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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Edward Kann@StoryART" data-source="post: 1790895" data-attributes="member: 23128">The Dread Legion Advances...We were drawing close to Sepulcher.  Victor had shown me the prior evening that we were now only a day or so distant according to his clockwork machine and the disc maps.I was enjoying a lazy musing moment in my hammock when something landed heavily on my chest.  I opened one eye and saw that Scout had tossed one of my boots onto me."Wake up sleepy.  There is something ahead of us."I rubbed tired eyes and swung bare feet out of the hammock, pulling one boots, closing up my leather hauberk and landing on the deck with a grunt.  I pulled on my sword belt and squinted my eyes against the bright morning light on deck as I tromped up out of the birth below.Scout was at the railing along with Candle and Spiral.  I strode over and stretched rubbing the sleep out of my arms and shoulders and letting the snap of the cold wind pull me awake more fully.Only a league or so off from The Poison Arrow another Rigger Ship hung suspended in the open sky.  A long greasy black finger of smoke drifted off of its central deck leaving a black scar across the horizon like an old wound.Something large was suspended in a great net below the other ship.  Whatever it was looked still, dead.  Not cargo.  More likely some enormous creature.  The sky surrounding the Rigger Ship was filled with spiraling birds.Victor came up behind us, joining us at the railing."Hunters.  Those are Hunters out for Windsail.  They use nets and harpoons the capture and kill the great beasts and then butcher them, boil down the flesh for the oil that it produces and harvest the beasts bones for spars up in the windage.  Nothing is as light, strong and of good length as the bones of a Windsail."We drew closer, watching the vessel.  Half a league. Closer still.  Now only a few hundred yards off."Why are they letting the birds at their prize?"  Scout buzzed curiously and pointed."They wouldn't."  Victor's hands tightened on the railing and his eyes scanned the horizon in all directions.  "Something is amiss."The other ship was called The Dancing Girl.  Her deck, spars and sails hung unattended.  With the exception of hundreds of birds and the great racket they threw into the air there was no sign of any movement on board.  It was clear now that she was drifting.   No sailor manned her wheel.  The ship was flying the gold and silver flags of the Free City of Measure and the flag of The Dominion.  While an independent merchant she still declared herself a loyal vessel of the Empire."We should board her and discover what became of her crew.  Perhaps they were attacked and there are wounded that require attention?"  Candle looked thoughtful and drummed his fingers on his hips."Very well."  Victor agreed.  "We'll set alongside and allow you to board.  Be cautious.  Hunters are not the sort to give up a catch without a fight, much less their vessel.  If they abandoned her, they must have had good and desperate reasons..."We set about the task of preparing ourselves to board.  Readied weapons, armor, and any other equipment we might require.  Candle, it turned out, was armed only with a light dueling sword.  He had studied for a time as a apprentice at the Order of Sorcery and was a spellcaster.  This impressed us all quite a lot.  Spellcasters of any sort were rare these days.  Spiral was donned scarlet studded leather armor and armed herself with a sword and a pair of wheellock pistols.  I oggled her.  Mainly for the pistols.  They must have cost her a small fortune.  Scout was armed only with his throwing blades.I had my gladius, a short sword strapped behind my back and a pair of thrusting daggers.  I supposed that circumstances being what they were that I would be in front.  "Join the cavalry."  Father had told me.  Here I was.  Infantry and poorly armed at that.</blockquote>

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