ooc: Okay, time to move this RPG along... Let's start by getting over this month long bridge...
Please forgive me for using some of your characters, my fellow FF members...
I'm sure this won't be the greatest writing in the history, so if there's anything you'd like me to change, just tell me...
ic: At the front of the line of pirates, Captain Aravis moved carefully from plank to plank, a torch held out in front of her lighting the way... A few feet behind her followed IOWW, who was holding onto the ropes on both sides of the bridge and walking carefully... Headless Bill was behind her, holding onto her shoulders so she could guide him, and behind that headless crew member was the rest of the crew; each one holding the shoulders of the pirate in front of them... If there had been light enough to see through the fog, it would have been quite a comical sight....
At the near end of the bridge, Fish, Machia and Twilight were seeing the last pirate onto the bridge...
"Arrr, that's the lot, then..." Machia said snatching his medical supplies pack from where it lay and slinging it over his shoulder... "Gar, I'm heading over now too... Check ter make sure we didn't leave like any supplies or weapons anythin' here..." Machia lit a torch and handed it to Fish and then said with a grin... "Arrr, if ye find anythin' left here, ye be havin' me full permission to bash any pirate who left it behind once we get ter the far side o' this bridge... Gar, an' I know ye will, Twilight..." He gave another crooked smile and turned towards the bridge... "Arrr, see ye on the other side!" The First Mate called and as he disappeared into the fog... He stepped onto the bridge and found it rocking so badly that had to grab onto the sides to steady himself... "Arrr, assumin' this bridge holds up that long..." Machia muttered to himself as he slowly inched his way across...
Up at the front, Aravis peered into the gloom... She thought she'd seen something move in the fog ahead... Holding her torch as far in front of her as she moved slowly onwards... She couldn't see anything moving, but all of the sudden she did realize something she hadn't before... It looked as if the planks on the bridge came to an abrupt end a good 10 to 15 feet in front of her... From her position she couldn't tell if it was just a larger then usual hole or the end of the bridge... Hoping desperately that it was the later, she crept on...
"That's everything, Twilight..." Fish said as she walked over to the entrance of the bridge... "Let's go."
"Arrr, aye, I'm right behind ye Fish." Twilight replied as she strapped another across her back... "An' ye can bet that I'm gonna have a few things ter say to Hastings when we get across... He left all his firearms and his powder bag back at the camp." And while thinking of things she could do to the poor pirate Hastings, Twilight heaved a barrel of gunpowder onto her shoulder and followed the head carpenter across the creaking bridge...
Meanwhile, funnily enough, The First Mate was also considering what he could do to Hastings, who had stopped dead in the middle of the bridge and refused to go a step further... And despite Machia's best efforts to coax and or force him forward, he stubbornly remained with a death grip on the sides of the bridge... Machia sighed and muttered something Hastings could catch under his breath and then drew his pistol from his belt... The First Mate's plan had been to hit Hastings hard enough on the head to knock him out and then carry the unconscious mate across what was left of the bridge... But Hastings, upon seeing the pistol in Machia's hand, panicked, apparently thinking The First Mate was crazy enough to shoot either the bridge or him, drew his cutlass clumsily and in the process somehow managed to slice the supports of the bridge, cleanly snapping the bridge in half...
Both sides of the bridge began to fall... Hastings, stupidly let go of his side of the bridge and jumped off, tumbling into the fog... There, no doubt by Aslan's hand, Hastings slammed into Fish and Twilight who had been on the bridge when it snapped and were slowly climbing back up the planks on their half of the bridge... Although, Hastings almost knocked both of them off, Fish finally managed to subdue him with one blow of her hammer and then Twilight hauled him the rest of the way back up to the edge of the cliff...
At the far end of the bridge, Aravis discovered that the sudden ending of the planks had been the solid ground on the other side, and once she'd reported this to the rest of the crew, they doubled their speed in their hurry to get to the other side... While IOWW and Headless Bill, made sure each crew member made it off the bridge, Aravis and Dead Tom scouted out the area... They had arrived in a tangled forest, thick with dark trees... "The fog seems end here Cap'n.." Called Dead Tom, who was a few yards into the forest... "It's strange; the fog seemed to only be covering the bridge... Like someone didn't want us to get across or somethin'..." Upon hearing this Aravis felt that same strange chill that she'd felt on the bridge, and although the feel of it seemed all too familiar, she couldn't remember where she'd felt it before... But before she could try to place where in the past she'd felt it, IOWW's DVed cry split the air: "Captain! The Bridge is falling!"
Machia clutched at the bridge with one hand and reached out to grab Hastings with the other, but just missed... The bridge continued to fall towards the far side of the cliff and Machia grabbed on with his other hand and prepared for the impact... The bridge hit the side of the cliff with terrible force, dazing the First Mate off and almost knocking him off... For a few moments everything was black and seemed to spin... But after a minute or two, Machia could never remember quite how long it had been, the world seemed to clear and The First Mate could gather his wits about him.. The first thing he did once he realized the situation he was in was to see if he could climb up; but in the impact of the bridge hitting the cliff, many of the planks had fallen off, so Machia couldn't climb very far up... So he decided to gamble and try to teleport to the top... It took three trys in order to get the correct distance but finally he appeared at the top, drained from the effort it had taken...
IOWW, who looked exhausted, having had to pull most of the crew up by means of a rope, saw him appear... "Oh good, you made it up!" She said with relief, "Oy! Machia's over here!" She called to the dark figures moving in the fog, which was beginning to clear... "We were about to send a rescue party down to find you... Twilight, Fish and Hastings appeared a minute ago, and we thought you'd be with them, so we were preparing to go back down to see if you were still on the bridge somewhere..."
"Arrr, so Hastings made it?" Machia asked, as he tried to catch his breath, "Gar, good... I have a few words I'd like to say to him..." The First Mate growled and started to walk off into the fog...
A little farther away, the scouting party, consisting of Fish, Twilight, Dead Tom and Aideen, had just found a path that seemed to lead out of the woods... After they'd cleared away some vines and overhanging plants, they managed to get out.... The sun was just beginning to rise over the horizon of a glassy sea and before them lay a field of thick dune grass... Beyond that was a white sandbar... But all four of them immediately noticed a ship laying on the beach, off a ways to their left, silhouetted in the morning light...
Fish's DV rang out through the forest... "Cap'n! The scouting party has made it out of the woods, and... We've found a ship!"
