Wyshira and Kale: Battle for the Dragon's Eye
The pirate vessel closing in on the
Dragon's Eye becomes clearly visible; a smaller craft than the merchantman vessel, with two outriggers , nets spanning the gap between these and the deck of the ship. Over the ship swarm human pirates, half-orcs too, and...
"Sea Devils" was the muttered word amidst the sailors, but Wolf uses a different one.
"Sahuagin."
The strange shark-men are clambering over the outriggers and nets, vicious weapons at hand, as the ship closes in. Their strange, scaled
skin and aquatic forms are disturbing and bizarre, vicious fish-eyes staring at the humans they were planning to attack. Sharks dart out from beneath the pirate vessel to circle the merchantman craft slowly.
The sailors prepare crossbows as the enemy close in, and bolts began to zip back and forth between the vessels, along with barbed javelins hurled by the sahuagin. The party is well-protected from the missile fire since they're gathered near the foredeck and ther are wooden rise on either side. Even as the sahuagin dive into the water and begin to clamber up the sides of the
Dragon's Eye, and the corsairs on the pirate vessel begin to sling over grapnels to drag the two craft together, Wyshira calls upon the power of Ishrak to
Bless the party and the nearby sailors. Kale prepares with a dart to hurl at the first sahuagin to pop its ugly shark-head over the gunnels...
As the ships close in and boarding planks slam down on the deck of the
Eye, barbed spikes securing them into the deck, the first wave of sahuagin come swarming over. There's the crack of pistols and zip of crossbows as the sailors fire their last burst of ranged weapons, the portly captain Marsans emptying his brace of firearms into the face of a sahuagin clambering onto the deck near him. The hydromancer, protected by glimmering energy,
lightning bolts the other ship's deck, killing a half-dozen corsairs; then he sets to work summoning a water elemental to aid the fight.
Kale sends a sahuagin climbing over the gunnels plummeting back into the water as he hits it with his dart, then the battle is on in earnest as fierce melee breaks out. A boarding plank slams down onto the deck next to the party, and four corsairs come rushing over; two sahuagin warriors clutching tridents, a human wizard in light brown robes who is protected by a glimmering
shield, and a sahuagin cleric in an ornate, coral-inlaid breastplate and clutching an equally ornate mace. The wizard casts
bull's strength on one of the sahuagin warriors while the cleric gestures at Wyshira and with a crackle of dark energy casts
doom upon her.
At this point, as the sahuagin warriors close in, Kale's ornate short sword begins to thrum eagerly in his hand...
Wyshira's mind is filled with images of doom and the sahuagin rending her to pieces but she pulls herself together by muttering prayers to Ishrak. With a gesture of her mace she points at the enhanced sahuagin warrior and with a single commanding word sends it running -
"FLEE!" - as the magic of the
command spell takes effect. To her delight, and the disgust of the corsair mage, it falters, then turns tail and flees, leaping over the gunnels to the safety of the water below. There's already something of a grudge between the two spellcasters, and the corsair mutters the word of a summoning spell - a fiendish, pitch black wolf pops into existence and lopes towards the priestess.
Wolf and the other sahuagin warrior clash in combat, the mercenary managing to gain the upper hand and injure his shark-like foe, while Kaerval attempts to
daze the corsair mage; the wizard easily shrugs it off.
Kale attempts to distract the sahuagin cleric away by taunting it; he hurls a dart at it which boucnes off its breastplate, getting its attention, then he shows off and provokes the priest, waving the brine blade around in the hope it might recognise it; after all, the sword seems to know its own purpose so he hopes the cleric might too.
Well, he definitely suceeds in getting its full attention - and wrath. It charges at him over the deck with surprising speed for an aquatic thing, hammering at him with its mace; it takes all his effort to avoid being smashed by the weapon. Taken aback by the sheer ferocity, Kale hops back onto the foredeck to get a height advantage and hruls a dart at the demon wolf the mage summoned (he misses) before striking at the sahuagin cleric with his sword. At this point Wyshira, trying to ingore the oncoming wolf, uses a scroll of
cause fear on the priest -
"The storm is upon you! Cower in fear of the Lady who flings bolts of destruction and death!" she cries - causing it to falter for a moment. Kale takes advantage of this - the enchanted blade cuts down, cutting through the beasts tough natural armour like a knife through butter as it buries itself in its throat, piercing down and into vital organs. Then the oily substance on the blade begins to corrode acidically into the things flesh as it gurgles weakly, before dropping dead - Kale's critical hit slew it with one strike...
Wyshira manages to fend off the summoned wolf as Wolf himself is caught in fierce conflict with the sahuagin warrior, unable to pierce its tough hide with his bastard sword. The corsair mage hits him with two
magic missiles, and more trouble is on its way too...
Two more sahuagin warriors and a half-orc pirate clutching a rapier come skittering over the boarding plank to step onto the deck by the wizard, while at the other end a huge four-armed sahuagin shouting commands and wielding two ornate, barbed tridents begins to walk onto the plank. Kaerval mutters a quick spell and his
sleep enchantment sends one sahuagin and the half-orc to sleep, to the obvious irritation of the corsair mage.
Fierce battle continues as Kale's attempt to bull-rush the mage off the ship is blocked by a sahuagin soldier, so instead he eviscerates the shark-man with one hit from the brine blade, acid corroding into it. Wolf is hit by his opponent but then fells him in return, moving over to help Kale as the four-armed sahuagin captain thuds down onto the ship deck, kicking the sleeping sahuagin awake. Behind him the corsair mage mutters another spell, casting
endurance on the captain. Wyshira and Kaerval take on the fiendish wolf, the bard striking a hit with his sword.
Then the wolf
smites good Wyshira, drawing blood, and Kaerval hits it one more time before it unsummons. Meanwhile the corsair mage casts another spell on the captain, forming a breastplate of ice out of the water vapour in the air around its torso.
This is a spell called Ice Armour, one originally created by the cryomancers but which has since spread to other magic-users as well.
Kale the human mincing machine kills the sahuagin that the captain had just awakened with a single blow and hits the four-armed mutant with a dart, causing cracks to radiate across the
ice armour. The spell absorbs all the damage though, leaving the sahuagin unhurt. Wolf is unable to hit it, and in return the big fighter hits both of them, one trident striking each for grievious damage.
As the corsair mage's
shield dissipates he kicks the half-orc pirate away, but kale's attack of opportunity on the half-breed as he stansd up is enough to kill him instantly too - even though the strike lacks the extra edge that the blade seems to give against the sahuagin. Immediately though the wizard is casting once more, firing a
ray of enfeeblement at Kale which misses. As Kaerval closes in to deal with the spellcaster the mage draws a rapier and the two clash to the sound of ringing steel. Kale makes a mental note - in the future,
always toast the spellcasters first!
"Hear me Ishrak! I call your Doom down upon our enemies!" rings out as Wyshira casts
doom on the sahuagin, but the mutant shrugs it off and carries on fighting. She's tempted to go after the corsair mage, who she finds personally offensive, but decides to leave that to Kaerval - the central combat between sahuagin and humans is what needs her attention. Kale's now fighting defensively while Wolf is using his expertise feat to keep himself alive, so the combat remains a stalemate with the captain unable to strike either mercenary but equally still uninjured, and with the
ice armour still in place.
After a few problems caused by the differences between meanings, yet similarities in spelling, bewteen the words 'vicious' and 'viscous'
, the fate of the
Dragon's Eye hangs in the balance...