Session Seven, Part Two: "Surrender, or I slit her throat."
Compiler's Note: Sorry for the late update, folks, but I got called for a short-term emergency consulting gig today, which will continue for tomorrow at the very least. My bank account thanks you for your patience.
Ellerand could hear the voice of one of the crewmen, and pounding on the door - and Dru's voice, somewhere aft. He tightened his grip on his axes as he lay under the overturned boat - waiting. The boots of the heavyset man stepped closer...closer...
The elven bodyguard lashed out, hooking the man's heel with the head of his axe and pulling. An oath, and the man stumbled but did not fall. Ellerand scuttled back to the other end of the boat, ready to roll out and make a break for it.
He could hear them heading towards the boat, and lashed out again, feeling his axe connect with an ankle. Then he lifted himself up into the boat, as a pair of cutlasses slashed and jabbed blindly along the deck.
"You had the same idea I did..." A grin spread over Di'Fier's face as Dru vaulted the bowsprit to drop the other crewman threatening Katya. He drew his sword over his shoulder and spoke the words that sent magical strength pulsing through his muscles. The sheer energy of being reunited with his old partner seemed to fuel the spell, pushing it to its limits, and the mage relished the feeling of power as he raised his blade.
Armed men had begn to pour out of the cabin below him, and they were headed to the raised deck he stood on. Katya stood at the top of the ladderlike stairs, but she looked as if she could use a little help. Another mystic word, and a trio of eldritch bolts spiralled forth to slam into three of the men on deck.
For her part, Dru looked over the railing to see that one of the armed men was below. "Hey! Sailor boy!" she called, and as he looked up, she smiled, and dropped a tanglefoot bag on him. His look of confusion turned to rage as the sticky strands glued him to the deck.
Di'Fier surveyed the rest of the deck. A marine's head snapped backwards as Katya's foot impaced his chin...more sailors descending from their places in the rigging to repel the boarders...and a cluster of peopel aroudn the boat.
What are they doing?
His answer came as an axe-wielding elven form rolled into view from under the boat, neatly dodging past a surprised marine and sprinting for the edge of the boat. One of the hatchets was left behind as he grabbed the end of a coiled rope ladder and spun to face the sailors.
I guess Dru brought backup, he thought - and then winced as a massive sailor with a knife strapped to the stump of his wrist feinted, and then sliced the elf's leg with his sword.
Too bad she didn't choose Galanodel...
Dru saw Ellerand, held at bay against the rail of the ship.
Di'Fier and Katya can take care of this deck, she thought - but then movement on the deck caught her eye. One of the crewmen was pointing something at her - and although she had no idea it was, she was sure she didn't want to be where it was pointing.
Noplace else to go, she thought, and vaulted over the railing.
Smoke and fire burst forth from the end of the weapon, and she felt something fly past her face at high speed. Then her boots were slamming into the head of the tangled mercenary below her, knocking him to the ground.
Behind her, she could hear Di'Fier shouting in the language of the arcane, and an invisible battering ram slammed down along the deck, sending her attacker and another crewmen sprawling, and folding a third unnaturally at mid-thigh, crumpling him in the midst of a splintered swath of deck.
Then the crew was upon her. Still recovering from her leap, her guard was down, and one of the blades cut deep into her ribs - but then the pain lessened, and she batted the blades away.
No time to wonder about it now, she thought.
The pain of Dru's wound burned across Ellerand's side like fire, and hot blood soaked into his shirt. He risked a glance over at her, saw her fighting off several crewmen - and then, the sticky strands of a spiderweb covered the deck above her, snarling both Dru and the red-haired woman and nearly doing the same to the sword-weilding mage. He batted the one-handed man's blade aside and threw himself backwards, one hand still holding the rope ladder.
He stopped with a bone-wrenching jerk just inches above the surface of the sea, slamming him into the side of the ship, making his head ring. He fumbled his axe back into the leather loop that carried it, and reached behind him to his belt.
Above him, he heard the voice of the captain: "Cut the ropes, you idiot!"
Di'Fier threw himself to the side as the sticky strands coalesced from the air around him. Looking along the web, he could see it had been placed well - catching both Dru and Katya.
Change in plans - I think we need to remove the mage now, he thought to himself, and began calling his newest spell to memory.
This should even the odds.
A jagged sphere of ice coalesced before his outstretched hand and streaked to the back of the ship like a frozen meteor. The
ice burst detonated on the wall leading to the rear cabins, splintering wood and sending chunks of ice scything across the deck, sweeping it nearly clean of opposition. He watched in satisfaction as the spell's effect ended just inches from his former partner - and then scowled when he realized that the opposing mage was still standing. And casting a spell.
Blackness seeped in on the edges of Di'Fier's vision, and he shook his head to clear it, fighting the effects of the dweomer. "Not this time," he growled, vaulting over the railing. Even as he impacted the deck, he was calling out the words of his spell, and time slowed around him.
He could see the wizard's expression changing as he charged across the deck, hear the oddly deepened voice cry out in dismay - and then be cut short by four and a half feet of steel and a channeled icy spell. Behind him, he heard the all-too-ironic words of the captain: "Get 'em! They can't have many spells left!"
Ellerand swung from the rope ladder, pulling free the thin cable that he had looped over his shoulder. Above him, the knife-handed sailor's blow had sliced through one of the rope ladder's supports, and he flung the light grapnel desperately, watching it arc upward and catch on the aft railing - just in time, as the second rope parted, and he swung away, boots skimming the waves.
Suddenly, his skin blazed, as if he were aflame - and then pain stabbed through him, nearly dropping him to the water below.
What is she doing up there? he thought, as he felt the hot blood oozing into his clothing.
He threw his arms over the railing and heaved himself onto the poop-deck. The sailor manning the tiller moved warily to place the length of wood between himself and the elven warrior, but Ellerand took the moment's respite to swallow a potion of healing and look out across the deck.
Dru dove across the deck, the still-smouldering embers of the magical web trailing from her limbs. She hadn't expected burning herself out to be
that successful, but she was free - at some cost.
I'm just not meant to have long hair, she thought, her hand reaching for the strange weapon the sailor had fired at her. It fell into her hand, and she looked at it a moment.
Like a crossbow, I expect, she thought, and leveled it at the captain, pulling the trigger.
Again.
And again. The click of the mechanism was the only sound.
The captain gave a feral grin, and laid his blade alongside Katya's throat. "Surrender!" he bellowed. "Or I slit her throat!"
