[IC] Elder Scrolls: Terror of the Padomaic

[Lucius Cypher]

On Sharee's command Malakaus moved out. It seemed that he would have to watch over Noelle and her altmer. He couldn't say that he wanted to; after what she did yesterday he had half and mind to drown the both of them en route. But she may still have some use to him, at least if Sharee won't give him the time of day. But that wasn't until for much later.

Despite being clad in heavy armor, Malakaus did well to keep up with even Sharee while swimming. The fact that he could swim instead of just walking on the water's edge was a testament of his skill in heavy armor; it was not slowing him down the least bit. Still it did cause some drag, but that just meant he had to swim harder. Luckily he didn't have to swim for too long before he got to position, with some time left on both his potion and on the chameleon. He couldn't see very well through the waves of the water, but he could see one in particular. A bandit who was sitting at a table whittling something out of dry wood. Knowing that he had very little time before the group would attack, Malakaus swam up to the docks and readied himself.

The moment Sharee took out the first bandit Malakaus was quick to take out the second one. Bracing himself on a rock he jumped onto the deck with a thud. Just as the bandit looked at him in surprise Malakaus had his crossbow out and shot the bandit in the shoulder. He quickly tossed his weapon away and drew his short blade as he approached the down bandit. He was writhing in pain for a short while before Malakaus stabbed him through the heart, twisting the blade to make the bandit come to a sudden stop. A quick scan of the battlefield and Malakaus saw that before they attacked there was five bandits. If the cave was not too large, there was perhaps three, maybe another five bandits inside. One of the bandits announced the attack which made Malakaus smirk. "Good. Let them come. Saves us time having to find them." Lowering his stance Malakaus readied himself for a Shield Charge.

[Ryonara]

Noelle and Corrira followed Malakaus after Sharee told them what they had to do. Noelle could hold her breath pretty well (She did sing a lot which requires some powerful lungs) though Corrira had to surface a few times when he was starting to run out of air. At least he didn't blow their cover once Sharee started the attack. Allowing the others to take center stage Noelle applied another touch of Chameleon on herself and Corrira. Bandits were shouting for their allies so Noelle went over to cause a bit of pandemonium. At the entrance she placed a Frenzy Rune that would cause any bandit that steps near it to go into a blind rage. With any luck he'll take out most of his allies before any of Noelle's would get to him. Corrira also put a Frost Rune near the Frenzy Rune as well, to do some damage and slow down the enemy. The last thing Noelle did was give Malakaus a buff, since he was the only one on their side who could handle fighting up front against the bandits. Seeing that he had his sword-and-shield out she gave him Soldier's Blessing, which would increase his sword-and-shield fighting by 50%. She also told Corrira to give something to Malakaus as well, and he gave Arcane Well, which would give Malakaus a 30% to absorb magic as well as a minor intelligence boost. Noelle than took out her crossbow while Corrira readied his magic staff.

[The New Yorker]

Serge was quiet while Sarel and Sharee bickered over the bandits. He agreed with his Elf friend about it, but he didn’t see any reason to argue about it. And, it seemed, neither did Sarel, because he stayed quiet after Sharee said her piece.

The group made their way down and Sarel cast a water walking spell on Serge so he would be able to get on the docks and not need to swim, his armor was impossible to maneuver in underwater. Serge moved slowly, as to not disturb the water as he moved. When the attack was launched, and his chameleon wore off, he charged onto the dock and passed Sharee. Malakaus took the one nearest Sharee, so Serge continued past him as well. Sarel climbed aboard the dock and ran along with Serge toward the small group clustered at the entrance. Two of the men picked up their shields from the ground and brandished their axes, both Khajitt. Sarel and Serge worked in tandem on these two. Serge started the encounter with a strong overhead strike, the Khajiit on the left took the hit with his shield and fell to the ground. Sarel pushed the one to the right, which had a mind of attacking Serge, with his telekinesis spell into his friends behind him. Sarel continued forward, behind the Khajiit who had to deal with Serge, to another Khajiit who seemed to be using daggers. He flicked a couple of his metal pieces at the Dunmer but Sarel was fast enough to deflect them with his katana and wakizashi, which he had brandished in both his hands. Once up close he ended the dagger-thrower with a double slice which rent his head from his body.

Serge was busy blocking axe strikes from a ferocious Khajiit as Sarel made his deathblow. Serge caught the edges of the axe along the rim of his long sword and pulled it up, ripping the weapon from the bandits hand. He tossed the axe to the side and swiped at the Khajiit, who blocked with his shield. Serge delivered another earth shattering blow to the shield, pushed his armored frame on the Khajiit, who fell from the impact, and then delivered a coup de grace to the beast’s heart. Sarel narrowly deflected an incoming arrow from a far off Bosmer and then dodged several axe swipes from the Khajiit he’d blasted earlier. Once in the clear he doused the Khajiit in fire. The Cat-man blocked the flames with his shield as best he could. This left Sarel open, but he saw Malakaus charging toward the crowd of oncoming bandits so he had no qualms. Serge joined Malakaus in the charge as they collided with another pair of bandits; one with a saber, the other with a lance.

[EliteCommander]

As fortune would have it, their attack was quick enough to catch the bandits off-guard. Serge and Sarel charged past her to meet a few of them head on, which was fine by her. Malakaus and his team were having similar success on the other side of the dock, so they were quickly pushing in towards the door. Sharee saw that Serge and Malakaus were clashing with two of the bandits who were back to back just outside the door, so she decided to seize the opportunity for a few easy kills. Running up alongside Serge, she thrust her cutlass straight at his side. It was, of course, fairly easy for him parry away such a direct strike with his lance, but a few seconds of distraction was all Serge needed to bury his blade in his neck. The bandit's body did not even have time to hit the ground before Sharee dashed forward towards their final foe, who was facing down Malakaus. As she was approaching from behind the bandit, her attack this time was far more deadly. Her precisely aimed strike stabbed into his back through his heart, and would have come out the other side had it not been caught on a rib.

The last bandit, a Bosmer woman made a break for the door to hold up in the cave, which in turn triggered Noelle and Corrira's trap. She hit the frenzy rune first, then fell immediately into the frost rune, creating an explosion of ice that stabbed into her flesh and froze a portion of the water in her body. She was bleeding and weakened to the point that she could scarcely breathe, but also enraged enough to attack the first person she saw, in this case an Altmer man emerging from within the cave. She lashed out with an admittedly weak strike from her dagger, but it was enough to cut a gash through his leather clothing into his torso. He screamed out in both pain and surprise, but it was not a lethal blow, so he was able to kick the dying Bosmer woman to the ground and scramble back into the cave.

The Altmer was weakened and would prove an easy kill, so she tried quickly to follow him into the cave, but she stopped in her tracks just outside when she peered into the passage. The Altmer had managed to get behind one of his allies before he collapsed to the ground, an ally that she would want to think twice about taking head-on. About fifteen feet into the passage, she saw a Khajiit, and not a Suthay-raht as most Khajiit were that they commonly dealt with. This was a Cathay-raht. He was at least eight feet tall and appeared stronger and more massive than even Malakaus. His armor was mostly chainmail with a few heavier plates on his chest, but his sword was long enough to be a two-hander for a smaller race, and he could easily protect most of his body with his massive tower shield. Even more than his appearance, though, Sharee took caution at the manner he carried himself. He wasn't frantic like the other bandits, he was calm, collected. He had an air of confidence about him that did not seem to be born of arrogance. From the way the two or three bandits hiding behind him were acting, he was their leader, their best fight, or, mostly likely, both. To make matters worse, they couldn't just rush him all at once to overwhelm him, as the passage was only wide enough for one, maybe two of them to go through at a time.

"Hold up, don't rush in!." Sharee ordered. Waiting just outside the door, she reached into her potion bag and grabbed one of her poisons. The glass flask was about a fifth of the way full with a dark, green liquid, but it was not any normal sort of poison. Instead of applying it to her blade, she tossed it inside the cave and allowed it to shatter at the large Khajiit's feet. Upon impact, the volatile substance was disturbed enough to boil from its unstable liquid state into a green cloud of gas. The Khajiit and his allies behind him breathed in the poison, which had the effect of draining its victim's stamina, making them more prone to exhaustion. Sharee had two other flasks like it with her, one for magicka and another for stamina, but she would hopefully not need them.

Even if he was poisoned, the Khajiit would still be difficult to take down. Plus, any of Sharee's allies that ran in would be caught in the gas as well if they didn't wait a few seconds, so attacking from a distance would be best for now. "Don't go in until the gas clears; weaken him with magic." She ordered.

[Ryonara]

With their initial attack going off without a hitch Noell and Corrira carefully followed behind the others towards the entrance of the cove. They didn't get far before Sharee stopped them and threw in a poison smoke bomb. Before the gas filled the cave Noelle saw that it was a very large and heavily armored bandit, with a few cowering minions behind him. Noelle guessed that the big one was the leader of the bunch, so taking him out would scatter the bandits or at least leave them to be easily disposed of for later. "Corrira, light up the big one with some lightning magic, I'm going to aim for the kittens behind him."

Corrira aimed his staff at the big bandit and showed it's power; a fusion of fire, ice and lightning magic all at once at great force. Noelle recognized the staff as Apotheosis, from Rindir's Staffs in the Imperial City Market District. A very powerful and pricey magical weapon, but well worth the cost. Even with his large shield unless it was enchanted to block magic the big bandit was going to take the full brunt of the spell. Noelle than fired off her own spell, a fully charged Frenzy spell. Again, unless the big bandit had magical resistance, even he would be affected. More importantly, the spell had a fifteen feet blast radius to affect the bandits behind him as well, causing them to grow increasingly aggressive and eventually attack each other.

[Lucius Cypher]

Malakaus didn't get a chance to fight much when, after his initial charge, Sharee came out of no where to take both kills on the bandit he and Sarel were engaged in. He wasn't sure if he should have been disappointing as the bandits weren't putting up much of a fight, but that was expected since they managed to catch them off guard. Nonetheless after they cleared out the docks Malakaus went back to retrieve his crossbow. The others were already filling into the cave leaving him at the end, not that they went far. Sharee stopped them when she spotted a big Cathay-raht blocking the hall, likely the bandit leader by virtue of being bigger than everyone else. Even if he wasn't the leader, taking him down ought to put a damper on the spirits of the other bandits, seeing their biggest and strongest fall. Noelle and her lackey started flinging magic at the bandits to cull their numbers and Malakaus helped out with his crossbow. Switching his box out for explosive ice-tipped bolts he fired into the cave. Even if most of his bolts just hit the bandit's tower shield the ice that formed on it would make it even more difficult for him to use efficiently, due to the additional weight of the ice or how painfully cold it was becoming. Malakaus didn't concern himself with accuracy and in such tight quarters it wasn't necessary anyways. As long as the bolts were being shot away from his allies and towards the enemy he just kept firing from his crossbow until he ran out of bolts in the box. Once he ran out he tossed the empty box and loaded the regular bolts.

Putting his crossbow away Malakaus went back to the dead bandits. He quickly rifled through their pockets which earned him some coin purses, skooma, and lockpicks. What he was looking for however was that lance that one of the bandits had. The cave was too tight for him to be swinging his axe around and unless Sharee lets him take point he can't shield charge without bowling over everyone else. But if he had that lance he could safely stab the enemies from a distance, or at least have more range to kill than if he just had his wakizashi. While he was away he also took the time to take out his notebook and write down a reminder to work an enchantment to give him resistance against poisons. Sharee seemed rather quick to start throwing those gas bombs around and Malakaus would rather not get caught downwind of that. Once he finished looting and writing he returned to the group with the lance out, ready to charge once again.

[EliteCommander]

The stream of fire, ice, and lightning from Corrira's staff hit the Cathay-raht's shield head on. As it was insulated, the lightning did not transfer into him, but the fire and ice were another matter. The intense flames and ice both melted and froze the shield at the same time, causing it to become more misshapen and brittle. As well, the flames that danced around the sides singed his fur and parts of the flesh underneath. Already, he knew he could not stand there forever, and it was made even worse by the frenzy spell that washed over them. The bandit leader was a willful, strong minded individual, so while he felt some rage swell up within him, he did not go berserk...unlike his allies behind him. Their more feeble minds caused them to turn on one another. The wounded one was killed almost immediately, while the other two turned their blades on each other. At this point, the Cathay-raht was now surrounded on both sides, so it was mandatory that he move.

With his shield still raised to block the spell, the Cathay-raht retreated away from the cave entrance, barreling over the two bandits behind him in the process. They were knocked to the ground and, since the leader's shield was no longer protecting them, were immediately overtaken by spellfire. Meanwhile, the Cathay-raht retreated around a corner, out of sight from the entrance. Nevertheless, he was weakened, and they needed only one last push to finish him off.

"Malakaus, take point. Serge, Sarel, behind him. Noelle, Corrira, you get behind me. Let's finish off that big cat once and for all." Sharee ordered, taking her position behind Sarel.

[Lucius Cypher]

The Cathay-raht couldn't stay in the hall for long. If it wasn't the poison it was the magic and soon it retreated. Malakaus moved his way to the front and charged, trampling over the other bandits, who were either dead or dying. Malakaus chased after the Cathay-raht with his spear out and his shield up, ready for anything. Soon the narrow hall widen to a more open cave. It wasn't all that big with barrels and boxes crudely stacked together. There was one platform with a large metal chest and a table, and a lower level that had a single campfire fire surrounded with bedrolls. There was no other entrances or exits from where Malakaus could see, and the Cathay-raht had lead himself to a dead end. Either that or he was getting ready for a last stand.

Malakaus moved carefully. Although the Cathay-raht was large and in heavy armor, Malakaus knew that even the most bulkiest of creatures could be capable of surprise attacks, more so since no one would believe that they were capable of such things. Malakaus's caution paid off when, as he was moving to the lower area, he saw from the corner of his eye the glint of the Cathay-raht's tower shield. He had just enough time to turn his body and shield towards the Cathay-raht's sword swing. As though time slowed down Malkaus could see that he had very little options to actually block this attack. It was simply too heavy a swing for him to be able to keep his guard up and he'd rather not leave himself open. So he hopped back, avoiding the swing and putting distance between him and the big bandit.

With his ambush foiled the Cathay-raht had no more reason to hide and stepped out. His shield was in a sorry state and Malakaus was certain that a few blows from his axe would likely sunder it thanks to all the damage done to it. But before that would happen it was still a tower shield, and Malakaus only had a lance and his own targe. The Cathay-raht growled at him and Malakaus did the same. The two sized each other up, looking for weakness. The Cathay-raht was much larger than Malakus by at least a head and twice as wide. While his shield and armor shown damage, the Cathay-raht himself seemed unharmed. Sharee's poison might be affecting him, but Malakaus was uncertain if the bandit had managed to take an anti-toxin after he fled. The orc was still confident in the bandit leader's defeat if only because Malakaus was not fighting alone, but for now the orc had to worry about if he could weaken the bandit long enough for his allies to come, or if he'll get killed in the process.

The bandit Cathay-raht was not so arrogant to think that his size would give him an advantage over Malakaus. His ability to sense and dodge his ambush told the Cathay-raht that Malakaus was a perspective opponent and would not be defeated with simple tricks. His armor was also unlike anything he's ever seen, but if it was an orcish make, the Cathay-raht knew that the armor itself was going to be as stubborn and thick as the orc it was worn by. He too was aware that it was only a matter of time before he would be trapped by the orc's allies and that he needed to make his escape. And lastly, there was the orc's weapon of choice, the lance from one of his fellow bandits. A simple iron spike on a stick, but it had a much better reach than the Cathay-raht's own sword. He wasn't too worried about the spear itself so much as for what the orc planned to do with it. Did he want to try to impale it through the tower shield, making the damaged board even more useless than before, or perhaps would the orc play it safe and simply hide behind his own shield, poking at the Cathay-raht's defenses until his allies could come? The big bandit could see the axe and short blade on Malakaus and knew that even if he destroyed the lance, the orc was far from defenseless.

For what seemed like hours the two stared of at each other trying to see holes into each others defenses. But the Cathay-raht knew that time was not on his side, and that if he was to fight, he would strike first. He lunged out and swung his blade at Malakaus. The orc anticipated this and tried to stab the Cathay-raht's shield, noting what would be the weakest spot on the shield and attempt to break through it. But the Cathay-raht did not attack Malakaus, but the lance. The bandit slammed the edge of his greatsword into Malakaus's lance, splitting the wood into twain before the lance could even make contact with the tower shield. The explosion of splinters surprised Malakaus and put him on the defensive but the Cathay-raht was relentless. Without the threat of the lance the Cathay-raht attacked Malakaus with his own shield charge. Malakaus was steadfast but even he could not stop the bandit's charge. He was lifted off his feet and pushed into the wall. He was being crushed, however his armor did well to protect him from the worse of it. Better still, the Cathay-raht was within Touch distance now.

Dropping the useless spear shaft as Malakaus was being crushed between the bandit's tower shield and the cave wall, he reached into his satchel bag and took out one of his spell Scrolls: Disintegrate Armor. And on the heavily damaged Tower Shield the thing turned to rust and crumpled into dust. Malakaus than rolled off the wall before the Cathay-raht could realize what happened. Malakaus put space between him and the Cathay-raht and took out his crossbow. He only manage to pull off one shot at the bandit before he turned to face him. The bolt managed to break through the badnit's chain mail and dug into his flesh, but it didn't seem to do anything but annoy the Cathay-raht. He lunged again, thrusting his sword at Malakaus. But instead of trying to dodge he actually tried to block the blow. Or better said, intercept it. The Cathay-raht's greatsword broke through Malakaus' targe and would have stabbed Malakaus through the head if he had not planned for this.

Twisting the shield on his arm Malakaus shifted his foot position so that his shield was locked onto the Cathay-raht's balde. Despite how much he pulled and pushed, the blade would not be released. Malakaus had captured the blade and now aimed to take it away. With a quick and brutal flourish Malakaus disarmed the Cathay-raht, sending both his shield and the bandit's sword off to the other side of the room. With his shield free-hand Malakaus than punched bandit in the groin and knocked him to the ground .He readied his crossbow at the bandit, as well as holding a scroll of Paralysis in his hand.

Once again Malakaus and the bandit looked at each other. This time however the Cathay-raht had no shield nor sword, while Malakaus still had his axe, wakizashi, Crossbow, and an unknown assortment of spell scrolls. Not only that but by now the others have entered the cave and would be ready to eliminate the bandit leader. He was defeated. And Malakaus spoke to him. "You fought well. Certainly stronger than the rabble you had before. It would be my honor to slay you now, but a shame to lose a fighter such as yourself. So I shall give you a choice. We can kill you, or you can join us. What say you?" Malakaus still had his weapons trained on the Cathay-raht but his offer still stood. Neither one of them had been too hurt by their skirmish but the situation did not favor the bandit.

[EliteCommander]

Malakaus was quick to charge in, and even quicker to get into the fight. By the time they had finished off the wounded bandits he charged past, he had the Cathay-raht in a precarious position. She heard the offer Malakaus made as they entered the room. She watched the Khajiit's reaction carefully as more of the team came into the chamber, thoroughly outnumbering him.

"Join you? You just killed all..." The Cathay-raht began, but he paused as his eyes drifted over each of his armed foes before him. "Actually, that speaks volumes of you. Khajiit is not going to die over nothing, and he recognizes strength when he sees it. This one...will join you."

Sharee sheathed the dagger in her left hand and started to walk past him, giving him a pat on the shoulder as she moved past. "Good, that is good. I like finding sensible people for my crew, people who will cooperate." As she walked behind him, he turned to face her. She seemed more interested in examining the crates of supplies in the back of the room, however, so he turned back to speak to the Orc.

"A crew? So you have a ship, then? Khajiit has never worked aboard a ship before, but he can..." The Khajiit began, but he was suddenly and violently interrupted when Sharee's cutlass impaled him through his chest, stabbing precisely through his heart. In the last moments of his life, he looked down at the blood-soaked blade in shock. "You...lying..."

Sharee pulled her blade from his body and kicked the corpse to the ground. "There we go, last threat eliminated. Now, let's see if we can find enough skooma in these supplies to fill a crate." She ordered as she sheathed her blade, acting as if nothing was wrong.

[Ryonara]

After the big bandit retreated deeper into the cave Malakaus chased after him, followed by Sarel and Serge, and than Sharee. Noelle and Corrira were the last to catch up and Noelle took the time to give the bandits a good stab in the neck; didn't want them to ambush them on the way out. By the time the two spellcasters got to the room Sharee had stuck her cutlass through the last bandit. Sharee gave everyone the orders to look for skooma so that's what they did. Using a Clairvoyance spell Noelle was able to pinpoint the location of of the largest concentration of skooma. It was already in a small crate. "Found some captain. At least thirty bottles by my count." The skooma was haphazardly placed into the crate, some of the vial's broken or cracked. "Corrira move the unbroken bottles to a new crate. I'm going to keep looking for more bottles, and anything else that might be helpful."

[Lucius Cypher]

Malakaus kept his weapon trained on the Cathay-raht as the others came in. IT would seem that the bandit chose to accept Malakaus's offer, but not before the captain ran him through. His blood shot out and splashed Malakaus in the face, which barely phased him. As the Cathay-raht fell to the ground Malakaus put away his weapons and simply sighed. "Aw captain, why'd you do that? Now who's going to carry all the skooma..." He said, partially sarcastically. He was a shame that the captain had killed the Cathay-raht, but Malakaus was more disappointing that he didn't get to do it. Stepping over the corpse Malakaus went to go retrieve his shield, pulling the sword out from the wood. "Hmm... I've been meaning to upgrade this eventually..."

With his shield largely useless now Malakaus strapped it to his back. He was going to go help the others find skooma when he noted something near where he threw the sword and shield. It was a large chest with a lock. Form the looks of it, it was elven made. Altmer. Malakaus remembered that Fletcher had managed to swipe a key from one of the bandits and took the key out. He used it to open the chest and Malakaus found something better than Skooma inside. "Sharee! Come look at this!" Malakasus stepped back to let the captain see the contents of the chest: Ingots upon ingots of refined moonstone and Malachite. Furthermore, upon closer examination near the base of the chest, it was dragged here recently. "Heh. Fletcher was right, for the wrong reasons anyways...." Malakaus began to think of what he could do with all this metal. By his recognizing, there was at least a hundred pounds of ingots in the chest. Already deciding that he should take it, Malakaus began to look through his satchel for a scroll that would help him carry the chest back to the city.

[The New Yorker]

Sarel watched as his team moved in, Serge and Malakaus taking the front, as he doused his own enemy in flames. Once the group had dispatched of the enemies at the front of the cave Sarel had had enough. He stopped the flames with an expert accuracy and pulled the shield from the Khajiit’s hands with his telekinesis. Only moments after, Sarel had his left arm around the bandit’s furry torso, his armored chest against the Cat’s bare one, and Sarel’s wakizashi plunged into the Khajiit’s stomach and out the other side. Ruthlessly, Sarel disemboweled the bandit and left him dying on the floor. He was told to team up with Serge, behind Malakaus, he did.

As the duo made their way further into the darkened cavern, Serge turned to his Dunmer friend.

“You know, I can’t stop thinking about that girl, the one we met earlier.”

Sarel held his katana in front of him resolutely, moving slowly and deliberately, he didn’t look at Serge. “The Dunmer girl?” he asked.

“Yes.” The Breton responded.

“Well, maybe you’d be better off focusing on the giant cat in the next room.” Sarel said, a bit of grumpiness in his voice. The lack of herba was getting to him.

“Oh, what? Don’t tell me you’re jealous.” Serge remarked as they passed the dead or dying bandits on the floor.

“Hardly. Dunmer women know better than that.” Sarel said with a slight smile.

“I’m a little appalled that you’d say something like that.” Serge turned to Sarel in the narrow hall as Malakaus set out into the room ahead. The fight began, “I’ve had Dunmer women before, and it should be known that I’ve been called a catch.” Serge put his sword away and so did Sarel, as if they were on break.

“By your mother, no doubt” Sarel added.

“When was the last time you had sex?” Serge asked, defensively.

“What kind of bloody question is that?” Sarel asked as he produced a small pouch from his rucksack, corn nuts. He ate a few and gave some to Serge. Malakaus was slammed against a wall, the cave felt as if it’d shook. But, he seemed to be able to handle it.

“I don’t know, you seem to be a little up tight.” The Breton responded.

Serge rolled his huge, crimson, almond eyes. “You’re right, it’s probably because I’ve never had sex.”

“What?!? That’s unbelievable.” Serge said as a crossbow bolt was launched.

“It is a little unbelievable, isn’t it?” Sarel said as he put his bag of corn nuts away. Malakaus blocked an attack then sent the weapon flying, Sarel realized that was the end. He made his way into the cave room without another word.

“Oh, wait a minute. It’s not true, is it?” Serge said as he followed behind.

The group watched in silence as Sharee created a vulnerability in the giant cat, then ran him through. As fresh blood streamed onto the sodden floor, Serge whistled as an exclamation, “you’re quite vicious, aren’t you?” Serge said outloud.

Sarel hit his friend’s armored side, “Yes, she is” he said, all sorts of meanings bubbling to the surface from there.

Sarel made his way over with Sharee when Malakaus called her over. He saw it’s usefulness, especially concerning things to be built for the ship. He noticed the Orc looking for something in his bag. He couldn’t tell what it was, but he decided to offer assistance in any way he could. “I could carry this back to the ship using my telekinesis.” Sarel said easily. “If you don’t mind me handling your booty.” Sarel said soberly, not noticing the absurdity of the statement. Serge heard it, started laughing from somewhere else in the cavern.

[EliteCommander]

"He was too much of a risk, his reaction was suspicious. As ridiculous as it seems, some bandits actually like the people they work with, and would take offense to us killing them, no matter how much coin we could give them. Would have been nice to have the big cat, but he might have turned on us." Sharee commented to Malakaus and Serge as she started shifting through the crates and barrels. Most of them contained things like dried meats and vegetables, spools of cloth, and other mundane items, which, to be fair, would be quite useful to them. The less food and supplies she had to buy for the ship, the more she could spend on weapons, armor, and other improvements. After they got back tot he ship, she planned on sending out groups to collect the rest of the supplies from the cove, but for now, they just needed to focus on the most valuable items.

As they spread out to search the, rather small, cave, Sharee did not find any more crates of skooma like Noelle, but she did locate a few individual bottles she could add to it. If the Khajiit boy took that crate, and maybe a few pieces of jewelry for good measure, to his former master, Sharee reasoned it would be enough to smooth things over between them, and give Kahl the opportunity to poison his crew. Eventually, she headed outside the cave and started loading some of her more valuable finds onto the rowboat the bandits had tied to the dock. As they no longer had any particular need to sneak around, it would be easier getting back than it was getting there. She leaned back in the boat and relaxed, waiting for the others to finish their search. She made sure to stay on the opposite side of the boat from the oar, as she really didn't feel like being the one rowing.

[Lucius Cypher]

As Malakaus was looking for the right scroll to help him move the loot he heard the dunmer from before offering to use his magic to take the chest out. Malakaus had his doubts that the dunmer's telekinesis could carry out a full chest of ingots, but if he succeeds than that's one less thing Malakaus would need to worry about. "Heh, if you think you can the handle it, I'll let you take the loot back to the ship. Hmm... Just let me take a quick count of how many ingots we have..." Malakaus began to take out and count the amount of ingots the chest held. To his disappointment there was only 60 moonstone and 40 Malachite, with no quicksilver. Added the weight of the chest, Malakaus really had doubts that Sarel's magic could pull the whole chest out. Still if the dunmer could pull it off Malakaus wouldn't have any complaints. Gave him more time to figure out what to do with all the ingots. There wasn't enough to put any meaningful reinforcement on the ship, and Malakaus would rather not waste the metal trying to make balista heads out of them. He considered trying to make weapons from them, however he also remembered that armor made from lighter elven metals would be statistically better than heavier metals. He'd have to use a little bit extra to further improve the individual armor, not to mention what he'd do if he wanted to make more than one set.

Malakaus took out his notebook and began to scribble down ideas and numbers, mumbling about a queue. After he finished what he was writing with he closed the chest and locked it with the key. "Alright Sarel, it's all yours. I'm going to look around some more to gather any more notable loot. With any luck skooma and ingots won't be the only treasures." Though Sharee already did her own search for miscellaneous treasure Malakaus was looking for raw materials. Taking an empty barrel he gathered up the bandit's weapons so that he could recycle them for newer, better things. He also stripped the dead of their armor and loot and threw the bodies somewhere out of the way, where their soon-to-be rotting corpses won't stick up the entire cave. He found a nice bit of gold from the bandit's personal chests and coin purses, about 1000 total, along with some precious gems of varying quality. Malakaus helped himself to a bite of salted fish and wine as well before he found what he was looking for. The orc just about giggled like a little girl when he found it. "Ah, now if I can just get my hands on some skooma, this would be perfect..." Malakaus took his treasure outside in the light to get a better view of it. It was a skooma pipe, also known as a bong or a hookah. He probably shouldn't use this one, but he was going to break it down back at the ship and figure out how to make one himself.

After securing the Skooma Pipe and some skooma for it (Which he found outside of the create Noelle had found) Malakaus went to the boat that Sharee had commandeered. Sharee sat near the front making it obvious that she didn't plan to row. Malakaus was only a bit sore from the fighting so he figured he could handle the rowing duties. It'll be good practice if he does somehow convince Sharee of adding oars to the ship. But before he'd do that, there was other ideas that he wanted to talk to Sharee about. Since it was just the two of them Malakaus figured now was as good of a time to ask as any. "Captain, when we returned to the ship I'd like to ask you something about your bombs and alchemy, if you have the time."

[EliteCommander]

Sharee readjusted herself once Malakaus joined her in the boat and shifted the weight distribution. Considering the size of the chest Malakaus found, she wondered if the rowboat would be able to handle the weight of the ingots and everyone else. One or two of them might have to swim, and as much as she would have just liked to sit back and relax, it would probably need to be her, since she could easily keep up. Regardless, Malakaus' mention of her alchemy caught her interest, both because it meant he probably had some sort of idea, and because it meant she could brag about her abilities. Of course, she guessed he probably wanted to weaponize some of her alchemical creations for the ship, which was something she had thought of doing. If she could get her hands on enough fire salts, another ingredient to catalyze it, such as imp gall or dragon's tongue, and ingredients to cause the vaporization, such as ectoplasm, spiddal stick, or wisp essence, she could easily make their ballista bolts a bit more explosive. With a similar set of ingredients, she could also do the same with ice, lightning, poison gas, or any other number of effects.

"How about you go ahead and ask now? It's not like we don't have time to kill waiting for these slouches to finish their looting." Sharee suggested.

[Lucius Cypher]

Malakaus dutifully nodded his head and handed Sharee his notebook. Most of it was filled with carefully drawn images of various strange things, abbreviated notes, and occasionally an actual list. Malakaus showed Sharee two pages, one depicting some sort of club-like weapon, and on the opposite page hastily written notes about the image, titled "Boom Stick". "So uh, one of my underlings made this blasting powder using fire salts and charcoal. I've had another underling of mines summon fire atronach to harvest the fire salts from them before they vanish to oblivion, and charcoal is easy enough to get. I have considered simply creating hollow shells for the balistas and filling space with the blasting powder, but than I had a different idea. A more anti-personal weapon, based off my crossbow design. I've always been thinking of how I can send the bolts out while minimizing the physical profile of the crossbow itself. Maybe remove the bow part, which than makes it look more like a club. The club is hollowed out and the bolts would be fed into the tube the same way the crossbow is, through a box."

Just so Sharee knew what he was talking about, he handed his box-fed crossbow to Sharee to examine. "My underling says that the blasting formulate is a dead end since the explosion doesn't compare to say, a fireball, but I'm not trying to replace magic here, but maybe we can replace out archers? Or at least give our more melee focused fighters some sort of range option since the lot of them don't have the patience to handle a bow or the dexterity to deal with my crossbows. But the big thing about this weapon I have in mind is that it's not just limited to long range. I mean, it's hard to fight with a bow or crossbow when you have someone trying to hack your head off right in front of you. But with this, uh, Boom Stick, you can function as a range weapon from afar, and a deadly and sturdy bludgeon up close." Malakaus took a moment to let Sharee think about what Malakaus was proposing before he got to the point where Sharee was needed.

"I don't know much about Alchemy, and my only two underlings who do, I need them to handle enchanting things. I remember those bombs you've used and figured that I should ask you to help me improve the blasting formula. I can handle the design of the Boom Sticks, but right now they're glorified clubs if I can't figure out how to make the... The bullets work." Malakaus smiled and nodded his head. "Yeah, that's what I need help with. Making bullets."

[EliteCommander]

Sharee took the notes and crossbow, and was mostly silent through his explanation. She hadn't thought of anything like what he was suggesting, though that might have been because of some of the problems she saw with it. There were some ways she could help, of course, but she didn't see it being scalable to the whole crew.

"Well, as far as this explosive powder goes, I already know something way better to mix the fire salts with than charcoal. Combining it properly with something like imp gall or dragon's tongue can make a pretty spectacular effect, though the best is by far spiddal stick. If you use one of the other two, then you also need something like ectoplasm or wisp essence to make the mixture vaporize properly. Of course, you also need to know the exact proportions, how much heat to apply to each ingredient for how long, and in what order, how much water you will need, how much to dissolve in the solvent at a time, and so on, but I already know all of that. I just need the ingredients. Now, for your design...that's a different matter. The biggest issue I see is the fact that it is a cudgel. I could see it working with a blade, but blunt weapons are meant to be used with a lot of force. If you bore a hole in the thing, then keep hitting things with it, its going to bend the metal inside unless you make it out of something really strong, like ebony. For the entire crew, we can't afford that yet. Like I said, though, you might be able to make some sort of blade out of this." Sharee suggested.

[Lucius Cypher]

Malakaus nodded his head as Sharee said her part, however there was some points that he wanted to clarify. "While I will defer to your expertise when it comes to alchemical formulas, like you mentioned with the ebony, I'm working on the premises that I don't have an infinite budget. I thought the Fire Salt and Charcoal powder was a break through because Charcoal is dirt cheap, and I have a steady source for Fire Salts. I don't know where we can get a steady supply of those other materials you've mentioned, and at best they would be saved for much higher quality ammunition rather than what I'd just give to the crew." He'd have to get notes from Three-Horns about the exact properties of the blasting powder he made, but the point was that making it was cheap and wouldn't require too much specialized knowledge to have say, Fletcher make it. Still, if Sharee can improve the blasting powder, than Malakaus would have reason to create better Boom Sticks to accompany the stronger mixture.

When Sharee mentioned trying to combine the Boom Stick with a blade, Malakaus cringed. "I suppose I could try to figure out a way to attach a dagger or a short sword to the end of the stick, but to make the entire Boom Stick into a.... Boom Sword... It's hard enough to teach a man how to handle a normal sword for self-defense, making the Boom Stick into a Boom Sword sounds rather cumbersome. I assure you captain, while I can't say we'll have access to ebony, I can make due with lesser materials. Of course I'll have to look over the design much more thoroughly in order to perfect it's full ability, but the point here isn't the melee, but the range. With these Boom Sticks, I can give to anyone in the crew regardless of their experience, and they will be able to kill from afar with it. We wouldn't need to board ships or teach everyone how to use bows and arrows. If I can figure out how to do this, I may even be able to create smaller versions that can be held in a single hand, allowing a fighter to use two of them, or one of my Boom Sticks with a sword. I'll just need access to the right materials and more research on the bullets themselves. Which I've hoped that you can help me with."

[EliteCommander]

"Hmm, well I'm sure I can figure out a way to mix the fire salts and charcoal better than what you have. Enough practice with alchemy, and one gains a certain...intuition for that sort of thing. Still, most of those other ingredients aren't too rare, we just don't have the coin for them at the moment. No matter what you end up doing with these ranged clubs, I plan on upgrading our ballistas to be a bit more...explosive. All of this is out of our reach until we can get a good score. A few days time, and hopefully we'll have that. Just make sure you and your men are ready." Sharee answered. She would have considered the conversation concluded, had a thought not crossed her mind. Malakaus' "Typhoon Warriors," as he called them, had been becoming a more effective unit...which presented a problem. By identifying themselves with their own name and overall identity, Malakaus had somewhat set them apart from the crew, and therefore Sharee. She was still their superior, but she needed to make sure they didn't start seeing him as more of an authority as her. She needed to form somewhat of a rapport with them to help ensure they stayed loyal, to give them orders every so often in a way that did not interfere with Malakaus' ability to lead them. They had all only known Malakaus for about a week, so it wasn't as if they had yet had time to form some close bond with him. She still had time.

"Oh, and by the way, I've been noticing your men, your 'Typhoon Warriors', have been doing some good work. I would like to speak to them, send them to me once we get back." Sharee ordered.

[Ryonara]

Not finding much else of use in the cave Noelle was about to leave. But before she did she remembered that Sarel wanted to talk to her about the garden project she wanted to put on the ship. While she was still curious how Sarel knew about it, now was a good chance to talk about it away from the captain and other prying ears. So She headed to where Sarel was and called out for him. "Sarel, if you don't mind me asking, what was it that you wanted to talk about with my garden project? I don't imagine that Sharee has... Approved of it after yesterday. But I'm guessing that you know something I don't."