Startup 56: Arbitration

Rova 10, early morning

The ghost roared in apoplectic fury as it descended like a comet. High above the deck, the riggers fought through a coiling tangle of animated ropes on their way towards the minor angel of ****. Emmanuel’s form flickered as he tried and failed to teleport out of the haunt, flailing his arms in a rather undignified manner. At the center of it all, orbited by terrified swabs, Cog waited.

He crouched slightly, keeping his weight low. He slipped one hand into his belt pouch and pulled out one of the bones he used for his nightly rituals. It wasn’t a weapon, but he’d blessed it with his own hands through years of dedication. It would have to do unless he could get his hands on Syl’s knife.

The ghost was quick and direct; that made its trajectory incredibly predictable. His arms were outstretched to seize Cog, but the lay priest of Pharasma couldn’t let this fight end quickly. As such, for the good of this restless sailor’s eternal soul, Cog stepped to the side at the last second and clocked the ghost with his bone like a speeding Rukh ball. The blessed bone passed through, but the spirit’s head snapped back and it collapsed halfway into the deck.

Cog backed off several feet and took another defensive posture. He glanced at Emmanuel and the door to the hold. Jape wasn’t back yet; he needed more time. Cog gazed into the dark pits the ghost had instead of eyes as he righted himself.

“Is that all?” He taunted, “Why am I not surprised? Come on, then. Try again.”

The ghost obliged him, lunging forward. Cog sidestepped and jabbed the spirit in the ribs. The ghost staggered, but in close quarters Cog didn’t have the luxury of a telegraphed attack. The ghost’s outstretched hand passed through Cog’s forearm, filling it with a sense of searing cold that bled away as quickly as it came.

The bone, his only improvised weapon in this fight, drained away the harm to store within itself. It couldn’t hold much more though, lest it shatter, and it couldn’t hold it for long. Cog clocked the ghost once more in the face, the blow made heavier with the weight of his own injury. The strike was far greater than anything Cog could manage with mere muscle, knocking it back and allowing himself to backpedal and correct his stance. (Punishment triggered)

The negative energy was released from the bone, but it did not go back to the same place. Instead, Cog felt an even tingle all over his body as his outermost layer of skin took the hit. It would grow back in a few days even without healing magic. That was the bargain; accept the inevitability of his injuries, and in return they would always be manageable. There was a metaphor somewhere in there, but Cog was pretty shit at explaining that kind of thing. That’s why he wasn’t a real priest.

Cog endured the sensation and squared his shoulders. This fight was far from over.

••••••••••

I hadn’t made much use of my craft construct feat yet. Most of the constructs I’d found so far seemed horribly overpriced, though honestly I might have just been spoiled by my ability to summon outsiders. It was only after being confronted by a small army of golems that I realized exactly why they were particularly expensive, far outstripping the animated portraits: they were close to invulnerable against anything in their weight class.

Kelizar’s girls were nearly useless against the marching coral, with lashes of acid, bolts of electricity, and darts of blue-white energy all striking home to absolutely no effect. The guards managed to immobilize them by sticking the golems with spears and lifting them as a team, but there were almost four times as many golems as guards; it wasn’t going to do much.

I wasn’t much better off. Direct shots from my Ray of Frost were swallowed up by spell resistance, and Sosima’s sword strikes only did a few points of damage. Damage which, as it turned out, the golems could heal immediately. Her bursts of sonic energy worked reasonably well, but she needed to stomp upon a hard surface to generate them. Underwater, that meant kicking off the surface into open water and throwing herself off balance as often as not.

That near invulnerability made it all the more unfair that this haunt seemed to be self propagating. Each time that the constructs reached a new reef, they shoved their hands into it and the color slowly bled away to white. From the white coral, new coral golems formed.

Why? Why is this guy so fucking strong?

It’s entirely possible it has been feeding off of the minor artifact we have tucked into our shirt. Such things can serve as a near infinite wellspring of energy, after all. (Knowledge Arcana 2+13=15)

Artifact? What the hell is- no, I’m not asking that right now. I already wasted one round.

The only member of my party, and indeed the defenders as a whole, doing serious damage was Lubo. She didn’t bother with the ones on the floor, instead taking on her shark form and ripping into the immobilized coral mannequins like a dog with a stuffy. The audible crunch was accompanied by the same glow that she’d used against Halid.

Lubo has bitten Lesser Coral Golem! 3+3=6 damage

Lesser Coral Golem has failed a save vs Spirit Surge! 7+2=9 damage

Slashing didn’t work. Piercing didn’t work. I’m an idiot; of course bashing is what we needed to break coral.

With a flick of the wrist I called down a celestial dolphin from the oceans of Celestia, on the off chance that its smite evil ability would help against the negatively charged golems. It darted like a missile towards the golem Lubo was savaging, ramming it with the full weight of its body. The glancing blow didn’t do much, but that was to be expected bringing a level 2 animal into a level 6 fight.

“Bashing!” I yelled at the merfolk rallying to hold the line. “They’re **** to blunt ****!”

The mermaid turned to me and cocked her head.

“Like… a club?” She said, genuinely confused. “We aren’t in air, here.”

“What the hell does that have to do with anything?” I demanded,

I summoned a large rectangular block of ice over the herd of golems and cast levitate before it could float away to the surface. I pushed it down onto my foes, and learned almost immediately why the sorceress was so confused. The water pushed back against the wide surface area far more than air would have, slowing my improvised bludgeon into a severely underpowered trash compactor. It didn’t even pin the two golems I caught for long, only distracting them for as long as it took for them to punch the ice into splinters.

My next attempt at contributing, summoning my shadow puppet, was very informative. Apparently my puppet needed air, as it immediately started drowning when I called it out. Lubo managed to kill four of the golems before reverting to her basic human-like form and promptly losing the ability to chomp down on coral.

All the while, the other half of the golems simply walked past. I was just about to swim in close to start kicking them in the face when the first waterspout formed.

••••••••••

The two men continued to exchange blows, with the ghost becoming increasingly feral as his silhouette fractured in the moonlight. In terms of attrition, Cog slowly pulled ahead thanks to Sandara channeling positive energy to heal his superficial wounds faster than the ghost could inflict them. Cog was worried he might actually banish the spirit when he noticed Jape arrive out of the corner of his eye. The yellow half orc held a struggling bundle, exactly as ordered. Cog gave the spirit a smug smile.

Hopefully I can get the right idea through to this guy.

Talking while you fought was not easy. Learning how to breathe so that your body got enough oxygen was an important part of combat training, and the techniques Cog knew were not conducive to chatter. Cog genuinely had no idea how Captain Emrys managed it. Tonight, however, he would have to go above and beyond with banter.

“I can’t wait to feel her beneath me once I’ve beaten you.” Cog said, going for smug superiority, “I’ve really worked up an appetite.”

The ghost didn’t take the bait, at least not in the way that Cog hoped that he would. He had to dodge a few more strikes before he got another chance.

Maybe a little more on the nose?

“She’ll be all over me the moment I walk through the door, you know.” He said, “I won’t need to say a word. Who knows, maybe she’ll already be naked by then.”

“Maybe she will.” The ghost said, eyes glinting with malice, “You won’t be there for it.”

The rotting man lunged once more, but this time his whole body became transparent as he did. Cog knew the signs, and clutched his bone charm close to his chest as the spirit dove into him. He felt negative energy permeate his entire body, but the most important part, the core of the spirit, was shunted into his blessed bone charm. Not for long, of course, but long enough.

Jape, to his credit, followed Cog’s strange orders without question. Maybe he’d been primed by working under Emrys. He ran up to Cog with the chicken from the kitchens, shoving it into his hands. Cog grabbed it by the neck, his movements jerky, and with a tremendous **** of will channeled the core of the spirit’s malevolence into the bird. (Punishment triggered)

Cog didn’t give the ghost any time to recover from the strange turn of events. While the possessed chicken was still disoriented, Cog lobbed it into the air towards the Catrina. His aim was true, and the chicken landed directly against Emmanuel’s chest, allowing him to snatch it from the air and press its beak against his bony teeth. The spirit within could not move away, nor could he direct any of his other magical abilities while another soul pitted its will against him. Even a chicken fought to defend the sanctity of its mind, if ineffectually.

Moments later, Emmanuel fell heavily to the deck with his suit in shreds and a dead chicken cradled in his arms.

••••••••••

Kelizar swam above us all, wings outstretched like immense grasping hands, his scales glittering in the moonlight. He raised one foreclaw, and I saw pillars of orange transmutation magic lance out towards the mass of golems. Each formed the hollow center of a whirlpool, water swirling around them like a tornado and sucking in anything around them indiscriminately.

“Our lord is here!” Cried the mermaid to my left. “Flee! Flee!”

They didn’t need to tell me twice, and it seemed that some concepts transcend all language barriers because both of my gillwomen disengaged as quickly as they could manage. We swam against a rapidly developing current as whirlpool after whirlpool formed, sucking water upwards in defiance of nature. I could barely maintain distance, struggling against the pull of Kelizar’s magic.

I redoubled my efforts to swim up and away from the whirlpools, but each time I looked towards them they loomed larger in my eyes. (Swim Check 4+4+8(Aquatic humanoid) = 16 Fail)

I glanced over my shoulder as the separate swirls collapsed in on one another into a towering subaquatic tornado, one full of jagged coral and swinging, **** limbs.

The dragon dipped in and out of the pillars of crushing water, shrugging off the debris and snatching the constructs out like dolls on a shelf. He systematically dismantled each and every one of them, battering them with claws, jaws, and tail. He stopped only occasionally, to bat a few constructs back into the whirlpool when they seemed as if they might escape.

I arrested my backwards momentum with a steady pumping of my arms and legs, but was only able to maintain. I couldn’t escape the pull, I could only relent, or endure. (Swim Check 16+4+8=28 success)

Ok, you drama queen. We’ve got options. I wanted to save these, but what can you do?

I gave up on swimming and spent my last few spell points to leap through the depths on a trail of slush, quick enough to get beyond the worst of Kelizar’s pull. I turned to check on the Enterprise, and breathed a sigh of relief. The whirlpool was surprisingly localized, despite its power. I was pretty confident that my crew would be able handle it if anyone was still working at all.

I swam back to the ship as best I could. Kelizar seemed to have the situation well in hand, thankfully.

He’s the dragon equivalent of some guy in his late twenties. How strong are the really old ones? How can Heslandaena think they can take down an island full of these guys?

There are perhaps fifteen dragons on the Dahak Isles as old as Kelizar. All were born there. Most dragons can not stand to live under the thumb of another, even one of their own kind. (Knowledge (History) Critical Success)

Filing that away; not really the best time to worry about that.

Thanks to judicious energy leaps, I returned to the deck before Lubo or Sosima. Emmanuel stood near the bow, turning a hollow eyed glare upon me in his tattered suit. The rest of my crew was busy repairing the rigging, which for whatever reason was an absolute disaster.

Fuck, I should have just strong armed him into coming along after all. His suit still got ruined.

Kelizar burst from the sea close enough to rock the Enterprise, and landed heavily enough to make us bob in the water. He focused his gaze upon me, flexing his claws to make long, deliberate marks upon the deck. His tail lashed like an agitated cat’s.

“You amused me yesterday, M’Dair.” He said, “So, I will give you a rare opportunity. Explain yourself, and perhaps you will see the sun again.”

I had hoped to be able to sneak away without any such explanations, but that had always been a best case scenario. I bowed my head, knelt, and closed my eyes.

“I am sorry, Lord Kelizar. I only intended to rid you of the haunt as a form of minor pest control.” I claimed, with complete sincerity. “I underestimated the danger posed by the spirit on the Saber’s Kiss. It didn’t seem to be an especially old shipwreck, so a response that intense was far outside of my projections.”

The metal horn was cold against my chest, and I resisted the urge to shift it around. Fiddling with it would likely just draw attention to the bulge under my jacket.

“Why, then, did you embark on this pest control without consulting me?” Kelizar asked, in a cold, professional tone. “I posted guards for a number of reasons; guards you bypassed to reach the ship.”

“I did?” I said, eyes wide, “Is that why my cleric wasn’t available when we arrived? She would have been immensely useful if she wasn’t intercepted; the rest of us just went in to scout the location.” (Unlikely bluff 2+12+5+5-5=19)

In a flash of orange transmutation, I was underwater. I looked around and saw that I was floating inside a sphere a few inches above the deck. I held my breath on instinct, and the outer edge of the sphere stretched like rubber when I pressed against it. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Sandara grasp Syl by the shoulder and hold her back.

I held my breath for as long as I could, giving Autopilot strict orders to teleport us out before we took a breath. In the meantime, my body control sphere kicked in, slowing the speed at which I used my pittance of oxygen. Kelizar stood watching me with cold fury, and I didn’t think he would take it well if I undermined his authority further.

Sosima crawled up the side of the ship, and immediately walked up to the dragon with a sway in her hips. I couldn’t hear what either of them said, but Kelizar did let me out of the Aqueous Sphere.

“You are no less guilty than your Captain, wench.” Kelizar said, then turned back to me. “Do not presume to lie to me, or to blame my consorts for doing as I commanded, Emrys M’Dair. You’ve cost me tens of thousands of gold pieces today, even setting aside your defiance of my laws. What do you have to say for yourself?”

“It needed to happen eventually!” I protested, “At the rate that haunt was growing, it might have been too much for even you to handle before long. Then you might have faced deaths, rather than monetary losses. It’s lucky that the coral absorbed so much of the negative energy as is; shadows wouldn’t have been limited to the sea floor.” (Diplomacy 3+13=16)

He didn’t seem convinced, but at least this appeal didn’t actively offend him. He glanced at Emmanuel with narrowed eyes.

“Usher into the realm of ****, I greet you.” Kelizar said, “I assume you were summoned to assist in this task; does he speak truth?”

“Basically.” Emmanuel said, shrugging his bony shoulders, “I asked the Besmaran over there and the ghost at the core of it all wasn’t anyone noteworthy.”

He jabbed his thumb at Sandara.

“A quick mass **** making a few bad haunts is one thing,” Emmanuel said, “but that spirit was something else. He seemed pretty serious about putting this thing to rest earlier. I’m pretty sure the captain decided to side step you because he thought he could mop it up quietly.”

I would have probably managed it if you or Varossa had just done your damn jobs.

I kept the irritation from my face and tried to look as contrite as possible. Kelizar looked down at me with narrowed eyes. His head, at the end of a long and serpentine neck, curved to look down at me from above. He could easily kill me, and we both knew it.

“So, M’Dair,” he said, “Do you have anything more to say for yourself before I pass judgement?”

I sighed and looked up at him. Skill checks really didn’t pan out this time. It was time for the real nuclear option. The tool every business owner knew they might need someday when every attempt to spin the situation failed.

“Sorry.” I said. “I fucked up this one. I’ll make it up to you if I can. You seem like a decent guy, and we’ll both live a long time assuming I don’t die tonight. If you are willing to forgive me, you can name your price and I’ll try to make it happen eventually.”

Kelizar snorted.

“Of course. Bargaining.” He said, relaxing. “Hmm. Well, I have quite a lot of negatively charged coral mucking up my shelf now, and my farmers will not be risking themselves handling it. Your crew is going to clean it up for me, and see if it can be used or sold. If you miss any and someone is harmed, then I will hold you personally responsible. Understood?”

“A fitting punishment, and one I am happy to accept.” I said, “you’re right, I didn’t even think of how the planar pollution might interfere with the environment.”

I am so fucking lucky that Gozreh didn’t clock this as my fault. Maybe because it was already down there? Anyway, coral is pretty hard; maybe I can use this stuff for some kind of crafting when I cart it away. That could be neat.

“Also. I understand you are a craftsman and merchant at heart?” Kelizar said, “Bring back the proceeds when you inevitably sell it. I must recoup my losses somehow. Do this, and I will consider our account balanced.”

Still way better than a talon through my forehead. If I impress him I might be able to salvage some kind of trade deal. Yeah, just keep telling yourself that, me.