The two pirate ships turn in pursuit of their prey, hoisting their pirate colors. In response, the big Molossan slave raider piles on sail, and whips crack on the backs of the slaves urging them to row faster.
Kelyess, standing in the rigging aboard the Redstar, waves to Rhyll and the sleek lateen-rigged leaps forward in pursuit. A black flag embossed with a stylized red star flies from her standard.
Aboard the Reckoning, the crew hurries to their stations as the ship readies for action. One of Candra's men beats a drum, summoning the marines to muster.
Baj moves to the railing at the forward edge of the quarterdeck, snapping out orders, "Crews to your weapons! All hands to battle stations! Rig fighting sail!"
Dacien bounds to the mizzenmast and leaps into the rigging, calling out directions to men in the rigging as he climbs. Deeshon, eager to be back in action, clambers up behind Dacien and scrambles forward into the repaired crow's nest with spidery agility.
Rhyll says challengingly, "Mister Revas, can you catch her?"
Revas grunts. "Aye, sar! Gimme enough sheets and this old tub can catch anything!"
Baj turns to Revas, "Fighting sails enough speed for you, Mister Revas? Or shall I have the men run out a few more sheets?" Sails snap into the breeze as fighting trim is unfurled. The Reckoning leaps forward, waves scudding against her keel.
Rhyll nods to the old seaman, "Now that's more like it."
Revas says, "Steady on, Mister Mirko!"
Baj looks to Rhyll, "Additional orders, Captain?"
The crew begin reporting back their readiness with shouts and bellows across the main deck. "Port boltmen, ready! Starboard boltmen, ready!" They are eager to engage the foe.
The angry mob aboard the Redstar crowd the rails of their ship. They seem ragged and undisciplined but are fearsome in appearance, waving weapons and shouting their fury.
Rhyll says, "Remember men, this is Kelyess' party and we're guests. Let's not outrun them." More quietly, he adds, "Let's box the slaver in Mister Revas. No sense leting them make a run for it."
The Molossan fires first, scorpion fire lancing from her sides and thudding into the starboard side of the Redstar. The sounds are audible even at this remove.
The Redstar returns fire, a full broadside all at once from her starboard scorpions. Timbers aboard the Molossan shatter and cave in. Aboard the slaver, men from the far countries over the sea scream and die. The Redstar is now completely unarmed on her starboard side as her men hurry to reload. The sleek pirate ship wheels about.
Dacien swings down to the quaterdeck from the mizzenmast, "Fighting sails set, sir, any further orders?"
Revas spins the wheel to bring the Reckoning to the slaver's starboard. She's off the port bow now, and in scorpion range of your port weapons. As you approach her, you can see the true size of the Molossan. She's larger than you, with a row of ugly scorpion protruding from her starboard side, and she's levelling them at you to fire.
Rhyll shouts out, "Move into position Mister Revas. Mister Mirko, fire bolts!"
Baj drops down to the main deck and calls to the boltmen below, "Port side, fire odd!"
The Reckoning looses her bolts in a mighty volley, every other port scorpion firing as one.
Erris cheers as the Reckoning's bolts land home, staving in the side of the slaver ship with a thunderous crash. Two of the bolts tear the rigging clean off the mainmast, which clatters to the slaver's deck with an enormous crash. The sight brings cheers out in the Reckoning's crew.
The Molossan now has a noticeable list to her starboard side, but she returns fire on you. The slaver still has some fight in her. Angry black scorpion bolts thud into the side of the Reckoning. One lands in the rail just below the quarterdeck where Rhyll stands, quivering there.
Almira makes one of his rare daylight appearances on deck. "She's called the Melkarth, Captain Rhyll," he says, reading the foreign hieroglyphics painted on the large slaver ship.
On her far port side, the Melkarth looses another desperate volley at the Redstar. Three Urag warriors, impaled by a single mighty bolt, fall into the green sea and sink without trace.
Rhyll stares at the bolt impaling the wall next to him then calls to Baj, "Has Odd starting reloading?" Pulling the bolt out of the timbers, he says, "Here's one more for them."
The three ships close, the two pirate vessels converging on the larger slaver. They will be in boarding range soon.
Kelyess can be seen in the forward rigging of his ship, bellowing orders to his crew. But they don't seem to be cooperating. The Redstar can close, but veers off at the last second, wheeling about for a port broadside. As the Redstar swings away, you can see she is seriously holed near the waterline.
Baj says, "Captain, shall we board her? The Redstar seems beyond help."
Rhyll stares at the Redstar a moment."Hold them back a bit, Mister Mirko. I'm curious to see what the Redstar will do."
Dacien moves forward to stands with the marines. His arm with a grapple is well known among the crew. The marines are crowding the deck and eager to join furious battle.
The Redstar looks to be taking on water. She spins hard to port, turning her aft scorpions to fire on the slaver and to protect her wounded starboard flank. Two bolts arc into the slaver's hull with thudding sounds.
Baj notes the damage on the slaver and looks to Rhyll, "Sink her, Captain? Or shall we show her some of our famous mercy?"
Rhyll says, "No, I don't want her sunk Mister Mirko, let's move in to grapple. Ready Candra and her marines."
Baj says, "Aye, Captain." He turns and yells forward, "Ready grapples, prepare to board!"
Candra bellows, "Allright, you scum, prepare for boarding!"
Talon takes a tighter grip on the sword he's been assigned and thinks this type of warfare will be new to him. He looks to the men around him and thinks, So this is what my cruise as a ship's surgeon has come down to.
Dacien takes up a grapple and begins to swing it in a tight circle.
Erris swings his grapple over his head, Soti, Drarn and the twins doing likewise alongside him.
As the ship rises on a swell, Candra yells as only an Urag can, "Looooose!"
Dacien lets fly his grapple in a high arc toward the Molossan ship.
Steel grapples attached to long lines swing across the gap between ships. The hooks bite into the Molossan's main deck and rails. The marines haul on the ropes and make them fast, closing the gap between ships to a space a man could leap.
Dacien hauls in his grappling line and makes it fast to a cleat.
The two ships shudder with a horrific grinding noise as the grapples draw them together. The crew of the Reckoning, led by Erris and Candra, swarm over the slaver's rail, weapons flashing, shouting and hollering.
Rhyll shouts from the quarterdeck, "Have at them, lads! It's time for the Reckoning!"
Talon rushes to the attack with the surge of marines, sword held high. He scrambles to the rail and manages to hurl himself to the slaver deck, sword a-blaze.
Dacien follows the rush of marines and crew over the railing.
Rhyll draws his sword and turns to Baj and says, "We're not going to let them have all the fun, are we?" With that, he grabs a loose rope and swings down to the main deck, and rushes into battle at the heels of his marines.
Baj nods to Rhyll and draws his rapiers, following him to the slave ship.
Dacien scans the deck of the Molossan ship, looking for the biggest target he can find.
The Molossan warriors, wielding cutlasses and stabbing spears, gabble to each other in their foreign tongue, forming a defensive wedge near the mainmast of their slave ship.
A mere bowshot away now, the Redstar wheels to port, Urag warriors on her deck, clanging their longswords against shields. But the sleek ship, damaged to starboard, is sluggish to respond and approaches slowly.
Dacien swings his chain viciously, advancing on a large Molossan holding a glinting cutlass above his head. He approaches his opponent with a smirk on his lips, "Now, laddie, why don't ye be a good boy and lay down that big, heavy sword afore I have to lay ye down instead?" In reply, the Molossan grunts at the tiny Tobon and snarls in his native tongue. He's a big man, shaven-headed, dressed in black clothes and wearing kohl on his eyes in a black mask.
Talon charges into battle, his rapier cutting down foes like a surgeon's blade. His severs the neck of the first man, then turns to parry the blow of a Molossan soldier that has snuck up behind him. Talon returns the stroke with one of his own disembowling the soldier.
Near Talon, Erris' blade is a whirling storm of steel. He thrusts a foe through the heart and leaps to the rail, waving men forward behind him. "Advance!"
Candra pulps the face of her foe with a vicious backhand from her mace. She stands on the man's chest, roaring at him, and finishes him with a high overhead blow. She grunts, suddenly breathless. A crossbow bolt fired from above appears in her back and she staggers forward, coughing blood.
Rhyll jumps up to the rail of the Reckoning, and quickly surveys the slaver to locate the ship's Captain. He spies the Captain on the quarterdeck, frantically shouting orders to his soldiers, Rhyll makes his move. In one quick leap he is on the deck of the slaver. There are two well armed bodyguards between himself and the Captain. It looks like the Powers are smiling on Rhyll this day...he expected more then that.
As Baj enters the fight, he stays close to Rhyll, guarding his Captain's flank. He follows closely on Rhyll's heels, calling to him, "I've got your right!"
Dacien spins his chain in a rapid figure-eight in front of his body and leaps forward to attack the big slaver.
The Reckoning's crew surges forward, a storm of cutlasses and boarding pikes flashing and clashing.
Vendig calls to Rhyll, "Behind you, lad!"
Baj hears Vendig calling and spins around to meet the attacker with both blades. A pair of bald slavers with spiked whips are racing for Rhyll and Baj. One pauses to hurl a dagger at Baj and it thuds into the mast near Baj's head.
The two bodyguards before, and two warriors aft, close in on Captain Rhyll and his First Mate.
Dacien lashes out with his chain, tripping the big Molossan and slashing at him as he lies on the deck.
Below, desperate fingers poke through grills that seal off the slave hold. His foe vanquished, Dacien hears the cries of the slaves imprisoned below decks and looks for a way to free them.
Talon comes upon the scene of Erris surrounded by three of the Molossan soldiers. As the boy dispatches one of his attackers, Talon runs another through the back. The third, finding himself now outnumbered, turns and flees.
Erris snaps at Talon."He was mine!"
Candra staggers forward, blood streaming down her back. She groans and lashes out at the slaver before her, but misses.
Talon calls back to the boy, "Plenty more where that one came from!" He turns to help Candra.
The slavers fall back under the vicious onslaught of the boarding party. Blood pools on the deck of the Melkarth. The clash of steel rings out, along with the sounds of screaming, in rage and terror.
Baj slashes his rapiers across the chest of a slaver coming up behind Rhyll. The man drops his spiked whip in his dying agony. Baj slams into the second one, the Urag's superior mass hurling the man back, where he slips in a pool of blood and disappears over the side. Baj spins to meet the pair approaching from the front.
Rhyll launches himself at the two men protecting the capain of the Melkarth, with a flourish of his cutlass. Beside him, Baj bares his teeth and lets loose a mighty roar in the face of the remaining foe that stands between the two ship Captains.
The two crews circle each other warily, stalemated before the mainmast. The slaver's crew back towards their quarterdeck.
Dacien seizes on a pair of pegs holding the slave hatch closed and yanks them free. Foul, reeking air washes up from beneath, and Dacien turns his head away. The hold is rank with the smell of unwashed bodies and worse.
Talon reaches over to help Candra. Her wound is bloody and deep. "Let me help you back to the deck of the Reckoning. That wound needs to be treated!"
Candra seizes Talon's hand. "Do not touch me!" she cries. "I battle on!"
The slaver's Captain, a fat bald fellow, is defended by two large bodyguards with heavy spears. The Captain behind them, weapons held before them, they warily back away from Rhyll and Baj.
Rhyll calls to the slaver Captain, "Care to surrender now? We need not kill more of your crew if you do!"
The slaves beneath the grill kick it free, and swarm up onto the main deck. One gabbles thanks to Dacien in his foreign tongue. The man grabs a bloody sword lying on the deck and leaps into the fray.
Behind him, a slender blond boy of twelve summers climbs up on deck and looks uncertainly about, and a slender blond girl behind him. "Thank you, thank you!" the girl gasps to Dacien in Marreith.
The slaver Captain snarls at Rhyll in his tongue and waves a spiked club at Rhyll. He only speaks pidgin Marreith. "You...eater of dungs!" he cries. "Keel you!"
Baj pushes forward, rapiers red with blood, "You will have to get through me first, slaver trash."
Rhyll calls back, "Oh well, if you wish for us to keel you, I guess we must."
Blood stains the slaver's deck, making it slick and treacherous. Molossans and hands from the Reckoning lie together in death.
The Redstar approaches, grapples whirling, crew ready for combat.
Erris takes a nasty cut under his eye. His blade makes short work of his foe, but he must pause to bind the wound. A slaver's blade slices Soti's head clean off, and it spins over the side and into the sea. Drarn, furious, charges Soti's killer and takes one in the liver, falling back, gasping on his own blood.
The two crews clash, but the Reckoning's forward progress is halted.
Dacien runs about the deck looking for other hatches and more possible allies.
Baj squares off against one of the Captain's bodyguards, fangs bared and growling from deep within his chest.
Four more Reith children, obviously from the Seven Kingdoms, scramble up on deck behind the first two. The oldest boy leads behind some barrels to take cover from the battle. Behind those more Molossan slaves climb up from the stinking hold, furious and ready for battle.
Rhyll assumes a fencer's stance and beckons the warrior in front of him. The man thinks to overpower him with a mad rush, but at the last moment Rhyll slips a dagger into his off hand. The blade flashes and tears the man's belly wide open. He stands there, stunned his innards dropping bloodily to the deck in front of him, then collapses.
Ferlan and Farlan, boarding pikes held before them, both smeared with blood, charge up behind Baj and Rhyll, ready for action.
Baj jumps forward and attacks the remaining bodyguard, rapiers flashing as he lops off one of the man's ears and opens a cut across his chest.
Talon sticks close by Candra. If she will not let him help her to the Reckoning's deck, he can at least stand by her side in her weakened state.
Vendig takes a buffet to his head. He rolls to one side, but too late. Blood streams down his bald head. Three slavers keep him at bay and he pokes at them with his boarding axe, backing away.
The final bodyguard surveys the many dead and dying scattered across the ship's deck, and hurls down his spear.
Rhyll charges up the deck stairs, his blade flashing towards the face of the opposing Captain. "This is your last chance! You savvy? Surrender, or I'll have your guts decorating the masts of this tub!" To accentuate this he flicks his blade, nicking the Captains nose.
The Captain holds up his hands to Rhyll. His fat face is tattooed in black and blood trickles down his nose. "Soo-rendah..." he mutters. He drops his spiked club and goes to his knees before Rhyll.
All around them, the others hold up hands in surrender. "We soo-rendah!" some exclaim, their foreign accents thick. The slavers kneel in submission, heads bowed in the manner of their people.
One slaver strikes the Molossan colors from the ship's mast to signal their defeat. The Reckoning's crew sends up a cheer.
The Redstar's grapples bite and hold as that ship approaches from the port side.
Baj yells over the sounds of the fray, "Reckoning, hold!"
Dacien yanks the latches loose from the second hold and swings the hatch open.
Erris pretends not to hear Baj's command and runs his foe through.
Koster loots the body of a dead slaver fallen near him, pocketing something shiny.
The hatch swings wide and more slaves scramble out onto the deck, skinny starveling men, eager for vengeance on their captors.
Candra holds up a hand. "Hold!" she echoes Baj's order to her marines.
Rhyll grabs the fat man by the scruff of the neck and then pushes him down the steps. "Put them in chains below," he shouts. "Let them have a taste of what it is like to be a slave."
The Redstar's Urag troopers swarm over their rail onto the Melkarth. Kelyess is at their fore.
Baj points to Farlan and Ferlan, "Stay with the Captain!"
Vendig approaches one of the slavers who wounded him, grinning and laughing amiably as if to greet the man, and then savagely knees the man in the balls.
Baj jumps to the main deck to greet Kelyess, "Welcome aboard, Captain. Captain Rhyll would like you to join him."
Kelyess and his twenty Urag have their scimitars ready. The dark-skinned Dhazir looks about, angry at missing all the action.
Talon leans agains one of the masts, takes a breath and says to no one in particular, "I'm getting too old for this."
Kelyess nods at Baj and gestures. "Lead on, sir!" he calls.
Baj leads Kelyess to the quarterdeck.
The Reckoning's crew is herding the slavers towards the holds, kicking and shoving them into the fetid slave pen. Koster slams the grill and spits at the Molossans through it while the Reckoning hands laugh in derision at the new prisoners.
Rhyll stands astride the deck, legs apart, hands behind his back. As Kelyess mounts the steps he says, "Better late then never I guess."
Dacien moves among the newly-freed slaves, maneuvering the more likely looking ones closer to the rail where the Reckoning is tied.
Kelyess says, "I was detained. You have done well, Captain Rhyll. Now we sink this pig!"
Baj tears loose the vest of one of the fallen slavers and wipes clean his weapons before sheathing them.
Benning stoops to assist those hands who are injured. He gently insists Candra seat herself and ministers to her wound, gingerly removing the crossbow bolt from her lower back.
Rhyll says, "Don't be so hasty Captain. We have yet to explore its mysteries."
Deeshon says, "What does he mean, 'we'? This is our prize."
Rhyll strokes his chin then says, "I believe in the light of things Captain, I will let you take half the slaves but the rest is mine I think."
The six children emerge from their hiding place, uncertainly stumbling towards Dacien.
Baj says, "Vendig, gather up all of the likely prospects for crew and separate them from the others we have freed. Also, check among the crew for any who might seem accepting of the Oath."
Vendig begins triage on the likely slaves, examining them.They are a mixed bunch. There are at least sixty of them: Some are Zhalifah taken from the distant Burning Kingdoms, but many appear to be from Sarrik and Yandar: many Reith, six Tobon, a pair of Urag, six Gholibins, and a Vulkah.
Kelyess says, "What mean you, the rest?" He bristles forward, hand on the hilt of his sword.
Dacien gestures to the children, urging them forward.
Rhyll says, "I mean this ship and all it contains. I feel that is only fair, considering the losses my crew endured taking it."
Baj notices the children on the deck, strain obvious in his voice, "Captain, there are children among the slaves."
Kelyess snarls, "This was my prey, Captain!" The Redstar's Urag marines glower at the Reckoning's crew.
Benning stands protectively near Dacien and the Reith children. Beside him, Candra unsteadily rises to her feet, gripping her mace.
Rhyll snarls back, "You proved unable to take it down! If it weren't for my crew you'd still be out there trying grapple this ship!"
Baj steps forward, trying to soothe the two Captains, "Captain, perhaps we should fully explore our plunder before trying to determine an equitable distribution?"
Kelyess is about to rejoin angrily, but relents. He takes a deep breath. "Aye. Let us explore the prize. But I will see this ship sunk, Captain Rhyll!"
Dacien gathers the children around him and sits on the deck, entertaining them with a gold dragon and some sleight of hand tricks.
Talon looks about him, then starts commendering some of the crew to help with the wounded. It seems his rest will have to wait.
Izmeralda has made her way to the quarterdeck of the Melkarth and stands near Benning, watching the two Captains snarl at one another.
Rhyll looks to his first mate and is about to say something but then shakes his head. "It seems Mister Mirko is right. Why fight over a treasure that may not even exist? Let us explore it--then we can decide. As for the ship, I have no plans of keeping it anyway."