Wave Wreck

The Storm Hawk made progress towards the wreck slowly. Michael was approaching cautiously, letting the wind carry them well beside the wreck before closing on it. If they did need to leave, the wind would be full in their sails. As they got closer, Hethir and the others on the poop deck were able to get a clear look at the destruction which had been wreaked. The ship had once had three masts, but it had been nearly been broken in half by something, and the mast itself was missing completely, only the broken deck and lines indicated where it had once stood.



"Merciful Lumis..."
Hethir hadn't noticed Trace coming up to the deck--he had been too focused on the waters around them--but to his surprise he was almost pleased to see the paladin.
"Indeed, though I imagine whatever caused this wreck was not particularly merciful... you may be called on to use those deific skills of yours if my fears turn out to be founded."
"Captain!"
The sailor still clinging to the crow's nest cried out from above, horror plain in his voice. A glance over the side showed Hethir just what had spooked him so. The water beneath the ship looked as though it were boiling, and Hethir had seen that happen before, it meant something very deep was surfacing very quickly. A moment later he could sense a mind, and though it was hazy, indistinct, he could almost taste the malice.
All hands! We are under attack!
The first strike was sudden and terrifying. The ship shook as though struck, and listed horribly to starboard. Hethir reached out with his mind and desperately pushed back against the weight of the ship. If it capsized now they would certainly all die. He barely noticed his hand losing its grip on the line he was clinging to, until the coarse rope tore loose from his beleaguered fingers. He felt himself tumble through the air for barely a second before an arm clasped around his chest, arresting his fall towards the water.
"Really 'father' I can't leave you alone for a second can I?"
Nezys?
Hethir threw the remnants of the power he had managed to keep focus on through his fall against the ship in one final burst, and breathed a sigh of relief as the Storm Hawk began to settle back into the water properly.
"What in the hells is that thing?!"
Garius had burst from below decks a bit worse for the wear just in time to see their assailant burst out of the water. Hethir was facing the wrong direction to see it, and Nezys hadn't let him drop back to the deck yet, but he could feel the warped and unnatural mind behind him easily enough. Nezys suddenly whirled and dropped Hethir roughly to the deck just as a massive tentacle snapped through the air like a whip and crashed into the sword's avatar. Nezys let out a weird screech and her avatar melted into so much ectoplasm, the blade that held her consciousness slinging away from him towards the water.
"No! Nezys!"
Hethir tried to snap his power towards the blade and arrest its flight, but a strange pressure on his mind pushed his thoughts into disarray.
"I've got her!" Mary suddenly called out, as the unmistakable flash of a teleport burst into the air above the deck. What looked like nothing so much as an animate glowing rope slid from her sleeve, catching the hilt of the weapon just before it splashed into the water below.
"Hethir! I can't do anything to this thing! It's blocking..." The last words of Val's mental cry were overcome by a strange buzzing sensation, and to his dismay He found his own mental powers fading away. He looked up just in time to see the same tentacle that had struck Nezys away slamming down towards him. He dove to the side and desperately tried funnelling power to the magic that still remained bound to his feet. To his great relief, the energies that accompanied his fused soul remained unaffected by whatever was troubling his mind. Air and magic swirled around his feet and lifted him up away from the deck just in time to dodge the next attack. Now he finally turned to see their adversary and involuntarily cringed. A monstrosity of eyes, tentacles and teeth filled his vision. Several protrusions that might have been heads turned this way and that, scanning the ship with the dozens of eyes scattered haphazardly over them. Tentacles--some large, some thin and whip-like--swarmed his ship. The entire crew was embattled, but it seemed that the creature was actively looking for something. As he flew up towards the rigging, he passed the gaze of one of the heads, and all three suddenly turned towards him. Mouths seemed to split open from nowhere as all three of the nightmarish things surged forward towards him. Several arrows suddenly sprouted amongst the clusters of eyes on one of the heads, but it barely seemed to slow it down.
The brilliant emerald wall that suddenly shot up in front of him was another matter entirely. The deadly maws slammed against the sudden barrier with all the effectiveness of a child attempting to batter down a brick wall. Hethir spared a glance behind him and saw Mary in what looked like the final steps of an elaborate dance. Magic swirled around her, thick in the air and an audible thrum began to fill the air. With a final turn, she struck her staff into the deck with a boom that was far too loud to be natural. The sound jarred everyone on board, but its effect on the attacking creature was nothing short of brutal. The one head that managed to find the edge of the wall of force was knocked back as though struck--if the implement doing the striking was a hammer wielded by a god--The head was launched back over the edge of the ship, every eye on it burst, and the flesh tore away in pulped masses.
Hethir looked back at Mary with shock obvious in his face. Until now, Mary had not really shown any particularly impressive power. She was clearly talented, but he had assumed that was all. As power spiraled back towards her and began to arc across her skin and shine in her eyes, Hethir knew he had nearly fatally underestimated the woman. She continued to move as she cast, her feet, arms, and body winding and whirling in a dance that seemed to grow ever more elaborate. It was mesmerizing, and it was only with difficulty that Hethir tore his gaze back towards the horror that was attacking them.
As a stroke of lightning tore the air with a deafening thunderclap, he dove towards a cluster of tentacles that had cornered several of his crew and were starting to seek holds on the mainmast. Touching the collar that ever pressed against his skin, he felt the prickles of pain start in his throat. He hadn't used the other side of his demon heritage in some time, not since his mental abilities had fully emerged, but they reappeared as they always did when he needed them. With a sound that was part shout, part hiss, he spat a sizzling, glowing green orb at one of the larger tentacles. The powerful acid immediately seared into the strange flesh. It did less than he was hoping for, but it did give his crewman an opportunity to get in a good chop with the heavy sword they all carried. The tentacle slithered back away from them, chopped nearly in half from the blow.
Gaining some more altitude, Hethir felt the buzzing in his mind recede and his mental powers surged back with a vengeance. A feral snarl split his face and he threw power out in a reckless blast at the creature. "My turn!" Violet streams of power surged towards the head that had been temporarily halted in its pursuit, and suddenly winked out mere feet away from it. "What!?"
"It's projecting a psycho-negation field!" Mary called out breathlessly, "Don't bother with that, you can't hurt it at all with those powers!" She was leaning heavily on her staff now, whatever power she had been summoning before clearly took a lot out of her. "It seems to be fixating on you, distract it while I try to get Trace into position!"
"Distract it... Right..."
Almost in response, its heads and many of its tentacles shot towards him, the blinded head careening wildly off the wall of force that still hovered in mid-air over the deck. The rest of the attacks however, were much better coordinated, and Hethir found himself desperately throwing himself one way and then another through the rigging trying to avoid them all
"No rush, but I think I have it sufficiently distracted now!"
Now I just need to not die... Hethir thought grimly as the barrage of attacks continued.