Swimming (training thread)

[Deleted]

Eccentric Specialist  (swim good) (jump good) 
Rank: "C" Always 20 Training Points
Skill: Supplementary
Effect: User is focused in an unusual area of study for a member of the user's profession.
Special: ---
Drawback: ---
Description: Choose any 2 Skills. These skills the user may gain an extra +1 per die roll when learning the skill and the user gains a +5 insight bonus on all checks with these skills. The user can learn this technique multiple times. Its effects do not stack. Each time the user selects this technique it applies to a new set of skills.
Limit: Must learn from Universal Miscellaneous.

Pressure. It was against every fiber of my being. Crushing. I could feel my mind shell up against it. Open ocean. Just keep swimming. Like a stone against the current it rushed against me. It ripped past my skin pulling streams against the flesh. Beneath it all was the pain. Steel. Daggers against flesh. Sharks in the water. A woman screaming. Memories floated to the surface as I cut through the water. The further I rose the more I could see. The more I could see the more it came back to me. 

It was better to drown. One day soon. For now I kept moving through the water. I had to get to the surface. Seconds flowed into minutes and soon I was nearing the surface. Light was starting to shine through the layered patterns of debris and detritus that filled the open ocean. Deep below, near the reef a kelp field would feed on the decay. Blood in the water. The smell of gunsmoke and black powder. It lingered here. 

I could feel it in the water. I could sense the heartbeat slowing with each pump of an open wound. I was moving as fast as I could as I traced my way along the course. My gills opened up letting me breath in the deep aroma in the ocean. Planks of wood, nails sinking to the bottom. Cannons strewn with rope and net falling to the depths. Furniture for the fish. The marble skin of the dead floating. Fish food. 

[Deleted]

?/20

This was not my first time here. Not here. More memories. A place like this one. Many times. The glints of silver goblets catching the sunlight. The glow of gold under the sea light, memories of jewels and the pleasure they brought. I had tasted the good life and found it needing salt. The salt water rushed through my gills as I circled through the water. These things were slowly falling, they had fallen a long way. I was on the right course. 

The water rushed past me as I kept moving. How long I swam I can't recall. Drifting forwards following the scent of the blood. The smell of the smoke, the wooden carcasses of ships. I followed the sharks, a pact between predators and a pact of blood kept us akin. Memories floated to the surface as I swam. Always loved feeding sharks. Sharks always loved to be fed. I reflected on them as I traced the scent. 

This is where the scent would take me. Many scents mixing into the water. Too many boats. We are at port. It was time to get dry. I started swimming closer up to the surface of the water. The moonlight turning my skin an unnatural blue color as I approached the surface. The leather duster and clothes stained by salt and sunlight clung to my body. A red bandanna over my mouth and my rapier in hand I was approaching the docks... 

[Skulking Shinzu]

Learned.

[Deleted]

able learner, eccentric specialist (25 tp to max) 
Swim Good

Rank: "E"

Skill: Sophisticated Skill

Effect: This skill provides the character with knowledge of how to swim deeper and holding their breath longer.

Special: ---

Drawback: ---

Description: Relevant Abilities: Might Skill. Die Rolls: 1 Die Roll. Check Requirement: Never. Swim Good is a skill to increase holding the breath and increase depth tolerance. No Die Roll is needed for Swim Good. There is no Difficulty check with Swim Good. Normally targets may only swim at a depth tolerance of 15 meters, and hold their breath for a number of rounds equal to 2 x (10 + 2 per Indomitable Fortitude). Swim Good depends on the user's Skill +15 meter base Depth Tolerance. There are 2 benefits to this skill. First is Depth Tolerance Increase. Every 5 skill points increases Base Depth Tolerance by +2 meters. Second is Holding Your Breath. For every 5 skill points increase Holding Your Breath by +1 round.

Limit: Must learn from Skills.


This place... the smoke filled the air. This town was on fire. The air carried the scent a lot better than the water did. A smell I could remember. Memories floated to the surface. Me walking across the deck, watching the hellish landscape around me dance in the euphoria of slaughter. My men storming the ramparts cutting men who ran and slaying those who didn't. There was always this smell. The smell of a raid. 

As I glided through the water I heard the commotion from the city above me. The floating city was ablaze as a group of uniformed men stormed the docks. There was the crack and release of bowstrings as the bolts were released into the air. Screams. More blood in the water. There was another splash as a sputtered heartbeated was plunged into the water. Food for the fish. I continued to swim through the water. 

[Deleted]

post 2 of 5


The debris in the water was giving me pause. I would need to get around them. As the stream flows around a mourning line. As I started moving through all of the wreckage that filled the water. The only living visitor in this murky tomb already quickly discarded by those on the surface. Here under the tides all I'd need to do is swim across the underside of the bay. As I sunk lower into the water I took a moment and started shifting through the sinking wooden planks. I took a moment and paused. Something was here. 

[Deleted]

Post 3 of 5

As I felt the water around me I could feel the memories come to me. Crawling through my mind like my body through this water. I remember another sunken ship. Not this one. One similar. Hunting a kraken, first hunt. Bloody hunt. The splintered wood in the water was like it is now. I started moving through the water, a ghost through both the past and of this water. I peered through the water, a rage building inside the back of my mind. Something was still here. Through the water I could see the light falling through the waves.

[Deleted]

Post 4 of 5

I see his face through the water. I saw his face from up above. I could recall his face as I was falling from the ship. As I was pushed overboard. I could remember that face. Auburn hair against the sea around us. 23, Nicholas Caldwell. Deck hand. Able bodied. It had been a few years but the man was connected to me. For the first time since I arrived at port I could feel my own heartbeat in the water. I kept swimming. Soon I would have my vengance. 

[Deleted]

Post 5 of 5

It was right here. Black ink against the manifest. Where did I get all this ink? So many names were strewn across the parchment. I was nearing the edge of the water. Soon I would be out of the water, I just needed to get on land. I had not been to the surface since I was reborn. A calmness settled me as I wafted through the turbulent waters. Once my feet touched the ground it was going to be time to get back to work... It was time to hunt. 

[Madame Loki]

Learned