Chapter One- "The Letter"- Part Three

[Toama SorInyt]

It seemed that she was not really needed for any help. Before she had spotted the man who had fallen into the water, some woman - where had she come from? - had dragged him out of the water. Then there was the woman who was part of the group, followed by the man who'd been herding them towards the ropes, with on his back the orcess who she had sided with in the fight. The only one she missed was the elfess, the one who had come up next to her, giving the desert woman time to escape. She hoped that she would make it off the ship as well.

She turned around to check what the others were doing, and from the corner of her eyes caught a movement. When she looked that way she saw the orcess stumbling. With two long strides she was at her side to take her elbow.
"You are beink alright? I am thinkink that maybe you needink healer person, yes? I needink tell you thank you. You were beink not comink for my rescue, but you did helpink me rescued. I can helpink you wit' somethink?"

While she talked, so looked intently at the orcess's face. Truth be told, she was curious. It was the first time she had seen an orc up close, and now that she had time she could not help but stare. Her own skin was dark, but the orcess seemed to have - as far as she could make out in the dark - a skin tone that was greener than anything she had ever seen. Then there were the fangs protruding from snarling lips. Also, her eyes were yellow, which was disconcerting to say the least. And they were glaring at her right now. Toama was starting to wonder if she had made a mistake in trying to help the orcess, but she could not have let her stumble on without at least saying thank you. Without the interference of the other people they might not have made it off the ship, but at least the two of them had been fighting on the same side, and as far as Toama was concerned that created a kind of bond, even if she did look quite a lot different than the woman was used to. She herself looked quite a lot different from these people of the green lands, so she knew the orc's side of the coin as well.

[Ílarolén'yliás (Drustai)]

Drustai took a step back as the pirates started approaching again. That was certainly not the reaction she had been hoping for--maybe she'd pushed the captain too far? Fear becomes strength if you push it it into the corner.

She pulled her lips back, sneering at them, and then hissed fiercely. Though her expression was threatening, however, she was taking steps back. She didn't have confidence in her ability to take on this many at once. She looked over her shoulder again, hoping that Altario had gotten the others off. She was met with him noting that he was going to carry the orc, and snarled at him. What the hell did he think he was doing? Leave that thing up here as sacrifice for the pirates!

Drustai turned to look back towards the more immediate problem. Almost instinctively, she repeated the same spell on the corpses nearest to her, bidding them to rise as well.That was four or five, against sixty odd pirates. Hardly in her favor, but if they could give them pause, that was all she needed. With a mental command from her, the husks began to lumber aggressively towards the pirates. Though this slowed some of them down, it didn't slow all... afterall, the captain was so fearful of sorcery, he probably realized that it was best to go after the source rather than the creations.

She leaped back up onto the ledge as a last resort, and from there her steps could go no further without causing her to tumble over into the sea. She hesitated a glance towards the ropes, hoping that everyone was far enough down them to be clear of the pirates. She nodded to herself when she noted they were. Her job here was done, then.

Now how do I get off?

She looked back towards the pirates, as her mind raced. She could try diving, but with the weight of her clothes and weapon, her own concussion, and now with the rabid waves, she wasn't confident at all about that. Not to mention, the water would destroy her Scroll Tome. At this point though, she wasn't sure she had a choice. Trying to get on the ropes at this point would get her pulled back on the ship, or get her hands chopped off before she could get far enough out of sword range.

She reached up towards her neck with elven speed and undid the clasp to her cloak, then threw it up and allowed the wind to carry it to wherever. If she was going to swim, that thing's weight would just get in the way. She then spun around deftly on the ledge and hurled herself as far away from the ship as possible, diving straight down into the water.

[grallen gast]

Something grabbed at her elbow, and she pulled away, wheeling around defensively. The dark woman from before- she fought- she was helping, wasn’t she? I don’t know, I don’t know, I can’t think anymore and it hurts...
She was speaking, the words meant nothing, just harsh sounds, incomprehensible and it was just like before, back when there were no names...
She tried feebly to pull away again, and lost her balance entirely, toppling over to land in an awkward heap on the ground. She bared her teeth against the pain, as hands flung out to try and break her fall scraped on stone.
“...I can helpink you wit' somethink?"
They were just sounds, they didn’t mean anything, but she had to try to think...
Helping, she was saying about helping... well, that was just strange, who wants to help us? Must be someone else. Look, it’s stormy, it’s cold. Why is it cold, it was- it was hot before, wasn’t it? Stupid broken climate...
“...I bloody hate this town...”

[Lili the Elfcat]

This healer, if she was one, didn’t immediately answer Lili’s question. Well, Lili, you delude yourself that you can figure out what’s going on around you most of the time. So if you are confused, then there’s a good chance some other people are, too. That would explain this elfess’ odd behaviour, at any rate.  But then, who knew what got elfesses befuddled.

As for Lili’s own confusion: Where did all these women come from all of a sudden? First there had been the long-haired one with the dark skin. (There she stood, talking to Grallen.) Now this healer. And then there had been that other elfess, too – the one with the frosty aura. Where was she, anyway?

As Lili stood pondering, a dark creature with enormous wings came flying towards her from the sea. Immediately she turned and drew her cutlass, ready to strike. Kassandra! she thought. Where was the green rascal? Was she safe? Lili would not hesitate for a blink to jump over the water and back onto the ship, if that's what it would take to save Kassandra from this winged demon.

But the demon turned out to be a piece of fabric that twirled through the air. The frosty elfess! She had thrown her coat away. She was still on the ship! Except that the next moment, she wasn’t: a shadow fell over the railing and splashed into the water. She had jumped right between the ship and the pier!

Lili threw a glance at Altario: she’s one of us, isn’t she?  It took only two steps to get to the pier’s edge. Lili bent down and peeped into the darkness. Yes, there was the elfess, just coming back to the surface after her dive. Lili looked up at the ship. The hulk towered over her, a menacing shadow. Those pirates and slave-traders might not want to pass the chance to have a late revenge. But for the moment, no faces appeared at the railing.

”Here, quickly,” Lili hissed at the elfess, and held her out her hand.

With the other hand, and all the rest of her body, she steadied herself. Blindly searching with her feet, she found cracks in the slippery planks, and hooked her shoes in in as tight as she could.

”Come on, I’ll pull you up! Can’t be the warmest bath down there.”

[Capher]

Damien opened his eyes and saw an incredible sight, it was a large castle-like structure made of...bones and guarding the entrance were two men dressed in the finest uniforms of Nyermersys holding pikes in front of them. Damien expected to be in water, but his feet were on solid ground and he was breathing air. He could see nothing else for it was too dark, darker than the blackest of nights; so dark even that Damien could not see his hand in front of his face. The only light came from the castle.

It must be Queprur's castle, Damien thought as he walked toward it. He wondered what kind of reception he would get from the Queen of Death. Would she honor him or scorn him? Did his exploits in the land of the living deserve him a heroes recption or a scoundrel's? Damien slowed his pace as he thought back upon his life. Did he have regrets? Yes. Did he make mistakes? Yes. Did he kill? Yes, but only those who deserved it but...did they deserve to die? Who made him the judge, jury and executioner?

Suddenly a blazing light bathed him breaking his thoughts. He looked up and saw the most beautiful woman he had ever seen. She was lithe and wore a black tight fitting gown that showed every curve of her body. Her hair was as black as the air around him and softly framed her face and fell down past her waist. She wore a crown fashioned with bones. Damien had a slight thought; perhaps this is what the mythical Bone Queen really looked liked, but no, this was Queprur's domain, the bone queen could never compare to the Goddess of the Underworld.

She stared at him with dark glittering eyes as he walked up the bone stairs of the castle, glancing at the guards at the sides of the door. They were devoid of life and empty eyes stared straight ahead. He looked back at Queprur. She looked at him, frowned, turned her back and walked away. The guards suddenly came to life and crossed their pikes in front of the entrance, stopping Damien from entering. The castle and its radiant glow slowly dimmed and Damien felt cold as the light disappeared. He opened his mouth to shout...to say something in his defense...

Damien coughed up water as he felt himself being tugged upon. He felt hard and wet wood scrape against his face and then came the awful pain that wracked through his side. He coughed more water out of his lungs as he felt his shirt being ripped open. He opened his eyes to the sight of a woman next to his side, doing the best she could to use a bowl and a pestal, amidst the blowing wind and rain. Damien turned his head and saw the ship. He was alive! Back in the land of the living! Had he just been delerious, or did he really see the Goddess of Death? Was it real or just how he thought it would be?

He felt pain and then a cooling, soothing type of numbness on his side. He turned his head and saw the woman begin to put a gauze like patch upon his wound. He recalled her name...It was Lyth, or something like that. He opened his mouth to speak, but all he did was cough up more water. As quickly as she patched him up, another woman came into his vision: it was Lili!.

Well at least she is safe, he thought and then he remembered the others and looked back toward the ship just in time to see a swirling piece of cloth being tossed about by the wind and a dark shape diving into the water.  He tried to cry out, but only a hoarse croak came out of his mouth. He tried to rise, but found it extremely difficult to get to his knees much less his feet.If what he saw was real, it was much better than living like this,..if it was real? he thought. He was on all fours, when he noticed a dark shape rise slightly out of the water and Lili was yelling something at her, but the wind blew her words away. He forced himself to crawl off the pier; Lili will rescue whoever that was, he thought. Then he stopped and wondered if the rest of the rescue party had gotten off the ship?

[Ílarolén'yliás (Drustai)]

Drustai's body went numb for a moment as she hit the cold water. For a moment, she lost her bearing, as the current started to pull her along, throwing her to the side. Was she still underwater? She began kicking her feet and pushed her arms out in front of her as she began to swim. Where was she swimming? She opened her eyes but all she could see around her at this point was darkness. Was she going down or up? For a moment, she began to panic, as the wall of water all around her felt like it was closing in, suffocating her. She couldn't breathe. She needed to get to the surface! But what way? She began swimming towards the lightest section of water, hoping it would bring her back up.

Her head soon broke the surface of the water, allowing her to take a gasping breath, but a current dragged her back down again before she could get her bearings. It felt like it was tugging at her heavy clothes, pulling her deep down to the bottom of the sea. She summoned up as much strength as she could manifest to overpower the current, kicking her way back to the surface again. Once her head was above water, she took another breath, and then looks around. Somehow the ship had gotten in front of her, with the pier behind.

"-ickly," came a shout from behind her. Drustai tried to look over her shoulder at the voice, but was temporarily dragged back under again as another wave rolled over her. She coughed and sputtered as soon as her head was above water again, and tried to listen to the voice.

"... pull you up! Can’t be the warmest bath down there." The woman, whoever she was, was offering a hand towards her. Drustai swum up to the hand as best as she could, then reached up and grabbed a hold of it. Another wave threatened to pull her back down, washing over her, but she held a firm grip, and gasped for air as soon as she managed to get her head above water again. She pulled on the hand, towards the pier, enough that she could reach her other hand to grip the edge of the wooden planks. With the woman's help, she pried herself out of the water, and fell down to her fours on the pier.

She looked up at the woman who had helped her as she coughed, and pulled some wet strands of hair behind her long ears. She didn't recognize the individual--but then, these were all of Altario's friends. She didn't know any of them.

"... thank you," she said, weakly, before coughing again. Her mouth tasted of seawater.

[Altario Shialt-eck-Gorrin]

It was chaos, but with Lili dragging Drustai up from the depths, it looked as though they had all managed to get off the ship in relatively one piece.  But, how long would that last?  A quick glance up at the ships railing showed the upper torsos of many a sailor staring down angrily at them, most notably to Altario, the sailor who had cut him.  The man's eyes simply burned with hatred and vengeance.

His Odomon blade in hand, Altario stepped to the the first of the mooring ropes and cleaved though it.  He jogged to the stern rope and then severed it as well.  It had the desired effect, as sailors suddenly were forced to get control of their now unmoored vessel.

The Remusian looked to the people on the pier.  They looked so very battered and bruised, and in Drustai's case, half drowned.  But, this wasn't the best place to rest.  "Come!  Let's get off this dock and back to the inn.  We can lick our wounds there."

He turned to Garret.  "Get these kids out of here.  I expect you know who they are."

The tall man nodded weakly and gathered the children together, handing them something that Altario couldn't see.  But, within a few moments, the children were gone, scattered to the dark alleyways of the waterfront.

One less complication.  Things were looking better already.

[Damien Scar]

Damien heard Altario tell everyone in his usual commanding tone,"Come!  Let's get off this dock and back to the inn.  We can lick our wounds there." Damien looked around at the misfit group; an orcess, a half orc, a lady rogue with parrot included, another woman, dark skinned, probably from some desert tribe, where she came from Damien had no idea, but she helped rescue Lili, the lady rogue, so she was included and then there was this half drowned elfess who knew magic, then there was Lyth, the healer and then came a man called Garret who seemed to be a very close friend to the last person, Altario himself.

Damien did not argue with the big barrel chested man and slowly, painfully began walking in the direction of the Sea Shoal Inn, where he longed for a large tankard of ale and food! Suddenly he felt himself very very hungry. The wind of the storm buffeted him as he made his way down the dock, stumbling and cursing along the way. When he finally turned the corner and headed east, up the street to the Inn, he felt a bit better as the wind and rain was at his back and the wind actually made it a bit easier and faster to walk the final steps to the Inn's door.

Damien opened the door, looked behind him to allow any others of the party to enter in before he did, but he heard a bellow coming from inside to "Shut the door"

Holding the door open against the wind was taxing the very last bit of strength Damien had left. He hoped the others would quickly enter or else he will just go in and they will have to fend for themselves.

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