Heckno12

Fire Emblem: Sunken Flames

Troe Revinah

The stink boat rocked violently as one of the attacking boats exploded. Shouts of panic were heard as those that witnessed the ship's demise had no clue how this small group had managed to destroy an entire ship...or if the same thing was about to happen to the other ship. The assault on the stairs lessened considerably as some of the combatants retreated to the other ship to find a 'bomb' that didn't even exist. Naturally this chaos allowed the crew of the stink boat to push back up above deck without much opposition.

Once they were back up in the fresh air Troe took stock of the situation. The panicking enemies were hardly fighting back at this point save for a select few. A man with a spear attempted to stab Troe in the chaos only to miss before feeling the wind mage's hand on his chest. Before he could even react he found himself airborne as a blast of wind launched him across the water and into a gaping hole in burning boat. Troe sighed, he wasn't normally too fond of killing people...yet these people had attacked them without any such hang-ups.

A number of the pirates still onboard had already laid down their weapons, though there were still a few trying to take control of the situation. Fortunately the remaining boat of pirates was also in chaos as they tried to make sure their own vessel wasn't about to suddenly combust like its sister-ship. The archers and mages that lined the ship before were nowhere to be found, it seemed that this battle was all but won by the actions of that idiot Kavius.

Troe sighed as he approached Samara and the aforementioned fool. He cleared a few of the distracted enemies that surrounded the pair, the remainders scattering as they still had no clue what was going on. "Get him below deck and tended to, I believe Mikhail and the others have the situation under control from here."

Pokemon Spiral

???

"Excuse me!" A meek voice attempted to call out through the chaos to very little avail. Volume wasn't exactly something she excelled in, and it seemed that her quietness wouldn't allow her to tame this situation. "Liligant, use sweet scent!" She said as the pokemon in question emerged from the ball on her waist.

A pink haze descended onto the crowd to calm the unrest so the young trainer could make her way to the unconscious boy. "Team Noble again hm?" She muttered quietly. A gym leader acknowledging the group's presence could incite panic, so she was certain to keep it to a near whisper. After a light sigh she reached into a small pouch at her side and produced two berries, one was pink with a small green stem and the other looked more like a blue-topped acorn. She forced the two items into Rheese's mouth and used her hands to make him chew them. "Unlike with pokemon, the Chesto and Payapa berries are a bit slow-acting on humans. Your friend should be fine, at least within an hour or so depending on his metabolism." The young girl said, sounding more like a wise old woman than the young teenager she appeared to be. "In the meantime, you are all welcome to bring this boy to my gym and explain what happened here while he recovers."

The young girl and her Liligant bowed to the group, the gym leader's pink hair and shrine maiden's attire lightly littered by the cherry blossom petals that surrounded her. "I am Saki Matsutsuki, and I welcome you to my humble town." She said respectfully before turning and walking towards what appeared to be the town's gym.

Fire Emblem: Sunken Flames

Santorini->Irinoth(ish)

The next leg of the journey was, thankfully for everyone sanity and stomachs, pretty much bereft of storms and rough seas. It wasn't devoid of omens on the other hand. A few days entirely without wind, a (thankfully short lived thanks to Aleria) lice outbreak, and a lack of signs of life in any direction. Even the fish that were usually quite plentiful out in this area were seemingly absent. The shortest part of this journey had been extended for several extra days past what they had initially expected.

Today, however, things seemed different. They had the tailwind suddenly, allowing them to continue the journey without any more delay, it was a little foggy, but the fish were suddenly rather abundant. It was almost as if they had simply passed some odd patch of water over the past few days and now that they were through it, things returned to normal.

At this pace they would be there before they hit nightfall, though at least a few of their number were a bit upset by the delays. There had already been several ships ahead of them, and with all of that wasted time the past few days it was honestly not too surprising to see a couple of ships sailing back towards Santorini...Until they were clearly on an intercept course with the Stinkboat.

In mere moments the calm that had filled the day thus far had changed to a panicked cry for battle stations as the much larger ships seemed to be preparing to engage their vessel. It seemed that whoever was in charge of these aggressors had either seen past the fishing ship ruse or simply didn't care in this moment.

It didn't take long for the ships in question to turn around and pull alongside the Stinkboat, the ladders heavily falling aboard. Of course, this was in part planned by those aboard as while they stood no chance in a true naval battle...perhaps they could overpower their attackers on foot.

For now, they all stayed below deck and waited for the pirates to board. Above deck would have likely been suicide as the other ships most certainly had their own mages and archers that could have easily picked them off. Whispers pervaded the space of the lower deck as everyone tried to figure out what they could do in this situation.

The less combat savvy sailors opted to stay below and prepare to set sail as quickly as possible if the combat team managed to repel the invaders. Now, as the rumbling of feet could be heard crossing the boarding ladders, the time for action approached.

Troe Revinah

Once everything had gone down, Troe had to be physically shaken to stop his notetaking. He had been writing nonstop recording the happenings of the past few days as he was convinced that they were connected somehow to what was happening. There was no way that deadspot in the ocean was something natural, he could feel it. He had been certain to not miss a detail, asking everybody aboard if they had noticed anything else strange...Even if most of their answers hadn't led to any breakthroughs and had been almost entirely comprised of what they did that morning or how their breakfast might have 'tasted off'.

Of course not all of them had been entirely useless, as per the norm Ashley's astute observations had added several pages to his notes, and the other mages weren't exactly meritless either. They could all agree that something had felt very wrong while they had sailed through the 'Deadspot' as it was being called by the others. If it wasn't relevant to their current investigation, it was at bare minimum worth looking into later.

Troe felt a bit guilty that he hadn't taken too much time to help Nitonka with her training like he had before they hit the 'Deadspot', but he had to record this immediately to prevent any information from being forgotten. Of course, he personally believed that she could benefit from some solo-study as she tried to find her personal magic affinity amongst the tomes he had bought for her.

Truthfully, his interviews with the others had probably been the most interaction he had had with any of them save for Nitonka and Ashley...And while he didn't regret that after speaking with some of them a bit, he did note that a few of them were worth further study.

Now, as Troe was informed of the current situation, he carefully closed the book he was writing in and safely stowed it. This wasn't good. The plan to just look like an inconspicuous fishing ship had clearly broken down, and it wasn't just one ship either. Their group wasn't entirely talentless, but they had literally zero intel on the 'pirates' now bearing down on them. Can't be helped. Troe thought to himself as he readied for combat. It would be a real shame for them all to die before even reaching Irinoth.

Fire Emblem: Sunken Flames

Troe Revinah

Troe hadn't even noticed Tonka and Aleria leaving, becoming slightly too engrossed in the textbook-like tome he was reading to even see the scene they had made. Ever since that point, it seemed that a few patrons had jokingly began buying him drinks that he subconsciously consumed as they were set where his coffee had been just minutes before. Since that point the joke had turned to fascination, and then a game had begun where each patron would buy Troe a shot and have it set in front of him to see how long it would take him to notice...but he simply didn't.

By the time Mikhail slapped his hand on the table there were at least twenty-three shot glasses neatly piled to Troe's side and everybody in the bar watched in amazement as Troe downed another shot of the bar's hardest whiskey without even flinching or taking his eye off of the book. He turned another page before looking up at Mikhail much to the crowd's dismay as they booed the spearman that had ruined their game. Troe's face held the lightest of blushes, yet his speech wasn't even slightly slurred.

"Oh, they're at the bar....Or they were. Just a few seconds ago...." Troe glanced at his book to see that he had already read a third of it. He had most certainly lost track of time. He looked at the pile of glasses that had accrued beside him and simply assumed that somebody had hosted some sort of drinking contest to his side some time ago.

As he stood he felt ever so slightly unsteady, which he simply chalked up to him sitting down for some time before he unknowingly let out a single hiccup. "Well, I suppose we should get to looking for them then."

The patrons didn't miss his hiccup though, and quite a few began passing coins around and muttering about Troe not being entirely immune to drinking. Some had seemingly bet on him being some sort of gimmick and that him downing each drink had to have been some sort of trick. The fact that he was showing at least some signs of inebriation, even if it was even less than a light buzz, had rubbed dirt on their theory.

Pokemon Spiral

Team Noble Grunts

"Hey that's cheating!" Alicia shouted in response to her and Ozzy's pokemon essentially getting jumped.

"I don't know what we expected them to do given the circumstance." Ozzy said, clearly frustrated about the situation himself. In one fell swoop not only had they been swarmed by these fledgling trainers' pokemon but the insistence on confusing Politoed as well as setting up defenses in turn had effectively thwarted whatever level advantage the pair had. These kids were lucky that neither of the two grunts had the stomach to make good on the threat they had made on Rheese's life before this had all broken out.

"We're gonna have to figure an exit strategy O-I mean Agent Osmium." Alicia said, now very much regretting her and Ozzy not bringing their actual teams. "Luckily, I...brought these!" She said quickly whipping out and applying full restores to both Torracat and Politoed without getting caught in the crossfire.

"Got it, Politoed hydro pump straight up. Actinium, have Torracat hit that with a flamethrower quickly!" Ozzy shouted, planting his boot on Rheese's back and shoving him directly between his and Alicia's pokemon and their attackers.

Once the two powerful attacks collided a giant cloud of steam exploded from the impact and completely obscured the already fleeing grunts that had also tossed a couple of smokebombs the others' way for good measure.

"YOU BRATS WAIT TIL THE COMMANDER HEARS ABOUT THIS!" Alicia shouted back menacingly. Realistically nothing would probably happen as a result, but reporting that the psychic girl was here might at least prompt some interest from their admin.

Rheese Laudat

Rheese was almost shaken from his stupor by a combination of Alexis's shrill shriek and the loud buzz from a yanma's sonicboom. It felt like the fog was clearing before something laid it back on thick...and then he was suddenly shoved forward from behind. The sensation of falling forward was immediately followed by a burning sting on his shoulder as the brunt of the steam caught him slightly before he hit the ground.

His pokeballs rolled in front of him, his eyes focusing for just a moment on the three spheres. Surely this burn wasn't from something that was gonna find itself in his fourth pokeball. The more lucid part of his mind made him smiled in slight amusement. My capturing methods...really are...the worst.

Rheese fell unconscious on the ground, not out of pain but just in an oddly relaxed slumber. It was almost like hitting the ground was the trigger for something to make him fall asleep.

Fire Emblem: Sunken Flames

Troe Revinah

(Back during the voyage)

"Listen, I know you're busy tutoring fighter girl, but do you happen to have any knowledge you can pass down to a much more advanced caster?"

Troe mulled it over for a moment before turning back towards Tonka who was working at her studies. "Honestly that's too vague a question, unlike Tonka I don't know what you do or don't know so anything I say could just end in a zero sum. You're best off studying on your own unless something comes up that my explanation might actually be effective." Troe said and waved the blonde tablehopper off.

(Current Day)

Troe stood impatiently on the boat as he waited for the books he had ordered to show up. When Tonka left and outright said she'd be looking for a barfight...he wasn't surprised but it just furthered her resemblance to women he knew from Irinoth. She spoke about her father before, perhaps he'd have to speak with him eventually about their lineage.

With a sigh, Troe walked off of the boat and walked towards where he assumed the bookstore was located...and not but a few paces away from the boat he found the list he had sent the dockworker with crumpled up and on the ground. The small pouch of coins he had sent said worker with was likely never going to be seen again. He shook his head and uncrumpled the parchment and continued his walk thinking about what other potential resources Tonka could use in her training.

Along his way a few of the locals attempted to harass the young man into coming with them to some restaurant or the occasional brothel only to be met with total silence as Troe gracefully weaved through the crowds without even batting an eye. One woman in particular attempted multiple times to put her hand on his shoulder to slow him down only to inexplicably miss each time. Unfortunately she was rather persistent and eventually resorted to attempting to tackle Troe only to land face first on the street with him none the wiser about her existence.

Eventually he found his way to the bookstore in question only to be greeted by shelves upon shelves of vacation reading material. Pamphlets, posters, and the occasional popular fiction story seemed to be all this place wanted to pedal. He had to rather desperately beg the attendant to show him to the back storage where the more useful books and tomes were held. Troe had hoped that these things being less marketable on the island would have made them cheaper but alas, the bookkeeper would only sell them packaged with a litany of brochures on the local hotspots. Troe ended up buying the materials he needed along with a few other books that he intended to study during the rest of the voyage and the return journey. As he walked out the door he turned and looked the bookkeeper in the eyes before holding the large stack of brochures in his free hand and casting wind to blow them all over the street. While he wasn't usually the petty type...Well, this experience had kind of warranted such a response.

Troe tucked his paper bag filled with books and scrolls under his arm and began his walk back towards the boat while dodging some of the same women and men he had avoided before. Just before reaching the boat however he caught sight of Tonka and Aleria at the tavern by the docks and considered walking in to make sure she wasn't about to involve the holy woman in a brawl. He stood there for a moment before entering the establishment and sitting down near the door. He figured he could take a moment to rest on dry land before hopping back aboard the boat. He cracked open one of the books he had picked up before and began to idly read it at the table.

Fire Emblem: Sunken Flames

Three Days Later

The boat creaked loudly as it came to a stop in the port of Santorini. The normal hordes of tourists departing and re-embarking on boats were replaced by adventurers and sailors resupplying and taking a bit to enjoy dry land before they began the last leg of the journey to Irinoth Island. As was custom in the kingdom of Molto, scantily clad island 'natives' tried as hard as they could to coax people into spending more time and money on the island. Naturally the occasional adventurer was dissuaded from the dangerous mission, abandoning their teams to enjoy a bit of a vacation instead. The pristine white sand of the beach and swaying palms were inviting of course, but it seemed doubtful that any of the adventurers aboard the smelly ship that a few of them had dubbed 'Stinkboat' would be taking an extended leave here.

The seas had been rough so far, as though they were rejecting the sheer number of vessels going in the same direction...It was likely that Troe's earlier statement about many of the adventurers not making it far had already come true. The boat had been tossed and turned and damn near capsized a few times throughout the voyage, but it held strong still. Perhaps the Stinkboat's crew was as hardened as they appeared, though it almost felt like fate had helped the vessel stay afloat in the storms that seemed to hit the ocean every night they had been at sea.

Troe Revinah

Troe looked over the bow of the fishing ship with a book and quill in hand. He had requested and paid for a few tomes to use to find what spells Tonka would resonate with. She didn't take to wind, though she could certainly read it. The current consensus was that something like Fire or Thunder would probably be more her speed. Whatever doubts Troe may have had about Tonka's magical aptitude had melted away after their first day of study. She seemed to greedily absorb every bit of information she could, exhausting the admittedly limited reading material he had brought along in hours much to Troe's amazement.

He had taken notes on her growth in such a short period. While she wasn't able to cast anything just yet, the fact that she had been able to grasp the concepts around magic with pretty much no prior education pointed to a real chance that this was the birth of a prodigy...It was almost baffling, though despite her interest in magic, Troe believed Tonka's objective wasn't simply the pursuit of knowledge for its own sake. He had already realized that his role in this situation wasn't that of a teacher, but a tutor...he didn't delude himself with any sense of authority over the woman that could casually crush his head with her bicep. Even so, he was rather happy to see such potential in one that he'd have normally written off as a brute.

Fire Emblem: Sunken Flames

Troe Revinah

&

Nitonka Zhtomir

Troe patted his sleeve down a bit after Tonka let go. “I assure you this isn’t a ‘say some shit and storm away talk.’ I suppose if you’ve also got questions this talk should be tit for tat.” Troe said, fairly interested in what this woman had to ask him. Even if she was from Irinoth she probably wouldn’t recognize him at this point. It had been years since he left, and knowing his father they likely said he was killed by a wild boar or something.

It didn’t matter, he needed to confirm something anyway so his own secret would be a fair enough exchange. “So, given your build and how you carry yourself I can’t help but assume you’re from Irinoth yourself. Six foot plus warrior women aren’t unheard of, and are honestly pretty celebrated...It would explain the battle damage too.” He said, inwardly slapping himself for making statements instead of asking questions. “Am I right?”

Nitonka was actually caught off guard by Troe's question, as this was the first time someone asked her about her heritage since leaving Airi. Not that she was ashamed or anything but she was unsure if letting people know she was essentially a Bandit Princess was a good idea or not. Though the mention of women similar to her build peaked her interest in Irinoth significantly, mentally cursing her old man for sending her the furthest possible island away from it. The mention of her arm made her hand go up to the stump "honestly I might start telling people that..." she showed a rare moment of vulnerability that not many got to witness, her hand going back to bracing her as she looked out onto the ocean. Snapping herself back to her usual self, she cleared her throat "unfortunately not, the story behind this is not as exciting as it would be if it had happened on a battlefield" her tone making it hard to detect if that had been a joke or her being serious. "I am the daughter of the Ex-Knight Captain of Molto, and my family use to be nobles on Santorini but that was a long time ago. You might have heard something that could shed light on what happened but I'm almost positive that they would have destroyed any record of the Zhtomir family. My turn now, why would you ask that? In my experience, asking a question like that could only make me assume it might not have been good if I said yes'' she was probing simply because it interested her when people took up wanting to talk to her. She wasn't exactly the easiest to walk up too, she assumed it took a bit of determination and confidence to sit across from her so to speak.

Troe was actually kind of confused by Tonka’s response. Santorini? Really? Somebody from the island of tourists produced a warrior of this natural caliber? He hadn’t seen a woman this built since his mother tried to set him up with a nearby noblewoman’s daughter...Or actually his mother was at least the same height now that he thought back. “I’m afraid I wouldn’t know anything about the goings on with nobles in Molto...I guess I did say this talk would be tit for tat, so I can’t brush over your question. It wouldn’t have been some terrible revelation if you were, at least from my perspective. Though I suppose depending on what part of Irinoth you would have said, it could have gone poorly for me.” Troe admitted, though not showing any fear. Part of him was avoiding spilling the beans as to why...though he forced himself onward slightly uncomfortable now that he had to reveal that information when his assumption was incorrect from the start. “I ask that you don’t bring this up with the others, but we do still have something in common in this situation. One could also call me a ‘former noble.’ I’m of one of the higher up families of Rjaskav, though I was exiled for not being able to wield a weapon properly.”

Nitonka was slightly more interested in this man, having a similar path it seemed was something she did not expect to find. It wasn't far fetched she supposed but Troe seemed like a pretty normal man. "It seems fate or whatever the fuck is up there has crossed our paths for the better then" unsheathing her axe from its holder, holding it between them "I happen to be pretty fucking okay at wielding a weapon, and I'm the best practice opponent you'll ever get. I however want to learn about magic from you, I saw what you did at the bar earlier. My father never needed magic, so he never learned, but my mother was supposedly a mage, so I assume I'm just as capable. Sound like a deal?" She didn't exactly expect him to agree with it, but she wouldn't give up at attempting to get him to teach her about magic. Her eyes staring into his with deep conviction, this was an opportunity to get stronger.

“Huh.” Troe responded, this was a bit of an unexpected development. “I guess that proves beyond any doubt that you’re not connected to Irinoth.” He said, dropping his own guard slightly. He thought for a second and hesitated, he had never really considered taking a student or anything...And a giant one armed barbarian woman wasn’t exactly what any mage would expect to try teaching the intricacies of magic. “Given what you’ve said…” He didn’t exactly know where to start as far as teaching went, so this was going to be a learning experience. “We’re going to be stuck on this boat for a while, and I’d be a liar if I said I didn’t want to see how someone like yourself would develop, so…” He held out his hand, making certain it wasn’t on her stubbed side.

"Hah! You are full of surprises Troe, I'd say its Irinoth's loss they don't have you around" the girl couldn't contain her smile as she violently shook his hand. "Well now that we got this out of the way, we should probably go join the others before it looks suspicious. And don't worry about the whole keep it a secret thing, I've still got a few myself" giving him a thumbs up, before walking back to the deck of the ship where it seemed everyone was introducing themselves.

Catching Kavias he introduced himself and Sam, the angelic girl that approached her early seemed to have gotten approval to stay with the group, telling everyone her name was Aleria after. Ashley had spoken up for herself and Mikhail, Margot speaking after. While the girl wasn't Tonka's favorite so far, she acknowledged her statement in wanting to grow, if she was telling the truth. Speaking up next, Nitonka stood tall "Names Nitonka, but you all will call me Tonka, unless they want to swim for the rest of the trip. I'm tall as fuck, I'm good with an axe and I'm here to fight strong opponents, I dont think there's much else to say" she held her axe like a cane with the head touching the ground.

Troe followed her out and listened in, it clearly couldn't be helped. "I'm Troe." He said, initially intending for that to be the entirety of his explanation before sighing. "I'm a mage and a scholar, I intend to study whatever's going on and document the results."

Fire Emblem: Sunken Flames

Troe Revinah

Troe looked at Ashley boarding the ship in disbelief. This was actually happening, a fishing boat...that smelled horrific...and they would be travelling for several days without any relief from the stench. He sighed in defeat, at least it had been made clear that the mage with the 'sugar high' wasn't going to be calling the shots.

Maybe this ship wouldn't be too awful? It was unassuming enough that he wouldn't expect it to be pillaged for plunder despite the fact that quite a few of the people that would be traveling aboard were nobles. The only issue he could see was once they got to the island, the 'innocent fishing boat' jig would be up and this wasn't the combat vessel that some of the more affluent adventurers were likely taking.

As he passed by the shirtless swordsman and his archer pal, he overheard the loudmouth mention throwing up aboard the ship being a major worry...Truthfully it would probably go unnoticed given the almost visible aura of stench already wafting from the deck. He chose not to make a comment, but shook his head all the same.

As he stepped on the plank, one last thought crossed his mind. "Hey, big axe lady." He said, very briefly reverting to the terse way of speaking that was common on Irinoth. "We need to talk." He said before embarking onto the ship. He didn't intend to speak of his lineage or upbringing with the group, but it would be smart to get a few things straight with his potential fellow islander.

Fire Emblem: Sunken Flames

Troe Revinah

"No? I actually lost track of him after he stood up on the table and started proclaiming that he needed companions." Troe said with a shrug. "Truthfully he kind of just followed me into the bar after the bounty was announced."

While Troe didn't know where the Violet Eyed stranger had vanished to, he could at least guess that he was probably nearby. If he had a boat and really wanted to have others travel with him to Irinoth, it stood to reason that he would wait somewhere near the docks.

"Though without knowing much about him or the 'sailor and crew' he mentioned, I can't really offer a vote of confidence. The trip from here to Irinoth is treacherous, and with all of the other wealth-seekers going for this bounty as well...All I can say is that this won't be a voyage for the soft of heart." Troe said, knowing how dangerous the trip to Faroth-En had been. He was no sailor, but the men that had been hired to take him were some of the more experienced seafarers that Irinoth had to offer.

Troe looked at the multitude of ships of varying sizes departing with the same goal in mind. Even he could surmise that at least a few of them wouldn't even make it as far as Airi. Two hundred and fifty thousand gold was a fortune to many, and people had sunk ships for far less. Of course, they also had to contend with whatever had taken the island of Irinoth. To anyone that took a moment to think about it, the reason that the king had set up this quest was clear. All of these adventurers, from the bright eyed and green kids to the stalwart veterans, were expendable.