Pirate RP - Quest for the Snark

[Robyn]

"I'll stay with what I have."

No expression dared flit across Robyn's face, but she was impressed with Draco's luck. She drew her two cards--

[dice=13][dice=13]

_{ten. can't really go wrong with hitting here, i suppose...just need to be careful after that.}

"One more, please."

[dice=13]

She made sure to keep her emotions unreadable as she calculated her score...a two, an eight, and now a Jack. That was twenty, alright. Robyn pressed out a quiet breath as she nodded and looked up at their mythical dealer.

"I think I'm going to keep mine too."


[rand=05842311880021478839480331504063643099660784286517061944229271895]

[Ikkin]

Ikkin briefly considered her odds before checking her cards. The Sphinx had a total of 17 with its first two card; two pirates had gone over and the other two had each drawn 20s. The Sphinx would have to draw again, and more likely than not, it would go over.

On the other hand, there was always the possibility that it might get a 21, in which case, things would go south real quickly.

Considering both of those facts at the same time, Ikkin decided, she might as well go for broke for the elusive 21 herself.

She flipped the cards over to see what she'd drawn.

[dice=13][dice=13]

Twelve. Huh. Well, no use putting it off any longer than she needed to.

She drew another card.

[dice=13]

A five. Well, that gave her 17, same as the Sphinx. No reason to stop now, then. She drew another card, hoping her luck would be better than his.

[dice=13]

A ten. She resisted the urge to facepalm -- she was pretty sure it was hard to have worse luck than that.

Well, there were still two people in the game with 20s, so things weren't looking all that bad. And if things somehow turned around for the Sphinx... well, she'd figure out what to do then, if it came down to it. She certainly wasn't planning to go down without a fight.[rand=0737353941212922641904750020766091669308064773350546546419116575233]

[Fraze]

The Sphinx's face remained impassive as it dealt cards to all those participating. Finally, once they were done, it drew for itself.
[dice=13]

A momentary scowl crossed its face, but was replaced in an instant by the enigmatic smile that seemed to be its default expression.
"My loss, then," it said, holding up its large paws as a sign of defeat.
"Head toward that mountain," it continued, pointing out a markedly jagged, rocky peak that certain people might have found suspiciously familiar but not entirely identical to something they had seen recently. "Start looking around the base of the northeast slope and expand outward."

Fraze decided to try wringing more information. What sort of tracks should they look for? Any particular signs that a snark is nearby? What sort of dangers are involved in catching one? But most importantly...
"What do they look like?"

The sphinx tilted its head with a look that transitioned from puzzlement to dawning understanding to malicious intent. It stopped with the last one and stayed there. "I could tell you, but..." It gathered the cards together and gave them a shuffle.
"...Never mind, then." He turned to the rest of the rather odd group. "Well, what are we waiting for? Looks like the blarf has found a bushel of those songfruits already."[rand=4303472535684705830583462491631554136102041229616007535161916167]

[Huntress]

Hunty dragged herself upright again and shot a curt smile at Robyn. "Well done, newbie." After a moment's consideration, Draco got a brief nod as well, only for diplomacy's sake.

She turned to look at the Sphinx, who was looming over them smugly. "All right, thank you very much..." She hesitated. Seriously, was this a Sir or a Ma'am or what? Its cold chocolate brown eyes remained impassive and didn't look like they were going to help her along anytime soon.

"...Sphinx," she finished lamely. "I hope we'll meet again."

"Oh, I hope we do," said the Sphinx, getting up. "But you're better off hoping that we won't." Why won't this stupid tail stop twitching? Why won't this stupid tail stop twitching?

It retreated halfway to its cave, watching the small group that was now making preparations to move on. Sphinxes are rare and few people, if any at all, have had any chance to study their body language (and live to tell the tale). Unfortunately, sphinx body language overlaps almost entirely with a cat's.

It was furious. Not because it'd lost the game, this happened every now and then* but because they had a bleedin' megahexapod.

Really, how could one even grow this big? Those creatures didn't grow past the size of a very large horse. Sure, the species had once been much, much bigger... and more leathery, with more tentacles, and those little winglings hadn't been for show... but the Sphinx had been a little babycub back then, a scared little bundle of fluff whose parents used the monster stories to keep it safe and from wandering too far, and it'd heard that eventually, a heroine had stepped forth and tamed the entire species, which eventually degenerated and became mostly harmless. But this one... this one was its species' former glory incarnate!

Moreover, how was it walking about freely? Was it the only one around or had something happened to release all the monsters? The Sphinx made a mental point to find it out. It liked travelling, even if it sometimes took a short break for a decade or two.

But first... it wanted food. And if not for this huge creature, much too big for it to risk taking down, it would've attacked on spot. But with megahexapods, the risk was far too big and the wrong outcome far too nasty.

It'd need to wait.

The Sphinx's lips curled into a mirthless smile. It hadn't hunted properly in ages. Should be fun.

"Okeydokeypokey," Hunty said at the same time, swinging herself atop the blarf who was already swaying slightly. "Jagged mountain it is. I don't think we'll get there today, so gather edible fruits on the way, we'll set up camp when night falls, and by gods, don't pick any of those pear-shaped red ones the blarf just ate, I don't want to hear any more Lady Gaga ever."

* And occasional teenage travellers who happened across its cave and responded to its card game offer with "you just lost the game!" and a giggle only got eaten faster.

[Draco]

Stepping away from the cards was what he hoped would happen, turning to stone or eaten didn't seem like a fitting end. Even if he would make a good statue.

Draco gives a little smirk as he climbs onto the Blarf.

"At least the Sphinx didn't challenge us to a game of poker. We might have had ourselves a victory song."

He glances at the weasels for a moment, half expecting them to break out into song.

"So, jagged mountain? Sounds fun."

[Jina]

((I'm going to go ahead and pretend to have been here the whole time, since it's easiest that way.))

Jina, from on top of the Blarf, looked at the mountain that the Sphinx had pointed towards. It was steep, rocky, and parts of looked like just stepping in the wrong place would be enough to bring down massive boulders on your head.

"So, jagged mountain? Sounds fun."

"I don't know what the ninjas call fun, but to me that looks like the sort of place the the locals send tourists when they want them to have a tragic accident. Are we even going to try and get the Blarf up that thing? Because I don't think that's a very safe place for large, furry creatures."

[Zylaa]

"I have faith in the Blarf's ability to cling onto things," Zylaa said, looking pointedly at the tentacles. "And, if that fails, to bounce."

"Blaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarf," it said, rather melodically. Clearly the fruits were taking effect.

The weasels started up a peppy little tune, appropriate for setting on the next, adventurous yet lighthearted point of the journey. Yet as the blarf began to shamble on, its tentacles now waving vaguely to a beat only it could hear, the weasels trailed off to a few, low, ominous notes. It was, effectively, a "Dun dun dunnn"... unbeknownst to the pirates and tagalongs, at the exact moment when a movie of the scene would have panned away to focus on the sphinx's smile.

Zylaa couldn't help giving a nod of thanks to Draco. He may be a ninja, but it was still handy to have a portable forshadowing device around.

[Ikkin]

"I'd be less worried about his ability to cling onto the side of the mountain than I would his ability to cause an avalanche," Ikkin pointed out. "Falling rocks might bounce off of him, but they sure wouldn't bounce off us."

She flew up to the top of a nearby tree and pulled a fruit off, avoiding anything red or pear-shaped, and looked at it suspiciously. She didn't particularly feel like randomly bursting into song, but it couldn't hurt to have more edibles around. She stuck it in a pocket, then put another one in her other pocket, quickly realizing that she didn't have much in the way of storage space to take more down with her. She could throw them down for the others to catch, but they probably wouldn't like that, and she'd much rather have meat for dinner instead. Then again, it'd be no use catching anything now if they were going to be walking for the rest of the day.

She was about to fly back down, but before she could, something in the direction of the mountain caught her attention -- she moved to the side instinctually as it whizzed by her ear at top speed, then got the wind knocked out of her as another one hit her straight in the stomach. She looked down at where she'd been hit and saw her clothes had been stained red... but she was pretty sure she wasn't bleeding, because her jacket wasn't torn. A third missile shot in her direction, but this time she was ready for it, slowing it enough to catch it safely; she let herself drop below the line of the trees to get out of range before taking the chance to see what was being thrown at her.

It was a fruit. Red, pear-shaped, and rather innocuous-looking.

"Hey, guys?" Ikkin said, still hovering a few feet above the ground and spattered in musical fruit, "We'll probably want to watch out for edible ammunition on our way to the mountain. Someone up in the trees doesn't seem to want your love, and I want your revenge -- oh, come on! I didn't even follow you until you love me! -- eat one. So, yeah, we should probably be careful, because Russian Roulette is not the same without a gun -- okay, I give up." Ikkin resisted the urge to facepalm, because one of her hands still had fruit pulp on it and she really did not want to be breaking out into song for any longer than she had to.

[[Attempting to revive this here without getting in the way of Hunty's plans all too much]]

[Huntress]

((T___T I don't ever have plans. I make it up as I go along, otherwise it'd get boring to follow a straight line in my head. In fact, it already is, hence why I've been so slow on posting lately.
But for the time being-))

- the sun was setting.

The Isle of Toves was a small island. But it was also a slow sort of island, in that every last inch of the jungle was specifically built to slow down anyone going through it. There were thickets begging for a machete. There were huge spider nets that wrapped itself in the hair of passersby. (Passersby's? Passerbies'? Passersbies'? Passers'by? Passarghasfadh what? D:) There was a huge betentacled plant with fangs lining its bud that spoiled its good B-movie-worthy entrance by backing off sheepishly after the blarf had chomped off one of the tentacles. There were also tasty blue fruit that made the entire travelling party break out in an impromptu perfectly choreographed dance. Seeing as they were still in the middle of a thorny thicket for it, the result was messy at best.

"You know," said Hunty, thoughtfully sucking on a scratch on her arm, "this is a rather nice jungle. Plants and trees and all that. How about we just stay here and live here for the rest of our lives? What's one more hugely powerful entity to run away from?"

"You can run away forever, but you can't escape what's in your own head," said Bloody Mary on her shoulder. There was a pause.

"How's that relevant?"

"Isn't. It's just the sort of thing people always say in this sort of conversation, followed by a deep lesson." The meepit shrugged. "Thought we could use a deep lesson. Somehow we never learn things like 'don't get yourself in debt with folks a few forks short of a silverware set'."

"An important lesson for us all, I'm sure," said the captain. "Okay folks, look around for a clearing to set up camp on for the night. I don't think I've seen a single clear patch of grass this whole day but one can hope, right?"

There was a dull, heavy thump. The blarf had squatted down into the thicket, wrapped all his tentacles around him, curled up in a huge fuzzy ball and rolled off through the bushes. A moment later he rolled back, no longer through any bushes.

"Oh look, a clearing," Bloody Mary said brightly.

A few hundred feet behind them, a sleek sand-colored body slipped through the undegrowth, black-rimmed eyes narrowed into slits. The Sphinx was hunting.

((Alright folks, it's time for your captain to announce a Heartfelt Team-Building Exercise, brought to you by well-meaning underworked human resources managers everywhere. Goes thusly: everyone who posts next is to pick up the plot and run off with it in some completely ridiculous direction =D
And those who don't will get keelhaul'd.
*brick'd*
GO.))

[Ikkin]

"Oh look, a clearing," Bloody Mary said cheerfully as the Blarf rolled back through the path he'd made in the thorn-bushes.

Ikkin didn't need to be told twice. The jungle seemed to have it in for her, or at least her dignity; singing Lady Gaga, picking spider webs (and spider lunches, comprising of large insects and small rats) out of her hair, and doing the can-can with the rest of the traveling party might not have been particularly dangerous, but they certainly weren't the types of things she'd want to write about in her memoir (not that she particularly felt like writing a memoir, but one could never tell).

The sooner she got into the clearing, she thought, the sooner she could get some well-deserved rest. Then, when she woke up, she'd have a properly-dangerous adventure to deal with, instead of an awkward-but-generally-harmless one.

Her thoughts came to a sudden halt as she walked into the middle of the clearing, however. Something wasn't right here. There was something that felt almost empty on the opposite side of the clearing, past where the Blarf had stopped rolling. Ikkin looked closer as she slowly walked towards the source of the feeling, and saw something that looked like stone peeking out from over the top of the black thorn-bushes.

She pulled apart the thorned branches in front of whatever-it-was, her gloves and jacket stiffening to protect her from being scratched, and found herself face to face with what appeared to be a very terrified tourist teenager. She took a step back in surprise and put her hand on the hilt of her sword before she realized that it was a statue and wasn't exactly going anywhere.

"Hey, guys?" she said tentatively. "You really should come and look at this."

While she was waiting for them to arrive, she pulled her sword out and hacked down the branches, revealing the statue's entire figure, as well as two other figures beside it. Both were young, in their early twenties at most; one was beside her sleeping bag, as if she'd just gotten out of it in a hurry, and the other was still in his, having barely managed to sit up before being petrified. All three statues looked quite weathered, and she guessed that they had come here before the thorns grew up everywhere (it wouldn't have made sense for them to have camped out in the middle of a bunch of thorn-bushes if they didn't have a Blarf after all).

She turned to look at whoever followed her, and said, "I don't think these statues are a coincidence. I'd put money on this being that Sphinx's doing, and they don't seem to have been the losers in any card game as far as I can tell. What's to say he's not going to come after us next? It's not like it made any promises past letting us leave."


((That good enough for running with it, Cap'n?))

[Draco]

Draco was one of the people who followed Ikkin. While she talks he looks around slowly, trying to take in everything he can around him.

"The Sphinx has been following us for some time now," he pauses for a few moments, "Or at least it could be. That's usually how it happens in stories. Maybe we should take shifts keeping watch."

He looks around a little more.

"I wish there were a few trees around here to hide in. I think I'll scout around, just in case."

He pulls the two blades from behind his back and stares off into the thicken of thorns. Turning to Ikkin he gives a small smile and disappears.

---

A short distance from the camp site Draco stops to catch a quick breath. Along the way he saw several other statues, most of which were sleeping or camping.

"If I was to take a guess, I would say the Sphinx lures travelers here... If not it, then something else. Come to think of it, why am I speaking out loud?"

"Because you forget you're alone out here."

A rustling noise comes from some bushes behind him.

"Or it's to draw out something from hiding."

He readies himself for what will come out from behind him, but doesn't turn around just yet.

[Jina]

"Hey, guys? You really should come and look at this."

Jina walked over to see what Ikkin was talking about, and saw a group of statues.

"I don't think these statues are a coincidence. I'd put money on this being that Sphinx's doing, and they don't seem to have been the losers in any card game as far as I can tell. What's to say he's not going to come after us next? It's not like it made any promises past letting us leave."

"Well maybe there's just another Sphinx around here somewhere? I mean, there has to be more than one on the island, right? Maybe we'll get to play the next one at Monopoly."

"Sphinxes have very large territories, so if you just met one, it's probably the same one that did this to us." The speaker had a rough voice, as if they hadn't had a drink in days.

"Huh, interesting." Jina looked at the statue that had just been talking. "They must get pretty lonely." ...Hang on, something's not right here.

"They meet up every few thousand years, just to mix things up a little. Go to a tourist spot and have a picnic, that sort of thing."

Jina kept staring at the statue, trying to figure out why something doesn't seem right. Then, she realised. "Hold on a second, why are you talking? Haven't you been petrified?"

The statue frowned. "Yes, I was. The three of us," he pointed towards his friends, who still seemed to be stuck as statues. "were researching into mythical beasts and were heading off to a nearby mountain to find something called a Snark. Anyway, one thing lead to another, and I played that Sphinx at blackjack, got dealt two kings, and it got a ten and a nine. The rest is history."

"...Shouldn't you have won?"

"Oh, should I? I never understood the rules to that stupid game. Well, too late now, the Sphinx already petrified us. As for how I can talk... you're looking at me. Don't ask me to explain how it works, something to do with draining your aura or something. You've been staring at me so long I'm charged up for a few hours, now."

The ex-statue suddenly turned his head, as if he had heard something. "You beat the Sphinx at blackjack? Oh... well I apologise for this, but I'm going to have to stop you from leaving here, a mutual giant cat-lady friend of our wants to see you."

[Ikkin]

"You beat the Sphinx at blackjack?" said the young man who had been a statue only seconds ago. "Oh... well I apologise for this, but I'm going to have to stop you from leaving here, a mutual giant cat-lady friend of our wants to see you."

Ikkin drew her sword out in a flash, its razor-sharp tip gleaming in the light at the former statue's throat in mere fractions of a second. "I'm afraid you're not going to stop us from doing anything," she said, her voice firm. "I'm not sure why you'd want to work for the giant cat-lady who ate your soul, but, frankly, I don't really care. I'd rather not share your fate, thank you very much."

Still holding her sword at his throat, she thought for a minute. While avoiding the Sphinx completely would certainly make it easier to avoid petrification, she wasn't really sure that was what she wanted. "Unless... if you want to see the Sphinx go down... for revenge, or freedom, or whatever... that's something I might consider. But, in return, you'd have to give us whatever information you had about the Snark. That sound good to you?"

[Deleted]

((OOC Note: Like Jina did earlier I'll just go with the assumption that Nasue was with the group the whole time. As for Kovaran, well... you'll see.))


First some ribs had been cracked when she collided with a ship's mast. Then she'd cut her hand while trying to make a tarantula sandwich (the tarantula was already dead, thankfully). Then she'd been punched in the face hard enough to knock her out and cause bleeding. She still had a headache.

And now, Nasue's ankle felt funny. And there were thorns in her fur from the "dancing fruit" incident. Truly, she was the pirates' walking collection of wounds and/or injuries at the moment.

Despite all of this, the coati had decided not to stay behind.

Though, now that the group was in a clearing with weird-looking statues (I don't like that colour, she thought) which could talk, and apparently had been cursed by that sphinx - or were in league with her - Nasue was starting to wonder if this was a bad idea.


One of those statues had since become un-petrified, and now Ikkin had a sword at his throat. She'd made it very clear that they weren't planning on sharing his fate (and frankly, Nasue agreed).

"Unless... if you want to see the Sphinx go down... for revenge, or freedom, or whatever... that's something I might consider. But, in return, you'd have to give us whatever information you had about the Snark. That sound good to you?"

Bravado, Nasue, she thought, reaching for the knife at her side - before her other hand went for her holstered pistol. Then she lowered both of her hands, and coughed.

"I-I don't know, Ikkin. If he's working for that cat-thing--you know, the sphinx? It might be trying to keep us from..." No, wait. That doesn't work. "I know this is a stretch, but maybe it doesn't actually want us to find the Snark."

The statue-turned-person (presumably human) had been staring at Ikkin, but now stared at Nasue. "...are you blue?"

"...yes?" Why'd you ask me that now?!

"S-sorry," he said. "I just haven't seen a blue coati before." The former statue grinned, but she did not grin back, instead reaching for her pistol. When he saw this, his smile disappeared and he looked back at Ikkin, clearly nervous. "Ah--you, uh, want to get rid of the sphinx? I--well, to be honest, I'd rather you--"

BOOM.

Nasue's ears flattened. ...don't tell me.

"What was that?... Anyway, I'd prefer it if you didn't--"

BOOM.

Hang on. That sounds like...

"Would whoever is doing that quiet down for a minute?!"

Oh. Not the sphinx then. Nasue blinked. But what--

And at that moment, something grabbed her from behind. She barely had time to yelp in surprise before being yanked into the nearby thicket--but for a split second before she disappeared, anyone looking at her could see her eyes starting to glow a bright yellow.


There was the sound of a distant roar--a rather loud roar of, "The sword that cleaves evil will find you! And cleave you!"

And then, BOOM.

[Huntress]

The Sphinx was stalking through the bushes, muttering cursewords in languages most of the rest of the world had long since forgotten. It had to stay downwind or the megahexapod would surely smell it, and even so it wasn't sure what means this group had at its disposal to track people down. It'd sensed magical auras among a few of them, and the thing with mages was, you could never be sure how experienced they were.

It smiled. Then again, that was the thrill and glory of a hunt, wasn't it?

At the same time, the abovementioned megahexapod was sitting in the farther end of the newlymade clearing, scratching itself vigorously behind the ear. Its fur was covered in spider webs and as he shook himself, bugs dropped off with tiny little "bweeeeeee" sounds.

Hunty eyed the statue-gone-boy critically. Ikkin seemed to have things under control nicely but she wasn't about to let her have all the fun.

"What's your name, boy?" she asked suddenly. The boy started, swallowed hard and turned to stare at her.

"Uh, Sezzer."

"Sezzer," Hunty repeated slowly, in a voice that was watching the future endeavors of each sound in the name very, very closely.

"It's Cedric, actually," said the boy, "but see, me and the mates hit the pub on our first year of studies, and-"

"Gotcha," the captain said wearily. "Okay, ...Sezzer, the way I see it, you have two quite simple options. One, you choose to cooperate, meaning you'll tell us all about the Snark and I'll call the blarf over and have him stare at you and your mates. No guarantees on how his aura might affect you in the long run but he's just a big soppy really. Two, you don't choose to cooperate, in which case I'll just turn around and stare at the sky a bit, and then I'll turn around again and scold my boatswain for not keeping her sword properly clean."

The boy shot a tentative stare at his petrified friends, then, carefully keeping an eye on Ikkin's sword, stuck his hand in his pocket and pulled out a tattered piece of paper.

"You'll need this," he said.

Hunty unfolded the paper. It read, in big bold letters, SNARK. And nothing else.

She shot a sharp calculative look at Sezzer, who cowered in anticipation of a punch or at least an outburst, but it never came. Instead the captain pulled a piece of paper from her own pocket, the one Zagora had given her. The one that also read SNARK.

Just in case we forget? she'd grimly asked Zagora.

Just in case you forget, the witch had smugly said.

It occurred to Hunty that, as a rule, people tended to hugely underestimate Zagora's wits. She was an ethnic caricature with an accent you could bend horseshoes on and as such, it was so easy to forget that this woman had a mind like a welding torch...

"Talk," she said.

"Only if you help my friends first," said the boy, trying to draw himself up straight.

Hunty eyed him with a deadpan expression. "Ikkin, you know that cool thing you do with the sword and the eyeballs-"

"ItmesseswithyourmindtheSnarkmesseswithyourmind!" Sezzer blurted. "It'ssmallandhardtoseeand and we actually did see it we totally did but it wipes your head out completely so you forget what you were looking for and we found that it's only possible to focus on catching it if you look at the paper reminding yourself what you were here to do and it nearly worked and we nearly caught it but then the Sphinx came and once the Snark's effect wears off it's impossible to remember what it looks like exactly but it's small and hard to see and sort of agile!"

"Man, this boy is chatty," Bloody Mary said.

"Was it nearby?" Hunty asked.

"Sort of, yes, that's why we were camping here," Sezzer panted, taking a deep breath. "But it's easily freaked out."

"The sword that cleaves evil will find you! And cleave you!"

Hunty shot an exasperated glance at the sky. "Not particularly nearby, then."