The captain listens with increasing surprise at Atus' words, and then before he can respond, the tempest is gone. The captain settled back in his bed. "Always got to have the last word, that one, does he?"
He looks at Tharr next. "Perhaps I am being uncouth. Out here in the wilds, the material is king. There is only so far you can go without it. If it is something else you seek, then we will be happy to give it.
There is silence for a moment. "The Bloom, you say? I can't say that is something that I have any interest in pursuing; indeed, we descended into the tangle only shortly after outsiders began to gather here. I fear that is not something I can help you with directly...
"But there are other ways we can help you. Sage!" The ektus totters off to a corner of the room, and comes back with a wheelchair. The captain throws off his blankets, revealing himself to have no legs to speak of, save for two short stumps covered in brightly-colored bandages. He uses his well-muscled arms to lever himself into the chair, and grins at the looks on the crew's faces. "You can thank the Cuda for my appearance. And I thank you for ridding the world of it; my legs will rest easy now."
He wheeled over to a cabinet and removed a thin book, handing it to Tharr. "Your friend is right; we will not be doing much work with this ship for a while, and this means no going under for a time. Take this." Tharr takes the book curiously, and flips through it, eyes widening.
"Down below, where leviathans roam, the lowports all keep their own records of leviathans. They call 'em a leviathan codex. This one... we found in the remains of a lowport that did not survive an attack. It's not rightly ours, and I think you monster-slayers may get more use of it than us." The captain nodded. "Take careTharr has had a Leviathan Codex added to their Charts and "A Doom Far Below" added to their Whispers. of it."
He then turned his attention to Tolliver "Yes. In fact, you can have some of the materials for diving; they'll need some repairs before they're of any use, but this ship is surface-bound for a few moons at least. We'll get more. I'll have our engineers transfer some materials to you... and you can take some of that cargo off our hands, tooThree Stakes that can be used only for submersibles have been added to the Argos' sheet, as well as a crate of leviathan bones as cargo. These 3 Stakes can be used to upgrade your ship when it arrives at a port equipped to deal with submersibles.
Tolliver has also acquired a Leviathan Claw specimen from said cargo.. Sage will help with that." Sage then led Tolliver to oversee the transfer of cargo and worn-down ship gear to the Argos.
Tharr and the captain stood together in his cabin awkwardly for a bit longer. "Well, thank you again," he said. "Take care of yourselves."
Eventually, the mothryn left.
Atus, meanwhile, made himself "at home" with the ship's pair of rattlehands, an ironbound made of wood and bone and a hulking tzelicrae swathed in bandages with a head made of a large glass jar. They accepted the Tempest for who he was, and accepted his help gladly. Not only was Atus able to help them get the engine up and running again (with fewer parts than before), he also helped them with the sawprow briefly.
"Untangling the prow is work for our hacker," the tzelicrae said. "It may be a while before that work is done."
The ironbound offered Atus a piece of the broken mulcher. "One should always carry some of every ship they work on with them, wherever they go." Atus accepted the giftAtus has acquired Engine Piping and Sawprow Teeth Salvage. gravely. His final act of charity that night was welding a steel plate over the gaping hole in the side of the ship, and then sharing a quiet moment with the two rattlehands. He felt they were something of a kindred spirit.
The Firefly had definitely once been a proud and mighty ship; Atus could see and feel it in its shape and design. It showed signs of being well-loved and well-cared for, despite the obvious stress it had recently gone through. There was one wound the ship had though that Atus had trouble placing; the clawmarks, mouldspores, and scratches could all be accounted for by what he knew, but Atus felt himself drawn back to the engine room after welding; the engine worked better than before now, but his gaze was drawn again to the deep-black scorch marks that danced across the chemical compressor's casing. If he hadn't known better...
"Living lightning," said the tzelicrae rattlehand. "It dances below the waves as well as above it. An encounter we will not likely forget."
When pressed, the tzelicrae did not say much more. "There are storms in the depthsAtus has gained a whisper: Storms in the Depths.; old twisted things that yearn to see light again, full of hate and power. From them, all you can do is run."
The bone-and-wood ironbound came them. "Come, friend; though we cannot head, a feast has been prepared, should you wish to be social."
As Tolliver oversaw the transfer of goods, one of the crewsfolk approached him, a tall, lanky gau, introducing themselves as the quartermaster. "Ho. As it seems you hold my position more or less, I thought I might pass something on to you." Tolliver listened with interest. "I heard you're heading to the Spire. There's a place there that has good cargo with high returns, if you can get on friendly terms with the runners. We don't be heading back there a while, so take this." The gau pushes a piece of folded paper into Tolliver's hand. "A contractA Labyrinthine Contract has been added to Tolliver's inventory. we had with them to pick up and deliver mirror-chitin. They may not still have it, but it may be worth a shot to check out." Looking around, the quartermaster then said. "And it looks like we're done here. Come, our char has prepared a feast from what he could."
After leaving the captain, Tharr checked in in Kashi the harpooner, who was still unconscious, and then headed back to near where the Argos and Biff were docked, quickly running into Moneek. "Come, we have prepared a feast for you all!"
With that, she led Tharr to the very dilapidated dining room, where the crews of the Argos and Firefly had a meal of preserved meats and fresh nuts and berries, and they exchangedTolliver, Atus, and Tharr have all gained a whisper related in some way to the beasts of the wildsea. tales and philosophies. The crew of the Argos all heard tales of the monsters encountered in the Deeps, while that of the Firefly listened for word of the Bloom. The mood was decidedly cheerful, until Moneek, between bites of jerky, asked. "Say, weren't there four of you?"
As the rest of the crew ate and talked, Park worked through the night to renderCook Roll: 1, 3, 4, 6. Park has obtained Cuda Meat, Cuda Skin, and Cuda Fang specimens, and the ship has obtained Cuda Carcass as a cargo item. as much of the Cuda down as he could. He saved some of the choicest bits for his own collection, and put aside some of it for Tharr when he came back.
Speaking of which, when were they coming back? From his spot atop the carcass, Park stood and stretched, and stared over towards the Firefly's wreck, wondering when they would come and pick him up. They could at least have left him Biff.
Around Park, the flowers scattered among the treetops began to glow faintly as the faintest hint of dawn poked above the horizon, and he took in the sight for several minutes.
Then something stirred beside him in the corpse of the Cuda. He turned slowly; a part of it that he hadn't worked on yet, near where the tail met the body. Something was pushing against the skin there, pulling it taut, almost as if it was trying to burst out...