The Gladiator's Camp: Maidensong Isle

     The city of Tokushima, with its relatively small dock. It wasn't exactly huge, but considering this was going to be a vessel /just/ for adventurers, and not a large party to begin with, it didn't need to be a large dock. Or even a large vessel. There were some basic building materials and a few tents, along with a few adventurers who were already milling about on the dock getting things ready -- likely members of Fukasa's 'network' who she had pulled strings with to get here to help out.

     Fukasa herself was on the dock, waiting to greet people, but also helping out here and there herself, mostly with heavier things that she notices people struggling with, though she's mostly staying near the gathering point where she'd noted for people to come to if they were responding to her attempt to gather a group. The boat itself is... probably a fishing boat, one that is slightly larger than most, but not exactly huge to begin with. Probably about all she could manage to convince to take them out there, and the boat's captain didn't look entirely alright in the head. Also he wasn't on the boat. In fact he was off the boat and didn't seem particularly interested in getting on the boat.

     'Agreed' to let them borrow the boat might even be stretching things a little. In fact it might have been 'if your fool venture gets my boat destroyed you're building me a new one /in addition/ to the money you've already spent on this'. But it's fine. Fuka's just waiting for her party.

Despite her various travels and training montages as of late the word of requiring people with exploration skills still managed to find Shiruba's ears. So the wolfgirl shows up at the boat with several prepared blank parchments and navigation tools at the ready. After sending a message along to her mentor that she was going to be a couple more days in returning. But it's okay. They were going on an expedition deep into monster infested land, after all. Li Ho would (hopefully) appreciate her grabbing the oppritunity to both continue her training in dangerous conditions as well as pursuing her love of exploration.

'A warrior that only fights forgets what he is fighting for,' the old panda had said while showing her around the highland farms he watched over. So right now Shiruba was taken that little token of wisdom to heart as well.

Shiruba stops, reachs into the cluster of parchments to pull out one of the notices requesting cartographers, and waved it in Fukasa's direction. "Hello! You the one looking for extra exploration specialists?"

    Merek will come by to assist with whatever might be needed with the party. The man takes a look about while he draws that longcoat which he wears about. "I'll try to assist in any way that I can," he will offer. There's a look about to the place while he nods a bit along to Fukasa and offers a smile.

    The Baroness Wake is well known in these parts. With the recent surprise construction of the Village of Eas and the conveyance of an official noble title, there's plenty to whisper about. She has grown accustomed to polite treatment and on the way to speak to Fukasa, she speaks to a few familiar landers. As she does, neutral or guarded expressions turn to smiles and even the boat captain is laughing in amusement at something she said.

    But this isn't just a social visit. Wake moves towards Fukasa with a pleased smile curling her lip ever so slightly. It may be noted that Wake is hardly dressed for heavy labor. She looks very much the Baroness, with an elegant, dark green dress and shoes with a polished gleam.

    "Hello Yuri," she intones, gliding into her usual curtsey. "I trust you are doing well."

    Explore? What do they think Odysians aren't around? No exploration without representation! The tall albino girl shows up clad in traditional samurai armor with one large pauldron rather than two. The metal, hide, and silk of the armor has taken on a dark cast, an almost evil feel eminates from the armor and sword Wisteria is currently equipped with. "I needed to get out and do something... and Odysian locked up in a lab for too long is a terrible thing to see in deed....also I apparently smelled terrible." she shrugs "So exploring the unknown is just the thing to shake the crystal dust off."

Goldenblade has come as requested. She had heard there was building to be done, or at least a camp to set up. And she's become Olympus's builder in a de facto sort of way. But she likes the work, so it was a no-brainer to tag along here. She presents herself to Fukasa Yuri, bows, and steps back into the group, she'll make sure the supplies are correctly and safely stowed.

An inventory and evaluation of what's there and what we expect to need is step one, and if that checks out, she'll give a nod to Fukasa.

     Ah good, someone she recognized as being reliable showed up in the form of Shiruba. Yuri lifts her hand to wave towards her with a small smile. "Yes! Right here, I'm Fukasa Yuri, the party organizer and knower of the vague location of the area we're going." She says, dipping her head into a half-bow towards her.
     Merek gets a toothy smile, sharp teeth briefly visible. "I'm sure you'll be a good help, if nothing else between the group of us we can probably get the camp set up without too much trouble."
     Of course Baroness Wake would show up! And she is welcomed with probably the most genuine smile from Yuri, who lifts her hand towards her. "Baroness Wake!" She says, reaching to take the Baroness' hand and press a kiss to the back of it if she allows. "It's always a pleasure to see you. I'm... nervous? Excited? You know. All those little things that happen when working towards one of your goals." She grins towards her.
     Wisteria was there too, a tall albino girl in samurai armor. Wisteria gets a lookover by Fukasa, and an approving nod. "Well, you're welcome to come and do it with us~. And... uhm. ... I don't imagine that you'll smell much better after this. There's bound to be fishmen of some sort involved here." She says with a soft laugh. "But it'll be different from lab stench, hm?"
     And the last but not least arrival was Goldenblade. Someone who was good at building as well! She bows towards Goldenblade as well, "Welcome, Goldenblade. From what I know of you you'll be invaluable for getting the camp set up, we have the stuff for a basic wall and tents, I opted for the 'easily repaired and replaced' method. Logs and such that just need to be bashed into the ground, you know?" She clears her throat. For the most part things were properly in line with what they'd need, beyond there probably isn't enough nails. There's never enough nails. You always need more. But there's theoretically a reasonable amount of nails. Maybe. Probably. Hopefully enough.

     "Anyway, welcome to the Dingy Dirgible, the boat that we will be taking out to the maidensong isle. From the name of the isle we can expect to encounter sirens or something like that, so you might want to be ready to plug your ears. In addition there's a lot of fog, so there's a bit of a ship graveyard around, and a reef around the atoll itself, so if we end up straying into that we'll just... well. Be joining that ship graveyard." Fukasa explains. "Regardless, assuming everyone is ready... let us begin the first leg of our journey?" She says, turning to begin to walk up the plank onto the ship as the last of the supplies (The stuff you want freshest. Fruit, water, breads, and other forms of food for the journey. Sure, it was supposed to only be a day or two, but... the sea can be a harsh mistress) are loaded up.

    Merek will nod a little bit to Fukasa, "I will do what I can. I likely have potions that can be used to assist," the man offers, while he nods a bit to everyone, "I have the trading company, I will offer a few supplies if I can for you all to work with while you're in that Isle."

Shiruba returns the bow in politeness. "Glad to be of service." Then as she stands she tilts her head to Wisteria as the albino samurai explains where she's been lately. "Oh. You had one of -those- moods, did you?" she's seen it come up more than enough times amongst the New World Alliance to recognize the description of a Fae Mood/ect. by now. "Hope your work turned out something useful, at least!"

Despite the daunting description of potential perils Shiruba scampers up onto the boat and finds a place to unroll one of her parchments. Got to be ready to start mapping as soon as they're out in new territory... and having a record of the path to get there even if that's through known waters is still good to have. "Those are just the things that make an expedition interesting, Fukasa."

    Wisteria nods "Mmhmm, I cursed all of the SEA Head Quarters, and all now should dispair to try to face us in battle." she grins. The girl is definately an Odysian, that is to say a little weird and proably more than a little capable. Given the aura her armor and weapon give off it's probably not unthinkable that any curse she laid down was likely terrible.

    "Certainly I understand the emotions of making a dream real," Wake replies. "And I am honored to help you pursue yours!" She makes her way onboard, looking over the ship and provisions. She seems pleased by the situation and the preparation is obviously most thorough.

    "I am just relieved that no one named Gilligan is on the ship. And sirens, hmm? You definitely know how to schedule an odyssey!" The Baroness punctuates it with an amused laugh.

    Once everyone is settled on the boat, Wake turns her attention to the other adventurers.

    "Goldenblade, dear! How have you been? And Merek, Shiruba, and it's good to see you on your feet, Wisteria! I didn't realize so many friends would be gathered for this. It's rather like a vacation getaway."

Goldenblade smiles to Fukasa Yuri, and nods about getting the camp set up. That's mainly what she's here for. "Prefab, as much as possible," she agrees as Fukasa describes the supplies they've laid in, and she nods approvingly as she double-checks everything against a list. "You should be good to go," she concludes. And then we're climbing aboard for a ... well, it's not a three-hour tour, but things have a habit of not going as planned. That's the whole premise of why we're all here. So, she's glad to see extra supplies being taken on. Including wax for stopping up ears - she knows the Oddessy.

She smiles to Wake, who obviously shares her understanding of the dangers of three-hour tours. "Good to see you, Baroness! Hopefully this will go smoothly."

     "Potions are always good, and supplies will be needed in the coming weeks... months? However long it takes for me to get this up and running again." Fuka says with a smile. "But that will be in the future. For now the mission is just to set up a base so that we can start reclaiming the colliseum."
     To Shiruba she flashes a wild grin. "I know, right? We could all die and go back to the church, but through struggles and skills I'm sure that we'll make it through. Because that's what adventurers do. Struggle, fight, and push forward until we eventually win~." She chuckles softly, as she settles into a chair on the deck of the boat. "Anyway, we'll be manning the boat, so we'll all have things to do while we travel."
     Prefab as much as possible. Fukasa gives a simple nod towards Goldenblade. "Yep! Exactly~. Especially since there's that chance we could lose everything or be attacked at any time while there, so something easy and cheap to replace as well as decently-ish fortified." She nods simply. Cursed all of the SEA headquarters? Fukasa quirks a brow at the girl curiously. "That sounds.... like something you don't normally do to your own HQ, but honestly I don't know what you did, so!" She chuckles as she thinks on that.
     Of course the Baroness is always a ray of sunshine on any trip you're making. "We'll be nearby each other as well, just a day or so trip from Castle Eas. Perhaps we can be partners in some way or another, hm, Baroness? Dreaming and scheming together to our benefit and ends~. Just let's not make enemies of each other because honestly that sounds horrid. I don't want to get murdered socially, I wouldn't know how to defend against it." She laughs softly. "...Mmm. Well, I mean, I'm just assuming, but... yep~. Should be fun, yeah? Anyway! Let's get this boat on the sea~." She says, motioning for one of her minions to go and start undoing the boat and bring up the anchor.
     And then... well. They had to get out of the port, for the most part the travel is ... relatively simple and calm, after all, the atoll was in known waters. Just known waters that people tended to stay away from because who wants to willingly go sail into fog? Fukasa Yuri, that's who. Idle chatter, excitement, and general merriment was the attempted atmosphere that Yuri attempted to keep on the boat during their trip, and she would help out where she could with the physical labor of adjusting the sails and doing the non-captain/non-navigator job. Because really. It wasn't her expertise. She would let one of the others handle that.

    Merek seems to try assisting with the sails, all he manages to do although is make them adjust to take the party away. "Well, I think you all will need to assist a little bit," he notes.

Shiruba has worked with the Ninetails and Dukedom sailors enough times to be nearly at home with the navigation tasks on a ship as she is on the land. So most of her time is spent alternating between checking calculations, observing progress with a spyglass, and makring things down on her map-in-making. "If the fog gets too thick to see the sky," she offers at one point, "Watch the water instead. The surface will ebb and ripple were the currents below bend around shoals or other submerged structures."

    Wake knows that she wants nothing more than to get into the more physical requirements of piloting this boat. She also knows that Baronesses aren't supposed to do that, and if she's ever going to form appropriate habits, she has to get used to them. And so it is that she holds back from the dirty work.

    "Certainly we will work together. I think there are many ways I can help you with this dream of yours. Eas is not fully assembled, you might say, but with the outpost built and a quarry at our disposal, we can tap into our proximity in many ways. Not to mention Goldenblade's road will make it easier than it was even in the long forgotten past."

    Of course, all this talk of socializing draws Wake's focus, and while she does remember she's supposed to be looking for something, it seems better to leave that to those who are far better at it than she is. When she does call attention to something she's seen, it's only to point out there are dolphin-like creatures following in their boat's wake.

    Wisteria shifts, her caerbannog form with all it's sharp pointy teeth, keen vision, and reflex boosting... but what she's really after is the long long ears. Once it goes foggy she leans over the rail and sends out a pulse of vibration. Her long ears swiveling side to side. She calls out when her rudementry sonar picks up rocks or when she hears waves crash against something. It's certainly one way to navigate with low visibility.

Goldenblade gets the parts stowed and secure for sea, so that a rocking boat doesn't cause things to shift or fall over, which could cause problems, particularly if they fall over onto someone. She doesn't know much about ships or sailing per se, but she can pull ropes with the best of them, and batten hatches as soon as someone explains what that means. Basic seamanship things are more her forte, she leaves a lot of the more esoteric tasks to others. But she's pretty butch, and not afraid of hard work, hauling the lines that would normally be operated by the fisherman's crew.

She preens a bit as Wake mentions the Eas Highway. She's -really- proud of that, that turned out just about perfectly, and she's glad that it's linking Eas to the rest of the continent.

     Travel is... well. Slow. After all, it was out in the middle of the ocean, and it's hours before they even think they're near the right place. Even with the maps that eventually lead to the location, it still felt like it took forever. Water. Water. More water. Sure, Fukasa was home here, and Wisteria and Shiruba read the currents like the pros that they are. Once they're mostly in the right area, finding the atoll itself and the maidensong isle are... easier, after all, it's hard to miss a large unnatural dome of fog that seems to just hover over that place.
     Of course, that was the /easy part/ done. The maidensong isle was relatively closeby, and they could even see the island partially through the fog, but there was still enough fog that their two cartographers were going to be invaluable. "Okay, we're starting to get close, so if you hear singing, well... honestly I mean kind of go towards it but try not to listen too hard to it?" Yuri calls out.
     And almost as if on cue, that was when the fog rolled in and they were now in it, trying to navigate through it. She lifts her hands, beginning to summon up some fire magic. "Navigators, keep us safe, the rest of us, let's help light their way and keep this ship from going upside-down, yeah?"

    Merek lifts up a hand while he uses the magic of the flame, and keeps the place light. He nods a bit to the party while he thinks about it, "That should keep the place with a nice light."

    Wisteria continues to try using her bunny sonar, but getting into shallower water is making it less effective... that or those long ears are picking up more singing than they should she isn't really calling out the best directions.

When the fog rolls in, Goldenblade has a solution, of sorts. The phrase waiting for fog tu burn off isn't wrong, exactly, it normally means waiting for the air to warm up so the water vapor isn't so clingy close to ground level. Goldenblade's solution, therefore, is to burn off the fog. A bit of some special move lays out a path straight ahead and the fire erupts with a flash, burning away fog easily to help restore visibility.

    Baroness Wake makes a point to block one of her ears right now. She'll just make sure that everyone stays on the right side of her and it should all go well. Right?

    After doing little to nothing in her previous attempt, Wake decides to try to push the fog back with a few careful bursts of air. Thankfully she's better with air than she is with searching, else she might just throw people overboard or tear the sails.

    "So how did you settle on this location, Fukasa? I sense there's a story that led you this far." Though much of her attention is on the conversation, she's still keeping an eye out. This time. She found fog! Clearly her senses are sharp as ever.

Shiruba glances down at her mapping for a moment, then nods as she picks up her longbow and moves towards the front of the ship. "This might get a little tricky people, but nothing is won without perseverence and a few risks." She draws three arrows from her quiver, which sparkle slightly as she holds them between her fingers to draw them back in Thundersnow Howl together. Aims at an upward arc and fires, then adjusts her position to a different angle and fires again, then the same for the third. As they soar through the air the arrows light up, giving off small but bright bursts of flash lightning that can at least pierce the fog long enough to reflect off any obstructions or rocky protrusions so they have time to steer the boat clear.

"That's a story I wouldn't mind hearing as well," Shiruba comments over her shoulder, being a bit of a lore hound herself.

    "I wouldn't suppose you've seen anything weird? Broken areas? Glitches? Immortal objects?" the tall albino bun asks. Some people want lore... some people are looking for cracks in the facade.

     It's slow going, but the fog being mostly banished by the various forms of light, and winds blowing it back helped them manage to slowly, but carefully start to get closer to the island, breaking through the first layers of fog and finding an entrance to get through the first layer of reefs around the area. Literally burning away the fog is effective, and blowing the remnants so that the boat itself, at the very least, was illuminated well helped. Even if they were mostly surrounded by fog and shadows at this point.
     Following Wake's footsteps, Yuri blocks her right ear so she can still converse for the moment. "Well, once upon a time, it was used regularly for events. Mostly PVP back then, but I actually intend to have this be more PVE than PVP in the long run, you know?" She says with a small nod. "Set up prizes, get a lovely betting ring going... maybe some funding from nobles that enjoy the spectacle..." She shrugs helplessly. "Regardless, first we have to get through to it."

     "Anyway, assuming it's /still there/, this colliseum was unique in that it also featured underwater battles, and was one of the few places you could practice them that weren't ridiculously high level, so it was a great stopping point for lower level characters just wanting to get used to the swimming mechanics, so I spent a lot of time there a---" Fuka lifts her hand suddenly, a soft 'tsshht' escaping her lips.
     Once everyone silenced themselves, that was when it became audible. It was subtle at first. But that music that Wisteria had likely started to hear first... became audible to all others. An eerie, unearthly sound. And immediately Yuri lifted her hand to cover her other ear, trying to block out the music. "Try to keep navigating us, we need to get close enough to weigh anchor and get to the beaches so we can clear an area of the isle! Don't let your focus wane or you'll probably be going overboard!"

    Merek lifts up with a whole shield along the boat while he nods a bit to the party. "Well, we can do what we can to try and keep them away," he notes, the man knows a lot more about magic than he does about singing to siren people.

Goldenblade has an interesting technique for avoiding the siren song: she vanishes. Sort of, she's hiding from it, or her ears are hiding from the sounds. It's not clear how it works, but no one's done a scientific paper on how she makes fire come out of her swords, so she'll just have to settle for 'it works'.

    "So it's similar to my search for Eas. I saw it first back in Elder Tale and only hoped it would exist here. Isn't it funny how much these virtual places meant to us? There is a siren call of a different kind that draws us to this place."

    As if on cue, Wake raises a hand and weaves a web of magic about her, shattering the influence of the song. Calmly she inserts her second ear plug, then moves to help Fukasa with her's.

    "I suppose there are times when being a good listener only works against us," she mouths. Well, she speaks, but at this point, who could hear her?

"That's cool, Fukasa. You'll probably get as many people interested in the history as you will wanting the experience... You do know where the collusium use to be ri--" Then story time is interrupted by them getting closer to the isle's namesake hazard. "--Oh, that's not good." Shiruba scampers back to her navigation post, casting a bit of magic over herself as she does. Unfortunately it's not a specific counterspell to singing, so she only manages to bark out a few last minute directions before she starts to slouch against her post, struggling to keep the weariness at bay. "Now I know what the argonauts felt like," can be heard muttered under her breath.

    Wisteria in her study of curses has her own method of avoiding debufs like sensory driven mind control. Just curse yourself with a debuff that takes the same slot, or kills the sense you are being affected through. A bit of deafness debuff and there you go sure she can't hear but if wax worked for Ulysses crew, a selective curse can work for a bun. "I hope no one needs to say anything to me... just point or something." she says too loudly. Party status shows one deaf as a doorpost bun.

     Of course, right after calling out to warn people, Yuri herself was starting to go heavy-eyed and walk towards the edge of the boat. Luckily others were more present to keep her from just straight up leaping into the water and get her brought back to her senses. Ironically where they wanted to go was pretty much straight to those voices though, since they came /from/ the island itself.

     Navigation brings them slowly scraping along the reefs until ... soon... they were through the second layer of reefs, and the singing only grows louder. Of course, everyone's already protected themselves (Or tied up the people not protected) from the song, so for the moment the passive song isn't effective. At least, not yet. They were close enough that they could drop anchor, which was probably the best to do sooner than later.

     Those that can still hear suddenly find something of note though... the singing suddenly STOPS the moment they're close to the isle. Utter silence, not even the rolling sounds of the sea audible for several long moments, as one of the assistants that Yuri brought along works on lowering the anchor. The silence is broken rather suddenly as that assistant gives a strangled cry.

     As he's dragged overboard, and suddenly several SPLASHES can be heard (And seen), as they suddenly have a sea battle on their hands! Or rather, a boat deck battle. As there are suddenly... gorgeous 'mermaids' on the boat. Beautiful, gorgeous at first... but after that initial glance wears off, detail starts to set in. Sharp teeth, spined fins, and clawed fingers that grasp for those closest to them.

     "Looks like it's combat from here on out, friends!" Yuri calls out, flashing a wicked grin as she draws her trident to start the quick summoning spell that summons her monster puffer fish.

The ship jostling it's way through the reef helps keep her from completely succumbling to the seaside serenade, so Shiruba snaps awake almost as soon as the temptacious tune ends. Realizing that probably isn't a good thing because the monsters would likely only stop if they were going to attack directly next she quickly conjures up a defensive measure.

Sure enough several merfolk leap onto the deck, only for their attacks to get deflected by the rush of air swirling around the wolfgirl. Which she then releases, sending the barrier spell spinning towards the enemy like a minature whirlwind. The merfolk are quick to scatter out of the way, but if it keeps them from huddling together and ganging up on people, it's still something.

    Merek lifts up the shield of magic, while he then will begin to strike into the enemies with the twin dragons along the weapon he's wielding.

    Wisteria just smiles when the merfolk attack. She shuffle slides, her feet barely touching the deck but never losing contact. As she keeps shuffling and dodging she doesn't even draw her blade. It only takes a few moments to notice WHY as every attempt causes a smoking black chain to snap out of the water or deck to start draging down on the merfolk. The WereFang keeps dancing through the fight drawing agro only to dance out of the way and send another smoking chain slamming into her foes. It looks exhausting to have just one of those chains sapping your strength and tethering you in place, even as she works to stack them as much as possible on the enemy.

Goldenblade is attacked by mermaids, reacting with a quick flick of her blades. Attacking her like that would require suicidal nerve, and probably involve the assailant winding up cut to ribbons. Having survived that surprise rush, she counterattacks, both blades thrusting out, tentative strikes at first, probing defenses to find where they're weak before slipping in past the attacker's wary guard to bite flesh over and over, wounding the target just slightly, but repeatedly so that the damage accumulates.

    The Baroness Wake is ready for trouble. Well, mostly. The problem is that when you aren't hearing the music you can't truly tell when it's over, can you? In any case, she uses the shadows well enough to by enough time to raise a block against the attacks on her.

    She strikes back swiftly, but try as she might, she fails to strike home. It's with a rather disastified grimace she leaps backwards, readying herself for the next round. She rarely misses the target twice.

     Defenses are strong as the sirens come in to attack, deflected, parried, and repelled with attacks in kind! The scattering efforts of Shiruba are effective, keeping them from ganging up and keeping it mostly one on one, letting the fights stay that way. Which means, of course, Shiruba is fighting one on one too, facing off with a siren that was attempting to deepen that sirensong trance and convince her to leap off of the boat herself.
     And the shields of magic followed by twin dragons of fire manage to injure the siren fighting Merek. It strikes back out at him with a concentrated grab, attempting to drag him towards the water.
     Wisteria, meanwhile, is just... stacking curse after curse, slamming them with that smoking chain that just saps them and weakens them further with each attack! They manage to gather up energy in spite of this, drawing a quick spell into life to unleash a burst of water towards Wisteria at an opportune time to attempt to knock her off of the boat!
     Goldenblade, meanwhile, is quickly flicking and striking back at the sirens each time they attack her! Cutting, parrying... probing defenses and slipping blades into them which cause screeches of pain from those repeated strikes. Eventually the sirens seem tired of this, and one of them attempts to just take the blades to attempt to tackle Goldenblade. Like her other sisters, she seems to be attempting to take Goldenblade overboard.
     Baroness Wake, meanwhile, fares... less well as they attempt to attack the sirens, which take advantage of the missed strike to attempt to drive her towards the edge of the boat, harrying her with attacks... that were less than lethal. In fact, they seemed more interested in attempting to subdue than straight up kill anyone right now.
     And this includes Fukasa Yuri, who gets several of the sirens surrounding and attmepting to take advantage of the previous failure to resist their song to deepen the connection and, much like shiruba, convince her to come overboard with them 'willingly'.

    Merek keeps beginning to draw along shields to protect him, while he swings about in the enemies with the weapon which he wields. The man seems to be considering, while he maneuvers to protect the party and generally assisting.

With her focus now fully on their situation and what the monsters are attempting to do she isn't so easily lulled down as she was before. And in a reminder that she does have sorcerous abilities beyond her arcane archery she conjures a surge of howling wind. Anyone that's tried to talk in a strong windstorm can guess what the intent is here, as she uses the noise of the winds to drown out the singing attempts to keep her head clear.

It also makes it easier to draw more of that wind power to her directly, charging the air crystal imbedded in her special weapon. Which in turn lets her draw a projectile made entirely out of elemental energy in her bow. "Give it a rest! The only thing that blows more than your singing is my wind! TYPHOON SHOT!" She aims at one of the merfolk sirens and fires a burst of enough pressured force to propel who it hits away hard. In this case, hopefully sending them blasting off the deck with the knockback.

    Wake finds the attack obnoxious, to say the least. But she's obnoxiously hard to hit. Finally, tired of playing fair, she taps into her more unnatural skills to slip past the teeth and claws and into a nearby shadow, where the siren's next attack strikes hard with a considerable thunk! But the siren can hardly celebrate it's succesfull attack on a barrel of fresh water.

    A moment later, and shadow itself lashes out at the attacker from behind. This time, Wake's violent response strikes home as two lashes made of shadow find the flesh of her attacker.

Goldenblade is lightning fast and hard to pin down, evading all the attacks that come her way, parrying the blades, skipping aside from a tackle, and leaping aside at one point when that was her only option. She stabs and thrusts cleanly; these sirens aren't so much a threat as persistent. For all she knows, they're crying for quarter, but her ears are blocked and they don't look like they're surrendering. So, she carries on with the stabbing. She's got a whole bucket full of stab, so there's plenty to go around.

    Magic springing up around Wist just helps her keep herspace and then keep filling the opponents status bars with curses. When she feels someone has gathered enough or she thinks they've become a threat she snaps in, blade clearing leather, snapping into the foe, the dark curses crackling along the blade to add insult to the injury, the dark spells crippling the mind and stunning the foe leaving them vulnerable to attacks.

     That shield is effectively protecting Merek, and his attacks are striking true! Dealing damage... the fight continued on. And on... the sirens were starting to wane in health, red marks along their bodies showing the damage done to them. But they were still fighting back! And... their attempts to defend and fight back were naturally starting to gather them into the middle of the boat.

     The resistance to their singing seems to frustrate the siren on Shiruba, and then to add insult to injury they're, well, insulted! And then injured! By wind arrows that blow away both their song and their health bars which deplete down most of the way, knocked towards hte middle of the deck instead of off of it.

     Haha! Success! THe siren strikes true, and damages... the water stores! ...Which really is the least of the adventurer's worries, especially since the barrel was still mostly intact anyway, not even leaking. Yet. Unfortunately it can't celebrate its victory, as its confusion is met with a pair of slashes that send the siren sprawling.

     Goldenblade's blades go snickersnack and the sirens are being stabbed and thrust into cleanly and efficiently, rapidly draining their health bars and driving them into a corner, or well... a center.

     And Wisteria is just continuing to fill the sirens with curses and insults to injury that.. just... keep on harrassing them. Doing what they normally do to adventurers to /them/. Soon they were just... flopped out on the floor. Until they were grabbed and pulled in by the other sirens.

     Who begin to gather up their energy and chant a quick spell, followed by a loud, single tone in unison. A sonic blast in all directions that threatens to physically /blow around/ the party!

    Merek keeps shielding up while he fights with the enemies, then nods with a look to the party, "Alright, I will assist!"

"Brace yourselves!" Shiruba tries to conjure some additional protection, but realizes standing on a boat that's still on the water doesn't really give the option she has much to work with. Maybe she should of brought a jar of sand with. The sonic blast sends her reeling over backwards and tumbling across the deck. She manages to grab on with her claw-like nails to keep from being bowled completely off the ship, and drag herself back onto stable footing. "I guess you didn't like that." She snorts as she stands, and both the jewels imbedded in Thundersnow Howl start to glow. "Then you're going to -hate- this." She pulls back on the bowstring, forming an arrow of ice that crackles with lightning as she does so, and fires.

With a hunter's precision at picking out a weak spot she aims the deadly shot at the mermaid siren's neck, intending to pierce her throat and put an end to that singing for once and for all.

Goldenblade's blades are snickering as she at one point holds off two of the sirens on either side of her, before a leap takes her out of that pinch and she resumes butchering the wildlife. She looks around, circles a bit more, then releases her big attack when she's got several of them in front of her. The blades blaze up with flame that's white-hot, and she carves straight through several of them in as many slashes, taking down the ones low on HP first, blades revolving like an outboard motor, and with about as much affect on marine wildlife.

    The Baroness faces another attack, and it seems like she's rather enjoying this fight, now. She hasn't faced a lot of battle lately and exercise always improves her mood. She ducks down, but that's not what really draws her out of the reach of danger. She slides along the ground, along a shadow, as if she were skating across its surface.

    Bouncing lightly off its surface, Wake raises her hands and with an upward gesture of her hands, as if she were calling an orchestra to deliver the most dramatic note at the end of a movement and with that gesture, the shadow she was riding comes to life, its entire surface broken with a dozen stalagmites of shadow that stab mercilessly upwards through the siren, shattering her to pixels.

    Wisteria testing curses finaly gets the better of her the splash sending her over the railing... and then everyone learns the terrible truth... caer bannog swim like rocks... and even back in the 'real' world Wisteria could swim well enough to not die at a water slide park and that was about it.

     'Brace yourselves!' the call came just in time for that shockwave to hit. And then... those that were tumbled across the deck were threatened with a dip in the ocean, which... they'd have to do possibly anyway, but it was different when you /planned/ it. Speaking of planned things. That planned arrow straight through the siren's neck strikes true, sinking through it -- and even penetrating straight through to strike the siren immediately behind it.
     Followed by the blazing white-hot flame that is revolved and swung through siren after siren as their HP drops lower and lower... cutting through the marine wildlife and making it smell rather suddenly like grilled fish.
     The Baroness performs an almost... gorgeous waltzing dance over the surface of the boat, shadow guiding her steps, and then... jagged shadow blades stabbing through siren flesh, leaving it nothing but pixels and a few items!
     And Wisteria? Wisteria gets helped. The moment she goes overboard, so does Yuri. Diving over the edge of the boat after Wisteria to grab her and start to drag her towards shore before she can fully sink, which meant... well. In spite of the fact that they rather clearly had a victory right now. For the moment? The party is split. Luckily for the /rest/ of the party, there's boats for them to row to shore with the building materials and also just... themselves.

Shiruba lets out a sigh of relief as the sirens finally fall. Then looks around the ship. "I don't know if this boat is in shape to make any more trips right now. We should probably load up what we can and head to shore to start that camp."

Goldenblade hadn't really thought about how much fire she was using in that last attack, but she'll channel water, just in case, before anything really catches. Luckily, there's plenty of -that- all around us.

    It's clear that the work has to get moving. Wake knows a thing or two about setting up camp and building. Not that she has the skill herself, but she's seen it close up for months now and knows how to help in what ways she can.

    "We had best start moving things on shore. If we have a good swimmer, perhaps they can help our allies back into the boat?" Wake hopes there is a swimmer on board. She's not particularly good at it in the game.

    Now that it comes to it, she's in her kind of environment, organizing and support with the skills she has to offer. Later, though, she will come back with her people. Lots of people.

    Wisteria shakes herself "Well... okay so ... sometimes testing new curses should be secondary to staying on the boat." she shrugs a bit "But hey we won anyway right? Now I wonder if I can find any glitches out here... or any zones where status changes happen..." she starts to look around.

     The call for a swimmer is... not immediately responded to, because the swimmer is, temporarily, on the shore! With Wisteria. "Yes. We survived and won this time. ...I recommend staying on the boat, generally." And then Fukasa was back in the water, swimming towards the boat and climbing up the side. "The ones off the boat are safe on the shore awaiting the rowboat." Fukasa says with a soft yawn, beginning to help gather stuff up and load it to prepare to build that camp. There was some minor damage to stuff, but nothing too too major. For the most part. Some of the tents might have to be patched up a little. "Alright, so let's get camp set up and then we can work on clearing the island later, for now I think we need to rest and get others to come for that."