight fight fight!
When you sleep keep one eye open; know your friends but watch them tight.

Hope I loaded my gun... I know I'm loaded with rum... Fear is low but I hap'n to know the world is loaded with scum
rHope I loaded my gun... I know I'm loaded with rum... Fear is low but I hap'n to know the world is loaded with scum! o/~


With that distraction even the most unsneaky of adventurers should be able to creep through, Kauchemar keeping their attention on the song and the shadowpuppet show turning into a vicious brawl until she finally steps out the far side of the room herself.

Curtana gives Arashi a small grin and a thump on his breastplate. "I'm just doing my job, that's all. I'm just happy to help out here." He's honestly better with his kite shield than he is with his sword, but that just means he's exactly the knight he wants to be. Protector, not a crusader. "Besides, i'm sure you'll pay me back by saving me later anyways. Just got to look out for one another."

Oh. There's certainly a lot more pirates here than there were in the raiding party. Must be a pretty large group hiding away inside this island. But that also means there's too many to fight now. Kauchemar raises up quite a show with her song, which helps to muffle the worst of Curtana's platemail clanking about as he moves. It just shows you never notice how loud your armor is until you need to move quietly.

Arashi is able to vanish into the shadows of the room, leaving her able to watch the veritable show that Kauchemar puts on for the pirates. She completely enthralls the entire crowd of pirates, Curtana and Kaydon could probably walk across the room banging pots and pans for how well Kauchemar draws them in.

Kaydon snags a bottle of rum on their way through, and the group is able to get to the exit without any trouble. This tunnel, however, definitely leads to the pirate captain's lair, it's easy to tell by the decorations. The huge door with the golden skull and crossbones on it.

The door is opened, and there on a throne set atop a pile of gold is Captain Deadbeard. He has an apple in his hand, as he looks across at the Adventurers, "You must be the ones who've been causing all that trouble." He rises up from his seat, drawing his massive cutlass as his health bars fill up. This isn't going to be an easy fight from the looks of it!

        BOSS TIME. ALERT ALERT ALERT.

Or does that just happen in other games? Either way, the big boss of the pirate band rises from his throne, and the fight is had. This is the sort of thing Arashi comes into the dungeons for, and here she goes, fighting another boss, but at least she isn't alone. As the Cutlass comes swinging, the warhorse tries to deflect the blade with Starshadow before lashing out with the weapon. "Yes, more trouble than you can handle!"

The downside to that showstopper is that it's put a big dip in Kauchemar's reserves, she's not going to be able to power something like that on this venture a second time. So hopefully they won't need it!

But it might be okay, as it looks like Captain is just a straight up fight in general. Abiet with a huge amount of health bars. "Don't worry, I've still got a few bars on fire to spit yet." She takes advantage of her staff's channeling ability, holding it forward like some kind of cannon and unleashing a gout of fire from the skull's open jaw. Even salty sea pirates don't like fire apparently, as the Captain is quick to leap out of the way as she sets his fancy pirate throne on fire instead! "Oops. Well, I guess now it's a hot seat."

Maybe she better leave fighting to her estwhile companions. Kauchemar backs off, instead focusing on using her bardic skills and dark magics to keep her allies from getting cursed or other nasty things like that, until they finally drop the scurvy scallawag. She's going to have to make sure the treasure doesn't curse anyone on the way back, too. Fortunately curses are kind of one of her specialties, and that also means countering them.

Despite all of Curtana's best efforts, his armor refuses to muffle itself in the slighest, making his passage a noisy one. Somehow, it only seem to add to Kauchemar's performance, or perhaps the undead pirates were drunk enough to not even realize it. Nevertheless, he's not going to question his good luck here. "I wonder if someone could make stealthy plate mail...might have to invest in that in the future."

The massive door with the golden skull on the face of it screams 'undead pirate captain in charge'. Not literally, that would be a really annoying security system they would have to deal with.

As the undead captain charges the group, Curtana lights up his longsword with a Firebrand before throwing it through the air. It's a burning brand aimed right for the captain's skull, which he is more than happy to swat out of the air with his hook. Disarmed before his blade's trick could come into play, Curtana holds up his shield with both of his hands and charges forward. With the battle now joined, there's no chance to retrieve it until they're done!

Captain Deadbeard is not an easy fight, but the group isn't a bunch of push overs either. Kaydon rushes the boss as soon as the fight starts, immediately lashing out with the gunblade and sending the pirate captain backwards. Curtana's blade being lost, and every attempt to recover it being blocked by the pirate captain and that dangerous hook of his, the group having to dodge and weave and not being as successful at that as maybe they could be.

The group is able to use their abilities, working together to bring the captain down, who curses them with his dying breath despite not having a breath or actually really dying, but as he disappears he leaves his hook behind, and the piles of gold.

Kaydon rests against the wall after its over, "Okay. That was not as easy as I expected. And I doubt that's the last we'll see of him." They know how undead can be, especially in this game. Still, the gold is there for the taking now, "Gather what you can, just be careful not to touch it until it gets un-cursed." Maybe grabbing a chest or two would be good.

On the bright side, there's a door and stairway in the back of the chamber that leads towards the surface. A nice quick escape route where they can signal their friendly captain from the shore to get picked back up

"Oh, I can make that easy enough." Kauchemar engages some summoner shenanigans. "ALL HANDS ON DECK! HEAVE AN' HO!" Undead she's not going to risk, so instead she calls in a few Binders posessing gauntlets that can grab and lift one of the larger chests. They're ghosts animating armor, they're not going to be phased by any curses much.

Even in undeath, Captain Deadbeard is a truly vicious foe. Without his main sword in hand and being pressured by the Captain so he couldn't draw a second blade, Curtana wasn't fighting at his best in this battle. Despite it all, however, the party manages to finally triumph against the painful privateer.

Letting out a long sigh of relief as the captain finally shatters, the Pooka knight pulls his sword free from the ground where it had been thrown and sheaths it back by his side. "Anyone need any healing? I brought extra potions, just in case." Curtana materalizes several potions and pointedly drinks one of the vials of red liquid.

It seems Kauchemar has the hauling part all handled, even if the sight of using limbless gauntlets lifting the treasure up the stairway is an odd one. "We best make sure the captain warns his crew away from the treasure once we get back on board. I wouldn't want any of his crew getting this curse as well."

With the captain defeated and the treasure gathered thanks to the efforts of Kauchemar, the group makes their way back up to the shore, where Kaydon is able to set up the signal fire. The longboats return and pick them up, and Kaydon ensures that he warns the captain and crew from touching any of it once they're aboard, thanks to Curtana's warning. Once they're safely back on the mainland, Kaydon gets the chests into a cart and escorts them back to the storage facility he'll be keeping it at, but not before thanking everyone for helping out.