The Lightbringers' Expedition to Castle Ravenloft - updated 12/19

Five arrows flew at them. Gerrit Applecatcher saw the one that might have hit him and smacked it with a backhand blow, snapping it in two.

The halfling and his traveling companion, an elf named Arianna, were in yet another bad situation. They were on a swaying platform that was suspended by ropes over a fifty foot drop. The catwalk to the north held a minotaur with a greataxe and three goblins with shortbows. On the catwalk to the south stood an ogre (armed with another greataxe) and two more goblins with shortbows. The platform swung slowly from ledge to ledge. As it reached the ledge, the larger creature would swing its greataxe at them. As they swung back, the goblins would fire.

Gerrit and Arianna had walked right into this trap. Neither had the skill or careful foresight of a rogue or trapfinder, so they found themselves in the middle of predicaments like this from time to time. It was no accident, though, that they still lived- both were fearsomely skilled. Gerrit was a holy monk of the order of Vennia. He had the piety of a man in the service of a goddess and the reflexes and combat training of a boxer. Arianna was an elf’s elf- deeply connected with nature at its root and able to hit a tossed apple with three arrows before it struck the ground.

They’d come today to retrieve Aleigne Foritelle, the seven year old daughter of an Ortilan blackmith. She’d been abducted by three ogres two nights past- assumedly to be sold on the dark market. Child meat was a delicacy to some monsters that could pay the price, and even to some beastly nobles from more savage lands. Aleigne would be sold for several hundred gold pieces and then be used for food- or, if she was lucky, enslaved.

The constabulary of Ortil had declined to pay the fee to have a group of mercenaries seek out the kidnapers’ lair. The reason was simple numbers- Aleigne’s family was of the working class. Her father was a simple blacksmith and what with the Five Kings’ War going on, the city couldn’t spare the coin to retrieve a poor family’s child. Had it been the magistrate’s son or a friend of the royal family it would be a different story… but as it happened it was little Aleigne.

This is where the two adventurers came in. The poor of Ortil band together in times of need, and they reached out to Arianna and Gerrit. The two of them had performed free services for the public before. Arianna was not opposed to taking some payment, but Gerrit’s willingness to put his own life in danger for the well-being of others often moved her to do the same and together the two had earned a loyal following in Ortil as the people’s group.

Arianna pulled and fired three arrows in one fluid blur. One of the arrows shattered off of a goblin’s buckler, but the other two found their marks, killing the goblins instantly.

Gerrit leaped from the platform and sailed over open space. Beneath him, the pit’s bottom could not be seen, and sharpened wooden stakes rose from the darkness. He kicked out and the remaining goblin ducked. Gerrit flipped off the wall and landed beside him, then pointed down the hallway. “Run.”

The goblin looked unfazed. “Uh… no.”

Gerrit fell into his fighting stance. “Your choice.”

Arianna, who remained on the swinging platform, had swung up within reach of the minotaur. It roared and hacked at her with its greataxe. She ducked the clumsy blow with ease, but the rope holding the northeast corner of the platform up was cut with a twang. The platform tilted and swayed just a bit as it began to swing back to the south. Arianna pulled two arrows and drilled them into the minotaur’s chest, keeping her balance all the while. The goblins on the south ledge fired on her and missed. She noted their sloppy archery techniques with distaste even as she took aim at the ogre.

The goblin beside Gerrit dropped its bow, drew its morningstar and swung. The blow whistled over Gerrit’s head and the halfling carried his motion into a spinning roundhouse kick followed by a spinning back kick. The goblin’s lifeless body bounced off of the minotaur, who began stomping towards the halfling eagerly.

The ogre took a swing at Arianna. The blade skirted along her ribcage, taking some meat with it. She’d already been struck in the opening moments of the trap, and now was feeling less confident. She took two arrows from her quiver and planted them in the ogre’s eye sockets. Dying, it fell forward and its face smashed against the platform, driving the arrows up through the back of its head. He tumbled down into the darkness, dead.

As the platform fell away to the north again, the two goblins fired. One arrow found her and she fell to the platform, barely conscious. Her blood pumped out over the swinging plane and her lungs wheezed feebly.

Gerrit somersaulted forward, under the minotaur’s swing. He lashed out with a kick to a pressure point in the monster’s knee and jumped back towards the platform, which was swinging in his direction. He had jumped nimbly but misjudged the platform’s stability and it rocked as he landed. He sprawled to the ground beside Arianna. To the north, the minotaur raised its greataxe for a triumphant killing blow on the prone halfling. Gerrit’s hand reached out and slapped Arianna’s calf, delivering a healing spell. He then rolled over, avoiding being cut in two and coming just short of rolling over the edge of the platform. The axe came down and cut along his back painfully.

Arianna, on cue, flung her legs over her head and rolled back to a kneel with an arrow already nocked and drawn. It fired up and into the minotaur, killing him.

The two adventurers stepped off the platform onto the north ledge. They looked back at the southern ledge and the two goblins there dropped their bows and ran. They’d seen enough.

Here on the northern ledge there was a wooden door, and behind it was the sound of sniffling. Gerrit opened the door on a small closet-shaped room. Aleigne was huddled into a corner and she gasped as the door opened.

“Aleigne?” Arianna said. “Are you alright?” The girl hesitated, then nodded. Her cheeks were tearstained and her arms were bruised, but aside from this, she was fine.

“Are… are they all gone?” Aleigne asked.

A sound from the southern corridor. Arianna looked back and smiled to see Jade, her animal companion, walking forward. The black leopard licked goblin blood from its paws and looked to her master.

“Yes,” Arianna answered. “They’re all dead. Let’s get you home.”


Back in Ortil, there was all due fanfare- which is to say that Aleigne’s father cried and shrieked with joy, the lower class cheered, and there would be drinks on the house at The Stag & Boar Pub.

Later that night at the pub, the ale flowed freely. Pints of lager were ladled out from an immense barrel into clay steins. The owner of the pub even tapped one of his kegs of fine dwarven spirits that crashed down the throat like a fiery battering ram.

Gerrit and Arianna sat and tried to deflect the adulation, reshape it into fellowship. It didn’t always work. The two of them were well known and loved among the workers. Sometimes it was hard to shake the compliments and back-patting.

An unkempt and jolly man clapped two more glasses on the table in front of the heroes and sat down. “Another round for the two-a yez! Say, I been thinkin’. You should have for a name.”

Arianna took a sip of her drink and looked up. “What?”

“Well, you been doin’ this so long and it’s just the pair of yez. Time to admit yer an adventurin’ party and come up with a decent name. All the good parties got names- The Order of Honor, The Shield of Brilliance, Edmund’s Regulars… “

“I don’t know, Froffin,” Gerrit said. “All the good names are taken. Do you have any ideas?”

Froffin demurred. “Um. Well. I do got one idea. It’s not great, but… I was thinkin’ like The Disciples of Virtue’s Path or somethin’. Cause you, Gerrit, you’re all religious. And you Arianna, you’re… um… an elf.”

Arianna smiled. “And elves are virtuous?”

“I dunno. I’m drunk.”

“Don’t mind him,” Hortor laughed from an adjacent table. “The way Froffin goes on, you can call yourselves the ‘Too-Polite-To-Say-Shut-Up Friends Of A Sodded Lush.”

Everyone laughed, no one more than Froffin.

The door to the tavern opened and the laughter died out. Standing in the doorway was a man no one had seen before, leastwise in the Stag & Boar. He was thin and his legs and arms were wrapped loosely in some kind of fabric. His head and torso were covered in some kind of drapery, and the hood hid his face. He looked around the room and stepped inside.

It was clear that he had the room’s attention, so he spoke. “I’m looking for one known as Arianna.” His voice was cool and surprisingly human- a dark hooded man in a tavern at night was expected to have a burbled rasp or crushed ice sort of speech.

Arianna raised her hand. “I’m here.”

The man stepped towards her with his arms held slightly spread from his sides. Arianna’s keen eyes saw inside the hood despite the shadows. He was merely a man, no older than perhaps twenty-three.

“I’ve got something for you,” he said. He reached up and across his chest, towards his sword. The tavern’s patrons all tensed, ready to spring from their chairs and fight to the death to protect the elf. Jade, who’d been slumbering at Arianna’s side, looked up and growled deeply in her throat. The man’s hand passed beyond his sword hilt and into the folds of his tunic.

He pulled out a piece of parchment that was folded over and sealed with a glob of burgundy wax. He handed it to the elf, turned and left.

“Well that was unnecessarily dramatic,” Gerrit said as the mood relaxed once more. “What does it say?”

“Read,” she corrected with a smile. “The written word cannot ‘say’ anything.” The halfling rolled his eyes.

Arianna broke the seal and opened the letter. There was a folded map. She put this aside and read the letter aloud. “’Dearest Arianna. You do not know me, but we are closer than you think. I believe you are my last living relative. I would be most honored if you would travel to my home on Farplane for a visit. Tell no one you do not trust about our relation, as some will not understand.’ It’s signed ‘your great-uncle, Count Strahd Von Zarovich.’”

Gerrit blinked. “Who?”

Arianna shrugged. “Never heard of ‘im.”










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Excellent! After all this time, another Doc Midnight story hour! I'm looking forward to this.

Johnathan

Thanks Johnathan! Good to have you on board. Word of warning though- as with my last several dozen story hours, I can't say for certain that I'll ride this one out. My ratio of completed to unfinished story hours isn't great.

Like I said before, well done and I look forward to more.

Dr Midnight said:

Word of warning though- as with my last several dozen story hours, I can't say for certain that I'll ride this one out. My ratio of completed to unfinished story hours isn't great.

Click to expand...

Ahh... but it's always a fun ride while it lasts!

In the morning, Jade, Gerrit and Arianna set out for Chandrar, a town to the north. It was a coastal town. It was the closest town where they might find a ship that might take them as fare to the Island of Farplane, to the northeast.



Gerrit said “I took the liberty of dropping in on the library last night. I looked up your uncle’s castle. By the position on the map it’s closest to a town named Barovia, in the foothills of a mountain range. I couldn’t find many specifics, other than that the region is buried in coniferous black forest and that the townspeople are highly superstitious.”

“Superstitious?”

“You know… they bury their dead with herbs and garlic, toss salt over their shoulders, stuff like that.”

“Sounds like they like to waste food.”

“Maybe once we taste Barovian cooking, we’ll understand why.” They laughed.

It was forty miles to Chandrar. If they pushed hard, they could make it to town by ten o’clock.
That night, they walked into Chandrar. This was a fishing and shipping village that might have been quaint if not for all the foul-smelling dockworkers.

Arianna and Gerrit found a wharf with a run down yet good-sized sailing barge. Its captain was overseeing a crew of dwaves loading crates of ice-packed cod into its holds.

“Excuse me, sir,” Gerrit said.

“Yeah?”

“We’re looking for passage to Farplane. Can you take us?”

The captain tipped his cap and grinned. “Sure can. I’m Captain Evory, this here’s my ship the SeaToad. We’re settin’ out fer Farplane in the mornin’,”

“Will you be stopping in at Palervale?”

“First stop.”

Gerrit smiled. “Excellent. Well then, how much will you be asking as fare?”

The alarmed moans of dwarves behind the captain cut the conversation short. The dwarves were backing up the wharf, away from them. Jade had found the crates of fish and was eagerly licking the condensation off the side of one.

Captain Evory turned back to the group. “What’s that?”

Arianna said “Um. That’s my animal companion, Jade. She’s harmless.”

“She don’t look harmless.”

“She’s obedient, really she is.”

“She stays locked up somehow on ship. Leashed or caged. Okay?” Clearly he was not loving the idea of having the two hundred pound cat aboard his ship.

Gerrit cleared his throat. “Perhaps there’s some service we can perform on board that will help the voyage somewhat.”

Evory thought on this. “Hmm. What can you do?”

“I can be as nimble up in the rigging as anyone on your crew, and I have good eyes. I might be good in the crow’s nest.”

This caught Evory’s attention. “That might be a help. We have to keep watch at sea, constant watch, for Gald’s black scum.”

By this he meant Hald Guerrik, the self-proclaimed Pirate King of the Saerrin Sea. Though the five ruling kings of the mainland denied him a claim to the islands and eastern sea, all efforts to thwart him had failed. His navy was a fleet of privateers and he ruled a large island where the materials to produce black powder were in ready supply. Sailing the Saerrin Sea was a tricky thing, especially if you had cargo to carry. One in five voyages were plundered further south. Up here by Gimfrit Strait it was slightly better, but only slightly.

Evory shifted his weight. “It’s because o’ the pirates that your fare will be so high, I’m afraid. I have to hire a half-dozen mercenaries to help guard the hold each time we go out. It’ll be ten gold each, plus five for the cat.”

The adventurers paid him that much plus an extra ten gold for the trouble. He blinked in surprise and said “Well then! You two can have my private cabin. If you’ll give me about a half hour, I’ll have it fixed up for you all nice-like.”

Arianna and Gerrit said thank you, called to Jade, and went for a walk about town. They entered the market square. Everywhere were shanty-booths of vendors selling fish and fish-based items.

A bottle of brownish liquid was shaken in Gerrit’s face. “Cod oil!”

Gerrit stopped walking and looked at the craggy old lady selling her bottles of cod oil. “Sure! I’ll buy one.” He pulled out a coin and dropped it in her outstretched hand, then took the bottle.

The woman looked at the coin in disbelief as Gerrit walked on. It was a gold coin. She ran back around in front of him. “More cod oil!” she shouted. “All kindsa uses, it has!”

“I’ll take another,” Gerrit said as he paid another gold. He took the bottle and placed it with the other in his haversack.

They walked away from the woman, who was shouting after them about how you can’t have too much cod oil. “You know,” Arianna said. “That’s probably not even worth five copper pieces.”

Gerrit shrugged happily. “I know. I made someone’s day, though. Vennia rewards us for every little bit of good we do.”

Within a half an hour, they’d turned around and re-entered market square. Arianna sighed. “Tell me again about how we’re rewarded for the ‘good’ that we do?”

"Please shut up.”

The market square was lined with vendors, and each was turned to Gerrit. Their eyes gleamed like sharks’ as they moved in, waving useless sea-gotten trinkets and items. The adventurers looked down and began shouldering through the masses towards the SeaToad.

“Coral amulet! Magic!”

“Tuna? Tuna for you-na?”

“Did you know that kelp can cure almost anything?”

“Grouper, got plenty of big fat grouper here!”

“Cod oil! Makes a terrific gift!”

“I had a rash once. Know what I did? I spread on some Squid Paste!”

“Shrimp poppers?”

“Lobster muffins! Can’t be beat!”

The two of them (plus a shaken Jade) reached the ship and bolted the door behind them. The captain’s quarters were little more than a wooden box that smelled of… well, the captain of a fishing vessel. Gerrit put down his things. “At least we can get some rest, finally.” Arianna sat on a chair and began to meditate as Gerrit stretched out on the bed and shut his eyes.

Something else was wrong, though, and in a moment his exhausted mind grasped it. The dwarves above deck were still clomping around, loading crates of ice-fish. The noise down here in the cabin was almost cacophonous. Gerrit sighed sadly and tried to ignore the noises.

The dwarves didn’t stop loading the ship until maybe two in the morning.


A knock at the door woke Gerrit and roused Arianna from her meditation. “Whuh?” Gerrit asked blearily. “Whuh time?”

“Wakey wakey!” Captain Evory said as he popped his head inside. “What, are you guys hibernating? I let you sleep in all day… it’s almost seven A.M.! There’s work to do… and bring the cat!”

Gerrit crawled out of bed and began to pray. Arianna fed Jade and within a few moments, they walked above deck.

They were at sea. The SeaToad moved out, eastward from Chandrar Bay and for the first time, they’d left the mainland. The water ran by in a blue-grey wash and the filthy deck swayed underfoot. The kingdom of Thendis began to shrink behind them. Ahead, only ocean. It was seventy-three nautical miles from Chandrar to Farplane. They could expect to arrive sometime tomorrow afternoon. The men in the ship's crow's eye held spy-glasses to their faces as they scanned the horizon for privateers.

“Heyyy,” Evory said. “There are my two favorite fares. All right. Gerrit, here’s a spy glass. Get up there and keep a watch. Rusty’ll tell you which direction to look in.”

“Gotcha.” With a jump, Gerrit was swinging from line to line, sometimes flipping, sometimes turning, sometimes catching the next line with the backs of his knees, ever moving up.

“Huh,” Evory mused. “He is good in the rigging. Anyway. Arianna, I got a special job for Jade here. Come with me.” He led the elf and the leopard to a large wooden block, where a gore-slicked man in a rubberized apron was cleaning fish.

Arianna was horrified. It was the worst thing she’d ever smelled, and that included the encounter with the Otyugh. “What… what is it you’d like for Jade to do here?”

The man cleaning the fish zipped his knife up a fish’s belly and with a finger pulled out the innards. They fell to the bloody deck with a splat. A young man pushed them and other fish guts out a deck-drain with a pushmop.

Evory said “I’d like to give kitty here an all-she-can eat buffet.”

“You want my animal companion to eat fish innards?”

“Yeah! She likes fish, doesn’t she? It’d be a great help- Junior can’t push that mop all day, and besides, the guts in the sea are effectively chum. By the time we pass Hallowed Point we’ll be trailing sharks.”

“Jade isn’t a bottomless pit for fish tripe. I’m sorry, but I can’t allow it. I’ll take over for Junior for a while, if that helps.”

Evory shrugged. “Okay, suit yourself.” He walked away.

Arianna tied Jade up belowdeck and approached Junior. “Hello,” she said. “I’m going to be taking over for you for a while.”

“Really? Fantastic! Here’s the mop- the trick is to not step on the spleens. If they burst, the bile really gums up the wood.” He handed her the mop and untied his apron and walked away. “Oh. One more thing.” He turned back. “After about an hour or so, your hands will start to develop really horrific blisters. Don’t worry, though- after another hour, they’ll pop. Have fun!”

Arianna stared after him from her place on the stinking, moist, crimson deck, holding a blister-slicked mop, with her mouth agape.










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Up in the crow’s nest, Gerrit was getting acquainted with “Rusty” and learning the basics of being a lookout. Gerrit’s portion of the sea would be the northeast, while Rusty covered the northwest and the third man would keep his eyes on the south… which was of course where trouble was likely to come from.

Gerrit scanned the horizon from shoulder to shoulder, as Rusty had instructed. The line was clear. By noon the distant islands of Westerwynne and Hallowed Point would become visible. Gerrit watched for them as eagerly as he watched for the privateers.

Down on deck, Arianna was having a less enchanting experience. The man cleaning fish was a talkative brute named Belpurt who seemed to think the elf was interested in hearing about the particulars of his job and seeing his skill with a cleaver.

“Most can’t clean a fish with a cleaver,” he said. “They use a filet knife. Like novices.” He laughed and tossed a glut of intestines to the deck.

“Could you please be careful?” Arianna asked wearily. “You almost hit me with those.”

“You know what the novices also don’t do? Drain the livers. You take a liver, like so, and squeeeeze…” He squeezed a fish liver out over a stained wooden bowl that was filling with vile liquid. “This is the oil. You can get a killing for this stuff at market. I heard someone paid a gold piece for a bottle just yesterday.”

“Yes, yes,” Arianna wheezed. “I think I might sit down for a bit. The sun is getting to me.”

“Ahh, it does bake down, doesn’t it? Know what’s a good sunscreen? Cod oil. Here, smear some on ya!” He dipped a hand in the bowl and reached for her.

Arianna promptly dropped the mop and ran away. “I’ll just run and get Junior. His shift’s back on anyway.”

“Suit yourself.” Belpurt shrugged and then rubbed his oily hand all over his face and the back of his neck. He got back to work.

Around noon, the cook served a meager fish-hash which had been fried in the skin. Dinner that night was worse. Jade enjoyed Gerrit and Arianna’s shares, and they ate their trail rations below deck, well away from where the sensitive cook would see.

When night fell, Arianna took Gerrit’s spot in the crow’s nest. She had eyes that could see better and further in the dark than the crew, and the night wind was soothing on her sunburn anyway. She didn’t need sleep. Gerrit, however, turned in early so that he’d be up at first light to continue the watch.


Gerrit bounded up to deck, well-rested and ready to watch. “Good morning, Captain Evory.”

“Mornin’. Ain’t you chipper.”

“Ain’t I just.”

“Wind’s with us today. We should reach Palervale around one, maybe earlier.”

“Fantastic. Well, I’d best get up there.” Gerrit leapt up and began flipping his way to the nest.

Arianna was scanning the horizon dutifully. Her skin was its usual unblemished shade. Gerrit hopped into the nest and said “Goood morning. What happened to your sunburn?”

“I couldn’t take it. At some point I just used a cure spell.”

“Oh come on, you big baby. I was in the sun twice as long as you were, and you don’t see me burning magic.”

Arianna slapped the spyglass against his chest. “I happen to have a very fair complexion, I’ll have you know. Have fun, I’m heading down before the sun gets too high. I won’t make that mistake twice.” She climbed down and Gerrit sighed happily, surveying the ocean. He could see how some could fall in love with a seaman’s life, roving from port to port on the foam.

He also liked studying the far-off lands he’d only heard of. Westerwynne was a broad and flat island… just a flattened black patch on the horizon. Wellden, on the other hand, was a small island that had three tall mountains silhouetted against the sky. One of the peaks almost looked like it had a flag planted in it. Gerrit couldn’t see the island too well, but he enjoyed marveling at just why someone would mark the top of a mountain with a flag. He would have so many different cultures to learn about on this trip.

Within a half hour, Rusty joined him. “Mornin’ Gerrit. You’re up early.”

“Yep. I quite like it up here.”

“That’s good,” Rusty said. “I imagine you’ll miss it tonight when you’re back on dry land, eh?”

“I just might. Hey Rusty… that’s Wellden, right?”

“That island behind Hallowed Point? Yep.”

“Why do they have a flag planted on top of one of the mountain peaks? Some local custom?”

Rusty held up his spyglass and took a look. His mouth went slack and he dropped the glass, then began ringing the bell that hung over their heads. “Ship! Ship to the north!”

Gerrit looked again. “That’s a ship? I… oh no…”

“You may not be cut out for this after all, Gerrit. Now think very carefully- when did you first spot the peak with the flag?”

“Uh… it came into view about a half hour ago.”

Rusty slammed his fist against the nest’s basket and the whole thing trembled. “Damn. They’ve had time enough to spot us for sure.”

Evory shouted up from below. “What’s going on up there?”

“Ship, captain! Between us and Wellden. They hid in the shadow of the mountains as we breached the horizon.”

Arianna came up from below deck to see what all the shouting was about. Rusty tossed her a spyglass, which she caught deftly. “Elf! You’ve got good eyes. Look to the north. There’s a ship, and at the top of the mast is a flag. What’s on the flag?”

Arianna looked carefully and said “It looks like three red teardrops on a black field.” The crew began looking to each other fearfully. “The ship is moving to the right of Hallowed Point.”

“That’s it then,” Evory said through his teeth. “They’re moving to intercept.”

The six mercenaries Evory had hired were roused and armored. They got up onto deck around the time that the ship was completely visible to the right side of Hallowed Point. Evory looked to the garrison and then to the ship again. “I don’t know why I hire the men. To feel safe, I guess. This won’t help us. That’s a fully loaded privateer. Maybe upwards of one hundred thirty men. Probably twelve cannons to a side. At the speed they’re running, they’ll overtake us before we can reach land.”

Gerrit said “Despair won’t help. We should come up with a plan.”

“What plan could help us now? Despair’s the only hope we have left! If we surrender everything we have, they won’t kill us and send my ship to the bottom of the Strait. Unless you’ve got a fierce plan, I don’t think we’ve got a prayer.”

Arianna thought quickly. “If I could just touch their ship, I could warp the wood of their hull and make a big breach. They’d sink within minutes, or at least slow down enough for us to escape.”

“You’d have to get over there, first,” Gerrit said. “But how?”

“I… I could turn into a fish and swim to the ship’s underside.”

Captain Evory said “In these waters? Think again. Since we’ve been shoveling tripe overboard as usual, the sharks have been thick in the water since last night. You’d never make it. If only we had some other way to dispose of the fish guts, eh?”

Arianna ignored that. “I could fly over as a bird! But… I couldn’t cast the spell. I need hands and speech to make the spell work. I could turn into myself again, but then I’d be in the water.”

“It’s a wash. Do we have another plan?”

The ship was beginning to grow larger in the distance. The mast against the gray of the sails could now be seen with the naked eye.

Gerrit licked his lips as he thought. “I think I may have something. I think I can keep them off of us until we reach Farplane. Maybe.”

“Well by all means, let’s hear your idea.”

Gerrit began talking.










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Ha HA!

Great to be reading you again Doc! See this one through at least until Strahd has them by the jugular!

The pirate ship drew close. It grew close enough to read its name- it was called the Indomitable. The men on board ran about grabbing cutlasses from uncapped barrels and shouting threats over the railing. A man with a large coned megaphone stood at the nose and yelled to them. “You are overtaken! You will slow and allow us to board. Do so and no one will be harmed. Refuse us and be destroyed!” The pirates all screamed in approval.

Gerrit, Arianna, Evory, the mercenaries and crew stood at the rear of the SeaToad, watching the ship get closer and closer. Gerrit was at one corner of the rear of the ship, Arianna at the other. Evory nervously looked to the northeast, where the port of Palervale was also growing close… but not nearly close enough. They were maybe a half hour away from docking, and the Indomitable would be on them in minutes. Evory shifted from foot to foot. “There are maybe two hundred of them,” he moaned. “Now? They’re close.”

“Just a minute more,” Gerrit said. They have to be right on us.”

So they waited. The Indomitable came close enough to see the rotted teeth in the gums of the pirates. They leered at Arianna over the railing and made lewd gestures.

Evory murmured “They mean to take her too.”

“They won’t,” Arianna replied.

Gerrit said “Everyone mark her position in your mind. Ready… now!” He and Arianna raised their arms and cast.

Thick mist began billowing off of them in great clouds that were over fifty feet wide. The entire ship’s hull was obscured to the pirates’ view. Only the masts and sails rose above the mist. It carried behind them from their speed, but the wind was with them kept it dispersed between the SeaToad and the Indomitable.

The adventurers’ bodies kept generating more mist as everyone on the SeaToad bent to pick up a shortbow. A crate of them had been found in the cargo hold, and the mercenaries had had enough arrows for all. The ends of each were wrapped in rags and wetted with cod oil.

The arrows were lit and Gerrit shouted “Fire at will!” Glowing firespots shot off into the mist. Thunks, splashes, exclamations, and a few screams came back to them.

A thunderous report boomed through the mist. A quick, low moan went over them, and then a splash from the fore of the ship.

Evory whooped excitedly. “They’re firing blind! The cannoneers can’t see our masts to aim!”

The SeaToad crew fired another volley of fire arrows out into the fog. More thunks. This time, an alarmed voice cried out and a tremendous explosion came from the pirate ship. Pieces of wood rained down on them as pirates screamed in the distance.

Arianna grinned. “Someone hit a black powder keg!”

The Indomitable fired its cannons again. This time the cannonballs sounded closer, making their ghostly pass in the fog. They crashed through a few layers of canvas and crashed into the surf. The spray fell on the SeaToad’s aft deck. Evory said “That one was closer. They won’t keep missing. Unless we hit another bank of kegs they’ll hit us soon.”

Gerrit laughed. “True, and with more than cannonfire.”

The prow of the Indomitable was beginning to emerge from the gray. It loomed steadily toward them.

“Hold your fire,” Gerrit said. “I’ll be right back.” Before anyone could ask what he was planning, he jumped out over the sea and landed on the prow-mast. He ran down its length to the deck of the ship, still billowing mist from his body.

Here, pirates were running about in a panic, gray shapes disappearing into the fog as quickly as they’d emerged from it. None of them even seemed to notice the halfling darting amongst them in the thick mist. Fiery wreckage, arrows, and pirate bodies littered the deck.

Gerrit was looking very specifically for the area of the ship that had held the powderkegs. He knew from his talks with Rusty the day before that any bulk item on a ship was likely not moved far from its main store. Three kegs may have detonated, but more would be nearby in the hold below the deck. With a moment’s looking he found it- a smoking black patch surrounded by pirate corpses. Nearby was a staircase leading down into the hold. A lattice of iron was beside it. Gerrit bent to look through it and saw the kegs, row on row, sitting prettily twenty feet below.

A dying pirate lay near Gerrit with a barrelstave buried in his chest. When he moaned his voice gurgled- the stave had hit a lung. “Please,” the pirate gasped. “please kill me.”

Gerrit leaned in and said “This is what you get when you traffic with scum. Be judged!” He then stood and smashed one of his bottles of cod oil against the iron grate, then took off running for the fore of the ship. The pirate watched as the oil lit on fire and dripped into the hold below.

“Hey,” a pirate yelled through the mist. “One of them’s boarded! Get ‘im!”

Gerrit ran at full speed to the front of the ship and leaped, smashing a bottle behind him as he did. The foredeck lit on fire and the pirates on his tail cursed and screamed. Gerrit sailed over the ocean and the SeaToad came into view again.

That was when the remaining powderkegs went.

This explosion was far more spectacular. Boards of the deck flew in ever direction, some just missing Gerrit by inches. Wet pieces of pirate showered everywhere. Gerrit was struck in the back by the shockwave and carried foreward, over his crewmates and onto the deck. He landed and rolled to a kneel.

The Indomitable, behind them, lurched to port. Maybe the rudder’s mechanisms were damaged, or maybe a pirate’s corpse had draped over the wheel. Whatever the reason, the injured ship was making a hard turn to port and leaving them. The screams of the injured and confused pirates faded into the mist.

As the SeaToad pulled into port at Palervale, the crew, adventurers, and curious wharfspeople watched the smoking Indomitable head away.

Evory stepped out onto the dock with Arianna, Jade and Gerrit. “I suppose I’ll have to get her repainted,” Evory said, “and renamed. They’ll be looking for the SeaToad now. I might have to have serious refittings done before I dare go back out to sea.”

Gerrit frowned. “I’m sorry for that.”

“I’m not. We gave those thieves a black eye and I’d do it again in a second. Good travels my friends.” He held out his hand.

Gerrit shook it. “And to you. Goodbye Captain.” The adventurers left Captain Evory there, clapping and hooting as he watched the Indomitable limp back out to sea.

The forest beyond Palervale was dark, and the mountain beyond that darker still.










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Felix said:

Ha HA!

Great to be reading you again Doc! See this one through at least until Strahd has them by the jugular!

Click to expand...

Wow, I'm surprised anyone here still remembers me. Thanks people! If I've still got fans, people might be interested in that you can now buy The Adventures of the Knights of the Silver Quill (http://www.lulu.com/content/586907) and The Adventures of the Knights of Spellforge Keep (http://www.lulu.com/content/588165) as softcover books. You can also get them as free downloads. I don't make any money off of these.

This isn't the same group I've played with before- I've moved and am in a new area, knowing few gamers hereabouts - hence there being only two of them. They're playing gestalt characters. Gerrit is a monk / cleric and Arianna is a ranger / druid.

We play again on Saturday, possibly with a guest player, which I'm excited about. Here's a more detailed map of the area if anyone would like to take a peek.