Pirates of the Palace Land

Palace Lands, West Coast

It was a bay of some sort nothing special about it save one thing the ship had it's anchor down and there were crewmen on the shores cutting down trees. On a closer inspection, the ship has suffered a good deal of damage and it seems this vessel has been put in for repairs.

The intel was right it's the right ship for one and one can see the targets, well one of the targets is the Ship's Captain Llyn Cefnfor. Who on the Palace Land got into Welsh?! Seriously that's an aggressively Welsh setup for the name. It could be on part with a certain mecha game series love of naming things in German, so who knows.

Still it matches up and she's on the deck, of the ship barking orders it should be easy enough to use a small boat to get aboard with the crew so distracted. After all, the blue-haired and tanned Undine woman is not paying attention as she needs to over see this whole mess after all.

It was a risky mission, but the oppritunity was too good to pass up. Any little thing they could do to weaken the Palace Land's naval forces would be a big step in the long run. So far, the tip was proving to be accurate.

Hopefully the pirates were too busy with their shipwrighting to notice the bird that flew overhead. Not that birds were unusual... but if someone looked too closely they might notice it hadn't been a bird combined with some other animal. Said bird glided away to land on the bow of the rowboat as Shiruba tucked the Blue Whistle that allowed her to see through her animal companion's eyes back into a pouch. "Confirmed, the captain is still aboard. But be cautious, she won't be alone. But now's our chance while they're occupied."

Uta furore is here in the Palace Lands. Here in the Palace Lands on a mission. On a mission to find mushrooms. For medical research!

It just so happened that while here, she caught wind of another mission where Adventurers could have been of use, and so, without hesitation, she set course for her goal, and pursued it with dogged determination.

And so here she is, atop a rocky outcrop that works as a decent vintage point. Granted, it's just a few feet above the surrounding ground, where the rest of her party has likely congregated, but still, it's higher than the surrounding area. It counts! Ask any cat!

"Hmmmm," Uta mumbles, while the salty wind ruffles her hair and makes her sklirt flutter. "I think this is not the Shrine of the Monkey King quest." She turns to another member of the party. "...Palace Land Shrines don't have captains, right?"

Weakening the Palace Lands' sea support is certainly a good idea, so whenever intel came in about a ship flying their flag was in a bay cutting trees down for repairs? One samurai jumped at the chance to help out and give aid. Plus, while he may not be a ninja, this does fit in closely to the old debate of pirates versus ninjas. Samurai need to get in on this battle as well.

Helping manning the oars of the small rowboat the group has certainly been interesting, but rushing down the pirates on land with a small task force? It would lead to a long and drawn out battle with numbers not in their favor. Sneaking up on their flank was worth the discomfort of having to row constantly, and he was even taking care not to make any large splashes.

"Whew...good. Glad this wasn't all for nothing. Let's see if we can restrain her and drag her away...man, that sounds weird coming out of my mouth." Another pull of the oars sends the rowboat that bit closer to their goal, and Klein turns his head around to give Uta a questioning look. "Preeety sure they don't, what brought this on?"

It was good timing it might be the best chance to deal with this fairly infamous ship Captain. There was one thing though9 she was not ready to deal with the infamous chaos elemental of Yamato, Uta.

Someday if the party pulls this off and Llyn finds out about Klein's comment? She might actually laugh but for now, the party get the boat up against the ship and they have not been spotted, good luck. Shiruba now knows the captain is at the stern of the ship all they had to do was board and bum-rush her right now.

The boat gets up to the side of the ship and now all they need to do is get up onto the deck to confront the Captain.

Physical 8 , Sneak 7 , Magic 10

Shiruba takes out a pair of arrows with a rope tied to them. Which she fires up to snag into the railing of the ship, tangling around the rail like a bolo to pull tight, and give her a decently anchored line to climb up. And a lot less flashy that any of her magical arrows would of been and possibly attract attention.

"Uh... don't... worry about that," Uta replies to Klein. And then she adds, "Don't let Fuka know you said that. Or Morri." Shudder.

* * *

*THUD*

As the boat reaches the designated point, from the Palace Lands ship, the silhouette of a Spriggan is barely visible while it silently zips up into the sky; the whole bridge rocks as Uta aces a perfect three-point-landing onto the bridge, glaring at Llyn. "Your reign of terror ends here, capt- wait." She straightens up and looks left and right, one hand in front of her mouth. "Uh... er... sec."

Down she jumps, back into the boat.

The silhouette of a Spriggan is barely visible while it silently zips up into the sky; the whole bridge rocks as Uta aces a perfect three-point-landing onto the bridge. Carrying a -rock- this time. And still glaring at Llyn. "Your reign of terror ends here, captain Llyn."

She places the rock she was standing on while on the boat next to her. "Sorry, you know, it's just, this is just a nice rock that I'd hate to part from it. Look at it. It looks jagged, whipped and cracked by the elements, yet has this smoothness at the top, it's perfect for perching on and-" Blink.

"Your reign of terror is over, captain Llyn! AND THAT'S IT!"

Assume martial arts combat stance, spinning her magical staff whose red gem looks like an anatomically correct crystallized heart.

A shudder goes down the samurai's spine and he nods. "Fuka would tease me about that. And no way I want to end up on the Wall. I heard the stories!"

-----

Klein carefully moves the rowboat up against the larger vessal and lets out a sigh as nothing seems to have changed up above. Trying to get on board is going to be interesting, to say the least, but Klein has an idea he been wanting to try from an older video game. If a guy wearing bright white robes and a hood can sneak aboard a ship, so can he!

That might be all well and good in a video game, but ETO has proven time and time again it can be realistic when it wants to be. A loud thud sounds out after a large leap from Klein upwards, and he winces. The scabbard of his katana had landed against the hull, and the pesudo-samurai has to hold in a curse. Here's hoping he didn't just blew it with that.

Thankfully, a certain Spriggan is far louder than he is and creates quite a distraction, and Klein makes the rest of the way on board without incident. Running just ahead of Uta, he draws his katana and smoothly moves into an offensive stance, blade held overhead. "Going have to ask you to come with us, Captain, but I know you're not in the right mood for a pleasure cruise at the moment. We'll be gentle enough."

The party can hear the voice of Llyn barking orders and by luck, she ends up alone for the moment as a subordinate head out to deliver her current order then comes Uta. Llyn is not prepared she stares for a moment her mouth hangs open in dumbfound shock as she stares at this Spriggan she just stares a moment longer.

"REIGN OF TERROR?!" She is unaware of Shiruba and she now stares at Klein for a moment she looks at him as she goes for her weapon some kind of spear.

"YOU DARE BOARD MY SHIP! YOU DARE TO PRESUME YOU CAN CART ME OFF LIKE SOME KIND OF PRESS-GANG?!"

She slams the base of the spear into the ground.

"GET OFF MY SHIP!"

Then comes the rains jagged shards of ice are raining down on the attackers as she calls out.

"WE HAVE BEEN BOARDED!"

Windburn has it the easiest of the bunch, just being able to fly up. But the falcon is quickly affronted by, what else, a pirate's parrot. We'll just leave the two birds to have their BIRB BATTOL in the background.

Shiruba held back while the others confronted the Captain. Not out of any sort of cowardice, but just because her tactical strength was at a distance. As such she utters under her breath and stomps a foot to the ground, igniting an aura of candy red flames around herself, one of the magic defenses Fukaziroh taught her. This one was specifically attuned to Fire to resist Water and Ice magic, which it does. Leaving a bit of steam around her.

While shielded she draws an arrow back in her longbow and fires it towards the Captain, where it explodes in a blinding flash, an attempt to disorient her for the others.

A captain of a ship using a spear? That's pretty unorthodox and goes against the grain of whenever anyone thinks of seadogs. Then again, you don't generally see spearusers, despite how verstatile the weapons were. Klein doesn't get to think more about this as the captain...calls down a rain of ice shards?! "I thought you were trying to fix your ship, not break it!"

As the ice projectiles rain down, the redheaded samurai seems to be doing decently well in dodging. But like the rain, it drizzles and then it pours down, several red cuts appearing on Klein as he fails to stay dry under the frozen assault. But he hasn't been standing still during this time and has been moving forward to close the gap. A tornado of cutting wind forms down the length of the curved sword, and the scruffy samurai delivers several rapid cuts with steel and air alike.

"Press gang?", Uta asks in confusion. She looks at Klein and Shiruba. "No, no, we are not from the press," she dismisses with a wave of her free hand. "We do not run a newspaper or anything like that." Look up and away. "...although that is not a bad idea, actually, now that you mention it. I don't think we have anything like that...", she trails off. Silence. Reflection. "...note to self, find someone to mention this idea to."

Back to being all serious business. "No.", she states, firm, with a steady gaze on the Crowned Captain. She SLAMS one foot on the deck; and we all know what happens when a martial artist delivers a sharp blow to a plank: neatly broken, the former piece of floor spins in the air, and Uta grabs it. "*NOW* you're being boarded," as she lunges to slam the wooden item straight into Llyn.

The Captin is just assailed by some of the most adept players in Yamato. She's reeling but she's not down yet there is a fire in the woman's eyes. She doesn't seem to be done as she'll move. She's blinded for a moment the attacks have been tearing her up pretty good, but she's tough she's not down yet. She replies to dinner.

"Without a theater show and a dinner first!? What kind of woman do you take me for?!"

She replies to Klein.

"It will do me no good to be taken by you!"

She's shaky on her feet as she readies her next attack as punches into the ground.

"GRAND CROSS!"

The entire area about them turns into a giant cross made of light magic and attempts to ravage them all.

"Remember, we want to subdue her." Shiruba brings up a second defensive art, but this one doesn't directly oppose the technique the Pirate Captain is using and the collision of light against light sends her skidding back across the deck. She huffs, tail frizzling a bit more in aggitation. "Was expecting more water..." she mutters to herself. Oversight. Will worry about that later.

Another arrow is nocked back in her longbow, this time charging with some of the bow's storm fueled magic. "Time to take the wind out of your sails, captain." She fires the elementally charged arrow, the force of a storm channeled into a single shot.

Uta attempts to dodge out of the way, but this is one of those cases where she zigged when she should have used a proper barrier instead of zigzagging. It's an Area of Effect attack! Use shields, dangit! That's precisely the reason why you've gone on a Shield training!

Well, ok, no, it was because dodging magical arrows was problematic and shielding them probably made more sense. There also was the thing with Shirin and the slimes. But it's details.

Uta's attempt at dodging barely limit the ravaging she undergoes. Her HP bar drops, and the magical energies still linger on her as she, now on her knees, sees her HP begin to dip into the red.

Trembling, she gets back on one knee. Pushes herself up holding onto her staff. Teeters in place, as if she was about to fall any moment...

...and then zips into the shadows, as Spriggans are wont to. Sneaky Spriggans.

At this point, an opponent would likely start watching their own back; that's where the attack is most likely to come from. But what happens next is not what people expect.

What happens, instead, is that Klein will feel a sharp, piercing pain coming out of nowhere. And hear a whisper: "Go. Do what I can't."

Because while everyone will be looking for the Spriggan to jump out from the Shadows, nobody will expect the so-deep-in-the-red Samurai to be considered as good as dead to make a comeback...

Klein has always been an up and close fighter with how much he leans completely into being a samurai. Though a bit too much into the sword aspect, as samurai were just as skilled with the bow. An aspect he's regretting at the moment as the pirate captain punches the deck of her ship and sends up a pillar of light. "...aww crap." Steeling his body and holding the flat of his katana, he tries to brace himself to be at the epicenter of the light spell.

His body burning and him slamming into the mast is a clear sign that didn't quite work. "I know, but she's not making it easy..." Wincing, he notices that his HP is dipping into the single percents now, far too low for comfort. No wonder they were sent to capture this captain, she's quite vicious just by herself. She'll be a real menace on the seas with her crew behind her.

Before he could think on how he's going to get everyone out of here alive, a sudden stab of pain from behind causes him to gasp, but Uta's words has him rechecking his HP. It was climbing back up steadly? Kungfu nurse to the rescue! "I owe you a drink later, that's for sure." Whispering back to Uta, Klein sheathes his blade and takes a roundabout route along the side of the ship. Taking advantage of Shiruba holding Llyn's attention, he alights himself on fire and rushes the captain from behind. Grabbing her tightly from behind, he lifts her up and... "SUPLEX!" ...slams her down headfirst onto the deck of the ship.

Was it something a samurai would do? Not at all, and that's what makes it perfect.

Llyn smirks at Shiruba.

"You want water? You shall get it and you don't have the power to do so! Your kind has to be stopped before you overrun this world!" It looks like she's making for another even as the attacks rain down upon her from her attackers. Uta fades back as she starts to support the rest of the party. The team has a tank and a healer. Looks like this wasn't just a spur-of-the-moment thing.

Shiruba shot strikes home shocking and stunning the Captain she screams as even with the pain dampeners it hurt, Ut does not attack but she does enable the Samurai to get back into the fight. She's grabbed from behind and he flips her slamming her head first onto the deck. If this was earth she might be dead but on this world, she's just about unconscious from a hit like that as she starts to go limp in Klein's grasp.

The Crew is rallying though the party best move quickly.

As soon as Llyn goes down Shiruba turns and fires an ice arrow at the doors to access the innards of the ship, freezing them shut. It will at least slow down the crew from getting onto the main deck for a few more moments. "Klein, can you carry her onto the boat?" Somewhat of a silly question after what he just did but you know, in the moment. "We have to get her to our decrowners before she reawakenes."

As they make for their boat she calls her falcon back (that parrot is MIA.. but considering peregins beat the snot out of other birds regularly....) and withdraws one of her Relics. "I'll heal us up on the way, but we gotta get off this ship fast."

The sailors might recognize it.

The melody wafts in from nowhere in particular. Haunting, crystalline.

It's a song that reaches into people's souls and plucks at their heartstrings. It brings back memories, it brings dreams forth, it brings down all the emotions pent up in a lifetime.

Uta steps out from the shadow, vocalizing like only a Sage of Song can; it's a Song of the Sirens, one Uta studied thoroughly during all those runs of the Phantom Colosseum quest. And it resonates with the gem atop Uta's staff -- the Crystallized heart of a Siren called the Maiden, which allows her to unlock the musical monster's entrancing abilities.

As Uta walks back towards the rim of the ship, ready to jump back into the boat, she walks slowly, quietly, to avoid disrupting the delicate spell she's weaving with her voice; a spell brought to light by the tendrils of light and color that dance on her staff to match the music, in a form of synaesthesia, and focus on the cristal which diffuses it all around the area.

It's only after Klein suplexes Llyn that he realizes that maybe he should leave that to the Godhands. He must have done it improperly since he hurt his back doing that, but for a first time, it worked pretty well. Flipping back onto his feet, he watches the captain for a moment to make sure she wasn't faking it before lifting her up onto his shoulders. Her spear will go into his inventory for now, since no way he's letting her have it again while still Crowned.

"Already on it! Great work there Shiruba, Uta. It was risky but it worked!" Her crewmates were not about to let themselves get back to their rowboats. The shouting and the lightshow from Grand Cross was drawing them out. Materalizing a bow from his inventory real quick, the Samurai goes to the lesser-known path of the samurai. Several arrows stuck to the bow, he pulls back, aims upwards and releases the string. The arrow arc upwards, glint for a moment before multiplying, sending down dozens of arrows slamming downwards into the beach. For those that resisted the call of the Siren, arrows were sure to hold them at bay.

As for Klein and the knocked out Captain? He quickly leaps off, ejecting himself from the ship and landing onto the rowboat from a full sprint, rocking it yet keeping it afloat. Laying her down quickly, he waits until Uta and Shiruba get onboard before he starts rowing with all that he's worth. "Let's get out of here before they show just how kind they are!"

The song Uta sings she's able to weave a spell that will leave the crew distracted and unable to respond to them given the trip they are on thanks to the power of her Song. The arrows will injure or otherwise keep back the crew who are on the beach long enough for them to make their getaway with Shanghaied Llyn. She's groaning but alive, also yes she's certainly an Undine, one might catch sight of the gills in her neck while they are carrying her away like this. Only one other person in the world would get how ironic this fate is.

The day is saved. The Captain, captured. The crowd, controlled. The gateway boat, ready, and now at a safe distance from the ship. All is well, and nothing can spoil the idyllic-

"My rock!", exclaims Uta, in a panic. She leans over the far edge of the boat, over the wake, like a hound pointing at a pray, as she waves her hand frantically towards the pirate ship. "We have to go back to get my rock!"