Chum moves and takes measure of how the battle fares for the mutineers.
Eleuterio cranes his head to regard Ambrose with new approval. "You're dangerous with that pan! Now hold the line - Master Poisson needs help." He rushes towards the wounded pistoleer, and lays a gauntleted hand upon the man, discarding his shield to free up his hand. Holy light envelops him, and Artevious' wounds begin to close.
Do the move the Shisumo suggested, drop my shield, then heal Artevious for damage.
As Eleuterio shifts his position, Scourge sees an opening and tries to take advantage of it.
Unfortunately, his head is clearly still ringing from Fishguts' blow, and Eleterio barely even has to shift position to avoid it. Once the paladin reaches Artevious' side, healing energy flows through him and the cavalier feels himself strengthened - somewhat, anyway.
Mr. Plugg knew his way around a cutlass, I had to give him that. In two swift strokes, he had me bloodied and rethinking my righteous cause. I had shot him, then stabbed him myself, but I could scarcely tell if he was faltering or not. His follow-up strike with his cat would have no doubt done me in, if he hadn't failed to note my leather armor that was under my light tunic. I doubted he would make the same mistake again.
Thankfully, Eleuterio had apparently noted that I wasn't faring so well against Plugg, and stepped toward me, clasping my shoulder in a gesture that was much greater than a reassuring pat. New life flowed into my veins, and though I still bled, I felt much more hale after his touch.
I still didn't feel ready to take another strike from Plugg, however. I needed to fall back, and give time for Sandara to make her way up to the deck, since I had little doubt that she would call upon her goddess for aid in our cause. I stepped back, and exhorted our comrades to continue the attack. That's it, me hearties! Get around them, and strike at their flanks! We'll have them yet!
Plugg, unwilling to let his prey escape, follows Artevious' retreat . He continues to lash out with cutlass and cat both.
However, even the cutlass alone is more than Artevious can take, and the follow-through only catches air as the cavalier falls.
Scourge, surrounded and painfully battered by Eleuterio and Fishguts, tries to break free of the mob.
The bosun barely makes it two steps, however, before another skull-rocking blow from the cook's frying pan does him in. He collapses in a boneless heap.
Rosie, seeing Artevious fall, rushes across the deck, ducking and weaving until she is standing over the cavalier's body protectively. As she goes, though, she steps wrong, starts to fall, and leaves herself open to an attack as she recovers.
The halfling is only off-balance for a moment, though, and she smoothly rolls under the slice to come up right next to the sailor and Artevious' unconscious form.
Seeing the pirate distracted by Rosie, Crimson continues his bloodthirsty rampage across the deck by attempting to slit the pirate's throat.
This he does with brutal finesse, leaving another body on the deck amid a pool of crimson to match Cogward's name.
Up on the yardarm, Conchobhar aims his shortbow at Plugg, hoping to distract him as much as anything else.
To Conchobhar's surprise as much as anyone's, the arrow hits and Plugg's expression changes from furious to concerned as his tactical situation begins to set in.
Fishguts, fresh from downing Scourge, sees another opportunity and dives through the crowd of sailors to take a shot at the last conscious pirate aside from Plugg himself.
Even Fishguts is taken aback by the spray of blood that follows, as the man's skull crumples like old paper and he simply drops.
Owlbear continues to struggle to hurt Plugg, furious beyond words that his friends are falling to the pirate's cutlass.
As it has before, though, Owlbear's partial blindness costs him the chance to avenge Artevious.
With only Plugg now to worry about, your remaining allies rush to surround the erstwhile first mate, cutlasses at the ready.
Even as skilled a fighter as Plugg has limits, and this onslaught surpasses them. Stabbed twice in the chest, the pirate falls.
...Stabbed twice in the chest, the pirate falls.
I arrive on deck just in time to see the bastard first mate fall, and for an instant, I am furious at having my vengeance stolen from me.
"MASTER REIS!!" I bellow, "Where is Artevious?! I want a word with that..."
My fury is cut short by a gasp from Sandara, just coming up the stairs behind me. Turning, I see her rush towards the jaunty man's still form, tightly clutching her holy symbol.
"... oh."
Seeing my comrade's condition deflates my anger, and I assess the remaining crew. To my amazement, Artevious appears to be the only one of us to have taken significant injury.
Stepping to Eleutario, I clap him on the shoulder. "Nicely done, all of you. I am only sorry that I was so damned slow in getting here."
I turn my attention to the rest of the crew. "We've got ourselves a boat, ladies and gents. What do we do with it, and what do we do with... them?"
Chum is moving to aid the crazy man felled by Plugg's blade, only to see Sandara coming. Rather than step in, he says, "Make way! Let the lady do her work!"
Eleuterio pants as the fighting suddenly ceases aboard the Promise. He looks around, and an honest grin breaks out across his face, the first since his pressganging. Though the sun shone down relentlessly upon his mail, heating the metal to an almost unbearable temperature, he felt as though a great weight had been lifted from his shoulders. His smile drained away as he saw Artevious unconscious and bleeding on the deck. "No!", he cried, rushing to the man's side. He laid his hand upon the pistoleer's side, praying fervently to the Inheritor to heal the man's wounds. Again, holy light washed over the gentleman pirate and his injuries lessened, his breath less ragged.
He spares a glance for both Plugg and Scourge. "See to their wounds as well, as well as the rest of their men," he shouts to his allies, helping Sandara in moving Artevious' body to a more natural position. He looks back down to the fallen pistoleer. "I have words for the both of them, if their souls have not yet escaped to the Boneyard."
I grab a length of rope and move to bind Scourge's hands and feet, before making an attempt to revive him.
Chum will start using stabilize on any foes that yet breathe unless Sandara directs him to use his meager healing differently.
Sandara rushes over to Artevious' fallen form, holy symbol in hand. She murmurs a prayer over him, and he finds his wounds closing. At the same time, Evril looks up from examining Scourge's body and announces, "He's dead," sounding not at all upset about it.
Chum and Sandara, along with some help from the other sailors, manage to save the lives of about half the pirate crew they fought against - including, as it happens, Mr. Plugg. A search of his body produces a set of manacles that look fairly unimpressive at first glance, but appear to be quite well-made on closer examination.
"Damn," Eleuterio says, completely unaware of Evril's role in Scourge's demise. "That's not how that bastard deserved to die. At least Plugg survived. Now he will lie in the bed he has made." He goes belowdecks into the hold, searching for something. Within fifteen minutes, the paladin returns to the deck hauling a large coil of rope. He begins tying Plugg's hands with one end. "Could someone help me bind his feet with the other end? I believe Jakes Magpie wishes to send his regards to the first mate."
Several of the pirates leap to help Eleuterio's task, grinning maniacally, but Chum feels a slight chill: unless Plugg's wounds are treated, there is no way he'll survive a keelhauling.
"With his wounds, he won't provide you much sport, Reis. He'll be dead before he reaches air again. If you want to kill him, be done with it. If you want to punish him, you'll need him to be in better shape than he is now."
Chum doesn't move to aid with the rope. Instead, he aids Sandara where directed or has a sailor assist him in gathering wounded in one place.
I awoke, staring at a bright, blue sky and smelling the warm salt air. I sat up, and looked around at an empty deck on a ship with which I was entirely unfamiliar. I looked down at where Plugg had struck me, and found no wound, nor even a rent in my light tunic. I stood slowly, unsure of where I was or what had transpired after I was knocked into oblivion.
I again surveyed the deck, rather perplexed at its total lack of crew, although the sails were full and the ship was moving. The helm was most notably short a pilot, and I felt quite nervous about that.
Spinning to see where this deserted vessel was headed, I started toward the bow. I climbed to the forecastle, and there saw, with his back to me, a figure in a tricorne hat and long coat trimmed in scarlet. He was staring at the horizon, and a distant storm raging despite the fair blue skies overhead. I didn't like the looks of that storm at all. My attention turned again to the mysterious figure. Do I know him? I couldn't be sure, though my heart started beating hard when a notion of who this might be. Hardly daring to believe, I took a couple tentative steps toward the figure. I took a breath, to get his attention.
"Storm's coming, Artevious," he said, before I could speak. I--
--sat up, and looked at Sandara kneeling over me. I glanced about, and saw my comrades standing victorious on the Man's Promise. My wounds were almost completely mended, and Plugg was a short distance away, unconscious and being trussed by his captors.
I dare say, it looks like we won! I offered while standing up. My thanks, Lady of Besmara, I said as I bowed deeply and kissed the back of her hand. Stepping away, I looked beyond the bow at the horizon and pondered.
From where he works to bind a minor wound on former foe, Chum looks up suddenly, first at Artevious, then at the bow of the ship. Storm? I swear someone spoke of The Storm...
After a moment, he shakesthe thought from his head and completes his task, looking to confirm that it would serve.
"Um, who shall pilot the ship now? And on what bearing? I have some training from my former assignment."
Eleuterio looks up to respond to Chum, but his attention is suddenly diverted to the side. He turns to where he saw the man in the blood-red longcoat, but sees nothing in that space but the Promise's rigging. Trick of the light, he said to himself. Must have been. No other explanation.
Who knows, he might even believe it some day.
He turns his attention back to Chum. "You're absolutely right, Master Chum. It would do us little good if Plugg were to die right away." He lays a hand upon Plugg's chest while the pirates continue trussing him up. "Wake up, you damnable sadist. Rise and shine."
Eleuterio's magic brings Plugg back to consciousness, and the bald man's eyes snap open all at once. For a moment, he grimaces in pain, but the agony in his eyes is immediately replaced by fury as he tries to jerk upright, struggling against his bonds. "You!" he snarls, enraged. "Cut me loose now and at least you'll die quick!"
"You'll find no welcome quarter to turn to here, villain," Eleuterio says, the disgust dripping from his every word. "Every man you counted as friend has either been defeated or now feeds the fish with their corpses. You earned this death weeks ago, when you showed your true self to me. I saw the perverse delight in your eyes when Jakes Magpie was keelhauled. I saw, right then and there, that there was no redeeming your black soul. The men who followed you will receive some mercy, but such charity is wasted upon you. Scourge got lucky - he died before I could have him lashed to the mast and whipped until his breath left him for good. Lady Luck, though, she doesn't seem to be on your side."
"Lady Luck, though, she doesn't seem to be on your side."
"Why make him a cautionary tale for Artevious' children, Reis?" I ask, punctuating the question with fierce boot to Plugg's knee.
"He deserves to be no more than an overlooked footnote in a rather uninteresting dockmaster's log, as Scourge will be. 'Lady Luck' may have saved that fiend from a Just death, but she all but guaranteed he will never live on as more than a verse in one of Conchobar's songs. Besides, running Plugg over the hull just means we'll have to scrape him off of it when we get to Rickety's Squibs. Put a dagger in this jest of a pirate's heart and be done with it."
Plugg spits, sneering. "Fool. Of course he won't. When I first heard his name, I thought he'd be dangerous because of who his grandfather was, but then I saw him when we took the Man's Promise. He's a coward, and worse, he's a paladin." Contempt oozes across Plugg's face and seeps from every syllable. "He's no pirate. He's hardly a man. He's going to just throw me into the hold and rant at me about my 'evil' until we reach land, where he'll have to let me go. Isn't that right, paladin? You're no threat to anyone save the wind you waste lecturing me."
That's right, fool, keep pushing.
I couldn't help but overhear the exchange between Evril, Eleuterio, and Mr. Plugg. It snapped me out of my reverie, and brought me back to the present. I walked over to the small throng amassed around our captive, and looked down upon the erstwhile captain. I daresay he's more of a threat than you are at the moment. Mr. Plugg, I commend you on a hard-fought battle, and though you had achieved the upper hand against me for a moment, certainly your brand of villainy could not sustain you. I look forward to our next meeting. No doubt you will nurse a growing hatred for us and plot a dastardly revenge against us. I can't wait to see what your fevered mind comes up with.
Eleuterio stares down at Plugg's prone form, his fingers drumming upon the hilt of his blade. "You have me all figured out, don't you?", he says, his voice calm and collected. "'Rumrunner' Reis' grandson, the holy warrior. You forget one thing, Plugg. Redemption is what the Sarenrae priests preach. Iomedae's church is filled with knights. Warriors. Crusaders. My brothers in arms are the last line of defense between the Worldwound and the rest of Golarion, and there is one thing to be done when we confront evil. Take a stand against it..."
There is a flash, and with a swift motion, Eleuterio Reis draws his scimitar and plunges it deep into Plugg's chest, pinning the man to the deck with the blade.
"...and end its threat, once and for all. Good riddance, former Captain Plugg. No one shall mourn your passing."
Chum nods once and turns back to his task.
Yup, saw that coming. Much more efficient than keelhauling, anyway.
And suddenly, Plugg was dead. I hadn't seen that coming. In the tales, villains usually escaped, or after being bested were allowed to slink away in ignominius defeat. I suppose things are more final this way.
That's settled, then, I suppose. I looked around at the crew, those who have thrown their lot in with me and the others who had been pressganged into Harrigan's service. Stalwart men and women, brave and true, the lot of them.
I retrieved my pistol and loaded another shot in its barrel, then wiped the blood off my blade. Straightening my hat, I looked about the Man's Promise and smiled. Ladies and gentlemen, I believe we have ourselves a ship! And what's more, our destinies are our own! What say we check to see what sort of libations are stored upon this vessel and treat ourselves to a battle well-fought!
Well, I was wondering who might be the new captain on our newly-liberated vessel. I suppose it would be natural for it to be the pistoleer... We'll see who's banner the crew flocks to, I suppose.
"I second that, Master de Poisson," Eleuterio says wearily. "Heaven knows I could use a drink right about now."