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Message: <blockquote data-quote="spyscribe" data-source="post: 2815845" data-attributes="member: 5808">Wonderful news Steven!  I'm going to keep plugging away here, probably throughout the day, so that the story is still complete, and once I've caught up, new update!Part the One Hundred Seventy SeventhIn which: a swing… and a miss.The battle at the stern of The Fool’s Errand rages.  Under fierce assault from Zokuth’s twin cutlasses, Anvil drops to the deck. (Reyu comes forward to lick the cleric back to consciousness. So glad I wildshaped into a bear, she thinks, with a trace of annoyance.)Elsuki concentrates his efforts on Maklim, aided by one of the few members of his crew still standing.Meanwhile, on The Tranquil Shore a young woman emerges from her hiding place, crossbow clutched in one hand and leveled in front of her.  Her eyes grow wide as she surveys the battle about the Errand.  This is not good.  Not good at all.  And the Captain is too occupied to notice.  She shouts a warning:“Welk’s down!”Back on the Errand Maklim hears Kaykel’s cry.  He glances around, takes in the situation, and swears vehemently.  Yasmine rewards him with a cut to his back for his trouble.###Eva has also assessed the situation.  And as it seems that the tide of the battle is slowly shifting to their favor, she decides to give it a little push.  Already in the rigging, she grabs a line and swings herself over to the deck of the other ship.The rope puts her on a perfect trajectory to the deck of The Tranquil Shore.  She drops the line just as it reaches the end of its arc and lands easily on her feet amidships.  Then, she whips out her bow and puts an arrow into the young woman with the crossbow.“I take it you’re the one who’s been causing so much trouble.”The girl smiles as she brings up her own weapon.  “Kaykel.  Now get back to your own ship, and I won’t have to shoot you like I did the others.”###“Leave,” Elsuki bellows only inches from Maklim’s face, brandishing his sword, “NOW!”Maklim, simply yells back, “Okay!”  And with that he jumps up to the rail and grabs one of the ship’s ropes in order to make good his retreat.  Unfortunately—in his haste—he doesn’t get as good a grip on the rope as he thought, and instead of swinging gracefully back to his own ship, he slips off and lands on the Errand’s deck, sprawling at Annika’s feet.He looks up at the startled wizard.  “That didn’t work so good.”Yasmine is immediately on top of him, menacing him with her cutlass.  “Call it off,” she orders.Maklim hauls back and slugs her in the face.  Zokuth jumps in as well, and soon she and three sailors are all brawling on the aftdeck.Then, all of a sudden, with a shout of “For Alirria!” Thatch comes swinging overhead.It soon becomes obvious that Thatch has no control whatsoever over the course of his swing.  And there is a mad scramble to dive out of his way. Zokuth ducks, swiping up with her cutlass at the legs churning wildly overhead.  She draws blood and sends the fighter careening out over the aftdeck and past the ship’s rail.Thatch reaches the apogee of his swing over the open water between the two vessels.  He tries to hang on and let the rope bring him back to the Fool’s Errand, but the momentum is too much for him.The rope jerks out of his hands, and three-hundred plus pounds of armored fighter go splashing into the Halmae, sending up a plume of water to the deck-rails of both ships.For a moment, the fight actually stops.(Note: the combination of stellar and botched rolls that resulted in Thatch going into the drink was truly stunning.  As we all sit there blinking, someone goes, “Well, Alirria is the goddess of water…”)###Reyu finally manages to put her bear form to the use she intended and goes after Zokuth with both claws.  She hits twice, but even with the full strength of her new form behind the blows, it isn’t enough to put Zokuth down.Instead, Zokuth reels back and finds herself face to face with Yasmine.  Haven’t I knocked her out twice already? she thinks, incredulous as she looks down at the Errand’s first officer.Indeed, Yasmine is barely on her feet, but her eyes blaze with determination.  With the last of her strength she screams, “Get off our ship, bitch!” and swings her blade around in a last, desperate arc… that slices right through Zokuth’s throat.With a gurgle of surprise, Zokuth reaches up to her neck, as though not sure as to the source of the arterial spray dousing the woman in front of her.  She’s dead before she even completes the gesture.Having used the last of her own stamina, Yasmine falls on top of her not more than a second later.(Scoring a crit when you’re at zero hit points, can’t ask for better than that.)</blockquote>

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