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: 3424919" data-attributes="member: 46615">We all turned to see a large man, his face hidden by with a long red wavy beard, standing at the furthest passage that led to the gorge. He wore a long navy coat concealing a rapier that appeared in his hand quicker than I could blink. The man laughed loudly, even as Argonne charged to meet him. “Who dares trespass in the domain of Rumscully Jack?”Argonne tried to silence him. He swung, intent on another beheading, but the real Rumscully Jack easily dodged the clumsy attack. He replied with a sudden thrust which missed when his front foot slipped on a loose stone. The lunge which should have pierced Argonne’s heart fortunately only flicked his shirt. The rest of the Hydra rained arrows and bolts into the melee but none hit their mark, clattering uselessly on the rocks. Jack realising that the old adage, “discretion is the better part of valour” was true, ran across the water. That’s right, straight across the water of the gorge as if it was solid ground. Still cackling his annoying little laugh he stopped in the middle of the gorge and turned to face us.Moxadder, now with a rolled weed clinging to his bottom lip, ran to a mooring and let fly with a dagger. How he managed I do not quite know as he had been felled. Perhaps Mortec’s faith in his god had paid off? Somehow he had managed to revive a man I assumed to be dead or close. The little bearded bastard had not offered to help me! I did have two obvious wounds and a ruined blood stained shirt to prove my need.Standing on the surface of the water Jack made a fine target. Missiles came from everywhere. Several struck true. His chortling became more boisterous, as if he thrived on the pain he was in. He reached within his cloak and brought forth a fine golden horn, put it to his lips and blew a single mighty note.Fog quickly spewed from the horn’s mouth, surrounding and enveloping him. We hurriedly loosed more missiles at him, once again several struck. His laughter changed to violent spluttering and coughing, the silly fool was sucking in the fog that he had somehow created. Sometimes people just need to learn to get on with things without over embellishing them.A long howl pierced the laughter. Like Moxadder, Kuruul was easy to forget. Easier in fact.The mist that had been sheltering our foe slowly dissipated, tendrils still clung to the mouth of the horn but they quickly succumbed to whatever it was the Kuruul had done. I assumed it was Kuruul, as he had claimed that he was some sort of wizard. We had finally seen some evidence of his claims.Rumscully Jack, however, was not to be thwarted that easily. He sheathed his sword as quickly as he had drawn it, grabbed another horn from within his coat,, this one encrusted with beautiful shells, and blew a deep rumbling note.The water at his feet began to bubble and spit as if boiling. Then, suddenly, six Tritons erupted from the depths. They gazed about uncertain of their environs, almost as if they had been wrenched from elsewhere to the waters of the gorge. “Attack ‘em!” commanded Jack, now without any trace of his maniacal laughter. They tritons obeyed, kicking their powerful legs and swimming toward us. Each held a cruel trident, and it was the Hydra that they were aiming to catch upon their wicked forked spears.Another volley of missiles was our response. More pierced Jack; he was beginning to resemble a porcupine. Others splashed harmlessly as they hit the water.My own archery talents had deserted me. I had only managed to score one hit on Rumscully Jack, and now I faced an advancing threat. One triton was coming directly for me. My rapier would be next to useless against and the reach of its trident, but I remembered the long spear that I had seen behind the barricade. I dropped my crossbow and dashed to retrieve it.It lay exactly where I remembered it. I gathered it up in both hands, my memory flashing back to my success with the pike on the docks of Halfast, and charged. My boots slapped against stone as I thundered toward my waiting opponent. He set his trident to receive me, but I knocked it aside with a nudge of my shoulder and rammed the spear home. It slid easily into his chest, so easily that I almost overbalanced and toppled into the water. I managed to catch myself, waving my left arm for balance whilst holding to the spear in my right hand. My victim slid off the spear and only left a dark stain on the waters surface to acknowledge his passing.Argonne appeared on the opposite side of the gorge and leapt onto the moored longship. One swing from his axe effectively loosed the longship and set it adrift. He gave it a mighty shove, and jumped in, crying curses to Rumscully Jack as the boat slowly moved toward him.A bolt whizzed passed my right ear and thumped satisfactorily into Jack’s chest to add to his increasing collection of protruding wooden shafts. “Take that ya octopus!” screamed Moxadder in defiance. One glance confirmed my suspicion; Moxadder had taken too many drags on his weed. It was no longer in his mouth and his twitch was more pronounced. The poor man was obviously becoming delusional. His eyes were dilated; I could see that even at some distance. It is quite amazing that he did not take my ear off! Strav, who had been sharing the same stretch of landing with me ran past and into the banquet hall. He hurdled an upturned table that had formed part of the defensive barrier and snatched a large sword from the ground. He rushed down the corridor that led to the prisoners.I turned back to the battle and once again I grabbed my crossbow and began to loose bolts at Jack. Meanwhile, three Tritons were trying to engage Morgan on a landing, but he had the sense to leap out of reach of their tridents. The other two had reached Argonne on the ship, and he was valiantly defending against their thrusts.Heavy footfalls behind me announced the arrival of Strav. He carried two Tritons, one supported by his right arm, the other unconscious over his left shoulder. At first I had no idea as to what he was doing, then it dawned on me. He sought to free the triton prince and get him to command the Tritons to stop attacking us.The stumbling Triton looked sickly and dehydrated. His skin was pale blue, instead of the usual deep blue of the other Tritons we had encountered. It was cracked and peeling as if he had been overexposed to the elements. I supposed that he had, after all his usual environment was the water, he probably had not been submersed in days.I quickly retrieved the cockleshell we had been given from my pack and as they passed me I thrust it into the triton’s hands saying. “We are here to help you. Call off your brethren!”</blockquote>

Verification