Kelleris said:
It seems we are decided, then. Bluegorge, then Proteus, hoping to intercept the Stormdancer along the way. It won't be enough, but it's a good start.
And then, with a wolfish grin -
Captain Merri, I think you should show us what kind of time you can make with this rig, don't you?
"
That it is lad!" Captain Merri roars. "
Mr. Zay, full sail!" The wiry salt genasi first mate salutes sharply and begins to bark orders to the rest of the crew. Airy lines are raised and lowered, and the fiery sails fill in the winds that surround the ship. Captain Merri begins to turn the ship towards Bluegorge as the
Khora Aisa cuts through the waves.
You break through some dustbreakers, crash through an extensive blue flow of ice and rimefire (sending some of you belowdecks to warm frozen fingers and toes), but much of what you sail is various currents of water. One sports an extensive kelp bed, where a small flock of rainbow-feathered birds with utterly enormous beaks stalk, apparently looking for small fish. "
Cackle birds, ahlinnis. Smarter than some people I know, and make you laugh yourself to death if you threaten them. It sounds funny, unless you're the target," Anna points out, if asked. Anna is one of the water genasi sailors, and a priest of the Whale Mother.
Another time you spot a few fin-armed aventi (aquatic humans of a sort) on a floating sandbar, digging turtle eggs out of the beach. You spot small rocky islands, a colorful coral reef, an a very distant ship or two, beaches of white sand or mud, and sadly once a body of an aquatic elf, frozen to death near a flow of ice and rimefire. There's a sandstorm one day that delays you and gives nearly everyone on board, barring the salt genasi, dry eyes and painfully cracked skin. Even the figurehead looks rather withered for a day or two.
The crew is a reasonably friendly bunch, competent at what they do, and seemingly pleased to have you along. They know their ship is valuable and having such famous (or infamous) personages aboard to help protect it is welcome indeed. There's a dozen crew on board; Anna Kale, the priestess of course, and Zay the first mate. The large and incongruitously named Minnow, along with Tegis and Kal, are three of the water genasi sailors perhaps best acquainted with a cutlass, with their salt genasi comrade Fesharn joining them in their skill. The cook is a somewhat rotund salt genasi woman named Tulie, while the quartermaster is another of her ilk, a skilled craftsman called Halite. Mefis and Shoal, both water genasi, share a bit of Captain Merri's incarnum knack, while Gulot and Sesh show some minor skill at magic or psionic power. All have some interesting little talent, and it seems they've worked together for quite some time.
At the end of the week the Crystalline Falls are in sight, with Bluegorge perched atop them. As the Khora Aisa draws closer, something is spotted in the water, a small ship, barely more than a rowboat. Aboard are a half-dozen pale-skinned, bald, slender humans, dressed in wrapped black clothing, all soaked and listless. Several bear some small wounds, probably from drifting too close to the Crystalline Falls (shards of crystal are known to fall from them). The people see you, and one looks at you with wide and frightened eyes. The others seem too far gone to care.
