The waves Captain Thoubold sought to break with the ship's prow hammered into the ship, nearly capsizing it. Wind which had been missing for so long battered the unmanned sails and suppressed any attempt to rise. It had been waiting, this storm, on the other side of the mists, and the Charlotte sailed straight into the violent heart of it.<br/><br/>With a great creaking and breaking from every place at once, the Charlotte listed onto its port side.<br/><br/><hr/><br/><em>The Port Corridor<br/>Danae, Jacqueline, Hannah, Camille, Genevieve, Servants </em><br/><br/>The first crash of Danae's body rebounded on slippery footing. The world tilted ever deeper at an angle, and the body's own sense of balance and normalcy restrained the will to bring every strength to bear at such a precarious angle. Water poured from the split deck above, from the crashing waves into deepening pools on the Charlotte's port side.<br/><br/>Another surge into the jammed door splashed in deepening water. Ragged, claustrophobic gasps from the servants' quarters as the last spaces of air filled with water. The last cries for help cut off suddenly. Fingers filled the gap between door and frame even as Danae thumped into it, certainly maiming poor people in the process. By the third great lunge, the water became so deep even a stout axe could not break down the submerged door. Sodden wood swelled into the frame, and pooling water dispersed any force which could be brought to bear.<br/><br/>The maids were doomed, condemned to a watery grave for their service to the ladies of the Charlotte.<br/><br/>"Oh, Camille, Camille," Hannah sobbed. Her muscles were consumed in deathly shivering, and she had no command to protest being led away.<br/><br/>Genevieve dropped from her ruined cabin into the port corridor turned sideways with an awkward thump and rush of breath. The last of the lights were sputtering, flickering, battered and damp. Soon they would extinguish. Though the switchback stair would be treacherous to navigate in this twisted geometry, the underdecks were too flooded to navigate.<br/><br/><hr/><br/><em>The Starboard Corridor<br/>Corinne, Zoe, Yvonne, Michelle, Sage </em><br/><br/>That moment of warding was barely enough for Corinne to take solid hold of the sizzling hot door and shake it from a blackened frame of charred splinters and ash. A scalded young woman cowered on the other side, afraid to cross the ring of fire though the cabin burned around her.<br/><br/>"Hurry," Zoe called to her, just behind Corinne despite the wizard's clear warning. "At once!"<br/><br/>Michelle mustered her courage once, twice, but the situation worsened for her. Only when the Charlotte capsized, and the starboard corridor turned on its end, did Michelle drop through and into Corinne's arms.<br/>"Mademoiselle!" Michelle startled. "Your hands are hot as coals!"<br/><br/>The last starboard lamp shattered, leaving only spreading flame and Corinne's wizard lights to illuminate the suddenly unfamiliar landscape of a frequent sight turned on its end. The door to Yvonne's cabin was above them, and Sage's below. Falling objects banged into the burning door above one after another, and the wood buckled, complained, but held.<br/><br/>One last rush of water all but extinguished the flames creeping across Sage's door. Zoe crouched to grasp the handle, and withdrew yelping, only to try again with fistfulls of her soaked chemise. As she struggled, the door directly above sagged in its frame, ready to spill the weight held aloft with a failing latch.<br/>"We can help them," said Zoe, heart aflutter, fingers reckless, propelled by instinct.<br/><br/><div class="spoiler_container"><div class="spoiler_header" onclick="hideSecond (this);" role="button">OOC</div><div class="spoiler_body">At 2019-07-28 12:33:05, Dhi (uid: 27498) rolls: 2d6 Result: 11 (https://elliquiy.com/forums/dicebot.php?r=138185)<br/>11 fire damage, halved due to resistance, is 5. Corinne's ward takes 5 fire damage.<br/></div></div><br/><br/><hr/><br/><em>The Deckhouse<br/>Aloisa, Eloise, Jeanne, Emma, Brigitte, Giselle, Delphine, Garsenda, Margaret </em><br/><br/>It did hurt, the sounds muffled by Emma's ersatz gag betrayed as much. A bone, to the understanding of Dementlieu medicine, ought to fit together like pieces of a human puzzle. For Aloisa's hands this was not so, and forcing the injury only brought tears to Emma's eyes.<br/><br/>Then the ship capsized to port, and all progress was ruined sliding to the side wall. Emma would not walk again on that leg until the injury healed.<br/><br/>The lights snuffed out, and such a cacophony of shattering glass and smashing wood from the capsized saloon that Eloise wept with fright, finding Aloisa with a grope in the darkness.<br/>"We have to get out," said Eloise. "This ship will be the death of us."<br/><br/>A lone lantern appeared at the switchback stair, shining on Aloisa, and three figures behind it.<br/>"The ship is sinking," Margaret Hotspur announced. "There are brave souls behind us who depend on your strength. Go, and let us find these women to the tender boat."<br/><br/><hr/><br/>A final wave chiseled the gap midships into a gaping hole, and down the center the Charlotte split open. Ballast and barrels from the ship's hold filled the stormy water with impenetrable soot and dense flotsam, the thrashing of sailors fighting to surface through press of swriling waves. Bit by bit, the rent Charlotte tipped back to heavy aft and the demolished saloon to bid the moon one last farewell. In moments it would be beneath the surface of the Sea of Sorrows, lost for all time.