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Message: <blockquote data-quote="drnuncheon" data-source="post: 380158" data-attributes="member: 96">Session Seven, Part Two: "That's no way to treat a lady.""Ellerand...someone's behind us."  Dru pulled on the oars again, sending the boat sliding through the choppy water.Her bodyguard looked back. "They're not following us, they're going in circles.  They're probably drunk." A burst of raucous laughter drifted across the water, giving credence to his theory.He turned back to look for the ship, then scowled up at the sky.  The rain had reduced to a light drizzle, and he didn't like it one bit.  "Call me paranoid, but it's like something wants us to go out here."<img src="http://www.io.com/~jeffj/b2sep.gif" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" /> "It's not working, we're going in circles."  They had attracted quite a crowd of onlookers now, and Di'Fier could hear the all-too-familiar sounds of betws being placed - not if they would sink, but when, where, and how.  Finally, one of the onlookers took pity on them, and shouted, "Yer' facin' the wrong way!""...told you.""Well, how was I supposed to know? You're the one who grew up here.  How am I supposed to see where I'm going if I'm facing backwards?""It's the harbor.  There's not that much to run into.""What was that?""Um...a reef. It's OK, the barnacle things are intact."<img src="http://www.io.com/~jeffj/b2sep.gif" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" /> "They are following us," Dru growled.  "They got straightened out, and they're headed this way.  I don't know why anybody in their right mind would be out in this, even if it is clearing up."Ellerand forebore from commenting, instead pointing somewhere ahead of them. "I see the ship."Dru glanced over her shoulder.  This was much easier than trying to row in Black Dog's Cave. "All right.  Let's come around from the other side - if they're watching the city, they won't see us."A few minutes and one trailing line later, and their stolen boat was tied up behind the ship."Pretty solid-looking for a ghost ship," Ellerand commented, sliding a vial from his belt.  Throwing back the contents, he felt his nerves thrum, like a mandolin's just-stroked strings. Dru held up a hand. "I'll go up first."  She swallowed the contents of her own vial, and faded from view. The only sign of her presence was the heavy swinging of the line as she climbed towards the deck above.  Ellerand waited until the rope swung free again, then started up himself.<img src="http://www.io.com/~jeffj/b2sep.gif" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" /> "That's odd.""What?""It looks like they're sneaking onto the ship."<img src="http://www.io.com/~jeffj/b2sep.gif" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" /> "I wish they would hurry up with the signal."  The owner of the voice was, if not alive, an exceptionally solid ghost - a slender, sour-faced man dressed in robes that had been far nicer before they were subjected to the rigors of sea travel."Patience," replied a second man - suave, lean, and with the arrogance of command. "At least we know they know we're here."Behind them, something far more ghostly crept, an invisible form sliding over the rail and lowering itself to the deck below.  One of the watching sailors turned to glance behind him, but saw nothing.Ellerand hung from the line, watching for his chance.  Without the advantage of invisibility, he had to time things perfectly...out of the corner of his eye, he saw a flash of light.  Not from the city - no.  It would be farther along the coast by a mile or two.  Raising his head above the level of the deck, he saw the sailors peering intently at the land.  He levered himself over the rail, crossing the poop deck like a shadow, then tumbling down to land catlike on the main deck."There's the signal.  Go rouse Bjorn and call to stations."The elf's eyes darted back and forth, and he dropped to the deck, rolling underneath the tarpaulin-covered form of the ship's boat.  Around him, he could see the bare feet of the sailors moving about their duties.  His thumb rubbed the silver ring, and he whispered the word to activate it, hoping that Dru was all right.<img src="http://www.io.com/~jeffj/b2sep.gif" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" /> Katya looked over her shoulder at the ship.  "It's starting to move!" she cried, and the oars slapped the water with renewed vigor...but diminished propulsion.  The boat began to swing about in a stately circle."Wait...it's going to go past us.  I've got scrolls of spider climb - we can jump on as it goes past."  Di'Fier fumbled the paper from the scroll tube hanging from his belt, and hurriedly cast the spell on himself and Katya.Katya peered up into the darkness at the approaching ship. "I think they heard us..."Di'Fier gauged the distance to the ship.  "Get ready to jump.""Someone's watching!" she hissed."It's our only chance.  Now!"Di'Fier leapt forward.  Katya followed an instant later, but the wizard's jump shoved the boat from under her foot, and she splashed heavily into the water.From above: "What the hell was that?"  Another face appeared at the rail, peering down into the gloom.Katya splashed awkwardly to the side of the boat, her hands magically adhering to the wood.  She levered herself out of the water and up the side of the boat."Boarders!" a sailor cried, and there was the distinctive hiss of a crossbow bolt as it shot past them to splash into the water below.  Di'Fier detached one of his hands and muttered a quick incantation of protection, while Katya swarmed up the side and over the rail, landing boldly on the deck.  "Identify yourselves," she informed the sailors, "or you are under arrest."The sailors looked at each other in momentary confusion.  "Harbor patrol?" one said. The other, not given to such flights of thought, drew his cutlass and raised it.  "You'll be sorry you boarded us, missy," he said - and then crumpled to the deck in a fountain of blood.Behind him, Dru coalesced from the shadows, pulling her blade free of his ribcage. "That's no way to treat a lady," she informed him, but it was too late for the advice to be of much use in this life.  She looked to his companion, raising her blade to a guard...and smiled.Next time, on drnuncheon's Story Hour: Boots to the head. How to clear a deck of unwanted rabble.  "Get them, they can't have many spells left!" And more...</blockquote>

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