The Last Voyage of the Riana Red, Part 1 of 3 (Closed)

[Daske Baggywrinkle]

Time seemed to slow down. Everything gained clarity. The shouting. The clanging of metal on metal. The screams of men and women dying. The blood oozing out of Katie Colmy's back. Her murderer approaching him at a run with hatchet raised. He moved his left foot back half a step. Everything else faded into the distance except the pirate, who now had his full attention. Almost without thinking he assume first guard position. The pirate chopped at him with the hatched, clearly intending to cleave his head if two. Daske double-stepped back and the hatched missed my a few inches. The forward momentum made the pirate lose his balance. As he caught himself, Daske took a half step forward, bent at the knees a little and executed a quick first cut. In slow motion he watched the razor sharp blade pass through the man's free arm, cutting it clean off just below the elbow. He stepped back into first guard position. Then he executed a second cut and watched in amazement as his weapon ripped an ugly gash across the man's chest. Blood spurted out of both wounds. The man fell to this knees and then fell over on his side. Daske just stood there in shock, staring at the body of the man – just a boy really – he had just killed. “Daske!” He started at the sound of his name. “Daske!, you're with me!” Captain Kranz had just dispatched a woman pirate and was in the process of slicing his sword through the neck of another. Blood spurted out of the man's neck and added itself to the blood that already covered much of Kranz's body. Then the Captain disappeared through a hatch. Daske followed. He had to move fast to keep up with the old Captain. They climbed down two flights of steep steps to the bottom deck. Kranz ran into the kitchen. “Help me out here,” he yelled. Together he and Daske pulled the oil stove over and watched it slop oil on to the deck. The stove had been fired up so what actually slopped on to the deck was burning oil. Flames spread quickly across the floor. Daske was aghast. Was the man crazy? Fire at sea was one of the worst things that could happen on a sailing ship. But Kranz didn't even pause. He was pulling burnable items off shelves and out of bins and adding them to the growing conflagration. He looked at Daske. There was a wild look in his eyes. “Help me out here,” he said again. “They may take my ship, but they're not gonna get anything of value for their effort.” Something snapped inside Daske. “Save yourself,” Katie Colmy had said with her last breath. He turned and ran. He grabbed his seabag as he passed his bunk, charged up the steep stairs, out on to the deck. The deck was a seething mob of screaming men and women killing each other. Daske leaped over the railing and into the cold water below. OOC : Alric, why don't you do one more post before Trident sinks the poor ol' Riana Red?

[Alric Wilmot]

Alric dodged another blade, this time well in advance. He had several small cuts from previous, slower attempts. He was lucky, of course. Only small scratches adorned his arms and torso. It could have been much worse. He still vividly remembered the pirate he had helped gut. Yes, he was very lucky. As soon as he dodged the blade, he swung his own in an upward slash. His opponent tried to parry, but he was too slow. Alric successfully killed his first pirate. Well, directly, anyway. As his opponent fell to the deck, his shirt turning redder by the second, he smelled a very unwelcome scent. All around him, it seemed the crew and the pirates alike were noticing the same smell. He turned to the cabin, praying to Eyris that he was wrong. Unfortunately, it seemed he was not. From the bowels of the ship, a thick smoke was pouring onto the deck. Alric was new to sailing, but he wasn't new to fires. That smoke was coming from burning wood. He could have laughed at the irony. A ship in danger of fire? It would have been pretty funny, if he was not on the ship in question. Even as he pondered the ridiculousness of the situation, several of the crew were running to the life boats. The Pirates were taking anything the could and jumping overboard, to reach their own ship. Alric shook his head, and threw the sword away. He wouldn't be needing it anymore. He ran to the nearest life boat and helped the crew. Hopefully they were close enough to Alvadas that they wouldn't need any food. After all, he had left all his rations below deck. Where it was probably burning right now.

[Trident]

For many of the survivors of the events that conspired that cool Winter day, the one memory they would keep of the battle would be a memory of fire. Fire, which was both nature's birth and its cleansing. Captain Kranz's last act had grim consequences for the Riana Red. The flagration that burst out in the kitchen was quick to spread throughout the ship, spurred onward by oil and deliciously burnable wood floors and walls. Even as Daske ran up to the deck, he would feel warmth licking at his back like so many devils, but he somehow managed to stay one step of the blaze. As he burst out onto the deck, a roar will fill his ears and that of Alric's as well; orange flames shot out from the hull to send spiraling fireworks up into the blue sky. These very same fireworks would settle along the length of the The Riana Red burned. It claimed both the flesh of pirate and merchant alike, impartial in its destruction. Several of the smarter mariners did as Daske did and jumped into Laviku's open embrace, but they found little sanctuary in his arms. Braten's crossbowmen, ever-relentless, loosed their death dealing arrows into the narrow strip of seawater that separated the two ships. Those fleeing the burning ship found themselves sitting ducks for yet another danger. Even though a few of the invading pirates had leaped into those very same waters, one of the Inartan's commands had the arrows flying with impunity. Daske, having jumped off the other side of the ship, was safe from these arrows, but their screams would last long into the night. Above what was left of the Riana Red, Alric and several others struggled to pull off the life boats. Their attempts were sabotaged by the pirates still remaining, who were as desperate to flee the burning cromster. They won control of the life boat next to Alric's only to be crushed underneath a falling foremast. Fire and smoke, that was all that surrounded them now, fire and smoke. A crash among the waves and they were free. Finally having separated the boat from its dying mother, the mariners fled aboard it. One among them, the old man known as Harold, blood staining his cotton shirt, offered his hand to Alric and pulled him aboard. Daske, bobbing among the waves with a svefra's natural aptitude, was also noticed and pulled aboard as well. None of the other life boats made it away, or so it seemed to those lucky few. The smoke had claimed everything, and they could see nothing of the Riana Red, nary the occasional glimpse of her wooden hull, straining, screaming, burning. However, after a moment, they would be able to see something else. From beyond the veneer of smoke, the pirate ship pulled away, its path leading it in the opposite direction. Distant laughter mixed eerily with the oh-so-near screams. The sight of the pirate ship reminded some of what they needed to do. After a chime, the oars were found and put to use. Land was a long ways away, but those aboard the life raft knew there was no other way to survive. They began the long trek back to life. Behind them, the Riana Red burned on and on. This, its last voyage, was one it was never going to complete. Daske Skills: Weapon (Cutlass) +4 Sailing +2 Swimming +1 Observation +1 Lores: The Riana Red Fighting Stances: First Guard, Second Guard, Third Guard Alric Wilmot: History, Personality Jumping Off a Ship Surviving a Pirate Attack Alric Wilmot Skills: Hypnotism +2 Observation +2 Weapon (Cutlass) +2 Lores: The Riana Red Ciryn [partial] Daske: Personality Fighting Stances: First Guard, Second Guard, Third Guard Hallucination: Changing Someone's Perception Surviving a Pirate Attack Ciryn Skills: Sailing +2 Teaching +2 Observation +1 Weapon (Dagger) +1 Lores: The Riana Red Lecturing on the Chain of Command Alric Wilmot [partial] Comments: Whew! Well, this was a fun thread, guys. I'm sorry I was so late in responding. Daske, I hope you had the permission of Alric and Ciryn's players to use their characters in such a way, because it seemed like you were controlling them at times. Alric, I assume you used a cutlass, like Daske; sword isn't an acceptable choice, as there are various types of sword. If you have any questions about my ruling, feel free to PM me!