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Post by Natasha Ebonlocke on Jun 17, 2021 21:56:01 GMT
To Punch a Kraken in the Face
The sun moved westward through the clear blue sky, beginning its descent toward the western horizon of the ocean as the seventh bell of the evening rang. The waning sun sent long shadows across the yellow-trimmed, birch-tree white deck of the galleon Whitewind’s Grace, its proud white sails with the Whitewind insignia (three lines that looked like gusts of wind surrounded by a peace wreath), and the gently rolling surface of the ocean. The smell was of salt sea, turpentine, wood, and the last remaining scents wafting along of fresh-caught tuna and steamed veggies from dinner not long before. The temperature was warm, though the hottest part of the day had passed. The sounds of idle chatter among the crew, the wind gently rippling the sails, and the slosh of gentle waves along the ship’s hull could be heard. The Whitewind’s Grace sailed wide around the tip of the Cape of Stranglethorn, just over a mile directly south of the point, intending to avoid being sighted by the Bloodsail Buccaneers. All was calm as the ornate ship drifted along.
Aboard, besides the ship’s crew, was the Whitewind Company, led by Lady Cellica “Ciel” Whitewind, a short-haired, fit, lithe noblewoman of the Stormwind House of Nobles. With her was an officer-in-training of the company, the rather less fit and somewhat hefty Natasha Ebonlocke, looking out to sea with wide purple eyes set in a round, pale face framed by the black hair that gave her family their surname. Talimas Oaksong, another officer-in-training, was most certainly not looking out to sea, but rather, inside, leaning on a doorframe as he sat on the floor, his long white Kaldorei hair hidden under a hood he’d pulled low as he drank his calming tea and did his best to pretend there was no vast, seemingly endless ocean rolling their ship along. His thalassophobia (fear of the ocean) was doing him no favors at all!
The rest of the Whitewind Company present included Ais’la and Jornaar, a happy and quite fit and toned Draenei couple, and a rather more grim pair of Illidari, Selaerian and Nyneave, who had worked once together in the distant past. The latter were patrolling the decks of the ship, both topside and below, relentlessly, while the former were seated together in the mess hall having a long discussion in Draenic. Jornaar’s deep, booming baritone and Ais’la’s happy alto combined to make the foreign language quite musical.
The Whitewind’s Grace sailed smoothly, full speed ahead, as it set a course deep out to sea to avoid the Bloodsail Buccaneers, rounding the Cape with clear skies and the wind in her proud sails. The trip had been idyllic since the successful defense against the Bloodsail Buccaneers’ attack further up the east coast of the jungle, though three of her heavy starboard-side cannons were down. Her port cannons were fine, but the battle against the pirate ship off her starboard side had taken its toll. The ship was down several cannonballs, three cannons, and… a bucket.
Nat giggled to herself despite the memory of the scary battle, looked out over the endless waves to the horizon and remembering Jornaar felled his final target of the skirmish with a well-aimed toss of a large metal pail that clanged noisily off the head of a pirate attempting to place a boarding plank across the gap between the two ships. She recalled the trip in general in her head as the Whitewind’s Grace skimmed quickly over the smooth seas. It had been a mundane business trip to Fuselight-By-The-Sea to arrive with enough pomp and circumstance on the ornate ship to cause the goblins there to take notice of a wealthy client, thus making a good enough first impression to seem worthy of a trade deal, and, perhaps, be a little intimidating. The deal turned up a two-year contract for explosive ordinance and other engineering supplies, including the Prototype Blastbanger Long-Range Radio-Wave Electronic Blasting Cap XT-9000, an especially effective blasting cap with ultra-long-range detonation ability.
That trip had devolved into the discovery from goblin subordinates at a site on the cliff tops overlooking the little goblin town that a troupe of Dark Iron dwarves, failing to acquire the prototype with a ridiculously low price offer, had simply robbed them of it and taken off to a titan dig site to the northwest. The crew had followed in pursuit, finding them there, reacquiring it, and bringing it back to the grateful goblins, who set up arrangements to meet officer Aedalia Songbird on the spot to write up a contract. Nat grinned again, remembering another toss from Jornaar, this one a knock-out blow with a stone to the head of the rogue Dark Iron group’s second-in-command. This was becoming a habit!
From there, the Whitewind Company and the crew of the Whitewind’s Grace had set sail for home, retracing their steps back to Stormwind by sailing south down the east coast of the Eastern Kingdoms, planning to turn north again after getting around the Cape of Stranglethorn.
That’s when the pirates had attacked. The Bloodsail Buccaneers and their Tauren captain had set upon them ferociously, knocking out three of the galleon’s starboard cannons and damaging a fourth, before losing their own cannons to Whitewind fire and closing in for a boarding party instead. Pirates were placing boarding planks and swinging across on ropes, but they were repelled by the valiant efforts of the Whitewind Company. The Tauren captain himself jumped across to the deck of the Whitewind’s Grace after that, only to meet a swift and gruesome end at the hands of the Whitewind Company and be unceremoniously dumped into the sea by Selaerian.
Nat winced hard at the memory. The Tauren had taken everything from crackling jade lightning to bullets to a Draenei-swung hammer to the abdomen, and hadn’t stood a chance against so many. It wasn’t pretty. Nat tried to put the thought from her mind, remembering, instead, poor Talimas’ thalassophobia that had put him right back inside with more calming tea after the fight. She giggled again. Her old friend was not a coward, she knew from other incidents she’d been involved in with him, but the strange phobia had him quite taken aback. Yet, as the old saying goes, it’s only when one is frightened that one can truly show courage, and Tali, frightened of the vast expanse of water as he was, powered through it to defend the ship, the Company, and the crew.
Nat giggled once more as a thought, unbidden, popped into her head: her bestie, Nahlia Lifebloom (who had had to miss this particular venture), walking out onto the bow of the ship after the fight, had she been here, all wound up from the fracas.
“Where you going, bestie?” Nat would likely ask.
“To punch a kraken in the face,” Nah would likely reply back with a smirk.
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Post by Natasha Ebonlocke on Jun 17, 2021 21:57:10 GMT
“LAAAAND HOOOOO!” came a cry from the lookout in the crow’s nest high overhead, interrupting Nat’s thoughts. “Debris ahead! Masts breaching! I spy an island with shipwrecks between us and it!”
“Furl the sails!” Lady Whitewind answered quickly. “Half speed! Navigate the debris carefully, and get us back up to speed once we’re free!”
The crew all came outside at the calls, looking around the ship. The hulls of the Alliance, Orcish, and Forsaken ships visible in the water were all smashed up as though struck by some colossal giant wielding a club the size of an Ashenvale Forest tree. Large chunks of hulls and halves of masts were floating around in the water everywhere. Through the clear blue water, shallow as it was as the crew approached a barren island that was little more than a sheer upward thrust of a rock spire, the crew could see many more wreckages below the surface, each one appearing to be violently smashed to pieces. Nat looked around, worried, wondering what could have done this. As she looked around, she noticed her coworkers, her friends, echoing the same thoughts on their own concerned faces.
“Did you hear that?!” Talimas suddenly blurted out, his ears pinned to his head and genuine fear on his face.
The rest of the crew looked around uneasily, going silent and listening hard.
“I-I didn’t hear anything, Tali,” Nat answered back. “It’s probably just the scene around here playing tricks on your imagination.”
“I heard it as well,” Selaerian said, his elven ears twitching as he peered around with his spectral sight.
“I as well,” nodded Nyneave, her own Kaldorei ears perked and also listening hard. “And it’s coming this way, though it remains distant…”
Nat felt less sure Tali was imagining things at that point. But before she could say anything, Tali suddenly ran inside, and the crew could hear his footsteps rapidly sprinting down the stairs. The next noise to echo up on deck was a collision in the cargo deck, and an empty barrel falling down with a crash. The crew looked around at each other, puzzled. Moments later, Tali’s footsteps were heard trudging back upstairs, and, when he emerged, the overheard tumbling empty barrel was strapped to his back.
The rest of the crew looked confused. They couldn’t hear anything. Sel and Nyn stood looking grim, but Tali was crouching low and easing over to the edge of the water, peering into its depths and looking terrified.
“Peerhaps, iz good leesten to heem,” Ais’la said, watching Tali panic and going over to place a hand on his shoulder to try and calm him. “Iz having beet-air hearing zen us, yis?
“He’s right,” Sel said. “There is something out there…”
“What the fel is that?” Nyn asked, scanning the water with her spectral sight.
“Alright, you heard them, helm!” barked Lady Whitewind crisply. “Get the ship to safer shallows, now!”
“Aye, m’lady!” called the helmsman from the wheel. “Settin’ a course fer the island!”
The ship passed more wrecked ships. Ships with red sails, blue sails, purple sails, ornately decorated ships and spiky, ugly ships alike were all ripped up and smashed to pieces, and the Whitewind’s Grace carefully slipped through them all. Some ships were about fifty feet below the surface, with just the tip of the center mast to dodge. Some were washed up on sandbars. Some were only partially submerged, having sank only a couple dozen feet. All were completely destroyed, and the wreckage was strewn about over the course of about a square mile, another ship every hundred feet or so. Eventually, the crew made it out of the wreckage, circling the island to set a course for Stormwind in clearer waters. Full speed ahead was ordered, and the Whitewind’s Grace was once again skimming the gentle waves rapidly, the island beginning to shrink behind them.
Nyn, agile as any Illidari, rapidly scaled the central mast, joining the ship’s lookout in scanning for any threats.
“It’s getting closer!” Sel said suddenly. “MUCH closer!”
“What is this sound you guys are hearing?!” Nat asked quickly, looking around the calm, sunny waters with no small amount of concern now.
“It’s like water being sucked in and expelled very, very quickly,” Sel answered as he, too, peered around in the water.
“LADY WHITEWIND!” the lookout shouted suddenly. “There’s a… a shadow in the water… it’s moving FAST… it’s HUGE… IT’S HEADIN’ RIGHT FER TH’ SHIP!”
Just as the lookout finished speaking, the mundane noises of ocean waves and winds were suddenly shattered by a deafening roar! The gentle, rolling waves became violent and erratic! Water sprayed in from all sides, soaking the crew instantly, and, just visible through the sudden, thick mist were eight purple tentacles with white undersides, each the size of a keep's towers! They appeared all around Whitewind’s Grace, surrounding the ship! An enormous, hideous, bulbous, scaly head the size of a large house appeared off the port bow, its angry red scales and sharp yellow beak highlighting its bulging yellow eyes! Whitewind’s Grace was under attack by a MONSTROUS KRAKEN!
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Post by Natasha Ebonlocke on Jun 17, 2021 21:58:24 GMT
Ais’la spread her hooves apart, bracing for any incoming impact. Jornaar raced to one of the ships two remaining cannons, loading it quickly and giving it a pat. Tali whipped and whirled around, looking at all the tentacles sprouting up that dwarfed the ship. Nat did much the same, much more pale than usual, wondering if this was the end. The Illidari, Sel and Nyn, hopped down to the center of the deck, warglaives at the ready to try and deflect any tentacles whipping in at them. Lady Whitewind was shouting orders to the crew to ready for combat, looking impressive as the wind whipped her clothes and short hair about, seaspray running down her face, yet directly face to face with the ugly kraken head, one foot on the railing and one hand grasping a tightly-tied rope.
“Are you kidding me?!” Sel asked. “This is the worst thing that can happen to a ship at sea, and it happens to us?!”
Tali screamed. It was a crying scream. Nat looked around for him, spotting him curled up into a ball by a wall.
“Iz big fish!” called Jornaar from his cannon.
“What are we going to do?!” Nat called over the roar of the suddenly roiling seas and the kraken. “We’re so done for!”
Ais’la peered about with wide eyes, though she seemed determined. “Och… vell, my faz-air alvayz say, ven een doubt, go for eyeball, yis!”
The kraken, unperturbed by being faced down by Lady Whitewind, began closing tentacles closer to the ship. Nat could sense its hesitation; the tentacles were deeply scarred, as though having sustained damage from other such attacks. The shipwrecks they’d passed were immediately explained. How could they survive this, when so many others had not? This, surely, was the end…
“Wait! Is that the Whitewind’s Grace?!” a familiar, though distant voice suddenly yelled. “NATASHA! VOYAGERS, MAN THE CANNONS! WE HAVE TO HELP THEM!”
Nat perked up instantly, whirling around to peer through two tentacles and the roiling waves and sea spray. The Vynthera’s Vengeance, with its dark cherrywood hull and black and pine-green sails, was rapidly approaching off the starboard bow, closing fast! THE VOYAGERS HAD COME!
“It’s the Vynthera’s Vengeance!” Nat shouted jubilantly. “The VOYAGERS are here!”
Tali cry-screamed again, thinking it was something else coming to get them now. Ais’la hopped over, giving Tali’s shoulder a shake, rolling her eyes a little.
“By the Light,” she said. “Try and get head on!”
Jornaar was aiming his cannon, and, through the mists, Nat could spot porthole doors opening and cannons being poked through them on the Voyagers’ ship as well. An array of cannons that dwarfed their meager two remaining ones was taking aim at the flailing, towering purple-and-white tentacles of the kraken.
The kraken screeched again, a deafening roar from the abyssal deeps that froze the heart and nearly shattered the eardrums. The sun was all but blotted out by the mists stirred up by the flailing tentacles, and the waves were rolling both ships. Tali’s screams were even louder than the two ships’ captains screaming orders. A warm, calm evening had turned into an evening of terror and chilly deluges of seawater.
Just then, a tentacle suddenly reached over to the Vynthera’s Vengeance, coming down at Lex for a slap! Lex responded with a scimitar thrust as he darted to one side. Stung, the tentacle pulled back and returned to flailing high above the ships.
Another tentacle reached down, grabbing Nat, hoisting her high into the sky! She screamed in startled terror! The ships became dwarfed as she looked down from above and saw the scene in all its horror. The Whitewind’s Grace, manned by her good friends, was a small toy in comparison to the massive, ugly, scaled red head and its enormous, bulbous yellow eyes. Its tentacles, one of which was squeezing her so tightly she could hardly breathe, were flailing all around, feinting in and out from both ships as though trying to find an easy opening for prey. Nat felt her hair and clothing whipping about in the breeze as the flailing tentacle swung her this way and that.
Without warning, the tentacle suddenly pulled straight into the water, bringing Nat under and dunking her! Nat heard the roiling of the ocean from underwater, got a brief glimpse of blue, and almost gasped a lung full of water – the kraken’s body, underwater, was enormous! A veritable forest floor with a small mountain in the middle and eight towering trees the size of Kaldorei forest trees sprouted up, up, up, through the surface! The tentacle breached again in the next moment, sending Nat high into the sky once more as the seawater blew off her. She coughed and spluttered, wide-eyed with terror, feeling much as Tali must be feeling as the great beast assaulted their ships. The tentacle swung low, bringing Nat right across both ships’ decks. She finally found enough breath for a scream.
“EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!”
Nat heard her friends screaming her name in a panic, and saw cannons turning to face the tentacle holding her. Fear gripped her heart as the swing that took her over the decks of the two galleons now carried her toward the yellow-brown beak of the kraken’s ugly head, which was slowly opening…
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Post by Natasha Ebonlocke on Jun 17, 2021 21:59:36 GMT
BLAM!
A cannon fired from the Voyager’s ship! Nat looked back as her tentacle shuddered, swinging her away from the head and high in the air, as though it were about to strike back. The tentacle had been hit! The glance back showed a grim-looking Kaldorei woman wearing brass knuckles that flashed dazzlingly in the sun. The woman, whom Nat overheard Lex calling Taniriel, was already loading her cannon again, wasting no time celebrating.
Nat felt the tentacle uncoil from around her… and screamed again. She was being dropped into the water from high above the ship! In the next moment, she splashed into the water again, getting a much slower, longer look at the gargantuan being that shared the seemingly endless expanse of the water with her. Far to the left the kraken’s body stretched, and far to the right. Nat began kicking hard, though she was hindered greatly by her long skirt. She soon made it to the surface again, being only a dozen or so feet under. She coughed and spluttered, trying hard to swim through the hindrances of her attire and the tossing of the waves stirred up by the kraken, and the going was slow.
Suddenly, the tentacle that had held her was struck again by another booming cannon blast, right around the same spot the first cannonball had hit. The tentacle was severed, bits and pieces flying everywhere as the two lengths of tentacle fell down into the water on either side of Nat and showering her with disgusting kraken gore. She looked up at the Vynthera’s Vengeance once more, where a man she’d heard Lex calling “Steven Patrick” moments ago was standing behind a smoking cannon. Ais’la could be spotted up on deck, standing on her tippy-hooves and peering overboard at the severed tentacle, wincing hard and holding her hands to her own tendrils, her tail curling around her.
“Talimas!” Nat heard Lex yell over the chaos. “What are YOU doing out here?!”
“Idon’tknowsomeonegetNatasha!” she heard Tali yell back.
“Voyagers!” Lex yelled next. “Everyone ready your fire, NOW! Get to the cannons!”
“Natasha!” Lady Whitewind yelled. “Get back to the ship, quickly! My men won’t be able to get a boat out to you safely!”
Nat tried with all her might to swim, eventually making it back to the rope ladder affixed to the port side. The kraken seemed far too occupied with its larger two targets to pay much heed to the one person in the water, and Nat made it safely. Trying to climb the ladder with long skirts weighed down with seawater cascading off her didn’t make the rope climb any faster than the swim, but she made it up onto the deck of the Whitewind’s Grace anyway. She collapsed onto the deck, and Ais’la, the crew’s healer, came rushing over to see if she was okay. She began examining the exhausted young woman quickly as the combat proceeded with obscene gusto around them.
Meanwhile, Lady Whitewind was directing a few deckhands in the operation of another cannon, and it fired, though the deckhands, not being a cannon crew after all, were not able to land a hit.
Aboard the Voyager, Lex and their mutual friend Resinthal Ayogan, who went by just Gan, were aiming their own cannons. Lex methodically loaded, set, aimed, and fired, sending a cannonball at a tentacle, which suddenly flailed again and caused a miss. Gan, fiery warrior that he was, channeled his fury into a palpable heat, then pinched his cannon’s fuse with his glowing-hot plate metal gloves. The cannon boomed a short time later, sending a cannonball right through a tentacle and removing a large chunk of flesh. The kraken screeched and screamed again, causing many to hold their hands over their ears.
Lex cackled with glee as Gan’s cannonball struck home. He tied a red bandana quickly around his forehead, whooping, clearly having fun now despite the mortal peril.
Jornaar attempted to fire his cannon next with his trusty cannon slap. Nothing happened! He glared at the cannon, determined to discern the source of “no boom.”
“Come on, iron tube!” he griped at the cannon. “Why do not shoot?”
Tali, finally summoning up the inner strength to push past his fears and do something, unleashed two quick shots from his rifle, though both just grazed the flesh of his target and did nothing significant.
“If I die for this, YOU get to tell Edward, Lex!” Nat overheard her friend Maya Maxwell screaming at Lex. In the next instant, a beam Nat recognized as pure Moonfire ripped down from the skies and seared the flesh of a tentacle. The kraken roared in pain, nearly deafening both crews, as another tentacle was withdrawn!
Someone Lex was calling Marta was working diligently to supply the crew, just as Nyneave was doing for the Whitewind Company. Back and forth they flew with their provisions, cheering their crews on, ready to join the fight if reserves were called upon.
A purple-haired young woman named Bernadetta whipped up a staff and planted the base of it on the deck, firing a massive arcane orb at another tentacle. The tentacle disintegrated in the segment the orb passed through, severing the upper portion and causing both to fall into the water. The resulting splashes sent water cascading over both crew, and the resulting waves rocked both boats. Lex shouted his encouragement to the crew, cheering them on.
Selaerian ran to the barrels of gunpowder near the cannons and grabbed one. With a grunt, he tore off the lid and felt inside of it. When he felt powder, he laughed horribly and punched it. As a sigil of flame began to form in the powder, he threw it, his arms bulking up as Illidari Vengeance Spikes sprouted rapidly from his body. If nothing else, he was hoping to get the beast’s attention on himself. Nat and Ais’la, the latter of whom was still tending the former, jumped a bit as an entire gunpowder barrel detonated somewhere near another tentacle. Selaerian was grinning at his handiwork as another scorched tentacle flailed and the kraken flailed in agony once more.
The kraken roared its displeasure to the world, dipping and rising and flailing about harder than ever to stir up a massive white-capped wave that towered over the Whitewind’s Grace from off the port bow. It slammed into the ship, washing loose supplies overboard, taking Nat and Ais’la with it, along with Lady Whitewind and Tali. Ais’la squeaked as her head smacked off the railing, and the sheer volume of the deluge of seawater slammed each of them several feet deep into the water. They came up again, coughing and spluttering, and Tali’s empty barrel, strapped still to his back, rolled over and caused him to get stuck just under the water’s surface, horizontal, where he began flailing piteously. This was surely not going to help his thalassophobia one bit, nor was being forced to look underwater at the size of the beast’s body and all that endless ocean.
The kraken’s head was recoiling from the gunpowder barrel explosion, dipping from off the port bow and coming up in between the two ships. Large, bulbous eyes stared down both crews from close range as its elekk-sized yellow-brown beak snapped several times, furiously. It sent a tentacle through Gan’s porthole, past his cannon, trying to strike him. Gan’s massively thick plate armor and his fury at the clash slowed his reflexes slightly, but his turning away and his armor caused the tentacle to do nothing more than glance off him.
Nat heard Bernadetta in tears as she came up, crying and looking at those washed overboard. Sel saw her too, and was readying chains from his Illidari sigils to rein his friends back aboard. Before he did, Nat got a frostbolt off, extra-concentrated now with all this water all around her to focus into it. The razor-sharp frostbolt severed another tentacle, which fell in two pieces among them, showering them with kraken bits and blood. The crew screamed, Tali flailed, and another cannon shot from Steven Patrick boomed from the Vynthera’s Vengeance, taking another chunk from another tentacle. Meanwhile, Tali had finally managed to resurface, curling an arm over his barrel and pulling himself on top of it, attempting to get himself back to the Whitewind’s Grace.
Tani slammed her brass knuckles together, sparking the fuse on her cannon, blasting another chunk with a dull splat! from the same tentacle, and it, too, fell in two pieces around those in the water. It was now raining kraken bits all around the crew! Once the two tentacles were felled, Sel had a clear shot to send sigils with chains out to those in the water to pull them aboard. Lady Whitewind helped him help her, summoning a misty cloud to float up to the deck in the manner of monks.
Gan attempted another shot, but the heat radiating off his plate armor caused his fuse to burn up before he could set it. Nat could hear the resulting language all the way aboard Lady Whitewind’s ship. Jornaar, meanwhile, was still slapping his cannon, to no effect.
Maya’s enchanted tattoos on her right side lit up, and another beam fired down from the sky. This time, it was Sunfire, and the targeted tentacle was horribly burned! Flesh sizzled and cracked and popped, and the Kraken screeched its agony in a scream that likely made it all the way back to Booty Bay and made its denizens, and the Bloodsails south of that, wonder what was going on out to sea. If so, they were certainly not going to go anywhere near something that could scream that loud!
The two ships’ crews, however, caught the full brunt of it. The screech was so loud that, combined with the dull roar of the ocean and huge waves slamming against the ship, communication was difficult at best. The elves in particular were having a rough, agonizing go of it before the scream finally ended.
The horrifically burned tentacle was yanked under the ocean quickly to soothe its burns with water, the surface steaming and sizzling where the tentacle had disappeared.
Another tentacle was whipping about near Ais’la’s position on deck. She reached up to her forehead where she’d smacked it on the rail during the tidal wave, and, when she pulled back her hand, there was blue blood there. Looking determined, she set her hooves, and sent several streaks of jade lightning crackling from her hands and into the tentacle. The tentacle twitched and jerked as the lightning zapped through it before finally going limp and falling over into the sea like a giant tree trunk, forcefully slapping the water with a loud POP! that caused a few to cover their ears again and sending a geyser of water sky-high that caused several more to gasp in awe and wonder at the size of it.
“Holy sh*t!” exclaimed Steven Patrick.
“I-… wow!” Tani gasped in awe, her eyes wide as she watched the fountain rise powerfully before finally mushrooming out and falling back down onto both decks like a monsoon and soaking everyone once more. Water rushed over the decks of both ships, cascading over the edge of each side like four waterfalls.
The kraken roared its agony and fury once again, this time dipping its head and its last remaining tentacle, diving under the water. The black shadow moved under the Whitewind’s Grace, resurfacing in between it and the Vynthara’s Vengeance once more and waving its last tentacle menacingly. Through the bloody surface of the water (and all its attendant bits of kraken), the crew could see the massive black shadow now stretching underneath both galleons, though there were seven black shadows in the shapes of tentacles, many of which were severed, trailing down deeper into the ocean. One massive half of a tentacle floated ahead of the ships’ prows. The kraken turned its body up for a classic octopus defense mechanism: the spray of an ink jet. The warm, black, sticky ink arced up and over Tani, who ducked behind a cannon, and sprayed all over Lex, Gan, and Steven Patrick! The three men were covered in the awful black goo, their vision clouded as they tried to get it out of their eyes. It was instantly clear that any further attacks they attempted would have accuracy problems.
The kraken wasn’t finished, either. The one remaining tentacle reached down and seized Lex, just as it had Nat earlier, whipping him high into the sky!
“WHHHOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAA!” Lex screamed as he was grabbed. “F**K! SH*T! SHOOT IT! VOYAGERS! WHITEWIND PEOPLE, SHOOT THIS THING!”
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Post by Natasha Ebonlocke on Jun 17, 2021 22:00:58 GMT
Lex’s crew gasped in horror as they watched him wrenched off the deck.
“By the moon mother…” breathed Tani, looking up with deep concern in her eyes.
“You heard him!” Lady Ciel responded immediately, shouting to her crew. “SHOOT THAT KRAKEN RIGHT IN THE HEAD! NOW!”
Nat was readying another extra-concentrated frostbolt to hit Lex’s tentacle, but, at her leader’s orders, she turned to focus on the massive, hideous swollen head instead, pelting it in the right eye with a flurry of ice spells that blinded it and sent the kraken into another screaming fit and caused it to whip Lex around even more violently. Ironically, Steven Patrick, and not Tani, was able to wipe enough ink from his glasses to hit the tentacle with his next cannon shot, following up the massive blast with no small amount of profanity! Tani’s shot missed as the moving target was flailing too quickly. Over all the deafening roar of cannon fire, Lex’s screams and profanity could still be heard!
“AAAAAUUUUUUGH!” he screamed. “STOP MOVING, B*TCH SQUID!”
Lady Whitewind was directing cannon fire from the same few deckhands, this time landing a shot solidly against the monolithic head of the kraken! The cannon boomed, resounding across the ocean and firing a cannonball that shattered scales and embedded itself into the kraken’s head. More fire boomed forth from Gan’s cannon, though the violently flailing final tentacle holding Lex was too much of a moving target to hit and free him. Talimas took off running up two flights of stairs to fire his rifle from the poop deck, but, soaking wet as he was, he slipped, dropping his rifle and smacking his head on the railing before falling to the deck.
Jornaar gave up slapping his cannon. He rushed to an enormous crate, loaded down with heavy supplies, and throwing it as hard as he could at the kraken’s head. The enormous wooden box popped right through the kraken’s bulbous left eyeball, drilling deep into the beast’s head. This, along with Lady Whitewind’s cannonball to the head, was the killing blow! The now-blinded, dying beast let out one last, long, piteous, eardrum-bursting scream of agony and death before sinking rapidly beneath the waves!
There was no time for cheering the victory however; Captain Alexon Cross was still caught in the last remaining tentacle! In death, the appendage had gripped Lex hard, and he was getting pulled down, down, down beneath the waves with the beast. The crew’s final view of Lex before he splashed through the surface of the waves was of him wriggling desperately to get free. As the beast’s death throes sank below the ocean, the giant black shadow sinking lower and lower until it became a distant black dot, the surface calmed. The ships’ respective crews, however, did not.
“Lex! LEX! NOOOO! Captain! LEX!” came the cries from both ships. Tani was watching in horror as Lex sank through the inky, gory water, and Gan had run out onto the deck from his cannon and actually had one foot on the railing, ready, plate armor or not, to dive in to free Lex from the kraken’s death grip. Nat was in tears, in fear for the life one of her oldest friends. The memory of the chivalrous manner of how they met went through her head once more, and she knew he was to good to go out like this.
Before anyone could react any further, however, a grappling hook broke the surface, flew through the air, and affixed itself to the central mast of the ship. In the next instant, Lex breached like a human fish behind it! The captain of the Vynthera’s Vengeance, the leader of the Voyagers, flew through the air almost in slow motion with a spray of the sea that sparkled in the sunlight as he arced overhead and landed on the deck, where he collapsed, coughing, spluttering, and spitting out bits of kraken and seawater.
Everyone reacted at once. The Whitewind Company fairly exploded, shouting and cheering and offering aid from aboard the Whitewind’s Grace, Bernadetta was sprinting off for her first aid kit, Tani was gasping a sigh of relief, and Gan was rushing to his captain’s – and brother-in-law’s – side.
“By Elune’s grace!” Tani managed.
“Could you not have done that a bit quicker?” Gan scolded in relief. “I thought the whole idea was NOT having me jump overboard! My foot was on the railing!”
“B-blame the… b*tch squid…” Lex managed between coughing and heaving.
“I would if it weren’t dead,” Gan huffed, trying to calm himself and take solace in the fact that Lex was alive. He clenched his jaw, gritting his teeth, seething. The air above his head shimmered in translucent flames. “I’d have had a tough time explaining that one to my sister…”
“Permission to board with my crew, Captain Lex?” came the call of Lady Whitewind’s voice from the Whitewind’s Grace.
“Someone… tell her… I said sure…” Lex gasped, holding still as Bernadetta attended to him.
“Someone pat his back so he gets all that stuff coughed up!” directed Bernadetta, checking Lex over for injuries. “Are you hurt anywhere?”
“No…” Lex gasped, looking quite green through all the black ink, seawater, and kraken bits coating him. “Just… sick… really sick…”
With that, he leaped to his feet, dashed to the edge, and retched, vomiting spectacularly in a projectile arc that made Nat wince and avert her eyes from the poop deck of the other ship.
Bernadetta scrunched up her nose. “If your stomach still hurts after you’re done doing that, please let me know.”
The captain stood up straight again, grabbing for his canteen and pouring as much of the contents on his face as he did down his throat, washing off ink and vomit and kraken bits and saltwater off his cheeks and out of the crevices of his face.
“Heck of a sea story this one’s gonna be, hm?” Gan said with a gravelly chuckle.
Meanwhile, aboard the Whitewind’s Grace, Lady Whitewind was thanking the Company and the crew, praising them for a job well done before those who wanted to go and see Lex and the Voyagers transported over. Ais’la had her mate Jornaar’s arm, and the two were heading below deck to get some rest. Talimas had already disappeared into the depths of the ship for more tea and to pretend he wasn’t at sea and none of this had ever happened. Sel and Nyn were patrolling the decks above and below again, ever the relentless watchers. That left Lady Whitewind and Nat to cross to the other ship after bidding the rest goodnight and promising vehemently to convey the Company’s deepest gratitude to the valiant Voyagers.
Once there, Lady Whitewind and Nat approached the Captain of the Vynthera’s Vengeance, checking to make sure their friend was okay.
“Ahoy!” called Lady Whitewind jovially. “Yo-ho-ho and a bottle of tea!”
“Gosh!” exclaimed Nat. “You guys came right in the nick of time! Thank you SO MUCH for saving all our bums!”
Lex grinned broadly as the pair approached. “Natasha, I’m so glad you’re okay. And Lady Whitewind, my old friend… or is it Captain now?”
“Oh, I’m clearly no captain if I steer my ship straight into a kraken’s lair,” Lady Whitewind chuckled. “I’m just a simple merchant. It is good that the Voyagers happened to be close to hand, however!”
“It sure was!” agreed Nat.
“Natasha,” said Gan with a wave. “It is good to see you, friend. I am glad you saw this ordeal through.”
Lex was shaking his head ruefully at Lady Whitewind. “I’m the one that steered a ship right into a kraken’s lair right after you.”
“And saved all our bums in the process!” exclaimed Nat with a relieved smile.
As more of the crew emerged from other parts of the Voyagers’ ship, introductions were made and drinks were had, right there on the deck. The sun was now a brilliant orange orb on the horizon, looking as huge as the kraken’s head, only gloriously beautiful instead of horrifically ugly. The temperature cooled as the shadows stretched to their longest. The two crews chatted until the lighting dimmed, at which point lanterns were lit. In time, Lady Whitewind and Nat were prepared to return to their own ships, as the two were going in opposite directions: the Whitewind’s Grace was going to be speeding its way directly to Stormwind’s shipyards for repairs, while the Vynthera’s Vengeance was going south toward Booty Bay on its own errands. Lady Whitewind and Nat said their farewells, eventually flying back to their own ships.
Once landed, Lady Whitewind went inside to check on the crew, while Nat went up to the poop deck, alone, aside from the exhausted, silent helmsman, who was staring out to sea ahead or looking at his compass in turns, guiding the ship home over seas that were now beginning to reflect starlight and a huge streak of nearly-full moon.
Nat leaned on the aft railing of the ship, watching the Vynthera’s Vengeance fade away toward the southern horizon, its proud black and pine green sails billowing forward as it rushed along. The dark cherrywood hull reflected the moon behind it, making it shimmer with an otherworldly glow. Pinpricks of light showed where the outside lanterns were, and warm golden light shone through squares and circles where windows and portholes were. Nat listened to the silent night, the creaking of her own wooden ship, and the constant sloshing of waves crashing gently along the hull as she thought about the solemn vow she and Lady Whitewind had made to Lex and his valiant crew.
Of two things she was certain as she watched the proud ship and her fine crew disappear altogether. One, the Whitewind Company’s own fine ship and stellar crew owed a favor to that of the Voyagers’, and two, when called upon, she would fulfill the vow she and Lady Whitewind had made to the Voyagers, and would be there when they needed them most.
Be it kraken, pirate, sea giant, or inland monster, whatever was coming would come in time, and the Whitewind Company stood ready to help when it did.
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Post by Natasha Ebonlocke on Jun 17, 2021 22:11:30 GMT
(( May I just express a huge, HUGE thank you to all the Voyagers that came! I really appreciated you guys roleplaying with us! We had a BLAST with you all! Captain Lex, Gan, Maya, Tani, Bernadetta, Steven Patrick, and Marta, you all made this fun co-op RP possible, and, even better, you made it SO MUCH FUN! Credit to you guys for stellar roleplay, and ESPECIALLY credit to "Captain Lexyface" (<3 <3 <3) for writing this kraken story with me, and helping me set the RP side set up as well! You rock! Thank you Lady Whitewind, Talimas, Ais'la, Jornaar, Selaerian, and Nyneave for stellar and fun RP as well! I'm so glad to be guilded with you guys, and to be friends with the Voyagers! I look forward to many more adventures with you, my friends! <3 ))
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Post by Alexon Cross on Jun 20, 2021 21:58:12 GMT
I loved reading this recount of the story we wrote together, Nat! Thanks so much for the RP and for allowing us to be a part of the end of your campaign. More fun times to come! <3
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Post by Natasha Ebonlocke on Jun 20, 2021 23:52:28 GMT
Thank you for agreeing to be part of it, with your character and those of your guild's! You made it GREAT! <3
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