westwhere | storm at sea

Thar she blows — part II of the Storm at Sea travel arc, lasting until 5 August.

RELEASE THE KRAKEN

SUMMARY: as allied pirate ships Pariah and Queen Zanyra sail onwards, mad captain Quicksilver Sam uses the artefact of the Dawn’s Reach Trade Company to call out to the notorious power of the haunted Crossing seas. He craves retribution from the crew of his former, drowned ship, the Storm at Sea — which rises up along other sunken vessels, all manned by undead sailors. With them is a vicious kraken. They attack, seeking Quicksilver Sam’s relic. So should you. Some characters dragged underwater reach a deserted dimension where time behaves aberrantly. To survive the two-three-day skirmish, keep your ship afloat and moving, hijack a few other vessels, fend off the undead and kraken, capture Quicksilver’s artefact — and breathe.

SAFE AT WA(TE)R | NAIL’EM TO THE MAST | STICKY FINGERS | THE STRANDING

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SAFE AT WA(TE)R

Quicksilver Sam’s Pariah continues into the black waters of the Crossing seas, escorted by ally Caladan Kreil’s Queen Zanyra and distantly pursued by Maximilian Hawk’s Concord of the Dawn’s Reach Trade Company. Characters can cross between the Queen Zanyra and Pariah by rowboat, until great storms darken the skies. Afterwards, reckless fools can risk their necks in the growling winds and drumming rains and traverse the rattling, thick chain that binds the two ships.

Quicksilver Sam joins the deck of the Pariah with a small box he opens to reveal a cut-out, impeccably preserved and warded human tongue. Once unwarded, the artefact seems to intensify the storms, while Quicksilver shouts out:

”Two years be, when the seas, them… they… broke’n’sundered and… was then. Then, when all of you! All of… all of you dead under the briny deep, you watched, and you plotted, and you… was then! We all broke bread under the black flag, and we were brothers… brothers of the Storm at Sea. Was enough coin in the coffer for everyone, but you, you had the greed in you, thicker than blood of our covenant, or water of any womb! You turned! You put me out to die, and now, look where you are? You lily-livered scurvies, you wake up now, look around you! You put me to sea? Left me to die? Samuel Vane, you thought me, I was for drowning? You look me in the eye, and you tell me so again, because I’m here for you! I’ll be ruin for you, Storm at Sea, I’ll cleave you!”

■ The tongue artefact summons up dozens of sunken ships from the Crossing, which take under an hour to fully emerge. They are manned by reanimated sailors — many whom you may have encountered as cored bodies underwater.

■ The Storm at Sea also rises, staffed by Quicksilver Sam’s now revenant crew. The vessel spearheads the undead offensive and approaches the Pariah — leaving her within reach for infiltration. Wei Wuxian will report back after engaging undead first mate Augustus Silvering.

■ The tongue relic also calls up an immense kraken, whose tentacles can be recognised as the ‘coral’ strings that had bound the sunken ships. The kraken is neither living nor dead and composed of the coagulated dark water that characters have previously encountered. Kraken meat is comestible but not seafood. It unexpectedly tastes of succulent white fish, best paired with a Sauvignon blanc and served generously with lemon, rosemary and dill. Do not overcook on the bonfire of your sinking ship.

■ You may end up locked inside cabins or brigs, whether ‘for your safety’ or at the first sign of insubordination against the on-edge captains.

■ You’re in danger as long as you remain within the Crossing seas. To steer the boats, take occasional shifts from exhausted pirates and learn to helm your vessel with navigational help from your companions.

■ (Wisps of) agitated spirits linger in the Crossing — some maliciously seek to push you overboard, while others protect you. Most are petrified. These remaining spirits are more akin to afterthoughts of emotion, which you can calm down, exorcise or ignore.

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NAIL’EM TO THE MAST

When you can’t beat’em, try again with a torch, a harpoon and a better attitude:

■ The kraken and undead violently attempt to reach the tongue artefact and sink the Pariah, Queen Zanyra and nearby Concord. Your enemies have hardened skins that require extra hacking, but regular weapons still work. Fire is especially efficient.

■ The kraken slams and sweeps its tentacles across the deck to drag ships underwater — do use cannons and primitive explosives.

■ The undead mount rowboats or swim to climb onboard. Fortunately, the storms impede your attackers, earning you respite between fresh assaults. Assume one-two hours' rest between attacks.

■ Extensively touching the living kraken tentacles slowly depletes your stamina and/or magical strength.

■ Consider taking Viktor’s steampunk boat and setting up primitive dynamite to sink these ships before their undead crew can reach you. Beware the storms.

■ You can infiltrate undead ships at any point, but can only commandeer one if you group up to man it.

■ Use diving suits that let you breathe four hours underwater and light up white for alert, red for danger, yellow for the urgent need to return on land and green-blue otherwise.

■ Bad news for the Pariah: on top of the undead, the kraken and the mad pirate, you are dealing with the incensed Hawk and Caladan Kreil, both whom send men to stop Quicksilver Sam’s summons at all costs.

■ Magical communicators are prone to glitches or disruptions amid poor weather conditions.

■ A school of mermaids is drawn to the kraken and the Pariah — warn them off with lights or lure them away with baits of food or blood. Speaking with them reveals they want Quicksilver’s artefact.

■ Those wishing to avoid violence can head to the more distant Concord by rowboat, under a white flag. Maximilian Hawk believes you are refugees aboard the Pariah and Queen Zanyra and will offer sanctuary. The sleek, highly disciplined and martial Concord faces significantly less attack, and you can spend a more peaceful time below deck. Alternatively, pair up to persuade the crew to give up chasing the Pariah, and convince Hawk and first mate Lattimore the ‘ancient power’ pursued by the Dawn’s Reach Trade Company should arguably never be found.

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STICKY FINGERS

Moments after his speech, a rattled Quicksilver Sam retreats with the tongue relic in his heavily guarded and magically warded cabin.

■ Group up to capture the tongue with minimal damage to ship and crew. Ideally, some characters can distract the guards or attempt to lure Quicksilver out.

■ Helpful tips: despite his questionable sanity, Quicksilver Sam has shown high regard for manners, women and his ship. The pirate guards are loyal, but skittish before the supernatural.

■ During the diversion, lift the wards or forcibly infiltrate the cabin by breaking the door in. Careful, as Quicksilver appears to have purchased a Taravast special — a small caged white owl, which paralyses in place those who meet her gaze. Someone should distract the bird or cover her cage to break her trance.

■ Everyone can hunt, but Five and Wrathion get final joint custody of the tongue. They have decided to ward and box it. This will see the kraken and sinking ships gradually lose power, then submerge within two days. The tongue stays with the duo. Given Kirk’s previous reveal, the group could choose to trade the tongue in with Maximilian Hawk and the Dawn’s Reach Trade Company.

■ If the tongue is ever brought near the heart possessed by Kaneki Ken, the two artefacts will briefly thrum in synchrony.

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THE STRANDING

Some characters captured by the kraken’s tentacles and pulled underwater lose consciousness, only to mentally wake up in the dimension of a perfectly silent, deserted and seemingly interminable beach island.

■ Characters experience time differently here, shifting between younger and older states every few hours. Up to you whether these changes are mental, physical or both, and whether your character is aware this isn’t their natural form.

■ Several mute, humanoid tar figures roam aimlessly. They largely ignore newcomers, but peacefully stop them from entering the dark sea waters.

■ The island sky is despairingly grey. There are no animals or plants.

■ Characters find they lose more of their memories, the longer they linger — particularly if they start to be politely but incessantly followed by tar figures, which gradually assume their form.

■ You can occasionally find human footsteps and writing in wet beach sand. The writing spells out children’s limericks.

■ Time passes differently on the island — dealer’s choice whether faster or slower than in the real world for your character.

■ Characters can wake up into the real world, if their bodies are rescued from where they’ve sunken underwater, remaining alive for up to two days in the vicinity of the kraken.

■ Characters may initially experience light amnesia and a sense of listlessness and estrangement from their bodies, once they have left the island dimension. This dissipates within a day’s time.

■ You can only reach the island once. Characters can be brought underwater by the kraken without entering the beach dimension.

QUESTIONS

NPC CONTACT

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

( ropes continue to swing, cut free or snapped and lashing. it's timing and the unfortunate fortune of a man dancing the edges of death that leads to wei wuxian's timing, where he pushes from the deck with one foot in time to leap the dead man dying twice at his feet, courtesy of his husband, and flails out an arm to catch the whipping line that comes by.

unceremonious yank that follows, wei wuxian doesn't so much speak as yelp when he's flying overhead of the breaking decks, tucking his legs up to catch the timing of their lowered fall, heel driving into the face of a dead man climbing onboard. the dead man goes flying back and away to the greedy turmoil of the churning seas, wei wuxian continuing to swing himself around through force of his push off the not so dearly departed. )

He means he's Lan Wangji to you! Lan Zhan, incoming!

( wei wuxian releases his hold on the rope, momentum carrying him forward, throwing him out across the decks opposite of where he'd swung the first time, but to his husbands arms he does not go falling. no, incoming is the heft and dark of a tentacle curled and unfurling, the inevitable descent of a lashing arm with little awareness or care for their particular plights.

incoming, and for jim and lan wangji and wei wuxian, it's one more obstacle that aims to slam down into the decks, snapping a board or three where they've been too ill used to survive the weight bearing down. a careless thrash and the tentacle avails itself of an exit, slithering off the ship's side, as wei wuxian comes to a perched landing near jim, and smiles. )

He's marrying into the Wei Clan, apparently.

( with a gesture to Lan Zhan, degenerate multi-marriage monger that he is, and delightfully ill at timing as wei wuxian himself is too. )

[ He does catch the rope with a nod, but he's a little unsure to how he feels about tying himself down with it. That could end horribly for him, under the wrong circumstances... then again, getting thrown overboard would definitely end horribly for him too.

So he opts for a somewhat loose loop across his chest, something fairly easy for him to get off if he needs to. He's still going to be swinging around a little, though, so he tries to get a decent grip on the rope as well. ]

Okay—

[ That's all he manages for a moment, the scene playing out before him almost looking rehearsed as if in a movie, too surreal and it makes him almost laugh for a moment. Or it would, if he weren't currently fighting off a handful of undead sailors of his own. He'd rather handle those than even one of those tentacles trying to bring either them or the ship down.

Anyway, point is, it's a lot of things happening at once, and that's a lot of names too. It takes Jim a moment of going over the words a few times before he thinks he's got it right. ]

Okay, so. Lan Wangji, Wei Wuxian. Got it.

[ Forgive him if the pronunciation is a little off, he's doing his best while on a ship in the middle of a storm while being attacked by a kraken and goddamn zombies of all things. ]

Lan Wangji, [ He says between sweeps of his sword, kicking the sailor away for a couple seconds' respite. ] Do you take Wei Wuxian to be wedded to you?

( In the spumes of this moment, he is calm, arrested. Spooled back to himself like rope wire in a tight wet knot. In his hand, Bichen's hilt is a pleasant, soaked weight, blade snagging the wrist of a dead man in a swerve, the pliant, taut-stretched canvas of another's neck in downswing.

Carnage is routine, pedestrian. At his back, Wei Ying transits between draw and parry fluidly, and Wangji remembers, absently, to slip to his knee at one turn and hold Bichen straight and flat, so Wei Ying might use her blade for his step in passing. Above, the captain — first fumbles, then generously recovers his words and his graces, and proceeds with —

...oh.

Oh, but Lan Wangji's nearly stabbed, before avoiding the dead man's blade out of sheer habit, more than instinct — this isn't the ceremony he had anticipated. )

That... ( Was the point and purpose of this exercise, had they perhaps not communicated thusly? He thinks, more fool he, thoughts a blade rusted and dulled by the miasma of dead stale blood that drenches the cat-stretch of the deck and Wei Ying's leathered boots beside him — murmurs, lips barely contorting, to spare master Kirk the indignity of Wangji's infamy: ) He may not know the proper rites.

( This... more than the dead man who is rising again, is troubling. The undead creature's axe is catapulted up by a sweeping tentacle — apologies, Captain Kirk — and Lan Wangji watches the flinched arc of it in passage, only the littlest bit... stunned.

Then, startled back to his sense, he collapses down to a knee, then the second, on the viscera-drawn deck. )

I take him. ( Shouted, ignobly. ) He takes me. ( ...in case the matter yet pretended to be up for negotiation. ) Witness our bow.

( Sometimes, a man must gently teach his officiant. )

storm at sea | part ii

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