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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Haraash Saan" data-source="post: 3400928" data-attributes="member: 46615">“Bloodsails below.” I added in a whisper, but it was too late. Horns boomed from across the gorge announcing our arrival. And the Hydra showed exactly why it was named that way; each head went in a different direction, including me. I panicked, I admit it, and hid. The horns had startled me, as had the swift disappearance of my colleagues. I was loading my own crossbow when I heard the soft twang of a bow somewhere to my left. To my right I heard Mortec and Strav speaking, although not loudly enough to discern there words. We were out of control and separated. Theron had taught us tactics but the only thing that had seeped through was the concept of ranged weapons first. Unfortunately strength in numbers, and staying together had not. I needed to get the others back together. I focused my mind on Argonne, using a technique that Zmrat had taught me, and spoke to him in his own mind.“Turn back Argonne. Get the others to regroup.” I said. In my own mind I could feel his surprise at the mental intrusion, but I lost focus as Morgan stumbled into me, bow in hand. “Pirates are coming.” Was all he said as he continued to blunder past, heading the way of Mortec and Strav. He was right, they were following him closely. There were two of them, a man and woman. I loosed my bolt at the man, it narrowly missed, and he let out a cry of surprise, then drew a cutlass and came at me. The woman hurled a dagger which struck hard on my hip. I winced, gritting my teeth against the incredible pain, but managed to drop my crossbow and whip out my rapier. My first mistake had been yelling out at the mouth of the sink hole and attracting the pirates attention. My second was to engage in a melee.This was no like no combat I had experienced on the training grounds of Yorath. It was two against one and on difficult terrain. I ducked, dodged and used the tee trees as cover. We all swung wildly until the pirate bitch stuck me again with a dagger. It staggered me somewhat and I missed with a flailing swipe at the male. I called out for help and was rewarded with an answering shout from Mortec. Suddenly he burst onto the scene, thrusting his palms onto the woman’s belly. She shrieked in pain and recoiled. I recall now the murderous intent in her eyes as she slashed her knife at the Gnome with all her might. He ducked and she almost toppled over with the force of her swing. I heard a scream and saw a pirate falling from the edge of the gorge a short distance away to my right. Argonne stood at the top of the cliff that had been recently occupied by the pirate. He was preparing to cleave a second foe with his mighty axe.As I swayed away from a murderous cutlass swipe, Morgan joined the fray, thrusting elegantly with his rapier and wounding my opponent. With a howl, he scarpered, the female not far behind him. I snatched at a bolt and quickly loaded my hastily retrieved crossbow. I took aim across the chasm and loosed the bolt with deadly accuracy. The male pirate dropped, my shaft stuck deep in between his shoulder blades. Combat is not always about honour. In fact it never is, it’s about living at all costs. Another bolt struck the woman slamming her into a tree. I guessed it had been come from Strav’s crossbow. The brute of a thing had claimed another life, this time a more worthy adversary.As we ran to the two downed pirates I thanked Mortec and Morgan for their timely aid, it was only later that I wondered about what power Mortec had managed to harness to cause the woman such hurt. Reaching the pirates, Morgan quickly applied bandages to the one I had felled “For questioning later,” he mumbled as he worked. The woman was beyond help. Leaving him and Mortec with the wounded pirate, I forged my way along the left edge of the crevasse, eventually meeting up with Strav and Argonne. I was glad and relieved to see them alive and none the worse for wear. A cry of pain sounded from where I had come. We spied an archer who had just loosed a shaft and Strav immediately targeted him with a bolt that struck with resounding success. We ran back to where our allies were to find Mortec tending Morgan’s prone form, beside whom lay a bloodied arrow. The arrow loosed from Strav’s recent victim had struck the Fastendian in the chest and knocked him from his feet. We cautiously walked to the far side of the sink hole, making sure there were no more pirates waiting to ambush us, before resting in a small clearing. As I was making myself more comfortable on the top of a small boulder, Morgan mentioned something about Moxadder and hurried off to the opposite side of the gorge that we had been defending. It was the first I time I had thought of our drug addled friend since I had yelled out.Morgan stumbled back several minutes later, shaking his head in disbelief, Moxadder not far behind him.“I don’t believe it.” Morgan said. “You just killed him after trying to heal him. I don’t believe it.”“Well you shouldn’t have been such a smartarse!” huffed Moxadder in response. The story we got out of the two of them was that Moxadder was trying desperately to save one of the pirates that Argonne had taken down so that we could question him, but had only made things worse. Morgan had arrived at precisely the right moment and managed to successfully stop the pirates bleeding. Moxadder went into a rage and stabbed the unconscious fellow several times, ensuring that he would never wake. We could only reason that Moxadder did not appreciate being shown up by anyone. I really am in association with some seriously deranged people.It was then that Strav noticed that the large rock slab against which Argonne leaned looked to be some sort of concealed doorway. But none of us could puzzle out how to open it. Even I began to probe the rock and its surrounds before I realised how filthy I was getting. I stopped immediately and made sure that there was no sign of dirt upon my gloves. I must have looked a frightful mess at that stage. My clothes were torn and bloodied from vicious trees and combat, so I stopped and cleaned myself as best I could firstly by brushing myself off vigorously and then with water from my canteen. Finally Morgan finally found the edges of an opening. He traced a line on the rock showing us what he found. With the edge revealed, Strav’s sharp eyes saw the door at once. He pulled his gauntlets off and casually threw them aside to land in the dirt. His black hands raced across the stone, fingers pushing and prodding, testing the surface. It was not long before a satisfied exclamation pass his lips. The reason for his self indulgence was that he had discovered a loose piece of rock that he pulled away to reveal a hole with a handle in it. Just as Argonne was reaching in to grasp and turn it, Strav voiced a warning, saying that it was trapped. Upon further examination he determined that when twisted, the handle would release a small guillotine that would have severed Argonne’s wrist.These cutthroats certainly did not want anyone skulking into their lair. It was an ingenious precaution, although Strav continued his fine work and wedged a dagger in place to stop the blade falling. Then, he turned the handle. The rock face swung open to reveal crudely cut stairs, narrowly winding their way down.</blockquote>

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