The Inner Sea

Calissa honestly felt like throwing herself under the carriage, a week had passed since the encounter with the Gale Wolves, no longer did her kobold companion stare wistfully out a window or reminisce about his adventures thus far. No, every day was the same thing, a barrel of wolf blood and a bathing kobold who frequently submerged his head into the fluid. It was like watching a golem work, the task got completed sure but enjoying the company was equivalent of enjoying talking to a wall, and in this case the wall was vastly more interesting!

Thankfully, they were only a few days away from the harbor, even the dread of having to take a ship was outweighed by the joy of no longer having a silent singular minded travelling companion. He had so much in that scaled skull of his, she wanted to pick it for everything she could use herself yet he was very tight lipped. Understandably he didn't trust her, that was fine, but at the same time she could tell more than half he said was crap, a good liar he was not. She needed to keep him talking, to backtrack old paths to see if he'd say something different or release a grain of truth instead.

Yet day after day was kobold soup, the guy was like she thought earlier, worse than a golem. Golems had no choice but to follow orders mindlessly, but this singular focus Xing Lei displayed bordered on mad obsession. Just what did come after body tempering? How would it change her companion? And would the Heavenly Rose still be able to handle the second level of this oddities powerbase? Shaking her head she chided herself for overthinking it, the sect was prepared for just about anything, even the monster invasion had only caused minor concern for them.

Still as she watched Xing Lei relaxing in the barrel, steam rising from the roiling blood as if it were heated above a great stove, she was starting to wonder if letting this dragons hoard of information roam free was a mistake. With so much unknown, perhaps it would be better to-

Calissa stopped mid thought as her head snapped to look at Xing Lei, his dark scales were literally giving off an inky black radiance, what scales that weren't glowing flaked off to reveal new ones that slowly illuminated. The barrel he sat in vanished leaving him standing naked in the carriage which suddenly surged forward, the horses had been spooked by a surge of energy from behind and were simply trying to get away from the feeling of raw primal power that nipped at their tails like wild beasts.

Breathing deeply Xing Lei smiled and stretched, flexing his body feeling his bones crackle like celebratory fireworks. Before he could feel just how powerful he was but now at the threshold of the apex of body tempering it literally flooded off his body like a storm. Opening his eyes he noted Calissa ready to one side, her hands trembling just above the katars she had strapped to her belt, she looked at him as if he were a monster, that small three foot reptile was emitting an aura no less potent than a dragon or greater undead, while it was benign, this aura did trigger highly attuned adventurers and base beasts. Fight or flight. Two simple concepts yet radiating off a three foot canon fodder made the halfling burn with indignation when she realized her body had moved of it's own instinct.

"Do I make you nervous Calissa?"

The halflings cheeks turned a ruddy crimson crossing her arms she coughed and turned away, not dignifying the kobolds ribbing with a response. Xing Lei himself was dialing back his aura when he looked outside, the harbor had been reached quite quickly, little did he realize that his little show boating had nearly made the horses die, they ran and ran, that scary sensation licking at their backsides, inescapable so they galloped like their tails were on fire.

With the carriage stopped outside the harbor, Xing Lei disembarked and inhaled the rich sea air, the strong smell of fish choked the area, unlike mercantile harbors this one was based on the bounty of the sea, while it still hosted amenities any adventurer could make use of the strong scent of the local trade permeated everything. Glancing to Calissa he could already see her looking green around the gills, the halfling woman leaned against the side of a building cradling her midriff. "Are you sure you want to take to the sea? You already look half done in."

Calissa hurked and shook her head, "The situation around Ulak requires our attention post haste, my discomfort is meaningless...urk..." Covering her mouth the fresh scent of rotting fish guts had caught a favorable wind and covered the poor halfling leading to her getting a good lung full, as she darted out of sight to appease the roiling of her stomachs Xing Lei had a look around, listening to the various news from the water traffic, sadly unlike his own world there was no undersea empire of high rank beasts, though he did hear tales about sea elves that caught his attention, seems they were fighting battles along the shores due to treasure seekers getting too aggressive with their settlements.

Calissa soon caught up with the wandering kobold dragging him back to the docks, the ship chartered was a simple one mast ship, mostly used for hauling goods or people it had a practical crew and a few tales to tell, Calissa sadly spent most of her time at the rail, bemoaning life for making halflings as unseaworthy as bricks. Xing Lei seemed to enjoy learning about the ship and it's running, asking questions and absorbing all he could about sailing. To Xing Lei the rigging of the ship was exceptional training, leaping from each set of ropes high above the deck, where one mistake would see a painful crash to the deck or a kobold thrown overboard. The crew seemed to adopt him as a mascot almost like a monkey as he moved with unparalleled agility over the rope work, the comparison gave Calissa no end of amusement.

As the trip dragged on Xing Lei got to listen to more tales of the surrounding lands, sailors generally went everywhere and most had tales from dozens of kingdoms. His little jaunt around the lands had been pitifully short, this inner sea for example, connected to one of the wider oceans that could take you as far as the dense jungles of Calimordan or the frigid northern tundra of Iceswept Plains, the world was so vast the climates changed so easily. There were savage lands that put his own home to shame and true disaster zones, like an island kingdom to the south east, the monstrous beasts had claimed it fully driving the local human kingdom to extinction, such a vast uprising of beasts had affected trade as the island kingdom was a great source of metal goods.

The days passed into a week and even the kobold now lazed on the rigging, the tales told, the shanties sung. All around was the deep blue of the inner ocean. Now and then glancing down, Xing Lei would spot large shadows passing underneath or around the boat, the crew weren't worried, most often it was just a school of sharks, curious but most definitely hungry. Long as you stayed out of the water you'd be fine. Even the large ones were rare to attack a ship thinking it a whale, at most it would scratch up the hull, rock it a bit maybe force the engineer to go around and tar up a few holes. All in all the besties of the sea left well enough alone unless riled up by monstrous humanoids or sea elves.

Xing Lei found the sea elf lore most fascinating, unlike the surface elves that indulged in a caste system and kingdoms that were just as power or land hungry as any human ruler, the sea elves lived in smaller communities to protect the shores, keeping the sea in the sea and land on land. In truth they asked for nothing for this as nothing the land dwellers had interested them, while the reverse wasn't true. Sea elves had vast access to sunken ships, undersea oyster beds and all manner of materials that fetched a pretty coin to interested parties on land, this often lead to conflict.

Relaxing in the crows nest one day he was looking to the horizon when he spotted a pair of dark specks looming in the distance, calling down the first mate peered through a spyglass and frowned, motioning to the captain the pair spoke in a hush which drew the attention of not only Xing Lei. Leaning on the edge of the crows nest he watched the captain move to the wheel to address the crew, the man kept it simple, two ships were in bound both flying the skull and crossed bones motiff of pirates. Worse thing was the skull was thick with a pair of predominant tusks, meaning it was a band known to lair in the Savage Lands.

Chances were good they'd be fighting goblinkin. In particular, orcs and their ilk. While the pair of ships were still a ways off they were turning to box in their ship sure enough. Grimly the crew prepared for battle as the captain looked above, "Mr. Kobold, a word please."

Swiftly shimmying down the mast Xing Lei walked up to the captain, who leaned heavily on the rail watching the distant ships growing larger every moment, "I've no right to ask of my faire if you'll stand with us but in this state having The Heavenly Rose might win us some wiggle room."

Xing Lei was about to speak up when Calissa hissed at him from the side, staggering up on deck with the help of the first mate, the two joined Xing Lei and the captain in their talk. Looking to him, Calissa shook her head, "Let the man get all the information out, there's more you need to hear."

The captain nodded sadly, "We didn't tell the crew this to save some morale going into the fight but my first mate has spotted a black powder weapon."

Xing Lei looked blankly at the captain then Calissa who frowned, "Black powder is a dust made by those idiot gnomes, it's been said to be able to level mountains and destroy dragons. Fools will blow up the world with that stuff."

The captain sighed and nodded, "Local powers that deal with gnomes have all started buying these weapons, they hold tremendous destructive powers, but our ship lacks even a black powder pistol much less the canon the lead ship is sporting. If the boys knew that that hell weapon is aimed their way we'd be tossed over board and you two would be their allegiance switch gift to the rival captain."

"Are these black powder things truly that strong?"

Calissa nodded, "Depends really if they have experience in their use, the things are highly destructive but if a mage can target the powder it's just as deadly for the user."

"Aye she has the right of it, my first mate will be hoping to ignite their powder stores but we need to be closer than they do to use the foul thing."

Xing Lei shrugged, "Even if we refused to help what could we do? Lower a skiff while three large ships wreck each other nearby? Better to just do what we can."

Calissa frowned but could not refute his words, the captain and first mate looked relieved, having some Heavenly Rose fighters would be a big help, win or lose, the organization might be considered enough to at least vie for ransom. Setting about their tasks Calissa frowned at the kobold.

Xing Lei chuckled, "Is it really that bad?"

Before she could answer there was a screeching whine, the sea just ahead and to the right of their ship exploded upwards in a great gush of water, the spray drenching the crew, many of whom groaned in fright. Calissa sighed.

"It's worse."