high_seas | To go with your crew...

Who: Everyone who is fighting in the battle to kill the witch.
Where: The Black Fortress in the East
When: Jan 24th-25th
What: The grand battle to get back what you have lost, get revenge for what was taken, and avert disaster.
Warnings: Language. Death. Victory. Defeat. True love. Miracles.
Style: Text or prose
Status: Open to all

The black fortress ripples with shimmering iridescent energy, the piles of black coral heaped on roped together barges around it, bobbing in the waves. On the largest barge stands a slender man with a copper belt, wearing a face mask, orange red hair flecked with black from ash or dust. As the dawn slowly folds over the ocean, he'll look up, as if hearing some hidden voice.

At the top of the fortress, a figure climbs into vision, a woman, dressed in gray, features obscured by a hood with impenetrable darkness behind it. She staggers a moment as if she is weary, then straightens to her full height. As she speaks, her voice comes out of the journals, echoing over the water, low but clear.

"This is no small task ye do. She that rots within'll do anythin' ta stop ye. Don't hesitate to kill what ye find. If they were human once, they hain't no more. Watch out for her golems, too, or they'll drain ye dry quicker'n a wink. But if ye can get rid of 'em, it'll weaken her." She hesitates, cants her head to the side. "And if ye lot aren't as much of a bunch'a idiots as usual, ye might come out alive through this."

That said, she raises her hands. After a moment so does the man on the barge. For a moment, nothing seems to happen and then iridescent light shimmers over the coral, seeming to match that which surrounds the fortress. It crackles and dances like a fire, and then without warning bursts into a furious life, slamming against the energy of the fortress. There is the sound like thunder and light snaps and crackles, zipping with energy. Then with a woosh the light flies upward, taking the figure with it. The man on the barge lets out a cry like a seagull and dives into the water as if intending to swim after her.

For the boats that remain, a part of the fortress will crumble away into the sea, revealing a small harbor and an open doorway. Enter all ye who dare.

[If things become too crowded, feel free to make another thread outside of these. Just put where you are in the header.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Haytham's response was far more than she had hoped and Elissa lowered her chin and her gaze as relief washed through her. He understood. He actually understood. She hesitated for only an instant before reaching out with one of her gloved hands to try to capture his own for a small, grateful squeeze. Wearily, her body swayed toward the man in that same moment and she hid her face against his coat for the next few heartbeats while trying to gather her strength for the travel to come.

"I do not suppose you have an extra sword?" she asked against his chest after clearing away the lump in her throat.

"I should have thought to bring one."

He allowed her to rest there, snuggled on his chest as she was, but only for a few moments. They really couldn't stand here in this cell for too long. It would be far too easy to become trapped inside it again should any of the guards manage to find their way back to the prison.

Haytham stepped back and drew his own sword, offering that to her as a temporary means of protecting herself.

That gallant gesture brought a flicker of Elissa's old smile to her face and she accepted the use of Haytham's sword with a gracious inclination of her head. Once the blade was in her possession, she tested its weight and balance in her leather-gloved grip and then rolled her shoulders and stretched her neck to loosen the tension in her muscles.

"The undead seem to fall most easily from penetrating head wounds," she advised while gesturing to the cell block's hallway with her borrowed sword. "Though you probably noticed that on your way inside."

"Actually no," Haytham moved from the cell and back through the hall. "I managed to avoid most of the fighting. There were only the two guards near the prison door that I was forced to deal with."

The bodies of which they had to step over while they made their escape. They laid just where they had fallen, closely side-by-side in from of the doorway, taken out from the rafters above when the Grand Master fell down upon them. A double assassination with his duel hidden blades.

"The majority of the guards were drawn into fighting those in the harbor. I took advantage of that to make my way here."

"And, for that, no one is happier than I," the Grey Warden admitted as she kept pace with him. An undignified rumble of hunger sounded from the young woman's stomach, but she ignored it as best she could. Food had been found and shared from the kitchens by a few, intrepid prisoners who had no need of weaponry, but the trips there were dangerous and infrequent thanks to the seemingly never-ending horde of undead that had roamed the outer hallways. As a Grey Warden, Elissa had an unnaturally hearty appetite for someone of her size, so the absence of sustenance had likely been harder on her than most - but that had not spurred her to take more than her fair share. In fact, she had often shared her portion with the few children who had rotated into and out of her cell.

Now, however, she was weak from lack of food and very glad that most of the fighting seemed to be happening outside.

"Is it far to the Mistress?" was asked in a hushed voice as they neared a bend in the black corridor. "This is the most I have seen of this place, so I must rely upon you to act as guide."

"The prison is in one of the deeper sections of the..."

A hand was swiftly raised, ushering for quiet. Just ahead, amplified by the narrowness of the hallway, was a shuffling sound. It could have been the noise made by feet. Enemy or ally? And would they turn to come this way?

Haytham moved closer to the wall near the corner hoping for a peek of what might be coming and setting himself in a good position to attack should they be hostile.

With little warning a body came flying into the corridor landing on the ground with a sickening thud. The mangled form made no further motion. Curiously it appeared like it had been dead for an extended period of time. After a few moments of silence, footsteps could be heard, and soon a familiar looking spikey hairdo would come into their line of vision.

"Elissa?!" Ban exclaimed. He'd heard that they'd be able to retrieve their crew members and that death meant little here but he'd been skeptical of the phenomenon all the same. Seeing her there among the living was a welcome sight but also a jarring one. Was it truly her? Or could this place toy with reality as much as his own world could? Conversely, maybe she'd never been actually killed before.

Ban looked to Haytham only briefly before immediately turning his attention away from the man. It was subtle at this point, but there was some tension between himself and Haytham Kenway.

The state of the woman's armor certainly testified to a deadly battle as it was crusted with dried blood and gore from her last moments aboard the Triton's Mistress. The leather appeared to be torn upon her arms, left shoulder, and upper chest instead of cleanly sliced - though the damage to the armor at her shoulder also had the clean cut of something sharp.

Still, the woman within that armor, though hungry, weak, and in dire need of a bath, was wholly, physically undamaged.

Elissa lowered the tip of the borrowed sword she was carrying and her face lit up when she realized it was her friend who followed the dead body. "Ban!" was her quiet exclamation as she moved to give him a quick and awkward hug. "I am so terribly sorry for what happened. Lenalee and I were... not ourselves. Have you seen her?"

To go with your crew...

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