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Message: <blockquote data-quote="(contact)" data-source="post: 1090" data-attributes="member: 41">7-- Into the jaws of the Wind Dukes.Philius' smug composure cracks when Ragna orders the ship around, on a course to ram the D.F. Piercer.  It is now Ragna’s turn to gloat, and point out that she has more tricks up her sleeve than he has given her credit for, and this time it is the fox that will nip the hound!  The prime-material reference seems lost on Captain Philius, but he is able to get the drift of it.The D.F. Piercer is a massive vessel, fully one-hundred and fifty feet long, and sixty feet wide at its aft, narrowing to a vicious eight feet in width at is fore.  The vessel is built for ramming, and flies without sails, at speeds unmatched by ships like the Marrow Down.  Something about the D.F. Piercer bothers Thelbar, though he cannot quite put a finger on it.The wait as the two ships close on one another is almost unbearable.  Ragna’s Raiders leave only enough crew active to execute a last-minute turn, and Ragna sends up a parley flag in order to confuse the enemy.  The rest of the Raiders lurk about the starboard side, trying to look inconspicuous and conceal their boarding-pikes.As the two ships near one another, a collision looks immanent.  Taran and Thelbar stand at the prow of the Marrow Down and can make out their foe:  three score or more tall, willowy, blue-skinned humanoids, led by a winged man and a floating aberration that looks for all the world like a giant, grey cone of scaly flesh, with a spiky maw at one end, and two sets of arms protruding from its forepart at the cardinal directions.  The fact that the thing is obviously casting spells to prepare itself and the winged man is not lost on Thelbar."A Lawgiver," Hamm says over Taran's shoulder.  "They must want us bad, if they’ve sent that thing all the way from B'hii's court.  The flyboy standing next to him is a Wind Duke Navigatior. "Hamm," Thelbar begins, "The Piercer--is she . . . alive?"Hamm laughs evilly and mutters "Not for long".Their conversation is interrupted as Ragna shouts "Now, lads!  For freedom!  Turn this ship!"The Marrow Down lurches suddenly as the ogres below decks shift their weight to the side, and the vessel veers onto a course designed to bring them deck-to-deck with the D.F. Piercer.  The maneuver is only partially successful, and the horrible Wind Duke ship tears into the Marrow Down just to the starboard side of the prow, below decks.  There is an awful rending tear, and the two ships are locked together, with the starboard-side ogres below decks smashed into a bloody mess and sent flying out into the void.  Ragna’s Raiders give a hearty yell, which is matched by the Wind Duke’s marines, then leap over the side of the ship to engage their foe.The adventurers tell Mishkal and Hamm to concentrate on keeping the Raiders fighting together, and say that they will engage the Wind Duke and his Lawgiver.  They leap into the Air, this time with greater success than when attacking the Lighthouse.  Ducal marines stand in their way, however, and while the Lawgiver releases small bursts of lightning from its fingertips, Taran, Rex and Kyreel begin laying into their foes.They manage to fight their way toward the Lawgiver, his phalanx of bodyguards proving no match for the party’s fighting prowess.  The Wind Duke Navigator, roused to action, sails effortlessly across the void, and lands on the Marrow Down, looking to engage Ragna with his greatsword.  Thelbar grabs his brother and leaps to her defense.Ragna’s Raiders fight viciously enough to make her proud, and the Wind Duke’s troops fall back before their assault.  To finalize matters, a few of the surviving ogres manage to reach the D.F. Piercer and begin smashing blue-skinned men with pieces of the Marrow Down’s shattered hull.As the fight progresses, the D.F. Piercer tears deeper and deeper into the Marrow Down, shattering the frail wooden ship and sundering it in two.  The Lawgiver shows no desire to engage in hand-to-hand combat with a fierce human, a crafty elf, and blood-covered drow, and before the heroes can kill it, the Lawgiver speaks a phrase in Auran and disappears.Meanwhile, Ragna is desperately ordering some of her Raiders to transfer stores from the forward half of her former ship to the aft, and Thelbar and Taran are left to confront the Navigator.  The winged man fights coolly and mercilessly, and proves himself more than up for the task.  Thankfully, a handful of Ragna’s Raiders aid the cause, and distract him long enough for Thelbar’s spells to stun him, allowing Taran to strike him down.  Thelbar binds the Wind Duke’s wounds, and the two heroes leap for the aft side of the ship just as the Marrow Down splits into two pieces.Without its Navigator, or Lawgiver, the D.F. Piercer has lost its will to fight, and the giant vessel does the impossible, reversing its course, and tearing free of the fore-part of the pirate ship.  Indy, Rex and Kyreel leap into the void, and manage to land near Taran on the aft half of the Marrow Down.  The heroes tend to one another’s wounds and watch the  D.F. Piercer pull away from them, and sail off into the void.  Ragna takes stock of the situation, and counts heads--twenty gith, four ogres, her sons and herself are all that remains of the once proud Marrow Down -- alive at least, but shipwrecked and floating aimlessly in an infinite void of Elemental Air.</blockquote>

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