Hullbreak Harbor, First Mate

The great white prowls the waters, efficient movements seeming to be lazy with how easy they are for her. She watches the Invaders as they defile her home and her Captain with their mere presence, but she takes her time lining up to charge. The skeletons are slow and clumsy, but can still do a lot of damage if they manage to grab on. She spots her chance and charges forward, and the first skeleton in the group shatters under her assault. Simple bones are no match for the Voice of Hullbreak Harbor.

Sometimes she wishes she could properly growl while under the water. Even at her most-intimidating, trying to make any actual noise just sounds like a drowning landlubber. She internally shelves the frustration as she rips apart another skeleton. It’s not like they’d even be intimidated anyway.

Neverrest doesn’t seem to care too much about the undead it’s sending, or maybe it hasn’t figured out a better way to attack the Captain yet. She was vaguely aware the Captain had found another dungeon out in the town, and it seems their old foe Neverrest managed to subsume it. She can’t think of any other way for the old cemetery to have gotten access to ravens.

Or… they are kind of fitting for it to have on its own. Whatever the reason, the Captain doesn’t share everything with her, and he’s not the most informed on what’s been going on in there anyway. She’s just glad to see the Captain not starving anymore.

She’s been a lot busier with the sudden stream of undead, but it’s better than being bored and having plenty of time to watch her home and Captain slowly shrivel. The rush of mana from the first skeleton that morning was like fresh deep water on her gills. The Captain quickly reinvigorated the shark spawner first, then started at least stabilizing the various nodes so the dwellers could be more comfortable.

The mana flow has lessened a little, now that the initial rush is over. Still, the skeletons are making quite a mess with their crude rock anchors. Stones litter much of the Captain’s seabed, but a small mess is a fine price to pay to keep her Captain healthy.

He really doesn't like the new development of Neverrest raiding him, though, so he’s trying to upgrade the seagull spawner back to a decent level so he can try to get a better look at the situation as a whole. He has his strength up now, but he also has his guard up. Neverrest has always been rather single-minded in trying to consume everything, but it’s no fool. It’ll realize eventually that its raids are only strengthening the Captain, and that it’ll take more than just a thin line of skeletons to defeat him… even if the line seems never ending.

She’s sure the Captain will come up with something eventually, though. For now, they’ll quietly build their strength and try to get the gulls to get information.

Thedeim

See, this is the kind of thing people mean about plans not surviving contact with the enemy. Most of the plan has been going great. The rockslides and slimes seem to be infiltrating without much issue, and Hullbreak seems to be a lot healthier already. Even the scattered initial reports are showing nodes and spawners healing and replenishing.

The sharks and fish returning in force I expected, too. I’m sending invaders, so of course Hullbreak will beef up his defenses. Unfortunately for me, I forgot about the seagull spawner. It’s healing up, too, which will make keeping secrets more difficult. The slimes and rockslides might be practically invisible in the water, but they stick out a lot more on land. I don’t think changing the number of undead I send will do much to stop it, either. If I try to send more, it might actually get strong enough to fight me more directly and still have gulls. If I slow the flow, it’ll start starving again. So I’ll just have to deal with the annoying little spyplanes.

I’ve asked Poe to keep a lot of ravens out to intercept as many gulls as possible, but it’s only a matter of time before they start being able to spot things they shouldn’t. So… how do I deal with this.

Problem: seagulls are going to eventually notice the line of rockslides and slimes among the skeletons. A lot of the path is covered by trees, but the beachhead and the stretch just past my walls are wide open. And I need to get a denizen back to get their actual report on what’s going on.

Solution: Uh…? Well, I don’t need too many more slimes and slides in there, so I can slow the rate of deployment. Maybe I’ll just send them at night? I’m pretty sure seagulls don’t do well at night. Hmm… I should probably also establish a bit of a beachhead actually in the water, too, come to think of it.

If Hullbreak has enough mana to work on the seagulls, it might get enough to try sending an expedition or two out to hit the skeletons before they even enter its waters. I really don’t need it realizing I’m sending more than just skeletons under the waves.

I still need to get the information back here though, too. My rats could do that… maybe. The gulls seemed to be more interested in my snakes than the rats when Hullbreak was able to raid me more consistently, but I’d bet they can handle a rodent at least as easily as they could handle a serpent.

Maybe dig a tunnel? It’d only need to be rat-sized… but that’s a long way from the treeline to the shoeline. They’d also be in danger from the wall to the trees, but that’d be a lot easier to defend without giving away the position of the rocky beach.

Maybe I should send Coda out to supervise it? He should make it a lot easier for them to dig. He’d probably need to only go out at night, though he could also receive the reports from my little spies.

Huh… actually, that gives me a better idea. If I had thought about the tunnel before committing, it might have worked, but it’s way too late in the game to try that now. If I had moles, it might be possible, but even with Jello hunting them more actively, she still hasn’t found a viable candidate. Instead, I’ll send Leo on expedition to manage my denizens. It’ll be a good practice run for him before I try to send him off to help the Southwood. If things go pear-shaped, it’ll be a lot easier to support him at the beach than way deep in the forest.

I nudge my wolf to expect Teemo, and nudge Teemo that Leo is expecting him. I explain as Teemo takes a shortcut, and Leo is sitting at attention once my Voice arrives.

“Hey Leo. The Boss has a special mission for you, if you’re ready.” The wolf barks and Teemo smiles.

“He says he was spawned ready, heh. OK Leo, Thediem knows you want to be the one to head the support to the Southwood. Well, consider this a practice run. He wants you to manage the operation to get info on Hullbreak. Getting the denizens all the way back here is too big a risk, so he wants you to set up a forward operating base in the woods near the beach, and organize things from there.

“As far as Hullbreak should know: all you’ll have access to are undead and ravens. You’ll need to help get what slimes and slides are still needed into the water without it noticing, and Thedeim also wants a defensive perimeter under the water at the beach. Hullbreak is using gulls to try to get intel, and though we’ll be slowing that as much as we can, it’ll only be a matter of time before it sends sharks and such to try to hit the undead before they even get inside its borders.”

Leo growls and yips as Teemo translates, and then gives my reply. “You can get access to the other denizens if you can keep Hullbreak from realizing they’re Thedeim’s.”

Leo nods and I can feel his mind churning with plans, my Warden preparing to protect my denizens and my plan, and hopefully protect even Hullbreak from itself.