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[Fiasco]

The appearance of the tritons caused Argonne to reassess the wisdom of his sea born attack. Instead of bearing down on an unawares pirate he was sailing in the direction of a pair of formidable sea creatures. Abandoning what remained of his dignity, the woodsman ran back along the length of his boat and leaped back onto the dock. The force of his leap dug the stern of the boat downwards momentarily before it sprang back up and lolled another few feet towards Rumscully Jack.

When Stravarius saw the tritons appear his initial fear was replaced with the germ of an idea. Thoughts whirring, he remembered that the tritons had lost their prince and wondered if it was one of the captive sea folk in the prison. Surely, he reasoned, allegiance to the prince might outweigh any compulsion the magic of the horn could command over the attacking tritons? Distracted by his thinking, he negligently took aim and missed badly. Pleased to discard the heavy weapon, he turned and ran back into the hallway and in the direction of the cells.

“Stay and fight, you coward!” yelled Morgan at the departing Black Elf. In his fury, he bent his bow nearly in half before loosing the shaft at Rumscully Jack. Inspired by his anger, the arrow flew true and pierced the bearded man high in the shoulder. The pirate shook with fury and drawing his sword, he advance a few paces towards the Fastendian before reason stilled his feet. Regaining his poise, he smiled mockingly as his summoned allies threw a flurry of spears at his foes. Perhaps because they were disoriented from their summons, or merely through good fortune, none of the Hydra took serious hurt.

The pirate cursed anew, frustrated at the ineptness of his troops, but still refused to flee. Though the pain and number of his wounds were mounting, he could not stomach retreat from such a clearly inexperienced group. One had already fled, and another was raving senselessly. Surely his six tritons would easily overcome the other four. Jack’s calculations were interrupted by a bolt that nearly buried itself in his foot.

“Take that you damned Octopus!” screamed Moxadder from deep within the devil weed’s thrall. Somehow the Irudeshian had struck true with his crossbow. The tattooed man capered up and down in a bizarre parody of the fugues performed by Monks of Hutenkama.

“That’s right! Strike hard and strike true”, shouted Gerard and suiting actions to words, he lunged forwards and rammed his spear deep into the eye of an approaching triton. The creature emitted a watery scream that was terrible to hear. Thrashing about in its agony, the beast almost ripped the spear from Gerard’s hands in the violence of its death throes. Tightening his grip, Gerard swallowed deeply and freed his weapon. Its bloodied tip quavered a little as he pointed it at the next triton.

Keen to take part in his companions success, the Mortec pushed violently down on the arms of his weapon in a bid to arm it before the tritons overran his position. The satisfying click of the arms snapping into place was immediately followed by the unpleasant crack of wood. A part of his crossbow had been broken by his hasty action and tension released from the weapon resonated painfully through his arms. Mortec cast the mangled weapon aside and tried to put some distance between himself and the spear casts of the enemy.

From his vantage near the boat Argonne freed a length of cloth from around his waist, revealing it to be a sling. Placing a stone in the pouch, he thrummed it around his head. The eerie whine built to a pitch as he made his cast. The stone travelled on a flat, dangerous trajectory, but missed the pirate and cracked against a wall. Disappointed, the woodsman fumbled another stone from his pouch.

As the others fought, Stravarius reached the bars of the prison door. Acting with haste, he threw aside a thick bolt and wrenched the door open. The sound of shrieking metal caused the prisoners to cower in fear. Ignoring the humans, Stravarius went straight to the cell containing the tritons, who gurgled fearfully to each other in their strange aquatic language. Their cell was secured by a rusty iron lock.

Thinking quickly, Stravarius grabbed a metal torch holder from the wall and smashed it repeatedly against the mechanism. Though strong enough to defeat frail prisoners, the lock was heavily corroded and the ancient iron broke asunder from the powerful rain of blows the Black Elf lavished upon it. Without troubling to explain himself, Stravarius shouldered one of the retainers aside and seized the prince. With a grunt he threw the fish man across his shoulders and staggered back in the direction of the Hydra. Struggling under the triton’s weight, he hoped that his gamble would pay off.

At the dock, the companions were under intense pressure as they tried to withstand the triton’s assault. Gerard lunged once more with his spear but failed to strike a triton that swayed sinuously out of the way. He hopped back frantically, barely escaping a disembowelling thrust from the fish man. Rumscully Jack laughed deeply in approval of the carnage. His humour further improved after he sculled the contents of a potion retrieved from a belt pouch. The pain of his wounds faded, and he looked to take a more active part in the fight. Rapier in hand, the pirate leader moved easily across the churning waters of the cove. His sword deftly parried a dagger hurled at him by Mortec and a sudden dodge to his left defeated the stone and bolt sent his way by Argonne and Moxadder.

Lungs and muscles burning with effort, Stravarius approached the entrance to the cove. In the doorway he saw Mortec taking cover while beside him stood Morgan with bent bow in hand. The Fastendian loosed his arrow and watched it slice across the pirates side. Rumscully Jack’s response was almost too quick to see. Still loath to close within range of too many foes, he reached down into his boot and hurled a knife at Morgan’s chest. The throw was a powerful one, though it struck a little lower than intended. The warrior gave a ‘woof’ of pain and surprise at the dagger in his guts and sank weakly to his knees. With the single mindedness that was a characteristic of his people, he groped for another arrow from his quiver. The pirate’s satisfaction was short lived, for the next instance, a bolt cut into the meat of his left arm. Spinning to the right he saw the gangling crazed one give a distorted grin of triumph.

Deprived of his principal weapon, Mortec reached to his belt but was dismayed to find he had no more daggers. Unable to press his attack, he turned to Morgan. Readying a small prayer, he yanked the dagger from the man’s gut in a burst of dark blood. He quickly placed his finger on the injury and released the trickle of power he had drawn. Though the wound didn’t close, it ceased bleeding and gave the Fastendian some relief.

Gerard was the first to hear Stravarius’ heavy foot steps as he returned to the fray. Distracted by the Black Elf’s burden, he nearly missed a parry against the thrust of a spiral pointed spear. Wincing at his close escape, he prayed to Laster that Stravarius knew what he was doing.

“You’d better be worth it” Stravarius muttered as he staggered across the last few yards to the dock’s edge and heaved the enfeebled triton into the water. A stone whined past his head, another ill directed cast from Argonne. Breathing raggedly, the Black Elf was beyond caring. Collapsed to his knees he watched his triton sink beneath the surface.