Aberrant: Wild Card - Prologue: Ante Up

[Nadya Lunălescu]

It took Matt two very direct glances to catch Jadzia's attention. She threw her unfinished meal in the garbage then made her way to Matt and the others, her steps steady and careful with the unfamiliar motion of the ship. She clutched at the rail with a tight grip, her face paler than usual. Her impish grin had a slightly nauseous cast to it.

"So, haven't seen the NPC with the exclamation point over his head yet. Guess that should cue the cutscene... right... now..." The gamer-girl took a hand from the rail and snapped her fingers with a loud crack. After a long pause, she added in a disappointed tone, "Aww, how cool would that have been?"

[z005]

Alexa snorted in amusement. "Y'know, after everything else today, I was almost expecting it."

She shrugged and turned to look out over the water, "Hey, it's a way to spend the afternoon, if nothing else. Still. I don't know. I guess I was kinda hoping for something more....more....weird. Fireworks, y'know?"

[z-Matt McShae]

"Fireworks would be downright normal after my light show," Matty groused, reaching up to lift his flat cap enough to rake his hair back. As he resettled his hat, he gruffly added, "Look, I don't think that Deuce is on board, unless he's below decks. Are we willing to get into trouble over this? I think if you ladies can distract the captain and most of the crew, I could get down there for a look around."

Jadzia was a little surprised; Matty was normally a straight-and-narrow guy. This must really be bugging him, more than he was letting on to them.

[Helen Booth]

"I don't know if I'd say I was kinda hoping for anything.. other than to figure out what the hell is going on. And if that means being a distraction.. well then..."

She took a couple steps backwards, her voice carrying to normal conversation levels as if she had just been wrapping up a normal conversation with friends, instead of plotting to get below the ship's deck.

"...that's what I'll do."

Suddenly, and fairly convincingly, her foot managed to find it's way into a coiled tangle of rope. With a yell of surprise, Lizzie fell backwards, tucking up just enough to avoid actually hurting herself as she hit the deck flat on her back. With a low groan, she tried to shift her foot away from the rope so she could "sit up", and then hissed in pain.

"Ow! Son of a bitch, that hurts!"

Click to reveal..

Cha+Perform roll for faking the fall: 4d10 → [5,5,9,7] = 2 suxx

[z005]

Alexa put a hand on Liz's shoulder, stepping into the farce with ease. "Stay put, I'll go look see if they've got a first aid kit on board. Hopefully one with an ace bandage."

Having deftly given herself and anyone that wanted to tag along a reason to poke about the ship, she set off towards the stairs leading below decks.

[Nadya Lunălescu]

Jadzia shrugged away from the rail, one hand grasping at Alexa for support. "Hey, I'll go help you look. Maybe they'll have some tablets to deal with motion sickness, if I'm lucky."

Jadzia followed her room-mate with unfeigned hesitance, one hand on her shoulder, her steps slow and cautious.

[z-Matt McShae]

Matty watched them go, surprised by the ease with which the women had embraced the charade. At a loss for what to do, he knelt next to Lizzie and picked up the foot she was holding, gently straightening and elevating it. His fingers slipped up into the legs of her jeans, tenderly feeling at her sock-covered ankle. Where his fingers slipped over the cloth and touched her skin, they were work-roughened but warm.

"Let's keep that foot up," he said, his gray eyes meeting hers intently. "How bad does it hurt?"

[Helen Booth]

As Matt's calloused fingers ran over her skin, she could feel the heat rising up into her cheeks, and knew they were probably turning a fair shade of pink. She hoped he would chalk it up to embarrassment.. or superb acting abilities. But her brown-eyed gaze locked with his own grey-eyed one for several long, pregnant moments before she swallowed, and feigned a flinch as his fingers moved over the sensitive skin of her ankle.

"Not too - OW, okay.. maybe a bit..."

[z-Matt McShae]

Matt's eyes dropped first once he caught a clue and read the emotions in Lizzie's eyes. A flush crawled up his face too, bringing him as close to a scowl as he came as he said, "Well, I should stop that, then. Now we need to wait for the first aid kit to do anything."

He didn't meet her eyes as he pulled his hands out of her pants legs and smoothed her jeans over her legs again. He didn't let go of her leg, keeping it elevated and maintaining the charade.

[Forge]

Passengers and crew alike flocked, or at least moved, towards Lizzie and Matt. The First Mate quickly shoved aside sympathetic passengers as he moved to assess her injuries while Jadzia and Alexa sidled over to the chained-off hatch to below decks.

"Mr. Riley! App---" The Captain stopped short and stared off into the distance as his hand dropped from pointing at the two nosy girls.

As everyone's gaze turned and followed what had struck the grizzled seafarer dumb, many gasped in fear at what they saw.

A storm had appeared from nowhere, rolling quickly across the sky, faster than any had seen or thought possible. The light took on a sickly green tint and the nearly black clouds cackled with silent lightening, illuminating the dense interior with a nefarious foreshadow of its approaching intent.

One look and the crew bounced like they had been bitten by snakes, flying to ropes and rigging to bring down the sails even as the wind started to whip ferociously, causing the boom to strain against its tethers. The ship was already moving about as the Captain spun the wheel madly, causing the ship to list hard to starboard.

[Dex checks please, and only post what you could reasonably do in one action.]

[z005]

Alex stumbled as the boat tilted and nearly pitched herself down the stairs, only catching herself by falling on the deck and banging her arm against the frame of the stairwell leading down. "Ow! What the hell....?"

Click to reveal..

1d10=2, 1d10=4, 1d10=3

Fail, no botch.

[Nadya Lunălescu]

Despite her unfamiliarity with the movement of the ship and the loss of the supporting shoulder, Jadzia actually managed to retain her footing... barely.

Click to reveal..

Dex Check: 3d10.hits(7)= 1 success

Looking up, Jadzia saw the ominous stormfront, her face paling, even the green tinge fading. She bent over to help Alexa to her feet, then worked at the chain so they could open the hatch.

"I - I think we should go below deck, and for another reason, Alexa."

[Helen Booth]

Click to reveal..

Lizzie's Dex roll: 3d10 → [6,1,6] = 0 suxx/botch

Lizzie gasped at the sight of the storm front. Her mind tried to wrap itself logically around what she was looking at, but it had happened so fast that she couldn't help but feel panic welling in her chest. After a moment she started to scramble to her feet, but somehow the beautiful forensics student managed just the wrong moment. She was halfway through standing as the boat tilted sharply to the starboard side, and this time she fell backwards truly, slamming into the rigging and letting out a sharp cry of pain as she impacted with the hard surface of the boat.

[z-Matt McShae]

Matty stood up when he saw the approaching storm, but unlike the woman at his feet, he'd had personal experience keeping his balance on ornery wood. His arms went out to counter the swaying of the ship, and Matty was on his feet when the tacking was done.

Lizzie's cry caught his attention; he took two quick steps and grabbed her, rescuing her from the brutality of gravity. "We need to brace ourselves!" he shouted, starting to guide her toward the benches. If they could get their arms around those, they could probably ride out the storm, assuming the boat held together.

He spared the storm another glance, and wondered what the odds of the boat coming through this was. Personally, thought the answer was somewhere between 'not good' and 'nil'.

Click to reveal..

Matty's Dex Check:

10,7,8

Matty's Str+Brawl to Grab Lizzie: 3 sux

9,6,8,2,7

[Jerome Malach]

Jerome tried to brace himself like Matty suggested. He securely positioned himself in a corner, but with the combined strength of years behind a computer, he didn't have much of a chance. The next wave that came, threw him to the floor, where he slid like a loose piece of cargo.

Click to reveal..

Invisible castle roll

[Forge]

Alexa's arm tingled with what she knew was going to be an awesome bruise as Jadzia helped her up and they moved to head below, or at least that had been the plan until a crashing wave doused them in the frigid waters of the Puget Sound and sent them both funneling down the hatch, the ladder beating them like an old fashioned washboard.

Matt had just barely grabbed Lizzie and prevented her from rebounding off the rigging and heading into the water when a loose 'decorative' cannonball came rolling across the deck, slamming into the side of her left leg with a sharp crack. It caused immediate, instinctive cries of pain that were lost to the deafening thunder and sheets of rain that had enveloped the ship at that moment.

The skies went black with a blanket of Nature's fury and waves rocked the vessel with surging vengeance, it was all the students could do to keep from being lost to the tumultuous waters. The valiant crew vainly attempted to get life preservers on as many as they could as the Captain did what he could to keep the ship on any kind of course. But their efforts were to no avail as one by one, people were thrown or carried overboard.

Abner and Jerome were two of the first to meet those icy depths when crucial ropes snapped and sent the Boom swinging around, slamming into the young men's heads as they stood up.

Had the students been aware of anything but their surging heart rates, frozen bodies, and fragile mortality, they may have noticed that the ship seemed to be moving in a spiral of increasing speed. Or that the clouds above were spiraling as well, though in the opposite direction, a funnel forming.

Click to reveal..

I'll let you guys have another round of actions, cuz I iz cool like that. ;)Imagine the maelstrom scene from Pirates of the Caribbean and you'd have a pretty good idea of what it looks like.

[Nadya Lunălescu]

Jadzia writhed with aches and pains from the tumble down the ladder, sputtering and shivering as seemingly the entire Puget Sound followed her down the hatch. A second later, she groaned as Alexa landed on top of her, the breath rushing out of her.

I'm never going on a boat EVER again.

"Ugnh! Get up, Alexa, get off! You - <cough> - you okay?" Jadzia cried between bouts of coughing. The room-mates helped each other to their feet, struggling against the surging water. Jadzia's grip was tight, her eyes wide, as she tried to keep her balance against the movement of the boat.

Muttering a panicky stream of Polish, Jadzia looked down the passageway, before turning back to Alexa.

"Coorva! What the hell do we do on a boat in a storm?"

[z-Matt McShae]

Matty staggered to the benches, struggling to keep both Lizzie and himself on their feet. By himself, it would have been less difficult, but Lizzie was favoring her leg. Matty hoped it wasn't broken; she was going to need that to swim. He was pretty sure it was going to come to that.

At the benches, he pulled her down and wrapped her arms around them. "Hold on!" he shouted over the storm, keeping his arms around her until he was sure she had a good grip. "Gonna get the others!"

Turning, he missed Jerome flopping across the deck, his focus on the stairs into the hold. He didn't see Alexa or Jadzia, and he began to struggle that way, staggering from handhold to handhold. It was a little strange to think that just a short time ago, this had been the scene of a pleasant lunch. Now, it was a watery Hell.

Click to reveal..

Matty's Dex check: 2 sux

8,6,9

Perception+Awareness, assuming +1 difficulty for the storm:

6,3,10,6

[32767]

where am I? Wait a moment, WHERE IS UP? Jerome panicked, and started to swim "up". When he had a moment to think, he tried to force himself to wait. When he finally thought he knew where the "real" up was, he again madly tried to reach the surface, with his lungs feeling like they where on fire.

[Helen Booth]

Lizzie wrapped her arms firmly around the bench, clinging to it as tightly as she could while trying to ignore the pain radiating up through the rest of her body from her leg. She watched Matt making his way towards the stairs, and bit her lower lip slightly before calling out through the noise of the storm and the shouting of other passengers.

"Be careful!"

Click to reveal..

2d10 &#8594; [2,9] = 1 suxx

http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/2351605/

[z005]

Click to reveal..

1 success

Roll(3d10)+0:
3,9,1,+0
Total:13

NOTES
-------------------------
This field records your latest roll at its top.

Modified results that would produce a number less than one display as one.

I used the DnD roller because IC was down.

Alexa managed to catch her balance and pull herself up off of Jadzia. "Hang on and pray we make it through," was the rather rough reply. She hadn't seen the funnel yet and was hoping this was just some odd afternoon squall that had sprung up. "C'mon, let's see if we can make it up the stairs. I don't want to be trapped down here if the boat capsizes or something."

[Forge]

The thunder and raging maelstrom was so deafening that it was literally that...deafening. It brought an eerie silence to the otherwise hellish nightmare that they were enduring.

The ship was moving with increasing speed, as were the chilly waters. Signs that the storm was beginning to tear apart the ship were crystal clear as the mast snapped about half way up and was quickly swallowed into the swirling sea.

Had the enormous whirlpool not sent the ship around on a path that had the starboard side looking straight down into the gaping maw, the tall, metal-banded pole and its entourage of sails and rigging might have single-handedly taken out what few passengers that were left clinging tenaciously to the Lynx.

Even so, she was no match for this unnatural Force, and as gravity took hold, the ship gave one last groan of despair and started falling down into the maelstrom, giving everyone a moment of peaceful non-motion as it slowly tumbled towards the now exposed sea floor.

Jerome had managed to break the surface and take gasping breaths of oh-so-sweet air as he was carried along the wall of the storm. He had just blinked away what he could of the salty Sound and his vision was dancing with the stars of a concussion when ship fell over him in its acrobatic tumble. There was nothing he could do but pray as he watched it fall.

Just as it was about to hit, Jerome's heart seemed to stop in anticipation of the impact when the water spout seemed to come down almost instantly, 'catching' the vessel just before its moment of impact. It was held there, motionless for what seemed like an eternity, but was only fractions of a second before the ship exploded as the violent winds fragmented it. The survivors within and without's world going black instantly.

So ends the Prologue