Isle of the Monsters: Fantasy/Pirate RP (Tomia Only/IC)

[Nuridia]

Sing for the Maidenhead, Lass of the Sea
Haven to Monsters and women made free!
It's up Captain Tommy and up with the crew
there's nothing a shipful of monsters won't do!
"Shipful of Monsters", SJ Tucker

Elves. Genies, Werewolves, Vampires. Satyrs and Fae, Dragons. Hydra. Sirens that lure men with their song and then drag them under the water to drown in their inky depths...these creatures and many others like them have haunted the human imagination since the beginning of time. Due to their inhuman appearance, supernatural abilities or terrifying forms, they are often called monsters. And while it’s true that many of these monsters earn the contempt and fear, the truth is that “normal” humans can be far more monstrous than one thinks.

Some “monsters” can blend into human society quite well, whether by magic or virtue of appearance and they occupy a safe place for the useful things they can do. The ones that can’t however feel that they deserve far more than having to peddle party tricks just to keep themselves and their families alive and safe. Men have always had a notorious fear of the unknown, and so have all but driven the “monsters” from civilization for the most part. On the fringes with nowhere to go, many of these creatures soon grew tired of their lot and decided to create a civilization of their own. Sailing away from the shores of the human kingdoms, they went in boats to seek out new lands and new lives for themselves...and one such land was the island of Canavarlar. Meaning “land of the monsters” in the old Elfin language, this remote but green island was said to be in the very center of the world, watching all without being watched in return. For this reason it’s sometimes referred to as The Sentinel. The monsters that landed on its shores settled there, first a refugee camp of a few makeshift huts. But over the decades, it grew into a prosperous land whose main export was one thing...piracy. The monsters often had to first make their living by stealing from human ships, taking the resources that they were often denied in order to survive. At first meant to be a temporary fix, this eventually became a tradition, and then a way of life as Canavarlar evolved into a “pirate republic”, dreaming of ruling the world’s oceans. Such a feat seemed impossible even for skilled monster pirates...that is, until the creation of Kalder’s Horn.
This is a famous legend that is now by all those who dare cross the great seas, the legend of the sailor Kalder and how his love for a goddess was eventually able to tame the wild seas themselves. Thousands of years ago when mankind only just began crafting ships, the goddess Afika fell in love with a young sailor named Kalder who stumbled across her island of Hawanda. He was shipwrecked and badly injured and the goddess took pity and nursed him back to health. Soon they fell in love and they spent many years together and even had children. Unfortunately; like all good things, their happiness soon came to an end as the young man, filled with wanderlust soon felt the urge to return to the sea, though his heart for his Afika had not changed and so he had to leave his beloved goddess behind. Afika then crafted a golden horn from the very sand that laid on the beach. She told her lover that the horn would keep him safe on the high seas. Legend says that the horn was able to control the sea itself and raise those who died at sea back to life. Kalder went on to utilize this horn to become a powerful warlord who commanded the seas. Men around him started to realize that the horn was the source of his power and stole it from him, murdering him in his sleep in the process. Afika was enraged by this and hurled storms across the sea. She sunk dozens of ships and sent the horn drifting across the sea. As the centuries passed, this was dismissed as an urban legend by all but the most dedicated of seafarers and lore readers. Recently however, rumors have surfaced that claim that a map has been discovered that leads to the location of the island of Hawanda, where the horn now resides...and mounting proof is beginning to rise that maybe this legendary artifact isn’t so legendary after all, but a true and powerful object. Many have lost their lives in an attempt to get their hands on such power, this by right should discourage more adventurers from trying...but sometimes the lure of power is far too great to resist and so several pirate crews have set out from the Isle of the Monsters (and even some human crews) to get their hands on the Horn for their own reasons. The Race for the Sea begins...will you emerge victorious or be swept away by the rushing tide?

[Tomia]

Martin Alestrio, The Ghost Harbour Inn, Canavarlar
"Come on Afika, bless me with some sixes!" A man shouted in the back room of a tavern. He was kneeling down on the ground, surrounded by a group of people that formed a circle. It didn't seem like they were looking at anything in particular expect for the man in the center who was shaking his cupped hands together. He released them and two dice came flying out, spinning onto the floor. They finally landed and revealed two sixes. The man shouted out victoriously as the crowd groaned around him. "Thanks chaps, you got me at least two nights' worth of drinks, or maybe just one if its a good night!." He said smugly as he reached for the pile of the money in the middle. However as he reached for the money a hand grabbed his hand.

"Not so fast you ship rat. I say you cheated." A large man stood over the lucky winner. He was shirtless with baggy pants that looked stained and worn from work. Behind him stood two other large men, these two each carrying what looked like clubs.

"Now now Igor, don't cry. I beat ya fair and square alright? Besides what will you do with the money? You already have all the stupid and ugly you could possibly desire." Igor did not take kindly to this grabbing the winner now by the neck and lifting him into the air.

"Big words for small man." Igor grunted. The man placed his hands over Igor but was not able to break the grip. Instead he reached into his sleeve and quickly pulled out a dagger, plunging it into his attacker's hand. Igor shouted out and dropped the man, but it was far from settled. The winner scurried out of the back room as Igor and his back up pursued him.

"Maelstorms! To arms!" Shouted the clearly intoxicated dice winner whose stumbling and slurring of words was becoming obvious. A number of of people all wearing similar pirate garb stood up from their chairs and charged forward. Clearly this was not the type who was hesitant to fight. Soon a dozen people were fighting across the Tavern, as the winner tried to sneak out the door to safety. However Igor and his friends were waiting for him.

"Give me the bag ship rat. I won't ask again."

"Suit yourself." The winner said before tossing him the bag. It only took a moment of looking inside for Igor to realize it was empty. However just as he did he was slammed in the groin by a knee. The winner was grabbed by the two other men and seemed done for. However just as Igor got up and was prepared to strike his foe, he was suddenly struck over the head with a chair and fell onto the ground unconscious.

A surprisingly average looking man now stood over him and turn to the two larger men in front of him. "Please let Martin here go, I have no desire to hurt anyone else." Unsurprisingly they charged at the man instead. The average grabbed the wrist of the nearby man who tried to throw a punch and threw him onto the ground. He then ducked the attack of the other man before slamming his fist into his foe's stomach. With the three of them out on the floor, Martin looked up at his saver.

"Ah, Wolf Knight, so good to see you."

"I told you not to call me that thief." Barristan replied sternly. "Now, time to wait out in the corner until this thing dies down."

[Nuridia]

Captain Lucika "Lucky" de Vries
The captain of the Maelstrom was busy trying to enjoy her ale at a quiet, nondescript table by the window of the Sea Fang tavern. They'd come back from a pretty successful raid and now had returned home to the island to relax, make repairs and spend their loot after being at sea for so fucking long. Lucky always preferred not to draw attention to herself when off the clock because she got enough attention as it was, hoping to have a nice, quiet evening with her friends. But of course, Afika didn't have that in the cards for her today. Hearing a rising chorus of shouts from a card game circle, her eyes immediately rolled as soon as she realized who it was. Martin Alestrio was an excellent thief, a bit of a recent addition to her crew as it were...Lucky was a little weary of hiring a human, but he had talent so she decided to give him a chance. He'd been vital in many raids, and even grew on her a bit. Unfortunately, his obvious kleptomania and knack for drawing attention to himself was hella inconvenient.

"Oh, for fuck's sake.."Goddess, grant me patience...because if you grant me strength.. When members of her own crew answered Martin's call and a huge fight broke out, that was when she'd had enough. Muttering something under her breath, the captain moved her fingers and chanted lowly... suddenly there started to be shrieks from the tavern-goers as huge serpents slithered into the building through the cracks, wrapping themselves around the brawling people and immobilizing them until the last punch was frozen in mid-air by scaly coils. "You are ALL children." she said lowly, dangerously. "Martin!" Her eyes landed on the crewmate trying to sneak into a corner. "Are you sure you're not a snake, because you're damn near as good at slithering away as one."

[Tomia]

Tavern
"Ah Captain Lucky... How great to see you..." Martin said as he turned to face his very angry boss. She was usually a kind woman but as the fact that the room was now covered in snake proved it was not smart to anger her. "Well to be honest, boss, I'm not sure if you mean that as a compliment or not boss." He said, chuckling as he tried to lighten the mood a bit. When that clearly wasn't working he quickly added. "It was all a misunderstanding captain."

"Captain, I got here too late to deescalate the situation. I apologize for my role in it." Barristan said from next to Martin. Meanwhile stomping could be heard from the nearby spiral staircase. A short woman was bustling down the stairs. "Oh captain! I'm so glad you're here. I think found a lead on the horn!" She said, walking right up to the captain. She was oblivious to what was going on until she looked around the room. "Uh... Did something happen down here?"

[Nuridia]

"By all the gods, Martin...do you never stay out of trouble?! We're always in trouble but there's a time to make trouble and a time to lay low, you're going to need to get your klepto ways in order ASAP, got it?!" Lucky muttered before releasing him, when Martin was free from the snake's coils, the captain took a long drag of her ale. "You're on punishment sailor, you'll be swabbing the deck and cleaning out the hold for the rest of the month, that is all."
"Captain, I really don't think..." that was Tam Lin, an elven necromancer and one of the quieter members of Lucky's crew, she tended to mostly keep to herself unless she was flirting or had too much ale in her...but she only seemed to be on one tankard so far. "Tam, aren't you gonna help?"
"Nobody's lives seemed to be in any immediate danger, so I'm good." Their conversation was interrupted by Amara, their dwarven researcher coming down the stairs...everyone's ears immediately perked up at what she had to say. "It just got a little messy, Amara...nothing more." Tam told her shipmate. "I also suggest that maybe don't say certain things too loudly."
"Amara...you say you found a.." Lucky's voice dropped to a whisper, and she stood up immediately. "Men, I suggest we discuss this somewhere a bit more private. I'll be in my rooms upstairs, meet me in five minutes." And with that, she dispelled the snakes and headed on her way.

[Tomia]

"I didn't even start it!" Martin protested before Barristan shot him a look that said arguing was not a good idea. "Fine, okay..." He said, relenting as the captain freed him from her snake made grip. Just then Amara, the ship's bookworm as Martin thought of her, came running down the stairs revealing that she had information about the horn. He almost face-palmed at her shouting it out until Tam corrected her, though she was far more polite about it than Martin would have been.

"Right... Sorry." Amara said in response but nodded at her captain's orders. She was sensing that Captain Lucky was surprised and trying to hide her excitement. Her leader's thoughts were racing with the Horn. "I'll be there captain." She said as Lucky headed off upstairs. "Wow she seemed really worked up huh?" She said to Tam who was standing nearby.

"Well, I need another drink before we start this." Martin said as he walked up to the bar. Barristan merely scoffed. He did wonder however what Amara might have discovered. Barristan didn't much care about the horn himself, but his captain did and Lucky had taken him at his lowest and for that he owed her his loyalty. Besides others were searching for it and if the horn held the power the rumors said it did he didn't want it to fall into the wrong hands.

After the five minutes went by the five of them had assembled in Lucky's room upstairs. "Alright Amara, let's hear about what you found." Barristan who stood in the corner against the door said.

"Well, I had gotten the idea that in order to figure out where the horn was, finding Hawanda was a good start."

"Seems a little obvious ya?" Martin interjected.

"Let her finish." Barristan said back, turning to Amara who nodded in thanks.

"So I started reading everything I could about Kalder's life. Well, I found a very old book that mentions someone who had been served as an admiral under Kalder. He claimed that Kalder had built a shrine to Afika on a remote island. He also claims that it became Kalder's refugee where he hid things he didn't want others to find. The island never had a name, but the book had a map... Its a bit difficult to read because of how old it is, but I think I know where it is. It's about 30 leagues from the island of Riblet." When she stopped speaking she looked around getting a sense from people's emotions. When she turned to Barristan her face fell a bit.

"You don't believe me?" She asked, she could feel his mind filled with doubt and what seemed like a bit of pity. Smart but naive, if this was true someone else would have found it by now. The worlds were swirling in her mind the way they had been for him.

"Its not that I don't believe you Amara. But this sounds risky. Who knows if this is trap, or if someone else has discovered it. Besides, Riblet is an Imperial city. The Anthor Navy will be patrolling everywhere. Anthor was a powerful island nation that was the scourge of pirates everywhere.

"You're not worried that they'll catch us." Amara said, in almost a phased out kind of way. "You're scared of what you would do to make sure they wouldn't." Barristan paled as she suddenly turned red. "Sorry! Sometimes things like that just slip out... Look I know its risky but we've never had a chance like this before! Even if the horn isn't there, it can show us where it is and maybe have some ancient cool treasure for us to take!" She turned to the captain, wondering how she would react.

[Nuridia]

“She’s been looking for the horn for quite a long time...as have many of us. Actually, I’d be even more shocked if she didn’t show at least a little excitement.” Tam told Amara, turning around to go follow the captain.
Lucky sat on her bed and kicked back to listen to Amara speak, Tam plopped down on the nearest chair and sipped at the mug of ale that she had brought up with her...when Amara was going on with her recent discovery, Tam was putting up a silencing ward so that they wouldn’t be secretly overheard by any chance. “So you got a map and an actual lead? Excellent work, Amara.” Lucky said, smiling at her. She then listened to the crew give their opinions. That was their Barristan, ever the skeptic...a lot like their Tam Lin. They could’ve been siblings if they weren’t entirely different species, but that was good. Hope was good but you also needed people who were grounded in reality. Tam then gave her opinion.

“Barristan, I too understand where you’re coming from.” The elf said. “But you know Amara, girl would’ve quadruple checked before sharing this information...I doubt she’d believe anything if it didn’t come from an academically certified source first.” There was just a touch of mirth in her voice, and the corners of her mouth twitched upward slightly. But then Amara brought up the possibility of them being captured and Lucky saw the werewolf flush, an odd sight. The captain took one of his large hands in hers and patted it. “You’ll be fine, Barristan. We won’t let anything happen to you, we’re family.” Then Amara wrapped up her findings and looked to her for a reaction, all eyes turned toward her. Her, and not her mother. It was still just a little bit surreal, all of this...how she was responsible, and not the Viper Queen...how this was about her and her own merit, not the name of her family...they followed her because they trusted her, and that always warmed her heart. She loved her family dearly, but damn it was it nice to be reminded of how far she had come out of their shadow. She was just Lucky here, an equal...no princess to be coddled.

“Uh, Cap? You’re drifting off again darling, come back to us lass.”
“Huh? Oh, thanks Tam...” The necromancer was the oldest among them, sometimes she enjoyed reminding the rest of the crew of that a little too much. “Anyway...I mean there is a possibility that this could be some sort of trap. But Amara is right, I mean we’ve exhausted every other lead we have so far...checking it out couldn’t hurt, and besides? Who knows what other treasures we may find in the meantime. I wouldn’t worry about the Imperial Guard, we’re strong enough to protect one another and our ship, we always have been. But of course, this is a democracy and we must all decide...I call for the crew to put up a vote. All in favor for following this new lead, raise your hands.

[Tomia]

Amara quickly raised her hand when the Captain called for a vote. That was to be expected of course, given that she was the one who proposed the mission in the first place. "Eh why not, adventure sounds better than sitting around here." Martin said before throwing his hand up into the air. Barristan looked hesitant but eventually raised his hand. It seemed like it would ultimately be a unanimous vote and that made Amara happy. Once the vote was in fact done she spoke up again. "Thank you all for the trust, I promise I won't let you down!" She said in a bubbly tone.

"Ya ya, we believe you." Martin said in return. "Well this team meeting is fun at all but if this is going to be our last night at port I'm going to need a farewell drink... or four. So I'll be downstairs if anyone needs me." With that, the mage headed out of the room. Similarly Barristan turned to the door. "Well, I think it would be best for me to prepare for our journey. I shall see you all tomorrow." The somewhat surly werewolf then left the room as well. Amara scrunched her eyebrows a bit and turned to Lucky.

"Captain, I know I really shouldn't pry. But Barristan gives off some really... depressing feelings. It's hard to describe but its like he is scared of himself. I don't know, I guess I'm a little worried about him."

[Nuridia]

“I know Amara, I’m worried about him too if I can be completely honest...” Lucky turned to Amara with a thoughtful expression on her face before standing up, the snakes in her hair softly moving and hissing. “I’ll have to prepare everything and ready the ship, we’ll stay here one more night to get supplies stocked and get rested but we will be leaving at first light, let the crew know. But first, I should probably go and check on Barristan...you want to come with? It’ll be a far less difficult task to ignore us if there are two of us around, I think that’s fair.”

“I’ll be on the beach, perhaps I’ll find something useful and then I’m going to get my sword and armor repaired if that’s okay with you, Captain.” Tam said, turning to Amara and Lucky. “That’s fine, we all need to be in tip top shape the next morning. This journey might be perilous, we need to be as ready as possible.”
“And if y’all do check on the wolf knight...make sure he’s alright. He’s gruff but he seems like a decent enough man and all.”
“Aw, it sounds like you care Tam Lin.”
“Well, you’re mistaken.” And with that, the elf turned and left the room.

[Tomia]

"Ya sure, that sounds like a good idea." Amara said as she walked out with Lucky. They made their way over to Barristan's door, and Lucky knocked once they arrived. There was a pause for a few moments before the door opened somewhat to reveal Barristan. "Hello there Captain, Amara, is something wrong?"

"Hey Barristan," Amara replied. "We just wanted to make sure you were okay. You seemed... troubled when we were talking. I know I shouldn't use my power on friends but, sometimes I can't help it."

Barristan sighed, it was difficult sometimes having a crew mate who was an empath. Still he understood that her intentions were good. "I appreciate the concern Amara, but I assure you I'm fine. I am simply concerned with the safety of the crew, as always." Amara shot the captain a look as if asking for help trying to get through to him.