Jin thrusts Riardon’s blade down into the back of the bonclaw’s neck. Light from the radiant artifact burns the creature from the inside out, until nothing is left but ash floating in the placid ocean.
From the deck, shouts of dismay from the remaining zombies mingle with cheers of triumph from the remaining dwarves. The ghoulish galleon is now burning out of control and sinking fast, the zombies remaining, are either too preoccupied with the dwarves, or to dismayed by the demise of their leader, to fight effectively.
From the direction of
The Gail, a small launch glides into view. On the prow, Fargo’s stout, squat frame enters the flickering circle of light, a commanding smile of delight on his face,
“Ahoy! Tho’t ye’d nevahr see me ‘gain didjee?” he shouts over the sound of crackling timbers and wails of undead despair,
“Wael ye won’ get away thaht eezee! I’d be likin’ tah get abard ‘afar we be taken by th’ winds o’ th’ fahllen!” He winks at you and turns around to his oarsmen,
“Stroke ‘ard me lads! We got not but minutes!” Several other lunches come in to view, picking up as many floating dwarves as possible.
Fenwick, now free to take his time, unfetters the captive dwarf, who gratefully bows his gratitude and hops into Fargo’s launch as it comes up alongside. Talon, Rujah, Riardon, Dayna, Jin, and Fenwick all join him, crowding into the boat, the oarsman all the while struggling to make time back to
The Gail.
The burning ghost ship becomes a living metaphor of a sinking sun, reflected in the eerily calm waters of the ocean. Even as the adventurers and the last of the remaining dwarves climb the rigging to the deck of
The Gail, the sea begins to churn as if a mountain of dry ice had been dropped into the water. There seems no uniform direction to the current caused by the disturbance, and the air begins to stir erratically as well into strong gusts of buffeting wind that howls like some undead beast.
From their vantage point on the deck of
The Gail, the crew watches the wind extinguish the fire on the ghost ship, and subsequently tear it’s charred hull to pieces. Above them, the crew of
The Gail has already furled the sails. Fenwick is astonished by what he sees next. The dwarves have fashioned the masts of the ship in such a way that they can be collapsed and laid flat on the deck, yet when they are constructed, they appear to have no seam.
Bereft of the fire, darkness settles in, still accompanied by the deafening howl. However dark, Riardon notices, to the front of the ship, a spot even darker is forming. The wind swirls and eddies around this point of darkness, whipping up sea foam to make a foggy ring around it. The point grows until it forms a pitch black disk whose bottom now rests below the surface of the water, which begins to pour into the void as if flowing through a portal. It is at this point that Riardon realizes that this is exactly what the disk is. It’s an 800ft wide portal pulling
The Gail directly into it.
As the massive ship passes through the black hole, everything goes silent and black. The wind is gone. The water is gone. The fire is gone. The zombies are gone.
Slowly the air itself seems to get brighter, like lights being lit in a theater one by one after a show has concluded. Presently the crew find themselves in sunny calm waters with seagulls squawking overhead and naught more than a gentle breeze. The air is warm and summer-like though Autumn was turning to winter when they left the hanged man.
“Whell! Tha’ ‘append a wee bit fahster’n aye tho’t ‘twould. Up tah now, they ‘ave us bide ar tiyme fahr five ar six days ‘afahr they opens that dahr.” Fargo looks across the inviting ocean and breaths in the warm , salty air. Heaving a satisfied sigh, he turns to the group,
“Six mahar days I ‘magine, an’ then we’ll make part.”
[sblock=OOC]Good work guys. That went more quickly than I thought it would. Goes to show (as I’m learning in Love Bites) that Rangers are serious K.A. strikers (when they hit
). Give me another day to calculate the XP. I can’t remember how many zombies you all killed, so I’m going to have to go back through the list. No treasure in this one, but I’ll figure out a way to work time gold into the story at least.
This will be an extended rest for all.[/sblock]
. As you can see, I corrected it in my last IC post.
