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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lars Frehse" data-source="post: 403890" data-attributes="member: 1674">Carrying the cure- part 2The scouts were professionals like the other undead soldiers on the island, and they tried to seperate single members of the group in order to attack them from two sides at once. However, the friends countered those maneuvers- they, too were by now able to coordinate themselves without the need to talk much.Donnangar fought the one who was apparently the leader of the rangers while they all tried to shield Trepat from the attackers, so that the elf could support them with magic missiles. For a while, the battle raged evenly, but then both Niklas and Donnangar had defeated their foes and once the heroes had the strength of numbers on their side defeating the remaining ones was easy.After Donnangar, Jan and Ben had healed the wounds that they and their friends had received, Ben scanned the equipment of their vanquished foes and discovered that the grey, unadorned hooded coat of the leader was indeed magical. They picked it up and once their pulses had returned to normal and they had recovered from the strain of the battle, they marched on.The remainder of the afternoon passed by without much happening. Ben fell asleep in the saddle and Trepat lead the horserat by the reigns. At last, in the afternoon, they reached the edge of the forest. To their north was the marble rockformation and in the west, just on the edge of the horizon, they could see setting sun reflecting golden in the river.By now, it took all their strength of will to march on. They had been awake for almost fourty hours by now- fourty hours that had been spent climbing ruins, exploring an old temple, running at full speed and doublemarching through the autummleaves covered forest. Yet, they walked on, secretly envying the halfling who was sleeping peacefully while he was hugging his companion's back.It got dark as they marched on through the plain and at last, deep at night, they had reached the ford at which they had crossed the river before. Torn, who's orcish eyes enabled him to see even as clouds were covering the dark sky above, crossed it and fastened a rope to a tree at the other side of the river. Then he returned, and Donanngar and him carried the others on their backs over the river. Even though the water was shallow here, there were still enough holes and rocks which made crossing the river tricky if you couldn't see properly.At last, they were all over on the other side, and Donnangar volunteered to take the first watch. Hours passed and when his turn was over, he woke up Trepat and Torn. During their watch, Trepat saw the reflection of torchlight on the far end of the white rocks. It looked like the undead soldiers had sent their main contigent through the corridor.Trepat pointed it out to Torn, but the reflection was so faint that the half-orc wansn't able to see it. However, both were relieved- the light meant that their force marched had given them a full day advantage over their pursuers. Since it would take merely a day through the swamps to reach their ship, they seemed to be safe.Then it was Donnangar's turn again- the orc had insisted that he would take two watches. He claimed that his life in the Plains of Lede had long ago taught him to deal with little sleep, and the friends were ready to believe him.In the morning, which came much too early after the exhaustions of the past days, they turned south into the swamps. It was a grey day- there was a constant drizzle all through the day, and as they moved through the marshland, they were soon all soaked to their skin.Whenever the smell around them was becoming too overpowering, they took a detour. Even though they couldn't discern whether the stink was created by stenchtoads or just regular swampgases, they didn't want to take a risk.In the evening, as the rain and the wind was getting worse, they finally reached the delta. There they saw the Ghostmaid anchored where it had been when they had left it. But, to their mutual surprise, they saw that the sloop wasn't alone- there was another ship of similar shape moored a hundred yards from it, and a rowboat was rocking on the water next to the Ghostmaid. Not knowing what to make out of it, Ben volunteered to swim ahead with his horserat and get a closer look. After all, it was possible that the elven crew had fallen victims to pirates. Having a hunch about the ranger's coat that they had salvaged on the previous day, Ben tried it on. At first, nothing happened, but as he pulled the hood over his head, he immediately started to blend in with his surrounding.Now that he was camouflaged, he mounted his steed and directed it into the water. Like it's smaller cousins, the horserat was an apt swimmer, and it swiftly moved to the Ghostmaid. There, Ben saw that everything seemed to be in order- two elves were idly talking above him  He climbed up and explained to the surprised elves that his friends were waiting on the beach.They picked the group up with another rowboat than the one that was currently starboards of the ship, and as Ben asked the elves about the other ship, all they said was that the captain of the new vessel was a friend of Captain Khemaitas.On board, the captain was just leaving his cabin, and with him there was a flamboyant woman who was followed by two humans, a half orc and a slender humanoid with almond shaped eyes and ears that were twice as long as those of elves.He spread his arms in greeting:"Ah! I am glad to see that you all made it back just fine! Meanwhile, we had the great fortune, that the "Wavecutter" sailed into this bay as well to fetch water! May I introduce: This is my esteemed colleague, Saleen Valka and some members of the crew.".Khemaitas introduced them all to each other, and Jan noticed that the half orc and one of the humans was clearly evil. He asked Captain Valka:" What brings you here? After all, it is a dangerous place, with all those pirates around.".The woman smiled warmly:"Ah, don't you worry. We are more than capable of dealing with pirates."."Yes, but you are far out. We were told that there are many pirates supposed to be here. What brings you here."Khemaitas was flashing an angry look at the naive paladin, and before the woman could answer, Torn interrupted:" Anyway, we need to get out of here tonight. We are being chased.".Khemaitas seemed both genuinely concerned and jumped at the opportunity to change the subject:" Chased? By whom?"They told him about the undead soldiers and Niklas added:" The biggest danger is that those undead are rather cunning. They had used flamearrows before, and since we are still in the range of longbows, we should leave immediately."Khemaitas turned to Valka:" Do you think you could lead the way out of here in the dark?""Sure", she answered:"We had been in this delta often enough. You just stay right behind us."She gave Khemaitas a short kiss and waved the rest of the crew and the adventurers goodbye. Then, both she and her entourage rowed back to their ship.Both ships unrolled their sails, and the Ghostmaid followed the Wavecutter. The captain was standing at the helm, and Jan told him:" Sir, I need to tell you this: I have the suspicion that Captain Valka and her crew are pirates!".Khemaitas swallowed a chuckle and his face turned serious:" In the name of Tanil! Those are hard accusations! Believe me, she is a venturer like me, and I am certain she would never do anything I wouldn't."Jan didn't notice that the captain wasn't exactly denying that she could be a pirate, and before he could raise the ire of their host, his friends took him along with him to their cabin.</blockquote>

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