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>>1031947
Your ship comes alongside the /Dirge/, and your crew throws down planks with which to board. The two forces meet with furious cries, blades clashing in the harsh light of the artificial day that Lora has created.

Your First Mate moves her arm and at first you think you're about to get shot, but when the gun goes off it shoots down an enemy sailor as she swings towards your deck; her body lands in a heap.

"I hate you as I hate nothing and no one else," Rachael tells you in a hard voice, before she holsters her weapon. "Win your own battle."

She walks away, leaving her would-be mutineers to blink and stare, and vanishes belowdecks. You order Hati and Skoll to the attack and rush after them. You need to get Lora.

Gods, don't let it be too late.

> You are Brianna la Croix (No Good Deed Goes Unpunished)
> You are Nathan la Croix (Valor Is Its Own Reward)
> You are Amy the Dungeonbreaker (What Falls May Rise)
> You are River la Croix (You Must Die To Be Reborn)

And now I am going to bed because fuck my life. Votes, obviously, are open.

>>1031964
Rachael (Strife Is A Red Calling)

>>1031964
>> You are Brianna la Croix (No Good Deed Goes Unpunished)

Well, that went about as well as could be expected. Still, even if it's not a /great/ solution, we didn't waste time or ammo going after her.

>>1031964
Sweet merciful fuck. Rachael needs a lot of alcohol, a hard lay, and some serious therapy.

> You are River la Croix (You Must Die To Be Reborn)
It's been a while since we've seen through her eyes.

>>1031991
While, I admit, that would be an interesting perspective, all I think she's going to do right now is mope.

>>1031964
>You are River la Croix (You Must Die To Be Reborn)
Ex-mercenay back in business again. Also, healer who might be able to help Lora.

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>>1031947
>https://qm-vox.tumblr.com/

>>1031964
> You are River la Croix (You Must Die To Be Reborn)

>>1031964
>> You are Amy the Dungeonbreaker (What Falls May Rise)

>>1031964
>You are Nathan la Croix (Valor Is Its Own Reward)

I feel like Trust is going to try and take a small raft and the rest of her loyalists and try to break away, forming a new /Palbearer/, maybe even taking Scribbles hostage or try to anyway.

As soon as she exits the Dungeon the Quell will be on them like white on rice.

>>1031964
>> You are Brianna la Croix (No Good Deed Goes Unpunished)

>>1031964
>> You are Brianna la Croix (No Good Deed Goes Unpunished)

>>1031964
>> You are River la Croix (You Must Die To Be Reborn)
No Tina :(

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>>1032139
See pic.

Called, writing.

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>>1031964
You are River la Croix and holy shit, why is everyone on this battlefield vaguely immortal. The crew member next to you has a boarding axe halfway through his skull - you can see his brains, for the Gods' sake! - and he's currently holding down an enemy sailor and bashing her face into a jagged splint of railing, over and over again.

How even? People use their brains for more than just living!

"River!" Brianna calls out. "River, /find the chain/! I need to get to Lora!"

<Get my sister a path to the angel> you order Whisper.

<Aye-aye!> your familiar agrees, lunging from your side with her staff swinging. You hear the roar of the /Dirge/'s guns at point-blank range; they hit /Pallbearer/, sending splinters flying over the chaos of the battlefield. You lurch with the deck and bring Sleep up to block a descending axe. Steel meets thanatite (you settled on the name; no need to pester Lora with it) with a harsh ring before you punch the enemy sailor in the temple, sending him sprawling to the floor.

The chain, where's the chain?

You cut a sailor down at the knees, literally - the bite of bone against Sleep's edge jolts your arms - and consider your options.

> Head belowdecks
> Check the Captain's cabin
> Fight your way to the helm

>>1033158
>> Fight your way to the helm

>>1033158
> Check the Captain's cabin.
This seems like the place where the man currently commanding Lora would have taken shelter. I doubt he or anyone else expected Lora to get effectively neutralized by a mortal firearm.

Gonna call and write in 25 minutes or so.

>>1033158
> Check the Captain's cabin

Called, writing.

>>1033333
Is it me, or have there been less voters/posters lately?

Also, quints predict the greatness to come. I'm gonna need some popcorn for this.

>>1033333
OH SHIT, CHECKED!
>>1033387
I think people miss tg and the no funs that sent us here.

>>1033387
Oh, or people just don't like the id thing.

>>1033387
I was at work. besides there are at least 14 posters. I bet the people who don't post generally agree with whatever is the most popular choice

>>1033507
sometimes that, mostly I prefer the popcorn vote; I'll usually only chime in for things where I haev a better idea of what option does what. I do't like guessing in this format.

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>>1033158
You decide to do the logical thing and check the Captain's cabin. If he's not commanding the battlefield directly he may be hiding in there, though why he's not out here commanding the battle is a question you'd like fucking answered. What kind of commander just leaves his men out to die?

One set of steps up is shattered entirely, but the other is mostly clear; you vault onto it and run up the stairs. You're painfully aware that you have two shots of demonfire left, and they're going to have to work for you because balefire isn't doing shit to these immortal assholes.

Is there a word for something you can leave on a god's altar to indicate that you're upset with them? That should be a thing.

You kick in the door to the cabin and then are seized by an unnamed, but overwhelming, instinct. You obey without question, diving aside just ahead of a heavy 'clunk' and the roar of a cannon. What used to be the door blows onto the deck in splinters; the cannonball cleaves a pair of sailors in half, carrying their torsos far away from the raging battle. You raise Sleep just in time to parry a blind but savage axe swing, and then a man who can only be Captain Reeves is on you.

He's huge, nearly seven feet tall and nearly all muscle. Unlike his crew, the Captain wears a suit of chain that glitters with wards beneath his broad coat, the light making the sweat stand out on his dark skin.

You parry, step back, and parry again. You manage to sidestep up the half-shattered stairs just in time to dodge the revolver in his other hand, and the ancient pirate roars and closes the distance in a single, fluid movement.

You hit the stairs from the force of Reeves' axe and kick him in the face. The pirate staggers back, giving you enough time to scramble up onto the helm. You feel a knife break against the back of your armor and whirl Sleep in a flat arc.

The sailor you decapitate staggers for a moment before falling over.

"GET UP!" Reeves bellows. He waves the hand with the revolver in it, and you hear the rattling of metal-on-metal. "GET UP AND DESTROY MINE ENEMIES, ANGEL!"

The heap that is Lora picks itself up, blood splattering from her throat, in staggering motions. You see Brianna's lips moving (you're pretty sure it's, "I'm sorry,") before she strikes Lora on the side of the head with her cane and then kneels down with a half-mixed potion in her hands.

Reeves turns on you with lightning speed and fires another shot. You duck it, then throw yourself to the deck to avoid the next one.

"I hate necromancers," the pirate growls.

> Lunge for Reeves; that sound has to be the chain
> Light the deck up under him. The ships both have to burn anyway, right?
> You're outmatched. Try to get to your allies
> Channel death through Sleep and hope for the best
> Write-in?

>>1034365
>> Light the deck up under him. The ships both have to burn anyway, right?
If he's wearing chainmail, that's as likely to be rattling as the chain. And i'm thinking we need to wear him down before we can get close enough to grab the chain; sounds like he's well armed, armored, competent, and full of desperate energy.

>>1034365
>> You're outmatched. Try to get to your allies
Not Bri, but either Nate or Amy if they can assist.

>>1034365
> Channel death through Sleep and hope for the best

i'm going to brainstorm up other options. Reeves is unnaturally tall and in chain mail. in the cramped quarters of a ship this should put him at a disadvantage, but this is his ship, it might have been built with his height in mind.

Still the chain mail could be used to our benefit. It could be heated up or caught on something, especially if it includes a coif. if there's any block or tackle lieing around it might be worth trying to snag this guy on it.

>>1034427
>If he's wearing chainmail, that's as likely to be rattling as the chain.
He's also likely canny enough to carry a perfectly ordinary length of chain to fuck with anybody trying to steal The Chain.

>>1034365
> You're outmatched. Try to get to your allies
River != Nate.

>>1034365
>> You're outmatched. Try to get to your allies
We need a hero

Called, writin'.

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>>1034365
You roll away and get to your feet. He's fired three shots so far, those things hold up to six. You can get back to the main deck and to the cover of battle if you're quick and clever about it.

"Do you have the slightest idea how hard it is to get their heads back on?" Reeves demands, clearly annoyed. "Or how painful it is for them to be deprived of their heads? I've been headless! It is unpleasant!"

"Excuse me for treating an enemy combatant seriously!" you snap, irrationally irritated. You leap for a dangling piece of the rigging, the rope slashed from its customary place by the flying shrapnel.

The revolver cracks, and you feel it in your right arm, along with the sound of splintering bone (your armor, thank the Gods). You catch the rope one-handed with a hiss of pain and slide down it to the deck, landing atop an enemy sailor slams to the wood beneath you. You drive Sleep's tip into her neck, mostly severing her head, and move into the press of battle.

"Nate! Amy! The big guy is Reeves!" you call. Brianna's husband immediately jacks his opponent right in the face, sending him sprawling to the deck, and throws Verve at the immortal pirate. Reeves swats at the flying sword before leaping to the deck with an almighty roar. The ship lurches to catch him, sending you and most everyone else staggering, but you manage to get Sleep up in time for a hard parry.

"Figures I shoot the wrong arm," Reeves growls. "Southpaw, huh?" He swings his axe in a hard chop; your sidestep makes one of the /Pallbearer/'s crew his victim instead. He barely slows, wrenching the body at you as a bludgeon and forcing you to leap back towards the shattered railing.

A lance of light from above makes Reeves stop his advance. Flitter, crowned in swirling witchlights that orbit in a furious frenzy, blasts at enemy sailors with screams of wordless rage.

"You can still surrender," Nathan calls, as he advances.

Reeves shoots him in the chest.

Your breath catches in your throat as you watch Nate hit the ground, but you don't feel a death follow it. The Hero groans, blood welling up from beneath his coat, but between the mail armor and the mail coat it feels like he'll be okay. In theory.

"You shoulda put yourself on the crew," Reeves tells you, grimly. "Now you're going to die, and then I'm going to burn that prison hulk to the frame and finally be free of it for good."

You lunge, feinting low and then chopping high. Reeves swats Sleep with his forearm - the blade bounces off of a bracer hidden by his coat - and answers with an axe blow that you sidestep. The two of you circle warily, testing each other.

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>>1034902
Verve flies down from behind, taking Reeves' attention away. You stab when his gaze turns, burying Sleep in his gut. The pirate grunts, breathlessly, before he backhands you so hard that you spin on your way down. You can taste the copper tang of blood in your mouth and feel the tooth he knocked loose roll over your tongue; you spit it out in a vague daze.

The revolver cracks out its sixth shot, and you hear Nathan let out a wordless sound of pain. The Hero clutches his gut, blood gushing from it beneath a hole in the chain, where his coat was open. Reeves swings his axe with a roar, pinning Verve to the shattered remnants of a mast.

"Heroes and necromancers," the pirate growls, even as he casts aside the spent revolver and pulls a new one from his belt.

<Whisper, Nate> you order, even as you pull yourself to your feet. Your shadow lets out a low, conflicted whine; you can see her flesh hanging in tatters, cut by iron and by flame, and her gaze flicks uncertainly from her opponents to the Hero.

Up above, unaware that her husband is in danger, Amy strafes a mage in the crow's nest, trying to dodge his barrage of saltwater icicles.

> Repeat the order
> Call for Amy
> Engage Reeves
> Get Reeves from behind while he finishes Nate; that'll end this, once and for all
> Write-in?

And now I must go to bed. Dental surgery tomorrow so I am highly likely to be completely useless. Votes remain open.

Questions, comments, discussion, feedback, and criticisms remain welcome and appreciated.

Thank you all for reading and participating!

>>1034910

Alright, so.

His first gun's empty, but he's smart enough to carry multiples.

Nate's got his hands full not dying, and I'm not entirely sure we can put down Reeve's in one hit, even if he's facing us.

The thing is, the Reeve's giving orders to Lora. Which means he's got the Chain on him. Lora can't save us like this when she's half-dead herself, and I'm not sure she can manage much Divine Language at all. The most I can figure is a MORTALITY word, which just breaks down the curse and makes true death possible.

... Actually... What kind of aces does River have again?

>>1034910
>Is sleep still in his gut? Can we channel death at a distance?

>>1034921
Balefire, though at the moment it's no better than regular fire and might hurt friendlies. She has two shots of hellfire left, the magical properties of Sleep, slaying spells that may or may not work, and years of soldiering.

>>1034927

I only remember Sleep from the time it basically made the Daughter fold like a paper tiger. What's it do exactly?

>>1034932
Cuts ghosts and demons, spreads a wave of having your worst day ever on repeat at every one but its weilder. Ignites easily with balefire and stays burning. Potential further properties remain unknown.

>>1034910
>Engage Reeves
1. Do not distract allies in danger.
1a. Especially with situations that would make them act in a way that would endanger them.
2. Do not use allies as bait.
2a. Especially when they are in mortal danger already.

That said, I think using those last two Demonfire shot might be a good idea. And an even better one if he;s immune to Balefire.

Its clear he's immortal; taking his head and moving it away from his body might not be enough, but taking his head and heart might keep him immobilized long enough for us to get the chain.

>>1034910
> Engage Reeves
>Guns are difficult to use when someone is wrestling you, but we can use rot just fine.
Do not distract allies who are in danger, where are the chosen at?

>>1034936

... OK, Reeve's is incredibly old and has probably lived through some really terrible shit. Not entirely sure if we can manage to aim this so it doesn't hit anyone we care about, but I think Sleep might shut him down long enough to either yoink the chain off of him or grab while it's still on him and shout 'I release you from this bond.'

Then we cast balefire on the ship and bravely have Lora teleport us off the ship to let the pirates burn to death, letting the Canopus finish them off.

>>1034944
We could definitely use the Chosen of Death here.

>>1034945
Maybe we can improvise a very highly concentrated version of the field aimed directly into Reeves?

>>1034950
Might work, but my real personal problem with the plan is whether or not the captain, who's older than most countries at this point, has already dealt with all of his Bad Days.

Basically, I think it's either going to work SUPER well and leave the man a wreck, or he's going to run on autopilot and continue to murder indiscriminately while his mind shuts down.

>Hit Reeves with Sleep

>>1034910
> Repeat the order.
Wait, is she worried that she won't be able to protect River from being flanked by these guys? Is it the pain of being wounded? Or does she not know if she can actually help him? Probably all of these things.

> Engage Reeves.
We have to hit him with everything we have, from the special power of Sleep to hell-fire.

And this anon >>1034944 is right, we need some backup.
> Call out for Catherine or Emily.
The only bad part is, in the many, many years he's been around, I don't doubt that he's tangled with a few Chosen. Maybe even killed one.

>>1034962
There has NEVER been a Chosen of Death before.

>>1034970
I know, but I just mean that Reeves has probably faced at least a Chosen of Red Troth before. He probably has a few tricks up his (incredibly, decidedly huge) sleeves.

>>1034910
Oh, shit, y'know what might work really well here? Darkness.

Let's blind this asshole.

> Engage Reeves

Hrm... we don't want to distract Amy, we don't want to sacrifice Nate and we don't want to destroy Whisper either. So... let's get in there with demonfire and Sleep until more help in the form of Cath or Emily can show up.
Bri seems preoccupied at the moment as well.

(Does River have a blindness spell, incidentally? That'd be highly useful right now.)

>>1034986
One of the options when voting to engage the Lonesome Dirge was Bri AND River creating magical darkness, so I assume she does.

Actually, I think River knows the almost all the same spells as Brianna, except for the minion creation spells, bone-shaping, and poltergeist stuff.

>>1034992
No. River helped create the army of the dead too, so she could build minions. Hell, she made her shadow into her familiar.

>>1034910
> Engage Reeves
WITH DEEEEEMONFIIIIIRE

>>1034997
Oh, damn, forgot about that. Well, whatever, so long as we can actually do something to turn the fight in our favor.

>>1034910
>her flesh hanging in tatters, cut by iron
wait, how is anyone there wielding iron?

> Write-in?
And I can't remember but is that darkness spell a targeted one or can it affect an area? If its aoe I vote for that to give Whisper an escape and the ability to save Nate.

>>1034949
>>1034902
I was not expecting Flitter here and forgot about Catherine/Emily being what they were. That said >Repeat the order.

>Sleep

Tooth is out. No idea when I'll be able to update. Thank you for your patience and understanding thus far.

>>1035454
Enjoy the pain meds if you need them and get well soon!

>>1035454
No tooth? Less between your coffee cup and tongue, I say! Get well, lich.

>>1035454
Get better. Have something hallucinatory and terrifying to distract you.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J1c2KzJbcGA

>>1035454
No worries, oh thee lord of decadence and decay. Just try to relax.

Though, a question, if you would? If we manage to get through this level without bludgeoning Ms. Trust, can we introduce her to Jack? I know there was talk of giving Flitter and Jack some time together with a summoning, and I figured he might be able to help her where we couldn't. What with the mad desperation to continue living for the sake of his precious Belle.

>>1035728
That was...how in the hell do you even find something like that?

>>1036276
Because while WH40K chaos gods say they're chaos gods, Xiombarg IS the Goddess of Chaos.

>>1036276
Neither wanted to die, but for different reasons: He just didn't want to die, and was willing to scrape and claw to hang on just a little longer. While a harsh comparison, he was like an animal in this regard. She doesn't want to die because she fears what comes after; she's done a lot of bad things in her life, and is worried about getting her "just reward".

Okay, the winning vote is, if I'm counting correctly (and sober...)

> Engage Reeves

Called, writing.

>>1035728
That was... Unique

>>1036933
Mkay, surgical pain determined that was a lie.

I'ma sleep this off and try again tomorrow. Votes re-opened.

>>1035728
>Ryukuza reader spotted

If we engage Reeve I think we're going to get fucking killed. What can we do to increase the odds in our favor?

Does engage reeves include hit him with sleep?

>>1038472
Blind and silence him, use sleep,. use the remaining demon-fire, use Rot, and pray to Lora.

>>1038475
would calling out to Amy for help, at least to ensure that Nate has someone watching over him, be something we can do on top of that?

>>1038472
I want to have more faith in River's years of soldiering to shine here, against a man who for all his years alive, is ultimately a pirate with little training but excellent reflexes.

Amy is hard at work dodging water projectiles and having her see Nate in his current state would almost certainly leave her vulnerable to an attack. We'd have to be sure she won't get harassed further by that mage.

>>1038480
Amy is currently fighting a mage up in the crow's nest.

>>1038552
THe new revolver has me worried, we need to do something to disable it. Are the guns still powde rand shot here or do they have cartridges? Because if he's running around with what's basically a lematt revolver just throwing water on him would be a good way to disable his firearms

>>1038480
Turnign your back on a mage will get you killed. Brianna has proven this.

Telling someone their loved one is dying and in further danger will force her to turn her back on the mage.

I am sure you can follow my logic here.

>>1039112
It's also collapsing multiple fronts; Amy is holding a line of battle and if she withdraws that then that flank is open for them to wreak un-opposed havoc.

>>1034910
>> Write-in?
Tag with Bri; Bri's also immortal by being Captain, you're not. You are a healer who has best chances of saving Nate.

>>1039329
This is a good point. But then again, do we really want to test Bri's immortality? She's not a swordswoman - River is.

>>1039388
Buuut Bri has minions and various necromantic spells and shenanigans to pull. Bri challenging this guy to a swordfight would be silly. She'd handle it with Bri tactics, presumabely.

>>1039329
>>1039388
>>1039473
Can we tag out with Bri? I mean, switching positions with her so we can attend to Lora makes sense

Also, now I'm wondering why it is we're the ones going after the chain and Brianna is the one healing Lora

>>1039489
Because she is both familiar with healing AND dealing with someone who can be poisoned with iron. Remember when we healed Silence?

Okay, I'm alive. Called, writing.

>>1039329
River is not a healer though?

>>1039329
The assassin turncoat was the healer.

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>>1034910
<Nevermind, just keep doing what you're doing> you tell Whisper; you pick yourself up, your good arm grabbing Sleep's hilt. You can move your right arm, but you let it hang limp instead. There's no need to correct Reeves about the extent of the damage just yet.

Reeves pulls a new axe from his belt and watches you with predatory anticipation. It's hard to tell if the battle is going 'well' or not, considering that almost no one seems to be dead no matter how hard anyone tries to kill them, but he certainly seems to think he can play with his food. Reeves comes at you with a harsh series of chops, and you give ground, ducking and dipping to avoid the axe rather than trying to parry the huge man.

"You don't fight like an elf," Reeves comments. "Humans train you?"

"Dwarf, actually," you answer. "But I fought alongside humans." Reeves barrels towards you and you jump aside, disappointed but not terribly surprised when he stops short of the cannon you were trying to get him to trip over.

You still take your pound of flesh; Sleep bites through the armor beneath his coat, slicing into the flesh of his arm and making him drop the revolver. The gun fires into the air with a harsh crack, but Reeves doesn't lunge for it like you might have hoped; the pirate goes straight for you with an overhead chop.

You step /in/, taking the axe handle to the shoulder, and drive Sleep back into the pirate's gut. He grunts, the breath forced from his lungs (why breathe? He's immortal, isn't he?), then groans when you twist the blade.

Then the boarding axe hits you in the back.

Enchanted or not, there's a limit to what bone can do; the blade sticks, held in place by your armor, but there's steel where your flesh and muscles are supposed to go, and you can feel the hot flow of blood. You whirl on reflex and grab the offending sailor by the face before unleashing a gout of demonfire that slags their flesh and bone into so much ash. Reeves wrenches the axe from your back, letting out a gush of blood, and you turn to face him, hand filled with your last shot of flame.

You're dying.

The huge pirate pulls his coat from his body, the cloth tearing, and throws it aside. Beneath, his dark skin is coated with scars so long and so bright that you can make them out past the mail armor.

His left arm bulges in a spiral, revealing the chain buried beneath his flesh. He levels his axe at you with a cocksure smile. "You ain't long for this world, elf," he points out, flatly. "Walk away."

"So you can do what," you whisper, your voice shaky and harsh. "Survive? Plunder?"

"I win, girl. I'll do whatever I want."

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>>1041734
You hear a sob of pain cut across the battlefield; on the deck of the /Pallbearer/, Emily is on her knees, clutching her skull and crying. Catherine is pressed from all sides trying to keep the enemy off of her while the enemy sailors - obeying Richard's orders, probably - attempt to slay the Chosen of Death.

"No one's coming to save you, elf girl," Reeves tells you, enjoying every word.

You kick the revolver up into your hand, cock the hammer, and fire. The shot is ill-aimed, the kick of the weapon unexpected, but it tears off half of Reeves' face, shredding his cheek and exposing fractured teeth. Your second shot ricochets off of the buried chain in his arm, doing little more than bleed the man.

Gods, why?

Reeves' recovery is cut short by the rise of Canopus from the water near the deadlocked ships. The serpent roars its fury, its jaw still caked with stone, and for a moment, all of the combatants stop.

> Lunge for Reeves. He'll take you down with him, but you can burn the chain with the last of your demonfire
> Shoot the snake. See him fight /that/.
> Run. You're not ready to die.
> Grab Sleep in the pirate's gut and channel death through it. It might slow Canopus down enough to be dealt with
> Write-in?

>>1041789
That went downhill quickly. Bri's going to need to switch from support to offense ASAP.
>> Grab Sleep in the pirate's gut and channel death through it. It might slow Canopus down enough to be dealt with

>>1041789
When you say dying, do you mean dying unless you get a healing potion

or dying like nothing in the world will fix this?

>>1042017
Fairly immediate medical care is going to be needed if River wants to live through this, and at a minimum of further physical exertion.

>>1042039
Why would channeling death through Reeds slow down Canopus?

>>1042048
Same reason it slows down everything else. You'd be banking on the idea that the snake is affected but your friends can keep fighting.

>>1042074
How exactly does destroying the chain work again? If I remember right we just grab it?

now that we've shoot Reed in the arm could we grab the bit of chain that is exposed and shout whatever we need to release Lora?

>>1042108
You either need to destroy it or have uncontested possession of it; having it solely in your hands is enough.

>>1042128
how much of Reeds bdoy is covered by chain mail? In what places? Does he have any weapons besides the pistol and the axe?

Is there any powder in the cannon between River and him?

>>1042152
He's currently rocking two axes; you're holding his pistol. He has at least one knife (visible) and probably more. Chain covers torso and arms, which also feature bracers on the forearms.

And as before, these are witchlock mechanisms; spell-based propulsion.

>>1042185
I know that River is a land lubber, but she would know if there were any environmental objects she could use to her advantage here right? Reeds wouldn't happen to be positioned under say, any large objects that could be dropped on him with a well placed pistol shot? A spar, rigging, canvas?

>>1041734

>His left arm bulges in a spiral, revealing the chain buried beneath his flesh.

Just to clarify, the chain is /under/ /his/ /skin/ right now, isn't it?

>>1042294
Correct!

>>1041789
Dammit Vox! Why must you make things so difficult?! I'm not actually mad, I've been expecting things to go tits up the moment we boarded the Flying Dutchman.

Just...shit. We have to choose between breaking the chain, or saving River. Ugh, I know I'm going to hate the inevitable consequences, but;
> Grab Sleep in the pirate's gut and channel death through it. It might slow Canopus down enough to be dealt with.
> Blind the big bastard first.

>>1042294
Yup. Reeves is a canny and clever old fucker. We can't reach the chain without completely destroying him, and short of a direct shot with a cannon or demonfire, he's unkillable.

>>1042214
The most we could hope for is to stun him long enough to get a shot in with demonfire, and now that Canopus is here, we need to act fast.

>>1042368
How long does blindness need to cast?

What I'm afraid is that we will be able to grab sleep but Reeves will get in a couple of shots while we're doing it

>>1042322

... Well, fuck. I mean, points for being a crafty son of a bitch, but jesus christ that arm should be fucked.

I mean sure, this is a weird place where you can manufacture prosthetic limbs that are bullshit, but it doesn't change the basics rules of anatomy that having that chain embedded deep enough in your arm that it doesn't threaten to burst through the skin when you flex too hard means that it has to be fucking with your muscles to the point where you're seeing extremely noticeable differences in performances.

I get that he's not worried about dying, but this isn't about not getting killed by bloodloss, or even the extreme loss of focus from the pain of having that shit in your arm, but if this was in his leg I wouldn't put money on him being able to walk without taking extra steps, like a crutch or some sort of reinforcing brace on that leg.

And I get that the Chainholder has been going down for a decade, and if he jammed it under his skin at first opportunity, he's had plenty of time to get used to it.

But it's not just building up muscle mass or crazy shit like that. The chain takes up physical space inside his arm and just moving it around too fast probably breaks muscles and shit crazy fast. I wouldn't be surprised if his bones in that arm weren't outright broken from all this crazy shit.

>>1042398
Which is my frustration; we either run from the fight, and probably watch Reeves either finishing off Nathan or jump in the fight against Catherine (maybe with him killing her or Emily; they may be Chosen, but they aren't invincible) or we keep at Reeves and likely watch River go down.

Either way, sadness will result.

>>1041789
>> Grab Sleep in the pirate's gut and channel death through it. It might slow Canopus down enough to be dealt with

>>1042426
Do we have any other options? I mean shooting the snake ensures everyone dies but maybe we could just shove Reed into it's mouth and then Lora will be free to end the bullshit

>>1041789
>> Lunge for Reeves. He'll take you down with him, but you can burn the chain with the last of your demonfire

We need a biiig win here. Taking the chain out with what Bri has done with Lora is really our only chance for this to end quick enough for someone we care about to not die for good.
Hopefully Lora is up enough with the Chain out to make that happen.
Debuffing Reeves doesn't help us here; if we can't finish the job. The Chain is the key to victory.

>>1042578
Shoving Reed in might kill him, but will it destroy the chain? Actually, there might be enough gunpowder around we could break off and try blowing something up.

>>1042585
Well, if we channel death it should, in theory, make everyone in the area stop fighting

>>1042627
I expect channeling death to be effective on everyone but Reeves, since he is a long-lived sadistic asshole, and clearly a Boss with Boss Immunities. It might work, but it seems like a crapshoot.

>>1042654
To expand a bit: Reeves revels in his victories and exploits, and he's got a lot to draw from. He's not crippled by severe daddy issues like a certain other chain wielder, he's got some serious personality and drive to pull from.
Also. If we don't take out Reeves... who will? Emily, Catherine, the Hero, and Bri are all occupied elsewhere. The only thing that will swing this is if Rachael Trust deciding she hates Reeves more than Bri.
Canopus and Sleep are wildcards, if they fail and River goes down - who's already dying and on limited time - noone is left ot secure the Chain and that critical part of this battle.

>>1042685
as an immortal he must have gone through a lot of shit he didn't enjoy. I mean being a pirate isn't all money and honey

>>1042685
Lastly; if we win fast enough and hard enough, we've got a necromancer, The Chosen of Death, and Lora around if River is only kinda dead after this, for maximum chances of reversing that.

>>1042421
Vox doesn't understand anything medical or military, news at 11

>>1042709
..Eh, that's kinda true, but how many writers actually have hands-on military training, or experience in the medical field? I can't fault him there.

>>1041789
>If there's an oppertunity to stun/distract/disarm/blind/whatever Reeves use it
> Grab Sleep in the pirate's gut and channel death through it. It might slow Canopus down enough to be dealt with

>>1042729

Like, here's the thing. I can sweep most of the stuff under the rug, because it's fantasy. Shit doesn't play by the rules.

If it did, most of the crew would be in pieces on the ground right now, moaning. Because not dying doesn't do shit for 'significant amounts of blood have left my body and aren't carrying oxygen to my brain and muscles for them to function properly. Also, with my brain damaged I have issues with things like thinking rationally and coordinating limbs.'

But you know, immortal pirates. I can roll with this.

They're probably used to fighting with some guts hanging out.

But this isn't a question of whether or not accumulated damage should lead to the pirates not being able to function long term. The thing here, is that...

Well, let's say the chain's about 3 and a half feet long. Look at your bicep. Imagine three and a half feet feet of chain wrapped around it. Now imagine if, instead of on the outside, it's the inside. The damage from the incisions alone, assuming he just cut his arm open and jammed the chain in there as opposed to physically removing chunks of flesh to make room for the metal, means his arm should been largely useless for months. Years after the fact, it should still be worse off.

What's worse, is that this isn't some kind of planned surgery. You can get bolts and bars put in you to help reinforce broken bones. But those things are kept thin, simple, and planned for removal. And will still fuck you up. A chain, with multiple moving links... Fuck, I'm not sure what's worse.

Having it unsecured so it just wriggles and moves at random, damaging shit on a casual basis nigh constantly. Or having it secured it with pins, keeping it from moving but probably causing even greater damage in a smaller area because now it has /leverage/.

And of course, left unsaid is that this has to be INCREDIBLY PAINFUL. The man has to be on some kind of painkillers, and lost blood means that the shit is... losing it's effectiveness.

Like, christ.

>>1042841
It would be nice if there was some repercussion for this guy flouting basic medical science

>>1042841
He's certainly not having a good time, no. Reeves had Lora put the thing in. His original idea was just to phase it through his body but after being informed that wouldn't work, this is what he settled for. It hurts like hell, it certainly makes his life significantly work, but, y'know.

Anything for another five minutes on this side of the Veil.

>>1042841
So if we remove that chain, would he die?

>>1042888
Maybe.

>>1042888
It would be extremely painful.

>>1042870

About what I figured.

This eliminates the basic issue with the fact that the surgery should have all but ruined that arm, but still leaves the chain physically inside that arm.

... Setting aside the bullshit, basically the arm's a time bomb. The man heals, but there's way he heals fast enough to last in combat. He'll always get better, but the longer it's been in there, the more that arm's been turned into chunky salsa. Which either means healing potions, and I'm not sure how much abuse there is before 'side-effects' kick in, or having a useless arm for months-weeks on end. All that scar tissue build up means... Well, there's no way that arm performs at the same level as the other one. The longer it's in, the more scar tissue builds up from the damage, the less effective the arm gets as the muscle is slowly replaced with non-muscle material as the body attempts to regulate the damage.

And again, combat basically means that he has minutes of operational time for that arm.

Casual day to day use, he could maybe manage. But even something like regular exercise is outright impossible. Any weight put on that arm is weight put on the chain /inside/ his arm. The longer it's in there, the worse that arm's gonna get.

>>1042927
All of this sounds completely reasonable, yes.

This'll teach me to plan shit like this without tagging the Dead Motherfuckers Consulting Team. Thank you for the feedback here, anon.

>>1042971
That needs to be a legit group. It would pay actual money to have such a team on my side. I would win all the arguments, with real facts, instead of whatever I manage to pull out of my ass.

Soooo.... what happens if we go into disco inferno overkill mode here? hellfire and banefire and regular fire and Sleep and for the hell of it lets juice it necroromanctically since we're running out of juice anyways.
Go so hot-blooded we trigger spiral power?

>>1042971

I'm not a real doctor or anything, most of this shit comes from just basic understanding of first aid, and chatting with people who have had surgeries that required things like bolts and bars being put in.

So, a second opinion would probably be the smartest thing to get here.

I really like this arc, but basically not dying is the worst kind of immortality because it doesn't actually help you heal anything. I'd probably put most of the non-mortal members of the crew right now at 'tanked too long, can no longer fight very well' because of shit like that blow to the head that exposed the guy's brain. Which means if anything disturbed the shit in there while it was exposed... Dude's probably not getting back up.

Between crazy shit like that, the bloodloss knocking people out, the damaged/missing limbs... Yeah, the longer this fight goes on, the weaker any 'winners' are going to be.

>>1043035
Which potentially means Rachel Trust can just roll up after keeping her head down for the entire fight and say "I'm the Captain now."

The only option not considered yet is to ask for a temporary truce so that we all can deal with Canopus

>>1043071

You want us to trust the backstabby pirate captain who literally cannot die for help in a dangerous situation

I want you to think about that sentence for a second.

>>1043103
hell no, but it would give us a breath to heal while everyone dies with the giant immortal crunching snake

Mmkay. Given the gravity of this vote, and the fact that I cannot have coffee for another 12 hours, I'm gonna leave it open. At the moment the winning option is to go after Sleep. I'll field questions and discussion as best I can but otherwise I'ma mainly be observing your thoughtlines here.

>>1043119
*while everyone DEALS with the giant immortal crunching snake*

Basically both crews will view Canopus as an extremely pressing threat because as we learned from the interlude no one likes the idea of being eaten and digested for the rest of eternity.

We could really use a five minute break where we all get a chance to heal up and joining together to fight a common enemy could get us that window

anyone have any other ideas? I feel like we could really use something out of the box here

>>1041789
>>1042368
> Grab Sleep in the pirate's gut and channel death through it. It might slow Canopus down enough to be dealt with.
> Blind the big bastard first.

Seconding, we shouldn't sacrifice ourselves here, river is a good fighter and if she dies here then we have to find a new forth that probably won't be as good. Have a demonology studying necromancer means potential for more minions or another demon buddy like Tina, which is GREAT

>>1043272
Fighter/Wizard multiclasses who are good at both are rare indeed, yes.

>>1043272
Plus she's a qt redhead elf, she's Best Sister, and her boyfriend is our dealer.

>>1043149

If we had more time, I'd say just shoot him in the neck a bunch with the gun. Good shots should crush his windpipe and bleed him. From there, his wounds are pretty grievous and even if he doesn't die, the longer he tries to fight, the more he's just going to fuck himself up until he can't move anymore.

Unfortunately, we're strapped for time.

Going for the chain isn't going to work, because this shit was phased in. There's no convenient entry wound to yank open and try with. And yanking out a chain wrapping around something needs a ton of muscle, even if it's not stuck inside some other material.

Assuming that the one arm's already fucked, we could unload our bullets into his other shoulder, and cripple him for follow up attacks, but this is pretty chancy.

Sleep... is about a 50/50 shot, if we're being honest.

Blinding is something I see /zero/ issue with.

... What is we use fire on the arm, and back off to help a friend while it cooks his arm and breaks the chain?

>>1041789
>Lunge for Reeves. He'll take you down with him, but you can burn the chain with the last of your demonfire

>>1043393
The issue is that if we close, he'll kill River. This is a foregone conclusion because she s dying, and he cannot die.

The ONLY thing that is going to turn this around is if we can release Lora from her bondage and let her loose to deal with Canopus and the pirates alike - if Brianna has healed her enough.

Face it - Lora is the only person who can end this, and the only way we can end this is destroying the chain. River might die, but she's literally the only one who can release Lora, and Lora is the only one who can save this disaster.

"When on Death Ground, fight." And right now, there is absolutely no one who can stop this except Death herself.

>>1042870
So if the snake eats him does that make it the new owner of the chain?

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>>1043678
Why in God's name would you even bring that idea to the table. That's pretty much gg no re right there.

>>1043393
>>1043478
is there any way we can use demon fire at range or do we really have to get up close and personal?

>>1043870
You can throw the stuff just fine, it's just that ATM you are not actually /at/ any decent kind of range.

Called, reading/tallying, writing.

>>1043872
if we need to be in the same exact spot to grab sleep to channel death as well as cast daemonfire, can we do both at the same time?

>>1043872

Fuck, I don't think I actually voted.

>> Grab Sleep in the pirate's gut and channel death through it. It might slow Canopus down enough to be dealt with.
>> Blind the big bastard first.

Blinding's a good idea, but in hindsight (Hah!) we're dealing with a very experienced captain who's probably familiar enough with it to not be as incapacitated as we'd like.

I still don't actually like the odds of this, it's 50/50, with failure being /very/ unpleasant.

But I don't think Vox would've tossed into a no-win situation.

So, I'm going to hope like hell we actually get him.

Because otherwise, we might very well TPK.

>>1043880
No-win situations aren't fun, generally. I do have some of that old-school D&D in my soul where I like the chance of absolute failure but I tend to break more towards Fate-style "success at cost"; after all, you can only really kill all the main characters one time and then your story is over, one way or another, even if the plot isn't. A new party of characters picking up the legacy is another story, y'know?

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>>1041789
You suck the demonfire back into its rune on your arm and clear the distance between you and Reeves in a swift, sudden lunge. You grasp Sleep's hilt and channel death through it, marveling idly at how easy the sword makes it, how natural it feels.

As the wave of lethargy spreads from the blade, you push up on the hilt, ripping it up through Reeves' gut and spilling his innards onto the deck. The wave of grey is spreading faster than usual, expanding more rapidly with every part of the ship it touches, and where it goes, the sailors sink to their knees and curl up defensively. Some sob. Others beg.

"Stop that," Reeves spits, blood leaking from between his teeth with every word. "What -" he coughs. "What are you doing?"

"Dying," you answer, frankly. You wrench the hilt, levering Reeves to the ground, and pin him with your boot. The pirate grabs feebly at Sleep's blade, and you reply by shooting two of his fingers off. Canopus lowers his head to take a bite of one of the sailors and stops with a glazed expression, swaying in place as Sleep's power hypnotizes him. "But you're coming with me."

You reach under your hood with the hand that has the revolver and pull a glob of darkness, thick and crude, from it; you drop it on Reeves' face, keeping him blind as well as pinned.

Out of the corner of your eye, you see Whisper - freed from battle - dragging Nate away from the melee and towards Brianna.

Good. That's good.

You toss the revolver overboard and fill your hand with demonfire. You take a moment to take aim, then slash at the pirate's arm with it, looking to break through flesh and chain and bone.

Reeves' other arm moves, like a snake, and plunges a broad-bladed knife up through your jaw, and into your brain.

* * * *

You are Brianna la Croix, necromancer, and River's field of lethargy vanishes all at once in a sudden upset. You turn your head just in time to see Reeves push her corpse off of himself.

At your feet, Lora stirs, standing up with drooping wings. The fury on her face is inhuman in its malice.

|<[Move]>| the angel decrees, and the combatants find themselves on /Pallbearer/ without so much as a by-your-leave, tumbling onto the scarred deck with cries of surprise and of pain. Lora swings Grief at the /Lonesome Dirge/, scattering its planks and plates like leaves in the wind; the flotsam sprays over the water, churning it beneath the still-hypnotized form of Canopus.

You kneel down next to Nathan and start digging out the bullets. You have to work fast.

"He's calling me," Lora tells you. "The Master is calling me."

"Gods damn it," you swear, without stopping. "Lora, I - River, I can still -"

"I can heal the boy for you, or I can break the curse on /Pallbearer/," the angel says frankly. "Choose quickly."

"I can't just dump a potion in him, he'll be - he'd never fight again!"

"/Quickly," Lora pleads.

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>>1044021
> Have Lora heal Nathan (Revive River)
> Have Lora break the curse (Leave Nathan Crippled)
> Keep working on Nathan and have Lora break the curse (leave River dead)

>>1044021
Why can't the curse be broken later?

>>1044043
You can always try to do it yourself if you think you can handle Rachael.

>>1044049
why can't we just ask Quell to do it?

When you say crippled do you mean nothing in the world can get Nathan moving again?

>>1044025
Ouch.

But this damned curse will end up destroying everyone and everything around us eventually if we don't break it. Quell can't/won't end it. Lora is the only one who can truly end it.

And to be perfectly honest, I hate these undying fucking pirates SO MUCH right now. And I know most of them will hate losing this curse and the hoard and the Pallbearer.

And River isn't lost to us forever. That's the only thing that keeps me from chosing the first option.

But fuck these pirates. They don't deserve mercy.

>Keep working on Nathan and have Lora break the curse (leave River dead).

>>1044025
> Have Lora heal Nathan (Revive River)

The curse can be broken later, and I need to remind everyone we are still the Captain of the Pallbearer, that gives us a bit of magic authority here. Handling Rachel will be hard but not impossible, and I don't want to sacrifice River just to do something we can already do later on

>>1044057
I'm pretty sure that if River dies she stays dead. She didn't prepare a phylactery so she can't come back as Lich

>>1044025
Option 1, revive from brain damage is probably going to cripple River severely and it would leave us at the mercy of all the immortal pirates. (though we are still technically captain)

Option 2, also has a chance to revive River? leaves Nate out of the fight. indefinitely. Will have to deal with all the pirates which aren't horribly maimed.

Option 3, Nate gets to recover, maimed pirates die, River has made the ultimate sacrifice.

Is this the gist of it? I feel like I'm missing some important subtext.

>>1044025
>> Have Lora heal Nathan (Revive River)

Honestly, we can handle the curse after richard, we need river and Nate in fighting shape if we want a chance to finish this.

>>1044025
>> Have Lora heal Nathan (Revive River)
Boat problems later, people now.

>>1044084
> Option 1, revive from brain damage is probably going to cripple River severely

From experience, River's probably gonna experience a bit of slowdown and stiffness (that axe wound) but aside from that should be relatively fine. Like, you notice how Nate's more or less okay aside from his issues with long-term endurance and breathing? It'd be comparable. She's not gonna suddenly be stupid or out of the fight entirely but she's no longer gonna be 100% either.

>>1044070
Ghosts, anon. Far more than half our family is ghosts.

>>1044110
That's different. The ghosts are interred and called up, the ones that form naturally don't age well. Look at what happened with Jack
>>1044109
Does Rivers elven biology have anything to do with that? Do elves heal slower?

>>1044116
Nah, just the price of revival. As I said when you brought Nate back, you can snatch someone from the jaws of death but no one gets out without being bit. Just as the decapitated guy Bri saved now has to live with his neck bolted together, River would have to live with the scars of her death.

>>1044109
When you say slowdown do you mean physical or mental, because if the latter I'm changing my vote to #3. Being brought back brain damaged is worse than staying dead and raises all sorts of disturbing implications about which River is the real one who exists after death. Will this make River go to the sunless lands impaired? Is the brain-damaged version simply a pseudoperson who will cease to exist on death, at which point regular River reappears? If that's the case, does that mean people born impaired effectively don't have an afterlife, since they're replaced by the person they might have been? What about personality changes caused by brain injury?

>>1044133
Vox just said she wouldn't come back mentally impaired

>>1044133
Oh god metaphysics. Why do you guys do this to me. Why. I try to keep it simple and then just. Metaphysics.

I don't have good answers for you here. It probably doesn't help that we don't have good answers for these questions in /real life/. The person that comes back will be River. It might be River perpetually short of two cups of coffee and an hour of sleep, but it'll be River.

Please don't make me try to define the relationship between the brain and the soul. Please. /Please/. Right now I've mostly been operating on 'the brain is the control panel the soul uses to pilot the body' because TBQH I have absolutely less than no interest in taking a stance on biological determinism in my story here.

>>1044025
> Have Lora heal Nathan (Revive River)

>>1044157
so nothing worth mercy killing over

>>1044025
>Have Lora heal Nathan (Revive River)
I'm going to have to go with this one for now. We can hopefully deal with the last days of the /Palbearer/ in cooperation with the Quell.
I hope.
>>1044110
If River comes back as a ghost, she'll likely end up like Jack, assuming she'd even choose to come back as one, she's been taught to know better.

If river ends up functioning like Nate does now, or at least around that level, then we have nothing to worry about

>>1044177
Correct. Aside from not being enough of a dick to just do that to you, Bri'd have an idea of that to begin with. This is not her first resurrection rodeo.

Y'all are probably thinking, "This is when Vox says he has to take a long-ass delay," and y'know what, you're absolutely correct. I gotta hit work until about 9 PM or so, and given the vote in question I'm pretty okay with leaving it open until then.

Questions, comments, discussion, feedback, and criticisms remain welcome and appreciated.

Thank you all for reading and participating!

>>1044184
Nate gets nearly killed off pretty often though.
[WORRY]

>>1044025
>> Have Lora heal Nathan (Revive River)

>>1044025
Right, We can deal with the curse later; the healing needs to be dealt with now. Looks like reviving River will leave her mostly functional, similar to Nate's current condition. If nate is healed by Lora, he'll be an invalid, essentially.

> Have Lora heal Nathan (Revive River)

>>1044053
Quell, like all the other Gods, leave the Dungeon alone in deference to Lora; he has no access in here, and thus can't do anything.

>>1044025
>> Have Lora heal Nathan (Revive River)
River is mostly fixable if we move now,; and we can deal with the curse w/o Lora. It'll take longer, for sure, but it's not a one-time offer.

>>1044242
>If nate is healed by Lora
isn't, rather.

>>1044186
You're a madman and I'm switching you to decaf over this.

Not really.

> Have Lora heal Nathan (Revive River)

>>1044025
>> Have Lora heal Nathan (Revive River)

>>1044025
> Have Lora heal Nathan (Revive River)
Sweet. Merciful. Fucking. Jesus.

I'm glad I was expecting someone to die. Makes the sting a little easier to bear.

When Lora is done, we call a retreat back on to the /Pallbearer/ and get the hell out of dodge, then deal with Reeves and Rachael. I think she'll be much more compliant when she learns what he's done and why. If she doesn't, she burns with him.

You are absolutely a better writer than George Martin, the fat fuck.

>>1044025
>> Keep working on Nathan and have Lora break the curse (leave River dead)
Duty comes first, the curse has to be broken.

>>1044025
>> Have Lora heal Nathan (Revive River)

>>1044025
> Have Lora break the curse (Leave Nathan Crippled)
The curse needs to be broken, and Nathan will understand. He fell in combat, and he's been in plenty of battle like the soldier he wanted to be in the first place.

I am just /waiting/ for the salt.

Sure, everybody has reasons for voting the way they do, and the arguments in favor of their votes are reasonable. I just anticipate a bunch of people crying REEEEEE!!!! and complaining about railroads. Speaking of which, whatever happened to Train-Guy? He should be all over this.

>>1044025
>> Keep working on Nathan and have Lora break the curse (leave River dead)
Let the dead stay dead she earned it

>>1044025
>>> Have Lora heal Nathan (Revive River)

We can break the curse ourselves. I even have a few ideas on how to do that.

Turn the Pallbearer into a rowboat and carry it to the surface to get some Divine Intervention going with our magic, run the ship aground and start cutting/building until it's no longer a boat but a house or something, 'Fire' every crew member before stepping down ourselves and then chucking a fireball at the thing. We're the captain now, and since Reeves is currently burning to ash that should knock out one of the curse's support pillars.

Hell, if we want to be an asshole, just clap the entire crew in irons and leave them on the ship before we step down as captain and burn the thing to ashes. No crew to revive the ship, no ship to keep the crew alive.

But River and Nathan have to be taken care of here and now.

>>1046634

Also, before I forget, we also have a Chosen of Death on our side. We could probably swing something with her help to make sure the boat stays dead on a permanent basis.

>>1046634
my suggestion is rewriting the curse so that Pallbearer can be used as a force for good, or at least neutrality

>>1046697

Not entirely sure that's possible, or even if we should do it. If we had Lora on hand, we might be able to swing it, but without her assistance, I think the best we could manage is just ending it.

... Although.

Assuming we went with the rowboat plan, we could swing 'offering' the ship wholesale to the Quell...

Called, writing. Winner (by quite a bit):

> Have Lora heal Nathan (Revive River)

>>1046634
The trouble with most of those plans is that they involve willing participation of the crew. We know at least one that won't go quietly, and we lack the manpower to force them to do anything. Especially after this fight, whatever the end result is.

>>1047533

... Of course, everybody who participated on our side in the battle is probably half-crippled at this point. Which leaves the 'Rebel' crew in excellent health to try and oppose us.

Hilarious.

We've got Reeves dead though, so that should probably break their morale pretty solid.

Bri's the uncontested Captain right now too, so that gives us another edge.

Really, I just want to have another sit-down with Rachel, for all the good it's done in the past, and try to work through her sheer fucking terror at the thought of dying.

>>1047533
>Bri's the uncontested Captain right now too, so that gives us another edge.
Captain she may be, that won't give us the ability to tell them to die "for the greater good". Which how Racheal will see it, if no one else.
Rachel's fear of death, as I understand it, is rather straightforward: she's done a lot of bad things in her life, and fears her "just reward" in the afterlife. See as Deities definitely exist in this setting, it's not unfounded. If there's a concept of forgiveness in any of the deity worship, we might be able to work that angle. Otherwise, we'd be lying to her; she /will/ be in for a bad time after this life.

>>1047474
Actually wait a second, what happened to the Canopus and Reeves?

He should still be on fire and probably doomed to slowly burn to ash, but I don't know how long that's gonna take or where he's at. Also, if the Canopus isn't put back to sleep... It's gonna keep on fucking about.

... That said, with River on our side, we should be able to use Sleep on it again, and maybe get it to go all the way back to sleep.

>>1047734
Considering Brianna is a necromancer, and /knows/, for a fact, that all people (rich, poor, good, evil, EVERYONE) goes to the Sunless Lands, I can't see why she shouldn't just tell Rachael that she'll have an eternity to make it up to the ones she's wronged.

I mean, fuckin' hell, look at what the La Croix /used/ to be. It's in their goddamn name; they used to get nailed to trees.

>>1047738
I'm pretty sure Vox isn't going to force us to suddenly battle a giant monster.

..Or, at least, I am mostly positive. I don't feel like tempting fate.

>>1047734
should link here
>>1047662

>>1047738
I think he's still on fire, with at least one arm almost completely burned off; I doubt he'll be doing anything anytime soon.
The Snake? Hopefully Lora can do something with what time we have left, but we'll see.
River just got a knife in her brain. Even with healing, I doubt she'll just spring up ready to fight. Remember waaay back when Amy used Lora's feather to heal?

>>1047749
We're treading into deep waters here, but I suppose that hinges on how forgiveness works, during life, and after. The redemption of the La Croix is based more in the /living/ a changed life.
>she'll have an eternity to make it up to the ones she's wronged.
That's her fear: being punished for what she's done, more a "I don't want to be punished", less a "I feel terrible about these things I've done".

>>1047776

I meant more, the Canpous is hypnotized now, and probably long enough for us to get away. But will it /stay/ that way?

Anyway, here's another possible solution.

Get the boat to the surface and turn it over to the Quell to act as it's agent. The Quell appoints a captain who isn't an asshole, Rachel gets to live longer and work off her 'debt' so she doesn't get 'punished', and the crew who don't want to be there can probably leave.

Nobody's all /that/ happy, but it neutralizes the Pallbearer in it's entirety and gives the crew batshit terrified of dying and going to eternal punishment a form of hope for redemption.

>>1044021
How the hell did he stretch his arm from his back up to her jaw? Did he have gorilla arms?

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>>1044025
You swear under your breath. "Get Nathan," you tell Lora. You abandon your husband to the angel's ministrations and run to your sister's side. The knife is still in her jaw, and you pull it free before tossing it aside.

Reeves, one arm missing, half of his face shot off, groans next to her. You glare at him with hate in your chest.

"Kat," you call out, over the silent deck. Your shadow, battered and beaten but still hale, attends to you with a somewhat nervous expression. "tear him apart."

"...How apart?" Kat asks.

You fold River's hands over her chest and murmur a quiet spell to preserve her corpse so you can prepare in relative peace. "Until you feel him die."

Kat starts with the pirate's throat, sparing you from listening to him screaming while she gets to work.

Just like normal, Brianna. You place your bone wands in an 'x' over River's heart and shake out a veve of corn meal around her head. You place a ruby on one of her eyes, and an onyx on the other.

Thank the gods for the spare copies of your materials.

/Focus, Brianna/.

You don't have to open River's mouth, so you hold your hand over it and slice your palm with your veins running like ice with death. As the stream of blood falls into your sister's corpse, you feel the energy leave you with your breath, making you dizzy and exhausted.

Four seconds. Four seconds. It has to take.

Somewhere in the periphery of your awareness, talons hit flesh over and over, and the beat of mighty wings floats across the air. Someone is saying something in a voice that seems familiar if you could care about anything but the body in front of you.

The gemstones dissolve into nothing. Good.

You take River's hands and squeeze them. The veve of corn meal rots away, centuries of decay flying by in a moment.

The wands rattle, then fly back into your coat pockets. River's wounds visibly heal, leaving behind only the ugly smear of drying blood.

"Don't go," you whisper. "Not you too."

Four seconds.

River's eyes snap open, and she sucks in a sharp, sudden breath, followed immediately by an agonized groan. You let go of her hands so she can curl up in pain with her knees as close to her chest as her armor allows, resting on her side.

"Is he dead?" River manages.

You look over at Kat and taste the air, then take your eyes back off of the gruesome sight. "He's dead," you promise, softly.

"He betrayed his men," River whispers, harshly.

"You got him, River," you promise, tucking your sister's hair behind her ear. "...You got him."

You give the elf a tight hug and let yourself cry in relief. River manages a weak chuckle, and squeezes your hand softly.

"Bri?" It's Nathan's voice, thin with pain and exhaustion. You look up at your husband and smile weakly. "Lora put the snake back to sleep. This isn't done."

"Where's Ames?" you ask.

Oh. Fuck.

Please tell me you are just messing with us.

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>>1047911
"She took one of those icicles through the hand and Scribbles is seeing to it," Nate explains. "Emily's in a bad way. Lora was flooding her with...with." He looks away. Behind the hole in his chain and his clothes you can see the bright scar of his gunshot wound. "Memories. Of her stay in the Cornucopia. Richard's orders."

"Gods," you stand slowly and offer a hand to River. River waves you off weakly and stays right where she is, and you honestly cannot blame her at the moment. That was a bad death to come back from. "...Catherine's with her?"

"And Fetch. Catherine keeps having to...leave...in the midst of Emily explaining."

You sigh, then nod. "Alright."

> Address the crews. You technically rule over only half of these people, not that anyone really has the energy to fight.
> Go find Rachael. You and she need to have a talk.

AND

> Plan to make port; the ship needs repairs, and you don't have time to deal with the curse right now
> Find an island; you don't want this thing anywhere near other ships
> Just drop anchor someplace while you work out what the fuck you even want to do with this thing

>>1047926
>> Address the crews. You technically rule over only half of these people, not that anyone really has the energy to fight.
> Find an island; you don't want this thing anywhere near other ships

>>1047926
> Go find Rachael. You and she need to have a Talk.
AND
> Find an island; you don't want this thing anywhere near other ships.

In the case of the enemy sailors, I bet you a solid $50 that these guys were just press-ganged into service, or were just men looking for good pay. Basically, River, before Bri found her.

Also, thank fucking god that Amy is alright. I feel bad for Emily, but I'm not surprised that Dick would..well, be a dick. That's kind of his schtick.

>>1047926

>Lora was flooding her with...with." He looks away. Behind the hole in his chain and his clothes you can see the bright scar of his gunshot wound. "Memories. Of her stay in the Cornucopia. Richard's orders."

... Dick, how do you even keep finding new lows to go to?

This was /creative/ even.

> Address the crews. You technically rule over only half of these people, not that anyone really has the energy to fight.
> Just drop anchor someplace while you work out what the fuck you even want to do with this thing

Okay, so I'm hitting bed. I'm going to spend the next two and a half days or so with a friend so I can be out of the God damn house. DLQ will continue during that time. For now, votes remain open.

Questions, comments, discussion, feedback, and criticisms remain welcome and appreciated. I would suggest that this is a good time to workshop your thoughts on the fate of the ship and the survivors of the battle so that I can use it to guide Bri's efforts on that subject.

Thank you all for reading and participating!

>>1047926
>> Address the crews. You technically rule over only half of these people, not that anyone really has the energy to fight.

> Just drop anchor someplace while you work out what the fuck you even want to do with this thing

we need to decide on a plan before going through with a plan

>>1047926
>> Address the crews. You technically rule over only half of these people, not that anyone really has the energy to fight.

>> Just drop anchor someplace while you work out what the fuck you even want to do with this thing

Has the chain been broken already?

>>1047926

OK, taking a second to comment on this, Dick had to die before.

But now?

You always have a choice. Dick could have done a lot of things differently. Could've chosen to try and not spread misery and suffering on every floor. He could've chosen people less likely to fall into corruption.

He could've chosen to have someone just dump the chain in a chest and drop it to the bottom of the sunless sea, and let the Holder be some random guy.

But nope. He brought in an immortal pirate who was also a titanic asshole.

And when he had to intervene, he forced mental torture down someone's throat. He forced the worst memories he could find down someone's head.

He's proven himself cruel and terrible.

Even if he though that the world was filled with sin or some crazy thing... Even if he thought creating a new world wouldn't doom this one, he's already proven himself to be unworthy of even handling that level of power. The 'god' he envisioned himself to be of his new world would be nothing but a monstrous devil.

>>1047992

Chain's busted, Reeves is /definitely/ dead.

Before we decide what we do with the Pallbearer lets figure out what is actually in our power to do

anyone know the exact limits we're working with here?

>>1047926
>Address the crews. You technically rule over only half of these people, not that anyone really has the energy to fight.
>Just drop anchor someplace while you work out what the fuck you even want to do with this thing

And just like that
>"Memories. Of her stay in the Cornucopia. Richard's orders."
all the anger resurfaces.

>>1048007
did we get any explanation for why Reeves left the Pallbearer? How the Dirge was created?

>>1048010
The Dirge was created to keep the Palbearer in check, Reeves went to captain the Dirge to escape the curse.

>>1048012
but he still had the curse, I mean I assume since he was still immortal and all.

>>1048020
Maybe he didn't understand how persistent that curse really was.

>>1048012

What's worse is that it doesn't make /sense/.

"I'm fed up with being an immortal pirate captain. I know, let me create a brand new ship that's basically the exact same as the old one, except with bonus plating that I could have added to it anyway, and be the immortal pirate captain of /that/ ship!"

And if the Pallbearer went down, I'd given even money for the Dirge to spontaneously /become/ the Pallbearer anyway.

Like, at the start of this arc I thought that maybe Reeves genuinely wanted to die, and maybe do one good thing with his terrible unlife. But then Dick got wind of it and went 'NOPE!' but couldn't take the chain off the level. Hence the creation of the Dirge, based on the Pallbearer, so he still basically has an immortal Pirate Captain roving the Sunless Sea and protecting the chain.

Instead, nope. Reeves was just a dick.

>>1048035
Maybe Reeves got fucked over by Dick, like all the others.

>>1048039
Or maybe he just /that/ bad.

I think we need to start tending to the living, mostly gathering up the various limbs and organs and trying to figure out whose is whose. To my understanding, there's a lot of not-dead-but-in-many-pieces pirates right now.

>>1047926
>Address the crews. You technically rule over only half of these people, not that anyone really has the energy to fight.
>Find an island; you don't want this thing anywhere near other ships

>>1048035
He wanted the immortality without being shackled to the ship or being forced to feed its appetite.

>>1048358

... I'm... not really sure was working out given that the Dirge was described as even hungrier/meaner than the Pallbearer.

Add to that, the Pallbearer was made by the Quell. Even if they had Lora assisting with the Dirge, I'm not sure it would've managed to exceed the original in... pretty much any way.

Again though, I can't help but feel disappointed in Reeves as a villain. He was crafty and tough, but basically he was what I'd expect out of the new captain of the Dirge, not the literally millenia old Captain Reeves.I was expecting charisma and style, and instead we got a thug.

He was an asshole that wanted to live forever, and... Yeah.

Like, from the start, when we heard that he was 'prisoner' on the Dirge, I started getting excited. Then the more I learned about him, the more interested I got. I was looking forward to a pirate duel between Reeves and the Dirge's captain after we rescued Reeves from the brig, and it'd be these two guys just cutting and dancing like a whirlwind. The New Captain would laugh as he tanked the blows that Reeves would avoid and call him a cowardly weakling that clearly was an over-exaggerated myth and that as the new Immortal Pirate he'd be a much better legend-

And then Reeves would cut again, and the New Captain would fall over and struggle to stand up while Reeves pointed out that he doesn't heal very fast, even if he doesn't die. And while the New Captain had taken every blow like a moron, Reeves had simply cut him apart. The sheer experience and skill of having done this for longer than most countries have been a thing showing with each swaggering step as he took the chain back and the battle continued.

Probably against us.

And instead of that panache or nuance, we got a thug. And most of the interesting conflict from the chapter came from Rachel, who's mostly just scared and almost pathetic.

>>1047926
>> Address the crews. You technically rule over only half of these people, not that anyone really has the energy to fight.
&
>> Find an island; you don't want this thing anywhere near other ships
This over dropping anchor; as Canopus is still out there. Also a place to drop off certain people and leave them there who's last name is Trust.

>>1047926
>> Address the crews. You technically rule over only half of these people, not that anyone really has the energy to fight.
We can talk to Rachael later.
>AND
>> Just drop anchor someplace while you work out what the fuck you even want to do with this thing
We need time to recover and figure out what to do.

>>1047926
>> Address the crews. You technically rule over only half of these people, not that anyone really has the energy to fight.
> Find an island; you don't want this thing anywhere near other ships

>>1048413
I mean. I'm sorry? But also kinda not? Reeves was always a thug, in a sense. Not just in the that-was-my-plan sense but if you recall this whole thing started back when /Pallbearer/ was a longship shitting raiders on temples for petty profit. In all of this time, Reeves didn't change - he was still a pirate, still a thief and a killer, and in the end all he wanted was to cheat death just a little longer.

As for him not actually getting what he wanted, have any of the Chainbearers really, honestly, been primed to get what they want? Would Brigette really have been allowed to make a difference? Do you think Richard really loved the Baron? Was Natalia going to be allowed to complete her circle and fulfill her 'destiny'? How about the Lush?

>>1048782
The only one I feel like is really close to what they wanted is the Lush. It makes me want to be petty and give him a horrible afterlife if we ever get the chance...

It bothers me more than I would like.

>>1048782
why did he leave the pallbearer though? Why the charade of pretending to be kidnapped?

>>1048796
The Lush inspired me to make an artifact for one of my tabletop campaigns that annihilates someone on a conceptual level, such that they can never be brought back by anything short of a god, their soul effectively ceases to exist, all written records of them are lost, destroyed or fade, including ones created later, their names and deeds are forgotten, statues mold over ruining the features and shape, etc.

>>1050422
Wouldn't that just result in whoever used it thinking it was stolen or lost and starting a massive hunt for it?
I mean, it'd wipe out the memory of using it too, right?

>>1048782

Sorry, I must sound like a jack-ass for putting it all like this. I let my expectations run wild, and I'm paying the price for it. But I just couldn't help but feel that a guy who's that old should have some nuance and perspective, a sort of wit and charisma that made it clear just why he hadn't been caught when some kingdom mobilized their entire navy to stat hunting him down. Then again, considering his statement about beheading, it probably did happen. They just weren't thorough enough about destroying his body.

As for the second part of your statement... I hadn't considered that.

Dick continues to hit new levels of low.

>>1050949
It would, and has. Worth noting that the artifact considers knowledge of what it actually does more detailed than "extremely powerful weapon," and especially any of the side effects of it's power, to be information it should erase, deliberately to cause an increase in efforts to look for it, since nobody knows it's exact powers anymore, while burying any hints that using it might be a very bad idea even deeper. After use, it teleports away and hides itself somewhere it'll be found eventually, but never by anyone looking for it.

Erasing an individual is actually the least of it's greater powers, but the only one naturals can (knowingly) access. A powerful entity created it for the sole purpose of annihilating the ruler, culture and national identity of a massive and powerful empire quite a ways back, resulting in mass chaos, a breakdown of society and various client states freeing themselves, putting the continent into a state of nearly constant wars interspersed by uneasy peace for centuries, not at all helped by the artifact always being out there, waiting to be found by the exact wrong person.

>>1048782
> have any of the Chainbearers really, honestly, been primed to get what they want
The moneychanger maybe? Though we kind of didn't learn a huge amount about her aside from her being an incredibly self-absorbed brat.

Called, tallying, writing.

>>1051427
No worries anon. I constantly ask for feedback; I'm not about to be mad at you for providing it. One of the things I've grown to love about the quest format is the ability to discuss these sorts of things "live", as it were.

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>>1047926
You sigh and lean on your cane, limping towards the middle of what's left of the deck. /Pallbearer/ is still seaworthy - well, maybe - but she took a beating from those cannon. You can see piles of materials where Lora erased the guns from this level, completing the work you started in the Mine and New Hell. The crew either hasn't consciously noticed or doesn't care.

The men from the /Dirge/ are losing their protections, and you can feel them dying, one after another. You snap out orders, trying to get as many saved as you can; your crew hops to as fast as it can, obeying out of exhausted reflex, but you can't even save one in five.

About an hour later, the starboard side of the ship is lined with bodies that have been covered, for now, and your men give you wary and expectant looks. One poor girl, who can't have been more than 17 when she signed on, is missing her arm up to the shoulder. It went overboard during the battle and now it's not coming back.

"I imagine everyone's having a bit of a bad day," you begin, tiredly. You take a puff on your pipe, having packed it sometime between the triaging and the directions, and lean on your cane to stay upright. "I want to commend your valor in that fight, and your...I'm gonna level with you, I kinda expected to get stabbed in the back there. So thanks, for...not doing that."

They stare.

"I just had the same day you did, cut me some slack," you plead. "I'd like to find an island to hole up on while we repair the ship. There are things...things we all need to talk about. About /Pallbearer/. About the curse. About your fate."

"Still set on that, lass?" Sykes asks, from the edge of the crowd. The chief gunner rests his hand on a pile of iron, wood, and miscellania that used to be a cannon. "You had the angel right there. You coulda had it done with a word."

"I could have," you agree quietly. "And I didn't. I saved my sister instead."

"I woulda done the same," Sykes answers. He lets that sentence hang in the air like the accusation it is.

Some of the more well crew members get up, to work the sails and the ship's wheel, and find their Captain an island.

> What is it I can promise you, Sykes? What is it you want so you can believe in my good faith?
> If this is going to happen, it needs to happen with the cooperation of the crew, Sykes. It's their life too.
> To be frank, Mister Sykes, I no longer care about your opinion in this matter.
> Write-in?

>>1054301
> If this is going to happen, it needs to happen with the cooperation of the crew, Sykes. It's their life too.
I'd like to keep the knife out of our backs, so having the crew agree to it would be best to do so. But considering on how set we are about breaking the curse, we might need to explore option B, finding the nicest, heaviest looking door and barricading ourselves in while we work at the curse.

>>1054301
>> If this is going to happen, it needs to happen with the cooperation of the crew, Sykes. It's their life too.

>>1054301
>If this is going to happen, it needs to happen with the cooperation of the crew, Sykes. It's their life too.

>>1054301
>If this is going to happen, it needs to happen with the cooperation of the crew, Sykes. It's their life too.

>>1054301
>> If this is going to happen, it needs to happen with the cooperation of the crew, Sykes. It's their life too.

>>1054301
> If this is going to happen, it needs to happen with the cooperation of the crew, Sykes. It's their life too.
This seems like its going to be a pretty unanimous decision.

As for the crew, we should tell them everything we know, EVERYTHING, once we've gotten a proper rest and time to breathe. We also need to bring forward Rachael and basically talk to her in the open about why she did what she did.

Should we forgive her? I dunno. But she needs to know that its never going to happen. Take all of her arms and weapons, and keep her confined to quarters until summoned by Brianna.

And, Gods willing, if the crew cooperates, we'll need to find them a new place to live FAR AWAY FROM WATER AND/OR BOATS. The Sunless Sea is a no go, just because of their pillaging. And no more weapons; they turn everything over to us as a sign of good faith.

>>1054618
>And no more weapons; they turn everything over to us as a sign of good faith.
These people will be in legitimate danger of revenge killings. Hell, they'll be in legitimate danger of "heroic" idiots.
They have a decent reason to carry arms.

>>1054641
That kinda goes hand-in-hand with getting them out of the Sunless Sea.

I just don't want the temptation to use violence to solve their problems to be present. If these guys go back to their old habits, Brianna is the one who'll receive all the flack.

>>1054666
All it'd take is one person who emigrated from the Sunless Sea (or from anywhere else the /Pallbearer/ raided) recognizing them, one slip of the tongue, or even one betrayed confidence. Keeping it a secret is obviously the first line of defense, but word will get out for some of the crew sooner or later.
Sending them out to be murdered isn't any better than just killing them now.

>>1054850
Do you have any /other/ ideas? Cause I don't.

It's very simple. They can't stay here. And I do not trust most of them (not Sykes though, he's cool) not to go back to old habits without some kind of oversight.

We are /not/ keeping this fucking ship around. It /has/ to go. And to be quite honest, once this curse is dealt with, they can mostly fuck off. We already risked our lives, and the lives of our friends and lovers, when we could have just torched them from the beginning. We don't owe them a goddamn thing.

My opinions may be skewed a bit. Bad fucking day.

>>1054979
Separate them. Ship them off to various communities where they can earn a good living with skills they already have or can be paid while learning. Send somebody around periodically to check in on them, ostensibly for the purposes of making sure they're adjusting fine. Let them keep normal-person weaponry. If they do go back to banditry, oh well we tried. Not like we can keep them under constant surveillance to ensure they never ever get a weapon unless Britains exists in this setting.

>>1055058

Might be best to have a sit down with our friends up top and find these people jobs. No reason to resort to criminal means should drop the odds of them doing it again. Apart from that, it's as easy as just making sure they end up in a landlocked place. Plains or something, where there's no reason for them to buy/rent/board/borrow a boat.

I can't say I really want to give some of them this chance, but we still need their help. And considering we're asking them to give up immortality, we have to be willing to at least offer something in return.

... On that note, we might want to find out if the Hoard's cursed. If it's not, at least we can offer a pretty good severance package, which should help smooth things over for these guys.

>>1054850
Is right. Also, we could take their weapons before sending them away, but who's going to /keep/ weapons out of their hands?

speaking of weapons, an important point: remember all the trouble we went to to keep firearm knowledge suppressed? Most of the crew will either be carrying a revolver, or at least be familiar with the ship's cannons.

And, most importantly, sending them off to new lives assumes they are willing, and we lack the means to force them to do anything.

>>1055206
I still think that it's a better idea to bring the pallbearer up out of the dungeon so it can have the curse altered

>>1055058
How long-term are we thinking here? 'End a godawful curse' is more important than 'find an entire crew better lifestyle choices and options.'
Ending the curse is a huge karmic good, if we give them an island and gold and let it filter back into whatever communites they connect to it will self-sort.

>>1055058
What's the point of separating them? If we're worried about relapses, splitting them up will just make it harder to keep an eye on them.

I'm thinking there will be four camps of crew: want to die and move on, those that don't want to die, those that want to continue to be pirates, and those that want to be something else, with some contamination between the groups. Solving "wat do" is going to need to cover all the groups. The safest is "kill them all", the riskiest is just letting them go off and do what they want.

>>1054301
>> What is it I can promise you, Sykes? What is it you want so you can believe in my good faith?
Crew doesn't have to agree, breaking the curse is going to happen. I like >>1055206's idea about finding them jobs for after, but only after a light prison sentence. Prison being rehabilitation, not exile and seclusion like the norm.

>>1055861
The idea of rehabilitation in prison is fairly modern. In earlier times, if you wanted to try to rehabilitate someone you would probably assign them to someone's care and they would likely work for that person for a time.

>>1056131
Thank you for clarifying that for me.

Called, writing new thread.

NEW THREAD

>>1057114
>>1057114
>>1057114
>>1057114