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Undertow the Line

A line of red coated dogs, cats and snakes with a black panther officer behind them forms a line along the docks as the Huntsman, a pirate cutter, comes into Port Freak. Dragoon Lord Captain Malcolm Xanadu glares of the pirate ship bearing the kraken flag of Captain Kodyax Zulluvuhn Maelstrom as it starts to approach the docks proper. Malcolm and Kodyax glare at each other the Captain standing on the poop deck, as is his custom and privilege as the Captain, with his two wives, both of whom are exotic beauties with the Southern Oracle Sirocco on one side of him and the ninja sorceress Yuriko on the other, all three of which Captain Xanadu despises on general principal as mixed breed pirates.

"Kodyax Zulluvuhn Maelstrom!" Captain Xanadu bellows belligerently as his men raises their musket menacingly, "By authority of my office I order you and your crew surrender yourselves..."

"On what charge?!" Sirocco demands to know; her voice of challenge conveying on the wind too clearly to be natural but the tone brooks no dissention from the militia commander as her gaze smolders with the heat of the very desert wind for which she is named as sunlight seems to shimmer around her like some sort of holy aura.

"Inciting a riot!" Malcolm yells back his own tone indicating he is not in a mindset to listen to anyone's council but his own and those by law he is forced to entertain and at least feign obeisance. "That one firework..."

"Was not mine!" Yuriko screams back as the gunwales of the Huntsman open and the twenty-five pound cannons protrude from their portholes which gives the watch something to think about. "Arrest Captain Hastur! It was him that shot that one off!"

"Captain Xanadu!" A voice thunders behind the panther originating from a male gorilla in the noble finery of a provincial governor like what was worn by the appointed governor of Jamaica during the colonial period in our own world. Sea Lord Malzone Nandela glares at Malcolm Xanadu which causes the panther to shrink back from his elected superior, "I want you and the dragons to STAND DOWN! I saw the Majestic Marauder from my office. That symbol in the sky was the same one he uses in his flag. As usual you're jumping to conclusions and taking whomever is convenient to satisfy your ego." Then he turns to Kodyax and says: "My apologies, Captain Maelstrom, I prepared a new bounty sheet . But I came to the docks to make sure the dragoons didn't do something stupid."

"Sea Lord Mayor," Malcolm says as he clears his throat, "I beg to differ, Captain Maelstrom's ship was just offshore when..."

"You and everyone else were busy watching the fireworks," Sea Lord Nandela growls, "I got an alert on the mystic screens in my office that my predecessor put in due to his own paranoia."

"Yes, sir," Malcolm Xanadu growls with much contempt as the Huntmaster docks and then returns as if expected and he is just complying to hinder his superior who is keeping him from doing what he wants to do, "Your orders?

"Patrol the docks for actual troublemakres," Sea Lord Nandela growls back with equal annoyance that this subordinate would even dare to question his orders, "Like your 'cousin' Mister Tuesday and his crew. I hear promises to catch them, but you've yet to make good on such vows." Then he turns to Kodyax, "Captain Maelstrom, I should like a word with you at my tower. I came to the docks to prevent any unpleasantness if you know what I mean?"

"I think I do at that," Captain Maelstrom says with a knowing smirk as he and the Sea Lord Mayor exchange a conspiratorial look between themselves, "What time would you like to see me?"

"Second moon rise if it is not too inconvenient, "The Sea Lord Mayor requests in a humble tone although from experience the pirate lord knows this is no true request but a subtle command for one such as he as he gives further clarification: "I have pressing business with the guilds I simply must attend to in the interim."

"Of course," Kodyax says amicably to acquiesce to the request as given with a nod and a short bow that does not look forced but is a little more stiff than is proper. "My wives and I shall be at your disposal at second moon rise."

"Excellent," Sea Lord Mayor Nandela says with a dark smirk before turning to traverse the boardwalk back into the main of the city. "I shall see you then."

"Just say the word, Cap'n," a gruff voice calls from down in the hold where all on the top decks know the cannons are stationed and even now are just waiting to be fired.

"Unnecessary, Mister Blackstar," Kodyax calls back with a smug look of supreme confidence on his muzzle that his chief gunner, Brom Blackstar is fully meaning to blow the dragoons to smithereens on just a word from him, so complete is the wolverine's loyalty and this is something that grants him much comfort as he addresses his subordinate. "But do keep a sharp eye out, the Dragoon Lord Captain Xanadu just got his ears pinned by the Sea Lord Mayor Nandela."

"I don't like this," Yuriko growls to her husband as she watches the Sea Lord Mayor walk away in a manner that suggests to her that he's up to something sinister, "The ape is up to something; I can smell it and it stinks."

"Landlubbers are always up to something," Kodyax agrees with a dark and dangerous smirk of his own as he gives his wife a chaste kiss on the forehead, "He's no man o' the sea. Never has been; never will be; and if he ever did leave the Cranium he'd be so sea sick it'd almost kill 'im. But he has a proposition for us. One we might even entertain should the provisions be properly weighted."

"Beware the schemes of bankers, beloved, " Sirocco warns in a hushed tone, her voice a whisper on the wind. "My father is constantly beset by the plottings of the merchant princes under him. And that is a would be merchant prince if I ever saw one."

"All too well, love," Kodyax says with a dangerous smirk as he fondles Sirocco's rack, an action that grants him a lustful smile of approval from his cheetah-fennec hybrid wife, "You are my bride for a reason after all."

" Well, that little arrangement has been a mistake I've come to appreciate, beloved," Sirocco retorts with a dangerous smile of her own as she adjusts her posture to both make it easier for her husband to fondle her breasts and to get the most out of him doing so. "At least now I get to see the world beyond my island home. May my father never get wise to the bad bargain he made with you."

"You think I got the better of that deal?" Kodyax teases as he continues to fondle her although her expression is starting to sour, "He got rid of a rebellious daughter. You kept trying to stretch you wings, Wendy, your father was just curious as to how far you'd fly."

"Orders, Cap'n?" Brom asks as he climbs out of the gun deck below unto the main deck with Sirocco glaring at her husband for his remarks which doesn't exactly sit well with her at the moment and Yuriko is giggling with a dark smirk upon her muzzle, "The Dragoon Lord Captain is a minor concern. He likes his job too much to be much of anything."

"Does Tuesday still have a vendetta against us?" Yuriko asks and the wolverine gives her a look of inquiry and askance as she explains herself: "I wouldn't put it past Xanadu to let Tuesday know we're here as a way of satisfying his bruised ego."

"Oh, yeah!" Brom concedes with an exasperated sigh but quickly regains his usual smirk of confidence in his own abilities and the leadership of Captain Maelstrom, "Xanadu is that petty alright. But even then I know what to look for anything in particular ye want done with visitors should we get some?"

"Leave no permanent marks," Kodyax orders as his wives give the wolverine an evil smile as they are in full agreement with their husband. "I'm likely to get challenged anyway but try not to give him too much ammo to use against me."

"Aye, aye, Cap'n!" Brom barks back with a salute; a dark smirk and an evil gleam in his eye as he contemplates how much fun to have and how to implement it.

"Yuri," Kodyax orders of his second wife who is checking her pouches circumstantially but he attention becomes fully on her husband when he calls her name, "See if you if you can dig up any dirt on your way to meet with your clan. I want as much ammo as possible."

"Yes, my lord husband," Yuriko says with a guilty smirk as she makes sure her pouches are water tight before diving into the drink with the others on deck wondering just what did she stash in her satchel.

"She snookered something," Blackstar states with a scowl. "Ye want an accounting done of the hold? I can figure out what's missing right quick."

"Aye," Kodyax says as he starts down the gangplank with Sirocco in tow, "But only to find out what she took. Credit to her shares when you do."

Brom grins fiendishly as the captain goes a shore with Sirocco following behind him as is her wont as she is prone to doing things rather randomly. A mouse who looks like a bored merchant on the surface takes note of their passing and tosses a brightly colored streamer with rune like markings on it to an obese tabby ambling by his fireworks stall. The cat grabs the streamer and keeps walking and whistling a tune as he rolls up the streamer.

The rolled up streamer gets dropped into the tipping bowl of a turtle playing a recorder with a snake dancer provocatively provides entertainment for the crowd and her moves entice all who care to watch. The dancer takes the streamer and uses it in her dance. There in the audience is a cougar who looks at the message on the streamer and strokes his chin as if he is deep in thought and then walks off after flicking a gold coin into the bowl.

"Hello, Mister Tuesday," a young lady calico says in a friendly tone of voice as the cougar walks into waiting room that she is situated in, "Busy day today?"

"Somewhat," Mister Tuesday admits slyly as he wears a conspiratorial smirk on his muzzle, "Is Doctor Black in?"

"Peter is on an errand," She responds with all honesty as she gives Mister Tuesday a respectful nod while she goes through her own set of instructions for this sort of line of inquiry, "John is in the lab."

"And Paul?" Mister Tuesday asks pointedly as if this was the person in particular that he was interested in speaking with.

"I was sharpening my claws," A black furred cat states as he emerges from a recessed nook in which he was just lounging but a moment before, "But if you need me..."

"The Huntmaster's docked," Mister Tuesday says as a matter of fact as if this was both of much and little consequence, "Nobody withholds from me and my organization."

"I'll send a rat pack after him then, him personally and his ship," Doctor Paul Black states as if this was something he does everyday as a matter of course, "The Worm is available."

"Shadow Worm and his crew of apprentices would be quite perfect actually," Mister Tuesday says in a slightly startled tone, as if the rat mentioned was of a higher caliber of thug than he anticipated being at his disposal at the moment. "Make it so."

In the market place a scarred black rat and ten dark clad lesser rats watch the goings on around them with great interest. The leader smells worse than a sewer in the summer heat but his subordinates, apprentices all in the stock and trade of a syndicate thug, try not to notice. As they move about the bazaar, they disappear at random intervals of time from the stalls with all the skills of a master thief.

Doctor Paul Black, dressed as a well to do physician as is his privilege and cover as a high ranking member of Mister Tuesday's Guild of Shadows, walks into the marketplace and traces a circle on his money pouch and then stabs the middle of the circle with the same finger. The smelly black rat master thug nods to the cat as one of his minion students picks the man's pocket. A turquoise kraken finds its way to the Shadow Worm's palm and he knows what is meant as Doctor Black traces a finger across his abdomen before moving through and out of the marketplace and the master killer thief smiles fiendishly.

Moments later Kodyax and Sirocco enter the bazaar which causes the Worm to glower in their general direction as he draws a rapier from a hidden sheath with all the subtlety of a professional murderer preparing his favorite weapon to notch another kill. Shadow Worm slinks up behind Kodyax as he looks at some sparkling cloth bolts while a turbaned goat greets the pirate warmly. The merchant winks to Shadow Worm as he engages Kodyax in conversation to distract him.

"A thousand greetings, great warrior," Abdul Al-Qaeda says to Kodyax Maelstrom, "What can I interest your grand presence with today"

"Careful, beloved," Sirocco warns as she spies the Shadow Worm's approach and does her best to alert her husband in such a way that the assassin and the decoy are not aware that she had noticed the other's approach, "The sand bulges. I think a worm has turned its attention to us."

"He's made a move," Kodyax quips as Abdul looks at them quizzically, confused as to what he means as Kodyax is primarily talking to his southern bride, "Find me some cloth armor, going fishing." Then he draws his cutlasses and turns around to face the Shadow Worm, "I see you, Shadow Worm! I'll send your head to your master to send a message."

"Big talk, little man!" Shadow Worm challenges as he thrusts with his rapier, "Or shall I say a dead man?" The other ten come to the side of their master, "You're outnumbered and outclassed."

"Outnumbered?" Kodyax challenges with a dark smirk as he decapitates a rat that leaps to attack him ahead of his brother rats. "Perhaps that may be the case at present but outclassed? Not even by you, Worm, especially not by you."

"Infidel!" Shadow Worm thunders as Abdul Al-Qaeda brings a crossbow only to feel to feel a scimitar at his throat; a blade held by the dangerous beauty that is Sirocco Maelstrom, Oracle of the Winds and first wife of Captain Kodyax Zulluvuhn Maelstrom, master of the Huntmaster and a scourge upon the seas.

"Let them fight fair, boy," Sirocco coos dangerously as Abdul smiles like a child that got his hand caught in the cookie jar as he nervously but carefully puts the crossbow down. "Good man, I'll tell my father of your cooperation..."

"Princess Sirocco?" Abdul asks incredulously both out of disbelief and of sheer terror of the tyrannical sultan that is her father but the he ultimately recognizes her for who she is and tries to act as contrite and humble as he can manage, "A thousand pardons, exalted one, I failed to recognize your highness."

"Obviously," Sirocco states as her husband guts two of Shadow Worm's apprentices like fish and Abdul gets a new appreciation for the sheer prowess of one of the more recognizable pirate captains that frequent Freakport. "Sultan Yassir Hussein married me to Captain Maelstrom in exchange for his support. You will respect him accordingly."

"Yes, Princess," Abdul says as he bows his head.

"Hurricane Slash!" Kodyax yells as he spins and disembowels a full five rats that try to stab him as one to impress their instructor and mentor.

"We are undone!" One of the two remaining apprentices yells as he turns to the other.

"We must flee!" The other apprentice yells in agreement.

"Cowards!" Shadow Worm thunders at his underlings in disgust as he raises his rapier tip above his head and motions to Kodyax, "Stand your ground! We can take him!"

"I doubt it," Kodyax huffs dismissively as he holds his blades up aggressively and glares at Shadow Worm with a look that just flat out dares him to come after the piratical sea ranger. "Tell your master, Captain Maelstrom will see him soon."

"You'll pay for your insolence, pirate!" Shadow Worm vows with a thunderous voice as he thrusts at Kodyax with his rapier who blocks his blade effortlessly.

"You may be a master thief and assassin, Shadow Worm," Kodyax challenges mockingly as he bashes the brow of the rat with the basket hilt of his cutlass, "But you are no duelist of any caliber much less of the skill to be able to kill me. I deny you the shadows that fuel your power and force you to fight on MY terms out here in the open where I can see and destroy you!"

"My wrist!" Shadow Worm screams as Kodyax brings his cutlass down hard on his rapier and almost snaps a bone in his hand whilst doing so. "You fight unfair!"

"I'm a PIRATE!!" Kodyax thunders as he cuts off the Worm's sword hand with nary an effort on his part; just a simple clean swipe of the cutlass, "A master of the Shark School; you are CHUM!"

"Mercy!" Shadow Worm howls in a whining tone as he loses his head to a maneuver that has Captain Maelstrom using his blades like a pair of scissors to cut off the assassin's noggin.

"You're kind doesn't deserve it," Kodyax growls dismissively as he kicks the Worm's head into the arms of one of his fleeing apprentices.

The rat freaks as his master's head in his hands and runs even faster away from the pirate who defeated his teacher so quickly and soundly. He presents his master's head to Mister Tuesday who smashes it against the wall with a mighty throw in utter frustration as the brains splatter in an almost pleasant pattern as he a dark smile creeps up on the cougar's muzzle. The otters he sent to raid the Huntmaster have yet to report in that night as he is scheduled to attend a dinner ball at the observation tower and administration fortress of the Sea Lord Mayor and for appearances sake he cannot afford to be late.

Yuriko sneaks into a fortified villa in the style of an oriental castle circa medieval Japan with all the skills of a ninja she possesses. A tora inu is eating a light meal when Yuriko kneels before him. The old dog smiles and nods warmly at Yuriko.

"Long past are the days when you were my simple servant, Yuriko," The sensei says with a knowing smirk as he addresses her like a teacher giving an oral exam to a favored student, "What have you learned?"

"The male assigned me to is a noble scoundrel, Sensei," Yuriko states in an even tone as she nods to her superior and relates her feelings about her husband, "I find him honorable in his efforts to hunt down evil."

"You merely confirm what we suspected," Sensei says with a knowing smirk as if he was dispensing great wisdom, "But a new threat has surfaced. Pirates who should be haunting the Sargasso have somehow gained solid bodies to terrorize the living."

"I am already aware of this," Yuriko states with a smirk of her own to which her Sensei gives her an inquiring look that begs her to continue and explain herself, "He was the one who had killed them to start with. He has their destruction on his agenda both as a matter of principal and the fact that these pirates wish vengeance upon him and are apparently Hells bent on that vendetta. But something is rather wrong for the revenant pirates in that our cannons are especially devastating to them."

"Excellent!" Sensei beams with genuine appreciation as his smile, "Help him, Yuriko, destroying them is an honorable endeavor."

"I thought you might be appreciative," Yuriko says with a confident smirk on her muzzle as she takes a jade statuette of a squat, Buddha like figure with bat wings and an octopus like head that features glowing runes of dark power out of her satchel and presents it to her Sensei, "The idol you asked me to retrieve..."

"You found it?" Sensei asks incredulously as he looks over the idol and his expression gets seriously grim and he nods appropriate to have the fell artifact in his hands at the moment, "This is exactly what we have been looking for. I shall forward it home to be archived and secured away from the evil ones that would actually use it."

"I thought as much," Yuriko says with a grim nod as she was appraised of the gravity of the situation when she was asked to retrieve the idol in the first place, "We captured a prize that had that among its cargo and I made a mental note of it when I saw it."

"Make sure its absence goes unnoticed," Sensei advises.

Yuriko nods in agreement as Brom notes the theft of the statue and it fills him with dread as the idol was identified as something with fell power that they shouldn't actually fence but hold onto until they could find some place safe to stow it if not destroy it outright. He is almost ready to kill Yuriko when she sneaks back aboard and is moving to try and fix the records so that the statue's absence goes unnoticed. When he confronts her she gets defensive, especially when he informs her that he is reporting the theft to the Captain.

"I have shares on this boat don't I?" Yuriko growls at Brom.

"That thing was dangerous!" Brom thunders back, "Sirocco had nightmares about it."

'Would it help of I told you it's going to be sealed away so it can't be used?" Yuriko asks.

"It would," Brom admits, "I'm still telling the Cap'n though."

"Do you have to?" Yuriko asks with a seductive coo,.

"He asked me to do an inventory," Brom counters, "But he was going to have it come out of your shares anywho."

"I can live with that," Yuriko admits, "I'll just tell him where it's going."

In the Sea Lord Mayor's tower the first moon is high in the sky as the second moon has just started to pop up on the horizon. Inside the fore a full orchestra plays waltzes as furs in finery dance the night away mostly peacefully as all the guests wear domino masks but somehow Captain Maelstrom and Mister Tuesday recognize one another. At first they just glare at one another as Kodyax dances with Sirocco but Tuesday is dancing with some whore he chose for this dance.

Kody and Tuesday eventually bump tails and it's then and there they draw blades as everyone else runs for some sort of cover and relative safety. Sirocco joins Nandela at his table calmly as he stares at the scene in disbelief while the guards recognize both combatants and focus more on crowd control rather than any attempt on their part to restrict either predatory duelist. Tuesday draws a rapier and main gauche as Kodyax draws twin cutlasses.

"You've been holding out from me long enough!" Tuesday growls as he makes a lunge that Kodyax easily parries with a smug smirk that only further goads him. "I'll take in blood what you owe in coin."

"I owe a gangster landlubber like you nothing," Maelstrom counter growls as he makes a swing that his opponent counters with his main gauche. "Formal training I see, isn't this amusing: a fop who fancies himself a crime lord."

"You insult me with your supposition, pirate," Tuesday retorts with a sinister sneer as he continues to probe the pirate's defenses, "The Shark School is a poor substitute for the proper training of a duelist."

"It serves me well enough," Kodyax says flippantly as he uses his sabers to attack Tuesday's blades specifically as a way of testing their tensile strength which he thinks might help him if the fights drags on and he can possible tire his opponent out, "It's better than playing at being someone with skill using an ornate fire poker as his weapon."

"POKER!" Tuesday thunders indignantly and then the pirouette around each other after which he discovers a bleeding gash in his side, "Razor Fin Pass, I am somewhat impressed. First blood is yours, pirate, but I will finish this."

"They seem rather jovial for two men determined to kill one another," Nandela observes and then inquires: "May I safely assume Captain Maelstrom is well versed in the Shark School of fencing, my dear lady?"

"Beloved is a master of the Shark School, Sea Lord," Sirocco coos back as she looks approvingly at her husband. "Just as I am a student of the Scorpion School." Tuesday stabs Kodyax in the kidney with his main gauche. "Shadow Sting! It would seem Mister Tuesday is a Yellow Jacket."

"Yellow Jacket?" Nandela asks as Tuesday recoils from Maelstrom with blood dripping from his left wrist, "That doesn't look good."

"That's the mark of a master shark," Sirocco says with a dangerous smirk as she recognizes what has just transpired, "He's trying to set up a shark bite instead of just going for it. Tuesday just got nibbled."

"Fight with honor!" Tuesday admonishes as he stings from the slash his wrist after he got a dirty trick of his own in on his opponent.

"You have none!" Kodyax counters with a dark smirk of such smugness he is practically daring Tuesday to kill him with the promise that his skill is not enough to let him just that.

"How dare you!" Tuesday growls as he lunges wildly and frequently as his main gauche easily parries a slash if weakly. "So predictable, "Then Kodyax's other sabre slices off the blocking hand at the wrist which elicits a startled response: "Sink me! I've been nibbled!"

"I am no mere student of the Shark School, Tuesday," Kodyax states with a sinister smirk on his muzzle as he knows he has the gangster beat. "I am a master!"

"The Shark School has no masters!" Tuesday protests feebly as he is doing his best to stay alive. "It is not a proper fencing school."

"Believe as you wish," Kodyax says mockingly, "It's your funeral after all."

"I still have my rapier," Tuesday challenges as he deftly parries one slash only to be made victim of a gashing attempt to his right leg forcing him to genuflect, "Death by degrees? I didn't know the Shark School was so sophisticated." Then a slash to the back of his left leg that forces him to kneel, "Now you're just showing off."

"Indubitably," Kodyax concedes as he slices off Tuesday's sword arm at the elbow, "Your humiliation must be complete after all. Your death shall be an example for your successor. Do what you wish with the merchants in town but concede that we pirates are your betters, thief!" With that he makes a scissoring motion that severs Tuesday's head from his neck.

"Burn the body; pike the head," Nandela orders as a gong sounds indicating dinner is ready, "Well, after that bit of excitement. I suppose we are in need of a good repast. " A snicker of approval reverberates through out the chamber. "Shall we proceed to the feasting?" Then in Kody's ear as he sheathes his blades: "Good show, Captain, I thank you have the skill I need for the task I wish to propose to you."

Dinner at the Sea Lord's tower is a relatively quiet affair as few in attendance are arrogant or foolish enough to try the Captain's temper unnecessarily. Sirocco is in full regalia as a Southern princess in Egyptian styled fiery while Kodyax is of course a pirate captain and is attired as one would expect of such dark grandeur. A wide variety of fruits and meats are served as those in attendance are both general types of species, carnivore and herbivore, but native tropical delights dominate the dishes presented for consumption.

Tuesday's head opens its eyes as it gets slammed onto a display spike on the perimeter wall of the Sea Lord's tower as a black goat with a white face in a tuxedo complete with top hat walks by. The disembodied head looks around frantically as if expecting this to be some kind of sick joke or a bad dream but only the goat is laughing. He bows to the head mockingly and doffs his chapeau.

"Well, hello there!" The goat beams with a mocking tone as one nobleman would great another as the dark mirth on his muzzle is all too plain to see, "Please allow me to introduce myself, I am Baron Samedi and I'll bet you're wondering what the Hell is going on?"

"Where am I?" Tuesday's head demands to know, "What do you want of me?"

"Truthfully," Baron Samedi teases, "I want nothing from you, but I am rather obliged to inform you of your fate. Do you remember a gypsy fortune teller you had murdered a ways back? Her and her caravan as a means of sending a message to the gypsies to pay you to be able to operate in Port Freak."

"Vaguely," Tuesday's head answers as he doesn't really remember, he's had so many people put to death it's really rather hard to keep track of them all. "Did she curse me?"

"Indubitably," Baron Samedi returns as if all this were commonplace but still highly amusing to him. "But it would seem the old possum was not without a sense of humor. She foresaw this little scuttle with the good pirate and cursed you to bear silent witness to all that goes on in the city that you cannot now control like you made her watch as her family was butchered by your enforcers. You will have a bird's eye view of every crime, no matter how big or small, that would have paid you something in coin were you alive to collect it and yet, what is due you and your syndicate shall never be turned over and thus the frustration shall be your punishment as the greed you showed in life shall only be magnified in death but like a beggar who thinks every coin of every passer-by should go in his bowl but it never does you shall be consumed by your own jealousy."

"Unless?" Tuesday inquires darkly, his mind quickly coming around to grasp the situation, "I know how these things work. She has to include an escape clause in all of this."

"Ah, there's the rub isn't it?" Baron Samedi asks teasingly. "No matter how righteous the cause there has to be a way for the victim to wiggle out of it." Tuesday gives Samedi an expectant look as best he can given his current situation. "I'll tell you late."

"You can't do this!" Tuesday yells as Baron Samedi simply starts to walk away. "I deserve..."

"You deserve nothing!" Baron Samedi snarls back and then laughs. "I'll tell you; in good time. But for now; enjoy the view."

In closed quarters Malzone Nandela shows Kodyax Maelstrom of the region with depth numbers listed on it, but most interesting to the pirate is a chain of islands unknown to him. The language it is written in also foreign to him and he has seen many. Sirocco partially recognizes it but it is a variation she is unfamiliar with but the cuneiform itself disturbs her as the speech is commonly used by cultist of darker deities she refuses to name.

Nandela's offer is simple: travel to the islands and report on what is there. Sirocco runs her hand over the region and her eyes roll back into her head as she goes into a trance. Kodyax narrows his gaze at his wife as while this is nothing new; nothing good has ever been revealed each and every instance it has occurred.

"Up from the depths great peril strains its bonds," Sirocco intones although the voice she uses is not quite recognizable as her own, at least not one she uses regularly, "Rising from the waters to darken the seas and threaten the souls of the living. Monsters of madness march forth to conquer all. Beware! Beware."

"Does this happen often?" Malzone asks with an alarmed tone of voice as Sirocco collapses into her husband's arms.

"No!" Kodyax answers with a tone of annoyance creeping into his voice. "And it never bodes well. Thank you for bringing this to my attention. I need to take care of this, whatever it is. The question now is what sort of time frame am I looking at."

"You can handle it?" Malzone Nandela asks in a fearfully hopeful tone of voice.

"I don't know," Kodyax answers honestly, "But I took an oath a long time ago to fight ancient evil; vows I still take very seriously. And this is something I swore I would fight until my last breath was spent. At least that is what I intend to do if this is as bad as I think it is and I won't lie or sugar coat it, I looks bad. World threatening bad; with Freakport being just a set of islands in its past and maybe the first set of casualties if I don't do something to stem the tide."

"Take the charts!" Malzone Nandela orders with a pleading tone of voice. "I beg you; just take them. I'm now sorry I ever laid eyes on them."

"Thank you," Kodyax says seriously as he takes the maps and his wife as he leaves the chambers.

"What happened?" Sirocco groans as she comes out of her trance as Kody is heading back to the Huntmaster. "And why are you carrying me?"

"You got a vision," Kodyax states as he activates a teleportation circle that mystically transports them back to the main deck of their ship. "After you ran your hand over the map."

"What did I predict?" Sirocco asks ruefully.

"Nothing good," Kodyax states simply.

"It never is," Sirocco agrees with him grimly. "What flavor of evil is it this time?"

"Like it ever changes!" Captain Maelstrom thunders.

"Cap'n!" Brom calls with Yuriko behind him. "We need to talk."

"Oh, what now?" Kodyax asks ruefully.

"It involves my share." Yuriko admits. "You grabbed an idol a ways back that is now on its way to being sealed away."

"Get it back," Kodyax growls in a tone that brooks no dissention, not even from his wife. "With what just happened, we might need that damn thing."

"What do you mean?" Yuriko asks once they get to their cabin.

"Malzone Nandela has maps that gave Sirocco a vision," Kodyax explains as he rolls out the maps and the islands that caused Sirocco to go into trance causes Yuriko to drop to her knees in fear.

"No! No! No!" Yuriko intones fearfully. "This can't be happening! Those charts are supposed to have been burned! They can't survive! They shouldn't be!"

"What do you know?" Kodyax demands to know himself.

"Those islands only come into being at certain times," Yuriko explains in hushed tones. "And when they rise; trouble follows."

"Oh, this just gets better!" Kodyax groans sarcastically. "What's next? A mutant kraken will take offense to the ship and the stained glass of our cabin?"

"Don't wish it!" Yuriko yells.

"I'm not!" Kodyax retorts. "Alright, we need to analyze this. But not now."

"I think I need to inspect the bilges," Brom states as he back out of the cabin, "I'll talk to you later, Cap'n!"

"You do that," Captain Maelstrom states as his wives start to undress him.