Session Note 2: Gone Fishin'

     Two uneventful days passed slowly on The Windscreamer. Tundor and his team kept peering in all directions and consulting one another. Clearly, they expected to see some sign of land nearby, but the sea was flat and the skies clear.

    The nixie showed up each day for a payment of biscuits. She promised that she was keeping 'such a good look-out and look-under - the best!', but there was nothing to report.

    Until this morning.

    "Sharks!" she yelped. "Undead, stinky zombie sharks! Oh, and a whole school of tuna, too."

    "Tuna?" Old Mother Griggs exclaimed, "I can make some delicious steaks with tuna..."

    "And, um, I think undead sharks should be killed. Yep, I do," Garrison said, with noticable streams of thick drool running from his jowls.

    Captain Tranio threw his hands in the air. "Fine. We'll stop to fish for a bit. Tundor can spend more time working out where he wants us to go. I've sailed him where he said wanted to go and now he's unhappy. Stop all engines! Stop them, I says!"

    Verdi fluttered above the conversation with excited happiness. "It's an opper-tuna-ity!: he whispered.

    The nixie pointed in the direction she had seen the sharks and the school of tuna that swam behind them - eating bits of them that constantly flaked off, apparently. A longboat was lowered and Uruk took the oars. Rushan, Garrison, and Zarek took up positions in the fore and aft. The others of the interested party stood on the deck of the ship, some of them manning the large crossbows mounted on tripods.

    Once the longboat was a short distence away from the mostly stationary ship, Rushan slipped into the water and took a sniff. Disgusting. There they were. He popped his head above the waves and pointed.

    Sure enough, two sickly-looking fins rose from the waves, swimming fast towards the longboat. Zarek eyed the water nervously. Why had he agreed to get in the small boat? This was too much water and he did not know how to swim. Uruk put the oars down and drew his weapons. Garrison licked his snout and tried to control his excitement and hunger.

    On board the ship it is Min who attacks first. He arcs some kind of bomb high overhead. The hissing bomb flies directly over the longboat and there is much screaming and hollering. The kenku's aim is off and it flies past the zombie sharks - most likely because he has not had a chance to blow anything up for weeks. A massive fountain of seawater blows high into the air. "My concussion bomb works! It works! Hee-hee-hee!" 

    Eight dead tuna float to the surface. "That's how to fish!" hooted Min. 

    "No, it is not!" yelled Uruk. 

    "Indeed!" shouted Zarek, "That was mean!!"

    "That's my name," chortled the kenku.

    Rushan dove underwater and shifted into his hybrid form - half sauguin and half octopus. His supernaturally strong tentacles wrapped around one of the zombie sharks and arrested it's charge completely. Uruk sliced at the second of the charging sharks, cutting ribbons of foul flesh from the passing creature.

    Garrison reached into the water and touched the undead essence of the grappled shark. The Feed! It began! Soft glowing green vapor wafted into his greedy mouth and the shark stiffened. Rushan wasn't sure what was happening, but hefted the beast up into the longboat.

    Crossbow bolts,  blasts of magical fire, and Timonium bullets wizzed from those still on The Windscreamer. Min was saddened that it would be improper to lob another bomb, but he did't want to hurt his friends. If friends they were? Instead he and the others tried to hit the still swiming zombie shark or some of the darting tuna.

    Rushan drew all six of his rapiers in sinuous tentacles and faced the free-swimming shark. It charged at him with an open, diseased-looking mouth. Six quick thrusts and a jet of sideways movement and the shark was still. He popped his head up as he shifted back to his Sauguin form and blinked in astonishment.

    The longboat rocked violently, filled to almost overflowing with disgusting shark and his friends. Water, slime, and bits of rotting shark flew everywhere as the three in the boat yelled and tried to injure the beast that was somehow completely inside the boat while avoiding it's teeth and bulk. Garrison finally was able to wrap both hands around the thing and with a puff of green fog, the entire zombie shark - vanished! Garrison had a look of pure bliss and satisfaction on his canine face, his tounge lolling out wetly.

    Uruk and Zarek looked at each other in amazement. Even the slime from the shark was gone! Then huge tuna began flying up into the boat. Rushan was quickly filling the boat with good fish. Their pleased faces at being clean of shark slime was replaced with looks of disgust as fish oil coated them and the inside of the longboat. Uruk held a huge tuna in each hand. "Tuna? What about three-na?"

    Rushan poked his head over the side of the longboat with a toothy grin. "Fishes," he said happily. Good combat and a feast to come - it was grand. His eyes widened as he looked past the longboat. There were creatures crawling up the sides of The Windscreamer!

    "Boarders! The ship is under attack!" he yelled.

    Then he was pulled under. Vaugely, he noticed that there were creatures climbing up the sides of the longboat as well, but he was surrounded in the water by enemies. Kuo-toa!

    On board the ship, the deck was filled with the frog-men, who were using tridents, nets, and a kind of catchpole. Every person faced at least one of the creatures. Where had they come from? These monsters were not typically found so far away from dry land. But those questions would wait.

    The deck was awash with duels and the screams and clangor of battle. Captain Tranio bellowed orders and men rushed from below decks weilding thick knives to join in the action.

    Verdi allowed himself to blink in and out of visability as he flew as fast as he could around the Captain's head, using his dragon aura to make the man tougher.

    "I'm helping! I'm helping!" the pixie laughed.

    Captain Tranio did not agree or understand. "Begone, pest!" he yelled, while waving at Verdi like he was some kind of annoying insect. This just made Verdi laugh the harder.

    All did themselves proud, fighting with skill. Many recieved wounds and a few of the crew and scientific group who had been on deck fell - pierced with tridents. A few others were caught in nets and hauled overboard - leaving a trial of bubbles to mark their passing.

    It was over in seconds. The loud blasts of Zarek's T-force cannon, and Bianica's double-barreled weapon swept a portion of the deck clean of enemies. The rest broke. Many of the Kuo-toa had been killed in the duels, as well. But those firearms were decisive.

    The crew cheered their victory. Captain Tranio kicked the corpse of his opponent off the side of the deck. "Get off me ship!" he yelled to more cheers.

    There were wounds to tend and a few Kuo-toa captives who were knocked out from beatings or passed out from the loss of blood. The longboat knocked against the side of the Windscreamer. Their duels had been fierce, but short.

    Noxen put his hands on his hips as he looked at the scene. "Why didn't that blasted nixie warn us about these frog-men?" he complained bitterly. The rest of those on deck near him nodded firmly. There were many questions to be asked...