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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Olgar Shiverstone" data-source="post: 3964469" data-attributes="member: 5868">Session 6: The Savage TideRhiannon examined Brissa's body.  "I can't figure out what this is.  it's the same source that is poisoning Morderas, and I can't cure it.  It's partly magical, partly acts as a poison, and partly acts as a disease.  I can temportarily reverse it with some preparation, but that's all I can do, I'm afraid."Moderas looked nervous.  "I'll take temporary reversal as soon as you can manage.  This thing growing on my shoulder doesn't feel natural."As the cave where they had put Brissa to her final rest was a dead end, they backtracked to the last intersection and chose another passage, still following the sounds of metal-on-metal combat.  They soon entered a maze-like area of stone corridors and columns, here three more deformed, diseased pirates attacked them, though with close cooperation and some aggressive fighting by Korlick the wonder dog they quickly dispatched these next foes.Passing through the maze-like chamber, they reached an area where both the sounds of the surf and the sounds of fighting grew louder, and the stone passage soon opened onto a sandy-floor cave that backed onto a tidal pool where the waves repeatedly lapped the sandy shore.Standing with her back to the pool was a beautiful raven-haired woman dressed in form-fitting jet black armor, with a wide-brimmed hat cocked jauntily over one eye.  She held a cutlass in one hand and a dirk in the other, and skillfull dodged back and forth, thrusting at and parrying the attacks from the dozen or more diseased pirate figures that surrounded her. The enemy of my enemy ... Thalas thought, as Kithkanan and Athal ahead of him drew their blades.Kithkanan charged the mass of necrotic flesh, dropping two of the pirates with a single slashing blow before they were even aware of him.  Thalas pulled a mallorn leaf from his belt pouch, reading the arcane glyphs he had scribed there with octopus ink, then cruching the leaf as the glyphs began to pulse with purpule light.  Thalas pointed, and Athal suddenly grew to ten feet in height, his sword increasing in lenght in proportion to his growth.  Athal also charged the enemy, felling another pirate with a single overhand blow that arced nearly to the ceiling of the cavern.  The pirates responed to this new threat, with the rearmost -- who were having difficulty engaging the woman due to the press of bodies in front of them -- whirling and advancing on line.  As they turned, the woman herself dodged lightning quick and downed four of her opponents in a blinding fury of flashing blades.As the line advanced, Athal whirled and sliced the sinews of another pirate just as it came within reach of his blade.  Thalas moved into the open, castign first one spell to distract Moderas' opponent, and then concentrating to channel his energy into a focused, precise attack.  When he delivered that strike, Moderas' opponent dropped, and Thals continued his attack, successfully wounding the pirate that faced Arjan.  Moderas then spun and dove behind Arjan's opponent, striking him in the knees."It's time to end this, boys!" the woman cried, stabbing two more with a thrust from each of her blades.  She staggered back to pant, blades hanging loosely from her hands, and oberve the scene in front of her.To Thalas' left, Athal sliced another opponent in two, causing the decaying body to splash acid over Quinn and Rhiannon, who wer eunable to get out of the way in time.  Arjan meanwhile screamed to Thalas' right as a pirate succeeded in rending his side with a pair of talons.  Athal stuck down another pirate, leaving a single one surrounded by Morderas, Arjan, and Thalas ... but with Athal's extended reach, he stepped forward and destroyed that one as well before any of the others could land a telling blow."Well done, me hearties," said the woman as she wiped and sheathed her blades.  "I don't know who ye be, but I be in yer debt just the same.  I be Captain Harliss Jornal of the Crimson Fleet, and these unfortunates we have just sent to Osprem's locker were me crew before Vanthus Vanderboren turned them into twisted nightmares."Thalas looked at the others and shrugged.  "Crimson Fleet" didn't mean anything to him, either."Is he a wizard, then?" Athal asked.  "We're hunting Vanthus ourselves, for betraying us and attempting to get us killed.  We suspect him of much, murder and worse, but didn't think he was capable of this.""I'll tell ye what happened," the woman replied, relaxing as the others also sheathed their weapons, and Morderas began pilfering bodies. "Vanthus approached us a week ago with an offer of cheap cargo.  We figured he was a black marketeer, and arranged to meet him at this cove.  Vanthus waited until the ships arrived, then dumped alchemist's fire in the water and set all the shipa afire.""Yeah, he does seem to have a thing for that tactic," Thalas interjected, "he was planning the same thing back in Sasserine harbor, and used the same trick to kill his own parents.""Aye, he's a piece of work, that one," Harliss agreed. "While the ships were burning he tried to rob me hold.  I surpried him when he came up on deck, and he dropped what he was trying to steal -- a black pearl the size of a fist.  His blood splashed on it as I struck at him,.  The pearl cracked, and a green gas began spewing from it, going straight through the side of the ship in an expanding cloud.  The pearl rolled off the deck and into the water, and when it hit it exploded.  A green mist filled me vision, and I felt famished and feverish, but then the feeling was gone.  When it passed, Vanthus and I were the only humans left -- everyone ele had transformed into one of those ... things.  Vathus dove from the deck and swam to the shore through the fire and disappeared; I came to shore to try and put the pieces together and was atatcked by what was left of me own crew."</blockquote>

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