Sounds Like Trouble

From Marcus:

"You're bluffing. I call."

Mendas grinned triumphantly and laid down his cards."Thor's Hammer!"

"By Odin!" "Aw man." "Sheesh, again?"

Mendas leaned forward and scooped up the untidy pile of tokens from the decking. "Here's a nice collection of chores I don't have to do. Looks like I'll be on overboard duty again," he smirked.

"Just deal them out again, I'm - " Rurik's growl was interrupted by the clanging of the shift bell. "Dammit!"

Mendas casually rose, stretched, and reached for the Wavestrider boots. "Have fun fishing, boys."

Rurik glared sourly at him, stood, and stomped off, making his way back toward the middle of the dragon boat, followed by the others. Mendas gathered up the cards and put them away, then climbed nimbly to the top of the carved dragon head behind him to ostentatiously pull on the boots. He stretched out along its nose, leaning back against its forehead with his hands behind his head, as the others wrestled the nets into the longboat. Finally they began to pull away and Mendas wiggled his fingers at them as they left, grumbling. The longboat shrank into the distance.

Actually, Mendas thought as he waited, overboard duty was deadly boring, and he'd really rather have been on the boat. Only that first kid had ever actually fallen overboard, and he'd been hauled back aboard before the boots could even be found. But the chance at pretending to leisure while the others struggled with the nets had just been too delicious to resist.

Time wore on. He really ought to go down to the healer’s tent and check with Eri kto see how Oddny was doing... she was still laid up from that last adventure, and while she was - wait, why was the longboat coming back already? And fast... too fast.

The boat slowed when it was still a long ways off... was that fighting on board? What was going on? The boat rocked violently, then settled and began shifting direction. A silvery magic missile shot into the air above the boat, and faded.

That settled it. Mendas grabbed the dragon's neck and slid down the front of the ship, activating the boots. He dropped lightly to the water and ran toward the longboat. What was going on?By Thor! They were pushing Edgar overboard! The warforged disappeared into the water, his safety lines cut. Mendas finally closed on the boat, then slowed as a faint, eerie melody reached his ears, compelling, demanding. Siren song! Mendas had heard the tales of this nautical menace while just a child. He struggled to fight it and managed to jerk up his feet, unbalancing and dumping himself in the water.

The shock of the cold brought him to his senses momentarily. He stuffed fingers in his ears and kicked, trying to swim away with just his feet. After a few minutes he gave up, pulled his fingers from his ears, and struggled to stand upright upon the waves. The song had lessened enough to lose its grip, and Mendas ran hastily back to the middle of the dragon ship. A crowd of people had noticed his actions and a couple of them helped pull him up.

"What's going on?" asked the man who'd been appointed watch captain. "Who's..." "Sirens!" said Mendas over his shoulder as he pushed his way through the curious crowd. The Earl's tent should have the most... he burst in, and the Earl and his chiefs glanced up from the maps at the interruption. "Mendas? What is it?" Mendas raced around the tent, snatching candles from their holders. Four should beenough. "Sirens, sir, they've got the longboat." Mendas sped from the tent, stuffing three of the candles into his pockets. Back outside, the watch captain was full of useless questions. "Did you see them? How many of them are there?" "I just heard them," Mendas replied, mashing a candle. The man's third useless question went unheard as Mendas stuffed wax into his ears, blotting all sound. "No time! Get a rescue party or something!" He vaulted back over the edge of the ship and raced across the water toward the now-distant longboat.

Panting, gasping, he drew near the boat at last. Only Bartix remained, standing shakily in the bow. As Mendas approached, he lowered his head and jumped overboard. "No!" cried Mendas. Too late, too late, he should have been faster... but the boat had been so faraway, and it had taken too long to swim away to begin with. Fifteen minutes... he stopped and stared down into the water he stood upon. Forms moved in the murk... the enchantment on the boots gave out abruptly and Mendas plunged into the icy water. He found himself face to face with a surprised-looking green woman-shape, like a maiden formed from seaweed, with a sinuous fish-tail. She gave him a puzzled look, then swam forward and kissed him before his could react. Suddenly the water vanished from around him, and he gasped in surprise. Wait... no, the water was still there, but he could breathe it now, and it felt cool, not cold. She swam down and away, unconcerned, and he paddled after as best he could.

The sea was shallow here, and only a few minutes later they reached the bottom. There were two other sirens there, both with their mouths open, presumably singing. Also there were two large mounds on the sea floor, formed of coral, riddled with holes - cages, Mendas realized. One had huge fish in it, moving slowly about. The other had his friends. Larders, thought Mendas with a shiver.

The siren in front of him swam to the cage door, incongruously made of heavy iron-bound wood, possibly salvaged from some shipwreck. She floated before the door and began pulling it open – now would be the perfect time to strike, thought Mendas... but he'd never catch the other two, not underwater. They moved with an impossible fluid grace and his paddling would never catch up. He would have to bide his time and pretend to be controlled.

The door opened and the siren moved inside and glanced back at him expectantly. He swam into the cage. Rurik and Hermiad were tied to the cage wall using some sort of seaweed rope, and Varin was in the process of fastening Bartix to the wall in the same way. All four had blank looks on their faces. Varin finished up and looked dully over at Mendas.

Mendas swam over to the cage wall, turned about, and held out his arms. Varin immediately began binding him with the seaweed rope. Mendas stared into his face as he did so, and caught a faint glimmer there - Varin recognized that Mendas hadn't been in the longboat. As the ropes went on, Mendas could tell Varin was fighting to include some looseness in the binding - good! Varin finished the binding and swam to the center of the chamber. Mendas could see the singing sirens move close to the cage and Rurik, Hermiad, and Bartix began struggling violently against their bonds. Mendas did also -carefully. After a few minutes, they stopped struggling. Only Hermiad had freed one arm, and he docilely held it back against the cage wall as Varin rebound it, more securely this time. Once the four of them were tied, the other two sirens entered the cage. One remained near the door, singing.

Varin then moved against the cage wall himself, and held out his arms. The two sirens in front bound him cruelly tight against the wall, then moved back as he struggled briefly like the others. All prisoners secured, thought Mendas. Go away now...

And they did. The siren in the back closed her mouth, and the three green forms left the cage, locking it securely, and vanished into the murk. Everyone's eyes immediately focused on Mendas,and they began asking questions. "I can't hear ya boys, I've got wax in my ears". He wrenched back and forth at the bindings and freed an arm."You might want to discuss strategy at this point - are we gonna ambush them when they come back, maybe?" He managed to pull a dagger and began cutting through his other bonds. "And yes, I've got enough wax for everybody."

Freed at last, he glanced up at the others. "Yes, yes, I know, I'm awesome." Their looks of admiration turned to irony. Mendas smirked - this would be good for weeks. Then his smirk faded. He hadn't been quick enough to rescue Edgar, after all.

The others were clearly discussing tactics as he cut them loose and handed each half a candle. Rurik repeatedly pointed to Mendas, then to the cage door, gesturing as if to hold it shut. "Right. I'll try to close and hold the door." Rurik shrugged, unsatisfied, but whatever specific nuance he was after, Mendas wasn't going to try and remove his wax just to hear. After a few more minutes of discussion -"Better snap it up, boys, we don't know when they'll be back" - the others stuffed the wax into their ears and resumed their positions against the wall, holding their bonds loosely. Mendas checked them over and made a few artful adjustments, then resumed his own place. They waited.

And waited. Ten slow minutes dragged by, and they began exchanging glances. Perhaps they should just leave? Then Hermiad's gaze snapped to the distance, and he resumed a blank stare. Everyone copied him as five forms swam up to the cage door and entered – the three sirens, and two larger, male tritons. These were more reptilian aspect, husky, bearing tridents and cruel grins. The larger of the two tritons swam slowly along the line of prisoners, largely ignoring Mendas, pinching some of the others as he passed, presumably to check for tenderness. One siren stayed well in the back, her mouth open.

The triton reached Rurik, and paused. These bonds were loose... it looked quizzically up at Rurik. Rurik's wicked smile was his only warning as the five Vikings burst into action.

Outside, something large and deadly moved slowly toward the cage. Faint shrieks, yells, and flashes of light testified to the chaos within. The presence loomed up to the cage door and halted. Wisps of green blood escaped from the cage to dissipate in the ocean water.

The cage door rattled, and was flung open. One lone siren, bleeding heavily, burst through it, and had just enough time to register surprise before being bisected. The cursing halfling following it looked up and grinned. "Nice of you to join us, Edgar."

After that, there wasn't much to do. A quick search of the area revealed a seaweed-covered chest, and the giant fish were easy pickings and would feed the clan well. The real problem was Edgar. Removing their wax, they tried to coordinate an attempt to tie ropes to him and drag him up, but the whole thing was an abyssal failure – Edgar was too heavy, and there just wasn't any way for them to get enough traction in the water, even leaving the chest behind.

"I've got it!" said Mendas. "First, we wrap him up with everything we've got. Second..."

A few minutes later, their heads broke the surface of the water. They immediately spotted two longboats, the one they'd left, and a second next to it. The clan's warrior maidens were spread across both of them, and let out a cheer. Hands reached out to pull the warriors from the water, and Mendas climbed aboard. "Mendas! Are you alright?" asked Oddny. Mendas smiled broadly up at her and began a flippant answer, but his bravado was spoiled by the stream of seawater that gushed from his mouth. Disconcerted, he turned back to the rail and spent the next minute getting air and water separated and back in their correct places. "Well," he gasped at last, "I was doing fine until I hit air again". "You guys had me worried there," said Oddny. She smiled, pale but obviously faring better. "I should have known you could handle yourselves." The smile shifted to a look of concern, as she counted the men. "Wait - where's Edgar?"

"Well, we had a little trouble lifting him off the seafloor," said Mendas, "but I expect he'll be along shortly..." Mendas pointed down into the water at a large, pale blob just becoming visible. It rose slowly and breached the ocean's surface with a spray of water,then settled, rocking slightly. A huge block of ice with a hollow space inside, containing one wooden chest, three dead giant fish, and one shivering, annoyed Warforged. "It's a good thing we had Bartix along."

That night there was a party aboard the dragon boat, and the clan cheered as the warriors told their story. The Earl ordered extra rations of ale, and everyone feasted on the day's catch. "Well done, halfling," said Rurik grudgingly. "I guess it's a lucky thing after all that you drew that Thor's Hammer and got overboard duty."

Mendas smirked. Luck had had nothing to do with it.