The Captain went-a-huntin' a ship to sink, and two ships end up sunk, but not his!
It began on the Fosnoir, after the brave Captain turned the Shadow into a squall outside St Thosos and bested it, then rounded Squid Point to seek prey on the Fosnoir. He found the trade route quickly and espied a lone merchant galley flying a Seshelan flag. The Shadow chased this ship down quickly. As you approached, a wizard (the ship “The Enduring Sigh”'s captain, Bertramn Farsight; a Rokari acolyte) sent a bright light into the sky, and soon conjured bright magics that protected him and enabled him to fly and throw bolts of burning light. That ship was easily out-maneuvered and soon you were headed to ram it.
Crewmen Curly, Jim and Brobard proved themselves well– Curly set sails aflame with his fire-arrows (and hit the other captain once), and soon the others would show their bravery in melee. But before you could sink the Enduring Sigh, something strange happened. First, as you approached the ship you suddenly leapt forward, as if time had skipped a minute. Second, as you closed in to charge the ship, it let loose a creaking groan and rolled, pitching some crew (and hapless Rokari pilgrims) into the black seas. Then a great ridge of spines burst through the ship, the body bearing them shrugged, and the ship split apart! Pellinoresbane, the vile scourge of the Captain, had stolen his kill! And the ship's captain had fled on his magical flying spell, even though the Captain had cast a terrible Drowning spell on him.
But then as you move to ram the monster… something happened. A nauseating feeling of motion or weightlessness, and then you were elsewhere, in a storm, disoriented and being battered by the merciless seas. Reeling and furious, the Captain took the wheel again and fought the storm, which turned out to be the same squall that had caught you near St Thosos, but now gaining energy from the Fosnoir and hurling it at you. The Shadow suffered some split seams but held together, and you passed through the storm with only 1 crewman lost so far to the oceans. Yet the Enduring Sigh was surely committed to the depths, although the Captain could not claim it to Magasta as his glory.
The crew was outraged, but the Captain knew the capriciousness of the seas and saw it as another test. He set out deeper into the Fosnoir for more prey. And he found it: a small war galley from Seshnela had set out, patrolling for the dark ship that had attacked its fellow vessel– it was the Bladespar of Nexon, a fearsome swift ship armed with a scorpion (arbalest), which it used to great effect as its fearsome Captain Marelo Grandthews piloted the craft in a series of arcs to stay out of bow range. But Ciddar invoked his wood-warping magic and soon crippled that weapon.
To your surprise, the other Captain, Farsight, was on board, and once you closed in, that sorcerer let loose a terrible volley of flaming light-bolts on you, and Ciddar's right hand was seared clean off at the wrist! Ciddar was saved by one of the crew with a fast Heal spell, but barrages of arrows and bolts from both sides of the battle continued to claim lives as Captain Ahappi strove to bring the Shadow into boarding range.
Soon Ahappi reached his goal, with some skilful turns of the Shadow, and you were hurling grapples and planks to cross into hand-to-hand battle! Seven crewmen on the enemy ship were struck terrified with Ahappi's sorcerous visions of doom sent their way. Curly stayed atop the crows nest, where he'd had some success hitting crew and sails (and dodged one nasty arrow-shot with a well-timed swing on a rope). Bobard leapt heroically between the two ships and clove in one sailor's head; Jim soon did his share of bashing with his mean cudgel, too. And the Captain waded in, pushing the battle swiftly to the top deck where the sorcerer-Captain lay incapacitated with an impaled arrow and two guards protected him and the other Captain, who boldly brandished a huge axe.
Yet the Rokari warriors proved no match for your savagery and skill. Ahappi blazed through the guards and struck down the axe-wielding captain, saved by his tortoise-like magical armour. The pleading Rokari acolyte-captain was hacked down by Bobard, and Jim took care of the final guard. By that time, the Bladespar was in full rout, but you gave no quarter to any of the crew, even the press-ganged rowers who surrendered. Every last soul found slow cold death in the seas, or fast painful death by the hands of The Shadow's crew– and the ship was yours! You plundered what you could (each crewman gained 100 silvers; and I forgot to mention that the Captain took a fine gold broach off the acolyte-priest's cloak!) and The Shadow, its dark spirit hungry for doom-bringing, rended the Bladespar apart and sent it into the abyss.
Unexpected shallows and grating rocks dampened your glory only a bit as you returned home to St Thosos, with The Shadow battered and 2 crew lost, but a sound victory nonetheless! As for Pellinoresbane, that was a matter for another day, and as for the curious time-slips, that might be the nature of the Fosnoir (some crew said they'd heard of such things happening around Giraine of late), or some mystery man was not meant to know. But who cares! A victory is a victory on the merciless seas!
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