S: 15 Eye of the Beholder, It's the Thrill of the Fight!

Continuing the endless winter break, the Blazing Chariot is still stationary on the docks of the floating city. Sounds and vision gently muffled by the thick winter air mixing with the vast ocean waters, the frozen salty air is becoming distracting for the canine first mate whom refuses to leave the deck for warmer shelter. His double coat the only thing keeping him comfortable enough to once again double check crates lined up on the main deck. The faint sound of scribbling as his magical quill marks notes on the merchandise that has been here for days now, occasionally his eyes venture off to the clouded horizon. The quill moving freely as he does, "..12, swathes of burgundy....Orri.....150 yards of fine sewn burlap.." He looks away from the horizon to see his blunder, "Dammit" he thinks to himself, letting out a low growl. His unconscious worry became conscious as he wondered how the adventure was going. The first mate was no expert on otherworldly monsters, but the way Amarabi spoke of this beholder creature was more than just a little concerning, "Even with the others with her, she is bound to be brash...She will be worried about the others and think her magic immunity will do all the work." His worries growing slightly as Amarabi's words seeped back into his mind. "These aberrations are legendary and extremely dangerous. Their abilities involve all different kinds of horrible effects. Disintegration, sleep, poisons, any number of things from legend....inside out beams. Let alone the dangerous winter seas would be a challenge!" Amarabi's voice went back and forth in Artemis' imagination as his brain went from bad to worse. At the height of his worry the quill on his journey sprung up and scratched on the paper, "Hurry home..."
 
The rain resounds in a lovely calming sound as it hits the very top of the tight house glass. Inside this sunken tower sits a group of adventurers with an odd sense of anti climactic victory. Down below them a echo of a splash can be heard in a few quick successions. Foot steps vibrating on the inner chamber of the support pillar as Morrigan ran up the vertical wall and dove back down to the water dozens of feet below. "So she can just run up walls...." A beautiful and delicate elf scoffs into the tea she prepared for the group as they waited for their flag ship to return, "Of course she can." The rest of the group's eyes widen with a resigned look, they all seemed in thought at the unbelievable thing this simple martial artist accomplished.....and was now just having fun doing dives into a hundred foot tube down to the water below. Which the group suspected had hundreds of traps in it. "Is being magically severed even a curse?!" Calliope finally blurted out, she must have rolled it over in her mind for a little while. The crew looked over at her break in silence, "For you guys it would be pretty devastating I imagine." Anaxa declared to the magical group all surrounding a little fire with a kettle on it.
 
Around a corner the slap of wet foot steps reach them as the fiery haired Orri comes into view drying her hair with a small towel. She is wearing a custom swim suit she had hastily sewed just so she could play in the water. In her chakra of holding was a series of emergency cloth and fastenings, for just such an occasion, "Hey guys! You guys could have joined, I would have made every one a swimsuit." Her smile was warm and had little to no acknowledgment of the thing she had accomplished not two hours ago. She noticed their somewhat serious gazes upon her and stopped just before her dry clothes, "Umm what's up?" She said with genuine confusion. The group laid their palms against their foreheads, Edea and Anaxa stood up and in near perfect unison caringly berated the demi-human, "WHAT'S UP?! You took down a legendary evil monster almost by yourself and then went swimming like nothing happened!" Their voicing inches from harmonizing. Orri was taken aback at their outburst, "Anaxa if you were just an octave higher you would ha....." She seemed to see that may not be the most important part of this. Morrigan's mind was a lightning fast highway of crisscrossing roads and byways, they may usually end up at the wrong conclusion, or jumbled themselves as answers collided, but it was all fast none the less, "Ummm soo you mean....maybe they aren't that strong? I know Amarabi seemed really worried, but he isn't a warrior. AND the Admiral told me the weak spot on them, so it wasn't so bad....right?!" She looked over at the Admiral who waved her arms to shoo away the attention. "It was fun to ride it around the place..." Not sure what to say to make it better. Anaxa and Edea give each other a look, with the realization that Morrigan has no clue at all what she has accomplished, something very few people let alone armies, have done. Zephyria smiles into her tea remembering that Orri told the creature they needed it's organs. She stifles a laugh thinking that was what causes the monster to go into a paranoid panic and maybe make the mistakes it made, "Come Orri, I made some tea and have some snacks for you." She motioned for Morrigan to have a seat and dry off. Morrigan flashed next to her friend with starvation in her eyes, as a glob of drying beholder viscera drips down her high heeled boots a few feet away. The crew can do no more than shrug at the simple mind and needs of their dear friend and join them in the comfort of the make shift camp.
 
The baklava diminished quickly, mainly due to Orri swiping an extra one here and there as everyone blinked. A rumble comes from Anaxa's hip as her sender starts to glow. She activates the device and a series of woofs and barks can be heard, followed by Hephene's voice, "Yes, Yes she is fine....I have quite the tale to tell Hephene. Tell Artemis his companion is perfectly fine.." Anaxa said nonplused as she looked upon Orri trying to recount what happened to her when the crew lost sight of her in the support pillar.
"He squeezed us into the hole and kept yelling stuff. I just kept trying to get him to stop floating so we could get his organs, but he kept floating. And his eyes kept just looking at me, other than feeling sleepy a couple times I didn't know what was happening. You guys said his eyes do stuff right?" She continued her inglorious tale, and Anaxa just hoped Zephyria would make it sound more epic and thrilling in some fanciful play....rather than her friend jumping on it's head and kicking it for a few minutes. "Then I heard a crack and it went upside down and I got stuck hanging there. I sort of feel bad. Kind of like that time we attacked that squid guy while he was just taking a bath, but you guys said these monsters are really bad right?" The group centered themselves and nodded with acknowledgment, "Yes my friend they are, what we did was good, and we saved.." Zephyria began to explain as Edea jumped in with a riff from her kithera, "MY DRUMMER!"
 
With little help from Orri dulled perception ability they found a story book like cliché of a horde further under the water in an air pocket. The coins, jewelry, and weapons she understood, but this odd monster had some of the most beautiful cloth Orri had seen, well all but the odd somehow grainy texture hag hair that was among the piles. It was dry and somehow greasy all at the same time, and looked as though if you held it for too long it might start moving. She focused on the mystic silk that was so light it nearly floated in Morrigan's hands, "It's so crazy soft, here feel." She pushed it against Zephyria's cheek. "Orri..oh it is quite soft. How are you more excited about these fabrics than you are in your victory?" She asked the odd little demi-human. She put the silk down and thought through the question, "Hmm the victory was fine I guess, it seemed more worth it to get Anaxa and Edea to harmonize like that she chuckled to herself. I've never fought a beholder so I didn't know it was a bigger deal. I'm just happy we could help Arteria." Zephyria just smiled at Orri's words and pointed over at all the fabric. The beautiful sash with elven embroidery was being slowly picked up by the storm sorceress, "Oh man, oo maybe I can make that?!" She smiled with the future project and saw a blue sheen in the pile before them, a beautiful pair of earrings with sapphires encased in them stood out to Morrigan. Without thinking she reached out and studied them for a long moment, "Oooo can I have these? Instead of us selling them?"
 
Orri takes a moment to clean them and fastens them to her long doe like ears. Touching them gently to be sure they are in place as she thinks of her mom for a moment smiling to herself. Raising her hands in a flourish the earrings jingle with her hands movements, with a flick of her wrists the sudden appearance of a finely crafted string instrument takes the group by surprise. Orri looks to Edea who nods back to her, over the last few weeks her captain had asked for a little tutelage in actual instruments. Morrigan was an accomplished singer in her own right due to her mom's influence, a bard of substantial skill. The harp was her weapon of choice and Orri wanted to honor that by learning a similar implement, and Edea was the best choice as a teacher. Edea's kithara reminded Orri of her mom's harp and she loved the familiar feeling of being taught music and after a good fight and swim thought it was a grand time to play her new skill. Finishing off the wait for the Scarlet Web's return Orri began to play a serene and calming melody as it resounded off the walls of the dilapidated light house.