Setting: an unnamed port. The episode opens panning across the docks and the stores on the seafront, showing the Wraith anchored among other ships there, as well as a bustling street. One of the buildings on the street is a tavern, and the scene changes to take us inside.
Ioz is sitting at a corner table; the rest of the tavern is active with people conversing, walking around, etc., but he’s sitting at his table, a sour look on his face and a bag of supplies next to him, nursing a mug of ale. He sips, then grumbles, "By Daven’s beard--next time I let that monkey-bird do the shopping. Who knows--maybe I’ll just let Ren and Tula save the world while I go back to being a real pirate again!"
As he lifts his mug for another sip, a higher, raspy voice hisses, "You look like a real enough pirates to these eyes, and I know where there’s treasure for the taking."
Ioz puts down his mug, looking interested. "Treasure?"
"A king’s ransom--if you’re not afraid of danger," the robed man with a hood concealing his face intones.
Ioz smirks. "Danger is my middle name. Where can I find this booty, old man?"
The man gestures to the window above Ioz’s head. "Just off this coast roams a strange ship so loaded with treasure that when the full moon shines, it glows like a diamond in the dark. Most are too frightened to come aboard, but for you, courage is no problem."
At this, Ioz shoots the man a quick but skeptical smile, and stands, flipping a coin onto the table and hefting his bag. "Thanks for the story old man," he replies, his voice nonchalant, "but it sounds more like a tall tale to me."
He departs the tavern. The mysterious man follows him, but stops on the steps leading to the threshold. "Perhaps we will meet again," he comments, and suddenly his body starts dissolving into mist as the cloak collapses to the stairs as he speaks his last word: "pirate."
The scene changes to the Maelstrom, later, when night has fallen. Bloth is grumbling about losing Ren again, and Morpho steps forward and orders him in a certain direction. When Bloth inquires how he knows, Morpho simply smiles, licks at his tentacle and growls, "The Dark Water told me."
Bloth, Mantus, and Konk watch Morpho slouch away before Bloth orders Mantus to change course. Konk points out that by doing so, they’ll be near the Haunted Coast.
Scene changes again to the Wraith, shown sailing under a gorgeous full moon.
"Nothing like a full moon to sail by," Ren comments with a sigh.
"Nothing like a full moon to eat by!" Niddler adds enthusiastically.
A close-up of the main characters follows, and we see Ioz stooping, reaching into his sack of supplies. "This is for you, monkey-bird," he states wryly, pulling out a shell and tossing at Niddler, who catches it and peers at it dubiously.
Suddenly, tentacles come out and slap to his beak, and he yanks it off. "A poogat?" he complains. "I hate poogat!" (It might be "pooka"--I can never tell.)
"I thought you would," Ioz remarks back gruffly.
Tula grabs onto a rope and swings, landing on the utility nets (I’m sure there’s a more legitimate name for them, but that’s just what I call the net-things they have to climb when tending to the sail or getting up to the crow’s nest). As she gets her grip, she turns around to get a good look at the sea--and her smile fades. "Ren!" she shouts. "Maelstrom off the starboard bow!" (It’s actually the stern, since it’s behind them...) Ren lets off a Merese curse and immediately tries to take evasive action, turning the ship this way and that, but he can’t outrun them.
Ioz has climbed onto the netting to help Tula with the sail, and he spots an alternative. "But we can lose them!" he calls. "Make for that fog bank off the port bow!"
Niddler helps Ren swing the ship portward, and they vanish into the fog, the Maelstrom still following them in...but Bloth and his crew have lost the Wraith as well. "Twist my soul!" Bloth rages. "We’ll never find them in this fog!"
Ioz and Tula swing down to the deck on ropes, Ioz cheering about how they’ve lost the Maelstrom, Tula replying with a "Maybe."
Suddenly, something starts glowing bright enough to nearly blind all of them--and then it fades in the shape of a glowing, semi-transparent ship as they all watch. "By the twenty seas," Ioz murmurs, "maybe that old man wasn’t just spinning tales!"
Niddler comes over to him. "What did you say, Ioz?"
Ioz flounders for a second, trying to cover up what he’d just said. "I said this ship might need our help," he amends. "Ren, pull alongside!"
Ren complies. "You might be right," he agrees. "We’ll take a closer look."
The Wraith pulls up next to the ship, which looks dead, and the four watch it. Niddler inquires if they think there might be minga-melons aboard, to which Ren replies that it seems to be abandoned.
"Appearances can be deceiving," Tula points out, and does a quick ecomancy-scan. "I sense danger, Ren," she cautions. "There’s something not right about this ship."
Ioz scoffs it aside, already reaching for a rope to swing aboard the neighboring ship. "Ecomantic bilge--I’m going aboard!" He lands on the deck, drawing his sword and peering around cautiously. "And if there’s treasure, I’m going to find it," he adds as an afterthought.
Ren and Tula exchanged an annoyed look. "Ioz, sometimes your lust for treasure amazes me," he comments.
"Hmph--and someday it’ll get your top knot in a noose!" Tula adds as they draw their daggers go aboard.
"We’ll go aft, Tula," Ren suggests. "It looks like Ioz is already handling things up there."
And indeed, Ioz is. He’s skulking around the deck, looking all over the place. "It has to be here somewhere," he grumbles.
As he’s checking the inside of a barrel, Niddler flies overhead. "Find any minga-melons?" he quips.
In response, Ioz waves his sword threateningly at Niddler. "Get lost, monkey-bird, before I shave your feathers!"
Niddler lands on the Wraith, crossing his arms. "I’ll take that as a no," he retorts.
Ioz has come across a large arch-shaped cover with a slit through the center, as if it’s made of two separate pieces that have come together to hide whatever’s inside. He jams his sword into the slit and pries it open, and as it falls open, he lets out a gasp. "Ay Jitata!" The holding area the archlike top was covering is full of gold, jewels...just overall riches. He kneels and scoops up a handful, marveling at it. "I’m rich!" he exclaims--when a hand suddenly touches his shoulder, and his smile fades. "By Kunda, monkey-bird, I told you to get lost!" he growls.
An unfamiliar female voice, lower in timbre than Tula’s and huskier, is heard instead. "You picked well, Teng."
Ioz spins around, startled--he’s surrounded by semi-transparent people...men, some intact, some half-bone and half-flesh, all clad in rags--and a woman standing behind him, an air of authority around her. "This one is strong," she goes on, and suddenly kneels and strokes his face, her sinister smile broadening. "And as handsome as he is greedy..." She finally speaks to Ioz. "You’ll make a fine addition to my crew."
Ioz jerks away, reaching for his sword. "Not in this lifetime, wench," he retorts, and swings his sword at a man standing nearby--and it goes through him. "Chongo-longo!" Ioz gasps.
The man sneers. "You can’t harm a ghost on a ghost ship, fool," he taunts, his voice slightly accented, "unless you’re a ghost yourself!" He then kicks Ioz squarely in the chest, throwing the pirate across the ship and into a barrel.
"Ghost?" Ioz wheezes just before he passes out. The pirate who kicked him goes over for another blow at his head--
"Grovis!" the woman speaks up suddenly. She walks over to him and takes his arm. "Don’t hurt him--too much."
"Ioz!"
They all turn at the sound of Ren’s voice, and Ioz, who has just awakened, rolls out of the way as Grovis’s foot comes down where his head was. Ren and Tula are running towards them, swords in hand--and they swing at the pirates, only to have their swords penetrate thin air and not flesh instead. "Get back to the Wraith!" Ren shouts.
"That won’t be so easy, boy," the woman ghost intones, pulling out her own sword, and the sound of metal against her sheath is evident. "On a ghost ship, the dead hold sway."
She cackles, and Ren looks at Tula, dumbfounded. "Ghost ship?" he repeats.
"Scupango," Tula curses. "I should learn to trust my instincts!" She suddenly sees the woman coming at them with her sword at the ready and shoves Ren out of the way. The woman’s sword gets stuck in the deck, and she spends a moment trying to yank it free as Ren and Tula run away from her.
"Ghosts or no ghosts, I’m not leaving without this gold!" Ioz calls, stuffing his pouches and bags full of the jewels.
"You’re not leaving at all," the woman’s voice intones, making him freeze, and as he looks up, he sees the ghosts surrounding him in a circle again. "Chain him--" she commands, and one of the ghosts grabs him by his vest, dragging him to his feet, and several others pull him across the deck, with her supervising-- "And destroy the others," she adds coldly over her shoulder.
Now the circle of ghost pirates surrounds Ren and Tula, and they try to fight and hold off the attacks from the circle, but can’t do much. Suddenly, Niddler flies overhead and swoops and grabs them with a cry of, "Abandon ship!" As he starts to fly off, one of the pirates grabs his tail and holds onto it, and he loses his grip of Ren and Tula, but he’s managed to get closer to the side of the ship, so they fall to the deck of the Wraith. A moment later, Niddler gets free and flies back to the Wraith--but one of the pirates chucks his ghost-weapon at Niddler. Ren shoves him out of the way and takes it through the arm.
But nothing happens. Ren stares at his arm, stunned; there’s no mark, no nothing. He says as much to his friends.
Tula’s rubbing Niddler’s wing comfortingly. "Those Jitatin ghosts are only tough on their own ship," she points out.
"But they have Ioz," Ren protests, turning to look at the ship again.
Back on the pirate ship, one of the pirates goes to update his captain. "Cressa--the others got away," he reports.
She shrugs. "Who cares? I got what I wanted."
Ioz, in shackles, glares at her as she approaches. "Jitatin phantom--I’ll never join your crew!"
"You already have," she replies smoothly, taking his forehead-ponytail in her hand and playing with it. "And you’ll obey my orders--" She yanks on the ponytail hard-- "For eternity." She lets out a cackle as the ship sails off into the night.
Commercial break.
The Wraith’s seen sailing along the waters. "We’ve gotta stay close until we can find a way to get Ioz off that ghost ship," Ren muses, turning the wheel to keep their ship in pursuit of the ghost ship.
On the ship, the captain floats through the air to her captive, Ioz, who’s trying his best to ignore her. Playfully, she touches and slaps at his face, and he jerks away. "Keep away from me, ghost," he warns.
Her playfulness vanishes and she reaches for her sword, holding the sharp edge up to the side of his face. "Your captain’s name is Cressa," she hisses. "Remember it well." She lets the sword drop as her tone grows thoughtful. "You have spirit, Ioz...perhaps I’ll make you my new first mate."
At the wheel, Grovis overhears this; he lets out a snarl and breaks off one of the handles. (He’s apparently Cressa’s current first mate. *ahem-ahem* Hehehe.)
A shout comes down from the crow’s nest. "Enemy off the starboard stern!" (thank goodness, they finally got their nautical directions right...)
Cressa turns away from her new pet and points her sword at her first mate. "Lose them, Grovis!" she commands.
Ioz sees Grovis’s reaction and realizes that this could be his chance. "This could be my chance," he mutters. (I know, I’m a dope; I couldn’t resist. Anyway. *grin*) Leaning forward, as far as his chains would let him go, he started taking digs at Grovis. "I can see why you need a new first mate!" he agreed. "This kreld-eater handles your ship like a denbar sea slug!"
Grovis whips around and socks Ioz good, throwing him back against the wall. He shakes it off and continues. "Hitting a man in chains," he laments. "You’re yellow as a sun-bleached sail!"
Grovis is rightly pissed now. He breaks off another handle and stares at it, enraged. "Gah! If you were unchained--" He turns, leaning away from the wheel and shaking a fist at Ioz-- "I’d tear you apart!"
Cressa’s eyes light up. "Oh, don’t let that spoil a good fight!" she exclaims gleefully. She turns to the pirate next to her. "Teng, take the wheel," she orders, emphasizing her words with the key in her hand. As he does, she goes over to Ioz and unshackles him.
As he’s rubbing at his wrists, Grovis tackles him to the deck with a yell. Ioz tries to put him in a headlock, but belatedly realizes that his arms can’t touch the pirate--who then punches him in the face. Ioz then kicks at Grovis--and is astounded when his foot connects with the pirate, sending him crashing into Teng at the wheel. Ioz sits up and looks down--and shock crosses his face, because his legs are no longer solid, but made of the same ghostly material that the others on the ship are made of. "Noy Jitat--I’m becoming one of them!" he gasps.
A yell makes him look up, and he sees Grovis running towards him, intent on attack, and he gets to his feet, avoiding the flying leap the pirate makes--and makes good use of his newfound "gift," if you will, kicking the other pirates out of his way as he makes his way across the ship.
From the Wraith, Ren sees what’s going on through his viewglass. "Ioz is making a run for it--full sail, Tula!" he calls.
The Wraith pulls up next to the ship, where Ioz is waiting. "Chongo-longo, what took you so long?" he called as he leapt. Ren caught his arms and started to pull him up--but suddenly a whip wound around Ioz’s midsection and pulled him hard in the opposite direction--and out of Ren’s grip.
The whip belonged to Cressa, who hauled the pirate aboard the ship hard. As he fell at her feet, she let out another cackle. "Did you take me for a fool, Ioz?" she questioned grandly, grinning down at him and gesturing.
The angle of the scene changes so that we’re now looking up at Cressa, and she starts to reach her hand down to take hold of Ioz, who’s beyond our line of sight. "But I enjoyed watching you try to escape," she went on, her voice becoming a bit seductive--and then suddenly hardening. "And I’ll enjoy watching your friends perish!"
On the Wraith, Tula gives a start of surprise and immediately goes for the ropes. "Ren--island dead ahead!" she calls.
Ren lets out a hoarse gasp and tries to turn the ship. "Noy Jitat!"
"We’ll never turn in time!" Niddler cries.
The ghost ship vanishes completely into the island while the Wraith, despite its attempts, gets shoved up against the rocks of the island by the strong waves that had propelled it along before. Tula’s still struggling with the ropes while Ren pulls himself up from where he was sprawled across the wheel from the impact. "Chonga!" he swears. "We’ve run aground and the ghost ship has vanished!"
Ren and Tula leap off the ship onto the rocky island, and Tula wanders over to the first vertical expanse of rock ahead of them. "It passed right through these rocks!" she breathes.
Niddler, after looking around, flies down to join them. "No sign of that ghost ship anywhere, Ren," he reports.
Ren’s looking around speculatively. "Then it either vanished into thin air, or it’s inside this island," he muses.
"But there’s no way in!" Niddler interjects worriedly as Ren walks back over to the ship. "Unless you’re a ghost..."
"Well then, we have to find one," Ren replies calmly and tugs on a rope, bringing down a previously-hidden lifeboat (where did this come from? They could’ve used it in previous episodes, geez...). "Niddler--you stay here and patch the boat."
(I’ve got a minor rant coming up here, just to warn you.) The scene changes, and shows Ren and Tula in the lifeboat, Ren fighting to steer the boat towards the island. "Over there! A hole in the rock!" he calls, as he tries to use the oar to hold them steady. (Rant time...Ren’s got an oar and is using it. Why the hell isn’t Tula helping?? She’s sitting there, facing forward ahead of him, and is just--looking. Not steering, not nothing. Except whining.)
"It could lead anywhere, Ren," Tula points out. (Always the pessimist. Not to mention, she’s still just sitting there, and glances back worriedly as Ren as he tells her to hang on. Geez.) Ren paddles furiously and the lifeboat goes into the small hole...which soon opens up into a huge cavern--the rock’s hollow. And inside, at the far end, is the ghost ship.
Ren directs the little boat over to a chain hanging down from the side. "Now to rescue our unlucky treasure-seeker," he declares quietly as he grabs onto the chain. They haul themselves silently onto the deck, weapons ready, with themselves alert. The deck is deserted.
Tula notices Ioz first. "Noy Jita--" she blurts, before Ren claps his hand over her mouth.
Ioz’s legs, waist, and now part of his torso are ghost-ified, if you will. "Ioz," Ren breathes.
"You’re turning into a ghost!" Tula exclaims quietly.
"And unless I get off this cursed barge by tonight’s moonrise," Ioz explains tersely, shivering slightly, "I’ll be one forever!"
Ren grabs the ghostly shackle around Ioz’s right wrist. "I’ll have you out of here, my friend," he says urgently, and tries to use his sword against it, but it doesn’t connect.
"It’s hopeless, Ren," Ioz explains tiredly. "Only another ghostly object can break these Jitatin chains." Ren looks around and spots a ghostly axe, and tries to reach for it, but just can’t grasp onto it.
"Ahh, such loyalty," Cressa’s voice rings out. Ren and Tula spin around, to see her advancing with her pirates flanking and following her. "Perhaps I should add you to my crew."
Tula starts moving to the side, with Ren following but lurking near Ioz, who orders them to save themselves because it’s too late for them. As the pirates get closer, Ren agrees--and Grovis doesn’t resist elbowing Ioz hard on his way past him.
"We’ll be back, Ioz, I swear it," Ren shouts as they vault over the edge of the ship into their boat, Tula urging him to hurry. As they start paddling out, they notice that the water level’s higher and more turbulent than it was before, and Tula realizes that the tide’s coming in and they have to get out before the blowhole, the crack they entered through, becomes completely submerged. However, the ghost ship’s giving pursuit--but the lifeboat hits a small whirlpool that’s strong enough to chuck them overboard.
Cressa peers into the water, but only the empty, water-filled lifeboat drifts by. "Blast them!" she snarls.
But Ren and Tula didn’t drown (of course; they’re the heroes! They can’t die...)--they managed to swim free of the island, and surfaced a good distance from the blowhole, far enough to watch the pirate ship emerge and set sail again without its occupants noticing them.
"We can’t let that ghost ship get away!" Ren grits out as he and Tula clamber back onto the Wraith, which somehow is able to sail again, despite being shoved up onto an island. ^^;
As Ren steers the Wraith in pursuit, Niddler steps forward. "We have bigger problems than that ghost ship," he points out.
Ren gives him a pained look. "How much bigger can they get?" he complains.
Niddler looks pretty worried. "About Maelstrom-sized!" he replies.
Ren and Tula look--and let out a little "aah!" of surprise, because indeed, the Maelstrom’s coming at them. Tula points out that it’s blocking them in, and reaches for her dagger. Bloth’s gloating that they have nowhere to go, but Niddler says that he does, and takes off, leaving his friends behind to stare after him helplessly.
Konk decides to pursue Niddler, and takes a dagron after him. However, while circling over the Maelstrom, Konk sees the ghost ship--and then part of the mast knocks him off the dagron and onto the deck. Bloth goes over to him and plants a foot on his back. "Forget that worthless monkey-bird!" Bloth orders, then runs to the side of the ship, a gleeful grin on his face. "We’ve got bigger prey to slay."
As the grappling hooks fall and take hold of the Wraith, Ren and Tula find comfort in the only thing they can--each other. They hug each other (aww... *rolls eyes*) as the scene ends.
Commercial break.
Episode reopens with a view of the Maelstrom, with the Wraith attached by long ropes and being towed along. Scene then changes to the main deck, where Bloth’s pirates are forcing Ren and Tula forward towards Bloth, who’s gloating over having the Compass now.
"You must be getting desperate, Bloth, to join up with this kreld-eating darkspawn," Ren spits out--meaning Morpho.
Bloth gets pissed off, but Morpho tells him to wait, suggesting that they’d be better used as dark disciples, not food for the Constrictus. Bloth considers it and agrees, and Morpho skulks off to go make the potion.
Back on the ghost ship, Cressa’s looking into a large hourglass, still smiling. She then turns to Ioz and tells him not to fight it, because soon he’ll be among the kindred spirits. "You can’t escape your fate--but it doesn’t have to be an unpleasant one," she adds.
"Thanks, but I prefer my women live," Ioz snarls back.
As she leaves, he looks up and watches his arms lose their solidity and become ghostly before his eyes.
Back on the Maelstrom, Ren and Tula have been thrown into the brig, with Konk guarding them--except that he’s asleep, but he’s got the keys for the door, leaving them trapped inside. As Konk snores, Ren, leaning against the wall with his arms crossed, whispers, "Any ideas for getting those keys?" to Tula.
"Maybe," she muses, "if that piglet is as cowardly as I think he is." Another of Konk’s snores slightly interrupts her, and she kneels down. "Help me gather this dust," she instructs, pulling the dust from the floor together in a large pile in front of her. Ren scratches his head curiously but kneels to help her.
A little while later, Konk’s still asleep...but suddenly there’s a sparkly, crackly sound, and a scratchy voice moans, "Koooonk...Koooonk..."
One of his eyes flies open, and then the other, and he sits up. "W-w-what that?" he stammers.
As he watches in horror, a huge cloud drifts from Ren and Tula’s cell, taking the shape of a kind of specter. "I am the ghost pirate," it moans. "I have taken Rrren and Tula and now I am coming for yooouuu..."
It flies closer to him, sparking with energy, and Konk starts scooting backwards, totally chickened out. "No--stay away!" he wails, and throws his sword at it. It goes right through the ghost, not deterring it at all. It keeps wailing, and he throws the only other thing he has--his key. As it still approaches, he gets to his feet and scurries off--and the ghost dissolves into thin air.
Inside the cell, Tula lowers her arms as she lets her ecomancy stop, and starts breathing hard. "Did it work?" she pants.
Ren picks up the keys, pulls Konk’s sword from the wall, and winks at her. "Like a charm," he replies.
A moment later, they’ve unlocked the door and are striding down the passageway of the brig. "Now we must get off the Maelstrom and back to Ioz," Ren declares.
Tula places a hand on his arm. "Ren, wait," she cautions. "The only way to beat a ghost is to become a ghost." Insert typical drop-jaw-syndrome image of Ren here. "I can ecomantically lower your body temperature until your spirit leaves your body," she goes on.
"Konk, you pit-brain!"
Ren and Tula spin around, startled. Bloth’s slamming the door to their cell shut. "They’ve escaped! Where did they go?"
As Bloth and Konk go down the passageway, Ren and Tula quickly scurry into the sewer through a trapdoor, shutting it just in time and moving out of the way as the duo cross over the door.
"I told you! The ghost got them!" Konk keeps insisting.
"If they get off this ship, I’ll make you a ghost--permanently," Bloth snarls, and they walk off.
At that, Tula smiles knowingly and takes the sword from Ren, and they step into the shallow water flowing down the center of the sewerway. She helps him lie down in the water, and then takes his hand in both of hers, sliding her fingers between his comfortingly (aww...). "Ren, I must warn you," she begins. "When I free your spirit, you will approach the veil of darkness."
"You mean--I’m going to die?" Ren exclaims in a hushed voice.
"No--you will still be alive," she quickly amends. "Unless you remain out of your body too long."
"How will I know?" he inquires.
"You’ll start to fade," she explains. "And then--you’ll be gone." She closes her eyes and a tear slips down her cheek. (I’m sitting here, glaring at her as I watch this episode. It’s so stupid! He’s not going to die, idiot! Why CRY over it? Geez!)
Anyway, Ren’s the braver of the two, and reaches up and brushes the tears from her face gently. (If I weren’t so annoyed at Tula for crying, this would be a rather romantic moment, I’ll admit.) "I’m not afraid, Tula," he declares quietly. "I’m ready."
At that, she takes hold of his shoulders and straightens her back, letting her eyes fall closed as she starts to use her powers on him.
He’s bathed in the blue light, and is shivering before long. "S-so cold!" he stutters. "Ahh--"
A moment later, a transparent figure emerges from his now-still form, hovering over Tula’s head. It’s a ghostified version of Ren, fully clothed and everything. "Tula!" he breathes, staring down at himself. "You did it!"
She’s unsure of what to say, but quickly gestures to the wall. "Hurry!" she orders quickly, and he complies wordlessly, flying through the wall and away.
And just in time, because as soon as he vanishes, she looks up and quickly reaches for Konk’s sword, because Bloth and Konk have appeared out of nowhere in front of her. "You see? The ghost killed Ren!" Konk affirms, pointing at Ren’s spiritless body.
Bloth goes over and plants his foot on Ren’s chest, giving the boy a good shake. "I doubt that," Bloth replies, "but whatever killed him has done me a favor!"
Tula goes to swing the sword, but Bloth brings his sword up and knocks Konk’s from her hand, and then grabs her, hefting her out of the water and into the air. "Once you taste the Dark Disciple’s potion, I’ll be rid of both my enemies!" he informs her jubilantly, while she struggles as hard as she can while in his grasp.
"No," she grits out, but can’t do anything as Bloth and Konk walk off with her still in the former’s grasp, leaving Ren’s body behind. "Ren--!"
The scene changes to outside of the Maelstrom, showing the full moon rising over the dark, open sea--and we see Niddler, flying away from the large ship. The view zooms in on him. "Oh, what can one poor monkey-bird do?" he whines. "Ghost down there..." He points at the ghost ship he’s flying towards. "Bloth over there..." He points back at the Maelstrom. "Ren over there..." He points at the spirit of Ren flying back, then stops, stutters, and does a double-take. "Ren!" he squawks. "D-d-don’t tell me you’re a ghost too?"
"Not exactly, Niddler," Ren replies quickly. "But stay close to that ghost ship." With that, he starts flying in close. "I may need your help!"
Niddler looks bewildered, but complies.
On the ghost ship, Cressa’s attention is fully on the hourglass she’s holding. "A minute more, and you will sail with me forever," she intones.
Ioz is now completely in ghost-form, and he lets out a weary sigh. "I was a fool to get lured by your Jitatin ghost treasure."
None of them notice Ren until he lands on the far side of the deck from Cressa and speaks up. "I never thought I’d hear you admit that, Ioz!" he remarks, a wry grin on his face.
The pirates aren’t so cheerful. "So, you want to keep your friend company?" Cressa snarls, pulling out her sword. Instead of using it, though, she turns to her pirates. "Shackle him!"
A group of three or four pirates run at Ren, who’s picked up a ghostly axe as his weapon. He holds it up, and actually manages to shove them all back. Ioz and Cressa immediately realize what that means, and as the latter jumps into the fray, her sword against his axe, she breathes, "You’re a spirit! But how can this be?"
Ren breaks free of the fight and leaps over her head, landing by Ioz, and she only stares after him, stunned. More pirates run up the stairs to the helm, and he kicks, sending them flying back down the stairs. "Who’s next?" he calls defiantly.
"I am," a voice answers coldly. He turns and sees Cressa standing there, no longer stunned, and certainly not afraid of them.
Ren lifts his axe. "Sure you can fight someone who can fight back?" he taunts.
"I’ll do my best," she shoots back, sarcasm and ice dripping from her voice as, instead of going for her sword, she reaches for her whip and lashes it out. It wraps around his axe-arm, and she yanks him against the wall of wood behind him, quickly stepping forward and pressing the point of her sword into his chest. "Yield?"
His eyes fly open, resolve all through them. "Never!" he replies shortly, and smacks her sword aside with his axe and flies to his feet. They fight, and he forces her back, eventually knocking the sword from her grip. "Your time is up!" he declares, pointing his axe at her.
In response, she merely chuckles, and reaches for her whip again, throwing it and letting it wrap around the axe.
As he wastes time snapping it free, he misses seeing her jump onto the top of the...(me and my lack of ship terms, geez)...the room behind the helm, which the wooden wall he was shoved against (and which Ioz is shackled to) closes off from the ship. Anyway, it has a roof, and she jumps onto it, unbeknownst to him.
"Ren!" Ioz calls suddenly, somewhat feebly. "The moon!"
Ren turns and looks; it’s almost free of the horizon. As he’s looking, Cressa suddenly leaps down in front of him (only partially concealing his view of the moon) and slashes her sword at his chest. He jerks back, but not before it slices through the fabric of his shirt, leaving a horizontal gash in the fabric--not in the flesh below, though--and he quickly fights back, forcing her back again, and eventually making her tumble into the sea. As she falls, he glances at the moon, then at the nearly empty hourglass top, and quickly runs over to Ioz. Taking the axe in a two-handed grip, he swings it back and forth, breaking both of the shackles holding Ioz captive.
Just as he does so, the top of the hourglass completely empties out, and the moon breaks free from the horizon; it’s completely risen.
"Jump overboard! Now!" Ren orders harshly. As Ioz goes to do so, Ren staggers back a couple of steps, clutching at his head, as his body starts to vanish and reappear. He realizes his time’s running out, and as Ioz actually jumps overboard, Grovis attacks Ren, and the two have a let’s-see-who-can-push-the-hardest contest, which is somewhat interrupted by Ren’s phasing in and out visually. He however ends up pushing Grovis out of the way (planting his foot in Grovis’s chest and shoving him away) and quickly flies away, still phasing.
Ioz, in the water, looks down at himself and grins in relief as he quickly becomes solid again. "Thank Kunda!" he cheers, but his smile fades as he sees a ring of Dark Water closing in around him very quickly.
"No! Thank Ren!" Niddler corrects, yanking Ioz out of the water and up and away from the Dark Water’s reaching ‘tentacles.’ "And me, of course."
Meanwhile, Ren reenters the sewerway where his body is, and reenters his now-solitary body. A moment later, he sits up, clutching his head.
There’s a rumbling sound, and he glances over. "Tula?"
Nope. It’s the Constrictus. (I crack up at this part, because oh yes, there is indeed SO much resemblance between Tula and the Constrictus...hehehehe.) It rears over Ren, roaring and hissing and doing its whole menacing attack, and Ren, who’s still apparently kind of weak because he’s still sitting and not moving, is witness to it all.
Up on the deck, pirates are holding Tula still, and Morpho is approaching, a bubbling black vial in his hand. "One little drink and..."
I guess Ren’s regained his strength, because as the Constrictus goes to lunge at him, he leaps up onto one of the riblike, bowed structures that supports the walls and roof of the passage, climbing up as high as he can, and the Constrictus keeps going below him. He then leaps onto its back, magically evading the sharp spikes protruding from its exterior, and plays cowboy from in between two sets of spikes, riding the Constrictus through water and along the passageway on a fast and furious ride.
Above decks, Morpho’s got his tentacle against Tula’s neck, trying to force her to down the drink--when suddenly there’s a huge rumble, and the constrictus breaks through the cover at the top of the pit, convulsing, with Ren still on its back (but now mysteriously much closer to its head). The pirates all run for cover, leaving Tula to stand there staring up at it, and Ren leaps off.
From behind the mast (I think), Bloth snarls, "Stop him, you idiots!" and several pirates let a large plank full of boxes and other heavy cargo fall on the constrictus’s head, forcing it down (and probably giving it one mother of a concussion).
With that danger gone, the pirates reemerge, Bloth at the lead with sword in hand. But before he can attack, Niddler, who’s overhead, drops Ioz directly onto Bloth. Ioz claps his hands over Bloth’s eyes, and as the pirate lord swings around erratically, he knocks his pirates out of the way. They then decide to attack Ren and Tula, who hold them off easily and get their weapons back from the ones who’d been holding them.
"I’ll take this--" grits Ioz and grabs the Compass as Bloth finally bucks him off. (That sounds so wrong.) Enraged, Bloth throws his sword down at Ioz, point-first, and Ioz rolls, moving before it impales him. The heroes then make a run for it, leaping over the side of the ship just in time to evade a slew of swords and other weapons chucked in their directions that end up embedding themselves into the guard "railing" they just jumped over.
They land on the Wraith, and Ren cuts the ropes free. "Man the helm, Ioz!" he calls. "Tula! Fill the sails!" And with that, the Wraith sets sail.
"After them!" Bloth barks, and the Maelstrom quickly moves to pursue. A few moments later, they see the cause of many of that evening’s problems sailing in the opposite direction. "Torment my eyes--a ghost ship! Steer clear!" Bloth orders.
Konk’s staring at it, and his eyes get wider and wider as he sees the cache of gold Ioz had uncovered that had gotten him into the whole mess. "Look at all that gold!" he goggles.
Bloth comes over and picks the piglet up. "Be my guest, Konk," he offers roughly, chucking him overboard easily.
Konk lands on the ghost ship’s deck, and Grovis goes over to him, picking him up. "You want this one?" he grunts.
Cressa turns away, disappointment in her face and voice. "I lost the one I wanted," she replies stiffly.
Grovis shrugs and chucks Konk overboard into the water. (You’ve got to feel sorry for him...you know?)
Back on the Wraith--oh, cue the nice, calm, conflict-resolved background music--Ioz is saying what needs to be said. "Thanks for not giving up on me, Ren," he begins, then turns to Tula and Niddler, who are pulling on one of the sail’s ropes, and adds a begrudging, "You too."
Tula, who was smiling, chuckles a little. "Always happy to get your top knot out of a noose, Ioz," she teases.
Ioz then goes to Ren at the helm, and very quietly asks, "I trust you won’t tell her what I said on that ghost ship?"
Ren also keeps his voice low. "What--about being a greedy fool?" He grins, and the scene changes to the Wraith sailing into the rising moon, away to the horizon. "Don’t worry. Not a ghost of a chance."