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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Morrow" data-source="post: 3241082" data-attributes="member: 301">Session 25A – Black Sales Over FreeportThe Acheron left Selba sailing south with the wind at its back.  Sully stomped back and forth across the quarterdeck, cursing under her breath.  The Albers and the Acheron has arrived in Selba the day before, only to discover that the Red Lady had left only days after George had dispatched his letter.  Worst of all, she had been bound for Freeport.  It seemed to be Sully’s lot to always be one step behind Dirty Steve, always cursing her luck as he slipped through her fingers.  She couldn’t afford to lose him again.  Her own hatred for the man who had murdered her lover was enough to inspire her to sail to the ends of the earth to have her revenge on Steve, but now he had thrown in his lot with the Cult of Yarash.  The lives of the people of Freeport, and everyone else who sailed the seas, might depend on catching the Red Lady before the cultists could enact their last mad scheme to free their demonic patron.So enthralled was Sully in the maze of her own hatred that she had little time to consider the other piece of information that her brother George had been able to provide.  Her companions, however, were not so single minded.  Fishermen out of Selba had spotted Thonian warships sailing south toward Freeport only days after the Red Lady left port.  If they were headed for Freeport they could arrive any day now.  Bronson cast sending to inform Captain Lydon.  He would warn the city.  They would mount a defense.  But could Freeport’s fractious captains overcome their personal enmities quickly enough to defend the city, or was it already do late?  Would the Acheron sail into Freeport harbor to find a smoking ruin?The party had left the Albers in the care of Old Pete, to follow as it could.  The old ship was too slow for their current purpose, but the Acheron flew across the water.  They had recruited additional crew in Selba, battle hardened and ready to fight.  If only they could arrive in time. *    *    *    *    *Dirty Steve had prepared for this day for a long time.  Since the day he had sworn his soul to Yarash and murdered his captain, Bony Bill, he had prepared.  All the pieces were now in place.  The battle raged around the Red Lady.  Steve didn’t quite know how the cultists of Yarash had inspired the Thonian senate to order an attack on Freeport.  He imagined that the brutal raids that the Red Lady had made under the flag of Freeport hadn’t hurt, nor had the city’s refusal to side with Thonia against the fleets of the Atlantian Empire.  It was a shame that the people of Freeport had been able to raise a fleet to meet the Thonian armada.  He would have enjoyed seeing Freeport burn.  But no matter, this would do nicely.The battle raged around the Red Lady, Freeport and Thonian vessels wheeling around, firing massive broadsides, attacking and veering off once more to prepare for another pass.  Steve looked with satisfaction at vessels consumed in flames, burning men leaping into the water.  Elsewhere vessels broke up and sank, pulling their crews with them down into the deep.  The Thonian vessels clearly had the advantage of technology, weaponry, and discipline, but they were badly outnumbered.  To Steve’s trained eye a Freeport victory seemed likely.  But, oh, the casualties would be heavy.Nara was ready.  The wild eyed cleric had been chanting interminably over the two stones she held.  Now they burned with blue fire.  She considered them briefly, then dropped them over the side.  They traveled in a long arc away from the Lady before dropping into the water.  Steve watched them get smaller and smaller as they sank into the depths.  Nara turned to him, “The Sea Dragon comes.”Indeed it did.  The Sea Dragon would be here soon and it would make its way among the battling fleets, sinking ships and swallowing men whole.  When it had consumed enough souls, gathered enough energy, Yarash’s prison would be torn asunder.  The seas would run red with blood.  Dirty Steve smiled.Three brightly burning blue objects shot over the Red Lady’s main mast.  They flared briefly and then dived after the gems.  Yarash’s artifacts were going to join the Sea Dragon’s Eyes.  Soon now, very soon.  Already a whirlpool was starting to form, a vortex leading down to the place where the Sea Dragon would emerge.  Soon.Two more spots of blue flame streaked in low over the water from the direction of Freeport and joined their fellows.  Then a voice cried from the crows nest, “Ship off the starboard bow!  She’s coming in fast.”Steve snapped is spyglass to his good eye.  A brig, a fast one.  He didn’t know her.  He growled in frusteration and lifted his eyepatch.  Beneath the patch, where one might expect a glass orb or an empty socket rested a dried, mummified eye– not his, but it would serve.  He felt a burning sensation as the magic of the eye took hold.  He could see the vessel perfectly, the Acheron.  What sorcery was this that allowed her to sail with no men in her shrouds, with her lines seemingly adjusting themselves of their own accord?  His gaze dropped to her deck.  He could make out the faces of the figures there.  Sully!  And Nate Black!  They were persistent.  He did not know what had inspired him to maroon those two rather than keelhauling them with Bonny Bill.  Letting them starve to death on a deserted isle had seemed a fitting end, but somehow they had escaped.  Steve hadn’t even known they lived until they had killed his first mate, Artemis Bones, in Freeport.  Now was his chance to rectify his mistake of so long ago.  Today Sully and Nate would join Bill in hell.  “Run out the guns!  Nara, Rufus, get below.  Prepare a little surprise for our guests.  Blood, lads, blood for Yarash!”*    *    *    *    * Rufus Rumblebelly was not a good man.  The halfling sorcerer was never happier than when he was causing pain and suffering.  Best of all he enjoyed clearing the decks of enemy ships with a series of well placed fireballs.  He stood below decks, braced in front of a gunport.  To his right gun crews readied a pair of cannon, waiting to for his order.  To his left stood Nara the cleric.  “Steady men… Steady…  Fire!”The guns crashed and smoke obscured his view of the Acheron.  He turned to Nara.  “Whenever you’re ready.”The cleric and sorcerer both peered through the smoke.  The wind tore it aside and the Acheron was visible once more.  Nara began to cast.  A split second later Rufus began his own spell.  Nara’s Ice Storm engulfed the bow of the ship followed by Rufus’ fireball.  Rufus cackled as ice and then fire did their work.  The ship was damaged, the sails afire, and at least half a dozen figures had been struck by both spells.  He caught his breath.  Were they all still standing?  Who are these people?  Rufus had only a moment to recognize the glowing bead of energy streaking from the figure in the bow of the Acheron toward the Red Lady.  Only a moment to realize that it was coming directly at him, that it was going to pass though his gun port and explode in the center of the…“Oh no.”Rufus Rumblebelly was consumed by fire and pain.  Rufus Rumblebelly was not a good man.  No one will miss him. *    *    *    *    * Dirty Steve snarled and raised his urugosh to a guard position.  The Red Lady’s initial volley had hurt the Acheron badly, but the return fire was devastating.  Most of his men were dead, including his first mate.  There was a large fire below decks.  If there wasn’t anyone alive down there to put it out it would reach the powder magazine in minutes.  The Acheron was now right alongside.   Bill’s wretched woman, Sully, was even now charging across the deck at him.He blocked her first blow but another slipped through his guard.  The bard, Nate Black, was flying toward him, moving over the waves to come at the Lady from the stern and flank him.  Steve moved like lighting, a dance of death, faster on one leg than most men on two.  He landed several telling blows on Sully and spun to drive back Nate with a vicious blow to the shoulder.  He caught Sully’s eye “I killed your lover.  I’m going to sink your ship.  Now I’m going to kill you.  I’ll keep your skull on a shelf right next to Bill’s.  When I’m through the seas will run red with blood.”Sully responded with a grim smile and a series of blows.  More than one slipped by his guard and hit home.  Steve spit blood and, smiling grimly, nodded toward the rapidly expanding whirlpool.  Sully, her falchion moving like lightning to ward off his blows, followed his gaze just as a massive creature rose from the center of the whirlpool.  A great scaled serpent, its eyes sapphires burning with blue flame.  The Sea Dragon’s head rose higher than the tallest mast.  Between its eyes was a brand, five stars above a human skull, the symbol of Yarash.  It’s huge jaws could scoop a man out of the water and swallow him whole.  It’s great coils could crush a ship.  It looked toward the Red Lady.  Steve could have sworn that it was gazing right at Sully, that it looked at her with recognition.  It swam toward the Acheron*    *    *    *    * Nara clambered up the ladder out of the flames consuming the decks below.  Her armor was red hot.  The smoke had blackened her face and the fire consumed half of her hair before she was able to cast a spell to protect herself.  Now she was bristling with magic and her cutlass was thirsty for blood.  These enemies of Yarash would die.  The Sea Dragon would consume the souls of the Thonian and Freeport sailors and their energy would sunder Yarash’s prison.  Nara never questioned her imminent victory, even as Bronson’s dispel magic began stripping away her enchantments.  Not even as Queg and Jack moved to engage her.Many of Nara’s spells remained and she fought like a demon, her heavy cutlass battering down the defenses of her enemies.  She laughed and her mad eyes flashed as her blade pierced flesh and bone.  Over the heads of her enemies she could see the Sea Dragon’s mighty coils wrap around the Acheron.  She saw a mast fall and boards in the deck spring from their places as the great serpent squeezed.  She saw the crew of the Acheron fight back.  First Tavaari’s fireball and then Bronson’s flamestrike inflict horrid burns on the huge monster.As she continued to trade blows with her adversaries Nara saw Dirty Steve fighting fiercely, his deadly blade never pausing as it fended off the Nate and Sully’s blows and inflicted telling wounds.  And then it was over.  One moment Steve was hammering through Sully’s defenses, and the next Nate’s blade, crackling with lightning, was slipping under Steve’s guard, through a gap in his armor, and into his heart.  Even from a distance Nara could see the surprise on Dirty Steve’s face as he fell.Sully screamed in anguish.  For one man to be the target of her fury for so long, and to have him killed by another…  She hacked at his lifeless corpse, wailing.  Nate was already moving.  His blade still crackled with lightning as he took to the air, sailing directly at the Sea Dragon.  He dodged and weaved as his companions continued to rain down flames on the great serpent.  He danced nimbly aside as the Dragon’s jaws slammed shut mere inches from his face.  Then he darted in and drove his blade under its chin and up into its skull.  Energy crackled across its great head and its gemstone eyes went dull.  The great serpent fell.Nara gasped in shock and disbelief.  She was so surprised that she didn’t even register the pain when Queg’s harpoon ripped open her belly and spilled her lifeblood across the deck. *    *    *    *    *Nifur Roberts brushed her long blond hair out of her eyes as she yelled at her men.  The ring of unseen sailors burned.  This was her first command and she wasn’t about to lose the Acheron.  Her sailors, both flesh and blood and those who were merely eldritch extensions of her will, were cutting the Acheron away from the burning wreck of the Red Lady and raising enough canvas on the remaining masts to get her away before the fire aboard the Lady ignited her powder stores.Sully, her strength still enhanced by magic, was moving a large chest across from the Lady while her companions hurriedly secured a few items from their fallen foes.  Her face was twisted with grief and rage and her eyes were like those of the dead.  She had already retrieved Bonny Bill’s skull.  As soon as the last of them were across the crew pushed the Acheron away from the Red Lady’s side and set out all the canvas they had.  As it was when the ship went up Nifur could feel the heat on her face.  The remnants of the Lady were pulled down into the already slowing whirlpool as the Acheron turned toward Freeport.In the Acheron's wake the remaining Thonian and Freeport ships parted, each ship abandoning the battle at the same moment, as if by general consent.Supporting CastArtemis Bones – Cultist of Yarash and first mate of the Red Lady (dead)Nara – Cultist of Yarash (dead)Lazy Eye Larry – New first mate of the Red Lady (dead)Old Pete – Bo’sun of the AlbersNifur Roberts - Crewman of the Albers and member of the Devil's ConcubinesRufus Rumblebelly – Ship’s mage of the Red Lady (dead)Dirty Steve - Captain of the Red Lady (dead)George Sullivan – Brother of SullyJack Sullivan – Son of George and PansyPansy Sullivan – Wife of George, former member of the Devil’s ConcubinesWilliam “Bonny Bill” Teach – Former Captain of the Red Lady (dead)</blockquote>

Verification