Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Haraash Saan" data-source="post: 3313354" data-attributes="member: 46615">Argonne, Strav and Mortec ran to the path with Moxadder and I following more cautiously. More fairy lights appeared over the path, lighting the way. However, they did not help Argonne. In a fit of clumsiness perhaps caused by the speed of his decent, he tripped and slid, landing on the stones below and causing them to grind and crunch against one another. We called out but got no answer. With more care the rest of us managed to scramble down. In particular we avoided a glossy, wet area of the path that had two telling pairs of skids.Down below, Stravarious found Argonne unconscious and bleeding. Mortec found Morgan who looked even worse than the woodsman. He was covered in cuts and bruises and the arrow shaft that had struck him in the shoulder had been broken off near its entry point. Mortec ripped out some bandages from a pouch on his belt and feverously began bandaging all the wounds he could see. Morgan seemed to have stabilized so Mortec ran to Argonne to see if there was anything that could be done. There was only one serious gash across his chest that was bleeding freely. Again Mortec applied bandages, but the wound was too deep and they could not stem the flow.Moxadder pushed him aside saying “Let me do it!” and then proceeded to try the same thing. Well, to my untrained eye it looked the same. It certainly had the same result. Moxadder was getting frantic by this stage and with a Fastendian curse he tore open a bag that was secreted within his clothes, grabbed a handful of herbs, packed them into the wound, spat on them and then bound it one more time. This time it worked. The blood stopped seeping, and to everyone’s surprise and relief, especially Moxadders, Argonne’s eyes flicked open as he coughed, spraying a little blood onto Moxadder. “Thanks.” He rasped and then passed out once more.The Five Kinds of Death joined us on the pebbled beach shortly afterwards. They paid us no heed but walked straight to the oceans edge. They stood close enough for lapping water to lick their boots and stared intently out to sea. Strav, having turned to the ocean to see what was of interest to the mages, mumbled something about red sails and began his own silent vigil. It soon became apparent that two of the Blood Sails’ boats were desperately trying to find a favourable wind. But I do believe our wizards were ensuring that what they sought would not be found. Sure enough the two boats seemed to be drifting closer, as if pulled by some, forgive the pun, massive invisible hand. My companions loosed bolts and arrows, as befitted their weaponry. I could not make out what they were targeting, but the screams of shock and pain, told me that they had registered hits. Pretty impressive archery really! I was yet to make out a shape more discernable than the longships themselves, yet those three, Strav, Moxadder and Mortec, were scoring well.Several minutes went past, in which time Theron and some guards arrived. Eventually the two ships ground up the stones and rocks to be effectively beached. One boat was empty of buccaneers, they had been shot by my companions and fallen into the sea, but there were two corpses in the second boat, arrows and bolts protruding from their chests, and one motionless figure, in a rowing pose. Although the oar itself had slipped from his motionless grip. Without doubt it was the strangest thing I had seen to date. Under the direction of one of the mages, guards lifted the still rower off the bench on which he sat. He remained in that same position; leaning forward with hands stretched out as if to complete an oar stroke. Somewhat unnerved I decided that I would try my very hardest not to annoy those that were magically gifted. I would learn what I could from them instead. It was with excited dread that I wondered what else the arcane masters could do to a person.The guards took him away, none too carefully. We were left with several bodies and two longships to search. Moxadder quickly volunteered to scour the corpses for ‘clues’. I am sure that he was hoping to find some sort of drug stash. I decided that it may be more prudent to search the boats. Mortec joined me. Together we found two things of interest. Firstly there was a map of the castle grounds, with the castle itself circled in red. Secondly we found three holy symbols. Two on the pierced bodies and one laying on the deck of the vessel. All honoured Geduld, God of Death and the ever encroaching Dominion. Not only were we assailed by pirates, now we discover that they are death worshippers who are in league with the horrendous threat that hovers over the Fastness. The only other items that we found were of less interest; spears, nets, a barrel of brandy that was quickly confiscated by Mortec for ‘further analysis’, fresh water, rations and the like. I showed Theron the spoils of our search and whilst he dismissed the holy symbols as trinkets he was very interested in the map. Whilst it showed and explained very little of the intent of the attackers it did reveal, by its existence, that one of them at least had visited Yorathton before or that there was a townsman or member of the Barons’ own court that was in league with them. Strav edged closer, peering over my shoulder at the map. “Interesting”, he muttered. He followed it up with a request, “May I borrow the map for a moment?”“Of course, but be careful with it” Theron said as he handed it to him. Strav was a curious one, probably the most secretive of our little group. I had not really got to know him at all. He mainly kept to himself and his aloofness made me all the more curious. My eyes followed him as if he were a mouse in a field and I a falcon ready for a meal. He approached the congregated wizards and spoke to them briefly. The mage Emble spoke something and waved his right hand over the map, sprinkling a powder as he went. It glowed suddenly, giving off a blue light that eerily lit up Emble’s face. Just as suddenly the luminescence vanished. Strav nodded in thanks, muttered something, and returned to us.The map he presented to us was now fundamentally different. Whilst the same drawing was still represented, much more had been revealed by Emble’s magic. Now the Baron’s tower was also circled and the path that we had been venturing up and down all evening was clearly marked. Now there was no doubt in my mind. The Baron was the target of the raid. Whether they wanted him dead or alive was another question.As we made our final journey up the path for the night, I asked Strav how he knew to look for something magical. His reply was typically cryptic. “I have a natural affinity with magic.” And that was all that he would say about it.Yet another Stravarious mystery. Perhaps he was gifted as Zmrat and my sister Isabella were? I thought about my unusual companion as I drifted off to sleep and realised that I had never actually seen his face. It puzzled me, but not enough to stop me slipping off into my very own dream world.</blockquote>

Verification